After understanding this truth, as a king, there are often two choices, one is to fully respect those old traditions and give them time to convert, and the other is to completely shatter those old things and rebuild a new world from the ruins. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Different people have different choices, Zhu Jinglun chose the former, he has always taken a conservative approach, with gentle means to change the country, try not to touch those deep-rooted traditions, but within the scope of this tradition, constantly loading new things. Just like in an old water tank that seems to be old but is still very strong, constantly filled with fresh living water, one day the water in the tank will be replaced, as for whether the water tank is old or not, in fact, it does not matter.

The difference between the so-called incremental innovation and the toppling revolution is here, and the difference lies in whether the old wine is used in the old bottle or the old wine is used in the new bottle.

Chen Zhiting is definitely a representative of the old era, he is an official eunuch, his brother was a high-ranking official of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the family is a local noble family, and he has also been a member of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, culturally his old school level is not low, and his background is clear in the old era, of course, it is not easy to promote such a person into the new era, but in other words, as long as this kind of person can enter the new era, the whole country will also enter the new era, so Chen Zhiting definitely has a symbolic meaning, and at the same time, his identity can also be supported by the old forces, With him in Shang Shuling's position, the old forces will be at ease.

Zhu Jinglun has pushed Chen Zhiting to a rather avant-garde point, he arranged for Chen Zhiting to travel around the world, from the beginning of building the foundation of Xin'an, he took Chen Zhiting with him, and explained various modern governing concepts to Chen Zhiting by word and deed, until now, Chen Zhiting has long been not opposed to all kinds of new things, such as the new tax system, financial system, etc.

But Chen Zhiting himself knows that his heart has not changed, so many years have passed, especially after the Ming army captured Beijing, he has long had no loyal feelings for the Beiqi dynasty, but every time he touches the roots of his hair, he still feels uncomfortable for cutting off his braids.

It's a matter of habit, he's not used to these things, he's not even used to braids, let alone get used to those new rules and regulations, those fine management based on mathematical logic, and those strict procedures that eliminate the human factor as much as possible, and he just doesn't object to it, as if rationally he knows that cutting braids is right, but physically he just isn't used to it.

A person like him, who was born in the old era and lives in the new era, is destined to be contradictory, anxious, and uncomfortable.

But what made him even more panicked was that he was still in a high position, and the high position he was in was different from the people in the same position before, and he couldn't find any reference in the history books, because even the ancient ministers didn't seem to have as much power as he did now, and he could preside over almost everything in the country, except for military power.

The prime minister of the Qin Shi Huang era built the Great Wall, and the prime minister of the Sui Yang Emperor era built the Grand Canal, but Chen Zhiting knew very well that the emperor at that time definitely knew that the important matter of building the Great Wall and building the canal was definitely known by the emperor at that time, and even grasped it himself, at least after the prime minister-level officials discussed it with the emperor, or even asked for permission before proceeding.

But Chen Zhiting found that Emperor Zhu really let go completely, even if he Chen Zhiting wanted to build a Great Wall on the land of the Ming Dynasty, he didn't need to discuss with the emperor, as long as his pen fell, there were countless people working hard for it, so he felt that this pen was extremely heavy, and he couldn't lift it when it was heavy.

This is still not used to it, not accustomed to the imperial power to give up the power of arbitrariness and let the prime minister play freely.

He is not used to it, whether subconsciously or consciously, he always wants to find something to do for the emperor.

But he found that the book was no longer useful, the emperor said that no matter what it was, it really didn't matter, no matter how big the matter, in the past he thought that he couldn't decide to hand it to the emperor, and the emperor would approve it, but now that it was handed over to the emperor, it was either beaten back by the emperor intact, or the words "handle it according to the discretion of the book order" were written on the cover, and it seemed that the cover had not even been opened.

The book didn't work, Chen Zhiting had to ask for instructions in person, fortunately, the emperor hid in the palace, and he didn't dare not really meet with anyone, at least they, the ministers, as long as there was a reasonable reason, the emperor would still meet.

And to ask for instructions in person, you must find the real problems that are difficult for you to decide, otherwise finding some trivial things will only make the emperor look down on himself. But these are not problems, as the prime minister, he will encounter too many difficulties every day.

So these days, every once in a while, Chen Zhiting went to ask the emperor for instructions, although most of the time the emperor would say perfunctory words such as letting the Shangshu Provincial Public Council decide, but as long as he could see the emperor, Chen Zhiting was at ease, because he reached his meaning.

In the past few days, Chen Zhiting has been running very diligently, in the past three days and five days, these days are not two days to come.

Zhu Jinglun listened carefully to Chen Zhiting's report, as if there were a lot of troubles in the past two days.

"The arsenal sent news that a large coal mine had been discovered in Quang Ninh in Vietnam, and a large iron mine had been discovered in Tai Nguyen. Wechen sent people to negotiate with Vietnam in the hope of mining minerals, but Vietnam said that it could not move the leylines and refused to allow it. ”

The dispatch of the geologists from the arsenal to Vietnam for prospecting had been a few months earlier, before negotiations with the British had begun, but the main elements had been privately agreed. Zhu Jinglun knew that once British steel imports were liberalized, there would basically be no market for the steelmaking products of the arsenal.

The cost of steelmaking in the arsenal is 100 taels of silver a ton, and the steel exported by the British to China is only 80 taels of silver a ton, so they still have money to make, and the cost of high-quality steel in Britain does not exceed 50 taels a ton, plus 30 taels of freight, at the price of 80 taels, Britain can export at will.

