"Prime Minister, I heard that your nephew has become the Pasha of the Osman Empire. Congratulations! "Ruan Xihao of the Central Military Commission said to Li Yuchang in a somewhat frivolous tone.
Li Yuchang smiled bitterly. "Who knows what he did in the Osman Empire."
Ruan Xihao laughed. "Of course not. According to the news we received, comrade Li Weiren did a good job in the fortress battle. The 30,000 Osman Army resisted the 200,000 Russian troops. When he comes back, he has to give a good report. "
Li Yuchang could only say perfunctorily, "Hurry up and get him back."
Although he said so, Li Yuchang was not very confident about the safety of his nephew. The third battle of Pleven Fortress, which began on July 15th, ended on July 17th. The fierce attack of the Russian army paid a heavy price. The 83000 Russian troops suffered 20,000 casualties, and the 10000 Bulgarian militia suffered 7,500 casualties. The commander was also killed in the front line.
In order to take Pleven, the Danube Legion of Russia had lost 40,000 men in the three battles. The Osman Army stationed in Pleven was only 30,000, and it was said that less than 3,000 of them suffered casualties. Of course, this was just a rumor. The news about the Osman Army in Pleven ended there. On January 1st, China received news from the Osman Empire that the Sultan of the Osman Empire had conferred the title of "Pasha" on Li Weiren, the instructor of the Osman Empire stationed in China. This noble title of the Osman Empire was rarely conferred on foreigners. All foreigners who received this title, without exception, had made great contributions to the Osman Empire.
The rest of the news came from countries outside the Osman Empire. After the third battle of Plevin, the 200,000 Russian troops had to stop and join the 100,000 Romanian soldiers to build a 70-kilometer-long trench, completely surrounding the city of Plevin. Judging from this sign, it was unlikely that Russia would have a new large-scale attack in the Rhine area before Pleven was taken out.
European newspapers wrote frightening headlines. "The Impregnable Pleven Fortress," "Russia's Danube Nightmare," "The Rising Osman Army," "The General of the Osman – Osman? Nuri Pasha, according to different political positions and ways of attracting attention, Osman the butcher — Osman? Nuri Pasha, "" The Craftsman's Son – Osman? Nuri Pasha, "" From Hunger to Prominence – Osman? Nuri Pasha, "and other articles were also published.
Compared with the various opposing attitudes of the press, the European financial and economic community reacted exactly the same. Russian stocks, which had soared because of the successful 100 tons of gold transaction, collapsed on the European exchanges. The ruble lost more than one-third of its value. European banks refused to buy any more Russian war bonds.
If Russia wanted to restore its damaged credit, it had to conquer Pleven. If Russia wanted to restore its damaged credit, it had to conquer Pleven. In this situation, "Li Weiren Pasha" was not safe at all.
Soldiers always encountered this kind of thing, and Li Yuchang had no solution to it. After saying goodbye to Ruan Xishang Jiang Hao, the director of the Personnel Bureau of the Military Commission, Li Yuchang went to see Vézé, thinking about his troubles. It had been rumored for a long time that in the second year of the 25th Five-Year Plan, 1877, Li Yuchang would be the Prime Minister. With Li Yuchang's work experience, there was no reason for him to be the Prime Minister. The problem was that some people interpreted this as Vézé starting to strongly promote the retirement system. Li Yuchang was 63 years old this year, and 68 years old after becoming the Prime Minister. According to the rules, he had to step down after becoming the Prime Minister.
Bi Qingshan, who had been the Prime Minister for three years, was only 46 years old. The reason why Bi Qingshan was not allowed to continue as the Prime Minister was that Vézé thought that Bi Qingshan had too much power and had to be cast aside. There was also a very outrageous rumor that Vézé wanted to send Bi Qingshan to the Sudan province. That was, to be exiled overseas.
Bi Qingshan had been the Prime Minister for three years, so he had a lot of power in the government, but the Li family had no reason to fear Bi Qingshan. As far as Li Yuchang was concerned, he had no regrets in his life as a businessman and ended up as the Prime Minister. The only problem was the rumor that Vézé wanted to exile Bi Qingshan to Africa.
Two years ago, there was a rumor that Hong Dachun, the head of the Animal Husbandry Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, wanted to punish Wang Mingshan. Hong Dachun was just a group of middle-level personnel with some credit and hard work, while Wang Mingshan was a core member of the central government. When the news that Hong Dachun was going to punish Wang Mingshan came out, people who heard the news did not believe it. Asking a middle-level personnel to challenge a top core member, this joke was too big.
The development of the matter surprised people. Chen Jishi of the Northern Animal Husbandry Department objected to Wang Mingshan's plan to strengthen the livestock industry, and was severely criticized by Wang Mingshan. This matter would not have caused much trouble. Wang Mingshan, who was in charge of the four provinces, was punishing the head of the animal husbandry department a big deal?
