Yang Hongzhang's controversy in the monarchy

Yang Hongzhang in the controversy of the monarch and ministers with the team left Beijing City to Tianjin, many nobles, officials and even played the crown to celebrate, Yang Hongzhang came to Zhili for nearly three months can be described as out of the limelight, and the month of arrival in Beijing is to make the noble officials in Beijing City is love and hate, it is because of Yang Hongzhang's timely appearance Dolgon was forced to evacuate, so that these nobles and officials can continue their luxurious life, it is also those chapters in Yang Hongzhang's prison that make the emperor decide to implement the tax rate reform.

Compared with kindness, people will always remember their own interests, Yang Hongzhang is the initiator and executor of the tax rate reform, which is equivalent to directly taking money from the hands of the nobles and officials, cutting off people's wealth and money like killing their parents, which is why there is a burning of the mansion and assassination on the street, but Yang Hongzhang has a hard life, and the nobles have to take risks and try to cancel the tax by launching a coup d'état, but the result is still unsuccessful. And every failure is adding points to Yang Hongzhang, and Yang Hongzhang in the emperor's heart is getting heavier and heavier.

Now that Yang Hongzhang is finally leaving Beijing, all the nobles and most of the civil officials are willing to see, especially to get Yang Hongzhang away before Sun Chengzong returns to the capital, so as not to let Sun Chengzong, the veteran, and this upstart become a close alliance. Yang Hongzhang finally left, they got their wish, and the minds of the nobles were alive again, and they hoped that the emperor would be able to change his mind after Yang Hongzhang's all-day bewitchment.

Yang Hongzhang walked quite chic this time, compared to leaving Gaoyang and Hejian at the beginning, he finally had the opportunity to meet the emperor, and he could have the opportunity to go to the court with the cabinet scholars who were in charge of the center of the Ming Dynasty.

Thanks to Fang Zhenghua's cooperation, all the 3,000 people he brought from Hejian were returned to him. The emperor also ordered to allocate 30,000 taels of silver from the household department in advance, and he also took out 100,000 taels from the inner slaves. Although Ni Yuanlu, the head of the household department, was a little distressed, most of the money in the treasury was now obtained by Yang Hongzhang, and the emperor supported him so much that he had to cut his love. The general soldier who took office with 10,000 taels of silver envied others.

As for the emperor's statement that it will be allocated on demand later, Ni Yuanlu has his own ideas, and then he will look at Yang Hongzhang's achievements and the treasury. However, Tianjin is so close to Beijing, if Yang Hongzhang goes to the capital to make trouble, he really can't bear it, the most important thing is that he is the beneficiary, without Yang Hongzhang, he doesn't know how to spend this year, so he is very cooperative with Fang Zhenghua.

Compared with Yang Hongzhang, who could finally leave the capital, a place of right and wrong, and being able to follow Yang Hongzhang to Tianjin made these three thousand people extremely excited. Especially those who came out of Gaoyang, including Sun Yuan. Because they are finally going to become a real Ming soldier, and the general who leads them is Yang Hongzhang, who is brave and good at fighting!

If you have to say that there is any concern, then Xiang Yunfang is undoubtedly Yang Hongzhang's biggest concern, but he is now a courtier, or the emperor's most trusted courtier, and Xiang Yunfang has become a concubine, this is a signal of the emperor's favor, Yang Hongzhang dare not imagine the promise to Yunfang, I will always be just a woman by you! If she insists, then something will definitely go wrong! Yang Hongzhang can only hope that the smart Xiang Yunfang can handle it well.

Another concern, of course, was the implementation of the new tax rate, and the young emperor described in the history books of the Harmonious Era as suspicious and fickle. If Sun Chengzong can firmly support his own tax reform, it is better to say, if he is neutral or opposed, it is estimated that it is very likely that Zhu Youzhen will change his course, at least not vigorously in provinces other than Zhili.

Because of these two concerns, Yang Hongzhang deeply realized that he needed more power, enough to influence the power of the imperial court, and perhaps the Tianjin General Army and the Tianjin Prefect were the best turning point.

According to the decree of the imperial court, the newly established Tianjin Prefecture has jurisdiction over six counties and one prefecture: Tianjin, Jinghai, Qingxian, Nanpi, Yanshan, Qingyun and Cangzhou. Almost with Baoding Mansion one east and one west dragged Beijing.

On the way to Tianjin, Yang Hongzhang listened to the people along the way talk about the situation in Tianjin, although Yang Hongzhang was mentally prepared, but the damage to the Tianjin Acropolis that had been plundered by the Qing army was still beyond his imagination. Yang Hongzhang has been to Gaoyang, which was burned down by the Qing army, and there is a comparison between here and where. Because of the existence of cement piers outside the city, the city wall of Gaoyang was basically intact, but some of the city gates and towers were affected by the later fire. The walls of the Tianjin Acropolis seem to have been mottled everywhere because of fierce battles, and there are gaps in many places. The four gates were empty, and there was basically only one hole left. The buildings in the city have not completely burned down, but they are basically low and dilapidated that have not had time to be repaired.

There are only a few low-level officials left in the yamen of the guard, and the vast majority of the military households in Tuntian have fled, and now the Qing army has retreated for almost two months, and there are still not many people back. The people who support Tianjin Wei are ordinary people.

I heard that the imperial court sent a new general soldier, and the only one left in the yamen to pacify Luo Ke's enemies

led all the officials and the few remaining hundred households out to greet them, but there was not a single soldier. Inquire about the situation of Tianjin Left Guard and Tianjin Right Guard again, it is actually about the same, the commander of the entire Tianjin Sanwei Station either escaped before the Qing army came or was martyred in the chaotic battle, several thousand households were also taken care of by the Qing army, it is said that Yue Tuo attacked Tianjin once when he went south, and Dolgon came again before besieging Beijing City, and some hundred households were not spared. It can be seen how fierce the battle was at the beginning, or how angry Dolgon was in his heart.

