The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 487 Zeng Jia. Guofan, your uncle has come to Haizhou (New Year greetings, asking for votes)

When Emperor Tongde heard that the Beiyang Army was to be expanded to six towns, his brows instantly twisted like a knot. Six towns? That was too many. Even if he sold the Forbidden City and the Old Summer Palace, he still couldn't raise the money to recruit soldiers, purchase weapons, and pay salaries. Could it be that he really wanted to squander all his ancestors' wealth?
Moreover, if these six Beiyang New Army regiments were all controlled by Li Hongzhang alone, it would seem uneasy no matter how you look at it.

Li Hongzhang was a shrewd man. He had already figured out Emperor Tongde's thoughts. Without waiting for the emperor to make his point, he spoke up to answer the emperor's questions and said, "Your Majesty, it will cost a lot of money to expand the Beiyang New Army. I know that our treasury is not well-off now and we can't raise that much money in a short time. So I have thought of a clever way to get money for Your Majesty."

"What method?" Emperor Tongde's eyes lit up all of a sudden, as if he had seen a huge ingot. "Shaoquan, tell me quickly."

"Your Majesty, my solution is to borrow foreign debts." Li Hongzhang said slowly, "Let's borrow from the Banque de France in the French Concession in Tianjin. We can borrow tens of millions of taels of silver at a time. That will definitely be enough money to expand the Beiyang New Army!"

"Borrow tens of millions of taels?" Emperor Tongde was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped to the ground. "Can you really borrow that much?"

Li Hongzhang nodded and said confidently: "Yes! But there must be some collateral."

"What to mortgage?" Emperor Tongde asked hurriedly.

"Mortgage the customs duties of Tianjin Customs and the salt tax of Zhili." Li Hongzhang explained, "This foreign debt of tens of millions will be repaid in ten years, with an interest of 8%, that is, if you borrow 100 taels, you will pay 8 taels of interest a year. In this way, you can pay back about 1 million taels every year, including principal and interest. The customs duties of Tianjin Customs, including tobacco taxes and so on, can collect more than 2 million taels a year, and the salt tax of Zhili is also several hundred thousand. Add up to about 3 million. In the next ten years, the customs duties of Tianjin Customs and the salt tax of Zhili will have to be used to repay the foreign debts first, and the rest will belong to us. In addition, the Oriental Bank will have to send people to our customs office and salt office to help us keep an eye on the tax collectors below... Your Majesty, if you find this condition acceptable, then the military expenses of the Six Towns Beiyang Army will be settled."

Emperor Tongde frowned and muttered softly: "This is a solution..."

In fact, this is the only way. What else can we do?

But Emperor Tongde was not stupid. He knew very well what the relationship between Li Hongzhang and the French was - he was the vassal of France!
If the imperial court borrowed foreign debt from the Bank of France, it would have to buy French weapons to equip the New Beiyang Army, and it would have to invite French generals to train the New Beiyang Army... By that time, half of the New Beiyang Army would have to be named Li and half would be named Napoleon, otherwise it would be a mess!

Naturally, Li Hongzhang could not hide his little thoughts from him.

Lord Li continued to fool around: "Your Majesty, now the Beiyang New Army has only one town, and there is no general officer. I have been in charge of it. If the Beiyang New Army expands to six towns, I can't manage it alone. So I suggest that the court send a general officer and a deputy general to each town, and the Beiyang Minister's Office will send a military officer to help the general and the deputy general train and fight. Under the town, there will be two left and right assistants. The court will send a deputy general and a military officer as the chief and deputy chief officers, and the Beiyang Minister's Office will send an assistant to assist the deputy general and the military officer in training. Under the assistant is the battalion, and each battalion has a chief, deputy battalion commander and a staff officer. One of the chief and deputy battalion commanders is appointed by the court, and the other and the staff officer are appointed by Beiyang. What do you think of my suggestion, Your Majesty?"

This is a brilliant suggestion!

The court did not have to pay for the money. The generals, deputy generals, and lieutenant generals of the six garrisons were all sent by the court. Even half of the chief and deputy battalion commanders were sent by the court!

If Emperor Tongde still refuses to agree, then no one will be able to help him resist Emperor Xianfeng and Zeng Guofan, and by then he might not even be able to sit firmly on the throne.

Thinking of this, Emperor Tongde was so happy that he said happily: "Shaoquan, you are really my loyal minister... I will leave the matter of expanding the Beiyang New Army to you, you must do it well for me! As for those generals, deputy generals, lieutenant generals, battalion commanders... the Eight Banners officers in Beijing, and the military officers in the five patrol camps, you can directly transfer whoever you like, and I will approve them all! In addition, you can also take on the job of Governor-General of Zhili!"

The Eight Banners officers in Beijing and the Green Camp military officers in the patrol camp were all Emperor Tongde's favorites and his base. He could only rise to the throne thanks to their support.

So he was very generous and let Li Hongzhang choose the person. As for the post of Governor-General of Zhili, it had to be given! Li Hongzhang had made such great efforts, did not take too much power, and gave up so many positions in the Beiyang Army. If Emperor Tongde did not give him the post of Governor-General of Zhili, he would feel sorry for Li Hongzhang.

