Standing in front of the Shanghai Customs Office located north of Yangjingbang, which is the Shanghai Bund, Xiao Yungui's thoughts returned to government affairs. This was originally the original site of the Jiang Customs of the Qing Dynasty. In the 25th year of Daoguang, the British Consul Bafuer, who was responsible for collecting foreign import and export taxes, moved to Waitouba, the north gate of the county town, namely Jianghai Beiguan, commonly known as "Xinguan", which is also managed by Susong Tai Road, Jiangsu Province. The original site of the customs only handles the import and export tax of its own sea ships.

After the Taiping Army occupied Shanghai, after arduous negotiations, it reached an agreement with various countries and finally issued the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Shanghai Customs Customs" and the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Tariff Charter". The Taiping Army's Shanghai Customs was officially established. The Shanghai Military and Political Department used the original customs site as the customs office, and the new customs located in the Concession District of the north city was abandoned.

Those who came out to greet Xiao Yungui were Li Taiguo, Director of the Shanghai Customs Department, and others. Li Taiguo was a British person. The first director of the Customs Department was originally Wei Helin. At that time, Li Taiguo was only a customs consultant. Later, Wei Helin was transferred to Tianjing and Li Taiguo, who became the second director of the Customs Department, has been serving until now.

Li Taiguo and his subordinates, Huayang officials, caught the Xiwang's carriage at the yamen. After getting off the car, Xiwang looked at Li Taiguo and other foreigners with interest. There were the most foreigners in the three places in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, one was in the army, one was the various departments, research institutes, factories under the Ministry of Works, and the other was the customs departments of various trade ports.

Without the conservative ideas of the Qing Dynasty, and after the Western King took office in Tianjing, it became a natural thing for foreign immigrants to be absorbed into the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the French people. A large number of foreign brothers with skill joined the Taiping Army.

There were a large number of foreign instructors, officers and soldiers in the newly established Sixth Army, and even two foreign soldiers were company. Most of these soldiers were adventurers who went to the ocean. After arriving in China, they supported and sympathized with the Taiping Army. So many people chose to join the Taiping Army. They fought with the Qing army together in the Taiping Army. So far, more than ten people have died in the battlefield. The officers currently active in the Taiping Army are the British Augustas Frederick Lentay and the American Bai Qiwen.

The departments, research institutes and factories under the Ministry of Industry are filled with a large number of foreign engineers and technicians. They are valuable talents in providing technology, especially in scientific research studios in Shanghai and Suzhou. They also came to China very early. Especially Pasteur, his chemical and biological research provided important scientific and technological research for the Taiping Army's arms and new products.

Finally, there is the customs department. There are many cumbersome procedures such as entry, customs declaration, customs declaration, inspection, and tax payment. Naturally, many foreigners will join this department. The foreigners of this era abide by agreements and credit, and foreigners do not have the so-called favors of the Chinese. In short, they will focus and meticulously do their jobs in this position. Therefore, the customs, a place that was originally filled with the breath of * and corruption in the Qing Dynasty, is now completely renewed.

Standing in front of the wall at the entrance of the customs office, Xiao Yungui looked at the words "fairness, integrity, and efficiency" written on it, and felt a little mixed feelings. Li Taiguo and other foreigners were undoubtedly doing their jobs very well. The taxes paid by Shanghai Customs alone reached more than 9 million taels of silver every year, which can be said to be an extremely important source of income. You must know that the total income of the Qing Dynasty was only more than 40 million taels of silver.

The yamen was bustling with Chinese and foreign merchants and captains who came to declare customs. The entire customs did not stop working because of the visit of the King of Xi. She continued to operate in an orderly manner.

"How many affairs do you have to handle here every day? How many days does a ship cargo have to wait for entering the customs?" Xiao Yungui asked suddenly. Li Taiguo, who was standing beside him, replied fluently in Chinese: "His Prince Xi. Every day, there are 300 to 500 items of entry and exit from the customs. It takes about two days to wait for a ship cargo to enter the customs, and basically it will not exceed three days. We will send personnel to count the goods of each ship on-site to prevent the entrapment and fish from being mixed."

Xiao Yungui nodded and asked again: "How to prevent his subordinates from accepting bribes and committing favoritism and fraud?"

Li Taiguo replied: "We adopt a mutual supervision and zero tolerance system. Every time we go out for inspection, anti-smuggling, etc., we adopt temporary lottery pairing. At the same time, we will randomly draw and review. Once fraud is found, we will submit it to the court. The salaries of people working in the customs are quite high. Last year, our ordinary staff members spent 3,000 taels of silver in the end of the year, and no one would give up their high-paying jobs for small profits."

Speaking of this, Li Taiguo paused and continued: "I would like to thank the Coast Anti-smuggling Fleet and the Intelligence Department for their cooperation. Whenever they have any information, they will always inform us in advance and accurately, so there are very few frauds in our customs."

