After taking Yangzhou, it not only means that the Chinese army's troops have penetrated deep into the northern Jiangsu region, but more importantly, it has completely guaranteed the strategic security of the Jiangnan region, and the Chinese army no longer needs to hoard heavy troops in Zhenjiang, Wuxi and other places on the south bank of the Yangtze River to prevent the Qing army from crossing the river to the south.

If the Chinese army in the Jiangbei area does not suffer a large-scale crushing defeat, then it can already be announced that the Jiangnan region has bid farewell to the war, so that production can be resumed with confidence.

Among them, the most obvious are the two prefectures of Zhenjiang Mansion and Jiangning Mansion, which were still sparsely populated a month ago, and people were curled up at home and did not dare to come out, but since the Chinese army took Yangzhou, it seems that a large number of people have popped up overnight.

Some of those who had been hiding in the countryside were returning to the city one after another, while a large number of people who had fled to Songjiang Prefecture and even northern Zhejiang in the past few years were also returning to their hometowns one after another.

The former military towns of Zhenjiang, Danyang, Nanjing and other places also have some commercial atmosphere, merchants began to open the door to do business, and a large number of goods transported from the Shanghai area were put on the shelves one after another.

And there are more cargo ships on the Yangtze River, and most of the fleets seen in the past few months were escorted by naval gunboats, and now these merchant ships also dare to sail alone, not more than worrying about being intercepted and shelled by the Qing army on the north bank.

Pan Lixuan sat on the steam passenger ship Qingchang, watching the smoke rising on both sides of the Yangtze River and couldn't help but sigh: "After so many years of fighting, the two sides of the strait have finally settled down!" ”

The middle-aged man with his shaved head and wearing a Chinese costume on the side also said: "Yes, although it has only been a few months of hard work, I heard that Zhenjiang and Jiangning are recovering very quickly, and I heard that the grace of the saint has exempted Zhenjiang and Jiangning, Taiping, and Ningguo from this year's field endowment, so that the farmers can cultivate and recuperate!" ”

"These four mansions have suffered a lot in the past few years, and the emperor naturally can't ignore the people's livelihood!" Pan Lixuan said: "There are a lot of needs to help the victims of the disaster and help the people to cultivate and resume production, and I don't know if the Ministry of Finance can survive it!" ”

"Director Pan doesn't have to worry, although the empire is difficult now, but the taxes are mostly in industry and commerce, and the finances are barely supported, plus northern Zhejiang and Susongtai heard that this year's agricultural situation is good, and it is smooth sailing, if nothing else, it will be another year of harvest!"

Looking at the dress of the person next to Pan Lixuan, you can know that this person is an imperial official, since Lin Zhe officially issued a holy decree to promote Chinese clothing, this Chinese uniform has become the standard dress of imperial civil officials, as long as most of the administrative officials have changed into Chinese clothes.

However, in the folk, due to the lack of mandatory promotion, most of the people dress in horse coats and robes, and in Shanghai, especially a considerable number of business personnel should wear suits, and some people play retro and wear Hanfu, which is rare among the people.

So just by looking at this person's attire, you can judge that this person should be an imperial official.

This person's name is Lin Lan, he is Lin Zhe's cousin, strictly speaking, he can be regarded as a member of the royal family, but in the royal rules formulated by Lin Zhe, there are no feudal dynasties in the past, and relatives are regarded as royal families, and the so-called royal family is basically limited to Lin Zhe's direct relatives.

And unfortunately, Lin Zhe's long-term family has always been thin, and Lin Zhe's long-house branch has been worn alone for two consecutive generations, not to mention Lin Zhe's brothers, not even a cousin. And Lin Zhe's grandfather has two brothers, that is, the second room of the Lin family, and this second room is also thin, the eldest son of the second room has no out, he died of illness more than 20 years ago, and the second son is also an early death, less than 30 years old was killed by bandits when he was in business, leaving only one son under his knees, named Lin Lan, 26 years old this year.

In the three generations of the Lin family, there are only two males, one is Lin Zhe in the long room, and the other is Lin Lan in the second room.

This bloodline is thin, facing his only cousin, although Lin Zhe has never seen him a few times, he still generously named him a non-hereditary viscount, and appointed him as the head of the inner room of the palace affairs department, and let him deal with the chaotic relatives of the royal family.

In terms of bloodline, if Lin Zhe has never had a son, then this Lin Lan is the legitimate first heir to the throne, of course, this kind of thing will never happen, if Lin Zhe has no son and suddenly dies, it is estimated that the generals who led the troops will raise their flags and ascend the throne one by one, who cares about you Lin Lan.

This time I went to Shanghai, because the son of one of Lin Zhe's aunts, that is, Lin Zhe's cousin, in the name of the royal family, made waves in Shanghai and bullied men and women, and it was a trivial matter, but he dared to defraud a number of merchants in the name of royal procurement tens of thousands of taels of silver, which was arrested by the Patrol Police Department of the Business District for fraud in a few days, and the patrol police and other judicial institutions were not easy to deal with without authorization, so it was reported to the inner room of the Palace Affairs Department.

