After the big military parade with the element of showmanship, the effect was not ordinarily good, not only the ordinary people who had watched it were boiling with blood and blood, but even the elders of the loyal ministers on the gate of the Celestial Empire were also excited, and they also had coercive skills, not only the three foreign ministers were dumbfounded, but even the representatives sent by other warlords were also silent.

Next, there was the so-called state banquet for representatives of warlords from all over the country, and Li Yongji, as usual, just showed his face at the beginning, said something about the scene, and then quickly left, handing over all the work of entertaining to Prime Minister Shen Shiming of the State Council.

Although Li Yongji just came and left in a hurry, everyone present understood very well, because according to Chinese tradition, the emperor is to be high, that is, to remain mysterious, which is not the same thing as the monarch of the West, and after the emperor left, everyone was more comfortable.

Although China also has the custom of talking about business and things at the dinner table, but this kind of national affairs is not so casual, so the state banquet is a normal state banquet, and Prime Minister Shen Shiming did not make any other requests, just kept boasting about himself and praising others, anyway, they just praised each other, and then everyone got to know each other.

Everyone ate and drank well, and the next day was the so-called highlight, that is, the so-called consultative meeting on peaceful reunification.

This consultative meeting on the peaceful reunification of the government was held in the imperial palace of the old Heavenly King's Mansion, and everyone gathered around a large long table, and then Shen Shiming, who presided over the meeting, first listed the conditions of the Chinese Empire one by one, and then asked everyone to discuss them in groups.

Condition 1: Governors and governors at all levels and other provincial heads of state must change their flags and be incorporated into the territory of the Chinese Empire, recognize the authority of His Majesty Li Yongji, become subjects of His Majesty the Emperor, accept the unified leadership of the Chinese Empire, and the central government has the highest jurisdiction over localities at all levels.

The second condition is that local leaders at all levels can continue to serve as senior officials in their own provinces, or they can choose to become senior officials at the central level. However, if you want to join politics or join the military, you can only choose one or the other, and you can't do both.

That is to say, if you enter politics, you must give up military power, for example, if you become a provincial governor, you cannot manage the army; If you want to join the army, you must give up political power, like becoming a local military division commander. He could not manage local government affairs, he could not be a provincial governor, and no matter what he was, he had to accept the leadership of the central government and enter the bureaucratic system of the Chinese Empire.

Condition 3: Taking into account the different conditions of the people in different localities, it is not mandatory for the localities to be consistent with the policies of the central government at all levels, and a certain degree of administrative autonomy and judicial autonomy can be implemented, but the diplomatic power and the right to garrison troops must be returned to the central government.

Other words. In addition to not being able to manage the local garrison, local administrators can formulate their own tax policies and appoint and dismiss officials according to local conditions. It enacts its own local laws that do not conflict with the Constitution, but it must listen to the central government in its foreign relations, and the local garrisons must also accept the vertical leadership of the central government. In addition, the special commissioners dispatched by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Council must not be obstructed. Airborne officials at all levels dispatched by the Central Committee must be fully supported.

Condition 4, the issue of local garrisons at all levels, subordinate to the Defence Forces sequence. The power to recruit and transfer troops is in the central and State Councils, but the local government and the central government have to pay half of the military expenditure.

Units subordinate to the Praetorian Guard are all paid for by the Imperial Family, but they can choose the location of the garrison at any location, and the local government must not obstruct it.

Only militia organizations and police forces are exempt from the jurisdiction of the central government and the royal family, and can be decided by the localities, and the localities are naturally responsible for military expenditures, but the number must be strictly limited, and they are not allowed to manufacture weapons privately, and weapons and equipment can only be purchased from the central government.

Although the time comes for the central authorities to station a certain number of national defense forces or even janissaries in various areas under their control, unless specifically requested by the local government and approved by the central authorities, they will not interfere in local government and military affairs in peacetime, and this is just a symbol of the sovereignty of the central government. In other words, even if there is a local rebellion, unless you ask the central garrison to dispatch, these troops will not be in charge, and you will deal with it locally.

Condition 5: The personal freedom of the local people must not be restricted, and the policy of the No. 2 Decree, that is, the declaration of emancipation of slaves and maids, must be strictly implemented, and one qiē slave and maid must be liberated as free people. At the same time, all localities are not allowed to set up private checkpoints to collect taxes, if you want to set up checkpoints to collect taxes, you must ask the central government for instructions, the central government approves it, and any business activities of royal enterprises in the local area must be unconditionally exempt from tax.

Condition 6 is that all localities are allowed to carry out distinctive local education construction according to their own folk customs and customs, but they must also unconditionally support the education working group sent by the central government. That is to say, if you want to engage in schools and education in your locality, there is no problem, but the schools built by the central education working group at the local expense, the teachers hired, the textbooks used, and the students recruited must not be obstructed in any way.

