Rebirth of the Northern Giants

Before Ye Zhikui could speak, Li Lianying said: "It scared our family to death. It's been a long time since Lafayette got so angry. Mrs. Ye, it seems that the Queen Mother values ​​you very much, so she is so kind to you and committed so many crimes." Nothing punishes you."

Ye Zhikui had a sincere and apprehensive expression, and hurriedly said: "I, Ye Zhikui, will never forget Lafayette's kindness in my life. I can only repay it with my modest efforts in my lifetime."

Ye Zhikui then stuffed more than [-] taels of silver bills into Li Lianying's hands, and said, "I, Ye Zhikui, will never forget your father-in-law's kindness. I will ask my father-in-law to say a few nice words in front of Lafayette in the future."

Li Lianying stuffed the silver ticket into her bosom, and seeing Ye Zhikui's interest, she reminded: "Our family sees that you are so good at being a man at such a young age, and the day of your prosperity is not far away, I just want to remind you, don't have too close contacts with the central ministers of the court. "

Li Lianying's words were not clear, and Ye Zhikui didn't understand for a while, but he said thank you, father-in-law, for reminding him, but then when he learned that Li Hongzhang was going to enter the military aircraft department, he suddenly understood.

With the 10,000+ taels of silver, Li Lianying sent Ye Zhikui to the gate of the Hall of Renshou. Ye Zhikui had to lament that the toll was a bit expensive, and it cost 10,000+ in just a few tens of meters, and he couldn't afford it.

Before Ye Zhikui returned to Ye Mansion and had no time to rest, he saw the article in the Beijing News, thought for a moment and felt that it was still necessary for him to go to Xianliang Temple to meet Li Hongzhang, so he made a visit with a present.

Li Hongzhang told Ye Zhikui to enter shortly after the concierge announced. Ye Zhikui walked through several arches and entered the hall, but he saw Li Hongzhang talking with two people. One was in his 50s and the other was in his thirties. It turned out that Li Hongzhang happened to have a visitor at home. Take a closer look Can't help but laugh and cry, one of them actually knows him, and the fate is not shallow.

Seeing Ye Zhikui coming in, Li Hongzhang said enthusiastically: "Congyun, you came just in time. The old man and the others were talking about you just now. I'm afraid you don't know these two people yet. Let the old man introduce you."

Ye Zhikui hurriedly saluted Li Hongzhang first, and then stood aside to wait for the introduction. Li Hongzhang nodded approvingly, and then introduced: "This is Sheng Xuanhuai, Sheng Xingsun, and the other It's his fifth younger brother Sheng Xinghuai, who also went to North Korea last time, I don't know if you have met before."

Ye Zhikui paid a junior salute to Sheng Xuanhuai. Ye Zhikui still admired Sheng Xuanhuai, the first official businessman in the late Qing Dynasty who defeated Hu Xueyan, started a business, and finally ordered the railway to be nationalized, which led to the outbreak of the Revolution of [-] and finally brought the Qing Dynasty to the grave. Well, if there is a Forbes rich list in the late Qing Dynasty, Sheng Xuanhuai deserves to be on the list.

Ye Zhikui then turned his eyes to the young Sheng Xinghuai. Sheng Xinghuai was the scribe who told Ye Zhikui gossip at the banquet in the Korean royal palace that day. It was really "a narrow road to enemies". But we met again in this situation.

Sheng Xinghuai, who had nothing to gossip about, saw that the master was uncomfortable. Ye Zhikui couldn't help laughing secretly, blinked at him quickly, and said jokingly: "I really have a destiny with my brother. I can't think of seeing each other again after we are separated by the East China Sea." .”

Seeing that they knew each other, Li Hongzhang stopped making further introductions, and then went to the main topic and said: "Congyun, you are now a rising star in my Beiyang, and Xingsun is an old man in Beiyang. If you have anything to do, you should take more responsibility. There is an old man who will soon enter the central military affairs department of the imperial court, and Wang Wenshao will replace him as Minister of Beiyang. This person is currently the Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, and he has some friendship with this old man, but he has some talents."

