Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 439 Killing Unforgiven (2)
"Yes. Since entering the era of the Chinese Empire, the country's economy has developed extremely rapidly, and New Deals have been implemented in all aspects, but there has not been much change in the income of public officials. The salaries of officials are still very meager. It is only more than 800 yuan per year, and only more than 100 yuan per month, plus the "entitlement" and a little limited salary, there is nothing else. But they have to entertain various relationships and support their families Quan Xiao, give monthly and annual salaries to the servants, relying on my meager income, I can use them anywhere. Zhian, what I said is right." Guan Xuqing said to Zhao Bingjun.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness. Even so, I don't care about money. As long as I can do things by the Emperor's side, that's enough." Zhao Bingjun spoke from the bottom of his heart, and he always felt that he was worthy of the world when he was doing things by this master's side. walk around.

Guan Xuqing nodded: "It's good that you can understand Shangyi, but this is a matter of governing the country. The so-called governance of the country is to support people first. If you can't even support people, you can't talk about stability and stability. I just said that you are in an important position. Officials, such as the county magistrate, have an annual salary of only [-] to [-] yuan. According to common sense, such a meager income can only be considered food and clothing, not even wealth. So many officials came out They began to collect money for various purposes. Now the empire has unified the issuance of banknotes and has taken back the coinage rights of various places. Although there is no fire consumption silver in the past, all places have come up with all kinds of money in order to collect money, such as what food consumption, Copper consumption, water consumption, soil consumption, etc. are too numerous to count. They convert these things into taxes and collect them together. At first, they collected in kind, and later changed it to "fold color", that is, to collect cash. This consumption envy It is not owned by the public, and it is completely in the private pockets of state and county officials, and it has become an open and routine benefit. In some places, various extra bad rules have even exceeded the normal tax rate by more than ten times."

"That's right. The imperial court has made repeated orders and repeated orders for this matter. There are not a few officials from various places who have been punished, but the effect does not seem to be very great."

"It's not only that the effect is not great, it's simply that the more the punishment is, the more severe it is. I have discussed this matter with the cabinet and some people from the Ministry of Finance. The economic development of each region depends on the shortage, and the cheap money is different every year. In addition, I have asked the officials of the Ministry of Personnel to work out a detailed salary system. The new official salary is composed of basic salary and bonus salary. The higher the level, the higher the basic salary, but the salary will vary depending on the performance of different officials. At the same time, a set of evaluation system for officials should be formulated. Officials, depending on the situation, demote or dismiss." Speaking of this, Guan Xuqing took a long breath: "Zhi An, the strength of the empire is not what it used to be, and the income of the people has increased, and the officials can't just sit and eat."

"Your majesty is truly a genius." Zhao Bingjun said to the emperor sincerely when he heard this.

At noon the next day, the streets of Beijing were empty for thousands of people, Caishikou was so crowded that there was no way to get through, and a five-foot-high execution platform was erected in the center. On the supervisory stage, everyone looked very serious.The common people were surrounded by three floors inside and three floors outside, whispering to each other from time to time.

As soon as the beheading gong sounded, Wang Zhixin and Wang Ke, as well as the 54 princes and ministers in Beijing who had accepted bribes, all planted grass marks and carried the instruments of torture for repeated offenders, walked to the execution platform in a file, and knelt on the ground in a row. , the guards swarmed up and fed everyone a bowl of soul-killing wine, and smashed the bowl to pieces. Fifty-four executioners walked behind everyone with knives, ready to execute.

Zhao Bingjun asked gloomyly: "The time is coming, who has anything to say?"

Wang Zhixin and the others had no blood on their faces, and looked like dead people with their heads down. Only Wang Ke cried, "Father! My son doesn't want to die."

Three trumpets sounded, the knife flashed, and 56 heads rolled to the ground.

After the incident, the imperial court conveyed the whole process of Wang Zhixin's case to the provincial officials in the form of an internal report. This incident caused a huge shock in the court and the public. Those officials who were originally unclean hands and feet were naturally terrified when they heard the news. They even killed the mayor of Beijing and a group of princes and ministers, let alone others. From this incident, it is enough to see that The emperor's determination to severely punish corruption, who would dare to easily hit the gun!
On the morning of September 9, Guan Xuqing took a group of senior imperial officials and flew to Hong Kong on Air Force 30 to participate in the Hong Kong handover ceremony held that day.

The event was mainly organized by the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Wu Tingfang led the crowd and arrived in Hong Kong three days in advance to arrange the preparations.For this event, the heads of state and dignitaries of more than [-] countries, including the Kaiser, the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, the President of the United States, the President of Italy, and the Prime Minister of France, were invited, as well as the famous Siemens, Krupp, and Hamburg shipyards in the world. Armstrong Shipyard, representatives of General Electric and other industrial and commercial enterprises, as well as the world's most famous scientific giants such as Wright Brothers, Edison, Curies, Maxim, Karl Benz, John Nolan, as well as the royal families of Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and other countries member representatives.This event is unprecedented in the world.The invited guests all came for one name, that is the Chinese Empire.

