The officers from various battalions of the army gathered in Zhaojiabao. It was time to brag again. Wang Wenyue was proud and extremely awesome.

Compared with other battalions, Wang Wenyue was the first to be promoted to brigade commander. He robbed so much money in Japan last year and forced the Tokugawa shogunate to sign an unequal treaty.

However, after a while, Wang Wenyue was called a 'robber' by several battalion commanders of the Liaodong War Zone.

But as for the 'robbery', the most popular this year was the American fleet. I heard that I had robbed the most money and came back, but it also caused trouble. The three European maritime powers have formed a coalition.

The second is Wang Wenyue, who robbed more than 20 million taels in the Kanto area of ​​Japan, and also asked the Tokugawa shogunate to pay 30 million taels of compensation and opened the market.

Finally, the Nanyang detachment destroyed all the Dutch's maritime forces in East Asia in the Nanyang and robbed so many ships back.

But there is not much difference between these three robberies.

The American fleet robbed the most gold and silver, the Nanyang team robbed the most merchant ships and warships, and Wang Wenyue made the most profits, and only 30 million taels of compensation was paid in five years.

The value of the battle also says that the battalions on the Liaodong battlefield made the greatest contribution, and by the beginning of the year, the biggest hidden danger of the Qing Dynasty had been eliminated.

Wang Wenyue successfully opened the Japanese market in Japan with force, and his troops were not large, and his contributions were no less than those of the battalions in Liaodong.

The Nanyang team's contributions were similar. They wiped out the Dutch's maritime power in East Asia in one fell swoop, but Shandong did not take care of the South China Sea as far as the South China Sea. The colonization of the Americas has already involved too much energy. There are not many gold and silver minerals in the South China Sea, and Shandong's industry has far not developed to the point where it is necessary to transport raw materials from overseas.

After a while, Zhao Yan also came and praised Wang Wenyue in front of everyone. Wang Wenyue not only opened up the Japanese market, but also grabbed the silver, women, nearly 900,000 Japanese slaves, and also asked the Tokugawa shogunate to sign an unequal treaty.

In general, the benefits Wang Wenyue has won are almost the same as the total of the California colonies and the American fleet. In terms of military affairs, it has even defeated Japan and opened up the market, so Wang Wenyue has performed the best this year.

At this time, Zhao Yan said something to Zhao Yan with his ears, and Zhao Yan suddenly burst into laughter: "Robber? Haha! Yes, let's call him robber from now on."

"Zhao Yong, you deserve a beating." Wang Wenyue gritted his teeth, chased Zhao Yan and pinched Zhao Yong's neck.

"Okay, okay, don't make a fuss. Go back and prepare for a medal. The medal ceremony will be held tomorrow." Zhao Yan said with a smile. When the officers present heard the medal, their eyes glowed.

After a while, they ran away.

When Zhao Yan was about to prepare for tomorrow's medal ceremony, Hong Furen hurriedly ran in, "General, that... that... the emperor is here..."

"What emperor is here?" Zhao Yan asked in confusion when he saw his hesitant appearance.

"Zhu Youjian is here in Shandong." Hong Furen said angrily.

"What!" Zhao Yan said in surprise, "His he really came to Shandong?"

"I've arrived in Jinan."

"..." Zhao Yan was speechless. He had just sent an invitation to Zhu Youjian, but he didn't expect that he was really idle and came to attend his wedding.

This immediately disrupted Zhao Yan's plan.

There were so many guests this time, and it was unreasonable to neglect this guy, but the emperor came to attend the wedding and some procedures were about to change.

Zhao Yan quickly called Zhao Quan and the person in charge of the emcee.

Chongzhen suddenly arrived, which caught Zhao Quan off guard. The emcee hurriedly cleared the seat of the seat for Chongzhen.

...Chongzhen had already arrived in Jinan at this time. This time he came to Shandong, he only brought more than 200 Jinyiwei out of the capital and had no worries about safety issues.

Shandong can be said to be the province with the best public security. I asked almost the same questions before coming. As for Zhao Yan, I would not do anything to him. If I wanted to do more of him, I would have taken action in the capital.

After arriving in Shandong, Chongzhen felt a different scene.

On a flat plain, an official road paved with a flat and spacious cement road leads directly to the front and has no end. The carriage is very fast in shape on such an official road, with almost no bumps.

In a few days, Zhao Yan's wedding was full of traffic on the road, and there were carriages everywhere walking on the official road.

The people of Shandong who were seen on the road were all dressed in fine clothes, and there were no beggars on the road. The farmland on both sides of the official road could also see the roots and stems of the crops after harvest, which was in sharp contrast with the desolation of the Gyeonggi area.

Chongzhen rarely left the palace, and he hadn't even been out of the capital several times. This time, he saw a lot of things on the way to Shandong.

Chongzhen was very curious along the way. Whenever he saw something he had never seen before, he would stop the carriage and ask others for a while.

It took two or three days to delay this, but Chongzhen learned a lot and gradually found the correct way to govern the country. However, the executive power is not in his hands at present. Although he still has some say in the cabinet, as long as Zhao Yan does not agree, he will not pass any proposal.

Walking along the spacious official road, Chongzhen soon arrived at the intersection of Jiaolai Highway.

A group of construction teams are directing workers to pave the road section.

"What do they put steel bars into? Why are there so many Westerners?" Chongzhen was surprised when he saw the cement road. Jiaolai Highway was different from ordinary cement roads. These workers were actually laying steel bars. There were hundreds of Westerners who were mixing concrete with anklets there, and they hurriedly asked to stop the car.

The Jinyiwei on both sides didn't know that in a carriage behind, a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl lifted the curtains and looked at the scene outside curiously.

