"Official, the seventh break has passed, you have to cheer up, it's time to go to the political hall today to listen to the government. Don't worry about the concubine, just complain about the fourth child...... I don't have the blessings of the world. ”

The morning light sprinkled on the pillow, Xiuyuan dormitory, An Jiuxiu whispered, Li Xi looked at his wife with red eyes, and took her into his arms lovingly.

The death of his fourth son was indeed a blow to him, not only did he feel heartbroken, An Jiuxiu was grief-stricken, and even the other daughters-in-law were very sad, Xiao Fumei even took the responsibility on himself, and he felt that he was not skilled in medicine and did not take good care of him. For more than a month, the back garden of Boundless Palace has been bleak.

In this atmosphere, Li Shi naturally has no mental politics. Originally, he no longer focused too much on internal affairs, but in the past four years, the political affairs hall has basically taken over the internal affairs, and then improved the provincial finance and taxation, so that the internal affairs are also shared by the provinces. And the East and West Courts have the power of financial and tax auditing, and they are extremely energetic, and they fight with the Political Affairs Hall and the Planning Department all day long, and it is only when there is a lot of trouble that he comes forward to make the final ruling.

From the serious illness of his fourth son to the present, he has not been to the political hall for more than two months, nor has he raised any opinions on the operation of political affairs, but there was a major epidemic first, and now the spring drought has started again, and it seems that God has an opinion on him for being so slacking in government.

Twisting the short beard under his chin, on the way to the political hall in the car, Li Xian sighed, standing at thirty, he is already thirty-one years old, time is like an arrow, the sun and the moon are like a shuttle, and he seems to be really tired. Can a country be established just by turning history? Now it's just two natural disasters, which have made the hearts of the people in the country turbulent, and the culprit has been pushed to the steam engine, the foundation of the people's hearts is still not stable enough, and they really can't completely let go of internal affairs.

When I arrived at the political affairs hall and saw the joy in the eyes of the cabinet ministers, Li Xianxin said that you guys are happy that I finally came out to help you top the tank.

It is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of peasants in Guangdong Province alone who have lost their livelihoods due to the spring drought, and in addition to Fujian, Hunan, and Guangxi, there will definitely be more than two or three million peasants in the country. Although all provinces and counties are doing their best to appease the victims, exempt them from land taxes, and provide relief to the victims, the local government is far from sufficient to provide for the livelihood of two or three million people for at least half a year.

If it is changed to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the cabinet, the east and west courts, and the localities do not have to carry such a great pressure, exempt themselves from taxes that cannot be collected, let the victims themselves go to other places to beg for a living, and provide some porridge and food in places where conditions permit, and pay attention to not letting them gather to make trouble.

But now that Yinghua is a country, the government has deep control over the place, so naturally it has to be held accountable to the end. Moreover, the victims of the disaster also had the spokespersons of the township, county, and even provincial courts, as well as the courts of the East and the West, and they all looked at the government, the court, and even the emperor with their eyes, and the newspapers also told the disaster in detail, and they felt miserable, and officials at all levels felt that the people's feelings were like a mountain, and they did not dare to slack off at all, Li Zhushou and Liu Xingchun's eyes were red, and they had not closed their eyes for several nights.

In this case, if Li Shi does not come to the political hall again, it will really be a slack of government, and many things still need him to make decisions.

Li Xi didn't talk nonsense, took a deep breath and said, "What's the plan!?" ”

There is no need for him to make ideas on state affairs, and the cabinet should have drawn up various plans and waited for him to decide.

Li Zhushou, as the first assistant, estimates that he has already made dozens of plans in his heart, and he is good at reconciliation, and naturally he is also good at induction.

The first of the three plans is the old method, which is to use work for relief, local governments to repair small water conservancy projects, township and county roads, and the central government to repair large projects, so as to include millions of disaster victims in the temporary infrastructure system. However, the cost of this case is too high, and it needs to be negotiated by the local government, the central government, and the beneficiaries of the project, and the central government will definitely have to take the lion's shoulders. This year's budget is very large, and it is also affected by the situation between the north and the south, as well as the war in Myanmar, and the budget is also very tight.

The second is a new approach, immigration! Speaking of this case, the political affairs hall is sighing, the emperor saw the opportunity first, first the south and then the north, now there is such a large territory as Nanyang, and even the vast land like Nanzhou, there is nothing missing, what is lacking is people, it is simply an ideal place to discharge floods. The victims who lost their livelihoods were transferred to the colonial company, which was subsidized by the imperial court, and the colonial company arranged for the victims to settle in various parts of Nanyang, which was both disaster relief and development.

The colonial company also needs to emigrate, and the cost of the imperial court will be much less, but there is also a problem, most of the victims are reluctant to emigrate, after all, the homeland has only suffered a short period of natural disasters, so it is really impossible to leave the homeland.

