Although Concubine Li's father Li Wei was only the father of Concubine Yu, most of the merchants who befriended him still called him Li Guozhang.
At that time, Concubine Li gave birth to his grandson Zhu Yijun, and the emperor issued a decree to reward Concubine Li's family with 50,000 pieces of silk. He also appointed Concubine Li's brother Li Changfeng as the royal guard of thousands of households. The Li family's favor was also famous in the capital.
However, the favor of the Li family has just begun. Although the Li family also does some royal business, the scale is not too large.
This time, he received a big deal from King Yu to buy nine-sided winter clothes. Li Wei immediately started to make big plans. This was something that would make his son-in-law look good! Once this is done, my daughter's position in Prince Yu's Mansion will be more stable!
The cowhide was blown away and he got a guarantee from his son-in-law, but when it came time to actually set up a textile and garment workshop, Li Wei understood the difficulty.
Raw materials can still be solved. In the Ming Dynasty, cotton cultivation in the north has already reached a large scale. Cotton in the south used to be supplied through the north.
All it takes is a decree to send all the cotton from the northwest region to the capital.
But the next steps of ginning cotton, removing cotton seeds, spinning, weaving, and then cutting cloth and making clothes. Although these processes are all written in "Tiangong Kaiwu", Li Guozhang really couldn't do it!
Technology is only one aspect. Organizing raw materials, decomposing processes, manufacturing looms, and managing workers are all extremely terrifying amounts of work. It is not as simple as Li Wei thought when he patted his son-in-law's chest.
After several days of work, although the loom was built, the whole workshop was still in a mess and not a single piece of cloth was woven.
There was really no other way, so Li Wei summoned his friends to discuss how to complete the supply and sale of Jiubian winter clothing this year.
Li Wei was born as a bricklayer, but he had not been rich for a long time. His relatives in the Ming Dynasty were far less noble than those in the Han Dynasty, so his friends were only small businessmen in the capital or descendants of declining nobles.
This group of people drank, ate, and fought crickets in brothels. They were all good hands, but when it came to running a workshop, everyone kept their heads down and said nothing.
Really not!
If they knew how to open a workshop, how could they flatter Li Wei?
Li Wei looked around and was even more angry. These losers surrounded him every day, complaining that the government did not give them a chance! He said that he had no talent.
But when it came to business, everyone was like a dead dog, and no one could tell how to open a workshop!
At this moment, Li Wei's son Li Changfeng hurriedly came in from the door.
It seems that I can only rely on my own family!
These days, my son Li Changfeng is working hard inside and outside, and he is very busy every day.
After Li Changfeng finished drinking his tea, Li Wei asked, "Son, how's it going?"
Li Changfeng calmed down and said: "Dad, there are no decent weaving workshops near the capital. All the money of the big families in the capital is in Zhuangzi. Who wants to bother and set up an industry!"
Li Wei's eyes darkened. He had originally hoped to acquire some workshops near the capital and set up a rack as soon as possible.
Now, listening to my son's words, there are no cotton textile workshops near the capital, and there is no hope for this road.
But think about it, the cotton clothes sold in the capital now are all from Su Song Erfu. If the capital can make them by itself, why should they buy them from the south?
Li Changfeng's next words opened up a new way of thinking for Li Wei:
"I said, Dad, why do we have to weave the cloth ourselves? Can't we just buy it?"
Li Wei was stunned for a moment, and Li Changfeng continued: "I heard from those merchants in Jiangnan that cotton and winter clothes are much cheaper in Jiangnan. You can make money from the purchase price set by the court, including shipping costs. If that's the case, why do you have to get it yourself? ?”
Li Guozhang was suddenly startled, and the people around him also said:
"Prince of the State! Uncle Guo is right! Winter clothes in the capital are sold very cheaply. Wouldn't it be cheaper to go directly to Jiangnan to buy them?"
“If you want to set up your own workshop and hire looms to hire workers, you might as well just buy them!”
"As long as the imperial court provides the money and Jiubian gets the winter clothes, the father-in-law will accomplish the task!"
When Li Wei listened to everyone talking, he suddenly felt that it was too hard to organize the workshop.
