"Oh," Zaiying asked, "What are the 'Four Great Heavens and Earths,'"

"This is a scolding Zhihuang: 'When hearing the name of the Lord, it will shock the world; when seeing the Lord comes, it will be happy; when seeing the Lord's policy, it will be dark; when looking for the Lord's departure, it will be thankful! Sichuan cuisine is spicy and sour, and the words are the same!"

"It is hard to say what you like and what you hate!" Zai Ying sighed again, "Zhihuang governed Sichuan, and the emperor praised Sichuan's virtues. I think the clean officials must be loved by the local government, so I know that there is such a bad voice.*.**/* said that Zhihuang was in power, "I will never accept it. Is there anything controversial about his official voice?"

"Zhihuang is in power, promoting profits and eliminating disadvantages, and is committed to fearing that it is not sharp. It will inevitably attract people's grievances, which leads to bad news. Fortunately, the court has maintained it. However, using Ding price is a mistake."

"It's hard to say!" Zai Ying asked, "Zhihuang must have a reason for using this surname Ding. He will never make any concessions with this person, right?"

"That's never. Zhihuang is as clear as water. Everyone in Sichuan knows that the governor is often poor."

"This," Zai Ying was very surprised, "I'm afraid I'm going to exaggerate it?"

"It's true, I've heard more than one person say it. As usual..."

As usual, the income of the Sichuan Governor General was 12,000 taels per year for Kuizhou Pass and 30,000 taels per year for Sichuan Salt Bureau. Ding Baozhen did not take any of them, but only received 13,000 taels of integrity approved silver approved by the order. It increased since the seventh year of Xianfeng, and the actual income was 18,000 taels per year. It was divided into twelve months, and the monthly income was 1,000, and the vassal department was transferred to the delivery at the beginning of the month.

These low-priced silvers are required to pay the salary and food of the staff, and they share the old friends of the helpers, so they often stay in the poor town. Whenever the young and yellow people didn't accept it, Ding Baozhen would inspect a box of old clothes and order the material officer to send it to the pawn shop for 200 taels of silver. The old clothes were not enough, so he added a bell to seal the seal of the Governor's headquarters. Chaofeng was unable to unpack it, so he said that it would be as much as possible. Over time, the wardrobe would not move it. It would be redeemed this month and sent it to the pawn shop next month. When Chaofeng saw it, there was no need for the material officer to speak, and even the silver was brought as a ticket, he handed it out.

Zai Ying laughed loudly after hearing this, and said, "There is a saying: 'Mr. Guan sells tofu, but people are not strong. With the Governor's seal, it doesn't matter if the goods are not strong! This is called: Ding Baozhen, recognizes people but not goods!"

Zaiying's witty words made the girl laugh. She quickly covered her mouth and laughed, turned her pink face red, put down her hookah, and flashed out like a smoke, and couldn't stop smiling outside the window.

Zaiying was very interested in Ding Baozhen. "Since that's the case, where are his extra expenses?" He asked with an example: "For example, if you go to Beijing, you will have to pay at least three or five yuan for social engagements, right?"

"When the prince asked Hongzhang, he was really right. If it were someone else, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to answer. I remember that year was Guiyou..."

Guiyou - In the winter of the 25th year of Xianfeng, Ding Baozhen was still serving as the governor of Shandong and asked for leave to return to Pingyuan, Guizhou to visit the grave. When the boat arrived at Hankou, Li Hongzhang's elder brother, the governor of Huguang, sent someone to take him to Wuchang and talk to him. After the banquet, Li Hanzhang asked someone to bring out several silver letters and said earnestly: "I know that my brother is as clear as water. However, this time when I returned to my hometown, there were always some poor relatives and friends who wanted to fund it. They specially prepared 3,000 taels of silver to borrow. If my brother didn't accept it, he would look down on me."

Speaking of this, Ding Baozhen had to accept it. He handed it over to his old subordinates. At that time, Zhang Yinhuan, the alternate roadmaster in Li Hanzhang's shogunate, would be kept on his behalf and would be dealt with in the future.

The next autumn, he was discharged from his leave and returned to his post. He still passed by Hubei, so he asked Zhang Yinhuan to return the three thousand taels of silver. Zhang Yinhuan believed that the original seal was not demolished, which obviously did not use it. Judging from their friendship, it was unreasonable. It would be better to unpack the seal and re-pack it, and finally received Li Hanzhang's favor.

