Chapter 138 Wall Purchases a Ship
Chapter 138 Wall Purchases a Ship
"Brother, I have arrived in Hong Kong on the Shanghai-Hong Kong liner and am waiting to take the American Pacific Mail Steamship from Hong Kong to Yokohama to San Francisco. I learned in Shanghai that the Wall brothers are instigating the Shanghai governor Wu Xu to purchase American steam warships and have raised 400,000 taels. I know Wall's character very well and I am afraid he is cheating. Please investigate, brother. - Zhang Siwen."
When Shao Quanzhong received this telegram from his fourth brother in Hong Kong, he had already returned to Hailing and was inspecting Hailing Bilingual Middle School.
He took the telegram handed over by Hu Liuniang, glanced at it, put it into his sleeve first, continued to encourage his godson Wang Yongxian, and then hurried away.
Wang Yongxian's academic performance was better than he expected. Fourth brother Wang had hired a teacher to teach him, and when Ronghui taught him, he had already started teaching advanced elementary school courses.
Now Ronghui is expecting to give birth. The foreign teachers from Hong Kong in the school are full of praise for Wang Yongxian. This seemingly honest child has already started to learn middle school courses and is particularly good at mathematics and foreign languages.
"Your godson is a promising candidate for the artillery. He is good at math, knows English, and can communicate with foreign gunners."
"Sixth Mother, you only know how to fight. I can't let this child serve in the army. I want to send him to Yale to study economics. Yongxian has done so well in his studies, and those students should be about the same. We have money now, and after Huier's birth is over, I will push for sending students to go abroad."
When Shao Quanzhong returned to Shao's residence, he did not go to see Rong Hui, but first went to the telegraph line of Shao's residence and sent a message to Jiang Chunlin who was currently in Shanghai, "Closely monitor and investigate the incident of the Wall Brothers' purchase of the ship."
As for Zhang Siwen, he volunteered to go to the United States to monitor the mercenaries sent to the Northern Army by his second brother Shao Quanzhong and serve as Shao Quanzhong's military supervisor.
Shao Quanzhong was not too concerned about assigning a military supervisor to Yang Changjiu. Whether or not I sent a military supervisor, the 4,000 elite Taiping troops would not listen to me. They left as a whole unit, and no one could take away Yang Changjiu's military power.
These 4,000 men bring me a monthly employment income of 40,000 taels of silver. They can be called back as reinforcements in the future, but it is very difficult to control them completely.
Well, after the Civil War is over, we have to find a way out for them and not let them come back to cause trouble. If another third or fourth son of Jehovah comes out, it will be very bad.
However, he still agreed to his fourth brother's request. He knew that being a military supervisor was just a side job, and Zhang Siwen went abroad to investigate, most likely to learn advanced experience in America and see how foreigners could realize his ideal of everyone being like a dragon.
If you want to go, go ahead. Hehe, compared to my fourth brother's dangerous thoughts, America is still very safe. If you go to America, at most you will become a Hongmen Red Stick and learn from Lincoln to become the president, parliament, and judges. I can still tolerate this.
Shao Quanzhong closed his eyes and saw the flying five-color flag in front of him, which were the glorious years of his previous life.
Shao Quanzhong took Hu Liuniang back to Hailing, and the Shura Field did not appear.
As soon as they met, the pregnant Wenxiu carefully looked at her husband's new female bodyguard.
Seeing that she was standing with her back straight and her brows furrowed, without opening her face to draw eyebrows or changing her hairstyle, the experienced Wenxiu could tell at a glance that she was still a virgin.
She was very satisfied with her husband's excellent quality of remaining a virgin, and she "rewarded" Shao Quanzhong greatly.
When I went to see Rong Hui, Rong Hui was lying in bed holding Hu Liuniang's hand, "Liuniang, Sister Xiu'er and I have to stay at home to raise the children. You are with Brother Shao, so you should take care of him more. Don't follow those feudal ethics, I don't care. Come here and I will tell you a secret."
The two women were chattering, and Shao Quanzhong occasionally overheard a few words. Rong Hui was actually talking to Liu Niang about how she was captured on the orders of her father, and was instigating Liu Niang to get on the bus first and buy the ticket later.
Hey, you have corrupted Liu Niang, who has been deeply poisoned by feudal ethics, hmm, that's good.
Even though Liu Niang is a woman of the world, it doesn't mean that she has advanced ideas. She is still deeply poisoned by feudal ideas.
In her mind, Ronghui and Xiu'er should be the two queens in the future, and she will be the Empress of the East Palace or the Empress of the West Palace. This is the order of the mistress of the harem, and I have been authorized by the first wife.
After coming out of Ronghui's room, Liuniang's eyes began to look a little strange. Shao Quanzhong glanced at Liuniang's strong long legs and shuddered.
Hey, hey, I'm the boss and you're just my bodyguard, so you can't do anything rash.
