Chapter 8 Section VIII

"What Lafayette means is that the Hall of Yiluan needn't be repaired anymore, it's just finished. Why can't Lafayette wish you any more? Vaderxi lived, let alone," Natong lowered his voice and said, "It's said that Sai Jinhua is here The Hall of Yiluan used to serve Waldesi. Can such a useless place be the Queen Mother's bedroom?" "Then," Yikuang asked, "if you don't build the Yiluan Palace, what are you going to do?" "Lafayette wants to build a Buddhist pavilion. It has a name, so it is called Fozhaolou, and it has a pattern. It is a western-style building."

"Buddhist pavilion built into a western-style building?" "Not only to build a western-style building, but also to install electric lights." "It's getting more and more strange!" Yikuang laughed, "The Bodhisattva is also fashionable! Put it away, let's take a look at the pattern first, and ask about the price." "Wages?" Natong replied, "At least five million." The next thing to talk about is money.After returning to Luan, all kinds of wastes were lifted, and new policies were implemented, and they were asking for money. Therefore, financial planning was the top priority of the imperial court, and Yikuang and Qu Hongji were specially assigned to handle it together with the Ministry of Household Affairs.For more than a year, he has checked the farmland, rectified floating income, recast silver dollars, opened cigarettes, alcohol, stamp duty, etc., almost all of which can be found. "Is this truth not easy to understand? 'People are not for themselves'..." Na Tong swallowed back the second half of the rude saying "male robbers and female prostitutes", paused and said: "The provinces still do not change their old habits and only care about themselves. Regardless of the court.

In my opinion, there are only two ways. One is, according to the spring of Gengzi year, send Gang Ziliang to various provinces to check the method of sitting reminders. , All receivables that have not been collected will be squeezed out. " "Not good! Not good!" Yi Kuang shook his head, "In that case, all the magistrates in the provinces will be offended, and it will be difficult to do things in the future." "Then, use the second method, apportionment!" Yikuang thought for a while, then nodded and said: "This method is fine. Anyway, the imperial court wants so much money, and everyone knows whether it is good or bad. Qu Zijiu go talk about it."

Qu Hongji didn't think so.He believes that the key to rectifying finances is to create a banking system.However, any system that is initially established must be quick to take effect, but it will be effective once it has been implemented for a long time.Otherwise, what is called rectification?Hearing that he spoke the truth so eloquently, Natong had no choice but to put aside the apportionment method. After putting it aside until autumn, Yuan Shikai was in a hurry, because the plan for succinct recruits, since Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, Yuan Shikai's capable subordinates, came back from Japan to visit the military training, they stepped up to draw up, and they were ready. Kui was named as the Minister of Management, while Yuan Shikai was fully responsible as the Minister of Meetings.There are assistant ministers below, who are promoted and assisted, and there are three divisions under it: military politics, military science, and military orders. The divisions have departments, and departments have supervision.In the first phase, soldiers were trained in two towns, Baoding on the left and Xiaozhan on the right, with 12,000 soldiers in each town.In addition, 6,000 idle soldiers from the Twenty-Four Banners of the Manchurian, Mongolian, and Han armies were selected to form a "Beijing Banner Army".As for the provinces, there are supervisory and training offices, with the governor as the supervisor, and there are three departments for military equipment, coaches, and staff.

Yuan Shikai can ignore the military training in the provinces, and the recruits in the left and right towns have already been appointed to the old department and started recruiting.There are soldiers but no pay, and there is an uproar, which is no small matter.Therefore, Yuan Shikai sent Yang Shixiang, the governor of the Zhili feudal clan, to Beijing on business, in fact, to meet Yikuang and ask for a practical way to raise salary. At this time, the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Household Affairs changed.Wang Wenshao managed the household department as a bachelor, and sent him to the minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and transferred Natong as the minister and minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Among the four divisions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Dayin, the "Accounting Division" manages tariffs, Huayang loans, and mission funds, etc., regardless of increasing income and reducing expenditure, all have an important relationship with salary raising.Another minister and minister who will be in charge is Qu Hongji. He is in the military aircraft department every day and doesn't come to the Ministry often. Therefore, Natong was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to "head the family".

