There are many things that will embarrass Prince Fujun Zhu. The most troublesome thing among them is not money and food, but a scourge called capitalism!
No one now knows that this evil thing has actually been released from the cage by Zhu Cihong. Even the instigator, Zhu Cihong, didn't realize what he had done?
Oh, by the way, the seeds of capitalism actually appeared a long time ago. The widespread silk and cotton handicraft workshops in Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Songjiang in the southeast, as well as the ironware workshops that appeared in Foshan, Guangdong, can be seen as signs of the emergence of capitalism.
However, this kind of germination has developed very slowly in China, and the small-scale peasant economy has always occupied a dominant position, even if Zhu Cixiang launched a series of operations in the southeast, such as opening the Salt Merchant Bank and the Maritime Merchant Bank; such as opening up Shanghai, Ningbo, Quanzhou, Guangzhou, and Dengzhou Export and trading ports; such as communicating with Dutch and Portuguese colonists, promoting the Ming Dynasty to enter the Age of Discovery, etc., etc., did not really touch the cage that trapped the budding capitalism of the Ming Dynasty - the small peasant economy ruled by the privileges of the gentry!
The reason is simple. When Nanming, with a population of more than 100 million, begins to embark on the evil path of capitalism, the demand for agricultural products and the absorption of rural labor will grow at an extremely fast rate.
In other words, the efficiency of Nanming's agricultural production must be greatly improved! Only in this way can we produce more agricultural products with less labor force, enough to satisfy handicraft (industrial) production and urban population.
And once Nanming society enters the evil primary stage of capitalism, the population will maintain rapid growth for a long time!
Now it is tens of millions, but in the future it is likely to be 200 million, 300 million, or even more!
It is necessary to provide enough food for such a large population, and at the same time, it must provide enough raw materials for the huge factory handicraft system. Nanming’s agriculture must enter the capitalist stage!
Even if Nanming, under the leadership of Zhu Cixang, could obtain some rice-rich colonies overseas, it would still have to develop them using capitalist methods and set up capitalist farms in order to provide enough primary products for the domestic market.
Otherwise, they are just feudal fiefs with low production efficiency. How much rice can they be expected to produce? Moreover, developing on the land of Shui Chenla (Mekong River Plain) or Siam requires a large amount of capital investment and a high level of management. Where could the feudal lords have so much capital? Where will they manage overseas farms?
As feudal lords, they relied on their skills in killing people and did not come to power by operating agriculture. Can they be allowed to set up farms?
Therefore, in order to turn the rich land of Nanyang into the granary of the Ming Dynasty, many agricultural capitalists of the Ming Dynasty still need to go to Nanyang to set up farms!
But if there were not a large number of capitalist farms in the Ming Dynasty, where would the agricultural capitalists in Southeast Asia come from?
According to the research of later historians, the first batch of agricultural capitalists in the Ming Dynasty appeared in the four prefectures of Hanyang, Jingzhou, Chengtian and De'an in Hubei Province in the 19th year of Chongzhen.
And their appearance was actually promoted by the joint efforts of Li Zicheng and Zhu Cixiang!
Li Zicheng's attack on the four prefectures of Jingzhou, Chengtian, De'an and Hanyang, as well as the land equalization implemented in the four prefectures of Jingzhou, Chengtian, De'an and Hanyang, as well as the previous land enclosure and land transfer in Xiangyang and Yuanyang two prefectures , all suffered heavy blows, and it can even be said to have destroyed the rule of the gentry class in these villages.
When the midsummer of the 19th year of Chongzhen arrived, there were no gentry landlords in most areas of Hubei.
Of course, Li Zicheng only destroyed the rule of the gentry class that supported the Ming Dynasty in rural Hubei. He did not release the tiger of capitalism from its cage, but replaced it with a stronger cage - that is, turning over and enclosing the land. The old Dashun camp soldier!
As long as given time, they will grow into military aristocrats, replace the original gentry class, and become resolute defenders of the small peasant economy!
However, Zhu Cihong and his new army to overcome difficulties did not allow Li Zicheng's "cage" to take shape before it completely collapsed.
However, Zhu Cixiang did not intend to restore the old order, so before he left Wuchang and returned to Nanjing, he launched a "redemption-style land reform" Hubei aftermath plan.
