Wang Chenhao, Ding Ruchang and others formulated the technical parameters of the Dengyun-class battleship, and after roughly estimating the cost, he informed Li Hongzhang to know.

After Li Hongzhang entered Beijing, he first met with British Minister Dou Nale and reported the construction parameters of the Dengyun-class battleship submitted by Wang Chenhao to him to obtain a preliminary quotation from the UK.

Dou Nale was very happy to learn that Li Hongzhang was preparing to order a new warship from the UK. After saying a polite word to enhance diplomatic relations between China and Britain, he immediately informed London of the situation.

The London government attached great importance to the purchase of ships by the Qing Empire. In order to cooperate with the Chairman of the British Joint Military Commission, Marquis Stregan, the successful visit to China, the next day, the London Shipbuilding Office and the Vickers Shipyard in Barrow Inverness, Britain, initially priced the Dengyun-class battleships ordered by the Qing Empire at 1.65 million pounds per ship, equivalent to 12.37 million taels of silver.

Although Wang Chenhao had given Li Hongzhang a vaccination, Li Hongzhang was still shocked when he got Dou Nale's quotation. His expression on his face only reflected three words - it was too expensive.

Dou Nale said this was just a preliminary offer, suggesting that Li Hongzhang may change due to the recovery of Sino-UK relations.

Then Li Hongzhang took the British quotation list to the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City and the Prince Gong's Mansion, and reported the situation with Empress Dowager Cixi, Emperor Guangxu and Prince Gong Yi, and persuaded them to allocate funds to the new ship.

Yi had nothing to do. He understood the importance of the navy. Cixi allowed Li Hongzhang to add ships and cannons, so the naval yamen would get a shipbuilding fee, but it was only five million taels to be killed. Now Li Hongzhang's construction of a battleship cost more than 12 million taels of silver. Yi could not make the decision, and the Ministry of Revenue would not be able to allocate so much money.

Cixi initially supported Li Hongzhang to add ships and cannons, which was a good job. However, when she learned that the cost of a Dengyun-class battleship was as high as 12.37 million taels of silver, Cixi immediately kept silent.

Li Hongzhang had to express his interests and said that the countries around the Qing Dynasty had new battleships under construction. If the Qing Dynasty did not buy new ships, the Beiyang Navy would be unable to resist foreign humiliation when the war broke out three years later. At that time, the enemy navy would drive straight in and easily attack the capital along the sea and river. The royal family might be humiliated again, and the Summer Palace might be looted again.

Of course, Li Hongzhang scared her that it was impossible for the battleship with a water supply of more than eight meters deep to hit the capital, but Cixi didn't understand, and was afraid that her Summer Palace would be robbed again, so Cixi nodded in agreement.

Cixi then agreed and pushed the problem to Guangxu and became a good person in front of Li Hongzhang, but Emperor Guangxu stopped doing it.

The tax revenue collected from various provinces every year is only about 80 million taels of silver. Excluding the royal expenses of more than 5 million taels, the alimony of the bannermen who do not work for one million is as high as 40 million taels. The Eight Banners, Green Camps, and Navy spend 20 million taels, and the remaining 15 million taels for various public expenses of the imperial court is already in a hurry. How can I get this huge sum of money?

However, in order to cultivate the Summer Palace for Cixi and make her happy and live a happy life, Guangxu misappropriated naval funds by closing one eye and the other, which has caused dissatisfaction among the Beiyang Group and the knowledgeable people in the country. This time, Cixi nodded and agreed to allocate funds to add ships and cannons to the Beiyang Navy. In addition to the contributions of the Beiyang Navy's Sino-Japanese Navy's Sino-Japanese Navy's contribution to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Emperor Guangxu had no excuse to veto it.

Guangxu convened a meeting of imperial fronts in succession to discuss countermeasures with civil and military ministers to see how to squeeze out the funds.

But after discussing, they could only squeeze out five million taels of silver. The Beiyang Navy had to pay 10 million taels of advance payment just by purchasing two Dengyun-class battleships. In addition, they had to purchase auxiliary warships and renovate the Beiyang Navy's ships. The Navy's government allocated 17 million taels of silver in the first year. In the next three years, they would have to add more than 6 million taels of naval maintenance fees and subsequent shipbuilding costs every year. After calculation, one-third of the fiscal revenue would have to be consumed to maintain the combat effectiveness of the Beiyang Navy.

How to raise this money has become a huge problem.

Li Hongzhang then proposed to borrow money from foreigners to temporarily overcome the difficulties, but was immediately bombarded by Weng Tonghe and Li Hongzao. The reason was very simple. After the Second Opium War, he owed 16 million taels of money according to the Treaty of the Beijing Treaty, and in order to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing Empire was exhausted, so he had to borrow money from the great powers to survive. Britain, France and the United States took the opportunity to coerce the Qing government to establish a customs management system dominated by foreigners.

With the rise of the Westernization Movement for 30 years, the Qing Empire borrowed 25 loans, totaling 130 million taels of loans had been paid off before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. After paying off the loan, the Qing Empire had reason to take back the customs management rights and activate its own people to manage the customs.

