General Constitution of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 217 Times have changed
There was a chill outside the restaurant.

Liu Xian and the soldiers from Zhenwu Camp gathered around Zhu Zaihen.

Zhu Zaiyu was still staring at the notice in his hand, but he looked up at a laborer who had been tied up and asked in astonishment: "Excuse me, what is the daily wages of the female workers in the weaving field?"

"Six texts."

Zhu Zaiyu nodded slightly, and then signaled Liu Xian to take them away.

"understood."

After a long time, Zhu Zaishun raised his head, looked at Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong, and asked, "Mr. Zhang and Mr. Gao, the two of you have sixteen coins a day, which is exactly two catties of grain. Do you know what they mean?"

Zhang Juzheng lowered his head and said, "It's the businessmen who want to use the common people to put pressure on the imperial court."

"Probably so."

Zhu Zaishun shook his head and asked, "That's what the businessman meant, but what does this two catties of grain mean to the common people?"

Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong were startled, and then sighed at the same time.

"Your Highness... here."

"Two catties of grain per day, that's 32 taels, and counting the relief food provided by the court, if it's just for survival, it can keep two adults and one child alive." Zhu Zaixun swallowed hard, and then said: " They want the people of Ming Dynasty to choose for themselves whether to starve to death their parents or their children."

"They are gentle, courteous, thrifty, loyal, filial, loyal and loyal. Are they worthy of mentioning these ten words?"

"From now on, all wharves in the south of the Yangtze River, whoever wants to start work, regardless of long-term workers or part-time workers, shall not be paid less than three catties of rice per half day, and female workers shall not be less than two catties or four taels. I am going to file a complaint, and I want to see if these merchants can cover up the Ming Dynasty."

"Here."
-
On the surface of the water, the navy of the imperial court did not make too much trouble for Zhang Quan and others. After diving in the water for a while, they were washed along the river for a certain distance, and no trace of the navy of the imperial court disappeared when they went ashore.

Zhang Quan panted heavily after landing, but the rapid current had already washed him away from the rest of the people.

Zhang Quan was paralyzed on the ground, an instinct of rejoicing for the rest of his life after death welled up in his heart.

It's just that before Zhang Quan came back to his senses, he suddenly noticed something was wrong with the movement around him. Looking from a distance, he saw a group of officers and soldiers escorting a prison cart not far away.

Zhang Quanxuan even became vigilant.

This is not the direction to return to the city.

Zhang Quan vigilantly found a nearby tree, and immediately climbed up the trunk.

Zhang Quan, who was squatting on the tree, realized that Ning Jue was actually imprisoned in the prison car.

And Ning Jue, who was lying on the prison car with Erlang's legs crossed, didn't notice at all that the prison car had gradually deviated from the direction of returning to the city.

Just walking like this, the prison car stopped suddenly.

Ning Jue looked up in astonishment, only to see Zhu Xizhong staring at him with wide-open eyes.

"What are you doing?"

Zhu Xizhong raised his knife and cut off the iron lock on the prison car, and then opened the wooden door of the prison car.

"My dear brother, that's it, further ahead is Yanziji, you can find a boat to cross the river directly, go to the north, to Liaodong or the grassland..."

Before Zhu Xizhong finished speaking, Ning Jue pulled back the wooden door of the prison cart again.

"Are you crazy?"

Zhu Xizhong hurriedly said: "Brother, listen to me, just leave. When I knock on the door, you save my life. I remember, this is what I will repay you."

"That's not called saving your life, that's why I can't run away, so let you run quickly!"

"It's all the same. You don't have to worry about the imperial court. I also saved Junfu's life during the 18th year of Jiajing's southern tour. Let's pay it off."

Ning Jue really didn't realize that Zhu Xizhong was still a little genius for calculating accounts.

"You are the one who settles accounts like this?"

"What's wrong?" Zhu Xizhong's words stopped Ning Jue from asking.

"If I leave, what will happen to the laborers who were arrested on the pier today? Can the court let them go? You are trading all of their lives for mine."

"I can't go."

After finishing speaking, Ning Jue sat on the prison cart by himself, no matter what Zhu Xizhong said, he didn't speak anymore.

After Zhu Xizhong sighed a few times, he drove the prison car back to Jinling.

But Ning Jue didn't know that Zhang Quan, who was sitting on the tree and witnessed this scene with his own eyes, was about to pinch his hands into the trunk of the tree.

"Mr. Ning, why didn't you say earlier that you have no way out!"

Ning Jue is the imperial censor of the fourth rank.

Zhang Quan thought that Ning Jue had a way to get away from the swearing appearance in the restaurant before.

Zhang Quan never expected that Ning Jue wanted to take all the blame on himself.

"Mr. Ning, you wait, you wait! Even if Mr. Zhang risked his life, he must save you!"

After dark, Zhang Quan climbed down from the tree.

Ruan Bi was thrown at home to lose weight, and Hu Shan was escorted back to prison.

Zhu Zaiyan's order was issued by the crown prince's Xingyuan, and it was posted directly outside the major piers. However, the original calm scene did not appear as Zhu Zaiyan imagined.

There is no close organization among these merchants, they just gather in Huiguo Wengong Temple to eat and drink tea on weekdays.

