Yang Peng stayed in Youzhou for a few days, and everyone in Tianjing New City now knew that the city lord had given the emperor the title of King Yan. Yang Peng first put on new official uniforms. The prince's official uniform is different from the original one. The patches are embroidered with Qilin and Baize. Yang Peng looked in front of the mirror in his new official uniform and felt that he had gained a bit more dignity.
Yang Peng looked at the new seal waistband again: the Yanwang seal given to him was made of jade and was very well made. The waistband is made of ivory, with four cloud dragons and the characters "Yan Wang Yang Peng" engraved on it. The most critical thing is the Yanwang Iron Scroll.
The so-called iron scroll is commonly known as the death-free gold medal. With this iron scroll, even if Yang Peng committed a capital crime, he could use the iron scroll to pay for his life and avoid death. "Fan Gonghou Bochu was awarded a title and an iron coupon. After it was completed, he sent it from the Ministry of Works to write an imperial edict and put the coupon together. It was then transferred to the Silver Making Bureau for engraving and filling with gold. He still received it and awarded it to the right side. Left side One side is sent to the ancient and modern Tongji treasury for storage at the end of the year. All iron coupons are shaped like roof tiles. The seal is carved on it and filled with gold. There are two sides on the left and right, the right is for the meritorious officials, and the left is for the inner palace."
The size of the iron roll varies with the title. The iron roll in Yang Peng's hand is tile-shaped and made of fine iron. The iron roll is about forty centimeters long, twenty centimeters wide, more than two centimeters thick, and weighs four kilograms. The front of the iron scroll is engraved with gold-inlaid characters in regular script. The content is the official's words to canonize Yang Peng as King of Yan based on Yang Peng's achievements. There are more than 200 words in total.
On the reverse side of the iron scroll, it is written: "The so-called exemption from death means that except for treason and treason, all death sentences are exempted. After being exempted, he will be dismissed from the title and salary. He is not allowed to remain in the same title, but his life will be given. If he commits a capital crime, he will be punished for the first time. No rice will be paid." It is talking about the iron scroll's use to avoid death. It is stipulated that except for crimes such as treason, Yang Peng's iron scroll can be used to pay for one life. With this iron scroll, anyone who commits murder or arson will not be sentenced by the court. It can be said that they are a stable privileged class.
Of course, with Yang Peng's current power, he could kill and set fire without punishment without iron scrolls. But it's different to get an official commitment in black and white. Yang Peng put the iron scroll away and put it in the box. After accepting the canonization, Yang Peng returned to Cangzhou with a guard of honor. Now Yang Peng's flag reads "Prince of Yan, Taifu and Zuodu, General of Cangzhou Hussars". This set of titles carries more weight than before, and he is a proper important minister of the country. Nowadays, Yang Peng's ceremonial guard not only includes flags and banners, but also pumpkins, flags and flags, and other items only available to count. The entire set of ceremonial guard requires more than ten personal guards to hold it.
Yang Peng's honor guard was walking in the cities of Tianjing and Cangzhou. When the people saw the mighty honor guard coming, they hurriedly got out of the way and hid on the roadside to watch Yang Peng's march. Especially the people in Cangzhou, who had never seen such a luxurious guard of honor, standing on the roadside and talking.
"The city lord has been promoted again?" "He has been crowned king!" "Tsk tsk, the city lord is only in his twenties, right?" After Yang Peng returned to Cangzhou, the rewards for his men came down.
This time, Yang Peng also reported military exploits to his generals in the Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures. Soon, rewards for Zhang Xiang and others arrived one after another: Huyan Chijin and other managers were also promoted, to the Military and Horse Supervisor, one level lower than Zhang Xiang and others. The battalion commanders and company commanders of the Huben Division also received rewards. The battalion commanders were all promoted to the capital supervisor, and the company commanders were also promoted to the capital commander.
After the reward was awarded, Tianjing New City was filled with joy, as if it were the New Year. Yang Peng held a banquet in Cangzhou Mansion to celebrate, and all the subordinates who came to the banquet were dressed in crimson or cyan official robes and gathered together.
The people in Tianjing New City who attended the banquet at the mansion were very proud. You know how many people squeezed their heads to squeeze in at the prince's celebration banquet, but they were all turned away. Although your Excellency is already a prince, Yang Peng's subordinates all feel that Your Excellency can still make great progress and take further steps. As long as they follow Your Excellency closely, promotion and wealth will not be a problem. Everyone was very happy. A dozen people got so drunk that day that they fell under the wine table.
