"Cousin, this matter is too big. If our family is just under the rule of Huai Haijun and obeys the management of Huai Haijun, the imperial court will not settle the accounts with us."
"However, if I vote for the Huai Navy, if the Huai Navy loses to the imperial court in the future, then my Lu family will be liquidated!" Lu Quansun said with a frown.
For so many years, I have been working as an official abroad, always in the remote south, and my family has really given me a lot of support.
Logically speaking, it is time for me to repay my family.
But this time, the problem that the family suddenly threw to itself was too difficult to handle.
Make him unable to start!
"Erlang, the eldest brother knows that he doesn't see things as clearly as you. But the eldest brother is also working in the Huai Navy."
"Brother thinks the Huaihai Navy can succeed. Even though the imperial court still controls so many provinces."
"But the current imperial court is an empty shell. It has no money and few soldiers who can fight. Otherwise, it won't be able to deal with bandits."
"On the contrary, Huai Haijun is implementing the New Deal, with strong troops and horses. The most important thing is that Huai Haijun has money."
"Every year from trade with foreigners, so much money basically flows into the hands of Huai Haijun."
"Erlang still remembers the crisis in the capital last year and the Huai navy's march north to Zhili."
"Are those rumors true?" Lu Quansun, as the governor, naturally knew some rumors that only senior officials knew.
But before, Lu Quansun didn't really believe these rumors.
"Even if Erlang has doubts about these things, he should know about Huai Haijun's defeat of Changmao in the first battle."
"Brother, that's what I said, but my Lu family has done all this for the Huai Navy, what can our family get?"
"Erlang, what do you mean?"
"I have to meet your president." Lu Quansun naturally wanted to meet Dong Shuheng because he wanted to gain more benefits for the Lu family.
If he agreed so easily, it would appear that he was too unreserved.
As a scholar, the most favorite thing to do is to save face and suffer!
"This eldest brother can't make the decision. I have to find someone to report. I also ask Erlang to send someone to take me out of the house."
When Lu Yijian left the house, he naturally wanted to find Huai Haijun's contact person. There was no way for him to spread the news to Dong Shuheng's ears.
He didn't even know that Dong Shuheng's army was just outside the Minjiang River.
In the evening, Lu Yijian took Lu Quansun to the south pier of Fuzhou and secretly boarded a steamship flying the French flag.
The steamboat headed directly towards the mouth of the Minjiang River.
No one knew that the governor in charge of the military affairs of Fujian Province was already on the Min River at this time.
Wang Yide did not have the ability to predict the future, nor would he place spies around the governor.
Although he has outstanding abilities, he is still a traditional official.
What's more, he is still sick and bedridden.
"Hello, Mr. Lu, please sit down."
"Yuxiang, serve tea!"
Lu Quansun came all the way from the river, full of doubts in his heart.
He had been an official in Guizhou before and had no impression of Dong Shuheng who was far away in Liangjiang.
Especially since Dong Shuheng's rise was so short, he didn't have time to understand it.
The only few impressions I have are all obtained from letters home after Dong Shuheng took back Sunan.
However, most of them also introduce a series of new policies implemented by Huai Haijun in his hometown.
From this point of view, Dong Shuheng was a man who was well versed in Western affairs. He wanted to imitate the warlords of the past dynasties, and took advantage of the local chaos and the weak court to separate the local areas.
Lu Quansun felt that Dong Shuheng was playing with fire. The imperial court was not at the end of its rope.
Dong Shuheng monopolized one side and no one responded to him.
Once the imperial court finished surrendering the bandits, looking back, Dong Shuheng would become a lone soldier.
How to withstand the thunder of the imperial court?
However, he still underestimated Dong Shuheng. Although Dong Shuheng did not raise the banner, he had already begun to rebel.
Why pull the flag?
As a tycoon who takes the path of obscene development.
Dong Shuheng only believed in the soldiers in his hands and only valued the territory in his hands.
But when Lu Quansun saw the gathering of warships outside the mouth of the Minjiang River, he was dumbfounded.
Everyone has already arrived at the door of his house. As the governor of Fujian, Lu Quansun didn't know until now.
Where have all the Fujian naval forces died?
He did not want to think about whose steamboat he was on.
Can the broken ships of the Fujian Navy, which cannot even be attacked by pirates, escape the blockade of the Huai Navy?
Lu Kansun was brought to the largest warship, and then a hanging basket lifted him to the deck.
Lu Quansun has seen this kind of warship. Both Fuzhou and Xiamen have Kaifu ports. Although Lu Quansun has not been in Fujian for a long time, he has also seen this kind of huge warship.
However, those warships all belonged to foreigners. The imperial court was afraid of such warships and signed a treaty with the foreigners in Nanjing.
A young man who looked like a scholar met him on the deck.
Then he was led to a large cabin, which looked like a Chinese military tent, with various maps and sand tables displayed.
Here, he saw a younger young man who gave him a sunny smile.
The young man, like most of the people on the ship, had short hair.
Could it be that they have really rebelled?
But he sees that his cousin’s braids are still there?
People in the entire large room unconsciously stood around this person.
Although it was unbelievable, Lu Quansun knew that this was the real owner he was going to meet today - Dong Shuheng, the president of Huaihai Navy.
"Should I call you President? Or Governor?" Lu Quansun asked.
"Lord Lu, I prefer others to call me president, the president of Huaihai Navy."
"President Dong, are you rebelling?"
"We can't talk about it. We just drove away a group of people who were just eating nothing. The country is still this country, and we are still the Chinese nation."
“I don’t think much has changed!”
