Chapter 119: Emperor Xianfeng's Death
Chapter 119: Emperor Xianfeng's Death
Shao Quanzhong looked indifferent, "Godfather, I just don't understand. The British set up a trading post in our country, which makes it easier for us to sell our raw silk, tea, and high-end porcelain. What's wrong with that?"
"Well - they compete with state merchants for profits."
"Really? Our production of goods is so small, so if we sell them to the British, Chinese merchants won't be able to buy them? Then we can increase production and make more money."
Shao Quanzhong put away his playful smile and his expression suddenly became serious.
"By opening up the ports, increasing the trade volume between the two countries and increasing the export of our unique goods, we will only make more money. This is a win-win situation. The only thing to consider is that we cannot give them monopoly rights. Ultimately, it depends on how strong we are."
Shao Quanzhong took off his command sword with its sheath and slapped it on the table.
"If the knife handle is in our hands, they will not dare to lower the purchase price to squeeze the silkworm farmers. Once they lower the price, the silkworm farmers will sell the raw silk to Wen Fu Ji, and then sell it to the Americans, or even the Danes and the Dutch, and there will be no problem."
“What if they go further and demand monopoly rights?”
"No! This concerns the lives of ordinary people, we won't give an inch!"
“But we took their money…”
"We collect money and give them the trade license for special products. This is business. If they ask for too much, it's bullying. At worst, we can ask Citibank for a loan to cover their loan."
"If they send the Anglo-French army again—"
"Our Huai Army purchased a large amount of arms from the Baoshun Foreign Company. This was our token of allegiance to them. They were reluctant to give up these commercial interests to start a war. The imperial court did not understand the Western barbarians and thought that they had to destroy the imperial court for some righteous cause. That was not the case! In the eyes of the Western barbarians, everything is business.
We give them economic benefits in exchange for their investment. This is called attracting foreign investment and opening the door. The more foreign investment we have, the better. The key is that we must be independent, have people like my father-in-law who truly understand foreign affairs and safeguard national interests to run it, and stick to our bottom line. "
Qiao Songnian sighed, "You either benefit the British or the Americans. You are dancing on eggs among foreigners. My father and I will be called traitors."
Shao Quanzhong slammed the table and said, "I don't want to do this either! But what can we do if we are weak? If we close our doors to the outside world, we will only become poorer and weaker!
The current solution is to keep a low profile, accumulate strength, take advantage of the differences in interests among the great powers, stick to the bottom line, and develop in silence. The stronger we develop, the less likely the great powers will dare to take action, and they will only be satisfied with gaining some commercial benefits. "
Shao Quanzhong fell to his knees and stared at Lord Qiao seriously with a sincere look on his face.
"I was so excited that I acted recklessly in front of my adoptive father.
If we give up our commercial interests and use the money we get to make silver watermelons and bury them in the ground, we are traitors. If we use it to buy machine tools, build railways, open mines, and build universities, so as to prevent foreigners from strangling us and enrich our country and strengthen its military, we are national heroes!
The most important thing here is that we have the final say, and we must know this. We can temporarily serve as younger brothers to the foreign powers and gain benefits, but we cannot kneel down and call the foreigners father like Yang Fang did. "
Shao Quanzhong stood up, drew his command knife, pointed to the west, with a murderous look on his face.
"When we become strong, we will fight back! Damn it, we will send back the opium they brought into our country to poison the people, and we will also burn down the Louvre and the British Museum to avenge our previous humiliation. This will be the best revenge for their burning of the Old Summer Palace!"
Qiao Songnian is a true loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty and an absolutely smart man. He twirled his beard, thought carefully for a long time, and nodded.
"My son is illiterate, but he understands better than most court officials. This plan is the result of Emperor Gaozu's humiliation during the siege of Baideng, when he endured humiliation and endured hardships, and finally surrendered to the Xiongnu. Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing accumulated national strength, and Emperor Wu of Han wiped out the Xiongnu to avenge the previous humiliation. This strategy can only be done by a person with great perseverance."
"Father is right. We can learn from Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty and recognize the Xiongnu as our big brother, but we cannot learn from Shi Jingtang and Zhao Gou and become puppet emperors. The country is in such a mess, and has been bullied to the capital. If the court does not send out wise people to take charge, it will be doomed!"
Qiao Songnian agreed with this. He flicked his sleeves and puffed out his chest. "Yuting, you have such ambition. You are truly a pillar of the Qing Dynasty. Your father would sacrifice his life to bear this infamy for you!"
Qiao Songnian's image suddenly became tall in Shao Quanzhong's eyes, and Shao Quanzhong fell to his knees again.
"My foster father has made the decision today, and I will repay him by being a patriot and leading the Huai Army to help him take charge of the world. In the future, I am willing to be a general who conquers the West, helping my foster father to wipe out the Western barbarians, enhance the prestige of our Chinese nation, and wash away today's shame!"
…………
Qiao Songnian and Shao Quanzhong, father and son, discussed politics at Xiaoxiang Cliff and reached a consensus. Shao Quanzhong's backing was secure, so he continued to work hard.
Shao Quanzhong really wanted to push Qiao Songnian to take charge of the government.
How old was Qiao Songnian? If he had the support of the Huai Army, he would have been made a marquis and a prime minister, and become the leader of the Military Affairs Council, and his words would have been law. Even if he worked until retirement, Shao Quanzhong would have been only middle-aged, and there would have been no dispute between the father and son over power.
