For the mother of this body, Zhu Jinglun's feelings are complicated, to say that it has nothing to do with this woman at all, after all, it is the blood mother of the body that he inherited, if there is feelings, it is not realistic, but to say that there is no emotion at all, there is always a feeling in my heart that I can't say anything unclear. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

This feeling made him feel a little panicked for no reason when he remembered that there was a mother waiting for his son, as if he had committed a heinous crime, perhaps because he had taken away a mother's most beloved son, so he had never seen this "mother" until now.

But in any case, now that his mother is seriously ill, and the situation is quite bad, Zhu Jinglun is likely to have to go back to see her for the last time, then he must go back, this is not only moral guilt, but also realistic constraints, in this era of loyalty and filial piety, if Zhu Jinglun is not in a hurry to go back at this time, he will not want to mix in this society, not to mention that officialdom can't tolerate him, ordinary people can't tolerate him.

But he is a county magistrate, so he can't just leave, and he has to explain the things that should be explained clearly before leaving.

The first time to send someone to chase back the Fuli who had just left yesterday, Fuli can't take the boat, and is unwilling to ride a horse, usually travel by sedan chair, the far door is also a carriage, the pursuit of comfort is impossible for him to let the carriage go too fast, now it is impossible to return to Guangzhou.

The second county Cheng Chen Zhiting invited over.

"Brother Chen, I have to go, my mother is seriously ill. Perhaps, there will be no return. At least not in the short term. You're going to have to work for you here. After I leave, you have to be careful in everything, you have to take over the county government of Xin'an for a while, and I will write a letter of recommendation to the governor, and it is best to appoint you as the county magistrate, if not, at least acting. ”

Zhu Jinglun briefly explained the situation.

Chen Zhiting's face was gloomy, death is great, this is the worldview of this era, he can only comfort Zhu Jinglun and let Zhu Jinglun think on the bright side.

Zhu Jinglun waved his hand: "My mother is old, I am prepared, you don't have to worry about me." But I'm afraid it won't be easy on your side, there are too many people staring at Xin'an. You have to be careful. The most important thing to take into account is dealing with foreigners, I have already sent someone to stop Fu Li, he is the confidant of the Governor, you must not make your own decisions about everything, please ask him for everything. ”

Zhu Jinglun encountered constraints in Xin'an, Chen Zhiting will only encounter more, those people hinder Bai Gui's face, and they don't dare to go too far, but Chen Zhiting is just a person, and there is no big background, they will definitely attack it in groups, after all, the Xin'an Li Bureau will make people crazy with a million taels of gold a year.

But if everything is topped by Fuli, it will be much better, Fuli is an authentic banner man, this identity is a talisman, and he is a confidant by Bai Gui's side, and others can't touch him.

The only thing to worry about is Chen Zhiting's refusal to cooperate.

Zhu Jinglun advised: "Although Fuli has no official status, you have to understand that on the scene, he has a bigger face than you. ”

He was afraid that Chen Zhiting would not be able to pull his face and ask for advice from a white body.

Chen Zhiting nodded: "Don't worry, my lord, I am measured." ”

Chen Zhiting is no longer a white and pure scholar, he has been with Zhu Jinglun for more than a year, and he can be regarded as figuring out the crooks in the officialdom, especially Zhu Jinglun is not very in charge, and the county government of Xin'an is not so much in charge of Zhu Jinglun as Chen Zhiting in charge. After a year of fighting wits and courage with those county officials, Chen Zhiting is at least proficient even if he is not proficient.

Those county officials are not what Zhu Jinglun is worried about, to be honest, the original county government has nothing worth bothering to deal with, but it is just a tax grain of two materials a year, as well as the county's school administration, these have regulations, and the corruption of the county officials is also part of this regulation, and the rules have been established for hundreds of years, if you still bother with people, it can only be said that it is too immature.

The only thing to worry about is to interact with foreigners, Zhu Jinglun has always been in charge before, although he always takes Chen Zhiting with him, hoping that he can learn some, but Chen Zhiting has not learned any foreign language so far, and he is still very ignorant of diplomatic methods, but soon the Anglo-French alliance and the Qing court will resume the war, and diplomatic work may become a top priority, and it will fall short if it is not done well.

In fact, even if it fails, it is not a matter of the sky falling, but if Chen Zhiting is guilty because of this, it will not be good, so Zhu Jinglun focused on telling him.

Now it seems that Chen Zhiting is still an understanding person, and Zhu Jinglun is relieved.

The county government is under the control of Chen Zhiting, and if there is no accident, there will be no big mess.

"There's one thing right now, something that Americans are going to investigate, and it's tricky. You always ask Fuli for advice, you only have to do things, and it doesn't matter if you do it well or badly. ”

Chen Zhiting nodded.

After some explanation, Zhu Jinglun invited Hurd again.

I also told Hurd about my situation first.

Hurd immediately frowned: "Zhu, when will you be able to come back?" ”

Hurd's presiding over the affairs of the Xin'an Li Bureau all relied on Zhu Jinglun's strong support, and if Zhu Jinglun left, not to mention those red-eyed officials in Guangzhou who wanted to pounce on him, those county officials in Xin'an alone would be enough for him.