"I thank my lord for his great grace!" Li Hongzhang shouted at the top of his voice, then bowed deeply with a "thump".

Li Hongzhang has finally achieved his goal. It is so easy to undermine the generals, deputy generals, lieutenant generals, and battalion commanders!
According to his plan, these six new armies would be expanded based on his Beiyang First Army, his father Li Wenxuan's Huai Army Yuzi Camp, Yuan Jiasan's Huai Army Wuzi Camp, and Ma Xinyi's Huai Army Shanzi Camp.

In other words, the backbone of the army was either old veterans from the Beiyang Town or from the Huai Army. The newly recruited soldiers all ate and wore Li family clothes. The foreign generals who helped with training and the foreign guns and cannons that equipped the troops were all provided by Mathilde.

Those generals, deputy generals, lieutenant generals, and battalion commanders who were sent down were all alone!
The Beiyang Army, after all, is still ruled by the surname Li!

Moreover, even if those people sent down were from the Eight Banners or the Green Camp, what would it matter? As long as Li Hongzhang supported Naralan and Zaichun and used the emperor to control the princes, would those people dare to rebel? They wouldn't dare to do that even if they had the guts!

Haizhou City was the residence of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty.

Compared with the Forbidden City where his brother Gong Laoliu lived, Xianfeng's residence was really simple and crude. It was just a provincial government office. Who knows how many years it hadn't been properly repaired? It could barely keep out the wind, snow and cold!

However, even with such a stronghold, Xianfeng could no longer stay there! Because a large number of Taiping troops had arrived in Haizhou Bay east of Haizhou City, with a total of tens of thousands of people, who landed from the sea on large ships. After landing, they took a series of surrounding towns without bloodshed, and the front of the troops was almost reaching Xianfeng's neck.

Xianfeng only had this one city, and his army was only 3,000 to 4,000. Shandong to the north was the territory of Zeng Jia Guofan, the governor of the grain transport system and acting governor of Shandong, who was loyal to Emperor Tongde. Although Xianfeng had Zeng Jia Linshu in his hands, Zeng Jia Guofan could not be both loyal and filial!
Therefore, before Zeng Jia. Guofan clearly expressed his loyalty, he did not dare to "send" him to Shandong. But on the other side, the Taiping Army was too scary!

Just when Xianfeng was forced into a corner and was ready to bite the bullet and try his luck with Zeng Jia Guofan, Ronglu, whom he had previously sent to Shanghai to keep an eye on Luo Xueyan, suddenly came over from Haizhou Bay!
They also brought an old man who looked very similar to Zeng Jia. Guofan and a middle-aged man who looked very similar to Zeng Jia. Guofan.
"Ronglu, they are..." When Xianfeng saw these two people, his heart skipped a beat. He always felt that something was wrong. Why did these two guys look so much like Zeng Jia Guofan?
Ronglu, kneeling on the ground, secretly glanced at Zeng Jia, the Minister of the Imperial Guards and the Minister of the Imperial Court, who were standing stupidly beside him with their hands tightly grasping the knife handle, and then smiled bitterly and said, "Your Majesty, they are Zeng Jia. Guofan's... uncle Zeng Qishu and brother Zeng Guohua!" If there is Linshu, there is really Qishu. Ronglu reacts quite quickly!

Zeng Jia Linshu heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this, and loosened his grip on the knife handle. Then, like a little child, he rushed towards Zeng... Qishu, "Brother, you are finally out of danger. You have suffered so much in the past two years!"

Zeng Qishu was stunned when he saw this "brother" who suddenly appeared. Before he could come to his senses, he was hugged tightly by the other party. Zeng Guohua, who came with Zeng Qishu, was very smart and immediately shouted at the top of his voice: "Father, my uncle has suffered a lot in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom..."

Xianfeng looked at this "touching" family reunion scene, and a big mystery was solved in his heart - no wonder Zeng Jia Guofan looked nothing like his father, it seems he took after his uncle! And not only he took after his uncle, but also his brothers. Xianfeng felt a little sympathetic to Zeng Jia Linshu because of this incident, and kept thinking: "This won't do. I have to find a marriage for Zeng Jia Linshu, or find him a virgin girl from the Yanshenggong Mansion? The girl from the Kong family won't cuckold this silly guy, right?"

Xianfeng was just thinking about this when Zeng Jia Linshu came over to report to him: "Your Majesty, my son Guofan has always listened to his uncle. Now my elder brother has escaped from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Your Majesty has the support of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. As long as my elder brother writes a letter and asks Guohua to deliver it to Jining Prefecture, I guarantee that my son Guofan will definitely bring the entire Shandong province to join you!"

Ronglu on the side also quickly added: "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness Prince Wu of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom said that as long as you want to fight the traitor Yi Xin to the end, he is willing to provide you with military pay and equipment, as long as you give up Haizhou and Xuzhou..."

(End of this chapter)