After explaining clearly to Li Qin, Lord Shoufu hurriedly embarked on the journey to Hangzhou.

When the people from the Qi Guogong Mansion saw Shoufu, they immediately took him to the golf course, and Miao Shoufu, who was playing with Qi Guogong, was very familiar, he first greeted Qi Guogong, and then nodded to Liu Chang: "President Liu." ”

"Shousuke-sama is here." Liu Chang looked at Miao Shoufu with a smile, Liu Chang was much richer than him in the past, and now he is still richer than him, and the gap has become bigger, although Miao Shoufu is the minister of the imperial court, but Liu Chang, who has withdrawn from politics, will never kowtow to him again, and now Liu Chang doesn't need to kowtow when he sees Qi Guogong.

"I was bullied by President Liu today." Huang Shi said with a smile to Miao Shoufu, Liu Chang let Huang Shi score fifty strokes, and was willing to set the betting rate at three to one, but even so, Huang Shi couldn't win, the other party seemed to be particularly talented in the sport of golf, and it seemed that it had improved to the point where ten strokes must be hole-in-one.

Liu Chang can also guess the intention of Miao Shoufu, when he was playing with Huangshi just now, the two of them were discussing the fraud case in Nanjing with great interest. A few years ago, when the Qing Yuan was first held, the people still felt that embezzlement of hundreds or thousands of taels of silver was not intolerable, even so, it was stronger than when the first emperor was there, but after several years of political parties, the tolerance of the people of Nanming to corruption became lower and lower, and Liu Chang couldn't help but be glad that he quit politics early.

Huangshi's evaluation of this is human nature, that is, he often mentions "from simplicity to luxury, from luxury to simplicity is difficult", the Chinese people have never seen good officials before, so they have to endure it, but once they have seen honest and efficient officials, they feel very dazzling when they look at those bad officials, and now they don't need to continue to endure it, this evaluation Liu Chang also agrees.

"Lord Shoufu rarely comes once, so let's play a game with Qi Gong for Xia, and I just happen to rest." In Miao Shoufu's grateful gaze, Liu Chang walked to the side very interestingly.

After Liu Chang walked away, Miao Shoufu immediately talked about his intentions, Li Qin was both an important assistant and a friend to him, so he hoped that Qi Guogong could come forward to pull the Minister of Industry, and in the end, Miao Shoufu said excitedly: "In order to force away a minister for only six coins of silver, even Emperor Taizu Gao is not like this." ”

The Minister of Industry is equivalent to Shangshu, and Miao Shoufu feels that his request is not too much.

"But we are not in the Hongwu Dynasty," although Huang Shi's first sentence made Miao Shoufu feel that the other party was going to refuse, but to his surprise, Huang Shi happily agreed: "But yes, I am very willing to say to the media, I forgive him, this trivial matter of six coins of silver is not worth such fanfare." ”

"Thank you." Miao Shoufu had no time to use a large set of follow-up words, only full of gratitude.

Shousuke's outpouring of gratitude made Huang Shi laugh, and after the other party's words were over, Huang Shi opened his mouth and asked, "But what I wonder is, why don't you come out and say this to the media?" Why do you have to come to Hangzhou? ”

"The lower official position is humble and light, where can it be compared with the grandfather of the country?"

"It's pride to be too modest," Huang Shi shook his head slightly, "But I can't help in vain." ”

"Guogong, please speak."

Huang Shi stared at Miao Shoufu for a moment, and shook his head again: "I shouldn't be the one to open this mouth, right?" I'm curious to know what Miao Shoufu is willing to do to repay me for this favor. ”

This question made Miao Shoufu ponder for a while, if Huang Shi made some excessive demands, then he would have to try to excuse himself, limited by the Constituent Assembly, Miao Shoufu could not get a lot of rewards, and besides, he also had to consider the impact, and the retribution of Qi Guogong must be as concealed as possible. Otherwise, if the opposition party sees the deal, there will probably be new gossip. Now that Huangshi asked Miao Shoufu to propose a quid pro quo first, it is even more disadvantageous to himself, too big a benefit Miao Shoufu can't give, too small may anger the ruling minister, and if the opposition party promises other benefits, maybe Qi Guogong will fall again.

