What Governor Li likes most is doing business! Especially those businesses that can make a lot of money. No one likes that kind of business.
In fact, in the past few years, Governor Li has been doing business with Liu Kunpeng. Even the Longhai Railway uses Nanhua rails, and even the locomotives are from Nanhua. Even Nanhua only sent engineers to help them repair the railway.
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Why is this so?
At the beginning, it was indeed for the Qing Dynasty, but what about now?
Not for immigration!
With the railway, people from Henan, northern Anhui, Shaanxi, Huguang and even Sichuan can take trains to leave their hometowns. So every year, people take the train to Haizhou, and from there go to Nanhua. This is the past.
In the past two years, Nanhua's population has exploded.
Just in the first ten months of 1870, more than 600,000 people went to sea from Haeju. There is no problem in exceeding 700,000 this year.
In this process, Governor Li naturally made a lot of money, and by the way, Zeng Shashao, who was far away in Huguang, also took a sip of soup. Governor Hai, who controlled the railway and seaport, naturally had a clear advantage. According to the agreement between them,
According to the agreement, for every person shipped out, the government can get a kickback of two taels of silver.
All the money was settled in kind - Nanhua paid off with weapons and other goods. On the books, the governors still spent the money.
As for where the millions of taels of silver go every year?
No need to ask, it must have fallen into the hands of the governors.
Why did Governor Li turn a blind eye to Nan Hua in the first place? To put it bluntly, it was because his interests were too deeply entangled!
For Governor Li, this kind of production is simply a costless business, and it is even a good thing that benefits the country and the people, because there are displaced people everywhere during the war.
These refugees may become bandits like Nianzi, or they may become bandits. In short, they are unstable factors. Now sending them overseas will not only exchange money for guns and machines, but also save the person.
Isn’t this beneficial to the country and the people?
As for people, the worst thing in China is people!
For the Celestial Empire, these people are a disaster!
After all, since ancient times, if you want to quell chaos, you have to either provide relief and resettle the refugees, or kill people.
Relief?
The imperial court does not have that much money, so only by killing the refugees will the bandits lose the ground to survive and thrive.
But there is no end to the killing of the rioters. And the more they kill, the more they will be killed.
Now that it's better, if we send them overseas, not only will this disaster disappear, but they can also be exchanged for money!
To keep this business going, Governor Li even secretly made a five-year plan - striving to export 5 million "special commodities" to Nanhua, no, to Ming Dynasty in the next five years.
In exchange for guns, machines, and armored ships worth ten million taels, Nanhua's armored ships are quite good. Yes, there are also airships that can go up to the sky and into the earth. But the secret message sent by the court made
He felt that it might be difficult to continue this business.
This is business!
He was clearly doing this for the country and the country! He was doing this to protect the Qing Dynasty!
He is a loyal minister, but the court doesn't understand him at all.
"Oh? Mr. Li, please make it clear."
"Brother Xian, don't you know what those people in the capital are most worried about? Isn't it still the world? Originally, it would have been great if your emperor's national title was Nanhua, but everyone just pretended to be deaf and dumb. Now, it's okay.
It's good now. Not only did you use the name of the Ming Dynasty, but you also wrote a "Message to All Nations". That's fine. It was written on the territory of foreigners anyway. But you said that once your warships sail to Jiangning, they will directly
After offering sacrifices to Xiaoling, what else can you say..."
Li Hongzhang didn't want to say anything, so he just sighed.
"Woohoo! Foreign invasion of the country is well known in ancient times. It was built in the late Zhao and Song Dynasties and was replaced by Mongolia. It took hundreds of years for the mainland of China to sink. I, the Emperor Gao, rose up at the right time to clean up the middle land. The sun and the moon shined brightly, and the rivers and mountains were rebuilt. The great righteousness of the restoration was revealed.
"Unfortunately, the Ji family was disturbed and the country's strength was exhausted. The Manchu Qing Dynasty seized Zhongxia and complained to the fathers and brothers of our country... What they said is only the truth."
Liu Kunpeng said with a smile.
"You said, my Majesty is about to ascend the throne, and people will go to the Xiaoling Mausoleum to pay homage to Emperor Gao. Isn't that just natural?"
"Of course, of course, you can make a fortune in silence! That's all, that's all..."
Waving his hands one after another, Governor Li said.
"I will let him fool him for the time being, but you have to calm down and don't, don't ruin your lord's important affairs!"
Staring at Liu Kunpeng, Governor Li said in a deep voice.
"People are your master's plan. If your master wants to rebuild China overseas, he cannot do without people. If the imperial court strictly orders local governments to intercept the refugees, then, even if it is me..."
After a long sigh, Governor Li said.
"There's nothing you can do about that!"
What does Daming need?
You don’t need to ask, you know, it must be people. What can only a few million people accomplish? Governor Li is well versed in Western affairs. He has seen on the map how big "Da Ming" is. It is such a big place, even if there is only one
There are tens of millions of people, even though the land is vast and the people are sparsely populated.
“When you can’t do anything, you just ignore orders and refuse to obey them!”
"What!"
Liu Kunpeng's words made Governor Li open his eyes wide and look at him in astonishment.
"You, what did you say?"
"You disobey orders, Mr. Li. You have made great contributions to the Western Affairs in Xuzhou these years, but you have been restricted by all parties. Every time you do something, someone often impeaches you. You are walking on thin ice all day long. Why?
Just for the word "loyal minister"?"
Liu Kunpeng's words made Governor Li look solemn. In recent years, he had been eliminated many times in order to carry out foreign affairs. If it weren't for the fact that Changmao now occupied Liangjiang, Zhejiang and other places, I'm afraid the imperial court would have been unable to tolerate him.
"Even if you are a loyal minister and don't intend to take over the world, no matter what you say, Mr. Li, you still have no less than 400,000 troops under your command. Even if you support your troops, do your own thing, open a mansion, and wait for the opportunity, what can others do to you?"
Liu Kunpeng's words made Governor Li's heart beat with blood. In fact, he had thought about it, and even thought about being independent, but his reputation was not even as good as that of teachers in Huguang, so what capital did he have to become independent?
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But... support your troops with self-respect and wait for the opportunity.
This matter...has something going on!
Although he was very excited, Governor Li became calmer the more he listened. After all, he still understood the principle of "the mantis stalks the cicada before the oriole leaves behind". Who knows that the Ming Dynasty was not eyeing this side with covetous eyes?
"I don't know if this is what my good brother means, or..."
"Master Li,"
Liu Kunpeng lit a cigarette, looked at him and said.
"We are old friends. To tell you the truth, His Majesty's intentions are overseas. Overseas is so big. Wouldn't it be better to carve out a new world for China than to stick to the old place in the Central Plains? But this old place in the Central Plains... no matter who is in charge.
, as long as it’s not full of people!”
Staring at Governor Li and seeing the disbelief on his face, Liu Kunpeng sneered.
"Master Li, you and I have known each other for so many years, and I have never lied to you! You know, some things have passed through this village, but there is no such store!"