At Hanyangmen Wharf in Wuchang County, Wuhan Prefecture, a group of people dressed as officials stood on the embankment, watching the coolies carrying cattail bags one by one from the wooden boats leaning on the wharf. The rickshaw carrying goods was already waiting inside the embankment. The cattail bags were piled up one by one. When the cart was full, they were immediately taken away and entered the Hanyang Gate.
A slightly chubby man dressed as a member of the Communist Party of China said happily: "Finally, the autumn grains are on the market. Now the grain prices in Wuchang can finally drop a little, and the market will be better. The rice to redeem the fields collected by the government has also arrived soon. , many Hubei gentry living in Wuhan can finally feel more relaxed... Wuhan's market will gradually improve."
This puffy member is none other than Yao Daqiao, and he is now a recognized rice merchant in Wuhan Prefecture! Although his capital was not the largest, he received a large order from the Jiangdu Left-Behind Department and provided food for the Beifu refugees resettled in Wuhan. He was commended by Zhu Cixiang and granted an imperial merchant license, so he became a food official in Wuhan. Beginning of line.
With this identity, he was able to borrow large amounts from the two banks in Wuhan. With the support of the loans from the two banks, his business would naturally become larger. Not only did they sell rice, they also rented large amounts of land and opened farms in Hanyang, Chengtian, Jingzhou and other prefectures in Hubei Province. They also started building shops, restaurants, hotels, and rice warehouses on Hanzheng Street in Hankou Town. The business was getting more and more prosperous.
A ninth-grade green-robed petty official next to Yao Daqiao sighed: "No matter how good the market is, we don't have much share... Now in the three counties of Wuhan, the streets are all north." Here comes the person!”
The one who complained about the northerners was Peng Ziqin, who lost three to four thousand acres of land in De'an. He has now passed the Hubei Enke presided over by Huang Zongxi and became the ninth-grade official of the Ming Dynasty - these so-called enke, in fact It is the recruitment examination for low-level officials, which is completely different from the original Jinshi Competition.
Zhu Cixiang is gradually abolishing the imperial examination system! It's just that there was no public edict to abolish it, but it was implemented quietly.
The method of abolishing the imperial examination is to replace the national unified spring examination with the "official examination" of low-level officials.
This kind of recruitment of low-level officials was given a nice name by Zhu Cixiang, called "Enke". It was the responsibility of the academic affairs department of each province, the official department of the imperial court, or officials (institutions) designated by Prince Zhu - because "Enke" The "Science and Technology" system is still being explored and has not yet formed a fixed system, so there is a certain degree of confusion.
However, the big principle has been determined, which is to recruit low-level affairs officers through examinations and allow them to serve locally, and then select higher-level officials through elimination at the end, promotion with merit, recommendation from superiors, and the official examination (officer promotion examination). of officials.
In addition to this method of recruiting scholars through local or official officials, the "Three Studies" such as the Imperial College, Nanjing Academy (original Nanjing Practical Academy), and Nanjing Lecture Hall will also become the cradle of bureaucracy and provide guidance for the Ming Dynasty. Group after group of civil and military officials and magic officers.
Of course, Sanxue is not a university in the true sense. It is not possible to introduce modern education and open a university yet, so Zhu Cixiang will not be in a hurry to encourage it.
Behind Yao Daqiao and Peng Ziqin, there were still a dozen people standing, most of them were "green-skinned" petty officials or civil and military officials. They vaguely surrounded the two "green-skinned" officials who looked a little cold and solemn. These two mid-level officials were Ji Kun and Huang Zongxi.
Ji Kun was on his way to Shandong and was waiting for the official ship to dock. He received the order in Changsha, and then went to Wuhan Prefecture to select his attachés. He selected some people from the sesame and mung bean officials selected by Enke presided over by Huang Zongxi. Together with some Yushitai soldiers and Jinyiwei spies, we finally put together a team of provincial supervisory departments, ready to go to Shandong to become villains.
Before Ji Kun arrived in Shandong, Zhu Cixiang did not send a supervisory censor to Shandong Road (neither the left or right squads sent one), but only sent a supervisory censor to Denglai Road.