In order to ensure Ronghui's smooth delivery, Shao Quanzhong's two great doctors, Fei Boxiong and Wu Anye, all went to Shao's house on standby, and they also hired foreign doctors and nurses from Shanghai as backup.
In the end, none of them were used and Ronghui is in good health.
On the fifth day of the twelfth month of the eleventh year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign, Rong Hui successfully gave birth to a son. Shao Quanzhong was overjoyed and gave rewards to all the servants in the mansion. After careful consideration, he named the son he thought of as his eldest son "Shao Jiming".
Humph, you see I am a real man, and I indeed gave birth to a son.
This will be my successor in the future. I will train him well. I don't ask him to start a business, but to keep it. Just based on the name I painstakingly came up with, bypassing the word I don't like, my son can't be a waste and a spendthrift, and give a good slap in the face of Taoist Qing Hong.
The next day, neighbors brought news that Shao Hengzhong's wife had given birth to a son, and the name was consistent with the generation name given by Shao Quanzhong, "Shao Jishu".
Shao Quanzhong’s neighbor on the right is Grant, and his neighbor on the left is the newly moved Shao Hengzhong family.
After spending a few more days with Rong Hui, Shao Quanzhong began to take charge of the affairs of the organization, and information about Jiang Chunlin continued to flow in.
First of all, there is Yang Fang. This guy was demoted to his original position by Xue Huan and returned home to become a retired man.
However, after Frederick Wall returned from France after recovering from his injury and took over the power of the foreign rifle team again, Yang Fang was unwilling to be lonely and officially married his daughter who was previously engaged to Wall to Wall.
At this time, Wall had already become a Qing citizen and was appointed as a deputy general by the court. The foreign rifle team was renamed the "Ever-Victorious Army."
Yang Fang became Wall's father-in-law. Wall immediately began to support his father-in-law and submitted a memorial to the emperor, saying that the Ever-Victorious Army did not have the support of Yang Fang, a wealthy businessman in Shanghai, and that the army was short of military pay and it would be difficult to go all out to fight.
The Qing court had no choice but to re-employ Yang Fang and appoint him as deputy general, to serve as the commander of the Ever-Victorious Army together with Wall.
Yang Fang transformed himself from a fourth-rank prefect to a second-rank military general.
"Yuting, isn't Yang Fang our family's enemy? He's in power again, should we send an assassin—"
When Shao Quanzhong spoke "our family" to Hu Liuniang, he pretended not to hear and waved his hand.
"Don't start assassination lightly. Leave some space for us to meet again in the future. Yang Fang wanted to kill me in order to have me go to the French Concession for trial, but he didn't want to kill me. I have already cheated him out of 150,000 silver coins, so the matter is over. He is just a deputy general, and no matter how high his military rank is, he has no future. He is far inferior to me, a fourth-rank civil official, the prefect of Fengyang. The feud with Yang Fang ends here."
Hu Liuniang shook her head, "Yuting, this is your attitude towards normal people. I heard that Yang Fang is a sinister and despicable villain. I always feel that he is a hidden danger."
Shao Quanzhong insisted on his principles, and Hu Liuniang had nothing to say.
The Ever-Victorious Army was formed and fought several battles with Li Xiucheng's Taiping Army in Ningbo. Thanks to Gordon's hard work, the Qing court was quite satisfied with the victory and defeat of the Taiping Army, as Shanghai was defended.
But bad news soon came. Li Xiucheng heard about the Huai Army's purchase of the Haichang. After capturing Ningbo, he also intended to buy warships from foreigners to attack Shanghai from the sea, or even go straight to Beijing and Tianjin along the coast, following the path of the Anglo-French Allied Forces.
The Qing government panicked and sent Li Hongzhang to contact the foreigners about building a fleet. Li Hongzhang was in official communication with Hart, but the deal had not yet been concluded.
The Wall brothers saw the business opportunity and immediately instigated Wu Xu and Yang Fang. We have money in Shanghai, so we can build a fleet of our own, which will be controlled by us brothers, and we will obey the orders of Lord Wu and Lord Yang and serve the wealthy businessmen in Shanghai. Wouldn't that be convenient?
At this time, Wu Xu and Yang Fang had been suppressed by Li Hongzhang, the new governor of Jiangsu, and were quite tempted to establish their own maritime force.
The Wall brothers said that they could go to America to buy foreign warships. With only 400,000 taels of silver, they could build one large warship and four small warships.
Yang Fang strongly supported his son-in-law and instigated Wu Xu to use the treasury silver and give it to Henry Wall to return to the country to purchase ships. The 400,000 taels of silver are now in Wall's hands.
Shao Quanzhong stared at the intelligence for a long time. He didn't know much about the navy. If Wall Brothers could really buy the warship, at most they would make a huge profit and earn a little more commission. It didn't seem to be a scam. He couldn't control this matter.
After thinking for a while, "Let's first deal with the students' study abroad and the Wall Brothers' matter. I also need to ask Liao Rong, the expert."
(End of this chapter)