Buried alive in the Qing Dynasty

Because of the different uses, the design of these enclosures is also different from the original residential enclosures.

Generally speaking, these new enclosures will adopt a square layout, occupying a larger area, the buildings on the four sides will be taller and grander, the materials will be more carefully selected, and the courtyard in the middle will be larger.No house will be built in the yard, but it will be used as a playground, garden or a place for parking and unloading.

The gate of the surrounding building is no longer one, but will be set up and built according to needs.Since these enclosures no longer have a prominent defensive function, the ground floor can be opened up as a shop front.The interior of the enclosure will also be redesigned as needed.The second and third floors of the surrounding buildings generally have large windows, and the ventilation and lighting have been greatly improved.

In fact, these new-style walled buildings are very similar to those Western-style buildings surrounding the city, except that the roofs are all Chinese-style.

The surrounding building of Dongchang Guanyin No. Nanjing Headquarters and the Nanjing Longjiang Guanwei Building facing it across Yifengmenwai Street are the earliest new surrounding buildings built in Yingtianfu City, Nanjing. Because the two surrounding buildings adopt Same design, so almost identical.

When Zhu Hexi took Yang Qilong and Yang Ziyun into the side hall of the Nanjing Headquarters of Dongchang Guanyin, the construction of the building had not been completely completed, and there were still many buildings on the outer wall of the building. Scaffolding, most of the rooms inside the building are still being renovated.A hall on the ground floor of the enclosure and two side halls dedicated to receiving VIPs have been renovated and are ready for use.

"Military Master, this is called 'Silver Yuan'. Each piece weighs slightly more than one tael, and contains about [-]% silver. There are anti-scratch patterns on the surface and surroundings, and there are also characters on Daming Silver Yuan and Daming One Tael Silver. It was engraved in the iron mold in advance, look at it, it is very exquisite! In order to achieve this effect, the craftsmen of Dongyin Coin Factory spent two years slowly groping..."

The person who was dutifully introducing the Daming Silver Dollars to Yang Qilong in a VIP room of the East Factory Official Bank Nanjing Headquarters was, of course, the imperial envoy and governor of the East Factory Official School, the eunuch Nine Thousand Years Old Pang Gonggong!

Obviously he is the governor of the central bank, but he wants to give himself the title of "big eunuch", which is fine.

But having said that, when rectifying the financial order, establishing an interbank market, promoting silver coins, manipulating interest rates, controlling the exchange ratio of gold, silver and copper coins, and establishing a commodity trading market, the Dongchang Governor's signboard is still relatively easy to use.

Of course, he would be bluffed by the governor of Dongchang, but it was just some ordinary businessmen without any big background, Yang Qilong would not be afraid of Dongchang.Because he knew that the current Dongchang was just a "factory" and not a spy agency at all.

Now there are two secret service agencies in New Daming, one is the Fusi of Jinyiwei Beizhen, which is in charge of the internal affairs, and the other is the Yousi of the Military Division's Mansion, which is in charge of the external affairs.

Among them, Jinyiwei Beizhen Fusi, who is in the interior, sounds scary in terms of name, but in fact he can't do anything wrong.Because Beizhen Fusi does not have its own prison, the captured people can only be detained in their hands for a maximum of 24 hours, and then they will be handed over to the local punishment department for custody.

For a high-ranking official like Yang Qilong, what is really more terrifying is the line of the Metropolitan Procuratorate whose main business is to fight corruption... The Metropolitan Procuratorate has imperial prisons!

Although the conditions of the Imperial Prison of the Metropolitan Procuratorate are much better than those of the Criminal Division, and the soldiers of the Metropolitan Procuratorate (also known as Yushitai) are much more civilized than the Tiqi of Beizhen Fusi up.

However, officials who were arrested by the Metropolitan Procuratorate and then convicted by Dali Temple will be "removed from their registration" regardless of the severity of the sentence!

This means being expelled from the officialdom, never being used again, and all previous credit and hard work will be written off!

And there is no possibility of being activated again!

The kind of thing of being arrested and "beheaded to the prison", and two days later, a high-ranking official and a generous salary, don't even think about it on Zhu Heqi's side!

