"Ming Gong, why are you in a hurry to recruit me?"

Zuo Zongtang hurriedly walked into Zhu Jishi's tent, panting slightly. He was so busy these days that he first served as the acting mayor of Kowloon Town for a few days, and discussed with Chinese and foreign businessmen with the same vote, in order to maintain the market in Kowloon, and not let this new trade center collapse like this. In the future, when the Ming Dynasty spends money like flowing water, one more way to make money is haode. Fortunately, Liu Peng, the logistics manager, is proficient in business, and he is familiar with many stewards of the Thirteen Banks, and he quickly took over the affairs of the Kowloon Port. However, Zuo Zongtang couldn't be idle, and then he became the acting county magistrate of Bao'an County, busy appeasing the place.

Zhu Jishi is now going to create a country, how efficient and efficient all kinds of rules and systems are, not blindly restoring the set of the previous Ming. For example, the local government is simply four levels of province-government-county-town (township), and there is no guard system of the Ming Dynasty, and it is the separation of military and political affairs, and the judiciary is independent.

The head of a province is called the governor, but he is only concerned with civil affairs and does not care about military affairs or judicial proceedings, and the head of a government is called the prefect, the head of a county is called the prefect, and the head of a town is a simple and straightforward town mayor -- of course, Zhu Jishi's current territory is still small, and there are no conditions for appointing governors and prefects. However, the county has already laid two. Different from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in history, Zhu Jishi pursued the principle of occupying one place and guarding one place, which is also the tradition of the old Zhu family.

Moreover, Zhu Jishi also called for the establishment of a "consolidated base area", preferring to occupy less land and develop more slowly, but also to digest the territory he had laid. Never allow the existence of an effective loyal Manchu regimental training on their own territory! And to ban the regimental training loyal to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it is natural to control the local gentry. And there are two ways to control the local gentry, one is land; The second is fame.

Relative to the system practiced by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Zhu Jishi's practice of "middle school-based and Western learning for use" is obviously more acceptable to the enlightened gentry in Guangdong. Guangdong has always been the most active province of the Tiandi Society. There is a certain market for the idea of "opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty." The gentry of Guangdong have been in contact with foreigners for a long time. I know Shijie better, and I can still accept some Westernized Ming troops. Moreover, since the end of the Opium War, the Manchus imposed heavy taxes on Guangdong, which made the people miserable, and the market for allegiance to the Manchus was not large. Recently, the news that 117 Han officials in the Green Camp collectively surrendered to the Ming Dynasty also caused the hearts of the people in the coastal areas of Guangdong to fluctuate, and all this was conducive to Zhu Jishi's establishment and consolidation of local political power.

Of course, the most important thing is that the powerful force of the Jishi Army is not at all something that can be resisted by local regimental training here in Guangdong! Therefore, the work of establishing local political power in Dongguan and Bao'an counties has generally gone smoothly.

Seeing Zuo Zongtang coming in, Zhu Jishi hurriedly asked, "How is the appeasement in Bao'an County?" ”

"It's generally going well. However, there are always foolish and loyal people, Wutong Mountain, Dapeng City, Nanao Town and other places have people who oppose the Ming Dynasty, and the gentry in the rest of the places ran about thirty percent, and those who resisted behind closed doors also had thirty percent, and the rest belonged to the Ming Dynasty. ”

Hearing that at most only forty percent of the gentry attached to it, Zhu Jishi couldn't help but be a little disappointed. What kind of haode is there in this Manchu Qing Dynasty? Weishenme, Han scholars, doctors, so many people are willing to be slaves and servants?

"It's not bad, it's better than I expected." Zuo Zongtang handed a handwritten list to Zhu Jishi, and said with a smile, "I have received a letter of allegiance from one hundred and thirteen Xiucai, and more than three hundred landlords have sent their sons to accompany the army. The local Tiandi Society and the Little Knife Club in Bao'an County are all attached. There are forty-one bigwigs who are virtuous, and they can be regarded as meritorious officials, who have been given some small official positions, and in the future, some land will be allocated to train them to become squires. Other than that. There are 1,513 disciples of the Heaven and Earth Society and the Little Knife Society, all of whom are strong men. ”

"The local security is okay, right?"

Zuo Zongtang said with a smile: "The law and order are good, before the Northern Expedition of the army, Daming Mountain has already greeted the Tiandi Society and the Xiaodao Hall in various places, and ordered them to restrain their children and take over the place if necessary." ”

At this time, the gangs were not exactly the same as the underworld in later generations, they were not simple criminals, but a kind of civil order. The basis for the existence of this kind of order in the rivers and lakes is actually the result of the extremely imperfect legal system and the insufficient rule of the imperial court.

