Kangxi, your Qing Dynasty is dead

Chapter 407 Look, this is full of martial virtue! (Please subscribe, please vote)

Songjiang Prefecture, Baoshan County, Wusongkou.

Baoshan County is a newly established county a few years ago. The territory under its jurisdiction is cut out from Jiading County, which also belongs to Songjiang Prefecture. There are 13 cities in total, spanning both sides of the Wusong River. The county seat is on the Wusongkou side, and to the east is the county seat. The Yangtze River is connected to the Wusong River in the southeast, and a small part crosses the Wusong River and falls on the other side of the Pudong Gaoqiao Town, just guarding the gateway of the Wusong River.

Baoshan County, which is constantly expanding, is also very unique. It is a county town that combines a fortress and a commercial port. It not only takes into account the needs of coastal defense at the Yangtze River Estuary, but also takes into account the needs of developing industry and commerce and promoting foreign trade. This county town is not surrounded by an outdated wall with limited defense capabilities, so it can easily start from Wusongkou and continue to expand inland!
The fortress part of Baoshan County is divided into two parts: Wusongkou Fortress and Gaoqiao Fortress.These two parts are based on the bastion as the core, with the shore defenses and forts as the periphery, and then use trenches, fences, and parapets to rely on natural rivers (there are so many rivers in the Jiangnan Water Town that you can’t even count them) to cover them. Protect the back road and form an extremely solid defense system.It is basically impossible to penetrate the Wusongkou-Gaoqiao dual fortress defense system from the front.

The Wusongkou-Gaoqiao dual fortress system, in addition to constituting the gateway to the Yangtze River together with the Chongming Island Naval Fortress across the Yangtze River Estuary, is also used to protect the major trade port where the "river and sea transportation" converge in Wusongkou!
The river in Wusongkou is sometimes called the Huangpu River and sometimes the Wusong River. In fact, it is just two inland rivers with strong water transport capabilities that converge on the territory of Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture.

These two inland rivers, one called Wusong River, lead to Suzhou and connect to the South Canal!One leads to Jiaxing Prefecture in Zhejiang Province and is also connected to the South Canal!
After the two inland rivers meet in Shanghai County, they then flow through Baoshan and merge into the Yangtze River Estuary.The section below Shanghai City is currently called Wusong River.

This is a real golden waterway!Jiangsu, Zhejiang, the Canal, the Yangtze River, and the East China Sea are all intertwined on the territory of the two adjacent counties of Shanghai and Baoshan.Moreover, the Huangpu River and Wusong River have numerous navigable tributaries, connecting almost all villages in Songjiang Prefecture into a network.

What's even more rare is that the place where Songjiang Prefecture is located is the whole of China. Oh, it should be the richest plain in the world now - the Jiangnan area of ​​the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River plains.

The entire south of the Yangtze River is not only a land of fish and rice, but also a land of silk and cotton. Waterways extend in all directions and transportation is extremely convenient. There are almost no floods or droughts, and agricultural output is extremely stable.

Oh, and something even more rare is that the treasured places of Baoshan, Shanghai, Chuansha, Nanhui, Fengxian, Jiading, and Taicang Prefecture have actually been destroyed due to repeated wars in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the deceptive coastal relocation of the Qing Dynasty. Very concentrated land was dispersed.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty, which took over Songjiang Prefecture, could equally divide the "outside land" within twenty or thirty miles of the coastline among the Jiangnan nationals and scholars who had participated in the anti-Qing, anti-Geng, and anti-W wars, thus forming a huge And the "middle-class Chinese" group who love Ming Dynasty very much.

They are all Chinese soldiers who have fought and shed blood for the new Ming Dynasty!
As for the newly established Baoshan County, because almost all the land in the county belongs to "outside the boundary", the land is very even, and almost all the people in the countryside are Chinese.Moreover, these Chinese households come from various places in the south of the Yangtze River. There are not many locals in Songjiang, so there are not many well-connected families.

At the same time, because these Chinese people all served in the Ming Dynasty's Chinese army, they were naturally rural soldiers when they were in the countryside. They could be organized and managed using the "township military capital", an autonomous system that integrated soldiers with the people.

Including the "township and military capital", all "capital" in the Ming Dynasty, as well as the townships above the capital, now implement the "three elders system".

The so-called "Three Elders System" originated in the Warring States Period and matured in the Western Han Dynasty. It is a grassroots governance model highly praised by Emperor Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty.

When it arrived in the new Ming Dynasty, it was excavated and improved by Li Zhongshan and Huang Zongxi. It became the basis for the people of the Ming Dynasty to discuss politics, and was also responsible for grassroots self-government.

Specifically, it is self-governance by the three elders elected by the countrymen and scholars in the hometown and capital.The "three elders" can also represent the township and capital in government and county government meetings (the three elders of the township discuss government affairs, and the three elders of the capital discuss county affairs), and nominate some deputy (standing deputy) local officials.
Of course, this system is not as ideal as it seems. Its effectiveness often depends on the number of "middle-class Chinese".When wealth is average and there are very few rich and poor people, the effect is of course ideal.