However, the Natong people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can still manage the affairs of the Ministry of Household Affairs. This is the way Yikuang and Natong came up with. They set up a special "Finance Department" in the Ministry of Household Affairs and ordered "Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister Natong to work together with Prince Qing." Yikuang and Qu Hongji handled the affairs of the Finance Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs".In this way, the power of Wang Zhishao, a scholar in charge of the household department, and Rongqing and Lu Chuanlin, the two ministers of the Manchu and Han Dynasties, were greatly eroded.

Rong Qing, who succeeded Natong, was born in the Zhenghuang Banner of Mongolia. He was born in the Imperial Academy. After more than ten years, he became a cabinet bachelor and opened a workshop in the Imperial Academy. , into the common environment.However, there is a certain number of shifts to fill the vacancy, but it is not easy for Mongolian bachelors to transfer.So after waiting for three years, he was transferred internally to be the Zhengqing of Honglu Temple, the last seat of the "Great Nine Ministers", and then transferred to the deputy envoy of Tongzheng. When I went to the storehouse servant, I was still an acting agent.

The servant of the storehouse is stationed in Tongzhou, and he is in charge of Jingcang, which is the official supply of Tianyu. It is a fat vacancy.Rongqing's conduct is not bad, and he is quite capable of eliminating disadvantages and making profits. Therefore, based on his achievements in dealing with the aftermath after the peace negotiation is concluded, and serving as the promotion of the Administrative Office, he was promoted to Minister of the Ministry of Punishment and Minister of Management. Promoting schools and educating talents is one of the main objectives of the new policy, and the establishment of new schools throughout the country and raising funds are still secondary. The most important thing is to establish the school system.Since Zhang Baixi was appointed as Minister of Management, he has devoted all his energy to this. Every time he adopts Western methods, he makes many changes. The conservatives are not only dissatisfied, but panicked.Among them, the dispute between Banner and Han was mixed, so that the new style of learning was under attack.Rong Qing was able to stand out, because he was a bannerman and Jinshi, and his conservative nature was just used to resist Zhang Baixi.

The result can be imagined, it must be hindered by each other, and nothing can be achieved.It happened that Zhang Zhidong was called into the audience. He wrote a large and eloquent article called "Encouraging Learning", which was originally intended to be during the 1898 coup. ", not contrary to the teachings of the sages throughout the ages.But the result is that it has gained an unexpected reputation. The two lakes are the most prosperous of Dudao's new schools. Therefore, after Zhang Zhidong entered the pilgrimage, he never returned to the original province. He was ordered to "confer on academic affairs", but in fact he presided over it alone.

Zhang Zhidong has a very special temper, "Whatever is built must be the first to open up the atmosphere, and whatever is advocated must be slightly different from the fashion. If there are good friends to advise and public opinion to be persuaded, then it will be more firm. "So when the whole country was discussing current affairs, he was conservative in drafting the school system, he was not in harmony with Zhang Baixi, but he was on the same path as Rong Qing. This meant that Zhang Baixi was at a disadvantage and Rong Qing had succeeded.In order to pay mediocrity, Rong Qing was transferred to be Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, and then transferred to the Ministry of Household Affairs to fill Na Tong's vacancies.But he, the hall official of the household department, only cared about the routine, and if there was any change, it was Yikuang, Qu Hongji, and Natong who exercised the duties of the finance department of the household department, and they decided on their own, and there was no room for Rongqing to comment.

