Chapter 133
Being poor cares themselves, being wealthy cares the world.
In other words, if it is poor, it will be circuitous and interspersed, and if it is rich, it will be carpet bombing.
In fact, Cheng Shijie is also such a person. How capable he is, how energetic he can be, and what he is incapable of doing, he won't even think about.
Now after nearly a year of hard work, he finally has some wealth and energy, so he can get a piece of the pie from Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt merchants.
Speaking of the salt merchants in the Ming and Qing Dynasties is like talking about the coal bosses of later generations. That is extraordinary. They seem to be synonymous with rich people, and the adjective "wealthy as the enemy" can be used.
Many merchants in the Ming Dynasty, such as Shanxi merchants, relied on the establishment of slaves to rise. They took collaboration with the enemy and the country to the extreme, and they sold everything they could.
Cheng Shijie also knew that Shanxi merchants were now delivering grain to Jiannu, and each stone of grain was sold at a high price of more than ten taels of silver, which was almost more than ten times the price.
The silver coin and pawn business conducted by Huizhou merchants was of course a hugely profitable industry, and it was also stained with blood and tears. In fact, the big businessmen of this era rarely made clean money.
However, from another dimension, the existence of pawn shops is actually doing good things. Even if they make money, without pawn shops, people have no way to find sellers for valuable things, and there is no way to exchange them for silver. Help. In fact, people who go to pawn shops are the last resort.
Salt merchants are even more hateful than Shanxi merchants and Hui merchants. Taking the Jiangnan landlord household expenses recorded in "Zhuang Zhongfu's Miscellaneous Works" as an example, food expenditures accounted for 70% of living consumption expenditures, and salt accounted for 70% of food expenditures. The proportion is 34.6%.
To give a simple example, let’s not talk about other people. Let’s calculate based on the author’s family of five. The average monthly living expenses are two to three thousand yuan. This includes water, electricity, mobile phone bills, gas and heating bills, but the proportion of salt , probably less than one percent.
This is the landlord family in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, which is also the richest region in the country. They already have the highest consumption level in the country. Salt is a consumer product with relatively low elasticity, and landlords and farmers consume about the same amount of salt.
Everyone wants to buy it, and the profits can be imagined.
Cheng Shijie found that Yang Chen had been in a daze. His three questions were very difficult for Yang Chen. Since the salt farm was Cheng Shijie's earliest industry, everything was on the normal track and he didn't pay much attention.
In the past, the salt produced in the salt farm was always produced for self-use. Yang Chen did not even conduct cost accounting for salt. Of course, before the protection law was promulgated, the cost of salt production was also very low.
Except for a few foremen and stewards who are paid, ordinary salt workers receive one bucket of grain a day as salary. These calculations are too difficult for Yang Chen.
Cheng Shijie also knew that Yang Chen was illiterate and did not know how to calculate. This kind of thing was excusable. He could not force others to do something difficult. In future generations, there will be competition in the workplace. If you can't do it, someone else can.
The problem is that in the Ming Dynasty, Yang Chen was a good salt worker and was very skilled in the purification, analysis, detoxification and other processes of salt production, but he was not a very suitable salt farm manager.
Cheng Shijie can replace Yang Chen, but the problem is that if Yang Chen is replaced, who will replace him?
If there were capable people, why wait until now?
In fact, many craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty were illiterate. In terms of technology, their skills were excellent and could stand the test. However, they were illiterate but could understand the drawings. Some craftsmen did not know the dimensions marked on the drawings, but they could according to the drawings. Do you think it's magical to create a machine that meets the drawing requirements?
Just like Ning Haijun's artillery, nine of the ten artillerymen did not understand parabolas, but they had their own way of quickly adjusting the firing angle of the artillery and successfully hitting the target.
Since there was nothing wrong with this, Cheng Shijie changed his approach and calculated it himself.
"With one month as a deadline, how many workers do we have in our No. 1 Salt Plant?"
"Six hundred and four!"