On April 2, Yang Peng, accompanied by Zhang Xiang, went to Tianjing New City to have a look. During the half year since Yang Peng's expedition, under the command of Zhang Xiang, the new city of Tianjing New City has been built. The city wall outside the new city has been covered with bricks and is integrated with the old city wall. The wall between the new city and the old city has been demolished and dug out, and the roads between the new city and the old city are connected. Tianjing New City has doubled in size, no longer like a small county town, but more like a state town.
The newly built new town is already very lively. Nowadays, the textile factory is expanding on a large scale, recruiting new people every month, and its current scale has expanded to 15,000 people. These fifteen thousand workers all live in newly built villas in Tianjing New City. In order to increase the income of the workers' families, Yang Peng now tries to hire couples at the same time when recruiting workers. Generally speaking, these workers are two families sharing a villa. Of course, most workers who are not yet married only rent one house, and four families share a villa. Therefore, these more than 10,000 new workers filled more than 3,000 new villas.
The design capacity of Tianjing New City is 7,000 villas, but that is the theoretical capacity. In fact, the new town not only has villas, but also factories and military camps, plus various commercial facilities. In fact, only more than 4,000 villas were built to cover it all. Today, there are only more than 300 villas left unoccupied.
If Yang Peng still wants to expand his textile factory, he will have to build a new city. After looking around the new city, Yang Peng praised: "Zhang Xiang, you have done well in the past few months."
Zhang Xiang said with a smile: "It's all about following the rules. No matter how bad I am, I can learn from what my elder brother has done and do it again." Yang Peng thought Zhang Xiang had good abilities and nodded with a smile.
Yang Peng walked into the new textile factory and found Zheng Yuan, who managed the textile factory. "Now that the textile factory has expanded to such a large size, how is the management?" Zheng Yuan nodded and said: "There is no big problem in management. The textile factory now has 15,331 workers and a monthly output of 260,000 pieces of cloth. Eight thousand horses. The workers’ monthly wages and food expenses are 59,000 taels per month. The purchase of coarse cotton costs 143,000 taels per month, and the monthly profit is 66,000 taels.”
Yang Peng nodded and said: "Food expenses seem to be more than before." Zheng Yuan said: "Sir, the price of rice is so expensive now. Although the price of rice in Fanjiazhuang has been controlled by the affordable grain store, it has not increased. But other The prices of things have increased along with the price of rice. The price of vegetables has increased a lot. The pig farms said that the price of pig food has increased, and the settlement price of pigs for slaughter has also been increased, so food expenses have also increased."
Yang Peng thought for a while and asked: "How much is the price of rice in other places now?" Zheng Yuan said: "It has dropped a bit in the past few months, down to 2,005 yuan per stone."
Yang Peng nodded and said: "When the price of rice rises, the prices of various commodities generally rise. In the past, we gave workers two or two months' salary, which was a high salary, but now that prices are so high, it was not as attractive as before this month. Workers They work hard every day and cannot let them suffer. Zheng Yuan, starting from this month, you will increase the monthly salary of the textile workers to two to five yuan a month."
Zheng Yuan was stunned and said: "Sir, this is a big expense." Yang Peng nodded and said: "We can afford it. We would rather earn less than let the workers become poor. Workers in the textile factory at night When I get off work, it’s already dark. However, the vendors at Tianjing Xincheng Market know that the workers will come to the market to buy things when they get off work, so they have been setting up stalls and waiting in the market. Speaking of which, this evening is when the workers get off work. The market is at its busiest.
Gu Laoer bought a live fish, two pig ears, and a pot of rice wine at the Xincheng North Market, and walked back to his yard while humming a little tune. Gu Laoer was happy. Today the general gave all the workers extra monthly wages. Originally, the textile workers were treated very well for two to two months a month and three meals a day with non-vegetarian food. Although the price of food has increased in the past year or so, the prices of various things have increased. But the prices of other things have increased less. After all, they have not increased as much as food prices.
Gu Lao'er and his wife work in a textile factory in the old city and in a textile factory in the new city. They earn 40 taels a month. Although rising prices have made this monthly money less durable, and the four taels of silver can only be spent as the original three taels and five cents, the couple still leads a life that is envied by relatives and friends.
