Beiping, Forbidden City

On the second day of September 1891, at about 10 o'clock in the morning

South Study of the Military Aircraft Department

Although it has entered September, the weather in Beiping City is still very hot.

Di Bao shows that Shanxi, Shaanxi, North Zhili Dezhou Prefecture, and Hejian Mansion have all been in drought for several months, and the rain has not fallen, and it is worth flying locusts everywhere, thousands of miles of red land, millions of victims go out to beg for their lives, hungry mayflies everywhere, and countless people have gone out of business.

Under the shade of the trees, a row of bungalow doors and windows in the south study of the Military Aircraft Department are propped up, allowing the hot air to circulate into the room, which can more or less top up some things.

Several ministers of military aircraft sat around with folding fans in their hands and chatted, and the topic was not the current urgent relief and soup porridge for the victims, but the matter of repairing the Summer Palace for the Empress Dowager Cixi, Lafayette.

"If you want me to say, the city of Pingcheng in Beibei, the filial piety of Lafayette has to be a few alcohol prince Yiyun, two years ago, the prime minister, the navy Yamen's alcohol prince Yiyun spent 2.6 million taels of silver to repair the Summer Palace, this is not ...... In the name of buying guns for the Beiyang Navy, Prince Yiyun raised more than 2 million taels of silver and sent them to the Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is really commendable. ”

"The navy of the North and South Seas spent a lot of money, and all those ironclad ships were built for the benefit of the Westerners, and the silver like the sea was thrown into the water, so it was better to use it to repair the garden for Lafayette, and it would be the right way to see the light."

Recently, the head of the household department Shangshu Weng asked the imperial court to say that the harm of buying Western guns and guns was allowed to suspend the purchase of foreign guns and ships in the north and south oceans for three years, and the prince of Li Shiduo attached the signature, and the court has approved his play, which can finally save a lot of expenses."

"Hmph, those Western-style ministers are afraid that they are going to make trouble again, so I'll have fun watching it now."

"Especially Hanchen Li Hongzhang, who is the assistant head of the Navy Yamen, is not a worry-free person, he can talk about it in a set of ways, and few people can talk about him."

"What are you afraid of him? How can it be said that he is also a slave of the Han family, a dog-like character, but it is a fortunate person who has risen up by exterminating the Mao bandits, and he has made a lot of money by preparing for the Beiyang Navy over the years, Li Hongzhang has always had millions of taels of silver in private, and if the court really wiped his face to investigate, it would be a trivial matter to kill the nine clans. ”

"Lord Xu's words are reasonable, we are all from the Han Army Banner, and those Hanchen are not all the way, we are masters, they are slaves."

"Hahaha...... That's exactly what I want. ”

"Master Sun, you are close to the chief eunuch of the Internal Affairs Office, how is Lafayette's garden repaired?"

"Don't dare to ask Lord Erle, I talked to the chief eunuch about this matter a few days ago, the Summer Palace has already spent 17 or 8 million taels of silver, which is only half of it, and it finally has a little appearance, after all, it is a royal garden, and the specifications and momentum cannot be half a point difference."

"Having said that, building a garden for Lafayette is a first-class matter, the North and South Ocean Navy will have everything if they build a few fewer ironclad ships, and those Han governors and ministers have a lot of power, it's time to restrain it, lest they be too presumptuous and have no one in their sights."

"Lord Erle, this is the words of the old minister to seek the country, and the ministers seconded it."

"Seconded."

"Approved of course."

The three ministers of the Han military banner nodded like pounded garlic, and Erle and Bu looked around arrogantly, and then raised their heads and laughed, their pride was indescribable.

In 1887, Emperor Guangxu was in power, and the Empress Dowager Cixi was still in power on the surface, but in fact she still held on to the power of the imperial court, and the poor Emperor Guangxu was just a puppet.

In order to quell the criticism of the ministers in the court, the Empress Dowager Cixi said; If you want to build a garden to live for the rest of your life, the court affairs will be handed over to Emperor Guangxu in the future.

Regardless of whether it is the Queen Mother's delaying tactic, there is always some hope.

It costs a lot of money to build a royal garden, but in this way, the Empress Dowager Cixi can retire and be honored, so that Emperor Guangxu will be in charge alone.

So the hand, Prince Yi Xun tried his best to get money out of the Prime Minister's Beiyang Affairs Yamen, which is already a well-known thing.

That's when it happened

Zhang Zhiwan, the Minister of Movement of the Military Aircraft Department, hurriedly walked in from the outside, he held a diplomatic note in his hand, looked left and right after entering the door, and saw the Minister of Military Aircraft Erle and Bugao sitting on the upper position, holding a folding fan and fanning back and forth leisurely.

So Zhang Zhiwan walked up in three steps and two steps, presented a diplomatic note with both hands and said; "Lord Erle and Bu, this is an urgent diplomatic note from England, and the British Minister Hendry, is still waiting for news, and it needs to be done quickly."

"Oh, I'll see." When Erle and Bu heard that it was Lord Yang's business, they hurriedly put down the folding fan, took the diplomatic note and looked at it carefully, and their faces suddenly changed color.

It's too big for him to be the master!

"Wait a minute, I'm going to give it to Prince Cheng in person."

Erle and Bou stood up and straightened their clothes, then picked up the diplomatic note and walked to the back room.