Therefore, in Baoshan County, where every household is evenly divided, every family has a citizen, and everyone has a gun, the people's political deliberation based on the three-elder system has been implemented quite well.This can be seen from the appearance of the emerging Baoshan Commercial Port - this commercial port was not invested by the imperial court, but was personally planned by General Li. On the advice of the General, the people of Baoshan County raised funds and donated funds to What was built with loans from Zhongshan Bank is the Chinese people’s own industry!Can't we do it well?

Although this commercial port has only been open for two or three years, it has already begun to take shape.Along the Wusong River (Huangpu River), piers are built one after another, from the "No. [-] Pu" pier to the "Shiliupu" pier.

The reason why the wharves are named "Pu" is because these wharves are adjacent to shopping malls. Along the wharfs, there are cargo warehouses and various goods sold, and they are crowded with merchants traveling from north to south. restaurants and hotels.

On the river, there are all kinds of boats moored everywhere.There are water boats sailing along the Huangpu River and Wusong River, sand boats sailing from the Yangtze River that can travel between rivers and seas (offshore), and bird boats, Fu boats, Guangzhou boats, and Lao boats sailing from the sea. Lock ship, Galen ship.There is also a huge first-level sailing battleship Royal Sun that looks like a castle on the water, and several fourth-level cruisers that arrived with the Royal Sun!
Sailors from France crowded on the deck and looked curiously at the port of this mysterious ancient Eastern country that in European legends was sometimes glorious and sometimes dirty.

This brand-new port, where busy construction sites and confident citizens and merchants can be seen everywhere, gave these French visitors a first impression that they had not seen when they were anchored in ports in India and Annan." An atmosphere full of vitality and everything is flourishing.

Led by a small pilot boat, the Royal Sun carefully crossed the channel on the Wusong River and sailed to a military dock on the east bank of the Wusong River, close to the Gaoqiao Fortress.Little Baptiste Colbert, who came from France, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who came from Germany but was employed by the French court, and Father Silver, the representative of Prince Fokonsky, were together Standing on the deck of the stern of the Royal Sun, I stared blankly at everything in front of me.

This is the Republic of Ming Dynasty, which was praised to the heavens by one group of Dutch and English people, and demoted to the ground by another group of Dutch and English people. An ancient country that found vitality from the ancient "republic of the people" system?
Looking at the lively scene in front of me, and thinking about the increasingly extravagant court in France and the people gradually falling into poverty, the hand holding the railing tightened tighter.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who has always been known as a versatile man, seemed very excited. He was a fan of Chinese culture, and he had no prejudice against the republican system.After all, he was only a German, and he was not loyal to the Holy Roman Emperor. He was still a "three ministers" and served the Archbishop of Mainz, the Elector of Hanover and the French King Louis XIV.He was able to come to the Ming Dynasty this time because of his own efforts. In order to come to the Ming Dynasty to study Chinese culture and system nearby, he even resigned from his job at the Elector of Hanover. With the help of several friends in the Paris academic circle, he Joined the French bureaucracy and boarded the Royal Sun under the guise of "French shipbuilding expert".Among the three, Father Silva was the most surprised by the changes in the Ming Dynasty. Because he was born in Macau, China. Before being captured by Li Zhongshan and sent to Beijing to work as a foreign slave in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he had been preaching in Guangdong and was very familiar with China. The suffering and temperament of the people at the bottom.

This is a temperament that is so desperate that it leads to numbness. But in less than ten years, when Silva saw the Ming garrison, bureaucrats and businessmen at the port of Hoi An (Annam) occupied by the Ming Dynasty, he no longer felt that kind of temperament at all. Numbness without any vitality.

Today, when the Royal Sun sailed into Wusongkou, the vitality that Father Silva felt existed not only in people, but in the entire city, in all the buildings, and in the crowded Wusong River. On.

In just a few years, they actually built a city!
This city is obviously carefully planned, with wide roads and reasonable building layout. Most of the houses are not luxurious, but they are sturdy and durable. They use red bricks, which were rarely seen in China before. The firing cost of red bricks is much lower than that of blue bricks, but red walls are over-the-counter, so few people dare to use them.But the Republic of China and Ming Dynasty didn’t pay much attention to these things. How could they not use low-cost and strong materials?

Just as my thoughts were flooding in, the Royal Sun, flying the fleur-de-lis flag, had slowly docked at the dock.There were already some people waiting on the pier. Those wearing unicorn uniforms, black gauze hats, swords hanging from their belts, and pistols, needless to say, were all members of the Ming Dynasty's military.Everyone looked at the huge French warship in surprise - this was a large ship with a displacement of more than 2000 tons, more than twice the size of the largest gunboat in the Ming Dynasty!
Standing with these officers, there were also many guys wearing uniforms of the same color - according to the official uniform system currently implemented in the Ming Dynasty, the military attache's regular uniform is a unicorn robe, and the official rank is distinguished according to the color.Civil servants wear official robes of the same color, and the size is also determined according to the color.

