Sitting in the royal chariot high above, Zai Chun felt as if he was floating in a sea of human heads. At this moment, the people could already look up to see the saints, and saw faces gathering together from high up. It's spectacular.
"Oh...this is the Long Live Lord! The Young Saint King!"
"True Dragon Emperor, look at that magnanimity, look at that bright yellow dragon robe..."
"There is hope for the revival of the Qing Dynasty. Let me tell you, any emperor who ascends the throne as a young man is a saint king who creates a prosperous age!"
"Don't believe it. Because you are young, you have been able to govern the country longer than others. You have more experience and less turmoil..."
"This is the emperor who drank foreign ink. Do you think he will force us to drink foreign ink too?"
"Virtue! You have imported ink in your villa. How many pots of local ink have you drunk? If you don't know ten Chinese characters, why are you so idle?"
"Keep your voice down, don't let others hear it and cause trouble... Just wait patiently. Surely there will be good things waiting for us later?"
"What a good thing? You always talk about..."
"Tax reductions and exemptions! This is all according to the old lunar calendar. Whenever the emperor goes on a tour and encounters the scene of tens of thousands of people meeting him, he will issue an edict. It will definitely give us some benefits!"
The old man was really experienced. As expected, as soon as the imperial chariot passed through the main street of Tongzhou, there were officers running through the street carrying buckets of glue.
"Long live the decree! Reduce the taxes of all the people fifty miles along the pick-up route for three years...Long live the decree!"
"Look, let me just say there is no reason to be tired and cold in vain! Long live the Holy Ming!"
Sometimes the reception is just a show. The emperor uses taxes as red envelopes to buy your people a lively scene!
There are so many people welcoming you along the way, and even those who worked hard before, the emperor can’t help but be a little considerate!
In the entire Tongzhou City, as well as the official road extending for fifty miles to the left and right, all towns and villages are exempted from taxes for three years. This is the reward for everyone's efforts.
Zai Chun will not be stingy with this small amount of money, not only tax relief but also other benefits will come with it.
Among all the people who are welcoming you today, as long as they are over sixty years old, each one will receive one dragon-patterned silver dollar!
Those who are disabled, unemployed or suffering from long-term illness will each receive a dragon-marked silver dollar!
Even the widow who is unemployed and raising her children and has a hard life is rewarded with one silver dollar to each household!
The emperor's moves were all made with the sound of a blow, and there was not a single note!
Now the people were even more excited with joy. Seeing that the emperor had really made money with real money, it was impossible to do it without a hundred thousand yuan.
On the surface, Zai Chun enjoyed this scene of people kneeling down and praising him, but inside he felt awe-inspiring!
"The common people are short-sighted and only care about petty profits. Today I give them benefits and they kowtow to me. In the future, when others offer higher benefits, they will kowtow to others too!"
"Since ancient times, soldiers have always followed the wind! Why don't the people do the same? As the emperor and his ministers do, the people will also make the same choice!"
"People's hearts are unreliable, unreliable... only strength is the only thing!"
Zai Chun sat high up and looked at the pastoral scenery in the distance in winter. The villages, farmland, ditches, trees everywhere... suddenly transformed into factories, chimneys, stinking ditches and a car like those outside London. Another load of steel and industrial goods.
"This is the most beautiful picture!"
The people of Tongzhou City were excitedly celebrating Long Live Lord's good governance. At this moment, dozens of other official ships following the dragon boats suddenly docked one after another!
The pedals were placed on the pier, and the officers drove the people away and quickly cleared the space. Then a scene that made these people stunned appeared.
Groups of soldiers wearing big leather boots and light blue military uniforms suddenly appeared on the pedals. These soldiers were generally slightly shorter in stature, but their muscles and bones were very strong and they were full of energy.
One after another, a steady stream of soldiers disembarked from these official ships. They carried neatly bundled backpacks and rifles. There were no wrinkles in their military uniforms, and the leather boots under their feet were shiny.
"Isn't it the new Yulin army trained by Long Live Master himself?"
"That's right, it's the new Yulin Army. Long live the Lord has really brought it back to the capital. The rumors are all true!"
"It's true. When I was in Tianjin, I met a lot of businessmen from Fujian. They all had similar accents and similar looks..."
The crowd subconsciously began to retreat, leaving enough space for these new Imperial Forest troops to assemble.
Company commander Xie Ting jumped off the pedal and stepped on the soil of the capital. His nose was filled with the earthy smell of the dry north wind of the capital. He was very uncomfortable with it. The air had never been so dry in his hometown.
And there won’t be so much soil. Besides, the plains here are really big!
The young men of the Yulin New Army are all tough mountain people from the mountains of Fujian. They have never seen such a vast plain since they were young.
After getting on the boat from Tanggu, the young guys were stunned all the way over the past few days!
The entire North China is a plain, not even a hill can be seen, and there are countless farmlands and villages and towns densely packed together!
"Brothers! Don't embarrass our family! Cheer up!" Xie Ting shouted in his hometown dialect, followed by the capital's Mandarin with a weird accent.
"Everyone gather...count...turn right!"
A reorganized and strengthened company of more than 100 people, led by Xie Ting's commanding sword, walked neatly on Tongzhou Street and soon followed the team of Emperor Tongzhi's imperial chariot.
The eyes of the soldiers and civilians who were greeting him were opened. They crowded forward one by one to look at this new army of Emperor Tongzhi who had learned from Xiao Letian.
"Oh... it's neat, it's so neat! The line is horizontally and vertically, and even diagonally, it's a line!"
"Look at their backpacks, they are squarer than cubes of tofu!"
"The boots are beautiful, so beautiful. The quality of these boots is better than those of the Xishan soldiers. They can even reflect people's silhouettes! They are exactly the same as those worn by foreigners..."
"Oh, this rifle is so tall, plus the bayonet, it's not that tall for one person!"
The people in the capital immediately compared Emperor Tongzhi's Yulin new army with the Xishan soldiers. Both were new armies and looked extremely tough from the outside!
The two division commanders, Ma Ming and Bai Min, are qualified to ride horses. They issued military orders on horseback, "Select three thousand elites to enter Beijing City, and the rest of the troops will go north from here!"
"The whole army goes straight to the Shunyi barracks. No one is allowed to harass the people along the way. Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed!"
"Tell that boy Xie Ting, he is someone who has been patted on the shoulder by Long Live Lord. His company is closely following the imperial chariot. We must use our energy to come out!"
"Let the people of Sijiucheng see what Long live the Lord has done in the five years since he left Beijing!"
"Where's our Gatling! Take it out... and send the four units to Xie Ting's company. How long do you want to wait if you don't want to show off?"
"Where are the war horses that were prepared by the Ministry of War in advance? Bring us over... and pull up our field artillery, so that everyone in the capital can have an eye-opening experience!"
