Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 61 On the way to Taiyuan
This time, sending his younger brother to the Wei School, sending Gu Qianhu and Gu Yunniang home, and seeing the commanding envoy were successfully completed, so Huang Laifu felt relieved.After staying in Kelan Prefecture for a few days, he also got news from his adoptive father's commanding envoy Liu Jingchun. With Liu Jingchun going out in person, Kelan Zhizhou is naturally not a problem.

Regarding the matter of the cashmere ranch in Kelan, Mr. Liu Jingchun has "reached a broad consensus" with Mr. Zhizhou. After Huang Laifu returns from his replacement, he will return to Wuzhai Fort, and then send someone to discuss the specific details.

Huang Laifu was thinking about his business, so after staying in Kelanzhou City for a few days, he got up to bid farewell and headed for the capital.

Gu Qianhu and others also knew that this matter was important and related to Huang Laifu's future, so they let Huang Laifu get up and leave.But before leaving, Gu Yunniang insisted on following Huang Laifu, in the euphemistic name of following Laifu brother to go out to see the world, also, she grew up so big, she hadn't been to the provincial capital yet.

Huang Laifu, Gu Qianhu and others naturally let her go. Anyway, she and Huang Laifu will get married soon, so it doesn't matter what gossip is. Gu Qianhu and Gu Yunniang don't care, so Huang Laifu will naturally I don't care anymore, it is also a beautiful thing to have a beautiful girl by my side.

June 1590, 6 AD.early morning.

Under the advice of Gu Qianhu's family, Huang Laifu, Gu Yunniang and his party got up from Kelanzhou City, passing through Lanxian County, Leifan Town, Gujiao County and other places, heading towards Taiyuan Mansion.

Along the way, Gu Yunniang, Jiang Dazhong, Yang Xiaolu and others chatted about some interesting things with great interest.Huang Laifu carefully observed the various places, especially the humanities and agriculture in various places.

After coming out of Kelanzhou City and heading all the way to Taiyuan Prefecture, Huang Laifu noticed that the agricultural conditions in various places on the way were very bad. Except for some fields near the river, most of the fields were severely droughty, and wheat seedlings were scarce.It seems that the food problem of Ming Dynasty will cause headaches for the adults in the temple again this year.

On the road, Huang Laifu also noticed a situation, that is, there was a steady stream of refugees on the road.These refugees were male and female, old and young. Some of them carried pots, and some carried children with baskets. Many of them were sallow and emaciated, with ragged clothes.However, the eyes of everyone are full of hope, and they are trying their best to go in the direction of Taiyuan Mansion.From the words of these people, Huang Laifu knew that they were hopeless because of this year's harvest, so many people made preparations as early as possible, fleeing famine first, and then they might have a chance to eat when they arrived in Taiyuan Prefecture and other big cities.

Seeing these refugees, Gu Yunniang, Jiang Dazhong and the others all quieted down, while Huang Laifu observed them carefully.From their attire, the composition of these refugees is quite complicated. Some are farmers fleeing from famine, some are military households and artisan households fleeing everywhere, and some are small traders in towns.

In fact, the problem of refugees at that time was a common social problem in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and the footprints of refugees spread all over the north and south of the Yangtze River and the borders of the country.Especially after the Xian, Xiao, and Wu dynasties, tens of thousands of people migrated, forming a huge torrent throughout the country.The distribution and scale of refugees also vary from place to place.Generally speaking, the scale of refugees in the north is large, far exceeding that in the south.

The main reasons for the refugees are natural disasters, population growth, and land mergers, and some are attracted by business and do not want to farm.This force is like the tide of migrant workers in later generations. If it is well guided, it can be used as the main source of labor for urban industry and commerce.

Huang Laifu naturally understood the strength of this force. While he was secretly startled, he also comforted himself. Fortunately, after the development of his agriculture in the future, if he wanted to develop handicrafts, at least he would not have to worry about workers.This is better than the UK a few decades later, without having to drive farmers off the land for the needs of towns and cities for manual labor.

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Of course, although there were refugees along the way, the rule of the Wanli Dynasty was still very stable at this time. Except for the countryside, the towns they passed were generally quite prosperous, especially the places closer to the big cities.

For example, Loufan Town, which people pass by today, is called Loufan County by later generations, because it is located in an important transportation area, and food, cloth, salt and other things from Taiyuan and other places to Sanguan pass through here continuously, making Loufan The town is crowded with people, singing houses, restaurants, and Jiaxuan are prosperous, and it seems to be a new commercial town.

Huang Laifu saw that there were many strong refugees in the town, sweating and braving the scorching sun, carrying goods for the merchants. The monthly rations for these people were only two buckets. flock to.It's a pity that there are not many jobs in the town, and most of the refugees still have to go to Taiyuan and other places to try their luck.

