Chapter 136 No Return to Slave
During the tenth year of the empire, the imperial political center moved to Shenjing, which was later Shanghai, but it still retained its political status as the second capital of Beijing. However, it did not imitate the establishment of a backup team of six ministries in Beijing, but instead established a Lifanyuan, which was in charge of the four major northern border areas of the empire, with Beijing as its base.
In order to ensure that the successor of the empire had to come to Beijing regularly, Li Mingxun placed his lucky land in the capital and directly occupied the tomb built by Shunzhi during the Qing Dynasty. Li Junhua also followed suit and chose a piece of land near Beijing to build his own tomb ten years after ascending the throne.
Although the founding emperor of the empire is still alive, the emperor still has to follow the rules of hunting every three years and visiting every five years. The so-called hunting is to go north to Beijing and hold a grand ceremony in the name of hunting on the grassland, and at the same time accept the pilgrimage from all the vassals and nobles in the border areas of the empire. The western tour is to go to Shaanxi to pay homage to Emperor Huang.
In fact, Li Junhua sent the sect king north to Beijing every year to inspect the capital and appease the border. Because King Cheng Lin Junhong took charge of the Senate and King Cheng Li Hai retired, most of the time, King Cheng Li Hai visited the capital north. For this reason, among the sect kings of the empire, Li Hai had the only one who had a complete royal palace in Beijing. His King Cheng's Mansion was ready to be used, but the Forbidden City in Beijing was repaired every three years and was usually in dilapidated.
Li Junwei's property in Beijing has long been sold out. Every time he goes north, he will live in someone else's house. He used to be from Pei Yuanqi's house, but now he lives in Prince Cheng's Mansion.
There is a small courtyard diagonally opposite the back door of the royal palace. It was originally a place for the guards of the royal palace to live in. Li Junwei specially asked his prince Li Zhaoji to live in. When he left Shenjing, Li Junwei asked Li Zhaoji to go out in a mistress, with a pseudonym hidden in the divine name, and pretended to be a fur merchant in Shenjing, so naturally there was a house that matched his status.
Returning to the royal palace from the Lifanyuan Office, he changed his clothes, took a short rest and went to see Li Zhaoji. When he entered the gate, he saw seven or eight identical bicycles parked in the yard.
"This bicycle looks familiar," said Li Junwei.
"Prince, this is the Hall of the Grand Prince's Football Tournament..." The guard whispered.
Li Junwei then remembered that the bicycle was actually a prize sponsored by Li Junwei. Originally, the prize was just a prize, and each player of the champion team was rewarded with 100 yuan silver coins, 60 yuan runner-up, and 30 yuan in the palace army. However, because Li Zhaoji liked bicycles, the prize of the palace army was changed to bicycles, and the championship was no longer 100 yuan silver coins, but was changed to a famous primary school in Beijing without examination admission. That primary school cultivated many talents, but it was managed in a militarized manner and had little freedom.
The parents of the champion player were very happy and thought that a game changed the fate of the children, but the young players were very depressed. The reason why they gave them this kind of reward was because one of the group knocked down Li Zhaoji in the game.
Since the child who hurts his nephew cannot be sent to prison, then send him to another "prison".
In the living room, a group of children gathered around the big round table, drinking iced sour plum soup, eating fruits, watching the most popular little man's books, chatting.
"Uncle Li Wei is back." Someone shouted, and everyone surrounded Li Junwei, with his little faces full of desire.
The children all know Li Junwei. They often see this fat uncle on the side of the court. He will buy all kinds of snacks and drinks for everyone, and also buy the best sneakers for everyone. Even the celebration banquet was organized by Li Junwei.
"You all came to play, haha..." Li Junwei greeted him and found that the children were not dispersed. He asked, "Is there anything wrong?"
"We have something to ask you."
"Yes, yes, it's about Li Ji, we want to..."
Seven or eight mouths were talking, but Li Junwei didn't know who should listen to. Looking at Li Zhaoji, the child lowered his head, as if he had a secret. Li Junwei coughed lightly: "Let's do this, you vote for someone to tell me, don't interrupt others."
Soon, the man was chosen to be a tall and strong boy. He did not have short hair like an ordinary child, but instead had small braids. The most eye-catching feature was not his darker skin color, but his forehead had a brand.