There were also some Ming soldiers in military uniforms standing upright. Under the leadership of a small officer, everyone carried a flintlock rifle with a bayonet and formed three horizontal lines - this was a standard formation for queuing up to be shot!

If it can be discharged, it means that the Ming Dynasty's army still has some strength!

The captain of the Royal Sun is French Navy Rear Admiral Anne-Hilarion de Cotentin. This man made many meritorious deeds in the Franco-Dutch War. In the original history, he would also make contributions in the Grand Alliance War. , the distinguished admiral who, together with some of his colleagues, had won for France its "uncommon honours" (victories of the French navy were much rarer than those of the army), were now on board in full regalia and wigs. Royal Sun's poop.

He was also extremely interested in the military port, fortress, and soldiers lined up in front of him.In his opinion, the country of Ming Dynasty, like his motherland France, was seriously preparing for war!
As soon as the warship stopped, several skilled French sailors dropped the anchor and lowered the cable, and the gangplank was quickly lowered.The four of them, Baptiste the Younger, Leibniz, Silva, and Cotentin, immediately filed out of the boat.One of the leading military attaches wearing Qilin uniforms on the shore was none other than Li Zhongshan's good brother Li Zhongzheng. Next to him was Yu Qilin, the garrison of Haiju Fortress on the Baoshan side - he was from Yu Deshui. The son, whose surname was not Yu, was raised in someone else's home. Later, Yu Deshui took him back when he became a nobleman with Li Fuchen. After he came back, he was stuffed into the Guangdong Martial Arts Hall and had a good time.

However, he was not as good at fighting as Li Zhongzheng. After graduating from the Martial Arts Hall, he followed Li Jizhen and had no merit. Two years ago, he heard that the Chongming Island Naval Academy under the General's Office had opened, so he passed the exam again.This is amazing, it's like adding a martial arts school and a marine soldier. He's double first-rate, and he's double first-rate!So at a young age, he looked like a child, and he became the guardian of the fortress.

Seeing the four foreigners getting off the boat, Yu Qilin stepped forward, apologized from afar and said in Latin: "Welcome, welcome to visit China!"

All four foreigners understood it and bowed in return.Li Zhongzheng and several others wearing unicorn uniforms also clasped their fists together.After the two sides exchanged polite greetings, Yu Qilin smiled again and said: "It's been a hard journey. The general had to fly [-] miles from Annan to deliver the goods. When he knew you were coming, he asked his brother, Mr. Li, to come to Baoshan to greet you. He also asked his subordinates to come to Baoshan to greet you. We have prepared a resting place for you in Gaoqiao Town. You will have a good rest first, and then transfer to a boat to Nanjing to meet the general."

Silva then spoke to Qilin in Chinese: "Yu Zhenshou, I am not an envoy of the King of France. I represent the general's old boss, Uncle Fu. I want to see the general as soon as possible!"

"Uncle Fu? He is..." Yu Qilin was stunned and couldn't think of it for a moment.

Li Zhongzheng next to him did remember who Uncle Fu was. His expression changed slightly and he said to Silva: "I understand. But no matter what, let's settle down in Gaoqiao Town today. I'll be here early tomorrow morning." I’ll pick you up and go to Nanjing together first.”

Silva was now satisfied and went to Gaoqiao Town with Li Zhongshan and Yu Qilin without saying anything more.Compared with Baoshan County on the other side of the river, Gaoqiao Town is an old town. The alleys in the town are very narrow and most of the houses are quite old.Li Zhongshan and Yu Qilin placed the French Mission in the newest and most spacious building in the town-this is a primary school!The name is Baoshan County No. [-] Primary School. It just opened and only accepts children from one grade. Therefore, there are many empty classrooms, which can be used to accommodate these foreigners from afar.

Silva and others were tired from the journey, so they had a good meal after disembarking and went to bed early.This Gaoqiao town has a small population and is very quiet at night. However, early the next morning, these guests from France were awakened by the harsh sound of suona and bursts of rhythmic drums.

When Father Silva was woken up, he thought he was living in a military camp, so he quickly got up from the bed, put on his cassock, and got out of the house.There was a big playground outside the house. It was already dawn, about eight o'clock in the morning.Little Baptiste, Leibniz, and Cotentin have also left their respective rooms and are standing on the edge of the playground, watching what?
Silva quickly focused his attention on the place on the playground where the sound of drums and suonas came from, and he was stunned.

It turned out that four "platoon-level" horizontal formations were standing neatly, all in a twelve-by-four formation, as neatly as Louis XIV's Royal Guards!The people who formed these horizontal formations were some boys who were seven or eight years old, certainly less than ten years old.

I could only see them moving to the right, then to the left, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left, sometimes under the command of the "instructor", the sound of military drums, and the sound of the suona, sometimes stepping forward, sometimes turning back, a team of dozens of people, as neatly organized as one person !
Are these children students from this primary school?Silva murmured: "They are undergoing military training at such a young age. Their martial virtues are too strong, right?"

Someone nearby answered: "Yes, Ming Dynasty turned out to be a Spartan country! A Sparta with 6000 million people."

(End of this chapter)