Chapter 23                                                             �

"You should be afraid," the emperor sneered, "As an official in the court, I took the salary of my Aixin Jueluo family, I always thought about forming cliques and fighting against the common people. Well? Don't think that I don't know what you did in Anhui and don't deal with it. One reason is that you are still capable of making achievements, and the other reason is that I am busy with national affairs and don't bother with you! Otherwise, don't say you are a small governor, an official the size of a sesame and green bean, what about Mu Zhanga? Facing my rudiment, isn't you scared like a sieve? Don't go home obediently?"

"I am guilty of my crime, but I am guilty. I am unable to serve the emperor and father with my own heart... I am more important than the villain."

"I have been busy all day long for my own profits. In the 12th year of Xianfeng, I asked you to be the prefect of Anqing. In the 15th year of Xianfeng, I will be promoted to Taoist, to the vassal, to the governor, and to the high position of governor of a province. Ask you, those seniors, juniors, and officials of the Qing Dynasty who were promoted to the speed of promotion of the same year, are you as you? You are still not good enough, and you see me value Shen Baozhen, and your eyes are blue. On the surface, it is in line with my wishes and you want to handle the construction of the naval in Liangjiang and other places. In fact, do you think I don't know? You guys are just thinking that he has managed the navy. The total amount of money he has earned in the past few years is nearly tens of millions of dollars. I think he will make a fortune, right?"

"I dare not, I dare not."

"Shen Baozhen is honest, not what you dirty and heartless bastards think! He sent all his income to his post home, and he would not take the salary of the silver in his rank. I heard that every time he was in a difficult life, he would always take out a box of worn-out clothes from his naval yamen and take it to the pawnshop. He added a seal with a seal stamped with a guard on it, and he would pay it as ten thousand taels of silver. The pawnshop did not dare to open the seal, so he paid as much as possible - what he did was just a seal from the navy yamen. When the salary and silver arrived, he would send someone to redeem it and wait until the next year. Over time, the people in Weihai City became accustomed to it. Whenever they saw an official carrying an old box to the pawnshop, they knew that Lord Shen was short of money again."

He told Li Hongzhang this little story that the government and the country knew, and then said, "You should also compare with such a person? Ask yourself, what is the point you can compare with him?"

Li Hongzhang was really scared and touched the ground with his head, and he didn't even dare to say a word.

Although thunderous scolded Li Hongzhang, the emperor was not ready to deal with him. This was not only because Li Hongzhang was a phenomenon in the late Qing officialdom, but also because only Li Hongzhang, who is smart and ambitious, is the most important helper who can achieve his ambitions smoothly. So, almost at the beginning, he had already made up his plan: Didn’t he want an official? Give him the official; didn’t he want power? Give him the power! As long as he could follow his baton, he would give him everything he wanted!

After scolding a few words, the emperor said, "Didn't you always give me a memorial to the inability to host the navy and have no way to serve the country? I am the most fair and satisfied your requirements. I won't mention this year. After you return to office, you will immediately hand over your responsibilities and take the post as the governor of Fujian. In Fujian, you will also set up a navy for me. What do you do? I don't care. Within three years, I will see the results. How about it?"

Li Hongzhang thought he would be in great trouble this time, but in the end, the emperor actually asked him to go to Fujian to handle the navy. He raised his head in surprise and joy, looking at the supreme king of a country sitting high, "Your Majesty, aren't you coaxing me as a minister?"

"I've eaten too much? I'm not going to coax you to play?" The emperor glared at him angrily, "Of course it's true."

Li Hongzhang was overjoyed, "I will do my job seriously and build the scale of the Fujian Navy within three years. It will live up to the emperor's entrusted weight!"

After the emperor's resignation and blowing the cold wind outside, Li Hongzhang woke up a little, and felt a rush of heat in his chest. He really wanted to laugh three times to show comfort. Of course, this was just what he thought in his heart, and he would never dare to do so.

Thinking about it, the matter is so important, why did the emperor decide in this moment? Moreover, when he was the prefect of Anqing, he had handled the matter of a shipyard, but it was completely different from naval construction. Can he do it? What's more important is that in the 12th year of Xianfeng, when the naval yamen was established, there was always a foreman Yi Qiong as a naval minister. Although he was not in charge of the matter, there was such a prince and minister sitting in a royal family, Qingliu could not say anything. When he came to himself, would he be the minister of the Nanyang Navy? At that time, just Qingliu's bullets would be enough to make himself lose his head!

Li Hongzhang thought about it seriously and felt something was even more wrong. With Zeng Guofan's emperor's family, when he was training troops in Tianjin, he was still attacking people, let alone today's self? Oh, I was just happy in the hall just now, how could I forget this relationship? I was determined to go back to the hall and ask the emperor for a jog, but I didn't have such courage. If I leave the emperor with an impression that he could not use it, I will be ruined after years of hard work! Let's go to the teacher's house and ask him for advice?