However, the jurisdiction of the Shandong Supervisory Road (which governs Shandong Province, Huaibei, Xuzhou, and Haizhou excluding Denglai Prefecture) is very special, and it is almost all territory ruled by warlords.
In Zhu Cixiang's court, the job of the censor was to fight against corruption - against bureaucratic corruption and bribery! Warlords are the masters of their own affairs, so why should they be greedy?
Therefore, anyone with a discerning eye knows that Ji Kun must have a special mission when he goes to Shandong!
"Brother Chunfan, you got your wish this time. Although you have the title of Censor, you are actually the Minister of the Imperial Guard, patrolling the sky on your behalf!"
Huang Zongxi seemed to be envious of Ji Kun, but Ji Kun himself just sighed from time to time.
"They are not real censors, but they are still cruel officials. They are used as the prince's whip to whip those people in Huaibei, Xuhai, and Shandong. But how can those people be easy to deal with? It is not easy to handle this errand!"
Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, Zuo Maodi, Huang Degong and Gao Di are not like Zuo Menggeng. Zuo Jiajun's life has been too comfortable in the past few years, which has drained his fighting spirit and makes him less able to fight. And these people are on the front line against the Tartars!
"How could it be?" Huang Zongxi said with a smile, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is at the height of his power now, and his hands are so long that they can almost reach Guangdong."
Ji Kun smiled: "It is because His Royal Highness the Prince's hand has been extended that those people north of the Huaihe River are ready to move... So far, there are only seven model divisions of the new army to overcome difficulties. There are only two independent armored cavalry regiments and artillery regiments. How much territory can be controlled by a total of only 112,000 elite troops? Now that they are scattered everywhere, the control of Huaibei, Xuhai, and Shandong will naturally be weak. Otherwise, Why did Huang Degong and Gao Jie get into a fight?"
The model division originally consisted of the front division, the rear division, the left division, the middle division, the right division, and the first division. Recently, a Guards Division was added - the designation of the Guards Division first appeared before the Battle of Tangjiashan. However, it was quickly canceled after the war, and the temporarily recruited Shaanxi soldiers became new recruits for retraining. Some of them who could ride horses and raise horses were converted into cavalry.
In the autumn of the 19th year of Chongzhen, the Guards Division was reorganized and became the seventh model division.
At the same time, Spanish light muskets ordered from the Dutch also arrived in large quantities, and various model divisions also began to change equipment in large quantities. The eliminated guns were assigned to the second-tier teams.
In addition to the seven model divisions, the Generalissimo's Mansion also successively formed 28 regiments with a full strength of 2,500 men and 12 infantry regiments adapted from the alliance of the Guards.
The equipment and training of these forty regiments will gradually become the same as those of the first-line regiments incorporated into the model division. It's just that Zhu Cixiang couldn't provide enough horses for the cavalry regiment and artillery regiment, so he couldn't use these regiments to form more divisions-a model division must be equipped with an artillery battalion (with two infantry regiments) in addition to four infantry regiments. An artillery company and an engineer company, two of which can be split into four and a half companies, attached to an infantry regiment) and a light cavalry battalion. Therefore, a large number of war horses and draft horses are needed.
In the absence of horses, it is impossible to equip a three-pounder cannon (the cannons of these days are heavier than those of the 19th century, and must be pulled by horses. Of course, oxen can also pull them, but oxen are more easily frightened and are not suitable for maneuvering on the battlefield) , the new army with infantry regiments as units does not have strong field capabilities, but can be used to defend cities and fortresses - for Zhu Cixiang, the number of artillery is not a problem, so he can set up many artillery companies without horse-drawn horses , or even one for each infantry regiment.
And these less mobile artillery batteries are not completely immobile. As long as the battlefield is placed along a navigable river, they can be transported to the battlefield by ship.
However, it will take a long time to equip all second-line infantry regiments with muskets and artillery (without draft horses). Therefore, at present, the new army that truly has strong combat effectiveness is seven infantry divisions plus four cavalry or artillery regiments. .
Under such circumstances, Zhu Cihong cannot break up with the warlords in Huaibei who are acting as human shields... It is best for him to get their support for his progress in becoming emperor, or at least to support him personally.
