I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 466 Strength Determines Status
  Chapter 495

As the saying goes, don't persuade others to be kind without others suffering.

Some things cannot be taken at face value. Regarding the issue of marriage, the way of thinking of people in the Ming Dynasty was actually more realistic than that of later generations. At least if you ask a common person casually, they do not daydream, let alone fantasize about reaching the sky in one step, and they do not need to know how to get married to change their destiny.

In fact, for women in the Ming Dynasty, marriage was just a node that changed their destiny. It was almost unimaginable for women in the Ming Dynasty to achieve the pinnacle of life and career through their own efforts. Even if Cheng Shijie made a lot of efforts, with his support, Yang Yuniang He became the Deputy Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty, ranking second in the cabinet under Sun Zhimao. He was also in charge of the commercial industry, the Ming Empire Bank, the Ming Commercial Bank and the Ming Dynasty's financial system.

With the support of Cheng Shijie, Jin Qiaoer became the general manager of the largest textile company in the Ming Dynasty. She managed hundreds of thousands of female textile workers and became one of the members of the Jinzhou Executive Committee. Zhang Chen's Oriental Company became Liaodong One of the most famous private enterprises, Oriental Trading Co., Ltd. covers many fields such as services, transportation, ocean trade, wood processing, fur processing, breeding, meat processing, and canned production.

Zhang Chen even became one of the members of the Liaodong Management Committee. Despite Cheng Shijie's efforts, the status of women in the Ming Dynasty was only slightly improved, not a real change. Even Zhang Chen, Yang Yuniang and Jin Qiaoer, the three most successful women in the Ming Dynasty, are of course still the director of Lin'an Management Committee Qin Liangyu.

But the problem is that the status of women is still the same as before. Even Qin Liangyu himself will not admit that she is better than men. Just like the issue of bride price, Cheng Shijie has always known that this problem also exists.

Starting from the Han Dynasty, betrothal gifts in the Han Dynasty gradually evolved into more material forms. In addition to traditional valuables such as poultry and silk, the man also has to prepare more than [-] kinds of betrothal gifts such as livestock and grains.

During the Ming Dynasty, the law stipulated that the rich should marry the rich and the poor should marry the poor. Zhu Yuanzhang also issued an edict stipulating that sky-high betrothal gifts were not allowed and he advocated frugality.

But the problem is that after the death of Zhu Yuanzhang, the betrothal gifts in the Ming Dynasty became more and more heavy. The betrothal gifts from wealthy families were as large as five to six hundred gold, equivalent to five to six thousand taels of silver. This was only the betrothal gift, not just the betrothal gift, but also the wealth of the betrothal gift. , such as silk and cloth. Due to low productivity, a piece of high-quality Songjiang cotton costs more than one hundred taels of silver, and a piece of silk also costs sixty-seven taels of silver. When a betrothal gift is given, it usually costs dozens of pieces. Or a few hundred horses.

There are also wealthy people with thousands of horses, and the poor naturally have their own ways of being poor. Sometimes, a dou of grain or even a few liters of grain can be used as a betrothal gift.

In Cheng Shijie's view, the greatly increased types and quantities of betrothal gifts illustrate the accumulation of social wealth and economic development. Wealthy families often choose money as part of the betrothal gift, which reflects people's emphasis on and pursuit of material wealth.

However, this materialized betrothal gift has gradually brought inequality and pressure, making people begin to reflect on the nature and value of betrothal gifts. This itself is a process of choice. To give a simple example, is it fair for Wu Dalang to marry Jin Lian?

In terms of appearance, this is unfair. After all, they are two extremes. In "Water Margin", the author Shi Naian has this description of their marriage: "When Dalang was young, he had He played with Jinlian and married her when he grew up." This description shows that the acquaintance and marriage between the two began when they were young.

Wu Dalang's home is in Yanggu County. He has a house facing the street. It is about the size of two people with three bedrooms and one living room on two floors. Moreover, whether it is bought or rented, this house is already very good, and it is very large. In the living room, Wu Dalang would always make cakes here.

The bedroom they live in is more than [-] square meters. Right outside the door is the street, which is very convenient. There is also a teahouse opposite. There is a small yard outside the house.

If we talk about it now, this is simply a small villa for both commercial and residential use, and it faces the street. In today's society, his house would be very valuable. So Wu Dalang was just a small vendor selling cooking cakes. Why did he live in such a nice house?