Chongzhen walked straight from the carriage. The construction team there saw two Jinyiwei escorting several carriages with canopys, and then saw a man wearing a dragon robe walking off the carriage.

"It's the emperor."

"It seems to be!"

"The grass-roots people meet the emperor, long live the emperor..." The foreman of the construction team was quite knowledgeable. In Shandong, he dared to openly wear dragon robes and escort the Jinyi Guards. Except for the emperor, there was no possibility of pretending, and he hurriedly knelt on the ground.

As soon as the foreman knelt down, the workers around him also knelt down one after another. Only the blonde and blue-eyed Dutch workers looked at Chongzhen and his group with dull expressions.

"Please calm!" Chongzhen nodded with satisfaction. Although he was constitutionally established, the people along the way did not dare to make rash efforts against him.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." The foreman and the workers stood up.

"Why are there so many Westerners here?" Chongzhen asked curiously. The foreman replied cautiously: "Reply to the emperor, these Westerners are all red barbarians captured from the Shandong Navy. I heard that the navy fought against the Red Barbarians in the Southeast Asian countries a while ago, and defeated the Red Barbarians' fleet and captured more than 12,000 Red Barbarians. After they were captured, they were distributed to the construction team."

"What's going on with these people?" Chongzhen asked, pointing to the Japanese slaves wearing Japanese clothes.

"These are the Japanese slaves transported back a while ago. I heard that hundreds of thousands of Japanese slaves were captured and returned."

"What about these people?" Chongzhen asked again, pointing to the laborers who were shackled, either Dutch or Japanese.

"These are labor reform prisoners in Shandong. Most of them are bandits. They can be released after two or three years of labor reform."

Chongzhen was shocked when he heard this, especially because he was shocked by the huge number of hundreds of thousands of Japanese slaves. After asking, Chongzhen understood Shandong's slavery system.

There are a large number of labor force in Shandong that does not need to pay wages. Most of the labor reform prisoners in these labor force are composed of bandits and thieves, and they can be released after two or three years of labor reform. The other part is the arrested alien race, composed of red barbarians and Japanese.

The people of Shandong do not have corvee labor, and they almost rely on paying wages to find people to build infrastructure. Using these labor can save most of the infrastructure construction costs.

Is this arguing that you are asking for trouble or is it?

Chongzhen thought.

If there is no corvee service, fiscal expenditure will be greatly increased.

However, while Shandong was seeking hardship, it captured many foreign slaves, and it was not profitable.

Chongzhen stayed on the Jiaolai Highway for a while and saw a convoy of thousands of horse-drawn cars galloping towards him, galloping away like a wind.

After asking, I learned that this is a salt transport truck from Shandong. Almost every day, the salt transport trucks are galloping on the Jiaolai Highway to transport sea salt from the Bohai Bay to Qingdao.

Qingdao has become a distribution center for Shandong Haiyan.

...On January 23, Chongzhen arrived at Zhaojiabao.

Chongzhen's arrival caused a sensation among all the guests. After Zhao Yan brought Chongzhen into Zhaojiabao, he took his guild to live there.

This time, Chongzhen came to Zhaojiabao and brought the queen, three princes and a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl. He should be Princess Changping in history.

When Zhao Yan greeted Chongzhen, the little girl hid behind her, as if she was a little introverted and looked very similar to the queen.

Chongzhen did not talk to Zhao Yan, but just nodded to him, and then went to the guild hall under Zhao Yan's leadership. During this period, he didn't say a word, but Zhao Yan was talking.

Obviously Chongzhen didn't want to talk to him yet.

I feel angry!

Although Chongzhen was angry, he still came to Shandong for inspection as Zhao Yan got married this time.

After Chongzhen arrived, many guests' views on Zhao Yan changed.

Even Huang Yanjing was able to invite him and went to Zhaojiabao to congratulate him. Zhao Yan's face was not ordinary.

Only Zhao Yan and the group of people around him knew that Chongzhen suddenly came to Shandong was definitely not for Zhao Yan's face, nor was it for congratulations from his expression.

The specific purpose is unknown.

But the Shandong Army's award ceremony was about to begin.

On the school ground outside Zhaojiabao, the returned Mixed Brigade and the 30,000 townships were lined up in neat formations, following the orders, passing the parade platform neatly.

No outsiders were invited to attend the award ceremony, but there were still many people watching from afar outside the school.

Zhao Yan came to the parade platform and after reading the square formation formed by 30,000 rural heroes from the mixed brigade in this state, he immediately began to award medals.

Zhao Yong, Li Ran, Lin Yi, Wu Yongliang and other generals who participated in the Qing Dynasty were all promoted to majors and issued a medal of honor.

In cooperation with the Liaodong operation, Su Buheng, the commander of the first fleet of Japan's operations, was also promoted to major and issued a medal of honor.

Wang Wenyue, who participated in the fight against Japan, and Wen Bangliang, deputy commander of the first fleet who led the Nanyang detachment, were also promoted to major and issued a medal of honor.

The Medal of Honor is currently the most advanced medal in the Shandong army.

Those who have made great contributions will not be given medals of honor.

At the same time, medals were also issued to each battle. Under the highest commanders of each battalion, each of them received medals.

Ordinary soldiers also had medals, and they issued the "Kanto Battle Medal" to the Mixed Brigade and 30,000 Township Warriors on the spot. The troops from Liaodong were brought to Liaodong by the battalion commanders when they returned to Liaodong.

At the same time, the rewards from each camp were also confirmed.

In the Battle of Hunhe, a total of 60,000 Zhengu people were wiped out, each with fifty taels of silver, and 3 million taels were given.

When he fought, he seized more than 20 million taels of wealth, and sent 2 million taels.
To be continued...