However, the head of the animal husbandry department, Chen Jishi, asked the Academy of Sciences to send a research team to verify Wang Mingshan's plan. At this time, many central government officials found out that Vézé had a system for approving projects, and this system had actually been approved by the central government. But people did not care about this kind of thing. It was not until the head of the animal husbandry department tried to use this system to counterattack that everyone knew there was such a thing.
This confrontation with a great disparity in status ended in Wang Mingshan's defeat. The Academy of Sciences believed that the calculation method in Wang Mingshan's plan was wrong, and the data in the plan to strengthen the livestock industry in all four provinces was completely wrong. In the end, they supported Chen Jishi's plan. A group of unknown brats overturned the authority of the old guys. This was a big event that caused a stir in the officialdom.
Li Yuchang actually knew that the head of the animal husbandry department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Hong Dachun, was not involved in this matter at all. It was just that some people thought that Hong Dachun was the head of the animal husbandry department, and no one dared to do anything without his instructions. Hong Dachun had always felt that he was more wronged than Dou E, but he was the highest official in charge of the animal husbandry department. No one would believe him if he said that he was not involved in the matter. Later, Vézé dealt a heavy hand and cleaned up a group of people who did not keep their mouths shut. This matter was finally put to rest.
From this incident, Li Yuchang learned that the more ridiculous a statement was, the more likely it was to be true after peeling off the various interpretations of the statement. Even if the rumor was not true, there must be something in it. As the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire. Did Vézé send Bi Qingshan to Africa as the rumor said? Or did Vézé put Bi Qingshan in charge of the African affairs? No matter which possibility it was, it meant that there was a considerable change in the strategic direction of China.
After seeing Vézé, Deputy Prime Minister Li Yuchang sat on the chair in silence, ready to listen to what Vézé had to say.
Vézé said, "There may be an internal conflict in Japan. I want you to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and do an assessment with the comrades in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
"Do an assessment?" Li Yuchang couldn't help but ask. In fact, he didn't really want to ask for any results. Li Yuchang didn't really agree with the assessment. Nowadays, whenever the government mentioned an assessment, he would be unhappy. Wang Mingshan fell because of the assessment. If Wang Mingshan ordered the director of the Animal Husbandry Bureau as the person in charge of the four provinces, the director of the Animal Husbandry Bureau had no chance to refute. Vézé's preparations for the establishment of the system had gradually become apparent. The government was completely different from the traditional feudal government, and the current new system was very different from the traditional official model.
Hearing Li Yuchang's question, Vézé explained patiently, "We have to do an assessment of Japan under the new situation. In the past, our strength was insufficient. The British supported Japan and wanted to monopolize the interests in Japan. We could only agree to the British request. Now the power balance has changed, and we can do more for Japan. At this time, we need to make an assessment of the current changes in Japan. "
"Commander-in-chief, can't you just make a decision? Why do you need to do an assessment? "Li Yuchang asked.
Vézé replied, "For the things that really determine the fate of the country, I have to do some research and make a judgment. This is what I have to do. Now that Japan has no essential impact on the national fate of China, these assessments, of course, have to be done by the department in charge. Prime Minister, you are in charge of foreign trade, which is related to Japan. You have to participate in these assessments. "
After all, Li Yuchang was at this age. He asked bluntly, "What if the assessment is wrong?"
"The assessment is not just a result. If that's the case, anyone can do it. The real assessment is to come up with a set of assessment methods. This is a very scientific thing. We often train in this aspect in the organizational life meetings. The scientific attitude does not mean that what you come up with is right. The scientific attitude is that we come up with a set of theories that can be falsified or come up with a summary of experience that can be falsified. The assessment of Japan can't be correct from the start. The reason why I want to do an assessment is to come up with a model that we used to analyze Japan. Even if the assessment method this time is wrong, we have to know where our assessment went wrong. "Vézé continued to explain patiently.
After listening to Vézé's explanation, Li Yuchang was quite unhappy. As the saying goes, teaching the apprentice will starve the master. The unique skills that the master has summed up after thousands of tempering were not passed on to the apprentice. This kind of assessment in itself required the master to bring out his special skills. This was not only to teach the apprentice, but also to let the group of people who had nothing to do with each other learn together.
Vézé himself had always done this. He was never stingy to teach his skills to others, but Vézé had obtained a status that no one could match because of this. Li Yuchang did not dare to publicly deny this practice, but he felt that he was being wronged. If there was a mistake in this kind of assessment, it would not only be a matter of losing face, but it would also give some people with dark thoughts in their hearts something to use against them.
Looking at Li Yuchang's embarrassed expression, Vézé looked relaxed and asked, "So, any other questions?"
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