Youyan, Jingmen County
Jingmen was originally just an ordinary small county town close to the sea in Youyan. As the saying goes, you can eat the mountains if you rely on the mountains, and the sea if you rely on the sea. The people in the county are mainly engaged in salt industry, fishery and other related industries... ···········
However, there are tens of thousands of people working in the salt industry in Jingmen, a hugely profitable industry in feudal society. However, because the government and businessmen colluded with the salt gang to run rampant, ordinary salt industry workers were still very poor under exploitation and could only struggle to survive. .
In addition to exploiting salt industry workers, interest groups composed of salt merchants, salt gangs, and officials, in order to obtain high economic benefits, do not hesitate to hoard and keep the price of salt in Youyan at a high level all year round. From this, these people make a lot of money The bowl is full, but ordinary people cannot afford to eat salt, which leads to physical problems and many people lose their lives as a result.
After the Fengwu Army entered the capital, under Ye Mingsheng's thunderous methods, the Fengwu Army wiped out the salt gangs and illegal salt merchants who had harmed one side in one fell swoop, established fair and just rules for the salt industry, and improved the bottom level. The treatment of salt workers protects the interests of the middle and lower classes.
In addition, the craftsmen of the Second Manufacturing Bureau have also greatly increased the production of salt and increased the supply of salt through the innovation of salt production technology. They have used a two-way strategy of market and administrative means to keep the market high. The price of salt has been lowered, so that the people of Youyan can eat affordable salt at a reasonable price.
In addition to the salt industry, Ye Mingsheng also took a fancy to the geographical location of Jingmen and planned to build a harbor here and provide small loans to the local shipbuilding industry to vigorously promote the development of the local shipbuilding industry.
With the simultaneous implementation of many of these policies, Jingmen County has become more vibrant in just over a year. Everyone is looking forward to a bright future, and today thousands of Fengwu soldiers His entry broke the peace of the small county town.
"Wang Quan, the humble magistrate of Jingmen County, has met the commander-in-chief! Shen Gui, the regimental training envoy of Jingmen County, has met the commander-in-chief!"
A middle-aged scribe and a bearded man walked up to Ye Mingsheng with some fear, knelt down and saluted:
Just late last night, Wang Quan and Shen Gui received the order from above that Ye Mingsheng was coming to Jingmen County for inspection, and told them that Ye Mingsheng requested a low-key visit this time, and that he had to wait until the end of the trip. The real situation, so the two of them are not allowed to make any special arrangements...
Although it was already late at night, when they heard the news that Ye Mingsheng was coming, the two of them could not sit still. They immediately gathered together overnight to discuss countermeasures. However, after deliberation in the middle of the night, the county magistrate and the regimental envoys could not I don't have any clue. I just think that Ye Mingsheng's visit to Jingmen County this time is probably to inspect the local salt industry and the local team training situation.
Although the above told the two people not to make any arrangements, the two people convened a meeting overnight to ensure that when Ye Mingsheng came to inspect tomorrow, there would be no negligence and Ye Mingsheng would blame him. Of course, if he could perform well and be criticized by Ye Mingsheng, Ming Sheng praised it, which was naturally the best.
Seeing the tired expressions of the two people in front of him, Ye Mingsheng shook his head slightly in his heart, although he didn't say anything on the surface.
Jingmen County is a very important part of the development plan he formulated for Hebei and Henan. Based on this, even when Fengwu Army was in financial difficulties, Ye Mingsheng gritted his teeth and provided loans for the local shipbuilding industry.
During this unexpected visit to Ye Mingsheng, I also heard that Jingmen County was developing well, so I wanted to see the development results of Jingmen County. Because I wanted to see the real situation, rather than some superficially colorful projects, Ye Mingsheng deliberately Order the Chief Secretary to inform Jingmen County one day in advance of the information about his coming inspection...
But it can be seen from the expressions of these two people that after knowing the news that he came to inspect, these two people probably didn't sleep all night and made arrangements all night to prepare for their arrival. Although they were somewhat disappointed, in all fairness Ye Mingsheng could also understand these two people. Individuals, so Ye Mingsheng did not reprimand him too much. He just asked the two people to stand up and lead the way to introduce the local development to him.