None of the officials who were convicted after Daming regained Guangfu has been employed so far.

Of course, although Yang Qilong is a bit greedy, he has made a lot of money and accumulated a huge amount of property, but it is hard to say whether his behavior can be classified as corruption.

Because he did those things and spent those funds, there is no way to reimburse or check the accounts... So these funds are all contracted, and after the errands are done, there is nothing wrong with putting the unspent funds in your pocket.

But whether this errand is done well or not is judged by Zhu Hechi!

Thinking of this, Yang Qilong was not in the mood to listen to what Eunuch Pang said about the silver coins, he had to see what King Zhu Daming was doing?

From the corner of his eyes, Yang Qilong looked at the strange-looking soft-seat chair for two people that Zhu Heqi was sitting on... and found that his sister had been "abducted" by Zhu Heqi at some point, and they were sitting side by side , talking and laughing together there!

What does this mean?Yang Qilong said heartily: "Men and women can't kiss each other! How can you, a former Confucian saint, do this? No...you have to be responsible for my sister's innocence!"

When Yang Qilong cast his gaze over, Zhu Heqi was planning to hug Yang Ziyun's small waist.Seeing that he was about to succeed, Yang Ziyun saw his brother's gaze and hurriedly shrank away.

This half-push and half-acceptance, this refusal and welcome... is really quite attractive.

However, Zhu and Qi are not the kind of men who are in a hurry. It is interesting to have a slow relationship. If you really want to hold hands in a hurry, wouldn't it be enough to summon them to the palace with an order?Does Yang Da, a corrupt official, dare not give it?

Thinking of this, Zhu and Qi didn't go to Yang Ziyun's side, but followed Eunuch Pang's words and talked to Yang Qilong about the benefits of silver coins.

"Qilong, convert all your gold into silver dollars and keep it," Zhu Hechi said. "Gold and silver ingots have problems of fineness, and problems of weighing...it's too troublesome to use, and it's not easy to pay for it." However, they are all exchanged into silver coins from the Dongyin Money Factory. Not only is there no problem with fineness and weighing, but it is also convenient to use!

Big households like us don’t need to carry cash, just take the bank notes or checks issued by the official bank. "

While talking, he took out a wallet, took out a [-]-yen official bank note and a check, and handed it to Yang Ziyun beside him, asking her to show it to Yang Qilong.

Of course, Yang Qilong knew the bank notes, although "official notes" have not been issued since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, and the issuance of "private notes" has also been greatly reduced due to social unrest since the late Ming and early Qing.However, some Shanxi merchants who started business in the outer city of Beijing still fiddled with the banknotes.

However, the production level of those banknotes cannot be compared with the banknotes of Dongchang official bank.

The paper, ink, and patterns on the banknotes used are all too different.

As for the check, this is the first time Yang Qilong has seen it.It looks similar to a bank note, but there is a convertible amount on the bank note, but the column for filling in the number on the check is blank.

In addition, there are two blank columns "Biller" and "Billee" on the check.

At this time, Zhu Heqi took out another blank check, picked up a writing brush handed to him by Eunuch Pang, and began to write and draw on the check. Take out a circular stamp and press it on the check.

Then he smiled and handed it to Yang Ziyun, "Sister Ziyun, a little gift...take the flowers!"

Yang Ziyun took the check and looked at it. The amount of "[-] yuan" was written on it, and a dragon pattern stamp was stamped on it.

The names of the issuer and the recipient are also filled in. The invoice is Zhu Heqi, and the recipient is Yang Ziyun.

Eunuch Pang smiled and said, "Miss Yang, take this check and go to the lobby, find any guy, and he will help you open an account and transfer money. The amount filled in this check will be transferred to your account tomorrow." Come on, it's convenient!"

Chapter 478 What is money?

"One thousand yuan... is it 1000 taels? Give it to me?"

Although Yang Ziyun's elder brother Yang Qilong is a corrupt official, his family property is at least 100 million taels.But how many years has Yang Qilong developed?And all his money is in Daming territory.There is no way to send it to Panggezhuang outside Beijing!

So Yang Ziyun's life has not been rich, before she saw her brother's 10 taels of gold, she had never seen more than 100 taels of cash.

