Autumn October of the 28th year of Chengshun.

Nancheng Railway Station, Heyuan Prefecture, Guangdong.

The train station, with people coming and going, looks as busy as usual, but those who are careful will find that there are many more patrol officers on duty in the train station today.

In the first waiting room of the train station, which is reserved for powerful and wealthy businessmen to rest while waiting for the train, there are no other passengers today, only dozens of officials, large and small, wearing official robes and trousers.

The leader among them is the most powerful Zhizhou Wangtu in the entire Heyuan Prefecture.

However, Wang Tu did not wear the fifth-grade silver badge like the ordinary fifth-grade magistrates, but instead wore a gold skylark badge representing the fourth grade.

Just last year, Heyuan Prefecture was promoted from Huizhou Fuli Prefecture to a Provincial Zhili Prefecture. The official level of a Provincial Prefecture is naturally one level higher than that of Fuli Prefecture, even from the fourth grade.

Since last year, the adjustment of jurisdictions between Heyuan Prefecture and Huizhou Prefecture has continued and deepened. Heyuan Prefecture has gained several counties and towns from Huizhou Prefecture.

Today, Heyuan Prefecture has jurisdiction over five counties and one direct-administered region.

Such a large jurisdiction is enough to become a prefecture, and the establishment of a prefecture in Heyuan Prefecture is also the result of the Guangdong Governor's Yamen's continuous administrative adjustments and reforms in northern and eastern Guangdong.

Today is the day when Tang Tiangui, the current governor of Guangdong, arrives in Heyuan Prefecture to preside over the promotion of Heyuan Prefecture to a government.

For this reason, Wang Tu brought a large number of local officials from Heyuan to greet him at the train station.

Around afternoon, as a passenger train arrived at Nancheng Railway Station, Wang Tu and others were excited and hurried to the platform to greet it.

Not long after, Wang Tu and others saw Tang Tiangui and a large number of senior officials from the provincial governor's office getting off the train.

Tang Tiangui is about fifty years old, short in stature, and wearing a traditional gray Confucian robe. If placed in the crowd, he would look like an ordinary middle-aged or elderly person.

But all this was completely covered up by a gold pheasant badge on his left chest!

The gold golden pheasant badge is a badge exclusively used by second-rank civil servants in the Great Chu Empire!

In the vast city of Guangdong, only Tang Tiangui, the governor of Guangdong, is qualified to wear this kind of special badge for second-grade civil servants.

b With such a badge on his body, even though Tang Tiangui was only wearing a gray Confucian robe similar to ordinary people, he still immediately became the center of attention of many officials present.

b After Tang Tiangui got off the train, he first looked up at Wang Tu and other local officials from Heyuan Prefecture who were waiting on the platform. He looked around for a moment. After waiting for five or six breaths, he smiled and nodded slightly at Wang Tu and others.<

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Immediately, Wang Tu and other officials quickly stepped forward, bowed and saluted, and said in unison: "I am humble enough to pay homage to the palace master!"

At the end of last year, Tang Tiangui was awarded the title of Prince and Young Master due to his meritorious service in the governorship of Guangdong and the increasing development of the local industrial and commercial economy and people's livelihood. He was also granted oral permission to enter the imperial study and handle important military and political affairs.

Prince's Young Master, this is a fictitious title of a second-grade official. It is very important in the Chu Empire. In addition to being awarded posthumously, it is not easy to obtain this second-grade official title while alive.

Generally speaking, in Gyeonggi, only the co-organizing ministers who can enter the imperial study can get it. There are also a few ministers who have enough qualifications and merit, but due to the limited space in the imperial study, they are temporarily unable to enter the important departments of the imperial study.

It can also be obtained.

bOn the local level, only the governors of a few important provinces, Ying Tianfu Yin, and Han Tianfu Yin had the chance to get it.

b As for ‘being able to handle important military and political affairs’, this assignment from the royal study room has no special meaning. It is nothing more than a verbal name, nominally participating in the central decision-making of the empire, but in fact it is of no use.

