1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 988 People from Qi State in Dengzhou
On February 1682, 2, Dengzhou Prefecture, Penglai County.

"Is this the den of thieves?" Wang Tingdong, the governor of Dengzhou Prefecture, got out of the sedan chair, but was suddenly blown by the cold sea breeze, feeling completely cold, and couldn't help shivering.

Alas, this errand is really asking for trouble.

"Return to Judge Wang." Mo Dazhi, chief arrester of the prison department of Dengzhou Prefecture, clasped his fists and said, "This is the place where the thieves hid the stolen goods. According to the investigation of the small ones for several days, there is a section of the missing railway track from Penglai Port to the Imperial Mausoleum of Qi State. Just hide in that den."

"En." Wang Tingdong sniffed his nose heavily, with a stern look in his eyes, "Then let's do it. Remember not to let the thieves escape, and you must catch them all. These bold and lunatics dare to steal and hide behind the railroad tracks." Things, destroying the hard-won good situation of our Dengzhou government, must be severely punished, so as to serve as an example to others!"

Mo Dazhi turned his head and looked at Qiu Guoyong, the chief executive officer of Dengzhou Township, who had come to arrest them in cooperation with the Yamen of the prison department, and said softly: "Qiu Qianhu, in a moment, I, the prison department, will rush into the village quickly. Officers and soldiers must guard the perimeter, and make sure that no one of the thieves escapes."

"Well, we can save it." Qiu Guoyong got on his horse, then drew out his waist knife with a grinning grin, and waved to lead his officers and soldiers towards the village entrance.

"Hey..., it's better to catch people as much as possible, and don't cause too many murders!" An officer of the Qi military police who came with him said in a low voice: "After all, my Great Qi Emperor's Mausoleum is located nearby, so don't disturb me." The ancestor of the Daqi royal family."

"Yes, yes, yes..." Wang Tingdong heard the words, and quickly echoed: "Later, when you wait for the police and soldiers to round up the thieves, don't kill them, so as not to disturb the tomb of the Daqi royal family."

"Well, I got it." The corners of Qiu Guoyong's mouth twitched, and he couldn't help but slander in his heart, but it was hard to reject the words of the Qi people. After all, the entire Dengzhou Mansion was benefited from the Qi people, so it was really not easy to offend them.

This village is located three kilometers east of Penglai County, backed by the Pingshan River, with low mountains to the north, and only seven or eight kilometers away from the sea.At this time, it was the first day of the new year, and most of the villagers were probably extremely tired and sleepy after the New Year's Eve watch last night.

Therefore, when dozens of policemen rushed into the village, they did not disturb too many people. It was not until a few vigilant domestic dogs sensed the intrusion of strangers that they immediately started barking, breaking the tranquility of the village.

Half an hour later, this well-prepared arrest operation came to an end.The police officers broke through several houses, seized more than 30 pieces of railroad tracks from several piles of firewood on the spot, and arrested more than 200 criminals.More than a hundred farmers in the village were afraid of the more than [-] armed officers and soldiers in Dengzhou Town. They just watched from a distance and dared not go forward, but their eyes were full of panic and disgust.

Cui Tianhao, the military police officer of the Qi State stationed in the Dengzhou Imperial Tomb, accompanied several track engineering craftsmen to carefully inspect the seized rails, and found that most of them had not been seriously damaged, and they could be used directly after taking them back. for replacement or storage.

After a brief questioning of the criminals, I learned that their theft of the rails was not aimed at the people of Qi, and they deliberately sabotaged it.When they saw the two horse-drawn tracks laid on the ground, they just felt a little greedy, thinking that they could cut them off and exchange them for some money so that they could have a prosperous New Year.

During this period, the entire north, especially Shandong, had been repeatedly ravaged by the Qing captives in the past 40 years.

Compared with the rich and prosperous Jiangnan, the northern region is extremely dilapidated and poor.Not only was the time of liberation and return here more than ten years later than that of the South, but also during the years of the Northern Expedition, it experienced several wars, and suffered great losses in both population and material wealth.

