Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Just as Zhu Youjian was delighted by the discovery of fulminate of mercury and busy improving firearms, the Zhuolu District Council was also holding an important meeting.

The agenda of this meeting had already been determined, which was the reform of the salt industry.

After the emperor and his ministers determined the guidelines and policies, the Ministry of Revenue and the Salt Administration finally worked out a draft of the salt monopoly and submitted it to the Zhuolu District Council for deliberation.

After being passed by the Zhuolu District Council, it will be submitted to the Congress Preparatory Office for them to provide their opinions and finally finalize the bill.

This is the second time that Zhuolu District has participated in an important court event after determining the property tax rate last year.

Every member of the Zhuolu District Council feels proud to be able to participate in the court's decision-making.

Moreover, unlike last year's provisional councillors, half of the members of the Zhuolu District Council this time are formally elected councillors.

They will serve six-year terms, with the other half of the full councillors to be elected after three years.

It can be said that this Zhuolu District Council has already achieved broad representation. The four classes of people, namely scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, all have their own spokespersons in the council.

After learning that the imperial court was going to reform the salt industry, these people expressed their opinions to the members of parliament they elected, asking them to speak out in parliament as their spokespersons.

Those newly elected members of parliament are also happy to get close to the voters so that they can still become members of parliament in the next election.

Thanks to their efforts and the active actions of the Zhuolu District government, the appearance of Zhuolu District has changed greatly.

Mao Pijiang, who came here for the first time, praised it:

"I didn't expect that a small county town in Zhuolu District would have cement roads like the capital, and there would be rickshaws."

"This is something that even Suzhou and Yangzhou don't have. Qian Muzhai once felt deeply sorry about it."

Chen Zilong, who was also here for the first time, also felt curious.

Cement is not uncommon in Beijing, but it is rarely seen in other places.

In particular, Zhuolu District used to be just an ordinary county, and it could not be compared with Suzhou and Yangzhou.

Unexpectedly, when Suzhou and Yangzhou were still paved with stone slabs, Zhuolu District was the first to pave the roads in the city with cement. And it is also extending outwards, apparently wanting to build it in the countryside.

This is financial resources that neither Suzhou nor Yangzhou have. I wonder how Zhuolu District did it?
A group of college students who did not return to their hometowns and spent their winter vacation in Beijing were all extremely curious.

Zhang Pu, who runs Ming Pao, has some understanding of this. In the first half of this year, he also made suggestions on the election in Zhuolu District based on the lessons learned from the music festival awards.

Hearing these students' questions, he said:
“This is a resolution passed after the establishment of the Zhuolu District Council.”

"All the wood ash from households in Zhuolu District must be collected and sent to the kiln factory."

"The cement kilns outside the city collected a lot of wood ash and burned enough cement."

"This cement is not only used to build roads, but also to build sharp-angled gun platforms on the city wall outside Zhuolu District."

Everyone nodded as they thought about what they had seen outside Zhuolu District. They realized that Zhuolu District had not only built cement roads, but also repaired the city walls.

They have done a lot in the past year.

This makes some people curious:
"Are the people of Zhuolu District so obedient?"

“Although collecting wood ash is not laborious, it is too tedious.”

“How do these people hold on?”

When there is not enough cement in the capital, wood ash is also collected, but that has to be purchased door-to-door, just like collecting feces, and is the responsibility of a special sanitation team.

Zhuolu District did not spend a penny, but forced the people to voluntarily donate wood ash. People who know the customs of the people well think that this is impossible to do.

Zhang Pu lamented:
“That’s the good thing about Parliament.”

"Currently, half of the members of the Zhuolu District Council are elected by the people."

"They mobilized the people to do things, so how could the people who elected them not support them?"

At present, when the parliament first appeared, the people were still very curious about it and were very supportive of the policies passed by the parliament.

Especially after their elected members of parliament came forward to persuade them, the people became even more supportive.

How can you not support the people you elected?
Otherwise, how can we ask him to stand up when we encounter bullying from officials?

In addition, Liu Lishun, who was in charge of Zhuolu District, formulated a policy at the right time, stipulating that if a certain amount of wood ash was collected, one day of corvee labor could be exempted.

This gave the people more motivation. Some merchants and craftsmen who did not want to perform corvee labor even went to the countryside to buy wood ash in order to be exempted from corvee labor.

As a result, the cement factory in Zhuolu District can not only meet its own needs, but was even sold to other places when other prefectures and counties were repairing their cities some time ago.

