I can't die

Ding Richang's one-day trip to the Anqing Nei Ordnance Institute was an eye-opener, and he even had a feeling of admiration for Hua Hengfang.In the past, he claimed to be proficient in artillery and foreign affairs, but he never thought that "there are people beyond people, and there is a sky beyond the sky". Now that he thinks about it, he is just watching the sky from the well.

Ding Richang is straightforward by nature, and he is not a person who complains about himself. After he figured it out, he insisted on worshiping Hua Hengfang as his teacher.Ding Richang was a third-rank official of the imperial court, who held the power of transporting salt by water, Hua Hengfang didn't dare to accept his gift, and hurriedly shirked it. In the end, the two deserved to be called brothers, and it was a good talk.

"Brother Hua has now forged such a magic weapon, why should Qing Dynasty be afraid of that foreigner?" Perfect, Ding Richang and Hua Hengfang talked happily over wine, and their words were full of pride, as if they saw the hope of Qing Dynasty kicking Britain, France and Tsarist Russia .

Although Hua Hengfang was also happy, she was a realist, and shook her head immediately: "No, no. It will take several years for the Qing Dynasty to fight against the foreigners."

Ding Richang's admiration for Hua Hengfang had reached the highest point at this time, he believed it when he heard him say this, and asked anxiously, "Why?"

Upon hearing this, Hua Hengfang dipped her finger in the wine and wrote the word "iron" on the table.Iron is an essential product for training all modern military industries, and it can be called the source of everything.

"Ironmaking in China (China) can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period at the earliest. After thousands of years of development, it is now using coke to make iron. The iron forged by this coke is far less than Western iron. And if you want to make new guns, you must not use Western iron." Iron cannot."

After hearing Hua Hengfang's words, Ding Richang calmed down quickly.Indeed, the iron used in Anqing's ordnance now depends entirely on Western imports. If China and the West go to war and the West cuts off the foreign iron trade, the Qing Dynasty will definitely suffer greatly.

"So it's time to learn the art of foreign iron. I don't know if there is anyone who has a little knowledge of foreign iron?"

When Hua Hengfang heard the words, she had a hard time thinking about it and thought of someone, but her face showed embarrassment.Seeing Hua Hengfang's expression, Ding Richang seemed to have guessed something, and said frankly: "Sir, it's okay to say it, and I'll save you the trouble."

"There is one person, but there are some stains on that person."

"who?"

"Wang Tao."

"But the author of "A Brief Introduction to Firearms"?"

"Exactly."

Wang Tao is also well-known in the craftsman circle, and Ding Richang is also familiar with his name.It is even said that part of the reason for his great interest in firearms is because he read Wang Tao's "A Brief Introduction to Firearms".It's just that this person is really not suitable for a scholar.It's just because the stain on him is too big.When the Taiping Army attacked Shanghai for a long time, Wang Tao once wrote a letter to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom under the pseudonym Huang Wan to offer anti-Qing strategies. Li Hongzhang found out afterwards and ordered his arrest. Finally, he was protected by the British and fled to Hong Kong to avoid death.

"I'm afraid this person is inappropriate." Ding Richang shook his head. Wang Tao is indeed good, but this person's disobedience to the Qing Dynasty is such that Li Hongzhang is unwilling to use him, let alone the court. There were already a lot of people who were dissatisfied with being the envoy of the Lianghuai Tour, and when they found out, they would be the first to question the person who recommended him.

Hua Hengfang also knew the difficulty, so she didn't bring it up again, but asked Ding Richang to continue drinking, so the two talked happily until the second watch before they stopped.

Ding Richang visited the Anqing Nei Ordnance Institute for a total of five days. In addition to firecrackers, he also saw a steam ship and a new type of continuous fire gun under development. It can be said that he benefited a lot.

After finishing the investigation of the Anqing Nei Ordnance Institute, Ding Richang returned to Jiangning, where the Governor's Mansion of Jiangsu is located, and began to meet with Shang Jia in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In his speech with Shang Jia, he repeatedly mentioned that he wanted to open a new iron factory However, something that was beyond his expectation, although Jiangnan Shangjia was happy to flatter him, did not reflect much on the new ironworks.

In fact, these merchants are not to blame.Since the opening of foreign ports during the Opium War in the Qing Dynasty, business has become more and more difficult to do business, which has also caused local businessmen to dislike foreign things very much.Furthermore, everyone is ignorant about the profit of Yangtie Railway. Instead of pursuing such an elusive thing, the merchants hope that what they can do is to get more salt tickets from Ding Richang.

Seeing the attitude of the merchants, Ding Richang was very disappointed, but he couldn't force him, so he had to explain the matter of the salt ticket hastily, and then set off to return to Shanghai to return to Li Hongzhang.

"Ahem." Ding Richang hurried back to Shanghai, and before he could reply, he went to see Li Hongzhang.After he was able to enter Li's residence, Ding Richang felt something was wrong, he just felt a little dizzy, and coughed twice involuntarily.Hearing Ding Richang's cough, the servants of the Li family approached and asked if they needed to find a doctor, but Ding Richang waved him away.

After Li Hongzhang finished handling the work in hand, when he learned that Ding Richang was returning to Shanghai, he quickly rushed home to discuss with him.However, although Ding Richang was unwell, he spoke in extremely detailed words, counting what he saw and heard in Anqing Nei Ordnance Institute, and expressed his wish to establish a foreign iron factory.

Li Hongzhang was very intelligent and understood the importance of ironmaking, so he had repeated detailed discussions with Ding Richang on the ironworks.Knowing that the establishment funded by Jiangnan Shangjia would not work, I had to turn my attention to foreigners again.After all, foreign ironmaking technology is the skill of foreigners. It is also feasible if foreigners can be attracted to buy shares, but the premise is that Daqing must own more than half of the shares and hold the management right in his hands.

"Britain is definitely not feasible." Li Hongzhang just made such a big hole for the British, and the British would definitely not cooperate.

"Although the Frenchman has some friendship with my Qing Dynasty now..." Li Hongzhang remained silent, and then went through the major forces in Shanghai in his heart.Then he instructed like this: "You go and walk around with the Green Gang first, and the other officials will think of a way."

Li Hongzhang knew what to do, so he had to order Ding Richang and Pan Renduo to walk around first.

In mid-September 1862, Li Hongzhang was reported by the patriots of the Green Gang to Shanghai Customs for accepting bribes, outlining foreigners, and embezzling public funds.Li Hongzhang was furious because of the wide range of people involved, and imprisoned the above-average managers of Shanghai Customs.Naturally, it has been mentioned many times that the Qing Customs was managed by Chinese officials, but in fact it was controlled by the British. Although Li Hongzhang imprisoned these bribe-taking officials in name, he could not deal with them immediately, and he gave these officials a chance to stand up .

Within a few days, the British came to the door and asked Li Hongzhang to give an explanation on this matter.