Standing in front of the gate of the Governor's Office of the Five Provinces converted from the Hubei Governor's Office, Li Hongzhang really regretted it, and completely regretted it.?

What made Li Hongzhang regret to this point was the mighty warriors with guns and ammunition in front of the gate of the Governor's Mansion, the sedan chairs and carriages on both sides of the gate, and countless Qing officials waiting for Wu Yue to meet in the gatehouse, as well as the gatehouse who showed off his might. Li Hongzhang even clearly remembered that when he was in the capital, when he went to see Sushun with Wu Yue, there seemed to be no more officials in Sushun's gatehouse waiting for Wu Yue to summon him.

"Shaoquan, go to Shanghai with me to hold a group training. You are older than me and have a higher position than me. If you take the lead, I will be your deputy, how about you?"

A word that Wu Yue once said echoed in Li Hongzhang's ears again. Li Hongzhang couldn't help but smile bitterly on his thin face and said to himself: "Did I get water in my head or be fascinated by ghosts? Why should I refuse? If I agreed at that time, maybe it would be me today..."

Sighing regretfully, Li Hongzhang shook his head again, trying to drive out those unrealistic fantasies, and then he walked up the steps. As a result, because he was not wearing official uniforms, Li Hongzhang was immediately stopped by a door and shouted: "Stop! What are you doing?"

Before Li Hongzhang could speak, the foreman of the door knocked on the door and cursed: "Xu Ba, I said, are you looking for death again? The MANAGU did not bother with you when you stopped the Grand Master last time, why did you still have such eyes? "

After scolding the disciple, the foreman ran to Li Hongzhang to salute and said with a smile on his face: "Sir Li, don't mind, this kid came three months ago. I don't know what your relationship is with the National Taiwan Master, and how much offend you. Please ask the doorman to sit in the doorman, and the younger one will report to my National Taiwan Master!"

After that, the foreman of the door respectfully invited Li Hongzhang into the door, and then rushed into the door and reported to Wu Yue. The result was very natural, and Li Hongzhang was immediately surrounded by those Qing officials in the doorman who were eager to see him. He saluted and greeted him, and even those who had heard of Li Hongzhang's name could not wait to get a friendship. "Shaoquan, I finally saw you, don't you know who I am? I am Chen Xinyi, I will study with your teacher Sun Qianming under Mr. Yu Sui'an."

"It turns out that it is uncle, younger generation Li Hongzhang, who has seen uncle." Li Hongzhang quickly saluted the man, and said in his heart, "Even Weng Xincun's disciples came to kowtow to Weiting. The world is so quickly reversed."

Wu Yue, who rushed into the doorman, rescued Li Hongzhang from the siege of countless officials from the five provinces. While pulling Li Hongzhang's braids into the door, Wu Yue also shouted and ordered his servants to prepare the best game and perch, as well as to open up the aged wine he had collected for a long time. Those officials from the five provinces who kept nodding and bowing at Wu Yue immediately looked at Li Hongzhang with envy and jealousy, but Li Hongzhang smiled bitterly, "I didn't expect that I would have such a day, because Weiting's closeness to me attracted the jealousy of so many colleagues."

The long separation between good brothers quickly diluted the grief in Li Hongzhang's heart. He drank wine and ate delicious food with Wu Yue and told him about his separation. After congratulations to Wu Yue for his re-election, Li Hongzhang remembered the mission he shouldered and quickly took out Chongen's official documents and invited Wu Yue to Hunan to preside over Zeng Guofan's Zeng Gong Temple opening ceremony.

Li Hongzhang's invitation of course posed a problem for Wu Yue, because Sushun had a letter to explain that Wu Yue would not leave Hubei easily. At the same time, the situation in Rehe was still quite complicated, so Wu Yue certainly did not dare to leave the province easily. So after thinking about it for a while, Wu Yue could only refuse: "Shaoquan, it's not that I don't give Chongfu's surface, but you also saw how busy I am now. I have just become the governor of the five provinces for a few days, and I still need to stay in Hubei for many official duties."

"Weiting, you are not giving face to Chongweiting, but to giving face to the teacher." Li Hongzhang shook his head and pointed out: "Weiting, think about it, the imperial court will ask the local government in Hunan to build a Zhongyi Temple for our mentor. As the governor of the five provinces in charge of Hunan, if you don't come to preside over the opening of the temple in person, what would your mentor's family think? What would our fellow brothers think?"

"And." Li Hongzhang lowered his voice again and said, "What would our junior sister think? She is a descendant of Zeng Sheng. She fell into her identity and made a side room for you. If you don't even give her this little face, wouldn't she feel even more wronged?"

It's true that Zeng Jijing and the Zeng family's Wu Yue had nothing to say. Seeing Wu Yue shaken, Li Hongzhang hurriedly said: "Also, your name is the Governor of the Five Provinces. In fact, the two provinces that can really provide you with money and food support are Hunan and Hubei. Such an important place, don't you want to go and take a look?"

