Chapter 86: Quan Zhong never went to court early in the morning

When she walked out of Wall Trading Co., Rong Hui breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's not bad, Brother Shao, you only spent six thousand taels at Hua'er. It turns out you lied to Xue Huan when you told him you would spend thirty thousand taels."

"How did I lie to him? If Wall helps me find qualified artillery instructors, won't he charge 5,000 taels for each of them as an introduction fee? When the instructors come, each of them will be paid 5,000 taels as a resettlement fee, plus the 2,000 taels prepaid for travel expenses, which basically comes to about 30,000 taels."

Rong Hui covered her open mouth and said, "I remember the boat ticket to America was only over 200 taels of silver. Why did I have to pay 2,000 taels?"

"They have come all the way here to join me, so they must bring their families, right? If they are a family of five, plus the food and drink for more than three months, it should be enough. Only the two thousand taels for Wall's travel expenses are too much. If I don't give him more, he won't have the motivation to run errands for me."

"Is an instructor who graduated from West Point Military Academy so valuable? Did you promise him 400 taels of salary every month?"

"It's good that they can come. This is just on par with the salaries of the senior generals of the Hunan Army. Our Huai Army can't be worse than the Hunan Army, right?"

"Wow, it's really expensive to maintain an army."

"Not only are they skilled, but they are also willing to fight for you with their lives at stake. The Hunan Army gets three to four million silver coins a year. In the future, we can only get more than them, not less."

Now they were followed by twenty more soldiers carrying rifles to prevent any further trouble. In fact, Yang Fang was suspended from his post and no one organized or encouraged the foreign rifle team, so they arrived at the port safely.

"Reporting to the commander, my mission has failed. Mr. Zheng Fuguang has passed away."

At the port, Shao Quanzhong accidentally met Wu Ci and Wu Ziyi, the people he had sent to find Zheng Fuguang, and heard some unfortunate news.

"However, I was introduced by someone and invited these three great talents in Shanghai to help Mr. Ding. It's just right for me to take the commander's boat back."

"Student Xu Shou greets His Excellency."

"I am Li Shanlan and Hua Hengfang, here to see you, sir. We are both interested in the steam engine, please allow us to participate in the research, and we can do it without any compensation."

Wow, Wu Ziyi really has a wide circle of friends. He knows everyone and works proactively without waiting or relying on others. After Zheng Fuguang passed away, he found three more for me.

Shao Quanzhong quickly helped up Li Shanlan and Hua Hengfang. The two had no official titles and pretended to kowtow. In fact, Xue Huan was very polite to these two scientists who lived in Shanghai and were familiar with foreign knowledge.

"You three are all talented people. How can you not take money if you are willing to condescend to help me?"

Shao Quanzhong pondered for a moment and said, "How about this? When I return, I will establish the Hailing Arsenal. Lord Ding will be in charge, and several experts will be in charge. We will study steam engines first, and there will be more topics in the future."

Looking back at Wu Ci, "By the way, since you're here, Ziyi, don't get on the boat yet. Change into casual clothes and go to the French Concession with Xu Xuecun to order a French-made hot air balloon from a foreign company there."

Wu Ziyi knows a lot about foreign things. "Sir, do you want to take a hot air balloon ride?"

"Why would I play with that thing? It's for artillery reconnaissance. Let's buy it and make a copy. Now that we have the Hailing Arsenal, it shouldn't be difficult to make a copy of it."

Seeing Wu Ci acted decisively and turned around to lead Xu Shou away, Shao Quanzhong was worried and warned him, "Ziyi, the French have a grudge against us, so don't mention that we are from Taizhou. Just say that Xu Xiucai was curious about Western technology and bought it to study."

It doesn’t take long to place an order. Compared to cannons, hot air balloons are not much more expensive, just a few thousand taels of silver. It will be much cheaper to make one yourself in the future.

After Wu Ci and Xu Shou returned from the French Concession, the five green-browed ships set off back to Taizhou.

