Rebirth of the Northern Giants

Yuan Shikai had 7000 or [-] recruits in the small station, and his combat power was not bad. Unfortunately, a lot of Wu Yi army's detailed work was mixed in. Ye Zhikui believed that if he had the heart, he could at least make Yuan Shikai's small station recruits chaotic.

The more than [-] Nanyuan New Army under Rong Lu's personal command is a group of people who play with birds and walk dogs. There are many Eight Banners in it, and there is no artillery team.

Although Dong Xiangfu’s more than 1 Gan army has experienced the Xinjiang war and suppressed peasant uprisings, the Gan army has never fought against foreign troops. It is an old army, basically the same as the Shandong army. Fighting is based on personal bravery, transportation is basically based on walking, communication is basically based on roaring, insomnia is basically relying on hands, not to mention that Ye Zhikui has a secret weapon to deal with them.

What was left was Song Qing's Yi Army, which was stationed at Shanhaiguan, and could not affect him for a moment. The last one was the capital's infantry patrolling the Fifth Battalion, which could be ignored.

Ye Zhikui thought about it secretly, and found that no one would cause him any danger.He couldn't help being cautious secretly, he could see it himself, at least Rong Lu could see that Wu Yi's army was the strongest army.

Rong Lu saw that everyone's expressions were not very good, so he wooed them again to remove everyone's guard, and then let the others retreat first, leaving Ye Zhikui alone.

"Congyun, I value you very much, I hope you will not disappoint me." Rong Lu suddenly said quietly.

In fact, Ye Zhikui had no adultery with Guangxu, so he didn't worry if he had no ghosts in his heart, but he said hastily: "The lower officials have always followed the advice of adults."

"I heard that you talked for more than an hour when you met the emperor. It seems that the emperor values ​​you very much. The day of prosperity is not far away."

"The emperor is the emperor, and the subordinate officials are ministers. The emperor is more interested, and the subordinate officials can only agree. But in comparison, the subordinate officials still prefer to go to the Summer Palace." Ye Zhikui said half-truthfully.

"Really? Congyun, you are a smart person. You must know that what the emperor can give you, the queen mother can also give. The emperor and the queen mother are mother and child. Human relations cannot be broken. You have to see the situation clearly."

"My lord, Cong Yun has always kept his duty. Don't do what you shouldn't do, and don't care about what you shouldn't." Let's pretend to be a grandson.

Rong Lu nodded when he heard the words. Of course he didn't believe Ye Zhikui's words right away, but he was confident that after making so many preparations, even if Ye Zhikui had half-hearted intentions, he would not be able to make any trouble.

Rong Lu warned Ye Zhikui a few more words before letting him out.

After Ye Zhikui went out, like Yuan Shikai, he felt his back was drenched. Who said that killing Ronglu was like killing a dog.

"Nephew, you finally came out. The old man has been waiting for a while." Sheng Xuanhuai was waiting for him in the sedan chair at the door.

Ye Zhikui hurriedly stepped forward to pay respects, and said with a smile, "Uncle, do you have something important to discuss with your nephew?"

Sheng Xuanhuai looked at Ye Zhikui with a smile and said, "Nephew, get on the sedan chair first."

Ye Zhikui had no choice but to get in. Fortunately, Sheng Xuanhuai's sedan chair was very big, and the two of them sat without any congestion.

Sheng Xuanhuai said with a smile on his face: "The emperor has issued an imperial decree to call me to Beijing. I will come to Beijing to talk about building railways, training troops, managing money, running schools, etc., but before entering Beijing, I still want to tell you one thing. done."

Ye Zhikui frowned, ignored the last sentence, and said puzzledly: "It's windy and rainy now, is it dangerous for Uncle to go to Beijing to meet the Holy Spirit?"

Sheng Xuanhuai said indifferently: "The queen mother is afraid of you generals who hold soldiers and horses. What is there to be afraid of the old man who has no power to restrain the chicken? No matter who wins or loses, people are always needed to run business, isn't it? The old man is arrogant, how many people in the imperial court can have the old man familiar with these things."