According to the rough statistics of the Great Qin Household Department a few years ago, the population of the vast northern region may not exceed 500 million, which is less than the combined population of Southern Zhili and Zhejiang provinces.As for the court taxes paid, the entire northern region combined is not even as much as the taxes contributed by the six prefectures of Susonghang, Changjiahu.

It has been 11 years since Daqin regained the north, and the people's livelihood and economy are still slowly recovering. Various expenses such as maintaining the local government, building the northern defense line, reclaiming and garrisoning the people, and restoring farmland and water conservancy all depend on the continuous infusion of blood from the south of the Yangtze River. struggling to support.

However, in the northern region where the economy is in ruins, there is a particularly dazzling bright spot, that is, Terengganu.

In the 21st year of Guangde in the pre-Ming Dynasty (1675), the state of Qi built the tomb of the ancestors of the Daqi royal family in Qilizhuang, Penglai County, Dengzhou Prefecture.At that time, King Sun Kewang, who was in power at that time, generously swiped his pen. In addition to pointing out thousands of acres of land in Qilizhuang to the Qi State as the location of the royal family's ancestor's mausoleum, he also gave the surrounding villages, mountains, wasteland, and some cultivated land together within ten miles. It was allocated to Qi State for the construction of the imperial mausoleum city, palaces, pavilions, hills, stone carving groups and many other buildings attached to the mausoleum.

In order to build this mausoleum of the ancestors of the Daqi royal family, the Qi royal family invested more than 250 million Hanzhou silver dollars (far exceeding the initial budget of 200 million yuan) during the construction process of more than five years, and successively expropriated more than 20 yuan. Wanminli plays a positive role in promoting and improving the local economy and people's livelihood in Terengganu.

Building mausoleums, imperial mausoleums, palaces, and buildings requires a lot of bricks, stones, cement, and wood.For this reason, the people of Qi State invested in the construction of more than a dozen brick kilns, cement kilns, stone processing plants, wood processing plants, furniture production plants, pottery casting processing plants, iron parts processing plants and other construction-related factories near Huangling City.

In winter, in order to warm up the engineering and technical craftsmen, resident armed guards, and a large number of migrant workers staying at the imperial mausoleum, Qi people transported a large amount of coal from Xishan in Beijing and Yunzhou in Beiming (now Hokkaido).Several coal processing plants and iron furnace production plants were also established. In addition to processing coal pellets and coal blocks for heating local houses, they also carried out various deep processing of the transported coal.The refined coke was sold to two iron smelting centers in Zunhua in the north and Foshan in the south; the dyes extracted were sold in many cotton textile factories in the south of the Yangtze River; the gas extracted was sold to the luxurious and wealthy homes in Shandong and surrounding provinces for lighting .

In order to facilitate the transportation of various construction and industrial products arriving at Penglai Port, the Qi people used the coal tar pitch produced after coal refining to lay the first asphalt road in the Chinese mainland, which created a new era for improving and upgrading the local traffic conditions. new milestone.

To build the imperial mausoleum, the people's power used is between 3 and [-] people. In order to supply their daily food needs, the people of Qi State will transport several people from North Korea, Yunzhou, Annan and other places every ten days. Ship food.Correspondingly, more than a dozen grain processing plants, oil plant processing plants, and fish product processing plants were successively established in Huangling City and Penglai County.

Merchants and vendors from around Penglai and Terengganu settled in the vicinity of Huangling City one after another, providing various daily necessities for the people of Qi and tens of thousands of migrant workers.Various commercial facilities such as inns, restaurants, restaurants, medical centers, and clothing stores were established one after another, and many craftsmen such as stonemasons, carpenters, blacksmiths, barbers, goldsmiths, and silversmiths also came here.

In the first year of Chengde in the Great Qin Dynasty, when the mausoleum of the ancestors of the royal family of Qi State was completely completed, the nearby Huangling City had evolved into a small industrial city with nearly 2 people. There were more than [-] factories of various types and hundreds of shops. Countless businessmen traveling from south to north stopped here.

