Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 236 Newspaper
The battlefield was so brutal that it frightened Zhu Gui, the Prince's tutor. It was mainly because of the feeling of facing death at close range and having no guarantee of personal safety that made people feel very uncomfortable.

Zhu Gui, who felt the threat of death for the first time, fell ill.

Upon hearing the news, Yunhua couldn't help but feel disdain for Zhu Gui and even the imperial court. How could such a person be the Prince's tutor?
Yunhua pondered for a moment, and wrote another letter back to Chen Gu, this time by carrier pigeon, asking Chen Gu whether he should take the opportunity to attack Jingzhou and capture Zhu Gui.

After Chen Gu received Yun Hua's pigeon letter, he rejected Yun Hua's proposal. Zhu Gui did not represent anything. The imperial court was not ready for an all-out war, and the same was true for the Huaxia tribe.

Chen Gu did not simply want to seize the world, but wanted to transform this era. This was more difficult than simply seizing the world. First of all, he had to cultivate a group of officials who could understand his will.

Equal distribution of land is the national policy of the Hua Xia tribe. This policy alone requires enough officials to go down to the grassroots to implement it. It is basically impossible to implement it by simply seizing the world.

Moreover, since the Huaxia tribe has a smaller base, the original officials may even be corrupted and assimilated by the whole world, which will make it even more difficult to reform them.

Therefore, the Huaxia Department must develop its internal affairs for a period of time.

However, Zhu Gui's illness can indeed be used to write an article, for example, to publicize the poor performance of the imperial court.

This reminded Chen Jue of newspapers. Official bulletins have actually existed since ancient times, but they have always been aimed at a small number of people. What Chen Jue wanted was a newspaper that would be popular among the entire nation, or at least the majority of people.

There are many benefits to having a newspaper, and it can publicize many things.

Chen Gu called Wu You, the director of the Propaganda and Pacification Department, and asked him to get a newspaper out for the Huaxia Department as soon as possible.

"Pen, ink, paper and inkstone are not cheap. If you want to buy a newspaper that can be popularized by most people, it will cost a lot of money!" Wu You said after hearing Chen Gu's idea.

As for publishing a newspaper, Wu You was naturally willing to do so, as it would undoubtedly increase his authority. However, writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone were really not cheap in that era. Even a small landlord family could hardly afford to support a scholar, let alone a newspaper that would be popularized by so many people.

"You can start it first, and ask Zhang Haomin for the necessary expenses. You don't need to print a lot at the beginning. Two or three copies will be enough for each town. It can be regarded as a government bulletin.

As for more, we can decide based on market demand!" Chen Kui said with a smile.

"What market demand?" Wu You was stunned, and then asked: "Leader, do you mean to sell it for money?"

Chen Gu nodded and said with a smile: "It's just selling. If someone needs it, let them spend money to order it. We can print as many copies as the number of people who order it. If no one orders it, then we can print two copies in each market town, and distribute some to the county town, prefecture town, state, department, various departments, and the army!"

Wu You frowned and asked, "Since it's being distributed for free, will anyone still spend money to order it?"

"There should be some. After all, listening to someone else reading the newspaper is not as comfortable as taking it home and reading it yourself. The key is to have people willing to read the newspaper you publish.

Therefore, in addition to printing the things we need to publicize, various national policies and other political affairs, newspapers can also write some interesting stories, novels, etc.

For example, we can specially hire someone to write a few wonderful novels, print certain content in the newspapers every day, and write about the interesting things that happened in the homes of the heads of various departments. For example, our chief of staff had his face scratched by his wife yesterday.

I think some people will like to watch these things." Chen Gu said with a smile. Wu You couldn't help but grin when he heard it, and tried hard to hold back his laughter. The functions of the General Staff Department and the Military Affairs Office of the court are similar, and this is a very important department.

The chief of staff was Zheng Ming. It was said that when Zheng Ming went to Jiangjin County to take the examination for the title of scholar under an assumed name, he owed a lot of debts of love and ran away.

Last time, Bai Wencheng said that someone in his family had been waiting for Zheng Ming for more than ten years. It was true. Zheng Ming agreed to send the person to Luzhou, and finally sent him to Chongqing.

A small wedding was held a few days ago. Chen Gu personally came to the house to have a drink and give gifts before leaving.

They are already old, and it is a happy thing for lovers to finally get married. Everyone thought they would be very loving, but the result seemed not to be the case. Maybe it was because they had been too suppressed after waiting for more than ten years.

The women Zheng Ming had dated were more violent than each other. Yesterday, they even got into a fight. Zheng Ming had four bloody scratches on his face.

It was the woman from the Bai family who started it. Bai Yunqing originally wanted to go to the Zheng family to teach his sister a lesson, but was stopped by Zheng Ming. Perhaps because he knew he was in the wrong, Zheng Ming was very tolerant towards his wives at home.

Others couldn't help but laugh at this, but Chen Gu didn't think much of it. After all, it was the Sichuan and Chongqing Tyrannosaurus, and Chen Gu had seen more powerful ones.

Being able to take action proved that he was upright, and it would be over after a little fuss. In comparison, Wu Qing'er's deep thoughts made Chen Gu even more helpless.

After returning home, Chen Gu first went to the left courtyard to visit Wu Qing'er and her son, teased Chen Xiaoao for a while, and then went to the east courtyard to visit Qin Ling and her son.

Qin Ling eventually gave birth to a son, named Chen Fan. The name was chosen by Qin Ling herself, saying that she just wanted her son to grow up safely and live an ordinary life.

Chen Gu obeyed her.

After the two little guys opened their eyes a little, it could be seen that Chen Xiaoao looked more like Chen Gu, with more three-dimensional facial lines, while Chen Fan looked more like Qin Ling, with softer facial lines.

Chen Gu had no preference in his heart, he naturally liked both of his sons. Both pairs of mother and child were still in confinement, so after staying with Qin Ling for a while, Chen Gu returned to his own courtyard.

I had just opened the book and read for a while when Zhang Haomin came over with a notebook.

"Our basic financial situation has been sorted out!" Zhang Haomin sighed and said.

"Very good, thank you for your hard work!" Chen Gu smiled and poured a cup of tea for Zhang Haomin, and asked: "How much money do you have now? What is your monthly expenditure? How much is your income?"

"At present, our money and grain are still sufficient. We have nearly 50 million dan of grain, which is equivalent to 320 million taels of silver." Zhang Haomin said.

More than 50 million dan may sound like a lot, but there are more than 20 million people in Sichuan now, which means that on average each person only has two dan of grain. This amount of grain is enough for military supplies, but it is far from enough for famine preparedness, not even enough for a year.

Not to mention preparing for famine according to the ten-year standard of later generations, even if we prepared for famine according to the three-year standard, we would still need 200 million dan of grain.

(End of this chapter)