"That's not right! It's not that simple! was confidently analyzing, Sheng Xuanhuai suddenly exclaimed: "Your relationship with France and the United States is good enough, and the foreigner's nature is that it is not profitable to be early, not to be unreasonable, even if it is a small profit, it may not be willing to pay, if France and the United States pretend to be dead and do not squeak, that is, they do not hand over the customs control power, and you can't use the war as an excuse to ask for it like the United Kingdom, are you embarrassed to take the initiative to turn your face?" ”

Wang Feng nodded and said: "This is indeed a problem, so we should find something to create some disputes and frictions, and reduce the heat of bilateral exchanges, so that we can give them the opportunity to repair relations and obediently hand over the customs control." ”

"Huh?" Sheng Xuanhuai asked in amazement and puzzlement: "I admire you more and more, when it comes to old treacherous and slippery, I am too far away from you, but France and the United States are not looking for trouble, can you still deliberately find you?" What are you going to do? ”

Wang Feng smiled and shook his head: "Under normal circumstances, I will not take the initiative to make trouble, at least I must be able to gain a foothold in the truth, the United States and France are essentially capitalist countries, aggressive and predatory, and now that Britain's power in the Far East is weakening, it is when they are ready to move, we will observe closely, there will always be opportunities." ”

"Oh!" Sheng Xuanhuai scratched his head and asked again: "By the way, you have announced that the future capital will be Nanjing, whether it is temporary or permanent." ”

"Permanently!" Wang Feng said without thinking.

"This" Sheng Xuanhuai hesitated: "I'm not saying that Nanjing is bad, Nanjing Tiger is far from Longpan, the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties and the Ming Taizu are all set to be Nanjing, but Nanjing is generally a small court with Nanjing as the capital, and the real unified dynasty is still the capital of the north." At first it was Xi'an, and later it was Luoyang. Since Jin Yuan, he has been fixed in Beijing.

The topography of Beijing does not need to be said to you, you also know, relying on Yanshan Mountain as a natural barrier. The north controls the Mongolian steppe, sits in the north and faces the south, looking at the world, and Beijing, as the capital of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, has complete facilities, and can be used immediately. You are in Beijing, and you can suppress any unscrupulous people! ”

"You have a point!" Wang Feng pondered for a long time before he said: "Sheng Xuanhuai, I ask you to look at the problem from the perspective of development, first of all, the precipitation in the north is scarce, the land is desertified, and if a modern capital is established in Beijing, there will inevitably be a huge influx of people." It is possible to reach tens of millions in the future.

With the fragile ecological environment of the local area, do you think it can carry such a large number of people? Taking the middle and late Tang Dynasty as an example, the land in Guanzhong was degraded due to too much population, and all the grain and rice needed to be imported from the south of the Yangtze River. This is not only a huge burden, but also a heavy hidden danger to the security of the capital, in addition to food security. And how much will it cost to clean up the environment?

It's easy to destroy the environment, but it's easy to restore it to its original state. At least 50 times more money and effort spent! ”

Sheng Xuanhuai stuck out his tongue and said, "I understand what you mean, Nanjing is backed by the Yangtze River." Precipitation is abundant, at least there is no shortage of water in Nanjing, and the Jiangnan region is humid and warm, and the huge influx of people will not have much impact on the ecological environment, just like Suzhou, with a population of 6 million, it seems that too many people can not feel the damage to the environment, so what about the second? ”

Wang Feng said: "Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, China's economic center has gradually moved southward, and by the time of the Ming Dynasty, it had stabilized in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, that is, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions.

The Tang and Song dynasties used to unify the south with the north, when the north was economically developed and the south was relatively backward, but now it is different, the economy of the south exceeds that of the north, and the south is also more important than the north, such as Zhu Hongwu, who took the world from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and then for example, I took down Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the Qing court immediately went to half a life, so it is a natural move to set the capital in an economically developed area.

There is another point, I don't want to admit it, but I have to point out that perhaps because of the atmosphere and freedom of thought, the southerners are more resistant than the northerners, and their combat effectiveness has gradually surpassed that of the northerners in recent centuries.

Looking at the entry of the Qing army into the customs, why did they kill hundreds of millions of people in Jiangnan? But there are few sword soldiers against the north? Because the southerners resisted, until the recent Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the source of troops was even southerly, mainly from Liangguang, and now the Hunan army in Lianghu, the main body is Hunanese, I heard that it is also impressive, so I must sit in the south of the Yangtze River in case of any contingencies. ”

Sheng Xuanhuai nodded, but muttered again: "According to what you say, don't worry about the north?" What if there is a great enemy on the steppe that invades the south? Although the Mongols have declined, the nomads on the steppe are endless, and Beijing was once the capital of the Qing Dynasty. ”

Wang Feng said disapprerovingly: "With the development of science and technology, the era of nomads wreaking havoc on the world is over, no matter how powerful the cavalry is, can it be as powerful as guns?" In other words, there is no need for the Son of Heaven to defend the country.

