After arriving in Jining, the Sixth Army continued northward, and then all the way to the Yanggu area.

At the same time, the first division of the First Army of the Chinese Army, which was originally stationed in the Tai'an area, also went north to Jinan.

This time they met in Jinan, and then finally launched the Battle of Jinan and conquered the city, completely crushing the stubborn resistance of the Qing army in Shandong.

Of course, before going to Jinan, Shi Qingxuan had to take Liaocheng down first to ensure the safety of the flanks and at the same time cover the smooth flow of the canal logistics route.

Although the water volume of the canal in the Shandong section has been greatly reduced since the Yellow River broke in 1855, and the water depth has become shallow, making it difficult to navigate large ships, the steam tugs and wooden barges specially designed for inland navigation in the Chinese military originally took into account the shallow water situation of the canal in the Shandong section, so the design draft is very shallow.

Moreover, in order to ensure smooth transportation, the carrying capacity is often reduced before entering the Shandong section of the canal, further reducing the draft depth.

In this way, it was barely possible to keep the convoy transporting supplies through the canal to continuously supply the front-line troops.

And before conquering Jinan, Liaocheng was occupied in advance, that is, Liaocheng was still in the hands of the Qing army, which threatened the safety of the transport fleet.

Just when the northward troops of the Chinese Army were preparing to launch the Jinan Campaign to completely control Shandong, there was no trace of war in southern Jiangsu.

On the streets of Nanjing, the municipal construction, which had been suspended for more than half a year, has started again, and the streets have been rested so that the earth is flying everywhere, which makes Xiao Changzhong, the head of the business district who has just returned to Nanjing from Shanghai to report on his work, very unaccustomed.

This has been in the business area for a long time, and when you look at these traditional cities in Nanjing, there is always a feeling of unreality!

"Now Kyoshi is repairing the inner city. But I've heard that it will be completed soon! The subordinates who returned to the Beijing Division with Xiao Changzhong sighed: "The changes in this Beijing Division are not small, and they have changed a lot compared to last year." However, compared to the changes in our business area, the speed is still a little slower! ”

Xiao Changzhong disagreed. It is not easy for this Beijing division to have this change under such tight financial conditions, this Beijing division is not a business zone, not to mention that the local finance is free, it is estimated that the central government will subsidize it, and the business zone can not only pay more than 10 million taxes to the central government every year, but also have enough financial resources to maintain large-scale rapid development, and both are about to be built as municipalities directly under the central government, and the gap between the two is not generally large.

If this Nanjing was not regarded as the capital of the empire. It is estimated that the development is not as good as that of Suzhou or Hangzhou near Shanghai.

After entering Nanjing City, Xiao Changzhong first went to the Organization Department to report according to the management, and Li Ganzhou, the co-organizer of the Organization Department, met him and said that the time for him to face the saint would be arranged tomorrow.

After all, Xiao Changzhong is not a military commander, nor is he a feudal official like Xue Huan, it is impossible to say that he has just arrived in Nanjing, and he will receive a summons from Lin Zhe on the same day.

After leaving the Organization Department, Xiao Changzhong was not idle, and met with a number of officials he knew well in the afternoon and evening. The main thing is to find out the wind, such as whether there was an accident when he was appointed as the mayor of Shanghai, and what kind of treatment and related support the central government will give to Shanghai in the follow-up after the empire officially established Shanghai.

However, although Xiao Changzhong has been mixed in the Chinese military system for many years. But he has always served in the business zone, and his rank is not high enough, although this familiar official is also considered a high-ranking official. But there is still a distance from the ministry boss, he learned from a friend who works in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. He said that at the previous cabinet meeting, there were many discussions on how to develop domestic industry. Guide national capital into industry.

Moreover, the textile industry was mentioned in these discussions, and the focus was on how to guide the development of the woven fabric industry.

