The contact in Yangzhou made Xiao Xuan understand that the Huizhou merchant gang had a huge advantage in terms of style compared with the Shaanxi merchant gang, which was essentially a group of "mud-legged rich people", perhaps it was this huge cultural advantage and local advantage, coupled with the fact that the scale of the border army in the Manchu era was much smaller than that of the Ming Dynasty, and the role of silver in various fields of society became stronger. And according to Xiao Xuan's impression, it may be because there are other broader sources of interest rather than too much demand for salt prices. Compared with the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty also had significant changes in the price of salt.

Of course, according to Xiao Xuan's previous opinion, whether it is the Shanxi Gang, or the Shaanxi Gang, or the Huizhou Gang, it is not a gang that is conducive to the healthy development of the market. He should be in a position of power as a strong king, completely reversing everything and changing everything. However, these days, after carefully reviewing many things in the past, especially after the changes and chaos in the country, Xiao Xuan felt that he might not be able to do this without any superpowers. Relying only on the power of a king's own cronies, rather than on the power of a wider range of interests, will only make many efforts more effective.

Xiao Xuan didn't stay in Yangzhou for too long, and after about ten days, Xiao Xuan also understood that it was time to go to Xindu to have a look. Xiao Xuan did not choose the location of the new palace in the original court in Nanjing. Although it is not too difficult to renovate and reorganize there, especially now that the returning army has brought a lot of wealth enough to do a lot of things. Instead, a new camp was built near the original Purple Mountain to Xuanwu Lake, where the manor and the military camp coexisted. There is no need for those large stones and the large timber demand brought by the vast palace, and the cost is greatly reduced according to the construction standards of the general Jiangnan Yin Shi family. In less than a month or so, with tens of thousands of human resources and even more than 200,000 taels of financial resources, the temporary villa in the north of Nanjing has begun to take shape.

Of course, the biggest drawback of this Intramuros is that it is neither a castle nor protected by a walled city. It's just that the escalation of combat methods over the years has greatly reduced the role of the city wall and even the castle. Xiao Xuan also believes that if he encounters special changes and chaos in the future, in this era when the Vauban siege method has become popular, it is expected that it is better to count on the city wall than to expect a relatively large and complex layout and even a tunnel extending in all directions to escape in time.

After coming to the newly arranged villa-like court, whether it was Xiao Xuan or some of his cronies, and even Tian Xiuying, who had been following Xiao Xuan, all felt a kind of gloom and coldness that he had never felt before. In the central manor with an area of several hundred hectares, in addition to the tens of thousands of troops deployed on the periphery to be responsible for strict defense, there were hundreds of people around Xiao Xuan, including the core guards, and there were only more than a thousand family members who were arranged to come in. In the imperial palace of the Ming Dynasty in the past, a place as large as the Forbidden City often had at least 9,000 palace maids, tens of thousands of resident eunuchs, and at least 30,000 people in the ordinary inner court guards. During the Qing Dynasty, the size of the court and even the number of palace maids and eunuchs were greatly reduced. When the permanent staff of the entire Forbidden City dropped to about 10,000 people, the Manchu emperor felt a little uncomfortable, and often moved to other places.

And now Xiao Xuan is surrounded by thousands of people at best, distributed in an area of hundreds of hectares, which makes people feel like living in a ghost town.

When they were dining together, Tian Xiuying, who was much closer to Xiao Xuan, still boldly proposed: "Although the monarch has reformed the old customs in many aspects, he is an emperor after all. If the heirs are not good and only rely on one person, the entire Ming court will be unstable, and all kinds of potential forces will be eyeing each other for a long time. In the past, the king said that in order to let the soldiers use their lives, they could not be an emperor with three palaces and six courts, but now most of them have been decided, both at home and abroad. Even if it is not like the past, there are thousands of palace maids and eunuchs, but I always feel that there should be at least a thousand or so concubines and female officials, if even the women who are preparing and candidates are also included. It's also time to flesh out the harem. ”

Xiao Xuan pondered for a long time, and said unexpectedly: "That's fine, since I have promised a lot at the beginning, I can't be a person who doesn't talk much." Zhou Yufeng and Concubine Yuan had actually explained many things clearly before the expedition. It should also be time for the old Shindai people to return. Moreover, when the army settled, the reward for this battle also settled. The draft will also start again. Fat water does not flow into the fields of outsiders, and the selected show girls are of course mainly people in the team system as much as possible, and the people are not better than people related to the old official gentry. The number is not too much, let more than 100 people enter the palace first, and generally have a good status... ”

When the autumn of Chongzhen's seventh year came, Xiao Xuan also held a celebration banquet on a fairly large scale in front of the Purple Mountain outside the Nanjing Central Manor. Not only a few generals such as Zhou Dayong, but also more than 2,000 officers of the infantry battalion and above the battalion level, including former members of the Datong Society, and officers of the artillery team at and above the company level all attended the celebration banquet. In addition to this, there are many representatives of the families of officers and decorated soldiers who died in battle.

"After the big and small battles at home, there may be some overseas battles in the future, but I don't think we will have to meet a tough opponent like the Spaniards, and it won't cost us much experience. But I think you are different from ordinary warriors, and as military officers, you should have a general understanding of history. At the same time, we should also be very clear about the foundation of China's unprecedented achievements in the past few years. I can't control what will happen in a hundred years, and I believe it will be difficult for you to decide what will happen in a hundred years. But I hope that at least you can decide on the family style of your family within a Jiazi, you, and your family. At least in a few tens to decades, he will not become a short-sighted person who has no pursuit like those old warriors and old gentry in the past. What should be pursued in life has been made very clear in many recent books, and I don't talk too much nonsense here. In short: we have made unprecedented achievements on the battlefield, but I do not want us to end up in the development of the economy, people's livelihood, and even social and technological progress outside the battlefield. If that's the case, everything we get now may end up being just the wealth of outsiders as cheap as the old frontier of the Tang and Han Western Regions... Xiao Xuan seemed to be a little drunk at the banquet and said to everyone.