Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2173 Spring Club ([-])

March 1692, 3, Yantai County, sunny.

Today is the annual Spring Society Festival, and the whole county of Yantai has a day off—well, not only Yantai, but in fact, all the places on the east coast where the law prevails have a day off—many people take their old and young children to the countryside for outings.

Many of these visitors are ordinary workers, grassroots civil servants, shop assistants, etc. They also put on brand-new clothes, brought food, and went out to play with their families and friends.To be honest, this kind of group travel scene of the bottom-level people is actually rare in mainland China.

Comparing it to the Qing Dynasty across the river, you can see that roles such as craftsmen, yamen helpers, and shop workers are basically busy from morning to night all year round, and they have very little time for themselves, let alone the whole family going out to have fun.The frontier was constantly fighting, and the court was in a hurry to urge classes. Everyone worked hard and could only barely eat, let alone spend hundreds of cash or even a tael of silver on clothes, food and drink. This is unimaginable.

Shunguo in the south is similar.Li Laiheng in Changsha raised a small army of 20, and he has been constantly moving over the years. He either fought against the Qing in Hubei and Sichuan, or cleared the Tusi forces in western Hunan and Sichuan, and liberated the population. Finances are already on the brink of collapse.Their country has only a few provinces, and the huge war expenditures have all fallen on more than 1000 million people, and the burden is so heavy that people can't breathe.In such a situation, how could the people of Shunguo, holding a handful of precious banknotes with no purchasing power, spend their days leisurely like the people of Denglai?

The leisurely life of the people of Denglei is based on their salary of a few dollars a month, on the developed industry and commerce, on the establishment of an internal stable order, and on the outstanding talents of the leaders .Without all of the above, it would be difficult to solve even if the Great Luo Immortal came.For example, do you think praying to gods and worshiping Buddha can solve the increasingly serious inflation in Shunguo?

The relatively affluent life in Denglai also attracted many people from the Qing Dynasty.Take Qingzhou Prefecture, which is the closest, as an example. Almost every year, more than 3000 people enter the east coast control area through various channels.They avoided the heavily guarded Jiaolaixinhe area, sailed and even swam into the east coast along the long coastline of the Shandong Peninsula, heading for a new life of prosperity.The local government of Denglei is also more tolerant of these escaped Qing people. Basically, they will be taken in, and then incorporated into the construction team. They will be provided with board and lodging and a salary of [-] yuan and [-] cents per month, allowing them to help build roads, docks, and reservoirs. and houses.

After working for two or three years, these people can generally obtain legal status and become residents of Denglei (usually settled in Weihai, Wendeng, Rongcheng and other counties with relatively small populations), and then find a job in a down-to-earth manner so that they can live in Denglei. With the level of economic development of Lesotho, you will be able to save a sum of money slowly.They will take part of the money and trust trusted people to take it back to their relatives. After all, life there may be difficult, and the money sent back can often be put to great use.

And their success in Denglai, under the publicity of those who have a heart, will soon spread all over the place, making the Qing government's rumors of demonizing the East Bank for decades unfounded.Probably when the Qing government signed a peace agreement with the East Bank and the two countries established friendly trade relations, they did not expect such a situation to arise, did they?It's just that in the current situation, they don't dare to sever relations with the east bank without authorization and close the border between the two countries, because that may lead to the consequences of war, although the people on the east bank of Manchuria and Mongolia have been waging small wars against them.

"I'm very clear" is actually very difficult!

The Spring Festival is a legal holiday on the east coast, but how and when to celebrate the Spring Festival in the northern hemisphere has always caused

It's been arguing.One group of people insists on following the East Coast calendar, even in Denglai, which is located in the northern hemisphere, that is, the Qiushe Festival should be celebrated now; another group of people thinks that it should follow the traditional Chinese calendar, because it is more suitable for the northern hemisphere, the origin of the East Coast people It is the Miao people of the former Song Dynasty, and the Chinese calendar is used as a matter of course, so this will be the Spring Festival.

The two factions debated for a long time, and finally the native land gave instructions that the colonies in the northern hemisphere follow the Chinese calendar, and those in the southern hemisphere follow the East Coast calendar, each living its own life.However, after Chairman Shao Yaoguang came to power, the situation seems to have changed again. Shao is very dissatisfied with this ideological division of the East Coast, and is planning to implement the local calendar in all East Coast territories to completely eliminate the split signs of doctrine.Therefore, this Spring Festival in Denglai may not be over for a few times, maybe it will be the last time.

The Spring Festival is actually a relatively important festival in Denglai. The sales of merchants on this day will generally skyrocket, and they also have sufficient goods to sell. The reason is that Liaohai has thawed at this time, and people from all over the world Ships from all over the world can call at Yantai, the largest city in Denglai, for trade.