Hearing this, Xiao Changzhong knew that his previous practice of supporting the cotton industry in the business zone was right, just in line with the current key domestic development strategy, and as long as he went the right way and did a good job in the textile industry, then the future mayor of Shanghai should be able to put an end to the prying eyes of any opponent.

Due to the particularity of Shanghai, there are many people who peep at the mayor of the business district before or the division commander of Shanghai now, and all of them are not small.

Because everyone knows that Shanghai is the most developed place in the empire, and not only the development of industry and commerce can provide a lot of financial income for the empire, but also Shanghai is also the window of the empire to the outside world.

How to say it, just like Xue Huan, who was the governor of Jiangsu, was reluctant to enter the cabinet as a minister of an ordinary ministry, Xiao Changzhong, who is now the head of the business district, is actually reluctant to go to the central government, because if he goes to the central government with his qualifications, a minister will definitely not have his share, and the words of the co-organizers of the powerful departments, such as the organization department and the finance department, are enough, and it is very likely that he will be transferred to the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and other minor departments as co-organizers, and these are not what he wants.

He prefers to be the same as Xue Huan, after accumulating enough qualifications and achievements in the local area, the next step is to directly enter the cabinet to hold important positions, the prime minister or the assistant minister of the cabinet dare not expect it, but at least it has to be in charge of a certain ministry.

For an ambitious man like Xiao Changzhong, the pending post of mayor of Shanghai is his greatest opportunity, but also his greatest risk.

But although Xiao Changzhong was worried, he had no ability to change anything, so he could only passively wait for the arrangement of fate, or Lin Zhe's arrangement.

At noon the next day, Xiao Changzhong had lunch at the protocol house under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and then entered the palace early to wait for Lin Zhe's summons.

Xiao Changzhong did not choose to settle his home in Nanjing, like many high-ranking officials, his family has always lived with him in Shanghai, not to mention that he did not have a mansion given by His Majesty or a mansion arranged by the government like those high-ranking officials in the ministry.

After entering the palace, he was taken to a waiting room in Pingren Hall by someone from the Secretariat of the Palace Affairs Department, and when he entered, he found that there were already three people inside.

One of them, Xiao Changzhong, recognized. It is Yue Chuantu, a Taoist of Hangjiahu Road in Zhejiang, who led some officials from Zhejiang to study in the business zone in the first half of the year. Xiao Changzhong also personally entertained him at the Bund Hotel, and I heard that this person has been in the thick of things in recent years. The political voice is quite good, and I heard a few months ago that he will be reused.

After entering, Xiao Changzhong took the initiative to greet him, and at this time, Yue Chuantu also introduced people to Xiao Changzhong with a smile.

"This is Brother Jia, this time he was promoted to Guangdong as a political envoy!" Yue Chuantu introduced to a fat man who was about fifty years old, had a big belly, and was only more than one meter six tall.

Although Xiao Changzhong had never seen this person before, the officials who could be personally received by Lin Zhe were generally existing provincial officials, or provincial officials who were about to be promoted. And there are not many of these people in the entire empire, and basically they will know about the resumes of these people, so although they only heard a surname and a new official position, Xiao Changzhong immediately knew that this person should be named Jia Xianjun, a native of Hefei, Anhui, Xiao Changzhong didn't know much about his early experience, but he knew that this person was the director of the Civil Affairs Department in Anhui before, and it was said that he was quite effective in office.

Now it should be a step higher and has become the political envoy of Guangdong. That's why I had the opportunity to be received by His Majesty.

And if this person is the new provincial political envoy, this is a veritable second-in-command of the governor's yamen!

Although many of the official systems of the Chinese Empire still have traditional official titles, such as governors, political envoys, Taoists, prefects, prefectures, counties, etc., they are actually completely different from the traditional official system. The biggest difference is that local governments at all levels have set up special departments, such as county departments, government departments, and provincial departments.

