Before this large-scale knighthood, Lin Zhe had a total of four marquises, eight counts, fifteen viscounts, and twenty-six barons.

These titles are not only heroes, but also include some royal relatives, such as Lin Zhe's only cousin, Lin Lan, who is or a viscount, and several other Lin family members, the two younger brothers of the Empress Dowager Lin's maiden family, that is, Lin Zhe's two uncles were awarded barons, Empress Chen Jing's younger brother was awarded barons, Li Huifei, who gave birth to the emperor's eldest son, her father was awarded a baron, and Fang Defei's father was also awarded a baron.

However, the titles of the clan relatives are generally low, basically mainly barons, and Lin Lan is the only viscount, and these titles are not hereditary titles, nor are they reduced hereditary, and the person who received the title was directly canceled after his death.

The titles of viscount and above in the empire were generally obtained by generals with outstanding military exploits, and there were also a small number of civil servants, such as Bi Yutong and Song Guanqian.

In the expectation of everyone, this time the knighthood ceremony has finally begun, and the first to be awarded the title of duke are naturally a few people, and these people are all the most prominent senior generals in the past few years.

The first person to be awarded the title was Shi Qingxuan, who was named the Duke of Suqian.

Then there is Xu Yanqing, who is not too controversial, was named the Duke of Zhenjiang, Lin Chengfei was named the Duke of Yizhou, Shi Langyi was named the Duke of Dali, and Shen Chiyun, who directly crossed the previous Marquis and directly obtained the duke, was named the Duke of Zhengzhou.

A total of five dukes were sealed, one less than the dukes sealed during the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, the title system of the empire is different from that of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and basically there will be specific titles above the marquis. This title is mainly based on the name of the place, and this place name is often the place where the generals have made great contributions. For example, Shi Qingxuan conquered Suqian that year, and Xu Yanqing attacked Zhenjiang. Lin Chengfei conquered Chengdu (Yizhou is the ancient name of Chengdu), Shi Langyi conquered Dali, Shen Chiyun captured Shanxi, Henan, and Zhengzhou.

The above five dukes are all hereditary in reduction, and when their descendants are reduced to viscounts, they will no longer be downgraded, but will be inherited from generation to generation as viscounts.

This hereditary title is also the real hereditary title issued by the empire so far, even if it is just a hereditary viscount.

For these few people received the title of duke. It can be regarded as a matter of expectation.

Among them, Shi Qingxuan began to lead the Northern Expedition in 1857, conquered the Anhui provinces in Jiangbei, returned to Jiangnan to train the Sixth Army, and then led the Sixth Army in 1858 to defeat the Anglo-French coalition in Shanghai, and then led the Sixth Army to conquer Shandong, Zhili, and Northeast in the second half of 1858, completely sweeping the Manchu Dynasty into the dustbin of history.

His exploits are outstanding. No one in the Empire is out of the ordinary.

Even if Xu Yanqing came over, his performance in his early years was even better, and he was once the most prominent general in the empire, and he traveled hundreds of miles from northern Zhejiang all the way to Zhenjiang. Then he arrived at the city of Nanjing, and with a mere force of two or three thousand people, he defeated more than 40,000 Taiping troops and captured tens of thousands of people. Subsequently, at the end of 1856, he led the Fourth Division of the army to attack northern Zhejiang, and it only took a month and a half to conquer the huge Zhejiang.

As a result, the empire pocketed the entire Taihu Lake region. Lin Zhe was able to establish and claim the emperor based on southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Subsequently, he entered the southern Anhui region and seized the area east of the Jiujiang River. and cooperated with Lin Chengfei to conquer Anqing and others.

In 1858, he led his army to Shanghai to fight with the British and French forces, and after the Battle of Shanghai, he led the Second Army south to Guangdong, once attacked Hong Kong, recovered Guangzhou, and then led the army north to Jiangxi to seize Ganzhou and other places.