Hu Zhigang also came to Yantai today.He took the train all the way north from Jiaozhou, got off at Taocun Station and stayed for a day, processed a batch of goods, and then took the opportunity to wander around.Well, I almost had an accident when I went shopping: the headquarters of the Sixth Division of the New Army is located in Taocun, and a large part of the area has been designated as a military restricted area. Hu Zhigang broke into a road directly leading to the military restricted area. On the road, they were then driven out with bayonets by soldiers of the new army.

Hu Zhigang had lingering fears about this, and at the same time made up his mind not to spy on military intelligence anymore.Uncle Tang sent him to Denglai to collect social information and purchase controlled goods, not to investigate where the Eastern Army was stationed and how many soldiers there were. That was not a task he had to complete.

He finally arrived in Yantai the day before the Spring Festival.After undergoing extensive investigation, he was allowed to check into a hotel on the outskirts of Yantai.The hotel was built just outside the city walls, and it was doing well.Hu Zhigang looked at the city wall "aided" by Hauge decades ago, sighed, and then went to the most crowded place to experience the social conditions and see if there were any books to buy.

Hu Yong had already handed in a batch of books sent back last time, and Feng Yu, the governor of Haizhou, highly appreciated them after reading them.Hu Zhigang was also very excited after getting the feedback here, and planned to go to Yantai to buy some and send them back.After all, Jiaozhou is just a pure military port and commercial port, while Yantai is the political center and cultural center, and there must be more books and the like.

But before looking for books, he was shocked by the "richness" of the people in Yantai.When he was in Jiaozhou before, he had already seen many people from the east coast who spent a lot of money. Unexpectedly, after arriving in Yantai, he found that the spending power of the people here has reached a new level.The clothes they wear seem to be new, and the colors of the clothes are bright, regardless of men, women, or children. This makes ordinary people in the Qing Dynasty who usually only have one or two sets of clothes envious.

From time to time, one or two Japanese or Koreans passed by on the street. These people spoke their own languages, chatted, or joked, and carried large and small bags in their hands, which were filled with various commodities.Hu Zhigang knew that most of these were sailors on foreign ships calling at the port. Hearing that people from the East had frequent trade with North Korea, Japan and other countries, it seemed that it was not just a lie.

Of course, there are many Westerners on the street.Some of these people wore national costumes, while others changed into East Coast costumes when they went to the countryside, wandering around the streets like Hu Zhigang.Some of them were even invited to the social festival gathering of the East Coast people. It should have been invited by business partners, and most East Coast people would probably be too lazy to talk to them.

"According to the Dongguo people, this is an 'international metropolis', right?" Hu Zhigang murmured, thinking that Yantai might be more prosperous than more than [-]% of the cities in "My Great Qing Dynasty". The army has a population of only over [-], but the aura it displays is unmatched by ordinary Qing cities.

"I just don't know how much their annual income is, but it shouldn't be too low. I'm afraid there are millions of taels of silver? Sigh, think about how many people are there in Denglai when the imperial court is working hard for millions of taels of silver? How rich are they? It’s really extraordinary.” Hu Zhigang faintly recalled the conversation between his family uncle, Mr. Hu, and Master Feng, the magistrate, and felt more and more that it was necessary to develop industry and commerce, otherwise “the soldiers would not have enough food, and the country would have no money left.”However, the development of industry and commerce is also a very complicated matter. It is not only a matter of lack of relevant talents and technologies, but also politically sensitive.

You must know that many Han generals stood out because of the new army. After taking power, the Manchu officials in the court were already full of anger.In addition, due to the situation, Kangxi suddenly promoted some high-level officials of the Han nationality to join the banner, which aroused dissatisfaction among many people.And if under such circumstances, if we vigorously develop industry and commerce, who will benefit the most?Hu Zhigang didn't need to ask others, he already had the answer in his heart: Of course, the Han people benefited the most!

The Manchus are really inferior to the Han Chinese in doing business, and they will not be able to catch up in 100 years.Now that the Han people have a certain amount of military power, if they are allowed to have more money, then who owns the world?Although Hu Zhigang is a serious Han Chinese, he also feels that this matter is very contradictory, and perhaps it is simply unsolvable unless the imperial court carries out thorough reforms.

It is dangerous not to reform, and it may be even more dangerous to reform. How should we choose?Hu Zhigang didn't have an answer, and maybe Emperor Kangxi didn't necessarily have an answer at this time, so he could only take one step at a time.

"Extraordinary, extraordinarily, the Qing army fought against Galdan in Monan Mongolia and won a small victory." Just as Hu Zhigang was dreaming, the voice of a newspaper seller who was still working hard on a rest day aroused Hu Zhigang's idea.After hearing clearly what the newspaper seller said, Hu Zhigang no longer hesitated, and bought a newspaper directly with money.

(End of this chapter)