The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 572: There are still bandits in Zhili
"Especially, before yesterday evening, the Marshal had received a letter from the Military Affairs Council to revise the Qing Code."

Yang Shixiang mainly talked about some of the reform and innovation measures of the court this time, and then talked about the government affairs of Zhili.

As a pilot area for the imperial court's reform, the biggest highlight of Zhili's government affairs was that, except for the names of the governors-general and provincial governors-general set up by the imperial court and the prefectures, circuits and counties below them, which remained unchanged, all new government offices were to adopt new names at the discretion of Zhili.

Therefore, while Zhili is now clearing out redundant officials, it has also added many new government offices involving all aspects of social and people's livelihood. If we only look at the number of government offices, not only has the number not decreased, but on the contrary has increased a lot.

Of course, after the reform, Zhili's government affairs did not become chaotic. In fact, because there were almost always special yamen to manage them, the efficiency was greatly improved and the burden on the corresponding officials in the prefectures, counties and districts below the provincial governor and the provincial judge was greatly reduced.

Of course, the reform in Zhili was not aimed at alleviating the administrative pressure on officials. They still had to bear the responsibilities for the administrative affairs. Teng Yuzhao even stipulated that officials at all levels would be responsible for any problems that occurred in the areas under their jurisdiction and would receive corresponding punishments.

Local officials who do a good job will have their performance evaluations rated as excellent or good, and their official positions will be promoted.

As for these former officials, Teng Yuzao was unable to remove them all at once, so he could only adopt this method of gradual elimination.

After Yang Shixiang finished his introduction, Xu Shichang, the only person wearing a military uniform on the civilian side, gave an introduction to the preparatory office of the Ministry of the Army.

Although Xu Shichang was in a difficult situation now regarding the affairs of the Preparatory Office of the Ministry of the Army, he had always been moderate and tactful in his work, and he had a good relationship with Yuan Shikai, so his prestige in the Preparatory Office was getting higher and higher.

The most important thing is that Tieliang only makes decisions, and Xu Shichang is responsible for the specific handling. Although some things are extremely tricky, after sitting down slowly, he also responds with respect in all aspects.

According to Zai Yi, Cixi had praised Xu Shichang several times.

According to Xu Shichang's introduction, the process of disbanding old armies and establishing new armies in various provinces in the country is not going smoothly.

There is no need to mention the two provinces of Zhili and Shandong.

Since Shandong has been placed under the jurisdiction of Teng Yuzhao, Shandong naturally does not need to train new troops. The most important thing is that Shandong really cannot come up with extra money to form a new army.

Although Shandong was not as devastated by war as Zhili, Shandong's tax burden had long been heavy due to the fact that the local government of Shandong had been suppressing the Boxer Rebellion in recent years and there were many bandit problems in the Yimeng Mountain area of ​​Shandong.

Fortunately, this time, after Teng Yuzhao took over, Cixi also handed over the taxation of Shandong to Teng Yuzhao, which made the governor Zhou Fu feel greatly relieved. He also had the spare energy to resettle the victims and promote foreign affairs.

However, Shandong's Westernization Movement has just started and is mainly concentrated in Jinan, Zhoucun, Weixian and coastal ports such as Qingdao, Yantai, Longkou and Weihai. If we want to see the benefits, we have to wait until next year.

After discussing with Teng Yuzao, Zhou Fu and Teng Yuzao jointly wrote to Cixi, suggesting that Shandong should still disband the old army, but not form a new army. Most of the old army that had just been withdrawn had already been formed into patrol police, and some were resettled in Zhili's foreign-owned factories and patrol police teams, and even more than 10,000 young and strong men joined the vanguard army.

Yuan Shikai's Wuwei Right Army in Henan has now been registered with the court and renamed the Henan New Army. There is no problem with it, and the army has even been expanded in excess.

Although Yuan Shikai also lacked money, it was Cixi who approved the expansion of the Wuwei Right Army and allocated a special sum of money to him, which reduced a lot of pressure on Yuan Shikai.

