Chapter Fourteen: The Long Story of the Attendant Minister

  Originally, one of the eleven people had slowed down by half a beat earlier. It was this half-beat that Fei seized the opportunity to grab him and use him as a shield, taking a step back herself. She then used her cunning to throw the remaining ten people into chaos, and in an instant, she sent all eleven people flying out of the arena once again.

  Fei was still standing there with a smile on her face, panting slightly.

  I smiled secretly beside him: "Can the provincial free fighting champion of the 21st century be given away for nothing? Do you know how formidable it is? The more formidable one is yet to come!"

  Long An jumped up and shouted: "Long An greets Master!" His two legs were already kneeling on the ground, and then those 310 people also knelt there. Fei hurriedly helped Long An up, laughing and saying: "Everyone's kung fu is not bad, I just used some clever tricks. Later when you learn, you will all understand!"

  I also said: "Today, everyone's practice is not bad, although we didn't win against Officer Huang, but that's because the martial arts routines we learned in the past had too many fancy moves and too few practical ones. From now on, as long as everyone follows Officer Huang and studies seriously, I believe we can train a strong army! However, three months later, I will come to inspect again, if it is still like today, then I won't be polite!"

  I took out 50,000 silver tickets and gave them to Long'an, letting him immediately buy two other villas nearby, and add some necessities for the soldiers' lives, making the food a bit harder, so that everyone has strong physical strength.

  As soon as I entered the palace, Xiaofuzi told me that Gongbu Shilang Chang Xu had been waiting for me in Yangxin Hall for half a day.

  I was stunned: "How did he come, isn't he a backbone of the Hou Party?! Is it to thank me for saving his daughter yesterday? I've already told him not to mention it, why can't this girl keep her word?"

  Actually, I was wrong about him. She returned home to find her father not there, and her mother said she had gone to the palace to ask the old Buddha for help. He Lala angrily said: "Save me? She and that scoundrel have long been in the same bed, will she save me?"

  "Mom was so frightened that she hastily covered her mouth: "Are you crazy? How dare you talk nonsense! If it weren't for her letting Ronglu bring you back, you wouldn't be at home now!"

  He was furious, she pushed her mother's hand and said: "It wasn't that bastard who saved me, it was the great Wanwangye who sent a great hero named Eagle King to rescue me!" Then she mimicked what the little eunuch had said, scaring her mother so much that her tongue stuck out for half a day. Her mother finally said: "Just know about it and don't say anything, if Old Buddha finds out, it'll be a big mess! You two should hurry into the palace now, we can't afford to offend any of these people!"

  Chang Yu indeed arrived at the palace and entered the outer house of Empress Dowager Cixi's bedroom, where he was stopped by a small eunuch who said that the Old Buddha was receiving guests.

  He had no choice but to wait there foolishly, and after waiting for a while, he still didn't see the guest come out. Instead, he heard from inside the sound of a woman's lewd moans and a man's flirtatious laughter. He was startled: "Who dares to do such filthy things here? It must be Cixi! If I hear about Cixi's dirty affairs with her favorite eunuch, my own head won't be able to stay on my neck!"

  He hastily made an excuse and left the Kun Ning Palace. As he walked, he felt more and more that the man's voice was extremely familiar, but he just couldn't remember who it was.

  Lying in bed at night, his wife mentioned it and he suddenly understood that the man was Li Lianying.

  He suddenly felt a great aversion to Cixi and Li Lianying, which prompted him to decide to leave the Empress Dowager's party and switch to the Emperor's side by taking advantage of his daughter's affair.

  I didn't know about these things, I walked into the Nourishing Heart Palace, and Long Xiang knelt down in front of me: "Long Xiang represents the whole family to thank you for saving my daughter's life!"

  When he said that, I breathed a sigh of relief, as long as it wasn't about me going to rescue her! I hurriedly pulled him up: "Chang Daren, you are wrong, she has already been appointed as my beloved concubine, how could I let her be harmed by bandits? It's just that until now, I don't know who the bandit is, it's really regrettable!"

