He is not (please vote for me!)

Hurd, after hearing so many stories about Hurd, Li Zicheng sighed in his heart. No matter how you say it, Hurd is British. Hurd controls China's customs and damages China's sovereignty. He himself is an unequal treaty.

There is no doubt that he is a practitioner of relations. Perhaps on the other hand, Hart, as a guest minister, tried his best to advocate reforms internally to the extent possible and expressed his support for China's position many times externally. This is worthy of

Definitely. But the latter point obviously belongs to a secondary level under the major issues of right and wrong, because most of these opinions are expressed without damaging the vital interests of the UK.

Hmm! Maybe I can use that sentence to describe the specific historical conditions and specific characters that left an inconclusive legacy to future generations.

At this time, Chen Lansheng's praise for Hart always made Li Zicheng feel a little disgusted, so he said directly.

"Perhaps it is for personal gain. If I remember correctly, the salary of the customs is based on performance. Hurd is doing it for his own interests. If China is divided and the unified customs ceases to exist, Hurd's economic interests will be

Damaged.”

"Prime Minister, it's true that Hurd is a foreigner, but when we look at problems and people, we have to look at it from all aspects, and we can't blindly see him as a foreigner!"

Chen Lansheng obviously disagreed with the Prime Minister's statement.

"Although Hurd cared about his own economic interests, he refused to serve as ambassador to China. His ideal was to turn China into an Asian economic power! Besides, with the great powers carving up China, Hurd should be able to fish in troubled waters. In fact, even in Hurd,

After De's death, his successor, Anglian, who was also British, did not enrich himself due to the civil strife caused by the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising. Compared with many Chinese officials at the time, this was a truly commendable quality."

"If he is so valuable, why should we remove him from his post?"

Smiling, Li Zicheng elicited his own questions from Chen Lansheng's words. Now is not the time to call the General Taxation Department.

"Because Anglian is not Hurd!"

Chen Lansheng's words rang in Li Zicheng's ears.

"From a personal moral point of view, Hart was not only greedy for money, but also greedy for power. But at least he still stood on China's standpoint. Putting China's interests first is the correct principle that must be followed! From 1865 to 1868, he and the British

Minister Witoma put forward many suggestions to the Qing court on restructuring a powerful country. He once pointed out: "If the policy changes, China can become the leader of various countries; if the policy does not change, it will become the slave of various countries." However, these suggestions have to wait until the end of the world.

It took 30 years for it to resonate with China’s reformists.”

There was a hint of ridicule in the words, but in the mirror of the Qing Dynasty, Hurd was a good official after all; he added.

"It is precisely because of this that Hurd has become a character whose father and mother do not love him. In my opinion, Hurd is from the UK no matter what. In the eyes of the British at that time, Hurd seemed to be from China.

But this person, in the mirror of the Qing Dynasty, Hurd was a good official after all. Even if Hurd's loyalty to the Qing Dynasty was limited, he was at least dedicated. This is enough. But Anglian

completely different!"

Looking at the Prime Minister, Chen Lansheng emphasized.

"When Hurd was about to leave office, he originally planned to ask his wife's uncle Pei Shikai to pick him up.

And as early as in 2001, we carefully set up a deputy general tax department.

This important position was held by Pei Shikai. Seven years ago, Hurd took a leave of absence due to illness and returned to the UK.

The petition requested the Qing government to appoint Pei Shikai as Acting Chief Tax Department. However, the British government declined due to Pei Shikai being over 60 years old and other factors.

did not follow Hurd’s arrangements. The British government, through the Embassy in China

Indicated that the Qing government appointed Anglian as the deputy chief tax officer in the year of Yin.

Acting General Taxation Department. Hurd is far away in England.

sick

There is no way to change this appointment. Moreover, Anglian was originally a close relative of Hurd.

Therefore, we turned to support

Send a letter of congratulations to Anglian

and instruct him how to hide

But we must resolutely complete the tasks of the General Taxation Department. In fact, Anglian is far from qualified for the position of the General Taxation Department. At least in terms of safeguarding China's interests, he is by no means suitable for this position. Since Anglian took up the post

Since taking up the post of General Taxation Department, he has done two "big things"!"

Two "big things"? Chen Lansheng's words aroused Li Zicheng's curiosity, so he put down his tea cup and listened to the two "big things".

"In the Revolution of 1911

Although customs taxes have been used as offsets for various debt compensation payments,

However, local customs supervision and their subordinate banks are still responsible for the collection and preservation of

And handle the allocation according to the instructions of the Ministry of Household and Finance of the Qing Dynasty. The Wuchang Uprising broke out

Most provinces and autonomous regions across the country responded quickly

One after another announced **,

The Qing Dynasty was on the verge of collapse. Imperialist countries pretended to be "neutrality"

Secretly seducing each other

Waiting for an opportunity to sabotage the revolution. Anglian and the British Minister to China Jules Dianliu Jinyi

Excuse maintenance debt reimbursement letter

The customs and taxation departments of various provinces were ordered by Anglian to withhold taxes.

Then it forced the Qing government to deposit customs taxes from Northeast China, Tianjin and other places still under its control into HSBC Bank.

Ministers to China from the great powers headed by Britain

He also took the opportunity to organize the "Joint Committee of National Banks"

Three banks, HSBC in the UK, Dehua in Germany and Dowson in Russia, serve as directors and have formulated eight "Measures for the General Taxation Department to Collect Duties and Pay Debts on behalf of the General Taxation Department". According to this method, each customs taxation department will collect taxes and pay debts on behalf of the general taxation department every week.

