Paul I would rather believe that the sun rose from the west than believe that Louis XVI would not care about the interests of the Ming Empire.
Why did the Tsarist Russia desperately want to infiltrate Europe? Why did the Ottoman Empire also desperately want to get involved in European affairs? What was the reason for the frequent conflicts between so many countries on this small planet? Why did France willingly serve as a running dog of the Ming Empire?
Frankly, it was all for profit!
Since France completely sided with the Ming Empire, it had earned a lot of money with the support of the Ming Empire over the years. The interests of the entire France were tightly linked to the interests of the Ming Empire. The Ming Emperor might not care about France, but Louis XVI absolutely could not afford to disregard the Ming Empire.
Now that Tsarist Russia, under the leadership of Alexander, had suddenly engaged in war with the Ottoman Empire, the most easily affected parties were the Ming Empire's oil interests in the Ottoman Empire, and France's concession interests in the Ottoman Empire would also be affected. Yet, Louis XVI had uncharacteristically not gotten involved in the war between Tsarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire to reap benefits, nor had he taken the opportunity to cause trouble for the Habsburg family. The signal revealed behind this was very interesting.
Either Louis XVI had received advance notice from the Ming Emperor and did not need to intervene in the affairs between Tsarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire, or there were greater interests in the Western Kunlun Mountains, so great that they were enough to make Louis XVI betray the Ming Empire, enough to make Louis XVI abandon France's interests in the Ottoman concessions.
After pondering secretly, Paul I instructed Antonov: "Send people to investigate and see what that Louis XVI fellow is up to."
After Antonov bowed and acknowledged, Paul I continued to instruct: "Also, send people to pay more attention to the movements in the Ottoman Empire and India – I won't blame you if you can't get information about the Ming Empire, but you should be able to get information about the Ottoman Empire and India, shouldn't you? I refuse to believe that the Ming Emperor truly doesn't care about the Ottoman oil at all!"
...
Of course, Zhu Jinsong did care about the Ottoman oil; on the contrary, Zhu Jinsong dreamed of increasing the population of the Great Ming so that he could completely take over the Ottoman Empire and turn it into a provincial administration of the Great Ming.
The reason he had not immediately taken over the Ottoman Empire, but instead allowed Tsarist Russia to engage in war with the Ottoman Empire, was threefold: first, population growth had its own patterns, and even if Emperor Zhu was incredibly powerful, he could not conjure tens of millions of people out of thin air; second, Emperor Zhu believed in the strength of the Great Ming army; and third, Emperor Zhu wanted to watch the show.
It should be known that the Great Ming had two military bases in the Ottoman Empire, each with a garrison of ten thousand soldiers. Furthermore, the Great Ming also had concessions in the Ottoman Empire, and the number of Ming merchants and their employees combined was nearly ten thousand. If these merchants and employees were issued firearms and cannons, they could serve as the reserve forces of the Great Ming in the Ottoman Empire.
If one also considered the nearby military bases of the Great Ming in the vicinity of the Ottoman Empire, such as India, Old Port, and Western Kunlun, the number of troops that the Great Ming could mobilize in the Ottoman Empire could even reach one hundred thousand.
One hundred thousand fully-equipped Great Ming troops... even if Tsarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire joined forces, they would only be fodder. Emperor Zhu naturally had no worries.
In comparison, Emperor Zhu was more concerned about where he could go to relax – the Western Regions were definitely out of the question, and places that were too far away were also not feasible, because Emperor Zhu had to constantly monitor the dynamics of this small planet.
Therefore, Emperor Zhu could only choose places that were closer to the capital and could be returned to the capital within a day.
After much deliberation, Emperor Zhu finally chose Ningyang County.
Among the more than two thousand counties in the Great Ming, Ningyang County's status was significantly higher than that of other counties, because Emperor Zhu was born in Ningyang County, grew up in Ningyang County, and raised the banner of rebellion in Ningyang County. This could be considered the true land of dragon's rise.
Moreover, many of the great officials in the Great Ming court had also gone out with Emperor Zhu from Ningyang County, such as Liu Huaiwen, who was in charge of the national treasury, and Liu Hemin, Geng Rui, and Liu Erniu from the Five Military Commissions.
