Although he was a little suspicious of the domestic political environment, especially a few important ministers, Li Yongji was not very worried about his safety and status, after all, he was the founding monarch and was very confident in the control of military power, and he was still in an absolute advantage overall.

In fact, Li Yongji also did some self-analysis and introspection, believing that for the time being, although his administrative control in China is relatively weak, after all, he willfully went abroad not long after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and he lacked administrative construction and administrative bureaucracy before, but he is still very confident in the control of military power.

The reason why he is so confident is because the Imperial Army was built by him, whether it is the Praetorian Guard under the direct jurisdiction of the imperial family, or the National Defense Force under the management of the State Council, from top to bottom, he is deeply portrayed.

Whether it is the Praetorian Guard or the National Defense Force, not only the senior generals are personally appointed by Li Yongji, but even the middle-level generals are familiar to him, and the most important point is that the radio communication capability is strong, which leads to the situation of deception and concealment to the weakest.

Among them, in the Praetorian Guard, radio communication has been popularized to the company, and because of the cost problem of the Wehrmacht, radio communication can only be popularized to the regimental level, which means that Li Yongji can directly communicate with the company-level commanders of the Praetorian Guards and the regimental-level commanders of the Wehrmacht, and if necessary, he can also forcibly turn on the radio broadcast in the barracks, so that the officers and men of the whole army can hear their voices, and the root cause of the deception and rebellion of senior officers can be avoided to the greatest extent.

In addition to maintaining a smooth flow of information in technology, Li Yongji also attached great importance to ideological education when building the army. He had begun to deliberately emphasize and practice this point as early as when he was training the elite army, and later when the army was expanded, he also implemented this method of combining actual combat technology with ideological indoctrination.

At the beginning, Li Yongji's ideological indoctrination only let them know the great righteousness of the country and the nation, and inspired their pride. However, when Li Yongji's status became higher and higher, the scale of the army became larger and larger, and especially after the introduction of many new ideological instructors, the study and teaching of the army's ideology gradually changed.

Especially after the establishment of the Chinese Empire, the ideological education in the military has completely changed to the cult of personality, or the idea of loyalty to the monarch.

In order to strengthen the loyalty of the officers and men of the troops, whether it is the Praetorian Guard, the National Guard, or the National Guard, which is similar to the militia, a lot of loyalty education has been added to the training on weekdays. Patriotic education is instead followed by the education of loyalty.

At this time, although the Chinese Empire was already in a period of peace, and its economic development showed a great leap forward, because the foundation was too thin and the time for the founding of the country was too short, it was still dominated by peasants and the poor on the whole.

In other words, the Chinese Empire at this time was still a pyramidal structure, and more than eighty percent of the more than 400 million people in the Chinese Empire were below the poverty line. Among the poor who are struggling on the edge of food and clothing, the proportion of farmers is as high as ninety percent!

Although the empire has now sprung up with many factories and many construction corps, overall. The working class was still very weak, far from being comparable to the peasantry, so the Chinese Empire as a whole was still a poor country, and the per capita productivity was relatively weak.

Say. In China at this time, being a soldier was an absolutely enviable profession, and not just because of the hype of the Chinese Empire. The social status of soldiers has been artificially improved, and the most important thing is that the treatment of soldiers is too good.

If nothing else, let's just say that I am the lowest-level compulsory soldier in the National Defense Force, and now I can have a net income of 2 Chinese yuan a month, which is more than the income of many farmers who work hard for a year!

This is not an exaggeration, because today's empire has begun to popularize high-yield grain, and grain production, especially rice production, has increased year by year, and as a result, food prices have begun to fall sharply, so it is no longer cost-effective to grow food, and many farmers, especially those in poor places such as Shandong and Henan, often have only three choices in order to live, that is, to become a soldier, go to the city to work, or go overseas to make a living.

Among them, being a soldier is undoubtedly the best choice, followed by going to the city to be a worker, mainly referring to construction workers, and if you can't do it, you will choose to go to overseas colonies to find a way to survive.

In fact, this is also helpless, after all, the yield of high-yield crops in modern society is too high, coupled with the smooth weather in the country in recent years, the overall population of the country is not much, and there is no overall plan for grain planting, coupled with the extraordinary prosperity of the transportation industry, especially shipping, which makes the high grain prices fall like a roller coaster.

In particular, after Li Yongji left China and Shen Shiming took full charge of the internal affairs of the empire, he began to govern the country in the style of a businessman, that is, to reduce administrative expenditures and increase the revenue of the state treasury.

Speaking of which, the so-called minimum guarantee for growing grain is still a set of security policies, or insurance policies, that were only implemented in order to dispel farmers' worries when Li Yongji was promoting high-yield hybrid rice.

The general content of this policy is that as long as you plant this kind of high-yield crop, then as long as you do it in accordance with the provisions of the planting manual, then when there is a harvest, if the harvest is not good or the grain price is too low, you will be given a minimum grain price to protect your basic interests, and this minimum guarantee will not only not let you lose money, but also let you make a small profit.

