Chapter 177 Nothing is snatched fast
Chapter 177 Nothing is snatched fast
Xi'an was besieged many times during the Shaanxi bandit rebellion, the longest of which lasted for fifteen months. It was not until Duolong'a conquered Weinan that the bandits' siege of Xi'an was broken.
The former Shaanxi governor Liu Rong happily handed over the governor's office to Shao Quanzhong and went home to retire and recuperate.
Liu Rong was a subordinate of Luo Bingzhang. Historically, Luo Bingzhang gave him 4,000 elite Hunan troops. He led them into Shaanxi to suppress bandits, but was still in a terrible state. In the end, he was defeated and stripped of his title and returned home.
Without Luo Bingzhang's help, the situation is even worse. I am very lucky that Xi'an was not lost. Finally, someone has taken over this mess. I am very lucky to be able to retire peacefully.
Shao Quanzhong moved into the governor's office on West Street and immediately began to govern.
This is the first time that Shao Quanzhong has actually started working since he became an official. He used to live in the military barracks.
The governor was a high-ranking official. The advantage of being a high-ranking official was that they could manage whatever they wanted to manage, and pass on the things they didn't want to manage to their subordinates. Aren't there still Taotai, prefects, and county magistrates under them? Shao Quanzhong, the governor and admiral of Shaanxi, had the main task of suppressing bandits, and the governor's office was still the headquarters of the Huai Army.
Le Xiucai is the prefect of Xi'an who really wants to work.
Shao Quanzhong spent a day browsing the economic and military intelligence from various places left by Liu Rong, but found that there was nothing to see and it was not as accurate as Grant's intelligence.
The next day, he strolled to the prefectural government office, which was not far to the east of the Drum Tower.
I saw Le Sen sitting in the hall of the prefecture. The clerks and county magistrates who were queuing up to ask for instructions went in one by one and came out quickly. There was no one there for more than an hour.
Scholar Le approved official documents quickly, like Pang Tong, the county magistrate.
After reviewing the official documents, Le Xiucai had to go to the military camp to manage logistics and intelligence. He hurried out and saw Shao Quanzhong watching him work.
"Wow, Brother Le, you are really good. You are quite capable."
Le Xiucai touched his scalp covered with stubble and said, "Well, sir, you didn't see how exhausted I was yesterday. My wife scolded me as soon as I got off work. Last night, my wife wrote instructions for each document for me. Isn't it faster for me to read them?"
"So there's a Supreme Governor behind you - no, Brother Le, you're interfering in government affairs."
"What does it matter if I, a small prefect, listen to my wife? There are land taxes, disputes between merchants, public security incidents, petty thefts, troubles and delays in military affairs. I am busy with things in the barracks here..."
Seeing that Shao Quanzhong did not intervene, on the third day, Le Xiucai simply let his wife take the prefect's seal and sit in court, while he himself went to the military camp to busy himself.
This kind of behavior seriously violates the code of conduct for civil servants in the Qing Dynasty. Normally, he would be reprimanded by his superiors, and it would not be surprising if he was fired.
However, Le Xiucai's direct superior was Shao Quanzhong, who was also the right deputy censor-in-chief of the Censorate, the senior leader in charge of supervising officials.
The next higher-up is the Governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Mr. Qiao, who is still in Hailing and has not come yet. Even if he comes, will Mr. Qiao take care of this matter? Wu Qingfeng, the Grand Prefect of Xi'an, is the daughter of his good friend Wu Wenxi...
Shao Quanzhong didn't care about what happened to the Supreme Prefect in Xi'an. As long as the matter was done, it was fine. He was a pragmatist.
Back at the governor's office, the personal secretary Liu Niang came with the latest intelligence.
The latest intelligence came from the express horse transmission from Tongbai. The Tongbai-Nanyang-Longjuzhai-Xi'an rapid intelligence transmission system was temporarily built when Shao Quanzhong led his troops all the way here.
After all, the telegram only reaches Tongbai at present, and the connection with the Huai Army’s stronghold cannot be cut off.
"The cable telegraph from Tongbai to Xi'an has begun construction in sections and is expected to be completed in three months."
