Fang Linyan has already investigated and found that among the Beiyang Fleet, none of the remaining commanders were born in the Year of the Rabbit. Therefore, such personnel changes should be beneficial to the Beiyang Navy. As for the rest who were accidentally injured
, then you will be offended, just consider yourself unlucky.
When Fang Linyan returned to the inn where he stayed in the capital, Chi Ji came up to him with a smile and said:
"This time after my husband went out, someone sent me a huge gift."
Although Chi Ji is a demon body, she also received the Yellow River Dragon Qi thanks to Fang Linyan, so she basically has no taboos and is no different from other people, even when she appears in the capital.
After Fang Linyan left the Li Mansion, he went to visit Tan Sitong again to find out the latest news, but found nothing, and then returned to his residence.
When he heard what Chi Ji said, he immediately knew that this should be sent by the Li family. After counting the money, he found that the rest of the money was okay, but there was a gold-plated greeting card from Li Gongzhang, which was very rare.
.
Because at this time the greeting invitations were all required to be taken back by the owner, Li Jingshu put the greeting invitations in the gift and did not take them back. This meant that if you encounter any difficulties in the future, just take my greeting invitations and go find someone for help.
Given the reputation and status of Laozhongtang at this time, no matter where this greeting card was taken, others would probably give it three cents of noodles.
***
Two days later,
Fang Linyan also enjoyed two days in Chi Ji's gentle countryside. During this period, he also planned to make some possible milestones, but unfortunately, they all failed without exception.
This was much more difficult than he imagined, especially when investigating the milestone of "Where did Guangxu go?" Fang Linyan and Li San disguised themselves and went to find an old eunuch who had retired from the palace to inquire about the situation.
.
He originally thought he was going to use coercion and inducement, both soft and hard, but he didn't expect that the old eunuch couldn't even resist the temptation of five taels of silver, so he just let them go and let them come to him at night and lead them to find the insider, because the insider was at night
Will go home.
The eunuchs recorded in the book were so majestic that they could even decide the life or death of ministers with just a single movement. For example, when the emperor wanted to beat someone with a stick, the eunuch who was in charge of the punishment shouted:
"Hit with all your heart!" At the same time, the toes of both feet are still spread apart, then the minister is dead.
If the eunuch says "hit hard" and the toes of both feet are turned inward, then there will be a crackling sound when being beaten. In fact, the thunder will be loud and the raindrops will be light. After the beating, you can get up and walk immediately.
However, these great eunuchs recorded in history books and legends were all at the top of the pyramid, and most of them ended badly.
Either he died directly in the palace, or like the old eunuch Fang Linyan and the others found, he was old and frail and could no longer work and was kicked out of the palace.
Eunuchs were the special servants of the Heavenly Family. Officials, wealthy businessmen, and others did not dare to hire them. As a result, they were impoverished and childless, and in the end they could only die in poverty under the strange looks of others.
So it only cost five taels of silver to pry open the eunuch's mouth, which even Fang Linyan didn't expect.
However, when the two went to find the eunuch at night, they found that he had hanged himself in the room. He also left a suicide note next to him, saying that he could not bear poverty and was suffering from illness, so he committed suicide out of disgust with the world.
Not only that, after Fang Linyan and the two moved to another street, they heard that someone had committed suicide here! And it was also an old eunuch. Obviously, the old eunuch who committed suicide was the insider.
The cause of death of these two people is obviously very problematic, and it is feared that more people may have committed suicide.
If Fang Linyan had enough time, he could follow the clues and investigate, but he also has a heavy responsibility now, and he can't interfere with Master Song's business for this matter, so he can only put it aside for now.
Fortunately, at this time, the international situation changed again. Britain and France began to publicly declare that they would seriously consider Japan's territorial demands for Sakhalin and the four northern islands!
There is only one purpose, which is to accelerate the conflict between Tsarist Russia and Japan, and then achieve the purpose of using Japan to consume Tsarist Russia's strength.
During this process, these two countries only valued how much money Tsarist Russia consumed, how many people died, and how much national strength was consumed. As for the price Japan would pay, how much pressure the Qing Dynasty would be under -------
They are trivial.
