At present, the Chinese Empire is a traditional imperial regime, and generally speaking, the emperor himself represents the constitution.

And the traditional imperial state is very important: the monarchy is bestowed, and I am the country.

In other words, the monarchy does not need to be confirmed by the constitution, and if anyone dares to say anything at this time that the monarchy needs to be confirmed by the constitution, a large number of traditional Confucian-born officials, especially stubborn conservatives such as Jiang Daoquan, dare to directly dismantle the entire Ministry of Justice.

Although Lin Zhe knew that if he didn't formulate a constitution now, he would have some troubles, but he was also an ordinary person, and he was also an ordinary person who became an emperor, so he naturally didn't want his power to be restricted, as for what problems there would be in the future, let's talk about it later.

If you become the emperor by yourself, and take the initiative to engage in a constitutional monarchy, and play yourself as a puppet emperor, this kind of person either did not have much power when he started, and in the end he was forced to be a hypocrite, or he was purely in the water.

Power is indispensable to a ruler in any era, and although in some cases the ruler may be forced to give up some power to ensure the continuation of the rule, no one will voluntarily give up power when everything is in good condition.

In the past, when many countries in the world changed from monarchies to constitutional monarchies, and even the democratic system, it was because of external persecution, whether it was a revolutionary uprising or a comprehensive economic and political predicament in the country, or external aggression, etc., these were all external pressures, not that the imperial power itself was willing to voluntarily give up power.

Lin Zhe is just an ordinary person, so when he can keep power, he will always try his best to keep power. So the constitution and the like will have to wait until later.

There was no constitution in the nascent Chinese Empire, but other laws and regulations would be as good as possible. Criminal Law, Civil and Commercial Law. Economic law and the like should be perfected as much as possible.

Rather than military affairs and the formulation of laws and regulations, the empire now actually puts more experience on restoring people's livelihoods.

At the beginning of the empire, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong and a small number of northern Jiangxi regions occupied, most of the above areas were damaged by the war, Zhejiang and Susongtai regions were better, with the protection of Yu Shengjun in the early years and were not too damaged by the war.

But other areas are not so good, especially in southern Anhui in the Anhui region, where years of war have left the area empty, and a large number of people have been killed and injured. The fields were abandoned.

In order to restore the vitality of these areas as soon as possible, the empire has spent a lot of effort to help the people resume production, not expecting them to have no worries about food and clothing in a short period of time, or even to become well-off, but at least they will be starved to death!

Thanks to the strong support of the empire, and at the same time, the military is also strong in combat, and the place where it was fought down has not allowed the Taiping army or the Qing army to successfully counterattack, whether it is northern Jiangsu or southern Anhui, it has been firmly held since it was taken by the Chinese army.

The fact that the military kept the Taiping or Qing troops out meant that the people in the rear could not worry about being hurt by the war. You can carry out restorative production, and you don't have to worry about burning down your house as soon as you sow the seeds, and you don't have to worry about waiting until the autumn harvest time, but the enemy army will loot your own fields or simply burn them down.

In the second half of the XIX century. The climate of the whole of China is basically stable, and it is not said that large and small natural disasters are constantly connected, so as long as the political situation is stable. If there is no large-scale war, the basic survival of ordinary people can still be guaranteed.

During this period. The only time for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to wage war with the Qing army was when the population was massively reduced.

Within the Empire, 1857 and 1858. Especially in the civil service system, the core work is to restore people's livelihood.

This restoration of people's livelihood is not only to prevent the people from starving to death, but also because after the people's livelihood is restored, the empire can receive more taxes, and with more taxes, it can expand the army to fight, continue the war, repel the British and French forces, and unify China.

Therefore, during this period, the Chinese Empire presented a relatively strange scene, obviously the Chinese Empire was at war with the Taiping Army, the Qing Army and the Anglo-French alliance at the same time, but internally, it set off a climax of industry, agriculture and commerce, especially agricultural production!

Dangtu County, which is only a few dozen miles away from Nanjing, although the county seat is still the same county seat as before, the Ma'anshan area, which is ten kilometers east of the county seat, has changed greatly.

