Dashun Yongchang

Of course, the most important point is to feed the soldiers and allow them to eat fish and meat.A certain person also learned from the great influence of improved food on soldiers that Mao's national army soldiers with machine guns would not be able to beat Red Army soldiers with spear darts.Good food can enhance the centripetal force of soldiers to the army as a group. You can only instill ideas into his head if you feed the soldier's stomach first.

Although a certain person didn't agree with the officers and soldiers, he greatly narrowed the food gap between the officers and soldiers. Even if he, a marshal, had a standard meal in the barracks, he could not exceed ten times the cost of a meal for ordinary soldiers.Except for some surrendering generals of the Ming army who were somewhat dissatisfied with this, the generals from the peasant army quickly got used to this order, after all, their luxury habits had not yet been developed.

After this series of military regulation adjustments and the improvement of soldiers' food, accommodation and benefits, the soldiers of Liu Zeqing, Jin Shenghuan and other departments began to accept various orders issued by the Marshal's Mansion, and no longer needed to pass them on through their previous superiors.Of course, this improvement in the treatment of the army also put great pressure on the finances of the Marshal's Mansion.

This is also why Li Zicheng felt that he could not drag on any longer, and he should give the people of Yangzhou an answer, otherwise these troops would be able to overwhelm the Marshal's Mansion.The Manchu Qing Dynasty hadn't gone south yet, and as a result, the finances of the Marshal's Mansion were ruined by his own series of policies. He felt that he would be as famous as Song Xianggong in history in the future.

Standing under the bamboo shed, Li Zicheng looked up at the sky outside, and couldn't help saying: "The weather today is good, it looks like a sunny autumn day, and it's really a good day to gather here."

Huang Jiarui, Ma Minghe, Ruan Dacheng, Zheng Yuanxun and other officials and gentry beside Li Zicheng all echoed him. All the councilors standing outside the shed were looking at the position in the shed eagerly. At this moment, even the most famous man in Yangzhou The gardens here are probably not as good as this temporary bamboo and wood shed.

Xiang Deman said with great regret to Min Shizhang beside him: "Your Majesty is still suffering too much. If you entrust us to handle this meeting place, how can you let Your Majesty live in such a simple bamboo shed."

Min Shizhang cast a glance at him, and couldn't help laughing: "If Lao Xiang really has such a heart of loyalty, how many salt industry bonds do you plan to buy? I don't think His Majesty cares much about his own place to live, but he is concerned about the value of salt industry bonds." It’s still a good idea to sell.”

Xiang Deman hesitated for a while and said: "The matter of the salt industry bond has to be looked at again. It is one thing to be loyal to His Majesty, but another to do business. If I can't seek profit from the capital, I would rather go to the Marshal's Mansion Donate a sum of money, so that His Majesty will remember what I did, what is the matter of buying salt industry bonds? Your Majesty may not remember me, and this business may not really pay back, it is really hard to make up your mind..."

There is a large open space in front of the bamboo shed where Li Zicheng is standing, so familiar congressmen gathered together in twos and threes, and a hemp rope wrapped with red cloth was stretched on the outside. Lively Yangzhou citizens.

Although the councilors gathered together in twos and threes, there were two distinct groups, namely the Anhui merchants headed by Xin'an merchants, and the Western merchants headed by Shaanxi merchants.

Liang Zaixuan, a salt merchant from Sanyuan who lived on the edge of the core of the western business circle, looked at Li Zicheng who was talking and laughing happily with everyone under the shed, and couldn't help but sighed to Sun Zhiwei beside him: "It is said that we are close to the water, but the moon is farther than those old emblems. It's still far away."

However, in his early 20s, Sun Zhiwei, who was dressed as a scholar, stared at Li Zicheng for a long time, and then said to the senior Sanyuan beside him: "The world is impermanent, and the situation in the world is not clear at the moment. It is not a good thing to be too close to the moon. After all, the Zheng family is still missing." He has a lot of confidence, so he has to be the first in everything. On the day when Emperor Daxing died for his country, the Zheng family was also the first to go to cry and sacrifice. Now that Emperor Yongchang went south, he was the first to go there. How do you deal with yourself?"

Although Liang Zaixuan felt that what Sun Zhiwei said was good, he still felt that people like himself had lost an opportunity.But who told them that these Sanyuan people resisted Li Zicheng the most fiercely, so now they can't even get along with fellow villagers.

