(The second update, tomorrow will be added!) ）

The first month of the new year, on the mountain trail leading to Hunan will be lively again, the sound of the horses' hooves will always echo on the official road, the local goods of the two provinces are relying on this narrow mountain road between the mountains, the war did not bring much impact to the merchants, and even brought them new opportunities. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Hubei's salt, Hunan's cloth, Jiangxi's silkworms and other commodities are transported from Jiangxi to Hunan and Hubei, or from the two lakes to Jiangxi through this narrow mountain road.

The sound of horses' hooves knocking on the rocks is loud, a team of horses is slowly moving forward on the mountain road, and the sound of the wheels of the carriage pressing on the mountain road is even more echoing in the mountains and forests, and in this horse team, a burly middle-aged man is particularly attention-grabbing, and the reason why it attracts attention is because of his body that is half a head or even a head taller than the others. o

"Master, we're almost at the border of Hunan!"

After climbing over a mountain, Sun Zaitian, who led the team, said to the tall man in an almost flattering tone.

The handlebar style also relies on a master like this to eat, and it is not easy to make a living these days, especially now when the war is in chaos, if you can take over a master, then at least you don't have to worry about living in the future.

"Oh, so fast?"

"Look, sir, the bridge is at most two miles away, this side of the bridge is our Jiangxi, and the other side of the bridge is Hunan."

Li Hongzhang looked into the distance, and sure enough, there was a bridge at the end of the mountain road, and behind the bridge was a town.

When he got closer, Li Hongzhang saw several "thieves" with foreign guns standing at the stone bridge.

"That's ......"

"Sir, that's a gendarme sent from the city."

Sun Zaitian hurriedly said.

"Our yamen in Jiangxi are all government officers, but here are all military police......

Li Hongzhang is no stranger to the military police, in fact, after coming to Jiangxi, he learned about the "Han thief" through various channels, and naturally has a certain understanding of the military police. After the "Han thieves" seized Wuchang, in order to maintain order inside and outside the city, it appointed a captain, who could lead a team composed of several cavalrymen, who was responsible for dealing with soldiers who violated military discipline, and later the gendarmerie became the symbol of the "Han thieves", and it used the military police to maintain military discipline, restrain the behavior of the soldiers, defend important military premises and official offices, escort military supplies, and interrogate prisoners. Every prefecture and county has a military police, which replaces the government service to maintain law and order in the prefecture and punish idle ruffians.

Among the Hunan gentry who fled to Nanchang, even those who did not have the slightest affection for the "Han thieves" would call it "good governance" when referring to the gendarmerie. They all thought that the old government officials were not in harmony with the needs of the current situation, and criticized it as "insufficient anti-theft and more than enough to disturb the people," while various localities in Hunan "set up their own military police, and robbery became less and less common." The people also have a basic understanding of the gendarmerie. The improvement in public order and the basic approval of the general population came from the large number of gendarmes and the methods they used to patrol policing, because they gave "the people a natural sense of security when they wake up from a sound sleep and hear the clatter of the gendarmerie boots".

More importantly, the gendarmerie has a restraining effect on the army, and when the military is booming, using the gendarmerie to maintain local law and order can avoid the lack of local yamen who dare not provoke the army. It is precisely for this reason that some people in Nanchang will propose that the "Han thieves" should be emulated and set up with a military police, first, to maintain law and order and appease the people, and second, to maintain military discipline and restrain soldiers.

However, it is a trick of a "Han thief" after all, although some people mention it, Zeng Guofan will never use it.

But Li Hongzhang was extremely curious about this praised gendarme, and when he arrived on the bridge with the caravan, the gendarmes on the bridge did not check too much, and did not even collect money, and only glanced at Li Hongzhang.

"Why didn't they check it? Isn't that too lax? ”

Originally, Li Hongzhang had prepared all kinds of rhetoric, but as a result, he crossed the "level" so easily, which made him feel a little uncomfortable.

"Aren't they afraid that the official army will enter Hunan from here?"

Although he thought so in his heart, Li Hongzhang also knew very well that even the checkpoints set up by the Hunan army in Jiangxi were mostly just decorations, although there were a little more people, but those decorations were just for collecting money. But here they don't take a penny.

"What is it that keeps them from worrying about their salaries?"

Because he knew that the salary of the Han army was higher than that of the Hunan army, Li Hongzhang was more curious about why he could maintain an army of nearly 200,000 without levying money and donating new money, and these troops all used foreign guns. In contrast, although the Hunan army was only 40,000, in order to raise military salaries, the teachers were already worried.

But on the side of the Han thief, not only can he afford tens of millions of military salaries every year, but also have money to do other things, is it possible, this "Han thief" is really a bit of a stone into gold?

For Li Hongzhang, in the next month, after passing through the provincial capitals and prefectures of Hunan, he has slowly realized that it is not the "Han thief" who has a bit of a trick of turning stone into gold. It is the prosperity of its industry and commerce, which allows it to obtain unimaginable silver profits.