"This is what Zhang Qiaoye told me in person." Li Hongzhang also said: "In the winter of Bingzi, Zhihuang was ordered to supervise Sichuan. When he came to the capital, he ordered the emperor to 'Chi Shi,' and I was also in the capital. Hongzhang sent someone to wait at the Xianliang Pavilion in advance and invited him to the mansion to talk to him. Just because he knew that Zhihuang was embarrassed and had no money to spend on social engagements in the capital, he specially raised 10,000 yuan to give him... This time, Zhihuang finally gave him a favorable face. Compared to his brother, he looked better."

Speaking of this, he took out a small red seal bag from the boot page, and presented it with him through the kang table, and said with both hands: "It's the Spring Festival in a blink of an eye. There must be some expenses in the palace. Next is the birthday of the concubine, so I can't save it. Hongzhang will give Nanyang's low salary, and prepare for the reward of Beizi."

Zaiying hesitated for a moment and took the sealed bag over. Before the bag was sealed, she took out the silver notes and saw that it was 40,000 taels. "Too much, too much! Shaoquan, I feel guilty about it..."

"No!" Hongzhang put his hands out and made a deep refusal. "There is also the dividend from China Merchants Group, which is what my branch deserves."

When I was planning to organize an investment company, there were official stocks and commercial stocks, which made the means of turning public into private. The official stocks did not decrease, but the commercial stocks increased greatly, and invisibly became official stocks worthless. Li Hongzhang used the extra commercial stocks to socialize with the big boss in Beijing, called "dry stocks," with dividends but no capital. Zaiying also had some "dry stocks," and "dry stocks," and "dry stocks," and "dry stocks," and "dry stocks," he heard Li Hongzhang's statement, so there was no need to refuse.

The topic has come to an end for the time being, Zaiying kept the meal as usual, and Li Hongzhang was also trying to say something to the master, but he did not refuse at the moment, and joined the guest and the guest.

Although Zaiying has a shallow drink, there is a lot of wine in the mansion, and many of them are foreign wine. This is because he has worked in the General Administration for many years and has had experience studying in the United States. He can speak very fluent English and has had many exchanges with the ambassadors in Beijing. This kind of thing is naturally inevitable. However, although he and Li Hongzhang reached a consensus, the time was still short. If he didn't know what the other party's food tasted, he still asked his servants to take the white wine to enjoy the guests. "Shaoquan, I know you have a lot of it, and you don't have to act like a pretentious attitude, even if you are happy."

"Yes." Li Hongzhang respectfully poured a cup for Zaiying, then filled it with him, and drank it. "It's better to make a living from this."

Zaiying laughed at it! "Well, what he said is that Shaoquan is really worthy of being a master of Zeng Wenzheng, and his words are extraordinary!"

When Li Hongzhang heard his teacher talk about him, he stood up respectfully, stood up with his hands, and then sat down, and said a few politely. "Mr. Beizi, look... the emperor's answer for Hongzhang this time was dissatisfied, and Long Yan was furious. How long should he wait?"

"I'm about to tell you about this." Zai Ying said, "If you talk about the favor before the emperor, Su Shun is the only one..."

"Mr. Beizi, don't you know?"

Zaiying was stunned, "What do you know?"

Li Hongzhang sighed and told him that he had gone to Sushun's mansion to ask for help but declined. Zaiying's face turned cold, "He...will not agree?"

"Hongzhang thought that the older Mr. Ting became, his spirit became more and more dissatisfied..."

Zaiying was silent for a while and suddenly laughed, "Forget it. It's going to rain, and I have to let him go if I want to get married."

Li Hongzhang laughed a few times, but from the small movements raised upwards of Zai Ying's eyebrows, it can be seen that Yu Sushun was obviously angry when he was silent on this matter!

On December 10, the Japanese finally arrived in Beijing. The envoy was Hirofumi Ito, and the deputy envoys included Shigeon Okuma, Hiroshi Iwakura, etc. The peace talks this time were extraordinary. Not only was the war becoming increasingly unfavorable to Japan. The northern army, who was newly commanded by Yishan, passed through the province and successively captured Yamagata's capital Yamagata's capital, and then continued to attack Yamagata's capital, and then stopped.

The strategic location of Fukushima Prefecture is very important. Although it is still far from Tokyo by land, Aoma, Harama, Naruto, Tomooka, Hirooka, and even Iwaki in the prefecture are all good harbors. Once the Qing navy makes a breakthrough from here and goes south along the sea, Chiba Prefecture along the way has no danger to defend at all. Once this reaches the point, Tokyo, Japan, will be in danger.