Although Lin Zhe didn't treat these relatives very well, it was also a matter of royal face, so Lin Lan, the head of the inner room of the sect, personally went to Shanghai and arrested this cousin who ruined the face of the royal family, and now he is still locked up on a passenger ship.

When carrying people back to Nanjing, Lin Lan happened to meet Pan Lixuan who also returned to Beijing from Shanghai, both of them were in the palace affairs department, although one was in charge of money and the other was in charge of people, but they also had contacts on weekdays, so they simply went back in the same boat.

What they saw and heard along the way made the two people feel that the war seemed to be far away from Jiangnan.

After arriving in Nanjing, Lin Lan said goodbye to Pan Lixuan, and then took someone to take the cousin who broke the law away directly, if nothing else, this Lin Zhe's cousin will be tried in a very low-key manner according to law, of course, it is about the face of the royal family, and it will definitely not be directly imprisoned afterwards, the inner room of the sect has set up a very special royal courtyard in his hometown Yuyao, well, it is said that the courtyard is actually a prison with better conditions, specially prepared for the royal family members who committed crimes.

Although Pan Lixuan is a member of the palace affairs department, compared with other institutions of the palace affairs department, the finance department he is in charge of and another major real power agency of the palace affairs department: the intelligence department, in fact, has nothing to do with the affairs of the imperial family, and they are all serious administrative agencies.

Pan Lixuan's finance office was located in a house more than 1,000 meters away from the temporary operation, and like the offices of other military and political institutions in Nanjing, it was a temporarily selected private house.

There was no way, Shi Dakai was too ruthless, and before evacuating Nanjing, he burned all the palaces and the like, so that Lin Zhe, the emperor of the empire, could not find any good place to live, so he could only requisition private houses as temporary palaces, and the office space of other military and political institutions was even more so, most of them were requisitioned from those larger houses.

As for the palace and the office buildings of various institutions, they are currently under construction on a large scale, and the relevant personnel from the Ministry of Industry and Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs have joined forces to form a temporary organization, that is, the "Construction Office" under the direct jurisdiction of the Cabinet.

Due to the urgency of time, whether it is Lin Zhe or the major military and political institutions, they cannot always stay in the inappropriate conditions of the house to live and work, so the task of the construction office is still relatively urgent.

One of the most important is naturally the imperial palace, at the beginning of the construction office is ready to imitate the Ming and Qing Dynasty palaces, planning to build a new Forbidden City, this proposal was just reported to Lin Zhe in front of the rejection, what a joke, now the Chinese army is at war everywhere, military spending is huge, the Manchus in the north of the people know to suspend the repair of the palace and the like, how can I, the new establishment of the Chinese Empire, build a palace regardless of national strength, I am afraid that I will not die fast enough.

Moreover, as a latecomer, Lin Zhe did not want to live in these huge palaces, but they were extremely dark, so he instructed the construction office that the new palace should be based on a combination of Chinese and Western, and even drew a sketch for them personally.

Therefore, although the new palace will cover a considerable area, almost all of the original Taiping Tianwang Mansion will be enveloped in the area, but in terms of design, the southern part will be a huge green square, and the central axis is a huge three-story brick and stone building, which is mainly a building for Lin Zhe's office, receiving ministers, foreign guests, etc.

In the large garden at the rear, there are several three-story small buildings, mainly the living quarters of the royal family, and there are some relatively low-key squares on both sides, mainly where the palace staff live and work.

The overall layout is very simple and clear, but in fact it is only seemingly simple, in fact, the scale of the building is quite large, especially the main hall, which is said to be three floors, but the area is so large, and the materials are all stone, the cost is much higher than those traditional palaces.

Lin Zhe didn't let them build it all at once, so the project was too big and cost too much national strength, so he just let them build the second half first, that is, a few houses in the north. It was originally the back house, although it experienced a fire, but the pond rockery could not be burned down, the wreckage was cleaned up, and some plants and trees could be transplanted to restore the original state, and then a few western-style buildings were built in the middle, which was basically the same.

As for the huge square in the first half and the huge main hall, let's repair it slowly, there is no one who can't be repaired in a year or two.

Lin Zhe's palace is a Western-style palace, and the office buildings of military and political institutions are even more Western-style, after all, when the central organs were working in Shanghai, the three huge office buildings around the Generalissimo's Mansion were all Western-style buildings, and they were all used to it.

In order to be fast and reduce costs, Lin Zhe personally asked not to mess up the patterns, no stone carvings, murals and the like, just push a building.

Some of these office buildings are built along the sides of the new palace, and some are scattered in other parts of the city, all the central institutions above the ministerial level have one, and some of the more special institutions can also be divided into one on their own, although the internal design of each building is different, and the exterior is also a little poor, but they are all built by the construction office, and all Western-style brick and stone buildings, so in the eyes of many locals, these office buildings are almost the same.

It's just that whether it is the imperial palace or those office buildings, they have not yet been built, and Lin Zhe, the emperor of the empire, can only be grieved in the private house, and the office conditions of other office institutions are even more simple, and Pan Lixuan's financial office is no exception! (To be continued.) )