"Ruan Butang is so polite. A villain runs a business and always pays attention to integrity. He will never ask for excessive prices. I don't want those retail merchants to bully the people of Guangzhou like this. Please accept this kitten." Wu Bingjian also said:

Ruan Yuan laughed.

"Yes, Mr. Wu, you said that I am the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and you are also the general merchant of the Thirteenth Bank. The two of us are bargaining for a kitten. This has been heard by outsiders. How can we laugh at you and me for being stingy?" But he didn't want to.

Ruan Yuan just agreed to accept the kitten, then he changed the topic and asked Wu Bingjian: "But... haha, my boss is too strict. There is an important matter, which happens to be related to the general manager. You

It is said that I am a bit rigid on weekdays. I don’t have to accept gifts from others, but it has made the general merchant dare not enter the door of my Guangdong and Guangxi Department for nearly half a year. It is my fault. Mr. Wu, Nanhai and Shunde

At the junction of counties, I heard that there is a piece of fertile land with thousands of hectares. The people there call that land... Sangyuanwei, Wu Zongshang, most of the landowners over there are named Wu and Lu, so

It seems that they are distant relatives of the general merchant, right?"

"This... the fields around Sangyuanwei are indeed mostly owned by villains of the same clan. As for the Lu family mentioned by the Ministry, it is Guangli Bank among the Thirteen Banks, and the family property is also in Shunde and Xiangshan. Of course,

There are also a lot of civilian fields there, which are cultivated by the people themselves." Wu Bingjian suddenly heard Ruan Yuan ask about the Shunde fields in Nanhai, and was secretly surprised. He thought that Ruan Yuan also used many methods to understand his family business. But even so, Ruan Yuanzhi

There is nothing inappropriate in asking, and I will answer truthfully.

"Really? Then please ask General Shang Wu to help me with this matter and discuss it with me." Ruan Yuan continued: "A few days ago, I asked about people's livelihood conditions in various prefectures and counties in Guangzhou, and about floods and droughts.

The magistrates of Nanhai and Shunde all said that the area surrounded by the Mulberry Garden was surrounded by the Xijiang River and the Beijiang River, and there were frequent heavy rains every summer. In the early years of Qianlong's reign, some stone embankments were built there, but the old stone embankments were not high enough.

, is no longer enough for today's use. So I also recently had an idea, which is to plan the area surrounding the mulberry garden for a hundred miles and build new embankments. Among them, all the embankments at key points will be rebuilt. In this way, a lot of work will be needed before and after.

The imperial court will naturally have to bear 60 to 70% of the expenses, but the remaining part... I am not very familiar with Guangli Bank, and I asked Mr. Wu for help. If the Thirteen Banks can help in this matter, then

Naturally, you will get twice the result with half the effort.”

Ruan Yuan said it politely, but Wu Bingjian was secretly shocked when he listened to Ruan Yuan's words. It seemed that Ruan Yuan not only knew a lot about his situation, but also proposed the construction of a stone embankment around the mulberry garden at this time, which was related to his own land and contact.

There are hundreds of thousands of people living at the junction of the two counties, and he has no reason to refuse. And he has always known that once embankments need to be built in Sangyuanwei, the project will never be small. He and the Lu family can pay for it, but there is no government to coordinate the process.

I definitely can't do it by myself. Once the stone embankment is built in Sangyuanwei, the people will benefit from the increase in production and their own farmland will be guaranteed. It is of course a beneficial thing. Compared with the benefit of avoiding floods in thousands of hectares of fertile land, I can't do it myself.

A small detail like gifting a cat is insignificant.

Thinking of this, Wu Bingjian also knew that he had no choice, so he had to smile to Ruan Yuan and said: "Thank you Ruan Butang for your help. I am very grateful to you for thinking about the property of the little people and protecting the mulberry garden and surrounding it."

In this matter of donating money, I should try my best to help you, and I will never neglect you in the slightest."

"Okay, if this matter can be approved by the emperor, you and the Lu family will have to work hard to supervise and handle the matter later." Ruan Yuan added: "Building a dike around the mulberry garden is not just a matter for your two families, then

There are so many people's livelihoods nearby, so we can't neglect it. So this time I thought, we won't use subordinate staff for supervision, only local gentlemen. After that, every other month, the magistrates of Nanhai and Shunde counties will

We will go there in person and supervise the construction of the embankment together with you, so that all our money can be used on the embankment without the risk of corruption by subordinate officials. What does General Shang Wu think?"

"The department handles things steadily, and I admire him very much." Wu Bingjian also praised Ruan Yuan.