In addition, the relatively wealthy Huguang and Liangjiang areas were also going smoothly. These two places had their own new armies, and the formation would be completed as long as they expanded on the basis of the new armies.

The disbanding of the old army did not cause any trouble, not only because there was the new army to suppress it, but also because Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kunyi were very receptive to new things like forming patrol police. Most of the old army had places to be resettled, and the remaining old and weak could not cause trouble.

The only drawback is that they all said they could only train one town of new troops.

Guangdong and Guangxi, which are equally wealthy, have always refused Pan Jinshan's Sixth Regiment to intervene in the training of the new army. Now, not only has the training of the new army not yet begun, but even the disbanding of the old army has been delayed again and again.

Since wealthy places like Huguang and Liangjiang were unable to train two new armies, and all provinces were extremely short of new army talents, various provincial governors wrote to Cixi one after another, requesting a reduction in the scale of training new armies.

Now, the court has decided that, except for Henan, Huguang, Liangjiang, and the two provinces will each train a new army regiment, and the rest of the provinces will temporarily train a new army brigade, which will be supplemented into regiments when financial resources are sufficient in the future.

In order to solve the problem of insufficient talent for the new army, the Grand Council has issued a document to all provinces, requiring them to set up new-style military schools as soon as possible, train military talents on their own, and send people to study at the Baoding Military Academy. Provinces with conditions should also send talented people abroad to study military affairs.

According to Xu Shichang, what he learned was that in addition to many young people coming to Baoding to study, each province also sent people to study abroad, but the vast majority of them were sent to Japan.

Due to the lack of money, the provinces, especially some poor provinces, did not have the spare capacity to establish a large-scale patrol police throughout the prefectures and counties. When the old army was disbanded, not all the personnel could be resettled, and many incidents, big and small, occurred.

Fortunately, there were new troops in various places to suppress the rebellion, so no major disaster occurred. However, Xu Shichang was very worried that these laid-off soldiers would become a major disaster in the future.

However, due to financial constraints in Yunnan, Guizhou, Gansu, Shaanxi and other places, they simply selected a certain elite old army, formed a new army on the spot, and just changed into new army uniforms and equipped them with a small number of firearms.

Finally, Xu Shichang suggested that the Vanguard Army should not be changed to the New Beiyang Army, as this would seem to be a break from the Old Beiyang and would easily arouse resentment among officials of Beiyang origin. It would be better to change it to the Beiyang New Army, or even more simply, call it the National Defense Army in imitation of Europe and the United States.

Xu Shichang's views were immediately supported by Zhou Fu, Ye Zugui, Sa Zhenbing, Hu Dianjia, Zhou Xuexi, Cai Shaoji, Zhan Tianyou, Liang Dunyan and others.

Teng Yuzao also thought that what Xu Shichang said made sense, and immediately decided to officially change the name of the Vanguard Army to the National Defense Army.

Of course, this title needs to be reported to the Grand Council.

Teng Yuzhao knew very well that even if the imperial court finally agreed to this name, many people would probably still call it the Vanguard Army or the Beiyang Army.

In order to make it more likely that Cixi would agree to his use of the name National Defense Army, he also suggested that the new armies in all provinces should be uniformly called the National Defense Army.

What Teng Yuzhao did not expect was that his vanguard army would later be called the Zhi Army.

After Xu Shichang came the Zhili Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Shen Jiaben, who reported the situation.

The situation reported by Shen Jiaben was very simple, which was about setting up courts in various prefectures and counties.

Shen Jiaben greatly appreciated the establishment of courts modeled after the Western powers. According to him, in the past, these cases were heard by prefectural and county officials, which not only took up a lot of their time, but also because many people were unfamiliar with the Qing Dynasty Law and would make arbitrary decisions based on their own preferences when hearing cases.

Shen Jiaben finally suggested that the "Great Qing Code" had not been changed for nearly three hundred years, and many laws and regulations were no longer suitable for the current situation. Since he was a low-ranking official with little influence, he suggested that Teng Yuzhao write to the court to suggest that the "Great Qing Code" be revised.

