Chapter 514: Phoenix Rising from the Ashes (First update, please subscribe)
A rebellion that seemed to be on a large scale took only two days from its outbreak to its suppression. Under the attack of armored vehicles and cavalry, nearly 3,000 insurgents resisted for less than three hours before surrendering with more than half of them killed or wounded.
The next morning, Holden, the leader of the rebels, was escorted to Yingtian.
In the former presidential palace, Zhu Xianhai met him - he was still wearing an Argentine military uniform, his face was haggard, and his eyes were full of questions. When he saw Zhu Xianhai, his instinctive reaction was.
"Why? Why did you destroy the entire city!?"
For Holden, who had lived there since childhood, he witnessed how everything was destroyed in the bombing, and he saw how men and women died in the bombing.
"Submit or die!"
Zhu Xianhai sneered.
"You chose your own death, taking them with you! Well, although you are a rebel, you will receive a fair trial."
"Trial? What kind of trial is fair to the conquered?"
Holden seemed to know what his fate would be, and he couldn't help but sneer.
"Land and wealth. As conquerors, you will surely take all of this from us. Now that you have gotten what you wanted, is it time to end our lives? This is the fate of the conquered!"
"You know very well, this is fate!"
Zhu Xianhai said,
"When you came to this land, who did it belong to? It belonged to the Indians. You just arrogantly thought that you were the masters of this land. When Qin lost its power, the whole world chased it. Haldane, do you really think that everything you robbed is eternal? Yes, you robbed everything here from the Indians, and you thought it all belonged to you! But now the times have changed, and white people are no longer everything!"
When Holdan was taken away, Zhu Xianhai walked to the window silently. He knew clearly that he had changed everything here with his own hands. After this purge, more than 1,400 land oligarchs in Argentina were eliminated from the source. Those land oligarchs were the most important group in the Argentine elite. Their core circle consisted of about 400 families, and they formed a close alliance through social clubs and business associations. They not only controlled more than half of the land, but also controlled state power. What about now?
It will all be destroyed!
But surprisingly, Zhu Xianhai was not as excited as he had imagined. Because he thought about the future of himself and the new Ming Empire. The future empire was always a sword hanging over his head. This sword was both internal - 2.4 million Spanish-speaking residents were the biggest internal trouble of the empire. This internal trouble could not be changed for at least the next 10 years. Externally, Britain was the biggest threat to the empire, because the expansion of the empire was in direct conflict with British interests. It was strategically beneficial to form an alliance with France, because France's energy was on the European continent, and at most North Africa, and its interest in South America and the Pacific was very limited.
But France's historical performance of betraying their teammates makes people dare not trust them at all. More importantly, France is easily cowardly!
Raising the white flag is the French tradition!
"If the French back down, won't I have to face the pressure from Britain alone?"
Zhu Xianhai hesitated. He was not sure whether France, as an ally, was reliable. He could neither guarantee that they would come to the aid of the empire nor that they would not back down more quickly.
"Let's take it one step at a time! The future... let's leave it to the future!"
A month later, after a long trial and in the face of a large amount of evidence, more than 1,500 members of the "Argentine Restoration Committee" involved in the rebellion were sentenced, although according to the law, more than half of them were sentenced to death.
But the emperor was merciful. Except for rebels like Haldane who were executed, the death penalty was pardoned for all others and they were exiled instead - they were exiled to Africa to contribute to the empire's rainforest colonization.
Even with such kindness, he still suffered criticism from the outside world. In the church, some priests gave speeches in the name of worship. Zhu Xianhai pretended not to mind and maintained a friendly smile.
But a few days later, late at night, someone arrested the ringleaders and sent them to the newly built "small black house" prison. Why not send these priests to Africa... they would become missionaries there.
From then on, "people who disappear at night" became a topic of discussion among the people of Yingtian.
A series of iron-fisted measures brought both fear and stability. While a rebellion was crushed, a large amount of land was confiscated, and land reform was implemented, another major event was progressing in an orderly manner.
Of course, it is the issuance of currency. In fact, Nanhua has issued currency since its establishment, from minting silver pesos to the silver dollar certificates of the Bank of America, and even HSBC, which specializes in domestic production, has issued silver dollar certificates in China. In this era, any bank with a slightly larger scale will issue banknotes, that is, silver dollar certificates. They are the kind that can be exchanged for gold and silver coins, which is almost equivalent to silver notes.
Take the United States for example. Until the Civil War, all paper money was issued by private banks. It was only after the Civil War that the government printed $400 million.
However, we are not the United States, and the country must have the right to mint coins. Almost at the same time as the occupation of Buenos Aires, the plan to issue new currency was put on the agenda. In the past year, through the exchange of gold and silver coins, Nanhua notes - also banknotes, have replaced gold and silver coins in the market. As for the issuance of peso banknotes by various Argentine banks, because the reserves of those banks deposited in the central bank were "plundered" by the Argentine government in exile, they became torn pieces of paper when the bank went bankrupt, and countless ordinary people lost their fortunes because of this.
However, despite this, it still did not stop the pace of currency unification - after all, the market only accepted Nanhua notes. While the currencies in the market were slowly unified, the "National Currency Plan" aimed at allowing the government to directly control the right to issue currency was also accelerated. When Zhu Xianhai went on an expedition to Europe, Nanhua's mint had already begun to manufacture gold and silver coin molds. However, compared to gold and silver coins, the printing of paper money was more important. After all, paper money was the main trading currency in the market - because it was easy to carry.
In the past few months, Hu Xueyan, the governor of the Central Bank, has been paying close attention to the plate-making and printing work of the "Central Notes". After the first batch of sample banknotes were printed, he immediately ran over to take credit to Your Majesty.
The moment the sample banknote was unfolded, Zhu Xianhai was slightly stunned and said while staring at the banknote.
"This... must be the 'Phoenix Rising from the Ashes'!"
(End of this chapter)
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