General Constitution of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 179
Under this raging fire, the number of people in Xishan County has increased.

The weaving fields and blacksmith shops that were still recruiting a few days ago were full of people overnight.

"Shopkeeper, just give me something to eat!"

"Fellow folks, I'm not that hard-hearted person, but our store really can't afford so many people."

"The Zou family and the Hua family have a larger family business, why don't you go there to try your luck?"

"Thank you shopkeeper for your guidance."

"..."

Ning Jue was walking on the streets of Xishan, her expression still solemn.

"Officer, how lively this Xishan is."

"It's all about making a living, so it's naturally lively, forget it, you go shopping, I'll go back to the county government to do something."

Without waiting for Gu Qing to open his mouth, Ning Jue threw the master and servant on the streets of Xishan, turned around and returned to the Xishan County Government Office.

The situation in Xishan is more urgent than Ning Jue thought.

There are 12 people in Xishan, and about 30 including family members.

But before that, only more than 3000 people lived in the county.

Since the completion of this cramped county town, it has never been thought that there will be so many people living in the city one day. With more people, many neglected problems will be exposed.

Safety and hygiene are secondary.

What really worries Ning Jue is that the tenant farmers have been released from the one-third of an acre of land. Can Xishan really absorb so much labor?
Before Ning Jue sent someone to look for them, Zou Wang, Hua Linxiang and others hid in the Xishan county government office as if fleeing from danger.

"Qian Xian, help me!"

Seeing these people, Ning Jue's face became more and more ugly.

"What's the matter?"

"Qian Xian, since last night, my house has been full of fleeing tenants from various villages. They all came here with their families, that is to say, they want to come to my house to work, and some of them don't even need wages. become."

"Then you're not crazy about it?"

Zou Wang begged for mercy again and again: "Qian Xian, please forgive me, can this be called Le Crazy? Will my former buddy be happy when they make such a fuss?"

"Without the old buddies to take them with me, no matter how little their monthly wages are, I will be at a loss!"

"If this trouble continues, the gentry don't need to do anything. My guys will soon fight these tenants."

Ning Jue frowned, looked at the merchants in front of him and asked, "Then can you find out how many tenants in Xishan, how many can you recruit?"

In fact, there is no need for Zou Wang and the others to talk about this matter.

But if they can digest these tenants, who can run here.

Hua Linxiang and Zou Wang looked at each other, and then said: "Up to [-]%."

"Then what if there are some new gadgets supporting it?"

Zou Wang was startled when he heard this.

"What's new?"

Ning Jue winked at the yamen servants behind him, and then these yamen servants lifted out a loom from behind.

Zou Wang and the others frowned suspiciously and said, "This is...?"

"Mr. Zou's family also has a lot of clothes, don't you know this thing?"

Zou Wang smiled wryly and said, "Of course I recognize the loom, but how can this loom solve Xishan's predicament?"

"Just try it and you'll know."

Zou Wang stepped forward and fiddled with it twice.

It was only then that I discovered that the weaving shuttle was equipped with a slightly rough spring, which could spring back by itself after a little fiddle.

Zou Wang was stunned in place, he was so surprised that he didn't come back to his senses for a long time.

"Qian Xian is a master!"

"This thing is called Fei Shuo. If you donate it to the lords, it may save the people of Xishan from fire and water? Let's assume that Ning bought this thing, okay?"

Zou Wang lowered his head and said, "Qian Xian, if this thing is used, won't our weaving field need less manpower?"

"But if you keep the cost down, won't you be able to eat a bigger market? The entire cotton cloth market in Jiangnan only supports your family, can't it afford it?"

Hua Linxiang hurriedly said: "But cotton cloth needs cotton yarn, and this cotton yarn..."

"It can be sold to the next county, and it's enough to buy cotton yarn along the way."

Seeing this, Hua Linxiang hesitated to speak, but was stared back by Zou Wang. Zou Wang said repeatedly: "I don't dare to promise Qian Xian, so I can only take it back for a try."

Ning Jue waved his hand towards the crowd, signaling them to back off.

Zou Wang happily loaded the loom into the carriage with several merchants.

"With the shuttle, the demand for cotton yarn can also be raised."

"I'm afraid it won't be long before someone kicks the spinning machine down."

Looking at Zou Wang and others who were happy, Ning Jue couldn't help but murmured nervously: "It's all like this, if the gentry don't do anything, it will be the industrial revolution, and then there will really be no one to farm for you."
-
On the carriage outside the county office, Hua Linxiang looked at Zou Wang, who only had Fei Shuo in his eyes, and said, "Donghu, aren't you lying to Qian Xian? Are you really not afraid of Qian Xian's blame?"

Zou Wang wiped the shuttle carefully without even raising his head.

"Haiyue Qinggao, don't you want this baby?"

Hua Linxiang was speechless immediately.

"But if we can't recruit so many people, something went wrong in Xishan..."

Before Hua Linxiang finished speaking, Zou Wang said, "What if it happens?"

"Success? Donghu, you won't even be able to settle this account, can you? Even if you have this loom, what will you do?"

"Didn't Qian Xian tell you all about it? Sell it to Pang County."

Hua Linxiang immediately said: "But where did the people get the money to buy clothes? Didn't they have to be paid for in the end? If the cloth is sold cheaply, the people will have to raise the price of food. These people will still struggle to make ends meet!"

"Then let's keep food prices down."

