Dominate the Country

The sea breeze was blowing, and at the Thanh Hoa Pier, Zheng Sen happily welcomed the Beizheng envoys returning from Nanjing.

Since losing half of his territory, Zheng Sen's good days have finally come. Beizheng and the remnant Qing army seized Hanoi and negotiated peace. Both sides knew that their mortal enemy was not each other, but the behemoth in the north.

Therefore, Zheng Sen, who had heard the news of defeat again and again, finally escaped from the sea of ​​suffering.

Although half of the territory in his hands was missing, Zheng Sen hated it every time he thought of it. The one in Nanjing City didn't know how many times he secretly cursed him in his heart, but the situation was stronger than people. Under the eaves, you have to bow your head, and if you don't accept it, you can only die more miserably.

After experiencing the nightmare period of Zheng's army's successive defeats, Zheng Sen is now satisfied with such a stable life and is reluctant to destroy it.

Therefore, he could happily welcome the Beizheng envoys who came back from Nanjing, and he was eagerly looking forward to the emperor giving him some good things.

Beizheng's new policy has lasted for half a year. The new policy is very expensive, even if Beizheng's new policy has only moved its own army. Beizheng was a military first and then a political. Zheng Sen's food, clothing and daily expenses were reduced again and again, and his life was very hard.

Of course, the Beizheng envoys also had other tasks in Nanjing. The Imperial College University in Nanjing will open for enrollment next year. Zheng Sen hopes to send his eldest son Zheng Zong to Nanjing to study.

This move contains Zheng Sen's thoughts and wraps him with painstaking efforts.

Zheng Sen doesn't like his son, that is, the eldest son Zheng Zong. He likes the second son Zheng Yu more.

The second generation bloodline of the Beizheng royal family is not prosperous. Zheng Sen actually has only two sons, one is the eldest son Zheng Zong, and the other is the second son Zheng Yu. Zheng Zong likes martial arts but not literature, and is an unfilial father. Zheng Sen hates him very much. In history, Zheng Sen abolished Zheng Zong's position as the crown prince this year and replaced him with Zheng Yu. Queen Mother Ruan advised Zheng Sen to wait until Zheng Zong comes of age to see his performance before abolishing and enthroning him, but Zheng Sen did not listen, claiming that he would rather pass the Zheng family's foundation to his nephew Zheng Yu and return the country to the descendants of his uncle Zheng Yu than to establish an "unfilial son" like Zheng Zong.

In this era, the situation is changing. In order to stabilize the government, Zheng Sen cannot easily abolish the crown prince. But once this person is partial, he will often be biased without limit.

Zheng Sen was trapped in the current situation of Beizheng and could not abolish the position of Zheng Zong, an unfilial son, as the crown prince. He was even more angry and aggrieved in his heart.

So he came up with a clever idea. He sent Zheng Zong out, whether it was the Imperial College or the Central Military Academy, it would be fine. As long as Zheng Zong was sent out, he could push Zheng Yu to the position of the crown prince. Although these things need to be done step by step.

Zheng Zong is good at martial arts, and he has a very good impression in the minds of the generals of Beizheng. Moreover, Beizheng learned from China and also created a Boy Scout. The royal family came forward to collect orphans whose parents died or were separated and lost in the war to form a Boy Scout. Zheng Zong went there from time to time and had a high prestige in the minds of the boy soldiers.

These are all things that Zheng Sen is unwilling to watch continue to develop. Otherwise, if Zheng Zong continues to develop like this in two or three years, Zheng Sen will not be able to abolish the prince even if he wants to.

Zheng Sen in this life is not the king who destroyed the country and conquered the Southern Nguyen, but an incompetent person who was beaten and lost his land. His ruling power over the court of Beizheng is definitely not comparable to that of himself in the same period of the previous time and space plane. So, he must send his son to Nanjing.

...

Unlike the boy camp in China, the boy camp in Beizheng is entirely boys.

The boy camp in China has not only boys, but also girls. These girls receive education in the boy camps, and when they grow up, they have many jobs. Now they can be seen in some positions in the Grand Commandery and the Logistics Department.

There is also the military doctor. Female doctors and nurses are not limited to the army. There are more and more female doctors and nurses in public hospitals. Of course, they can also be teachers.

In short, there are many girls in the Chinese boy camps.

This is not the case in Beizheng. Their boy scouts only accept boys, and their purpose is very specific, that is, to cultivate an army that is absolutely loyal to the royal family.

…

One by one, the big boxes were carried to the dock. Zheng Sen was smiling and took a book. It recorded the things that the emperor gave to Beizheng. He had already got what he wanted. Zheng Zong could go to Nanjing to attend the preparatory class after the New Year.