So he left the court room and passed down to prepare sedan chairs. He arrived at Zeng Mansion. This was no longer the mansion in the south city, but was rewarded by the emperor. It was only half a mile away from Qipan Street. It lived next to Wenxiang and Xu Naizhao and other senior officials of the court who had been honored for the convenience of attending court every day.

Entering from the side door to the mansion, Zeng Guofan had not returned yet. He first asked his teacher's wife, Mrs. Ouyang, and accompanied Zeng Jize to speak in the main hall. "If you talk about the news now, there is no way to overcome the important matter of the second young brother about to marry the eldest princess. Is the mansion ready?"

Zeng Jize smiled and explained to Li Hongzhang a few words. The emperor had an occasional idea of ​​marrying his daughter to Zeng Jihong. Since ancient times, Shangzhu's thing has been a double-edged sword, which naturally shines, but he never lacks troubles. Everyone understands the principle of Qi Dawei, and this "big" is even more extraordinary. In front of the princess, he must be a minister first and then talk about her husband.

That's not all, Zeng Jihong's academic performance was not as good as his elder brother, and he was very unwilling to be liked by his father. When he was in Liangjiang, he had family letters and exchanged ideas. He discussed his poems and essays in his heart, and listed them all, which made Zeng Jihong very distressed. After passing the exam, he did not sell it several times. Later, he was still recruiting students in college. With Zeng Guofan's acquiesce and Zeng Jize's arrangement, he was able to enroll.

Zeng Jihong was very hard-working, for fear that he was incompetent and had a family tradition. Therefore, he worked very hard in his studies, especially in mathematics, and was very accomplished. He studied under Ding Zhizhong and made great progress every day. But because of this, he studied the classics and was a bit dull. I don’t know what the emperor thought. Although most of the six princesses in the Tian family had never seen them, I heard that they were all born like flowers and jade. Why did they promise the oldest eldest princess to their younger brother? Zeng Jize sometimes thought about it and felt confused.

Moreover, how could the emperor marry his daughter be a little bit? Although after marriage, there will be a royal family mansion for them to live in, the rules of just welcome the bride and Dianyi are enough to make the Zeng family busy. There is no need to rebuild the main hall, repaint the house, re-paint the furniture, and re-decorate it. In short, everything has to be repeated! He served as a minister in the Ministry of Revenue and did not have much time to take care of these, so he could only leave it to his wife Liu to be busy. Sometimes when he returned to the house, he saw his wife sweating from her forehead, and he felt so painful.

Li Hongzhang accompanied him to sigh a few times, then asked, "Are the official duties in the ministry still busy?"

"It's okay, it's okay..." The two of them were talking. Seeing that the door outside opened, a blue wool-sized sedan chair was carrying it into the mansion. Zeng Guofan returned.

The two of them hurriedly stood up to welcome him. Zeng Guofan held the Chaozhu with his hand and lowered his head to get out of the sedan chair. "Well," he said, "Are you here?"

"Yes. The students have met the teacher."

"Talk into the house, talk into the house."

The father and son and junior brother entered the room. Zeng Guofan changed into a casual suit and called Li Hongzhang into the study. The junior brother sat opposite him, "I'm here to see the emperor today?" Zeng Guofan asked, "I heard that the emperor is so angry?"

"Yes." Li Hongzhang said the story, and finally issued an order to change the emperor to Fujian next year, and to start planning the affairs of the Nanyang Navy and his worries. Finally, he asked, "Teacher, do you think? This little insight of the students makes sense?"

"This is indeed a big trouble. But the misfortune is the basis of good fortune. There is no need to seek it."

"The students don't understand what the teacher said."

"What happened in the end when the emperor ordered the fifth master to take charge of the navy? Such an arrangement was just used by the emperor to swear the world." Zeng Guofan said confidently, "This time the emperor demoted you first and then fell down. It can be seen that he is still very satisfied with your talent. Otherwise, if Ruilin doesn't mention it, what's wrong with Bian Songchen? He wants to transfer him and make room for you?"

Bian Songchen is the current governor of Fujian Bian Baodi. He is the head of the Ministry of Justice, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, and the minister of the Ministry of Rites, and the minister of the Ministry of Rites is released as the governor. However, in Li Hongzhang's eyes, even Shen Baozhen is no problem, so how can he talk about a mere Bian Baodi?

Zeng Guofan saw that he disagreed, "Shaoquan, being a person is the same as being an official. You must have something in your heart and accumulate strength. For example, you have been from the Minister of Trade and Joint Office to the Higher Person of the Provincial Headquarters for a few years. This arrogance is beyond words. I really don't know whether the emperor's appointment is a blessing or a disaster."

