Daming: I help my wife be the empress

Chapter 110 Put it aside for future generations, the tool people have turned back long ago

Hearing that the princess was coming to inspect the Weapons Bureau, the old Wang's dull expression finally became more vivid, but he showed a little nervousness.

He called his two sons into a corner and asked: "Don't talk nonsense about the affairs in the bureau, do you know?"

The two sons nodded.

The old Wangtou asked again: "How much work have you done as assigned by the bureau?"

The second son said: "The firearms department assigned by the bureau actually doesn't get much work. I have already finished the work assigned to me. I will go out to find work tomorrow."

The eldest son said: "Father, you only know how much work I have done. I will definitely deliver the work on time."

"Then there is no problem." Old Wang heaved a sigh of relief, and reminded: "Be more vigilant for a while."

"know."

After the old Wang gave instructions to his two sons, the bureau was still jumping around, until he heard a loud shout from outside.

"The supervisor is here!"

Many people looked at each other and thought: Didn't the princess come to inspect?What is the prison country?
What is this prison country?
The ambassador of the Bureau hurriedly led the crowd to greet him, and before the outsiders came in, he turned around and said to the crowd: "Jian Guo is Your Royal Highness, but you can only be called Jian Guo, do you understand?"

"know."

The response was sparse.

This made the bureau ambassador, deputy envoy and all the petty officials even more uneasy.

Old Wangtou stood in the crowd, not long after he saw a group of soldiers walking in first, checking everywhere.

It was only later that a girl in a crimson brocade robe with dragon patterns and a women's single bun came in surrounded by a group of soldiers.

Beside him were two officials in the scarlet robe and two officials in the green robe, as well as a simple-looking scholar with rough and dark skin.

The ambassadors and deputy envoys of the bureau took the lead in bowing to the girl and shouting, "See Jianguo!"

Hundreds of people including Old Wang and others immediately knelt down and shouted unevenly: "See Jian Guo."

Seeing this, Zhu Yuxi and Long Wenguang and other officials who followed beside him all looked as usual.

All of them were craftsmen in front of them, and they were not soldiers in the army, so it was normal to salute without imposing manner.

Auntie Zhu nodded with a smile and said, "Ping Shen."

Hundreds of people stood up one after another, appearing more chaotic than before.

Aimee Zhu hurriedly glanced at the people in front of her, estimated their number, and asked, "Are there only a few hundred craftsmen in the Weapons Bureau?"

The chief secretary in green robe took out a brochure, looked it over, and said: "Report to Jian Guo, the Chengdu Armaments Bureau has 28 resident craftsmen on the register, and 310 and [-] shift craftsmen on the register. The craftsmen all work with silver, so they should not be in the game."

Regarding the matter of the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Wei had heard Hao Guangming talk about it a long time ago.

The Ming Dynasty inherited many systems from the Yuan Dynasty, including the artisan household system.

In the early years, most of the craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty were captured from the Yuan Dynasty or recruited forcibly.

There are mainly two kinds of shift craftsmen and residential craftsmen.

Shift workers go to a certain place to serve for a year every other year or three to five years, which is similar to corvee service, and the government only cares about rations.

Most of the resident craftsmen serve in the local area, and they work in official workshops for free for ten days every month.

Most of them came from captive artisan households, and even the whole family needed to serve the court, so they couldn't survive at all.

Therefore, during the Hongwu period, a large number of artisan households escaped from service and households, even if they were arrested and beheaded, they could not be stopped.

During the Chenghua period, the Ming court had to change its policy to allow shift craftsmen to use silver as their service.

It's just that the service fee is very high, the southern craftsman needs to pay nine qian per month, and the northern craftsman needs to pay six qian per month.

Therefore, although the artisans can barely survive, their lives are still miserable.

It was not until the Jiajing period that the Ming court made further reforms, ordering that each shift worker only needs to pay four cents and five cents a year in order to be exempted from military service.

The shift craftsman system survived in name only.

The resident craftsman still needs to serve as a errand every month, but he can pay a penny to be exempted from service.

In the Wanli period, it was even possible to spend money to hire someone to serve as a class craftsman. During the service period, the imperial court would provide a certain amount of money and food, and the craftsmen were further freed from the shackles.

However, in the first half of the year Sichuan fought again and again, and the Chengdu Armament Bureau recruited many craftsmen to serve, and the number of people on the register was only in the thousands.

···
After hearing all these things, Aimee Zhu scanned the crowd in front of her again, and said: "There must be more than a thousand craftsmen in that bureau, but there may not be five hundred of these people in front of us, let alone some of them are officials."

Before Auntie Zhu could finish speaking, the ambassador and deputy envoy couldn't bear it any longer, they all knelt down with two thumps.