"Where is the second salt factory?"
"Four hundred and thirty-five!"
"The third salt factory!"
…
Regarding these numbers, Yang Chen is quite clear.
Cheng Shijie had no choice but to record it himself. The four salt factories now totaled 1,744 workers.
"Second question, how much salt can the No. 1 Salt Factory produce every month?"
Until now, Yang Chen seemed to understand Cheng Shijie's real problem. He said seriously: "Commander, we used to not pay wages and spend less money, which means the cost is low. Now that we pay wages, we spend more money and eat better. Spend more. Our salt farm also has salt workers who came from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Those unscrupulous salt dealers don’t pay the salt workers, they only pay for the food. Sometimes they give out some salt. They spend less money and the cost is less than us. …”
"well!"
Cheng Shijie sighed. The cost is higher than other salt merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In addition to the good salary for salt workers, the second is that the temperature in southern Liaoning is lower than the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Under the same sunshine conditions, seawater evaporates much slower, so the cost will naturally increase. improve.
Even if you want to throw a spanner in the salt merchant's boat, your strength won't allow it.
Of course, this does not mean that the salt from Liaonan has no advantages, because Cheng Shijie adopted a more complex purification and analysis process when drying the salt. The salt from Liaonan has no impurities and only tastes salty, unlike Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The salt made crudely by salt merchants is not only bitter, but also contains a lot of sediment.
Then take the high-quality route. In fact, even if you take the high-quality route and do not engage in price reduction competition, once Liao Salt squeezes into the market, wealthy people who can afford refined salt will absorb a certain market share.
This will force Shangyan to focus on quality and improve processes in order to improve competitiveness.
Once any industry operates a monopoly, it will rarely focus on developing technological innovation, so let the salt from southern Liaoning serve as the catfish.
When Yang Chen left the General Military Mansion, where he was the governor's pacification envoy, he was in a very uneasy mood. He could see Cheng Shijie's dissatisfaction with him, and he could hear Cheng Shijie's sigh in his ears.
Although Cheng Shijie's sigh was not loud, it seemed to hit his chest and heart like a heavy hammer.
Originally, Yang Chen worked as a salt worker in the salt factory of Wenquan Town, Ninghai Prefecture in August last year, and was gradually promoted to the director of the salt factory. Later, Cheng Shijie moved entirely.
He also followed Cheng Shijie to southern Liaoning and began to resume his old business.
Later, in February, he hired someone to write a letter to his family and asked his wife, son, and daughter-in-law to immigrate to southern Liaoning. Now Yang Chen enjoys general-level treatment, with seventy-two shi of grain per year. , plus a salary of one hundred taels of silver.
In this era, it undoubtedly takes courage to move your family to Liaonan. Several salt workers whom Yang Chen knew came to Liaonan like him, but they were still alone. They planned to make money in Liaonan and return to their hometown to buy land. Buy a property.
It's so nice in southern Liaoning that you can eat and live in the collective canteen in the salt field. Not only can you eat three meals a day, but you can also earn more than one hundred taels of silver and seventy-two shi of grain.
You must know that with this salary, in Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt fields, they would not be able to earn a hundred taels of silver even if they work for a lifetime, let alone one year.
Yang Chen asked his wife and children to come to Liaonan mainly because he was worried. One of his children was Guo Sixi. There was a landlord in their hometown village. The landlord got into trouble because he had some surplus food at home. He was killed by bandits in one night a year ago.
Regardless of the conditions in Liaonan, there is no problem in terms of security, especially in Ning Haijun's victory over Haizhou. Even the vicious Jiannu were killed by thousands of people by Marshal Cheng Shijie.
Since eating Marshal Cheng's meal, Ning Haijun has been fighting continuously for nearly a year, but except for Qin Wu who touched the Dengzhou Guard Qianhu Station at that time, other bandits and rebels are not Ning Haijun. Navy rivals. Ning Haijun became stronger and stronger as it fought. It started with Ning Haijun, and later moved to Jinzhou, Gaizhou, Fuzhou and Haizhou.
