Lin Youde looked out the window at the lush green winter scenery, and felt very painful in his heart. Don't get me wrong, this pain in his balls did not come from the winter scenery.
"What does that old witch mean by this move?" Nie Xueqiu stared at the message on Lin Youde's desk and muttered with a puzzled look on his face, "You even let go of the fact that I led the Shenji Camp to rebel, and you want to give me Shenji
The title of Grand Governor?"
Early this morning, Li Hongzhang of the Guangdong government conveyed the confidential message from Beijing to the Linji District General Hall in Guangzhou. The Guangzhou General Hall did not dare to neglect and immediately sent an urgent telegram back to the Helang Yabo base camp.
The content of the message is as follows:
First, Beijing implores Lin Youde to serve as Minister of the Navy in the future constitutional cabinet, with full authority to oversee the reconstruction of the Navy, the training of the Marine Corps, and related matters.
2. If Article 1 is agreed to, Beijing agrees that after Li Hongzhang becomes the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, Lin Youde will act as the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi as the Minister of the Navy.
3. On the basis of agreeing to the above two items, Beijing will pardon Nie Xueqiu and all the goddesses below, and give them the establishment designation of the Qing Empire Navy's Shenji General Camp. Nie Xueqiu will be appointed as the Commander-in-Chief, and will be awarded the rank of second-rank military officer. Each year in March, new
After the goddesses come of age to worship heaven, the Navy's headquarters can select 20% of the total number of adult goddesses that year as additional troops.
Fourth, if Lin Youde agrees to the above, he must ensure that the silver donated by Lin Ji to Yuan Shikai for military training every year will be handed over to the national treasury, and the national treasury will allocate it on his behalf. Lin Ji will also be responsible for the remaining naval power of the Qing Empire and the operation of the Beiyang Naval Academy.
The expenses are also turned over to the national treasury and allocated by the treasury on its behalf. Now that there is banditry in Shandong, Lin Youde should send his elite soldiers to help suppress them by sea.
The conditions offered by Beijing were far beyond Lin Youde's expectations. Lin Youde knew that the Manchu bureaucrats headed by the Empress Dowager Cixi would find ways to check and balance Yuan Shikai, but he did not expect that they would target him, who was also a Han and was far away in Southeast Asia.
But this is not unacceptable. Anyway, Cixi needs someone to restrict Yuan Shikai, and wooing Lin Youde can indeed restrict Yuan Shikai to a certain extent.
The problem is that since Cixi is trying to win over Lin Youde, the terms she offers are a bit unattractive. For example, for the Minister of the Navy, the Qing Dynasty no longer has a navy, and the rest can be regarded as a Jiang defense fleet; and the governors of Guangdong and Guangxi also
It's also meaningless, because sooner or later Guangdong and Guangxi will be Lin Youde's world. As for pardoning Nie Xueqiu, it's not worth mentioning. Looking at the list of conditions, it is more attractive to go to Beijing every year to select Shen Ji to replenish his own troops.
But the problem is that there is no accurate estimate of how long it will take to establish the cabinet. What if they delay it until April 1901 and do some tricks to make some potential goddesses come of age early...
You said that Cixi wanted to give Lin Youde the title of Minister of Finance, then Lin Youde would definitely go ahead with it - if he were to be the Minister of Finance, then the whole of China would have to use Nanyang tickets, and Nanyang Bank would naturally become
It became a national bank.
It's good now. It would be meaningless for Lin Youde to accept the conditions offered by Cixi, and he might suffer some moral losses during the Northern Expedition. If he doesn't accept it, Lin Ji's rural foundation in places other than Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian has not yet been fully established.
In areas such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, rural areas are generally relatively affluent, so it is difficult for Lin Ji to expand, and the power of non-governmental organizations such as the local Youth Gang is very large, which will be difficult to shake for a while. Therefore, Lin Ji's power in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is mainly reflected in business and strongholds.
They are all located in cities, and there is no way to create a situation like Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian where rural areas surround cities.
The focus of Lin Ji's rural work at this stage is relatively poor provinces such as Jiangxi and Guizhou. In Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Lin Ji is just a relatively strong business force...
In Shanghai, the local wealthy gentry have long disliked Lin Ji, but they couldn't compete with normal business competition, so they had no choice but to play dirty. The head of Lin Ji's Shanghai area headquarters has been assassinated twice, and a cripple died.
Now he has been replaced by the third term. If the United States had not stationed a Marine Corps in the Shanghai Concession and a gunboat was placed near the dock rented by Lin Ji on the Huangpu River, maybe Lin Ji’s regional headquarters would have
It has been destroyed by local thugs.
It is conceivable that as long as Lin Youde refused Cixi's conditions, she would have encouraged the powerful people in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places to deal with Lin Ji. Lin Ji's business interests on the Yangtze River would surely suffer huge losses.
Lin Youde turned his back to his staff and looked out the window, lost in thought.
At this time, the secret door in the study was opened from the other side, and Josephine Joffre stretched out and walked out of the secret door. Josephine was wearing a French officer's uniform, with a decorative tassel hanging around her waist.
