When Tang Shaoyi and Yuan Shikai arrived, Li Yu was indeed surprised. Although Yuan Shikai was not currently in power, he was still the governor of one party and the most important governor of Zhili.
"Master Tai Tai," Li Yu came out and asked,
"Why are you here?" Yuan Shikai said, "I just happened to return to Beijing to report on my work, and then I was pulled over by Tang Daotai." Tang Shaoyi said, "Brother Shucai, let's talk in the room." After entering the room, Tang Shaoyi asked Li Yuping to leave everyone. , only the three of them were left, and then said: "I heard that the Russian ambassador came to see you, brother Shucai, how could you do this! At this juncture, you can't just meet the Russians." Li Yu smiled bitterly: "Of course I do I know, but there is also Zai Zhenbeizi, the Minister of the Ministry of Commerce. How do you think I can refuse?" Yuan Shikai frowned: "There is also Zhenbeizi? That's not surprising." Yuan Shikai had already figured out that Prince Qing Yi The hobbies of Kuang and his son.
Tang Shaoyi said: "But the Japanese must have become suspicious, so I asked the commander to return to Beijing this time to report on his duties, and specially come to your house to help you clear away the suspicion." Li Yu then understood that it was Tang Shaoyi again. Helping himself, he quickly raised his hands and said: "Thank you Tang Daotai!" Tang Shaoyi said: "Thank you, Mr. Zhitai." Yuan Shikai said: "You are a talent, and a rare talent that is rare to see in a century. I just showed up on the way, it's just a little effort. . But it’s still not enough. After a while, I will ask Tang Daotai to arrange for ambassadors from other countries to meet with you." Tang Shaoyi smiled and said: "I just want to help you sell goods. Didn't the Ministry of Commerce set up a company for you?" Li Yu said: "I don't have much left in my hands now. I only have five radio equipment left." Yuan Shikai said: "That's enough. The price won't be low when the time comes. You will have to pay as much as the Russians charge." These people are all Li Yu, a veteran in officialdom, understood as soon as he heard this that he was trying to confuse the Japanese.
"The Taiwanese master is very clever." Yuan Shikai said: "I have understood the Japanese people's minds twenty years ago. So you must not provoke them too much. I don't know why the Japanese are sometimes very nervous, as if they are being manipulated. He is just paranoid about persecution and suspicious of other people." Li Yu nodded: "I feel the same." Many people know Yuan Shikai very well, but 80% of them don't know that Yuan Shikai served as governor of North Korea for many years in his early years. At that time, he was the emperor of North Korea. influence the political situation of North Korea.
Li Hongzhang's purpose of letting Yuan Shikai be in North Korea was to contain Japan and Tsarist Russia, especially Japan's infiltration, so the Japanese actually hated Yuan Shikai very much at that time.
However, Yuan Shikai is a typical political veteran. Under the current situation, he has eased relations with Japan to a certain extent.
Anyway, in international relations, everyone understands that there are no eternal friends, only eternal interests. The Japanese also happened to want to use Yuan Shikai to obtain intelligence.
Of course Yuan Shikai also understood that the Japanese wanted to use him, and then they used each other. Tang Shaoyi said: "Fortunately, there was Zai Zhen Beizi from the royal family who came at that time. I can arrange for another county prince Zai Tao to also meet with you. The Japanese are even more uncertain about the court being involved." Li Yu has been trying his best to avoid it. In the political whirlpool, I didn't expect that just meeting the Russian ambassador in a private house would be so troublesome.
He sighed in his heart and said, "Thank you Tang Daotai." Tang Shaoyi said, "It doesn't matter. Prince Zaitao also expressed his desire to meet you before. Prince Zaitao is very keen on Europe and is also very interested in Western learning." Yuan Shikai said: "Not only Prince Zaitao, I also intend to let the two dogs learn more from the emperor's master." Yuan Shikai called Yuan Keding and Yuan Kewen in,
"Quick, I've met the Imperial Master." The two bowed deeply to Li Yu: "Hello, Imperial Master!" Li Yu said, "You two young masters, you don't have to be polite." Yuan Shikai said, "I hired many masters for them, but My two sons are naughty by nature and cannot be disciplined well. After much deliberation, only the reputation of the emperor's teacher can deter them." Li Yu smiled and said: "You still have to be interested in learning." Yuan Shikai said: "This sentence shows that the emperor Teachers know how to educate." Li Yu: "..." In fact, although Yuan Shikai has a bad reputation, he is indeed a capable person.
It can even be said that if Yuan Shikai had excluded the last year of his life, he would definitely be called
"Eternal Strange Man". He lived for a total of 57 years, and the first 56 years were simply wonderful. At the age of 25, he single-handedly destroyed North Korea
The "Jiashen Coup" prevented Japan from encroaching on North Korea, delayed the outbreak of war between China and Japan, and became the first person in modern China to defeat Japan.
