open sea

Chapter 347
There has never been a war that has made the Guangzhou government feel the urgency and crisis, as well as the accompanying opportunities and wealth, like the Ming-Xi war in Luzon.

There has never been a shortage of wars between Guangdong and Guangxi, and in recent years, they have occurred on this land with the same frequency of twice a year.Whether it is a rebellion involving tens of thousands of people, or hundreds of bandits plundering land, the local people seem to be used to such warfare.

Officers, soldiers and thieves beat them, and the people's life is still going on. It is nothing more than migrating and fleeing when they are affected, and returning to their hometown after the war is over. It has never had a lasting impact on life.

But this battle was different. They didn't see the war. The nearest battlefield was on a lonely island thousands of miles away, but it gave Guangcheng the illusion that the war was close at hand.

In the streets and alleys, people are talking about this war, as if everything has something to do with them.

But they have nothing to do with this war. The biggest connection between them and the war lies in Chen Mu.

From the preparatory stage of the war to September, Guangzhou Mansion underwent earth-shaking changes in half a year.

On the coast of Xinhui, where Nanyangwei Port used to be across the sea, the only place where there is no shit, only the light of General Chen Temple shines on the poor fishermen who have been plundered by Japanese pirates there.In a few months, a large number of merchants and nobles poured in, designated the land as a factory, and hired workers to build ships.

Climbing up Nanshan Mountain, looking towards the bay, you can see the skeletons of big ships everywhere, and countless workers are working like ants. Here you can find Fuchuan, Guangzhou Ship, Yangzhou Shark Ship and even Tank Boat, all ships All shapes and shapes can be found in the southern bay of Xinhui.

The government-run shipyards affiliated to the Nanyang Yamen built a large number of huge warships, which gave birth to large civilian ships and cargo ships built by local private shipyards for the transportation of wood and iron.Orders for cargo ships were in short supply, and the finished cargo ships were taken away immediately. The farther went to the southwest to buy the wood needed for shipbuilding, and the nearer went to Nanhai County to deliver iron materials and ironware.

In Nanhai County, ironware workshops centered on Foshan Town have spread. With the support of the government, small iron workshops have begun to merge with each other in order to survive. Because more Fujian-Guangzhou wealthy merchants who did not do iron business have entered Foshan. With advanced technology and hired workers, he opened a factory in Nanhai County to make iron.

As long as the iron making meets the standard, there is no need to worry about not being able to sell it, because they are targeting the war beasts of the Great Ming Nanyang.

Compared with the above, Xiangshan County is much gentler. The mainstay here is the textile factory. The large amount of cotton shipped from Haojing to India is made into cotton thread by the collectively operated spinning factory here, and the cotton thread is turned into cotton cloth. sea ​​ship.

All kinds of factories require a lot of manpower. Although factories all over the country have purchased from the Nanyang Weijun Bureau or made their own hydraulic spinning wheels, hydraulic forging hammers, hydraulic sawmills and other equipment, it seems that fewer workers are required for production. But the total manpower has not decreased.

The large hydraulic spinning wheel allowed a worker to see three or even four looms, and Daming’s original loom production was already very high. The improvement in productivity brought about a substantial increase in production. As a result, the original material transportation capacity could no longer keep up. More manpower is devoted to transportation or logistical work.

The people of Guangcheng are relatively enlightened, but this is not as good as the manpower needed by this changing metropolis. The original landless and unemployed people are getting fewer and fewer, and then more and more tenants who used to be farmers are also employed. in production.

The manpower shortage in Chen Mu’s plan happened soon, but it was not in the way he imagined. It was a warrant issued by Yin Zhengmao in August from the governor’s office——every household in Guangxi was allowed to hire workers in the sea. One Ding, only one Ding shall not participate in maritime employment.

Some people don't farm anymore, because a family earns more from farming than a family from working. The result of the cross-management of the provincial government and the Nanyang Yamen is that the original ancestral method is not so easy to use at this time, and even some All the military households fled to work in factories, let alone others.

Yin Zhengmao cannot let this happen. Guangdong does not produce much grain, and the annual rice price depends on the grain price in Guangxi.Now that the people in Guangzhou have stopped farming, the impact must have been huge. This cannot be solved by bringing in a few large shipments of rice from Vietnam.

In just half a month, merchants from all over the country who opened factories and hired workers took boats to Nanyang Port to complain to Bai Yuanjie. What could Bai Yuanjie do? He could only write to Chen Mu while discussing with Zhou Xing, the prefect of Guangzhou.

"Bai, a martial artist, didn't come to the magistrate to do business for merchants because he received gold and silver. Bai didn't care whether they made money or lost money."

Bai Yuanjie has lost weight recently, and he has to deal with the mess left by Chen Mu all day long, not only to manage the transportation of luggage, but also to build warships, artillery and ordnance, and to watch the flag army restrain them, not to mention the business with Portuguese and Yi. Trade sells war profits, busy all day without touching the ground, either by boat or horseback, miserable.

Sitting in the magistrate's yamen, he raised his hand to order some tea, and said: "But the merchants are out of stock, and the luggage can't be supplied, no way."

Chen Mu's Southern Expedition is very interesting. In terms of qualifications, he is actually not qualified to lead a war of this scale, or to lead a war in his imagination.He won this opportunity, that is, all supplies come from the people.

The government of Guangzhou and the government of Guangdong and Guangxi did not care. At most, military households from the capital of Guangdong participated, and the rest relied on merchants.

He wants to buy military rations and manufacture weapons by himself. The increasingly huge demand forms a closed loop from private merchants to war in Guangzhou.In his expectation, sooner or later the Guangzhou government will be short of manpower, but it is not like this.

Zhou Xing nodded, he shook his head with a wry smile and said: "There is no precedent for these things. The Minister of Nanyang has caused a problem for Zhou. The country has always emphasized agriculture, but now the people value profits and despise agriculture. Tens of thousands of families are flocking to work. The fields in Guangcheng are all It's deserted."

"Although Chen Shuai said that he can increase the business tax, he did allow ships, irons, and cloth to go overseas to collect [-] out of [-] ships according to the market. However, many commercial companies are not easy to collect taxes, and some are easy to bully. The local tax is collected twice or even Three times, the business cannot continue at all; some are difficult to collect, and even one tax cannot be collected.”

Today, the composition of merchants operating factories in Guangdong is too complicated. There are not only Fujian-Guangzhou sea merchants, but also Yangzhou salt merchants, not to mention the Zhang and Wang families in the North. Some merchants can go directly to Tianting. The governor can't do anything to them.

"Things, I have written a manual and sent it to the cabinet, hoping to set up a new tax law in Guangzhou and designate it as a maritime port, but I don't know what the cabinet ministers will consider, and I don't know if Zhou, the prefect of Guangzhou, can continue to do it. "

Zhou Xing pretended to smile relaxedly, and said to Bai Yuanjie, "It's too early for Commander Bai to worry about merchants. The rebellion in Guangxi has been quelled, and the army has already made plans. It won't be long before they will guide the refugees from other places." Go to Guangcheng to work. It’s just this tax matter, please ask the commander, communicate more with merchants, no one wants to ruin Chen Shuai’s important matter - if they don’t pay taxes, Zhou has no choice but to kill him.”

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)