In fact, Wu Dalang is not poor, at least not as poor as shown in the TV series. It can be seen that the poor need to use other advantages to make up for the gap in status.

In both time and space, Cheng Shijie has seen couples where the man is ugly and the woman is extremely beautiful. Of course, he has also seen couples where the woman is old and ugly but married to a handsome and young man.

As an aside, there is a neighbor downstairs in the community where the author rents. At first I thought they were mother and son. The boy was born in [-] and the girl in [-]. There is a seventeen-year age difference, and the girl is married for the second time. , the eldest son is already twenty-eight years old and already working.

The reality is so cruel. Never talk about the betrothal gift, because this issue shows that financial resources and economic development are directly related. Fifty years ago, everyone was poor, and the betrothal gift was only a few yuan, just like Jia Dongxu married Qin Huai in "Siheyuan" Ru only spent twenty yuan, equivalent to one month's salary.

Xiang Hui listened to Cheng Shijie's explanation and asked in confusion: "Why do those experts say that heavy betrothal gifts will affect social fairness?"

"Will the daughters of those experts marry poor boys?"

Cheng Shijie asked back: "How much will be the bride price when you marry me?"

Xiang Hui sighed and said, "Eight thousand, what a big loss!"

Cheng Shijie smiled and said, "Do you know how long it would take me to earn eight thousand at that time?"

"You said you need to go without food or drink for six months!"

Cheng Shijie smiled bitterly and said: "That's me bragging. In fact, I hadn't become a full-time official at that time, and my monthly salary plus bonus was eight or nine hundred. If it weren't for the fact that I won second place in the city in the youth workers' competition and got a bonus of one thousand, he said Maybe I won’t be able to come up with the eight thousand gift!”

In the ears of Xiang Hui's maid Shen Mengniang, she felt that the eight thousand mentioned by Cheng Shijie should be eight thousand taels of silver, not eight thousand Wenqian!
  This matter was naturally just a joke. Shen Mengniang mustered up her courage and said: "When my eldest brother got married, he gave a betrothal gift of sixty taels of silver to his sister-in-law's family!"

Xiang Hui asked: "How long will it take for your family to earn sixty taels of silver?"

"This one……"

Shen Mengniang thought for a while and said: "It costs almost more than a hundred stones of grain, which is enough for one autumn!"

Xiang Hui now has a balance in her heart. The Ming Dynasty is actually similar to that of later generations. Whether it is a betrothal gift or a betrothal gift, it is directly related to the income. Of course, it is not the average income of an individual, but the income of the entire family.

In the northern part of Jinzhou, a school is under construction. Hundreds of workers are working together, and the work efficiency is quite fast. Seeing the carriage bearing Cheng's logo approaching, the person in charge of the school hurriedly greeted him. Through the introduction of the principal, Cheng Shijie knew that this was a middle school officially established in Baiqiao Town. As the number of children increased, the original school building was no longer enough and the school had to be expanded.

Xiang Hui looked at the school and decided to get out of the car and come over to take a look. On the school grass where she was walking, a dozen big men followed Xiang Hui, followed by Shen Mengniang and several other servants. They kept a few dozen meters away from Cheng Shijie. .

The principal of the school is a person who was elected in the fourth year of Tianqi's reign. His surname is Tang, his name is Shun, his courtesy name is Xiaofu, and he is Chen Liuren.

Tang Shun said to Cheng Shijie: "Your Majesty, someone recently proposed that the school should add Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch courses. The students are a little worried!"

Cheng Shijie asked: "What are you worried about?"

Tang Shundao: "Your Majesty, we once had a scholar in Chenliu. By chance, he learned Portuguese and what religion he believed in. He shaved his hair and wore the clothes of a foreign devil. He looked like a foreign devil. This is not Are you betraying your ancestors?"

Cheng Shijie was silent for a moment. He said that Ming Dynasty has gone abroad and has more and more contacts with Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch people. There is a market demand for language courses and translation talents are needed.

But the problem is that this is a middle school, which teaches basic knowledge. From Cheng Shijie's perspective, there is no need for middle school students to learn foreign languages ​​because it is useless. It is almost impossible for people who have learned foreign languages ​​to interact with foreigners in their lives.

Just like the author, I graduated in 2001. At that time, my spoken English was really not good, but simple spelling was not a problem. With the help of a dictionary, I could understand simple articles. But until now, twenty-two years after graduation, the English I learned is of no use at all.

