Just when Nevelskoy was thinking about going to take a closer look at the so-called Mulan Autumn Festival, Zhu Jishi had already arrived in Beijing City. He went north this time, and he brought more than ten concubines alone—he estimated that he would stay in Beijing for a year or two, on the one hand, to command the war with the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the vicinity; On the one hand, it was also to strengthen Zhu Ming's rule in North China. Therefore, almost the entire imperial court came to Beijing, and half of the Yingtian court also came with it. In the middle of the plan, Luo Xiangmei, Queen Shugong and Tokugawa Akiko, who are now staying in Yingtian, will also come north to meet Zhu Jishi in a few months.

There were a lot of people coming, so the procession into Beijing was very huge, and with the officers and men of the guards, it was enough for 20,000 or 30,000 people. However, Emperor Zhu himself, the Imperial Concubine Maria and Madame Duran were not among them, and the two of them had already taken a small number of guards and went to Beijing first, and the emperor wanted to appreciate the true appearance of Sijiu City after it was exhausted.

Zhu Jishi lifted the curtain and glanced out of the car. The streets are full of vendors selling all kinds of snacks, including Shandong burritos, Henan braised meat, Dezhou donkey meat, and Tianjin Wei's big fritters. It's just that there is no legendary old Beijing characteristic of donkey rolling, fried liver, coke ring, honey three knives, pea huanger, Saqima or something.

The high and low shouting sound lingers in the ears, but it is not a good Beijing film...... This city of banner men has really suffered an unprecedented catastrophe! Not only have the original residents disappeared, but even the new immigrants are very limited, only there are still some people on Zhengyangmen Street, and as soon as the carriage drove into Zhengyangmen, Emperor Zhu immediately felt the atmosphere of sadness and vicissitudes. The color of the inner city is gray. The streets are potholed. There are also craters from shells! The houses on both sides of the street are deep-walled compounds. Originally, the people who lived here were all important members of the banner people - Han people were generally not allowed to buy property in the inner city. And now these properties are all occupied by Emperor Zhu! This is a prime location in Beijing's Second Ring Road! It's worth at least trillions in the next generation, but now it's just a "ghost town" with no popularity! Well, there are ghost towns in Beijing's second ring road, and the real estate industry in the Ming Dynasty is really a bit depressed.

The convoy turned a few bays in the inner city of Beijing and followed the walls of the Forbidden City...... No, now it is not called the Forbidden City, but the Shuntian Forbidden City, which is theoretically the same as the Yingtian Forbidden City. It is also the residence of the Son of Heaven. However, there are no female officials in this, only the Shuntian Forbidden City Management Department under the Beijing Left-behind Mansion is in charge of taking care of it, and Emperor Zhu spends 200,000 silver dollars every year to repair this palace. This is probably the reason why the cabinet is reluctant to take over these palace gardens left over from the Qing Palace, which is too expensive and useless. Emperor Zhu now spends more than 1.5 million yuan a year on the maintenance of these vacant palaces and gardens, and he has to spend the same amount of money to maintain and repair a large number of Ming Dynasty imperial tombs.

This emperor is really not for the poor!

Zhu Jishi yawned, he didn't sleep well last night. Today is the first time in his life that he has entered the "capital of the great motherland", although the city of Beijing was not ravaged like this by his army, but the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was able to come to this point, and he has contributed a lot. There is always a little bit of guilt.

So Emperor Zhu called Maria and Madame Duran into the bedroom to discuss with them the way to revive the city of Beijing, but the two French girls misunderstood what he meant. Dance as soon as you enter the room! In particular, Maria's devilish figure, which recovered well after giving birth, was simply fatal to Emperor Zhu's attraction, and as a result, the serious discussion of economic development was changed to riding a large ocean horse......

The car traveled all the way, bypassing the Forbidden City, and then along the Beihai Sea and Shichahai, passing through a large number of palaces, and finally leaving the city through the Desheng Gate - the destination of this trip is the Old Summer Palace in the northwest of the city of Beijing. If Emperor Zhu's crossing has brought any benefits to Beijing so far, it is probably that this Old Summer Palace has been relatively intact.

