Chapter 1110, the rapidly developing city of Penglai
When the northern Beijing Town is snowing heavily and the wind is biting, Penglai City, which is located in a warm zone, is as warm as spring and the sun is shining brightly.
As the New Year approaches, the entire Penglai City becomes extremely lively.
Penglai City is the largest city in the entire Golden Continent and has gathered many immigrants.
Originally, Penglai City was not the earliest city established in Golden Continent. The Ming Dynasty immigrants first established an immigration office here in Qianhe City, and then along the west coast to the south, hundreds of immigration strongholds and towns of various sizes were established.
Among them, the famous Golden Bay Golden City prospered due to the mining of gold, while others like Silver City developed due to the mining of silver.
Penglai City was only established after the Ming Dynasty Ocean Trading Company conquered the Aztec Kingdom and expanded its sphere of influence to the east coast.
Although it was built relatively late, it developed very quickly.
This is mainly due to its superior geographical location.
Located in the narrow isthmus, it is the most convenient place for communication between the east and west coasts of Huangjin Island. If you take a boat from the west coast of Huangjinzhou to the east coast, you need to go around the entire southern Huangjinzhou, a journey of several thousand miles.
However, it is only over a hundred miles away from the Aztec Kingdom via the narrow isthmus of the Central Golden Continent, which is very close.
Huanghuangzhou is located in such a location and is an important location connecting the east and west sides of Huanghuangzhou.
But what really allowed Penglai City to develop rapidly was its trade with Europeans.
Trade with Europeans was very profitable. Penglai City had an excellent port, and a large number of Spanish merchant ships arrived here, continuously bringing massive wealth to Penglai City.
It quickly stimulated the development of Penglai City, and a large number of firms and merchants came to Penglai City to trade with merchants from Europe.
In just a few years, Penglai City, which was originally just a colonial stronghold, developed into a sizable city. The population living in Penglai City has exceeded 300,000.
Although such a city is far from comparable to Beijing and Tianjin in the Ming Dynasty, if it were placed in Europe or anywhere else in the world, it would already be a huge city.
At this moment, the entire Penglai City has begun to be decorated with lights and colorful decorations. The neatly planned city has straight and straight roads. Couplets and lanterns have been posted at the door of every household, making the entire Penglai City fall into a festive mood.
middle.
Penglai City has the distinctive characteristics of a city on the Huangjin Continent, with strong Ming style colors as the main tone, but it also incorporates the styles of a large number of local descendants of the Yin Shang in Huangjin Continent, and at the same time is influenced by many European styles.
Similarly, in the streets and alleys of Penglai City, you can see elegant Ming people wearing long robes, as well as Ming sailors and explorers with short hair, shaved beards, and new books and trousers.
Of course, you can also see the descendants of the Yin Shang who only use cloth to cover their crotch. You can also see some descendants of the Yin Shang wearing Ming Dynasty clothes and speaking Ming dialect, giving people a nondescript feeling.
Here, you can also see those merchants and sailors from Europe. These people smell very strong. This smell is indescribable. It is the smell of body odor mixed with the smell of inferior perfume and spices, so that many Ming people dislike it.
They covered their noses, making these proud Europeans angry and helpless.
The port of Penglai City has been expanded repeatedly and is very large. A large number of ships are moored at every wharf, including merchant ships from Europe, and even more Ming ships from various places.
Expedition teams are constantly disembarking from these ships. Many people in these expedition teams look very tired, but they always have smiles on their faces. It is obvious that they have gained a lot.
There are many people who have settled here in Penglai City, and a large number of merchants and explorers have chosen to settle in Penglai City.
On the one hand, Penglai City has a good location. It is very convenient to go to both the west coast and the east coast. There are regular ships going to various strongholds on the east coast, and there are also horse-drawn carriages going to the west coast.
Another aspect is that the climate here is very warm. It is as warm as spring all year round. Even though it is already cold winter, it is still very comfortable here.
Under the sunshine, Penglai Bay is very beautiful. The beach that stretches all the way to the end is extremely clean. The blue sky and blue water are connected at the end. The whole world seems to be blue.
The last reason is that Penglai City has a strong commercial atmosphere, and there are a lot of transactions every day. The good things discovered by explorers can be sold here for a good price.
Gold and silver found on the west coast, dried fish, deerskin, and fur from Qianhe City; silver, gold and copper from the Inca Empire, goods arriving at Golden Continent from the southern route of the Pacific, cane sugar from Southeast Asia, and kangaroos from Australia
Dried meat, cattle, sheep and horses; food from the vast fertile fields on the east coast, precious redwoods found here in the huge tropical rainforest, etc.
