Chapter Thirty-Four: Encounter
Tang Baowen's telegram was received by Tan Zhonglin, who had already set out for Guangdong half a month ago, as Li Hongzhang had expected. There, he would represent Tan Zhonglin in receiving the power from Li Hanfang. Li Hanfang was very courteous and welcomed Tan Yanqian warmly. Now all the officials in China are talking about the extremely capable "prodigy" son of Governor Tan Zhonglin of Fujian and Zhejiang.
Li Han-chang treated Tan Yankai so well, one of the important reasons is also because of his brother Li Hongzhang's entrustment. Because Tan Yankai brought back urgently needed mechanical equipment from Germany and donated it to the Tianjin Machinery Bureau without compensation, which was a great favor.
Li Han-zhang solemnly introduced Tan Yan-kai to the major officials of Guangdong, and also observed this "Young Governor" from another angle. Although Tan Yan-kai received Li's courtesy, he was elegant in his demeanor, courteous in his behavior, and had a strong sense of propriety, which made Li very appreciative. Especially Tan's calligraphy made him envious - Li did not have any official titles, while Tan was the top scholar of Hunan Province, and his beautiful Yan-style calligraphy made all the officials of Guangdong look at him with admiration.
"Tan's group is elegant and refined, extremely intelligent, indeed a great talent. If the second brother were to recruit him under his command, it would be like adding wings to a tiger... Unfortunately, he is cautious in his dealings, somewhat like his father, so it may not be easy to get in touch with him. If the second brother has the intention, he can let Ji Meng take care of it..." Li Han Zhang gave Tan Yan Kai very high praise in his telegram to Li Hong Zhang. He thought back to several decades ago when his younger brother joined Zeng Guo Fan and was recognized as the only disciple who entered the inner chamber, inheriting his legacy. The Tan Yan Kai he met was not inferior to his younger brother in terms of talent and demeanor, and what was even more remarkable was that at this age, he was actually younger than Tang Bo Wen, whom his younger brother had taken a liking to. This gave him an idea.
Li Han-zhang and Li Hong-zhang were brothers, but they had completely different approaches to doing things. In comparison, Li Han-zhang was not as showy, and his rapid rise through the ranks of officialdom was probably the fastest in the Qing dynasty's history. This was partly due to the relationship between Zeng Guo-fan and Li Hong-zhang, but also because Li Han-zhang had a much more discerning eye for politics than his younger brother.
Li Hong-zhang, whether as governor-general of Jiangsu-Jiangxi or Zhili, always made promoting foreign affairs his top priority. However, Li Han-zhang was different; he knew very well that many people in the imperial court were strongly opposed to practical dealings with foreigners, so he took a completely different path from his brother - unless absolutely necessary, he would never show any enthusiasm for foreign affairs or industries. As a result, as brothers, Li Han-zhang had much less of a target on his back than his younger brother.
In the "Xu Zhi-xiang impeachment case", Guangdong Governor Wang Zhi-chun was more enthusiastic towards Tan Yan-ke, because through Zhang Zhidong's channel, he learned that Zhang Zhidong knew about Xu Zhi-xiang's impeachment so early and grasped the 3 million taels of silver account problem in salt administration when Li Han-zhang was still in office as Governor-General of Hubei and Hunan before Li took action against him. This was because Tan Yan-ke had leaked the secret. When Wang Zhi-chun presented these accounts to Li Han-zhang, Li immediately threw justice and integrity out of his mind and reached a compromise with Wang, who understood what he meant without needing to say it.
Wang Zhichun was very clear in his mind that if it weren't for Tan Yankai's efforts to secure this precious time, he would have definitely been buried with Zhang Zhidong as a funeral object. Of course, 20 years ago when Zhang Zhidong was the academic supervisor in Zhejiang, he became the mentor of the successful candidate Yuan Xu. Recently, when Yuan Xu was serving as the governor of Anhui, Liu Kunyi, the Governor-General of the Two Rivers, received a secret edict from the imperial court to secretly investigate Zhang Zhidong's crimes. Because Yuan Xu had just returned from Beijing after being dismissed from his position in the Hanlin Academy, Liu Kunyi wanted to gather information about the situation in the capital through Yuan Xu, which exposed the secret edict. Yuan Xu quickly wrote a letter to warn Zhang Zhidong. However, at that time, Zhang Zhidong already had Li Hongzhang's weakness in his hands, and Wang Zhichun had secretly revealed it to Li Hongzhang in the Guangzhou government office.