"Any ideas? Dear Madam. Zhu Jishi put down the curtains of the car and asked casually.

"Jason, you're probably the monarch with the most palaces in the world, can you give me one?" Madame Duran looked at Zhu Jishi with a smile.

"No problem, as long as you can afford it." Zhu Jishi shrugged. "Maria, do you want one?"

"No," said Maria, shaking her head, "these palaces and gardens are precious treasures, and it is a complete waste to give them to me, and I will not live in them at all." I think I can use them to open some universities and colleges. Perhaps we can make Beijing the educational capital of the empire. ”

"It's a good idea, at least it's readily available on campus." Zhu Jishi smiled and nodded, Maria's brain was really bright. "Hundreds of royal mansions can be used, and you can always save tens of millions of silver dollars. To be honest, running an education is really expensive. Maria, Roman, are there any universities that would you two be interested in investing in? ”

Education is indeed a very expensive business, Zhu Jishi's Royal Education Group has invested in 4 universities and 19 colleges, although all of them charge tuition, but they still need to put two or three million into it every year to maintain operations, which does not count the school's start-up costs.

In addition, the Ministry of Education of the Ming Dynasty has also set up an education college in each of the 16 provinces of Han and Liaodong in recent years, and has also planned to open a academy equivalent to a middle school in each prefecture and a primary school in each county, and the funds required are also astronomical. However, even if these academies and primary schools are all built, the modern education of the entire Ming Dynasty is still in its infancy. Moreover, with the overhaul of the imperial examination system and the rise of accelerated specialized education such as New Oriental and Lanxiang, thousands of "over-age scholars" have chosen to work as more decent teachers and began to receive a two-year primary school teacher or a three-year college teacher accelerated education. After two or three years, the shortage of teachers in new education should be greatly alleviated, but the finances of the Ming court are not abundant, so how much education funds can be provided? Although Zhu Jishi has money, he also spends money in many places, can't he use it all for education? So Zhu Jishi thought about finding a rich man in Daming to pull sponsorship, and it happened that Maria and Mrs. Duran were both rich women, so let's start with the two of them.

"Okay, I'm ......" Madame Duran was quite happy to agree, she couldn't have children, she had a huge amount of property that no children inherited, and the most important thing was not all that belonged to the royal family of Zhu Ming and her sister Countess Deneuve, and now it was a good thing for celebrities to take out a university and run a university.

"Wait," Maria tugged at Madame Duran's sleeve and looked at Emperor Zhu with a smile, "Your Majesty, there is no such thing as a free lunch in the world, so we can't be expected to pay for you to run a university for nothing." ”

"Well, Maria, what do you want?" Zhu Jishi looked at his beloved concubine with a somewhat strange gaze, and said in a low voice, "I already love you and Roman very much......

Maria smiled sweetly, "Honey, this aspect of things is not a reward, because you also enjoy it." She paused for a moment, then added, "I think Roman needs a knighthood, she is not your concubine, and she does not have any title of nobility now...... Donating a university to the Ming Dynasty should be no less than commanding an army to occupy a city, and you should give each of us a title, a marquis or a duchess. ”

Running a school in exchange for a knighthood? That sounds like a great idea!

"Maria, you're such a genius, why didn't I think of it!" Zhu Jishi suddenly laughed happily, "Now that there are so many rich people in Daming who don't have any titles and official titles, I think there will definitely be people who are willing to donate school funds in exchange for knighthoods." A one-time donation of 1,000 yuan can get a lord, a one-time donation of 10,000 yuan can get a baron, a donation of 100,000 yuan to set up a primary school operation fund can get the title of viscount, a donation of 300,000 yuan to set up a college operation fund can get the title of earl, and a donation of one million yuan to set up a university operation fund can get the title of marquis. Of course, these titles do not come with an annuity or a mansion land, but they can become a noble member of the Constituent Assembly. Maria, Roman, what kind of knighthood do you want? (To be continued......)