Condition 7 allows each region to formulate independent tax policies according to its own economic situation, but the amount of tax collected shall not be higher than the maximum limit, and taxes shall not be collected arbitrarily. In addition, the central government shall not obstruct the local IRS bureaus from carrying out tax enforcement, and the payment of national taxes shall be given priority to local tax payments.

That is to say, if you want to formulate a different tax policy from the central government, this is no problem, you are allowed to do so, but any harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes collected cannot exceed the maximum limit, and you cannot embezzle and eat kickbacks yourself, and must be used in local construction. Of course, it is okay to appropriately allocate part of the local tax revenue to improve the welfare of all local officials, but it is only possible to report to the central authorities and obtain approval.

In addition, the national tax paid to the central government is no longer collected by the local government and then handed over to the central government, but directly collected by the local national taxation bureaus under the vertical leadership of the central government.

Like the luxury tax, all the national taxes are handed over to the central government, and the local government does not get any benefits, of course, this is done to change customs, so as not to encourage the local government to smoke big cigarettes in order to make money; Intentional taxes such as stamp duty and land tax are to be given to one-third of the central government, two-thirds to the local governments, and the rest of the industrial and commercial taxes and agricultural taxes can be reserved for the local governments, so that the localities can encourage local construction.

Condition 8 is that local governments are allowed to set up houses of representatives, and the election, appointment, and dismissal of the House of Representatives are not under the jurisdiction of local governments, and they are rating agencies with local governments, but the House of Representatives only has the power to supervise local governance, and does not have the power to interfere with local governments, and disputes arise with local governments. At most, you can report upwards and let the above take care of it.

It should be said that the eight conditions given by the Chinese Empire to the local warlord forces at all levels were quite good, and they were greatly facilitated in other respects, except for the right to garrison troops, the right to foreign affairs, and the right to the constitution to be returned to the central government. Not only can you have the final say in taxation, but you can even continue to be a local official, appoint and dismiss local officials freely, and constantly deny you the opportunity to enter the central government and go to the next level. The conditions are simply not too good.

If it was a weak Chinese empire that put forward these conditions, it was naturally because of the weakness of the heart, because it did not have the strength to unify by force, so it had to make concessions to the localities, but after watching the big military parade, no one doubted that the Chinese Imperial Army had the strength to forcibly unify the whole country by force, and it was so generous at this time, which was the expression of the atmosphere.

In this regard, the participants were basically satisfied, but they still had to go back to discuss again. Think about it, but few people clearly see that after these provisions, there is a line of small print. That is, the final interpretation power belongs to the Central State Council of the Chinese Empire.

Or maybe someone sees this, but thinks it's just something like a urge or a routine, and few people take it seriously, but they don't know that this sentence is the real big killer. That means that the Chinese Empire can change the previous content at any time, and the State Council of the Chinese Empire has the final say.

Of course, at the beginning, the Chinese Empire must have been the talk. But it's hard to say later.

The reason why Li Yongji was so lenient was that he wanted to unify the whole country as much as possible, so that Li Yongji could go to the United States to intervene in the Civil War with peace of mind.

In doing so, Li Yongji made it clear that he wanted to pursue the policy of one country, two systems, or even one country, multiple systems, and let various political systems coexist, so as to verify which system is more suitable for China.

Although Li Yongji feels that the system he has formulated is more suitable for China's development, he has no right to speak without comparison, and retaining some local systems that do not implement the central provinces can also play a buffer role, so that his reform can have a comparison and reference, as if he has a few more younger brothers, but can make his own reform better.

Moreover, the real hidden killer in this is not political, nor military, but economic. There is a condition for the free movement of local people under the condition of opening the market and not hindering the free movement of local people, and this condition is the most lethal strategy for the provinces that implement Li Yongji's new policy.

The reason is simple: the central provinces that implemented the New Deal were themselves the best places for the economy, and because of Li Yongji's low tax policy, coupled with the rise of royal enterprises and other related businessmen, they must have a stronger economic advantage over other backward provinces.

Once the local private markets in other provinces are all open to the central provinces that have implemented the New Deal, and it is impossible to adjust the trade difference by freely setting up cards and collecting taxes, it will be tantamount to opening up all resources and markets, and in time, the central provinces will be able to use the methods of economic penetration and trade aggression to control the commodity circulation and financial fields of these provinces.

As a simple example, if the provinces that implemented the New Deal have planted high-yielding rice, and there are various subsidies for other crops and animal husbandry, then their agricultural products will inevitably increase greatly and their prices will be greatly reduced, while other provinces will not have these advantages, and the prices of agricultural products will definitely remain high.

If they are still independent localities and can protect their agriculture by collecting taxes, they can completely adjust by raising taxes on imported agricultural products, so as to achieve the goal of protecting their own peasants, but now that they are all one country and the market is all opened, then low-priced agricultural products will inevitably impact the local agricultural product market, and the local peasants' agricultural products will not be able to sell, and in the end they will naturally go bankrupt and become displaced people.

