Chapter 100: The Governor of Liangguang

"After you went to find the people of the Huo family, what did they say?" Zhang Shusheng closed his eyes and thought for a while, then slowly asked! Compared with his somewhat impetuous son, Zhang Shusheng, who has gone through the ups and downs of the Huan Sea and decades of officialdom, is obviously much more sophisticated, and he can see far more clearly than his son on some issues!

They said that the Huo family has recently invested in a lot of railways and factories, and they have spent too much money to turn over for a while! Therefore, they have postponed their investment plan to build railways in other provinces, and when the railways have made money and the funds are abundant, they will think about it! However, I think they are obviously shirking, and the auction they held in Taiwan some time ago alone made tens of millions of taels of silver, and it is more than enough to build the railways between our two provinces! Moreover, they are in Taiwan. Those big factories in Shanghai and other places, that one is not making a lot of money, and making a lot of money! Therefore, I don't think they have no money, but they don't want to do it because they think the price we offer is too low!" Zhang Mingqi replied with some indignation.

Hearing his words, Zhang Shusheng nodded slowly! When he invited the Huo family to repair the railway, he discussed it with Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, and Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili, who were also from the Huai military system. As long as the right of way of this railway is in their own hands, then the entire family will have a sufficient financial guarantee in the future, and even if they retire from officialdom by themselves, as long as they have money in their hands, it will not be easy for their future generations to become officials! It is precisely with this purpose in mind that they have adopted such harsh conditions for the Huo family in the construction of the railway! Moreover, they obviously also take a fancy to the fat of the Huo family, and they want to come up and take a hard bite!

Although the status of merchants has improved somewhat within the current Qing Dynasty, in the eyes of these government personnel, it is still not very important, and the Huo family is relatively wealthy in their eyes! If it were not for the fact that they are related to He Jing, the current governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, I am afraid that they would have sent troops long ago and copied the Huo family on any charge! Moreover, tens of millions of taels of silver are also worth their doing!

"You take some time to go to Huo's house to run a little more, and see if they are willing to build our Liangguang railway if they increase their shares and don't give up the right of way!"

"I understand father, what if they still don't agree?" Zhang Mingqi then asked.

Hearing his words, Zhang Shusheng was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, "If this is the case, then we can only put this matter aside for a while, and then find a way to solve it when we have the opportunity in the future!"

Hearing him say this, Zhang Mingqi was unwilling! The so-called yù gully is difficult to fill, how can he endure the pain of being able to only see but not eat at the speed of accumulating wealth that has long been devoured by the Huo family's auction, and his eyes are red with stimulation!

"Father, why don't you just put a random charge on them for fornication and robbery, and raid the Huo family! When the time comes, hundreds of millions of taels of silver will be in hand, no matter what we want to do, the money will be enough! Then we still need to be as troublesome as we are now, go and see a businessman's face!" Thinking of the huge wealth of the Huo family, Zhang Mingqi said greedily and fiercely.

However, as soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Shusheng's originally slightly narrowed eyes suddenly opened, and his sharp gaze looked straight like a knife! This seemed to be able to penetrate people's hearts, and Zhang Mingqi felt a chill in his heart, and he couldn't help but lower his head, not daring to look at his father!

"Mingchen (Zhang Mingqi's words), you'd better put this idea away for me, the Huo family's business names are all over the Qing Dynasty, not only the family has a huge amount of money, but also many local governors have explicit or secret connections with them, plus their little son, and He Jing's granddaughter have a family affair, and now their influence in the Qing Dynasty officialdom is not much worse than that of me, an old man, so it is not so easy to raid the Huo family!" Zheng Shusheng said in a condensed voice.

He also wanted to take the opportunity to educate his son lest he do anything stupid again, and when the time came, he would offend the Huo family and make it difficult for him to clean up! You must know that although his official reputation is good! However, in the court now, the Westernists and diehards are making a lot of money, and if they are not careful, they may end up in a catastrophe! Therefore, at this time, not only can they not offend the Huo family, but they must befriend the Huo family and use the Huo family's connections in the Qing Dynasty officialdom to stabilize their official position as the governor of Liangguang! You must know that this position is very lucrative!