It's just common interests that are driving them to make similar choices.

At this juncture, the more you luck, the more you lose.

In this case, it is better not to transport the goods first, but to find a warehouse to store the goods on the spot. The rent of the warehouse in the suburbs of Jinling has been rising all the way.

The goods nearby were stopped on the spot, and there wouldn't be much impact for a while, but the food was not.

A vicious cycle is thus born.

The more the laborers on the wharf can get this wage, the more the merchants will lose, and the more the merchants will lose, the less grain will be transported into the city, and the less grain will be transported into the city, the lower the minimum wage of these laborers will be. It has to go up accordingly, and when their wages rise, the price of food will also increase.

Only a few days later, the wharf, which used to be close to each other, became so depressed, and more and more laborers were fired from the wharf.

A larger civil uprising is brewing.

Jin Yiwei was the first to notice something was wrong.

"Grand Governor, this is a report from all the docks. There has been a lot of depression on the docks these days, and the price of food in the city has also been rising. It should be more serious."

Lu Bing casually took over the secret performance, and said casually, "Isn't it a good thing that the wharf is in depression? There is no need to reform the tax system, and it will be easier for us all."

"If you think of a way to deal with food prices..."

Before he finished speaking, Lu Bing wanted to understand the logical relationship.

The wharf is in depression, which means that laborers have less work.

High food prices mean that it is more difficult for laborers to survive.

Lu Bing took a deep breath, immediately put the secret performance on the desk, and then ordered: "Pass this performance to Mai of the garrison hall tomorrow..."

Before Lu Bing could finish speaking.

Lu Bing was shocked again.

"No, prepare the car now, I will see Eunuch Mai tonight!"

"Governor, the palace gates have already been closed, Eunuch Mai should have already..."

"It's useless, if you close the door, then smash the door! Even if Mai Fu goes to the brothel tonight, I have to drag him out!"

"Here!"

"In addition, go to Yingtian Mansion and the Left-behind Department of the Fifth Army Mansion to check the remaining food in the warehouse. Tomorrow, we will set up porridge and porridge stalls and add another fifteen."

Jin Yiwei had never seen Lu Bing so flustered.

Just because Lu Bing thought of a scary question.

Throughout the ages, all civil uprisings took place outside the city, because those who rebelled were all tenant farmers, and it was Chen Sheng and Wu Guang who decided to rebel only halfway through the journey.

With the civil unrest, no matter what, the city was controlled by the imperial court at the beginning, which also reduced the cost of countering the rebellion.

But this is not the case for Ming Dynasty now.

The imperial court distributes porridge in the city, and all those unemployed laborers are also in the city. What's even more coincidental is that the largest granaries are often located in the city and on the wharf...

Lu Bing didn't dare to continue to think about it, and rushed directly to the garrison hall without even caring about changing his clothes.
-
There was a crisp sound of "click".

Maybe it was just an attempt by a craftsman, or maybe it was an inadvertent collapse of a reckless man.

In short, a lock that locked the door of the granary was broken.

The hungry people, who had been starving for who knows how long, suddenly got into the granary to fill their stomachs, and then the door to the imitation effect was opened.

People who are hungry don't think about how much food there is in the city.

They only know that the masters always have food.

"So much food is less than a mile away from us!"

Thousands of words finally converge into a simple and unpretentious word.

"eat!"

This is the first uprising since Chen Sheng and Wu Guang that there is no "chief culprit". There is no fish-belly book, ghosts, fire and foxes, no stone men, no inanimate old mother, no empty hometown.

Such uprisings were simply called "civil riots" in the past.

It's just that the scale of the riot this time cannot be contained in a small "civil riot".
-
Flames burst out in the city, but the red building where the soldiers were stationed did not respond for a long time.

Ruan Bi, who was staring at starvation with hunger, was suddenly released from the house by the servant boy.

"Master, we can live, we can live!"

"Where's Jin Yiwei?"

"They've all been evacuated. The city is already in chaos. The commotion is much bigger than before. No one cares about you anymore."

Ruan Bi raised his head with difficulty, looking at the flames soaring into the sky outside his courtyard.

Then he ran out of the house with a look of excitement.

"Gentlemen, I know..."

Before the words fell, the silent alleyway returned to silence, and then there was the sound of shouts like thunder.

"I recognize him, he is Master Ruan on the pier!"

Ruan Bi realized something was wrong, but it was too late.

In less than half an hour, the Ruan family was in flames, and no one saw the 47 members of the Ruan family again.

The city gates that were originally closed were opened in the city, and some hungry people who were full took their families and fled out of the city in the dark. It is also gradually spreading towards the villages in the suburbs of Beijing.

These hungry people have already seen it clearly.

What gold and silver, what copper coins and fields.

It's all fake, and it's true only when it's turned into food and eaten in the stomach.

It's just a little funny that when this "civil unrest" spread to the surrounding villages, many landlords and Lao Cai subconsciously made a judgment based on their years of experience in preparing for Japanese and anti-bandits.

Hide in the city.

The city is safe after all.

Along the way, more and more hungry people reminded them all the time.

My lord, times have changed.

(End of this chapter)