Chapter 196 New Deal Eleven

Seeing that the more than 200 members of the council should have arrived, Ma Mingpao asked Li Zicheng for instructions: "Your Majesty, it's almost time now, can we start now?"

Li Zicheng nodded, asked Ma Mingpao to announce the start of the meeting, and made everyone quiet. Then he took a loudspeaker made of iron and walked to the platform facing the congressmen.

Although there is no battery and coil to amplify the vibration of the sound, such a simple speaker can also restrain the sound from being transmitted to the front, which is farther than empty speech.It's just that Li Zicheng, who was speaking with an iron cylinder, looked rather weird to the people below, but soon their attention turned from the trumpet in Li Zicheng's hand to the content of Li Zicheng's speech.

Different from Li Zicheng’s gentle attitude when we met at Pingshan Hall last time, this time Li Zicheng was full of accusations against the congressmen when he spoke, “I’m actually very disappointed that I called everyone here for a meeting today.

I originally thought that, as the representatives elected by the citizens of Yangzhou, you would be responsible for the hundreds of thousands of residents in Yangzhou, and solve the problems they encountered as soon as possible, so that Yangzhou could resume production and life order. The reason why the rights were given to the council.

But what did I and the people in Yangzhou see in the past 10 days?For their own selfishness, some congressmen resolutely blocked the passage of those bills that benefited the people of Yangzhou, and even called it fair that the interests of the minority should not be harmed for the benefit of the public. This is justice.

I called you here today, in front of these Yangzhou people outside the venue, just want to say something to you: If it is justice to harm the interests of the majority for the benefit of the few, then fuck it.

I rebelled more than ten years ago, just for justice, what kind of justice?The poor also have the right to live in justice.Today I will tell you again that the poor in Yangzhou also have the right to live.

I haven't read any books, and most of you congressmen are full of knowledge, so I won't talk about great principles, so I will send you two poems.These two lines of poems were not written by me, but I think you are very worthy of these two lines of poems.

The inner treasury was burned to splendor ashes, and the Tianjie was trampled to the bone.When Wei Zhuang wrote these two poems to miss Chang'an that was burned by Huang Chao, I don't want to talk about Huang Chao's crimes with you. I just want to ask you, who forced the common people to follow Huang Chao to rebel?

There are so many famous families in Chang'an, which one is not more noble than those of you present today?If they can't resist the anger of the people, why can you resist the anger of the people?What is the reason for the people's anger?Old Mr. Du Fu also made it very clear that there are frozen bones on the streets of Zhumen's wine and meat.

I can tell you more clearly, the interests of the people that Dashun defends. What are the interests of the people? Every Dashun person should have the right to live a dignified life through labor. Benefit.The people gave you the power to represent them in order for you to defend them from living this way, not for you to fight each other here for your personal gain.

If you cannot represent the interests of the majority of the people, I will dissolve the current council on behalf of the people and let the people of Yangzhou elect representatives who can truly represent their own interests..."

What Li Zicheng said before the opening of the meeting stunned the councilors in the venue. They originally thought that after a while in Pingshan Hall, they had already concluded some kind of loyalty relationship with the Marshal's Mansion in the capital. Competing for their own interests in the meeting is just a normal state.After all, the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River shouted every day that everything in the world was discussed by the people in the world, but the people in the world actually only referred to people of the same class as them, and did not include those at the bottom.

Of the 232 members elected by the Yangzhou Council, the lowest status is a merchant who owns a pickle garden. His low status is because he is not a scholar. It does not mean that he has no money. At least the owner of the pickle garden is also a pickle garden owner in Yangzhou. The leader of this line, the family will not worry about such things as eating.

The environment in which these councilors themselves lived determined that they were unlikely to pay attention to food prices and fuel issues. What they cared about was the new structure of commerce and power in Yangzhou City after the reform of the salt industry.Therefore, although they know that the people at the bottom are living in a very difficult situation and have already started to sell their children and daughters, most of the congressmen are still indifferent. As long as these poor people have something to sell, it means that they will not rebel, since they will not rebel , then wait a little longer.

According to what some gentry said to the people who demanded to stabilize prices: "Everyone should have a big picture. Now the council is discussing a solution to the problem as a whole. As long as the fundamental problem is solved, the price will naturally fall. Therefore, you Just be patient."