As for Yang Qilong, the older brother, he never thought of being "rich" for his sister, although he had already started to prepare a dowry for her, but those dowries had to wait until the girl was married.

So Miss Yang's current private house is only a dozen taels of silver... Now that Zhu and Qi are throwing out a thousand silver dollars, the eldest girl's family is of course a little dizzy.

But she was not completely out of her mind, she didn't dare to accept it immediately, but turned her attention to her elder brother Yang Qilong.

And what can Yang Qilong do?

He still doesn't understand Zhu Hechi's thoughts?His sister will soon be "Concubine Yang"!

How good is that?

"Accept it, this is your reward from the king," Yang Qilong smiled, "I still don't thank the king."

Yang Ziyun heard what his brother said, so he didn't push it away, and he saluted Zhu Heqi cheerfully. After thanking him, he moved his lotus steps lightly and went to the hall...Zhu Heqi looked at her Back, showing a satisfied smile.

This girl walks in a hurry, she must have a pair of long white and long legs, and she must have never bound her feet!

Foot binding these days is not as crazy as it was in the late Qing Dynasty. Foot binding is only practiced by those ladies in the homes of landlord class scholar-bureaucrats who don’t leave the door and don’t walk through the door.

And Zhu Hexi, a former Confucian sage, is even more unequivocally opposed to foot-binding. Not only his own wives and concubines are all natural feet, but he also issued a Confucian decree through the University Scholars Conference to prohibit foot-binding-because according to the research of the University Scholars Conference, Confucius and his mother Mencius's mother did not bind their feet, and neither did their wives.Therefore, foot binding must not conform to Confucian etiquette, it is an "indecent" behavior and must be prohibited!

Moreover, after Zhu Heqi's army took control of the Jiangnan area where there were many "three-inch golden lotuses", Zhu Dasheng issued a decree to prohibit officials from marrying foot-bound women as their wives starting from the first year of King Ming Jianguo.

Zhu Hexi, as King Ming of Jianguo and a Confucian sage, could not take the lead in violating his own edicts.

If Miss Yang had small feet, she would have to be dragged down...but judging by her running speed, Zhu Heqi felt relieved.

Zhu Heqi withdrew his gaze from Yang Ziyun's back, and glanced at Yang Qilong again. Seeing Yang Qilong's surprised expression, he was completely relieved... This performance is definitely a loyal minister!

Thinking of this, Zhu Heqi smiled and said to Yang Qilong: "Qilong, Han Feizi once said: the prime minister must be from the state department, and the strong general must be from the army! This is also the criterion for appointing and selecting generals in the new Ming Dynasty. Now you You have already achieved the rank of Zuo Fu Zhengjun, which is the highest military position, and you can go up to the prime minister. But you have never served as the head of the state department, so the lonely family wants you to go to the local area to serve as the governor of a province. You don’t have to run too far, just go to Yangzhou to be the governor of Jiangbei!”

Due to the active contraction of the Qing army, the Battle of Jiangbei went very smoothly. Among them, Su Yong, who was the first to send troops, has now drunk the Mahuai River and recovered a large area of ​​​​territory west of the canal, south of the Huai River, and east of the Dabie Mountains.Although Zhao Hongkui's army dispatched troops relatively late, they were devastated all the way. After capturing the Jiangbei camp of the Qing army in Guazhoubu, they went all the way north along the canal, and now they have reached the territory of Huai'an Prefecture.

So far, except for Huaibei, most of the land in Nanzhili is now under the firm control of Zhu Heqi's new Ming Dynasty.

However, Zhu Hechi did not want to restore the original organizational system of Nanzhili—the original Nanzhili was too big and could be divided into several provinces.

Therefore, Zhu Hexi discussed with the two prime ministers Zhuge Sanhe and Yu Zhongxian, and planned to follow the Jiangbei and Jiangnan provinces divided by Kangxi.With the Yangtze River as the boundary, all the eleven prefectures and one prefecture south of the Yangtze River in Nanzhili were included in Nanzhili, and the Nanzhili governor's office was established to take charge of the civil affairs of Nanzhili.

And Jiangbei Province, which is on the front line, will be governed by the Governor of Jiangbei who has been grasped by the military and government!