"This, the Duke of Qi is rich all over the world, and all the officials are given by the Duke of the State." Seeing that it was not easy to fool the past, Miao Shoufu began to pretend to be pitiful.

"I don't seem to have given you anything, you are the first and second person nominated by the Constituent Assembly, even if they nominate others, I will approve it." Huang Shi didn't eat this set at all, and asked reluctantly: "But I really don't have anything I want now, but I may not have it in the future." What do you think of this? I'll tell you what I want later, and you promise to grant my request. ”

Of course, Miao Shoufu can't agree to such a condition, if one day Qi Guogong wants him to commit political suicide, will he have to obey? But now that he has a request for someone, he has no choice but to continue to be vague: "If the subordinate officials are within their ability, dare not do their best?" ”

"It's not a sincere answer." Huang Shi laughed again: "I still have a question, I'm in Hangzhou now, you don't seem to have a few days off a year, you can't come to me every time you have something, right?" Do you think that in the future, there will be no accidents with your men? Or do you plan to make a special trip to Hangzhou every time you have something in the future? ”

Miao Shoufu didn't think much about this problem before he came, but now he was reminded by Huang Shiyi, and suddenly realized that this is indeed a big problem, if he ignores other friends in the future, then others will inevitably complain about his favoritism, and if everyone cares, then not to mention how much favor he owes Qi Guogong, and it will have a very adverse impact on the party, if everyone feels that there is a way out if something happens, then most likely something will happen soon, and then be knocked down by the opposition party.

Seeing that Miao Shoufu looked dazed and no longer answered, Huang Shi continued: "I am also quite concerned about the election process of the first Shoufu, I think the main reason why you can win the election is that you can always put the interests of the party above your personal feelings, right?" ”

"Duke Qi," Miao Shoufu understood what Huang Shi meant, and he asked, "It turns out that you don't plan to help the lower officials." ”

"I didn't say no, all you want is my words, and I only show my kindness when I say this, and I can get a lot of gratitude, why don't I do it? I'm just curious what you're willing to pay for it. Huang Shi was still smiling, looking very relaxed.

When Miao Shoufu was still pondering, there were guards from the Duke of Qi who came to report to Dr. Ren Hongcheng of the Constituent Assembly to ask for a meeting, and after hearing that Miao Shoufu suddenly went to Hangzhou on leave, Ren Hongcheng immediately smelled the smell of conspiracy, so he also hurriedly asked for leave and rushed to Hangzhou to monitor Miao Shoufu.

"The hero of the Battle of Chunhua, if you want to say that I haven't seen it yet, please ask Doctor Ren to come." Huang Shi immediately asked Ren Hongcheng to come in.

Walking in with Ren Hongcheng was Xia Wanchun, the spokesman of the Qi State Mansion, and Huang Shi was very enthusiastic when he saw the former: "Speaking of which, we are still in the same party, it was Governor Wang who promoted me exceptionally, and later Sun Ge Lao and Mao Shuai were taking care of me, and I am the well-known Donglin Party." ”

"If Duke Qi is willing to join the party," Ren Hongcheng joked, "Xia Guan is very honored, and he is terrified." ”

This joke did make Huang Shi laugh, and Miao Shoufu felt a little wary, and it was strange that he actually saw a similar look in Xia Wanchun's eyes.

"This is Mr. Xia, you must all know each other," Huang Shi introduced to the other two people, and the two of them really don't need Huang Shi to do more, Miao Shoufu has seen Xia Wanchun many times in the Constituent Assembly, and Ren Hongcheng has also met with him several times before, but Huang Shi's subsequent sentence The two of them don't know at all: "Mr. Xia has just joined the Kuomintang, and his work seems to be similar to that of Dr. Ren, and he also manages party affairs." ”

"It's a party affairs officer, and it's basically a name, too high-spirited, and there is no practice." Xia Wanchun said modestly: "It is far from being comparable to Dr. Ren. ”

"Your Excellency would actually agree to the Kuomintang recruiting party members in the Qi State Mansion?" Miao Shoufu was taken aback, although he had worked hard to build the Labor Party before, the Qi State Mansion had always been a forbidden area for his work, and he feared that infiltrating here would be counterattacked by Huangshi.

