The huge fleet of 40 or 50 warships of the North and South Ocean Fleet of the Great Qingshui Division bypassed the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong and entered the Beibu Gulf, which was calm and abundant in fish

On the east side of the Beibu Gulf, across the sea from Leizhou Mansion in Guangdong Province is Hainan Island Qiongzhou Mansion, in recent years, because of the development of Shilu Jinniuling Iron Mine and the establishment of Qiongzhou Iron Works, it has developed very rapidly

The Haikou port specially built for it is also lively, on the seaside of the port area, you can see a piece of red bricks, small western-style buildings made of ash rise from the ground, the people wearing the costumes of the Li nationality, Miao nationality and other ethnic minorities shuttle during the period, or work, or sell their own goods, many fishing boats returning from night fishing dock on the shore, and begin to sell the fish on the boat on the spot, among the fishing boats, there are occasionally two or three cargo ships waiting to be loaded, these boats are hanging white sails, so that the port area looks like a clear white line from afar

In fact, the scene here can be seen as a microcosm of the development of Guangdong Province and even the four southeastern provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Vietnam, which are not only the first places in Chinese history to give birth to the germ of capitalism

Jiangning, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou were among the largest commercial cities in the late Qing Dynasty, and they were the first places to be invaded by Western capitalism

The original natural economy and small peasant economy of these four provinces were the most seriously damaged, and they were also the first places to accept Western culture, which made it not only have a natural commercial foundation and atmosphere and strong commercial capital, but also a good sense of doing business and atmosphere, coupled with the modern popularization of education in these four provinces to take the lead in completing it, so that the four provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong have the advantage of talents in the case of the right time and place, so the first wave of industrial and commercial development in the Sino-French, Vietnam War and the Sino-British Burma War took the lead in sweeping in these four provinces

In the past three years, the industrial output value of these four provinces has increased ninefold, accounting for two-thirds of the country's industrial output growth; Tax revenues have increased sixfold, accounting for nearly half of the country's tax revenue, and it's not an exaggeration to say that the changes here are changing over time

From Suzhou and Yangzhou in southern Jiangsu, through Songjiang in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou in Zhejiang, Fuzhou and Quanzhou in Fujian to Chaozhou, Huizhou, Guangzhou, Leizhou and even Qiongzhou on Hainan Island, the narrow industrial belt concentrates more than half of the heavy industry and more than two-thirds of the light industry in the entire Qing Dynasty

Guan Xuqing remembered the decree passed by the cabinet at the beginning of the previous year to open the ports of the four provinces south of the Yangtze River to the foreign powers and establish a "pawn business zone" and give the four provinces more support in terms of government decrees and money, such as the implementation of preferential tax rates in the four provinces to attract domestic and foreign capital

Before 1881, the total commercial tax of various names in the country was as high as 55%, but it was under such harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, Jin merchants, Hui merchants, Zhejiang merchants, and Guangdong merchants still developed to a considerable scale, which is simply unimaginable in foreign countries, on the one hand, it is tax evasion, on the other hand, it shows that the cake of Chinese commerce is too big, these businessmen have obtained huge profits, and after Guan Xuqing was pro-government, he gradually reduced the tax rate through various means, and now the domestic commercial tax is about 25%, and last year through the local support policy, The commercial tax on the four provinces was further reduced to 15%, which was the same rate as the one in force in Hong Kong at the time

In addition, in order to facilitate the development of foreign trade in the four provinces, and to purchase machinery from Western countries, and to attract talents and technology, the Daqing International Commercial Bank will open branches in the major ports of the four provinces to accept foreign exchange transactions, and at the same time provide low-interest entrepreneurial loans of 200 million silver dollars;

Although it has been in power for nearly 10 years, and domestic capitalism has developed greatly compared with history, the Qing Dynasty still mainly carries out social and economic reform with the self-sufficient feudal small peasant economy as the main force, and engages in a capitalist market economy. The idea of gradual reform is the idea that must be possessed in carrying out economic reform, and through experiments, successful experience will be extended to other regions, and those that are not successful will be discarded

After all, China has been closed off from the rest of the country for almost a few hundred years, and although some contacts were passively established after the Opium War, for most regions, there is a lack of contact with foreign countries, or there is no means to contact foreign countries at all, and China, an ancient oriental country, is also very mysterious and unfamiliar in the eyes of foreigners