With the emergence of the British-French declaration, the pressure on the Tsarist Russian minister has increased. He is not willing to kneel in front of the Tsar and bear his anger!
As a result, the minister could no longer sit still, so he had to urgently summon Song Yuren, hoping to discuss with him the plan to invade the Japanese mainland.
During this meeting, Tsarist Russian Minister Cassini obviously made a lot of concessions. The bribes, privileges, benefits, etc. that he had previously requested were all cancelled. He even said that if the war goes well, China and Russia can reconsider the plan.
The delimitation issue of the Chu Treaty.
In short, as long as you are willing to put more pressure on Japan and let them hold back their power, then we, Russia, can bring a lot of benefits!
For example, providing mercenaries, providing arms, or even selling land, etc. Apart from asking us to pay, we can discuss everything else...
In fact, the current Tsarist Russian government still adopts a backward serf system. Almost two thousand years after China got rid of slavery, it did not reform the serf system until 1861, but it was not until 1917 that the system was reformed.
The February Revolution of 2008 was considered a successful break away from serfdom.
Therefore, the Tsarist Russian government is also very poor now. Of course, European countries are also very afraid of it, because this guy is not only poor, but also likes to play with people's lives. The word "poor" is the most intuitive way to describe it.
Therefore, he seized this opportunity, plus Song Yuren had money in his hands, and now he also had the support of a large group of people behind him, led by top businessmen like the Qiao family! He actually started to take advantage of a lot during the negotiations, and even signed an agreement with Russia
Secret appointment.
The two sides agreed in the secret treaty that this special military operation was called the "Japan Hunting" plan. If this plan succeeded and China inflicted heavy damage on Japan, Russia would immediately send troops, and both sides would divide all Japan's interests in the Far East, and
Russia will return Vladivostok to China.
To be honest, even Fang Linyan didn't expect that Song Yuren could negotiate such a secret agreement!
Once fulfilled, his reputation will reach an astonishing peak, tied with Zuo Zongtang, Liu Yongfu and others, and he will basically control all the voice in future diplomacy.
At this time, China and Russia can be said to have hit it off. Song Yuren paid the employment fees and solved the transportation problem, while Russia provided corresponding manpower and weapons! The Russian ambassador was still very confident in the destructive power of the guys in Vladivostok.
However, the key to this matter actually lies in the issue of transportation. You must know that the Japanese navy now occupies corresponding sea control. If it is not sure that it can send people to the Japanese main island and is directly sunk halfway, then everything will be lost.
It's all empty talk.
Song Yuren was sure that the origin of the ship he hired was complicated and originally belonged to a Spanish shipowner. The company's second largest shareholder was a Frenchman, so he could directly fly the French flag.
The current relationship between Japan and Britain and France is as good as oil. Not to mention that the Japanese Navy's patrols and warnings are now directed towards the Beiyang Fleet, which may come from the west or south. They set out from Vladivostok to raid Japan.
, that is from north to south, there is a high probability that we will not encounter the Japanese combined fleet.
Even if they encounter it, the Japanese combined fleet will definitely not dare to attack French ships easily unless they can be sure that the ships are carrying soldiers.
Therefore, the key task of this operation is to keep secrets, and no one from the Huai Army can participate, because the Japanese intelligence personnel have already penetrated this area like a sieve, and it is even said that even the telegrams of the Beiyang Navy
The code books were all stolen by the Japanese...
Fortunately, when Song Yuren was running around the Shanghai Concession, he kept a very tight-lipped tone and only mentioned the matter of finding a ship. Even the news of finding the landing soldiers was indirectly obtained through other people.
More importantly, Song Yuren was just an unknown bureaucrat at this time. Logically speaking, the Japanese would not pay much attention to him.
After all, Japan at this time was still a weak country with extremely limited resources. It could only barely fight the Qing Dynasty even if it was a gamble on its national destiny. As long as the war lasted for more than a year, Japan's economy would automatically collapse.
The following series of dazzling operations directly reflected the four words of military excellence and speed! In this process, only two Qing officials, Song Yu and Tan Sitong, participated in this plan, which was an important factor in such high efficiency.
