Going to the Pulin Wanguo Flower Building to "experience" is just a joke, but Luzon still has to go, whether it is temporary or regular, the naval liaison ship undertakes the task of liaison between the military and the government of various colonies, and carries a lot of officials, documents and government materials in Yingyang Harbor, and Luzon is a must-stop stop.

On September 13, the small fishing village of Hanshan Port in Luzon has become the core base of the Fubo Army, as well as a small shipyard specializing in wind chasers, frigates and transports.

Navy Admiral Lieutenant Lee...... Gram load? ”

When the port official registered the ship's registration and personnel, his expression changed when he saw this name, but unlike the Yingyang Port official, he did not greet His Highness directly with enthusiasm, but pretended to be indifferent and went through the formalities indifferently. Li Kezai felt that this person was very well-behaved, most of them were foreign officials from the mainland, and he understood his reluctance to publicize his identity.

When Li Kezai and his entourage went to the Gangyi to rest, the official rolled his eyes and rushed out of the official office.

So before Li Kezai could catch his breath, he was approached by an old acquaintance.

"Brother Yifan, why are you here?"

Nearly 20 years old, dressed in red, carrying three silver stars on his shoulders, is a cavalry captain, temperament is gentle and introverted, only between the eyebrows contain a flying bearing, it is last year has been awarded the champion general, the rank of general Jia Hao Yizi, Luzon Jia Yifan.

Jia Yifan came to Hanshan Port to pick up troops for the Western Metropolitan Protectorate, and Jia Hao was transferred to the Western Metropolitan Protector, in charge of the land and navy armies and local affairs of Burma and Bangladesh, and the sword pointed directly at the British and the entire Tianzhu. The Navy is shifting its focus to the Western Ocean, and using the training base of the Fubo Army to send troops to the Western Army is also part of the adjustment.

Speaking of Western affairs, grief came to Li Kezai's heart again, and he told Jia Yifan about the Ceylon naval battle a few days ago, and the two sighed relatively.

Then Jia Yifan said: "I advise Your Highness to leave as soon as possible, the news of your arrival in Luzon will soon spread throughout Luzon, and Governor Zhou and Luzon Company will not let go of His Highness's piece of Tang monk meat." ”

That damn port officer......

Li Kezai immediately understood who the culprit was, but Jia Yifan's tone of words didn't seem like a joke, which made Li Kezai curious. Of course, officials and wealthy businessmen want to use him as a big prince to publicize themselves. But it's just a banquet parade, but Jia Yifan said it as if there was a big disaster.

Jia Yifan sighed: "With the naturalization of natives, Luzon now has a population of nearly two million, and it is prosperous. There is a great crisis inside, whether it is the Governor of Zhou or the Luzon Company, they all have their own needs, Your Highness, you will be dragged into the quagmire of Luzon by them, I think...... This must not be what His Majesty wants. ”

Li Kezai's heart was awe-inspiring, and he secretly said that he should leave quickly, he is not an ignorant teenager. I don't want to be used as a knife.

But is the situation in Luzon so severe?

Curiosity can't be suppressed after all, Li Kezai has the idea of "just knowing more", and asks Jia Yifan for more insiders. Seeing that the prince had ordered everyone to prepare to get on the boat, Jia Yifan breathed a sigh of relief, and he knew everything.

The Luzon chaos was between the Luzon companies, local officials, and local businessmen.

Luzon is still the trusteeship of the company, and the industrial and commercial tax rights are controlled by the Luzon company. The administrative management of counties and townships, as well as local taxes, are controlled by the government, which is composed of local and foreign officials. The head of the government was the governor appointed by the Colonial Affairs Department of Zhongshu Province, and the governing body of the company in Luzon was the board of supervisors. The head of the board is the director, who rotates among the directors of the board.