Due to the Xu Zizheng impeachment case, Wang Zhichun was very grateful to Tan Yankai. If it weren't for Tan Yankai, even if Yuan Xuchu had warned him, this matter would not have been resolved so quickly. Even if Li Hanfang had found evidence of his crime and reported it to the capital in a short period of time, it would have been too late even if he had grasped Li Hanfang's weakness. After Li Hanfang handed over his duties to Tan Yankai after staying with him for several days and led his entourage to Fuzhou to take up his new post, Wang Zhichun was the first to come to the Guangdong-Guangxi Governor-General's Mansion to thank Tan Yankai for his help at that time.
Although Tan Zhonglin had not yet taken office in Guangzhou, the two Guangdong Governor's Office had already begun to operate under the leadership of Tan Yanqian and the efforts of his entourage. The reason why they could perform their duties so quickly was also due to Li Han Zhang's solemn introduction, which made Tan Yanqian not be underestimated by the officials of the two Guangs. Secondly, it was also because Tan Yanqian had this prestige in the staff hall to calm down these staff members. Moreover, Wang Zichun took the lead in cooperation, so that before Tan Zhonglin arrived in Guangzhou, the two Guangdong Governor's Office had already been operating in an orderly manner.
Wang Zhichun's flattering words were naturally very clear in Tan Yankai's mind, and he also knew the reason why a dignified court official like himself was being treated with such respect by a second-ranking official. Of course, Wang Zhichun went to meet Tan Yankai at the governor-general's office on the evening of Li Hanxiang's departure from Guangzhou, and the two had a very pleasant conversation. Wang Zhichun expressed his gratitude to Tan Yankai on behalf of Zhang Zhidong, while Tan Yankai also asked Wang Zhichun to convey his admiration for Zhang Zhidong.
Wang Zhichun did not know that, after a friendly conversation with him, Tan Yankai warmly entertained Li Hongzhang's envoy Tang Bowen in the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi just five days later.
"In the lower Tang Bo Wen, word Ji Meng. Now Li Zhong Tang under the effort, Tan brother's name is like thunder in my ears!" Tang Bo Wen said with a smile after seeing Tan Yan Kan.
"In the future, if Brother Ji Meng doesn't mind, it would be better to call me Zong An. It's inconvenient to talk outside, Brother Ji Meng please come in and chat!" Tan Yanqing said with a smile, clasping his fists together.
To be honest, when Tan Yanqing first heard the name Tang Bowen, he thought it was Tang Bohu's brother. Unfortunately, the era is too different, but it's just a joke. However, Tang Bowen's attire is very "fashionable", wearing a suit and a top hat, this kind of attire is not uncommon in Shanghai, but what's rare is that Tang Bowen doesn't have a queue!
The queue can be said to be a symbol of the Qing Dynasty, but in this era, whether or not to keep the queue seems to have become very relaxed. Moreover, not keeping the queue is not a unique creation of Tang Bowen alone. In Shanghai, he saw many Chinese people without queues, but he still didn't keep his queue while serving in Li Hongzhang's government office, which was quite rare.
"He must have had experience abroad, and it seems that he has been there for quite some time. Since Comrade Lao Li is willing to send him all the way here to discuss with me the purchase of smokeless gunpowder production equipment, he must be someone who is highly valued by Li Hongzhang..." This was Tan Yankai's immediate judgment when he first saw Tang Bowen.
"If it weren't for the two Guangdong governors' offices, no one would come to impersonate Tan Yanqing. It's hard to imagine that this person is actually one of the three public sons who shook the lake and the river. From his demeanor, he appears to be a man who has seen the world. He represents the Beiyang minister here, but he still looks so calm and composed, not because he is looking down on others, but because he is used to receiving high-ranking officials. Of course, it's obviously not because of the former... Tang Bowen also evaluated Tan Yanqing in his heart, no matter what, he believed the rumor from outside - "The Fujian-Zhejiang governor's office is dominated by the three public sons, known as 'Little Governor'!"