"Is there a law that says that people from the Qi State Mansion are not allowed to join the party?" Huang Shi seemed to be surprised by Miao Shoufu's surprise: "Of course, I myself will not join the party, but I have no reason to stop others, I remember that the rules set by the Constituent Assembly are the freedom to join the party and leave the party." ”

"Yes, that's what the Constituent Assembly did." This time, Miao Shoufu saw that kind of vigilance in Ren Hongcheng's eyes, and he secretly made up his mind in his heart that he would soon start recruiting Labor Party members among the officials of the Qi State Mansion, and at the same time, Ren Hongcheng was also thinking the same thing.

"Inuko doesn't seem to have any intention of partisanship, and I don't think it's appropriate for him to join the party." Huang Shi duly picked out his attitude.

"What the Guogong said is extremely true." Both Miao Shoufu and Ren Dafu chimed in that as future monarchs, they really needed to be outside the political party.

"When President Liu came to me just now, he said something very interesting." Huang Shi did not mention Miao Shoufu's intentions, and he asked Liu Chang to come over and let him tell himself and the two doctors of the Constituent Assembly that Miao Shoufu was still a member of the Constituent Assembly.

Today, Liu Chang and Qi Guogong complained for a long time about the fluctuation of silver prices, and the silver exchanged from the Spaniards was sometimes more and less, and the trend was difficult to predict.

Yellowstone, however, had a different idea, suggesting that the Constituent Assembly might consider issuing a new currency, one that was stable and had a predictable amount of circulation.

"Of course, it is very good for business," Miao Shoufu was also a businessman in the past, and he also hoped to have a stable and negotiable currency, and at the same time realized that this currency issuance would bring great benefits to the national finances, but the problem was whether the people could accept this currency, and the examples that Huang Shi just put forward were the military tickets of Changsheng Island and the military tickets of Funing Town, but Miao Dafu pointed out that the military tickets were guaranteed by silver in the final analysis: "If it is issued indiscriminately, the consequences are unimaginable." ”

"I didn't say that I don't take silver as a guarantee, I think I can take my time first, for example, convert every two taels of silver into three hundred yuan, and anyone can use this yuan to exchange one or two silver from the government, but the government no longer accepts silver when collecting taxes, but collects coins to build credit."

Huang Shi talked about his idea for a while, but finally reiterated to the two Constituent Assembly doctors: "I will not be responsible for this plan, and I will not personally go to the Constituent Assembly to make this proposal, and it will be up to the Cabinet and the Constituent Assembly to draw up the issue when the time comes, and if the pot is smashed, don't expect me to clean up the mess." ”

This statement did not intimidate Miao Shoufu and Dr. Ren, and Qi Guogong has been this attitude for a long time recently, and he bears his own rights and responsibilities.

"If the Constituent Assembly doesn't plan to start this plan, I won't force it," Huang Shi said it was very likely that the plan would be launched, because it was good for the economy and good for the finances: "If the Constituent Assembly and the Cabinet start this plan, I will approve it no matter how you formulate the plan." ”

Yellowstone reassured, and once again endorsed the Constituent Assembly politically in front of everyone: "I will support any decision of the Constituent Assembly or the future House of Secretaries for the rest of my life, and I am convinced that Parliament is more thoughtful and makes fewer mistakes than I do, and if I am no longer there, and the person who takes my place thinks he is better than me, he can consider vetoing the decisions of the Assembly and the Cabinet, but I will not do that." ”

If Huangshi replaces the Ming Emperor, then he is the founder of the new dynasty, whether it is Miao Shoufu, Dr. Ren, or Liu Chang or Xia Wanchun, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, who are present, although they do not mention it verbally, they all believe that it is only a matter of time. And this guarantee of Yellowstone will be an important weapon of the Parliament - no successor will dare to claim to be stronger than the Founding Emperor.