Xiao Yungui nodded, and Li Taiguo couldn't stop talking about his errands. He continued: "But recently, maritime smuggling is rampant. Various countries have participated in smuggling ships. Most of them use new styles of fly-slippers. These ships are very fast, and the ships of the coastal anti-smuggling fleet cannot catch them. Therefore, unless the information of the intruders is very accurate, it is difficult for us to catch them. These smuggling ships smuggling large quantities of opium and other arms cargo are very harmful. I think it can curb this smuggling atmosphere and our customs taxes can exceed the 10 million taels."

Xiao Yungui laughed and said, "This is inevitable. The navy will soon have new ships joining. At the same time, I will allocate funds to the coastal anti-smuggling fleet. We can also buy some fly-slippers for anti-smuggling."

He spent lunch with Li Taiguo and others at the customs office, and ate ordinary food from the customs office. Li Taiguo did not prepare anything for the Western King. The only special thing was that Li Taiguo took a bottle of rum in his own private collection to entertain the Western King. This made the officials of the Shanghai Military and Political Department who accompanied the Western King to inspect were quite dissatisfied. However, the stubborn British people thought that the Western King would be special when they arrived? In the end, Xiao Yungui ate the ordinary food from the customs office and praised Li Taiguo with a smile on his face. Now the officials had nothing to say.

Leaving Shanghai Customs, Xiao Yungui rushed to the Shanghai Federation of Industry and Commerce Building, also located on the Bund. He was here to meet people from the Shanghai industry and business community here in the afternoon. The Shanghai Federation of Industry and Commerce was established two years ago and was spontaneously organized by the private sector. The purpose was initially to enable Chinese businessmen to unite and jointly deal with the dumping of foreign goods, and the Shanghai Military and Political Department also secretly provided support to it.

For the germination of private capital, which is still very weak at the moment, their only advantage is that they have cheap raw materials and cheap labor. Foreign countries rely on strong industrial production capacity, and the competition between the two sides is very fierce. To develop the nation's own industry, more gentry transform into capitalists, and thus the entire country begins to transform from an agricultural country to an industrial country, some things need to be sacrificed. Sadly, apart from limited technology, the only thing that can compete with foreign products is the cheap raw materials and labor force in the country, so cheap labor has become a victim and a stepping stone for the rise of capitalists in the Taiping Country.

Xiao Yungui knew that he was taming a monster. This monster could develop the country's productivity and gradually change the face of a backward agricultural country. However, the hidden risks later were also huge. After a large number of agricultural populations became industrial populations, the power of the working class will develop rapidly. Sooner or later, it will inevitably happen that this force will appear on the stage of history.

Although Marx is still struggling to write "Das Kapital" with the support of Engels, Xiao Yungui could have long anticipated the development of the working class in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He did not feel that it is necessary to prevent or change in advance, because China's capital germination is only still developing. The first problem he has solved is how to enable this country to achieve early transformation, rather than starting to gradually transform into an industrial country until fifty years later.

The domestic conflicts will always evolve and appear. Let the successors worry about what happens next. Xiao Yungui will not think of building a long-term empire like Qin Shihuang. Maybe you try every means to calculate history, but in the end you find that it is you who are being calculated. There will always be unexpected situations. History is created by people, and talents are the most difficult to understand and control in the world.

Xiao Yungui didn't think it was feasible to implement communism in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in advance. First of all, there was no soil for accepting advanced ideas in the country. More than 90% of the population in this country were still illiterate. The common people did not experience the stage of humiliation in later generations and the opening up of thoughts in the Republic of China. Communism had no future. Forcing communist republic would only cause the heaven to fall apart. It is hard to imagine that Xiao Yungui's soldiers who already own private property would support this move. In fact, Xiao Yungui's implementation of protecting private property had already decided the direction.

Secondly, the common people are not used to not having an emperor above their heads. Since Xiao Yungui took office in Tianjing, he has had a letter of advice and memorial every month. The subjects of the king of heaven are concerned about a question: When will the Western King be emperor? They hope that there will be a sage lord and wise ruler to lead them. No one will ever think of establishing a cabinet or parliament to lead the country. Those who really have this idea will be considered heresy, and those who may become cabinet or parliament, everyone will look at them with contempt, "What are you good and what can you represent us?"

Before the formation of a truly unified social class and enlightenment of the people, there is no room for widespread survival, whether it is communism or democracy, it is necessary to forcibly advance this process, the time and resources spent may be more than the time and resources needed to eliminate the Qing Dynasty. These things should be left to the successors to complete. It takes time to improve and develop the country. Xiao Yungui does not think that he can do it in his lifetime. It is his greatest ability to be able to substitute the country into an era of industrial prosperity.

It is inevitable to be called emperor, but Xiao Yungui needs to kidnap more people on the warship where he proclaimed himself emperor. The group of people he is going to meet now are those he has or is about to kidnap. (To be continued)
Chapter completed!