It's not uncommon for the sons of aristocratic families to serve in the government of their elders. In fact, this practice has been widespread from ancient times to the present day, with the intention of tempering the character of the young men and enhancing their abilities. From another perspective, it is precisely because of this practice that a large number of reserve forces have been cultivated. However, there are also many examples where such cultivation methods have led to estrangement between fathers and sons or uncles and nephews, with both sides holding different political views and eventually becoming sworn enemies - a situation often seen when establishing a new ruler.
Tang Baowen was different from Li Hongzhang, he had lived abroad for a long time and had a deep understanding of the rules of this world. In comparison, Li Hongzhang was more conservative, but Li Hongzhang was very clear about the domestic situation, which was not something Tang Baowen could compare with. Although the two men had different views, Li Hongzhang still took great care of Tang Baowen, a younger man, not only from the perspective of old friends' friendship, but also because he highly appreciated Tang Baowen's talent and ability to handle affairs.
"This time, Mr. Tang sent me to Guangzhou for two reasons: first, to thank you on behalf of Master Zhong for the machinery equipment that was donated, which has made the Tianjin Machinery Bureau more complete and advanced; second, after debugging and installation, the smokeless gunpowder has officially started production, with a current monthly output of around 2,000 pounds, and the produced smokeless gunpowder is very effective, with less smoke and greater power. Master Zhong has decided to use the smokeless gunpowder on the Beiyang Fleet's warships as propellant bags and explosive shells..." Tang Bowen said with a smile.
"Huh? Launch a shell package? Aren't all shells integrated?" Tan Yanqian suddenly asked.
"Haha, Zong An may not have been on the Beiyang Fleet's ship before. The shells fired by this naval gun are composed of two parts: the propellant bag and the shell head. When firing, the shell head is loaded first, and then a propellant bag wrapped in silk is installed at its tail end. In the past, brown or black powder was used to fill the propellant bag, which produced a lot of smoke when fired, affecting the gunner's field of vision. Moreover, after firing, there were many residues left in the barrel, so it was necessary to clean up carefully afterwards, otherwise it would affect the accuracy and speed of the big gun... Now with the advent of smokeless powder, the same amount of propellant bag can fire shells farther, with greater shellhead power, and the problems of smoke and residue have also been well solved..." Tang Bowen explained with a smile.
Tang Bowen, as Li Hongzhang's staff member, mainly worked on foreign affairs and had a certain understanding of the work on naval ships. After Tang Bowen's patient explanation, Tan Yankai finally understood that the northern navy's artillery shells were divided into two parts during this period. He had never examined this issue in the movies he had seen before, and there was so much to learn from these small shells. Tan Yankai's understanding of the navy was still limited to terms like "huge gun mouth", "dingzi position" and "sea inside". As for what these terms meant, he was completely clueless. He didn't even know what a "dingzi position" looked like... a complete naval idiot.
"Brother Ji Meng, are the naval shells of various countries all like this? Are there any shells with the shell head and propellant package directly integrated together, which can be loaded into the barrel as a whole during firing?" Tan Yanqian asked.
"No! Although I'm not in the navy, but I have some understanding. The shells on the warships of Western powers are indeed as Zu An said, the shells and cartridges are assembled together during production, making it very convenient to fire..." Tang Bowen replied.
"Brother Ji Meng, do you know what the shells on Japanese warships look like? Are they the same as those of our Great Qing?" Tan Yanqian asked anxiously.
Tang Bowen shook his head and said: "I really haven't paid attention to this before, is there a problem with it?"
Tan Yanqing smiled wryly and said: "Brother Ji Meng, to be honest, I haven't even seen a real naval warship until now, let alone understand the navy. However, based on common sense, in warfare, this integrated shell is much stronger than the current Beiyang Fleet's separated shell and projectile. At least its firing speed is incomparable... According to my knowledge, the characteristics of Japanese naval warships are fast firing speed and fast navigation speed. I remember a foreign newspaper once jokingly called Japan's warships 'brave warriors with daggers'..."