The south study room of the Military Aircraft Department is a general room, where all the ministers of military aircraft and the ministers of the military aircraft department work here to review and review the chapters.

Prince Li, the minister of the military department, is in the middle, and there is a separate door separating it, and ordinary people are not allowed to trespass unless they have important matters, reflecting the distinction between the upper and lower levels.

"The king of the Ocean Kingdom, the queen plans to go to Guangzhou Province in the near future?" Prince Li Shiduo looked at the diplomatic note in his hand in surprise, looking a little overwhelmed; "When did such a country emerge, and what is the number?"

"Back to the prince's words, this ocean kingdom is located in the southeast of Luzon, thousands of miles away, there is a continent called Australia, which is the domain of England, this ocean kingdom is the strong beam force on the Australian road, it is a newly established kingdom, recognized by the countries of Europa, and it is normal for the prince not to know the truth."

"It's just a small country in Dongyi, what a way!"

"Lord Rongyu, this ocean kingdom is not a small country in the East, its territory is vast, and it is only slightly inferior to my Celestial Empire, its country is located in the middle of nowhere, of course, it cannot be comparable to my Celestial Empire's Huatianbao, but it is a brave and ruthless character, and the Westerners have fought a few bloody battles, and they have all won by luck, and a few years ago, they also humiliated the Orientals, that is a wild horse temperament that cannot be restrained, even the English Kingdom has to let it establish a new country, which can be seen from the clues."

"Ah...... How tricky is this? Prince Li's face suddenly changed.

In the early years, the Orientals used the excuse that the natives of Taiwan Island tortured and killed the fishermen who were displaced by the storm and sent troops to invade Taiwan Island, and the imperial court spent a lot of effort and paid 500,000 taels of silver to settle the incident.

This Raushzi Ocean Kingdom was able to beat both the Easterners and the Westerners to the ground, and naturally it was not easy to deal with them, and the original contempt immediately disappeared and was replaced by deep worry.

After careful consideration, Prince Li Shiduo asked with a frown; "As far as this king knows, these ghosts in Europa, Hongfan, are also disobedient to the king, and they are brave and ruthless, how can they allow the establishment of the Ocean Kingdom under their noses?"

"The prince doesn't know, the strength of the army of the Ocean Kingdom is very strong, the fight is a lose, and the cooperation is a win-win situation.

"Oh, I see!"

Erle and Bu stepped in with a flattering look on their faces, and whispered back; "Lord Wang, this ocean kingdom is a ruthless character, I heard that the corpses and blood of the white people killed in Australia are the same, we can't take it lightly."

"You monkey who walks birds and lackeys, how can you know that the affairs of Nanyang are so detailed?" Prince Li's expression became unprecedentedly solemn.

He knew that Erle Hebu was different from a group of Manchu noble paste children in the capital who were eating and waiting for death, and he was a rare capable minister, and this "monkey" was close to him, not a derogatory term.

"Hey...... Don't hide it from the prince, my subordinates have a lot of business dealings with the Normandy foreign company in England, the leather goods over there are first-class good, and there are cheap and high-quality canned sausages, which can be placed for a long time at room temperature, and the toffee milk powder is also a must-have for large families, so Weichen often reads some Nanyang newspapers given by Normandy foreign companies, and knows that these are some ruthless characters who are not easy to mess with...... And it won. ”

Erle Hebu was born in the Manchu inlaid blue flag, a first-class jinshi, once joined the Shujishi, the general of Shengjing, and the investigation of Hardutong.

When Zuo Zongtang used troops in Xinjiang, Erle and cloth brokered grain transportation, and transferred the officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners to help suppress it, and promoted General Uriya Sutai, but he was repeatedly a thief.

In the sixth year of Guangxu (1880), Erle Hebu served as the commander of the Han army with a white flag, transferred to Mongolia, and successively served as the commander of the Rehe Metropolitan Government, the secretary of the Lifan Yuan, the secretary of the household department, and the minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and entered the military aircraft department.

"This diplomatic note is not easy to reply!" Prince Li Shiduo made a difficulty, feeling like taking a hot potato, regardless of the East, the West, the South Sea, and the North Russia, there is no trivial matter in everything related to the West.

The Empress Dowager Cixi, Lafayette, was in the late stage of foreign phobia, and the other Manchu ministers were not much better.

When the war between China and France started in the south, the Empress Dowager Cixi in the Forbidden City couldn't sleep day and night, for fear that those blue-eyed and yellow-haired foreigners would enter Beiping City again.

Those events back then have left a deep psychological shadow.

Prince Li, the minister of the leading army, was not a resolute and decisive character, but he was reincarnated well, and the children of the Eight Banners in the capital were all raised, and the generals were drawn from the army, so he was able to sit in a prominent position in this military aircraft.

It looks like a big belly, but it's actually full of straw bales in the belly.

Since the beginning of the Yongzheng Dynasty, in order to deal with the rebellion of Qinghai Luobuzang Tenzin, the military aircraft department was established, and the minister of the military aircraft department of the thirteenth prince Yi Prince Yi Yunxiang passed down the rule that the minister of the military aircraft must be the identity of the prince, which has never changed for more than 100 years.

Suddenly encountered such a major event, and Prince Shiduo, the minister of military aircraft, immediately ran out of ideas; "This matter is very high, this prince should not be good at it, you and I will immediately enter the palace to meet the queen mother, and respectfully ask for the holy judge."

"That's fine, according to what the prince said."