"Haha, since you can contribute money to repair the stone embankment, I'm relieved. I'll keep the cat today." Ruan Yuan was also very satisfied with the result, and called Yang Ji over and took the cat cage inside.

But after Ruan Yuan dismissed the outsiders, he asked Wu Bingjian: "General Shang Wu, since you are a third-grade top official, you can be considered as half an official. Just as it happens, I have a problem here, which I don't understand. This is

I wrote a memorial to the emperor a few months ago. Please read it for me. I mentioned three strategies to control foreign countries. The emperor thought that stopping trade and cutting off compradors could be implemented. However, this was the only one to launch an artillery attack, but he gave the instruction: "No need to do so."

With this in mind, if we follow this kind of approval to deal with coastal defense matters, I'm worried that I will be controlled by foreigners in the future. But I don't know if there are any inappropriate words in this memorial of mine?" As he said this, he took a copy from the documents in the hall.

The memorial came over and motioned to Wu Bingjian to read it together.

Wu Bingjian listened to Ruan Yuan's words completely out of sincerity and did not dare to neglect, so he took Ruan Yuan's copy of the memorial, looked down and said: "The British are strong and unruly, and are greedy for profit. It seems that they should use more power to suppress them.

, It is not easy to be virtuous, otherwise what you want may come true, your hopes will become more extravagant, and your greed will never be enough... The other country's trick is to rely on the strength of the boat and the power of the artillery. Once ashore, there will be no fists and no courage, or

It is specious to say that attacking may cause trouble... Ruan Butang, who told Yuan Butang that Yingji "has no fists and no courage once he lands on the beach"? "

"Well, when I went to Macau before, I also asked the Atlantic leaders in Macau about the British. Is this what they told me?" Ruan Yuan replied.

"Ruan Butang, I think what the Atlantic people said may not be the truth?" Wu Bingjian also knew a little bit about the Anglo-French war, so he explained to Ruan Yuan: "The Atlantic people have always been coerced by the British, so

In urgent need of someone who can help them, the Ministry of Defense strengthened coastal defense as soon as they took office. The Atlanticers will naturally think that the Ministry of Defense can help them. Therefore, in order to let the Ministry of Defense strengthen their defense against England, they will only exaggerate the truth. As long as they can

Gengbu Tang believes that the English also have weaknesses, so this matter is twice the result with half the effort. But as far as the villain knows, the English infantry is indeed not as powerful as its naval ship artillery, but it is not weak at all? The villain has heard before that the Western

France is also a powerful country in Europe. Their infantry has only a 60% chance of winning against the English infantry, and they have even lost to the English infantry. In this way, the English's ability in land warfare is indeed not as good as water warfare, but the Ministry also

Can’t we underestimate them?”

"Really? The British land war..." Ruan Yuan pondered for a while and seemed to have already made a plan for the next step. It seemed that even if he continued to say that the British land war was not as good as the naval war, he could never underestimate the enemy. He said to Wu Bingjian: "

In this case, I would like to thank Mr. Wu today. I was not thinking carefully before, and I looked down upon the foreigners. But even so, I must ask the emperor to give a clear indication as to when the bombardment can be carried out. If it happens no matter what,

If we can't bombard, doesn't that mean we don't have enough ways to restrain the foreigners? I'm just worried that if this continues, the coastal defense of Guangdong and Guangxi will become even more difficult."

"The minister is polite. It is the duty of a villain to serve the minister and the court. Since the minister is willing to listen to the villain, then the villain can't thank the minister anymore." After saying that, Wu Bingjian also said it again.

He bowed to Ruan Yuan, said goodbye and left. But when he left the Guangdong and Guangxi Ministries, he couldn't help but have a doubt in his heart:

For the Qing Dynasty and the people of Guangdong and Guangxi, Ruan Yuan was naturally a trustworthy governor-general and important minister.

But what about myself? At least I don’t want to become a rival with Ruan Yuan one day...

A few days later, Ruan Yuan's second memorial was sent from Guangzhou and headed for Xing Zai. At this time, Jiaqing's car arrived in the west of Shengjing City, preparing to enter the city. On this day, Jiaqing had issued an edict asking officials to clean up Shengjing.

After taking the road outside the capital city, the driver could enter Shengjing. However, the driver only went forward for a few miles before stopping, and could not move forward for an entire hour.

"What happened ahead? Why are the officials and people here so lazy? How long will it take to clean the road?" Jiaqing waited for an hour in the chariot. At this time, he could no longer hold back.

Stepping out of the chariot, I wanted to take a closer look.