For example, the Chinese in West Borneo have no formal government and laws at all, and rely on the rules of the rivers and lakes to maintain local enforcement and social operation.

In China, the charlatans did oppose the gentry and the imperial court to a certain extent, but this antagonism was not absolute. The purpose of the anti-gentry and anti-court of the gangsters is not for revolution, but to become a gentry and become a member of the court.

In fact, there are many examples of the gangsters who have become officials of the imperial court, such as Su Yuniang, Luo Yawang (Luo Outline), Zhang Jiaxiang (Zhang Guoliang), and Feng Zicai, who are now taking refuge in Zhu Jishi's banner, have all entered the court from the rivers and lakes in history, but the objects of allegiance are different.

As for letting the gangsters replace the gentry to control the countryside, it is an extremely smooth thing. Because many gangsters in the rivers and lakes will donate officials to buy some land after they are rich, and they will enter the gentry from the rivers and lakes. The charlatans and gentry are completely interchangeable. Moreover, the oppression and exploitation of the villagers by the gentry was also extremely heavy, and it was no more than the case if they were replaced by the gangsters of the rivers and lakes -- the poor peasants of China in this era were simply struggling on the verge of starvation, otherwise Zhu Jishi's career in Guangdong would not have been so smooth.

And what made the peasants so miserable, apart from the greed and inefficiency of the Manchu regime, was probably the gentry class all over China!

"Has the notice of exempting the 201 Tianfu and miscellaneous factions of the Yongli calendar been posted?"

Since Zhu Jishi wants to oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty, of course, he can no longer use the Daoguang era name of the Manchu Dynasty, he inherited the legal system of the Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, so he restored the Yongli era name, and this year is officially the 201st year of the Yongli calendar.

"It's already out." Zuo Zongtang nodded slightly and said, "Exempting land and miscellaneous factions for one year should win a lot of people's hearts for our dynasty, but if we really want to let the small people benefit in the long run, we must speed up the establishment of our local officials." The Manchu Qing Dynasty ruled 40,000,000 people, and only received more than 40 million taxes a year, but the world was exhausted, and the problem was not the heavy taxes, but the corruption of the officials. The local officials colluded with the inferior gentry, and added to the main items without calculation, so that the people of Shengdou were tired of coping. ”

"Well, I'm inviting you here today for this, you can take a look at this." Zhu Jishi nodded, and handed a stack of letters to Zuo Zongtang.

Zuo Zongtang took it and saw that it was all a "persuasion letter" written by the Ming army general, that is, a letter persuading Zhu Jishi to be called king and emperor. This kind of thing has always been an opportunity to sell haode to careerists in Chinese history, and it doesn't have to pay anything.

"Persuade?" Zuo Zongtang glanced at Zhu Jishi, and didn't see any joy or anger, so he said tentatively, "Now there are only two counties, is it too early to be the king?" ”

"I also think it's too early, but the opinions of the people below are not unreasonable." Zhu Jishi frowned and said, "My current Ming Duke is the title of the monarch of Lanfang, and Lanfang is still a vassal country of England, so it is not appropriate to use this title again." Moreover, the so-called 'slow reign' is nothing more than not wanting to make the target too big and attract the attention of strong enemies. This doesn't matter to me at all, the banner of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty has long been known to the world, and there is no way out. It's better to call Wang Kaifu earlier, so that you can also have the name of issuing orders. ”

Is this what you want to get over as soon as possible? Zuo Zongtang thought about it and nodded, "It's okay, then let's call the king of Dongguan in Dongguan." But this ritual ......"

"The ceremony is simple, it's just an administrative name." Zhu Jishi waved his hand, "A set of worshipping heaven and earth, you can make up for it when you get to Guangzhou." However, the palace should be built in advance, so that the various systems can also be formally established. For example, the new "Ming Imperial Examination System", "Ming Civil Official System", "Ming Military Officer System", and "Ming Calendar" must be officially promulgated...... There are also items to be assessed in the Ming Imperial Examination, and the books involved must be made public in advance, so that everyone has a time to prepare, and next year, that is, before the end of June 202 in the Yongli calendar, the first provincial and county examinations in Guangdong Province must be held, and a number of available talents will be selected. ”

Zuo Zongtang thought for a while and said: "The imperial examination is a serious matter, otherwise there are hundreds of counties and nearly 2,000 towns in a province, and there are no tens of thousands of officials who can't take care of it." (To be continued......)