Master Yuan, start!

"Since it's located in northern China, let's call it Beiyang University!"

Chapter 103 The Beginning of the Navy and Lijin

Li Hongzhang, who was "demoted" to Guangzhou, was also not idle. Feeling deeply inconvenienced by the lack of a national flag in diplomatic negotiations, he submitted a memorial to Cixi requesting her to decide on the national flag pattern.

Since the Qing Dynasty was forced to open its doors, it has always used a triangular dragon flag in its foreign relations, and there is no official rectangular national flag.

After submitting several proposals, including the Yellow Dragon Flag based on the original triangular dragon flag, as well as the Bagua Flag, Tai Chi Flag, Qilin Flag, Tiger and Leopard Flag, Cixi finally chose the one with a yellow background and a green dragon pattern, but changed the original triangular flag into a rectangular one.

Li Hongzhang was also promoted from Governor of Guangdong to Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi thanks to the commendation of "proposing the national flag and enhancing the prestige of our country".

Anyway, it was bound to happen sooner or later, and the ministers in the court had nothing to say. Such an important position as the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi had been vacant for two years after the Sino-French War. There was not even an acting minister. It was obvious that it was left for Li Hongzhang.

So after Li Hongzhang took office as the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, the Yellow Dragon Flag was officially used in China at that time, and Korea also took the opportunity to hang the Yellow Dragon Flag.

As for the Taegeukgi?

In this time and space, it has never been the national flag of Korea from the beginning. When King Gojong of Korea wanted to choose a national flag, Yuan Shikai rejected Korea's request to establish a national flag on the pretext that "vassal states should be treated the same as above."

The flags used on Korean ships, at Yuan Shikai's request, also used a triangular dragon image that was consistent with the triangular yellow dragon flag, except that the red sun facing the dragon's mouth on the yellow dragon flag was replaced with a red and blue Taegeuk sun.

Now that the national flag design has been determined and the situation in Korea has basically been settled, Yuan Shikai will naturally align it with the domestic situation.

Anyway, the Yellow Dragon Flag will not be used for many years, so there is no need to worry about it forming an ideological impression among the North Koreans.

At this time, the sea surface of North Korea and Incheon Bay.

The battleship Dingyuan was cruising the ocean, and the bright yellow and green dragon flag on the mast was fluttering.

The Dingyuan, known as the largest ship in Asia, only arrived at Dagu Port in November 1885, and unfortunately missed the battle with the French that summer.

Of course, it can also be said that the Dingyuan was lucky. If the Dingyuan had been docked on the shore at the time, it might have been bombed into the sea by the French Far East Fleet.

With Li Hongzhang's transfer to the post of Governor of Guangdong, various fleets of the former Beiyang Fleet also headed south to Guangzhou Bay.

In the distance, there are two smaller warships, also flying the Yellow Dragon flag. Both are of single-funnel, double-mast design, with four naval guns on each side.

"Master Liu, I think they have arrived!"

Liu Buchan, the captain of the Dingyuan and the general of the right wing of the South China Sea Fleet, had just finished inspecting the entire deck and was standing in the steering room with an excellent view, squinting his eyes at the two ships in the distance.

Liu Buxian was a rare talent in the Chinese Navy who was proficient in English. He had also passed the assessment of the British Admiralty in Britain and obtained an excellent diploma, but in the Nanyang Fleet at that time, he was only the second-in-command.

The admiral of the Nanyang Fleet was not him, but Ding Ruchang. However, Ding Ruchang was a naval layman, possessing bravery but lacking professional knowledge. Therefore, Liu Buchan was in charge of the daily training of the Nanyang Fleet. Even the other captains preferred to consult Liu Buchan rather than Ding Ruchang during exercises.

But there was no way, because Ding Ruchang was an old subordinate of Li Hongzhang who had followed him during the period of suppressing bandits. He had been under Li Hongzhang for more than 20 years. Even though he lacked naval command ability, Li Hongzhang trusted him more than Liu Buxian.

After all, Liu Buxian came from the Fuzhou Shipyard, and had a deeper relationship with the Chu faction. Although Zuo Zongtang had passed away long ago and there was no longer any dispute between Huai and Chu in the court, Li Hongzhang was not so magnanimous as to use someone from the opposing family.

However, although Li Hongzhang did not absolutely trust Liu Buchan, Liu Buchan was still very grateful to him. He did not care about the provocation of his classmate Yan Fu and was wholeheartedly committed to serving Li Hongzhang's South China Sea Fleet.

"How could the Zhiyuan and Jingyuan be so slow? The Dingyuan departed from Shanghai half a month ago and arrived in Incheon at noon yesterday.