Opening the book, silks, satins, treasures and toys were listed one by one, and I won’t talk about them. Beizheng was a vassal state of China, and the important clothes and hats of the royal family had to be granted by China. Now all these envoys brought back to Zheng Sen:

One set of Nine-Chapter Crown:

One set of Nine-Tassel Wrinkled Silk Flat Crown (with jade pendants, tassels, and gold ornaments)

One set of Nine-Chapter Silk Silk Dress (seven pieces, strips, and pairs):

One dark blue floral dress

One white middle singlet

One purple floral front and back skirt

One purple floral knee-length apron (with jade hooks)

One purple floral brocade ribbon

One purple floral pendant A pair (gold hook, jade pendant complete)

A red and white plain belt

A jade sceptre (complete)

A pair of bright red plain silk sash (complete socks)

Three bright red flat silk brocade cloud dragon clips

A vermilion lacquer plain robe box (complete with protective box and other parts)

A piece of silk cinnabar red flower, a piece of green flower, a piece of black green flower, a piece of blue flower, a piece of rose pink, a piece of plain cypress green, a piece of plain black green, a piece of plain blue

Ten rolls of white fine cloth.

Give the princess:

One pearl and jade seven-Di crown (gold hairpin, golden Di, precious flower knot, etc.)

One gold pendant with a brocade flower

One set of clothes (two sets, seven pieces in total)

One set (four pieces, a pair, and a branch):

One red plain silk jacket

One blue silk jacket with colorful embroidery and golden Di chicken

One blue silk shawl with colorful embroidery and golden Di chicken

One ivory female hu

One roll of red silk, one roll of green silk, one roll of black green, one roll of blue, one roll of pink Russell, one roll of cypress green, one roll of black green, one roll of blue

Ten rolls of white fine cloth

Plus hundreds of rolls of various silks and satins.

Don't think the investment is big. As long as Beizheng can't hold on any longer and surrenders, this investment is nothing compared to the return.

In addition to these unimportant things, Chen Ming also gave a group of real good things to North Zheng.

One thousand flintlock rifles, ten two-jin cannons, five three-jin cannons, and five five-jin cannons.

Zheng Sen can use them to arm two infantry battalions and one artillery battalion.

These are the real reliance of Zheng Sen's status. Zheng Sen, who got these treasures for nothing, didn't care whether these things were the rags replaced by the Chinese National Defense Army. Zheng Sen happily returned to the simple palace in Thanh Hoa Prefecture and calculated which part he should strengthen one or two points.

Thanh Hoa Prefecture is located on the southern edge of the Red River Delta, more than 200 miles away from Hanoi, with many mountains and rivers in the territory.

This is the hometown of Le Loi, the founder of the Le Dynasty, and one of the few large cities in North Zheng after the founding of the capital. Zheng Sen, who was driven out of Hanoi, chose Thanh Hoa as the capital, but in a short time, Thanh Hoa, an already prosperous city, became even more prosperous.

The New Deal of North Zheng has been reformed for more than half a year. The biggest changes in the entire country are not the government, the immortal army, or the economy. What is it? The wharf.

In addition to the changes in the army, the biggest and most significant change in the new policy of Beizheng is that the Thanh Hoa wharf has been qualitatively improved in the past six months, from berths to supporting warehouses and transportation, which are all making great strides forward. This is China's "aid construction"!

This also stimulated the development of the local economy.

No, to be precise, the arrival of the entire Beizheng court and the army that followed greatly stimulated the development of the local economy. Thanh Hoa Prefecture is now a kind of deformed and distorted prosperity. Just like Chongqing and Shanghai during the Anti-Japanese War.

This kind of prosperity consumes the vitality of Beizheng, which is completely sad for Beizheng.

But few people in the entire Beizheng have realized this.

Vietnam's water and sea transportation are quite developed. This era has been influenced by Chen Han over the years, and the entire East Asian sea transportation has increased by two points. Gathering the power of the whole country to support one place is talking about Thanh Hoa Prefecture.

How can it not be prosperous?

But compared with the remnant Qing army in the north, or the South Nguyen who also stabilized the front line, Beizheng is the one with the least movement in the past six months.

The remaining Qing army was about to complete the nationalization of the territory in the entire controlled area. The Southern Nguyen also made a big fanfare to reform the army comprehensively, built new military factories, and played the cabinet system in the central government. Only the Northern Zheng made the smallest move.

But the Northern Zheng played with paper money.