This child is a Mongolian named Nayan. He is the strongest among all children and the absolute main force in the team. He is eight years old, one or two years older than all children.
"Uncle Li Wei, we heard that Li Ji is going to school in Beijing this year. Can he let him go to our school so that we can still play football together?" Yan Langsheng asked.
Li Junwei smiled and said, "Li Ji is just annoying, don't you bother him."
"No, we are brothers now." Na Yan patted his chest and patted Li Zhaoji on the shoulder.
Li Junwei was very pleased to see this scene. Being able to become friends with these children from ordinary people proved that Li Zhaoji's temperament has made great progress.
In fact, this was not achieved overnight. Although Li Junwei never beat Li Zhaoji again after his uncle and nephew left Shen Jing, he had a great blow. And now this team is not the first team that Li Zhaoji stays for. Everyone in the first team that Li Zhaoji participated does not like him. No one likes a stinky guy who speaks Mandarin with Shen Jing flavor and looks down on others.
It was also in that team that Li Zhaoji discovered that he had left his identity as the prince and no one even paid attention to him for dinner. Since then, he has changed. Now he has become a group of children and integrated into a group.
Although the school where these children are located is not a key school, Li Junwei believes that teaching level is not important to a prince. It is enough to have a group of friends to understand the world.
Therefore, Li Junwei readily agreed to the request of the children and asked someone to prepare meals for them to celebrate. So, the emperor's only son, the first heir to the imperial throne, entered Shijingshan Iron Factory No. 12 Primary School and became an ordinary primary school student.
"How is it, do you regret it?" Li Junwei asked Li Zhaoji half a month after school started.
Li Zhaoji smiled and said, "I regret it a little... the school doesn't even have a decent stadium, nor do I have those sports equipment and interest rooms... But I won't give up. Anyway, I can only go back to Shenjing at the end of the year. I want to be with my friends."
Li Junwei nodded: "It's quite certain."
Li Zhaoji drank all the last porridge and said, "Uncle San, do you know that there are many people like that in the school."
"Who is that person like Yan?" Li Junwei expressed his confusion.
Li Zhaoji pointed to his forehead and said carefully: "I will not return to my slave."
Li Junwei laughed: "I didn't expect that our two men can really talk together. Let me tell you that the third uncle went north this time to get this done."
"You won't drive Na Yan and the others back, no, no, it's okay. Uncle San, it's not possible. They will definitely be beaten to death when they go back. Na Yan said he would not go back even if he dies." Li Zhaoji immediately pleaded.
The so-called non-return slave refers to fugitive slaves from major border areas of the empire. In several provinces near the border areas such as Jingji, Hebei, Shanxi and Liaoning, there may be 400,000 or 500,000. Joint enterprises such as Shijingshan Iron Factory that require a large amount of cheap labor will naturally use these workers. Na Yan's father and two uncles both worked in Shijingshan Iron Factory, so he was able to go to the 12th Primary School to go to school.
The problem of not returning to slaves has been around for a long time and has existed since the establishment of the empire.
During the era of Li Mingxun, before the Central Plains was pacified, the Imperial Army ordered the Imperial Army to enter the grassland on a large scale. Taking advantage of the fact that the Qing Dynasty fled north had not yet established a stable foothold, they directly occupied two pieces of land in the south of the desert and outside the pass. The Zhasak system was established in the later Qing Dynasty's system of ruling the grasslands.
This system is divided into internal vassals and external vassals.
During the conquest, all the nomadic peoples and the official slaves who were liquidated and distributed in the side wall were reorganized into Zasak. Zasak was divided into three types: one was to produce Zasak, also known as directly under Zasak, which was actually not much different from ordinary people in the provinces. This Zasak has no military obligations and only provides taxes.
The other two types of Zasak are the inner vassal Zasak and the outer vassal Zasak. The inner vassal Zasak is governed by the governors and appeasements of the Rifle Academy. In fact, it is a military household, and does not have to provide taxes, but has to bear military obligations. The officials of the inner vassal Zasak are appointed by the Rifle Academy, while the outer vassal Zasak are all nobles who surrender to the empire during the expedition. Because they take the initiative to surrender, they can retain some of their fiefdoms and entrusted people. The slaves are not returned to slaves.