Of course, if the price of the harvested grain is high, higher than the minimum guarantee, there is no need to implement this minimum guarantee, after all, the fundamental purpose of this guarantee is to collect grain at the benchmark price, and if the minimum guarantee is applied, the grain must be sold to the state, not at market prices.

Originally, this set of policies was very effective, dispelling the concerns of many farmers, especially large landlords, especially at the beginning, the ultra-high yield of high-yield crops, ultra-high insect and disease resistance, and excellent taste and other factors, so that the early batch of farmers who planted these grains made a lot of money, and almost not many people applied for the minimum guarantee, after all, it would be more profitable to go through the normal grain market.

However, this demonstration greatly stimulated the surrounding people, and with the success of these people, more and more farmers bought seeds and seedlings from the government, planted high-yielding crops, and imported more and more grain from Vietnam and Japan, culminating in a small rice crisis throughout the country in the autumn of 1863!

The so-called rice crisis was in September 1863. The price of rice in the central and eastern parts of the country has suddenly plummeted, and the price is so low that many peasant households have calculated that if they sell rice at the price in the market, they will not even be able to earn back the freight.

Small farmers are okay, they can't sell it at a high price and can eat it themselves, but many farmers who plant large areas, such as those rich landlords, in order to make money, they all plant on a large area. In addition, in order to increase production, a lot of farm manure such as pig manure and cow manure are used, and the cost is really not low, plus labor and the like.

As a result, many peasant households began to rush to apply for the minimum guarantee, hoping that the government would pay for the low-priced grain and make up for some of their losses.

By this time, the Imperial Government, although it had not broken the treaty, had begun to make calculations. That is to say, it is strictly stuck in the contract, and the requirement is that only those who have applied for the minimum guarantee before can sell it to the government at the minimum guarantee price, and if they have not signed a contract with the national seed station when they planted grain before, they cannot be distributed.

This time. Many farmers complained, knowing that many of these high-yielding crops could not be left and could only be obtained through the Empire's seed stations, which were limited in number. At present, only Nanjing, Suzhou and Shanghai have seed stations, and seeds and seedlings of high-yield crops can be purchased at low prices.

Although there are few seed stations, the power of this high-yielding crop is too strong. Therefore, except for a small number of areas in the country, most of the high-yield crop seeds are purchased through private channels, not through formal channels, and naturally there is no minimum guarantee contract signed with the seed station.

The most important thing is that this minimum guarantee contract must be signed and pledged by the farmer himself in the seed station under the on-site supervision of the grassroots officials, and the signature and pledge of the supervisor must be added afterwards.

Therefore, when the price of rice plummeted, most of the growers could not obtain the minimum guarantee of the empire, and it can be said that they suffered heavy losses. However, after all, there is still a small number of people who have this contract, and although this small group of people is not much in terms of the overall number of growers, the absolute number is not small.

For this reason, the imperial government had no choice but to purchase the grain of these peasant households at the lowest guaranteed price in accordance with the provisions of the contract, and it was completely trading at a loss, and the loss of this alone was as high as 10 million Chinese yuan.

Although 10 million Chinese dollars was not a large amount for the imperial government at that time, it was not a bone-wrenching matter, but this incident stimulated many people, not only many growers, but also Prime Minister Shen Shiming.

Because Shen Shiming thought that this crisis had made many farmers discover the benefits of the minimum guarantee contract, and the next time they bought grain seeds, they would rather go all the way to the seed station to buy them in person, so that in case of another big plunge in this kind of grain plunge, wouldn't the loss of the imperial government be greater?

Therefore, in order to avoid this situation, Shen Shiming simply announced the abolition of the contract system of minimum guaranteed purchase price.

Shen Shiming's method of forcibly canceling the minimum guarantee can be said to be quite barbaric and rude, and when it was canceled, it was not only quick and effective, but also disdained to even say the reason, that is, to issue an order, saying that the cancellation of this policy would be over.

During this period, the Chinese were still afraid of the authority of the government, and although they were dissatisfied with this policy of suddenly abolishing the minimum guarantee for grain purchase prices, they did not dare to oppose it openly, and they did not even hold demonstrations or anything together, so they could only pinch their noses and admit bad luck.

Although this rice crisis was not a big problem for the imperial government, it actually caused many problems in society, and a large number of farmers went bankrupt.

The reason is very simple, when high-yield rice caused a boom, everyone rushed to plant high-yield rice, and many farmers had no money in their hands, so they simply went to the bank or money bank to borrow money, and the collateral was often their own land or housing.

Although the interest rate on loans for growing grain was very low due to the strong support of the imperial government for agriculture, no matter how low it was, there was interest, and there was also the problem of borrowing principal.

It would be fine if the income of rural households was high, but now it is obvious that many people have lost a lot of capital, not to mention the principal, and many people cannot even pay back the interest.