"I understand, father!" Zhang Mingqi said respectfully, now he can live so nourished, no matter where he goes, someone will hand over money, it can be said that to a large extent, it is due to his father, the current governor of Liangguang, and has a high reputation in this Western-style faction!

"By the way, father! Recently, I heard from the people below that we have recently been active in Liangguang with a short-haired army (because the Huo Jiajun does not have braids), occupying the villages and towns below, which has affected this year's tax collection, is that the case?" Zhang Mingqi, who was just about to say goodbye and leave, suddenly asked.

"There should be such a thing, I have also heard some officials of the yamen talk about this matter in the past few months, but so far neither the governor yamen nor the governor yamen have received a distress letter from any county, or the news of the loss of the county seat. Zhang Shusheng waved his hand and said casually, now in addition to the thieves who openly killed officials and rebelled and attacked the county seat to establish political power like decades of Changmao, he didn't bother to care about these small things of robbing villages and towns!

"Got it, father! Then I'm going to take my leave, and you can rest early!"

"Well, let's go, close the door for me when you go out!"

——————

Four days have passed since the war with the Dutch, and the busy situation here is still unabated, and from time to time telegraph operators can be seen coming in and out, reporting the latest situation on the war on the two islands, and the busy staff officers, every time they receive a telegram, they pick up the red flag on the table representing their own occupied areas and paste them on the large map on the wall! However, unlike the somewhat solemn atmosphere in the headquarters a few days ago, although it is still busy, the atmosphere is unprecedentedly relaxed and warm!

"Taking Sumatra in four days, it seems that the 20th Division is very capable!" Liang Zhanshan said with both joy and relief looking at the large map hanging on the wall.

"Okay, Lao Liang! I know that your old troops are very capable of fighting, but can the smugness on your face be restrained? The credit of our marines in occupying Sumatra Island is not small!" Sui Wenhe, who has been promoted to deputy political commissar of the Nanyang Theater, said with a smile.

"I said, can you two not earn it? No matter how great the credit for the occupation of Sumatra is, it is also achieved by the front-line soldiers, and it has nothing to do with you two guys!" Yuen Long, the political commissar standing not far away, couldn't help but smile and said.

Huo Jianguang enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere among his comrades-in-arms, and the joy of victory made everyone in the command let go of the burden in their hearts!

"This encirclement is almost formed!" Standing with him, Huo Donglin, who was the deputy commander of Nanyang District, pointed to the map on the wall and said with a light smile.

"Yes, now that the 3rd Marine Division has occupied the line of Langasberg, Sirloin and the Chitaron River, and cooperated with the Navy to encircle Batavia from the north, as long as the 4th Marine Division in the south occupies the line of Lebak, Chibada and Zhanyu, the two divisions of nearly 40,000 troops will be able to tighten this pocket firmly, and when the time comes, this group of officials from the Dutch East India Governor's Palace, with nearly 8,000 soldiers stationed there, don't even think of running!

"Well, now the Dutch don't have to worry, they will be able to deal with these guys tomorrow, in addition, their current expeditionary force is still in the Mediterranean, and if they want to launch a new attack on us again, it will take at least a month to prepare, so after our Lower Java and Sumatra islands this month, we can take advantage of this time to rest and recuperate, and deal with the next battle!" Huo Donglin said lightly.

"No, Donglin, have you forgotten the warrant given to us by the young master? There are so many bedbugs on these two islands, if you don't clean them up properly, how can they accept our rule with peace of mind!" Huo Jianguang said with a murderous tone.

"Hehe, how can I forget, many of my soldiers are not married, these indigenous men are hateful, but women still have to give us a population, before I came, I promised those rabbit cubs!" Huo Donglin's fingers gurgled and replied with some excitement!

"Yes, I don't know why, those boys of the fifth division under my command also fell in love with the indigenous daughter-in-law!"

"But this time the population is large, we have to pick a good one!"

"Yes!"