At the foot of Ma'anshan near the riverside, brick and tile factories with a distinctly modern atmosphere have risen from the ground, many of which are emitting thick black smoke that is unacceptable to future generations, and the rumbling sound of machines can be heard when you get closer.

This huge factory building under Ma'anshan is the steel plant of Jiangnan Mining Company, and outside this plant, there are many iron ore mining areas.

Around the mining area and the steel mills, a preliminary steel industrial zone was established, bringing together some other industries, most of which were consumer industries.

At this time, Anhui governor Guo Longyun is accompanied by Bi Xuanxi, the governor of Taiping Prefecture, and others to visit the Jiangnan Iron and Steel Plant, although Guo Longyun has been to Ma'anshan several times, the preparation and completion of the Jiangnan Iron and Steel Plant He has been here, but once again see this huge steel plant covering an area of more than 10 square kilometers, will still feel shocked.

This is the power of industry, which looks even more magnificent and domineering than the Linde Machinery Factory in Shanghai!

"Now our steel plant has been put into stable operation, and has reached a quarter of the design output, with an annual output of 150,000 tons of pig iron, and another 15,000 tons of steelmaking capacity, which is mainly supplied to Linde Machinery Factory, Shanghai Shipyard, Jinling Arsenal and other large domestic enterprises!"

"The iron ore required for steelmaking comes completely from the Ma'anshan iron mine mined by our company, and the coal required for steelmaking is currently partly purchased from Shanghai, and there is also some Taiwan coal.

At this time, Liao Ben'an, deputy general manager of Jiangnan Mining Company and general manager of Jiangnan Iron and Steel Plant, was briefing officials such as Guo Longyun and Bi Xuanxi on the situation of Jiangnan Iron and Steel Plant.

This is nearly half an hour, and Liao Ben'an is not a bureaucrat, this mouth is a lot of data. Among the many officials who listened to his explanation, a few of them who had been dealing with industry and commerce for many years could still hear some of them. For example, Guo Longyun and Bi Xuanxi are good hands in the industrial office of Lin Zhe's shogunate, so they can understand. But many officials with traditional backgrounds just don't know what to hear.

Of course, no one dared to say that they didn't understand on this occasion, because Guo Longyun and Bi Xuanxi were obviously very engrossed. Most of them are mentally silent, and when they go back, they will find a few people who understand the new industrial and commercial affairs, and they have to learn these freshman affairs well.

No matter what era it is, it is easy to be an official. But if you want to be a good official, it is not easy to keep getting promoted.

For some officials who are obsessed with their careers and want to climb higher, it is necessary to always understand Shangguan's intentions and keep up with Shangguan's pace.

At present, Guo Longyun, the governor of Anhui, is a typical administrative bureaucrat of a typical enterprise executive who is proficient in industrial and commercial affairs, and if these subordinate officials want to be appreciated by him, they naturally have to be good at industrial and commercial affairs.

When a group of traditional officials listened in confusion, Guo Longyun was already talking to Liao Ben'an: "It is not a long-term plan to rely on external purchases of coal. It's a pity that there aren't many mines, and the Chizhou coal mine you run now is very good! ”

Liao Ben'an nodded and responded: "What Lord Fuzun said is very inconvenient to purchase foreign coal, but there is not much domestic coal now. The output of the Chizhou coal mine run by our company is very small, and the quality is not as good as foreign coal! ”

At this time, Bi Xuanxi, the prefect of Taiping Mansion, spoke: "There must be difficulties. However, last month, the government went to Beijing to report on his work, and His Majesty once said: the development of heavy industry. Need to be based on self-sufficiency! ”

In these years, heavy industry represents national defense and national strength, and self-sufficiency is fundamental if conditions permit. Especially coal and steel, if these are controlled by others, it will cause great security risks to the country, not to mention, if people don't sell you coal and iron ore when the war breaks out, do you still want to make guns and cannons?

However, for the contemporary Chinese iron and steel industry, there are many raw iron ores, and there are countless iron ores in Ma'anshan, which are enough to meet the needs of the early development of the modern industry of the empire, but coal is more troublesome.

