In terms of private property, the empire allowed Zhao Xinhou to retain his private assets except the fleet, with a total value of approximately hundreds of thousands taels.
The negotiator of the Dachu Empire still admired Zhao Xinhou, and gave him a clear message: Although our Dachu Empire allows private ownership of land, it does not like super big landowners...
It is recommended that you dispose of these lands as soon as possible, whether you sell them yourself, give them away, whatever you want to do with them, in short, don't keep so much land in your hands... it is not a good thing.
In addition, it can also be sold to local governments. At the beginning of the year, governments across the Chu Empire launched unlimited purchases of local land at market prices.
The price will follow the market, whatever the going price is, but payment must be made in installments. Depending on the output of the land, the entire payment cycle will probably be more than twenty years.
In the whole process, the government actually acted as a middleman, purchasing the land from the landlord in name, but then subscribing it to the farmers who originally rented the land or landless farmers. The farmers' subscription was also paid in installments, with a payment cycle of more than ten years. But the annual payment is even less than the previous tenancy.
Of course, this is a good thing for farmers, but a big bad thing for landlords. Many landlords think that it is not impossible to sell the land to the government. Anyway, sell it at market price... But you can't pay in installments. In this way, Come on, what’s the difference between me collecting rent directly? After collecting rent for more than ten years, this land is no longer mine. Isn’t this nonsense...
But this is only a voluntary policy. The Dachu Empire government has such a policy. If you don’t sell to others, the government doesn’t force you to sell it. You can also sell it to private individuals.
In short, don’t keep so much land in your hands.
Your family has tens of thousands of acres of land, and those tax officials would dream of raiding your home...
In the Dachu Empire, those super-large landowners who own thousands or even tens of thousands of acres of land, one by one, are all the focus of monitoring by tax officials. If you dare to miss a penny of tax money, your family will be confiscated and exterminated in minutes... Sometimes I'll find one if I don't have one. It's not uncommon to frame the big landowners for confiscating their properties.
Why?
On the one hand, His Majesty particularly dislikes super-large landowners. Tax officials can be appreciated by their superiors for doing so, and it is very easy to get promoted!
There is a saying that if you raid one house, you will be upgraded to one level, and if you raid ten houses, you will be upgraded to two levels. If you can raid dozens or hundreds of houses in a row, there is nothing to say, and you will be upgraded to three levels in a row...
On the other hand, these big landowners are rich, and plagiarizing one of them can make the people in the local tax system feel very happy.
After all, the tax officials, tax patrols, and armed tax policemen of the Chu Empire, and the employees of the huge tax system also have to support their families in Hukou. How can they support their families in Hukou without any oil and water?
Zhao Xinhou was not clear about these policies of the Chu Empire. At most, he had heard about them, but he certainly didn't know them in detail, so the navy's negotiation ghostwriter kindly reminded him.
Land is very hot, so try not to touch it.
By the way, this land cannot be used as an industry, but it can be used for other purposes, such as factories. Our country supports the gentry to invest in the construction of factories, and there are many tax exemption policies.
Moreover, many industries such as the textile industry are booming now. The Qin family in Suzhou, Jiangnan, has invested heavily in building new textile factories. In the future, your Zhao family can also build one.
In the current textile industry, as long as you invest in it, you are making money with your eyes closed.
When the naval representatives of the Da Chu Empire and Zhao Xinhou agreed on the conditions for the uprising, Zhao Xinhou cooperated with the Da Chu Empire's military and began to surrender.
The first one to bear the brunt was Guangzhou City. At this time, Zhao Xinhou was in Guangzhou City with more than 800 men, and he was part of the Guangzhou City defense force.
Although the Army is very proud to say that our Army can defeat the city of Guangzhou without any internal response.
But the navy insists on coming together and saying that we have found the rebel army to cooperate with the siege, and the army will not insist on rejecting it...
As a result, the Chu army outside the city also secretly discussed with Zhao Xinhou and finalized the strategy for attacking the city.
The routine is very simple. After attacking the city, Zhao Xinhou directly opens the city gate he is responsible for defending, and then welcomes the Chu army into the city.
In this case, it is estimated that even large-scale artillery attacks and sieges will not be needed.
However, for the sake of conservatism, Huang Xiangbin waited until the artillery troops arrived one after another before launching a formal siege, in order to avoid a direct attack if the cooperating Zhao Xinhou's troops had an accident.
May 28th, dawn!