The Jingyuan and Zhiyuan are four knots faster than the Dingyuan, and their departure time is only a day later, so why haven't they arrived yet by dusk?" Liu Buchan was a little unhappy.

After the Nanyang Fleet was formed, Li Hongzhang ordered the fleet to carry out patrol missions, starting from Guangdong, passing through Fuzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai, Incheon, Busan, Vladivostok and finally returning to port.

So at this time, Yuan Xiangcheng was at Incheon Port with Liu Buchan, waiting for the Zhiyuan and Jingyuan ships, which departed from Shanghai a day late due to supply problems. However, Yuan Xiangcheng had been standing with him at the dock for an entire afternoon.

The Zhiyuan 2 ship, which was originally expected to arrive before noon, was not seen until dusk.

"Hahaha, Zixiang and Liu Buchan, don't be anxious. Maybe the ship operators are not yet skilled, so there was a delay." Yuan Xiangcheng laughed beside him.

"Sir Yuan, you should just call me by my real name. Although I am a little older than you, how dare I call you my brother?" Although he had spent a night with Yuan Xiangcheng, Liu Buchan was still a little restrained, which was inseparable from his personality.

Liu Buxian graduated from the British Admiralty with excellent grades. He was meticulous during his studies. After joining the South China Sea Fleet, he had extremely high requirements for the captains of his ships.

Although Yuan Xiangcheng was young and had no airs, he was, after all, a provincial governor like his immediate superior. So Deng Shichang and the other man made him lose face in front of Yuan Xiangcheng, so he was naturally a little angry and did not have the face to call Yuan Xiangcheng his brother.

"Master Yuan, please do not make excuses for these murderers. They must have been delayed on the journey by drinking too much before their departure. Once we reach the shore, I will severely reprimand the Zhiyuan and Jingyuan captains, Deng Shichang, and the Ye team."

Seeing this, Yuan Xiangcheng could only change his address and ask, "Master Liu, have you seen any foreign warships on your journey here?"

Liu Buchan, after being questioned by Yuan Xiangcheng, no longer cared about the late arrival of the Zhiyuan II. He turned around and replied, "Master Yuan, foreign warships are quite common. Since leaving Guangdong, we've seen German warships anchored off the Pearl River. Passing through Fujian, we've seen French patrol fleets. There are even more British fleets at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and merchant ships from various countries are everywhere."

"Has there ever been any danger?" Yuan Xiangcheng asked.

"That never happened. Our South China Sea Fleet hoisted the Yellow Dragon Flag and sailed close to the coastline. When foreign warships saw the Yellow Dragon Flag, they knew it was our Qing fleet, so they didn't make things difficult for us.

On the contrary, the small domestic merchant ships, having never seen such a huge warship so close to the coast and unfamiliar with the new national flag, mistakenly thought it was a foreign attack, causing several absurd incidents. Liu Buchan was referring to an incident in Fujian where a Xiamen merchant ship mistook it for a French warship.

When merchant ships traveling between Fujian and Guangdong encountered the South China Sea Fleet, they thought it was another French invasion and quickly informed the coastal defenses, causing the Xiamen Coast Guard to be on high alert and point their guns at the South China Sea Fleet.

It was not until I saw that the yellow dragon flag on the ship was not the French flag that I realized it was a misunderstanding.

When Yuan Xiangcheng first heard the news, he thought it was a joke, but he couldn't laugh anymore afterwards.

This incident is enough to illustrate the loopholes in the Qing Dynasty's coastal defense system. They were unaware that the warships were about to enter the port, and they only found out through merchant ships.

If the French had invaded again, they might have been able to capture Xiamen Island almost unscathed, wasting the many artillery batteries built on the island.

"What about Yan Fu? How did you talk to him?" Yuan Xiangcheng changed the subject.

Upon hearing this, Liu Buchan sighed helplessly, scratched his shiny forehead, and didn't know how to respond.

Liu Buchan, Yan Fu, Lin Taizeng and Sa Zhenbing, four famous figures of the late Qing Dynasty, once studied together in the UK and were classmates, but their life trajectories after graduation were different.

Among them, Liu Buxian and Lin Taizeng were appointed as the commander-in-chief of the left wing of the South China Sea Fleet and the captain of the Zhenyuan, and the other was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the right wing of the South China Sea Fleet and the captain of the Dingyuan because of their outstanding performance and the fact that they jointly submitted the South China Sea Fleet Charter to Li Hongzhang.

Because of his poor academic performance and young age, Sa Zhenbing worked as an instructor in the Naval Academy and also served as the captain of a training ship.