Because of this, Yang Shixiang went to Beijing to press for the source of salary, instead of looking for Rongqing, he only looked for Natong. After several negotiations, the result was not satisfactory. "Assessment is inevitable!" Natong said decisively: "No matter what Qu Zijiu says, don't pay attention to him. As long as you are confident." Therefore, two apportionment methods were determined, please approve them, and issue an edict. One is apportionment of tobacco and alcohol taxes. , is that there are not many repayments, and it is actually due to the ineffectiveness of the collection. According to Yuan Shikai, the governor of Zhili, Zhili collects two taxes on tobacco and alcohol, and the yearly income is more than 800,000 taels of silver. In the withered areas of Zhili, you can still collect this. The huge amount of money shows that the governor is loyal to the country and does things with sincerity, which is very honorable. That is to say, he copied the current regulations of Zhili and sent them to the provinces, and ordered the general and governor to follow suit. To determine the amount of tax, Zhili province, that is, according to the current collection, still distributes 800,000 taels a year; Fengtian Province should distribute 800,000 taels a year; Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Sichuan provinces should distribute 500,000 taels a year. ; Shanxi Province should send 400,000 taels a year; Jiangxi, Shandong, Hubei, Zhejiang, and Fujian provinces should send 300,000 taels a year; Henan, Anhui, Hunan, Guangxi, and Yunnan provinces should send 100,000 taels a year; , 60,000 taels should be distributed every year; totaling the above 21 provinces, the annual tax amount allocated is 6,400,000 taels.” There is another edict, which is to rectify floating revenue and deed tax. As usual, there is also a grandiose sentence at the beginning: "Now the country is in dire straits, a hundred wastes are waiting to be raised, and the treasury is empty. How can we cook without rice? If we don't try Operations, the overall situation is becoming more and more dangerous, and the upper and lower levels are in trouble. How can the future troubles be imagined? In recent years, the price of silver has dropped, and there is no great disparity among the provinces. They use the money to pay for the collection of Ding Cao, and the provinces and counties have a lot of floating revenue, but the land tax that should be levied Deed, there is not even one person who repays. The states and counties have a lot of money and sit back and watch the country suffer alone. With a little conscience, there must be some people who are uneasy. If you are willing to have clear strength, but do not know that the country is in peril, how can you always enjoy peace and happiness? The governor and others have received a lot of kindness, so how can they bear the responsibility of the court because they see good officials? Since the 30th year of Guangxu, instruct all The governor will thoroughly investigate the items that are good or bad, good or bad, and return them to the public as appropriate, and rectify the tax deeds of real estate and land, and allocate quotas for each year's increase, and report them to the source. Except for Xinjiang, Except for Gansu, Guizhou and the three eastern provinces, where the local barrenness and hardship are avoided, Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces should each send 350,000 taels a year; Zhili and Sichuan provinces should each send 300,000 taels a year; 150,000 taels; Henan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hubei, and Hunan provinces, 200,000 taels each; Anhui province, 150,000 taels a year; Shanxi, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Guangxi, and Fujian provinces, 100,000 taels a year each Sixteen provinces, a total of 3.2 million taels per year." The two items totaled 9.6 million taels of silver. Even if they could not collect enough, there would be at least 7 to 8 million taels a year. Considering the amount of initial military training and the public expenses for repairing Xiyuan, it was barely enough.Anyway, if you have money, you can eat more than you want, Yuan Shikai can rest assured. So Yikuang, as the minister in charge of the military training department, invited Jane to send an envoy to the department.Yuan Shikai, the Minister of the Association, and Tie Liang, the Assistant Minister, who are Manchurian inlaid white flags and graduates of the first period of the Japanese Non-commissioned Officer Academy, were specially appointed long ago.Now Yikuang should ask Jane for four missions: Ti Tiao, Military Political Department, Military Command Department, and Military Science Department. It is Xu Shichang who is stationed in Changchuan and is an important person in charge of general affairs. He is sent by Xu Shichang.In the same year as Chen Kuilong's rehearsal, he ordered