In addition, there are also goods from Europe, European horses, wine, beauties, slaves, etc. This year there are also ships from the Ming colonies and vassal states in Africa. They have brought African ivory, jewelry from the Indian Ocean, and Myanmar.
jade and slaves.
In short, in Penglai City, as long as you have money, you can buy almost any commodity in the world. Here, business is well protected, provided you pay taxes.
Therefore, Penglai City is home to thousands of commercial firms of all sizes from the Ming Dynasty. In addition, there are many commercial firms from Korea and the Japanese state. Other powerful vassal states and colonies have also set up offices here.
For example, the Ning State in Tianzhu made a fortune from the slave trade. King Ning sent people to set up an office here in Penglai City, specializing in the slave trade. Ships regularly sailed the Atlantic route, bypassing the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of Africa.
Head to the Indian Ocean.
Needless to say, European businessmen, because the exclusive trade rights signed between Ming Dynasty and Spain have expired and have not been renewed, so a large number of European businessmen came here for profit and regardless of risks.
Various languages gather in Penglai City, and people of all skin colors also gather here, forming a unique landscape of Penglai City.
In the Penglai City County Government Office, Li Zheng was listening to his subordinates' reports on the situation in Penglai City.
The Chinese New Year is coming soon. How Penglai City has been operating in the 16th year of Hongzhi depends on data.
Since Liu Jin became the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, he has been in charge of the world's officials and implemented a strict examination system. Officials can no longer do things as perfunctory as before, and everything must be based on data.
Population growth, tax revenue growth, infrastructure construction, cultivated fertile land, grain output, etc. These are all data and are the key points for their success.
"Sir, in the 16th year of Hongzhi, our Penglai City has collected a total of 15 million taels of silver in tax revenue, which is an increase of 5 million taels of silver compared with last year."
"In this area alone, my lord, you can get a very high rating. In addition, our Penglai City's population has grown rapidly this year. I believe that your lord will be promoted back to the Ming Dynasty soon."
County Magistrate Du Li reported to Li Zhenghui with a smile.
"I actually like Penglai City now. If I were to be transferred back to the Ming Dynasty, to be honest, I would really be reluctant to leave."
When Li Zheng heard this, he couldn't help laughing.
He himself knows very well that his political performance this year has been good, and his promotion is a certainty.
Liu Jin is in charge of the officials all over the country, and he is impartial and selfless. Everything depends on the results of the examination. As long as the officials have achieved good results, they have been promoted and improved in the past two years.
In the past, if you wanted to get promoted, you probably needed money to clear things up, and you also had to have connections to do it. So officials were always trying to make money so that they could have the money to send them and they could be promoted.
But it's different now. Liu Jin has a lot of money, so it's useless to try to smoothen the relationship. If he wants to get promoted, the only way is to perform well.
Regarding this point, Liu Jin has always been strictly implementing it. If he does well, he will be promoted. If he does not do well, he will be demoted. Those who are capable and accomplished will be replaced.
Li Zheng knows very well that he has done well here and has received awards, so appreciation is inevitable.
"Even if your Excellency is not transferred back to the Ming Dynasty, I'm afraid he will still be promoted to the state capital."
Dudley smiled and continued.
"Haha, Huangjinzhou is quite nice here. If I can continue to stay here, I would still be very willing."
"The land here is sparsely populated, the land is fertile, and the products are rich. We Ming people are diligent and smart, so we can live a good life here no matter what we do."
"Now the west coast has developed quite well, that is to say, the east coast has not been developed well, that is, Penglai City and Penglai Bay have developed in this generation."
"Other places have not developed yet, they are all small immigrant settlements and towns."
Li Zheng said with a happy smile.
He has actually started planning the development of the east coast of Golden Continent.
Although he is only the county magistrate of Penglai City, his official position seems to be very small, a seventh-grade sesame official.
If it were in the Ming Dynasty, it would be nothing, but on the Golden Continent, because the Golden Continent is vast and sparsely populated, the administrative division of the Golden Continent is very extensive.
The entire Golden Continent is divided into two governors, the Southern Golden Continent and the Northern Golden Continent, that is, two provinces, the Southern Golden Continent and the Northern Golden Continent.
Each province is divided into several state capitals very simply, and the state capitals are also divided into simple counties, so that even one county has a very large jurisdiction.
For example, Penglai City was under the control of Li Zheng. Not only this city, but also almost the entire surrounding Zhonghuanghuangdao area was under the jurisdiction of Penglai City County Government, and the jurisdiction was very large.
As for the area under the jurisdiction of a state capital, it is even larger. The area under the jurisdiction of a state capital is almost equivalent to half the size of the Ming Dynasty.