As for the questions raised by the public to these gentry, "Our family will be out of cooking tomorrow..." "What is the fundamental problem?" "How long will we have to endure it?"

At this time, the gentry are talking about him from left to right, or pushing the problem to the Marshal's Mansion, in short, they will not directly answer the public's doubts.

Of course, these gentry cannot answer the questions of the people, because they are the owners of the various grain shops in Yangzhou City.Most of the practitioners in the Lianghuai Salt Industry are foreigners, because the Lianghuai Salt Industry is basically the imperial court’s pocketbook, so even if the saltworks are located locally, these Yangzhou people are powerless to intervene, because they are unable to resist the policies suppressed by the imperial court.

But in this era, apart from the salt industry, there are two other businesses that make the most money, one is grain and the other is bamboo and wood.Bamboo and wood were the main materials used in construction before the steel industry and the coal industry developed greatly. Therefore, there is no shortage of wood used in ancient shipbuilding. The problem is only special ship materials and prices.

As for food, no matter when it is, the food business will never lose money.Compared with the transportation conditions in ancient times, the grain business is actually very geographically monopolized.For a city like Yangzhou with a population of several 10, most of the food actually comes from the local area, and only a small amount of food comes from other places.

Although Yangzhou and Zhenjiang are only separated by the Yangtze River, Yangzhou's grain self-sufficiency rate is much higher than Zhenjiang's, because Yangzhou is essentially a city driven by the salt industry and water transport, so most of the surrounding fields of this city are grain. It is not a cash crop, which is very different from Jiangnan.

For example, although Zhenjiang and Yangzhou are separated by the Yangtze River, the proportion of mulberry trees and cotton planted on the land in Zhenjiang is much higher than that in Yangzhou.In addition, Zhenjiang has a canal leading to Suzhou, and grain ships from the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River have to pass through Zhenjiang to Suzhou, so there are many grain merchants here from outsiders.

On the other hand, in Yangzhou, the local landlords almost controlled the grain business in Yangzhou City. They lived in Yangzhou City, and then transported the farm rent and purchased grain from the countryside to Yangzhou City for sale, and the cash they exchanged was used to maintain the grain business. Their own life in the city, so the rise in food prices is what they wish for.

Therefore, in the council meeting, it was these local gentry who strongly opposed the issuance of decrees to regulate grain prices and liberalize sales.Similarly, it was the representatives of the bamboo, wood and salt merchants who rejected the proposal to increase taxes on the trade of bamboo, wood and salt to buy food and distribute it to poor urban families.

In the past 10 days or so, with the help of the Statistics Department, the disputed opinions of these members of the council have already been published in pamphlets or newspapers and spread throughout the city.

While the congressmen were stunned by Li Zicheng's words, the citizens who had been watching the excitement outside the venue applauded Emperor Yongchang's speech.In the past ten days or so, these congressmen have been reluctant to pass the price stabilization bill that the public needs most, which has already caused a lot of dissatisfaction.

If we say that when the council representatives were elected at the beginning, most citizens still felt that these people who are respected by everyone on weekdays would speak for themselves.After all, in the Ming Dynasty, only the gentry had the right to speak to the court, and ordinary people had no right to write to the court. Therefore, no matter whether the gentry would write to the court or not, they could only count on these local gentry to intercede on their behalf.

Therefore, when Emperor Yongchang announced the convening of a council meeting, most people still habitually voted for these gentry, hoping that they would plead for the people.Then, the councilors who gained power from Emperor Yongchang fought endlessly for their own self-interest, which completely shattered the citizens' hopes for them.

When these Yangzhou citizens realized that these gentry were only pleading for the people in words, but in essence they were doing everything possible to protect their own interests, their impression of these local moral models collapsed.

The citizens who were disappointed with the meeting, after hearing Li Zicheng's accusations against the councilors, not only did not feel angry, but had a hearty feeling.Because at this moment, they all regarded Li Zicheng as their spokesperson, and drew a clear line with the congressmen.

When the councilors in the venue heard the voices of support for Li Zicheng from the citizens outside the venue, their faces stiffened immediately.Without the support of these citizens, Li Zicheng's intimidation was true. When the hungry citizens rebelled, what would they do to defend their families and property?

Standing on the platform, Li Zicheng waited quietly for a while, waiting for the citizens outside the venue to calm down again, then he picked up the loudspeaker and continued: "I will give you one last chance today, and I have prepared two topics for today's meeting , jobs and prices.

