Save the Bachelor of Heaven

After the restrictions on banner people doing business, farming, working, and not leaving the defense areas without permission were lifted, the lower-level banner people were naturally very happy.

After all, survival is the first priority for human beings. When a family of more than a dozen lives only on meager military pay and lumi, everyone will find it difficult.

Even in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, because the lower class banner people were too poor, no one would marry a girl from a banner family until they were thirty years old. Because there is no dowry when you get married, and you have one more person to feed.

Of course, there are objections from the upper-level bannermen.

However, since the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties, the imperial court has been weakening the upper-level forces of the Eight Banners.

For example, the original meeting of kings and ministers who discussed government affairs was replaced by the South Study Room and the Military Aircraft Department, which greatly reduced the ability of the Eight Banners nobles to participate in government affairs;

Originally, each of the eight banners had a flag owner. The flag owner was the master of the banner people under his banner. Like a slave owner, he could beat or scold the banner people under his flag and kill them without any problem. Moreover, most of the banner owners are hereditary, which means these banner people will always be their slaves.

Although the emperor is the head of a country, he still has no direct power over those bannermen. If you have anything to tell the flag master, the flag master will then convey it to the next level. Those flag masters would sometimes disobey orders and even directly confront the emperor.

In the last years of Kangxi's reign, in order to change this situation, he specifically ordered his elder brother to serve as a steward under the banner leader, thereby evading the banner leader's power. During the Yongzheng period, the governor was abolished and the capital commander was assigned to manage flag affairs.

In this way, the relationship between the Eight Banners aristocrats and the lower-level bannermen changed from a master-slave relationship to an official-civilian relationship. At this time, the power of the Eight Banners leaders was greatly reduced.

In addition, in addition to the elimination of the Eight Banners leader, the middle and lower-level officials of the Eight Banners were also recommended by the previous flag owner and replaced hereditary, and instead were sent by the emperor.

As a result, the influence and control of the original Eight Banners aristocrats over the banner people has gradually declined.

Therefore, in Xiang Nan's generation, although there are still Eight Banners nobles, they can only represent themselves, but not the majority of banner people.

Moreover, Xiang Nan, like Qianlong in history, suppressed the nobles of the Eight Banners while supporting idle bannermen to rise to power. Many Eight Banners nobles were only responsible for casual duties, such as sacrifices and protocol. As for military and state affairs, they were not allowed to interfere.

Therefore, although these Eight Banners nobles objected, they actually did not have much power and lacked sufficient influence. In the end, they could only make excuses, complain, and let it go.

…

In the seventh year of Qianlong's reign, Fengtian Steel Works was officially put into operation.

Because of Xiang Nan's careful design and the dispatch of workers to strictly supervise the construction, the production capacity of Fengtian Steel Plant was very good in the end. It produced 500 tons of steel on the first day of construction. When the production efficiency of employees is improved in the future, it can reach a daily production of one Thousands of tons of steel.

By then, steel production reached 300,000 tons a year. Coupled with Tiangongfang's output, it can barely reach about 500,000 tons. Although it is not as powerful as the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, it should be second to none in East Asia.

With so much steel, more machinery, weapons and buildings can be made. Xiang Nan hopes that in five years, the long spears and short knives of the Eight Banners soldiers will be completely eliminated and all will be replaced by firearms. Only in this way can we defeat Junggar, sweep across the Jinchuan River and Jinchuan River, pacify the Rakshasa Kingdom, and drive away the colonists...

…

From the sixth year of Qianlong's reign to the tenth year of Qianlong's reign, Xiang Nan had been promoting the reform of flag affairs and achieved great results.

By deregistering their nationality and becoming citizens, nearly one million people were restored to civilian status, and their food, salary, and political privileges were cancelled. Not only did it help the court save more than two million silver and millions of stones of grain, but it also further eased the conflict between the Manchus and the Han.

After all, there are so many people in prison and they enjoy so many privileges, but the Han people are still quite bullied, and they still look very irritated. Now that these coats of arms no longer have any pay or privileges, they naturally feel a lot more comfortable.

After the restrictions on banner people were lifted and they could work, farm, and do business, the differences between these banner people and Han people would become even less. Even the prohibition on intermarriage between Manchus and Han was officially abolished in the ninth year of Qianlong.

In fact, within a hundred years of entering the customs, the Manchus had basically been assimilated by the Han people.

During the Qianlong period, there were not many Manchus who could speak Manchu, and many Manchu documents were written in Chinese. Moreover, more and more Manchus have Han surnames.

For example, Lang Hua's uncles are named Ma Qi and Ma Wu, and his father's name is Li Rongbao. They are obviously Han names. The three sons of Lang Hua's younger brother Fu Heng, Fu Kang'an, Fulong An, and Fu Chang'an, obviously all have "Fu" as their surname, but in fact their surname is Fucha.

Historically, Qianlong had repeatedly reprimanded and asked the Manchus to change their surnames back to Manchu, and urged the Manchus to learn Manchu, but the result was that it didn't work at all.

In the final analysis, it is because the Manchu culture is too backward. Even the Manchu script was only created by Nurhaci, which is thousands of years behind the Chinese characters. Therefore, the Manchu vocabulary is too small and far inferior to the thousands of years of accumulation of Chinese characters.

The Manchus had no choice but to learn Chinese characters and Chinese language, otherwise they would be blind, unable to read books, understand operas, and even unable to read signboards when shopping.

Unlike Qianlong in history, Xiang Nan did not make a fuss about the Manchus being sinicized. Instead, he was happy to see the Manchus and Han people integrated.

In fact, whether a political power can be stable does not depend on ethnicity and bloodline.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the rulers of many northern countries were ethnic minorities. For example, the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty were founded by the Xianbei people. The key point is whether it can bring people a stable, peaceful, prosperous and healthy life.

…

In the tenth year of Qianlong's reign, Xiang Nan prepared to lead a personal expedition and led an army of 100,000 to attack Jungar.

Zhang Tingyu, Fu Heng, Liu Tongxun, Gao Bin, Neqin and others who were studying in the DPRK were in charge of state affairs, and appointed the eldest brother Yonghuang to supervise the country.

Because he had received the news that Galdan Celing, the great Khan of Jungar, had passed away, and his son Cepodojinamuzal ascended the throne and was called Azhan Khan.

This person lacks talents, behaves absurdly, and indulges in sensuality. He is not a qualified monarch at all. Therefore, under his rule, Junggar was in chaos and infighting.

So it's a good time to strike.

Xiang Nan went on a personal expedition, which made the ministers in the court and the concubines in the harem very uneasy.

Because they have no eyesight, they are all worried that something will happen to Xiang Nan. But Xiang Nan took Kangxi as an example. At that time, he also personally went on an expedition against Galdan, so he wanted to imitate the holy ancestor.

In fact, the real reason for Xiang Nan's personal expedition was to use a hearty victory to frighten the imperial court and Xiaoxiao, so as to promote his own reforms.

You must know that with the deepening of reform, Xiang Nan's current reform has reached deep water.

In terms of civil servants, the reform of the imperial examination system, the reform of civil servant selection; in terms of military attachés, the abolition of the Eight Banners soldiers, the abolition of the Han army's green battalion...

These are all related to the fate of civil servants and generals. They, those with vested interests, are unwilling to suffer damage to their own interests and must stop Xiang Nan's reforms.

Therefore, Xiang Nan urgently needed a victory to gain military prestige to suppress civil servants and generals.