Chapter 47: Loneliness

  "Tan Wenqing and Weng Shuping can be considered as close friends. In the past two or three years when Tan Wenqing was serving as the Minister of Personnel in Beijing, Weng Shuping would often visit him whenever he had some free time. I've never seen Weng Shuping being so diligent with anyone else. Youxiao, don't you think it's strange that this time Tan Wenqing not only agreed to write a letter but also personally sent his son to deliver it? What's the underlying reason?" Li Hongzhang asked Zhang Peilun with a smile.

  "Weng Shuping and Tan Wenqing were both successful candidates in the imperial examination thirty-eight years ago. In his early years, Tan Wenqing was also a straightforward and outspoken person who dared to speak out. At that time, no one in the imperial court dared to speak up for Prince Gong, but Tan Wenqing did. The officials from the north and south were all ashamed, if it weren't for him taking charge so early, those who would have been in power wouldn't have included Weng Shuping and Li Hongzhang. Even when he was in a position of power, Tan Wenqing didn't do anything to harm the interests of the officials. When he was an official in Shaanxi, he eliminated the conflicts between the Han and Hui people with his fair and just governance, and the local Hui people were so moved that they cried tears of gratitude. Similarly, during a severe drought, Shanxi and Henan almost had peasant uprisings, but Shaanxi was peaceful, which already made him a capable official... Tan Wenqing was one of the few provincial officials who gained recognition from the Beijing officials, but this time he agreed to help Zhong Tang because of his 'little governor's' son!" Zhang Peilan said lightly, shaking her paper fan.

  "Weng Shuping is quite accurate in his assessment of people. After reading Tan Zu'an's article a few years ago, he called him a prodigy and spread the word about Tan Zu'an among the scholarly circles in Beijing. And indeed, it wasn't long after that, within three or four years, before the age of twenty, Tan Zu'an achieved the title of 'Optimus' (the highest honor in the imperial examination). This Tan Zu'an is truly exceptional!" Li Hongzhang said with a smile.

  "Ji Meng was young and vigorous, with high aspirations, but he highly admired Tan Zu'an. The two met only a few times, but they were like old friends who had known each other for years. In the past, I thought that 'Quan Xue Pian' was written under the guidance of Tan Wengong, but now it seems that Tan Zu'an is indeed a scholar with a deep understanding of both Chinese and Western cultures. It's really surprising how Tan Wengong, who had never been involved in foreign affairs, could have taught such a good son?"

  "Young Xiao, you said Tan Wenqing has some confidence in being a lobbyist, won't let Weng Shuping drag our hind legs?!"

  "Not clear!"

  However, he immediately said: "Tan Wengui is indeed grateful to the Duke of Gong. This time, Tan Zu'an's trip to Beijing to visit Weng Shuping was second only to visiting the Duke of Gong. Although the Duke of Gong has not been involved in politics for 30 years, he is a person who repays kindness with kindness. Moreover, he still has a deep influence on the court, and Weng Shuping often walks under the door of the Duke of Gong. Tan Wengui was kind to the Duke of Gong, risking his head to speak for him. In these 30 years, except for transferring Tan Wengui to a local position, the two had almost no intersection. If Tan Wengui is willing to let the Duke of Gong speak, Weng Shuping will still give face on the surface and won't oppose us openly, but he will still make trouble in secret!"

  Li Hongzhang couldn't help but sigh and shake his head, saying: "I never thought that a memorial to the throne back then would make the Weng family hate me for the rest of my life..."

  "If Zhongtang hadn't written that memorial back then, would he have been recognized by Zeng Wenzheng? There are gains and losses, but Zhongtang doesn't take it to heart. What's important is not the attitude of Weng Shuping, but rather the Japanese people we can't get past. Once we resolve the trouble with Japan, we will still stand tall!" Zhang Peilun comforted with a smile.

  "I'm not a person who forgets kindness and betrays righteousness. Regardless of whether we succeed or not, this time we owe Tan Wengqing a great favor. Yu Zao, how should we repay this kindness?"

  Zhang Peilun smiled and said, "Tan Wengui has placed all his hopes on this 'little governor', as long as he pushes Tan Zu'an at the right time, the father and son will naturally understand what's going on!"