Lu Quansun sat on a chair at Dong Shuheng's signal. He took the tea handed over by Wei Yuxiang and gently scratched the lid of the cup with his hand.
"With a small territory in two rivers against the entire Qing Dynasty, President Dong is overconfident." Lu Quansun did not say the word conceited, which was already a huge favor to Dong Shuheng.
"A year ago, I only had Yangzhou, and half a year ago I only had Jiangsu. However, our Huaihai navy could come and go freely in Zhili. The more than 10,000 elite cavalry of Shengbao were destroyed by me in one battle."
"I moved countless treasures in the Old Summer Palace to the Yangzhou Museum for people to visit. Xianfeng did not comment!"
"A few months ago I controlled the entire two rivers and three provinces."
"Before the end of this year, I hope to integrate the five southeastern provinces."
"What do you think, Mr. Lu?" Dong Shuheng said with a smile, his tone a little sarcastic and a little arrogant.
"This..." Lu Quansun's beard trembled.
Dong Shuheng looked at Lu Quansun and wanted to laugh. Dong Shuheng had seen officials like him many times, and he wanted to obey, but he refused to let go.
Dong Shuheng also has his own way of dealing with such officials.
If you think that I only have this much strength, you are totally wrong.
Dong Shuheng got up and came to a sand table.
"Lord Lu, please move."
Lu Quansun stood up and came to Dong Shuheng's side.
This sandbox is different from others.
The Liangjiang area on the sand table is all made of red sand.
Zhejiang has mostly turned red.
Taiwan is red.
Zhangzhou Prefecture is red.
Lu Quansun shifted his perspective and saw that Hubei and Shandong were both light red.
The Taihang Mountains across the three provinces of Zhili, Henan, and Shanxi are all red.
Further up, Lu Quansun could only call out the name of Heilongjiang. There was a large area that was red, an area as large as the entire Jiangnan.
Lu Quansun looked at Dong Shuheng doubtfully.
What does he mean?
Alas! These ancient scholar-bureaucrats all lacked a geography course.
Dong Shuheng sighed in his heart.
He glanced at Lu Quansun meaningfully.
I thought: "I'm going to say it, I'm going to say it."
Lu Quansun should have understood that after hearing other people's secrets, he would either join the other party or keep the secret. In this world, even the dead may not be able to keep secrets.
Seeing that Lu Quansun had no reaction.
Dong Shuheng began to tell him Huai Haijun's "little secrets" one by one.
"...This is the Far East and the Heilongjiang River Basin. You should know that the place where Su Wu herds sheep is called Moon Lake. This is Sakhalin Island, which is about the same size as Taiwan Island."
"Some of them were ceded by the Qing government to Tsarist Russia, and some were occupied by Tsarist Russia. Do you know about Tsarist Russia?"
"...This is now all the territory of the Huaihai Navy. Do you see? Our Huaihai Navy has tens of thousands of troops there."
"We just fought a war with Tsarist Russia recently and killed 70,000 to 80,000 of them."
"It's a bit cold here, but the summer is as hot as in the south. You can grow one season of food a year, and the land is very fertile. The key is that there is plenty of land. People in Fujian are short of land. If they are willing to go, I will give them one thousand per household.
acres of land.”
"You mean Shandong?"
"This is also my people. The governor of Shandong, Gui Zhongxing, has long since joined the Huai Navy. Originally, there was only one division in Shandong with less than 10,000 men. However, the imperial court recently asked various places to establish new armies, so I built a new division there.
"
"Let's put it this way, Shandong is now also our Huaihai Navy's territory."
"Taihang Mountain? We have already laid out the plan there. There are at least tens of thousands of Huaihai troops hidden there. We have part of Baoding, which is closest to the capital, in our hands. If I want to capture the capital, it will only take a few days."
"Hubei? Zuo Zongtang is our comrade. Without our support, do you think Zuo Zongtang could establish the Hubei Army so quickly?"
"Zhejiang? Wasn't this just occupied?"
"Taiwan Prefecture is originally the naval base of our Huai Navy. As for Zhangzhou, our people already occupied it yesterday."
…
After listening to Dong Shuheng's introduction, Lu Quansun was almost shocked.
"How is it? After hearing so many secrets from Huai Haijun, Lord Lu, do you think I should be more confident?"
Only then did Lu Quansun realize that he seemed to have been on a pirate ship.
If I hadn't heard those secret words just now, I might still have a chance to get off the ship.
Do you still have a chance now?
Now you can either join the Huai Navy or get off the ship, but you must go down to the river to feed the fish.
"President Dong has far-reaching plans, and Lu admires him, but after all, the Qing court is the orthodoxy in the minds of scholars all over the world. It should not be underestimated."
"Mr. Lu, I don't say that the Qing government is a Tartar, but we are all descendants of China. Now the Qing government has given the birthplace prepared for us by the Chinese ancestors to foreigners. What do you think this is?"
"He is incapable of protecting the people of China. Our Chinese people are treated as piglets and sold as slaves to foreign countries. What does this mean?"
"Master Lu is an official in Fujian. He should know how many children from Fujian are abducted and sent to sea every year. They are tagged and are no different from animals."
"But the foreigners locked the Chinese children like animals in damp and dirty cabins. Half of them died at sea. What does this mean?"
"I, Dong Shuheng, do not want to conquer the world for myself, I just want to fight for a way for our Chinese people to survive."
"Lord Lu, come with us!" Dong Shuheng extended his hand to Lu Quansun.
Dong Shuheng's words were impassioned and affectionate.
Lu Quansun never thought that he would be moved by a young man's words.