Therefore, Ningyang County's status became extraordinary – with steam engine stations in both Tai'an Prefecture and Yanzhou Prefecture, Ningyang County, situated between the two prefectures, also had a steam engine station. With troops stationed in both Tai'an Prefecture and Yanzhou Prefecture, Ningyang County, between the two prefectures, also had a regiment-sized army stationed there.
What caused great distress to the officials like Zeng Cheng was that Emperor Zhu had returned to Ningyang County incognito this time. He had not brought any imperial guards, and even the route he took was winding and indirect.
In other words, before Emperor Zhu arrived in Ningyang County, no one knew where he intended to go.
It was precisely because of this that the local yamen could not prepare in advance, and Emperor Zhu saw everything, good or bad.
What Emperor Zhu found most displeasing was the environment in the Great Ming.
Ever since the commotion at Menglianggu, Emperor Zhu had been actively promoting the development of the Great Ming's "Five Small Industries." In fact, the existence of the Five Small Industries had indeed strengthened the Great Ming's national power and made the people prosperous.
However, Emperor Zhu had to admit that the Five Small Industries had caused severe harm to the environment. To develop the Five Small Industries, one had to occupy forests, occupy land, dig coal, and burn coal. Especially the small power plants, steel plants, and machinery plants in various counties, they emitted black smoke during the day and at night... they continued to emit black smoke at night, but it was not visible.
For example, the capital was better, as the Five Small Industries were located in relatively distant areas outside the city, so the air pollution was not very obvious. However, in the local areas, this pollution was quite apparent. xxs1
Although Emperor Zhu wanted to rectify this, it was not something that could be solved by simply talking about it.
This was because Emperor Zhu had made some modifications when he copied the homework, rather than copying it entirely.
For example, some people in China lived in the mountains, and due to inconvenient transportation and other miscellaneous factors, these people were in a state of poverty, so the Chinese court tried every means to alleviate poverty.
A certain film was actually smearing China's poverty alleviation efforts with its own efforts – did "people" wearing suits, ties, and drinking coffee produce a film entirely from a rural perspective?
What nonsense! To concentrate all the good in the world onto one person and all the evil in the world onto one village, was that realistic?
They knew it was unrealistic, but they didn't care. What they needed was to use this film to provoke reflection and then win awards.
For instance, a large part of the reason why films like Jia Kezhang's and Zhang Guoshi's won awards abroad was by using this contrast of backwardness against advancement to please their masters!
Therefore, Emperor Zhu did not copy this part when he copied the homework.
Emperor Zhu's choice was forced relocation and then payment – regardless of whether you were willing or not, as long as you lived in a remote and inconvenient mountain沟, the government would relocate you out of the mountain沟, then arrange for you to go to Jiaozhi, Liaodong, Eastern Siberia, and other places, and finally give you a large sum of resettlement expenses. Anyway, the Great Ming had plenty of idle land, and the court had always been troubled by the sparseness of its population, never by a lack of land to distribute.
Moreover, the people of the Great Ming did not have the bad habits of only drinking coffee and not eating garlic, nor did they have the courage to resist the court, so Emperor Zhu's arrangements for relocation were also quite successful.
However, this relocation also caused the population to be relatively concentrated. The more concentrated the population, the more jobs were needed, and thus the Five Small Industries and other workshops had a reason to exist.
Of course, even without considering the people's demand for jobs, these Five Small Industries still had a reason to exist, after all, the Great Ming's industrialization process was still in its infancy, and the workshops under the Ministry of Works and the Imperial Treasury alone could not meet the needs of the entire Great Ming.
Moreover, the overall environment of this small planet was not particularly stable. What if these small workshops were abolished, and this small planet experienced large-scale conflicts?
Therefore, Emperor Zhu was very troubled.
Whether it was to harm first and then govern, or to govern while harming, neither was something that could be done by mere words.
If you wanted a good environment, you had to target the Five Small Industries; if you wanted industry, you had to sacrifice some of the environment.
Apart from the environment, the second thing that made Emperor Zhu unhappy was that certain clandestine acts of deception and theft had begun to emerge. After staying at the Ningyang County train station for half an hour, Emperor Zhu personally witnessed two brawls, several instances of fraud, and several direct robberies.
Emperor Zhu couldn't help but shake his head: "The ones who were fighting can be excused, but what about the rest? Are they starving? Or do they simply not want to be human?"
Zhang Dequan, who was following Emperor Zhu, mourned for the unfortunate few while bowing his head and replying: "Your Excellency, your old servant cannot say for sure."