  Tianjin Port

  Tan Yanqing watched as the Huai soldiers boarded the Zhoushan in an orderly manner, while not far away, the Jiyuan, Guangyi and Weiyuan were receiving their final supplies. Through Fang Boqian's introduction, it was still the Jiyuan that took charge of escorting this time. As for the Guangyi and Weiyuan, they were just a mere formality - the Guangyi was a wooden ship with a steel skin, originally belonging to the Nanyang Fleet, but Li Hongzhang had retained it in the Beiyang due to the deteriorating situation in Korea. The Weiyuan was even more so, being a training vessel, and in the confrontation between China and Japan where modern ironclad warships were the main force, the Guangyi and Weiyuan had no right to speak, only the 2,300-ton Jiyuan could hold its own.

  Fang Baoqian's concerns are not unreasonable. No matter what kind of person he is, as one of the earliest naval officers trained in Britain, he still has some skills. In terms of talent, Beiyang is still the first in China now, and this advantage will last for decades; secondly, it is the second group led by Liu Kunyi, Governor of Hubei and Hunan and Governor of Jiangsu and Jiangxi, but their talents are obviously much inferior to those of Beiyang. After all, the South lost heavily in the Sino-French War, and the situation where the three fleets stood together was broken from then on.

  Although it's hard to find talent, Tan Yankai didn't think anyone could control the behemoth that was the Beiyang Army. Yuan Shikai had only managed to grasp control of the Beiyang by luck when Li Hongzhang was still alive, but this also proved from another angle that Yuan Shikai himself had great abilities and charisma. Tan Yankai asked himself if he could do it, and thought that it would be better for him to slowly cultivate his own military talents, even though when facing his own bodyguards, he couldn't help but feel a bit awkward - most of the members were older than him.

  It can be said that Fang Boqian was afraid of death, but his judgment on the sensitivity of war came from his own military knowledge. Although Li Hongzhang had raised the alert level of the Beiyang Fleet, allowing the fleet's ships to even fire first when threatened by Japanese fleets, as Fang Boqian said, both Guangyi and Yangwei were just decorations, and in a real battlefield, they would have trouble even escaping, let alone fighting. When Fang Boqian really encountered the Japanese fleet in the Korean waters, could he open fire under the surveillance of the enemy's naval guns?

  To know that the Jiyuan was also one of the main battleships in the Beiyang Fleet, the Japanese attitude towards this warship would not be friendly at all - the Japanese even specially ordered the "Sankei" from the West to deal with Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, and the main gun on it could even penetrate the iron armor of the two giant ships. As one of the main battleships of the Beiyang Fleet, the Japanese would naturally be very clear about this warship. According to Fang Boqian's meaning, since we want to fight a battle with the Japanese, the army can take the land route, while the navy is already at a disadvantage, and if it is dispersed again, it will be defeated one by one.

  Tan Yanqing did not understand military affairs, although he also asked Friedrich for advice on marching and fighting, and even read through all the modern Western military books he could get his hands on. However, fighting was not something that could be accomplished just by talking about it on paper. The most obvious example was the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the Russo-Japanese War, where the Japanese were almost incredibly lucky, with not a single main battleship being sunk, making even him wonder if heaven was helping the Japanese cheat.

  However, Deng Shichang believed that Fang Boqian's idea was also reasonable. Concentrating the advantageous forces and preparing for a decisive battle with the enemy, the army marching into Korea by land route might not be a bad thing after all. After all, the outcome of the Sino-Japanese War would still depend on the naval battles. The Jiyuan ship, just by its name, was at least on the same level as the famous Zhiyuan ship, and its combat capability was absolutely that of an advanced main battleship in terms of data. If it were really surrounded by the Japanese with superior forces at sea, before the Sino-Japanese War had even begun, the loss of the Jiyuan ship would undoubtedly have a huge impact on the morale of the Beiyang Fleet.

  However, from the perspective of escorting the Ji yuan ship, Tang Yanqi also understood that Li Hongzhang was unreliable - he wanted to quickly resolve the Korean issue before Japan took action, in order to delay the Sino-Japanese showdown, and essentially still had a compromising mindset. However, based on Tang Yanqi's understanding of the Japanese, Li Hongzhang's plan was unrealistic. Even if they avoided it this time, Japan's military expenditure was so massive that this small island nation would exhaust itself even before the war began if it continued to expand its military in this way. The Japanese would not do such a foolish thing; they would seize any minor opportunity to engage in war with China and gamble on the outcome.

