The fall of Tianjing does not mean that the world is peaceful, Shi Dakai still has tens of thousands of soldiers in Guangxi, and the Twist Army in the north is also causing trouble in various places, but the British army thinks that their work is over, and asks for the agreed 5 million taels of silver bounty.

Although the Qing court saved a lot of expenses due to the abolition of the Internal Affairs Office and the Eight Banners, the financial situation has not fundamentally changed, and the irregular system of regimental training in various places must also be abolished in a short period of time, and the military expenses will be paid by the imperial court instead, otherwise how can the authority of the imperial court be reflected?

Qing Xianfeng three years, the Taiping Tian ** team captured Nanjing, the Qing Dynasty Taichang Temple Qing Lei Yi Yi in Yangzhou garrison, in view of the "lack of national funds, the military does not give" to adopt the curtain guest Qianjiang to build yì, in Jiangsu to raise funds from merchants, in the fairy temple (now Jiangdu, Jiangsu), Shao Bo, Yiling and other towns of rice line trial, the initial tax rate of one centimeter, the following year to ask the Qing court to expand to Henan, a few years to expand to the whole country.

Originally, the centigold was only levied on the main water and land roads, and then to prevent merchants from evading taxes and related officials to make profits, more sub-bureaus were set up in various places, and finally the centigold can be divided into four categories according to the type: department stores, salt, foreign medicine, and local medicine. Due to the lack of authority of the imperial court, the collection of centijin by local officials was very irregular, Zeng Guofan was the first to see this problem, and on the way to Beijing, he found that there were many cases of indiscriminate taxation, so he promptly wrote to the imperial court to ask for the standardization of the centijin system, in order to show that he thought about the court in his heart and gave himself an extra talisman.

The imperial court really did not disappoint Zeng Guofan, and the emperor issued an order to Su Shun, asking this Hubu Shangshu to arrange for Zeng Guofan to work in the Hubu and be responsible for the removal of the national gold.

This means that the financial resources of the imperial court have shrunk further, and it seems that the auction of the Old Summer Palace is imperative.

The Qing Dynasty News made a detailed explanation of the financial goodness of the imperial court, which was unprecedented in the Qing Dynasty, and now, the officials and people of the entire Qing Dynasty knew that the imperial court would rather auction off the royal forbidden garden than increase the tax burden of the common people in order to improve the financial situation, and could not help but set off a patriotic tide, and many gentry spontaneously donated to the household department, but all of them were rejected by the imperial court, because they were afraid of unreliable local officials, and the imperial court encouraged the gentry to settle the displaced people.

What's going on? The court doesn't even want money? The way of the world has changed.

The way of the world has changed, it is time for the Taishang to take a breath, he has formulated a 100-year unshakable policy for the Qing Dynasty, basically including the protection of human rights, the protection of private property, the reform of etiquette and law, the establishment of the firewall of the household bank for official corruption, the popularization of primary education, the preliminary justice **, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang is the future ruling minister he arranged, it is almost time to step aside from the role of the Taishang, to see how the Qing Dynasty develops on its own.

Under his arrangement, the miscellaneous military base in Qinhuangdao was officially canceled, and he took six warships to the south, intending to show up as the Duke of London at the auction of the Old Summer Palace in Shanghai to buy something of interest.

It is estimated that no one would dare to buy the Old Summer Palace itself, but there must be someone interested in the 100 auction items.

The auction was held at the Jardine Matheson Building, No. 27 on the Bund in the Shanghai Public Concession. Jardine Matheson was one of the main culprits of the Second Opium War, and it was only natural that the British chose to auction it here, and they also thought that if they could not get a good price in Shanghai, they would take it back to London and France.

Before 1853, the Qing court still held the control of the Shanghai Concession, but the Shanghai Knife Society rebelled, making the imperial court unable to manage the concession, at that time by the concession Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands and other countries formed a management body called "Shanghai Taxpayers Committee", Chinese because of its function of managing public affairs is very similar to the Ministry of Industry, so it is translated as "Shanghai Ministry of Industry Bureau", they recruited police to obtain the actual control of the concession, Because the British capital occupied most of the seats in the Shanghai Ministry of Industry Bureau, the French felt unhappy and were considering withdrawing from the United Ministry of Industry Bureau and establishing the French Concession themselves.

The Windsor consortium's influence on the Bund was intimidating to all foreigners, and it bought a large number of buildings on the Bund's prime from British firms, starting with No. 18 on the Bund, which was the British Telegraph Company building. Number 17 is the Faraday Power Company building. Number 16 is the building of the Bank of Zurich, with the Swiss flag. No. 15 is the Motor Plaza, which is the joint sales headquarters of the Oxford Motor Works and the Stambel Lake Motor Works in China, and the British and Bavarian flags are displayed. No. 14 is the headquarters building of the Singapore Petrochemical Company, with the flag of the East India Company and the Dutch East India Company working in it, so the flags of the British and Dutch East India Companies are hoisted.

The number 13, which is inauspicious in the eyes of Westerners, is not a big deal for the people of the Qing Dynasty, so the building of the Daqing Railway Bureau is being built here. Other buildings are built according to the classic architectural style of a certain country, but the Daqing Railway Bureau is a strange thing in the public concession, and it is ready to use Ming and Qing wooden buildings, which if it were not for the Bank of Zurich, a European banking giant, it may have been vetoed by the Shanghai Ministry of Industry to show the privilege of Europeans here.