At present, driven and influenced by the people of Qi State, Penglai City and Imperial Tomb City of Qi State are like the two most dazzling economic "pearls" under the jurisdiction of Dengzhou Prefecture. They are not only the largest production and processing center of building materials in the northern region, but also the The most important grain and oil transit trading center.

At the same time, Terengganu is adjacent to Liaodong and North Korea. Ginseng, antler, and mink fur from the two places are collected here, and then resold to all parts of the country.In addition, the merchants of Qi State also transported all kinds of precious furs from Zhenzhou (the area east of the Ussuri River today), Bitter Leaf Island (now Sakhalin Island) and Lingbei area in the Northern Ming Dynasty to this place, and processed them briefly. After that, it was exported to the prosperous Jiangnan.At present, it has gradually become the largest fur distribution center, trading center and processing center in Qin State.

The vigorous development of industry and commerce has greatly promoted the restoration of people's livelihood in Terengganu Prefecture, and has also effectively promoted the prosperity of the local economy.At present, the tax in Shandong Province is equivalent to about 35 taels of silver per year, and Terengganu Prefecture only has 9 counties and 1 scattered prefecture, with a population of less than 35 people, it has contributed nearly 30 taels of tax, almost with the power of a single government. , propping up the fiscal revenue of the entire Shandong Province.

In the entire Dengzhou Prefecture, there are more than 230 various factories and commercial companies invested and built by merchants from Qi State. Except for most of them concentrated in Penglai County and Huangling City, Huangxian County, Wendeng County, Fushan County, Rongcheng County, Ninghai Prefecture, Haiyang County, etc. County and other coastal states and counties are also distributed, which not only brings a large number of employment opportunities to the local area, but also allows many people in the area to get rid of a little bit of ignorance and backwardness.

"The labor cost here is only one-fourth, or even one-fifth of that in Hanzhou. If you are willing to invest in the construction of a factory, you will definitely obtain a comparatively advantageous production cost and obtain unimaginable benefits. Big profits."

In a luxury restaurant in Penglai County, Liang Shisheng, the owner of the "Liang Ji" leather goods trading company, poured drinks for several local businessmen with a smile, and then invited the guests to enjoy the delicacies on the table.

"I'm afraid the public security environment and production order here are not as secure as in the local area." A Qi businessman said worriedly: "Just now I saw hundreds of officers and soldiers of the Qin army and police escorting dozens of people outside the window. The thieves who stole the horse-drawn rails passed by, it was shocking! You said, even the rails laid on the ground were stolen, who can guarantee that the factory will not be completely destroyed by the unruly people here?"

"Brother Zhou is too worried." Liang Shisheng shook his head slightly, and said: "We Qi people have an unparalleled influence in the entire Dengzhou Prefecture, especially Penglai County. Factories and commercial companies are given various protections. Even in the mouths of ordinary gentry and common people, our Qi people have an excellent reputation. During the construction of the imperial mausoleum for more than five years, our Daqi royal family has spent more than two million yuan in money. Most of them fell into the hands of the local government and many merchants, but a large number of migrant workers also got great benefits, and I am very grateful to the Daqi royal family."

"On the other hand, the many factories and commercial companies established by our businessmen in Qi State successively employ tens of thousands of people and become the main source of income for the vast majority of the local people. It can be said bluntly that dozens of people in the Terengganu Prefecture Tens of thousands of people, six or seven out of ten, all depend on our country of Qi for their livelihood, and they are their parents for food and clothing. In this way, Dengzhou is so grateful that it is not enough, how can they have the desire to do harm? So, why should we worry about the security environment? And production order? As for the thieves who stole the horse-drawn tracks, they were nothing more than some impoverished ordinary people. When they saw the iron shelves laid on the ground, they thought there was an opportunity to take advantage of it, and they became greedy. An order has been issued to require the local guards and squad leaders to step up inspections day and night to prevent any more daring thieves from coveting the railway tracks, and such incidents will definitely not happen."