Wu Yue was even more shaken, and then he thought about it before answering: "Let's do this, there's still some time left, let me think about it and then give you a reply."

Wu Yue's words were not an excuse. After having enough wine and meals, he asked his servant to take Li Hongzhang to the guest room for rest, Wu Yue did carefully consider whether he should go to Hunan in person, and then he quickly felt that he should go to Hunan to take a look.

Wu Yue made this decision for many reasons. First, of course, it was to give the Zeng family face and give Zeng Jijing a comfort, and take the opportunity to buy the hearts of the Hunan gentry class represented by Zeng Guofan. Second, the distance was not too far. Three small steam gunships with a displacement of only 600 tons could send Wu Yue directly to Xiangtan, which was convenient for travel. At the same time, it could also take the opportunity to familiarize the Wu army navy with the waterways of Dongting Lake and Xiangjiang River, so that they would be forced to fight against Hunan in the future.

The third point is that the current Hunan Green Camp and the main Xiangyong are in the hands of Feng Sanbao. In addition, with the navy accompanying him, Wu Yue does not have to worry about his own safety. At the same time, Wu Yue can also take the opportunity to inspect the reorganized Xiangyong's situation and be confident in his Hunan reserve team.

The only thing that worried Wu Yue was the situation over the Rehe area. Although Wu Yue had received news of the arrest of the Japanese Six and knew that Sushun had lost an important strong enemy, Wu Yue was still very afraid of his eldest niece Cixi, fearing that she would suddenly play tricks to kill Sushun.

What prompted Wu Yue to make up his mind was the repeated persuasion from Li Hongzhang. Considering that it would be too sorry to poor Zeng Jijing if he didn't go to Zeng Guofan's hometown, Wu Yue hesitated for a long time and finally nodded and agreed to go to Hunan to preside over the opening ceremony of Zeng Guofan. He comforted himself in his heart: "It's okay, it's up to ten days to go, and I can't delay anything. I can't stay in Wuhan and not go out just because I'm worried about the situation in the capital, right?"

Even so, Wu Yue made quite careful arrangements, allowing Zhao Liewen, Yan Jingming and other reliable confidants to stay in Hubei, and explained the situation of Hubei and the capital every day, so that the artillery chief Qian Wei and the navy chief Wang Fu temporarily acted as the chief and deputy general of the direct corps, and asked the deputy general of the navy Xu Lai to lead three small steam gunships to protect him from going south. He decided to leave on February 27th and go to Wenfeng Sanbao at the same time, and asked him to arrange Hunan Xiangyong to prepare for his inspection.

After a quick arrangement, on February 27th, Wu Yue led the Dai Wen Festival, and Li Hongzhang and two hundred guards boarded three small steam gunboats, took the Daode as the flagship and set off for Hunan.

It was already late spring, and the southeast wind was blowing strongly. The hybrid steam gunboat sailed naturally and quickly. It took only one day to arrive in Linxiang. Yao Rongqing, the magistrate of Linxiang, received the news in advance and arrived at the dock early to greet him. He also invited Wu Yue to take a banquet in the city. Although Wu Yue was anxious to go on a journey and was unwilling to enter the city, he was not familiar with the route because the Wu army naval master had never entered Dongting Lake and did not want to take risks with the precious steam gunboat, so he gave Yao Rongqing a face and asked Yao Rongqing to deliver the wine and food to the house next to the dock for himself to eat. Yao Rongqing happily arranged it immediately, and was also flattered to get the opportunity to have a meal with a first-class official Wu Yue.

It was also coincidental that during the chat at the banquet, the messenger ship sent by Wu Xiaoping from Xiangxiang also arrived in Linxiang. Seeing that Wu Yue's banner was at Linxiang Wharf, the messenger hurriedly went ashore to pay homage to Wu Yue and presented Wu Xiaoping's letter to Wu Yue respectfully. After Wu Yue opened it and looked carefully, he smiled and said, "It took only five days for the teacher's ancestral hall to be built, and it was also very complete and solid. The Li Xuechao County Li Magistrate Li worked hard enough."

"Of course, our local officials in Hunan have to build a temple for Mr. Zeng," said Yao Rongqing, the magistrate of Linxiang, and added a little jealously, "The news about Lord Li is really well-versed. The court residence report he received the day before yesterday announced that it would be a sacrifice for the Zengbu Hall. Lord Li had already built the Zenggong Temple."

The speaker was unintentional, and the listener was intentional. When Wu Yue heard Yao Rongqing's words, he suddenly moved his heart and asked without any time to think about it, "Mr. Yao, what did you say just now?"

"What did Xiaguan just say?" Yao Rongqing was stunned by Wu Yue's question, and then said, "Return to Master Jiantai, Xiaguan just said that Lord Li from Xiangxiang was well-informed. The day before yesterday, Xiaguan saw the construction of a temple for Zengbu Hall in the court residence report. Lord Li had already built the Zenggong Temple."