Needless to say, in addition to leaving tens of thousands of taels of silver to the main body (Hu Zhiyun), Fang Linyan also lost all the proceeds from selling foreign goods, the proceeds from selling heavy ships and their cargo, and even the remuneration given to him by Li Gongzhang.
Fell into this plan.
Not to mention Li Ju, Li San, even Tan Sitong and the uncles of the Qiao family were extremely shocked by such behavior. They all said that Mr. Hu's desire to break up the family and serve the country was even higher than that of the Yonggong. It was really
It's so rare.
And Fang Linyan's behavior also directly affected a large number of people around him.
When Wang Wu and Master Huo heard that they wanted to take the initiative to kill the Japanese, they called a dozen like-minded brothers and promised to participate in this sun hunting plan.
For his own dream (big housekeeper), Li San agreed to participate after careful consideration.
As for Li Ju, he took the initiative to find Fang Linyan and asked him for 10,000 taels of silver. He said that he had a friend who told him that Fang Linyan was currently suffering from evil spirits and that he was facing a big disaster recently, so he could keep him safe.
***
Six days later,
There were only five days left before the turning point of the Sino-Japanese War, September 17th, the Battle of the Yellow Sea.
By this time, Fang Linyan and his group had been bumping on the sea for a day and a night.
The weather can be said to be very bad. The light gray clouds are constantly pouring rain down. The steamship named Oss is moving forward with difficulty in the surging waves. It seems that every meter it advances, It will be knocked back half a meter by the waves, and the black smoke coming out of the chimney will quickly become dull.
At this time, in the cabin, a man with an aquiline nose was looking at Fang Linyan. He was strong, almost two meters tall, and was a big man. At this time, his blue eyes were full of emotion. Angry, he suddenly slammed his fist on the table and roared:
"You Chinese brat, take out the vodka quickly, otherwise, I will let you feel the fury from hell!!"
Fang Linyan shook his head and said to Li Sand behind him:
"I think Mr. Shao Yingu must be drunk. Please help him sober up."
Li San shrugged, then sat in front of the Tsarist Russian, placed his right hand on the table, and made an arm wrestling posture.
But Shao Yingu yelled:
"No, I refuse this bullshit game, listen, what me and my boys need is vodka, vodka!!"
Then he simply stretched out his big furry hand, aimed at Li San's neck and grabbed it.
However, Li San, who had been on guard for a long time, punched him and hit him under the armpit. Then he pinched the guy's little finger and twisted it hard. Shao Yingu immediately screamed in pain and twisted his body to slap him hard. He shouted across the table:
"Stop, stop!"
The current situation was caused by Fang Linyan.
When the two parties were signing the secret agreement, Fang Linyan played a little trick.
The secret contract was very clear, saying that after boarding the ship, each mercenary participating in the "Hunting Day" plan would be provided with spirits at an "appropriate time". The spirits should be Danda brand or Beluga brand. Or at least the quality and price should not be lower than these two brands.
Then the Russian counselor who was responsible for supervising the execution of the contract actually saw porters transporting a large amount of vodka onto the ship.
However, all the vodka was transported to the room of Fang Linyan and others. The Russian mercenaries on the ship thought that they would drink alcohol after getting on the ship. As a result, their thoughts were beautiful but the reality was cruel ------- -The only thing you can drink is water.
Haha, these people are so naive. It's not like Fang Linyan doesn't know what kind of urine these Russians have after being exposed to strong alcohol. He doesn't want to wait until they get to the ground and charge with a group of drunken and violent men.
Therefore, Fang Linyan took out the secret agreement between the two parties and told them that now was not the "appropriate time".
As for what is the appropriate time, of course, the final right to explain belongs to Fang Linyan, because the wine is in his hands.
After the Russians became anxious, Fang Linyan told them that if they wanted to drink the vodka brought with them on the ship, they could only drink it after arriving at a Japanese port.
In other words, some people think they are very powerful and can defeat their subordinates "in a man's way", so they can drink vodka with the glory of victory.