Lin Yuan thought to himself: "This kind of thing is not impossible, in the history of China, there are too many things to arrest and kill people with the help of such means, in case the Qing court does not trust me, they know that Li Hongzhang and I have a good relationship, what should I do if they want to borrow his hand to kill me here?" ”

Lin Yuan looked at Li Jingfang, and suddenly had a way in his heart, that is, to follow Li Jingfang closely, he had a gun in his hand, if he really did that, he would take Li Jingfang hostage, and there were still some elite guards in his own home, and he could command them at any time, the combat effectiveness of the troops in the capital was poor, and it should not be a problem to fight them.

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "If I use this method, I must keep an eye on Li Jingfang and not let him escape from my sight." Lin Yuan was thinking about it, Li Jingfang took Lin Yuan to a quiet courtyard, Li Jingfang said: "This courtyard is very quiet, so my father has been recuperating here, Brother Lin Xian, you wait here for a while, and I will go in and report." ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "If you leave, I will take someone as a hostage!" So Lin Yuan hurriedly pulled him and said, "Brother Li, I'll go in with you." ”

Li Jingfang thought about it, nodded, then pushed open the courtyard door, walked in, Lin Yuan saw that the courtyard was full of colorful flowers, and a few maids wearing red and green appeared and disappeared in the flowers, it really didn't look like there was an ambush, walking through the bushes full of flowers, Li Jingfang took Lin Yuan into the house.

As soon as he entered the house, Lin Yuan smelled a lot of Chinese medicine, a middle-aged man walked out, still carrying a box on his back, Li Jingfang asked, "Imperial Doctor Li, how is my father and his old man?" ”

Although the name of the Tai Hospital is good, the position of the Tai Doctor in it is not high, and the biggest official in the Tai Hospital, the hospital envoy, only has the official rank of Zheng Wupin, so the Tai Doctor Li was very humble when he saw Li Jingfang, he bowed his waist and said, "Xia Guan has done his best." ”

Li Jingfang sighed and said, "I can't blame you, my father is old, this is the will of God." ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "I don't know what kind of disease Li Hongzhang has, we have advanced medical technology, maybe we can cure him." So Lin Yuan asked, "Imperial Doctor Li, I don't know what kind of disease Lord Lu Dao Zhongtang has?" ”

Imperial Physician Li sighed helplessly and said, "Lord Zhongtang is not sick, but the age is approaching, and the oil has run out. ”

Lin Yuan's heart was cold when he heard this, in the words of modern medicine, Li Hongzhang is because he is too old, and the organs in his body are close to failure, for such a person, death is only a matter of time.

Lin Yuan nodded silently, Imperial Physician Li said goodbye, Li Jingfang and Lin Yuan entered the inner room, only to see an old man with a wrinkled face lying on the red sandalwood carved bed, if it weren't for the fluttering between his chest and abdomen, it almost made people think that this was a dead man.

Li Jingfang walked to the side of the bed and whispered in Li Hongzhang's ear: "Father, Lin Yuan is here." ”

Li Hongzhang slowly raised his eyelids, glanced at Lin Yuan with cloudy eyes, nodded lightly, and then raised his hand, the dead wood-like hand pointed in one direction, Lin Yuan followed his fingers, and saw two stacks of folds neatly placed on the table by the window.

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "Could it be that Li Hongzhang is already like this, do you still want to work?" At this time, Li Jingfang walked to the table, picked up a notebook, returned to Li Hongzhang, and asked, "Father, do you want this notebook?" ”

Li Hongzhang nodded, and then said to Li Jingfang and the attendants around him: "You go out first." ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "I don't know what Li Hongzhang wants to say when he leaves himself alone?" But since he only told himself, it seems that this matter is not trivial. ”

When Li Jingfang and all the attendants were gone, Li Hongzhang said to Lin Yuan, "Help me sit up." ”

Lin Yuan stepped forward and helped Li Hongzhang to sit up, Li Hongzhang leaned against the wall, and said weakly: "Do you know the way?" The Holy One is going to build a navy. ”

Lin Yuan hurriedly asked, "Really?" That's great. ”

Li Hongzhang nodded and said, "I want to ask what you mean, what kind of navy do you say we should build in the Qing Dynasty?" ”

Lin Yuan replied: "In our previous wars, the enemy came from the sea, just a few warships, with strong ships and guns, they could run rampant along our coast, attacking and retreating, but what about us? It can only be beaten passively, so our navy must have the strength to fight in the ocean, that is, our navy must have the ability to destroy the enemy at their place of departure. ”

Li Hongzhang nodded slightly when he heard Lin Yuan's words, and said: "Great, you have this thought, it means that I didn't see the wrong person at the beginning, you don't know the way, now there are only a few of us in the court who want to build warships and revive the navy, like others, such as Prince Gong and Prince Qing, Weng Tongyi, Rong Lu, and the newly promoted Yuan Shikai, do not agree to build the navy again, there are too many reasons, I won't tell you one by one, you will naturally know the way in the future." ”

Lin Yuan nodded and said: "I have already scared the **, they don't dare to attack us from the land anymore, and our enemies can only come from the sea in the future, so I will definitely advocate the construction of the navy." ”

Li Hongzhang nodded, took out the piece of music in his hand, handed him to Lin Yuan, and said: "I understand my own body, I am about to leave, in my life, there is only this one wish left, and now that I finish writing this recital, I will be able to look at it." ”

Lin Yuan looked at Li Hongzhang's appearance, and it was difficult to even hold the pen in his hand, so he asked, "Can you still write?" ”

Li Hongzhang said with a wry smile: "I can't write it, I'll say it, you can write it." ”

Lin Yuan nodded, picked up the pen on the table, opened the fold, and saw that a lot had been written on it, Lin Yuan glanced at it roughly, it turned out that Li Hongzhang knew that he was going to die, and gave Emperor Guangxu the last piece of the fold, which was all about to build a navy, at this time Li Hongzhang said: "Chen Hongzhang bowed again, Wei Chen was blunt, got up in the ranks, in order to repay the grace of the saint's acquaintance, he has been eating and drinking for more than 50 years. ”

"Now the minister's life is in the moment, only the navy lingers in his heart, the Beiyang Navy Division was wiped out in the past, and the minister did not think about rebuilding the navy for a moment, but the minister will go, the minister is not talented, and he is willing to follow Zhuge Kongming's recommendation Jiang Gongyan, Fei Wenwei, and now recommend Lin Yuan as the saint's son, and the rise and fall of the navy are all tied to Lin Yuan."

In this short period of more than 100 words, Li Hongzhang actually spoke for more than half an hour, and when Lin Yuan finished writing, Li Hongzhang asked Lin Yuan to take out his seal letter and stamp it on the chapter, and when Lin Yuan finished all this, Li Hongzhang breathed a sigh of relief and said softly to Lin Yuan: "Help me get out of bed." ”

Lin Yuan hurriedly said, "What are you going to do when you get out of bed?" I'll just do it for you. ”

Li Hongzhang shook his head again and again, insisting on getting up, Lin Yuan had to help him out of bed, Li Hongzhang stood trembling on the ground, suddenly bent his knees, knelt down to the ground, Lin Yuan hurriedly pulled him up, but Li Hongzhang broke free of Lin Yuan's hand, knelt on the ground, and bowed deeply to the Forbidden City. ”