The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 174 Absorption

In the Eastern Chinese tradition, it usually starts with "inviting the gods" on New Year's Eve and ends with "sending off the gods" on the fifth day of the lunar month, which is called the New Year.

On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the emperor in the Forbidden City will go to court, the shops in the city will open for business, and the students in the schools will attend classes, and the new year will begin.

During the Chinese New Year, every household hangs the Chinese character "Fu" in the central hall or pastes Spring Festival couplets on the door frame. They use five-color paper, cut it into the shape of copper wire, and tie it into a string with silk thread. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Gao Hanging high above the lintel of the main house, it symbolizes attracting wealth.

In order to have a better symbolic meaning, and not to lose the momentum of their neighbors, every family often cuts the copper wires a few days in advance and strings them together to hang them.

Over time, the custom became established. During every New Year's Day, colored paper is fluttering at the door of every door, which is really beautiful and beautiful. The colorful paper copper wires swaying high in the sky look like they are flying through the door in the wind from a distance, which means that the God of Wealth is coming through the door, so it is also called the God of Wealth.

On the first day of the first lunar month, just after dawn, Jiangjiagou in the suburbs of Penglai County was already bustling with gongs and drums. Some fun-loving people from the countryside dressed themselves up as civil and military gods of wealth with rouge and charcoal strips, holding long whips in their hands, and went to a village. Every household began to sing loudly outside the courtyard door.

In order to wish good luck in the new year, the owner of the yard would take out the string of copper coins that he had prepared and hang them around the necks of these people.

After receiving the money, these "Civil and Military Gods of Wealth" were not satisfied and did not go home immediately. Instead, they continued to go to other homes to celebrate the New Year while beating gongs and drums, which meant sending money and treasures to their families.

"Fourth brother, you gave too much." Fan Agui watched the several civil and military gods of wealth leave happily, and couldn't help but feel a pain in his heart. He resisted not to catch up and take the few strings of copper coins he gave away. Ask for it back.

Darling, I'm afraid the money you're giving away is a few hundred yuan, right?

It’s enough to feed the family for several days!

"It's the official day, why don't we just want to celebrate and seek good luck!" Fan Xingbao said with great pride: "Anyway, it's only four to five hundred coins. After all, it's less than two cents. We have to leave it in Hanzhou, some People will give one or two gold yuan directly to the God of Wealth who comes to their door. Well, converted into your Qin country’s silver dollars, it’s almost six or seven yuan!”

"Fourth brother, can you really earn more than ten taels of silver a month in Qi State?" Fan Agui didn't understand the exchange rate of gold yuan and silver dollars, and his family rarely had these "large" currencies, but he learned from Fan Xingbao's words. It can still be heard that this wealthy relative from Qi does not care about the "small money" that is given away casually, and in their Qi country, everyone seems to be so rich.

"If you work in a factory, you will just be an apprentice at the beginning, and you won't have that much money, but you will get seven or eight taels of silver." Fan Xingbao said with a smile: "After working for five or six years, you became a skilled worker. I can earn almost a dozen taels of silver. However, it is still very hard, and I have to work in the factory for more than ten hours."

"What's so hard about working for more than ten hours?" Fan Agui's eyes have brightened. "Every year during the spring plowing and autumn harvest season, I only sleep for a few hours every day. I have to go to the fields before dawn, and the sky is almost completely dark. Just returned home for dinner. Oh, by the way, fourth brother, in your Qi country, can you eat meat every day?...I heard that there is also delicious beef."

"In our Qi country, you can eat beef, mutton, and whale meat at will, and the price is very cheap. For a few cents, you can buy a large piece of whale meat. Although it is a bit chewy, The head is not the same as fish, but it still tastes a bit like beef."

"I've never eaten beef in my life!" Fan Agui's throat twitched subconsciously, "And that whale meat you mentioned, what is it? Is it the same as the fish we catch from the sea?"

