The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 558 No Need to Speak with Money

Teng Yuzao smiled and shook his head, saying, "Prince Duan, I am not being hypocritical. I have rescued you and those evildoers. You all really owe me a favor."

"Especially you, Prince Duan. I helped you eliminate the threat of the first culprit and even indirectly saved the position of the eldest prince. Prince Duan also helped me and the vanguard army a lot."

"Now that Duke Duan can still stand at the top of the imperial court and is the head of the military council, I can at least be said to be the head of the frontier officials in terms of strength. As long as we support each other, no one in the imperial court can do anything to you and me."

"With this kind of friendship, there is really no need for us to talk money."

Teng Yuzhao sighed lightly, then said with a smile.

"Prince Duan, this silver is not used to bribe you as a prince. If I really want to bribe you as a prince and the chief minister of the military, this silver is far from enough."

Teng Yuzao took out a cigarette, lit it and said, "Prince Duan's mansion was destroyed, and all his property was lost. As the chief military minister, you also have a large family, and you have to settle them down."

"As for the people in your military council and the ministers who are on good terms with you, many of them have also suffered heavy losses in this war. You should keep one million of this money for yourself, take out 700,000 to invest in Huang Chujiu's company, and use 300,000 to supplement your household expenses."

"You can spend the remaining one million taels as you wish, Prince Duan. If any court official is in trouble or if you think someone needs to be brought to your side, you can spend it generously. Only when your influence is strong enough will your position in the court be more stable, and you will be more powerful in helping me and the vanguard army."

"correct."

Teng Yuzao added, "Your Highness should take a few ministers who are close to you to visit Gangyi's family and give them some money."

"For example, this time, many of the officials' properties were destroyed. You can help them. If the money is not enough, you can tell me."

Teng Yuzhao's words touched Zai Yi's heart. Although he left late in a hurry to follow Cixi on the hunt to the west and took away all the valuables such as jewelry, calligraphy and paintings in his home, the gold and silver savings accumulated over generations still accounted for the majority of his property, and they were all looted by the Boxers. Now he was really short of money.

If Teng Yuzhao had not come to his aid, he would have to sell all his jewelry, calligraphy and paintings in order to restore the Prince's Mansion.

Teng Yuzhao asked him to bribe those court officials, which made Zai Yi even more grateful. After the Boxer Rebellion, the court had been divided into four factions.

The group headed by Ronglu was Cixi's absolute supporter;
The group headed by Yixin and other nobles, although not many in number, are all yellow belts and red belts, and are very stubborn and hard to be touched easily;

Then there is the faction headed by him. Although his faction is in high positions, it is the smallest in number and is far inferior to Ronglu's faction in terms of momentum, and is even inferior to Yixin's faction in many ways.

The fourth force is the court officials who do not belong to any of these three factions.

Among this faction, there were those who secretly supported Guangxu, those who sat on the fence and tried to please both sides, and there were also many who were of low status and had little influence and no one was willing to win them over.

Of course, there are also people here who have a great liking for Teng Yuzao.

With the large sum of money that Teng Yuzhao put out, many of the people in this faction could be won over.

Even the pro-war ministers who followed him closely, such as Zhao Shuqiao, Yingnian and Qixiu, had lost most of their wealth and were in urgent need of money for emergency. If he gave them the money at this time, how could they not be grateful to him?

In particular, Teng Yuzhao suggested that he visit Gangyi's family, which made Zai Yi even more grateful.

This method will definitely make the court officials who follow him trust and support Zai Yi more.

However, Zai Yi was a little puzzled as to why Teng Yuzao asked him to take out 800,000 yuan to invest in Huang Chujiu's company first, instead of asking him to build the palace directly.

Seeing that Zai Yi seemed puzzled, Teng Yuzao added, "Your Highness, not only was your palace burned down by the foreigners, they even used cannons to completely blow down the buildings in your palace that could not be burned down. It can be said that it was completely destroyed."

"In fact, it is not difficult for me to pay Huang Chujiu to build you a better Prince's Mansion, but that will definitely be criticized, so I have no choice but to resort to this last resort."

"Your Highness, please be patient with the palace's affairs for a while and invest in this company first."

"Then you can wait for the dividends, or wait until my stock exchange in Tianjin is built and operational, then you can sell some of it and get a large sum of money back, and then rebuild a prince's mansion, and that will be justified."