Ye Zhikui replied: "The boy was born in Beiyang, and he has always followed the old Zhongtang's lead. No matter what the old Zhongtang tells him, he will never refuse to die."

Li Hongzhang was very satisfied with his answer, and continued: "Just now when the old man and Xingsun talked about you, the old man remembered from Congyun that you haven't married a wife yet, and a real man is supposed to start a family and start a business. Now you can be regarded as a great achievement. You can't delay this important event in your life." Now, Xingsun has some good daughters, but you want me to be a matchmaker for you?" Although Li Hongzhang asked in a questioning tone, he didn't ask Ye Zhikui to answer at all, and just looked at Sheng Xuanhuai.

Sheng Xuanhuai looked at Ye Zhikui with a smile on his face, nodded continuously, seemed to be very satisfied with him, and said: "Zhongtang is a matchmaker, Xingsun dare not follow." What do you mean?"

Ye Zhikui blushed, and replied: "There are elders in my family, so I can't make decisions."

Li Hongzhang stroked his beard, and said with a smile: "With an old man as a matchmaker, are you afraid that your uncle Shuqing won't nod? That's the deal. You can send the dowry to Xingsun's house some other day."

Ye Zhikui was helpless, he neither agreed nor dared to refuse Li Hongzhang, but what he thought in his heart was that he had never even met anyone, if the arrogant and rude lady couldn't agree, he had to go back and investigate first before doing it. planned.Several people chatted for a while, and Ye Zhikui was relieved when he saw that Li Hongzhang still cared about him and seemed to have no grudges against him.

Chapter 44 The Sheng Family Has a Girl

Ye Zhikui finally escaped from Xianliang Temple. Old man Sheng was simply too enthusiastic. It was as if the old father-in-law liked his son-in-law more and more. , but he himself knew that he couldn't escape for a few days. With Li Hongzhang as a matchmaker, Ye Zhichao couldn't refuse. He didn't mind pointing to Lao Sheng's daughter who was not yet full moon and said that she was the only one!

After returning to Ye Mansion, Ye Zhikui convened Jianren Shiwu, Bao Budong, Butcher and other confidantes to discuss everything that happened today. Ye Zhikui first explained in detail how he went to the palace to meet Cixi and then went to Xianliang Temple to meet Li Hongzhang. After speaking, wait for everyone's analysis.

Bao BuTong has been in the officialdom for a long time, and he is very clear about some twists and turns in it, and said: "Young Master Ye, it seems that Lafayette will probably hand over the new army to you for training."

Ye Zhikui nodded in agreement. It is not difficult to see from Cixi's words today that she prefers to train recruits by herself, and the reason why the imperial court supervised the training of recruits was because many generals of the Huai Army were rebellious during the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War , Most of them listened to the tune and did not listen to the announcement. By the end of the Korean War, few troops could enter North Korea according to the original plan.

Whether the Huai army has begun to rot, or the generals have preserved their strength.The imperial court can no longer tolerate the strength of the local group training, so there is an urgent need to train the new army to be directly controlled by the imperial center to compete with the local area.

Ye Zhikui went on to say: "We already have some experience in training recruits in North Korea, but I still hope that you can sort out those materials again to make them clear, concise and easy to understand. In addition, we need to hire more Western officers. , I will handle this part. I will contact some students in Germany and ask them to help me pay attention to some talents. If we don’t practice, we must train an elite soldier. It must also be able to compete with the armies of Western countries."

When several people heard Ye Zhikui's words, their blood boiled, and they responded: "Since Young Master Ye has such ambitions, the subordinates can only do their best."

Wen Baishan hesitated to speak, and finally said: "Young Master Ye, this subordinate thinks that you should marry the Sheng family. This not only makes Lord Zhongtang feel at ease with you, but also the Sheng family itself is a wealthy family, and they are well-matched!"

The butcher twitched when he heard this, but did not make a sound. Ye Zhikui said, "I will discuss this matter with my uncle."