Now the local provinces of Daming implement the governor-general and governor-general responsibility system.

All the front-line provinces, such as Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Jiangbei, have governors but not governors.

The three non-frontier provinces of Nanzhili, Zhejiang, and Fujian have governors but not governors.

In addition, under the provincial-level yamen, there were also three yamen in charge of government affairs, education, justice, and military affairs, namely, the chief minister, the police chief, the admiral, and the admiral.

However, the governor had very limited jurisdiction over the Ministry of Criminal Justice and the Division of the Admiral, and these two yamen were basically independent in the "Governor's Province" and were mainly responsible for the court's Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple, Military Division Office, and Ministry of War.

And in the governor's province, the inspectors, criminal envoys and admirals are under the control of the governor!

The Ming court also had many local agencies, including provincial inspectors, provincial customs departments, provincial Dongyinqin factory branches, provincial Jinyiwei North Town Fusi Qianhu Office, and so on.These institutions are not under the jurisdiction of the governor or governor's office.

In addition, the "field towns" of the Ming army in the provinces are not under the control of the governor, governor, and admiral... unless there is a special order.

The admirals' yamen under the Ming Navy are also directly managed by the right division of the Ministry of War.

In short, the local administrative system of the new Ming Dynasty is not very complicated, but it is still difficult for officials who have not worked in the "state department" to figure out the status of the various yamen.

However, Zhu Heqi sent Yang Qilong to Jiangbei to serve as the governor, not only to make him familiar with local administration, but also to have another important task!

And Yang Qilong also knew it in his mind - the Prime Minister of Xin Daming is not so easy to be!

The current Governor Qiu Hui of Guangdong, Zheng Jing, Governor of Fujian, Chen Yonghua, Governor of Zhejiang, Liu Guoxuan, Governor of Jiangxi, and Luo Dafa, Governor of Nanzhili, are not fuel-efficient lamps!

Why did this prime minister fall on him?

So he was not busy thanking him, but returned the bank note and the check that he had studied for a while to Zhu Heqi, and then waited for the great sage Zhu to continue to give instructions face to face.

Zhu Heqian picked up the banknote and the check with a smile and asked, "Qilong, do you know what this is?"

"I know," Yang Qilong nodded, "This is a bank note, a check...it can be used as money!"

"Use it as money?" Zhu Heqi smiled, "Then what is real money?"

"Gold, silver, copper coins." Yang Qilong replied.

"Why?" Zhu Heqi asked again, "What are gold, silver, and copper? Aren't they just stones?"

"This..." Yang Qilong was a little dizzy again, "Your Majesty, I don't quite understand, so I ask you to explain clearly."

Zhu Hechi laughed: "Money is the product of commodity exchange...as long as people who produce goods are willing to accept something in exchange for their products. Something is money! It can be gold and silver, it can be copper coins, it can be iron Money can be silk, shells, paper, or a string of numbers on the account book of the Dongchang official bank account!

And when money is only real gold and silver, because of the scarcity of real gold and silver, the court will inevitably be in a cycle of lack of money and saving money for a long time.And when the money is a string of numbers on the account book of the Dongchang official bank... Do you think the court will be short of money? "

"But how can this number be used as money?" Yang Qilong was completely stunned.

At this moment, his sister came in beaming with a passbook and a stack of bank notes, and said to Yang Qilong with a smile: "Brother, I've already saved the money, look... it's nine hundred yuan Passbook, if the money does not move for a year, there will still be 5.00% interest. In addition, ten ten taels of bank notes have been exchanged, all of which are payable on demand!"

Zhu Heqian glanced at Yang Qilong, and then said: "Qilong, there is salt in Jiangbei! And salt must be eaten, you must not only collect the salt tax, but also hang the salt with the bank notes of the Dongchang official bank. Take the bait!"

Chapter 479 The poorest ability!

There is also a thousand-step long street between Chengtianmen and Hongwumen in Nanjing Imperial City.The two sides of this thousand-step long street were originally the same as the thousand-step long street outside Beijing's imperial city, with rows of one-story houses. These one-story houses were originally the offices of the Six Departments of Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty.