Every time a war was won, everyone in Ning Haijun was proud and proud, and all factories benefited greatly from it. It was considered that the dividends of the war were shared by all the people.
After returning to his home, several of Yang Chen's old friends came to him for a drink. In southern Liaoning, people rely on technology to eat. Good technology naturally leads to high incomes. People with high incomes have already passed the initial stage of food and clothing. They can buy some meat and wine.
Even wineries in southern Liaoning have begun to be built.
This is Cheng Shijie's advance arrangement. The main reason is that the land developed in southern Liaoning is more than 5 million acres. Although it only accounts for about 1.5% of the cultivated land in southern Liaoning, there will definitely be inexhaustible food, even if the population in southern Liaoning increases. Three times, it’s still too much to eat.
However, the shelf life of food is limited, especially when a large number of high-yielding new crops such as corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes are planted. When there are no people and no oil and water, everyone is a big-bellied man. He can eat three bowls of rice without feeling exhausted. Panic, I still feel hungry after eating two large bowls of rice.
But now, in the canteens of many factories and companies, meat is no longer a once-in-a-century rarity. With Yang Chen's income, he can eat meat freely. But he was reluctant to do so. He would buy some meat only when he occasionally had guests, but unknowingly, he found that his appetite was decreasing.
"Old Yang, you still have the foresight to bring your sister-in-law and children to Liaonan early. My wife and children came three months late, and now they still have to..."
Yang Chen's colleague, Jiang Dahai, a worker at the No. 3 Salt Plant, clapped his thigh and expressed regret. Yang Chen's family came to Liaonan at the end of February in the fifth year of Chongzhen's reign, and Jiang Dahai's family came to Liaonan at the beginning of May. Three months decided the fate of two families.
When Yang Chen arrived, the 100-house project house was building houses for all Ning Haijun soldiers and factory managers. The foreman Jiang Dahai, who was also the director of the branch factory, could still be at the same level as the captain and enjoy free welfare housing.
However, Jiang Dahai was alone at that time. He was assigned a homestead, but no house was built for him. However, Yang Chen built five halls and two side rooms on the left and right, a total of nine new houses with red bricks and red tiles.
When Jiang Dahai wanted to apply to build a house, it was not his turn yet and the welfare bonus had been cancelled. Now that he is building a house in Liaonan, there are no welfare houses.
This made many Ning Haijun soldiers who were not single but did not build a house regret very much, but regret was useless. No matter how regretful they were, they would not be able to leave Liaonan. It is very easy to return to the customs, but it is too difficult to survive in the customs.
The court's land tax itself is not heavy, but it can be added layer by layer. For example, in the Liao Dynasty, the court collected one cent and two cents of silver per mu. If it were converted into copper, it would be equivalent to twelve coins of Xiaoping coins. You need six. If you want to buy vegetables, about a pound and a half of leeks, or four cucumbers.
It's not that the common people can't afford it, but the problem is that when it comes to the Chief Secretary, it's 10%, when it's in each government it's an extra layer, when it's in the county it's an extra layer, when all the layers are added up, it's not enough to charge three or four qian for an acre of land. It's rare. If you charge ten times more, that is, one penny or two cents of silver, you can be considered a conscientious official.
Yang Chen looked at Jiang Dahai and said: "Lao Jiang, you have to hurry up. Now the price of building materials is getting higher and higher. At the beginning of the year, nine large tile houses can be built with more than ten taels of silver. Now it takes thirty or forty taels of silver. In the future, It’s getting more and more expensive…”
Having said this, Yang Chen took the wine pot and poured wine for Jiang Dahai.
Yang Chen's expression was very unnatural, and something was wrong with Jiang Dahai. Jiang Dahai knew Yang Chen's character. He had a very strict mouth. If he wanted to say something, he would definitely say it. If he didn't want to say something, he wouldn't say it even if asked. He also wouldn't talk about torture.
