February 15, 1866, the first day of the first month of the Year of the Tiger in the lunar calendar. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

On this day, the weather in the north was very cold, everyone felt the cold to the bone, Cixi returned to the Forbidden City in this bleak season, and saw the palace except for the walls, the palace that was moved was not left, she hugged the Tongzhi Emperor and cried bitterly, she felt that their orphans and widows were really sad, this scene moved countless ministers, and also wiped tears.

The impoverished palace and the impoverished treasury have to bear a high indemnity.

Everyone felt that the future was very bleak, but this strengthened the loyalty of some ministers, especially some Guangdong ministers, who said that they would donate money and materials to raise reparations for the Qing Dynasty, because the Ming Dynasty originated in Guangdong, so that some Guangdong ministers actually had a feeling of guilt.

It's really hard to understand people's hearts, are these people considered morally inferior?

It's also hard to say.

Cixi cried for a long time, then wiped away her tears, and despite the opposition of the ministers, she resolutely took the little emperor to live in this cold palace with no function of protecting against the cold.

Compared to the physical cold, the fear of the future from the heart makes their hearts colder.

The Ming Dynasty came from the south across the sea, and the siege of the city and the land were unstoppable, which made them really feel a sense of crisis of losing the country.

This emotion is so strong that it makes people feel desperate, they don't know how to deal with this threat from the sea, relying on strong ships and cannons, in just a few years, the Jingshi has been opened twice, and this can no longer be anesthetized by themselves behind closed doors.

The failures brought by foreigners made them feel more humiliated, but the emerging Zhu Jinglun Ming Dynasty in the south made them really feel the sense of crisis of losing their country.

The Qing court had a real sense of crisis towards the Ming Dynasty, and the foreigners suddenly found that they needed to re-examine the emerging country of the Ming Dynasty, and they suddenly realized that the establishment of this country had suddenly revolutionized the situation in East Asia.

Just after the Ming Dynasty announced its founding, countless critics suddenly began to pay attention to the country. They found that the fledgling country had risen to become the world's largest supplier of tea, an expanding producer of raw silk, and the largest trading nation between East Asia and the West.

And they found that this country is completely different from the Qing court, they are more willing to contact with the West, more willing to trade with Westerners, although there are still many constraints, but their emperor has more than once said to diplomats from various countries that they welcome businessmen from the West, and also show a willingness to actively interact with Western countries, all of which are different from the Qing court, and also different from other East Asian countries, whether it is Japan and Korea in the northeast, or Vietnam in the south, these East Asian countries have done their best to close themselves off. The exchange and adoption of the West is incomparably negative.

This attitude of the Great Ming Kingdom is welcomed by Westerners, which is why in the end they accepted the requirements of the Great Ming Kingdom and made some concessions.

Of course, for them to make concessions, there must also be reciprocal benefits for them.

The Ming Dynasty asked the Qing court to hand over Dalian, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao and Ningbo to their jurisdiction, and the positive advantage was that Western countries, mainly Britain and France, could also open the internal market of the Qing Dynasty through here, but the potential risk was that these trade routes would be monopolized by Ming merchants like Tianjing, so at first Britain and France were fiercely opposed, even if the Ming government made a guarantee of opening, they still refused to accept it.

Of course, the most important thing is Britain, Napoleon III in this era, almost is the follower of British diplomacy, when it comes to the interests in China, the main is the interests of Britain, France's commercial development in China is not an order of magnitude with Britain, and even ranks after the United States and Russia, barely ranked fourth, and Denmark, Sweden and other small countries are almost the same.

What really made the British make concessions was that the Ming Dynasty accepted the British-controlled Qing court customs to intervene in these cities, that is to say, although the Ming Dynasty demanded control of the land and administration of Dalian and other places, the customs here still belonged to the customs of the Qing court, and still accepted the management of the British like the customs in other territories of the Qing court.

The British gave in, the French would not say anything, and the Americans were even more happy to enjoy it, but the Russians were fiercely opposed because of the problem of building a railway.

The Ming Dynasty proposed to build a railway in Dalian and other places, the foreigners were very strange at first, the Ming Dynasty did not even have a railway, but to build a railway on the land of the Qing Dynasty, but Britain and France did not object, because the Ming promised that the Qing ports under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty were all free trade ports, and all countries were welcome to come to trade.

But Russia strongly objected, because Russia believed that a railway from Dalian to their border would greatly threaten their territorial security in the east.