Therefore, even though the emperor knew that this peace talk was an act of a Chinese man with bad intentions, he had to endure the pain and bite it. However, before Hirofumi Ito set off, at the Japanese imperial meeting, the monarch and ministers also discussed various countermeasures. Everyone proposed three top, middle and lower strategies, which was to naturally require the Chinese to withdraw their troops and return to their pre-war state. This was not easy to do, but judging the temperament of Emperor Xianfeng, as long as he was willing to pay for the money as compensation, he might not be able to do it.

The Chinese strategy is to mediate and persuasion from Western countries. What is more important is to bargain with the Chinese in the subsequent negotiations to achieve the purpose of stopping the Chinese troops in the existing areas and finally completing the best strategy and retreating one by one. The final strategy is the worst, that is, the negotiations will eventually break down, and the war between the two sides will start again after a few months of rest and recuperate. With these few months of buffering, the country should be able to urgently form a brand new division unit, and it may not be without the capital to compete with the Chinese on the battlefield.

As for the compensation for war money, the Japanese Emperor thought about it for a long time. Due to the influence of the war, all industries in China have declined and prices have soared. I think the Chinese will never like it. Instead of doing this, it is better to do the opposite and "find the Chinese people to compensate!"

"Eh?" Hirobuki Ito was stunned. He almost laughed out loud. In this case, he had to turn around and ask the Chinese for money? "Your Majesty, are you saying that you want compensation for them?"

"Don't you think this is right?" said Shige Nobuo Okuma, who replaced Emperor Meiji, "We have thirty-four warships in Japan, or were sunk and injured by China, and the imperial naval soldiers were killed or killed more than 50,000. The lives of so many imperial sons and His Majesty's hard work in the governance for more than ten years have been ruined by the vast blue waves. Shouldn't we ask the Chinese for some compensation?"

Hirofumi Ito disagreed with it. The winner wrote history. Now the two routes in the north and south are besieged by the Qing army at the same time, and there is no power to fight back. Although the troops of Nobumoto and Takayuki Shinyuki still insist on the line between Kobe Castle and Fukuchiyama, everyone knows that their failure is only a matter of time. Once they fail, even if the four teams of the six towns formed from Meiji starting from the 21st year will be reimbursed, the remaining two troops will still have to defend Tokyo. The defense emperor will rely on two regular full-time divisions, which will never be mobilized.

"In this case, what stupid things should I say?" Hirofumi Ito angrily rebuked, supported his hands and turned his body to face the emperor. "Your Majesty, it is for Okuma Shigetsunobu, Saigo Takahiro, and others to have the disaster today! Please give me a clear look."

Iwakura Koshita also questioned Okuma Shigeon, "Sir, have you forgotten? When I was in Osaka, it was because of your poor control that Saigo Takamoto went to sea without his order. Shouldn't you be responsible for this?"

Okuma Shigenobu knew that he was a minister of Taoism, equivalent to the Minister of Revenue of the Qing Dynasty. He was in charge of a country's finances after seven or eight months of naval and land wars. The country's finances have reached the brink of understanding. Not to mention anything else, even if he, Hiromoto Ito and others can't get the silver for the salary. Unfortunately, the Emperor had to borrow money from Western countries to maintain military strength. But when the naval battle was just over, it was fine. When the Qing army landed and conquered the Japanese local battle.

As if it were broken, countries have also seen the power of the Chinese military front. They knew that if this continues, it will take less than a long time to completely capture the money that Japan has borrowed at this moment, which is completely equivalent to throwing it into the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, not only did they fail to raise funds, but there were more people who asked to return the money they borrowed in the early stage as soon as possible. Fortunately, there was a contract between the two companies, and Shigeshino Okuma could delay the repayment period stipulated in the contract before it came. However, if you want to borrow money, you can't borrow it.

If you want to pay compensation to China again in this case, don’t say that you don’t have money, even if you have money, you can’t stop the Chinese people from speaking out. Therefore, you came up with such a way to retreat to advance. He knew that the Chinese would not agree, but he didn’t want to start the negotiations before he started the negotiations. When he was discussing in front of the imperial court, he refuted them for his colleagues.

"Okay." Emperor Meiji waved his hand and stopped the ministers' quarrel. "Don't mention the matter of Takamoto Saigo!" He said, "As for negotiations with China, I think it is necessary to ask Western countries to mediate on the one hand; on the other hand, it proposes military compensation measures with the Chinese. Even if they do not agree, they should delay the time as much as possible, and strive to delay the longer the better!"