However, when Zhu Heqi regained the city of Nanjing, the inside and outside of the imperial city of Nanjing had long been ruined.The bungalows outside Qianbu Long Street have long been converted into stables and warehouses for Jiangning to guard the Eight Banners. used.

So not long after Zhu Heqi took over Nanjing, both sides of Qianbu Changjie also began to "demolish and rebuild".

After the capital was moved to Nanjing, the court setting of the new Ming Dynasty was gradually improved, forming a pattern of two meetings, two government offices, six ministries, and nine ministers.

The two sessions are the University Council and the Advisory Council.The two government offices are Zhongshu Prime Minister's Office and Military Advisor's Office. Of course, the six departments are the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of Industry. Lusisi, Guozijian, Dongyinqianchang, Zhanshifu, Imperial Academy, Jinyiwei.

A total of nineteen yamen, plus Zhu Hechi's own attendants, a total of twenty agencies performing their duties, formed a rather streamlined central government.

However, no matter how streamlined these yamen are, it is still necessary for each yamen to have a square enclosure.

So since October last year, between Chengtianmen and Hongwumen, there have been [-] construction sites in full swing (the enclosure of the attendants will be built in the Forbidden City, and construction has not yet started), even during the Chinese New Year. shutdown.

Because the building materials for building the house can be taken from the abandoned and damaged buildings that can be seen everywhere inside and outside the Nanjing Imperial City, the construction progress is quite fast.

In just six months, nineteen square buildings of various sizes have stood on both sides of the Thousand Steps Street.However, most of the surrounding buildings are still being renovated, and I am afraid that they will not be completed until the end of the year.

However, most of these buildings that are still under construction have already been put into use.Among them, Zhuge Sanhe and Yu Zhongxian, the two prime ministers of Zhongshu, shared the prime minister's mansion or the enclosure used by Zhongshu province.

However, the two prime ministers of Zhongshu who had just moved into the new government office were worried all day after Yang Qilong returned to Nanjing. They were not worried that Yang Qilong would squeeze one of them out, but were worried about the looming financial crisis!

Although Zhu Heqi yelled "not short of money" every day, the two big stewards of the Ming Dynasty, as well as the household secretary Ma Chenglong, felt that the Ming Dynasty was "poor money" now!

How could it not be short of money?

Don't look at the fact that the Ming court has already occupied the six richest provinces in the world, but Zhu Heqi likes to toss... He just doesn't do the tax collection well, and he has to win in Jiangnan, Zhejiang and the year before last. What are the three provinces in Jiangxi doing to equalize the land tax.

Of course, this matter is not impossible. The population of these three provinces is actually not very large, and it is not a big problem to have ten acres or eight acres of good land per capita.However, the literati in these three provinces did not support land equalization as much as the feudal clans in Guangdong and Fujian—Guangdong and Fujian had more land per capita, and it was difficult to produce large landlords when the clans were powerful.In the two provinces of Guangdong and Fujian where they are located, almost no clan will lose land because of land sharing.On the contrary, Juntian has played a role in clarifying property rights, distributing water sources fairly and enrolling in higher education places, thereby reducing the possibility of fighting among various clans such as Tukechao.

In addition, the opening of sea trade and the Northern Expedition of the Guangdong court gave Guangdong and Fujian tyrants many opportunities to rise and make a fortune.

Under such circumstances, the land equalization in Guangdong and Fujian provinces is not only carried out quickly, but also at relatively low cost. After the land equalization is completed, a large amount of tax can be obtained, which is considered a very cost-effective deal.

But the situation in Jiangxi, Jiangnan, and Zhejiang provinces is completely different!

The power of the clan here is relatively weak, while the gentry and gentry are relatively strong... In the 18th year of Shunzhi, only the four prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Zhenjiang and one county of Liyang were expelled from the territory of Liyang. There are as many as [-] current officials who have been demoted!

From this number alone, we can know how powerful the Jiangnan gentry are?

And what Zhu Heqi wanted to do was not only to equalize the land, but also to gradually abolish the imperial examinations. Compared with the Qing court's urging money and food, the blow to the powerful gentry in the south of the Yangtze River was much stronger.

Of course the tyrants and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River who were beaten would resist!