It is an honorary dispatch that Luo Zhixue only started to use in the last five or six years. It is mainly awarded to provincial governors and generals stationed abroad. It is somewhat similar to the pre-Ming Dynasty when governors were given the title of Inspectorate and generals stationed abroad were given the title of Military Department.

The title "Rou Shilang" has the same meaning.

However, in the Great Chu Empire, the Supervisory Office was an independent institution, and the Ministry of War was also an independent administrative institution. There was no example of using the job titles of other institutions to give other officials titles.

In the Chu Empire, there were only high-level honorary titles such as San Gong and San Gu before. However, these levels were too high and could not be given randomly, so Luo Zhixue later started to use the term "Royal Study Room will handle important military and political affairs". This is not a rank.

Positions are only verbal assignments used to give titles to some senior officials.

bTang Tiangui was able to obtain the title of Prince's Young Master and be assigned to the imperial study room where he could handle important military and political affairs, naturally because he had made quite good achievements as governor of Guangdong.

In his first year as governor of Guangdong, he was unable to change his mentality, and he regarded himself as the chief envoy, which led to many conflicts with the chief envoy Cheng Yongfeng. However, he gradually adapted to his position and began to work in detail on the people's livelihood economy.

Delegate authority to the higher levels of affairs and focus on taking charge of the overall situation.

And began to support Cheng Yongfeng in his work to develop the economy and people's livelihood.

After several years, great achievements have been made. Guangdong's industrial and commercial economy has developed faster year by year, and now it has become a major economic province second only to Jiangnan Province.

This also earned him the title of Prince's Young Master.

It is very possible that he will follow the example of the previous governor and be transferred back to Gyeonggi and enter the Imperial Study Room.

In this way, he no longer had the same ranking as in previous years for Wang Tu, a secretarial official bearing the imprint of Cheng Yongfeng.

No matter what faction he belongs to, they still serve as officials under him, and they still have to work hard for his development in Guangdong.

Tang Tiangui, who has opened up his career, has lived a happy and comfortable life in recent years, and his career is promising.

Of course, with these inner thoughts, Tang Tiangui would not say anything to a mid-level official like Wang Tu. He only gave a formulaic greeting at the train station.

After a simple welcome ceremony, a large number of officials began to leave in carriages.

After the huge convoy of horse-drawn carriages left the train station along the special passage, in order to avoid collisions with people along the way, or simply to avoid unexpected situations, the local patrol police had already blocked the road intersections along the way.

As for why the train station is not completely closed, it only opens a special waiting room and passage.

This is because once the u001d railway station is blocked, it will not involve a railway station, but the operation of the entire railway line.

If Wang Tu, the governor of Heyuan Prefecture, wanted to do this, the railway company would not bother to offend him. If he asked too many questions, they would even ask: Who do you think you are?

Although the Railway Corporation is an enterprise, the supervisors of the Railway Corporation are of the second grade, and the supervisors of the railway branches in Guangdong are also of the third grade.

The most important thing is that it is an independent organization and has little to do with the local area. Many places even have to beg other railway companies to open more trains in order to allow railway lines to pass through.

b Prince's Young Master, Guangdong Governor Tang Tiangui does have this influence and even power, but he will not do it.

The impact of doing this is too great, and it will inevitably be used by others to create ostentation, affect people's livelihood, etc.

b Even when coming by train, you cannot take a special train... In the Dachu Empire, only people at the level of minister of counselors can take special trains, and even the co-organizing ministers do not have this authority.

b Of course, these executives will not take ordinary passenger cars when traveling for official business. Instead, they will add executive cars to ordinary passenger trains to solve railway travel.

The same goes for Tang Tiangui's travels. The carriages he and the officials traveling in were anchored on a passenger train.

However, this is not the exclusive power of senior officials. In order to generate revenue, the railway company has opened up the executive carriage business.