As for Beijing, let me give you an analysis, when Beijing was still Youzhou, the sixteen states of Yanyun were ceded to Liao, did the people of Youzhou resist? When the Jin Kingdom took Beijing as its central capital, did the people of Beijing rebel? When the Yuan Dynasty made Beijing its capital, did the people of Beijing resist? Until Li Zicheng and the Qing Dynasty successively set the capital in Beijing, the people of Beijing still did not resist, the so-called city head changes the banner of the king, endure watching old friends become new ghosts, refers to this meaning, so I am confident that even if I do not sit in Beijing, the people of Beijing will not make trouble. ”

Wang Feng's words were more ugly, but they were facts, Sheng Xuanhuai nodded and said: "Actually, I am from Changzhou, and I definitely hope that the capital will be set in Nanjing instead of Beijing, and I believe that everyone in the army also has the same idea." ”

The fighters of the Democratic Alliance Army, except for a small number of people, basically came from the south of the Yangtze River, and the northernmost line was only the Huai River.

Wang Feng smiled slightly: "Let's go, let's go back to Suzhou today." ”

After returning to Suzhou, Wang Feng brought the former governor of Zhejiang Wu Wenrong to test his English proficiency, I have to say, this old guy is still very hard, more than two years, it may be an exaggeration to say that the answer is fluent, but normal communication with foreigners is no longer a problem, so Wang Feng appointed Wu Wenrong as the director of Shanghai Customs, and ordered him to go to Shanghai to hand over to Robertson's office.

Wu Wenrong is also an old treacherous and slippery, but he is not afraid that he will suffer at the hands of Robertson.

In the next period of time, Wang Feng did not go to Nanjing, but stayed in Suzhou, on the one hand, to greet various departments, do work, unify thinking, and minimize the obstacles to moving the capital to Nanjing, after all, a large part of the government officials are from Suzhou, and they have long determined that Suzhou will be the capital of the new dynasty.

Another task is to compile textbooks, taking advantage of the rare leisure after the war, Wang Feng needs to improve the textbooks as much as possible, especially for science and engineering, which needs to reflect the progressiveness and hierarchy of knowledge.

Unconsciously, half a month passed, and it was late at night on September 27, at the home of Ye Mingchen, the governor of Guangdong, the British Minister to China and Governor of Hong Kong, Bowling, the British consul in Guangzhou, Pashali, the American consul in Guangzhou, Jing Yihua, and Wu Chongyao, the head of the Wu family of the Thirteen Lines, came to visit!

As soon as Ye Mingchen got into bed, he was called up by the housekeeper, hurriedly dressed and introduced the four of them into the study.

Wu Chongyao He doesn't care, no matter how powerful the Thirteen Elements are, he is just a businessman, and a businessman can't turn the sky, but he doesn't dare to offend those three lightly.

In the past, Ye Mingchen didn't look down on foreigners, as the governor of Liangguang, he needed to handle the trade affairs of the five mouths, but he was like a cotton bag soaked in water, soft and hard did not eat, water and fire did not enter, no matter what the foreigners said, he had an excuse to block it back, making the teeth of foreigners hate.

However, after the Democratic Alliance army hit the city of Beijing, especially after the British army was wiped out in Baoshan, his attitude towards foreigners miraculously changed, this was no way, even Xianfeng borrowed huge debts from foreigners and was forced to cooperate with foreigners.

used to be tough on foreigners, that was to understand Xianfeng's thoughts, just as his family was rich, but he was very thrifty and very honest, and this alone was deeply favored by Daoguang and Xianfeng, who were diligent and thrifty.

"Why did you come late at night?" After the servant served the tea, Ye Mingchen was puzzled.

"About 300 years ago, a Spaniard named Mendoza came to China during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty and wrote a book called "History of the Great Chinese Empire" based on what he saw and heard.

This book depicts the Ming Dynasty in the Wanli period, mainly singing praises of virtue, such as the city between the city has a good road network, the architecture is exquisite and strong, the products are abundant, the price is low, the handicrafts are extremely developed, with a strong infantry and naval fleet, and the Ming Dynasty people are not xenophobic, not arrogant, will be happy to praise any virtue of the neighbors, brave self-admittance, in Mendoza's pen, the Ming Dynasty has a developed quality.

Bao Ling didn't say much, only a brief introduction, Ye Mingchen obviously read the book, and sighed secretly, he didn't know if the Ming Dynasty was really that beautiful, but even if the truth described in the book was only one percent, the Qing Dynasty was also out of reach, as a Han Chinese, although Ye Mingchen was a first-class member, his mood was always a little complicated.

Bao Ling and the other four exchanged glances, and they all secretly said that there was a play, and Pa Xia Li took it and said: "China used to be admired by us Westerners, hundreds of years ago, we Europeans were proud to travel to China and go through business, but today's China, backward, poor, ignorant, closed, has the common characteristics of a lowly race, Lord Ye, can you tell me why is this?" ”

Ye Mingchen's old face sank, and he didn't want to be talked about anymore when his country was not good, so he immediately snorted coldly: "You came to visit late at night, is it just to humiliate me Daqing?" If there is nothing else, please forgive the official for not accompanying him. (To be continued......)