Although Ye Mingsheng’s main purpose of inspecting Jingmen County this time was not to inspect the local salt industry, Ye Mingsheng still regarded the salt industry as the first stop of his inspection. After all, the salt industry is the largest pillar industry in Jingmen County. Nearly one-third of the county's population is engaged in salt industry-related jobs, accounting for nearly 10% of the market share in the Fengwu military area.
Ye Mingsheng learned from Wang Quan that the salt production in Jingmen County has doubled compared with the past, and according to the guidance of the Chief Secretary, the salt industry in Jingmen County continues to expand its scale and strives to be among the three Within 20 years, the production capacity will be doubled again. Ye Mingsheng also affirmed the efforts of the Jingmen County government in promoting the development of the salt industry.
In addition to listening to reports from Wang Quan and others, Ye Mingsheng made another sudden move. When he inspected the salt field to observe the workers making salt, he suddenly "captured the young men" on the salt field and found a few front-line workers. He wanted to hear these people's opinions.
After learning that it was General Ye Mingsheng of the Fengwu Army who was questioning them, the front-line workers in the salt field were very excited and knelt down in front of Ye Mingsheng. Although they were not well educated and had not read any books, they Everyone knows that it was Marshal Ye who cleared away the salt gangs and unscrupulous salt merchants who were doing evil things on their heads, so that the poor people like them could have a stable meal... ·············
After appeasing the saltworks workers, Ye Mingsheng began to learn about the situation from these people. At first, the workers were a little timid, but under Ye Mingsheng's gentle attitude, they gradually started to speak out. got up.
Their main problem is that they are too tired to work, and although the wages they are given have increased a lot compared to before, there are still cases of arrears, and it often takes one or two months to pay off the wages. Secondly, for those injured on the job, In the case of disability or death, compared with the previous indifference attitude of those salt merchants, Yi Jing has greatly improved under the rule of Fengwu Army. They are willing to pay money as compensation, but what they give is really Too little, three taels and five taels of silver can buy a life.
After learning about this situation, Ye Mingsheng also asked Wang Quan to record the workers' reactions, solve the problem as soon as possible and report the results to him, and strengthen the supervision of several salt merchants in the future to ensure the safety of these front-line workers. Reasonable and legitimate rights and interests are protected accordingly.
Hearing that Ye Mingsheng really made decisions for these poor people, these saltworks workers burst into tears and thanked Ye Mingsheng profusely. After waving goodbye to these workers, Ye Mingsheng left the saltworks and came to The real destination of his trip - Jingmen Port.
Jingmen Port was built by Dadongsheng Company, which provided loans and was built by local regiment soldiers. It can handle the loading and unloading of treasure ships worth 1,500 tons. This port was decided by Ye Mingsheng and is one of the key infrastructures planned and constructed in the Youyan Development Plan. one······························
Looking at the prosperous scene of people coming and going in Jingmen Port in front of him, Ye Mingsheng nodded with satisfaction. Coming from a later generation, he knew very well the importance of a port to economic development, which is why he stood up to the Chief Secretary. Opposition voices insist on spending tens of thousands of taels of silver here, which is the purpose of building this Jingmen Port.
In Ye Mingsheng's opinion, the current Jingmen Port is only in its initial stage, and will continue to be constructed to gradually turn it into a super-large port that can drive the development of the entire northern part of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Looking at the smile on Ye Mingsheng's face, Wang Quan was also thoughtful, and seemed to understand why Ye Mingsheng came for this unexpected visit. At this moment, Ye Mingsheng also looked at him and asked:
"How big a ship can Jingmen build now?"
Faced with Ye Mingsheng's inquiry, Wang Quan hesitated and then said:
"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, currently the ships that can be built at Jingmen Port are only about 600 materials..."
Hearing this answer, Ye Mingsheng frowned slightly and asked:
"I heard that the Fushan Shipyard in the south of the Yangtze River can build a treasure ship worth three thousand materials?"
As if feeling the dissatisfaction in Ye Mingsheng's tone, Wang Quan, the county magistrate, gradually began to have a layer of beads of sweat on his forehead, and he said helplessly:
"Commander, the shipbuilding industry in Jiangnan is indeed much more developed than ours. We are now able to build ships worth 600 materials, and we only rely on the loans provided by Dadongsheng Company, as well as the connections between us and Jiangnan, Dongdao, and Gongdu. The demand for trade increased, so it developed. The largest ship we built in Jingmen before was only more than a hundred materials, and most of them were sampans!"