People in Zhuolu District are quite proud of this. Liu Lishun even shouted out the slogan of connecting every village to the road, and promised to continue building roads next year so that every village in Zhuolu District can have access to cement roads.

The people of Zhuolu District, who knew the advantages of cement roads, were also quite supportive of it. Some wealthy people even donated money on their own initiative in order to increase their fame and become official councillors in the election three years later.

This is what Zhang Pu knew, and it made him highly praise the parliament.

Although there are still various shortcomings in the parliamentary election, and the proposals put forward by the parliamentarians are also unrealistic. But it represents a direction, and ordinary people have made their voices heard in front of the government for the first time.

This made him yearn for the National Assembly in "The Book of Zhou Rites", and he looked forward to the convening of the National Assembly for the emperor and the people to discuss matters together.

Some people in Zhuolu District heard their conversation and were quite proud of it. Although Zhuolu District was not the first district to be established, all the people in Zhuolu District proudly declared that they were the best district in the world.

Although the three districts of the capital were established earlier, do they have district councils and garrison districts in addition to the three offices?
Zhuolu District was the first complete district in the Ming Dynasty, and the Zhuolu District Council was the first local council established in the Ming Dynasty.

Liu Lishun, who also serves as the chairman of the council, has prepared to ask Liu Zongzhou to write an inscription at the request of the members to completely confirm the status of the Zhuolu District Council.
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Feng Quan, who had just returned from Xiangjiang Island, was somewhat dissatisfied with this.

Because the parliaments of Xiangjiang Island and Xiangshan Australia Free Trade Zone are also pilot projects arranged by the court.

As the parliament of the Xiangshan-Ao Free Trade Zone is more controlled by the Portuguese, they, the Xiangjiang Island Free Trade Zone, have an obligation to serve as a pilot.

However, when he thought of the situation on Xiangjiang Island, he sighed again and looked a little sad.

Unlike Xiangshanao, which already has a foundation and gathers many Portuguese people, the Xiangjiang Island Free Trade Zone is mainly aimed at the Netherlands and Spain.

The Dutch who surrendered on Dongning Island were settled on Xiangjiang Island. The imperial court planned to use them as a link to conduct trade with the Dutch.

Feng Quan learned from foreigners that the Dutch were known as the "Coachmen of the Sea". He was eager to try and actively contacted merchants to prepare for trade with the Dutch.

But he did not expect that the Dutch would not respond to his kindness. The East India Company's condition was to lease Xiangjiang Island to them like Xiangshan'ao before.

If the Kingdom of Matram had not attacked Batavia twice in the past two years, which tied up the East India Company's energy, their warships might have already sailed to Xiangjiang Island and started another war with the Ming Dynasty.

However, after two consecutive defeats, the Kingdom of Matram no longer had the confidence to continue fighting. Even though Li Guozhu, the Javanese envoy, tried his best to encourage them, they were unwilling to fight any longer.

Feng Quan had learned that the Dutch had invaded An Buna Island again and were likely to attack Xiangjiang Island.

This made him angry and nervous at the same time, so he asked the emperor for help and returned to his hometown to recruit soldiers.

"A thousand people!"

"Why so little?"

"When did our Feng family become so decadent that we can't even recruit 3,000 people!" After listening to the reply from his nephews, Feng Quan was very dissatisfied that they only recruited 1,000 people.

With the influence of the Feng family in Zhuolu District, he thought that at least 3,000 people could be recruited. It was possible that even more people could be recruited.

But his nephews complained:

"It's different now. There are no idle people in Zhuolu District."

"Even in the middle of winter, there are people working in the gravel and cement factories, and those who don't work are weaving cages at home."

Explain to Feng Quan in detail the situation in Zhuolu District and the new changes that have occurred.

In addition to the cement factory, the most prosperous business in Zhuolu District now is the sand and gravel factory in front of the mountain.

When building concrete roads in various parts of Shuntian Prefecture, there was always a gap in the supply of sand and gravel and the demand was insufficient.

After Liu Lishun organized people to discover sand and gravel in front of the mountain, he established the Zhuolu District Building Materials Company, modeled after the various enterprises run by the imperial court, specializing in cement and sand and gravel.

The company also recruited businessmen to mine and contract the operation with the parliament as guarantee. During this period, the company only charged a contract fee and was responsible for paying taxes.

This has led to rapid progress in sand and gravel mining in Zhuolu District, and even big businessmen from Beijing have come to contract the land. Most of the funds for road construction in Zhuolu District come from the profits of building materials companies.

In order to avoid wasting the contract fees, the contracting merchants even started working in the middle of winter, and many idle farmers were attracted.