Teng Yuzao said confidently, "I can tell His Majesty that Huang Chujiu's construction company will be very profitable. The shares you bought will bring His Majesty a large sum of money every year. I have already told Huang Chujiu to leave shares for His Majesty."

Teng Yuzao's words made Zai Yi even more excited, his eyes shining. This was equivalent to Teng Yuzao giving him a large sum of silver every year, so he hurriedly bowed to Teng Yuzao.

"Xingfu, you are really thoughtful. Thank you very much!"

Teng Yuzao smiled and shook his hand, saying, "Your Highness, we are a family and we should not talk behind each other's backs. I will never mention the word thank you again."

Seeing that Teng Yuzao had explained the matter of the silver, Yang Shiqi said with some concern, "Marshal, why don't we take advantage of Prince Duan's presence to talk about the tricks Yuan Shikai played on us today and see how we can resolve them."

Teng Yuzao nodded, agreeing with Yang Shiqi's statement, and then continued to pace on the ground.

Yang Shiqi said, "Then let's talk about it one by one, starting with the Baoding Military Academy."

Teng Yuzao paced and said calmly, "The military academy is to train military talents for the training of new armies. The original purpose of moving the Beiyang Military Academy to Baoding and expanding it into the Baoding Military Academy was not to train talents exclusively for the vanguard army, but to train officers for the training of new armies for the court and various provinces."

"If the imperial court wants to take it away now, that's fine! I have no objection to that."

"I only have two requests. First, I have already set up the subjects and teaching system for this military academy. The instructors in it must not be dismissed without reason, so as not to affect the operation of the school."

"If these instructors cannot provide normal teaching, I will reopen an officer school in Tianjin."

"Second, I recommend Sun Shijun as the deputy director of the Military Academy and Zhang Xiyuan as the dean of education. The dean of education will be responsible for the teaching of the military academy."

Teng Yuzao's words surprised Zai Yi and Yang Shiqi. They thought Teng Yuzao would be very angry and at least arrange a school director, but Teng Yuzao only asked for a deputy director and a dean of education. Yang Shiqi thought for a moment and said, "The Marshal's two conditions are good. This way we still have room to intervene in the affairs of the military academy."

"However, today, the Marshal's classmate Duan Qirui offended the Empress Dowager and Yuan Shikai, and was deprived of his military power. Duan Qirui must be dissatisfied. Should the Marshal contact Duan Qirui?"

Teng Yuzao smiled and shook his head, saying, "Xingcheng, a forced melon is not sweet. Let's wait and see. If the melon is ripe, it won't be too late to contact Duan Zhiquan."

Zai Yi thought about it and felt that Teng Yuzhao's approach was safer, as it did not offend Cixi and could influence the decision-making of the military academy to a certain extent. He nodded in approval of Teng Yuzhao's request.

"Xingfu said so, the Queen Mother will definitely agree, this matter is settled, but..."

Zai Yi frowned again and said, "Allowing Yuan Shikai to send two more garrisons is obviously to support Yuan Shikai. We must pay attention to this matter, otherwise Yuan Shikai will inevitably become more powerful in the future!"

Teng Yuzao smiled faintly and said, "That's not a big deal. Yuan Shikai's Wuwei Right Army has a relatively small town organization, and the number of soldiers in each town is not as large as ours. His five towns have at most 100,000 people. If he wants to be strong enough to compete with our vanguard army, it's still a long way to go."

"Besides, our vanguard army is responsible for its own military expenses and does not need funding from the court. If we want to expand the army, we can do so at any time."

“As for the matter of the Army Preparatory Office, since the Queen Mother arranged Tieliang to go there, it is also normal.

"Fortunately, Duan Qirui has become the director of the Baoding Military Academy, so it will be difficult for him to take care of the affairs of the Preparatory Office of the Ministry of the Army. Juren can be free to do what he wants there."

Seeing that Yang Shiqi was still a little worried, Teng Yuzao did not avoid Zai Yi and spoke to Yang Shiqi with a smile.

"We don't ask for much help from the Army Preparatory Office. I just hope Tieliang can do his best to train the new army."

"Kikuto has always been fair and just in his work. It is estimated that Tieliang will find it difficult to find anything to be dissatisfied with him working there. I believe that Kikuto will soon win praise."

Teng Yuzhao waved his hand again to stop Zai Yi and Yang Shixiang who were about to speak.

"Since the Queen Mother is unwilling to hand over the Army Department to Kikuto, let's just bear with him for now and wait for an opportunity to assign him a more important task."