When the baton is in Shao Quanzhong's hands, the road ahead is too far away and Shao Quanzhong has not thought about it yet. He will talk about it when the time comes.
As for whether the imperial court can take back power from Qiao Songnian and Shao Quanzhong, father and son, and carry out the policy of returning power to the emperor... hehehe, Shao Quanzhong is very experienced in dealing with orphans and widows.
…………
The hero Shao Quanzhong just described looked as if he couldn't wait to crush Britain and France and take revenge.
After leaving Xiaoxiang Cliff, he went to surrender to the British devils, found his father-in-law Yung Wing, and ordered another 2,000 Enfield rifles from the Bowring Company.
Based on the comparison between the strength of the Taiping Army's elite and the Huai Army's, Qiao Songnian believed that Shao Quanzhong had no choice but to break the dam and perish together with the Guangdong bandits in the Battle of Wuwei, resulting in a report of 60% casualties.
Later, when Hurd received news of Shao Quanzhong's new military purchases, he analyzed the number of rifles Shao Quanzhong had repurchased and believed that Shao Quanzhong did not lose that much.
This was a common practice among Qing Dynasty warlords to over-report war losses in order to make up for the empty salaries during peacetime, and most of the losses were reported as 20%.
Shao Quanzhong chased to Zheyuan and found the camp officer Wu Ci who was going home for vacation.
"Ziyi, I ordered two thousand guns this time. Each village will be allocated three to seven guns, depending on their size..."
"The militia in the village don't know how to use it either."
"In this battle, the soldiers who died or were wounded must be immediately replaced by the insurance teams from all over the country to keep the Huai Army fully staffed. We cannot ignore the wounded soldiers who retired. It would be a waste if they went back to farm. Pay them wages and let them serve as instructors in the embankments. The insurance teams will drill four times a month."
"That's going to cost a lot of money—"
"But we have enough reserves. Let the wounded soldiers build dikes all over northern Jiangsu and central Jiangsu, and all the territories of Jiangning Provincial Government should be put into insurance reserve. When needed, with 10,000 Huai Army backbones, we can expand the army to 60,000 or 70,000 without reducing the combat effectiveness of the units too much. We will start working on this after the holiday."
"Yes!"
Wu Wenxi, who was listening, knew what was going on.
After Shao Quanzhong left, he patted his son on the shoulder and said, "Shao Quanzhong has been keeping a low profile. Not only has he not taken any empty salary, but he has also used his own money to support more people and hide his troops among the people. His ambitions are great. The future of our Wu family will most likely depend on you, the eldest son."
Shao Quanzhong's next stop was the Hailing Arsenal, which was not far from Shaojiawei and next to the Wen's Arsenal, and was protected by thewei.
The arsenal only sent a few technicians to lead people to imitate a hot air balloon, which was a simple job.
Sharing the newly arrived machine tools with the Wen Arsenal, Ding Gongchen personally began to lead the team to copy the steamship and train projects. At the same time, he was ambitiously preparing to copy the rapid-fire rifle and the Armstrong cannon.
"Master Ding, to make guns and cannons, we need too many technicians, and we don't have such powerful technical strength yet. For the time being, we will purchase guns and cannons from abroad and imitate bullets and shells first. It's too unreliable to rely entirely on imports."
After arranging the development direction of military scientific research institutions, Shao Quanzhong also made a whirlwind inspection of Wen Fu Ji Logistics Company, Wen's Money House, Wen's Fu Yu Tang Pharmacy, and the newly built grain transport fleet.
I didn't have any rest during the three-day holiday and it passed by in a flash.
Back to work, the newly built military field outside Shaojiawei was filled with colorful flags, foreign bands were playing drums and trumpets, and the Huai Army held a ceremony to award ranks.
This time the focus is mainly on awarding ranks to senior military officers, and the shoulder badges for lower-level military academies have not yet been made.
Zhang Zhidong and Liao Rong were awarded the rank of colonel, Grant, Shao Hengzhong, Tian Xing, Hai Qing, Zhang Siwen, Wu Ci, and Le Sen were awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel, and Emery, Song Le, Lin Bo, Qu Laosan, Yan Laoliu, and Jiang Chunlin were awarded the rank of major.
Shao Quanzhong awarded titles to the generals and got himself a shoulder badge of major general.
After being awarded the titles, all branches of the Huai Army began extensive training.
After the last great victory in Zhenjiang, the court’s rewards arrived within ten days. However, this time, the rewards for the Wuwei battle that everyone had been looking forward to were still delayed.
A month later, on July 25, the eleventh year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign, an urgent message from the court reached Hailing, but it was not news of a reward.
On July 22, Emperor Xianfeng died in Yanbo Zhishuang Hall in the Rehe Mountain Resort.
Crown Prince Zaichun succeeded to the throne and honored Empress Niuhuru as his mother, the Empress Dowager, and Noble Consort Yi and Zaichun's biological mother, Yehenara, as the Holy Mother Empress Dowager.
The eight ministers, Zaiyuan, Duanhua, Jingshou, Sushun, and the grand councilors Muyin, Kuangyuan, Duhan, and Jiao Youying, assisted in the administration and designated the next year as the first year of "Qixiang".
(End of this chapter)