As for the residents in the city, Ni Yuangong organized them to weave bird cages, which were then transported to the capital to be sold to pigeon breeders.

This is the advantageous industry in Zhuolu District that he discovered. Yihezhuang, located in the northeast of Zhuolu District, is known as the hometown of bird cages in the north and has many craftsmen who are good at making bird cages.

As pigeons are protected in Beijing and more and more people are raising pigeons, pigeon cages in Zhuolu District are also in short supply and occupy a large market space.

In every pigeon market, there are pigeon cage merchants from Zhuolu District.

Under such circumstances, how could the Feng family recruit people to work for them, let alone go to Xiangjiang Island, in the far southeast.

Feng Quan was still not satisfied with this and asked:

"Where are our tenants?"

“Don’t they want to farm again next year?”

His younger brother Feng Yu said:

"Not to mention the land. How much land does the Feng family have now?"

"The property tax was passed by the Zhuolu District Council. Our District Chief Liu strictly enforces it and doesn't give anyone any favors."

"In order to pay less property tax, I have decided to divide the land."

"Those that really couldn't be divided were sold out."

"In addition to the 1,000 acres of land for sacrifice and the 1,000 acres of land for school, our two families each own 750 acres of land."

This was the best allocation he made according to the tips in the newspaper. Unable to fight against the government policy, he and Feng Quan could only retain 750 acres of land each, and then donate 1,000 acres of sacrificial land to the clan in Feng Quan's name, and select Feng's private school as a primary school in his own name and donate 1,000 acres of school land.

In total, only 3,500 acres of land were left, and the rest were distributed and sold.

Feng Quan knew about the property tax, but he didn't expect it to have such a big impact on his family that he couldn't even recruit many people to work hard.

This made him sigh at the emperor's powerful means, and at the same time strengthened his determination to establish a foothold overseas.

He planned to strive for a title and directly control the people in his fiefdom.

In this way, the possible invasion of the Dutch would be a good opportunity for him to make a contribution.

With this thought in mind, Feng Quan said:

"No matter what, we must recruit 3,000 people."

"These people are the capital of the Feng family's wealth. We have to recruit them even if it costs money."

He sent his sons and nephews to contact other eunuchs and asked them to help recruit soldiers and send them over.

After these people were listed as traitors, they basically had no chance of recovery. The only way to recover was to make meritorious contributions overseas.

Feng Quan planned to give them a chance and let them contribute their manpower and effort.

But Feng Yu said:

"A thousand people is actually enough."

"Quality is more important than quantity. We cannot afford to support more soldiers."

"If a thousand men were all sharpshooters, they would be able to defeat the Jianlu."

I mentioned the Korean War reported in the newspaper to Feng Quan, especially the snipers who performed brilliantly in Korea.

After hearing that the number of kills confirmed by the sniper brigade was greater than the number of people in the entire brigade, Feng Quan opened his eyes wide and could not believe it:
"Yuan Chonghuan won a great victory at Ningyuan, but only obtained 269 heads."

"How could they kill so many? Was it a false report?"

I don't really believe in this kind of achievement without a head.

Feng Yu was somewhat skeptical, thinking that the sniper brigade's record was like a myth. But after thinking of the head sent by Mao Wenlong, he said:

"Anyway, the sniper brigade is very powerful."

"Even Marshal Mao gave them 124 heads, and they themselves got hundreds."

"The number of heads sent from Liaodong and Korea to the capital to build the Jingguan was nearly 2,000."

"And they are all real Tartars, their scalps are completely different from others."

The Jianlu who had shaved their heads and kept their pigtails for many years were completely different from those who had just shaved their heads, and it was difficult to disguise. This was also the reason why the beheading system was still retained by the Privy Council despite its inconvenience.

Compared to the possible false reports of killing confirmations, the officials of the Privy Council believed more in the real heads delivered.

Feng Yu had seen them when he went shopping in the capital, and knew that the heads on display in the imperial palaces could all be called real Tartars.

Feng Quan felt a chill in his heart and became more anxious after hearing this.

Relying on his merits in the defense of Dalingh River, Huo Weihua has successfully established himself in Liaodong and may even win the emperor's favor.

If he doesn't work harder, he may never have another chance.

This reminded him of Yuan Chonghuan who was far away in the southwest. He thought that no matter how capable this person was, he could borrow some people from him.

After all, Yuan Chonghuan was also listed as a traitor, so they could be said to be in the same boat.

Thinking of this, Feng Quan wrote a letter and sent it to Yuan Chonghuan, asking him to lend him a few generals to help him train and command the army. (End of this chapter)