The Japanese hated him for this. After that, he served as governor of North Korea for ten years. Although he took some drastic measures, he effectively curbed the infiltration of Japan and Tsarist Russia into North Korea, and helped the Qing Dynasty control North Korea with just one person.
Then he joined forces with Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kunyi and others to launch mutual protection between the southeast and the rest of the country, which protected half of the country from war.
After the governor took direct control, he carried out vigorous reforms, implemented new policies, and developed education. Not to mention that he formed China's first modern army, which had a profound influence.
In addition, next year he will join forces with Zhang Zhidong to abolish the imperial examination; as for forcing the Qing emperor to abdicate peacefully, it can be said that China has shed a lot of blood.
After all, every time the dynasty changed, the previous royal family never ended well. The war that started caused even more suffering for the people.
If he had died at the age of 56, that is, in 1914, he would have been a very positive figure.
It's a pity that he was not saved in his later years. He made two big mistakes in his last year and suddenly became a thief and traitor.
But on the other hand, before 1914, Yuan Shikai was indeed good. He has a lot of talented people under his command, and he is also happy to recruit talents.
Yuan Shikai was also very thoughtful, and he was at home in the decadent late Qing Dynasty. He always stood up correctly and was reused by Li Hongzhang, Ronglu, and Yi Kuang.
Although later after Puyi became emperor, his father, the regent Zaifeng, wanted very much to kill Yuan Shikai, but by then Yuan Shikai had grown up, and these young royals no longer had any power to compete with Yuan Shikai.
After Yuan Shikai resigned, the Qing government could not command the Beiyang New Army at all, which was the most powerful armed force of the Qing government.
Yuan Shikai pointed to his two sons and said: "In short, the emperor will teach you more. From now on, they will be your disciples." Li Yu couldn't refuse. After all, they had just done him a big favor, so he had to say: "I will definitely try my best." Because." Yuan Kewen said happily: "Great, the emperor and I will be classmates from now on!" His brother Yuan Keding said: "What a joke! You can't see the emperor, at most he is a classmate in your mind." Yuan Kewen said: "That's impressive enough! By the way, Master Imperial Master, I heard that the emperor knows opera very well and is a good gong player. Is that true?" Li Yu said awkwardly: "I don't know about this matter." Yuan Shikai Then he scolded: "Kewen, stop asking about the affairs of the palace!" Yuan Shikai was a powerful man, but he gave birth to a bunch of sons, none of whom became successful.
Yuan Kewen later became a big fan and could sing Kun Opera well. Yuan Keding actually has nothing to say, and he is not as good as Yuan Kewen.
Yuan Kewen later at least became the leader of the Tianjin Youth Gang. In his early years, he could be compared with Huang Huangrong and Du Yuesheng.
However, Yuan Keding was a very courageous person. During the Anti-Japanese War, he did not bow down to the Japanese, which also led to his beginning to live in poverty.
Li Yu felt a little headache and felt that these two guys were more difficult to deal with than Guangxu. Tang Shaoyi saw Li Yu's worries and said with a smile: "Brother Shucai, from now on the emperor will teach the two young masters whatever lessons they want. In fact, the two young masters also want to know some Western knowledge to avoid making a fool of themselves when seeing foreigners in the future." It was easy to deal with this. Li Yu said: "Shu Cai understands." Yuan Kewen was even more happy when he heard this: "Then he is a classmate with the emperor! It's so respectable!" Yuan Shikai shook his head helplessly, Yuan Kewen said He really couldn't control Kewen. After he was adopted into the lap of his aunt, Mrs. Shen, Mrs. Shen pampered him very much. He was really spoiled.
Tang Shaoyi laughed loudly: "Brother Shucai, I have a favor for you this time!" Yuan Shikai left after explaining the matter.
Two days later, the British ambassador, the French ambassador, and the Belgian minister came to visit either themselves or by someone sent by them.
Li Yu followed suit and sold five radio equipment to them, earning another 180,000 silver dollars.
In fact, these radio equipment are indeed relatively advanced and have just been improved, so the prices are not inflated.
Well, that's a little too high. Because there are still some differences compared to those placed on U.S. Navy ships, mainly in terms of power.
Navy ships use specialized radio equipment, which is very powerful and has long antennas. After all, on a ship, the mast can be used as an antenna, and the communication distance can be very long.
But today's small and mobile radio equipment cannot have too much power. But after all, it’s the best one you can buy at the moment, so it’s considered
"Xiao Xiao" should kill them a few times. Li Yu directly gave half of the silver dollars to Tang Shaoyi and Yuan Shikai.