"Maybe I'd like to tell you one more shocking news. At the Zhengdan court meeting a month ago, the Empress Dowager proposed to divide Dengzhou Prefecture and Shanghai County of Songjiang Prefecture into Zhili Prefecture, and put them under the direct jurisdiction of the Cabinet and the Ministry of Household Affairs. The economic system and management strategy are different from other provincial capitals in Daqin. It is said that this move is to attract overseas businessmen from Daqi and other countries to invest in these two places and establish a large number of various factories that are beneficial to people's livelihood and economic development and commercial companies. The Daqin government will give many benefits and conveniences in terms of taxation, employment, and even economic control. Think about it, everyone, a huge market with a population of tens of millions is simply a cornucopia of wealth that is constantly gushing out ah!"

After hearing this, several local businessmen from the Qi State felt itchy and greedy.The south of the Yangtze River is rich, and the number of merchants is not only large, but also the wealth is no less than that of Qi merchants. With the advantage of local connections, they firmly control most of the commodity trading channels. The competition is extremely fierce, which makes it very difficult to make money.

The northern region is almost a piece of "white land". Not to mention that there are not many big landlords with tens of thousands of acres, even merchants with a little financial resources are rare.

Seven years ago, after the Battle of Qierhaizi, the activities of the Shanxi merchants who were entrenched in Shanxi and Monan were completely exposed, so they were bloodbathed by the Qin army, and passed down to the so-called Eight Great Masters of Shanxi Merchants in the previous Ming Dynasty. It was uprooted, and the forces of border trade merchants in Hebei, Shaanxi and other places attached to it were also severely damaged.

So far, the large merchant groups in the northern part of the mainland have dissipated and disintegrated. As for the small and medium-sized merchant forces in the hinterlands of Henan, Shandong, and Shaanxi, "there is no one who can fight." The merchants of the Qi State took advantage of the trend to rise, and deeply affected the northern regions such as Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaolu, and Shandong.

Several businessmen from the Qi State were discussing enthusiastically, and at a table not far from their banquet, three businessmen in fur coats were eavesdropping and communicating in a low voice with a slightly nervous expression.

"Unexpectedly, these Qi people have such influence in Dengzhou." Erdai said: "We have found Qi people so rashly, and we don't know if we can get a satisfactory result."

"My lord, we transferred to Shandong this time to try our luck." Suo Luntu said: "If the royal family of Qi still has a friendship with Luo Shi and can meet us, it will be the greatest harvest. The future will be long, Qi Since the people of the country can support the Bohai State in the Lingbei area, my Qing Dynasty has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, occupying the huge lands of Mobei and Monan, and there is a little value for it. Luo Zhongyuan, how to contact and contact the royal prince of the Qi State in Penglai , but it all depends on you, do you have a plan in mind?"

"Your Majesty, Lord Dutong, this servant is carrying a letter from his grandfather. As long as he can meet His Royal Highness King Yong of the Qi Kingdom, he will definitely have the opportunity to meet him." Luo Zhongyuan said in a low voice.

"Tell me, it's been decades since your Luo family was the uncle's family of the Daqi royal family, do you still remember your lineage?" Erdai said with some hesitation on his face.

"My lord, His Royal Highness King Yong is the son of the slave's grandfather's direct sister. Presumably, he should know about our mainland lineage." Luo Zhongyuan said carefully: "However, can we use this relationship to gain some benefits from the Qi State? , the slave really can’t guarantee it.”

"Let's leave it at that." Erdai shook his head indifferently, and said, "The emperor ordered us to come out. We didn't expect to gain substantive contact with Qi through a single recognition of relatives. But if there is a little gain, that's all. It’s an extra profit. Well, I’ll have a good rest tonight, and I’ll go to the Imperial Tomb City tomorrow. …Grandma, I don’t know, after I go, it’s a life or a death.”

(End of this chapter)