The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 331: When you are poor, you must think of ways to make money! (Please subscribe and vote)

"Oh, it's like this. Luo Xueyan reported that half a month ago, he went out to sea with the warships of Britain, France and the United States, marched a thousand miles south, crossed the sea and landed in Ryukyu, fought a bloody battle with the Japanese pirates for three days, killed 4,000 enemies, captured 18 alive, and successfully rescued the Ryukyu Kingdom's Zhongshan King Shang Tai. Afterwards, he returned to Shanghai with the Ryukyu King's brother Shang Bi and the three-official Ma Chaodong, and signed a treaty with Britain, France and the United States in Shanghai on opening up Ryukyu and allowing Britain, France and the United States to station troops in Ryukyu, lease land, enjoy consular jurisdiction, and allow various Christian sects to preach freely in Ryukyu."

Prince Gong Yixin told Emperor Xianfeng what Luo Xueyan had said in his petition to the Beiyang Minister's Office, and then sent it together with the petition to Beiyang to Tianjin, asking Beiyang to forward the petition to Emperor Xianfeng to An Dehai, who would show it to Emperor Xianfeng.

Xianfeng picked up the petition Luo Xueyan had sent him and read it carefully again, then he gave a bitter smile and said, "How did my Qing Dynasty expand its territory by accident?"

"Your Majesty, this expansion of territory is a good thing no matter what!"

Prince Gong Yixin said, "Your Majesty, the letter Luo Xueyan sent me this time also said that he has sent Wu Jianzhang's son Wu Chaoyue to be the Qing Dynasty's Consul General in the Straits Settlements, and he also gave Wu Chaoyue a secret order to make the Lan Fang Republic a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty. So I would like to ask Your Majesty for an order."

"Ah? Straits Settlements? Lan Fang what country?"

Xianfeng was totally confused when he heard this. What are Lan Fang, what is the Strait, and what is the Republic?

"Your Majesty, this Straits Settlements is the original Malacca, which is a strait connecting the South Sea and the West. Ships traveling between the East and the West have to pass through there." Prince Gong said, "That area was also a vassal of China a long time ago, and was later occupied by Westerners. This Straits Settlements is now a territory of the British Empire!

As for the Lan Fang Republic, it is located on the island of Borneo. This country was founded 60 or 70 years ago by Luo Xueyan's ancestor Luo Fangbo and a group of overseas Chinese who fled to Jiaying Prefecture. The territory is not large, just the area of ​​a county. The so-called republic means that this country has no king. "

"No king?" Xianfeng was stunned. "A country cannot be without a king for a day. How can a country be established without a king?"

"So it's called a republic, which means that dozens of wealthy families jointly elect a leader for the sake of harmony, right?" Prince Gong said, "The leader of the Lan Fang Kingdom is called the 'General of the Tang Dynasty'. However, since the day the Lan Fang Kingdom was founded, it has always wanted to annex China. It's just that we looked down on them before, and always thought they were overseas scoundrels, not worth mentioning."

Xianfeng smiled bitterly: "It is true. Just like Ryukyu, we have known for a long time that it is controlled by Japanese pirates, but what's the big deal? Only Luo Xueyan takes it seriously. But then again, as long as the court doesn't have to ask for money, it's always good to be able to expand the territory."

Prince Gong Yixin nodded and said, "Your Majesty, what you said is very true. It can expand the territory and always boost people's morale."

At this time, Xianfeng thought of something else: "Sixth Brother, whose territory is Borneo now? Are there any foreign powers coveting it?"

"There are Bonnie and Sulu on Borneo, and the Dutch seem to be coveting them." Prince Gong said with a smile, "But I asked the British Consul General in Tianjin, and he said that the Netherlands is no longer a great power. If we want to make Lan Fang a vassal, the Dutch will have no choice."

"What about Britain?" Xianfeng asked.

"The British seem to be saying that if we can quickly lease the excellent port of Vladivostok to them and allow them to hire workers from Yantai and Tianjin to go to Vladivostok to build the port and barracks, then they will acquiesce in our acceptance of Lanfang as a vassal state. In addition, if we can provide assistance to Britain and France in the war between Britain, France and Russia that will break out next year, Britain and France are willing to help us recover Sakhalin Island."

As Prince Gong spoke, he took out a memorial as if by magic and handed it to An Dehai with both hands.

Eunuch An immediately took the memorial and sent it to Emperor Xianfeng.

Xianfeng took it and took a look, and his brows immediately frowned.

It turns out that Prince Gong has also been working very hard on foreign affairs these days!