Make sure that the people of Yangzhou have jobs and that they can support themselves and their families through their work.When these two problems are resolved, today's meeting will be declared over, otherwise everyone will sleep here today, and you don't even think about leaving..."

Chapter 197 New Deal Twelve

Li Zicheng's attitude today is completely different from that of the Pingshan Hall meeting, but most of the members are still able to accept it.Because in their opinion, the amiable and amiable Emperor Yongchang at the last Pingshan Hall meeting was really confusing. After all, this person was born in a rebellion, how could he be so easy to talk about.

Li Zicheng's arrogance and unreasonableness today fit the image of the thief in their minds.But even if Li Zicheng showed his true nature, no congressman would jump out and confront him.

Because Li Zicheng's outrageous words were praised by the Yangzhou citizens outside the venue, it is obvious that the Yangzhou citizens did not stand on the side of these local celebrities, but chose to support Emperor Yongchang.

However, the councilors are not surprised by the choices of these Yangzhou citizens. After all, Li Zicheng is now fighting for their interests.Work and prices are now the two issues that Yangzhou citizens are most concerned about.If there is no job and prices continue to rise, it is estimated that without waiting for Gao Jie's army to attack the city, the citizens of Yangzhou will start rioting themselves.

Of course, it’s not that the Yangzhou gentry and rich merchants didn’t notice these two problems, but after the Shun army went south to confront the Gao Jie army, most of the Yangzhou gentry and wealthy merchants felt that the next problem in Yangzhou City should not be solved. They managed it.

Their idea is very simple, since they have surrendered to Emperor Yongchang and Prince Daming, the life of the people in Yangzhou should naturally be taken care of by the Marshal's Mansion.The daily needs of tens of thousands of people is not a small number. Before, they were willing to pay this money to protect their own property. Now that their property has been protected by the Shun Army, some people are naturally unwilling to pay.

This kind of thing, once one person starts to stand idly by, will soon affect the mood of most people, because no one wants to pay their own money to benefit their neighbors, not to mention the fact that there are regional conflicts among salt merchants in Yangzhou.

It's just that everyone didn't expect that Emperor Yongchang didn't follow the rules.Generally speaking, at this time, Emperor Yongchang should apportion a sum of money and food to the rich merchants in Yangzhou City to relieve the residents of Yangzhou, and they will be happy to pay the money, so as to conclude a cooperative relationship between the two parties, and then exchange it from Li Zicheng. Back to some political and economic privileges.

The merchants in Yangzhou, especially the salt merchants, have long been accustomed to the court's way of apportioning money and food.Therefore, they were unwilling to take the initiative to buy the public bonds issued by the Marshal's Mansion, because this could not test the bottom line of Emperor Yongchang.It is said that the Marshal's Mansion raised millions of taels of silver in Huai'an, so how much should Yangzhou pay?

Li Zicheng would definitely be dissatisfied with less, but they couldn't stand too much.A few million taels is indeed a lot for one person, but it is actually nothing to apportion it to so many gentry and wealthy businessmen in Yangzhou.

As the saying goes: Merchant Hexia is the most luxurious, and the windows are all pasted with fine and wide gauze.There is an urgent limit of 30 yuan in salary, and Western merchants still leave home since they were young.This is still the story of the Wanli period. What happened recently, in order to persuade Gao Jiejun to give up attacking Yangzhou, the Zheng brothers united with several Huizhou merchants and offered 50 taels, which still did not shake the foundation of the Zheng family.

Therefore, everyone was waiting for the Marshal's Mansion to bid, but they did not expect that Emperor Yongchang would directly join their army today.In front of the citizens of Yangzhou, how could they turn the topic to the issue of paying tribute to the Marshal's Mansion.Therefore, everyone can only discuss the two questions raised by Emperor Yongchang, but they can't actually solve these two questions.

Yangzhou is a city developed by relying on the salt industry and water transport, so most of the residents in the city are related to these two industries, and the remaining residents are also related to the related industries of these two industries.However, after Gao Jiejun occupied the two canal exits of Guazhou and Yizheng, only the catering industry and cultural and entertainment businesses were still open in Yangzhou.