"If we keep down the price of grain, won't there be more tenants entering the city? We can't even support this few people!"

Zou Wang was at a loss for words for a moment, because he also discovered the logical loophole in this.

If you sell it cheaply, the people's expenses will increase, and the price of food will rise.

Forcibly suppressing the price of food, the people who worked so hard to farm the land could not even afford a suit of clothes. On the contrary, more people would abandon their land and go to the city.

"Then let's sell it to other provinces?"

Hua Linxiang looked at Zou Wang speechlessly, and Zou Wang interrupted with a wave of his hand: "Then let's just sell it to the outsiders. The imperial court Gu Huguang and the people in Sichuan are alive and well, and they can eat enough to last." To manage the life and death of those Japanese people and sticks?"

"Yes, and the imperial court just happened to open the sea."

Hua Linxiang shook his head helplessly.

"Donghu, why don't you understand? You weren't like this before. The south of the Yangtze River is so rich. One mu of land in a year is worth five stones of grain. It's not that the cloth we sell is cheap or not."

"It's that the price of food can no longer be lowered. If the price of food is lowered again, the farmers will starve to death. It's none of our business if the foreigners die. No matter how cheap it is, who can it be sold to? Besides, they can't just wait to starve to death!"

Zou Wang was at a loss for words for a moment, he plucked all the sheep to death, where would they grow their hair.

"But we can't push out this baby delivered to our door, right?"

"Do your best and obey the destiny. Eunuch Mai sent me a letter, saying that you can go to him if you can't hold on anymore. Eunuch Mai will support you when the sky falls. Don't panic."

Hua Linxiang was startled when he heard this.

"Didn't Eunuch Mai not want to get involved?"

Zou Wang said in a mysterious low voice: "Eunuch Mai is devoted to the king's affairs with all his heart. Before that, Eunuch Mai just had difficulties. This time, he not only sent me a letter, but also told me that His Majesty will summon me after a while." You and me."

"Donghu is serious?"

"The book written by Eunuch Mai himself, how can there be a fake? Ming Jun is in power, the good days for you and me are coming soon, just boldly let go and do it."

Originally, Hua Linxiang's worries were completely dispelled by Zou Wang's words.

A group of Xishan merchants went home, and in less than one night, each imitated their own "Flying Shuttle", but the reality was far more cruel than what Hua Linxiang and Zou Wang imagined in the carriage.

That is, these cloths cannot be sold at all.

These cloths can indeed be transported to other counties.

It's just that as the price of cotton cloth dropped, the shipping cost increased significantly, and the final result was that neither Zouwang nor the local cloth merchants in other counties could make any money.

Even if the Zou family sent people to go from village to village to sell it, it would be all right.

For the people in the village, as long as I don't delay wearing anything that I can spare at home, it means that I don't need money.

No matter how cheap this rag is, it will still cost money to buy.

Letting people who are struggling to make ends meet buy these things is undoubtedly a dream.

But this cloth is too poor for the poor and despised by the rich.

In the end, all these cloths were squeezed into Xishan County.

But a new paradox arose.

These cloths can only be sold to people in the county town. To digest these cloths, there must be enough people in the county town, and the more people in the county town, the more cloth that needs to be sold.

If there is too much cloth, the cloth merchants will not be able to make money.

In less than a few days, these newly imitated "Flying Shuttles" were abandoned at home by merchants in Xishan.

It's tasteless to eat, and it's a pity to throw it away, so it can only be shelved.

It's just that when Ning Jue was walking on the streets of Xishan, the number of tenants begging for a living on the street was obviously much less.

However, the number of tenants lining up outside the Zou family, Hua family and others to sign up as helpers every day is increasing day by day.

Zou Laipeng looked at everything in front of him with a puzzled expression.

"Brother, doesn't the shuttle not make money?"

"correct."

"Then why does our family lack so many people?"

"Flying shuttle can't make so much money, but our father can blow it!"

"Others think that Fei Shuo recruited these people. There are so many people. Don't let others know that it will ruin your father's important business. Hurry up and endorse."

Zou Laipeng was forced back into his room to study by his elder brother.

And what happened in Xishan has become the nightmare of all the gentry in the world.

Poor tenants can not only choose not to farm the land.

These merchants also caringly provided them with a way to survive, and even heard that their lives were better than before!
In Houbang Village.

A group of filial sons and grandsons of the Wu family can't even see Bu.

"Remove all the rags! It's all these tricks and tricks that made my Wu family look like this!"

"Who stipulated that the funeral must be made of cloth! Change it to hemp for me!"

The elders of the Wu family looked at the white cloth scattered on the ground and couldn't help crying.

"Your Majesty! Just open your eyes! People have gone to weaving, so is it possible that they can live without food?"

"If things go on like this, the country will not be a country!"

Water has its source, and trees have roots. No matter how absurd it is, it has certain rationality in the special historical background.

It doesn't have to be mere short-sightedness or ignorance.

On the contrary, there are too many things to worry about.

No matter what kind of work a person is engaged in, it is impossible not to eat food, but at most one person can plant so many mu of land, and one mu of land can at most produce this amount of grain.

Xishan's whipping method seems to have become a scourge in the eyes of many people. Among them are upright people who are limited by their own limitations, and there are also gentry who have their own interests damaged.

Their voices are gradually merging and converging into two extremely simple words.

stop!

(End of this chapter)