Number Twelve is the Victoria's Secret Building. Fashion brands should not have appeared in the backward country of the Qing Dynasty, but Victoria's Secret did business with fabrics such as chemical fiber blended fabrics, and this industry was urgently needed by the people of the Qing Dynasty. Italians are very particular about dressing, and there are a large number of brilliant designers, who also settled in Victoria's Secret Building, so the flags of the United Kingdom and the newly formed Italian Confederation are flown here.

No. 11 is a building building with the flags of Sweden and the Japanese Federation, as IKEA and Nippon Construction are stationed here.

Number 10 is the building. Preparations were underway for the Qing Dynasty Royal Radio to further monopolize the Qing Dynasty's press circles.

Number Nine is the Music Building, which sells phonographs and records, and flies the Belgian flag.

No. 8 is the Consulate of Luxembourg, where the Grand Duke of Luxembourg stays, which is heavily guarded, and the Chinese headquarters of 10 companies under the Windsor consortium in front of it are also silently supporting the authority of Luxembourg, a small country.

The Duke of London has 11 buildings on the Bund, and the national flags cover 10 countries: the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Bavaria, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Japan, the Qing Dynasty, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The Windsor consortium is called a multinational corporation. As long as the ordinary rich person owns any of the institutions represented by these 11 buildings, it is enough to become a significant big player, and the Windsor consortium is a super big player, and then think about the scale effect, so Qi Taiyu will say that "the richest man in the world is a relatively humble nickname for the Duke of London".

If there is only one person in this world who dares to buy the Old Summer Palace, everyone can think of the Duke of London, because it doesn't matter if he loses this money. Now, here he comes.

In addition to the bigwigs in the 11 buildings, there were the British consul in Shanghai, the Taipan of Baoshun and Jardine Matheson, Qi Taiyu, Xu Run and other compradors, as for Xu Rongcun, who was the head of Chinese intelligence in Tangning, he had been by his side at all, and had made great contributions to his plan to blackmail the princes.

Faraday also appeared in the welcoming procession, and it's not surprising that 17 on the Bund isn't the Faraday Power Building? Because Faraday appeared here, it is not surprising that Miss Faraday appeared here, the 13-year-old Oriental beautiful girl stood beside Faraday quite Tingtingyu, and Faraday was very proud, of course, he pampered his daughter too much, and he could promise her anything, such as coming to Shanghai to participate in the auction this time, Faraday's first scientist who was used to frugality in the first half of his life, and he was not interested in oriental calligraphy and painting. It's her daughter who insists on coming to participate in the once-in-a-century auction of the Old Summer Palace, and she must buy something good. The curiosities of the Old Summer Palace are not affordable for everyone, Faraday is no ordinary person now, his stake in the power company has made him the richest man in the world, and his annual income and growth make other rich people see the power tycoon who wants to hit the wall.

Downing was surprised by the appearance of one person - Queen Victoria's sweetheart, Princess Louise, who was as tall as her young sister Alice Phil Faraday, a year older than her, and two beautiful girls stood side by side, like a pair of delicate Gemini angels.

Downing: "Louise? Is it really you? In his impression, it was impossible for the queen and the prince to let her run around, let alone Shanghai, an adventurer's paradise.

Louise was quite proud when she saw Downing's surprise, but she was very open, and rushed up to give the duke's uncle a hug of a beautiful Western girl that everyone envied, and exclaimed, "It's me!" Didn't expect that, right? ”

Faraday said, "The Governor of the Straits Settlements has arranged for us to guard the safety of Her Royal Highness the Princess. ”

This is not a reason for Princess Louise to come to Shanghai, there must be other things, however, don't think too much, first meet old friends, the highest status is of course the British national hero, the diplomat who was captured by the Qing soldiers, Mr. Pashali.

Tang Ning asked him with concern about the abuse he was in the Qing Guoren prison, and Pasha Li even called him lucky, he was still a national hero, and even dared to negotiate with Hong Xiuquan to divide the Qing Dynasty, but he didn't negotiate. Just have fun, King Hong wants the whole world, maybe the whole earth, how can he talk to foreigners about dividing his big cake?

Now that the British army has not completely withdrawn from the Qing Dynasty, there are many troops in Shanghai, and the commander of the British army, Grant, is also in the welcoming procession, and said to Tang Ning: "Boss, the air force is really eye-opening, I took some pictures of the Tianwang Palace, do you want to take a look?" "All officers and men who served in the East India Company and all sorts of people liked to refer to Downing as their boss, and Grant was no exception. This "nickname" is apt to mean that even after these people leave India, they will be greatly influenced by their work in India for a long time. Basically, diplomats, businessmen, and military men in the East have worked in India, and they are all under the hands of this big boss. （http：／／.）。

He really took out the photo, and after Tang Ning looked at it for a moment or two, everyone came over to take a look. The most striking thing is, of course, the big pit. Tang Ning smiled slightly, this photo is good, but he has seen the more shocking photos, which were taken from the airship, and only from this angle can he better see the little boy's naughty Cheng dù. However, Tang Ning immediately ordered the snow to hide the photo, if others saw it, they would definitely be crazy to copy the airship, the Air Force really represents the king of the future war.

Hu Xueyan admired the world's richest man he had admired for a long time, the title he envied the most. I heard the people around me say, "Is this the Duke of London?" I heard that all 11 buildings on the Bund are his, which is amazing! ”

"The foreigners all nodded and bowed, I haven't seen this formation!"

"Do you make it? He worked from commoner to duke. ”

A man surnamed Liu sighed: "Husband, it should be like this!" ”

One of the surnames said, "He can take his place!" ”