When they came, the ship had 170,000 taels of silver. Shao Quanzhong spent all the money and when he returned, the money turned into 190,000 taels. Kidnapping was really a profitable business.

…………

After returning to Hailing, Shao Quanzhong insisted on going to Shaojiawei to make arrangements first.

He asked Le Sen to assist Ding Gongchen in establishing the Hailing Arsenal, and asked Tian Xing to be in charge of the overall management, and to jointly manage the military camp with Shao Hengzhong, Haiqing, Le Sen, and Wu Ziyi. If there were any important events, they could report to him, and then he returned to Shao's house in Zhonglou Lane to recuperate.

Shao Quanzhong's injury was not serious, as it was only a bone injury, but it was not light. Wenxiu moved to Shao's house and took turns with Ronghui to take care of Shao Quanzhong.

Since the seeds have been trained, training in the dike continues as usual.

However, further training of cavalry and engineering corps was halted, and military theory classes for the Boy Scouts and the Military Academy were also suspended.

Shao Quanzhong rarely had a rest. During that time, he only insisted on going to the market to supervise when the salaries were distributed, and he went to pay New Year's greetings to his adoptive father during the Spring Festival.

The two ladies went to Jingjiang to celebrate the New Year, but they did not dare to tell the old man and old lady that Shao Quanzhong was injured. They just said that he was busy with military affairs and had no time to visit his parents.

After more than two months of recuperation, Shao Quanzhong felt that he had almost recovered and was eager to go back to the barracks tomorrow.

Wen Xiu raised her eyebrows, "No! You have to listen to me. It takes a hundred days to heal a broken bone. I don't want my husband to be disabled. You can't go back until he recovers!"

Rong Hui agreed with Wen Xiu, "Brother Shao, didn't you say that there won't be any major wars in the next two years?
The training at Weizi is also normal, and they are all responsible brothers who are loyal to you, so nothing will happen. You should wait until your injury is fully healed. "

"But I'm so bored."

Shao Quanzhong looked at the two beautiful ladies and said, "How about - I have a suggestion..."

Wenxiu blushed, "Your injury hasn't healed yet..."

"The injury on my arm won't delay me..."

"Ah - no, who will serve you with Sister Hui'er? It's so embarrassing."

Rong Hui didn't mind, "Sister Xiu'er, Brother Shao was injured this time because he avenged you and made enemies with the French..."

Wenxiu was indeed very guilty, biting her lip tightly, "This is just this time, it won't happen again...Brother Shao, why did you comb my hair and change my hairstyle?"

Rong Hui is an expert and smiled slyly, "You will know in a moment."

It turns out that some things only happen zero times or countless times, and once doesn't exist...

The spring night is short and the sun rises high. From then on, Quanzhong never went to court early.

Shao Quanzhong lived a carefree life while recuperating, and by March of the eleventh year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign, his arm injury had completely healed.

"Second brother, Liao Rong has traveled from Fujian and Guangdong and has found the three children you are looking for and brought them back."

Shao Quanzhong patted his waist and said, "My injury has completely healed. I will go to work in the weir tomorrow. If I continue to recover from this injury, my waist will be broken."

The next day, Shao Quanzhong returned to the team and met the three historical celebrities he was looking for.

When he listened to Haiqing's advice, he felt a little regretful.

I think what the eunuch brother said is right. Historical celebrities should be allowed to grow up on their own before being accepted, so as to avoid being delayed by changing circumstances.

But now that things have come to this, this won’t happen again.

Fortunately, after the Chinese New Year, the three children are now thirteen years old, eleven years old, and the youngest is ten years old. At this age, they can almost act independently, so there won’t be any big problems.

"Report! Lord Qiao has given orders. He has now been given another responsibility by the court, and is in charge of the Jiangnan grain station. He wants to allocate a batch of grain and grass to Zhenjiang to deliver to Feng Zicai's troops.

Order my troops to lead the guard and set off immediately."

(End of this chapter)

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