It was submitted to the above three banks in Shanghai, and then the General Taxation Department notified the relevant countries on schedule. At that time, the Qing government was in trouble internally and externally, and was on the verge of collapse. The Qing emperor was about to retire, so he naturally accepted this method. From then on, the huge tax of customs duties began

Deposited in the British and French banks in Shanghai, the customs duties and taxes were a huge 45 million Guan liang in the first year of the Republic of China, and last year they reached 70 million Guan liang. The huge amount of taxes were deposited in foreign banks, which strengthened the control of foreign banks over our country's financial industry.

, and consolidated the position of the Foreign Taxation Department in our country’s customs. This is the first “big thing” Anglian has done for our country’s customs, and its impact is far-reaching!”

At this time, Li Zicheng finally recovered some of the familiar roles played by foreigners in history textbooks - important agents of foreign powers invading China. Although it was only a brief explanation, Li Zicheng explained to the tax chief

Si is full of disgust. If you can't replace this kind of person, why should you replace him?

"And then, the second "big thing" of the Ange Liaison Office was to control "Guan Yu" and thus intervene in our country's finance. The so-called "Guan Yu" refers to customs taxes deducted from customs administrative funds and embassies and consulates abroad.

The remaining balance after funds and tariff guarantee items, and most of the tariffs were used to pay debt indemnities. Three years before the Republic of China, tariffs were not enough to pay debt indemnities. However, before and after the outbreak of the European War, China's industry developed first and imports surged.

, Subsequently, the price of silver rose, China's foreign trade developed, and tariff revenue also increased accordingly. Last year, there was a surplus of 6 million taels for the first time. By the first half of this year, the customs surplus had reached 10 million taels, and by the end of the year, it could reach 23 million taels.

Of course, this is related to our country's participation in the war and the suspension of payment of the German and Austrian parts of the Boxer Indemnity. These surpluses should have been freely disposed by the Ministry of Finance, but due to the general tax avoidance, the tax custody revenue and expenditure rights were controlled. Under the instruction of the United Kingdom, the request

When the government uses Guanyu, it must submit an application, and Anglian can only disburse it with the consent of the mission. And..."

Before Chen Lansheng could finish speaking, Li Zicheng said angrily.

"Remove him!"

Originally, Li Zicheng thought that the current customs deformity was a legacy of the Hart era, but he never thought that the customs deformity actually started from Anglian. There is such an "imperialist agent" in control of China's customs.

If you want to achieve tariff independence, it is simply a dream. Such a person is completely different from Hurd. Hurd can be described as sophisticated and smooth. As for Anglian, he only has the interests of the United Kingdom in his eyes, not the interests of China.

If he tries to achieve tariff independence, he may be the first to stand up and oppose it.

Whether it is due to the need for tariff autonomy, the need to control "customs surplus" to enrich the national treasury, or the need to "control taxes and establish the status of the Bank of China as a central bank", Anglian must be removed from the position of "General Taxation Department"

Pull it up, otherwise he will have to ruin his own affairs. Fortunately, the remedy is urgent now.

"Replacement must be done. However, Prime Minister, if the State Council wants to unilaterally replace Anglian without a suitable excuse, I'm afraid it will cause trouble! Moreover, although Anglian has never considered China's interests,

However, it has implemented some reforms within the customs and resolved some internal injustices during the Hart era. Without a suitable excuse, I'm afraid..."

Seeing that the Prime Minister supported him, Chen Lansheng was overjoyed and quickly persuaded him.

"Okay, Lansheng, since you want to go to the General Taxation Department, I'm afraid you already have an idea. Tell me your idea!"

Waving his hand, Li Zicheng said bluntly that now he had no time to waste any more. He had to pull Anglian out of the position and replace it with a suitable candidate before implementing tariff autonomy.

"Prime Minister, there are now three departments in the customs - the Department of Taxation, the Department of Maritime Affairs and the Ministry of Works which was just established three years ago. The Department of Maritime Affairs is responsible for surveying coastal and inland waterways, operating lighthouses and lightships, and repairing buoys and beacons.

Maintaining the port and maintaining law and order there. And the Ministry of Public Works is responsible for and repairing the houses and properties of the Customs. But the center of the Customs is, of course, the Department of Revenue.”

Because the Prime Minister did not know much about the Customs, when giving his suggestions, Chen Lansheng naturally introduced the Customs to the Prime Minister first.

"The personnel of the Customs and Taxation Department are divided into three departments: the inner team, the outer team and the port affairs department. Each department is divided into two parts: "foreign staff" and "Chinese staff". The inner team of each port is the administrative department of the customs.

Responsible for administration and accounting. It is headed by a Tax Division, who is assisted by a Deputy Tax Division and four levels of assistants, all of whom are assigned, promoted, assigned and transferred by the Chief Tax Division, who only

Notify the tax office of all appointments.”

Chen Lansheng made the introduction, while Li Zicheng only had a pair of ears. His lack of understanding of customs forced him to listen to the introduction, and then analyze whether his method would work based on his introduction.

"Hurd repeated more than once the intention expressed in his memorandum of 1864, to the effect that the foreign administration of revenue "would come to an end when it had produced a local administration which would replace it and be equally honest and efficient.

"It's work". However, in fact, during his tenure as the General Taxation Department, no Chinese became even the lowest assistant in the internal shift. He once thought that Tongwengong who had a certain degree of English speaking and writing ability would

They may eventually be supplemented as assistants at that level. Among these people are customs school graduates at the customs temporary level, mainly Chinese students from missionary schools, and their Chinese education may not be enough; in short, this is used as a reason repeatedly

proposed as a flaw that prevented them from achieving higher office. Hurd could also cite the fact that senior officials in Beijing opposed the promotion of these priests. Due to their church school background and their basically Southern origins, opposition was not surprising. Number of people

The largest number are from Cantonese, followed by people from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian. They are usually recruited through examinations administered by the tax department at major ports. In addition to their English ability, they are selected partly because they know several dialects.
To be continued...