Gu Laoer bought a villa in Xincheng. He borrowed a loan from the city owner to buy it, and his family moved in. Now Gu Laoer's home is very spacious. Not only does the old mother with her two-year-old daughter have a separate room, the five-year-old son has his own room, and even the three-year-old daughter has her own room.
Gu Lao Er has two daughters and one son. He is very proud to have so many children. Ever since he followed the General, Gu Laoer's family has become more and more prosperous, and gradually they have no shortage of anything. This month, the city lord defeated the Queen Mother Xiao in the north. After returning, the court conferred the title of prince on the general. The city lord is crowned king, which is a great event for Tianjing New City. The greater the city lord's official position and power, the more secure the good life of the people of Tianjing New City will be. There have been several incidents in Tianjing New City in the past few years. There are some trivial people who want to steal secret recipes in Tianjing New City, and the city lord leads troops to search the general's factory and bully the city lord and his subordinates. But now, no one dares to covet the prince.
This time, the city lord made the king a king, as if to let the people of Tianjing New City celebrate together, he gave the workers in each workshop a monthly salary increase of five silver coins. Gu Lao'er and his wife now have five taels of silver a month. Although there are ongoing famines in other places and prices are slightly higher than before, five taels of silver can still be worth the previous four or five taels. Calculated in this way, it is equivalent to the city lord giving an extra five coins to Gu Lao'er's family every month.
This is a joyful thing. With five more silver coins, the living standard can be improved again. Even raising one more child is enough. Gu Laoer walked into the house and saw his wife holding her youngest daughter and talking to her old mother in the house. My daughter-in-law works in a factory in Xincheng and the distance is short. She has to go home earlier than Gu Laoer every day.
Gu Lao'er and his wife both work in the factory, and Gu Lao'er's mother is responsible for taking care of the children at home. Many of the workers in Tianjing New City are couples working together in the factory, and most of the children at home are taken care of by the elderly. The general encouraged this kind of family structure, saying that it would give the elderly something to do.
Gu Lao'er shouted to his wife: "My dear, come here! Burn the fish and pig ears and have some wine!" Upon hearing this, Gu's wife walked out of the room and saw the goods on Gu's second hand, and said with a smile: "Your old factory Has the monthly salary been raised too?" Gu Laoer took out two taels and five cents of silver, put it on the table and said, "How can it not be raised? You don't know? All the workers in the city have received a raise! They have all been raised to twenty taels. Five cents! I heard that the soldiers' monthly pay increased by seven cents." Gu Laoer said proudly: "These days are so happy. Tomorrow we will go to the cloth store to buy cloth and make a set for each of the family. New summer clothes.”
The Gu family's daughter-in-law spat: "You had dinner and meat in the factory, and you want another meal?" Gu Laoer smiled and said: "The city lord has made you a king, and our family's monthly salary has increased. This is a double blessing. , can you celebrate? If you are drinking today, you should drink some too!" Gu's wife spat: "You are getting fatter and fatter now! You still eat!"
Gu Laoer raised his head and smiled: "It would be nice to be fat. How would outsiders know that I am living so well if I don't gain some weight?" Gu Laoer was talking there when he heard the sound of crackling firecrackers coming from outside the door. Then I heard children and adults shouting outside: "King Yan!"
"King Yan!" Before the firecrackers were set off here, another burst of firecrackers came from not far away. There was another shouting from the neighbors.
"King Yan!" "King Yan!"
The whole city seemed to be in a state of carnival, wildly celebrating the promotion of the city lord Yang Peng and the increase in monthly salary. Gu Lao'er arched his lips to his wife and said, "Listen, these are all because of the increase in monthly income!" Gu Lao's wife smiled and carried the fish and meat into the kitchen.
Gu Lao'er walked outside the door with his hands behind his back, looked at the neighbors setting off firecrackers in the alley, shook his head and said, "Look at how happy these people are!" After thinking about it, Gu Lao'er shouted loudly into the house: "Son, please Take out your red lantern and we'll hang it up."
Gu Lao's five-year-old son is writing in front of the table. Now that he is old enough to enter school, he has to learn ten words every day. Hearing his father's words, he secretly thought that he didn't have to do homework now. He immediately climbed up to the table, took down the lantern hanging on the wall of his room, and happily gave it to his father.
