Chapter 251 The Pain of Iron Smelting

At night, Su Zhiniang was busy preparing gifts for Wei Jichen's long journey in the room.

In fact, Wei Jichen didn't need it at all, he had a super space, he could just throw it in at will, but Su Zhiniang's affection didn't let him say much.

Instead, he sat beside the table and watched her carefully fold the clothes and put away the shoes.

"My husband, Zhiniang is useless, can only do these ordinary women." Su Zhiniang raised her head and suddenly said this sentence without any reason.

Wei Jichen was stunned and confused.

Su Zhiniang neatly put away the package, put it on the table, and continued: "I heard that Miss Nie has been practicing martial arts since she was a child, and her martial arts are outstanding. She can help you a lot, and she has saved your life."

Su Zhiniang has been with Wei Jichen for so long, and often hears his personal soldiers talking about Nie Cairong who loves military uniforms but not red makeup, so naturally she wants to compare herself with her.

Wei Jichen stood up, walked forward, gently hugged her soft waist from behind, and said seriously: "How could it be? In my heart, each of you is a fairy above the nine heavens. It is the blessing of my previous life that I, Wei Jichen, can be favored by you."

"But..." Su Zhiniang was about to say something.

Wei Jichen interrupted softly: "Cai Rong is carefree, like a little sister, who needs my care, and you are gentle as water, always able to take care of everything, always take care of my life, both of you have your own merits, and I can't live without either of you."

"Then why doesn't my husband take sister Cai Rong over?" Su Zhiniang smiled and asked in confusion.

Wei Jichen sighed and said distressedly: "If the name is not right, then the words will not flow. If she stays by my side all the time, I am afraid that her reputation will be tarnished. Unless we get married, she can stay by my side for a long time. But now my power has grown greatly, which has aroused the jealousy of some people in the court. Marshal Nie has trained more than 20,000 Wuyi troops in Tianjin. Once I get married with Cairong, it will make some people sleepless. So, I have to wrong her for the time being."

Su Zhiniang persuaded: "My husband, I don't understand military affairs, but I know the taste of a woman waiting bitterly."

Wei Jichen felt a pain in his heart, and the scene of the little girl looking forward to him marrying her day and night appeared in his mind.

I just received a letter from the little girl a few days ago. Although the letter did not mention a word about this, Wei Jichen could imagine that she must be thinking about it day and night, otherwise she would not often write letters to tell how bored she was at home alone.

Nie Cairong is a woman who dares to love and hate, and can't hide anything.

I must think of a win-win solution to this matter. Wei Jichen made a decision in his heart and felt relieved.

Seeing Su Zhiniang lying motionless in his arms, Wei Jichen smiled bitterly: I am really a sentimental person. I am holding one in my arms and thinking about another one in my mind. One is far away from me, and another is in the capital. Now, I should pity the one in front of me.

Wei Jichen leaned down and whispered in Su Zhiniang's ear: "Zhi Niang, aren't you afraid that Cai Rong will come and split me up?"

Su Zhiniang blushed and stammered: "Zhi Niang knows that my husband is not a person who loves new things and dislikes old things."

Wei Jichen suddenly sighed and said softly: "I suddenly realized that Zhiniang, you are not as good as Cai Rong in one thing."

Su Zhiniang trembled and her face dimmed.

Wei Jichen laughed slyly, then whispered a few words in Su Zhiniang's ear: "Although Cairong didn't really take my body, she..."

Su Zhiniang's face immediately changed from gloomy to extremely bright red, her beautiful eyes opened wide, and she wrinkled her nose and said coquettishly: "Zhiniang, Zhiniang can't do it, husband, you are too..., how... how can you let someone use your mouth."

"It doesn't matter if you don't know, I will teach you." Wei Jichen took advantage of the situation and hugged Su Zhiniang and fell to the head of the bed.

The next day, Wei Jichen was refreshed and took dozens of followers, set off from Lushunkou and went straight to Jinzhou.

Wei Jichen began to set out to inspect Liaodong, while Liaoxi was in a bloody storm.

Since the assassination of several leaders of Dujiabao, the leaders of Longtoushan, Qingfengzhai, and Shilibao have been killed one after another. Some people on the road said that it was revenge, some said it was for money, and some even said that it was a killer sent by the Qing court to assassinate these bandits and horse thieves.

For a time, the green forest was in panic. The leaders of the road were all in danger, staying at home and strengthening the guards around them.

However, this mysterious force seemed to have the ability to reach the sky. Several leaders even died at the head of their beds and were not discovered by their subordinates until the next day.

The government applauded this matter of course. They wished that more people died. However, in this storm, no one noticed and no one counted that most of the new leaders of the bandits and horse thieves were newcomers who had just joined the green forest not long ago.

Moreover, these newcomers were extraordinary and capable, and could quickly stabilize the situation after the storm, so that the green forest would return to calm immediately after the storm.

If so many leaders hadn't died, the outlaws would have thought it was a dream.

Of course, the happiest person was Wei Jichen, who earned a large amount of merit points almost every day. By the time he arrived in Haicheng, his merit points had soared from more than 80,000 points to more than 180,000 points.

However, Wei Jichen knew that this was a one-and-done deal. After all the mountain bandits and horse thieves in western Liaoning were subdued, his income would only become less and less unless he sent more troops to the other two provinces.

