The time has entered July, and Dong Shuheng has stayed in Jiangning City for more than a month.
It is said that fire flows in July, and Jiangning City was known as one of the Three Great Furnaces of the Yangtze River in later generations.
The original Tianwang Palace has now become Dong Shuheng's Presidential Palace and Governor's Palace.
I don't know why there are no tall trees in this palace. Maybe it's for safety. The big trees will provide a place for the assassins to hide.
Dong Shuheng had been to many prisons in his previous life. There were no trees planted inside the tall walls, just for safety reasons and to prevent trees from blocking the sight of the sentries.
Most of the floors in the palace are paved with blue bricks, which makes the palace look spacious and clean. However, the dark bricks absorb heat very well.
This made Dong Shuheng feel like he was living on a huge stove and enjoying a free sauna every day.
Even if there is an ice cellar in the palace, the little ice can only be used when he sleeps at night.
When people in later generations blow on the air conditioner together, they often talk about how they lived without air conditioning when they were young.
Dong Shuheng now realizes that without air conditioning, he can only survive, and the quality of life is incomparable to that of future generations.
Now Dong Shuheng has some regrets. It was at his personal insistence that the Liangjiang Governor's Palace, the Huaihai Navy Presidential Palace, the Prime Minister's Office and other headquarters agencies were all moved to Jiangning City.
Jiangning City has now become the political center of the Huaihai Navy. This is an inevitable choice, not because of some plot in history or later generations.
But out of practical considerations, Jiangning City's geographical location is really good, right in the center of the three provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi.
Working in Jiangning is very convenient for managing the Liangjiang area.
In addition, Huaihai Navy did not build a special office building when it was in Yangzhou.
For example, Dong Shuheng's Presidential Palace is his family's original residence, but it has been slightly modified.
Various other agencies also borrowed previous buildings. In Yangzhou, several large agencies usually work together.
After entering Jiangning, Huai Haijun immediately seized dozens of mansions and government offices.
These mansions and government offices were all newly built by the Taiping Army in the past two years. At first, Dong Shuheng used his special forces as the main force to occupy the city through infiltration.
One of the most important reasons is to protect these buildings.
If Hong Xiuquan knew that Dong Shuheng was involved in all the buildings he had built in recent years, I wonder if he would be so angry that he committed suicide.
The Taiping Army fought in the south and north over the years, and all the possessions they had accumulated through hard work became Huai Haijun's wedding clothes.
Dong Shuheng, who was born as a salt merchant, believes that fighting a war is just like doing business, and one must consider costs and benefits.
…
Several laws and regulations that were previously decided at the Gaoyou meeting have been introduced recently. Among them is the "Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests", which clarifies some measures to protect women's rights and interests.
For example, women have the right to participate in labor and have the right to control their own wages and income...
For example, it is strictly forbidden for folk women to bind their feet. Various channels are used to promote the abolition of this bad habit.
Dong Shuheng even criticized foot-binding from the perspective of Confucian classics through the mouth of a scholar as a kind of behavior that destroys human ethics and violates the original meaning of Confucianism.
Because all government offices are headed by men, they are not suitable for the specific implementation of this law. Dong Shuheng set up a new department specifically for this law - the "Women's Mutual Aid Association".
When Dong Shuheng approached Yang Ximei and wanted to arrange an official position for her, Yang Ximei chose the position of the leader of the Women's Mutual Aid Association from several options without hesitation.
This organization is destined to become an organization that men love to hate.
Yang Ximei asked Fu Shanxiang to come over and selected a group of people from the original female officials of Dongfu.
Soon, women's mutual aid associations spread their wings and even established branches in various places.
I don’t know who came up with the idea, but many wives of military officers and government officials were recruited into the mutual aid association, making the mutual aid association’s execution capabilities stronger and stronger.
The headquarters of the Women's Mutual Aid Association is located in Dongwangfu, making it the headquarters department with the largest office space.
Many departments have criticized this. Yang Ximei's reason is to build a women's shelter here to take in homeless women. Besides, this is her own home.
…
Dong Shuheng never dared to underestimate the conservativeness of the Manchu people. However, he also had strong confidence in the execution ability of the Huai Navy.
Huai Haijun has now completely canceled the original model of officials and officials.
They established their own administrative model. Officials are no longer synonymous with high authority. Huai Haijun's official levels range from clerk to section member to deputy section, chief section, deputy division, chief division...
Dong Shuheng completely copied the rank model from his later generations.
The classification of this model is more detailed, and the room for advancement of administrative personnel is greater, and there is no longer a distinction between officials and staff.
As the Huaihai Navy's administrative officer reserve reaches a certain level, new administrative officers must be selected through examinations or transferred to the military, and most of them must start from grassroots training.
This avoids the situation like the Manchu and Qing eight-legged official selection, where the elected officials immediately occupy high positions when they arrive at the local level and have no political experience, so that they are played around by subordinate officials.
In the end, there was a joke like "the Manchus and subordinate officials rule the world together".
No matter in ancient or modern times, under any political model, the government's control over local areas is particularly important.
This is related to whether a country can effectively play its role.
There is nothing wrong with the ancient Chinese imperial examination system for selecting officials, and when it appeared, it did represent a kind of progress, which made the class less rigid and gave poor families a chance to advance. This system even spread to the West.
Many historical materials mention that the Western system of examination and selection of officials was passed from China.
This is true and can be traced back to history, and it is recorded in history written by Westerners themselves.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, there was even a craze in the West to learn from China.