Hong Kong will soon recover from the trauma of the previous period of war, and the citizens of Hong Kong are looking forward to this day.

There are huge Chinese ships docked on Victoria Harbour, which seems to show people that today's China is no longer comparable to the past.

At this time, the representatives of China and Britain have arrived in Hong Kong, but an unpleasant incident happened at the specific handover ceremony before.

The biggest difference between the two sides is: the British side proposed that the national anthem of the United Kingdom should be played until 10:1:[-] on October [-], while Wu Tingfang strongly demanded that the national anthem of the Chinese Empire should be played on time at [-]:[-]:[-].Music thus has the potential to overlap.That would be the biggest joke in the world.

Wu Tingfang, who has experienced countless ups and downs on diplomatic occasions, of course knows that in the most symbolic sovereignty handover ceremony, any small detail is full of special political connotations, and any omission of a smile may make this much-anticipated event The handover ceremony left irreparable shortcomings.The national anthem of the Empire is played at [-]:[-]:[-]:[-], which symbolizes that the Empire will take back Hong Kong's sovereignty on time.Therefore, there must be no concessions on issues related to the state system.

During the negotiation process, Pope, the music director of the British side, pointedly pointed out: "When the British flag is lowered and the British national anthem is played, the British national anthem will be played until 10:1:[-] on October [-]st."

Wang Xinkui, a Chinese music officer, said: "We have been engaged in music for many years. After you command the tempo, it takes at least two to three seconds for the band to make a sound. The imperial foreign ministry's order to me is to Make sure to play the first note of the national anthem of the Chinese Empire at [-]:[-]:[-]. Then at least you have to give me two seconds to ensure that we play the national anthem at [-]:[-]:[-]. "

But Pope was still unwilling to give in, and said: "I will give you two seconds, and you will give me two seconds. Can you play it again at [-]:[-]:[-]?"

Wang Xinkui lowered his face and said, "This is not what we want to talk about. It's not a technical issue. If we played it earlier, it means that we will no longer stand on the side of the people of the empire in diplomacy. If we are a second late , our shame will be one second longer."

The handover ceremony is the top priority of Hong Kong's return, and the national anthem of the Chinese Empire will be played on time at 10:1:[-] on October [-], and the five-clawed golden dragon flag will be raised, marking the official return of Hong Kong's sovereignty.During the handover ceremony, the task of the band is extremely important.Many agendas are completely controlled by the band. For this reason, we have also made full preparations while the Chinese and British sides have repeatedly negotiated.

Wang Xinkui and others made the worst plan: If the British side deliberately delays the time, we will play the national anthem of the People's Republic of China at zero hours and zero seconds, even if the two musics are superimposed.The principles involving the sovereignty and dignity of the motherland were uncompromising, but the imperial protocol staff showed flexibility on side issues.For example, the progress of handover ceremonies in the West mostly depends on music to make a transition, while the Chinese habit is to rely on the master of ceremonies to announce.Therefore, the two parties agreed to preside over the ceremony by combining master of ceremonies and music.Therefore, many transitional words that the master of ceremonies had to say were deleted; of course, there was a sentence that Wu Tingfang advocated to stick to, that is, "the flag-raising ceremony begins now", and it was retained in the end.

Later, Wu Tingfang and others made further research on the time course of the entire ceremony.The result was a surprise.According to the scheduled schedule, at 9:30:23 on September 42, the handover ceremony of Hong Kong's sovereignty began.The guard of honor saluted each other, and the Chinese side played a tribute song.This was followed by a speech by the British representative, Crown Prince Edward.However, after several actual tests, the ceremony before the speech will exceed the scheduled time by more than 20 seconds, and the speech speed of Crown Prince Edward is relatively slow, and it will also be delayed than the scheduled time. If it is not remedied in time, there will be no guarantee On time at zero minutes and zero seconds on October 30, the national anthem of the Chinese Empire was played and the five-clawed golden dragon flag was raised.The scheduled time is fixed and cannot be changed.For this reason, the Chinese master of ceremonies must not only speed up the hosting speed, but also take urgent measures.It is necessary to speed up the entry process of the flag bearers on both sides, catch up with the time, and order the British music director to play the British national anthem and lower the flag.

1900年9月30日午夜至10月1日凌晨，维多利亚港湾沿岸灯火辉煌，举世瞩目的中英两国香港政权交接仪式在原先的总督府大楼五楼大厅隆重举行。

After the Chinese and British honor guards entered the arena, trumpeters from both sides blew their trumpets. At 23:46, Emperor Guan Xuqing of the Chinese Empire, surrounded by Prime Minister Liang Qichao, Foreign Minister Wu Tingfang, Supreme Commander Feng Xianghua, and Hong Kong’s first Chief Executive Tan Sitong, walked into the venue and stepped onto the podium.On the British side, Crown Prince Edward, Prime Minister Balfour, Foreign Secretary Lord Smeagley, and the outgoing Governor of Hong Kong, Bryce, entered the venue at the same time and took the podium.After the representatives from both sides sat down in Taiwan, the Hong Kong handover ceremony entered the most critical moment.

(End of this chapter)