Chapter 31 2. If you want to do the most beneficial and important things for China today, where should you start?

After a while, Zeng Guofan was dressed neatly and sat on the rattan chair in the small living room. Zhao Liewen, Yang Guodong, Peng Shouyi and others sat on both sides.He picked up the two famous thorns on the coffee table, and saw that one was written: Changzhou Wang Tao Ziquan. "This is a celebrity!" Zeng Guofan said with a smile. "This person has done things for foreigners for more than ten years at the Shanghai Mohai Library." Zhao Liewen said. "Mohai Library?" Yang Guodong asked, "Didn't you work with Uncle Ren?" "Yes." Peng Shouyi replied, "Uncle Li Ren mentioned him."

"How is this person?" Zeng Guofan asked Peng Shouyi. "According to Uncle Li Ren, this man is extremely intelligent, and he is good at both Chinese and foreign languages, but he is dissolute by nature and likes to seek flowers and ask willows. He is a Tang Bohu and Zhu Zhishan type of person." When Zeng Guofan heard this, he felt a little unhappy in his heart.Just as he was talking, Wang Tao walked in.Zeng Guofan saw that he was short, fat and bloated, with thick black eyebrows, baggy eyes and no spirit. "A drunkard." Zeng Guofan said in his heart. "Meet Lord Zhongtang!" Wang Tao kowtowed in front of Zeng Guofan.

"Please get up, please get up!" Zeng Guofan got up and returned the salute, pointing to a seat next to him and said, "Mr. Zi Quan, please sit here." "I heard that Mr. Zi Quan has translated many foreign documents in the Mohai Library for many years. This is a good thing!" After Wang Tao sat down, Zeng Guofan spoke first. "It's just for dinner." Mohai Library was a book printing shop founded by the British missionary Maedus in Shanghai. At that time, scholars didn't bother to deal with foreigners. Wang Tao was telling the truth.But he was very happy to hear Zeng Guofan's praise, so he briefly reported the situation of Mohai Library to Zeng Guofan.

"They use machines to print books, how many copies are printed a day?" Zeng Guofan asked Wang Tao. "It can print seven or eight thousand sheets a day." "Ah! So many!" Zhao Liewen called out softly. "One machine is equivalent to fifty or sixty of us." Zeng Guofan said with a smile. After talking about the Mohai Library for a while, Zeng Guofan asked, "Sir, I'm here, what can I do for you?" Wang Tao glanced at Zhao, Yang and the others, and said, "I have something important to tell Master Zhongtang, please turn away from the left and right sides."

"No, tell me!" Zeng Guofan replied flatly. "Okay, please forgive me for speaking bluntly." Wang Tao touched a soft nail, and felt a little unhappy in his heart. He leaned forward slightly and said to Zeng Guofan, "My lord has a large army today and occupies a high position. Although his body is glorious, And it's in danger." "What do you mean?" Zeng Guofan straightened his face, his eyes were cold. "Master Zhongtang." Wang Tao didn't seem to notice the change in Zeng Guofan's face, and continued, "Your Excellency is proficient in classics and history books. You should know that Kuai Tong persuaded Han Xin, and today's affairs are the same as they were back then. The Qing court, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Hunan Army are like Liu, Xiang, and Han back then. The Hunan army helped the Qing court, and the Qing court was strong; it helped the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom prospered. Why do you bother to work for others? It is better not to be neither for the Qing court nor for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, let them be two tigers. In the end, my lord will clean up the mess. This is your best choice, my lord."

From the moment Wang Tao first entered, Zeng Guofan had a bad impression of him. I thought to myself: He actually dared to persuade me to do something wrong with the identity of a stranger. Who does he think I am?Zeng Guofan suppressed the disgust in his heart, and said with a livid face: "Mr. Ziquan, you and I have never met before, and you don't understand me. I would rather suffer the fate of Han Xin than betray the court!" Speaking of picking up the teacup, Jing Qi saw this and shouted: "See off!" Wang Tao came here full of hope, but he didn't expect to encounter such a cold reception, so he stood up and left in frustration.Walking to the door, he sighed to Tianchang: "Unexpectedly, the story of two thousand years ago will repeat itself again!"

"My lord, this person has a skill, and staying here will be useful. For example, we will ask foreign craftsmen to teach arms skills in the future, and he can be an interpreter." Yang Guodong didn't think Wang Tao was at fault, but felt that Zeng Guofan's attitude was too cold. "Although this person is not careful, but after all, he has a bit of a reputation and knows foreign languages. He can be left to do something. But he is restless, ambitious, and has weird thinking. It is good for this kind of person to stay by my side. It is a big hidden danger. The shogunate of Liangjiang Governor cannot have such staff." Zeng Guofan put down the teacup he picked up, but he didn't actually drink it.

"My lord, I don't think Wang Tao is an idler. If your lord doesn't use him, it's better to kill him, lest he turn to Long Mao and become a minion for a tiger." Zhao Liewen remonstrated. "Hui Fu, you think too highly of him." Zeng Guofan sneered, "This man is nothing more than an ignorant fool. I don't think anything will happen to him in this life, so you can rest assured." He casually picked up another name badge on the tea table, and said to Jing Qi, "Ask Rong Hong to come in." When Rong Hong stepped through the threshold, Zeng Guofan stared at him and looked at him carefully: this is a middle-aged man in his thirties, with a medium to low build, thick eyebrows and big eyes, high cheekbones, and extremely angular lips. Clear, light brown skin.The biggest difference between him and ordinary people is that there is no braid at the back of his head, and his black hair is cut short at the ears. "It's the material of a general." Zeng Guofan thought to himself.When the man came to his side, Zeng Guofan took another serious look at him with sharp eyes.