Li Hongzhang was very dissatisfied! Why did the teacher make such an ominous voice before he took office? Isn’t this ruining his interest? But the dignity of the teacher cannot be said much, pretending to be bent on his head and understand, "Yes, the students have recorded all the lessons of the teacher."

Zeng Guofan didn't say much, and then said, "As for what you said, the previous chapter asked the emperor to ask the royal family members and nobles to supervise the construction from the side, so he might as well say it, but according to what I think, the emperor will definitely refute it. At the same time, he will definitely send someone to go south to help you do the job. At that time, how to make the subordinates get along, and do the errands well, and do the errands assigned by the emperor depends on your own practice."

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When the Military Affairs Office called out, the emperor mentioned the matter of the Nanyang Navy and told him about the appointment of Li Hongzhang as the governor of Fujian.

Yesterday, the emperor was furious about Li Hongzhang's attack on Shen Baozhen. The Military Affairs Office and others knew that it was useless to say such things. They pretended to be mute, and the king and ministers were in harmony with each other. "Bian Songchen was in Fujian for a year. Do you want to find a good place for him this time?"

"Let him go to Zhejiang, Ma Xinyi will change to Anhui and accept Li Hongzhang's lack." The emperor had already made plans and said immediately without waiting for Yi to make suggestions.

"My brother thinks that when the Beiyang Navy was formed, the emperor Jian sent King Dun as the foreman. If there are old rules, you might as well cite..."

"No need for this time. You have seen what Lao Wu did in the Navy yamen. It would be fine if you could really find one or two talents in the royal family. Let's talk about where to look for it? They are all fools like Ruilin and Yude! When you go to Fujian, don't say that the foreman will do the job, and you can't cause trouble for Li Hongzhang and the others, I will just chant Amitabha!"

When the emperor said it was pitiful, everyone gritted their teeth and held back their laughter. When they thought about it, it was not a false statement. There were not many talents in the bannermen, such as Chongshi, Ronglu, Baoting, Shu Qing'a, Zhiyan, Chengxiang, etc., but they were too young and had little experience, so they were not enough to entrust them to the most. If they had seniority, they were all a group of bastards, such as Duanhua, Zaiyuan, Shiduo. Now among the twenty-one provinces, there are only official documents from Liangjiang, Ruilin from Guangdong and Guangxi and Yude from Jilin were bannermen, and the others were all Han people. The number of Han officials in various provinces has made the royal family members increasingly dissatisfied, and they have been to the emperor several times.

The most recent one was on the Wanbao Festival in the 19th year of Xianfeng. Huafeng and Duanhua and others didn't know what difficult to digest food they ate, so they would give a memorial, which was roughly said that the emperor wanted to revitalize his spirit and vigorously promote the use of the royal family, but he refuted all of them, "Okay, if you say you use Manchu people, I will use it. But the responsibility of recommending talents is the duty of the ministers? Do you recommend a few to me and take them out so that no one in the world can say nothing, and I will issue an imperial edict immediately, how about it?"

Duanhua and others retreated with shame. After this incident, Guan Wen, Ruilin and Yude took their own actions and did not cause trouble for them. The court reached a consensus: if the official article was not mentioned, the other two materials were the only remaining face of the bannermen. It was not that they had really made a very serious mistake, but it was better to protect them.

The emperor sometimes felt very embarrassed. After twenty years, the court officials who ascended the throne at the beginning were almost gone. Those who were standing sideways were promoted by themselves. There was no problem with the words "loyalty and respect", but what if they wait a hundred years later? Can people in later generations be able to move? Especially the people of the people are mostly unsatisfied. Alas, it's a headache!

He continued, "This time, I will leave all the Nanyang Navy to the people below to do. The court only does two things. First, give money; second, give people. Others, don't ask about them." He smiled, "And you, don't say anything in front of me every now and then. I'm too lazy to listen, and I don't listen."

"Yes." Yi understood in his heart that the emperor seemed to be trying to hone Li Hongzhang intently. Although he spoke beautifully, anyone knew that the court would definitely have a backup plan in secret. It was impossible to hand over the entire Nanyang Navy to Li Hongzhang. What else would it be? "The emperor's holy heart can shine on the sun and the moon. I think Li Hongzhang should not dare to have a rebellious intention and do the job seriously." He said, "But my brother thinks that the Nanyang Navy was first established and the things were complicated. The officer also had to take charge of the official duties of a province. In addition to military affairs, the people's conditions could also be effective. It is better to select talents and help the other side to work together."

"Let Cheng Xiang go. He has served as an admiral in Jilin for many years, and I think he has experienced it. Don't always walk on the shore, you have to learn to go around the water!"

So everyone laughed, but the smiles were bitter and sweet.
Chapter completed!