Xue Fucheng's face showed a sickly red light, and he coughed violently from time to time. However, he was obviously in a good mood today. After drinking a few cups of hot tea, he even talked about sex. Lu Hong was talking to After he chatted about European customs for a while, the topic naturally turned to the recent domestic situation. This time, Shanghai Zodiac Platform, which had been waiting for a long time, had the opportunity to interject, "Mr. They have all been transferred to Tianjin Guards!" Xue Fucheng obviously had just returned to China, so he was not well-informed, but he was Li Hongzhang's number one think tank in foreign affairs. After hearing the news, he thought for a moment and immediately realized the problem, "Zhu Dao Taiwan, where did you hear about this Is there any news from the Japanese consul? " "The British Consul Stroh also came to the banquet today. I also asked him about this matter. The British said, Japan? The government has confirmed that it will not send troops to North Korea!" Huang Zuluo immediately responded with a smile, "How dare the Japanese confront Li Zhongtang's power? Master Xue, don't you think so?" Lu Hong immediately thought of this when he heard the news. Wang Renkan's urgent call to recruit him to Lushun seems to have a lot to do with the movements of the Huai Army. He has been busy with the industry in Shanghai recently. With his current power, it is obviously impossible for him to have any thoughts of dominating one party. Therefore, the industry in Shanghai is actually a transitional process of collecting gold and connecting people. Fortunately, hard work pays off. Now, compared to the situation when I was in the dark, my situation has naturally improved a lot. Several funds invested in the silk reeling factory amounted to 170,000 yuan. Lu Hong chose to put them in HSBC, a British bank. With his own knowledge, he naturally did not have to worry about the British Macquarie Bank. It went bankrupt like that, and after all, the money was mainly used for the operation of the silk reeling factory. Considering that the cocoon would be on the market soon, he couldn't spend too much money. With the income from the machine factory and several shares invested, Lu Hong now has more than 70,000 taels of working capital on hand. In addition, he is considering how to sell the raw diamond ore brought by Wang Daosheng. When the time comes, he will have But it¡¯s very flexible! The change in the situation is almost as expected. It seems that the news about Japan's holiday is not limited to the minister Keisuke Ohtori and others. The Japanese consul in China is also pouring ecstasy to the Manchu and Qing court. The Japanese are actually Just waiting for the Qing government to send troops to North Korea. Once the Qing government sends troops to Korea, according to the "Sino-Japanese Treaty of Tianjin", the Japanese will also gain the right to send troops! Today's Japan is actually more cautious than when it was rampaging across Asia more than ten years later. After all, with the British Empire at its peak, even though the Japanese Army Ministry had full information about fighting the Qing government, the Ito cabinet still conservatively believed that Reasons must be found to prevent the great powers from intervening in the possible war between Qing and Japan. Therefore, when he heard that Huang Zuluo was promoting to Xue Fucheng the Japanese promises he had discovered, Lu Hong immediately realized that this was a good time to interject, "Master Xue, Master Huang, the Japanese are completely untrustworthy. The matter of seizing our Ryukyu Islands has not yet been settled. In my opinion, it is very cruel to encourage my army to march into the country to quell the rebellion." Xue Fucheng coughed twice, took another sip of hot tea, and looked at it meaningfully Lu Hong nodded and asked Huang Zuluo carefully. Later, Huang Zuluo respectfully escorted Xue Fucheng out. Naturally, he saw that Mr. Xue seemed to be in poor health and immediately sent someone to go. The inclined bridge invited Chen Lianfang, a famous doctor from Shanghai. Seeing that Xue Fucheng had left, Lu Hong said goodbye to Huang Zuluo after a few polite words. He went out, but met Xue Fucheng's carriage outside. Someone had come up to stop him, saying that Xue Fucheng had brought him a message. He hopes to visit his Huayi Machinery Factory tomorrow, and he naturally agrees. After a while, Qin Tianmin's guy came out and looked happily at the carriage that was slowly going away. Thinking about it, he naturally thought that Lu Hong had successfully made new connections. This was definitely a blessing for him who had always had bad luck in officialdom. Good thing. In the afternoon of that day, Lu Hong squatted in the dock of the shipyard all day. He and Zheng Xuanhongzi carefully studied the two ships Nanrui and Nanchen, and ordered the removal of the two useless torpedo tubes on the ship. , and his modification requirements for Zheng Xuanhong were very simple, so that this old battleship could reach a top speed of 15 knots after being re-launched. Of course, if it could be higher, he would naturally be more satisfied! Since Lu Jianzhang and Qi Fengyi learned Professor Lu Hong's continuous aiming artillery skills, they have led a group of sailors to train desperately every day. Now that they came to see the ship, they practiced even more diligently. After a while, they were training again. Came here to talk to Lu Hong about the shortage of live ammunition for training Actually, the real issue is production capacity. The 120mm rapid-fire guns imitated by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau naturally do not use the one-piece shells of later generations. However, the propellant and warheads can be loaded in advance with copper shells, which can be regarded as one-piece shells of later generations.??The prototype of artillery shells. However, now Lu Hong has almost sold the artillery half for free. The ammunition for the two cannons is only 50. This is really a pitiful amount of ammunition for a rapid-fire cannon. No wonder it is so expensive. These two people are so criticized. In this regard, Lu Hong had no good solution. He could only let Qin Tianmin take charge and communicate with Ruisheng afterwards, and let the manufacturing bureau work overtime to produce a batch of artillery shells, while he personally summoned the Nanrui and Nanchen ships. Nearly 200 sailors and more than 200 other sailors are responsible for the backstage of the warship. Nowadays, it is naturally impossible for Lu Hong to temporarily engage in political propaganda or brainwashing activities. He announced the assessment mechanism for combat and training very simply. All soldiers and sailors who fail to pass the training will be dismissed. This is not a nursing home, although It is said that the men recruited by Lu Jianzhang and Qi Fengyi are all good players in the Nanyang Navy. However, after all, in the current situation, time cannot wait for us. And for soldiers who pass the subsequent assessment, their military pay will be increased by 20% Although this is only an increase of 2 taels of silver per month, it can be said to have a huge effect on mobilizing the training enthusiasm of ordinary soldiers! They immediately devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the complicated artillery training. The next day, Lu Hong went to the machine factory early in the morning to wait for Xue Fucheng to visit. This was a big event. Yesterday's conversation allowed him to establish at least an initial network of contacts, and Xue Fucheng showed his wisdom and extensive knowledge. , also surprised Lu Hong. Later generations called him the enlightener of the capitalist market economy, and he indeed deserved his name.