Ye Zhikui was relieved, and said with a smile: "Uncle still sees it deeply, it seems that my nephew is just worrying about it. By the way, uncle, you took over the Hanyang Iron Works in Hubei a few days ago. The iron plant owes a lot and needs a loan. My nephew happens to have some spare money in Bank of Asia, and I want to participate in some shares, I wonder if my uncle is interested in my nephew's money?"

Sheng Xuanhuai was very surprised, and shook his head to persuade: "Congyun, it's not that uncle disagrees, but that Hanyang Iron Works has suffered a lot of losses, and it's not known how long it will take to make money, so I advise you to invest in other industries. Much, that is no better than the Hanyang Iron Works."

Hanyang Iron Works was a joke from the very beginning. Zhang Zhidong took over it for seven years, but he was devastated, lost money, and owed a huge sum of 500 million taels, so he had to go to Tianjin to find Sheng Xuanhuai to take over. When Dong first set up the factory, Sheng Xuanhuai told him to run it commercially and not government-run. Otherwise, everyone would grab the wool of socialism and poach the corners of socialism. I don't even know each other.

Ye Zhikui has always been worried about the difficulties encountered by this iron factory, which is known as "the start of China's iron and steel industry", and decided to take part in it.

Because foreigners are really deceiving people too much. After Hanyang Iron Works was taken over by Sheng Huaixuan, although the steel was produced, it has always been unqualified. The quality is problematic and cannot be sold. Why?After several twists and turns, Sheng Xuanhuai sent Li Weige to investigate overseas and finally understood the reason. The reason why the steel produced by Hanyang Iron Works is brittle and easy to break is that there is too much phosphorus in the ore. During the smelting process, phosphorus removal is used. The law will do.

Hanyang Iron Works used to have so many skilled foreign technicians hired with a lot of money. Even the layman Li Weige knew the reason when he went abroad. Could they not know the reason?It's not that they bully the Chinese because they don't understand technology, and they don't want China to produce good steel.As a result, China's iron and steel industry "wasted more than ten years of time and exhausted more than ten million costs", and the losses were extremely painful.

Ye Zhikui must not allow this to happen again, and said to Sheng Xuanhuai with a smile: "Uncle, my nephew heard that Zhang Zhidong's machine furnaces use the acid method to make steel, and the ore contains too much phosphorus. The steel is not up to standard, and the alkaline dephosphorization steelmaking method should be able to improve it. Uncle has to pay more attention, send people to foreign countries to investigate, buy another machine, and improve the process. Besides, foreign technicians are unreliable, so we still need to train Chinese technicians. This is the best policy, and with my uncle's skills, my nephew believes that the iron factory will turn things around and turn losses into profits."

Sheng Xuanhuai was worrying about this matter. After he took over, he also discovered this problem, but no one could solve it. Hearing what Ye Zhikui said now, it seems that there is some truth. Secretly decided to send someone to study abroad.

Volume 1 The Wind and Cloud of the Capital [-] Chapter [-] The scenery under the skirt is infinitely beautiful (subscription required)

Due to China’s victory in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government did not need to pay huge sums of money, and still had some spare money to repair the railway. Therefore, it did not borrow foreign debts to build roads. Although Ye Zhikui supported the construction of the railway in spirit, he did not want to pour his own money into this bottomless pit for the time being, and let the court bleed first.

Ye Zhikui and Sheng Xuanhuai had a happy chat in the sedan chair. Sheng Xuanhuai talked about some things about his own business and factory, and Ye Zhikui interjected a few words from time to time.

Ye Zhikui had to admire Sheng Xuanhuai's accomplishments in business. China does not lack talents, but lacks a stage for talents to display their ambitions. Sheng Xuanhuai soon also looked at Ye Zhikui differently. He did not expect that Ye Zhikui had some insights ahead of him.No wonder Bank of Asia was made famous by him, and even Sheng Xuanhuai used Bank of Asia to transfer money.

Unknowingly, Zhongye Zhikui followed Sheng Xuanhuai to Sheng's mansion.

"Uncle, it's getting late, my nephew should take my leave and go back to prepare for the evening banquet!" Ye Zhikui looked at the gate of Sheng Mansion and said his goodbyes.

