"Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, if you want to develop border trade, you should not rush to sign alliances with the countries in the Western Regions first, but you must first train strong soldiers and horses so that the Xiongnu will not dare to spy. Only I can govern the country with great power. , can we truly intimidate the northwest.”
After a few words, Emperor Jingwen was actually a little excited.
"My dear, what you said makes sense. We should not be impatient about this matter, and we must approach it on both sides. I am committed to governing the army and the people, and I will definitely be able to reach a higher level."
"The Holy One is wise!"
A few days later, Emperor Jingwen issued a decree, and the Minister of Honglu Temple was responsible for the preparations for border trade, such as the unification of measurements, the formulation of penalties, etc.
The tax issues are left to the Ministry of Household Affairs to arrange. After all, different types of goods charge different amounts of tax, and it is not only the goods entering the customs, but also the goods taken out of their Dazhi.
Therefore, this cannot be done in one or two sentences.
Zhao Yue, the Marquis of Weixin, took over a series of tasks related to border security and border defense.
Of course, Zhao Yue was not asked to go to the border in person to implement it, but he was in charge. Moreover, Zhao Yue had personally been on the battlefield and stationed at the border, so Emperor Jingwen was relieved to leave this matter to him.
Xie Rongzhao, accompanied by Wang Zizhen, went to the embroidery village built in the countryside.
Xie Xiuwen previously bought two villages in the suburbs of Beijing. One was smaller and was temporarily handed over to Xie Ronghui to take care of. The other was larger, but because it was connected to a hill and had rich output, Xie Rongzhao took care of it. She pestered her father to bring her here several times.
Xie Rongzhao noticed that there were many villagers living here, and their lives were not bad, at least they had enough food and clothing, but women's lives were relatively worse.
This is not surprising. The preference for sons over daughters is not only found in wealthy families. The more ordinary families, the more they want to have sons to inherit the family.
The result is that more and more children are born, and the more children are born, the poorer they are. When the family is having a hard time, they only want to leave all the benefits to their sons, thus neglecting and even starting to exploit their daughters.
Xie Rongzhao went to see the house in the countryside. It was a big place, with three courtyards and east-west courtyards. He could tell at a glance that the former owner was someone who knew how to enjoy himself.
After Xie Rongzhao obtained Xie Xiuwen's consent, he sealed several doors on the west side of the courtyard, completely disconnecting them from the main house, and then built another gate.
Xie Rongzhao wholeheartedly wants to make the lives of the women here easier, so naturally he doesn't just want to hire them to work.
She had already seen it. Many families sent their daughters to work, and they had to hand over every penny they earned. Not to mention buying a branch for herself, even eating a steamed bun outside would be punished by the elders of the family. Beating and scolding.
After Xie Rongzhao cleaned up the embroidery village, he arranged for people to recruit workers here.
Because it is an embroidery shop, the woman inside is the receptionist outside and also the female shopkeeper.
Considering safety, Xie Rongzhao specially recruited a few female nurses who were skilled in martial arts to work in the front yard. In addition, there were also men living in the main house. If anyone dared to make trouble, he could just shout and come out.
Today is the first day of recruitment for the second batch of workers in Xiuzhuang. Xie Rongzhao came here specially to see how it was going and whether it had recruited enough people.
Thanks to her father's guidance, Xie Rongzhao's embroidery village is now flourishing.
As soon as Xie Rongzhao's carriage arrived, the noisy voices outside became weaker.
"what happened?"
When Xie Rongzhao got off the carriage, he saw a lot of people gathered around the embroidery shop, but most of them were middle-aged men and women, and there were also some elderly people. Can these people do embroidery work?
The female shopkeeper came over to say hello, and then motioned to her subordinates to keep an eye on them and not let others cause trouble, while she went into the courtyard with her boss to talk.
"Master, take a sip of tea first to moisten your throat."
Xie Rongzhao just glanced at the tea cup, and then looked at the female shopkeeper. She had not answered the previous question.
The female shopkeeper sighed, "These people are dissatisfied with our rules here. They say they don't want to send their daughters or wives here to control them. They just want to take some ordinary sewing work and do it at home."
Xie Rongzhao rolled her eyes and figured it out, but she didn't speak.
Wang Zizhen on the side also understood immediately and snorted: "Those people said that since they don't have room and board here, can they increase their wages?"
The female shopkeeper had a bad look on her face: "That's right, Grandma Wang really saw through it at a glance."
"Is there anything strange about this? The people here attach great importance to Ziyi, and their son is their lifeblood. They want to make money, but they don't want their daughter to live and eat here, so they might as well just exchange it for money and buy it. If you buy fine grains and buy meat, the ones who can eat it are your sons and grandsons, not the bargains in their eyes!"
It doesn't sound nice to say, but it's true.
Xiuzhuang has been open for a while, and there were women with good craftsmanship working here before. They said that food and accommodation are good here. Some people are not even willing to go home when they have no work, even if they only eat at Xiuzhuang for a day. Having a meal feels better than having it at home.
As time went by, word spread naturally about the good food in Xiuzhuang.
Although I also eat whole grains, I will have a bad taste every three days. The most important thing is to be able to eat enough here. Moreover, the houses they live in are all clean. Although they are Datongbu, at least the roof does not leak and there is no need to live in a woodshed.
Many people who came here to work were obviously fairer and fatter when they were taken back.
At first, everyone thought it was quite good. By sending their daughters or wives to work, they could not only make money, but also save the family's first ration.
But as time goes by, some people feel that it is not worthwhile.
You can eat meat once in three days!
Why should I feed those losers?
It should be exchanged for money and given to the children and grandchildren at home.
In this way, when the second batch of workers was being recruited, there were people blocking the door asking for explanations.
"Don't pay attention to these people. If they make trouble again, they will directly spread the word and say that we don't need to recruit girls from this village. Even if we earn this small amount of wages, we can't earn it back at home."
The female shopkeeper will naturally feel more confident if she gets the right word from her master.
This time we are recruiting long-term workers.
In other words, you have to sign a contract with Xiuzhuang.
It is not a contract of sale, but it is legally binding.
Many of the farmers were illiterate. Every time they signed a contract, they would ask an old boy or scholar from the village to read it.
The women who can enter the embroidery village are naturally lucky. They can have enough food and clothing here, don't have to be beaten or scolded, and have endless housework. But none of them want to go home and suffer.
Xie Rongzhao opened an embroidery shop here mainly because he wanted to help these poor women.
Anyone who has signed a long-term contract with Xiuzhuang is extremely happy at this time. When they go home twice a month, they will accept it even if they are beaten or scolded.
Wang Zizhen was a little worried: "Miss, I think those old people are not easy to deal with. If they rely on their old age and act like they are old, they will cause trouble for our embroidery village in the future."
(End of chapter)