——After that, Zaitao also came to Li Yu's house under the leadership of the Yuan brothers. During this period, so many important people came to visit intensively, which shocked everyone in the house. Fengling sipped melon seeds and said, "I just said that our master is extraordinary!" Zhao Qian said, "Of course, after all, he is the emperor's master. , he can be an ordinary person." Wang Boze said: "Now it really has the atmosphere of Rongfu back then." Lu Bicheng and Qiu Jin also walked into the door at this time, Lu Bicheng asked Fengling: "Who is here today?" Feng Ling Ling said: "Girl, he is a county prince and the son of Governor Yuan." Qiu Jin asked in surprise: "County prince?" Fengling said: "I don't know the details, but I heard he is Prince Zhong." Lu Bicheng said to Qiu Jin: "Then let's wait here for a while." Qiu Jin nodded: "I don't want to see the county prince Baylor." The titles of the Qing Dynasty were prince, county king, Baylor, and Beizi.
So in fact, Zaitao, the county king, is two levels higher than Zai Zhen's Beizi. But Zai Tao's status is currently inferior to that of Zai Zhen.
Zai Tao himself had a better background than Zai Zhen. He was the son of Prince Chun and Guangxu's half-brother.
But after Prince Zhongjun died, Cixi asked Zai Tao to adopt Zai Tao to Prince Zhongjun's palace and inherit the title. But Prince Zhong is actually just a title and has no real power.
It was not until Puyi came to the throne and Zaifeng, another half-brother of Zaitao, suddenly became the regent that he became prominent again.
It has to be said that the line of Prince Chun is really the noblest and luckiest line in the late Qing royal family. His descendants produced two emperors: Guangxu and Puyi.
Although Zaitao now only has a false title, he is still the king of the county, and Li Yu still has to receive him well as usual.
Yuan Kewen and Zai Tao were actually having a good time at this time. Both of them were extremely keen on Peking Opera. Li Yu knew that he was just here to show his face, so he arranged for good refreshments and asked Konoe Aki to make him a cup of coffee.
Zai Tao took a sip and said, "What a weird taste." Yuan Kewen laughed and said, "This is called coffee. Foreigners drink it, just like we drink tea." Zai Tao shook his head: "The taste is much worse than tea. There are too many, foreigners really don’t understand the tea ceremony." Yuan Kewen added a piece of sugar cube from the table and put it in: "Try it again." Zai Tao took another sip: "A little better, but compared to the Mingqian in my house. The tribute tea is not even close to a star." Li Yu said: "I agree with this." Zai Tao said: "By the way, Mr. Emperor, I saw the previous article. The Japanese really don't know the heights of the world, and now they are fighting with the Russians When they got up, before a winner could be determined, each one's eyes were as high as the sky, and they were talking about racial superiority." Li Yu said: "This kind of nonsense stinks and is really disgusting." Zai Tao said: "But now there are so many The Japanese are still unconvinced and state that they are superior to us in all aspects." Li Yu said: "In which aspect?" Zai Tao said: "Didn't you read the recent newspapers? They said that whether it is physical or intellectual, the Japanese They are all better than us." Naturally, Li Yu would not read the Japanese "Daily News" again, and asked, "Did they really say that?" Zai Tao nodded: "I am usually bored at home, so I often read it. This is how the latest issue of the newspaper came out. Nowadays, many people are unconvinced and want to compare with the Japanese." Li Yu thought for a while: "It's okay to compare with them. Their intelligence and body can convince them." Zai Tao His eyes lit up: "How to compare?" Li Yu said: "Intelligence can be compared to chess and puzzle solving, and physical fitness can be compared to horse riding and kung fu." Zai Tao, as a bored prince, was immediately interested after hearing this: "If nothing else, there's no way I can lose to the Japanese on horseback riding." Zai Tao is a horse lover. Later this year, he will go to France to study at the Saumy Cavalry School. He is a well-known horse racing expert in the capital.
Despite his lack of fame, this guy actually almost became the patriarch of the Aisin Gioro family before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and even went to prison to persuade Puyi.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu royal family was divided into two factions. One faction was naturally the restoration faction, and they even did not hesitate to become puppets of the Japanese.
But in fact, if you think about it with your heels, you know that it is impossible for the Japanese to help the Manchus recover their country. In the eyes of the Japanese, the so-called puppet Manchuria regime was similar to the previous occupation of North Korea. It was just a transition.
Representatives of the other faction are Zai Tao and others, who understand that restoration is hopeless and it is better to become a new person. Even after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zai Tao served as a political advisor to our army, and jokingly claimed that he was just a Bima Wen.
Li Yu said: "I am strong in solving puzzles and solving problems; I happen to know a master in Jinmen in kung fu; as for playing chess..." Zai Tao said: "Don't worry about this, I know who is the chess king." Li Yu did not expect to meet him. We talked about this aspect while chatting, but I feel that it is really necessary to improve people's self-confidence.
I'm really depressed now.
