After Tong Shangchao got off the ship, he immediately walked forward with small steps. At this time, he did not show off his skills as a fleet commander, but came forward respectfully and said: "I have met all of you, sir!"
The few people standing in front of Tong Shangchao at this time naturally have the capital to make Tong Shangchao respectful.
The leader is Qian Jiyun, the magistrate of Gehe Prefecture, but the focus is not on him, because this place is the territory of the Tang Dynasty Western Company, and the magistrate sent by the official is just a symbol, and the real powerful people are several other people.
Among them is Huo Chongshan, deputy director of the strategy department of Datang Western Company and general manager of the Indian Affairs Department. This is the top person in charge of Datang in Gohe Prefecture and even the entire Indian region. He actually has various rights over the Indian region, including administrative rule.
, declare war, conclude treaties and other rights.
Because in addition to his company duties, he also has a very special assignment, which is that Li Xuan was granted the title of 'Governor-General of Indian Military and Political Affairs'. Generally speaking, he is the Governor-General of India officially recognized by the empire.
It's just that this is just a mission, not an official position, because strictly speaking, he is not a part of the imperial officials, but just an agent of the royal family. This is just to ensure the empire and the royal family's right to rule the Indian territory, as is the Tang Western Company.
It's just more legitimate management of the Indian territory.
The organizational structure of Datang Western Company is different from that of ordinary companies. It has a board of directors and several agencies under the board of directors, including the company's fleet headquarters, strategy department, trade department, shipping department, personnel department and other departments.
Board members are usually composed of leaders of the above departments.
Among many departments, the Strategy Department has the greatest power, because this Strategy Department also has several affairs departments under it, such as the Department of European Affairs, the Department of African Affairs, the Department of Indian Affairs, and the Department of West Asian Affairs.
Of course, among the above-mentioned affairs departments, only the Indian Affairs Department has actual scale, while the others are empty and have not yet been launched.
In addition to the big boss Huo Chongshan, there is also the commander of the Indian Squadron of the Datang Western Company's fleet. Although he is the fleet commander, in fact, all the armed forces of the Datang Western Company belong to the company's fleet, which depends on the commander of the squadron.
name, but he is actually the company's top military leader in India. This person is also from the navy, but his military rank before retiring was much higher than Tong Shangchao's. He retired as a naval colonel.
Compared with these few people, the magistrate of Gehe Prefecture just seems less conspicuous, and it can even be said that he is not very important.
As the farthest overseas territory from the mainland of the Tang Dynasty, Gehe Prefecture naturally has various special characteristics. First of all, due to the existence of trade licenses, this place is the territory of the Tang Empire, but it is also the territory of the Datang Western Company.
Although the government will dispatch officials here, in reality only tax officials are dispatched in large numbers.
There were more than twenty official personnel who arrived here for the first time at the beginning of the year, but more than ten of them were all tax officials, and there were only five real administrative officials.
Among these five people, there is a magistrate, a tongzhizhou, a president of the state court, a president of the state inspectorate, and a chief of the state patrol police. They are all senior officials of the state-level yamen, and there are no others.
And more importantly, except for the magistrate, who was decided and selected by the Ministry of Personnel, the other four people were actually jointly selected by the Ministry of Personnel and the Tang Dynasty Western Company after consultation.
From this you can see how special this place is!
This place is actually the private territory of Datang Western Company. Except for the right to collect taxes, which is still controlled by the Ministry of Taxation, it officially still belongs to the overseas territory of Datang, but most of the administrative power belongs to Datang.
Owned by Tang Xiyang Company.
This place is currently the most valuable property of Datang Western Company. Through this port city, Datang Western Company can trade with the indigenous people in central and southern India, thereby earning a lot of wealth.
However, this also led to a problem, that is, Qian Jiyun, the governor of Gehe Prefecture, became a rubber stamp with name but no power.
Qian Jiyun, the magistrate of Gehe Prefecture, is also very aware of this, but even the nominal magistrate Qian Jiyun is not willing to be mediocre and do nothing. He still hopes to survive for a few years and return to the domestic political arena.
Speaking of which, Qian Jiyun was also an unlucky boy. He was able to become the magistrate of the overseas territory farthest away from the mainland of the Tang Dynasty. It was definitely not because of how awesome his abilities and background were.
It's because he failed in the competition for the top position last year. As a loser in the political struggle, his end will naturally not be too good. Those competitors are eager to take off his official hat directly.
If you can still maintain your rank, just being sent to Gehe Prefecture is considered lucky.
If you don't have any ambitions in the political arena and just want to be a stable official and make money, then naturally there will be nothing. But if you want to get to the top, you will naturally have to step on the corpses of countless people to climb up.
Several times before, he was lucky enough to climb up by stepping on other people's corpses, but this time, he became the corpse under other people's feet!
When he was forced to leave the capital last year, he, Qian Jiyun, secretly swore that he, Qian Jiyun, would definitely come back while looking at the prosperous capital on the ship!