The details of this plan were drawn up a few days before Zhu Cixiang left Wuchang, and were posted on notice boards at the gates of Wuchang City the day after Zhu Cixiang left.
Contrary to Zhu Cixi's own expectations, this "redemption-style land reform plan" will bring capitalism, the man-eating monster, to the rich countryside of Hubei. And once this monster gains a foothold in the rural areas of Hubei, it will soon sweep through the southeastern rural areas with its high efficiency... Capitalism is coming!
...
The pier outside Hanyang Gate finally gained some popularity. It was not that many grain ships came along the Yangtze River and the Han River, but a large number of warships came from Xiaowuchang downstream, and they were densely parked outside the Hanyang Gate pier. On the river.
These warships placed the hopes of many gentry and profiteers who were exiled in Wuchang, so every morning, as soon as the Hanyang Gate opened, many gentry and profiteers like refugees would come out to see - they wanted to see if the fleet had already set off for the expedition? Only by capturing the western part of Xiangyang Prefecture and Jingzhou Prefecture can the rule of local tyrants and evil gentry in Hubei be restored!
But this morning, Yao Daqiao and Ye Jiaxin came out of Hanyang Gate and saw a scene that surprised them.
Not many people crowded on the Hanyang Gate Pier to ask questions to the soldiers on duty. Everyone gathered around the newly erected signboard outside Hanyang Gate, talking about it, and from time to time some people burst into tears.
what 's wrong?
Doesn’t the prince plan to send troops to regain the land of Jingxiang?
Yao Daqiao and Ye Jiaxin were both startled, looked at each other, and then quickly walked to the outside of the notice board.
There are so many people here, it’s hard to squeeze in. But this was not a problem for Yao Daqiao. He had many contacts and soon found a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar who was squatting on the roadside and crying. It was Peng Ziqin who was carrying a kitchen knife to "hack Li Zicheng" last time. .
He was much slimmer than last winter, and his face was ashen, and he was malnourished at first glance. From last winter to now, most of the Hubei gentry and profiteers who have been exiled in Wuchang have been eating "relief porridge" to survive. If you still have some assets on hand, like Yao Daqiao, you can still live a good life.
But Peng Ziqin almost escaped with two fists. He had nothing, and the whole family could only eat porridge. They were all so hungry that their eyes glowed green. When he was so hungry that he couldn't help it, he even thought about selling his two little wives, but in the end he couldn't bring himself to be cruel, so he had to starve together as a family!
However, even after reaching the point where they were about to starve to death, Peng Daju and most of the scholars and scholars gathered in Wuchang City still refused to accept the "Wuchang Susukian replacement plan" proposed by Zhu Cixiang - Peng Daju still had three or four in his hands. The land deed for a thousand acres of De’an farmland! If he could get it back, he was still a big landowner...how could he let it go?
So Peng Ziqin and a group of Hubei gentry with some respect have been playing rogue with Zhu Cixiang these days, sometimes going to the Confucius Temple to cry, sometimes to the Ancestral Temple (Wuhan is now Jiangdu, of course there is an Ancestral Temple), and sometimes crying outside the Wuchang Palace.
After crying and crying, I really stopped crying about the "land replacement plan" and replaced it with a food compensation plan. According to the fatness of the land, the supplementary grain amount was two to four stones per acre, and it had to be paid in five years after Jingzhou, Xiangyang, and De'an were recovered. Of course, these grains were not provided by the Ming Dynasty, but by Hubei farmers who were allocated land. Farmers paid more, landlords received less, and farmers who were allocated official land, military land, and hidden land also had to pay the same. Grain redemption and purchase!
Peng Ziqin's family has 3,400 to 500 acres of land, most of which is dry land (he is from De'an, and the land there is poor in Huguang), but there is no problem in receiving compensation of 7,000 shi of white rice. Even if you pay it in five years, you can still get more than a thousand stones a year. Compared with the previous "land replacement plan", it is quite a bit more. But 90% of his net worth is still lost... At the same time, Peng Ziqin will still lose his reputation as a civil servant, his household registration will be moved to Wuchang, and he, his son, and wife will not be allowed to live in De'an for life. House real estate.
So he felt sad and cried outside the notice board. However, when he told Yao Daqiao the compensation plan given by Zhu Cixiang, the profiteer suddenly laughed loudly.
"Hahaha, get rich, get rich... This is an opportunity to get rich!"
