On March 19, 1692, Yantai County, sunny.

Today is the annual Spring Festival, and Yantai has a day off for a whole county - well, in fact, it is not just Yantai. In fact, all places where the East Coast law is passed are on for a day off - many people help the elderly and young people go out for a trip in the suburbs.

Among these people who are visiting, many of them are ordinary workers, grassroots civil servants, store waiters, etc. They also put on new clothes, took food, and went out to play with their families and friends. To be honest, this kind of scene of people traveling together in the lower class is actually rare in mainland China.

Comparing the Qing Dynasty, which is separated by a river, you will know that the roles of craftsmen, yamen helpers, shop work, etc. are basically busy from morning to night all year round, with little time for their own, let alone having fun. The frontiers are constantly in wars, and the court is very anxious to urge classes. Everyone can only barely fill their stomachs when they work hard, let alone spending hundreds of dollars or even one tael of silver to buy clothes, wine and food. This is simply unimaginable.

The Shun Kingdom in the south is similar. Li Laiheng of Changsha has raised a small army of 200,000, and has been constantly moving over the years. He either fought against the Qing Kingdom in Hubei and Sichuan, or cleared the chieftain power in western Hunan and Sichuan, and liberated the population. In the past two years, the battle to destroy the Ming Kingdom was launched. The national finances had long been on the verge of collapse. Their country only had several provinces, and the huge war expenses were all suppressed by more than 10 million people, and the burden was so heavy that it was breathless. In such a situation, how could the Shun Kingdom people holding a handful of treasure money in their hands that had no purchasing power be able to spend the day leisurely like the people of Denglai?

The leisurely life of the people of Denglai is based on their salary of several yuan a month, on developed industry and commerce, on internal stable order, and on the outstanding talents of leaders. Without all of the above, even if the gods of Daluo come, it will be difficult to solve. For example, do you think that praying to God and worshiping Buddha can solve the increasingly serious inflation in Shunguo?

Denglai's relatively wealthy life also attracted many Qing people. Taking Qingzhou Prefecture, which is closest to the nearest Qingzhou Prefecture, almost every year, more than 3,000 people enter the East Coast controlled area through various channels. They avoided the tightly defended Jiaolai Xinhe area, and drove a boat or even swim into the east coast along the long coastline of the Shandong Peninsula, and rushed to the rich new life. Denglai local government was also tolerant of these Qing people who fled, and basically took them in, and then organized them into the construction team, providing food and accommodation and 500 cents of salary every month, asking them to help build roads, docks, reservoirs and houses.

After working for two or three years, these people can generally obtain legal status and become residents of Denglai (usually settled in Weihai, Wendeng, Rongcheng and other counties with relatively small populations), and then find a job steadily. With the development of Denglai's economy, they can slowly save some money. They will take some of this money and take it back to their hometowns and give it to their relatives. After all, life there may be a little difficulty, and the money sent back can often come in handy.

Their success in Denglai was soon spread all over the place under the vague propaganda of those who were interested, which made the Qing government undefeated the rumors of demonization of the East Coast for decades. Perhaps when the Qing government signed a peace agreement with the East Coast and the two countries were friendly in trade, they did not expect this situation to happen? But in this situation, they did not dare to cut off relations with the East Coast without authorization and close the borders of the two countries, because that might lead to the consequences of the war, although the people on the East Coast of Manchuria and Mongolia have been launching small wars against them.

"My Qing Dynasty" is actually very difficult!

Spring Festival is a legal holiday on the east coast, but how to spend Spring Festival in the northern hemisphere and when did it happen?

After some debate, one group of people insisted on following the East Coast calendar, even the Denglai, located in the northern hemisphere, that is, the Autumn Society Festival should be celebrated now; another row of people believed that it should be followed by the traditional Chinese calendar, because it is more suitable for the northern hemisphere. The source of the East Coast people is the Miao people in the former Song Dynasty, and using the Chinese calendar is natural, so it is time to celebrate the Spring Society Festival.

The two factions once argued for a long time, but in the end, the local government gave instructions. The colonies in the northern hemisphere came from the Chinese calendar and the eastern hemisphere passed by their own. However, after Chairman Shao Yaoguang and Shao came to power, the situation seemed to have changed again. Shao was very dissatisfied with this practice of splitting the East Coast in ideological terms and was planning to implement the local calendar in all East Coast territories to completely eliminate the signs of separatism. Therefore, the Spring Festival in Denglai may not be over a few times, and maybe it will be the last time.

Spring Festival is actually a relatively important festival in Denglai. Merchants' sales will generally soar on this day, and they also have sufficient goods to sell. The reason is that the Liaohai Sea has been thawed at this time, and ships from all over the world can trade at Yantai, the largest city in Denglai.