Farmers grow grain at a loss, and those banks don't care, they don't want to let the farmers' losses bear by themselves, so they take the contract and ask those farmers to forcibly perform the contract, that is, to demand the return of the money!

For the Chinese at this time. If you can't pay back the money, you will naturally be in debt, but it is a pity that those people who have a money bank do not go to the wicked people at all, but directly take the contract to the court to sue and ask the court to enforce it.

Because Li Yongji wanted to improve administrative efficiency at the beginning, he asked the court not to procrastinate and shirk when accepting cases, so they quickly made arrangements for the indictments sent by Qian Zhuang Yinhao, and sent a letter directly to the local police station, asking the police to send someone to enforce it.

In this way, it is limited by the administrative rules of the empire. The police, who received the letter from the court, had to be dispatched and began to act as this wicked person who collected debts, forcibly recovering the mortgaged land or houses of the peasant households and handing them over to the money bank or bank, and his behavior was more than ten times more brutal than the forced demolition in later generations.

If not to mention, the Chinese at this time are too kind and too weak. Those farmers who owe debts can still forcibly deny it in the face of those who have money and silver. But when they saw the menacing police, they instantly softened, and apart from kneeling down and crying, few dared to resist.

Of course. There are also some areas where the people are strong, and there have been some violent acts of resistance to the law, but once they do this, it is tantamount to escalating the situation. It will attract the encirclement and suppression of the local National Guard or local garrison.

At this time, most of the Chinese farmers only had cold weapons such as wooden sticks, knives and guns, and they could resist one or two in the face of the police. But once faced with the well-armed and disciplined regular army, there was no resistance at all, and almost every riot was ruthlessly exterminated.

After coming down so many times, even the most fierce areas had to bow their heads in the face of bloody facts, and they could only forcibly endure it.

Fortunately, although the grass-roots management below treated the people too simply and rudely, because there were three options: becoming a soldier, going to the city to work, and going to overseas colonies, which could be regarded as a way for everyone to live, so this economic crisis caused by rice did not produce large-scale turmoil.

Among them, being a soldier, even if it is the lowest-level compulsory soldier, at least it is food and shelter, and you can get 2 Chinese yuan a month, this kind of treatment is not generally attractive in today's social environment with low food prices, and because of the progress of technology, the danger of being a soldier is very low, so being a soldier has become the most attractive profession.

Everyone knows that to be a soldier in the Chinese Empire, you have to stay away from the city, that is, soldiers are not allowed to interfere in politics, so the administrative and military institutions of the Chinese Empire are not very different, and there is not much difference.

The military is not allowed to interfere in politics, which ensures the independence of the soldiers, and because of the general super high treatment of the imperial soldiers, they can basically have no worries, and their social status is also very high, so that they have a strong centripetal force for the profession of soldiers.

Therefore, in such a special organization as the army, which is almost isolated from the world, the ideas are easy to be unified, coupled with the fact that the Chinese at this time are relatively simple, it is easiest to instill the idea of loyalty to them, especially many young soldiers, who are in the age of idolatry, but now there is no entertainment idol, so it is transformed into loyalty to the emperor, so that many young soldiers' worship of the emperor can only be described as fanatical.

Li Yongji knew all about these situations through radio and the intelligence agencies in the Imperial Army, especially the most powerful Praetorian Guard, and he was even more confident that no one would dare to rebel.

The reality is that even if all the national defense forces of the Chinese Empire rebelled, they would not be able to fight against any Praetorian Guard troops, after all, the difference in weapons between the two was too great.

It can be said that the reason why Li Yongji dared to go abroad with confidence and boldness and personally led troops to intervene in the American Civil War was because his control over the military was unprecedentedly strong.

In order to ensure control over the army, he usually has the most calls with the army chief officer in the domestic telegram, and in comparison, even Shen Shiming, the number of calls cannot be compared with that of senior military officials.

Li Yongji's practice is to show his presence in the army and maintain communication with the officers of the army, which will not only increase the loyalty of the officers, but also enable him to have a more thorough understanding of the situation in the army.

In short, although Li Yongji is abroad, he still firmly grasps most of the power in the imperial army, holds the gun tightly, as long as he is cautious, does not easily get into danger, and does not give others the opportunity to assassinate him, he can control everything!

In other words, as Zhang Xinda said, with Li Yongji's current situation, if others want to seek the dynasty and usurp the throne, they must first get rid of Li Yongji, otherwise they will face strong suppression by the imperial army, and they will definitely not succeed! And if you want to get rid of Li Yongji, it seems that there is no other way than assassination!

Thinking about it this way, the context in Li Yongji's heart is probably clear, who is most likely to be unfavorable to him, and he has basically found the goal, and even all kinds of unreasonable clues in the past have also found a more reasonable explanation.

"I hope I'm just overthinking." Thinking of this, Li Yongji sighed, "Otherwise, it will really make me sad." (To be continued......)