"The whale, that guy is so big. Well, it's as big as ten or twenty cows!" Fan Xingbao opened his hands widely and gestured, "It only takes one whale, and I guess all the people in this village can be counted." You can’t eat it all at once! Two months ago, the dozen or so canned meats I brought back were made of whale meat. In our country of Qi, whale meat is the cheapest, followed by mutton and Beef. Let me tell you, as long as you come to our country of Qi, although there is no guarantee that you will be able to eat meat every day, it is absolutely guaranteed that you will have a tooth sacrifice every now and then!"

More than thirty years ago, Fan Xingbao's father, Fan Jinfu, scraped together money by selling iron and steel, and resolutely boarded the Qi State's immigration ship and traveled across the ocean to the mainland of Hanzhou.

He first worked as a worker in a Jianye factory. After three years, he gained a little foothold and heard that it was more profitable to go to sea, so he turned around and joined an ocean-going trading ship.

After overcoming various difficulties at sea, with a spirit of hard work and good learning, he managed to get from a landlubber to the position of first mate of a merchant ship in less than ten years, and saved a lot of savings, successfully He settled in Jianye City and married a daughter-in-law from the countryside of Jianye Prefecture.

More than ten years ago, Fan Jinfu's merchant ship was caught in a storm near the island of Ceylon and capsized accidentally. Dozens of sailors drowned. Fortunately, with the blessing of Mazu, he and several crew members were lucky enough to drift with a wooden barrel for several days before being rescued by a passing merchant ship.

After this incident, Fan Jinfu was still frightened and timid. He gave up his job of running a boat. Instead, he took out the money he had saved and, with the instigation of several familiar partners, started a business together on Weiyuan Island (today's New Guinea Island). ) invested in establishing a small plantation and allocated more than 100 acres of land to engage in cocoa cultivation.

After a few years, with the rise of the cocoa market, I really made a lot of money and gradually expanded the scale of the plantation.

Five years ago, after years of experiments, Qi researchers finally achieved a major breakthrough in the field of rubber and completed the vulcanization invention of rubber, thus opening the door to large-scale development and use of rubber.

To this end, the Qi government began to vigorously promote the establishment and production of rubber plantations in Weiyuan, the Malay Peninsula, Jinzhou (today's Sumatra Island) and other places, and granted various preferential policies to incoming investors.

Fan Jinfu and several partners then circled more than 300 acres of land in Yanjin (now Daru City, southern Papua New Guinea) and built a rubber plantation.

Nowadays, rubber has reached the time of tapping. As soon as the rubber produced was put on the market, due to strong market demand, the supply was in short supply, allowing Fan Jinfu and other plantation owners to make a lot of money.

If you don't return wealth to your hometown, you will be like walking in brocade at night!

However, although Fan Jinfu has the idea of ​​​​returning to his hometown in Dengzhou and returning to his roots, he is already sixty years old and may not be able to bear the long journey by sea.

So, he asked his fourth son Fan Xingbao to go to Qin's hometown. On the one hand, he showed off that the Fan family was already developed in Qi and was enough to shine on the family lintel; They took over and lived a good life together.

In addition, as the scale of the plantation run by the Fan family becomes larger and larger, more and more manpower is needed. These people come from relatives in their hometown, so they are easier to use!

When Fan Xingbao arrived in Penglai on a regular liner between Qi and Qin in October last year, he directly rented a carriage, hired two armed guards, and under the guidance of a guide, came to Jiangjiagou.

His arrival immediately caused a sensation among the people in the entire township. Not only were the Fan family members excited, but farmers from the surrounding areas came to see the excitement and Qi Guokuo's relatives from the Fan family.

Fan Xingbao brought pocket watches, leather goods, woolen cloths, soaps, candies, cans, cocoa powder, ivory bracelets, tortoise shell jewelry, exquisite hardware tools... There are so many large packages of things that really opened everyone's eyes and tasted them. Fresh.

It's a pity that not only Fan Xingbao's grandparents have passed away long ago, but his two uncles have also died seven or eight years ago. Only a frail and sick aunt is left, but looking at her appearance, she doesn't seem to be very old.