Hu Zhigang also came to Yantai today. He took a train from Jiaozhou all the way north. He got off at Taocun Station and stayed for a day, processed a batch of goods, and then took the opportunity to wander around. Well, something happened: the headquarters of the 6th Division of the New Army is located in Taocun Village, and a large area was marked as a military restricted area. Hu Zhigang didn't know whether it was intentional or unintentional, but actually broke into a road leading to the military restricted area and was expelled by the New Army soldiers with bayonets.

Hu Zhigang was still scared of this, and at the same time he made up his mind not to spy on military intelligence. His cousin sent him to Denglai to collect social information and purchase controlled goods, rather than to investigate where the army was stationed in the East and where there were soldiers. That was not a task he had to complete.

He finally arrived in Yantai the day before the Spring Festival. After much investigation, he was allowed to stay in a hotel on the outskirts of Yantai. The hotel was built outside the city wall and the business was pretty good. Hu Zhigang looked at the city wall that was "assisted" by Haoge decades ago and sighed. Then he went to the place with the most crowded population. While experiencing the social situation, he saw if there were any books to buy.

Hu Yong has handed over a batch of books he sent back last time. Feng Yu, the governor of Haizhou, praised them after reading them. Hu Zhigang was also very excited after receiving feedback here and planned to buy some more in Yantai. After all, Jiaozhou is just a pure military port and commercial port, while Yantai is a political center and cultural center. There must be more books and other things.

However, before looking for books, he was shocked by the "richness" of the Yantai people. Before, he had seen many people from the East Coast who spent a lot of money when he was in Jiaozhou. Unexpectedly, after arriving in Yantai, he found that the consumption capacity of the people here would be to a new level. The clothes they wore seemed to be new, and the colors of the clothes were also very bright, both men, women, and young. This made ordinary people in the Qing Dynasty, who often only had one or two clothes on weekdays, envious.

From time to time, one or two Japanese or Koreans walked past the streets. These people spoke their own language, talked or joked, and were carrying large and small bags, filled with all kinds of goods. Hu Zhigang knew that these were mostly sailors on foreign ships who were harboring. Heard that the Eastern people traded frequently with North Korea, Japan and other countries, and it seemed that it was not just false words.

Of course, there are many Westerners on the street. Some of these people wear their own clothes, while others change into the East Coast costumes according to customs, and wander around the streets like Hu Zhigang. Some of them are even invited to attend the East Coast festival party, which should be invited by their business partners. Generally, East Coast people are too lazy to pay attention to them.

"According to the people of the Eastern Kingdoms, this is an "international metropolis", right?" Hu Zhigang murmured, feeling that Yantai is probably not more than 90% of the cities in "My Qing Dynasty". Although he heard that its army only has a population of more than 100,000, the momentum it showed was hard to match with ordinary Qing cities.

"I just don't know how much they earn every year, but it shouldn't be too low. I'm afraid there are millions of silver, right? Alas, think about the imperial court's efforts to make millions of silver, but how many people in Denglai are? It's so rich, it's really extraordinary." Hu Zhigang vaguely remembered the conversation between his uncle Hu Shiye and the governor Feng of the prefect, and he felt that it was necessary to develop industry and commerce, otherwise "there would be no food for the army and no country would have no surplus treasury." However, developing industry and commerce is also a very complicated matter. This is not only a lack of relevant talents and technology, but also very sensitive in politics.

You should know that because of the establishment of a new army, many Han generals stood out. After taking over the power, the Manchu officials in the court were already full of anger. In addition, Kangxi was forced to promote some Han officials to the banner under the circumstances, which aroused the dissatisfaction of many people. And if we vigorously develop industry and commerce under such circumstances, who would benefit the most? Hu Zhigang didn't have to ask others, and he already had the answer in his heart: Of course, the Han people benefit the most!

The Manchus are really not as good as the Han people in business, and they can't catch up with it for a hundred years. Now the Han people have a certain amount of military power. If they are given money, then who is the world in this world? Although Hu Zhigang is a serious Han Chinese, he also thinks this matter is very contradictory and may be simply unsolvable unless the court conducts a thorough reform.

It is dangerous not to reform, but reform may be even more dangerous. How should we make a decision? Hu Zhigang has no answer, and perhaps Emperor Kangxi may not have an answer at this time, so we can only take one step at a time.

"No., No., the Qing army fought Galdan in Mongolia in southern desert, and won a small victory." Just as Hu Zhigang's imagination, the voice of a newspaper seller who was still working hard on his rest day aroused Hu Zhigang's idea. After hearing what the newspaper seller said clearly, Hu Zhigang no longer hesitated and directly spent money to buy a newspaper back.

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Chapter completed!