  Although Japan's momentum is already evident, Old Li still views Japan with an old perspective. It's impossible to escape by luck, and the battle that needs to be fought will have to be fought, hiding won't work. However, Old Li now at least has some capital in his hands, previously he didn't make a move, but now he has some ideas in mind and made certain preparations, which is better than passively avoiding battles and being beaten in history! Tan Yanqian thought to himself.

  The current situation between China and Japan reminds Tan Yankai of two gamblers in a movie, constantly raising the stakes. Old Li wants to withdraw but the bets on the table are too high, so he has no choice but to go all-in with the Japanese and continue to raise the stakes. When the two gamblers finally have to reveal their last cards, war will naturally come.

  "Now let's see how much more Old Li can gamble, it's best if he puts all his family property and capital into it, otherwise he will still have a lucky idea in his heart!" Tan Yanqin tightened the cloak on his body, which was the only thing that Fang Cong could find to defend against the cold in the north in such a short time. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a warm current flowing in his heart.

  However, what made Tan Yankai extremely regretful was that this time the Jiyuan ship escorted 1,500 Huai troops to rush to Korea to quell the disturbance, and the leader on board was none other than Ye Zhicha, the governor of Zhili, and Nie Shicheng, the commander-in-chief of Taiyuan. In this way, Tan Yankai's plan to quietly poison Ye Zhicha also became a bubble, now he could only beg heaven that this merchant ship would encounter a Japanese fleet on the way and directly get rid of Ye Zhicha, but such a possibility was infinitely close to zero.

  Eight hours after the Beiyang Fleet set sail from Tianjin, the Tianjin Governor's Office sent a telegram to the Japanese Minister in Beijing under Li Hongzhang's order, stating "China sends troops to Korea to suppress the Donghak Party, no other intention, and will withdraw immediately after suppression". At this time, both the Tianjin Telegraph House and the Beijing Telegraph House had malfunctions at the same time, and the telegram from the Japanese Minister could not be sent back to Japan. Li Hongzhang was watching the jumping Japanese Minister with a cold smile on his side.

  In this era, there was no wireless telegraphy. If the Japanese wanted to send a telegram back home, they had to go through the Tianjin Telegraph Office and transmit it via submarine cables back to Japan. Li Hongzhang's subordinate, Sheng Xuanhuai, controlled China's telegraph industry. At least in the north, all telegrams had to pass through Beiyang's hands. With just one word from the big head, the telegraph in northern China would have some problems - it was simply too easy, and also left the Japanese speechless. The telegraph lines were cut into several sections by rioters in the afternoon, reconnecting them was quite easy, but finding the break points was very troublesome. To get connected again, they had to wait until tomorrow morning.

  "When the Japanese find out about Korea, I will have already been in Seoul!" Li Hongzhang thought to himself with great satisfaction.

  Tan Yanqing did not expect that at this time, besides him, there was another person who quietly boarded a ship in Tianjin Port. However, the ship he boarded was neither a passenger liner nor a warship - the Beiyang Navy's Haiyan Wheel. This man was Li Hongzhang with white hair, and after boarding the Haiyan Wheel so late, he did not ask to set sail, but walked alone into the cabin.

  The cabin was filled with flashing lights, shining on various Western silverware, dazzling to the eye. The most striking thing in the cabin was a long table, surrounded by more than a dozen intricately carved high-backed wooden chairs in Western style, and at the top was a high-legged two-person sofa. Li Hongzhang walked to the side of the sofa, gently grasping the armrest, and suddenly slapped the long table heavily. The cabin door was quickly pushed open, and more than a dozen bodyguards rushed in with guns, but when they saw that there was only Li Hongzhang in the cabin, these bodyguards looked at each other in dismay, not knowing what to do.

  Li Hongzhang seemed to have exhausted all his energy after slamming the table, and slowly waved his hand saying: "Get out! Extinguish the lights!!"