Therefore, there is a need for some so-called "windows", which include two meanings: one is to learn from and absorb foreign advanced things, and the other is to show China's political and economic conditions to foreign countriesIn the war, the degree of openness of the open port was very limited, and foreigners were still regarded as a flood beast, and some local officials sent a large number of soldiers to "protect" foreigners every time a foreign ship docked, and strictly restricted the scope of their activities, which made the open port not play its due role, and the "pawn business area" was actually to further clarify the function of the open port

China is now facing a "great change unseen in a thousand years", the entire society, local rules and regulations, legal system, and thinking habits are still in the feudal economic era, and some areas have been set aside to implement special economic policies, so that local officials in these areas can free their hands and feet, through the introduction of foreign capital, the introduction of advanced technology, the establishment of factories, After all, the process of relying solely on propaganda to change the ideology and culture of the Chinese people for thousands of years is too slow, and China needs the most scarce time, and if it can make some achievements in a down-to-earth manner, it is convenient for people to identify with the development and changes of society

Now it seems that the general place is a good land, here has formed the prototype of the modern industrial zone, because this industrial high development area, except for the northernmost Yangzhou Prefecture, most of which is located in the south of the Yangtze River, so it is called the Jiangnan Industrial Zone, in the later generations, the "Jiangnan Industrial Zone" and heavy industry output value accounted for half of the country, the "North Industrial Zone" and the "Oriental Ruhr" called the "Two Lakes Industrial Zone", and has the reputation of "China's three major industrial arteries", "woo...... Woo......" The long whistle was raised, and in front of the combined fleet of the North and South Seas, the ships retreated one after another, and they were nothing more than a light boat in a small bay

Looking at the current situation created after he traveled to this time and space, Guan Xuqing felt a burst of excitement and pride in his heart, which is similar to a classic stand-alone game that Guan Xuqing indulged in during his study period - "Red Alert", where there is mine, there is money, there is a strong industry, there is a strong industry, there is a strong military force, and now, Guan Xuqing is digging mines in this rich land

Wang Shang, who has been waiting outside the door, brought in the face wash water that he had prepared in the morning, and saw Wang Shang's feet floating and bloodless on his face, he knew that he must have vomited a lot, and he also blew the sea breeze outside all night and did not know the hard work above

"Didn't I tell you to go to the cabin to rest? I don't need anyone to serve me here at night......" Although Guan Xuqing's words were dignified, he really couldn't hold back to blame Wang Shang

Wang Shang just held the basin of clean hands and faces high, lowered his head and did not speak

Guan Xuqing sighed, stepped forward to finish washing, and then waved his hand and said: "You go and call Li Dehai over, I don't need you to serve me here in the morning, you go to the cabin and sleep well, in addition, ask the imperial doctor to prescribe a side medicine for you, sweat, you are blown by the wind this night, be careful of getting hyperhidrosis"

sighed, stepped forward to finish washing, and then waved his hand and said: "You go and call Sun Dehai to come over, I don't need you to serve here in the morning, you go to the cabin and sleep well, in addition, ask the imperial doctor to prescribe a side medicine for you, sweat, you are blown by the wind this night, be careful if you have hyperhidrosis"

Guan Xuqing walked to the deck, the soldiers on the ship who were about to get up before four had already finished their morning training, seeing Guan Xuqing standing up straight one by one, Guan Xuqing waved them to continue to do their own things, and then found two soldiers standing guard to chat, these days he has been very familiar with the sailors on the "Zhenyuan" ship

Seeing the booming economy on the southeast coast, Guan Xuqing suddenly sprouted a dream of dominating the world at this moment, and the development momentum of Japan, the neighbor to the east, has also been quite rapid in recent years, if it were not for the high development of the Qing Dynasty in recent years, it is really hard to imagine that the Yamato clan would really repeat history, invade China again, and ravage my Chinese sons and daughters

But all this is no longer possible, maybe one day in the future there will be a situation where the Qing Dynasty tramples on the territory of Japan, thinking about this, Guan Xuqing smiled and looked at the rough sea, as if he saw the Sino-Japanese naval battle that will be staged one day in the future and the large-scale naval battle with the fleets of various countries in order to compete for the Pacific Ocean, maybe the situation in history when the Qing Dynasty declared war on the eight countries at the same time will be repeated in this time and space, one day in the future, but there will definitely not be another shameful scene of the eight-nation alliance entering Beijing

A fiery red sun rose on the sea in the east, and the golden sunlight made Guan Xu clear and red, like a phoenix reborn from the fire standing on the deck, and anyone who saw it had an urge to bow and worship