After chatting with many cousins, Fan Xingbao just learned that his father had sent many letters back over the years, but they didn't receive any of them. They didn't know whether it was because the sender never sent them at all, or for some other reason. Got stuck at a certain point.

Alas, Da Qin’s postal system is truly speechless.

Jiangjiagou's relatives all thought that his father might have died at sea, or that he was struggling to survive in Qi State, and life was so difficult that he could not contact his family members on the mainland.

Now, knowing that Fan Xingbao's father is not only alive and well, but has also made a fortune and become powerful in Qi State, this makes all Fan family members feel an unprecedented thrill - we are going to be prosperous!

Before Fan Xingbao arrived, he carried a full thousand gold yuan in coupons. When he arrived in Penglai, he first exchanged 1,500 Daqin silver yuan at the Huaxia United Bank in the city and put them in his suitcase. Well, this was one of the reasons why he hired two armed guards when he set off to Jiangjiagou to visit his relatives. He was not sure to be robbed on the way, and it would be nothing if he lost his money. If he lost it in the territory of Da Qin, If you risk your life, who can you turn to for explanation?

After meeting his relatives, Fan Xingbao was not stingy. In the name of his father, he directly gave a hundred silver dollars to the frail aunt, and the other cousins ​​also shared the money, each with twenty dollars. This made everyone smile and praise his father, "San Ye Fan is so heroic".

When Fan Xingbao asked if any of his brothers and sisters were willing to go to Qi with him and live a good life together. For this reason, he can buy ship tickets for them, and after arriving in Qi, he will also help them settle down. Spend this period, and then slowly pay it back to him after you save money later.

Except for some older people who were reluctant to leave their homeland, or relatives with family ties who were hesitant, more than ten people immediately expressed their desire to follow him to Qi to make a fortune.

However, when they heard that their ferry ticket to Qi and the cost of settling down in Qi were not free, they couldn't help but murmur in their hearts.

Tell me, when the third son of your Fan family went to Qi State, many relatives in the family collected a lot of money for him. His two brothers even borrowed a lot of debts from Zhang Yuanwai's family in the village. The result was... For more than thirty years, I worked tirelessly to pay off his debts, but did not enjoy any blessings at the end.

Of course, when you, Fan Xingbao, came back on behalf of your father this time, you also gave a lot of money to everyone, adding up to four to five hundred silver dollars, which is more than ten times more than the money you borrowed when you left.

But you can't be so heartless, right?

If your family hadn't collected the money for you to go to Qi, you wouldn't be as rich as you are today, and you wouldn't be able to show off in your hometown like this.

How much does a boat ticket from Daqin to Qi cost?

How much does it cost to settle down in Qi State?

You are only willing to advance payment for us, and the money will be paid back to you slowly in the future!

This, this, isn’t it a little unreasonable?

Fan Xingbao just sneered at the petty thoughts of these relatives.

As the old folk saying goes, help the poor but not the poor, and help the poor but not the lazy. If I brought all these poor relatives from my hometown to Qi, and everything would be taken care of, and all the food and drinks would be served, what would happen? What happened?

In Daqi, we don’t really care for lazy people!

If you have hands and feet, you can make a living by doing whatever you want. If you endure a little more hardship and be frugal, you can always accumulate some wealth in three to five years.

My old man started from a very young age. He worked as a factory apprentice, carried bags on the pier, washed decks on ships, ate rancid food and water, and almost lost his life at sea, especially on Weiyuan Island. I fought fiercely with savages in the jungle and fought with mosquitoes and poisonous ants for my life. After decades of hard work, I have achieved today's wealth and happiness.

In this world, there will never be free meals, let alone plain assistance. If you want to live a good life, you have to earn it yourself!

We can help take you out of Da Qin and go to Qi, and give you a chance to change your destiny, which is the greatest gift to you.

