"Ahem... I don't have much time left, I don't care what you think of me. If you want to hear the truth, then tell me something you don't like to hear!"
There was a look of gratitude in Zai Chun's eyes, "Zeng Shuai, just say so! I just want to hear something unpleasant today!"
"Okay! Let me make my words clear! If the Qing Dynasty wants to survive and not perish, it must adapt to the times! All those who oppose the imperial court's control of industrial power..."
"Haha... I'm afraid there are people who are hoping that the Qing Dynasty will die soon!"
"Bold!" Yi Xin shouted, "Zeng Guofan, have you swept in the entire Eight Banners Palace? Do these princes and ministers also want the imperial court to perish?"
"Queen Mother! Please punish Zeng Guofan for his crime of disrespect!"
"Hahaha..." Zeng Shuai laughed, "Why should I reduce the sentence of the old minister? What is disrespectful? You can just say that you are treason!"
"My minister, Zeng Guofan, did not follow your wishes and sing praises. He did not sing the praises of the Qing Dynasty for thousands of years, but he said that the country would perish if it did not industrialize. That is treason!"
"Come on, Prince Gong! This old minister's head is stored here. If you want it, take it!"
"You..." Yi Xin was speechless and couldn't refute.
Zeng Guofan cupped his hands at the Queen Mother behind the curtain, "What is the end of the dynasty? When no one in the court dares to tell the truth, that is the end of the dynasty!"
"Are you pretending to be confused because you understand? How did you lose those millions of land outside Heilongjiang and Wusuli Rivers?"
"Agubai rebelled throughout Xinjiang, and his troops reached Hamidu and captured the Xingxing Gorge. The entire territory of Ili was annexed by Tsarist Russia. Only some Mongolian herders in Tacheng in northern Xinjiang are still loyal to me, the Qing Dynasty!"
"Look at the coastal areas. Whether they are Chinese or foreign devils, they are all desperately building warships to seek control of the sea!"
"You can't see these changes? Are you all pretending to be stupid? Are you still dreaming about the kingdom of heaven for thousands of years? Wake up!"
"Thirty years, just thirty years, how have the foreigners' powerful ships and guns changed? We have troops flying in the sky, but we don't even have a steel factory or a railway, and we still have to fight for it. Quarreling and noisy discussion?”
"Hmph! Don't think that you can buy a strong army with money. You must know that the Chinese still have weapons from the foreign devils. It can be used by the court today, and it can be sold to Changmao tomorrow!"
"You don't want to go along with others. Even the supply of ammunition is blocked by you! The lifeline of the country is controlled by others, what else do you have to discuss?"
"I'm old! I don't have a few more years to live. At this age, I don't want to change into an official uniform before I die, nor do I want to lose my pigtails... I just make do with being a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty!"
"But I can make do with it, but I may not be able to make it with anyone else in the future! Have you ever thought about what it will be like in the next thirty years?"
"By the year 1901, you should use your brains and think carefully about what kind of evil industry in the West will develop?"
Threat, really a threat from Chi Guoguo. The commander-in-chief made it very clear. I am too old to rebel, and I don’t want to be a traitor!
But the fact that I, Zeng Guofan, did not rebel does not mean that the Han people all over the world will not rebel again! Even if I can suppress these hundreds of thousands of Hunan troops alive, nothing big will happen to them even if I die!
Thirty years of birthday reunion! At the speed of evolution of this era, what will it look like in thirty years? I can’t even think about it!
What would the world be like in 1901? No one present had any idea, but if anyone asked Xiao Letian what it was like in 1901, he would definitely be met with silence from the head of state!
Thirty years of life. If the Qing Dynasty wasted another thirty years, then in 1901 it would just sign the "Xin Chou Treaty" and pay compensation of 980 million taels of silver!
How much weight does a person's words have? It doesn't matter his age or official position, but how huge the power behind him is!
Zeng Guofan has the support of a huge Hunan Army group, so when he speaks, he is not actually speaking. When you deal with him, you are not just dealing with him!
The atmosphere of the entire court meeting was a bit of a joke at first, but when Zeng Guofan left the stage, the entire trend changed!
Zeng Guofan unequivocally supported the steel plant plan and even believed that one steel plant was not enough, far from enough!
Cixi and Ci'an had to ponder the deep meaning of what he said, and Prince Gong's hands were sweating. Could it be that the Hunan Army Group in the south had reached a consensus and was going to carry out an industrial revolution like Xiao Letian's?
Could it be that they were just waiting for an excuse, a breakthrough? Just waiting for Zai Chun to make the first move in the capital, and then they will follow up immediately?
It's possible. This industrial zone has made Xiao Letian prosperous. You can make a lot of money by investing in any factory. How can those cunning Han people not be jealous?
Damn it, could it be that Zai Chun had already secretly formed an alliance with Zeng Guofan, and had he received the support of the Hunan Army Group?
If this is the case, this Zai Chun will not be aggressive. Even if he is young, he can still make trouble as long as he has the power behind him!
The Tongzhi Emperor in this world is more powerful than the Qing Emperor in any parallel world, because the education Xiao Letian received from Zai Chun was already very pragmatic, especially in the control of military power!
Zai Chun is armed with his own direct lineage, which is the real confidence for his governance!
In Xiao Letian's previous life, Emperor Tongzhi was a completely fictitious emperor. He was nominally the master of the Qing Dynasty, but he actually did not have any army in his hands that was his direct descendant.
They are all loyal to him verbally but secretly have many masters!
At that time, Zai Chun's only administrative record in history was that he insisted on rebuilding the Old Summer Palace, wasting millions of taels of silver, but in the end not even a splash was achieved.
In the final analysis, it is because he is just a national symbol, but he has no truly loyal direct descendants and no group of strong soldiers who are really willing to fight to the death for him!
If you don’t have a gun in your hand, you can’t even think of being the master of your own country. In this era, Zai Chun has seen this truth with his own eyes from Europe and the Chinese!
Prince Gong's eyes flashed with a hint of cruelty, and then he raised his head and said loudly, "Your Majesty, in fact, I already know what you are saying, and I don't have much resistance to the industrial power!"
"What I'm worried about is the resistance from the people, because the ignorant people don't understand these big principles. They just follow what others say. If someone tells them that there are ghosts in the factory machines, they really believe it!"
"If instigated by people with ulterior motives, they will really cause chaos!"
"Now that His Majesty has made up his mind, he should have considered the resistance from the people. If the King has anything else to say, of course he agrees with both hands raised..."
Guizi Liu spoke very beautifully, but he winked at Baojun, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and Yinggui, the Minister of the Ministry of War, who had been silent!