If you can really make money by buying winter clothes in Jiangnan, then there is really no need to set up your own workshop.
But at this time, Li Wei still wanted to work for his son-in-law. After all, his son-in-law, Prince Yu, was still just a prince, not an emperor.
He added: "Didn't the imperial censor write to the emperor a while ago to ban sea transportation to Dengzhou? Then if we don't use sea transportation, the price of winter clothes must be high if it is shipped by land, right?"
Li Changfeng immediately cursed and said: "Forbidden sea? Forbidden!"
Li Changfeng said: "With so many ports in Dengzhou and Laizhou, and so many merchant ships traveling to and from Jiangnan, can the imperial court really ban them all?"
"What is banned now is just the grain trade leading to Jiubian!"
"Actually, there's a lot more to this matter!"
Everyone immediately started gossiping.
"Do you know Li Chengliang, the commander-in-chief of Liaoyang?"
Everyone shook their heads.
Li Changfeng said: "The Li family in Liaoyang is a big family outside the Pass. Under the leadership of General Li, Liaoyang is stationed outside the Pass. The food for many military camps outside the Pass is supplied by the Li family."
"But the imperial court transported food by sea from Dengzhou, which lowered the price of food outside the customs. I heard that the imperial censor Lu Fengyi accepted bribes from General Li, and that's why he wrote a letter requesting to stop the sea trade in Dengzhou."
Everyone shouted that there was such an inside story.
However, among Li Guozhang's gang of friends, there are also people who are familiar with the situation in the Ming Dynasty. Someone asked:
"This Li Chengliang is just the commander-in-chief of the town, how can he still make friends with the rumor-mongering officer?"
Li Changfeng said: "This is because you don't know the situation outside the Pass. Although Li Chengliang is only the commander-in-chief, the elites in the Liaoyang Guards are all his servants. The Jurchens outside the Pass are all driven by him, but he monopolizes the business outside the Pass, and the same is true in Jiliao A big talker!"
Everyone looked at each other in shock, not knowing that there was such an inside story.
Li Changfeng said: "In fact, Dengzhou merchants did not dare to go north. The first few times they transported food, they encountered Jurchen 'robbers' outside the pass. Several business groups were wiped out."
"Now that the northern routes in Dengzhou are banned, it can be regarded as an explanation to the imperial court. However, the private transportation of ships from the south is smooth. Nowadays, the goods from the south are easy to sell in the capital!"
When everyone heard it, Li Changfeng's statement was correct. Nowadays, the market in the capital is full of Jiangnan products.
Winter clothes, whale oil lamps, soap, dyes, wine, sugar.
These goods flowed unimpeded in the capital, and even Jiangnan's "Jingshi News" was bundled into five and ten issues by these merchants and brought to the capital for unified sale.
In this way, the court's ban has no effect at all!
At this time, Li Changfeng pulled Li Wei aside.
"Dad, with the purchase price of the imperial winter clothes, buying them from Jiangnan is a sure-fire business."
But Li Wei still said hesitantly: "But what about this? If it is found out that we bought the winter clothes from Jiangnan, wouldn't it involve His Highness?"
King Yu reported to the court and handed over the purchase of winter clothes to the Li family. The reason he used was that Songjiang Prefecture was now in the area occupied by the Soviet thieves. Although the shipping route was not interrupted, purchasing winter clothes from Songjiang Prefecture was suspected of supporting the enemy.
The Xu family's production in Songjiang Prefecture is considered an enemy, so what does it mean to go to Jiangnan to buy winter clothes? Doing business with the enemy? Collaborating with the enemy?
Li Changfeng suddenly said: "Dad, you are confused!"
"Do you still need to go to Jiangnan to buy winter clothes in person? Do you, the future father-in-law of the country, still need to go to Jiangnan to buy winter clothes in person?"
Li Changfeng said: "The imperial court asked our Li family to prepare winter clothes. Dad, you can divide this batch of winter clothes."
"We just need to set a purchase price and let the people here make the arrangements."
"This price difference is what our Li family will definitely make without losing anything."
"Whether they spin, weave, and tailor their own clothes, or go to Jiangnan to purchase them, or use some other method, our Li family doesn't know, and we don't have to be responsible."
