Chapter Twenty: The Iron Hat King

  As soon as I heard it, I knew that today I would be celebrating the defeat of Qingwang, and they had set me up to take revenge on them after autumn.

  I smiled and said: "What's meant to come will come sooner or later. It's better that it came now than for them to be secretly plotting!"

  As I walked into the house, I saw three old men in their fifties and a middle-aged man in his forties all pulling out one-foot-long faces, sitting there puffing away. Seeing me enter the house, several people pretended not to see me, ignoring me altogether.

  I went forward and gave a thousand bows: "How did Ama and the three imperial uncles have time to come? Zaitian paid his respects to Ama and his uncles!"

  The four of them hurriedly wanted to kneel down, I stopped them with one hand and they all stood there: "Has Wan Cai returned?"

  I smiled and said, "Accompanying the empress to ride a carriage outside, go to the horse market to take a look at the horses. The child wants to buy several good horses, practice horse riding skills when there's nothing else to do, so as not to lose the ancestral skills!"

  Chun's uncle, Wang Tie, scowled and grumbled, "You still remember your ancestors? I thought you had long forgotten about them!"

  "I hastily said: 'How can I forget? If I forgot, how could I have withdrawn Bao Wangye from the Navy Department? You know how much effort it took? My imperial mother almost turned against me!"

  As soon as I said this, the three iron-hatted kings let out a simultaneous hum in their noses and looked at me with slanted eyes.

  "I said with a straight face: 'What? You think being an official in the Navy Ministry is easy? With big benefits? Want to swallow those tens of millions of taels of silver into your own belly? Have you thought about the consequences? After the French destroyed the Fujian Fleet, the Japanese have already figured it out - if they want to defeat the Qing, they must first defeat its navy. They've set their sights on the Beiyang Fleet. At this time, Li Lianying suggests using the Navy Ministry's funds to build a garden, isn't that just borrowing a knife to kill someone? When the Qing navy goes to battle, if they win, it'll be the credit of Empress Dowager and Li Hongzhang; if they lose, it'll be the fault of Prince Gong, who dared to touch the naval budget, affecting the construction of the navy and causing a great defeat. At that time, I'm afraid those who will be executed won't be Empress Dowager or Li Hongzhang.'"

  Bao Wangye snorted heavily through his nose and said in a huff, "Do you think we're all three-year-old kids? You're the only one who knows how to talk. You saved me, but how did you get in yourself? Are you after that bit of silver?"

  I laughed: "I won't go in, can the old Buddha spare you? She wouldn't let go of a scapegoat, take this opportunity to overthrow you iron-hatted kings, and bear to let you strangle her neck? Can she forget who overthrew Prince Gong?"

  The Crown Prince glared at me: "What you said sounds better than singing, will she treat you differently if you go in?"

  "She can't get rid of me, I won't embezzle that sum of money everyone's eyes are on. I'll immediately use it to equip the Qing naval forces, train them and prepare for a battle at sea with those little Japanese devils, devour their naval forces. What can she do to me then? Can she still arrest us iron-hat princes?"

  The Eighth King nodded: "What Cui'er said is not unreasonable. After the defeat of the Fujian Navy, we grasped the small handle of Gong Wangye and pulled him off the stage. If the Beiyang Navy were to lose, they would definitely find fault with us, and at that time we would indeed have a hard time explaining ourselves!"

  Upon hearing this, Jun Qing Wang's expression improved somewhat: "Then how do you plan to arrange for your uncle? You should at least let him make a bit of money."

  Damn it, you bastards, all you know is how to make money, even selling your ancestors' memorial tablets, what a bunch of shameless scoundrels!

  I smiled and said, "The official position of Bao Wangye still needs to be maintained. Isn't it just a matter of changing places? As for making money, don't forget that a gentleman loves wealth but takes it in a proper way. How can you sell yourself out just for the sake of making money? In fact, there are many ways to make money, and my American friend Huang Fei can help you get rich quickly! And there's no risk at all!"

  The King of Treasures immediately chimed in and asked: "What way?"

  "Run a factory!"

  "What? You little rascal is fooling us?! What about the factory, Li Hongzhang set up a factory, how much silver did the Qing dynasty spend on it, and which one made money now? Besides, how many silvers can be used to set up such a thing? He Li Hongzhang spent the Qing's money, I have to spend my own silver, where do I have so much money? If I had that much money, I would just sit and eat, why bother with all this effort?" Bao Wangye shouted.

  I smiled and asked him: "What are you going to ignite now?"

  "Of course it's a fire sickle, can you even conjure up some self-igniting flames?" Bao Qinwang said indignantly.

  I pulled out a box of matches from my pocket and lit one with a scratch: "How's this? Will it sell well?"

  The three of them were stunned, staring with their eyes wide open, only Gong Xian Wang looked at him coldly and said nothing.

  Baoyu snatched the match from me and held it for a long time: "You just put it in your pocket like that? Aren't you afraid of burning your pocket?"

  I said: "Of course not, this thing is divided into two parts. The match head must be rubbed on this to ignite, you see, rubbing it elsewhere won't work at all!"