After hearing Wang Quan's explanation, Ye Mingsheng didn't say much, but there was a hint of disappointment in his heart.
Because it is foreseeable that a war will be imminent in the coming year, in order to cope with the war, the Fengwu Army needs to expand again, and if it wants to expand, it needs a large amount of money and food as support. However, for the sake of future sustainable development and the support of the people, Ye Mingsheng Most of the results have been invested in Jiyu's post-war recovery.
Although there are still hundreds of thousands of grain and silver in the current finance, Ye Mingsheng does not dare to touch this money. After all, the current situation is not good, and no one knows when natural and man-made disasters will happen. It is safe to leave a sum of money in the account. If something like a snow disaster or war disaster occurs, it will be a disaster if we can’t get any money out of our accounts...
It is necessary to expand the army and prepare for war, but also to reserve a sum of money to prepare for unexpected needs. For this dilemma, Ye Mingsheng's usual solution when he started his army in Liaoyang was to get it from the gentry class represented by aristocratic families, but this time it was not possible. Well, after Ye Mingsheng's several harvests before, this group of people has been severely weakened, and they don't have a lot of money in their pockets.
Although Ye Mingsheng could harvest it by force, at the time when the war was about to begin, Ye Mingsheng still felt that he had to pay attention to internal unity and not oppress too much, so Ye Mingsheng thought hard and thought where to find it. money to expand the army and prepare for war.
A report by Ye Hongsheng, the big shopkeeper of Dadongsheng Company, made Ye Mingsheng suddenly realize that although in name, Dadongsheng Company is only a private company, anyone with a discerning eye can see that it has the only financial license in the Fengwu military area. , Dadongsheng Trading Company, which can conduct exchange business, is a government-owned firm.
With the expansion of Fengwu Army's territory, the business territory of Dadongsheng Company is also gradually expanding, and the novel products they produce are also popular among the people.
However, because the three provinces of Jiyu, Youyan, and Liaoyang were not wealthy provinces in the Great Zhou Dynasty, coupled with the years of war, although the people liked Dadongsheng's products, they were short of money and had little purchasing power. They could save money while filling their stomachs. I didn’t dare to waste the money I got down and accumulate it in my hands.·····················
The commodities that led to Dadongsheng can only earn money from wealthy people such as powerful, wealthy merchants and gentry. However, these people are only a very small number after all, so the money earned from them is limited after all.
In addition, although Dadongsheng has made some money from finance and trade, with the money earned, Dadongsheng Company, under the guidance of Ye Mingsheng, must shoulder its social responsibility and provide loans to poor people to buy seeds. , farm tools, and livestock are good for productive work.
Occasionally when Liaoyang's finances were tight, Ye Mingsheng would draw money from the accounts of Dadongsheng Company to subsidize the finances. This put great pressure on the shoulders of Ye Hongsheng, the big shopkeeper of Dadongsheng Company. In order to reduce his own pressure, Ye Hongsheng decided to explore the south. The market sells goods to the Huainan region of Jiangnan, the most prosperous and affluent area in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Facts have proved that this is a very correct decision. Although the Huainan region is suffering from war and hostility, Dadongsheng's products have not entered the Huainan market.
However, in the Jiangnan market, Dadongsheng's new fabrics, kerosene lamps, glassware and other products were still widely welcomed and praised. In just two or three months, goods worth one hundred thousand taels of silver were sold. From the dealer's fees and manufacturing and transportation costs, Dadongsheng Company earned thirty thousand taels of silver.
At the same time, many local businesses in Jiangnan sensed business opportunities, and they placed a large number of orders with Dadongsheng. Even business owners with economical minds offered huge quotations and favorable conditions, hoping to become a Dadongsheng business in Jiangnan. The only designated dealer in the region.
Ye Hongsheng was so surprised by the great success in the Jiangnan market that he also met with Ye Mingsheng to request to expand production capacity and increase business layout in the Jiangnan region!
Ye Hongsheng's report also made Ye Mingsheng aware of the emergence of a huge financial growth point. Just when Ye Mingsheng was rejoicing, a piece of good news and a piece of bad news came one after another... ·················
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