Li Zhongren was not afraid of Liu Guangzong, the magistrate of Luojiang County.
on the one hand.
He himself is a member of the Luojiang County Council and a major taxpayer in Luojiang County.
If Liu Guangzong wants to make some political achievements in Luojiang County - according to the current standards of the Ming Dynasty, if he collects more taxes than before, he will have good political achievements.
Nowadays, the Ming Dynasty's promotion of officials has a somewhat "GDP-only theory".
The gap between rich and poor and the concentration of land and wealth are serious.
"Congressman Li, of course I know that you are right and that what you do does not violate the national law, but the national law is nothing more than human kindness. This Wang Asheng is also a native of Daqiao Town and a local. Why can't you be a little more humane."
"Master Liu, when I do things, I, Mr. Li, pay attention to propriety and law. I, Mr. Li, am now a businessman. As long as I don't violate the laws of the country, I will naturally make profits. If I rent the land to him, he has the capital. Do you want to invest? There is no capital to invest in this land. The good land will be ruined in a few years. He won’t have enough to eat, and I won’t be able to make a few bucks. Now it’s good for me and him, whether it’s going to Chengdu or You can find jobs in Shanghai. There is a shortage of jobs in Shanghai now. Many of us Sichuan people have gone there recently. If not, go to the Northeast. You will have a hundred acres of land. It is better than staying in your hometown and suffering. Much better. To tell you the truth, I have three sons. I plan to let the eldest inherit the family business, and the second and third will go to the New World to make a living."
What Li Zhongren said is true.
Because Li Zhongyi came back from the New World with a letter from someone else.
The New World is a great place.
The natives of that place are very stupid, and the land is fertile, even worse than Sichuan.
Now, the average household has 120 acres of land.
And as long as you know a little bit about writing, you can basically become an official!
It's also a tearful thing to say.
Li Zhongren himself is a top student.
But none of his sons inherited his academic gene.
The eldest son is sixteen years old and his grades in school are poor.
The second son and the third son like to wield swords and guns and have no interest in reading at all.
Therefore, there is no hope of taking part in the imperial examination and becoming an official in Sichuan or in China.
But went to the New World.
With Li Zhongyi's care and proficiency in writing, it is easy for the second and third sons to find an official position in the Jinshan Governor's Mansion.
Because Li Zhongyi has now become a sixth-grade farming officer in the farming division of Jinshan Governor's Mansion.
Promotion is also very fast.
Liu Guangzong shook his head.
The second and third sons of the Li family went to the New World.
Is it the same as going to the Northeast, Nanyang, or even the New World with Wang Asheng's family?
When the second and third oldest children of the Li family go to the New World, I will definitely prepare sufficient funds for them. The ship they take is not a very crowded immigration ship with poor sanitary conditions, but a passenger ship of the New World Passenger Transport Company. The ticket is very expensive and is not suitable for ordinary people. Affordable.
With start-up capital.
Life would be much easier for the eldest and second son of the Li family when they went to the New World.
Even according to the [New World Enclosure Law], the Li family can hire a group of people to enclose land in the New World!
In addition, the second master of the Li family was an official in the New World.
The second and third sons of the Li family went to the New World to start a business, not to make a living.
And poor families like Wang Asheng's.
I definitely can't afford the shipping fee thousands of miles away.
There will be no start-up capital.
So they could only join collective farms and be assigned to develop in the most dangerous places.
In the Northeast.
In the land south of Heilongjiang, collective farms have begun to be dismantled.
New collective farms have been arranged in the plains north of the Waixing'an Mountains.
Although it belongs to the Ming Empire on the map.
But there are actually many aborigines.
Various savage tribes in the jungle may launch attacks on the Han collective farms at any time.
In Southeast Asia, new collective farms were built on the island of Guinea, and they also had to fight against the local indigenous people.
Collective farms also began to be established in the farming areas of the Western Region and Tangnu Ulianghai.
These places are borderlands, close to some nomadic tribes, and not very peaceful.
Anyway.
If someone like Wang Asheng wants to join a collective farm, he can only go to the most dangerous place - the collective farm, which requires fighting, and is basically the same as a military household.
Where there is no danger, there is no need to set up collective farms.
Wang Asheng knelt on the ground with a look of despair.
What kind of world is this?
It’s not even possible to farm with peace of mind.
The evil capitalist system has once again closed the door on a poor farmer.
He lay on the ground, unable to cry, and all his tears were gone.
Liu Guangzong, who was sitting in the courtroom, opened his mouth, his face turned pale, and his eyes were filled with tears.
at this moment.
Liu Guangzong really wanted to leave with a seal.