Perhaps in Zheng Sen's eyes, this method of issuing paper money is the best way to expand its own strength in the short term? The Northern Zheng established a central bank and a foreign trade bank, but the leadership of the two banks has not been formally established, and the paper money has not been officially issued. It is just a rough expectation, that is, March next year.

But no matter what, the current Thanh Hoa Prefecture is peaceful and peaceful. Zheng Sen's peaceful days are comfortable.

Similarly, Chen Ming, who celebrated the birthday of the Empress Dowager, was also very happy because of the uneventful handshake during the entire festival.

What made him happiest was that this year has entered winter, and there has been no drought or flood. Similarly, the northern Xinjiang also reported that the temperature is normal. The world is peaceful, and the weather is good. That is the best news for the emperor.

Of course, what makes Chen Ming happy the most is the eruption of Japan's Sakurajima volcano. According to his memory, Sakurajima, located next to Kagoshima, the headquarters of Satsuma, should have erupted last year.

When he was looking for information about Satsuma, he accidentally read the information about Sakurajima volcano. This beautiful mountain stands on the sea, only a stone's throw away from Kagoshima City. It is a very active volcano. Small eruptions occur almost every day!

But what makes Chen Ming very strange is that Sakurajima volcano did not erupt last year. Chen Ming does not think that his beating of Satsuma can affect the eruption of an active volcano. But the fact is so strange.

Then not long ago, Chen Ming got the news that Sakurajima volcano finally erupted. It is reported that a lot of volcanic ash fell in Edo, thousands of miles away from Kagoshima, and a large amount of volcanic magma flowed out one after another. The magma expanded into the sea. After cooling, it was connected to the Osumi Peninsula on the Kyushu mainland. Sakurajima, which was originally only accessible by boat, can now be reached directly by walking.

Satsuma Domain was originally a poor and remote area in Japan. Now it has lost Ryukyu and was severely damaged by Chen Han. The situation has been relatively stable in the past two years. Just when it has improved a little, it encountered another volcanic eruption. The magma swallowed up more than 200 Japanese farmers who failed to escape in time, as well as a large number of fertile fields opened up on Sakurajima. The actual impact on Satsuma Domain was not great, but the great impact was the destruction of the confidence of the Satsuma people.

When Chen Ming heard the news of the eruption of Sakurajima volcano, he had an idea in his mind. If a super disaster like the Great Kanto Earthquake happened on the territory of the Japanese at this time, Chen Ming felt that the Japanese might even spit out the last bit of dissatisfaction and kowtow to China obediently.

The Japanese have not reached the end of the road yet.

The remaining time of the sixth year of Chengtian passed little by little. The price of cloth has stopped falling, and the price of domestic grain continues to fall, whether it is fine grain or coarse grain, whether it is rice, flour or sweet potato.

More than one newspaper has been shouting that low grain prices hurt farmers.

In terms of agricultural statistical surveys, taking Zhongyuan Province as an example, the land planted with soybeans, peanuts and cotton is increasing rapidly.

As a traditional agricultural province, the summer and autumn grain output of Zhongyuan Province is of great significance to the entire north, but now no one can reverse the trend of continuous reduction in the planting area of ​​grain crops.

Even if Chen Ming has set a minimum grain price, the grain prices in many areas on the market are infinitely close to the minimum protection price.

This is a very typical professional term in Chinese classical economy. Chen Ming is now very troubled. Should we manage it or not?

The cabinet's opinion is of course to manage it.

Food is the most basic means of living. China has always attached great importance to its own food production. The harm caused by famine is well known to every Chinese minister.

In Chen Ming's previous life, some countries adopted various agricultural support policies to intervene in the food market to ensure food security and protect the interests of farmers.

But in general, the effect is not ideal. First, the cost is very high. To maintain the price of food, the government must purchase food that cannot be sold in the market at a protective price, and taxpayers have to pay a considerable amount of food inventory costs for this. Second, since the subsidies to farmers are based on output, large farmers receive the most subsidies, but they are not the poor in the countryside, while small farmers who really need subsidies receive less subsidies due to low output. The most serious thing is that it slows down the adjustment of agricultural production, affects the market economy, interferes with the self-adjustment of the market economy, and makes the labor and other production factors invested in agriculture not transferred to other industries in time according to price signals.

This is why Chen Ming only set the minimum protection price for grain, but did not make a big fuss to sweep the grain market or provide agricultural subsidies.

Chen Han's court officials did not have such advanced ideas. They could not think of the state giving subsidies to landlords who planted wheat and rice. Now these people are instigating the cabinet to propose taxation.

Taxes on foreign grains.

In China's past customs import and export trade, grains were not subject to tariffs.