After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Jiang Dahai and a few old friends said goodbye and left.
After everyone left, Yang Chen's wife, Yang Zhou, took the brewed tea and poured a bowl for Yang Chen: "Dad, what's wrong with you?"
"If something happens, call the boss and the boss's wife over!"
Yang Zhou could only go and call someone.
"Dad, master!"
Yang Chen's eldest son Yang Qing and his daughter-in-law Li were actually not from a family of officials, but Li Shengnan, the daughter of Li Jinsong, the scholar who supervised the imperial censor Xia Zhiling.
Because Li Jinsong's family was poor since he was young, he was sold to the Xia family as a servant. Li Jinsong followed Xia Zhiling as a bookboy. Later, Xia Zhiling offended Wei Zhongxian, and Li Jinsong was implicated and died in prison. As Li Jinsong's eldest daughter, Li Shengnan was robbed by bandits on her way back home.
Li Shengnan panicked and jumped off a cliff to protect his innocence. However, he did not die and was rescued by Yang Chen and his son Yang Qing. Li Shengnan's appearance could only be regarded as ordinary, but Yang Qing was average-looking, so Li Shengnan agreed to marry him.
After thinking for a long time, Yang Chen said: "Boss, my wife, I have something to discuss with you!"
"Master, please give me your instructions!"
Yang Chen told everything that happened when Cheng Shijie summoned him this time. In the end, Yang Chen concluded: "I am old and it is too late to learn to read. Dalang's skills are not bad now and his qualifications are still good." Qian, besides, we don’t have hereditary practices in Liaonan anymore. Boss, wife, you are literate and can count. From tomorrow on, you will follow me to the salt factory. You will first get familiar with the salt factory. Once you are familiar with it, I will I recommend you to be the general manager of the salt factory!"
Li Shengnan looked surprised: "Master, I'm just a woman..."
"What's wrong with women? We don't do this in southern Liaoning. Women can also be officials. Yang Yunniang of our management committee, General Manager Jin of the textile factory, and Mr. Wang of Jinzhou Girls' School. These are It’s a good opportunity, you have to seize it!”
In Yang Chen's opinion, Cheng Shijie was dissatisfied with his abilities because he was an old man and had not been given the position of general manager. If new talents came, he would definitely give up his position.
Rather than letting Cheng Shijie drive him away, he might as well make room for himself and push his daughter-in-law up first.
The daughter-in-law is not a son, and she is always one level behind. But the problem is that the meat is rotten in her own pot, and she can still have a sip of broth.
In this way, Li Shengnan wears men's clothes. In fact, this is a cover-up. Women who can hide their feminine features in men's clothes tend to be androgynous or masculine in appearance.
…
Miss Xu Si, Maldina, who was in Zhenhai City, discovered that she had fallen in love with Liaonan.
There is no comfort of etiquette here, no nagging from the elders, and more importantly, she can go to Li Zhenli's newly opened Meixiang Building to play openly.
Meixiang House is a specialty of Zhenhai City. Although it has not been open for a long time, it has become the most famous brothel in Zhenhai City. This brothel seems like a club in later generations. No one can come in without being recommended by an acquaintance. This brothel only covers an area of three meters. Entering the Meixiang Tower with more than 20 rooms, there are more than a dozen famous prostitutes famous in Qinhuai River, who are proficient in playing, playing and singing.
Every day, she can only sleep until dawn, and she will definitely be awakened by the noise around her. This is the academy of Zhenhai City, not far from the courtyard where she lives. There are three to four hundred of these children. They start to gather at dawn every day and enter the school. The first thing I did was not to walk into the classroom for morning reading, but to walk to the playground and start lining up.
Standing in front of the attic window, Maldina could clearly see that these children began to box under the guidance of their instructors. The instructor was Meng En, Cheng Shijie's personal guard and the second disciple of Wu Sheng, a master of Bajiquan.