  The Prince Gong took the match in his hand and said, "I see that foreigners have this thing, we call it foreign fire, rub it on a hard place and it will ignite." He took out one and rubbed it on the stone floor, but the match did not light; he rubbed it on the sole of his shoe for half a day, but still didn't light up, and the match broke. He said discontentedly, "Hiss, this is not even as good as that foreign thing!"

  I said: "You have eyes but can't recognize gold and jade! This is a safety match, the foreign ones are not safe. Their matches will self-ignite in your pocket on a hot summer day and you'll end up with a fire in your pants! These matches don't have that problem! This was just researched by my friend's friend! Now many wealthy people from various countries have taken notice of this as a way to make a fortune, they're all fighting to buy the patent, it was given to me by my friend!"

  Bao Qin Wang hastily asked: "How much does it cost to set up this factory?"

  I said: "Not much, just 500,000!"

  "Ah? 500,000 is still not a lot?! You little brat's tone is quite big!"

  I said: "But you also earn a lot, let's calculate, one box of matches, one person can use it for at most ten days, in a month they need three boxes, one box you charge two dollars, so one box is pure profit of one dollar, one person you can earn three dollars a month, the Qing dynasty has more than 300 million people, how many dollars do you earn in a month? How much do you earn in a year?"

  "Isn't it just 500,000? I'll take care of it! But can I use the house and land as collateral?"

  I thought for a moment, damn it, doing land reform here is too difficult and the conditions aren't right. The land is basically concentrated in the hands of 5% of the people. I'd rather do what Chiang Kai-shek did in Taiwan - have the state buy back the land and then rent it out to farmers, and the state collects land taxes. But where would the money for buying the land come from? Suddenly, I had an idea: "Sell patents! Use patents to exchange for land! Starting today, I'll start selling them! Damn it, 21st-century stuff, whoever gets their hands on this can't not get some silver out of it! Set up a patent bureau, make a big fuss, sell for cash and exchange for land, concentrate the land and silver of those local tyrants into the state's hands! Force them to turn to industry, kill two birds with one stone!" Thinking of this, I said: "Listen carefully, uncle. These 500,000 is money to buy people's patents, that is to say, buying technology, buying the right to produce, buying the right to not let others produce! You want to set up a factory, you'll have to spend 180,000 more! But don't worry, I'll think of a way for you to use land as collateral!"

  Baoyou Wang: "Don't tease me, help me set up the factory and produce matches!"

  "I said: 'Of course! Not only will we produce it, but also help you open up sales channels, so that you can stay at home and count your money every day! Every day sending money to the bank, every day making a fortune!'"

  Bao Qianwang said: "That's settled, today's matter between us will stop here. However, if you don't help me clarify this matter, I'll have to come find you again and make sure you can't sleep peacefully for a single day!"

  Dunqin Wang said: "You think you can take all the fleets to the Navy Yamen, will those governors listen to you?"

  I smiled and said: "Aren't they all our family's slaves? When the old lady speaks, do they dare not listen? Aren't they afraid of losing their official hats?"

  "The Eight Kings said: 'Then let's see how you deal with Li Hongzhang, the first of the three major fleets is the Beiyang Fleet. If you can't handle them, your show will be over!'"

  Prince Gong also said: "Li Hongzhang relies on his Huai Army to support the Beiyang Army, and the Qing Dynasty relies on his Beiyang Army to support the defense of the capital. If he doesn't give you a fleet, what can you do to him?"

  Prince Gong said: "The development and utilization of resources in the Beijing-Tianjin region are almost all controlled by Li Hongzhang. No matter who invests, he must partner with him and hold shares. The military industry he set up in Suzhou, Nanjing, and Shanghai, the mining industry in Shanghai and Shandong, the coal and steel industry in Zhili, the silk factory in Shanghai, and the China Merchants Steamship Company were all established using the Qing government's silver. He would put most of the money into his own pocket, at most taking out some to equip his private army! Even the salt transportation in Zhili was directly controlled by him, with the money going straight into his pocket. Would he be willing to let you control him?"

  I laughed: "Then what are these uncles doing? Why didn't they pull him down?"

  "Alas, that year when we took you and your sixth uncle, Gongqin Wang, I originally wanted to take him down together with you. Who knew he would turn around faster than anyone else? Even foreigners said he had the ability to move heaven and earth! He kicked your sixth uncle to the ground and then surrendered to us! We softened our hearts at that time and spared his dog life! Now his backbone has hardened again, and he's started lending us money! Now several of us owe him money! Every day, he pressures us to do this and that for him. If you don't do it, he'll come after us for debt repayment! We've all become his slaves now!"

  I laughed: "That's good, one day I'll take him in and you guys won't owe that money anymore, will you?"

  The Eighth King happily said: "That's a good feeling, you go ahead and do it, we guarantee we won't interfere!"

  Damn it, this is your real purpose for coming here, wanting me and Li Hongzhang to have a falling out, so you can take advantage of the situation!

  Want to play with me? You'll be exhausted to death!