Jia Yifan said: "For local scholars and businessmen, Luzon is an inferior place. Those who have the conditions sharpen their heads and go to the homeland, and those who do not have the conditions are full of resentment...... Why? Because the company and the government are in Ping-P-Luzon! "..., companies hold the industrial and commercial tax power, they want to prosper, they take special care of which industry, want to be sluggish, with high tax rates to exploit and suppress. If the policy is in line with Luzon's own needs, it is fine, but Luzon companies give priority to local interests, to be precise. It is the interest of those major shareholders on the board of directors of the company.

Jia Yifan gave several examples, first of all, the sugar industry, which has changed from growing cane to making sugar, and Luzon has become the largest sugarcane planting base in Yinghua under the company's management. In order to protect the sugar industry run by its shareholders, the company vigorously suppressed the local sugar industry in Luzon. Previously, in Luzon, there was also an attempt to promulgate a "sugar ban", wanting to list Luzon's self-produced cane sugar as an illegal industry. Only locally produced cane sugar is allowed to be sold. Because this decree was too eye-catching, it was rejected by the Eastern Court, but the Luzon Company did not give up, and instead adopted a high business tax to restrict the local sugar industry in Luzon.

This seems to involve only the sugar industry, but in fact it affects the entire sugarcane cultivation industry. Sugar demand fluctuates from year to year and is also affected by the smuggling trade. If the coast guard does not do well in any year, a large amount of cane sugar from the Caribbean leaks in, or if the year is too good and the production is too much, the price of sugarcane will plummet. If the Luzon sugar industry had a certain scale, it could have been able to adjust the buffer, but now the risk is all on the Luzon sugar farmers and cane merchants. In the past few years, there have been many riots among sugar merchants in Luzon, and the company has vigorously cracked down on illegal sugar mills, which has also caused a lot of bloodshed.

Sugar is one thing, salt is another. The local salt companies, all of which were the majority shareholders of the Luzon company, had much greater power than the sugar industry, and set a five-fold operating tax on the Luzon salt industry, directly stifling the Luzon salt industry. They divided Luzon into several districts, each of which was monopolized by a salt syndicate. You can only buy Fujian salt in Pulin, and you can only buy Cantonese salt in Hanshan Port, although the price is not too outrageous, but compared with the local people, this differential treatment makes the Luzon people angry.

This is true at the industrial and commercial level, where Luzon now has room for the production of raw materials such as demand, rice, sugarcane, and timber, and only in industries such as shipbuilding and transportation, and other industries are strictly restricted by companies. Industry and commerce have no capital, but there are far fewer opportunities than local industry and commerce, and there is a lot of resentment.

The local scholars in Luzon also complained that the Yinghua imperial examination was already very perfect, and the college was the peak, and after graduation, they had an official body, and they could have a stable future of drought and flood income, and every scholar wanted to squeeze in. However, the colleges are basically local, and each subject has different degrees of regional emphasis. For example, Jinshi and Ming Jing are mostly from Jiangnan, Ming Law and Bo are mostly from Huguang, and Ming and Tongshi are mostly from Fujian and Guangdong. Even military academies have preferences, the army likes to recruit mainlanders, and the navy likes to recruit Fujian and Cantonese people.

Although there is a great righteousness in the world, and the college reserves a corresponding share for the overseas colonies, the more prestigious the college, the more reluctant it is to recruit overseas students. After all, overseas places are all company trusteeships. The education system rolled out by the state has not yet covered these places, and it relies on local self-reliance, and the quality of students is much worse than that of the local people.

Of course, compared to the huge population base of the mainland. Overseas colonial students have even more opportunities than local students as long as they are taken care of a little. But once they enter the bureaucracy, people born abroad are excluded from all sides. So much so that the officials and officials have an unspoken rule, "those on the sea go to the mountains, and those in the desert go to the desert islands", in short, they are not from local origins, and they have no special relationship. Don't try to be an official in a rich land in the interior.