The young voices of these children made loud shouts, advanced and retreated at the same time, and punched and retracted their fists and feet at the same time, full of vitality.
Bajiquan is a highly practical martial art. So far, three schools in southern Liaoning, namely Jinzhou Academy, Zhenhai Academy, and Jinzhou Girls' School, have adopted militarized management. They started practicing queue training when they entered school. It was the same as Ning Haijun's regular military training, except that the standards were not as strict.
Martina has a sense of having fun and not thinking about Shu.
Because it is so close to the school, the aroma of the school canteen is getting stronger and stronger. Needless to say, the breakfast in the school canteen is ready, and as the instructor says "dismissal", the children cheer loudly and run back to the school quickly. When they When I came out again, I had an extra food box in my hand.
The old servants carried out several large wooden barrels. The barrels were steaming hot and fragrant. Needless to say, this was the children's breakfast. Smell the smell, today's breakfast is pickled cabbage noodles, a spoonful of noodles, a spoonful of pickled cabbage, and an egg. It's all together. It's very simple, but the children ate sparingly and snored without raising their heads. The sound was really loud. , accidentally thought that he had entered a pig farm.
The Maid of Mardina is Catherine of Venice, a church member she met while in the Golden State.
Both children of God, Martina took in Catherine.
Because Catherine has good cooking skills, if European cuisine is dark cuisine, the only dish that can still be eaten is Italian food.
Maldina doesn't know whether spaghetti is authentic or not, but since she came to Liaonan, she has changed from a Jiangnan person who is accustomed to eating rice to a northerner who likes to eat pasta.
Eating the same pickled cabbage noodles from Zhenhai City College, Catherine devoured them.
There was only Mardina's maid, Xu Lian'er said with some emotion: "These children are so happy!"
"Really happy?"
Mardina was puzzled: "Why are they happy? They get up before dawn, and then do morning exercises for half an hour. They are so tired that they are sweating profusely. They eat breakfast. After breakfast, they go to class. They go to school all morning, and in the afternoon until dark Only then can I get out of school... What is happiness?"
She thought of her old days. At that time, she didn't have to practice boxing and could sleep until it came naturally. She would have class for half an hour in the morning, rest for a quarter of an hour, and then work for another half hour. The same was true in the afternoon. She felt extremely tired after two hours of class every day, and she had to spend two hours doing her homework.
Mardina has never felt that going to school is a happy thing.
Xu Lian'er sighed: "They can go to school for free, eat for free, get new clothes for free, shoes for free, books for free..."
At first, Cheng Shijie did not consider giving shoes to students because it was difficult to prepare children's shoes, and because children's feet grow quickly, a round-neck Confucian shirt would outgrow it after half a year. The same goes for shoes.
However, when these children were barefoot or wearing shoes with exposed toes, Cheng Shijie felt that it would affect the perception, so he changed the rules and gave each student two pairs of cloth shoes. Two pairs of cotton shoes.
Originally, he had not thought about taking care of breakfast, but only a lunch. Cheng Shijie also discovered that many children brought bran and wild vegetables to the school to eat. He changed his mind and started to provide free breakfast to the children. .
Maldina had to admit that what Xu Lian'er said made sense.
Everyone has a different definition of happiness. In Xu Lian'er's eyes, having new clothes to wear, food to eat, and books to read is happiness.
But Miss Xu Si has never worried about basic life. Her definition of happiness is completely different.
Miss Xu Si said: "General Cheng is a good person!"
"What do you mean by a good person?"
Xu Lian'er was a little anxious, her little face was as red as an apple: "More than just a good person, a great philanthropist is nothing more than that! Miss, think about it, who can give tens of thousands of people free medical treatment like him? , tens of thousands of people study for free?”
Catherine stared at Xu Lian'er's red face and chuckled.
Xu Lian'er said in confusion: "Why are you laughing?"
Catherine smiled and said: "Lian'er, you keep praising me, maybe you are interested in General Cheng?"