Then he asked Jianren Shiwu, "How is the property we brought from North Korea used?"

When I saw benevolence, I smiled helplessly: "Responding to Ye Shao's words, these days the villain is giving gifts a lot, and nine out of ten of them have been used. These have been recorded in the account, but the villain really didn't expect that the officials of the Qing Dynasty would They are so greedy, everyone has a big appetite, especially those members of the royal family, they are all blood-sucking insects, if it weren't for the villain's meticulous planning, I am afraid that the money would have been spent already."

Ye Zhikui thought for a while and said: "So, stop giving gifts. The people in the palace have begun to notice me. Now it's no longer the time to give gifts. It's just about finances. Don't worry too much. The news from Pin Qing , the North Korean pharmaceutical factory has started to sell heroin to Japan and the United States, and the sales are good. It can be said that it has made a lot of money. And the Bank of Korea has been renamed the Bank of Asia by me, and it is going to be established in Jiangsu (Ye Zhichao will be the governor of Jiangsu). Open dozens of branches in other places first. So Brother Tu, you need to dig more financial talents from some money houses or foreign banks, this time I don’t want to ask Master Zhongtang for help!”

The butcher quickly wrote it down, and several people discussed some other important matters. Ye Zhikui felt that he had too few business talents under his command, and finally asked the butcher to pay more attention to these talents. It was not until late at night that all the talents had to disperse and rest.

The Sheng family has a mansion in the capital, and because of Cixi's [-]th birthday, many young ladies and sons of the Sheng family made a special trip from Suzhou to the capital to join in the fun.

Passing through the magnificent hall, there was a burst of twittering from the west wing. The three unmarried ladies of the Sheng family were chattering around in this wing. It is the third lady of the Sheng family, who looks elegant and refined, with a slender neck, snow-skinned appearance, and a slender figure; the Jade Nianhua is the fourth lady of the Sheng family, with a little powder on her face, youthful and beautiful, lively and lovely, with a straight mouth Talking non-stop; the year of the last golden hairpin was the fifth young lady of the Sheng family, her body was not fully grown yet, she looked petite and mischievous.The three sisters were talking about some anecdotes that happened in the capital recently.

But the servant girl of the third lady, Sheng Huiyi, rushed in in a fuss, and said anxiously as she entered the door: "Miss! The third lady is not well, I heard the fifth master said that the master betrothed you to a war general named Ye Zhikui."

The three ladies hurriedly stopped talking and listened carefully to the maid's explanation.

Sheng Xuanhuai has married six wives successively, and there are countless other "girlfriends" who have not entered his family. Of course, the few daughters who can come to Beijing with him are all born to six wives, and they are extremely beloved daughters. Among them, the third and fourth misses were born to Mrs. Diao, but it is a pity that Mrs. Diao has passed away for many years.

Now the mistress of the Sheng Mansion is Mrs. Zhuang, the stepwife. Mrs. Zhuang was born in a scholarly family. She is also the mother of Miss Fifth. When she heard that she was going to marry the Ye family, and asked about Ye Zhikui's situation, she originally considered her own biological Daughter, it's a pity that her biological daughter is still young, so she has no choice but to think of the dignified and graceful Third Miss Sheng Huiyi.Although Sheng Huiyi was not her biological child, the relationship between the two of them was good on weekdays, and Sheng Huiyi was well educated and reasonable, and Sheng Xuanhuai loved her very much.

The third lady, Sheng Huiyi, was very good at taking care of herself since her mother died early. She has a calm temperament, is polite and considerate in dealing with others, and is well-educated and sensible. She is very popular with the elders.

The servant girl finished her speech in a hurry, but seeing that the Fourth Miss was neither surprised nor happy, she couldn't help being stunned, what happened to her own lady.

The fifth young lady, Sheng Guanyi, was still a little girl, and said half-understanding: "Third sister, isn't the general who fought the war very powerful? If he becomes my brother-in-law, I can also go to war."

Ordinarily, these young ladies who grew up in the deep boudoir should not know the news from outside, but because Sheng Xuanhuai is usually more open-minded, the ladies are very yearning for the colorful world outside, and they can't hear it from various channels. Less gossip.