A humble protest against this world that drives people to death.
Master Liu is a good official.
He gritted his teeth.
It was decided to send this story to Zhongdu through a memorial.
Although he knew that the emperor would most likely not see this story.
But he still had to write and speak.
The Holy Son of Heaven rules by hanging the arch.
Living well with the people is the right path.
How can we force farmers all over the world to travel thousands of miles to explore the Northeast, Northwest, Southeast Asia, and the New World?
If there is a chance, he will go to the palace to remonstrate to death.
Want the emperor to restrain annexation, suppress and drive out tenants, and live in peace with the people!
And to do all this, you still have to be an official.
Magistrate Liu, who had lofty ideals, took a deep breath, looked at Wang Asheng lying on the ground and sighed.
Instead, Li Bapi snorted coldly: "Wang Asheng, don't blame me. This field is mine, not yours. I want to take it back and plant it myself, and I will also forgive you the rent you owed before. I am extremely benevolent and righteous. Moreover, going outside the customs, going to Nanyang, going to the northwest, and going to the New World are all ways out. Once there, you will have more than 100 acres of land, which is much more comfortable than in Sichuan. A penniless person like you can go and have a try. How bad."
Wang Asheng raised his eyes, stared at Li Zhongren, and said fiercely: "Li Bapi, you said it lightly, why don't you go? Traveling thousands of miles and narrowly escape death, if you could get more than a hundred acres of land so easily, you would have been long gone I squeezed my head out."
"Isn't it hard to squeeze your head out now? If nothing else, you don't know how many people have left our Daqiao Town in the past two years? If you want to be rich but don't dare to gamble, your family deserves to die in poverty." Wang Asheng said after hearing Calling himself Li Bapi, Li Zhongren's face darkened.
"Stop arguing!"
Liu Guangzong was a little overwhelmed by the quarrel between the two guys from Daqiao Town.
"Wang Asheng, going to the collective farm is not a narrow escape from death. It should be said that it is a narrow escape from death." Liu Guangzong said with a bitter smile.
In fact, a narrow escape from death is an exaggeration.
Now the medical industry in the Ming Empire is very developed, at least there are enough antibacterial drugs.
Therefore, the loss rate on the road is not high.
Out of a hundred people, about three or four died.
Because Luojiang County wants to assist immigrants, if they are delivered to their destination, they can get a rebate of more than ten yuan.
So Liu Guangzong still knew it.
Moreover, it is impossible for the escorting officials to kill so many people.
Many people died.
The travel expenses and food expenses along the way will be a loss.
Immigration companies pay based on head count.
They don’t want dead people.
"I have an eighty-year-old mother. If I travel thousands of miles, what will happen to my mother?"
Liu Guangzong was a little embarrassed: "Then I won't take my mother with me and leave it to the clan to raise her, and the county government will provide some funding. How about that?"
Wang Asheng kowtowed and said, "Thank you, Mr. Liu, for your kindness. Common people will never forget it. There is an old saying that if your parents are here, you should not travel far away. If you are a child, you cannot be an unfilial son. If you are a child, go to Chengdu and find a job to make a living."
Liu Guangzong nodded: "It's rare to have filial piety. Let's do this. I have a classmate who opened a cement factory in Chengdu. Seeing that you are a filial son, I recommend you and your eldest and second son to work there. You The second oldest child in the family is already sixteen years old. Not counting child labor, each of the three of us earns 30 cents a day. That’s 90 cents a day, which is more than 20 yuan a month. It’s enough for you to support a family. Also, the spinning industry in Chengdu The cotton mill will recruit female workers, and you can let your wife and daughter try it out."
When Wang Asheng heard this, he kowtowed repeatedly to express his thanks.
The wages of workers in Chengdu are not high now.
But Wang Asheng had two sons and two daughters.
Except that the youngest daughter is only thirteen years old and is considered a child laborer.
Everyone else is over the age of 16 and can be paid as an adult worker.
The price for female workers is lower, only 20 cents a day.
Girls work for only ten cents a day.
Calculate it this way.
If Wang Asheng's family of five can find jobs.
He and his two sons earn 90 cents a day.
My wife and eldest daughter earn 40 cents a day.
The younger daughter earns a dime a day.
Do it a day and get one dollar and four.
This income is really not low.
Moreover, the factory usually provides two meals.
That is, if there is nothing to spend.
This money is purely earned.
The family rents a house and supports an old mother.
I can save more than ten or twenty yuan every month.
Although the cost of living in the city is high.
But compared to being a tenant, going to the city to make a living would actually lead to a better life than being a tenant.
Of course Emperor Zhu didn't know what was happening in Sichuan.
