When Emperor Tongzhi of Sijiucheng received the secret telegram from the head of state, a smile appeared on his lips, "Haha... It seems that there will be another quarrel at the court meeting tomorrow..."
"Master is right, you still need to muddy the water!"
Chinese characters are broad and profound. Take the word crisis as an example. After danger comes opportunity, our ancestors put the philosophy of life into it when they composed words and sentences.
Don’t be afraid of dangers and conflicts. Opportunities actually lie behind dangers and conflicts!
Losers in life actually dare not move forward because they are afraid of danger and conflict. Of course, they will have no future opportunities!
Although Zai Chun has returned to China, his journey to take charge of the government is too difficult. When he first returned to Sijiu City, it was a battle of swords, swords, and intrigues!
Time still has to move forward. After the Mi riot in the capital subsided, when no one in the Qing Dynasty dared to attack these Dunhuang documents, the fleet of Emperor Tongzhi also gradually approached the Tanggu Port Pier.
In February 1872, the north wind was blowing hard, snowflakes were already floating in the sea off Tanggu, and a huge fleet appeared in the sea full of ice floes. The British finally escorted Emperor Tongzhi to his destination.
When the dark city on the distant horizon appeared in front of the British, the bows of all ships in the entire fleet were crowded with people.
The British officers and soldiers, the new imperial army of Emperor Tongzhi, looked at the dark city in the distance in a daze, full of industrial power.
Zai Chun also stood at the bow of the ship and looked at the distant horizon without saying a word. At the end of 1866, he was taken out of the Forbidden City by Xiao Letian and began to study abroad.
More than five years, a real five years!
"Before I went abroad, I was a child who didn't understand anything, but when I came back, I was already a seventeen-year-old boy! I really have to thank my master for five years!"
Emperor Tongzhi's changes in five years have been earth-shaking. Not to mention his temperament, his body is completely different.
Five years ago, he was a thin boy who looked like a tuberculosis ghost. But now he is two heads taller and has a layer of strong muscles on his body.
Although he is still thin, he is much more energetic than before!
Although he was the emperor five years ago, he only had stupid eyes in his eyes, and his thoughts were completely brainwashed by a group of fools!
But now he has returned with an enlightened mind from Western learning and has become a little tiger with ideals, ambitions and even some political skills.
Look at his new imperial army. Although he didn't bring all of them, they were at least a group of tigers that Emperor Tongzhi could completely control!
He has a righteous name, has a strong army in his hands, and has the support of the British and Chinese overseas! At this moment, Zai Chun's whole chest was filled with ambition and ambition to do something big.
But today, his arrogance shocked the city in front of him!
"This is simply the Manchester of the East! Or the Ruhr of the East! It's so amazing..." The British captain next to Zai Chun was so shocked that he almost dropped his pipe into the sea.
This is the Northern Industrial Zone. Based on the Tanggu Port of the Qing Dynasty, it expanded outwards and annexed Gegu, Dagukou, Beitang, Xincheng, Xinhe... a large industrial city covering an area of nearly 900 square kilometers!
We can no longer describe this place as the Tanggu Special Economic Zone. Even if we use the Northern Special Economic Zone to describe it, it still feels small!
It is completely a new city, a metropolis full of industrial power from top to bottom, inside and outside!
Everywhere you looked, there were chimneys and pipes that discharged industrial wastewater into the Bohai Bay. From the sky to the buildings to the earth and the entire bay, it was all gray and black!
This is the unique color formed by industrial residues such as cinders, soot, iron filings, etc. In Xiao Letian's previous life, this kind of thing was called industrial pollution.
In this era, this kind of thing is called industrial strength! This is called a sense of power!
No one will complain about being dirty here, because everyone feels the power of this city!
As soon as the ship docked, thousands of people fell to their knees in the Qing Dynasty's welcoming team. The Special Economic Zone was really giving face to welcome the emperor and even temporarily closed some factories in the city.
Tanggu City also organized a welcoming team composed of workers and citizens, just like the welcoming team that greeted the Communists in later generations, swaying silk-tied flowers on both sides of the road and shouting welcome slogans.
"Wei Chen...Wei Chen...Tanggu colleague Zhou Mingkui...Long live, long live, long live, long live!"
No matter how much it expanded, the Northern Industrial Zone was still an ordinary commercial town in the Qing Dynasty's system, and the administrative scale here had never been adjusted.
The supreme commander is just a fellow intellectual!
This is a bit funny. The population under the jurisdiction of a small colleague actually exceeds 300,000 people. Although no one among these 300,000 people listens to him, he still has legal authority in the Qing Dynasty. They are the parents of these 300,000 people!
Seeing the emperor, this man who had been forgotten by the Qing officialdom, burst into tears. Over the years, his requests to go to Beijing to report on his duties had been rejected.
In the past five or six years, this colleague of the Qing Dynasty did not receive any official documents from the top, and the court did not give him any orders at all!
He is just a rice insect who will receive his salary when the time comes. The only meaning of his existence is to serve as a clay statue in Tanggu City, using his yamen and official uniform to prove to the world that this is still the land of the Qing Dynasty.
Of course, Zai Chun had heard about this 'No. 1 intellectual of the Qing Dynasty'. Seeing him crying so aggrievedly, he knew that these years had been difficult enough.
The court and the Chinese people gave him a salary, so he didn't have to worry about money. What he worried about was that he had nothing to do.
The public security jurisdiction in the special zone has been taken over by the Chinese, and even the army has been stationed in it. Businessmen and chambers of commerce handle various conflicts on their own.
If the adjustment cannot be made, there will still be a Chinese court to judge!
Even household registration here needs to be done at the Chinese police station every year!
Zhou Mingkui's small yamen has become a famous tourist attraction in the special zone!
Surrounded by tall steam-belching steel factories, there is a small and desolate Tongzhi Yamen in the middle. The veterans who stand guard at the door every day are as pitiful as old dogs.
"Just live...you...you have been wronged all these years..." Zai Chun felt embarrassed when he saw this loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty.
When Zhou Mingkui heard the emperor's words, he felt even more aggrieved, and his tears fell like broken pearls!
When Prince Chun Yipei saw that it was okay, he quickly gave Weng Tonghe a wink. Weng Tonghe hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Master Zhou, His Majesty's return to Luan is a good thing celebrated by the whole world. It is unethical to cry! Don't cry..."
While Zhou Mingkui was cleaning up his tears, a loud banging sound suddenly came from the north, and Zai Chun's guards were shocked!
"Be careful!"