Although under the management of Hed, the customs of the Qing Dynasty became the most efficient and honest yamen, increasing the government's tariff income by 17 million taels per year. However, the treacherous factions of the Qing Dynasty insisted on getting back the customs management rights, and the salary of the customs yamen was eleven times that of other yamen at the same level. Some greedy officials have set their sights on the customs, a fat yamen.

Now that Li Hongzhang once again requests to borrow money from foreigners, he will inevitably give foreigners an excuse to continue to control the customs. In this way, Li Hongzhang hindered a large number of people's ways to make money. As soon as Weng Tonghe and Li Hongzao objected, they immediately received support from a large number of officials.

The Summer Palace project has been completed, and there is no reason not to grant funds to the Navy's Office. The court officials have to take back the customs and firmly oppose borrowing from foreigners. Guangxu was in a dilemma and his head suddenly became bigger and he had a great headache.

On the last day of the end of April, the courtiers finally got a positive answer from Guangxu after a week of argument.

On this day, Emperor Guangxu issued an edict to approve Li Hongzhang's naval ship purchase case to appease the hearts of the navy soldiers. However, regarding the issue of financial appropriation, the Ministry of Revenue only allocated 6 million taels of silver, requiring either Li Hongzhang to solve the remaining silver himself or wait for two years to save enough money before buying it.

Guangxu's compromise was expected by Li Hongzhang. In fact, Lao Li was clearly aware of the court's wealth and those ragged things. He thought he could get five million taels of silver and burn the incense, but he didn't expect that he would get six million taels in the end, which was better than the expected result.

After returning to Tianjin, Li Hongzhang found Ding Ruchang and Wang Chenhao and told them about the situation.

Wang Chenhao's mood was a bit complicated. On the one hand, when using foreigners to manage the customs, people always make people feel powerless and humiliated, and Wang Chenhao also supports the withdrawal of customs and management with his own people. On the other hand, in the corrupt government in the late Qing Dynasty, the customs was the only yamen that was honest and dedicated and efficient, which was all due to the strict management of some foreigners such as Heard. If it was taken back and let those corrupt officials manage it, it would be a mess within a few years, and the court's tariff income would definitely not be able to be kept.

It is not good to take it back, nor is it not to take it back, it is so tangled.

Ding Ruchang sighed: "It's only six million taels of silver, which is only enough for the advance payment of a Dengyun-class battleship. The remaining silver is not enough for the modification of each ship of the Navy."

After the war, the Beiyang Navy was well aware of the power of the Japanese Navy's rapid-fire cannons, so there were calls for large-scale replacement of rapid-fire cannons.

Li Hongzhang said calmly: "You know that the court has no money. It is already very good to be able to give six million taels."

Wang Chenhao said with a worried look on his face and said, "It's just that the ship purchase plan will take more than five years to complete. Five years is too long. Not to mention how many maritime threats there will be during the period, the new ship will definitely be lagging behind in five years. Not only will the deterrence be greatly reduced, but it is also too economically unpaid."

Li Hongzhang said: "At this point, we can only raise money by ourselves."

Wang Chenhao frowned and said, "Isn't it cheaper for the court to raise money by himself?"

Ding Ruchang smiled and said, "Chen Hao didn't know that half of the money was raised by Zhongtang himself when he planned to build the Beiyang Navy. Since the establishment of the Beiyang Navy, the annual funds were basically raised by Zhongtang himself. It is precisely because of this that the Beiyang Navy has always been under the name of Zhongtang."

Li Hongzhang smiled and said, "There are no outsiders here, so I will tell the truth. Raising money by myself has this benefit. The Beiyang Navy is my family. If the court wants to take it back, I will take out the bills for the years and take them all out, and return the silver to me. The court has no money to give it, so I have to let the Navy keep in charge. With the Navy in hand, this is one of the main reasons why I have not moved the place in Zhili for more than 20 years."

Ding Ruchang asked with a smile: "Do Chen Hao understand?"

Wang Chenhao looked at the two of them in shock and thought to himself no wonder they all said that the Beiyang Navy belonged to Li Hongzhang, and it turned out that there was such a twists and turns in it.

Li Hongzhang glanced at Wang Chenhao and smiled and said, "Don't worry, you will understand slowly. This is the political thing. No matter what you do, there must be a high-sounding reason. Foreigners are stronger than our Qing Dynasty, but when bullying us, there must be a reasonable excuse."

Wang Chenhao roughly understood what Li Hongzhang meant and smiled and said, "So we raised money to train the navy as ours?"

Li Hongzhang and Ding Ruchang looked at each other and burst into laughter with a slight implicit smile, neither admitting nor denying it.

Wang Chenhao suddenly felt much more relaxed. It seemed that this was the unspoken rule between the court and the chief officials of the border.

"Since that's the case, then just make the noise bigger. It's not enough to have battleships alone, and a batch of auxiliary ships have to be added."

Ding Ruchang asked with a smile: "That's all money. Although we raise the silver by ourselves, this is not a small amount after all. Chen Hao must not hurry."

Li Hongzhang nodded, which was the same.

Wang Chenhao smiled and said, "Don't worry. Since I'm raising it myself, I have a way to get the money."
Chapter completed!