And the Taoist is also different, the Taoist in the past also had their own yamen. The same was true of the Chinese Empire at the beginning, but with the improvement of provincial institutions. At the same time, there was a shortage of qualified middle and high-level officials, so the provincial-level yamen was gradually transferred to the provincial yamen. Basically, the Taoist officials in the Chinese Empire generally work in the provincial capital, and are not specially assigned to institutions at all levels, but are used as the governor's deputy to handle the daily affairs of the several prefectures to which they belong.

Some are similar to the vice-governors in charge of several cities in later generations!

Then the procurator was abolished, and his powers were completely transferred to the director of the inspectorate assigned to the province under the Inspectorate, which, of course, was not under the jurisdiction of the local government, but was under the Inspectorate.

At the same time, the Metropolitan Command and Missionary Division, as well as the commanders-in-chief and generals of various names, were abolished, and the current military affairs were unified under the responsibility of the High Command, and in the future, the Provincial Garrison Headquarters will be established after the garrison troops are gradually improved.

The functions and powers of the envoys have also changed, the traditional envoys are in charge of civil affairs, but in the provincial authorities of the Chinese Empire, the powers of the envoys have been greatly expanded, and they are the veritable second-in-command of the provincial government, whose main job is to assist the governor in the affairs of the province.

In comparison with the official positions of later generations, the governor is the provincial governor, and the political envoy is the executive vice governor, the Taoist is the vice governor who has not entered the Standing Committee, and the directors of the departments and departments of the provincial government are also compared with the directors of the departments and departments of later generations, the prefect is the ordinary mayor, the governor is the division commander of the county-level city, the county governor is the county magistrate, and the deputy positions such as the county chief and the Tongzhi are basically the deputy positions of the Standing Committee.

In today's Chinese Empire, the provincial high-ranking officials generally only refer to the governors and political envoys, and the others should be said to work in the provincial government, but not at the provincial level.

Only people at this level can be personally received by Lin Zhe, and if other officials report on their work, they are generally received by officials from the Organization Department, and at most they will meet with the Minister of the Organization Department or the Minister of Co-Organizers.

The other one of them is very raw, and he has never heard of a name!

This person's name is Liang Baohuang, but he is not an official, but the administrative director of the Royal Bank, although this Royal Bank is said to be a royal property, but like all other royal properties, they are very thorough commercial institutions, and they have nothing to do with the government strictly speaking.

Even these people in the Finance Department of the Palace Department are not strictly speaking, they are not state employees, they have a special identity, that is, royal employees!

In many departments of the palace department, only the staff of the Secretariat are official state employees, while other departments, including the finance department, the medical department, etc., are in fact employees of the royal family, and the simplest proof is that they do not receive the salary of the state, they receive the salary paid by the royal family.

Although Xiao Changzhong did not know this person, he did know the Royal Bank, which is currently the largest financial institution in China, and it is said that the vault of its bank headquarters is piled up with gold and silver, and the deposits absorbed are already nearly hundreds of millions of silver dollars.

These deposits are more than the Empire's financial revenue in a year, although these deposits are not strictly speaking, the Royal Bank can use these deposits, and it is possible to issue loans or anything, and if you think about it this way, you will find that the Royal Bank has more money than the Imperial Finance Department!

People give tens of millions of loans to Jiangnan Mining Company without blinking, but the Ministry of Finance has to be careful in allocating hundreds of thousands of dollars.

These four people in the waiting room are not simple characters, they are all big people who have to set off an earthquake when they stomp their feet outside, but today they have to wait honestly in this waiting room, and even Yue Chuantu has been waiting until now in the morning, and he himself said that even the lunch is a working meal sent by the people from the secretariat.

Xiao Changzhong was no exception, he waited until four o'clock in the afternoon, and then Jia Xianjun was summoned by Lin Zhe, and then he left the waiting room, followed the steps of the secretary sent by the secretariat, and walked to Lin Zhe's office. (To be continued......)