However, during his studies in the UK, Yan Fu felt deeply that "studying the navy cannot save China", so he turned to other methods and tried to find a way to save the country from aspects such as education, law, and ideology.

Therefore, after returning to China, Yan Fu was not appointed as a ship captain, but was assigned to the Beiyang Naval Academy as a "foreign language teacher." Later, Yan Fu followed Li Hongzhang to Guangzhou and served as the co-director of the Nanhai Naval Academy.

But Yan Fu was not interested in this, and his ideas were different from those of his boss Li Hongzhang. So he took the opportunity of the South China Sea Fleet's cruise to board Liu Buxian's Dingyuan and head to Incheon, the holy land of all Chinese scholars who were determined to save the country, to find an ideal plan to save the country.

When he was in Guangzhou, he wrote for the East Asia Times several times, and published a series of articles on the urgency of world changes, the origin of strength, and the decision to save the nation. He advocated reform and armed resistance to foreign invasion.

Now that he has arrived in Incheon, he has directly joined the Dong-A Times and become an editor of the newspaper, diving headfirst into writing articles to serve the country.

"Yan Jidao has made up his mind. I can't persuade him to come back. Alas, the country is already short of naval talents, and now another one is gone. It's really a pity." Liu Buchan felt a little regretful.

Yan Fu was the most intelligent among those who studied in the UK. But precisely because he was so intelligent, he had learned all the naval knowledge while others were halfway through. After that, he started studying Western ideas such as democracy and human rights. He didn't even want to go on a warship, and spent all day participating in debates with others.

In his opinion, Yan Fu was wasting his talent.

Yuan Xiangcheng understood what Liu Buxian meant, but he felt that although China lost a captain, it gained a great thinker, which was undoubtedly a gain, so he could only offer words of comfort.

After a while, the two of them talked about the establishment of the South China Sea Fleet.

"Lord Liu, how many ships does the South China Sea Fleet have now?"

Liu Buchan lowered his head in thought, and after some calculations in his mind, he said, "To be honest, Your Excellency Yuan, after the French bombarded Weihaiwei, the Beiyang Fleet was almost completely wiped out.

Not only did the ramming cruisers Chaoyong and Yangwei sink to the bottom of the sea, but even the six gunboats Zhendong, Zhenxi and Zhennan were not spared, and the torpedo boats and training ships were severely damaged.

The current South China Sea Fleet, in terms of the number of ships, is probably only two-thirds of the former Beiyang Fleet. Fortunately, the main warships such as Dingyuan and Zhiyuan were still in dock in Britain and Germany at the time, so they were spared.

So in terms of absolute combat power, the South China Sea Fleet was stronger than the Beiyang Fleet at the time, but no matter how powerful the giant ships were, they still needed small boats to protect them, so they were still a little short in terms of numbers.

Yuan Xiangcheng pondered for a moment after hearing this, then asked, "Then, Lord Li, do you have any plans for additional purchases?"

Hearing this, Liu Buchan looked embarrassed and didn't know whether he should say it or not.

But he remembered Yuan Xiangcheng's kind attitude towards him since the day he entered Incheon, and after hearing about Yuan Xiangcheng's political style in Korea from what he had heard in Guangdong, he made up his mind and said:

"To be honest, Mr. Yuan, since last year, Lin Taizeng and I have met with Mr. Li Hongzhang many times to emphasize the importance of comprehensive development of the navy. We cannot just focus on purchasing warships and cannons; auxiliary vessels are also necessary.

Lord Li agreed at the time, but after the New Year, he repeatedly postponed the offer. It wasn't until recently that I understood why Lord Li was unwilling to purchase more ships."

Hearing this, Yuan Xiangcheng asked calmly, "Oh, why?"

"Alas, it's all because of the people above." Liu Buchan clasped his fists towards the west where the sun was setting.

"Your Majesty's wedding is imminent, and the Ministry of Revenue has been cutting naval spending since the beginning of the year. The Jiangnan Navy under the Governor-General of Liangjiang, Mr. Zeng, has also been making large purchases of warships, so even less money is allocated to Guangdong.

The funds allocated by the court can only be used to purchase some artillery shells and supplies, and it is unknown when the Dingyuan warship will be upgraded and renovated."

"Did Lord Li say anything?" Yuan Xiangcheng was a little puzzled. Logically speaking, Li Hongzhang, who owned the rich lands of Guangdong and Guangxi, should not be so stingy.

"Master Yuan, you may not know that the Dingyuan ships were purchased in installments. The imperial court advanced part of the purchase price, but after returning home, the Ministry of Revenue was unwilling to pay the remaining balance. Master Li negotiated with the Ministry of Revenue, and each side paid a portion, finally raising the full amount for the purchase of the ships.