The so-called work for Yangzhou citizens and dignified remuneration for these citizens is almost tantamount to asking them to pay for these unemployed Yangzhou citizens.In order to stabilize prices, it is also necessary to open the transportation channel to the Yangtze River, so that the salt in Yangzhou can be transported out, in exchange for various products in the upper reaches.

After the councilors discussed in a circle for a long time, someone soon realized and pointed out: "After all, we want to drive Gaozhen away from Guazhou and Yizheng. Otherwise, we are just sitting and eating. There are so many Yangzhou people, how can we support them for a long time?"

Min Shizhang, a Sheren, analyzed in the circle of Huizhou merchants: "It is obviously difficult for the Marshal's Mansion to support so many people in Yangzhou and Gaozhen for a long time, so His Majesty seems to be preparing for a decisive battle with Gaozhen. "

Cheng Dagong suddenly wondered: "Since His Majesty wants to fight Gao Zhen, why did you call us together to say these things? Doesn't it seem unreasonable?"

Min Shizhang said confidently: "Your Majesty has made it very clear before. He not only wants the people of Yangzhou to support the Marshal's Mansion, but also needs a sum of money and grain to appease the army. We only sent out some supplies before, and even the salt industry bonds to buy There are not many, and as for the purchase of the wartime public debt issued by the Marshal's Mansion, there are even fewer. Your Majesty is impatient."

Xiang Deman was also puzzled and asked: "If you just need money and food, your Majesty will tell you a figure, can we not give it? Why are you making such a fuss?"

Min Shizhang looked up at the citizens around him, and then said thoughtfully: "If they just distribute money and food to us, how can these Yangzhou people fall to His Majesty? Can't you see it? The next step is for us to pay the money." Contribute, these people will only be grateful to His Majesty and the Marshal's Mansion."

At the same time, Sun Zhiwei also said in the Western business community: "...After today's meeting, I am afraid that Yangzhou can only obey the orders of the Marshal's Mansion. It seems that we should also make preparations early, and we can't become the Marshal's Mansion. that chicken."

Under Li Zicheng's pressure, most members of the council expressed the intention to compromise, but there were many disputes about the specific details.These debates are not just debates between councilors and councilors in the arena, there are even scenes where citizens outside the arena directly argue with councilors in the arena. If the Shun army hadn't separated the two sides, it is estimated that some quarrels would have escalated into Fight of fists and feet.

Because of these debates, until noon, the congressmen did not come up with many conclusions.Of course, it cannot be ruled out that the purpose of these congressmen's dawdling is to let Li Zicheng make a decision, so as to prevent Yangzhou citizens from questioning them.

After all, work and prices involve many issues, and it is not something that one person can say here to satisfy all parties.First of all, what is the proper remuneration? Dividing money is equivalent to one-third of the usual season's remuneration.

Some MPs do not agree with raising wages, but support reducing the price of rice to the level of one tael and one stone. Obviously, most of them are representatives of non-grain industries.Of course, this was opposed by the gentry. They thought it was okay to lower the price of grain, but the rice merchants could not lose money. If the rice merchants closed down at a loss, wouldn’t the city be even more food-deficient?

So at noon, Li Zicheng announced a temporary break and provided a free lunch, including those Yangzhou citizens who came to see the excitement.In fact, it was just a bowl of noodles. The noodles in clear soup and clear water were really hard for those congressmen to swallow, but seeing that Li Zicheng was no different from what they ate, they could only swallow it.

But for the Yangzhou citizens who came to see the excitement, it is not bad to eat a bowl of noodles for free, and some even ran home to bring their family members.Seeing more and more people coming to Meihualing, Li Zicheng had no choice but to announce the establishment of a porridge stand at the north gate to prevent Yangzhou people from continuing to come to Meihualing to avoid any accidents.

It was also seeing so many people from Yangzhou traveling so far to eat a bowl of plain noodles that finally softened the attitude of some congressmen.Although they already knew that some Yangzhou citizens were short of food in their homes, hearing about it and seeing it with their own eyes were still different.

Because of this episode, when the meeting was held again in the afternoon, the atmosphere at the venue finally eased a little bit, and all members of parliament showed a willingness to cooperate.Seeing the actions of these Yangzhou citizens, they began to worry that if Li Zicheng really wanted to incite these Yangzhou citizens, they would be in danger.

Seeing that the attitudes of the members of the Yangzhou Council have changed, Li Zicheng finally stood on the platform again and said to all the members: "From this morning to now, all members have talked a lot about work and prices.

