"The Emperor!"

Zhang Gui was stunned for a moment after seeing the apocalypse, so he saluted first.

Apocalypse smiled at this time: "When you go to Guanwai, you must remember to write to me." When I have completely completed the telegram matter, I will first set up a telegram line to Lushun, and then I can contact him at any time. ”

"Remember, the Emperor is at ease."

Zhang Gui replied.

Apocalypse smiled and nodded.

Zhang Gui took his family here on the steam train to Jizhou.

It didn't take long for the train to move under the watchful eye of the Apocalypse and the ministers, and headed north.

Zhang Gui glanced back.

He found it difficult not only for others to leave a familiar place, but also for him.

But Zhang Gui knew that he had to leave, and if he didn't, it would only make the world in Guannai even more unstable.

And throughout the history of China, this is one of the best endings for him who is a high and powerful person.

Therefore, Zhang Gui still decided to pack up his mood and moved his eyes to the snowfield ahead.

The train began to make its way through the snowy fields, pushing everything inside the gate to the back of the mind little by little.

Zhang Gui knew that his new world was coming.

It is certainly much easier to rule a Lushun than to rule a Ming dynasty.

He can spend more time with his wife and children and enjoy all kinds of pleasures.

However, Zhang Gui also knows that he can't just seek comfort.

There is no such thing as absolute comfort in this world.

He must still maintain the strength to defend his homeland at all times.

After all, there is a saying that the side of the couch does not allow others to sleep soundly.

He could not be completely assured that the highest ruler of the Ming Dynasty would always allow him to be at ease in Lushun.

Therefore, Zhang Gui planned to spend as much of the tariffs and trade income as possible on the research and development of science and technology, especially steamships.

He must have the ability to further conquer other places at any time, he must have the ability to establish a colony on any land at any time, and he must also have the ability to dominate the seas.

For this reason, he left Beijing this time and took with him many skilled craftsmen who worked on steam locomotives for him.

These craftsmen were hired by him after he bought out the steam technology from the Apocalypse.

Because Zhang Gui treated them with more respect, rather than the false respect of the bureaucrats in the DPRK and China, these craftsmen were willing to follow Zhang Gui to Lushun.

What's more, Zhang Gui's treatment for them is not low.

Zhang Gui had already asked people to build a new city in Lushun, rebuilt the palace, expanded the dock, and moved some people in his own system in advance.

Therefore, when Zhang Gui came to Lushun, Lushun was not a sparsely populated desolate land, but a prosperous place where people came and went.

As soon as Zhang Gui arrived in Lushun, he ordered Liu Zongmin to immediately organize people to build ships and develop steamships, and personally went to inspect the halls of various universities built in Lushun.

And after Zhang Gui left the Beijing Division, on the side of the Ming court, the new emperor and Wen Tiren and other courtiers did not have the heart to care about a small Lushun, as well as any maritime affairs, they were now worried about the lack of labor.

That's right, the first problem that the new emperor encountered after ascending the throne was actually the shortage of working population.

Because a series of government-run railway construction projects are imminent, the household department has already sent the corresponding funds to the degree branch department and the Ministry of Industry, and the governor of the railways and a cadre of the subordinate officials have also determined the list according to the original plan, and have set up railway offices in the prefectures and counties where the railway lines are planned to be built.

Even the question of land for the construction of railways across the border was solved, and the landlords did not dare to prevent the railway from passing through their land.

Not to mention compensation.

But the problem is that there is a shortage of labor to build the railway.

After all, the current Ming Dynasty is no longer the Ming Dynasty when the people were everywhere.

There are no displaced people in the entire Ming Dynasty.

The original homeless people either went to Xishan and now became skilled craftsmen, or went overseas and became yeoman farmers, or joined the army, became officers and soldiers, or went to Guanwai to become miners.

Nowadays, in addition to yeoman farmers and landlords, the construction of railways is required by a large number of tenant farmers and hired laborers of the landlords' families, as well as the Yi people, who can be regarded as slaves.

However, the Yi people were still in the minority, compared to the large number of Han Chinese tenant farmers and hired laborers.

After all, this land is not a new land, not a place where a large number of immigrants settled, but a continent where the Han people have lived for thousands of years.

Therefore, if the imperial court wanted to build a railway and increase its income, it still had to further emancipate the Han people, and it was not enough to prohibit slavery in name, but to make a large number of tenant farmers and hired laborers of the landlord's family willing to come out and work on the railway.

This required the imperial court to encourage Han people to come out of the landlord's estate, encourage Han people to leave their hometowns, and at the same time increase the salary of Han workers.

In fact, the north, especially in the Gyeongshi area, because there is already such an industrial base as Xishan, so that many new factories are concentrated in the Gyeonggi area, which has long attracted many Han people from all over the country to leave their hometowns to work in the Gyeonggi area, thereby obtaining higher incomes and further promoting the prosperity of Gyeonggi.

However, today's Ming Dynasty is naturally not the era when the landlords were massively eliminated in later generations.

Today's Ming Dynasty has a large number of landlords and gentry.

A large number of landlords and gentry occupy thousands of hectares, and what do they live by? relied on letting a large number of Han people work as tenant farmers for them, so that they could eat and rent; At the same time, they also used their own rents to support a large number of domestic slaves and provide them with living services.

Therefore, although the Ming court had banned slave ownership, a large number of landless Han people were still controlled by landlords in the form of tenant farmers or domestic slaves.

It's just that he is no longer a slave on the surface, but in fact he is still squeezed by the landlord.

If these tenant farmers or domestic slaves want to leave their homeland and go to the north to work in order to earn a higher income, it will affect the interests of the landlord class, and the landlord class will have no one to rent their land, and there will be no one to serve him.

Therefore, in many places, the landlords and gentry would restrict their tenant farmers and domestic slaves from going to the north, and those who were civilized would reduce rents and interest rates or increase their salaries, and those who were not civilized would directly kill tenant farmers or domestic slaves who wanted to escape.

But either way, not many Han Chinese will come to work in the major factories in the north.

As a result, the imperial court now does not even have enough labor to build the railway.

And the imperial court cannot directly requisition the people, because the people have already paid the levy silver, and more importantly, the compulsory requisition of the husband will also exacerbate social contradictions.

Therefore, the problem before the new emperor and his courtiers was how to attract more Han Chinese, who were controlled by the landlords, to the imperial court to the national cause of railway construction.

"Uncle said that we should do our best to let the benefits of the world benefit the laborers, so let's just issue an edict and directly exempt the world from forced labor! Starting this year, the levy will no longer be levied. In addition, if the number of acres of land is less than 50 acres, they are exempt from land tax. Let more people have a lighter burden, and more energy to earn their own wealth. ”

Under these circumstances, the new emperor made a bold decision to directly exempt the levies from forced labor and the yeoman peasants who occupied a small number of fields.

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