Yang Hongzhang could imagine that Dolgon led 100,000 elites to break through, but as a result, he gained little but lost his troops, and even Haoge and Yue Tuo became prisoners. After retreating from Baoding's nest, not only Dolgon, but almost all the Qing troops poured out their anger*, so that those timid guards could not escape.

Seeing that the new general soldier seemed a little unhappy, and thought that the scene of greeting was too shabby, standing at the gate of the acropolis, he wanted to explain, but was interrupted by Yang Hongzhang. He couldn't imagine what Jizhen and Baoding Mansion would look like if they were destroyed.

Tianjin's foundation is indeed a little worse, but it is beneficial for the operation he is about to carry out.

However, there are indeed fewer people in the city, and Yang Hongzhang is about to build Tianjin City, which requires a large number of people, and it seems that he can only wait for the Spring Festival to recruit people.

After the 3,000 men were stationed on the Acropolis, they were divided into three groups, which were responsible for repairing the dilapidated walls, building new barracks, and conducting daily training and defense.

Because Tianjin also has jurisdiction over several other counties and prefectures, there are a lot of civil affairs to deal with, plus the salt field and the upcoming construction of the Ordnance Bureau can be described as a thousand things, before leaving, Yang Hongzhang had proposed to the emperor Zhu Youzhen to equip himself with a few assistants, Zhu Youzhen asked him if there was anyone to recommend, Yang Hongzhang looked embarrassed, he jumped too fast so that there was basically no one in the entrainment, the military aspect is better and can be taught by himself, the civil affairs must be kept an eye on from time to time, Yang Hongzhang thought of Gu Yanwu and Huang Zongxi and others in Jiangnan, So write to ask if these people are willing to come, or recommend some students to come.

In addition, firearms craftsmen and military personnel from among the Western missionaries should also come to Tianjin as soon as possible. In addition, Tianjin City must be rebuilt at another site, and the commercial development after reconstruction is also a big problem, so it needs the support of the Yang family and the Xia family.

There is also the planning of the water division, Yang Hongzhang is very entangled in whether to directly let Shi Lang join, because there is no special water division, Tianjin's finances are limited, and Shi Lang's future is also limited. So I was going to write a letter asking him about his wishes.

In order to be safe, Yang Hongzhang decided to let Yang Sheng take people back to Hangzhou and bring back those who were willing to come to Tianjin.

It's just that before Yang Hongzhang spread everything, two bad news came.

The first is that the imperial court appointed Wang Lenian, the former governor of Gaoyang, as the governor of Tianjin. Yang Hongzhang felt that Yang Sichang was purely disgusting himself, perhaps because Sun Chengzong had not yet returned to the capital to speed up his layout, even if it was a newly established mansion like Tianjin, it had to be mixed with sand. Such a person becomes his deputy, and Yang Hongzhang would rather not have it if he can choose.

However, compared with this news, the second news is simply a bolt from the blue, because the plague occurred in Zhili, which had just experienced the plundering of the Qing army, and the first to be discovered was in the Julu area, and now Baoding Mansion and Beijing City have been discovered.

Yang Hongzhang understands that in this era, in the face of the plague, people can only let it develop, and whether they can survive depends on their personal physique. Basically, it is impossible to prevent it, and there is no way to treat it. So it was found that the plague was catastrophic for almost everyone! Dead or alive, all waiting for the judgment of God!

The good news is that Wang Lenian postponed his trip to Tianjin because he was worried about the plague, and of course Wang Lenian's excuse was that the Spring Festival was approaching and he was going to go after the New Year. This gave Yang Hongzhang time to arrange a lot of things, including the next response to the plague.

The epidemic is an order, although the counties and prefectures under the jurisdiction of Tianjin Prefecture have not found the epidemic for the time being, but Yang Hongzhang knows that this epidemic is inseparable from the fierce fighting in the first two months, including the soldiers who died in the Ming army and the Qing army and the people who were slaughtered by the Qing army, in the past few months, the entire Zhili has died at least more than 200,000 people, due to the flight of a large number of people, resulting in a large number of state capitals basically have no ability to properly dispose of the bodies of the dead, these rotting corpses were found by rats after the beginning of the disaster, Therefore, once an epidemic breaks out, these places may become breeding points and sources of infection for the virus.

Yang Hongzhang sorted out some knowledge about the prevention and control of infectious diseases in his harmonious era overnight, and then hurriedly wrote a field on the prevention and control of plague, with tens of thousands of words, and then gathered all the 3,000 soldiers who could read and write, copied and studied, and then studied in small groups. After a day, 3,000 people were dispersed, and 200 people from each county were sent as a supervisory team to guide and supervise the prevention and control of the plague, while the rest were struggling to buy food and grass from all over the country to prepare for the most difficult times.

Including Xia Dongwei and Zhang Hu and others, they actually have little confidence in Yang Hongzhang's prevention and control regulations, but out of admiration for Yang Hongzhang's past deeds, they are very serious about implementing them.

Another measure of Yang Hongzhang was to call all the tailor shop owners in the city to the yamen, and then gave them a few drawings, asking them to sew a small square scarf of several layers of cotton cloth with two straps at full speed, the quantity was actually how much the prefect yamen needed, if it weren't for the prefect directly paying a deposit of two hundred taels of silver for each tailor shop, almost all the tailor shop owners couldn't believe it.