After full preparation, Zhao Xinhou personally led the team to open the city gate he was responsible for defending, and then a commando team of the Chu army outside immediately entered the city.
When it got a little brighter and other Ming troops in the city noticed something was wrong, the entire main force of the Chu army had successfully entered the city and launched an attack on other areas in the city.
Because of the internal cooperation, this Guangzhou siege came and went quickly, and the whole process did not break out too fierce a battle.
The dozen or twenty long-barreled artillery pieces deployed by the Ming army on the top of the city became the spoils of war for the Chu army without even firing a shot.
Except for the 800 people under Zhao Xinhou's command, there was only sporadic resistance from the remaining 7,000 Ming troops in the city. Most of them either took advantage of the chaos to flee or simply surrendered.
After all, the Ming army in the city was originally very mixed, and they were all fighting scum, and there were not many soldiers at all.
When the generals who led the soldiers saw that something was not right about the situation, they simply surrendered for their own sake and for the lives and fortunes of their soldiers.
Including Zuo Shenzheng, who was appointed by Xiong Wencan to command more than 500 Guangdong model soldiers, and these more than 500 model soldiers were the core of the Ming army in the city.
They all surrendered, so why not give them a beating!
As a result, by about ten o'clock in the morning, the Chu army had already claimed and controlled most of the important areas in Guangzhou City, including the four walls, city gates, military camps, official warehouses, important government offices in the city, etc. .
Among the many officials in the city, some surrendered, some committed suicide, some were taken prisoner, and some fled without knowing their destination.
Seeing the soldiers in front escorting a group of dejected captive officials who were tied up in a row, Zhao Xinhou smiled all over his face!
Especially when he saw the seventh-grade county magistrate in front of him, he was extremely happy.
Damn, this is the magistrate of Zhima County who publicly scolded him in front of a group of people last year, saying that he was a gangster and a despicable person. At that time, Zhao Xinhou was so angry that he almost didn't directly lead his troops to attack Guangzhou...
Now, this person has become a prisoner!
As for him, Zhao Xinhou, he was already wearing the summer uniform of a general officer of the Chu Empire Navy and wore the rank of commodore.
Not to mention, Zhao Xinhou liked this military uniform very much.
——
After the civil war in the city initially ended, Army Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, the garrison commander of Guangdong and Guangxi, also met with Zhao Xinhou and stated that he would truthfully report his contribution to the opening of the battle in the battle report.
But after meeting, Zhao Xinhou left with several other navy people.
Even though Zhao Xinhou had just defected here, he still knew that the army was the army and the navy was the navy. Moreover, these naval officers who came from Jinling City did not seem to be too interested in the army...
The contradiction between the army and navy of our Great Chu Empire is not small!
Zhao Xinhou came over and became a general of the navy. Naturally, he knew that he could not get too close to the army.
He still has this political sense.
Zhao Xinhou didn't know that last year, the army and navy of the Chu Empire were still one family, and there was no major conflict between the two armies.
However, since the military budget was allocated at the end of last year, the bosses of the Army and Navy completely broke up in order to compete for limited military expenditures. Then starting at the beginning of the year, the atmosphere between the Army and the Navy began to become tense.
It's not enough to draw swords at each other, and there will be some cooperation in fighting, but don't expect to give the other side any good looks.
After all, the dispute over military spending concerns core interests.
After all, only with military expenditure can there be establishment, and only with establishment can there be positions.
If you want to steal my military expenses, you want to steal my staff, and you want to steal my official hat... You are fucking trying to steal my official hat, how can I still show you a good face?
Zhao Xinhou didn't know this, but after these brief few hours of contact, he could also feel the contradiction between land and sea in our army of the King of Chu.
He is just a new recruit who has defected here, so he should be more careful and not rashly get involved in the war between the military services.
Therefore, Zhao Xinhou did not stay in the city for long, and soon led more than 800 of his men to the direction of the dock. Along with him were Major General Xia Qiuyang, commander of the Pearl River Fleet, and more than a thousand naval soldiers led by Xia Qiuyang.
Rear Admiral Xia Qiuyang was a senior naval general assigned by Jinling to Guangdong to take charge of the preparations for the Pearl River Fleet and Guangdong's coastal defense affairs. (When the last chapter was first published, Zhao Xinhou was written as the commander of the Pearl River Fleet. This was a clerical error. He should be the deputy commander. It has been corrected. I hope you know.)
Xia Qiuyang, like many generals in the navy, had never had any contact with the navy in the first half of his life. He was a gunner in the army...