“…… In Changsha alone, the industrial and commercial tax has exceeded one million yuan a year, and the old years cannot be compared! ”

Thinking of what the old friend who visited Changsha said, Li Hongzhang's brows furrowed more and more tightly,

"...... of excise tax"

Saying these three words on his lips, Li Hongzhang once again thought of the difference between Jiangxi and Hunan, in Jiangxi, you can see the checkpoints of levying centigold everywhere, but in Hunan there is no same checkpoint, not only does not levy centigold, and even reduces taxes on some goods, but despite this, Hunan's industrial and commercial tax is several times that of Jiangxi. Even now it is almost equal to the provincial field endowment, which was unthinkable in the past. Not to mention that Changsha has a commercial tax of more than one million a year, even if it is a Beijing division, it may not be able to collect so much commercial tax in a year.

"The steamship bureau makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, and the coal mines make hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, and every year with these factories and mines, Wuchang can get no less than 10 million yuan in silver.

Standing on the steamer, looking at the Dongting Lake, on the 800-mile Dongting, the steamships of the steamship bureau have opened up dozens of routes, which are not only convenient for the people, convenient for the merchants, but also bring rich returns to the government.

"The convenience of steamship and transportation led to a commercial boom, and the commercial boom brought an increase in tax revenue......"

Thinking about what he heard from his old friend in Hunan Academy, Li Hongzhang found that he really couldn't understand it, and he couldn't understand everything here, but many things here attracted him and attracted him to explore the reasons.

He even feels that this month is more of a sightseeing experience, and he has not been able to really understand all this, knowing that China is now in the midst of "great changes unseen in 3,000 years", Li Hongzhang has vaguely realized in his heart that it has now reached the point where it will not change.

But how?

Although the "Han thief" is an enemy, for Li Hongzhang, he doesn't mind asking for advice like an enemy. But even if you can discuss one or two things with the enemy, how can the imperial court learn from the "Han thief" in the future.

Apparently impossible!

And more importantly, is it possible for the imperial court to defeat the "Han thieves"?

Before coming to Hunan, Li Hongzhang never doubted that the imperial court would definitely be able to exterminate the world's anti-thieves, after all, the imperial court was righteous in hand.

But now, this thought of his has been shaken, and it can even be said that it has been fundamentally shaken.

He didn't even see a glimmer of hope, and he couldn't see the slightest hope that the imperial court might defeat the "Han thieves", maybe the imperial court could exterminate the bandits, but how could the "Han thieves" be compared to the bandits.

It's not comparable!

The Han thieves can be said to be strong and strong, not to mention the 200,000 foreign guns, which are far from being the enemy of the imperial court. Even though the imperial court has trained tens of thousands of foreign guns, there are 200,000 "Han thieves", and even their foreign guns are sufficient enough to be used by the military police stationed in the localities, which shows that the number of foreign guns is sufficient. In contrast, only a few battalions of the Hunan army can use foreign guns, and most of the Hunan troops still use broadswords and spears.

"Could it be that this love for Xinjueluo's qi is really exhausted."

When this thought surfaced in Li Hongzhang's heart, it only made his heart tremble, of course he didn't want to believe this. But when an idea comes to mind, it slowly takes root in people's hearts like a seedling.

In the next few days, on the ship, as more and more people came into contact along the way, the seemingly inconspicuous seedling slowly grew, and even Li Hongzhang himself did not realize that in his heart, he had already begun to love Xinjueluo's qi number, and questioned the qi number of the "Great Qing Kingdom".

"Wuchang, what does Wuchang look like?"

When the ship was about to arrive in Wuchang, Li Hongzhang silently thought in his heart, and now he was also full of expectations for the trip to Wuchang, but he was no longer looking forward to buying foreign guns and foreign guns with Wuchang, but more looking forward to being able to understand the city and everything there!

"Nanchang is far inferior to Wuchang!"

After leaving the dock, sitting on the rickshaw, looking at the streets that were even more spacious than the streets of Jingshi, those passers-by with peaceful and satisfied expressions, Li Hongzhang secretly thought in his heart that the biggest difference between the two places is not the city, but the people, the people here look peaceful and comfortable, and the people of Nanchang are completely different, not to mention anything else, just this kind of comfortable look, even makes people have an illusion, the illusion that they are in the prosperous world.

And this feeling is not only in Wuchang, in a month in Hunan, what surprised him the most was the comfortable mentality of the people when they were in a peaceful world.

"Don't they know that the world is in chaos right now?"

As if answering Li Hongzhang's question, the newsboy on the side of the road was at this moment, holding the newspaper in one hand and shouting loudly in the other.

"Look at the newspaper! Newspaper! Look at today's newspaper, 100,000 Taiping soldiers are forcing Tongguan, intending to seize Guanzhong ......" (to be continued.) )