The factories that Zhao Feng built seemed like places where they could make a steady stream of money.
Business taxes are very high, but Zhao Feng can still guarantee sufficient profits under such high taxes. This fact makes all officials unbelievable. After all, his factories have never evaded taxes.
In this way, all the local officials hope that Zhao Feng will choose the area he is responsible for to set up a factory here, which will not only provide some employment for the local people, but also increase the tax revenue here several times.
When people have jobs and have more money, they can buy more things to promote local economic development. In this way, these officials can collect more taxes.
The main method used by the Zhou Dynasty to examine the performance of these officials was to look at their taxes and the growth rate of the local population.
In the past, these people were so poor that they could not even support themselves. How could they have such high-level ideas for education?
Now these people can not only ensure food and drink for their whole family through farming, but they can also work in factories, and the money they earn from working is much more than from farming.
As a result, these people began to have children crazily, and the local population slowly increased.
The entire Zhou Dynasty entered an economic and commercial carnival. The status of merchants began to rise, and more and more merchants became the guests of those officials.
The officials in the capital may not care about the situation of these businessmen, but the local officials are very happy to have a good relationship with these businessmen.
Because once they invest more money to open factories here, it means that their local level has been significantly improved.
By the end of the year, factories in various places have been put into use. The things they produce have begun to radiate to some surrounding places, and because these people are working in them, they have more money on hand.
In the past, these people could only make a living through farming. If the food grown in the allocated farmland was not enough to eat, they had to rent land. They not only had to face high rents, but also faced drought and heavy rain.
But now most people support themselves through work and make up for their own household expenses. Not only do they no longer need to rent so many fields for farming, but they can also achieve the effect of ensuring harvests during droughts and floods.
At this time, people from the four major families gathered together, all with sad faces, looking like they were deeply hit.
"Master Prime Minister, what should we do?"
"Yes, the business created by Zhao Feng has completely corrupted all the officials under me. Now they have openly disobeyed me!"
"And this Zhao Feng cage has trapped a large number of people. They all know that these factories opened by Zhao Feng have given them a better life. The control of our four major families on those people has gradually weakened. Many The people are not willing to listen to us!"
"That's not all. They have made very cheap paper to print books. Some poor people who could not afford to read books can now buy cheap books and read them anytime and anywhere."
"So much so that many scholars are unwilling to come to the four major families."
"If we continue like this, we will not only lose the hearts of the people, but also the foundation for the survival of the four major families in the court!"
Prime Minister Feng Shen was sitting on the throne listening to the reports from the four major families with a livid face.
After listening to their complaints, Feng Shen couldn't help but gritted his teeth and said.
"Okay, I already know these things, but don't you have any solution? Why do you have to let me solve it?"
Feng Shen's words made everyone in the four major families couldn't help but widen their eyes.
"Prime Minister, you can't say such things. We have always followed your Feng family's lead!"
"Yes, now we have no choice at all, so we asked the Prime Minister for help. By saying this, aren't you pushing us all into a pit of fire?"
Feng took a deep breath and said through gritted teeth.
"What can I do? I don't know what happened to Jin Baoyuan. He didn't listen to me at all!"
"Originally, I thought that he would use businessman's methods to suppress Zhao Feng's businesses. However, not only did he not suppress Zhao Feng's controversies, but he actually made Zhao Feng's businesses more prosperous."
When Feng Shen said this, he couldn't help but feel so angry that he vomited blood.
Originally, he thought that he had a handle on Jin Baoyuan, and if Jin Baoyuan wanted to marry his daughter into their family, he would have to make enough contributions.
But who would have thought that when he wrote to Jin Baoyuan again to talk about this matter, Jin Baoyuan ignored him at all.
Moreover, in the reply letter, he also said that he wanted to cancel the engagement. I really don’t know if he was kicked in the head by a donkey.
Hearing Feng Shen's words, these officials couldn't help but widen their eyes. If even Feng Shen couldn't solve this matter, then what on earth should they do?
Feng Shen felt a terrible headache. At this moment, he suddenly thought of something. He couldn't help but gritted his teeth and said in an extremely sinister manner.
"I have an idea. Doesn't Zhao Feng want to rely on business methods to compete with our four major families?"
"But he underestimated us too much. We are all the best officials in the court. Even if those people control the daily necessities of these people, to put it bluntly, they are just businessmen."
Feng Shen said this through gritted teeth.
"We will write a memorial after we go back. Since ancient times, every dynasty has to focus on agriculture, but now many people have gone to work in factories, but instead the land is left uncultivated. If this continues, there will definitely be a shortage of food. Reduced production.”
"Your Majesty must also understand the seriousness of this matter. If food production is reduced, not only will it be impossible to feed such a large population, but it will also cause famine!"
Hearing Feng Shen's words, these officials all nodded vigorously. After all, what if these common people can make too much money?
Silver cannot be eaten, the only thing that can really be eaten is grain!
All of a sudden, all the officials wrote memorials and submitted them to Zhongshu Province, who then submitted them to the emperor.
After Zhou Zhen saw the memorials submitted by these officials, he sent them all back to Zhongshu Province without handling them at all.
At this time, the new year was approaching, and Zhou Zhen felt that no matter what happened, he had to wait until later.
Moreover, Zhou Zhen felt that his health was getting worse and worse during this period of time, and he couldn't help but think about it.