Teng Yuzao was still satisfied with Shen Jiaben. After Shen Jiaben finished reporting the situation, Teng Yuzao said with a smile.

"Sir Shen, you have done a great job in the court. Everyone has seen it. You will definitely get first place in this year's Ministry of Personnel assessment." "Also, Sir Shen's suggestion is very good. It coincides with my idea. I have already written to the court to amend the Qing Dynasty Law, and I have also recommended Sir Shen to be the chief justice of the Supreme Court. You will take on this important task."

"According to the information I received, the Queen Mother has agreed, and an order will be issued today."

Shen Jiaben knew very well that in terms of qualifications and abilities, he could not compare with Zhou Fu; in terms of talent and closeness to Teng Yuzao, he could not compare with Xu Shichang and Yang Shixiang.

Moreover, he knew very well that Teng Yuzao did not like these old officials very much, which made him work diligently and cautiously when he was the Zhili Provincial Surveillance Commissioner. Today, he was extremely excited to receive such evaluation from Teng Yuzao, especially to be recommended to take on the task of revising laws and regulations, which would go down in history.

Not only was he promoted, but he jumped from a third-rank provincial prosecutor to a second-rank official like a governor, which showed that Teng Yuzhao had accepted him.

With a slightly red face, Shen Jiaben stood up, bowed deeply to Teng Yuzao and said, "Thank you for the promotion, Marshal. It's just that you are praising me too much. I am just doing my duty."

"Master Shen, please take a seat."

Teng Yuzao continued to smile and said to Shen Jiaben, "Sir Shen, there is no need to be too modest. Not to mention that you have made many useful suggestions in the reform of case trials in Zhili over the past year, what you did in Baoding last year was also rare."

"Besides, Lord Zhou told me that when Lord Shen was the prefect of Tianjin, he was lenient and strict in government affairs, and his style was pragmatic. He is really a rare talent who is proficient in laws and regulations. Not to mention revising the Qing Code, he is also qualified to be in charge of the Ministry of Justice in the future."

The reason why Teng Yuzao recommended Shen Jiaben to revise the laws was because Teng Yuzao knew well that historically it was this year that Yuan Shikai, Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kunyi jointly recommended Shen Jiaben to take on the responsibility of revising the laws.

Now Teng Yuzao is also one of the officials of the "Government Affairs Reform Supervision Office", and he has reasons to propose new policies.

Moreover, Teng Yuzhao did not want Yuan Shikai and others to steal the limelight for something that Cixi would definitely agree to.

Looking at Shen Jiaben, whose face became increasingly rosy with excitement, Xu Shiguang couldn't help but swallow secretly.

Teng Yuzao added, "Our legal reforms should still be modeled after those of the great powers. There are many new cases that are not mentioned in the Qing Code, so they need to be added. There are also some that are obviously against human nature that need to be deleted. I believe that Lord Shen can do this safely."

"Considering that Lord Shen is not well versed in Western laws, I have recommended Wu Tingfang, the Minister to the United States, Spain, and Peru, to assist Lord Shen."

Wu Tingfang was from Xidun, Xinhui, Guangdong. He was born in Singapore. At the age of 3, he returned to Fangcun, Guangzhou with his father and settled there. In his early years, he entered St. Paul's College in Hong Kong. In 1874, he went to study in the UK at his own expense and entered the London College to study law. He obtained a doctorate degree and barrister qualification, becoming the first doctor of law in modern China.

He later returned to Hong Kong to work as a lawyer and became the first Chinese member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.

After the Westernization Movement began, Wu Tingfang entered Li Hongzhang's court as a legal adviser and participated in the Sino-French negotiations, the Shimonoseki negotiations, etc.

In 1896, he was appointed by the imperial court as minister to the United States, Spain and Peru, and signed the first equal treaty in modern times, the Sino-Mexican Treaty of Commerce.

It couldn't be better to have someone like this who is well versed in Western affairs and laws to assist Shen Jiaben.

After giving the explanation, Shen Jiaben and Teng Yuzao mentioned Xu Shiguang's name.