This matter can also be accepted by overseas scholars, anyway, there is this tradition in all dynasties, and only when the qualifications are sharpened, the background will gradually fade. But the local bureaucracy has conceived another unspoken rule, which makes the overseas scholars very uncomfortable. The local bureaucracy regarded overseas places as good places to grind and make money, and turned them into their own reservations, and under the pretext of avoiding local suspicions, they never wanted overseas scholars to serve as officials overseas. ..., in this context. The number of "favor officers", "vacation officials", and "pension officials" in overseas places is increasing day by day, and these local officials naturally lack a sense of responsibility, and colonial companies are colluding. A government-business alliance was formed. Their main job in overseas is no longer to govern a country, but to govern a company.

In summary, local businessmen and bureaucracy worked together to squeeze overseas colonies like Luzon.

Li Kezai frowned and said: "Although there are things involved in sugar sugar farmers, whether it is industry and commerce or scholars, they are only a few people, as long as the people are stable, there will be no chaos." ”

Jia Yifan nodded: "Luzon has been in China for more than ten years, and the livelihood of the people is very different from that of the Spaniards when they ruled Luzon. For those who only want to eat and wear, it is easier to make a living in Luzon. After all, this place is still vast and sparsely populated. But the businessmen and businessmen were the most talented, intellectual, and far-sighted people in Luzon, and if they had the intention to provoke the local people, how could the colonial companies and the government be able to suppress them? ”

Li Kezai took a cool breath, in Jia Yifan's eyes. How serious is the situation in Luzon?

"What about the local county and township councils, courts, and even the Heavenly Temple? Are they all sitting on the sidelines? ”

"The Governor and the Court Inspector are all appointed by His Majesty, they will not be easily bought by the company, right?"

"Why haven't the newspapers in the country seen this news, could it be that the colonial company and the government are so arrogant that they can shut up their mouths?"

Zheng Mingxiang, An Pingyuan and others, who were listening, interjected, and there was a trace of anger in their words, of course they were dissatisfied with Jia Yifan's alarmist words, saying that Luzon was about to become independent, where is this emperor who is like a saint? Where are these soldiers who shed blood and sacrificed their lives for the benefit of the country?

Jia Yifan nodded: "I am from Luzon, of course I know the thoughts of the locals in Luzon, as for your questions...... The reason why I said chaos before was because all parties were arguing and couldn't figure out the context, so I could only talk about it in general terms. ”

Then Jia Yifan talked about the parliament, the court and public opinion, which is a pity, because Luzon is a trusteeship, and there is no Luzon House that controls the overall situation, only county and township courts scattered in the local area. Under the infiltration of the colonial company and the government, there are not many people in the courtyard who can speak for the locals, and a few well-known figures are also unable to speak out under the various suppressions of the company and the government.

As for the courts...... In the industrial and commercial government, the company oppresses Luzon with industrial and commercial tax rights, and in the government it is the local bureaucracy that excludes Luzon with the rules of officialdom, the former is the law, and the latter is an extrajudicial matter, and the courts have no role, and even a tool to maintain the company's privileges in Luzon.

And public opinion...... The local public opinion in Luzon cannot enter the ears of the local people, and the local people do not care much about the internal affairs of Luzon, after all, there are less than 2 million people, and there are many local people. Even if the news is occasionally reported, they always have a superior heart, thinking that the country has made Luzon prosperous for more than ten years, and if the people of Luzon should be grateful to Dade, how can they still complain?

As for the governor, Jia Yifan hesitated for a moment, as if thinking about how to phrase it, and finally said lightly: "Although Governor Zhou has great ambitions, his skills seem to be a little lacking......"

The current governor of Luzon is Zhou Ning, who was born in the old Qing Dynasty and has now been classified by the Chinese as the old school. This man was good at appeasement, and the emperor threw him from the mainland to Luzon, which in the eyes of the Chinese people was more of an arrangement by the emperor to weaken the authority of the old school, that is, the emperor himself despised Luzon.