The fourth miss, Sheng Xihui and Sheng Huiyi, were born to the same mother, and they were already sensible, and said: "Third sister, that Ye Zhikui seems to have given Lafayette a Western thing called a movie at the birthday banquet of the old Buddha the day before yesterday. Interesting, it looks like a real person inside. It’s just that I didn’t ask my father what he looks like? Why don’t my younger sister go and find out for you.”

Sheng Huiyi shook his head and replied: "Fourth sister, don't do irrelevant things. Dad hasn't mentioned this matter to me yet, so we don't know if it's true or not. Besides, we women in high-end mansions don't have the right to choose their own husbands. No matter how many things you inquire about, it will not help, it will only increase your troubles. Well, you all go back to your room, Third Sister, I am going to rest. "

After the two younger sisters retired, Sheng Huiyi couldn't help but think of Ye Zhikui. In fact, she knew Ye Zhikui better than the two younger sisters.

Sheng Huiyi lost his mother since he was a child, and his father was not at home all day long. When he was a child, he liked to pester his fifth uncle Sheng Xinghuai. He liked to listen to him talk about some interesting things outside. This time Sheng Xinghuai returned from North Korea. Sheng Huiyi went to pester him again. He asked him to tell some anecdotes that happened in North Korea.

During the process of narrating, Sheng Xinghuai mentioned Ye Zhikui the most. Sheng Huiyi could easily hear his admiration and admiration for Ye Zhikui from Wu Shu's words, and heard that Ye Zhikui was a brave and resourceful general. It is said that Ye Zhikui has some unclear relationship with the North Korean princess, and Ye Zhikui also has a confidante named Xiao Linglong who loves him very much. A few days ago, he heard that Ye Zhikui molested a good woman at the gate of the city.

May I ask which woman in the world doesn't want her husband to love only herself and marry only herself? Of course, this was obviously impossible at that time, but the one she loves the most must be herself. Ye Zhikui has a confidante and Sheng Huiyi can accept it.

What Sheng Huiyi couldn't accept was hearing Ye Zhikui molesting a girl from a good family at the gate of the city, and she already regarded him as a playboy in her heart. She, Sheng Huiyi, would be extremely disdainful of such a person, no matter how talented she was. What way, this is the fate of being a lady, is it just like this appointment?Sheng Huiyi asked herself this way!

Of course Ye Zhikui didn't know that he was being missed by a girl, and he was suffering from a headache!Ye Zhichao got the news that Li Hongzhang was a matchmaker after returning home not long ago. He didn't have the right to speak to Ye Zhikui at all, so he agreed without hesitation. Now Ye Zhikui has a headache how to talk to Xiao Linglong about this matter.

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Sorry, brothers, the update is late, please forgive me!

Chapter 45 The Farce of Miss Sheng San

On the right day, after Ye Zhikui sent away a few colleagues who came to visit, he looked at the time and found that it was already time for lunch. Thinking that Ye Zhichao had actually visited Li Hongzhang early in the morning, he couldn't help but shook his head and smiled wryly. After dinner, someone came to report a visit. Ye Zhikui looked at the famous post, but there was no name but it was written as the Sheng family. Usually at this time, if there were no special circumstances, no one would come to visit. Ye Zhikui could not help thinking that it would be from the Sheng family. The one has something important to come.

Walking to the living room, I saw two women. One of them was sitting with a good figure. When I looked closely at her appearance, I was shocked. Although her facial features were correct, her face was as black as the bottom of a pot.The other one is obviously a servant girl standing behind him.

The camera was placed two hours ago in the boudoir of the third lady of the Sheng family.

"Miss San, are you sure you want to do this?" the maid Xiaolu asked again.

The third lady of the Sheng family, Sheng Huiyi, had no fear on her face, and replied: "I thought about it all night last night before I came up with such a clever plan, Xiaolu, please stop trying to persuade me, this is the only way to make Ye Zhikui take the initiative to retreat."