"Duke Qi's words, do you mind if the lower official conveys it to the newspaper?" Miao Shoufu was a little breathless, and recklessly asked this question, he was really worried that Huang Shi was just talking casually to appease people's hearts, and not really trying to express this meaning.

"I don't mind at all," Huang Shi said, noticing that the breathing of several listeners had become heavy, "The right to stay in the middle is unreasonable, and I have no intention of resuming it at all." Any resolution that is unanimously approved by both the upper and lower houses, I will approve it, even if—" Yellowstone waved his club at the open lawn beside him, "Your resolution is to take away this course of mine." ”

……

Miao Shoufu and Ren Dafu, who had come to Hangzhou separately, returned to Nanjing in the same carriage, and on the way they mainly discussed the issue of a new currency, and reached a preliminary consensus on this plan, but neither of them mentioned the treatment of Li Qin, because the two had reached a tacit understanding on it.

When returning to Nanjing, Miao Shoufu glanced out the window at the magnificent imperial city of Nanjing, after the battle of Chunhua, although Huangshi went to Hangzhou, but the prince and the queen moved back to Nanjing to live. Since Huangshi had no intention of controlling it at all, and was not as close as it was in Quanzhou, the Zhu Ming royal family seemed to be becoming more and more active, and some Jiangnan scholars were still sneaky at first to knock on His Majesty, but now they became much more blatant.

"A few days ago, someone came to tell me," Since Miao Shoufu heard Huang Shi's assurance, he has been trying to remind Qi Guogong to pay attention to His Majesty's movements, but the other party seems unsuspecting and unwilling to discuss this issue, and now he said to Ren Hongcheng intentionally or unintentionally: "Saying that I never go to see His Majesty the Prison State, I lose my status as a minister." ”

"Yes, the lower officials have also heard about it," among the scholars who went to visit the prince of the prison state, there were many Donglin scholars from the Qian Qianyi faction, who were desperate royalists at first, but now because they did not get paid by the Duke of Qi at all, those scholars who were unsuccessful in the political arena of the Southern Ming Dynasty also began to run to the palace: "They go every day, and they call it the upper court." However, I remember that Qi Guogong had abolished the Shang Dynasty, which was also unanimously supported by the provincial courts, and I think they said that going to the court every day was a challenge to the authority of the courts. ”

Miao Shoufu smiled slightly, the other party's answer was in his expectation, different from those frustrated scholars, this is the beneficiary of the constitutional system of the Southern Ming Dynasty in front of him, and there is no doubt that the other party must also understand that Qi Guogong's statement of respect for the parliament will have the greatest effect only if Qi Guogong becomes the founder of the new dynasty, if the Ming Dynasty continues, then only Zhu Yuanzhang's words can be regarded as ancestral training, and Huangshi's statement may one day be said to be the arrogant words of the rebellious ministers and thieves.

……

"Six dollars or six taels, sixty taels, six hundred taels does not matter, Qi Guogong believes that our handling of this matter is just an attitude, that is, whether we think that stealing state funds is an intolerable behavior, if we think it can be tolerated, then no matter what kind of tolerance standard is formulated, it is a trivial matter." After returning to the official residence of the first assistant, Miao Shoufu's attitude towards Li Qin immediately took a 180-degree turn: "If I don't pursue this matter, then the voters will think that I think this kind of thing is tolerable, but in fact I don't think so, I don't want the voters to misunderstand my attitude and that of my party." ”

Li Qin, who was originally full of hope, lowered his head when he heard this, and asked with difficulty: "Is Lord Shoufu going to resign?" ”

"Yes, I want you to resign and never set foot in politics again, so that I can also secure your pension." Miao Shoufu softened his tone slightly: "For the sake of the party, you should also sacrifice a little, and now I still have the right to appoint a comrade from my party to take your place." ”

