Changli County, Tongyong Town Patrol Camp, Chinese Army Camp.www
Wang Huaiqing turned over and fell off his horse in front of the gate of the Chinese Army Headquarters. He threw the reins to a footman and walked into the Chinese Army Headquarters with long strides. In the corridor of the hall, several patrol battalion officers had already changed.
Putting on the new military uniforms that had just been distributed yesterday, he stood up straight and waited to welcome Wang Huaiqing's arrival.
After entering the door, Wang Huaiqing calmly looked at his subordinates' new clothes, and then said with a cheerful smile: "Not bad, not bad, the new military uniforms look more impressive, and they are much more decent than our old ones. That's why we are so worthy."
The majesty of a soldier. Have you sent me my general uniform?"
A police officer stepped forward and replied: "Your Majesty's new uniform has been delivered."
After saying that, he turned around and gestured behind him, and three soldiers who had been standing behind immediately came forward. Two of them were holding a brand new uniform on the left and the other, and the other one was holding a hat with both hands.
The military cap that matches the dress. The style of this dress is similar to the military uniform of the senior generals of the New Beiyang Army, except that the epaulettes, collar badges and military cap badges are all changed to the "Five Colors of the Republic" pattern.
Wang Huaiqing walked around the stretched out new military uniform twice, his eyes gleaming with novelty. After a while, he clicked his tongue and said: "This kind of military uniform makes you look imposing. After all, the Manchu uniform
It's too tacky, and it won't stand out if you stand with foreigners. According to me, there are still many places in China where we need to learn from other foreigners."
All the officers just nodded in agreement, fearing that they would miss the opportunity to flatter him.
After the Qing Emperor announced his abdication, the military power in Changli County and even the entire Tongyong Town fell into the hands of Wang Huaiqing. In the past half month, Wang Huaiqing secretly created more than ten new local official positions, such as county magistrate, etc.
Chairman, special commissioner, all official titles must be learned from "Gonghe min zhu". As for the appointed officials, all his relatives and cronies will take office with their own letters of appointment, or occupy the official offices of the former Qing Dynasty.
, or collude with the old bureaucracy inside and outside.
Regardless of what these newly created official positions are specifically responsible for, it is certain that they are lucrative jobs that can make a fortune.
Nowadays, the world has changed, and these patrol battalion officers who have followed Wang Huaiqing for many years naturally hope to take advantage of this opportunity to get a piece of the pie. Therefore, whenever they see Wang Huaiqing these days, everyone behaves more and more affectionately.
Wang Huaiqing nodded with satisfaction, and then took the hat from a soldier. He was about to put it on his head to see if it fit. Who knew that the hard top of the hat was slightly too small, just in line with the braids on the back of his head?
It got stuck together. I wore it several times in different ways, but it never felt comfortable.
He subconsciously looked at the subordinates standing aside, and saw that these people had already cut off the braids on the back of their heads, and their expressions suddenly became cloudy and uncertain.
When the officers noticed the signs, they were all frightened. They quickly lowered their heads and did not dare to take a breath.
However, after a while, Wang Huaiqing suddenly threw the top hat back into the soldier's hands and grinned: "Damn it, this new thing is here, it seems that I have to take away the old things too. I don't want to
I'm curious about this old braid, but I've had it on my head for so many years, and I've got some feelings for it, so I can't bear to cut it off. Well, it's a revolution, so of course it needs to be completely cut off. I'll find a barber this afternoon.
Cut off my braids."
Hearing this, the officers finally breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly echoed again:
"Your Excellency is truly an example of revolution. I am extremely admired by those in humble positions."
"That's right, people in the lower class must take adults as role models and do their best to learn from them."
"I will hire the best barber in the county later. Even if I cut off my braid, my wise and mighty appearance will still remain."
As the saying goes, you can wear everything but flattery. Wang Huaiqing is not a noble person, but he likes these tacky things the most. Listening to the flattery of his subordinates, he felt as if he had taken a puff of longevity ointment.
, there is always a sense of elation and pride in my heart.
