afterglow

Chapter 379: Promotion banquet; a royal meeting that is not an imperial meeting

The long drought brings nectar, meeting an old friend in a foreign land, the night of flowers and candles in the wedding room, and the inscription on the gold medal list. These are the four major joyful events in life in the traditional sense.

Although there will inevitably be envious people who ridicule Zhou for relying on his luck to have such a day, all these guys can do is to say a few words in secret.

Zhou Changfeng actually prefers to invite a few true friends to have a meal instead of holding an extravagant banquet with great fanfare, but social interaction is more important than personality.

The first day of May is a popular holiday in many countries around the world, and it is also a right that workers have fought for through their own struggles.

It was in the 15th year of Ming Dynasty that the Consultative Council passed a bill, and since then this day has been established as a legal holiday every year.

Because of its special nature, many organizations will also specially choose this day to hold parades.

The German Embassy in the Ming Dynasty is located at the intersection of Shichengmen Nei Avenue and Qingshi Road. Adjacent to it is the Embassy of the Kingdom of Galicia and Medoria.

In fact, the German Society directly used the German Empire's legation in the Ming Dynasty, but only changed the flag and some furnishings.

It's still early morning, the red sun has just risen above the horizon, and the chirping of sparrows can be heard outside the window from time to time.

Although the embassy was not working today, Chris still woke up early habitually, or the biological clock she had developed for a long time made her wake up naturally after six o'clock.

Since it's a day when you don't work, you don't need to wear the formal suit and skirt, just wear a floral dress casually.

In fact, the Germans are not as ignorant of fashion as the stereotype, but unfortunately they pale in comparison - their neighbors the French often lead the trend in this regard.

Chrissy doesn't care about this petty bourgeoisie style in her eyes. It is human nature to pursue beauty, but the comparison, extravagance, and waste that come from it will be despised.

What she saw during her year in Daming made her agree with the evaluations of some French newspapers and magazines—Shanghai is also a city of fashion, while Nanjing is a city of elegance.

Some French people claim that the classical high-class aristocratic style can only be found in the East, because the French Empire has long been replaced, the Junker landowners no longer exist, the Tsarist Russian aristocracy is not high-level enough, and the Zhengmi Banner lords are not included in the discussion. .

Kris couldn't understand these remarks based on her values. She felt that it was ridiculous to compete with feudal customs in this era.

Later, when she was writing a letter, the crisp clicking sound of high heels came from far and near, and a female typist with an oval face came over.

"Happy Labor Day, Chris." She shared the scene she just saw, "The situation outside seems not to be good today. I saw a team of several hundred people marching."

"Have you seen the demands they mentioned?"

"Well, I saw it, but it's a little strange. They seem to be opposed to land acquisition and distribution."

Different from several other mediocre small-scale teams, this procession starting from Shicheng Gate and heading east was huge, with six or seven hundred people in attendance.

They carried banners reading "Oppose public redemption of land" and "Reject compulsory acquisition" and shouted loudly as they walked. The noise was so loud that pedestrians and vehicles along the way were afraid to avoid it.

Chris received an invitation from Zhou Changfeng the day before yesterday. Anyway, the date is on this day of the holiday, so naturally she can go and have a banquet without any burden.

The banquet will be held at Tonghui Hotel as always, starting at 11:30 noon, so you can arrive early.

Among the people attending the banquet, there must be many important military and political officials of the Ming Dynasty, and they might inadvertently miss a few words, so Chris had to go to this banquet.

After briefly tidying up, she left the embassy with the letter she had written earlier, and dropped the letter in the mailbox at the intersection.

If the Foreign Enforcement Factory hadn't relaxed its control over the staff of the German embassy in the past few months, otherwise according to the previous rules, if she wanted to come up with it this time, she would have to report it one day in advance.

After boarding the tram, it didn't take long for her to see the long parade.

The crowd's shouts were so loud that they easily penetrated the car window glass.

Chris, who had a keen eye, quickly caught something strange. She found that this large group of people was chaotic and without effective organization and order, and many of them looked like slippery and cunning people. They seemed to come from nowhere. of scoundrels and vagrants.

Oh, most likely it was raised by the landowners and used to pay for things.

"Hypocrisy, a bunch of stupid people."

In her eyes, the land reform policy implemented by the Ming Dynasty was quite tolerant and gentle, and it took more than ten years to complete it slowly.