As long as the impeachment case is not initiated, Li Qin will voluntarily leave his post instead of being removed or impeached from office, Miao Shoufu can guarantee the retirement status of his old friend, and now Nanming treats officials well, and he is quite generous, even the pension is much higher than the income of ordinary people, Li Qin is both a parliamentarian and a minister, and he can have two pensions, although this is not enough to make him a rich man, but he can live a decent life without worrying about food and clothing. And as long as it is a voluntary resignation, according to the rules of the Constituent Assembly, the party leader can directly appoint a successor without re-election – one of the compromise proposals reached by the parties.

"But this is not a little sacrifice," Li Qin suddenly became angry, if it was just for income, then he would not sell his industry at all at the beginning and abandon business to enter politics, under the Nanming system, the income of officials can not be compared with the Chongzhen Dynasty at all, even the expenditure of political donations must be open and transparent, and can only be used to serve the election and propaganda of political parties, although the income is not low, but the absence of gray income means that it is impossible to get rich by being an official. Like Li Qin, many people in politics care more about political status and power than money, and political life is everything to them: "Why did they impeach me? The Department of Supervision has already said that I have not broken the law, I have not—" Li Qin emphasized: "I have violated the law." ”

"I don't care about that!" Miao Shoufu also became excited: "I don't care if you break the law or not, you did something wrong, you have discredited the party and the cabinet, and you are so careless that you were caught!" ”

"It's only six coins of silver," Li Qin pointed out that Miao Shoufu had also said to him before, and he pleaded: "The lower officials will remember this lesson, and they will definitely not do it again, Lord Shoufu will give the lower officials another chance!" ”

"Your lesson will be remembered by us and your successor, but you are responsible for it." "No one can put their own interests above the state, and I will not agree that some of our party members will put their own interests above their own party, and the state will not pay for your mistakes, and the Labour Party will not use the interests of the party to pay for your mistakes." ”

"What if I don't quit?" Li Qin was very sad that his old friend for many years was so ruthless, and he asked a little angrily, "Will you remove me?" Remove an official who has served you for so many years, who is diligent and has never been great, and who is still your friend. ”

"Then I'll depose you! Don't you feel like you're not sinning? I swear to God that I will personally raise the impeachment case against you after you are deposed, maybe the criminal judge will not convict you, but this impeachment case will definitely pass, and I will get all party members to vote in favor of this case! Not only do you not have a minister's pension, but you don't even have a parliamentarian's! The stubbornness of the other party made Miao Shoufu angry: "Don't force me to do this, but if this official hasn't seen your resignation this afternoon, you will receive a recall order and an impeachment letter, isn't it just a seat?" I just don't want to impeach you. ”

In the face of such a naked threat, Li Qin finally gave in, he is now discredited and his status is not high enough, it is estimated that even if he retires, he will probably not be able to publish a memoir like Lu Zhiqiang, after all, he still has to think about the rest of his life.

"Yes, my lord." Li Qin bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty will go back and write a resignation letter and submit it to your Excellency and to the Constituent Assembly." ”

Watching his old friend bent over, slumping his shoulders, and walking out of his office with heavy steps, Miao Shoufu suddenly felt a sense of sadness, and he almost opened his mouth to call the other party back, but in the end he didn't say a word - Nanming's cruel constitutional system has stripped off the veil of warmth and affection in the old bureaucratic system.

……

"For six coins of silver, a scholar was dismissed." When Xu Ping saw Nanming's report, his mood became very complicated: "If this is placed in Qianming, no, even if it is placed in our Dashun, is this a matter?" It was during the time of Emperor Gao of the Ming Taizu that he could dismiss an official of the imperial court for two pots of wine? ”

Thinking of what he had seen and heard since he became sensible, Xu Ping suddenly had a feeling that party struggle, at least Qi Guogong's party struggle may not be useless: "Nanming's national strength is not below us at the most optimistic, and the industry is more than ten times that of the industry, if their bureaucrats are like this, then can we still win?" ”

The only recent victory of the Great Shun was not the army, but the navy, which was the most inferior, and the governor of Tientsin managed to repair the ironclad ships that had been scuttled by the Ming army and salvaged by the Shun army. In salvaging the sunken ship, they can borrow from the previous experience, but not in terms of repairing the ship, but in order to earn face in the imperial court, but also to fight back against the arrogance of the leading generals, this time the Dashun cabinet spent a lot of money to buy the smuggling captain, kidnapped a few mechanics from Nanming and smuggled them to Tianjin.

