Senior Brother Comments on "Towards the Republic" | Lecture 14 Kang Youwei takes advantage of the situation to write a letter (5)

At this time, Li Hongzhang has a very lovely person next to him. This person is the largest businessman in the Republic of China, far surpassing Hu Xueyan 's Sheng Xuanhuai . Sheng Xuanhuai wanted to solve Li Hongzhang: "Zhongtang, didn't you say that you judge talents for the country, and take the bigger ones? Should you use his strengths? Yuan Gongbao This guy also has strengths." Li Hongzhang was annoyed by him, so he didn't Angry and smiled and said that you also get out of my way. There are two problems to be solved here. The first problem is to pay 20,000 taels. The Beiyang Navy has no 600,000 taels. Now it needs 20,000 taels. Therefore, Weng Tong and , who read dead books, say that the old way of saving money is the old way, and then maybe the common people will bear a little bit, which is called increasing taxes. But Guangxu was reluctant, because he was the emperor, and he was afraid that the people under him would say harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes. At this time, new people came in, like Xu Tong said open source, that was Li Hongzhang's method of Beiyang . If you want to open source, you have to fill the vacancy, which means that Li Hongzhang's Zhili Governor Beiyang Minister's vacancy should be taken by him.

When they were talking, Cixi came and didn't speak. Say you keep talking, you keep talking, I'll change place, I'll just sit and listen. Guangxu said to him: "My father sits on it, but my son doesn't dare to sit on it, it's not suitable to sit on it." At this time, they talked about paying 200 million taels, and inadvertently, the topic has changed. Before Cixi came, they thought, how to divide Li Hongzhang's official, Cixi never dared to say this in front of Cixi. Then we talked about losing money, we made jokes, and we were the first to add customs duties. Mr. Lu Xun once told a joke, Russia and Japan went to war. The place of war was in China. They caught spies and killed the Chinese. When they killed the Chinese, they all looked at the Chinese who laughed, applauded and cheered. The second one, in the Qing Empire, is the most important tax and the largest tax. The British are responsible for the customs duties, and the Chinese are responsible for tax collection. The British also handle it better than the Chinese. This person has taken care of our Chinese customs for decades and is called Hurd .

So we need to add customs duties, Hurd disagrees, and now the only way is to borrow taxes and borrow foreign debts. To borrow foreign debts, we can only use customs duties as collateral. At this time, all kinds of extortionate and miscellaneous taxes are not enough. Weng Tonghe stood there and suddenly fainted. Because of his lack of ability, his blood pressure went up, so he came to the conclusion that foreign debts still have to be borrowed, not Injure the national body, do not give up sovereignty, this is the saying of Guangxu. On this side, when Cixi reached another consensus, if there is no suitable candidate, the vacancy of Beiyang Zhili will be temporarily vacant, and Xu Tong on the other side is unwilling, Xu Tong said: "To be honest, it is not easy to do anything. It is even more difficult to rebuild the Beiyang Navy." However, we still have to do things, and there is nothing impossible in the world. Translated into the words from ordinary to extraordinary: 100 points for belief, 0 points for method.

Xu Tong even managed to study the military book every night when he was almost 60 years old and wanted to wash away his national humiliation. At this time, Weng Tonghe was smarter. Weng Tonghe said: "Our coastal defense is mainly to defend against Japan. This is the Beiyang Navy. What we need to guard against this five thousand years in the north has always been a serious problem for our confidants, and it has really cut our China from a leaf into a chicken." Therefore, it is impossible to build the Beiyang Navy at this time. The current method is to be an army, because The army is cheaper than the navy, and Weng Tonghe is also very powerful, saying that the original Huai Army old department should be integrated. At this time, it can be done. The first is to seize Li Hongzhang's military power, and the second is to establish a new army. Therefore, Cixi said: "The fact of training troops is too important." Consider, but more importantly, who will be the commander of this new army, this is very important.

The two ministers of in the Shang study, and the two from in the military aircraft office of , one is called Xu Tong, the other is called Weng Tonghe, both of them are thinking, who will come to the governor of Zhili, the minister of Beiyang, and they are all jumping in front of Guangxu Go, but Cixi knew that he had already identified that person, called Ronglu . In the next lecture, when we really see Rong Lu meeting Li Hongzhang, you will find out what is really called a big pattern. Does the Qing government have the energy to rebuild a new army? If a new type of army is established, who will be the commander who holds military power? Why is the person Guangxu hates the most in his life not Cixi?Is it Yuan Shikai ? What kind of story happened in the middle, and what can we learn? Everyone, let us look forward to the next lecture with questions.