"And my son has just told them all the ways. Don't they still know how to make money?"
Li Wei was overjoyed when he heard this. According to his son, his purchase of winter clothes this time was a business that was sure to make a profit without losing any money!
Li Wei suddenly felt that he was also the grandfather of the emperor's grandson, and he might even be the emperor's grandfather in the future.
Li Wei thought of the phrase in the play "Those who work hard govern others", and suddenly felt that his son's method was appropriate.
Why should I run my own workshop and work hard to make money? I am also a "hard worker", so I can just leave it to the people below.
Li Wei and his son returned to the house and immediately told his son's plan.
People present can contract corresponding shares according to their abilities.
Li Wei reported the price, and everyone became interested.
Many of Li Wei's friends are doing small business in the capital.
This price is not a loss even if you buy winter clothes in the capital market. If you are bolder, you can definitely make a profit by going directly to Jiangnan to bring a boatload of winter clothes.
And this is considered a capital-free business, and there is no need to invest in a workshop or anything like that. All you need to do is rent a boat and go to Jiangnan.
Buy winter clothes and get money for shipping them back. Is there any business that is more guaranteed to make a profit than this?
The atmosphere in the room immediately became lively, and everyone gathered around Li Wei, demanding more shares.
Li Changfeng stopped everyone and said: "Everyone go back first and send the share you can afford and the deed to ensure the completion of the purchase to the house tomorrow, waiting for my father's decision!"
Looking at these fawning friends, Li Wei finally realized what it means to be a master!
Everyone also dispersed, rushing to raise funds to go south to buy winter clothes.
September 30th.
South Zhili, Anqing Prefecture.
After leading the left and right guards of Nanjing to move to Anqing Prefecture, as expected by Zhang Juzheng, the Zhejiang New Army led by Lin Deyang did not enter Huizhou Prefecture.
Judging from the news in the "Jingshi Bao", Lin Deyang is recruiting local kiln workers and ceramic craftsmen in Jingdezhen. He said he has established a ceramic craftsmen's guild to encourage craftsmen to set up their own workshops.
What made Zhang Juzheng even more incredible was that Lin Deyang actually led the army to dredge the water system, trying to open up the old route of porcelain exported from Quanzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty.
From the Southern Song Dynasty to the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, Jingdezhen was the center of porcelain. At that time, the porcelain in Jingdezhen was transported through the Poyang Lake waterway, passed through Fuhe, Guangchang, Ninghua, Fujian, and then through Qingxi River and Jiulong River to Quanzhou or Zhangzhou, and then passed through Shipping out to sea.
At that time, there were tens of thousands of porcelain craftsmen in Jingdezhen. The whole city was filled with smoke, and the day was like night.
However, after the Ming Dynasty banned shipping, Jingdezhen porcelain could only be sold domestically, and private kilns gradually withered.
The official kilns of the imperial court continued to squeeze the kiln owners, which led to the decline of Jingdezhen's porcelain firing level during the Jiajing period.
Central Plains porcelain is now even inferior to the porcelain from Vietnam's Bochang Kiln in the Southeast Asian market.
Lin Deyang was busy resuming porcelain production in Jingdezhen, and Lin Liangjun's Second Brigade also stopped attacking other prefectures and counties, focusing on building a navy in Jiujiang Prefecture, and successfully cut off Yangtze River shipping.
There is absolutely no way for Huguang’s grain to be shipped south via the Yangtze River.
Zhang Juzheng closed the newspaper and sighed. Of course there is more than one channel for transporting food in Huguang, but the labor cost of transporting food by land is huge, and the losses along the way are also huge.
Zhang Juzheng read the imperial archives when he was in the Hanlin Academy. During the Zhengtong year, the Yangtze River flooded, causing Huguang grain to be transported to the capital by land.
Only 30% of the 10% of food could be transported to the capital in the end. What was even more frightening was that only three of the ten civilians sent out to transport the food returned.
Liu Shiyan, the sincere uncle, finished inspecting the city defense of Anqing Mansion and hurriedly came to Zhang Juzheng's house.
"Butang, we just discovered an enemy ship in Jiujiang today. As expected, their target is Anqing!"