Teng Yuzao smoked a cigarette and continued with some regret, "As for Zhao Bingjun, I actually forgot about him. He is indeed a talent. It is indeed a good idea to let him handle the police department at this time. I will not stop him."

Seeing that Teng Yuzao handled these things calmly and did not get angry, Zai Yi felt relieved and said with a smile.

"Lord Xingfu is very generous. Compared to other people, Xingfu is much more tolerant than those who are trying to plot against you."

"But what about restoring the outer city of the capital? Xingfu won't agree to it just like that, right?"

Teng Yuzao took a deep breath and said, "The court really has no money, and as the Queen Mother said, this capital is the face of the court, and it really needs to be restored as soon as possible."

Teng Yuzhao's words surprised Yang Shiqi and Zai Yi.

Zai Yi asked Teng Yuzao in surprise, "Xingfu, you're not going to agree to this, are you?"

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Prince Duan, if I don't repair it, this outer city will probably be in such a dilapidated state within five years. You don't want to see it like this, do you?"

Yang Shiqi was also puzzled and said, "The Marshal has a lot of hard work, and the heavens and the earth can bear witness to it, but this requires a large amount of money to invest. Besides, this place is not in Zhili. If Huang Chujiu is asked to do it, I am afraid that his methods may not work in this capital!"

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "You are right, so I have a few conditions. If the court agrees, I will take over. Not only will the construction start this year, but I will also make sure that the outer city is renovated to look brand new. Even people living in the inner city will rush to live in the outer city."

As Teng Yuzao spoke, he took out a few folded pieces of paper covered with handwriting from the pocket of his military uniform jacket, and walked over to hand them to Zai Yi who was sitting on a chair next to the coffee table.

"Prince Duan should still remember those young children studying in the United States, right?"

Zai Yi said puzzledly as he took the papers with handwriting on them that Teng Yuzao handed to him.

"Of course I remember. There should be four batches, right? But they probably hadn't finished their studies yet, because those stubborn people persuaded the court to call them all back."

Teng Yuzao shook his head and said with some regret, "Zeng Guofan and Li Zhongtang were indeed visionary and started to think about learning advanced foreign science and technology decades ago. It's a pity that, except for Zhan Tianyou, the rest of them were recalled before they finished their studies."

"However, although these people did not complete their studies, they are still familiar with Western technology and cultural customs. They are still talents and treasures. However, after returning to China, most of them, except for a few, were abandoned by the court and buried among the people."

Teng Yuzao pointed at the list in Zai Yi's hand and said, "Some of those people are starting their own businesses, some are working as minor officials in local areas, and some are even working as staff for others. For example, Liang Dunyan, a native of Shunde County, Guangzhou Prefecture, Guangdong, was one of the first batch of Chinese students to study in the United States. He was later admitted to Yale University. He is now working as a staff for Zhang Xiangtao."

Teng Yuzao sighed and said, "I have already recruited some of these people, but there are still many who are serving in various places. The Qing court issued an imperial decree that those who are willing to start their own businesses should be transferred to Zhili. Zhili's foreign affairs are in urgent need of these people now."

While Teng Yuzao was speaking, Zai Yi had already quickly glanced through the pages of paper that Teng Yuzao handed to him and asked in confusion.

"Only a very small number of these people have reached the level of Taotai, and the rest are minor officials. In fact, there is no need for others to intervene. The Military Affairs Council can handle this matter."

Teng Yuzao shook his head and said, "Prince Duan, I originally wanted to ask Prince Duan for help, but if all these people were transferred to Zhili by the Military Affairs Council, it would be easy to be criticized, so I wanted to transfer them in batches. But now is a good opportunity to handle it all at once, which will save a lot of trouble."

Zai Yi thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "Xingfu has thought it through. This is the best. Only Xingfu, Li Zhongtang, and Zhang Xiangtao will treat these people as treasures. The court basically treats these people like old shoes. The empress dowager will definitely agree."

Teng Yuzao continued after careful consideration, "The restoration of the Beiyang Navy must be tied to the restoration of the outer city, and only then will I agree."

"My request is that now there are two navies in the South and North Seas, which makes the already weak naval forces more dispersed. I suggest merging the South and North Sea navies and setting up a navy department in Tianjin to unify the management of the two ocean fleets. Since the navy department is weak and all its activities are at sea, it is recommended that the navy department be temporarily managed by the Beiyang Minister."

(End of this chapter)