The third case is actually a variant of the first case, in which the imperial court supports new businesses in the disaster-stricken areas, turning the victims into workers, so that the victims can eat without relying on the fields. This approach needs to be integrated into the situation on the ground, which is very mental and costly. Whether the newly established business can be stabilized is also a question, and the risk is unpredictable. ..., the last case is to bring together the above three strategies, adapt measures to local conditions, run projects, develop new businesses, and immigration. However, this requires a huge amount of manpower from the local government and the court to plan, manage and supervise, and it is a long-term project. The three cases at the same time mean that the national policy with the main theme of "peace and security" will continue to be implemented and deepened.

The "Hushu Peace Treaty" has entered its fourth year, and at the same time, in Nanyang, the relationship between Anglo-Chinese and the Netherlands and Britain is getting worse and worse.

Li Zhushou concluded: "The cabinet believes that a single policy is only a symptomatic treatment, only to divert the victims, and parallel policies, the greatest effect, the cost is also small, and the future can see great benefits, the only concern is that within two or three years, it is not appropriate to move troops on a large scale." ”

The cabinet must have fully discussed the various plans, and even communicated closely with the eastern and western courts, so that Li Zhushou could be so sure that there would be great benefits. Because this matter involves military and foreign affairs, Li Shi does not make a decision, and the cabinet will not be able to implement the policy.

Li Xian pondered for a moment and said slowly: "How difficult it is to prosper the country, it is not an inevitable truth, but that we should turn the harm of natural disasters into the benefit of the people." Of the cabinet's proposals, only the last one is in line with this principle, and the other policies are just to deal with natural disasters themselves. ”

Spring drought is not a simple natural disaster, and then it is often accompanied by summer floods, passively dealing with these natural disasters, the hearts of the people in the country will continue to waver, this process, Li Xi, who was accustomed to seeing natural disaster scenes and social reflections in his previous life, has a deep understanding.

Morality aside, from a practical point of view, this spring drought, and most of the summer floods that follow, have brought a huge fortune, that is, millions of "active people".

Local and central projects require a large number of people, and the weather is smooth on weekdays, not only is there not enough manpower to do it, but the wages are also very high.

The flow of immigrants from the South Seas colonies has been weakening lately, and many of the newly discovered lands have not been cultivated. The population of Funan has not increased greatly since it reached 200,000, and it has been developed for many years, and now it is less than 100,000 people, and there are even many people in Luzon who have returned to Fujian to seek a living, because the country is prosperous and has many opportunities. In the colonies, farming and mining were almost the only way to survive. Now there are millions of active people, and the launch of a tenth is a big success.

On the other hand, because the land tax is very low, although farming is rare and rich, it is not a problem to live, which also makes the new industry in the country gradually lack manpower. For example, the weaving workshop in Xiguan, Guangzhou County, even if there is a steam engine, still needs a large number of weavers who fly the line and pick the shuttle. However, the wages of male weavers became higher and higher, and they had to start recruiting female weavers, which led to controversy in the country. On the other hand, many weaving mills simply moved to Jiangnan Longmen to recruit cheap Jiangnan weavers.

Now, pushing these active people into the cities, or into new industries, can to a certain extent satisfy the demand for massive labor in the burgeoning industry. It is important to know that slavery has gradually risen in Luzon and Cochin, and the Chinese have become the most favored choice of industrial capitalists to lure and even capture natives to do low-skilled labor such as mining and carrying sand.

Li Xi didn't make a decision immediately, and asked again: "If you choose to pursue all policies at the same time, what are the disadvantages besides affecting the national policy?" ”

Peng Xianzhong spoke, and apparently he had raised objections: "There is not much harm in the large-scale construction and colonization policies, but the cost is too great and the implementation is difficult. To push farmers into new industries, we need a market, a large enough market to accommodate the massive commercial goods produced by the flourishing of all industries. ”

In order to promote new industries, it is necessary to implement various policies in parallel, such as reducing taxes on weaving, steel, machinery, and other industries, and subsidizing workshops that accept these victims as workers. As a result, various industries will increase their production capacity, and the production of commercial goods will definitely surge, and the state must find sales channels for these commercial goods.

Li Xian sighed: "This is in conflict with Annei's national policy......"

The surge in commercial goods cannot be digested immediately by the country, and it must be looked at the outside. Nanyang and Europa are all ways out, of course, the more realistic is Jiangnan and even Jiangbei, which will affect the situation around Yinghua, and the national government really has to walk a tightrope, and it is impossible to lean comfortably on one side.

Xiao Sheng was also squatting in the political affairs hall, and he said heroically: "What is there to be afraid of, as long as it is not a battle for the country, relying on the current standing army and navy is enough to deal with the troubles in the north, south, east and west!" It's like in Burma and the Ryukyus, we're just talking to each other with a little finger. ”

This is also true, as long as it is not a decisive battle, the current Yinghua relies on the standing army of land and sea to solve most of the threats. And at this time, around Yinghua, who else has the courage to fight to the death with Yinghua? Yongzheng? ..., Li Xian sneered secretly, Yongzheng ...... Does he have the guts?

Yinghua's current national strength has completely exceeded the imagination of ordinary readers, and Yongzheng in the north is naturally difficult to understand.