Gu Laoer hung the red lantern on the door, glanced at his son and said, "Son, do you want to have a younger brother?" Gu Laoer's son looked at his father, blinked and said, "Dad, I have both. I have two sisters. Didn’t you say you want to save money for me to get a wife, but you can’t support your younger brother?” Gu Laoer smiled and said, “I couldn’t afford it before, but now I can.” He touched his son. Gu Laoer said: "Son, you have to remember that as long as you follow the steps of the City Lord, the good days will never end. When you grow up, you will also go into the factory to serve the City Lord like your father. Do things!”
After thinking about it, Gu Lao Er said again: "No, you are more promising than dad. You have already gone to school to learn literacy. How can you be like dad? In the future, you will join the Huben Division as a soldier and fight with the Lord of the City in all directions." Mr. Gu Er's son looked at his father and nodded in understanding.
Gu Laoer laughed loudly, picked up his son, and walked out of the alley. After walking a few steps, I saw a neighbor named Zhang coming out with a bunch of firecrackers to set off. The Zhang family took a piece of incense and lit the firecrackers, and the firecrackers started to crackle. Gu Laoer was infected by the joyful atmosphere in the city. He stood with the neighbors, raised his left hand and shouted loudly: "King Yan!" "King Yan!"
On this day, Yang Peng sat in the official hall of Zhang Xiang's Tianjing New City and summoned Cui Changwu, Lu Hu and Gao Ligong to inquire about the status of maritime affairs. Today's overseas affairs, the fleet is in charge of Lu Hu, Hirado's trade matters are in charge of Zheng Kaida, and Taiwan's development is in charge of Guan Shan. At the same time, the Overseas Agency, as the department in the shogunate that specializes in overseas affairs, also has an account to record various expenditures and income on overseas affairs, which can form a supervision of specific operating departments.
It has been seven months since I left for the southern expedition, and I don't know what happened to overseas affairs. Yang Peng was free that day, so he summoned a few of his subordinates to ask questions. Yang Peng asked Lu Hu: "How many ships are there in the fleet now?" Lu Hu was originally the deputy commander of the vanguard selection group and was in charge of crossbowmen. Now after successive promotions, he is already the official of the Military Supervisor. He cupped his hands and replied to Yang Peng: "Your Majesty, the shipyard has been building day by day this year, and has built twenty-one large pointed ships. Now there are thirty-one large ships in the fleet."
"The fleet currently has 1,100 boatmen and 2,170 gunners, with a monthly salary and food expenses of 15,000 taels. The fleet only transports goods that it does not handle. This monthly salary It's a pure expense." "These thirty-one large ships can transport three million pieces of cotton cloth at a time to Hirado, and can carry 10,000 farmers to Taiwan. The fleet sailed to Hirado in Japan from mid-May to the end of August last year, and at other times Then we take the Taiwan route. Now we have transported 75,000 farmers to Hsinchu."
It turns out that there are already 75,000 farmers in Hsinchu, which is already the size of a county. Li Zhi thought for a while and then asked: "How is the current development of Hsinchu?" Lu Hu raised his hands and said: "Uncle, Hsinchu is now quite large. As far as I know, more than 400,000 acres of paddy fields have been reclaimed. Specifically, Please ask the Overseas Affairs Ambassador for the accounts.”
Yang Peng turned to Gao Ligong and asked: "Mr. Gao, do you have any account of the specific situation in Taiwan now?" Gao Ligong had made great contributions to Yang Peng's liaison with maritime affairs. Yang Peng did not forget him when he recounted his merits this time. He was promoted to Dutou a few days ago and is now a military attache.
Now in the fourth year of Xianping, the tradition of the noble and the military has been defeated by the raging war. Nowadays, civilian officials cannot control military attachés at all, and the sense of superiority between civilian officials and military attachés has naturally disappeared. Compared with being a health officer, Gao Ligong felt that being a Qianhu Military Attaché would have more status. He was very happy with his promotion and became more diligent in his work.
Gao Ligong bowed his hand to Yang Peng and said, "Your Majesty, I have an account here. Taiwan has shipped 75,441 people so far, and 119 of them died of malaria." When it came to Gao Ligong, Yang Peng was silent. Malaria is indeed a major hazard in Taiwan. Unexpectedly, more than 100 people died in the first year. However, Yang Peng repeatedly emphasized environmental sanitation in Guanshan, thinking that as the living environment matures and improves, fewer and fewer people will get sick in the future.