"Are you Mr. Rong Chunfu? This is my third invitation, so you are willing to honor me!" Zeng Guofan didn't wait for Yung Wing to inform him, he spoke first, without a trace of smile on his face. "Don't be angry, Governor. I am a businessman and have done business with Chang Mao. I am afraid that I will be punished by the Lord." Rong Hong spoke Cantonese mandarin fluently, and he deliberately slowed down so that people could understand. "I called people over and over again, and asked your friends to write letters to invite you. Would I blame you? I know that you have written a letter to Long Mao, and I have read your letter. I don’t think you are in collusion with Changmao, but I think you are patriotic. I can tell you clearly, except for the seven suggestions you gave to Changmao, I can accept the other six.”

Yung Wing was very surprised.Two years ago, he and two American missionaries visited the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In Suzhou, Changzhou and other places, he saw with his own eyes that the Taiping Army had good military discipline and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. He had a good impression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.As soon as he entered Tianjing and talked with senior officials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he was disappointed.He found that all those important officials of the Kingdom of Heaven had outdated concepts, crude knowledge, and scrambled for power and profit, and formed cliques for personal gain. Rong Wing concluded that these people would not be able to accomplish anything.Among them, Qian Wang Hong Rengan was the one with a bit of brains.Yung Wing knew him when he was in Hong Kong, and he is considered the most innovative person in the top leadership of Heavenly Kingdom.Yung Wing made seven suggestions to him: 1. Build a good army; 2. Set up a military training school; 3. Build a naval academy; Various industrial schools.These seven suggestions, Yu Wang did not give him any clear answer, but gave him a small package of yellow satin.Rong Hong opened it and saw that it was a four-inch long and one-inch wide seal, engraved with the nine characters "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Wei Tianyi Rong Hong".Rong Hong couldn't laugh or cry at this, so he wrapped the seal as before, put it in the guest room, and quietly left Tianjing.Afterwards, he did tea business in Jiangxi and Anhui, whether it was the official or the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, as long as there was business, he would do it.Li Shanlan, Hua Hengfang, and Xu Shou had heard of his name early on and recommended him to Zeng Guofan many times.Until the third letter, Yung Wing felt his sincerity, so he came to visit.He never expected that the governor of Liangjiang, who is known as a famous minister of Confucianism, would agree with his idea brought from the West!

"The ships and guns of foreigners are indeed more powerful than ours. This is a fact. We must learn from them. It is a good idea that you propose to set up a school. We will send more people to study abroad in the future, and return to China after completing their studies. , to slowly build our own country into a prosperous and strong country. Mr. Rong, I heard that you went abroad when you were young? How many years have you lived in a foreign country?" "When I was seven years old, I studied with the British missionary Mrs. Gutrafu in Macau. When I was nineteen, I went to the United States and studied at Yale University. I lived in the United States for eight years." Rong Hong answered. "You are a talent." Zeng Guofan began to smile, "The country needs talents like you. Are you willing to be a general under my command?" "It's an honor to be an officer under your lord's command." Rong Hong got up and stood upright. "However, I have never been in the military, nor have I studied military science, so I am not competent." Zeng Guofan was very satisfied with Rong Hong's move just now, there is no such quality general in the Hunan Army. "I think you must be a good general because of your majestic eyes. You can tell at a glance that you are a courageous and insightful person. You must be able to give orders and control soldiers. However, since you are not willing, I will not force you. How old is this year, have you married?" "I am thirty-four years old, married and have children." Rong Hong replied. "Would you like to do something else in my shogunate?" Zeng Guofan's tone became more kind unconsciously. "It depends on what kind of errands the governor arranges for me." Anyone who comes to the governor's office, regardless of their talents, is humble and humble. There has never been a bargainer like Yung Wing.On the contrary, Zeng Guofan likes his unflattering personality, thinking that this is probably the result of foreign education.I couldn't think of a suitable job for a while, so I turned to ask: "Mr. Rong, in your opinion, if you want to find the most beneficial and important things for China today, where should you start?" "Your Excellency, the question you raised is a very big one, and I haven't given it much thought." Rong Wing sat down again, thought for a moment, and said, "I think the most important and beneficial thing today is to imitate the method of foreigners. Build a machine factory." "I think it's better to build a machine mother factory." Yang Guodong interjected, "This mother factory will manufacture all kinds of machines, and then use these machines to make guns, bullets, warships and chariots." "Yes, this master is right!" Rong Hong said happily, "That's exactly what I think, like a hen laying eggs. With such a mother machine factory, after ten or eight years, China will be able to Build a lot of factories all over the country. In this way, China will be as powerful as foreign countries." "Mr. Rong, your suggestion is very good! Just stay here with me, don't do the tea business any more, and make detailed arrangements with Uncle Ren, Xuecun, Ruoting and others. Make a rough plan to build such a machine factory , what kind of machines do you want to buy, and how much money do you need? After discussing, I invite you to go to the United States and the United Kingdom to work hard, bring the bank notes, and buy back the master machine." Zeng Guofan thought of an errand for Rong Wing. What Zeng Guofan said shocked Yung Wing!Today is the most exciting day in the seven years since he returned to China.He seemed to feel that the plan to enrich the country and strengthen the army, which he had conceived in a foreign country for many years, was taking the most critical first step.