"Hahahaha, well said, well said." Wang Huaiqing laughed out loud.
At this moment, a footman walked quickly outside the gate of the headquarters. When he came to Wang Huaiqing, he performed the old ritual of kneeling down and said: "Your Majesty, Mr. He from the county government has something important to see you."
Wang Huaiqing raised his eyebrows slightly and said with a specious smile: "Why is He Keping here again? Did he say what happened?"
He Keping was the former magistrate of Changli County. Now he has joined forces with a group of gentry in the county to completely renovate the county government and established the magistrate of Changli County. He himself is naturally recommended as the magistrate of Changli County.
Magistrate of Changli County.
Of course, on the night when the news of the Qing court's abdication came out, He Keping came to see Wang Huaiqing. Although he did not bring any bribe gifts, he brought a more practical message. He told Wang Huaiqing that as long as Wang Huaiqing could protect the government of Changli County,
In the future, Changli County's tax revenues and expenditures will have a special military expenditure item, and this military expenditure will be allocated to the Tongyong Town Patrol Battalion to support troops.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, local government officials more or less misreported their taxes and withheld privately. Especially after the Gengzi National Disaster, in many remote provinces and cities, almost all taxes were withheld by the provincial government, so much so that in the central treasury year
Since then, the country has become weak, so it can only maintain the operation of the central yang by borrowing from foreigners.
As the situation of warlord separatism became more serious and obvious, the warlords who controlled power in various places arbitrarily withheld national taxes. After taking possession of these taxes, part of them fell into the warlords' private pockets, and the other part was used to continue to expand armaments.
As a result, a vicious cycle was formed: as the warlords became stronger, they became more and more bold to withhold national taxes; as national taxes became less and less, the central government became weaker and weaker, and it became increasingly difficult to centralize and unify the country.
There was even a funny situation at that time, that is, only foreigners controlled the tariffs and could still send a batch of tax revenue to the central government every year. Because domestic warlords, large and small, did not dare to provoke foreigners, all taxes operated by foreigners were the same.
Without daring to withhold it, the foreigners deducted the part of the income tax that was required to repay the loan, and handed the rest to the government.
Although the local tax administration is in chaos, Zhili is Kinki after all. Regardless of whether there is an emperor or not, the overall situation here is still firmly controlled by the capital. Therefore, Wang Huaiqing has served in Tongyong Town for many years and did not dare to easily
Withholding local taxes privately, even though the country's political situation has changed drastically, he has never thought about it.
It wasn't until he heard He Keping's proposal that Wang Huaiqing suddenly realized that even a small county magistrate dared to do this. He had the army of a whole town, so why couldn't he do something bigger?
Therefore, Wang Huaiqing agreed to recommend He Keping's legal status to the county government. However, when negotiating how much Changli County's annual military expenditures should be allocated, he opened his mouth unceremoniously and actually asked for 60% of Changli County's annual tax revenue, otherwise he would Report to the capital and arrange for a candidate for the county government.
Although He Keping didn't expect Wang Huaiqing to be so greedy, he was willing to fight for his own good, so even if he didn't agree, more people would rush to agree. Moreover, even though 60% of them went, more or less 40% of them were left behind. Cheng, he could still make a lot of profit out of the 40%. So after hesitating for a while, he finally agreed to Wang Huaiqing's conditions.
Precisely because of the pioneering work of Changli County, Wang Huaiqing seemed to suddenly realize another shortcut to getting rich, so he appointed a group of officials to all counties and towns within the jurisdiction of Tongyong Town, specifically to collude with or threaten these county governments. , the town government will allocate a sum of money from the taxation to its own hands from now on. For this purpose, many names are listed, some are called security fees, and some are called prevention funds. In short, they are all kinds of things, with only one purpose, which is to master a A stable financial income.
At this moment, He Keping suddenly found the patrol camp again. The first thing Wang Huaiqing thought of was the taxation matter in Changli County. Although he did it cleanly and neatly, it was his "first offense" after all. There are still some things that don't make sense, and I'm afraid that there will be some trouble if the higher authorities investigate.