When the Chu Empire's navy had not yet been formally established and there was only one inland river transport fleet, the military directly transferred a group of people from the army to serve, and Xia Qiuyang was one of them.
Therefore, a large number of the top brass of the navy were from the army... Of course, those who could be transferred to the navy back then were basically those who could swim and had experience with ships.
These people then supported the initial Da Chu Empire Navy, and subsequently accepted a group of generals and sailors from the Ming Navy.
Especially after the Battle of Wuchang and the Battle of Jiujiang, the Chu Empire accepted a large number of local Ming naval forces.
Basically, the navy of the Dachu Empire fully accepted the Ming Dynasty's inland river navy in Huguang and Jiangxi areas, as well as part of the inland river navy in the Jiangnan area.
Therefore, in the early days of the Chu Navy, there were basically two types of people: those who switched careers from the early army, and those who accepted the Ming Army's navy and became generals.
However, this situation began to change gradually in the second half of last year, mainly because officers from the naval crash course trained by the Naval Academy graduated one after another and entered the navy.
Although these are all half-baked, the Navy is really short of people, so now a large number of middle and low-level officer positions are occupied in the Navy. Over time, these people will grow rapidly and become the true senior leaders of the Navy.
Xia Qiuyang came to Guangzhou this time with a mission.
Before setting off from Jinling City, when he went to the palace to meet the Holy Spirit, His Majesty Luo Zhixue told him to run the Pearl River Fleet well, consolidate the coastal defense of Guangdong and Guangxi, and vigorously develop the ocean-going fleet to lay the foundation for the empire to control the sea.
He also strongly supported the acceptance of Zhao Xinhou, and had obtained Luo Zhixue's permission before going south. Even the documents appointing Zhao Xinhou as the deputy commander of the Pearl River Fleet and conferring the rank of commodore were already prepared by Luo Zhixue in advance for Xia Qiu. Yang took him south together... As long as the other party agrees, he can be appointed and awarded the title on the spot.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to complete Zhao Xinhou's recruitment in just a few days.
Now that Xia Qiuyang has arrived in Guangzhou, he doesn't care about the army's follow-up actions. Instead, he begins to integrate Zhao Xinhou's fleet. At the same time, he recruits and accepts seven or eight other pirates in a mess, including some of the remaining troops of the Guangdong Navy of the Ming Dynasty.
A Pearl River fleet consisting of more than 20 large armed merchant ships and more than 300 small and medium-sized offshore and inland river vessels was quickly pulled out.
However, before the fleet had time to complete the integration, Rear Admiral Xia Qiuyang received news that a large number of ships appeared in the Pearl River estuary area, bearing the flag of Zheng Zhilong's command. It was initially estimated that there were at least forty or fifty large ships.
"Reincarnation Paradise"
This news even reached the ears of Army Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, the garrison commander of Guangdong and Guangxi who was still in Guangzhou. Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin asked Xia Qiuyang: How is the navy prepared to respond to the attack by Zheng's fleet?
Xia Qiuyang first glanced at Huang Xiangbin, and then said in a calm tone: "Without him, we can only fight to the death!"
"I have ordered the fleet to be assembled and the enemy fleet will be blocked outside Guangzhou. Please rest assured on this point in the army!"
After saying that, Xia Qiuyang said that he was busy preparing for the war and left directly.
Looking at Xia Qiuyang's hurried away figure, Huang Xiangbin spat directly and muttered: "I used to hear people say that people in the navy have brain problems, and I didn't think so, but now it seems that they are really a bunch of stupid heads!"
"You still have to fight to the death... With the few broken ships you have, plus a group of stragglers who have just surrendered, I'm afraid you won't be able to defeat Zheng's fleet even if they are all fed with fish and shrimps."
"No, it doesn't matter if the navy is messing around, but Guangzhou is an important city and we can't let those pirates cause trouble!"
Thinking of this, Huang Xiangbin asked the messenger to call a few army generals, and then said to these subordinates: "You must also know that Zheng Zhilong's fleet is coming. It looks like they are heading directly to Guangzhou. "
"Immediately survey the surrounding terrain, select a suitable place to urgently build a river defense fort, and then pull up the more than 20 long-barreled artillery pieces we captured before and the artillery from the 7th Artillery Regiment for emergency response."
"The Navy is unreliable. That guy Xia Qiuyang didn't even say a few words before he shouted for a fight to the death. It has nothing to do with us that they rushed to die, but the safety of Guangzhou City still depends on us. Own."