On this issue, the Ming government and the Russian government conducted intense consultations and negotiations, and finally reached an agreement to share the spoils, the Ming and Russia reached an agreement, once the Ming began to build the Dalian to the Russian border, the construction of the line must be negotiated with Russia and agreed before the construction can begin. At the same time, the railway must have Russian investment and, after operation, must be jointly managed by China and Russia. lest the Ming use this railway for threats to Russian territory.

In fact, under the pretext of territorial security, Lao Maozi also hoped to use a railway in the northeast to infiltrate the Manchu hometown. The construction of a railway to the Russian border in the vast northeast would also be of great interest to Russia. For example, it can completely change the commercial route between China and Russia, and change the long land transportation in the past to sea and rail combined transportation. It can be seen from the Russian negotiators' request for the line that they suggested that the railway line built by the Ming Dynasty end in Kyakhta, which was the most important town on the Sino-Russian trade route and a trading city operated by Russian merchants and Jin merchants for 200 years.

The people of Daming also feel that the times are different.

They had previously maintained neutrality between the Ming Dynasty and the Qing court, as if they did not know that Guangdong and other places had changed dynasties, and lived their usual lives in silence. It's not because they're numb and don't know how to think, they can distinguish between good and bad, they know the benefits that Daming brings to them.

First of all, the merchant class was strongly protected, there was no longer arbitrary extortion of their officials, there was no government that deprived them of their property or even threatened their personal safety at any time, and although they had to pay much more taxes than in the past, they felt a sense of security under a transparent system. Moreover, with the scientific management and the opening of policies, the business opportunities obtained by the merchants have greatly increased compared with the past, such as the opportunity of Tianjing Commercial Road, which was unimaginable before, it is a kind of business supported by the motherland's artillery and giant ships, and it is an opportunity won by the state power for them.

Tianjing Shangdao is only a special case, and the more general opportunity is the opportunity brought by the increasingly close commercial trade with Western countries after the implementation of the Ming Dynasty's opening policy, and the efficient customs built by Hurd, and the commercial institutions represented by the Kowloon Exchange, which greatly expanded the old trade base.

Of course, it is not only the businessmen who benefit, in fact, the establishment of the Ming regime, the benefit is the entire social class, even the poorest tenants, but also share the dividends of the establishment of this regime, at least one point, from Zhu Jinglun began to expand his power, did not control a place, basically in various names to exempt the tax burden, so far, the operation of the Ming government, has been out of the dependence on the land tax, completely changed from the commercial system to extract taxes.

It is impossible for people to be indifferent to these tangible interests, and countless people have their own scales in their hearts, and they have already made their own measurements, but before they were afraid of power, they had the shadow of the autocratic rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty for more than 200 years, and they did not dare to express their position because of their habits and nostalgia for the old times.

But now it's different, the Ming Dynasty's Northern Expedition, the capture of the Manchu Jingshi, and the forced Manchu Qing to cede land and pay compensation, all of which allowed them to dispel their last concerns and let them know that the Ming Dynasty had gained a firm foothold.

Then they were not afraid, they dared to take a stand, they dared to stand under the banner of Daming under the sun, and openly declared themselves to be a Daming people.

After the enthronement ceremony, more people began to celebrate, and some even made their stance clear by cutting their braids.

But there are still a group of people who are stubborn, and even sneer at the people who claim to be the people of the Ming Dynasty, and even speak ill of each other, these people not only stubbornly think that their braids are the things of their ancestors, but also scold those people who cut off their braids for forgetting their ancestors, the most terrible thing is that among this group of the most stubborn people, there are a large number of scholars, even famous scholars, they are part of the people who have the right to speak in Chinese society, and their voices have a great influence.

They even began to write articles in increasingly common newspapers, slandering and slandering the Ming Dynasty, constantly expressing their attitude of loyal ministers and filial sons of the Qing Dynasty, and calling on scholars to understand the great etiquette and righteousness, and not to serve the false Ming.

In the face of this anti-rebellious force, some Ming officials could not stand it anymore and suggested that Zhu Jinglun severely punish them, close down the newspapers that published these people's articles, and arrest and even exile these rebellious people.

But Zhu Jinglun smiled and shook his head and refused, saying that these people were just a group of old people living in the new era, a group of poor worms living in their fantasy of loyalty and morality.

These people are not worth doing it themselves, sooner or later the times will knock them out.

Zhu Jinglun has too many things to care about, a few buzzing flies are not enough for him to waste energy, in the current period, he is most concerned about the problem of coolies, in order to solve this problem, he does not hesitate to compete with the British Empire. (To be continued.) )