Liu Shiyan drove away the Jiujiang reconnaissance ship and hurriedly reported to Zhang Juzheng.
Liu Shiyan said worriedly: "The morale of our army is low. I personally set up the ships to drive away the enemy ships. If this continues, how can we defend Anqing!"
Zhang Juzheng said: "Uncle sincerity, I am going to cast cannons in Anqing!"
"Forging a cannon?"
Zhang Juzheng said: "Anqing has iron, and we can imitate Yangminggong in casting Folang machine guns. I have written to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing and invited all the blacksmiths, gunsmiths and gunsmiths in Nanjing to come to Anqing. I We want to set up a gun factory in Anqing."
Liu Shiyan said: "If there are cannons, we can naturally defend it, but what about the kind of thunder that the rebels used in Jiujiang?"
Zhang Juzheng and Liu Shiyan had already inquired about the details of the fall of Jiujiang. The most important thing was naturally the terrifying weapon that could destroy the city wall instantly.
Zhang Juzheng said: "If Thief Su can really control the sky thunder, he can go directly to the capital. Why waste time with us here?"
"I guess it's an explosive similar to gunpowder, but more powerful."
"The Su thieves did it at night, which means that this kind of gunpowder cannot be ejected by cannonballs. It must have been placed close to the city wall during the night."
"As long as we set up forts along the coast in Anqing and strengthen night patrols, we will definitely be able to prevent it."
After hearing Zhang Juzheng's analysis, Liu Shiyan felt that it made sense, and finally let go of some of his uneasiness.
Zhang Juzheng said again:
"I read Su Ze's "Three Advice to the People". Why is it that Su Ze only has two provinces and six prefectures (four prefectures in Jiangxi), but his soldiers are well paid and the civil administration is stable? The taxes levied on the people are so much less than ours. ?”
Liu Shiyan was not familiar with civil affairs, but he knew the local area. He immediately said: "It's all those corrupt officials who are exploiting us!"
Zhang Juzheng nodded and said: "I request the imperial court to try out a whipping method in Nanzhili to combine the land tax, corvee and other miscellaneous levies in each prefecture and county into one, consolidate the collection of silver tael, and pay it per mu. This greatly simplifies the tax system and facilitates collection. taxes. It also makes it difficult for local officials to cheat, thereby increasing fiscal revenue."
"In addition, in southern Zhili, the currency customs law was re-implemented and commercial taxes were levied to provide military supplies specifically for counterinsurgency."
Liu Shiyan was agitated when he heard this, and he asked: "Butang, is it possible?"
Zhang Juzheng said: "Of course it is feasible. This method was proposed by Gui E, the first minister of this dynasty. Zhang just completed some of the details."
"Hey, if His Majesty could have implemented this method when he came to the throne, how could the Ming Dynasty have reached this point?"
Liu Shiyan still said: "But the Ministry."
"I know, I am the Minister of War, and the person in charge of the civil affairs of Southern Zhili is Mr. Zhao Zhenji. I have already written to Mr. Zhao, hoping that he will support the reform and that the initiative of the reform can be given to him."
“Now it’s time to stop changing the law!”
ps, Fujian Iron Industry’s problem:
Iron smelting in the Ming Dynasty was actually very developed. Although there is controversy about whether the fried steel method can effectively make steel, the only thing that was different from the steel-making era in the Ming Dynasty was a reflective cover for insulation and hydraulic blasting to increase the furnace temperature. It is a pity.
As for the gas heating and open-hearth steelmaking method, it is actually not that difficult. It’s definitely not a technical generation difference.
During the Jiajing period, there were three Dajian furnaces in Fujian, each with more than 2,500 craftsmen and each furnace producing 48,600 kilograms of molten iron.
The private iron smelting industry is also very developed in Longxi and Zhenghe, Fujian Province, and Wuhu in the south. The Longxi iron furnace employs as many as 500 people, and Zhenghe has 100 people. Wuhu has dozens of "Suzhou Iron and Steel" workshops, each of which There are more than a hundred employees in each.
There are as many as 10,000 miners in Zhejiang and Guangdong.
These all declined in the Qing Dynasty.
(End of chapter)