  As soon as I said that, Changxu was shocked and stunned for a moment, but immediately understood that I didn't trust him. He hastily said: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, from now on Changxu will be of one heart with you!"

  I laughed: "Chang Gong is my trusted minister, of course he is one heart with me!"

  Chang Hsun immediately said: "What I meant by 'one heart' is something Your Majesty naturally understands, but you don't trust me? In the past, I had many faults, but yesterday's events made me realize that relying on these people will imperil the Qing dynasty and imperil China! I cannot continue to be a criminal of the state!"

  I solemnly say: "When the external barbarians are disturbing our Great Qing and invading our China, our people should unite as one, work together to revive the great cause, build a long wall of resistance against the enemy, and not engage in party struggles. We should not allow some treacherous and corrupt officials to embezzle and break the law, destroy our army, and ruin our discipline! The Grand Minister understands this problem, has decisively broken off with party struggles, and I am very pleased! I hope that Grand Minister will keep his promises and be true to his words!"

  Chang Yu immediately said: "Chang Yu will surely remember the teachings of Wan Si!"

  Since he was from the Ministry of Works, I asked him about foreign procurement matters.

  "In the sixth and seventh years of our dynasty, Li Zhongtang entrusted the German ambassador Li Fengbo to purchase two ironclad warships in Germany. Since then, we have successively purchased a batch of ironclads and gunboats, which has basically formed the Beiyang Navy. However, recently, Li Lianying and Qing Wangye have been persuading the Empress Dowager to build a garden for her rest, wanting to use the several tens of millions of taels of silver stored by the navy. They are urging the Ministry of Revenue to issue a document stating that no more ships will be purchased, fearing that we won't be able to make any more purchases!"

  "Alas, the Qing Navy was originally weak and should be strengthened quickly. At this time, using the navy's money, isn't it like drinking poison to quench thirst?" I said in shock.

  "Who says it's not? Recently, the Minister to Japan even sent a letter saying that Japan is going to build 54 ironclad warships in the next few years and surpass China in terms of naval speed. They regard China as their main opponent! Sun Yuwen was afraid that this would affect the passing of his proposal for building the garden, so he suppressed the letter! They don't care about the current situation of the Qing Navy at all, they just want to embezzle silver from the garden construction!"

  "Oh, Sun Yuwen is a Grand Councilor, he wouldn't do something like that, would he?" I said intentionally.

  "How could I not, I saw the letter in his study, but I only read the beginning before he snatched it away and stuck it between the pages of his Kangxi Dictionary." Changxu said solemnly.

  "So you don't have to go out and buy things anymore?" I said with great regret.

  Chang Yu immediately said: "It's not that I won't go to make purchases, it's just that I won't be purchasing things for the military anymore. Instead, I'll have to purchase equipment for Empress Dowager's garden and a few small steamboats for use in the garden! These past two days, they've been asking me to go, but I think this is a misuse of naval funds. This matter is being handled too unscrupulously, and if something happens to the navy in the future, I'll be considered a traitor. That's why up until now, I still haven't agreed to make the purchases!"

  As soon as I heard that, I could make a fuss! I immediately said: "I don't agree with going abroad to buy warships. Firstly, those foreigners are afraid of our strength and won't listen to us, they won't give us good ships, but sell us some junk instead. Moreover, they will take the opportunity to rip us off, everything they sell to us is too expensive! Secondly, our Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau can manufacture ironclad warships, as long as we purchase some steel plates and other materials!"

  "That saves money!"

  "Can you go out and help me purchase some equipment and materials, we can start building the ship!"

  Chang Yu immediately said: "I will definitely complete it with all my might!"

  "I said: 'Alright, you take over their procurement task, secretly procure the items we need, and openly procure for them. When the time comes, let's make a switcheroo!'"

  "I'm afraid..."

  I laughed: "There's no need for you to come back, we'll be in power, and those things will be useless too. Who can still investigate what you bought?"

  "Alright, I'll take over the procurement task tomorrow morning! However, Changxu has a request, I want to send him and his sister over tomorrow!"