The person he dealt with was the former British Consul in Guangzhou, Sir John Bowring, and the instructions Bowring received from Sir John Bowring was to lease the port of Vladivostok and militarize it.

The purpose of Britain leasing the port of Vladivostok and militarizing Vladivostok was, of course, for an attack on the Russian East Siberian coastal areas that might take place in 1854 or 1855!

The British Empire's top priority is to attack Russia! If the Qing Dynasty can help, it is not impossible to give some benefits. Anyway, Lan Fang, Ryukyu, Sakhalin Island and other territories are not the British Empire's, they are just generous to others.

However, Xianfeng was not very interested in Lanfang, Ryukyu, and Sakhalin. The expansion of territory was used to embellish the prosperous times, but the Qing Dynasty was in turmoil, and it was a typical situation of living today but not tomorrow! What was the meaning of expanding territory?

"Sixth brother," Xianfeng frowned, "don't you know what the current situation of our Qing Dynasty is? What right do we have to get involved in the war between Britain and France against Russia? Do we have soldiers? Do we have money? Now that Jiangnan and Jiangbei have lost so much territory, the grain transport has been cut off, and the grain tax, salt tax, tariffs from the Jianghai Customs and Zhejiang Customs, as well as the tax silver from the wealthy provinces of Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, and Zhejiang, are all gone. This year, we can still support ourselves with the old foundation of the national treasury and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but what about next year?
We are already in this state. Can we still expand our territory?"

Hearing Emperor Xianfeng complaining about poverty, Prince Gong Yixin paused for a moment and then said carefully, "Your Majesty, I think these territorial expansions don't cost much. The expenses of the Nanyang New Army's expedition to Ryukyu were all raised by the Shanghai Military Governor's Office. I heard that the Shanghai Military Governor's Office now earns as much as 600,000 or 700,000 taels of silver a month!"

"Six or seven hundred thousand? That much?" Xianfeng said, gritting his teeth. "Six hundred thousand a month, that's seven million two hundred thousand a year. That's all my money! Mine!"

"Your Majesty," Prince Gong reminded, "Before Luo Xueyan took over Shanghai and the Jianghai Customs, there were not so many."

"He is good at making money!" Xianfeng said bitterly, "but I am so poor. This won't do. I have to make him pay me!"

"Your Majesty," Prince Gong said, "We must ask Luo Xueyan to pay, but we must also find ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure! Otherwise, how much can he pay us? Even if he is willing to give us 100,000 taels a month, it is only 1.2 million a year. The annual expenditure for the banner salary and rice alone is tens of millions."

"What did you say?"

Xianfeng was startled, staring at Prince Gong, and lowered his voice and said, "You want me to stop paying the banner salary and rice allowance? You want to starve the Eight Banners children in the city to death?"

"Your Majesty," Prince Gong said in a low voice, "I heard that the monthly food and salary of the soldiers of the Shanghai New Army only cost 60 taels a year, and the equipment on their bodies cost less than 20 taels. With 80 taels, you can equip a soldier of the New Army from scratch and keep him working hard for a year. The annual salary of 4 to 5 million taels is 50,000 New Army soldiers!"

Xianfeng said in an inaudible voice: "If we can reduce the salary and rice allowance by half, we can save enough money to support 50,000 new troops in a year."

"Your Majesty is wise!" Prince Gong bowed deeply, resting his forehead on the ground, and whispered, "If we can save the flag pay and rice subsidies, we will have enough money to support 100,000 new troops! If we have 100,000 new troops, why worry about the Taiping Rebellion and unrest in the world?"

"Hey," Xianfeng laughed bitterly, "Sixth Brother, I said you are stupid, but you are good at studying and calligraphy. I said you are smart, but how dare you think of destroying the livelihoods of millions of bannermen in the forty-nine cities? You are afraid."

"Your Majesty, I actually have a plan that can make the millions of bannermen in the Forty-Nine City stop hating us."

"What plan?" Xianfeng asked, staring at his brother.

"Your Majesty, you can ask Luo Xueyan, Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guofan, Jiang Zhongyuan, Hu Linyi, Luo Bingzhang, Zhang Liangji and other high-ranking officials for money."

"Are they willing to give it?" Xianfeng asked.

"I guess he won't."

"So what's the difference?"

"Yes!" Prince Gong said, "Since they are unwilling to give money, they should help the court find ways to save money!"

Xianfeng's eyelids jumped: "Ask them to help the court find ways to save money? You mean, let them be..."

He didn't finish his words.

Prince Gong pressed his forehead to the ground and said, "Your Majesty is wise."

(End of this chapter)