Lin Chengfei is not too outstanding in the early years, but it is worth noting that he was already one of the three giants of the military in the era of Yu Shengjun, in 1856, he and Xu Yanqing, Shi Qingxuan together to establish Lin Zhe as the emperor, and later led the army to lead the army in southern Anhui and northern Anhui for a long time, although the middle two years were a little dull, but after the Chinese army's westward expedition began, he led the Fifth Army all the way into Hubei, and then marched into Sichuan, completely destroying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Then come over is Shi Langyi, this person was Yu Shengjun's number one general in his early years, when his prestige spread all over the south of the Yangtze River, Xu Yanqing and Shi Qingxuan did not know them, but unfortunately they were suspected by Lin Zhe during 1856, and then fell silent for several years, and did not rise again until about 1858.

Subsequently, he served as the commander of the Fourth Army, led the army to the west, took Jiujiang and other most of Jiangxi and then marched to Hubei, and then went south to Hunan, forced the surrender of Zeng Guofan, and absorbed tens of thousands of Hunan troops without bloodshed, so that Huguang and Guangzhou provinces were saved from war, and finally killed Lin Chengting in Yunnan and drove Lin Chengting to Burma.

This series of battles brought him back to the peak of the Chinese army, and his prestige once overshadowed Shi Qingxuan.

The follow-up Shen Chiyun is not bad, although his performance is not as obvious as the previous ones, but he is a steady and steady personality, and he also participated in the Northern Expedition, captured most of Shandong and Henan, and later entered Shanxi, although there was no too amazing battle to make him showy, but the territory taken, the annihilated Qing army and the Taiping army were not less than others.

In addition to the five dukes above, Lin Zhe also conferred a large number of other titles.

Fifteen marquis were sealed, including Wang Luyun, Chen Yuntao, Bian Chengxun, Qu Panyun, Bing Qusong and others, for these founding marquis, Lin Zhe specially ordered that after the above fifteen marquis were reduced to barons according to the regulations, they could be hereditary barons, and the titles would not be directly cancelled.

And there is also a Hunter who was awarded the title of Marquis? William, he was already an earl before, and now he was promoted to the rank of Marquis, and the title was Marquis Changxing, this title came from the first battle of the Yongying in Yuyao County, although the first battle of the year was on the surface Lin Zhe personally led the army to command, but in fact, a series of battles in the early days of the Yongying in Yuyao County were Hunter? William commanded, except that at that time he only hung the title of military adviser, but the top brass of the imperial military knew that basically the main battles fought by Yu Sheng's army during 1853 and 1854. Are they all Hunter? William actually commanded.

Strictly speaking, Shi Qingxuan, Shen Chiyun or something back then were all Hunter? William's students and subordinates.

What if this Hunter? William was not a foreigner. If it is a Chinese, it is estimated that this time it is not a marquis. It's the duke.

Hunter? William also knows that his identity has some disadvantages, so he has been trying his best to integrate into the empire over the years, not to mention learning Chinese, now his Chinese is basically very fluent except for a little accent, and even can write a good hand of Chinese pen characters, as for the brush writing thing is too difficult, he can't learn it.

In addition, he also married a Chinese woman, and once wanted to change his surname. But I was blocked by Lin Zhe, you are an Englishman, and it is impossible to become a Chinese if you change your surname, what's the point of changing, cover your ears and steal the bell?

He has even publicly declared on several occasions that he has converted to Buddhism and become a Buddhist.

Despite the fact that Hunter? William's actions are a bit funny in the eyes of many people, but Lin Zhe sees it in his eyes, he knows that Hunter? William has always wanted to integrate into the empire, and for such a person, Lin Zhe naturally could not refuse him because of his English status. On the contrary, Lin Zhe has always admired and reused him.

And Lin Zhe reuses Hunter? William's actions back then also attracted some unexpected effects, such as many foreigners who came to China wanted to talk to Hunter? William also won an official position in the empire, and even obtained the title of nobleman. This also made it much easier for the empire to recruit foreigners to work in China.

This Hunter? William has gradually become a quick signboard for the empire to recruit talents: look, maybe in the near future you will be the next Hunter? William, become a noble lord that everyone admires!

In addition to military generals, the marquis was obtained. There are also several civil officials such as Bi Yu, although Bi Yu and this little old man have not shown the talent of a genius in governing the country for so many years. To be honest, he doesn't have any political achievements, but Lin Zhe just likes him like this. Hard work and resentment, Lin Zhe will do whatever he says, and he rarely has his own ideas.