So inefficient!There are still a considerable number of tenant farmers in the vast country waiting for liberation.

When she arrived at the hotel floor specified on the invitation, she found that she had arrived too early. It was just after nine o'clock and there were only a few people here.

"They are all busy people, and they will definitely not arrive so early."

Zhou Changfeng was present. When he saw her arriving, he went up to her and extended his hand to shake her hand.

"Congratulations on your victory against the British and Dutch imperialists, but the people of East Indu are about to welcome new colonists."

Kris' words made Zhou Changfeng dumbfounded, "Is this a German blessing?"

"No, this is just my evaluation."

"Relatively speaking, our country's governance model is relatively mild."

"There is no essential difference." Chris shook her head. "It seems that you are actually a nationalist and a nationalist."

"Okay, okay, little sister Chris, stop tagging me." Zhou Changfeng waved his hand and laughed it off.

The two started talking like this, and soon the topic turned to the entire procession coming along the street from west to east.

"I think our government has given them plenty of time to make their choices, but I found that very few of them have made changes. This rate is really low."

Considering the conservative nature of the landowners, there must be only a few people who dare to take the initiative to sell their land and change careers. However, Chris felt that the landowners in Ming Dynasty seemed to be far more passive than she thought.

Prussia began to carry out land reform as early as the Napoleonic War. The King of Prussia signed the "Edict on Relaxing Land Ownership, Free Use of Real Estate and Improving the Personal Conditions of Villagers". Because it was in October of that year, it was also called the "October Edict".

In that era of primitive communication and transportation conditions, Prussia basically completed its reforms in more than half a century, allowing farmers to generally obtain their own land.At the same time, economic compensation was implemented for landowners, which significantly reduced social unrest.

Today, the state machinery supported by science and technology is far more efficient than in ancient times. Telegraphs, telephones, cars, trains, and airplanes can ensure the rapid exchange of government orders and feedback.

With such favorable conditions, Chris thought that only three years would be enough. If it was more violent, even two years would be enough.

Zhou Changfeng picked up the small wine cup and clinked glasses with her, "First of all, you have to admit the differences in humanities and history."

The latter nodded and said: "I agree with the ethnic differences, but you are more obsessed with the land." "I don't know if you have noticed that it is actually somewhat inappropriate to apply the ▇▇▇▇ historical view to China. The original meaning of feudalism in Chinese The meaning is 'dividing feudalism and establishing a country', which is quite similar to ancient European feudalism, but this model came to an end in the Qin Dynasty, and the subsequent model was a very unique centralized power."

After finishing speaking, Zhou Changfeng added seriously, "That was already 2000 years ago, and our country's civil service system and talent selection system were perfected very early."

"Well... the British established a civil service system in the [-]th century. For a long time, it was rare for civilians to rise to the ruling class." Chris nodded thoughtfully, "So what do you want to express? Yours Speciality?"

"Yes, but it seems to be a bit far. To be honest, I may not be able to explain it to you." A helpless Zhou Changfeng shrugged and stated: "The only way to quickly complete the land reform here is through forced expropriation, but The imperial government has decided that this is definitely impossible, and now it can only slowly redeem it, which involves very complicated balances and rules."

"Ok."

"In fact, the pace has not slowed down since this year. The current policy is to force war bonds to be used as redemption cash, so... the landowners are very dissatisfied."

What age it is, the Ming court naturally does not need to worry about the landlords, as long as they don't go too far.

The Chinese Communist Party has long believed that the inefficient and expensive redemption model should not be used, but instead it should issue various bonds to offset the land reform as soon as possible.

Nowadays, the power of the Constitutional Council is not as strong as it used to be. On the one hand, it is a mixed bag and full of factions. On the other hand, the influence of the Chinese Party has increased with successive victories.

After a period of pilot testing in seven prefectures and counties in Beizhili, Hunan, and Shandong, the public redemption policy of compulsory bond redemption will soon be implemented on a large scale——

If you take this bond, the land is now owned by the government and will be distributed to individual tenant farmers.

What?Do you want cash or bonds?That won’t work, take it!
As the time approached, many guests invited to the banquet also arrived one after another.

In this kind of social gathering, it is usually better to invite more than less invitations, so Zhou Changfeng sent out more than 200 invitations in total, and almost all of them were invited.