As long as you can afford it, the railway company will buy you an executive carriage so that you can enjoy high-ranking official travel.

In comparison, any first-class carriage is weak!

The executive carriages built by other railway companies are relatively low-key. If it is shipping, it is actually simpler and more convenient.

As long as you can afford it, you can charter a boat directly.

As for the richest and most powerful people, they don't even charter ships, but directly own private ships.

For example, if the important members of the Jinling Li family travel by boat, they always use their own boats.

Its subsidiary Fenghe Trading Company had already provided various strategic materials to the Chu Empire during the Funiu Mountain period. Later, when the Chu Empire attacked Jinling City, the head of the Li family encouraged other officials to surrender.

Li Jiafeng and his trading company have been the main suppliers of strategic materials to the Chu Empire for a long time.

The huge efforts have naturally yielded huge rewards. After the Unification War, the leader of the Li family once served as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and co-minister. After becoming official, many children of the Li family still hold high positions.

b. Fenghe Trading Company was later reorganized into Fenghe Trading Company, which continued to engage in the trade of various strategic materials. Later, it formed a fleet to trade in Fuso, opening up the source of sulfur materials in the Fuso area for the Chu Empire, etc.

bThis trading company was one of the dozens of overseas armed trading companies in the Chu Empire in the past, and it also invested in many businesses domestically.

After the armed trade was nationalized, Fenghe Trading Company transformed into general trade, shipping and financial industries.

Its subsidiary Fenghe Trading Company is a large company in Fuso Trading. Fenghe Shipping occupies a large place in the Yangtze River shipping industry. Fenghe Bank is also a well-known private bank in the Jiangnan area.

In the Li family, important members of the family use their own boats when traveling...

b Chartered ships and private ships are common in the shipping industry, but this is not the case in the railway industry.

If you want the railway company to open a special train for you, please go to the Minister of Counselor first.

No one else, not even the co-organizing minister.

Of course, the conditions for the military trains that senior generals ride on are a little more relaxed, but the number of people is not large, so don’t expect it if you are not an active general with real power.

The railway company did not show respect, but the local officials in Heyuan Prefecture gave Tang Tiangui great respect. All the places where the carriage convoy passed by were temporarily blocked. Not only ordinary patrol police were stationed at the intersection, but also mounted police were on duty.

Follow along.

Mounted police are not a special thing in the Chu Empire, but a relatively common law enforcement unit.

The main reason is that the quality of roads these days is poor, especially in rural areas. Many roads are not very good. Many places are inaccessible by horse-drawn carriage, or difficult to walk, and walking is slow and requires little carrying.

In order to better patrol rural areas and search for criminals, some patrol stations will equip some armed patrol officers with horses.

This thing is actually a fast mobile armed patrol!

There are many places, but the number of mounted police in most places is not large. After all, the establishment and maintenance costs of mounted police are relatively expensive.

Heyuan Prefecture is a large area, and the road traffic conditions in many places are not good. There are also conflicts between natives and tourists. In the early years, armed fights often broke out. Therefore, there have long been a relatively large number of mounted police to suppress local security.

This time, in order to give Tang Tiangui face, Wang Tu mobilized hundreds of mounted policemen to guard him along the way. It can be said that he gave Tang Tiangui face.

However, Tang Tiangui didn't care much about things like face. When he saw so many mounted policemen, his first reaction was that it would take time to completely resolve the conflict between natives and tourists in Heyuan Prefecture...

If it weren’t for the conflict between locals and tourists, which resulted in poor security in remote rural areas, there would be no need to have so many mounted police.

The conflict between natives and guests in Heyuan Prefecture has always been relatively large. Well, in fact, not only in Heyuan Prefecture, but also in the entire Guangdong region, the conflicts between natives and guests are not small, especially in some mountainous areas.

When the empire first took over Guangdong, in the first few years, large-scale fights between locals and foreigners would take place in this poor place every day, with tens of thousands of people involved.
To be continued...