  The lamps in the cabin were extinguished one by one by the attendants, and then they carefully retreated, leaving only Li Hongzhang sitting motionless on a double sofa in the darkness. Although he had gained the upper hand in the telegram, the telegram from Qing's envoy to Japan, Wang Fengzao, made him determined to quickly resolve the Korean issue, as for Japan, let their parliament and cabinet go with the flow! However, this afternoon when he summoned Admiral Ding Ruchang of the Beiyang Navy, he got angry again - Ding Ruchang came to see him because the war atmosphere between China and Japan was getting thicker, Ding Ruchang was an old man from the Huai Army, and as a infantryman leading a group of graduates from the Fujian Mawei Naval Academy, it was naturally a bit difficult for him to command, but this did not mean that Ding Ruchang was incapable, in fact, he still used traditional military methods to train his subordinates, a group of arrogant officers, although they stumbled along the way, they didn't make any big mistakes, mainly because the Beiyang Navy had never been in a war since its establishment.

  This time is different from the usual, Ding Ruchang knows that both China and Japan are now on the brink of a cliff, and his Beiyang Fleet is at the forefront. However, the current situation of the Beiyang Fleet is really terrible. In order to increase his chances of winning, he came to the Zhili Governor's Office this afternoon to meet Li Hongzhang and request that new-style quick-firing Krupp guns be added to the Beiyang Fleet as soon as possible. Where does Li Hongzhang have the silver to buy Krupp guns at this time? Even if they were bought, it would not catch up with his predetermined plan. Ding Ruchang's somewhat negative attitude provoked Li Hongzhang's great anger, and the two parted unhappily. Under Li Hongzhang's gloomy mood, he thought of the Haiyuan ship docked in Tianjin.

  The Haiyuan wheel was originally intended for the third Northern Navy grand review scheduled a month later, but Li Hongzhang had already cancelled the review in an emergency. However, this ship reminded him of someone from his past, and under the gloomy mood, he came to board the Haiyuan wheel. Since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom era, after the death of Emperor Xianfeng, two younger brothers of Xianfeng successively took on the role of regent king who assisted in state affairs. Li Hongzhang had established a good relationship with them and they relied on each other.

  Over the past thirty years, three princes have been replaced - last month, Prince Qing's Yi Kuan was formally promoted to Prince Qing, which made Li Hongzhang feel a lot of emotions. In Li Hongzhang's view, Prince Gong was the most capable; although Prince Chun was not as clever as his brother, he knew how to be humble and did not interfere with things he didn't understand, boldly delegating power to those who understood. The one that made Li Hongzhang angry was the current Prince Qing. This Prince Qing was a distant branch of the imperial family, far inferior to Prince Gong and Prince Chun in terms of political influence and ability. However, this guy was just a useless person who only listened to orders from above - Empress Dowager Cixi needed money for her temple, so Prince Yi Kuan was planted inside the Beiyang government as a big mole. The most deadly thing was that his hands were very greedy... not just ordinary greed, it's said that in Beijing, if you want to ask him for something, you have to spend a lot of silver just to see him once.

  Li Hongzhang came to the Haiyuan wheel and thought of the Regent for six years, Emperor Guangxu's father, Empress Dowager Cixi's adopted son, Zaifeng, Prince Chun. Perhaps it was because the current Emperor Guangxu was too greedy, which made Li Hongzhang think of the most honest of the three princes, Zaifeng, Prince Chun. Among the three princes, excluding the incompetent and greedy Emperor Guangxu, Prince Gong had been disciplined by Empress Dowager Cixi once and then disappeared from view. Compared to Zaifeng, Prince Gong should be very clear about his situation - the current Emperor Guangxu was Zaifeng's biological son! Zaifeng lived a very embarrassing life, and he was also the most cautious of the princes because of the relationship between power and blood ties, making him the number one target that Empress Dowager Cixi guarded against after Prince Gong.

  The Haiyuanhuan is a witness to the harmonious relationship between Li Hongzhang and the Empress Dowager Cixi, and it was also during the Empress Dowager's regency that the Beiyang Fleet received great protection under his care. The first inspection of the Beiyang Fleet was when the Empress Dowager took Li Hongzhang on board the Haiyuanhuan together, but now only Li Hongzhang is left alone, and in this dark cabin, he feels nothing but infinite loneliness...