"Your Majesty, we will be able to move forward in half an hour." Seeing Jiaqing's anger, Cao Jinxi immediately stepped forward to persuade him: "Your Majesty, it just rained in Shengjing a few days ago. The road is very muddy, so the road below is very muddy.

The officials and the people have spent a lot of time, why don't you ask the emperor not to be angry?"

"You've spent a lot of time, but you still want me not to be angry?" I didn't expect Jiaqing to be even more angry when he heard Cao Jinxi's words, and scolded Cao Jinxi: "Why did these people who follow the rules and regulations come to clean up the royal road until today? They usually

What have you been doing? If they could clean up the mud here seriously on weekdays, why would they have to wait another half an hour? These bastards, I..."

After saying that, Jiaqing walked forward in person, wanting to see what the condition of the road in front of him was like, but he didn't expect that the land here was soft and slippery, making it difficult to gain a foothold. He slipped in the mud as soon as he took two steps.

, unexpectedly fell into the muddy road with a "bang"!

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty! Are you okay? This slave deserves to die, this slave deserves to die!" Cao Jinxi saw Jiaqing suddenly slipping to the ground, and was immediately frightened out of his wits. He quickly stepped forward to support Jiaqing, and said loyally to Jiaqing: "Slave, I will go to Yan'an immediately.

I scold the officials below. The officials here are so stupid that they caused the emperor to fall down. They... they all deserve to be executed!"

"That's all, let's wait..." After Jiaqing fell to the ground, he finally understood that the land here was really muddy and difficult to walk on. Although the officials in Shengjing were not paying attention on weekdays, it was impossible to clean up all the mud at once.

He only said happily to Cao Jin: "After entering the city today, I will tell all Shengjing officials that they will all be demoted and stay in office! How can we hold on to this place of Longxing if we are so tired and lazy?"

Sure enough, it was not until half an hour later that Jiaqing and his party finally entered Shengjing.

What worried Cao Jinxi even more was that after Jiaqing fell down, his right arm was in constant pain that day. Even after nightfall, Jiaqing still had pain in his arm. Faced with the memorial that was presented that day, he was unable to write.

"Your Majesty, this... why don't you just take a rest. Your hand is injured like this, and you still have to review the memorial. This... I feel uncomfortable looking at it?" Cao Jinxi also comforted Jiaqing.

"It doesn't matter, I... I can still move my hands. It's just... I'm old after all. If I were young, how could I have fallen down and ended up like this..." Jiaqing himself knew that this day

Although I accidentally fell, there was no risk of any injuries. I was just thinking about my sixtieth birthday next year, and my arms were in constant pain. I couldn't help feeling that I was approaching old age, and I couldn't help but feel lonely.

.

"Your Majesty, General Shengjing Fu Jun's confession has arrived..." At this moment, only hurried footsteps could be heard. It was Tuojin who brought a memorial from the military aircraft check-in room and came to Jiaqing's palace. Seeing that Jiaqing could not stretch his arms.

, it seemed that he could not review the memorial for a while, Tuojin also stepped forward to ask for instructions: "Your Majesty, the Emperor is not injured, is he? Your Majesty, if the Emperor cannot review the memorial, the Emperor can just say, I am here to review the memorial for the Emperor, how about it?"

"You...what did you say?" He didn't want Jiaqing to be furious when he heard Tuojin's words, and immediately scolded Tuojin: "Tojin, you...you bastard! What happened to Zhu Pi's report?

Is this what you, a minister, can say? What do you want to do? I am not even sixty yet. You...you also want to deceive me like He Shen did twenty years ago? I tell you, my age

It's old, but I can still take action, and I'm not stupid enough to let you control me! Don't even think about Zhu's criticism! You go back and watch the night, and I'll forget about you. If you still think about criticizing me,

Zhezi, I will stop being a great bachelor like you now!"

"Your Majesty, this... this slave deserves to die, this slave deserves to die!" Seeing Jiaqing's rage, Tuojin was sweating profusely. He knelt down at the side and kowtowed to Jiaqing repeatedly before exiting the palace.

"I...what's wrong with me? What I said just now is not like me, but a bit like the Emperor Ama I saw when I was a child. This is..." However, after calming down, Jiaqing couldn't help but fell into deep thought.

.

"Your Majesty, these memorials... Why don't you, Your Majesty, review them tomorrow?" Cao Jinxi saw that Jiaqing was so angry that he didn't even dare to express his anger, so he had to plead with Jiaqing.

"That's all, I... I'll take a look first." Jiaqing still managed to open the memorial in front of him with his left hand and read the Chinese sentences in detail.

However, the severe pain in his right arm made Jiaqing unable to concentrate.

"Could it be that I also want to..."
Chapter completed!