At this time, the policy also stated that the free movement of the people must not be hindered, so the people who became displaced people must move to a more promising place in order to eat, and that is not another place, it is the province that has implemented the new policy.

After all, in this era, the first to implement cross-provincial transportation must be those young and middle-aged people, and these people come to the central provinces of the New Deal, which is equivalent to increasing the labor force, and will promote the construction of all aspects of the local area.

In the long run, as the economic aggression of the central provinces becomes stronger and stronger, and the economic status becomes higher and higher, it will inevitably become that the central provinces will live better and better, while the residents of other backward provinces will become poorer and poorer, which is equivalent to the central provinces playing the role of great powers at all levels.

That is, as the industrialization of the central provinces is getting stronger and stronger. Other backward provinces that have not kept up with the pace will become cheap raw material producers and market dumping sites, and will be in a weak position in economic and trade exchanges.

If it is a different country, it can also be resolved by ethnic hatred and the like, and the Boxer Rebellion or something, but in this situation of the same country, it is impossible for the local people to see clearly the essence of these economic aggressions, and they will only see that the common people in the central provinces that have implemented the new policy are getting better and better. But they themselves are getting worse and worse, and as time goes on, they themselves will rise up against the ruler above them.

At this time, if those local leaders want to carry out armed suppression, then the role of the central garrison is manifested, they can restrain those suppression forces, and use the general righteousness of public opinion to suppress those local militia and police forces from using force against the people of the uprising, so that they can use force. If the militias and police forces are unable to suppress the uprising, then the local uprising will succeed, and if it does not, it will certainly force the local government to move closer to the center. The new policy of the central authorities will be fully implemented.

This is the will of the people, and even many magistrates estimate that for their own interests, they will also add fuel to the fire.

However, once they reversed the original policy. With the implementation of the new policy of the central authorities, although the people will get a lot of benefits, the central government's control will also be greatly strengthened. At that time, the central government will not be as loose as before, and the localities at all levels will not become provinces of bondage as before.

In fact, even if the local government finally implements the new policy of the central government, because the economic status has been formed, it will not be able to change the economic generation gap in the short term, and it will inevitably continue to be squeezed by the businessmen of the central provinces.

However, the advantage is that because the central government has stronger control over these places, it can better reallocate resources, achieve the optimization of resource and market utilization, better arrange manpower, better arrange education, and better build local industries, so that over time, the local area can gradually become rich.

Moreover, at that time, the central provinces also plundered enough wealth from the localities, had enough funds to carry out self-upgrading, and also had enough strength to implement assistance measures for the backward areas, which could greatly accelerate the speed of prosperity in the backward areas, and eventually form a common prosperity.

In fact, the essence of the reform and opening up policy of the Red Republic in another time and space is like this, the so-called first rich lead the latter to become rich, and the essence is to let the rich part plunder the resources of the backward areas first, and then go back to help the backward areas when they have money and strength.

Li Yongji is also going to take this road now, but he has a golden finger and can also plunder foreign resources and markets, so he can speed up the process of getting rich first and getting rich later.

All in all, Li Yongji's policies to local warlords at all levels seem to be preferential and generous, but in fact they harbor evil intentions, and it is clear that he wants to use technological and economic advantages to plunder the resources and markets of these warlords.

As a matter of fact, if all these warlords have no selfish motives and distractions, and all of them want to become directly subordinate provinces and implement the new policy in an all-round way, then Li Yongji will inevitably treat these places equally, not to mention that the taxes will be even less, the subsidies will not be ordinarily large, and he will also have to be responsible for the famines, floods, and so on in these places, and in fact, he will not get much benefit in the short term.

The places ruled by these warlords, except for Guangdong, which is a little better, are all properly poor places, and if they are treated equally, then if there is a natural or man-made disaster, all of them will have to be subsidized by the central government, which is definitely not a small amount.

Now it is different, it is clear that it is a province of bondage, and the local officials can continue to exercise authority and continue to implement an independent taxation policy, but the market must be fully opened, so that those troublesome things in the local area will become the problems of the local officials, and it is also their business if there is a problem, and the central government is only responsible for making money from these places, using the resources of these places, and working hard to use the labor force of these places.

Therefore, this kind of policy of restraint is not only a good policy for warlords at all levels, but also a good policy for Li Yongji; anyway, the power of local garrisons at all levels is returned to the central government, that is to say, the central government has the final say on the right to transfer troops, and the military power is in hand, and there is no fear that the localities will turn the sky upside down.

Because the conditions given by the Imperial Government of China were too good and gave the localities enough power, the atmosphere of the entire Consultative Conference on Peaceful Reunification was quite harmonious, and even the strength of bargaining was not very great.