After learning about this situation, Cheng Shijie said: "Principal Tang, your concerns are justified. This matter is very important. We need to look at the opinions of the education department. In principle, I think middle schools should not open language classes because we don't need them." , can be used as prerequisite courses, interest courses, and are not included in the examination scope. Language courses are only allowed in universities!”

From a long-term perspective, these language courses are of little use. As long as Ming Dynasty can maintain its current development momentum, the whole world will learn Chinese and learn to speak Chinese. Many foreigners come to Ming Dynasty for business or foreign affairs exchanges, and they all take the initiative to learn Chinese.

Ordinary Ming people don’t have the opportunity to go abroad, so why learn these languages?
  But the most important thing right now is to popularize the Mandarin of the Ming Dynasty. There are too many dialects in various parts of the Ming Dynasty. Even if Cheng Shijie knows Mandarin, there are still many dialects that he cannot understand. Unifying the domestic language is the most important thing at the moment.

Knowing this, Cheng Shijie issued a letter of inquiry to the education department and asked them to host a special meeting in this regard to prepare for the formation of a unified national pronunciation and writing method.

……

Li Zhixiang finally reunited with Li Fang. Li Fang wanted to vomit Li Zhixiang, but he didn't dare.

Li Zhixiang did not have the shame to show off his plight. As the commander-in-chief of the expedition to Womore, he ended up being separated from his troops, which made everyone frightened.

"Why are you here? How is it in India?"

Li Fang told Li Zhixiang what had happened recently. They led an expeditionary force to raid Tamil. After a fierce battle, Li Fang beat these natives who didn't know how to write the word "death" to a pulp, and captured the natives. The king's little prince, hang him up and beat him.

His son was taken away. King Tu felt very humiliated and brought the entire tribe's elite soldiers to come to trouble Li Fang. He wanted to let these outsiders from the sea know who the master was.

However, Wang Wang's performance was not much better than that of his son. He let Li Fang beat him violently, and the elite soldiers and generals he had assembled were beaten to a mess, suffering heavy casualties, including the luxury carriage he had spent a lot of money to customize, and the three The white beauties bought back from Europe became Li Fang's trophies.

Therefore, standing up for his son is also a technical job. If you are not careful, you will not get back your face, and you will have to pay for your original loss. After being beaten, the Tuwang could not swallow this breath, so he sent someone with a considerable amount of property. He went to the British to help him stand up. In name, he was the British's younger brother. Now that he was being bullied, the British had to stand up for him.

The British did not understand the Tamil language of the Tuwang, and thought it was a war between their Tuwang and the Tuwang. They accepted the property sent by the Tuwang and immediately sent four companies, about five of them. Six hundred people came to trouble Li Fang.

Compared with the old Spanish Empire and the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, Britain's strength has grown rapidly. Because it defeated the Spanish Armada, the British are very confident. They thought that the people who came to attack Tamil should be the Dutch or Spanish. Worse still are the Portuguese.

As for the Ming Dynasty, they have never met each other at all. The navy of the Ming Dynasty rarely appears here, but it is a pity that the British know the dragon flag of the Ming Dynasty and the sun and moon flag of the Ming Dynasty. The British who originally wanted to vent their anger on their younger brother looked at the seaside There are densely packed Ming warships, especially such large warships. There are not even those in Great Britain, right?

The largest British warship is the Sea Monarch, with a full load displacement of [-] tons. However, it has not been officially commissioned yet. Even the Sea Monarch is not as good as the warship in front of it.

There were also those large-caliber naval guns on the battleships that scared them to the point of breaking out in cold sweat.

They immediately gave up the idea of ​​standing up for their younger brother and hurried forward to ask what was going on. As a result, Daming claimed that one of their ships had run aground, and the Tamils ​​attacked them without asking anything.

The British hurriedly said that this had nothing to do with them. They had heard that there were stranded ships here. As a member of the civilized world, they would not sit idly by and come to the rescue.

Daming naturally knew what they meant. Your family asked for help with more than a dozen artillery pieces and more than a dozen carts of artillery shells and ammunition?

However, the British turned around and sold the Tamils. Not only did they arrest the king, but they also seized the gold and silver that the king had accumulated for generations and loaded them on bold ships.

Only then did Li Zhixiang realize that the British were so shameless.

It’s not that the British are shameless. At least in the East, there is really no country that dares to provoke the Ming Empire. The Ming Dynasty currently has four main fleets and more than [-] warships with a displacement of [-] tons or more, which is almost three Spanish invincibles. Who is not afraid of the size of the fleet?
  (End of this chapter)