Li Kezai pondered for a moment and sighed: "Don't suffer from inequality, the problem of Luzon is this inequality." ”

It is understandable that the Luzon pie was much larger, and the local Luzon people were able to get much more of the pie than before, but in contrast, the colonial companies and the government had unjustly divided more of the pie, which made the Luzon people who thought they could get more by themselves. ..., he looked at Jia Yifan and said with a slight smile: "Brother Yifan, you can know so thoroughly, I'm afraid it took a lot of effort from the boss, I will find time to talk to my father, but the chess game in my father's eyes is bigger, I can't say for sure." ”

Jia Yifan coughed twice in embarrassment, and bowed to Li Kezai, who had broken his intentions. In fact, he also uses Li Kezai as a knife messenger, but his father-in-law is Jia Hao, who is close to the emperor, and he just wants Li Kezai to convey the Luzon people he knows.

"Then let's go quickly......"

Liu Zhi has the deepest heart among Li Kezai's four classmates, and it is known that there is a thunderstorm in Luzon, and Li Kezai is not suitable to be trapped in it, so he urged loudly.

Li Kezai nodded, and after saying goodbye to Jia Yifan, as soon as the group came to the dock, they were surrounded by a large group of black-clothed policemen.

"Hey, little ancestor! When you come to Luzon, you won't say hello to your Uncle Zhou!? Fortunately, I was in Hanshan to review the defense, which God asked me to come to welcome the little ancestor! ”

Then the police officers respectfully knelt down on one knee and bowed down a large area, and then a man in a fifty-year-old costume bared his teeth and claws, shouting and pounced.

When the visitor rushed to the front and wanted to worship, Li Kezai hurriedly supported the other party, and said with a stiff face: "Zhou ...... Uncle, I'm a lieutenant in the Navy, and I'm no longer a kid in the White City. ”

The person who came was Zhou Ning, the governor of Luzon, who had been working under Liu Xingchun for many years, had been in charge of the guards, had served as the secretary of the criminal department, and received the title of Marquis of Jingxiang of the auxiliary state. The official position and title are still secondary, and in the old school, in terms of Conglong's qualifications, he is even earlier than Tang You, Zeng Shiyizhi and others, only one level lower than Li Zhushou.

More than ten years ago, the emperor was still used to spending the New Year with the old in the old garden of Baicheng, and Zhou Ning was not lacking every time, and Li Kezai, who was just a white fat boy at that time, was called "little ancestor" by Zhou Ning and others. At this time, Li Kezai was already a weak-crowned young man, and Zhou Ning called him so, which was self-indulgent.

Hearing that the "little ancestor" was very uninterested in this stutter, Zhou Ning hurriedly changed his tone: "Yes, how can His Highness be a child, as for this naval lieutenant, he is just a young dragon." Now that I have arrived in Luzon, Lao Zhou, the landlord, how can I entertain His Highness well. Lest Your Majesty ask him about it the other day, saying that I don't even know His Royal Highness Lao Zhou, wouldn't that be a sin? ”

is in adolescence, and Li Kezai, who has a very rebellious mentality, gets more and more tired of listening to it, and secretly ignores Luzon too much, and actually sends such a flattering villain here to be a prestige, and Luzon may have a credit for this guy.

However, Li Kezai is not an ordinary young man after all, since the other party has pulled out the guise of his father, he will either give face and leave, it is really a political incident. As a prince, he has to bear this kind of scene affairs.

Li Kezai smiled slightly: "Kezai still has military affairs, but Governor Zhou doesn't dare to be kind, Pu Lin has no time to go, Governor Zhou is in this Hanshan Port, how is the style of Luzon?" ”

Zhou Ning laughed first and then wept: "Your Highness is really sympathetic to Lao Zhou, both public and private, and he is in peace, and in a trance, it seems to be goodbye to His Majesty's youthful demeanor!" When I first saw Your Majesty, I was intimidated by Your Majesty's dragon spirit, followed Your Majesty wholeheartedly, and determined the great cause, but I didn't realize that nearly 20 years had passed......"

Li Kezai was still smiling slightly, and the four classmates behind him were already dark, and they looked like they were vomiting under self-pressure, obviously they had never seen such a person. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to (.) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support is my biggest motivation. )