If you don't reuse such subordinates, is it difficult to reuse those so-called geniuses and people with strong personalities?

And there can't be a few people in this civil ranks, even if none of them become dukes, if there are not a few marquises, the balance of civil and military forces in the future will be too unbalanced, and this is not the result that Lin Zhe wants to see, so he led out the only few eye-catching guys in the cabinet and awarded the title of marquis.

They are Bi Yutong, Prime Minister of the Cabinet, Qi Xuanhao, Minister of Finance, and Xue Huan, Governor of Jiangsu.

Under the marquis, there are counts, these counts are divided into two kinds, one is an ordinary earl without a title, the other is an earl with a title, there are very few counts with titles, only five, most of them are generals with outstanding military achievements, but their merits have not reached the few people who were awarded the marquis, these five earls who have obtained the title, according to Lin Zhe's special decree, after their reduction to the baron, they can be hereditary barons, and no longer learn to cut the knighthood.

In addition, there are twelve ordinary earls, all of whom have no titles, including seven military generals and five civilian officials, such as Song Guanqian, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who was awarded the earl.

Then there are viscounts and barons, and these titles are not much, of which the viscount is awarded to twenty-four, the baron is awarded to thirty-four, and there are civil officials, military generals, and clan relatives.

There are a total of ninety-five nobles who have been promoted or newly fewed, plus seventeen nobles who have already received knighthoods but have not been promoted this time, and the total number of nobles in the empire is one hundred and twelve.

However, it is worth noting that more than one-third of the above 112 nobles are one-time titles, and the vast majority of barons and some viscounts are one-time titles, and after the death of the person who received the title, the title is directly cancelled and cannot be hereditary.

Most of the rest of the titles are reduced hereditary, and most of these reduced hereditary titles are reduced to the lowest baron, and after the death of the inherited baron, this title will still be directly canceled.

Only the five dukes who can really be hereditary can be hereditary, and their descendants can be hereditary viscounts. Fifteen marquises, five earls, and their descendants can be hereditary barons.

In other words, there are only twenty-five hereditary titles in the traditional sense!

And whether this is hereditary or not, in fact, it depends on the title, the titles with titles are hereditary after the reduction of the hereditary level to the prescribed titles (the duke is the viscount, the marquis and the title of the earl is the baron), and the titles without the title are all reduced to the hereditary to the baron, which is directly canceled or simply one-time, and there is no hereditary reduction.

In fact, Lin Zhe originally thought that all titles could not be hereditary, but considering that it was not easy for a large number of courtiers to follow him to fight the world, if the descendants did not fight, or simply the head of the family died more frequently, it was estimated that he would disappear from the ranks of the nobility in twenty or thirty years.

Anyway, the title of nobility has no actual fiefdom, and there are no political privileges, but only some ceremonial privileges and salaries, and this part of the salary is actually not much, for example, the duke's annual salary is set at 14,000 silver yuan, which is actually equivalent to the annual salary of a high-ranking official.

The annual salary of a local governor of the empire is about 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, of which 8,000 yuan is the fixed salary of the central government's financial expenditure, and the rest is the salary of the provincial government's financial expenditure.

But if it is the governor of remote provinces such as Shaanxi and Gansu, it is estimated that he can only get a basic salary of 8,000, and at most the provincial financial subsidy is a few hundred and 1,000.

In the case of cabinet members, the annual salary of the co-organizer is about 10,000 yuan, the annual salary of the ministers of various ministries is 12,000 won, the annual salary of the assistant cabinet minister is 13,000 yuan, and the annual salary of Bi Yutong, the prime minister, is 15,000 yuan, which is the highest salary among all officials in China.

The highest duke on the aristocratic side is 15,000 yen, the marquis is 12,000, the title earl is 10,000, the ordinary earl is 8,000, the viscount is 6,000, and the baron is 4,000. Therefore, these twenty-five hereditary viscounts and barons of nobles, it actually doesn't cost much money to support them, only 110,000 yuan a year.

It was worth the money in exchange for the loyalty of these heroes. (To be continued.) )

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