At present, most of the coal in the Chinese market is foreign goods, and there is quite little domestic coal, because there is no large-scale coal mining in China at present, only some small coal mines in Taiwan excavate coal.

At present, the coal market in Shanghai and the surrounding areas needs hundreds of thousands of tons of coal every year, mainly for merchant ships, especially foreign merchant ships, followed by factories that use steam engines, and then for heating residents in winter.

In this coal market, imported foreign coal accounts for an absolute part, of which the coal produced in Australia accounts for about 40 percent, while the coal produced in Britain accounts for about 20 percent, and then there is a small part of the American coal, Japan's coal, Taiwan coal and some domestic small coal mines of inferior quality.

At present, there are no modern mechanized large-scale coal mines in China, and Taiwan's coal mines and many small domestic coal mines are actually primitive handicraft workshops, and the output is quite low.

Although Jiangnan Mining Company wants to invest in opening a large-scale coal mine, this coal mine cannot be opened with money, first of all, you must have a production area.

In the past two years, the Jiangnan Mining Company has turned around Jiangsu, Zhejiang, southern Anhui and other places controlled by the Chinese Empire, and has not found a coal mine that is easy to mine on a large scale, and finally can only invest in a small-scale coal mine in Chizhou in southern Anhui, but the quality of the coal produced in Chizhou is quite poor, and it is not good to use it for smelting steel, let alone for marine thermal coal.

Therefore, from these aspects, the current domestic coal is still basically blank.

Lin Zhe himself knows the famous Kaiping and Luanzhou coal mines, he also knows that there is a Pingxiang coal mine in Jiangxi, and he also knows that there are a lot of coal resources in Shanxi and Northeast China, but the problem is that these places are not in the hands of the Chinese Empire!

Although there are some small coal mines and a large coal mine in Xuzhou, these coal mines have many shortcomings.

First of all, those small coal mines, these small coal mines are extremely limited in output, there is no value of large-scale investment in heavy mining, and transportation is also a very important problem, some deep inland coal mines are not close to the river to mine its difficulty and cost is quite large.

It is also a small coal mine, and it will definitely be a limited coal mine with convenient transportation.

In addition, Xuzhou coal mine, there are a lot of proven reserves, but transportation is also a big problem, from the mining area to the main market for coal, that is, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, although there is a canal to use, but from the mining area to the canal there is still a long distance.

In the era when there were no railways, if you wanted to transport coal abroad, you had to rely on cattle and horses and other livestock vehicles to haul it, and this transportation efficiency would definitely not be high, and the transportation cost would become extremely high.

Therefore, although coal mines have been discovered in Xuzhou, as the only company focusing on mining in China, Jiangnan Mining Company still has a lot of worries about whether to invest in Xuzhou coal mines.

Moreover, many people in the empire now have great confidence in the military, believing that the military will not be able to hit Zhili or even the northeast in a year or two, and Tangshan is a traditional coal mining area, and this place has not yet been taken down, but the Jiangnan Mining Company has taken precautions and formulated relevant investment plans for the expected Tangshan coal mine.

Under the influence of many external factors, it is still very difficult to mine coal in Xuzhou.

Extending to the empire as a whole, it would be much more difficult to increase the production of domestically produced coal in a short period of time than it would be to rebuild a few steel mills.

Fortunately, the economic blockade was not popular in these years, and the Anglo-French alliance fought a war, but the business was done, and the coal was naturally sold.

Otherwise, if the British and French forces completely blockade Shanghai and stop the import of foreign coal, it is estimated that the silk reeling factories and other steam-powered factories in the trade area will have to stop working, and then the ships on the Huangpu River will have to lie on their stomachs, well, most of them are foreign ships.

It's just that now Bi Xuanxi is talking about self-sufficiency at this time, naturally he is not idle and has nothing to say, his purpose is very simple, that is, to strive for Jiangnan Mining Company, a mining enterprise that is not short of money, to invest in a coal mine! (To be continued......)