Wearing a sword makes her look heroic. However, because she is no longer an officer in the French army at this time, the military insignia, rank and other things on her uniform have been removed.
Lin Youde turned his head, and when he met his fiancée's eyes, he opened his mouth and asked, "What was the result of the war game?"
"Your staff officers still need to continue to work hard." Josephine commented lightly. She glanced at the people gathered in the study, with a slight confusion on her face, "What's wrong? Did something important happen?
?”
Lin Youde nodded to Du Qifeng, so Du Qifeng handed the copy of the telegram to Josephine.
"Lin, I can't read Chinese characters." Josephine took the manuscript and faced Lin Youde with a smile that was mixed with self-deprecation and helplessness. "These square-shaped characters are the most difficult characters I have ever seen.
It’s almost as difficult to understand as Egyptian cuneiform.”
Two months ago, Josephine made up her mind to learn Chinese and Chinese characters, but the results were unsatisfactory. Although the girl put in a lot of efforts, her progress was still slow.
So Nie Xueqiu volunteered to explain this to her sister-in-law.
After understanding the whole story, Josephine thought about it for a while and expressed her opinion: "Our goal is to overthrow the imperial court in Beijing? If you become the Minister of the Navy and take the fleet in your hands, wouldn't the entire coastline be yours?"
Is that so? Rather than traveling thousands of miles across the mainland and overcoming numerous obstacles on the road, wouldn’t it be faster to directly use the navy to transport troops to land at Dagukou, and then capture Beijing?”
Lin Youde shook his head helplessly. As early as when he first met this girl in Hong Kong, he noticed that Josephine, a citizen of a country with a relatively homogeneous ethnic composition and a relatively small land area, had some cognitions in some aspects.
Misunderstanding.
"Dear Josephine," Lin Youde said to his fiancée, "even if we occupy Beijing, we still have to use the army to bulldoze the local powerful ones one by one in order to de facto unify the country."
"Can't we use some more peaceful means?"
"Yes, but you have to annihilate their army first."
Josephine frowned, as if Lin Youde had not succeeded in convincing her, but in the end she shrugged and smiled at her fiancé. This was not the right time to argue about such an issue, and it seemed that the girl had made such a judgment.
At this time Du Qifeng spoke: "I think it is better to accept this condition. With the title of Lord of the Navy, we can legitimately purchase warships from the great powers, and we can also keep the remaining naval schools in our hands, and even relocate them
Coming to Horanggabo will be of great help to us in building a navy. In addition, although we actually control Guangdong and Guangxi, having the title of governor is still profitable. In comparison, what we pay is insignificant.
, except for sending troops to directly participate in the war, other requirements are easy to handle.”….
"Actually, I think there should be no problem in sending troops to participate in the war," Ba Jian, who had been standing next to Lin Youde, said, "There is no stipulation on how many troops we should send. Sending a small number of troops to participate in the war does not have to worry about too much losses, and it can also make the troops more capable.
Accumulate practical experience.”
This is true, Lin Youde thought, it would be a good idea to send troops in batches to Shandong to gain experience. Whether the troops have actual combat experience has a great impact on combat effectiveness, especially for the officers, it is necessary to see the world.
Lin Youde thought so and glanced at He Yuzhao and Chen Hongda, who had just followed Josephine into the house in disgrace.
"As long as we are not allowed to change into the uniforms of the Qing army and fly the Yellow Dragon flag," Chen Hongda said, meeting Lin Youde's gaze, "I will support accepting the Tatars' conditions."
He Yuzhao didn't speak, just nodded.
Nie Xueqiu, on the other hand, had a "brother, you decide" expression. She was the most relaxed and indifferent person in the room.
Seeing that his staff had unified opinions, Lin Youde should have made a decision immediately, but he hesitated.
He remembered the appearance of Sun Wen he had seen a few years ago.
Even if they are now being exploited by the Japanese, and even if there are a large number of speculators and careerists in the team, among Sun Wen's revolutionaries, there are still passionate young people who really want to save China and revitalize China? Not to mention those who are encouraged,
I believe that I am a common people fighting for the rise of China.
Do your own troops really want to open fire on these people?
Just when Lin Youde was distressed, Ba stretched out his hand and gently pressed Lin Youde's back: "We can transport the army to Dagu and help Yuan Shikai's army defend the rear."
Lin Youde was silent for a while before taking a deep breath.
"Yes, that's all we can do." After saying that, he turned to look at Ba, and thanked the considerate girl softly, "Thank you, Ba."
"This is my duty."
Nie Xueqiu made a very deliberate coughing sound, which attracted Lin Youde's attention, and she nuzzled at Josephine.
When Lin Youde looked at his fiancée, he found that she was indeed a little unnatural and deliberately looked away.
Lin Youde began to feel overwhelmed. Is it really impossible to rely on the girl's own upbringing and reserve to fight against jealousy and maintain harmony in the harem?
Moreover, why do I have to worry about the harmony of the harem when discussing military and national affairs? Damn it!