In mid-to-late August of the eighth year of Hongwu's reign, Su Yonglin left Hangzhou and led his army to attack again, launching an attack further south of Hangzhou Prefecture. The march was unstoppable and he encountered no resistance from the established organizations.
In September, the main force of Su Yonglin's troops entered Fujian Road. In the mountainous areas of Fujian, the Ming army encountered resistance from a large number of well-established local clan gentry. They received the news early and quickly united to try to resist the Ming army's attack.
It was here that the Ming army encountered relatively fierce resistance, and the intensity of the resistance far exceeded that in Hangzhou.
However, resistance of such scale and intensity can only make the Ming army attack more resolutely.
At the same time, in August and September, Zhang Yuejing's and Zhao Yucheng's troops also launched violent military operations in the Guangnan West Road and Guangnan East Road areas, launching an attack on the local Song Dynasty's official forces. An extremely violent dimensionality reduction blow.
With the Ming army's successive victories on the battlefield, the industrial and commercial population, that is, the citizens, in the cities captured by the Ming army, began to return to the countryside on a large scale to cultivate fields and start families and start businesses.
Take Hangzhou as an example.
In August of the eighth year of Hongwu's reign, Hangzhou still had a permanent population of 700,000.
By October of the eighth year of Hongwu, there were only 550,000 people left in Hangzhou.
In three months, 150,000 people have left Hangzhou, and an average of 50,000 people have left Hangzhou every month.
The Hangzhou government handled these matters extremely efficiently. With the coordination of government organizations at all levels and the Renaissance Society, it helped a large number of citizens return to rural areas and return to the agricultural population.
At the same time, the Jiangnan state-owned economy under the control of the Ministry of Finance also began to play its role.
Let's take Hangzhou as an example. The silk weaving, porcelain and other handicraft workshops originally set up by the Southern Song Dynasty government in Hangzhou were taken over by the state capital of the Ming Dynasty. Thirteen days after Su Yonglin arrived in Hangzhou, the relevant handicraft workshops resumed production and adopted the new Ming Dynasty style. management model.
In addition to silk, porcelain and other industries, Ming Dynasty state-owned factories such as wine, ironware, civilian cloth, etc. also started operations one after another, all adopting brand-new Ming Dynasty management and production models.
In addition to the large-scale handicraft production controlled by the state-owned factories of the Ming Dynasty, some state-owned shops were also in operation, such as salt, rice grain, wine, tea and other shops, which also quickly resumed operations.
In addition to the state-owned economy, the bustling commercial streets that originally belonged to the citizens of Hangzhou have also begun to regain their vitality.
The four major commercial streets in Hangzhou that were as lively as modern super commercial streets more than ten years ago have reappeared with small merchants and hawkers starting to do business. Various small merchants and hawkers who eat, make clothes and sell shoes have re-opened their stalls. .
The Hangzhou government extended the good interest-free or low-interest loan policies for small and micro businesses that were implemented in major cities in the Ming Dynasty to Hangzhou to help small merchants and vendors resume operations.
As a result, small merchants received the preferential commercial tax reduction policies of the Ming Dynasty, as well as interest-free and low-interest loans, and were able to revive their businesses and resume operations in a very short period of time.
With the start of factories and the opening of commercial street shops, the city of Hangzhou has regained its fireworks and popularity.
Of course, this time, Hangzhou City will not be able to return to its original commercial scale.
Because the population of Hangzhou is indeed small and it cannot support such a large business scale.
Except for those who really have skills, jobs, and ideas who continue to stay in Hangzhou to engage in various occupations, many people who want to continue to be farmers still go home to be farmers, and do not want to continue to work in Hangzhou as hard labor.
They were not unaware of the internal benefits of the state-owned factories managed by the Ming Dynasty. The state-owned factories and some shops offered very good benefits, hoping to recruit a large number of workers and shop assistants from Hangzhou citizens.
But compared to being workers and shop assistants, they obviously prefer to own a piece of land and be farmers.
They were forced to come to the city. The life of oppression, exploitation and high-intensity labor in the city has become their nightmare, and they always want to go back to the past.
The Hangzhou government estimates that the city's population will eventually remain at 250,000 to 300,000, which is considered very good. The most extreme estimate is that the total population of Hangzhou will drop to around 200,000 within five years. lowest, then slowly rises over time.
It will take more than fifteen years to return to a scale of about 700,000.
The 200,000 people who could stay in Hangzhou before and after this wave of population return were the pure and genuine industrial and commercial population, the industrial workers and self-employed households who could truly establish a foothold in the city.
Although their existence cannot restore the prosperity of Hangzhou city to the time when the population was 700,000, their existence will inject real vitality into Hangzhou city.
This is not the kind of "prosperity" that shrinks by nearly two-thirds in one stroke. It is not a commercial prosperity that exists specifically to serve the upper class.
Through the state-owned industrial and commercial system of the Ming Dynasty and the policy of restoring agriculture represented by the new production management and management model, the rule of the Ming Dynasty centered on Hangzhou and gradually radiated to surrounding areas.
With the continuation of military offensives and agrarian revolution, the Ming Dynasty's rule in this region gradually began to gain a firm foothold.
The land in the south of the Yangtze River still caused a lot of trouble for the Ming army. A large number of landowners and gentry had no time to escape, and were unwilling to accept the Ming Dynasty's compulsory redemption policy, so they chose to resist with armed force and wanted to fight the Ming army. male and female.
They wanted to make the Ming army realize who was the eternal master of this land.
Not Emperor Zhao and Song, but us, powerful!
We have lived here for generations, and have been the masters of this land for generations, enjoying supreme privileges. Now what do you, Emperor Su, say? You don’t even ask if we will answer or not?
Tell you, I won’t agree!
The powerful people made their strongest voices.
But they seem to have forgotten that a few years ago, the powerful people in the north also issued a similar and strongest voice to the Ming government.
They also wanted the Ming government to know who was the real owner of this land.
Then they became pendants fluttering in the wind on the southeast branches, a beautiful landscape, and then became historical terms.
The specialty of powerful landlords is to organize grassroots organizations. In the past, when faced with the infringement of the imperial power, they formed a group to resist and preserved their family property, making it a certain convention that the imperial power did not extend to the county seat.
But facing the Renaissance Association, which had more advanced ideas and stronger organizational power, they were undoubtedly defeated.
Militarily, they were crushed to pieces by the Ming army, and organizationally, they were hung up and beaten by the Renaissance Society. There is no doubt about their failure.
Scenes that once happened in the land of the north happened again in the land of the south of the Yangtze River. The social relationship network on which the powerful powerful people in the south of the Yangtze River relied for survival were torn to pieces by social revolution and land reform.
Because he was deeply aware that the powerful forces in the south of the Yangtze River were stronger than those in the north of the Yangtze River, Su Yonglin repeatedly emphasized that he required the Renaissance organization to make the truth clearer - revolution is not a dinner party.
Get violent with me.
Be fierce with me.
Get me excited!
Use the most straightforward and thorough method to carry out the most resolute liquidation of the evil legacy of feudal customs, thoroughly clean up all the evils of the past, uproot them, crush their bones and spread their ashes!
Su Yonglin personally participated in a series of land reform activities. He personally joined the struggle activities of leading farmers as an ordinary revival member, and used his skillful speech skills to call on farmers to launch a resolute struggle against their oppressors.
Facing the counterattack of the powerful landlords, Su Yonglin also commanded the army to give them a decisive and thorough blow.
Daming, never compromise!