The people directly under the Zasak are not allowed to leave the jurisdiction of the Lifanyuan, and there is no difference between the ordinary people. The Zasak and the Zasak are also free of circulation. The Zasak can become a Zasak through self-repeal and can also join the army to become a Zasak.
Although the empire accepted many people's surrender and retained a large number of feudal nobles, they had been restricting measures against these people. The original great nobles who had several Zasaks and a large number of fiefs, their fiefs and subordinates were separated by their sons and inherited them separately. The biggest suppression was not this feudal policy, but to allow the external vassals and the inner vassals to be directly under the Zasaks to be placed inter-replaced.
The result of this cross-resettlement is that a large number of people from the foreign vassals, the Zasak people, can contact other people of the Zasak and foreign merchants in their daily lives to understand how others live. Obviously, life is difficult under the name of feudal lords, and they need to bear a lot of taxes and corvee, and are oppressed by people far exceeding the people of the empire.
The yearning for freedom and a better life will produce a large number of escaped slaves. Nomads have no local complex and most herders live in scattered areas. Often, once a winter passes, the lords will find that their subordinates, even the people and sheep, have disappeared. At first, these escaped slaves will flee to the surrounding direct Zasak or Neiba Zasak. In the early years, these Zasaks refused to the visitors because the Lifan Academy had rules.
There are fifteen banners of Zhasak, and one hundred and fifty households per banner. If there are ten households, there will be one more long one. If there are fifty households, there will be one more senior one who is in charge of half-mast. The more fugitive slaves and the more official positions, the greater the chances of everyone. Why not do it?
However, as time went by, a large number of foreign vassal children held official positions in the Lifan Courtyard, which led to more and more Zasaks not daring to accommodate fugitive slaves, and fugitive slaves could only escape to a farther appeasement zone or cross a border area. It was also as time went by that, fugitive slaves found that going to a province within the border wall was a better choice.
There is no jurisdiction over the vassal court there. Although the original grazing skills are useless, there is a large amount of unreclaimed land in Liaoning Province and is recruiting people to reclaim. There are a large number of industrial and mining enterprises in Beijing, Tianjin and around that require cheap labor.
Over the years, the Lifan Academy system has been arguing with the Imperial General Office over this matter countless times, but the result is nothing.
The land under the Lifan Yuan is actually the sphere of influence of the imperial royal family and military aristocrats. With the Lifan Yuan, the royal family can recruit 300,000 cavalry at any time, which is crucial to stabilizing the imperial power. However, this land is too large and the interests are too large. The cabinet has always promoted the provincialization of the land of the Lifan Yuan. The development of industrial and commercial areas in the north and the land reclamation outside the pass require people, so the cabinet is naturally unwilling to stop the fugitive slaves.
The emperor also faintly supported this kind of thing that could weaken the foreign vassals, which led to the current situation. The fugitive slave left the grassland, settled a family and established a career in the side wall, and never returned, so he was given the title of "no return slave".
Because there are a large number of people who do not return to slaves, the power balance between the external vassals and the internal vassals has changed. Taking the Western Krainian region as an example, when the Western Krainian region was established, the comparison between the external vassals and the internal vassals and directly under the Zasak was almost one to one. However, in the latest census, the population of the external vassals only accounted for about 40% of the remaining population, while the Western Krainian region only had a history of more than ten years.
This time, Li Junwei came under the banner of solving the problem of comprehensive amnesty for the Manchu clan. In fact, the problem of only one clan is not a problem at all. The nobles of the foreign vassals were worried that the empire would ban the status of the foreign vassals. Li Junwei was just preparing to solve the feudal remnants of the border areas once and for all.
"Zhaoji, find a suitable time to make an appointment with Nayan and his father, let's have a meal together. Let's find out the situation by the way." Li Junwei said.
Li Zhaoji looked at Li Junwei with a suspicion: "Uncle San, you won't lie to me, are you? You have so many people under you, why do you know the situation yourself?"
Li Junwei smiled and said to his nephew: "You must do this in the future, trust your subordinates, but you cannot fully believe it. Keep a little care about everything yourself, you may not need to know comprehensively, or you may not know everything. In fact, even if you act like a person, you must consider it when others deceive you.
Chapter completed!