Not to mention that these unfortunate few had no relation to him, Zhang Dequan. Even if one of them were his own son, he would ruthlessly kill them all and then confess his guilt to Emperor Zhu.
Emperor Zhu did not expect Zhang Dequan to answer his question. Zhang Dequan was the Director of the Eastern Depot. If he were asked to investigate or frame an official, or even assassinate the ruler of a small country, he would perform his duties without compromise. But when it came to discussing such matters, this old fellow would become as mute as a deaf-mute.
He chuckled and shook his head, then said: "Make a note of it. We will deal with them properly later. Those who should be killed will be killed, and those who should be exiled will be exiled. The Great Ming is not meant to be ruined by these scoundrels. Also, bring me the information of the Ningyang County Magistrate."
It was very easy for Emperor Zhu to see an official's information. Within about an hour, the information of Li Guangsheng, the Ningyang County Magistrate, was placed before Emperor Zhu.
Part of this information was obtained from the Ministry of Personnel via telegraph, and another part was collected by spies from the Eastern Depot and the Imperial Guards in Ningyang County.
After Emperor Zhu roughly read Li Guangsheng's information and found no record of corruption or other reckless behavior, he smiled and instructed: "Never mind, we will go directly to Liu Miao. There is no need to inform Magistrate Li."
However, when Emperor Zhu, along with Zhang Dequan and a few Eastern Depot guards, arrived at Liu Miao, they discovered that many people in Liu Miao Village were busy working in Emperor Zhu's family's fields. Before Emperor Zhu raised the banner of rebellion, his family also had a few acres of meager land. Later, when he rebelled, Emperor Zhu abandoned the matter of these few acres of land. After becoming emperor, Emperor Zhu did not bother with imperial farms or anything like that, and these few acres of meager land were completely forgotten by Emperor Zhu.
Now, in his own fields, many villagers were weeding and plowing, and it seemed they intended to continue cultivating them.
Emperor Zhu was very confused.
What was the villagers' motive for doing this?
It wasn't that he cared about these few acres of meager land. After all, his family was so poor back then that they couldn't even afford medicine. In addition to paying a large amount of rent to Scholar Liu every year, another important reason was that these few acres of meager land were too poor to produce much grain.
To put it this way, the young men who were now weeding and plowing on his few acres of meager land could earn several times more money by working in a workshop for a few days and then buying grain with the wages, compared to the grain that these few acres of meager land could produce.
Not to mention that farming required fertilizer. Anyone who was an experienced farmer could tell from the black, foul-smelling ground that these few acres of meager land were regularly fertilized, and all of it was well-rotted manure.
After thinking for a moment, Emperor Zhu motioned for the Eastern Depot guards and the Imperial Guards behind him to conceal themselves, and he himself, along with Zhang Dequan, walked towards the fields.
Upon reaching the edge of the field, Emperor Zhu stopped a young man and asked: "Young man, I see that this piece of land seems much more fertile than the surrounding land. But no matter how fertile the land is, it wouldn't allow so many of you to cultivate it together, would it? Can the grain produced be shared?"
However, as soon as Emperor Zhu finished speaking, the young man he stopped rubbed his eyes and, regardless of whether the manure in his hands was smelly or not, exclaimed: "Brother Jinsong?"
As soon as he uttered the words "Brother Jinsong," the young man knelt down with a plop and shouted: "Your humble subject Liu Gousheng pays respects to Your Majesty!"
As Liu Gousheng's shout echoed, all the young men cultivating in the field immediately knelt down in a rush.
Emperor Zhu was immediately bewildered. He did have some memory of the name Liu Gousheng; he was a little child he had held back then. He had not expected him to have grown so much now.
However, after a moment's thought, Emperor Zhu felt that he had been foolish.
After all, more than ten years had passed, and it was only natural for the little child of the past to have grown up.
While instructing everyone to get up, Emperor Zhu grabbed Liu Gousheng's arm, forcefully pulled Liu Gousheng up from the ground, then patted Liu Gousheng's shoulder and asked: "What are you all doing?"
Liu Gousheng chuckled and replied: "Jin... Your Majesty, after you left that year, this land was gradually abandoned. After driving away the Tatars, it was not designated as imperial farmland. When the land was distributed, no one dared to take your land, so a few elders in our village decided to cultivate your land for you, so that you could have the grain when you returned."