"The Wen-Stanford Railway Company has started geological surveys for the railway line from Longjuzhai to Xi'an. There are main roads here, so there shouldn't be any problems. Construction can begin within a month." "Jacob Schneider has arrived in Hailing by chartered ship and has started trial production and process compilation for two projects: the new breech-loading rifle and the muzzle-loading rifle modification. The machine tools and power equipment ordered by Ren's Arms in the United States will be in place within a month. It is expected to produce more than 10,000 guns per month, and the cost will be reduced to four taels of silver per gun. This is the price of imported springs."
"This is the latest telegram sent by Liao Rong."
This is what a big warlord has to deal with every day. Shao Quanzhong took the telegram and found it was about purchasing ships as expected.
“According to the superior’s instructions, we discussed with the British that the 1,000-ton warships should be jointly built in Zhenjiang by both parties, but the idea was rejected.
The British said that in view of our huge purchasing volume, the technology of thousand-ton warships could be transferred, but the Qing Dynasty lacked the technology to smelt special steel for warships, which was not transferable, and the naval gun technology was also not transferable.
Ultimately, only the construction of auxiliary ships and transport ships was approved for construction in the Qing Dynasty.”
Shao Quanzhong touched the back of his head. "Damn it, the key technology is still being held back by others. Who made us lag behind? Liu Niang, notify Shao Yigu to set up the Zhenjiang Shipyard. Let Hua Hengfang and Xu Shou, who have trial-produced the steamship, take the lead. Let Liao Rong hire a few foreign staff in the UK to assist, and start cooperating with the British to build auxiliary ships and transport ships.
Send a telegram to my father-in-law Yung Wing, asking him to guide Sven to contact the Americans and try to introduce American steel technology for warships. You can spend more money. "
After Liu Niang finished drafting the telegram, she looked up at Shao Quanzhong and said, "Yuting, I think that your building of the Zhenjiang Shipyard is a wise move. Buying so many warships from the British at one time is a big deal, isn't it?"
Shao Quanzhong glared at Liu Niang and asked, "Why is your head so big?"
"I've read Liao Rong's last suggestion. It's a waste for us to spend so much money to build the world's third fleet second only to Britain and France in the Far East. If we face Britain and France, we still won't be able to defeat them. Those warships will be outdated in a dozen years..."
Shao Quanzhong snorted, "Otherwise, why don't I let the harem interfere in politics? The old ladies are narrow-minded, they only care about that little bit of money. It takes three or four years to build a warship. If you don't buy enough, it will be too late to build it when you need it. Now we are in the honeymoon period with Britain, and they are willing to sell me warships. If the situation changes in the future, they may not sell them again. By then, we will be left behind and will be beaten."
In this respect, Shao Quanzhong is much stronger than his former Green Gang gangster opponents.
That guy let his wife run the Air Force and be responsible for procurement, thinking that it would be a good thing for them to keep the money within the family.
As a result, his wife felt that aircraft technology was advancing with each passing day, and it would be a loss to buy one now, so it would be better to buy the latest one when she needs it.
So I deposited the money in Citibank and earned interest, thinking I was really smart.
Later, the Japanese invaded and needed airplanes, but the United States also went to war and did not have enough airplanes, so it would not sell them to the United States. A large amount of the people's blood and sweat, which was originally intended to be turned into airplanes to fight the Japanese, ended up being deposited in Citibank to increase funds for the United States.
When the soldiers on the front line risked their lives to fight against the Japanese bombing, they had no idea that the money for buying planes had already been allocated, and they didn't have to fight so hard...
Hu Liuniang was dissatisfied, "But, Yuting, aren't you going to fight the Japanese pirates? You really don't need such a large fleet."
Shao Quanzhong rolled his eyes, "How do you know I only fight the Japanese pirates? I have guns and warships, I can fight whoever I want. Buying arms and warships is the most profitable business. If I don't have anything, I can rob it faster, you know?"
When she heard the word "rob", Hu Liuniang became excited. She admired Shao Quanzhong's ability in robbery.
With only 16,000 land troops, Shao Quanzhong was able to rob 48 million silver coins in Nanjing.
If he had the world's third largest navy, expanded his army to 80,000 people, and had a division and a brigade of elite mercenaries who had been baptized by the American Civil War to help him, it would be exciting to think about how much Yu Ting could get back.
"Then, after our fleet is formed, who are we going to rob?"
(End of this chapter)