The ironclad ship was not actually seriously damaged, but only a gear was stuck, and it was limited to time and place problems, so the Ming army could not repair it. With the efforts of Dashun regardless of the cost, the ship soon regained its ability to sail. Then the governor of Tianjin personally organized a surprise attack, picked a moonless cloudy day, used a large number of oar-powered boats to silently drag the ironclad ship out of the port at night, and launched an attack on the Ming army garrison fleet outside the port of Tianjin at dawn.

The proud Nanming Navy had never been challenged by the Shun Army's naval divisions, nor had it ever had any experience in fighting ironclad ships, so although they noticed the opponent's weapons, the Ming army still accepted the challenge and ordered its ships to rush forward and prepare to recapture the lost ironclad ships.

But only the side of the sail warship soon found that they were no match for the enemy at all, and their cannons were completely unable to cause damage to the ironclad ships, and the Shun army followed the example of the Ming army and smeared the hull with butter, and the sea ship guns, which were not as powerful as the fortress guns, could only knock out a sound on the hull. The first few ships to drop anchor and shoot at the ironclad ships sank quickly and without any suspense after being hit by the 280-pounder cannons captured by the Shun army.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Ming fleet hurriedly closed its anchor and raised its sails to withdraw from the battlefield, while the ironclad ships of the Shun army kept chasing behind their tails, and in the process of pursuit, any ship of the Ming army would be hit by the opponent's 280-pound cannon, and it would inevitably lose its combat capability. Fortunately, because the speed of the ironclad ships was too slow, most of the Ming fleet was able to escape from the range of the opponent's fire. But after a day's fighting, the governor of Tianjin could proudly claim that they had lifted the blockade of the port of Tianjin by the Ming army, destroyed seven Ming warships, and captured nearly a thousand sailors.

Since there was no plan to attack the port of Tianjin (mainly because Tianjin was too close to Beijing, and the Nanming had already spent a lot of money to feed the troops on the coastal area of Shandong, so the army and navy of the Nanming Dynasty thought that it was not practical to occupy Tanggu), so the two new ironclad ships of the navy had been training in the rear and had not gone to the front line. But with this threat, the Bohai fleet demanded that the rear immediately bring in the ironclad ships in order to deal with the first test ship.

At this time, in distant Europe, several new power machines and machine tools were being shipped to Amsterdam, and the defeat in the last Anglo-Dutch war was deeply humiliating to the Netherlands, while the British aggressive offensive continued, and its ambitions for the Dutch North American colonies, especially New Amsterdam (New York), were already undisguised.

"This is a machine that the Chinese have just invented," the representative of the Dutch East India Company, pointing to a steam engine, "can provide considerable power, and they are applying it to warships." ”

There were also some mechanics who were brought along with the machines, and the Dutch East India Company sent some men to Fujian and Canton to work as apprentices, and only returned to China with them after they had learned a great deal about manufacturing and maintenance: "Forty years ago, they had never imported machines, weapons, and technicians from us, but forty years later it was our turn to buy them from them. ”

"Amazing machine!" After visiting the battleship, Dutch Admiral Ned praised: "How did the Chinese make such remarkable progress in forty years?" ”

"The most significant progress has come in recent years, when China has been plunged into an all-out civil war that has led to rapid technological advances, an emergence of talent, social innovation, and the transformation of businesses that were originally at the bottom of society into human beings." The representative of the East India Company replied: "War is the greatest driving force for technology and change, and isn't it the same in our Europe?" ”

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