Nanking.

The original old Han Palace.

At this time, this was first inhabited by Chen Li, the son of Chen Youliang, who surrendered to Zhu Yuanzhang, and after Chen Li was sent to North Korea by Zhu Yuanzhang, he was inhabited by the famous Han King Zhu Gaoxu, but the mansion that had been vacant since Zhu Gaoxu was driven to Le'an has completely lost its former appearance......

In fact, it was demolished and newly built.

In its place is an octagonal hall perched high on a triple pedestal.

Huge Ming Hall.

Not counting the pedestal at the bottom, the diagonal length of the main building itself alone has exceeded fifteen zhang, the top is closed with a certain arc upward, and the brass top at the highest point continues to go upward, and finally the total height also reaches fifteen zhang, and the coverage of red glazed tiles makes the whole building extremely brilliant.

But it's not the huge wooden columns that support the weight of this layer.

Rather, it is reinforced concrete.

Of course, Yang Qing didn't know if it was steel.

Now all of his building materials are made by wrought iron furnace mixing.

He was unable to detect the carbon content.

In short, it depends on the degree of stirring and decarburization at the time of production, the complete decarburization is wrought iron, and the incomplete decarburization is inferior low-carbon steel, and the degree of decarburization is actually the degree of stirring. However, his wrought iron furnace was modified to make the furnace slightly hotter, and although the lack of a strong enough blower still did not reach the real molten steel of crucible steel, it was better than the similar things currently used in Europe, but the latter had the advantage of being better than his ore.

There's really no comparison.

That's what he got anyway.

He called it pseudo-steel.

But as a building material, it is enough, even if it is wrought iron, it is a big deal for him to thicken, one centimeter thick steel bar can do, he simply comes to two centimeters thick pseudo steel bar, and the load-bearing column is not a load-bearing beam.

Load-bearing columns inside and outside support the wooden structure of the upper part.

Wooden trusses included.

Yang Qing stood on a high platform in the middle of the huge building, with a dome-like ceiling covered with iron sheets and painted overhead, holding a document that had just been delivered.

Around him, countless representatives of the four people were seated.

And it's not just the first floor, in fact it's a stepped hall, otherwise even more than forty meters diagonally would not be able to accommodate all the delegates, the only way is to use a stepped one, so that there is still a little space in the back. And the stepped type is not enough, in fact, there is a second floor, but the seats on the second floor are less, in short, Yang Qing can do as much as he can, to place as many seats as possible for this Ming Hall or the Great Hall of the Four Peoples......

In fact, it is still not enough.

Originally, the Ming Dynasty had 1,138 counties and 493 Wei, that is, more than 1,600 counties and Wei, and theoretically more than 6,000 representatives of the four people.

This Great Hall of the Four Peoples is absolutely insufficient.

Fortunately, at this time, the territory is small, that is, a total of nine provinces, and many counties in Henan and Shandong have been relocated, in fact, the current batch of representatives of the four people adds up to less than 3,000.

Barely able to.

It is certainly impossible to have enough light inside such a large building, even if it is high enough, so there are lampposts between these seats, and inside the glass light boxes are expensive whale candles, that is, candles made from sperm whale brain oil. At this time, the coastal whaling industry has been flooded, from Fujian to Dengzhou and even North Korea are all fishing, after all, refining whale oil does not require any technology, but the consumption of whale oil in Daming is increasing day by day, and the demand for canned whale meat in the army is also increasing day by day.

Let the soldiers replenish their fat, it can be said that there is nothing better and cheaper than this.

Cattle certainly can't.

The price of pork and mutton is high.

But whale meat is much cheaper, after all, the real purpose of whaling is not whale meat, it is just a by-product of the whaling industry.

But sperm whales are caught in small numbers.

There are very few of these things in China's coastal waters, after all, they are deep-water whales, and China's coastal continental shelf is not the most ideal predation area for them, only the Yangtze River estuary, Denglai coast, and Fujian coastal area are distributed in small quantities, which also leads to the high price of cetacean wax.

Whaling ships were also forced to go out to sea.

In particular, the whaling fleet under the Beiyang Corporation, based in Busan, has begun to advance to the northern part of the Sea of Japan, which is known as the Sea of Whales. These whaling ships have on-board processing facilities and flint machines that can fire harpoon guns, which should be enough to deal with sperm whales, after all, with the current price of whale candles and whale oil, as long as you catch an adult sperm whale, you can basically exchange it for such a whaling ship. Almost everyone is crazy about such huge profits, even private whaling ships have appeared, and even competitors at sea have appeared, such as the Fujian whaling ship and the Guangdong whaling ship have had several skirmishes over the whaling ground.

The latter also began whaling.

The emerging capitalists in Guangxi and Guangxi were extremely sensitive to money-making opportunities, and their whale oil was even sold overland to Huguang and Jiangxi.

Of course, Yang Qing doesn't care about these things.