"Oh? There are such comments. The dagger is easy to understand, but what does '**Warrior' mean? Are there any comments about Chinese warships?"
"This is due to the fact that the defensive capabilities of Japanese naval vessels are relatively weak! As for the evaluation of the Beiyang Fleet, it was: 'Turtles wearing heavy armor', referring to the fact that the Beiyang Fleet's warships had great firepower and excellent defensive capabilities, but were extremely slow..."
"The firepower is so great that it's hard to see, I've heard before that the Beiyang Fleet's shells were very problematic, even sand was loaded into the shells, at most because of the large caliber; as for the excellent protective performance, it's true that the two main battleships of the Beiyang Fleet were not sunk in a big sea battle, more than 1,000 shells hit and still didn't sink, this protective performance is qualified, but it's just too slow..." Tan Yankai thought to himself.
Tan Yanqun smiled slightly and said: "Brother Ji Meng can inform Master Zhong Tang that the secrecy of this shell problem in Japan may not be very strong, it should be easy to get news about it. However, no matter what, Master Zhong Tang should consider producing shells with integrated warheads and propellant packages. Western powers aside, the Japanese threat is the most real threat facing China. The firing speed of Japanese artillery is already very fast, if the Beiyang Fleet can adopt this kind of integrated shell, at least it can balance each other out a bit. This way, when the two countries clash in the future, the Beiyang Navy will have more control..."
Tang Bowen nodded and smiled, saying: "Just this one thing, Bowen's trip won't be in vain! However, the main reason for my visit this time is still about the smokeless firecracker production equipment..."
Tan Yanqun smiled and waved his hand to interrupt Tang Bowen's words, saying: "Brother Ji Meng's telegram from Tianjin to Fuzhou has been handed over to me by my father. I have already learned of Brother Ji Meng's intentions and made corresponding preparations... This equipment is absolutely problem-free. A set of equipment for 40,000 taels of silver? The foreign businessman's price is really too high. Even if we deduct the 6 or 7 points of commission, it's still a huge profit! I have already sent a letter of intent to Germany, and the German Mauser Arms Factory will act on our behalf to handle this matter in Germany. The estimated total price for four sets of equipment is around 100,000 taels of silver, and at most it won't exceed 120,000 taels, including transportation costs. Moreover, there is a 5% commission that can be collected. Brand new German equipment! If Brother Ji Meng and Minister Zhong are still not satisfied, I suggest that the Beiyang government can send someone to go abroad. There are some manufacturers abroad who are struggling financially and will go bankrupt. Brother Ji Meng can pay attention to this. Although the equipment is a bit old, it's more cost-effective in terms of price. We can buy the entire factory, sell the land again, and transport the equipment back..."
Tang Bohan was overjoyed when he heard this, and laughed as he said: "The Grand Minister will certainly be delighted to hear this. Thank you for your trouble in arranging this, Zong'an. The prices we got from the foreign merchants were really a bit too high; the Grand Minister has already said that if the price of these machines can be kept at around 30,000 taels, he will give Zong'an 4,000 taels as a labor fee..."
Tan Yanqing smiled and said: "I have admired the Grand Minister for a long time, if I accept these 4,000 taels of silver from the Grand Minister, then I will not dare to ask to see the Grand Minister again... The Grand Minister is in charge of the Beiyang Navy, which is for protecting the country, and now the court's finances are tight. These 4,000 taels of silver, together with those five percent interest, add up to 10,000 taels of silver, so it would be better if the Grand Minister uses them all on the Beiyang Navy. Although the amount is small, it is still a token of my sincerity. Please do not refuse, Grand Minister!"
"'Defend the country' may not be, but 'protect the family' is true! Old Li classmate may have really opened his eyes, so anxious to buy equipment and make shells, it seems that he is not willing to sit and wait for death either! Isn't it said that Old Li was in a conservative position on the issue of the Sino-Japanese War, and didn't want the Beiyang Fleet to be destroyed? In any case, this is a good phenomenon!" Tan Yankai thought to himself.
Today, a friend got married and I drank too much, so the update will be late. Sorry about that. As for the questions about the autocannon and shells, many book friends will definitely ask, but tomorrow is very busy, and I'll answer them the day after tomorrow. Sorry again.