After I listened to it, everyone was troubled by the following points: the lack of jobs, the increase in industrial and food silver will lead to an increase in animal prices, the problem of rice merchants losing money, and the low price of grain will cause rural landlords to hoard and not sell, etc.

Then I would like to make some suggestions on these issues. First, let’s talk about the food issue.We should be able to calculate whether rice merchants are losing money or not.Judging from the current situation, it is obviously not a loss if the price of rice exceeds 2 taels a stone.

Therefore, I suggest that the council set up a grain management committee to manage the official warehouses in the city and all the mills inside and outside the city. Buy processed grains.

These grain shops must accept the supervision of the council, and shall not sell Chinese rice at a price of more than 2 taels.In addition, the grain management committee should count the population of each family in the city, and then issue food coupons according to the count. Each family buys grain from the grain shop according to the food coupon.

In addition, now is the season when new rice is on the market, so the Grain Management Committee should send personnel to the countryside to purchase grain. Otherwise it is illegal.This announcement is valid under the Yangzhou government..."

Chapter 198 New Deal Thirteen

Before the congressmen in the arena had time to say anything, some citizens outside the arena took the lead in shouting: "Yes, yes..."

One husband proposes, and Wanfu respects it.This scene is actually not unfamiliar to the gentry in Yangzhou. It was the same scene when Gao Jie's army burned, killed and looted outside the city, and Yangzhou's gentry gathered to denounce Gao Jie's army.It's just that they were the backbone of the public's attention at the beginning, but today they have faintly become the objects of Yangzhou citizens' dissatisfaction.

Although I don't know why the citizens of Yangzhou changed their attitudes towards people like themselves in such a short period of time, the congressmen in the venue still know what is good and what is bad, and know that it is best not to contradict the common people at this time, otherwise only themselves will suffer.After all, there were only more than 200 of them in total, and the citizens watching from the outside had already surrounded the entire hill.

At this time, the common people were angered. It is estimated that a beating would be light, and it seems that Li Zicheng may not be willing to rescue them.Under the attention and demands of the masses, members of parliament could only speak out in support of Li Zicheng's series of proposals such as purchasing surplus grain and grain purchase and pricing.

After the councilors voted to approve his proposal, Li Zicheng signaled everyone to be quiet before continuing: "Whether it's food management or going to the countryside to purchase, you need manpower. There are only so many councilors in the council. Let them do everything. It is obviously impossible to stare at them in person.

Therefore, I propose to equip each member of parliament with 2-3 assistants to be responsible for implementing various decrees issued by the council, and their working food silver should not be less than 3 shi of rice per month.The standard for these assistants is to be able to read and write. The Marshal's Mansion will post a notice in the government office tomorrow, and everyone can sign up for the assessment. "

Li Zicheng paused and said: "Even if you don't pass the exam, don't worry, Yangzhou in the future will still need a lot of talents who can read and write. Those who sign up for the exam will be given priority in the subsequent recruitment assessment. "

These words immediately excited some citizens present.3 shimi per month, even in Yangzhou during the Taiping Festival, it is a pretty good salary, almost the same as that of an uninitiated miscellaneous official.For officials, 3 shimi is really not much, but for ordinary people, 3 shimi can already support their families, especially in this season of war and chaos, food is even more precious.

The excited remarks of the citizens outside the arena are the death knell for the councilors in the arena, especially those local gentry who have a lot of land, they all look like they are dead.As for the business representatives, they looked pretty good. After all, most of them were foreigners, and most of the land they bought locally was for building residential gardens, not for farming.

Li Zicheng quickly went on to say: "As for the issue of jobs, I have also read the various discussions on the council these days and the issues that the citizens of Yangzhou complain about the most.

I believe that the fundamental contradiction existing in Yangzhou at present is the contradiction that urban construction has not kept up with the growth rate of urban population.Due to the lack of urban construction, the living conditions of residents are dirty and messy, which not only greatly hinders traffic, but also brings great fire hazards to the health of citizens.

Based on the current construction pattern of Yangzhou City, I think the main road in the city must be extended to 24 meters, the river channel must be extended to 12 meters, and the water depth must exceed 5 feet, so as to solve the problems of traffic congestion and drainage during the rainy season.The separation of the main road from the urban area can also prevent the spread of fire in the event of a fire.