Ito Hiromoto and his group entered Beijing to take the Miles of the United States, a 3,700-ton merchant ship. Ito Hiromoto was very sad! At that time, he also visited China. At that time, he was still on the tourist ship. The tonnage of the ship was not as good as the Miles, but it belonged to his own country. Now, ships with a tonnage of more than four digits were requisitioned by the state and participated in the naval battle against China. The final result was that they were captured without exception or sank to the bottom of the sea. The dignified Japanese Empire could not even find a decent merchant ship!

This merchant ship was manufactured by the American Stanley Shipping Company. The company has a very close cooperative relationship with various shipyards in Japan. But when he thought of this, Hirobuki Ito suddenly flashed a trace of suspicion in his heart: at the time of Chuchu, he received a letter from the British ambassador to Japan, which was entrusted by the Chinese, asking the Japanese government to send people to Beijing, China to participate in peace negotiations.

I remember that I received an order from the Emperor to ask Britain and the United States for this matter, hoping that they would mediate from it. Once the war ends, Japan will report it again. One of the very important funds is to reduce the tax on goods in port cities such as Yokosuka, Kobe, Osaka, Nagasaki from north to south, and the tax on goods of the two countries by two thirds!

Although this was a poison to quench thirst and was severely opposed by Shigetsu Okuma, he was forced to pass it with the support of the Emperor. However, what happened next made him feel a little abnormal: the ministers of Britain and the United States never refused to express their opinions on the conditions he proposed, but said that they would wait for domestic government orders - this is naturally a matter of course. However, Hirofumi Ito has been through the officialdom for a long time and felt that there was something unknown to him! It was not mentioned on the side, but after the conditions proposed by the two countries were approved by the Government Affairs Department, they did not seem to be happy; and for Japan's request, in the event of no choice, the request of the two countries to send warships to the port in addition to public opinion interference is even more unspeakable.

Hirofumi Ito didn't think that these two countries who were always friendly would reach any agreement with China in secret. After all, the date was urgent and the official business was too complicated, so he didn't have much time to consider it, so he hurriedly boarded the ship and came to the west.

Disembarkation in Tianjin, the governor of Zhili Liu Kun sent Tianjin governor Gao Xinxie to the port to greet him. One side bowed and the other side bowed, but there was not much polite words to say, and arranged for the Japanese to board the bus and go straight to Beijing.

It was already the afternoon of December 10th. The reception of China was polite. As the head of the General Administration Office, Shi Yan, was responsible for the Japanese Assistant Office of the General Administration Office, arranged the group in the office. He gave a few words and told Hirofumi Ito and others that at the Si hour of December 11th, a negotiation meeting attended by China, Japan, Britain and the United States was officially launched in the General Administration Office. He immediately said goodbye and went to the palace to report his life.

I was speechless all night. Just after the next morning, the sedan chairs and horses were everywhere, and the general office was never so lively.

Yi arrived early, and he presided over the meeting that he discussed with the ministers and officers of the General Administration Office such as Wang Shiduo, Yi, Yung Wing, Zhiyan, etc.; as well as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue Lishan, the Minister of Justice Shaoqi, the Minister of Justice Shaoyi, the Right Minister of Works Xu Yongyi, the Right Minister of War Liao Shouheng, the Minister of Shuntian Prefecture Shen Bingcheng, and the Cabinet Scholar Xu Chang. There was also an Prime Minister who was the Minister of the Honglu Temple, who was sent to Yunnan and Guangxi to investigate the border between China and Vietnam. The imperial edict came early this morning, and #Zang Chengxiu was deliberately not to attend.

When I arrived at the Zongli Yamen, I had breakfast first, and then had a tea after dinner, and then chatted. Everyone knew that this meeting could not be completed in three or two days. It was not a few days before the annual jail period. Even Lian Yi was a little absent-minded, but it was not for this, but for the emperor's words: he would attend the meeting in person!

The emperor's temper was so familiar. He used Gan Ziyi as a pseudonym to participate in the negotiations with Japan, causing great trouble. This time he actually wanted to come again? He had to do evil in the two countries. Once Japan came to make a ill-behavior act, he would never agree to it even if Japan turned Japan into a sea of ​​corpse and blood, and it would be difficult to save it.

The emperor disagreed, "I don't go every day, and I occasionally walk on it. The Japanese don't know when I will go. There is no need to mention that before each meeting, the participants on both sides must conduct strict searches - do you just need to check when you think I will go?"


Chapter completed!