However, this ancient system continued to the Qing Dynasty and had lost its vitality, limiting the Qing government's control over local areas.
Huai Haijun was able to establish a military government from the beginning and gain local control.
They also took advantage of the loopholes of this system. As long as they get the chief official of the local county government, they can basically do whatever they want.
Dong Shuheng, who had learned from the experience, naturally thought about how to avoid making the same mistake.
So Huai Haijun directly established the government at the township level. Although the management of each village was still in charge of the village head recommended by each.
However, the village chief has to receive work guidance from the township, and the public security in the village is handled by the militia, which is generally managed by Huai Haijun personnel.
Why does the imperial power not go to the countryside? This situation does not exist in the Liangjiang area.
Of course, Huai Haijun's management model also encountered great resistance during its implementation, especially in the Jiangxi region.
Jiangxi had the strongest literary style in the Qing Dynasty and was also the place where local clans had the strongest power.
Although the Taiping Army suppressed a group of gentry and landlords when they occupied Jiangxi, they did not damage the fundamentals.
At that time, in order to quickly collect taxes and grain, the Taiping Army also learned to compromise with the local gentry and landlords, instead of comprehensively suppressing the landlords and gentry like in Jiangning.
Huai Haijun's policy is very simple. If you cooperate with me, your children can also take the local administrative personnel selection examination and participate in politics and become officials.
But we must implement the laws and policies of our Huai Navy. If there is a confrontation, it is no problem. A special operations team is sent out to confiscate homes and exterminate clans and it will be done in a matter of minutes. This is a familiar matter.
This is true even for those xenophobic family forces living in the deep mountains and old forests. No lawless areas are allowed to exist in the jurisdiction of Huai Haijun.
Dong Shuheng, a time traveler, studied law in his previous life, which seems to be the most useless major. But precisely because of this, he knows that governing the country by law is the most effective and stable way of governance.
…
Let’s talk about the two fronts of the middle route and the north route. The middle route army, after the instructors took down Anqing, Shidakai’s base camp, pushed the front all the way through Hukou.
waterway and attacked Jiujiang Prefecture. When the army set off from Jiujiang Prefecture, they were preparing to block Shida and open up a retreat.
Shi Dakai used a trick to escape from the golden cicada. He left a small number of troops to confuse Zuo Zongtang, while he secretly headed south with the main force.
Escape into the Wuning Mountains and then enter Hunan. Along the way, Shi Dakai avoided important cities and only attacked some small counties and market towns to obtain supplies.
Before Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan, could react, Shi Dakai was already crossing Hunan.
Shi Dakai also took advantage of a loophole. In order to prevent friction with the Huai Navy, Luo Bingzhang ordered the Hunan Army to retreat backward, leaving a buffer zone between Hunan and Jiangxi.
It was through this buffer zone that Shi Dakai entered Guangxi and returned to the place where the Taiping Army started.
In fact, Shi Dakai had wanted to come back here for a long time. It turned out that he couldn't make the decision. Now that the King of Heaven and the East King have gone, Shi Dakai no longer has any ideological constraints.
It is true that the mountains are high enough for birds to fly, and the sea is wide enough for fish to jump!
Hubei Governor's Yamen.
Zuo Zongtang was receiving a special guest and had to send out all the irrelevant people in the house.
"How are you preparing what your president promised?" Zuo Zongtang asked the man.
Sun Yi, a middle-aged man who looks very ordinary, somewhat like a Confucian scholar in temperament.
In fact, he used to be a clerk of the Dong family. He was shrewd and good at observing words and emotions.
Dong Shuheng placed him next to Zuo Zongtang as a liaison.
"Commander Zuo, don't worry, our president hasn't had some free time recently. He will definitely send you two gunboats and the equipment you want next month." Zuo Zongtang is not only the governor but also the commander-in-chief of the Hubei army.
He likes to have people call him Zuo Shuai.
"Huh, this bastard, let me help him chew the hard bones while he is busy occupying the territory. It is really unreasonable!"
"Now that you haven't delivered the things you promised to me quickly, you're still delaying." Zuo Zongtang was unreasonable and cursed in front of Sun Yi.
Sun Yi was one of the few people who knew the relationship between Zuo Zongtang and Dong Shuheng, so he didn't pay much attention to Zuo Zongtang's words.
From the very beginning of the conspiracy against the Taiping Army, Dong Shuheng made an agreement with Zuo Zongtang to let Zuo Zongtang hold Shi Dakai back.
Of course, Lao Zuo's help was not in vain this time. He asked for two steam gunboats, 25 artillery pieces and 2,000 rifles.
Zuo Zongtang knew that Huai Haijun had a better musket, but he knew that it was Dong Shuheng's treasure and would not be leaked. Moreover, that kind of gun was prone to malfunction and was troublesome to maintain.
Let’s talk about the northern front.
Wang Congzhi pulled all the artillery over and fired a barrage of artillery fire at the city wall, finally leveling the city wall and the positions outside the city.
The attack went surprisingly smoothly, and there was only sporadic resistance when they reached the city.
Finally, when the prisoners were captured and questioned, they found out that Luo Gang had led the main force to retreat westward.
So Wang Congzhi quickly sent a cavalry regiment to pursue them.
The cavalry regiment was ambushed by the Taiping Army on the road. It was caught off guard, but it managed to escape the Taiping Army's siege by relying on its speed.
After that, the cavalry regiment only dared to fall far behind the Taiping Army.
Luo Gangyou took advantage of this to speed up and rushed to Lu'an. After collecting all the young people's belongings in Lu'an, he fled into Henan.