Secondly, although there are many rivers in Yangzhou City, the quality of drinking water is not good.In the past hundreds of years, a small-scale plague broke out in the city every 2 to 3 years, most of which were related to drinking water.Therefore, for the sake of the health of the 10 people in Yangzhou, we need to build a drinking water reservoir for Yangzhou City, and establish a drinking water disinfection and distribution mechanism for the whole city.

Finally, in order to complete the above two points of urban construction and transformation, we have to demolish some houses.Of course, I don't mean to drive them out of Yangzhou.I thought that we could build a new city to the west of the city.

To the west of Yangzhou City, south of Shugang, and north of the canal, this area is very empty, and the original villages were also destroyed due to the war. It happened to be comprehensively planned to build a brand new urban area.In this city we shall establish a university or colleges, a council hall, factories, commercial districts, and residential quarters.

The construction of a new city can not only relieve the pressure of population growth and provide them with a better living environment, but also solve the current problem of many unemployed people in Yangzhou.The construction of the new city requires a large number of craftsmen and workers, so the job problem needed by the citizens of Yangzhou will be solved.

In addition, the council should promulgate the minimum wage law. The wages of an adult man as an ordinary laborer should not be less than 5 cents a day. I suggest that the average daily wage should be around 1 cents..."

The citizens outside the stadium had little feeling for the new city construction plan proposed by Li Zicheng, but they still welcomed the minimum wage law proposed by Li Zicheng and the jobs brought by the construction of the new city.As for the congressmen in the venue, although they were dissatisfied with the minimum wage law, they all had a new interest in the new city plan.

But no matter what they think, this afternoon has become Li Zicheng's speech meeting alone. The proposals put forward by Li Zicheng have been approved by the citizens of Yangzhou. [-] voted yes.

So in the end, Li Zicheng finally raised two questions, one is the issue of raising funds for the construction of the new city, he pointed out to everyone, "...the Marshal's Mansion does not have so much financial resources to build the new city of Yangzhou, but in order to restore Yangzhou to society as soon as possible Order and the construction of the new city must start as soon as possible, so I decided to issue 1000 million taels of public bonds, hoping that the powerful people in Yangzhou City will contribute to the construction of Yangzhou.

The 1000 million taels of public debt is not only used for the construction of Yangzhou City, but also the canal from Yangzhou to Huai'an needs to be dredged, which is also beneficial to the people of Yangzhou and Huaiyang.The Marshal's Mansion is planning to change the canal between Yangzhou and Huai'an into the Huaiyang Canal Administration, and the annual management fees for ships passing through the canal will be used as collateral for this batch of public debt..."

Under the watchful eyes of Li Zicheng and Yangzhou citizens, some councilors donated money and announced the amount of public bonds they subscribed for. The 232 councilors and 49 Yangzhou officials who were present alone subscribed for a total of 498.3 million taels of public bonds.Zheng Yuanhua bought 20 taels of government bonds, becoming the person who bought the most government bonds present, and the Western merchants who bought the most government bonds were only 5.7 taels.

Li Zicheng and Zheng Yuanhua chatted a few words cordially, and took off a jade pendant on his belt and gave it to each other, saying: "If you encounter any problems in the future, you can come to the Marshal's Mansion to meet me directly, or write to me. Patriotic businessman, I will never forget..."

Although the other congressmen felt a little displeased with the special treatment Li Zicheng gave to Zheng Yuanhua, no one jumped out to object, after all, what Zheng Yuanhua gave was real money.However, there are also some congressmen who feel that it seems a bit of a loss for Zheng Yuanhua to send out such a large sum of money in exchange for such an evaluation.

When the sun set on the west mountain, the Meihualing meeting finally came to an end. The citizens of Yangzhou went down the mountain and went back to the city. Everyone seemed very excited. Obviously they felt that the difficult days of Yangzhou were finally over.

However, when those congressmen came down the mountain, their faces were downcast, and few of them were still in good spirits.In today's meeting, Li Zicheng has pulled out their backbones.Before the Pingshan Hall meeting, many people felt that under the Dashun regime, they could get more power than in the Ming Dynasty. After all, the Ming Dynasty did not have such a thing as a council.

But after a meeting in Meihualing today, they felt that they seemed to have been tricked by Li Zicheng. The council now became a kind of shackles on their heads. There is room for maneuver between the court and the people.