In other words, although Great Qin had relatively strict control over the behavior of its people traveling abroad, it was not prohibited for relatives to seek refuge abroad.

Gein, decades ago, when the State of Qi promised to the State of Qin not to take the initiative to carry out official large-scale immigration, it signed a series of treaties on the exchanges between the people of the two countries. One of them was that the people of the two countries could For relatives to go to the other country to settle down and live, the governments of both sides are not allowed to set up various obstacles and restrictions, and provide policy convenience.

The rulers of the Qin State hoped that in this way, they would attract the people who had made a fortune in the Qi State to return to their roots and return to their hometowns. At the same time, they could also bring the wealth they acquired back to the mainland, thereby indirectly drawing a wave of blood from the Qi State.

Qi State tried to use this opening to transform the official large-scale immigration behavior into a spontaneous behavior among the people. After all, no matter which country or nation, everyone expects to live a good and happy life.

Where are the good and happy days?

That can only be in the rich and powerful Qi State!

More opportunities, higher residents' income, better living standards, and a better security system, how can we not attract a steady stream of immigrants from the mainland?

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that some people always have an obsession with their hometown in their hearts. After getting rich or becoming famous, they return to the mainland of China in glory, return to their roots and enjoy the rest of their lives.

But after so many years, the number of Qin people going to Qi has been increasing day by day. Every year, no less than 50,000 to 60,000 people immigrate to Qi in the name of relatives, while only a few hundred people return home from Qi. It really shocked the princes of the Qin Dynasty.

If you add in the people who smuggled into Qi through various illegal means, the number will be even larger, it must not be more than hundreds of thousands of people!

In the eyes of the imperial court, these people who moved (smuggled) overseas were tantamount to "abandoning their royal status", not wanting to serve the country, and abandoning their ancestors and fathers. They were disloyal and unfilial, and they were "the heaven abandoning the people." From your own place.

However, the common people can go to Qi State to make a lot of money and live a good life regardless of their vain thoughts such as "bathing like a king" and thinking about the king and serving the country. That is more real than anything else!

It is said that after Zhang Yuanwai from Jiangjiagou heard that Qi Guokuo's relatives were coming to the Fan family, his attitude towards their family improved a lot, and he even visited them personally bringing gifts.

When Fan Xingbao presented him with several ivory products from Qi, he was pleasantly surprised.

This thing does exist in Penglai County, but the quantity is definitely not large, and it is also a collection of luxurious people, so it is not easy to show it to others.

Unexpectedly, this boy from the Fan family from Qi State would be so generous and easily give away several items, which are probably worth dozens of silver dollars.

I heard that the Fan family boy said that they had enclosed four to five hundred acres of land in an overseas territory of Qi State, growing cocoa, rubber, etc., and earning tens of thousands of yuan in interest every year.

Four to five hundred acres of land, what is the concept?

The Zhangjia family has been operating for decades and has just purchased more than 200 acres of land in Jiangjiagou and nearby villages such as Songzhuang and Huaishu Village. The Liu family, which owns the most land in Penglai County, only has more than 1,300 acres of cultivated land in total. You must know that the Liu family has a high-ranking official who is the Minister of Household Affairs.

As the boy from the Fan family said, the plantation they run is still relatively small. In the Nanyang territory of Qi State, it is said that there are large chaebols who own hundreds of thousands of acres of land and support tens of thousands of native slave laborers. .

Damn it, people are so infuriating!

A poor boy who was worthless at that time, just because he ran to Qi State, and developed in just ten years, was compared to a family of gentry like them with dozens or hundreds of years of wealth.

Can we use the Fan family to get one or two of our own children out?

If this also takes hold in Qi State, it will be of great benefit to the development of our Zhang family.

In recent times, the situation in the Korean Kingdom has been unstable and has become turbulent, which has spread to their Dengzhou territory. The government sent more troops and collected grain. If a fight breaks out, it will probably have a greater impact on them.

From this point of view, Qi State is still in a better position. It is far away and no disturbance can affect Qi State.

(End of this chapter)