This kind of situation made Huang Laifu tremble with envy. He had never encountered such a low labor force and such a strong labor force in Wuzhaibao.It's a pity that in comparison, the Wuzhai Fort side is indeed too remote, and it is difficult to attract people.

With this emotion, Huang Laifu went on the road again. Of course, Gu Yunniang and the others did not have Huang Laifu's emotion. They just discussed excitedly about what good things they saw and what good things they bought.

Since then, all the way, the agricultural situation is basically miserable. Many rural areas are on the verge of bankruptcy, but only some towns are prosperous.Everyone was walking along the Fen River these days. After passing through Gujiao County, the Fen River turned a big bend, and it suddenly became clear to them that they had left the mountainous area and arrived at the Great Plains of Taiyuan, which is called the Jinzhong Basin in later generations.

This is the flushing area of ​​the Fen River, with a dense river network, convenient irrigation, and endless fertile land. It has always been the most important grain-producing area and commercial center in Jin Province.Huang Laifu observed carefully that although the fertility of these fields was higher than that of Wuzhaibao, the growth of the crops in the fields was not as good as that of other farms in Wuzhaibao.

However, compared with the towns and counties along the way from Kelanzhou City, the agricultural situation here is already very good. After all, this is the most important place in Jin Province, with a well-developed irrigation system and perfect water conservancy equipment. No matter how dry this year is, this area There is barely enough water in the river and the well.Huang Laifu estimated that judging from the grain production of this year's Great Plains, it should be able to feed the people in the counties and counties near Taiyuan, but it is also powerless to ask them to export grain.

Looking at the farmers working in the fields, although their farming methods and tools such as pears are more advanced than those of the prefectures and counties from Kelan Prefecture, the effect is still far inferior to Huang Laifu's large farm farming methods.If these fields belong to Huang Laifu, according to his large farm plan, he is confident that the grain production in the entire Great Plains can basically meet the needs of most people in Shanxi.

It's a pity that there are densely populated counties here, and most of the fields in this area belong to private households. Huang Laifu can only stare and drool.

The closer to Taiyuan, the busier and more populous the towns and cities are, and the complexions of the people walking in these places are much better, and their expressions are more relaxed.

Taiyuan and its vicinity were the base camps of Shanxi merchants. In the Ming Dynasty, there were 33 large commercial cities across the country, and Shanxi had Taiyuan, Pingyang, and Puzhou, which shows the prosperity of Shanxi business.At that time, there were countless wealthy merchants in Shanxi merchants, and even hundreds of thousands of wealth could not be considered rich.It is often necessary to have a net worth of millions or tens of millions to be called rich.The places where these giant merchants are concentrated are naturally the convergence of goods and wealth, and they are extremely prosperous.

Gu Yunniang, Jiang Dazhong and the others were stunned by the prosperity here and there. Everyone used to think that Kelanzhou City was already very lively, but compared with the vicinity of Taiyuan, those places in the past looked like small towns now.

However, Huang Laifu is keenly aware of the abnormal phenomenon behind this kind of prosperity and wealth. On the one hand, there are rich and wealthy families on the road, surrounded by crowds in front of the city, luxuriously dressed, spending money like water, and extremely extravagant; The haggard crowd of refugees.

On the one hand, the rich have continuous land and vast luxury houses, but on the other hand, the poor have no land to stand on. This is a strange situation in the middle and late Ming Dynasty: land was merged, and the gap between rich and poor was serious.

The situation of land annexation was not serious at least during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty. Gu Yanwu praised this time: "There are enough people in the house, and there are rooms for living, and fields for tenants."But by the time of the Longqing period, it was already "the situation is very different, most of the last rich, the original rich are few, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the ups and downs are the only ones, and the downs are changed."In the Wanli period, when the land was merged, the disparity between the rich and the poor became even more serious. , the god of money is outstanding, the greed is endless, and the flesh and blood are killing each other."

According to Huang Laifu's observation, most of the land in the Taiyuan Plain was occupied by officials and big merchants, which resulted in a large number of refugees and brought great instability to the society.

The disparity between the rich and the poor, and the abnormal prosperity of commerce also led to the rapid deterioration of the social atmosphere. The entire Ming Dynasty was rapidly luxurious from clothing, houses, utensils, weddings and funerals, and those officials and big merchants did not have much money after they made profits. Individuals do good deeds and accumulate virtue, but most of them are extravagant and mean-spirited.It has led to the deterioration of the social atmosphere, which is the ugliness brought about by the prosperity of business.

(End of this chapter)