Since Xu Shiguang had just taken over as the governor of Denglaiqingdao, he did not have any outstanding political achievements. However, although Xu Shiguang had been in office for a short time, he did not achieve nothing.

Xu Shiguang informed everyone that the Germans were attempting to interfere in the construction of the Shandong Railway.

Teng Yuzhao knew about this matter. He had not only the document from Xu Shiguang seeking credit from him, but also the report from Zhou Fu.

It turned out that after the completion of the Jiaoji Railway, the Germans' greed was not satisfied, and they attempted to interfere with the road rights in Shandong by using the "Jiaoao Lease Treaty".

Shandong businessmen wanted to build the Yanwei Railway, but the Germans tried to obstruct it as soon as the plan was proposed. When they failed to obstruct it, they secretly colluded with some officials who were greedy for profit and eventually these officials concealed their true intentions and colluded with the Germans.

Zhao Dehan, a native of Yantai, submitted a report stating that he had accumulated shares worth 400 million yuan and requested the Governor-General of Shanzhi and the court to file a case for approval.

Teng Yuzhao was naturally very happy about the good news that a businessman wanted to build his own railway. He not only praised it highly, but also urged the court to approve it as soon as possible.

It was only after Zhou Fu, who had suffered a lot in recruiting merchant shareholders, reminded him that Teng Yuzao approved the matter and forwarded it to Xu Shiguang, the governor of Denglai Qingjiao Road, for detailed verification.

After Xu Shiguang sent people to investigate, they found out that Zhao Dehan was not from a wealthy family, and his whereabouts were erratic, which raised many suspicious questions. After further investigation, they discovered something fishy.

It turned out that the 400 million yuan of shares were controlled by Zhao Dehan's relative Li Deshun, who was the general manager of the proposed northern section of the Jinzhen Railway. He had secretly "raised" these shares from the Germans.

In January of the 1th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, Rong Hong, the acting governor of Jiangsu, asked the Zongli Yamen for permission to prepare for the construction of the Jinzhen Railway. Eventually, Xu Jingcheng, a minister of the Zongli Yamen, was sent to supervise the construction of the Jinzhen Railway.

In May of that year, Xu Jingcheng signed the "Tianjin-Zhenjiang Railway Loan Contract" with the British HSBC and the German Deutsch-Asiatische Bank, borrowing 740 million pounds, with a 5% discount, an annual interest rate of 50%, and a term of years. The contract stipulated that the northern section would be undertaken by German merchants and the southern section by British merchants. Later, due to the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, the contract was shelved.

When Xu Shiguang discovered the problem, Teng Yuzhao was furious. He immediately sent people to investigate in detail. They found that Li Deshun had engaged in corruption and squandered huge sums of money. He immediately arrested Li Deshun, confiscated his property, and handed him over to the Ministry of Justice for severe punishment.

However, no one expected that Li Deshun and his wife had already secretly acquired German citizenship, and now the German ambassador to China is negotiating with the court on this matter.

After Xu Shiguang informed everyone of what happened, it really aroused the anger of everyone in the meeting. Liu Shijiu even suggested that Teng Yuzhao take the opportunity to take back Jiaozhou Bay that was forcibly occupied by the Germans.

Teng Yuzhao first encouraged Xu Shiguang, and then spoke to everyone hatefully.

"According to the state of the court, this matter is even more unwilling to meddle in it at this time. I am afraid that it will eventually be left unresolved. Moreover, once he escapes from this predicament, he will definitely flee to Germany."

"But don't worry, he managed to trick me. Although we only confiscated 500,000 taels of silver, I guarantee that he won't be able to escape from Zhili. Once he leaves Shuntian Prefecture, he will be dead."

Seeing Teng Yuzao's indignation, Zhou Fu hurriedly said, "Xingfu, you must not act rashly on this matter. Once trouble arises, it may affect the advancement of the Westernization Movement in Zhili."

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Don't worry, Lord Zhou. The situation in Zhili is not peaceful right now. Bandits may block the road and murder may occur."

After finishing speaking, Teng Yuzao skipped Zhou Xuexi and looked at Yang Shiqi and said.
(End of this chapter)