Therefore, it only took more than three hours for everyone to basically agree to the so-called eight conditions for peaceful reunification given by Shen Shiming. But after all, they are only representatives, and they have to go back to discuss with their masters, but except for some small details that need to be discussed, nothing else is a problem.

In fact, the reason is very simple, once these conditions are accepted, these local warlords can raise their own troops as militias, and at most they have to accept more foreign national defense forces and janissaries, but the other political rights are not weakened much.

Anyway, looking at the sprouts, his own troops with big swords and spears can't defeat the Chinese Imperial Army, let alone the Praetorian Guard and the National Defense Army. I'm afraid even the National Guard can't beat it.

Since you can't beat it, and people have given so many benefits and face, it can be said that the steps are enough, and if you don't know how to lift, it's looking for a draw.

Therefore, as long as they are not determined to go all the way with the Qing court, they will not disagree with these eight conditions, and so many people have agreed. If you don't agree, it will be a shame on you, and when people come to beat you, you won't be able to pull a helper. Why bother?

Originally, at this point, Shen Shiming planned to break up the meeting, and then everyone continued to go out to play while building relationships. Anyway, this kind of high-level meeting has very little time to talk about business, and most of the time is just for fun.

However, Shen Shiming thinks about everyone. Who knows, but there are people who do not want to end the meeting early, and new questions are raised.

This person is Zuo Zongtang, the representative of the Chu army, and the new question he raised is what to do with the Taiping army and what to do with the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

According to Zuo Zongtang, if everyone agrees to join the Chinese Empire, this is no problem, but since they have joined, it is a whole, so how to deal with the Taiping Army? Is it necessary to engage in such a policy of restraint? There is also the Manchu Qing in the north, do you still want to leave it alone? Should it be treated as an equal, or should it continue to send troops to exterminate?

Shen Shiming was also difficult to answer Zuo Zongtang's question for a while, but he also knew Li Yongji's thoughts to some extent, so he only gave a not very clear answer:

"Since our Chinese empire represents the Chinese nation, it is naturally Chinese orthodoxy, and everyone must be sure of this.

Since we are Chinese orthodoxy, the territorial aspect naturally should also be counted according to orthodoxy. Whether it is the places occupied by the Taiping Army or the places occupied by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they have been the traditional territory of China since ancient times, so sooner or later, these places will be incorporated into our Chinese Empire, but in what way they will be incorporated still needs to be studied and studied. ”

"IMHO." Zuo Zongtang immediately replied, "A force like the Taiping Army is simply a group of cult elements, and they must not be like me and others, they must be suppressed with all their might, and they must definitely not talk about peace with them, otherwise it will be a tiger breeding!" ”

When Zuo Zongtang said this, the representatives of other places immediately nodded their heads, and seemed to be very sure of Zuo Zongtang's words, that is, they categorically cannot make peace with the Taiping Army.

It is also said that most of these people have fought with the Taiping Army, and it can be said that most of them have enmity with the Taiping Army, and they were all important ministers of the Qing court, and they were not all the way to the Taiping Army, so they are naturally not happy to see the former rivals sit together again.

"If Lord Shen can guarantee that he will not make peace with the Taiping Army and suppress it with all his might, then our Chu Army will agree to all your conditions, and will even send troops to assist." Zuo Zongtang continued, "But if you want to make peace with the Taiping Army, then our Chu Army will never agree!" ”

"Well, that's right." Shen Shiming narrowed his eyes and smiled slightly, "I can't do this thing, I have to discuss it with His Majesty, but from my personal point of view, it shouldn't be a problem." Of course, no matter what our final decision is, we hope that Mr. Zuo will think twice about doing things, and don't be rash, otherwise, if something unpleasant happens, how bad it is, don't you say? ”

"Humph!" For this implied threat, Zuo Zongtang didn't buy it, and continued, "There are also Manchu Qing, you must not coexist peacefully with them!" Northeast China, Mongolia and Xinjiang are also our places, and we must not just throw them away, but must take them back and become China's territory. ”

"Well, I can guarantee that." Shen Shiming nodded, "On the territorial issue, our Chinese Empire will absolutely not give up an inch of land, and any act of splitting the territory of the empire is wishful thinking, and for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they colluded with the Russians to betray our Chinese interests, and they must not let it go." ”

"If that's the case, I'll be relieved." Zuo Zongtang sighed, "But Lord Shen, as far as I know, the Russians seem to be coming, are you sure to block the Russians' attack?" Do you need our help? If necessary, please be sure to speak, for this kind of defense of the country, it is incumbent upon you. ”

"Lord Zuo is too worried." Shen Shiming smiled, "For the Russians, His Majesty already has a countermeasure, and I promise that they will not be able to come and go, so we understand your kindness, you just need to wait for the result with peace of mind." (To be continued......)