Zhu Jinglun sighed: "You should know about my country, maybe I won't be able to come back." ”

Hurd's heart suddenly had mixed feelings, and all kinds of thoughts poured out at the same time, if Zhu Jinglun couldn't come back, he knew very well that his career in Xin'an was over. In fact, he has been a little tired of the recent breaks, and the exchange is on the right track, although the opium trade has been smuggled away by the South China Sea and Dongguan bureaus, but the Xin'an Exchange has always firmly controlled the two normal large transactions of silk fabrics and tea.

The same is true of the Bureau, which now has a team of more than 120 people, and the various systems have been gradually perfected after exploration, and the various procedures are very smooth, so it can be said that the new Security Bureau has no difference from the management of any customs in Europe. This is a surprise to Westerners in Hong Kong and Macau, and every time they praise it, they can't do without the name Hurd.

But Hurd felt bored, he felt that he had nothing to do, that everything that needed to be done was done, and that the rest was just boring repetition day after day. He thought he didn't care about these things, until he heard that Zhu Jinglun was leaving and would not come back, that he realized that he cared about these things very much, and he cared very much.

"But Zhu, you know. The situation here in Chiwan is not so rosy. The port is now more and more prosperous, but the port facilities are still very backward, you know that in the two months when the new tea came down in July, there were many merchant ships who had to stay in Hong Kong for more than three days. It's even worse in the city, where it's hard to walk out into the streets, where workers are building shacks on the streets, at the corners of alleys, under other people's roofs, and it's so convenient that you have to cover your mouth and nose when you walk on the streets. There are also serious security problems such as theft, fights and extortion. ”

Hurd kept talking about the various problems that had occurred in the Chiwan port area in the past year.

Zhu Jinglun listened patiently: "The land here, including the town, is the land of Chiwan Village. Under the laws of my country, I can't buy it by force, and I don't dare to buy it by force. If the land and even the streets are private land, they are willing to rent it to others to build shacks, and we have no legal control. As for law and order, the county officials had no experience or time to manage a thriving trading port. ”

Most of the land in Chiwan Port belongs to Chiwan Village, an ancient village that is said to have been established during the Song and Yuan dynasties. There is a tragic legend, when the Mongolian army approached, Lu Xiufu held the young Song Dynasty young emperor in the cliff mountain jumping into the sea to martyrdom, at the same time there were 100,000 people who were martyred, the blood stained the river red, the result of the young emperor's body floating in the sea is not sinkable, the local people saw that the bay was dyed red, so they named it Chiwan, and buried the body of the little emperor here, this tomb is located in the center of Chiwan Village, called the Mausoleum of Song Shaodi.

I don't know if the legend is really unknown, and I don't know if there is really a little emperor buried in the mausoleum of the young emperor, but the feelings expressed are true, that is, the tragedy of the emperor of the Song Dynasty has a strong influence in the Pearl River estuary, and the genealogy of the largest family in Xin'an often dates back to that era.

It is precisely because of the long history of Chiwan Village that most of the land in this area of Chiwan belongs to Chiwan Village.

However, the Qing Dynasty law was very private, and when the British first engaged in the concession in Shanghi, they rented the barren beach of the Huangpu River, but without the consent of the local peasants, even the county order could not do anything, and they persuaded them to make peace for a long time, and the British rented the land at a high price.

Therefore, the construction of Chiwan Port is very troublesome, the people of Chiwan Village do not want to sell land at all, Zhu Jinglun's arsenal is built on Nanshan, in addition to safety reasons, the biggest reason is that there is no way to buy suitable land nearby, if you really want to buy land forcibly, I am afraid you will have to fight with the Chiwan people.

Hurd didn't think about it, or had thought about it many times, and said, "We can develop the eastern and western headlands." ”

But it is not completely impossible to expand, along both sides of Chiwan are coastal mountain beams, these headlands can not be cultivated, there are also piers and forts of the Ming Dynasty on the headland, so the mountain beams are basically considered public land, can be extended in that direction, but the cost of expansion is very high, later generations developed Shenzhen, the government bulldozed the hills on the east side, and even the forts on the headlands were dug with only one foundation.

Zhu Jinglun sighed: "But the last time we bought a cannon, we basically spent all of our money, so I'm afraid it's impossible this year." ”

Therefore, if the headland is opened up, the cost will be raised, and Zhu Jinglun will be unable to bear it for a while.

Hurd continued: "I calculated that if I could auction off the excess land, I would be able to cover the development costs. ”

It's a good idea for the government to build infrastructure, bring about land appreciation, and recoup costs through land auctions. In fact, Hong Kong is playing this system now, and it has been playing until the era of Li Chaoren, and the first city to play land finance is Hong Kong, and this system was not learned from Europe, but invented in Hong Kong.

This system is called the land lease system, the British government in Hong Kong leases land to land users, and the users pay a one-time land use right transfer fee within the specified period through the land use right within the lease approval period, which can allow the government to get rent for the next few decades in a short period of time, and later expands the land right to 99 years, which is actually equivalent to selling.

In fact, this system was also forced, because Hong Kong was really desolate at the beginning, and the British government did not want to invest unilaterally, so the governor of Hong Kong came up with this system for the sake of finance.

Now Hurd wants to borrow it, which is of course a good thing, Zhu Jinglun is a pragmatist.

nodded: "Your idea is good, I will let Chen Zhiting try it." ”

Hurd shook his head: "No, no, I suggest that it is better for the newly developed land to be managed by the Bureau." ”

Managed by the Authority? Isn't that Hurd's own management!

Zhu Jinglun almost casually wanted to deny it, because he felt that Hurd was asking for power.