In fact, trade with the two Guangxi was carried out in a semi-open manner, and although it was theoretically inaccurate, in practice it was not at all concerned, as long as taxes were paid. Both Meiguan and the tax customs of the whole state tacitly approved the trade between the two sides, and even the generals of the front-line garrison were involved in these trades, and Yang Qing strictly controlled the trade in the controlled area with Dolgon, and did not care about other directions at all. King Gui didn't care either, he didn't dare to care at all, the high-quality iron ore in northern Guangdong could be transported out through the port of Guangzhou and smuggled to Fujian, and then turned into the armor of the Ming army in Fujian's private iron yards.

However, Yang Qing's iron ore development on Hainan Island has been suspended at this time.

But Hainan Island is still under his control.

When the two sides were fighting before, King Gui's side couldn't take care of Hainan Island at all, where the Jinyi guards and the Yang family slaves, plus a brigade of garrisons, quickly suppressed the rebellion of the gentry in Qiongzhou. After the two sides reached a tacit truce, Yang Qing sent people to threaten King Gui that if they dared to attack Hainan Island, they would attack on all fronts, and King Gui ignored it very sensibly.

There's no value to them there, anyway.

"Everyone!"

Yang Qing held up the official document and shouted: "Dengzhou has just sent good news, the First Brigade of the Second Marine Corps and the Third Brigade of the Ninth Army of the Army Infantry Battalion defeated Jiannu in Zouping Gangaxe Village, beheaded 2,000 and captured the rebel general Qianliugou Town's general soldier, the current Jiannu with the Yellow Banner Divine Army Melle Zhangjing Liu Fangming. ”

In the light of the whale wax, the delegates cheered.

But this kind of news is no longer irritating.

After all, everyone knows that the Ming army is not what it used to be, it was already beating the Qing army before, and now it is put into the battlefield again after two years of recuperation, it would be strange if there was no victory.

"Fifty of our troops were killed!"

Immediately afterwards, Yang Qing said with pride.

The delegates were immediately stunned.

"Surprised? I'm also quite surprised, I can guarantee that this figure is true, and whoever dares to lie will be court-martialed. In the past, hundreds of thousands of Jiannu could chase after us tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of people outside the pass, and once the imperial court could not stop the attack of tens of thousands of them with hundreds of thousands of troops. And now we have beheaded two thousand in the field with almost the same number of troops, with only fifty men killed, most of whom were still killed in pursuit. In fact, in the field battle, we killed more than 600 Jiannu, including 250 cavalrymen, with only two soldiers killed.

So what made the Ming army change so much in a few years? ”

Yang Qing said.

Despite the lack of PA equipment, his voice was clearly heard by all the delegates because of the design of the dome overhead, and all the delegates were silent and waited for his next words.

"Is it a weapon? In the past, we also had cannons and muskets, and although the quality was poor, they were not substantially different from those we use now. Is it illegal training? To this day, our army is still dominated by Qi Wuyi's car battalion tactics, but with some minor improvements. Is it the general's unfavorable command? In fact, at this time, the generals above the brigade level on the battlefield were basically all old people, and the vast majority of all the army commanders were defeated in Liaodong at the beginning.

So why is there such a huge difference between the same weapons, the same tactics, and the same generals?

Very simple.

The soldiers of the past had no clear minds.

The imperial court could not give them land to support their families, nor could they give them enough military pay to survive, or even food.

And there is no minimum respect for them.

They protected the Ming Dynasty and protected tens of thousands of people, but they were just poor military households.

Even women are reluctant to marry them.

The Ming Dynasty didn't give them anything, why did they have to fight for the Ming Dynasty? If you go to the battlefield and run away with a few shots, this is enough to be worthy of the Ming Dynasty, after all, there is no need for a poor military household that is inferior to others, and there is no need to work for a court that does not even let itself be fed.

The life is one's own, and the country belongs to the Zhu family. ”

Yang Qing said very rebelliously.

But no one contradicted him, at most a few were whispering, and although he preached civil rights ideas in the newspapers, it was a bit too much to shout such words on such an occasion. But even so, no one really refuted him, which shows that during this time, with the joint efforts of him and Huang Zongxi's gang, the idea of civil rights has been accepted. These representatives, who have been nurtured by their seedlings and whether or not they really understand the meaning of civil rights, have first been poured into their heads.

"And now it's different, they also have a share in this country!"

Yang Qing continued to say in a rebellious manner.

"Not only they have a share, but you also have a share, all the Chinese people in the world have a share, the world is the world of the people of the world, the rise and fall of the world, the husband is responsible, they are fighting for their own share, they are fighting for their own land. Just like the ancestors who followed Emperor Taizu and drove the Mongols out of the Central Plains with spears, they were fighting for the rivers and mountains that belonged to the people of China!

So they don't retreat.

No matter who their enemies are, they will not retreat, because they have their home beneath them! ”

Yang Qing waved his fist like a mustache possessed and said.