Zhu Jinglun is not worried about the trade imbalance caused by cheap steel imports, he is worried that due to the impact of British steel, Daming will lose the ability to smelt steel. The arsenal can still be heavily subsidized to maintain, but the private iron factory is absolutely going to close down, and tens of thousands of Foshan iron factories are closed, affecting not only the livelihood of tens of thousands of people, but a kind of skill.

So he sent engineers to Vietnam to look for minerals, he remembered that there was both coal and steel in northern Vietnam, and many of the smelting experts in the arsenal knew minerals, and many of the minerals and smelting in this era were one and the same thing, and it took them a few months to find a few big mines.

The reason why I chose Vietnam instead of going to the Northeast to find iron ore and Shanxi to find coal mines is because even if I find it, it may not be able to improve the weakness of the Ming industry, because the distance is too far. In Vietnam, however, the Hongji Coal Mine is located right by the sea, and a wharf can be built to transport it. Iron ore in Taiyuan Province can also be transported by waterway, through the Red River waterway, and the price should be low enough.

When these cheap raw materials entered the Ming Dynasty, the arsenal promoted steelmaking technology to handicraft workshops, which could not only effectively reverse the impact of British steel, but also promote modern steelmaking technology on a large scale.

Now the mine has been found, but the Vietnamese will not allow it to be mined, Zhu Jinglun sighed, if this country was not invaded by France, it would really be the same as the Qing government, and it would not know how to change if it was not beaten.

Vietnam, like Korea, is close to China, they have always been regarded as a first-class country by the Central Plains Dynasty, according to history, they are even closer than North Korea and the Central Plains Dynasty, after all, North Korea is independent in most history, and in the history of Vietnam, most of the time it was actually ruled directly by the Central Plains Dynasty, knowing that the Song Dynasty only began to be independent for a long time.

Culturally, Vietnam is not at all inferior to North Korea to the extent that it has been centralized. Vietnam's writing is written in Chinese characters, and Vietnam's clothing is borrowed from China, and like China, it is also based on the principle of Zuoqi, and the clothing of Youqi is regarded as barbarian.

However, because the history is different from that of North Korea, mainly the history of being directly ruled by the Central Plains Dynasty for a long time, the Vietnamese always have a sense of fear and a victim mentality when facing the Chinese Dynasty.

It is this strange mentality that when Zhu Jinglun ascended the throne in Beijing, Vietnam did not send envoys to celebrate, and it was only after Zhu Jinglun returned to Guangzhou that they secretly sent people to congratulate and were willing to coexist peacefully with the Ming Dynasty, but they never mentioned topics such as surrender, and consciously avoided the clan system.

Regarding this mining, in fact, Zhu Jinglun has always been very friendly, sending people to meet the king of Vietnam, explaining to him that the Ming needed these resources, and also telling them that Vietnam can get a lot of benefits by exporting these minerals. However, in history, the resistance to the Central Plains Dynasty made it difficult for them to accept any steps that the Ming Dynasty extended to Vietnam.

"Send someone to buy the local land first. Our businessmen go to Vietnam to buy land, and they probably won't refuse. ”

Zhu Jinglun asked.

Chen Zhiting nodded, Vietnam is very close to every move of the Central Plains Dynasty, but only at the official level, people-to-people exchanges are extremely close, Chinese buy land in Vietnam, the Vietnamese government does not care at all, to put it mildly, in the border areas, the boundary between the residents of the two countries is very blurred in this era, and some people do not even know which country they are.

"Then buy the land, then open the mine, just do nothing, and see how the Vietnamese government reacts. As long as the matter is done, the lawsuit will be easy to fight at that time. It is more appropriate to leave it to the businessman, and when the time comes, we will officially come forward, under the banner of safeguarding the people of the Ming Dynasty, and we are not afraid that Vietnam will not obey. ”

Chen Zhiting frowned and nodded, he felt that this way was no different from foreigners, it was really difficult for a scholar to accept, it was too barbaric, people didn't agree, so we wouldn't open it, and forced to go to other people's places to open mines, and the government had to give unscrupulous businessmen to open their eyes in the back, this is really a Yiren style.

"You still have a lot of things, let's talk about them."

Zhu Jinglun asked.

Chen Zhiting felt a little feeling in his heart, and even a little joy, because today was the first time in these days that Zhu Jinglun had clearly instructed him what to do, and he had always let him decide, or let Shangshu Province discuss it, and he had never given clear instructions.

Now not only did he give clear instructions to deal with the Vietnam issue, but he also took the initiative to ask him about other state affairs, and if he could do this in the future, Chen Zhiting felt that it would be equivalent to the emperor coming back to take charge of the government.

So he threw everything else out in one fell swoop.

"There are a few pieces of land on the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway that can't be harvested, and the local squires refuse to sell them anyway, two of which pass through people's ancestral halls, and the remaining ones mostly pass through the cemetery, and a few are going to rush to the temple."

"The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom wants to unite with us on the Northern Expedition, saying that as long as we can defeat the Northern Expedition again, they are willing to cede the land of Jiangxi to our country."

"Both the British and American ministers want to open up tea plantations in our country, and they have been entangled many times and refuse to give up. President Lincoln even wrote a credential to the country, saying that it would be beneficial to our country. ”

"The Russian minister urges the construction of the railway—"

Speaking of this, Zhu Jinglun suddenly interrupted Chen Zhiting.

sighed: "Lord Chen, you said so much, don't you just want to say that you, the prime minister, can't be the master, don't you just want to prove that I, the emperor, can't go abroad." ”