But in fact, he knows very well what is happening in the Ming Dynasty now.
The traditional small-scale peasant economy is gradually disintegrating.
The rural areas of the Ming Dynasty began to transform towards a new era.
The process of transformation is painful.
Especially those farmers at the bottom who actually bear the cost of transformation.
The Ming Empire was different from all previous dynasties.
The dynasty established by Emperor Zhu is affecting this ancient country in the most profound way.
The rotten dead wood and old bark on the old trees are falling off.
The new shoots that replaced it do not know whether they can bring real new life to this ancient tree.
At this moment.
Emperor Zhu met with some ministers from North Korea at his palace in Jiangbei.
The North Korean ministers in red robes knelt on the ground, and many of them were still sobbing softly.
"Your Majesty. Pyongyang has been breached."
North Korea's leaders in Zhongdu came to Jiangbei Palace one after another to cry to Emperor Zhu.
The one who was speaking was Zhao Jiakun. Zhao Jiakun was really crying now.
This was obviously frightened by the news coming from North Korea.
Emperor Zhu's face was very calm.
The recent international situation is too favorable to the Ming Empire.
There are no forces in the surrounding area that can threaten the core interests of the Ming Empire.
The war also gradually subsided.
In exchange for the Ming Empire, the Ottoman Empire would not continue to send weapons to the Russian Empire.
They signed the [Treaty of Istanbul].
The Ottoman Empire leased the Isthmus of Suez and the port of Iskenderun to the Ming Empire for 99 years.
at the same time.
The Ottoman Empire and the Ming Empire signed the [Ming-Ottoman Tariff Agreement].
Each side grants the other party most-favored-nation status - goods from both countries can enter their respective markets at the lowest tariff.
However, this treaty was obviously unilaterally beneficial to the Ming Empire.
Because the Ming Empire is now the world's factory.
They export so much.
The Ottoman Empire basically had nothing to export.
oh.
When they have something to export—for example, when Arab oil starts to become valuable.
Giving the lowest tariff to imported oil would actually be beneficial to Ming Dynasty.
The Ottomans were a closed and vast empire.
Now this country's market is completely open to Ming Dynasty.
That is to say.
It’s not far away when the Ming Empire’s products will use the Ottoman Empire as a transit point and enter Europe on a large scale.
Another important significance is that the Ming Empire finally got a port in the Mediterranean.
Once the Ming Empire's Indian Ocean Fleet entered the Mediterranean.
Then the Ming Empire would have the ability to use force to influence European countries!
However, it is not easy for the fleet to enter the Mediterranean.
The Strait of Gibraltar between the Iberian Peninsula and West Africa is so narrow and is in the hands of the Spanish.
The navy had to go around the Cape of Good Hope and then sail thousands of miles north to reach it.
Just thinking about such a long expedition and breaking through the blockade of the Strait of Gibraltar and entering the Mediterranean Sea is too difficult.
It would be much more convenient if the Suez Canal could be opened.
Emperor Zhu thought for a hundred years while watching the performance of these North Korean officials with cold eyes.
After the North Korean officials finished their performances.
Emperor Zhu then coughed and said: "Everyone, the problem in North Korea is not military, but political, and the monopoly of the wealth and power of a country by two groups of wealthy families."
"I am waiting for ten thousand deaths."
Emperor Zhu hasn't finished speaking yet.
A group of North Korean officials hurriedly began to kowtow.
North Korea's current situation is definitely inseparable from Yangban.
But these people are not worried that Emperor Zhu will actually attack them.
after all.
The fourteenth prince of the Ming Dynasty cannot do without these people if he wants to be the king of Korea.
Emperor Zhu, however, seemed to have little interest in the officials' kowtows.
He continued: "The core problem in North Korea lies in the privileges of the Yangban and land annexation. The Yangban does not pay food, does not serve, and monopolizes North Korean official positions, so that the bottom has no way to rise. As for land annexation, 70 to 80% of North Korea's The land is all in the hands of a few large households, and such a serious concentration of land can be said to be a waste of wine and meat, and the roads are frozen to death!"
The ministers below had their heads on the ground and did not dare to speak, but their bodies began to tremble.
Listen to the meaning of these words.
The emperor is about to take action on the two classes.
"Since Ming Dynasty is the father of Korea, I am naturally responsible for the Korean people. Since the root of the Korean problem is here, I cannot turn a blind eye. The two classes need to cancel their privileges and give the Korean people an equal share of Korean land! If you agree , just follow my fourteenth son, and when Korea is pacified, he will be given the title of prince. If you don’t agree, go back and join the Donghak Party now."
(End of chapter)
