The late Qing Dynasty was an era of great changes, the collision of old and new trends of thought produced a huge contrast in people's values, and the changes of the late Qing Dynasty were not spontaneously formed from the inside out, but by the forced intervention of external forces, so this conflict was even more shocking.

To be fair, Xiao Lotian is also an outsider, although he is Chinese and has been a Han man for both generations, but for this late Qing Dynasty, his thinking is actually as strongly destructive as the thinking of foreigners.

Those who lag behind never know that they are lagging behind, just as every snowflake in an avalanche decides that they are not wrong. People with outdated ideas are very resistant to change, because change means denial, denial of their previous perceptions.

You know, it's not easy to make people think they're wrong, and it's no less difficult than getting a stubborn stone to nod. Therefore, in life, we often see some people who have been driven to a dead end, and they have no reason anymore, but they still die without repentance.

Why is this so? Because the pain of continuing on the wrong path is much less than the pain of denying oneself, at least that's what he thinks.

Is it wrong to deny the education of one's parents and grandparents? How faceless and painful this is, who can get out of that hurdle?

But life has to go on, people refuse to change, but at the same time they hope for the benefits of change, such as the Tanggu Special Zone in front of them, this land of wealth has now become a dream in the hearts of everyone in North China, especially in the Zhili area.

I think that when the Tanggu Special Economic Zone was just being established, Huang Juren desperately attacked the Special Economic Zone under the instigation of people with ulterior motives, and a group of indigenous people such as Xiaowangzhuang were dizzy and opposed Xiao Letian, and even did not hesitate to force each other to death.

At that time, people really regarded this special zone as a flood beast, and Xiao Lotian was the evil demon of the West in their hearts. But later, under Xiao Letian's skillful response again and again, the local resistance in Tanggu gradually faded.

Until finally, when the special industrial zone began to unleash the magic of wealth, these locals completely changed their thinking, and looking at the white silver dollars in their pockets, they fully invested in Xiao Letian's plan.

Since ancient times, it has been emphasized that wealth is water, and the water is too wet to build a special zone, and there is a huge amount of money to prepare for the construction of the special zone, so how can the people around them not take advantage of it? Who still grows crops if they have land at home? Rent out the land as soon as possible to build a warehouse, and the annual rent for building a shop will cost several hundred silver dollars.

It's not enough to just eat rent, the Chinese people are called a hard-working, young and energetic person who goes to the construction site to do some work casually is money, and the older ones can also set up a pancake fruit stall outside the factory, a bun shop or something, and even a few partners to build a second meat shop, to provide workers with some small stir-fried vegetables, ordinary pot wine and the like.

It's all money, as long as the locals are not lazy, this money is the same as flowing seawater.

At first, people were worried that the imperial court would come to pick the fruit, but when Mailer led his troops to besiege Tanggu and finally completely wiped out the new army, everyone's hearts were in their stomachs.

At that time, the local people on the street said, "Oh...... Second brother, our rich days are in a hurry...... This city of Beijing has been occupied by the prime minister, who will dare to grin at us in the future? Let's rest assured that we will make money......"

Later, Beijing and Xiao Letian made a secret agreement to expand the area of the Tanggu Special Economic Zone dozens of times, from the south to Tangjiapu near Qikou Village, and to the west to Beitang to establish the West Water Gate, and then to the north, across the Qilihai and Ninghe rivers and then north to Kaiping.

This big circle has covered more than 900 and nearly 1,000 square kilometers of land, which is already close to the area of a small county. This large circle has all become the jurisdiction of the Tanggu Special Economic Zone.

At this point, a very peculiar phenomenon appeared, along the edge of the special zone, Xiao Lotian began to hire people to build waterways, and then planted large willow trees all over the place, and he actually made a wicker edge here.

Outside the Guan, the Manchurians planted wicker all over the place around the Han people's gathering place, and the wicker took root and sprouted over time, and it became a side wall called the wicker side. In Zhili, Xiao Letian did not insert wicker but planted large willow trees in a patchwork manner.

This is no longer a row or two rows of willow trees, Xiao Letian planted a willow forest with a width of 200 meters, and the outside is a wide newly built river, which is a kind of defense system for a discerning person.

Xiao Letian's army is now recognized as the strongest in Asia, and no one, including Europeans, dares to underestimate this army.

One is that the number of soldiers is small, so far Xiao Letian has only 20,000 available soldiers, which is indeed not enough. Another point is that Xiao Letian has not developed cavalry until now, which makes Xiao Letian's army lack the ability to make a grand strategic detour.

In fact, the Qing government has always had a false sense of security, in fact, because of these two points. They knew that Xiao Letian's new army was very strong, but there were not many cavalry in that number, even if they had the upper hand for a while, but with the strong national strength and strategic depth of the Great Qing Kingdom, they could be dragged to death in the end.

It is precisely because of this sense of security that the two families have formed such a situation of hostility and cooperation, and on the surface, they seem to be a little close.

Within the big willow tree wall, the ruling system of the imperial court still exists, and there are still people who take care of what should be managed, and the taxes of the Great Qing Dynasty are not small at all, and the common people can go to the county government to file a lawsuit, or they can go to the governor of the special region to file a lawsuit and complain, and the two systems actually coexist in parallel and live in harmony.

Even the army has two systems, and it is not wrong that there are really a few green battalion soldiers of the imperial court in the current Tanggu Special Economic Zone, but it is a pity that these soldiers are only an image existence, and they can't manage anything serious.

The fact that the Tanggu Special Economic Zone has become what it is now fully proves that Xiao Letian's political maturity is not to lose face. The face of the court is sufficient, you can't find fault with anyone, this land will always belong to the court, Xiao Letian is not a rebel.

The Imperial Court of the Special Administrative Region Li Mi wanted civil officials and military generals, and even taxes were no problem, and they collected more than in previous years.

In any case, under the bayonets of the new army, it is inconceivable that the public order in the special zone will be good.

Everything is as dreamy as heaven, but in such a quiet and peaceful situation, the contradictions still exist and the conflicts intensify.

And the flashpoint of all contradictions is the new policy promulgated by Xiao Lotian a few years ago.