the Imperial Academy and never let the examiners go. He was a very black Hanlin, so he became Yuan Shikai's staff when he was training at the military station. When Yuan Shikai released the governor of Shandong, Xu Shichang planned to donate an additional Taoist, pointing out that the province will distribute Shandong, and it will naturally make up for the shortage as soon as it arrives.But Yuan Shikai had a different idea. "Based on our friendship, Shandong's road shortage, let you choose. However, if you want to climb to the supervisor, you will have to work for a few years. After you climb to the supervisor, you want to be promoted internally to minister, externally promoted to governor, and even more so. I don’t know what happened in that year? You are just forty this year, and you will have a long time to come. Why don’t you raise your qualifications in the Imperial Academy, once you stand out, it will be of great use. This is my advice, please think twice.” It turns out that ever since Yuan Shikai was released from the position of governor, he knew that his footsteps had been firmly established, and he was expected to become a pivotal figure after Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang, Ding Baozhen, Zhang Zhidong, Shen Baozhen, and Liu Kun. A famous governor relied on by the imperial court. But in terms of background, Yuan Shikai knew that he was too poor. In the future, the shogunate would have to find more Jinshi and Hanlin, one for decoration;So for my own sake, I don't want to spoil Xu Shichang's future. It's not bad to think about it, Xu Shichang still went back to Beijing to be an Hanlin.Yuan Shikai tried many ways to brag about him, and even persuaded Zhang Zhidong to recommend him.He himself once kept it secret, saying that Xu Shichang "has a sharp mind and a clear mind", and he was ordered to hand it over to the Military Aircraft Office for storage.In the year when Xin Chou returned to Luan, when Yuan Shikai greeted him, he specially defended him, so the Empress Dowager Cixi summoned him in Baoding and asked about the situation of the Shandong Defense Army in Zhili. In addition, Yuan Shikai asked for a license to be assigned to the Gyeonggi Battalion Office of the New Army. The Ministry of Commerce was established, under Shangshu Zaizhen and the left and right ministers, the left and right ministers were set up separately.You Cheng was the Xixi teacher of Prince Qing's Mansion, and Tang Wenzhi was born in the Imperial Academy, and Yuan Shikai recommended Xu Shichang as Zuo Cheng.This is a deficiency of the third rank, and it is made up for by the sixth rank Guozijian Siye, which is an extraordinary promotion. In fact, this is also a transition, and Yuan Shikai had planned it long ago.The military training office was established, and Yikuang was named as Xu Shichang's "housekeeper" in order to control everything from it.But in Xu Shichang, the vacancy was opened as a candidate for a cabinet bachelor, and he was promoted to the military training office. Although he was a second-rank student in the cabinet, he could still wear a red top. The chiefs of the three divisions are all called "envoys".Liu Yongqing, the envoy of the Military and Political Department, was a small fellow of Yuan Shikai's Xiangcheng. Duan Qirui, the chief envoy of the Military Command, and Wang Shizhen, the chief envoy of the Military Science Department, both came from the Tianjin Armed Forces Academy run by Li Hongzhang.Duan Qirui studied artillery. He once went to Germany and had an internship at the famous Krupp artillery factory. Both Wang Shizhen and Yin Chang, who had studied military in Germany for many years, appreciated him very much.When Yuan Shikai was training troops at Xiaozhan, Duan and Wang were recommended by Yinchang to be the commanders of artillery and engineers. The ability of the "new army" impressed Rong Lu. Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen put a lot of effort into it, so they became Yuan Shikai's confidantes and were promoted to Taoist members after their meritorious service.Now he is sent as an envoy in the military training department, and he is rewarded with the title of "Deputy Dutong" of the second rank, and the top son is also popular. Xu Shichang is even more satisfied with the new appointment and the celebration of the officials.The fellow villagers and the same year held banquets to congratulate each other, and wore brand-new red caps and men's gowns to the banquet, but the men's clothes were not Wen Erpin's golden pheasants, but Wu Erpin's lions.All the civil servants were seated in the same seat, among the golden pheasants, peacocks, geese, white pheasants and other cultural birds, there was a lion with its teeth and claws in the middle, which was really neither class nor indecent, and it looked particularly glaring, which caused ridicule and made it almost indistinguishable. parted ways.