Gao Ligong continued: "Excluding the masons and other handymen, there are now 70,000 farmers in Taiwan. In February, 440,000 acres of paddy fields were cultivated and distributed to 22,000 farmers. The farmers planted rice seedlings in March. It is expected that more than 400,000 shi of grain can be harvested in June. By then, you can get more than 200,000 shi of rice as land rent."
Yang Peng nodded when he heard the figure of more than 200,000 stones. The benefits of developing Taiwan are really high. According to the current grain price of 2 liang and 1 shi in cheap grain stores, these more than 200,000 shi of rice are a profit of 40,000 to 500,000 taels of silver. And this is only half a year's rent.
As farmers continue to open more paddy fields, Taiwan's development will bring greater profits to Yang Peng. Gao Ligong added: "Uncle, hiring these farmers to open up wasteland is also very expensive. Today, 50,000 farmers are still opening up wasteland. We give these farmers food and accommodation, and we also pay two or two months of money every month. This month's The cost is only 160,000 taels of silver. If the fleet continues to transport farmers to Hsinchu, the cost will be even greater."
Yang Peng was stunned when he heard such an astonishing monthly expenditure figure of 160,000 taels of silver. Yang Peng hired farmers to open up wasteland, and the land he opened was Yang Peng's private land. Logically speaking, he had to give wages, food, accommodation, and clothing to the farmers who opened up wasteland. But the expenses incurred by these farmers to open up wasteland are really huge. Each farmer spends three taels of silver per month, which is equivalent to 160,000 silver for more than 50,000 people.
Yang Peng asked Zhang Xiang: "Is there a big deficit in the account now?" Zhang Xiang said: "Originally there was a surplus of 50,000 taels in the account, plus the profit of 60,000 taels after the expansion of the textile factory. Last year, the fleet made three and a half months of trading in Hirado. With the profit of 400,000 taels and the land rent income of 90,000 taels from Taiwan’s late rice last year, the overall account is a slight surplus.”
Yang Peng was relieved when he heard that there was no deficit in the account. Zhang Xiang said: "Brother, if the size of the fleet continues to expand, and if the number of people opening up land in Hsinchu continues to expand, the deficit will appear, and it will get bigger and bigger. Now our trade between Cangzhou and Hedo has been saturated, and it is difficult to increase profits. . I recommend no more building of new ships.”
Yang Peng pondered and said: "New ships still need to be built. These large pointed ships can be used for seven or eight years. If new ships are not built, there will be no ships left when the old ships are scrapped. But the speed does not need to be so fast. Keep it. Let’s start construction on the two shipbuilding sites.”
Gao Ligong nodded and said: "Then I will inform the shipbuilding sites in Dengzhou and Laizhou that they will no longer build new ships. Only the two shipbuilding sites in Dengzhou and Cangzhou will be left."
Yang Peng nodded. Zhang Xiang suddenly said: "Brother, in the past few months, 30,000 peasants fleeing famine came from Henan and found fields in Tianjing New City!" Yang Peng asked: "What's going on?" Zhang Xiang said: "Brother, we In recent years, 600,000 acres of dry land have been reclaimed in Tianjing New City and five counties, employing 60,000 farmers, and transported more than 70,000 farmers to Xiaoliuqiu, plus 20,000 soldiers and 20,000 workers recruited, plus Tianjing There are 20,000 vendors in Jingxin City, and we have attracted nearly 200,000 people near Cangzhou, and the vast majority of them are young people."
"Cangzhou has one prefecture, two states and ten counties, with only more than 2 million people. Because we have taken away so many people over the years, many tenant fields near Cangzhou are now vacant. Originally, there were fewer tenant farms. Farmers can often rent more crops. Because of our development, farmers in Cangzhou have enough land to cultivate, and they are slightly wealthier than before."
"In addition to the fact that we have been guarding Cangzhou all these years, the Khitan has never plundered Cangzhou. The farmers in Cangzhou have not suffered from military disasters, so their situation is much better than in other places." "There was a severe drought in Henan last year, and there were places where people were cannibalized. Compared with Henan, Cangzhou It was much richer. Tens of thousands of refugees from Henan fled to Cangzhou when they heard that there was food in Cangzhou. Some of the vacant land was tenanted by landlords to farmers fleeing from Henan. More than 30,000 people found refuge in Cangzhou. A way to survive.”
Yang Peng listened to Zhang Xiang's words and kept nodding. Later, Yang Peng burst out laughing and said, "I never thought that our development in Tianjing New City could benefit farmers in Henan."
What happened after all, let’s see what happens next.