After all, the taxes levied by the Ministry of Revenue in Guangdong and Guangxi have always been the highest among all provinces, so there is not much left of the lijin collected in Guangdong and Guangxi.

After the Germans and French occupied the land, Lord Li was worried that they would invade the inland, so he trained the Huai Army in Guangzhou again. In addition, he built the Pearl River Fort. I guess Lord Li didn't have much money left.

After hearing what Liu Buxian said about the apportionment system, Yuan Xiangcheng realized that he was wrong and that Li Hongzhang was probably not as rich as he had imagined.

The tax revenue in the late Qing Dynasty mainly came from four sources: land tax, salt tax, likin tax and customs duty.

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Among them, the amount of land tax is relatively stable. Since there was no official organization for large-scale land reclamation in the late Qing Dynasty, there was not much change in the amount from year to year in various places. The Ministry of Revenue has a fixed quota for collecting taxes every year. If the local governments want to make some small moves on the land tax, the gains will outweigh the losses.

In addition, there is the salt tax, which is managed by a dedicated official and the local government has no way to interfere. Guangdong is not a major salt-producing province, so there is no need to say much about the salt tax and there is no room for manipulation.

The same is true for tariffs. Since they are controlled by foreigners, most of them are managed with special funds. Part of it is handed over to the Ministry of Revenue, and part of it is paid as compensation to various countries. There is not much left for the local governments. Li Hongzhang is not like Yuan Shikai, who can intercept tariffs for his own use.

In order to avoid arousing resentment from Korea and to abolish the feudal system and establish provinces as soon as possible, the Qing court did not incorporate the Korean customs into the Chinese customs, because if it was incorporated, it would have to pay compensation to foreigners.

Therefore, the only thing Li Hongzhang could manipulate was lijin, which was a commercial tax, but it was much harsher than a commercial tax. It was more similar to the tolls and road maintenance fees on highways in later generations, and it was collected randomly.

Merchants transporting goods through different places had to pay taxes at each customs office. If they were lucky, there was only one customs office along the way, so they only had to pay taxes once. If they were unlucky and there were multiple customs offices, they would have to pay taxes multiple times, and the tax amounts would vary from place to place.

The lijin system flourished during the Taiping Rebellion in the Qing Dynasty. As various places were cut off from each other by the Taiping Rebellion, it was difficult for the court to allocate funds and for local taxes to be escorted to Beijing. Therefore, the court ordered various places to raise their own military pay and levy lijin.

At the beginning, it was only 3 [D: The tax rate was 5%, so it was called lijin.

However, after the Taiping Army was eliminated, the lijin tax was not abolished. Instead, more and more lijin taxes were imposed. At first, there was one lijin tax in each province, and later there was one lijin tax in each prefecture.

During the Republic of China period, people would even be taxed twice for crossing a mountain, once on this side and once on the other side.

The amount of lijin fluctuated greatly each year, and the Ministry of Revenue found it difficult to grasp the amount of lijin in each province, so it was impossible to collect all the lijin money like the land tax.

Therefore, they could only carry out large-scale levies, requiring each place to hand over a fixed amount of likin, and ignore the rest. Of course, there was more that they could not do.

Originally, Yuan Shikai thought that Li Hongzhang could make a fortune by relying on the lijin in Guangdong, so that the South China Sea Fleet would not be so shabby. Unexpectedly, the Ministry of Revenue of the Qing Dynasty was even more ruthless and stopped paying the follow-up funds for the Dingyuan and other warships.

This was foreigners' money, and Li Hongzhang did not dare to owe it. In addition, these warships were under his command, so he had no choice but to pay.

Therefore, the small treasury he had saved up from the lijin surplus in the past few years was completely drained by the Ministry of Revenue in this wave. In addition, the newly formed Huai Army was used to guard against the French and Germans in Fujian and Guangdong, so Li Hongzhang really didn't have much money left.

Seeing Yuan Xiangcheng lost in thought, Liu Buchan felt somewhat regretful. After all, he had just fabricated a story that the emperor and the central government refused to give money. Even if it was true, Yuan Xiangcheng disliked him and could immediately arrest him and take him to the capital.

Liu Buxian stayed in the UK for several years and was exposed to some Western ideas. After returning to China, he had heard of Yuan Shikai's name for a long time. He knew that Yuan Shikai was a member of the Westernization faction and was in favor of reform, so he let out the frustration that had been pent up in his heart.

Too much talk will lead to mistakes. Even though he knew that Yuan Shikai did not have much respect for the Qing court, he still felt a little uneasy after saying these words.