Sheng Xuanhuai looked up to see the bright sun in the sky, it's not early?He couldn't help laughing and said: "Where do these trivial matters need to be prepared by Congyun, the old man will do it as soon as I order, and besides, how could Congyun pass my Shengfu's door and not enter, could it be that he regards the old man as an outsider."

Ye Zhikui was so choked that he had nothing to say, so he had to go in with Sheng Xuanhuai.

In the west wing of the Sheng family, Sheng Huiyi was concentrating on learning abacus and making accounts with an abacus. Mrs. Zhuang was good at managing money, so she taught all these things to Sheng Huiyi who was about to get married.

"Miss, miss, my uncle is here!" The maid Xiaolu ran in with a happy face to announce the good news to Miss Sheng San.

Miss Sheng San raised her head when she heard the words, she was overjoyed, but she was embarrassed to show it to the outside, and reprimanded Xiaolu: "You are so anxious, it's not like you haven't seen him before."

Xiaolu was dissatisfied and grunted: "I don't know who misses my uncle day and night, and doesn't think about food and drink, and keeps asking slaves to inquire about him."

Sheng Huiyi blushed slightly, and argued: "Who did this? I'm just looking for something to do when I'm idle."

"Well, this servant originally wanted to find out what my aunt and master were going to talk about. Since the young lady doesn't care, then Xiaolu doesn't bother to worry about it." The little girl is eloquent and she is not afraid of Sheng Huiyi at all.

"You damn girl, if you spoil you on weekdays, it doesn't matter whether you are big or small, right?" Sheng Huiyi couldn't express her thoughts directly, and wanted Xiaolu to go and find out. Messed up.

Seeing her lady's anxious look, the little girl couldn't help but secretly thought it was funny. Sheng Huiyi was usually very dignified, elegant and refined, with a dignified and graceful temperament, and a soft voice, so she would lose her composure like this, so she stopped teasing her and said with a smile: " Got it, got it, Xiaolu will go and have a look, but Miss, you have to continue to pamper me in the future." The little girl was busy signing the unequal treaty, and there was no such shop after passing this village, she knew it well!

In the hall of the Sheng Mansion, Ye Zhikui took the second seat, and Sheng Xuanhuai and Mrs. Zhuang took the main seats.

Ye Zhikui didn't look sideways, and sat upright, but felt uncomfortable all over, because Mrs. Zhuang had been carefully looking him up, down, left, and right. Mrs. Zhuang came from a scholarly family, and her age hadn't left the slightest trace on her face. It's a half-aged mistress, and the charm still exists.

Besides, Mrs. Zhuang believes in Buddhism and is good at managing the family.

Ye Zhikui came in a hurry and didn't prepare any gifts, so he became more and more uncomfortable.

Mrs. Zhuang sized her up for a while before she said with a smile on the corner of her mouth, "Master, the 29th of this month is an auspicious day, look..."

Sheng Xuanhuai nodded in agreement, and said with a smile, "That's right, what do you think of Congyun?"

"The boy also thinks it's a good day." Ye Zhikui blurted out the words of the two elders without thinking, and only after he finished speaking did he realize that this could not be the wedding day chosen by Mrs. Zhuang for him.

Sure enough, Mrs. Zhuang praised with satisfaction: "Since even Cong Yun thinks it's a good day for you, then you and Hui Yi's wedding will be held on that day!"

"Auntie, this kid has no choice but to go home and discuss with his elders."

"What? Your uncle Shuqing came back from Jiangsu?" Sheng Xuanhuai asked knowingly.

Ye Zhikui smiled embarrassingly, shook his head and said: "The kid has a marriage at home, so..."

"I heard that your other father-in-law is as rough as you, what can you know! It's better to leave it to us women, and since your uncle is not here, we are your elders, I think we should do it like this! Mrs. Zhuang felt a little displeased when she thought that Ye Zhikui married two at the same time, and interrupted Ye Zhikui's words.

"This," Ye Zhikui couldn't bear the two oppressive gazes.

"Master, madam, uncle! The tea is here!" Xiaolu brought the tea just in time, and Ye Zhikui couldn't help but secretly heaved a sigh of relief, but secretly wiped off his cold sweat.