After coming to Gohe Prefecture, he also knew that there were many things that he could not do because this place was different from other states in the empire, even Luzon Prefecture and Ryukyu Prefecture, which were both overseas territories.
.
This place is the territory of Datang Western Company!
Datang Western Company has ownership and partial administrative rights over this area, so when it comes to practical affairs, especially when it comes to agriculture, industry and commerce, Datang Western Company has a very tough attitude, and they will make their own decisions.
Qian Jiyun is not allowed to interfere.
This place is the property of Datang Western Company. The company's senior management still wants to make this place the source of the company's wealth. They may be willing to let politicians like Qian Jiyun from China interfere at will.
You know, if things don't go well here, Datang Western Company's money will be lost!
If you have trouble with anyone, don’t have trouble with money.
Therefore, Datang Western Company was very polite to Qian Jiyun. Food and drink were provided according to the highest standards, but it was also clearly stated that during your tenure in Gehe Prefecture, Mr. Qian, you should eat well and drink well.
Stop messing around.
If it were other ordinary officials, seeing this scene, they would probably be furious on the spot, trying to use their official position to suppress others, but Qian Jiyun knew that his rank could not suppress others.
You must know that Datang Western Company has never been a purely commercial company. The Royal Assets Division firmly controls the controlling stake of this company. At the same time, according to the relevant articles of association, the appointment of high-level positions in this company also requires the approval of the empire.
In other words, even if you have 60 million taels of silver and acquire all the shares of the company, the appointment of senior positions in the company will still be decided.
What's more, if you really do this, the empire will directly withdraw the trade license, and the 60 million taels of silver will be wasted in an instant!
Against this background, in fact, many of the senior executives of Datang Western Company are professional military and political officials. For example, Ying Zihua, who first served as the trade manager of Datang Western Company and also served as the commander of the expedition fleet, came from Europe
After returning to China, this person was promoted to the director of the strategy department of Datang Western Company. He was also an important member of the company's board of directors. He was one of the top five people in Datang Western Company.
And what did this person do before?
In the past, he was a fourth-rank official in the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If he had not joined the Tang Dynasty Western Company and had been working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he would have been working step by step, and his current rank would have been at least a third-rank official.
In addition to him, in fact, most of the other company executives are also senior military and political officials. The chief chairman of the board of directors of Datang Western Company, who also serves as the commander of the fleet of Datang Western Company, is not an ordinary person, but Bai Yun, the uncle of the country.
Earl Qi.
Bai Yunqi served in the military in his early years, and was later arranged by Li Xuan to retire from the army and serve as minister of the Ministry of War. However, he did not work for a few years. He officially became an official in the seventh year of Xuanping, and was then sent by Li Xuan to serve as minister.
He serves as the general manager of Datang Western Company, which has not yet been listed.
Before Bai Yunqi retired, his military rank was Major General of the Guards. After he was transferred to serve in the cabinet and then became an official, his rank was the second grade!
This is a real boss!
The Governor-General of India, Huo Chongshan, was a major general in the army when he was in China. It is a pity that this unlucky boy, like Qian Jiyun, failed in the domestic competition for the main infantry division commander and was unwilling to be sent to the provincial garrison headquarters for retirement.
In a fit of anger, he took the initiative to apply for retirement, and then transferred to Datang Western Company to become the Governor-General of India.
Most of the other people are not bad either. They are basically senior military and political officials from the empire who have retired or become official.
Therefore, if Qian Jiyun wanted to rely on his official position to pressure others, he would not be able to do so.
What's more, the Tang Western Company already had the power to manage the colonies, and Qian Jiyun couldn't change anything even if he didn't want to.
If an ordinary official came over and saw that he was completely ignored, he would either be angry or frustrated, but Qian Jiyun is not an ordinary person either.
He has been involved in official circles for more than 20 years, whether he was involved in the official circles of the Qian Ming Dynasty in his early years or in the official circles of the Tang Dynasty today. Let alone whether he has the ability to do practical things, his political fighting skills are absolutely perfect.
Understand.
Just because he can't interfere in agricultural, industrial and commercial affairs doesn't mean Qian Jiyun has nothing to do!
So he took a different approach and targeted cultural propaganda!
The empire has several main criteria for evaluating the performance of local officials. The first is stability, the second is people's livelihood, and the third is education. These three criteria are almost unbeatable and are the most important political achievements.
When Qian Jiyun served in the empire, he was also a county magistrate. At that time, he did not rely on the development of agriculture, industry and commerce to achieve people's livelihood. These things were a bit difficult for him, a traditional official.
But he relied on his vigorous and resolute attacks on the local evil gentry and bandits, improved public security, and then supplemented it with his educational achievements. This was how he gained the attention of his superiors and climbed up the ranks.
Nowadays, in Gehe Prefecture, there is no need to count on stability and people's livelihood. That is the business of Datang Western Company. However, Datang Western Company does not have much thought to get involved in the education matter, and Qian Jiyun took advantage of this.
, starting from education, preparing to make achievements in this aspect, and strive to be transferred back to China as soon as possible.