The ambassador of the bureau explained in a trembling voice: "Reporting to the supervisor, since the beginning of spring, because of Zhang Xianzhong's invasion of Sichuan, wars have occurred frequently, and labor in the bureau has been heavy.

Because of the lack of money and food, he owed the craftsmen two months of money and food.Therefore, many craftsmen work with silver instead of working in the bureau.

Even so, we also limited the number of craftsmen who served as silver agents, and reserved 800 people for the bureau.

It's just that people in the city have been panicking in the past few days, and I have been negligent in management, so some people went outside. "

Aunt Zhu frowned upon hearing this, looked at Long Wenguang, and said, "Didn't Governor Long be asked to pay the officials' salaries yesterday afternoon? Why didn't even the news come from the Military Bureau?"

Long Wenguang was embarrassed.

In fact, he did not count craftsmen, after all, craftsmen are not officials.

So yesterday he only reported to Liu Xiaolian the silver taels needed to reissue the two-month salaries of officials in the Chengdu government.

After hesitating for a while, Long Wenguang didn't argue with Zhu Yuxi, and immediately bowed and said, "The supervisor forgives the crime, it's my negligence, I don't know that the craftsmen of the Armament Bureau are also owed wages."

After finishing speaking, he secretly gave the ambassador a look.

He didn't know that the Military Weapons Bureau owed the craftsmen money and food. The ambassador of the Military Weapons Bureau must have known about it. Yesterday afternoon, he learned that the princess was going to repay the salaries of the officials, so he didn't mention it to him.

Isn't this cheating him?

Auntie Zhu didn't immediately say who to punish, but looked at the ambassador of the Bureau and asked, "If the palace orders you to increase the number of craftsmen in the Military Weapons Bureau with all your strength, how many people can you increase in three days?"

The Ambassador of the Bureau wiped the sweat from his brow, knowing that his official status and even his life would be related to this answer, so he gritted his teeth and said, "It should be able to increase to 1000 people!"

After hearing this, Auntie Zhu's expression didn't change, and she asked again: "How much money and food does the government provide to the artisans every month?"

The ambassador of the bureau said: "This matter is different in different places. In recent years, the Chengdu Armament Bureau has provided each craftsman with ten catties of grain and one cent of silver a month."

"So little?" Auntie Zhu frowned even more tightly.

The bureau ambassador smiled wryly, "Reporting to the supervisor, this supply is already too much. You should know that if they want not to serve, they have to pay a penny to the bureau every month."

A denarius is ten.

As for food, although food in the north is very expensive, Chengdu is a granary, and the price of food here should not be outrageous.

Therefore, the Chengdu Arms Bureau's supply of money and food to craftsmen is indeed not small.

Of course, this is compared to the original harsh system of Ming Dynasty for craftsmen.

From the perspective of Hao Guangming, a later generation, even after many reforms, Daming is still cruelly exploiting and oppressing craftsmen.

People are recruited to work by force, and they pay if they don’t want to work, and the work is calculated on a daily basis, with no quota.

If this had been left to future generations, the tool people would have gone on strike long ago, it would be damned.

Now there are still hundreds of people staying in this military bureau, and even working honestly, which seems incredible to Hao Guangming!

When Hao Guangming talked about the craftsman system of the Ming Dynasty, Auntie Zhu also knew about the treatment of workers in later generations.

Comparing the two at this moment, she couldn't help but blushed with shame.

There was even a question of "How could the Ming Dynasty enjoy the country for more than 200 years?"

As a princess and supervisor of the country, Zhu Yuxi can be said to be watched by everyone at this time.

Therefore, the change in her complexion was also noticed by many people.

When the ambassador and deputy envoy of the bureau saw it, they thought that Zhu Wei was almost half angry because of the shortage of craftsmen in the military bureau.

Thinking of hearing some rumors about this princess last night, my heart sank and my face became paler and paler.

I thought to myself: Will the princess cast a spell in a fit of anger to turn us into cows and horses to do a living atonement in this military bureau?

The craftsmen were equally uneasy.

Both are resident craftsmen affiliated to the Chengdu Armament Bureau, and there are many intermarriages between them, so it can be said that they are all related.

Therefore, many of the craftsmen who were not in the bureau were relatives of those present.

Now that the princess is blushing with anger, will she kill those people in a fit of anger?Even vent your anger on them?

Even Long Wenguang and other senior officials are trembling, ready to meet Aimee Zhu's wrath at any time.

Just when these people were staring nervously at Aimee Zhu, they saw that she took a strange trumpet from Fei Zhen'e and walked towards a stone platform not far away.

(End of this chapter)