The very few who didn't come were those who really couldn't get away, but they all bought a lot of gifts accordingly.

Most of the people brought their wives with them, and few came alone like Chris.

Looking at the countless faces, Zhou Changfeng sighed and complained to his wife beside him: "I'm starting to have a headache. This social gathering is no easier than fighting."

Xia Xiaoshi dressed up carefully for this purpose, and she was now happily analyzing the clothes, makeup, and accessories of the ladies.

Hearing this, she curled her lips and said, "Sir, this is your home court, so keep your mood high."

Come on, how can you be tired of something so satisfying like pretending in public?
As they exchanged glasses of wine and exchanged cups, time passed quickly between talking and laughing.

It was not until the afternoon, when Zhou Changfeng felt that his face was a little stiff, that the banquet finally came to an end.

After arriving home, exhausted and with backache, he went straight to the bedroom as soon as he entered the door, threw off his coat, and threw himself on the bed.

Xia Xiaoshi followed leisurely, bent down and took off her high heels, and then walked to the bed.

"No, are you really that tired?" She leaned over and took a look, "I'll go get you a cup of tea."

"No, I'm not thirsty."

"Oh." Xia Xiaoshi, who was still enjoying herself, sat on the edge of the bed, raised her legs, lifted up her skirt, and told anecdotes she heard at the banquet while taking off her stockings.

Suddenly, she was pulled down by a hand and lay on her back on the bed. Then she saw Zhou Changfeng beside her turn over and stand up.

"Ah? What...what are you doing?" She opened her eyes wide and a blush appeared on her face.

The latter came closer and said seriously: "What are you talking about, a little poem, huh?"

Then, something long-unseen happened in this room:

_（OO》∠）_3
_（OwO》∠）3
_（///w///　∠…)…3
Well, it was a great day in every sense of the word.

The next day.

As the dust settles in the Nanyang region, there should be a clear conclusion on future strategies.

In accordance with the decree, the cabinet and the military department have held discussions in the past few days, and are now preparing to hold a meeting together to exchange opinions and make preliminary preparations for the imperial meeting in three days.

Logically speaking, this does not require the emperor's presence at all, otherwise wouldn't it become an imperial meeting?
However, unexpectedly, when everyone arrived and was ready to start discussions, Zhu Lingjing became an uninvited guest and suddenly arrived.

Zhou Changfeng and Luo Fu were at the scene as military aircraft waiting for the imperial edict. They were also a little confused and couldn't help but look at each other.

After a brief moment of surprise, everyone in the Wenhua Palace meeting room quickly stood up, bowed and saluted, "See Your Majesty."

"I have nothing to do today, but I don't want to be idle, so I came here. You can just carry on."

With that said, Zhu Lingjing sat directly in the empty seat in the middle and spread out a book casually.

Lin Xi asked awkwardly: "Does your Majesty have any instructions?"

"No, I only listen but don't talk. You can start."

"Yes Yes."

The Ming Dynasty's external expansion strategy can be said to be perfect. The strategy for the Nanyang region is indeed very complete, from the combat plan to the governance plan, it is all clear and organized.

But other than that, the strategy is very vague, which also makes the government and the opposition now a little confused about where to go next.

Seizing the Nanyang region basically did not consume Ming's military power, and the losses were minimal.

The battle against British Burma also went relatively smoothly. The Ming army's attack was very passive, with few combat casualties, but many non-combat casualties.

On the other hand, the aggressive Annan army suffered many casualties in the fierce tug-of-war. The Myanmar jungle was really a bad fighting area.

The center- and center-left factions such as the Republican Party, Humane Party, Peasants' and Workers' Alliance, etc. in the Consultative Yuan all advocate consolidating existing results and not making further plans.

Center-right and right-wing factions such as the Chinese Communist Party and the Association for Advancement of Development believe that this opportunity is once in a lifetime - Australia has no military strength. As long as it acts quickly and cooks the raw rice, the Americans can only stare at it!
This was also recognized by many military personnel. The Ministry of War stated that the Ming Dynasty had sufficient military power for deployment and that logistical supplies were not a concern.

Cheng Han cleared his throat and spoke first: "As for the supply that some people have questioned, the total number of private merchant ships in our country last year was 970 million tons, which is more than enough."

(End of this chapter)