As for the field personnel sent to the other two provinces, the current manpower is simply not enough. Those field personnel who have become bandit leaders, Wei Jichen will naturally not let them go out again. Now is a good time to clear their names and become regular members. , because Iketanga has already controlled the political situation in Fengtian Province, the next step is to stabilize the situation in Fengtian Province.

For these mountain bandits and horse thieves, Yiketang'a was well prepared. To deal with the tough bandits, he naturally focused on extermination. To deal with ordinary bandits, he turned thieves into good people and turned private groups into public groups.

And Troop A is even less likely to go undercover to cover up mountain bandits and horse bandits. They have a more important role. Troop A now has 556 members, and more than 50 of them are veteran members who have already taken action. Some have gone to Guangdong and Guangxi, and some have gone to Beijing. Some are from the Tianjin area, and some even go to North Korea.

Except for a few necessary old team members staying behind in the secret base, the others are all newcomers. The current task of these newcomers is to pass the test of suppressing bandits. In the next step, they will continue to train various skills until they pass the test of loyalty, and then the headquarters will They will be dispatched to various places and lurked as undercover agents.

Haicheng has now become a hub center, with various factories and mines springing up like mushrooms after a rain.

Although Guangxu wanted to reform and reform, the court encouraged private companies to build factories and companies, but support was one thing, and there were no rules for specific operations, which discouraged many people because the court's exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes were too high, unless You become an official and businessman, otherwise you will suffer a lot just by being filial to local governments.

As for Liaodong, due to its vast territory and sparse population, the local power was not very complicated. Wei Jichen was able to make bold reforms. In addition to necessary taxes, he exempted many miscellaneous taxes and formulated the articles of association of reward companies. In terms of government approval, as long as he did not touch Wei Jichen gave the green light to all matters related to military and political secrets.

You must know that in the Qing Dynasty, it was not that some enlightened landowning gentlemen did not want to start industries, but that all walks of life needed official approval to start a new economy. The government often set up monopoly privileges and did not allow private capital to enter freely.

The reason why Wei Jichen dared to do this was because in July, the imperial court issued an edict: "According to the work regulations of the Chinese and foreign ministers, current affairs... such as building railways, minting coins, making machines, opening various mines, and diverting the southern canal." , reduce the number of troops, create postal services, train the army, reorganize the navy, and establish schools; raising pay for military training should be the priority; and the principle should be to support business and workers. "

The last sentence shows that the direction of the court has changed. From suppressing private capital to striving to protect and support private capital, there is no other way. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, the Qing government was financially strapped and borrowed heavily from foreign debts, and the economic aggression of various countries became more and more serious. furious.

Not to mention that there is no Chinese bank in China, they are all foreign banks. Even in terms of transportation, the great powers are sharpening their knives and want to contract and build railways in China.

If the imperial court continues to remain uncompromising, in the end, the great powers will completely control China's economic lifeline, and the Qing government is not far from being destroyed. Therefore, the life and death situation forces this autocratic government to relax its control and allow the people to gain a certain degree of economic freedom.

At the Fengtian Coal and Iron Bureau, Wei Jichen was sitting in the main seat, Zhou Fu and Yan Dunyuan were sitting in the second place, and they were talking about coal and iron.

"I didn't expect that General Wei also studied iron smelting. It's really rare." Zhou Fu said with emotion at first.

The Hanyang Iron Works operated by Zhang Zhidong had been in operation for more than seven years, but it had been losing money every year. Zhang Zhidong had lost all his money and still owed a huge sum of five million taels, so he asked Sheng Xuanhuai to take over.

Apart from the fact that it was originally run by the government and officials had their hands on it, the most important thing was that it was deceived by foreigners.

Daye iron ore contains high phosphorus. In foreign countries, Martin furnaces with phosphorus removal method are used for smelting. Zhang Zhidong bought the wrong furnace. The iron produced was substandard. It was brittle and easy to break. The quality was substandard and could not be used as rails. When it was put into use, the stove was tricked by foreigners as soon as I bought it.

Then, even if you are cheated when buying a stove, you can just replace the equipment immediately. However, since it is a new thing in the Qing Dynasty, no one understands this at all, so you have to rely on foreigners. Countless foreign technicians were hired in Hanyang Iron Works. This matter is not a problem at all in foreign countries. Wei Jichen believed that even if one or two of those foreign technicians were mediocre, they would still have some talents, but they insisted on not pointing it out for seven years.

Because once the Hanyang Iron Works smelts good iron and steel, it goes without saying that first of all, rails will no longer be imported from foreign countries. Other iron and steel, such as shipbuilding and bullets, etc., will no longer be imported. Everything will be changed. Because it is made domestically, foreigners will suffer heavy losses, so they all receive high salaries and turn a blind eye.

This incident is very famous in history. The steel industry is a pillar industry of the country, but because the Chinese people themselves do not understand it, the Chinese steel industry has "lost more than ten years of time and spent tens of millions of dollars", resulting in extremely heavy losses. , so Wei Jichen remembers it very clearly.

Therefore, when he thought of setting up an iron factory, he remembered this matter and immediately sent a telegram to Sheng Xuanhuai, who had just taken over the Hanyang Iron Factory. Although Sheng Xuanhuai had doubts about Wei Jichen, a layman, he still sent people to investigate abroad, and it was finally proved that This is indeed the reason.