Xu Lian'er's face turned red to her ears, and she stamped her feet and said, "You bitch, you... what are you talking about? Who is interested in him? That's why you are attracted to General Cheng!"
"Yes, I'm attracted to him!"
Catherine said without hesitation: "Let me declare first, I don't like him because he is the general or the governor of the East. I like him because he is tall, handsome, and heroic... It would be fine if he is not the governor of the East. Now, I will take him back to Venice and ask my father to make him a baron of the Republic. If a baron is not too young, he should be a count..."
Xu Lian'er was a little confused by Catherine. Her little face was bulging with anger, and she gritted her teeth and cursed: "So shameless, shameless..."
Martina smiled narrowly: "Lian'er, don't be angry, even if General Cheng is not a general, he still looks down on Catherine!"
Xu Lian'er had no scheming and her expression softened.
Miss Xu is right, the Ming Dynasty is an iron-blooded Ming Dynasty. Even in the sunset, there is still arrogance in the bones. Even if he is a beggar, he will not marry a foreigner. Zheng Zhilong married Maeda Kawamatsu and became a laughing stock in the eyes of everyone.
The universal values of the Ming Dynasty were completely different from those of later generations. They would rather marry a woman from Leji than a barbarian girl.
Maldina looked at Xu Lian'er's performance and said dumbfounded: "Lian'er, you exposed yourself and said you didn't like him, so why are you praising him so much? I've never seen any man praise you like this. .”
Xu Lian'er's face bulged: "Why are you praising him? Isn't what he has done worthy of being praised?"
Mardina:…
…
Entering July, Jinzhou discovered huge changes. The originally planned Jinzhou City, the outer city that was nearly ten times larger than the original Jinzhou City, was already so packed that it was about to explode. The city wall had not yet started to be built. By that time, the outer city was already full, so Cheng Shijie was simple and rude. He built a zigzag-shaped ring road along the original plan to build the city wall, and continued to expand the outside.
Jinzhou City is 3,300 meters long from north to south and 2,900 meters wide from east to west. It continues to expand and becomes 8,500 meters long from north to south and 6,700 meters wide from east to west.
Song Xiance, director of the management committee, said with some uncertainty: "My lord, is this too radical? For such a big city... it will take a lot of money and food to build a city wall."
You know, the current Beijing city has undergone three large-scale expansions, with a total area of 62.55 million square meters. But the problem is that the outer city of Jinzhou City expanded by Shi Shijie has a circumference of more than 40 miles. The area is close to the current area of Beijing.
Cheng Shijie explained: "Jinzhou is our management center in southern Liaoning. If we let Jiannu attack Jinzhou City, even if there is a city wall, how long can we defend it? The best defense is always offense. After the expansion of Ning Haijun, it has been During the intensified training, as many as two to three thousand artillery shells were destroyed every month, and hundreds of muskets were destroyed. The commander spent so much money to allocate houses and land to the soldiers. The purpose What is it?"
Song Xiance reacted.
Now, let alone Cheng Shijie's strict orders to Ning Haijun to fight to the death, even if he ordered Ning Haijun to retreat, Ning Haijun would still scold his mother, because Jinzhou has their new home, their fields, their wives, sons and daughters...
"Are you afraid that Jiannu will send troops after Qiu?"
"Whether they send troops or not has nothing to do with me. I will send troops anyway!"
Cheng Shijie pointed to the map and said: "This is the Songliao Plain, a thousand miles of fertile soil. It is a more fertile plain than the Guanzhong Plain and the North China Plain. We occupy southern Liaoning. Compared with Shandong, this is a good place. For the Songliao Plain, They say, it’s just rubbish, but this is the essence. Last year, our numbers were small, and even if we occupied it, we wouldn’t be able to develop it. Now that our strength is strong, let’s push forward step by step. The army has been resting for more than half a year, and it’s time to move Move! I plan to recruit 30,000 young people from the refugees in Henan to cooperate with the Ning Navy to attack north and east!"
(End of chapter)