Taking the eighth year of the Holy Dao as an example, in this year, Yinghua had 5,400 seagoing vessels with navigation licenses, with a total scale of 3 million materials, and the number of seafarers was as high as 200,000.

In the eighth year of the Holy Word, the total population of Anglo-Chinese was 35 million, of which 16 million were in the cities. Changsha, Chaozhou, Zhaoqing, Quanzhou, Fuzhou and other cities are all large cities with more than 500,000 people, and the "Greater Guangzhou" built by Ying Tianfu has a population of 2 million.

And the figure that best reflects that Yinghua has entered the modern industrial society is steel production. Just one company, Foshan Iron Smelting Company, Shengdao produced 40 million catties of iron in eight years, which is twice the national iron output during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. Counting other iron-smelting enterprises, in the eight years of Shengdao, the pig iron output of Yinghua was about 100 million catties, equivalent to 60,000 tons. In 1720, Britain produced only 20,000 tons of iron.

This number is not a simple number, the chassis of the carriage, the iron frame of the gantry crane, the pipeline of the water network, and the steam engine and other machinery, and even the loom and even the iron rib that is rising in the shipyard, the demand for steel in the Anglo-Chinese country is everywhere, and this one can show the gap between the national strength of the Anglo-Chinese and the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Guns are just the tiniest tip of an iceberg above the water.

The financial system of the Anglo-Chinese "semi-modern industrial society" is still ahead of social development. By the eighth year of Shengdao, Yinghua had a central bank, more than 30 listed commercial banks, and more than 200 note banks without the right to issue bank bills. The flow of industrial and commercial capital and bulk goods in Yinghua is basically through bank bills and interbank bills of exchange, plus bonds and stocks, and the capital flow at the top of society has initially established a basis for establishing a credit currency. Hundreds of millions or even 10 taels of silver are exchanged in the form of bills, and the real silver and copper coins circulating among the people are very abundant, and at the same time, they are constantly absorbing gold from the Americas and Europe through foreign trade.

In the eighth year of the Holy Dao, the Anglo-Chinese State spent 60 million taels, of which less than a quarter was used for military spending. Li Xi himself is not sure what kind of power will break out if the Anglo-Chinese country is all mobilized just to fight.

Whether it is the numbers or the scenes, it has been clearly expressed through various newspapers and the economic exchanges between Yinghua and the Manchus in Jiangnan. Li Xi felt that if Yongzheng was sober-minded, he was afraid that he should borrow wine to drown his sorrows in the Forbidden City all day long.

Pulling back the divergent thoughts, Li Xian nodded and said: "Then let's do it, crisis crisis, there is danger, there is naturally an opportunity, we should seize this opportunity." ”

In March of the ninth year of the Holy Dao, there was a natural disaster in the south, Yinghua built a large number of buildings, supported new industries, and also widely migrated people to Nanyang, and a country was boiling, and in the eyes of some people, it was a poor toss of great calamity.

In the Forbidden City's Heart Cultivation Palace, Yongzheng carefully looked at a list in his hand, and said again and again: "Okay!" Good! Now in my hands, I am finally strong and strong, and I am rich in money and food! ”

After Yongzheng trained a Manchu and Han firearms "strong army" in the Xishan camp, he did not stop, continued to carry out rotation training, and gradually replaced the Shaanxi-Gansu and Zhili green battalions, as well as the Manmeng Xiao cavalry battalion, with firearms troops. Today, the commander of the Xishan battalion and the firearms military Funing An reported that the Zhili Firearms Army has been formed, and not only everyone is quick to shoot, but even the artillery has reached three thousand. There is also a centralized artillery battalion, which gathers 200 giant cannons of 5,000 to 8,000 catties, which is fully capable of covering the Jiangbei and Shaanxi and Gansu lands, and has the strength to fight with the Nanban.

Thinking of sorting out the treasury of the household department a few days ago, and accumulating nearly 40 million taels of inventory in recent years, Yongzheng exhaled a long breath, and said in his heart that I have worked hard in the past few years, and finally saved such a family fund, and now I have guns in my left hand and silver in my right hand, and I finally have the confidence to face Li Xian face to face!

Fu Ningan also asked for instructions in the excerpt that the self-made guns of the Shaanxi-Gansu Green Battalion were powerful and had a long range, which was enough to compete with the Nanban small cannons. It is hoped that the camp of Xishan can be equipped with 700 poles, and the cost is about 50,000 taels of silver.

Yongzheng Zhu pen waved, "accurate", 50,000 taels of silver...... I'm rich now!

In a happy mood, Yongzheng picked up the latest issue of Nanban's "Righteous Road" again, and saw the eye-catching title of "natural disasters compete in the world, where are man-made disasters", and took a closer look, Nanban is building a large number of buildings and sending disaster victims to Nanyang, and the hearts of a country are lost, and his mood is even more high-spirited to the peak.

"Li Shi, the crooked and evil path that your country has taken is going farther and farther, and it will be difficult to turn back......"

Thinking like this, Yongzheng pulled the sleeves of his patched robe, and said to Wang Yicheng: "Add vegetables today, I want to eat called Hua chicken!" ”

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