Wu Yue's face changed slightly. When he subconsciously went to see the date of signing the signature of his father again, he saw that the letter from his father clearly stated on February 23. But Wu Yue did not make any statement, but just called him and missed the matter. Then, while putting away the letter, he drank and chatted with Yao Rongqing, Li Hongzhang, Dai Wenjie and others.

Finally, after the banquet was gone and when he returned to the Moral Account to rest, Wu Yue deliberately left Li Hongzhang for a while and handed over the letter from his cheap father to his new accomplice Dai Wenjie to watch. The Dai Wenjie, which had been wrong for a long time, just looked at the date of the signature and immediately whispered: "Weiting Pavilion, there is a problem! How could Li Xuechao be a mere magistrate, take the lead in knowing that the court was going to build a temple for your teacher?"

"I just checked it out. Li Xuechao had already received the order to build a temple at least on February 17th."

Wu Yue said coldly: "My father said it very clearly in the letter that Li Xuechao was ordered to build a temple. Although there are waterways to go from Changsha to Xiangxiang, ordinary sailboats go upstream. No matter how day and night it takes at least one day! So Chongen knew about this news at least on the 16th day of the first lunar month, even earlier!"

"There is a thousand miles from Rehe to Changsha. Why is Chongen so well-informed?" Dai Wenjie frowned and said, "If it is a major military and government affairs matter, Chongen relies on his channels in the court to get ahead of the situation for so long, but it is not important to build a temple for Zengbutang? Chongen has no reason to know more than ten days before the court's residence was reported to Linxiang?"

"The construction period is also very strange." Wu Yue said again: "If you are a small matter like building a ancestral hall, do you need to be so anxious to rush the work? Why is Chong'en so anxious?"

"The most critical point is, why did Chongen ask you to go to Hunan to preside over the temple opening ceremony in person?" Dai Wenjie added to Wu Yue.

"I can't go to Changsha anymore, and Chongen can't believe it anymore." Wu Yue said in a deep voice.

Dai Wen nodded and whispered: "Weiting, say something you definitely don't like to hear. Your good brother Li Hongzhang may not be able to believe it."

Wu Yue was silent, and his heart was still a little tingling. Then Wu Yue thought for a while, and then asked Dai Wenjie to write a letter to Feng Sanbao who was in Changsha, asking him to find an excuse to move to Xiangyong Camp to live. He was always wary of changes when he was loose on the outside and tight on the inside. He also closely monitored Chongen Fubiao's every move, and reported any abnormalities immediately. Then he asked Wu Dasai to arrange a team of reliable personal soldiers to disguise themselves as ordinary people and rushed to Xiangxiang to protect his cheap father. Finally, he asked someone to invite Li Hongzhang to meet.

In fact, Li Hongzhang, who had once wore a pair of pants with Wu Yue, had already smelled the abnormal smell, so when he was invited to Wu Yue again, he saw the gloomy expression on Wu Yue's face and the closely guarded personal soldiers around Wu Yue. Li Hongzhang immediately knew that the situation was definitely wrong and asked quickly: "Weiting, what happened?"

Wu Yue did not answer, but asked his personal soldiers to pass the letter from his cheap father to Li Hongzhang, and then said lightly: "Shaoquan, see the date above clearly. Please explain to me, how could Chongen know that the court had to build a temple for his mentor so early? Also, such a small matter as building a ancestral hall, why did Chongen let the local people work so quickly?"

After carefully looking at Wu Xiaoping's signature date, he quietly calculated the time difference. Cold sweat soon appeared on Li Hongzhang's forehead. After a while, Li Hongzhang replied: "Weiting, I know you can't believe me, but I can swear to the sky, I really don't know the inside story!"

"You really don't know?" Wu Yue asked skeptically.

Li Hongzhang Zheng pointed his head and said, "Weiting, if you can't trust me, just do it now. I won't blame you, because this matter is indeed too strange. I also suspect that Chong'en's attempt is not good for you. I may be a knife manipulator. I can't tell you. For the sake of caution, whether you kill me or put me in prison, I won't blame you."

The Smith revolver that Daye could already produce was already produced appeared in Wu Yue's hands. After playing with the revolver for a long time, Wu Yue slowly raised the gun and pointed it at Li Hongzhang's chest. Li Hongzhang had no choice but to close his eyes and dared not do anything.

The gunshots did not sound, but Wu Yue's cold voice drifted into Li Hongzhang's ears, "Shaoquan, I also know that you may just be a gunman by Chongen, but I can't be sure. I can only give you a chance to prove your innocentness. If you do something for me, we will continue to be brothers. If you betray me, we will be enemies in the future!"

Talking to smart people is easy. Li Hongzhang did not ask Wu Yue what he wanted to do, but asked back: "Do you want me to trick Chongen to see you for you?"

"Those who know me are Shao Quan."

Wu Yue nodded in praise and then said, "Shaoquan, don't blame me, this is the only way to clear your grievances! I'm not afraid that you will betray me, but I hope you don't disappoint me because I don't want to lose you, my good brother!"
Chapter completed!