My life skills in Daming Liver

Seeing Su Ze frowning, Sun Zhixian could only stretch out one finger and said:

"Duke Xie Yuan, if it doesn't work, it will be 10%. You pay one hundred taels of silver, and I will return you ninety taels in private. How about it? It can't be any more!"

Su Ze didn't expect that he would suddenly become an evil gentry and local tyrant. He said:

"The Eldest Master opened his mouth, and Su Mou naturally pledged to donate. It's just that the Eldest Master said that the cheapness of the grain hurts the people. Su is very interested. Please enlighten the Elder Master."

Hearing that Su Ze was willing to donate money, Sun Zhixian breathed a sigh of relief.

Sun Zhixian won the Juren at the age of 30. After failing in the two general examinations, he filled the vacancy. Like Hai Rui, he started as a student officer. He has been an official in a county, so it can be said that he is a veteran of the officialdom with very rich experience at the grassroots level.

He stroked his goatee and talked about the reason why the low price of the valley hurt the people. Su Ze naturally knew that it was because of the deflation caused by the insufficient money supply. He didn't expect that the county magistrate in front of him could think of this.

Sure enough, Daming does not lack talents. The magistrate of Sun County can find the reason why money is poor and valleys are cheap, and Su Zegao has already given him a look.

It can be seen from the words that this magistrate Sun really understands finances.

It's a pity that because he failed to pass the Jinshi examination, Sun Zhixian could only wander among the minor officials, and he became a county magistrate at the age of fifty.

"My lord, if Su is willing to pledge, the one hundred taels of silver will be returned to me for eighty taels as I said before, and it will be considered as my contribution to the county government."

Sun Zhixian looked at Su Ze in surprise, and was almost moved to tears. As expected of Duke Xie Yuan, he really understands righteousness!

Su Ze looked at Sun Zhixian again and said, "I heard that the Grand Master was once an official in Guangzhou?"

Sun Zhixian nodded and said, "Before I came to Nanping, I was the magistrate of Chaozhou Prefecture."

Su Ze said: "I heard that Guangfu doesn't like to grow grain, and buys more grain from the sea?"

Sun Zhixian said in a low voice: "It is indeed the case in Guangfu."

Compared with Fujian, Guangdong as a whole is farther away from the imperial court, so the abolition of the sea ban is more serious.

The Portuguese were doing business on the island in a grand manner, and there were even Franji merchants who went deep into Guangzhou to buy raw silk.

With such prosperity, more fields in Guangfu have been planted with cash crops, or they have simply entered workshops to work.

Even the Guangfu area has formed a grain import trade. A large number of merchant ships transported grain from Nanyang, and then sold the low-priced grain to the local people to pay taxes and serve as rations, while the local people raised silkworms or planted sugarcane and other economic crops for sale. money.

Su Ze asked again: "I heard that there are people from Guangfu who went to Nanyang to reclaim wasteland?"

Sun Zhixian sighed and said: "There are so many good fields in Nanyang. The fields in Java and Luzon can be harvested all year round just by planting rice. Indeed, many Cantonese people have gone south to farm, especially in Luzon. It is said that Fujianese and Cantonese immigrated. As many as ten thousand people."

Sure enough, it was similar to the news I found out. Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the people of Guangdong and Fujian began to emigrate to Nanyang in an organized way. In the nearest Luzon Island, it was the first purpose of emigration.

"Why don't these immigrants go to Penghu?"

Sun Zhixian said: "What? Penghu is indeed closer to Minguang, but the imperial court set up an inspection department in Penghu to prohibit the people from landing on the island. Even if some people go to the island to open up wasteland, it will never be large."

"While Penghu is mountainous, it is not as fertile as the land in Luzon. Another reason is that the local people in Luzon do not know how to plant and do not know the value of the land. They often sell the land for a small profit. I heard that in Luzon There are big landowners who own thousands of hectares."

Su Ze wrote down these, and then bid farewell to Sun Zhixian.

With Su Ze taking the lead in donating, the local squires in Nanping paid out coyly, and the magistrate of Sun County was also very trustworthy, and returned the eighty taels of silver back to Su Ze on the day Su Ze donated the money. .

After that, the county government was busy for a few days. Lin Chaoqing, who was working in the county government's household, informed Su Ze that Sun Zhixian had collected the money for autumn grain at the last moment, and finally completed the task of collecting autumn grain.

When it was December, Su Ze returned to Changningwei, and Lin Mojun received another letter from Yu Dayou.

The letter stated that Zhang Jing and Li Tianchong had been executed by the court, and Yu Dayou was depressed in the letter. Obviously he did not agree with the court's approach.

Su Ze also sighed. The deaths of Zhang Jing and Li Tianchong were the result of the increasingly fierce struggle between the two parties in the court.

People like Zhang Jing and Li Tianchong who have not joined any party are gradually losing their foothold in the court.

The strict party wants to promote its own people to preside over the anti-Japanese war, and Qingliu also wants to promote its own people to preside over the anti-Japanese war.

Zhang Jing and Li Tianchong made the mistake of not taking refuge in anyone, so that no one helped them speak when they were falsely accused.

The intensity of political struggle has increased, and everyone has to report to the group to keep warm, either to join the strict party or to join the clean stream.

Zhang Jing and Li Tianchong himself were killed, and all the men in his family were assigned as sidelines. Yu Dayou said in his letter that the generals in Zhejiang had pooled up some money to serve as servants.

Su Ze also felt a little uncomfortable after reading the letter. Some people said that the political struggles of the Ming Dynasty were not very intense. In fact, political struggles of this level abound. There are not many ministers who were killed in the Ming Dynasty, let alone those who were arrested and imprisoned by Jin Yiwei. in prison.

Moreover, after the failure of political struggles in the feudal era, they were often beheaded and executed, ranging from eighty-year-old mothers to ten-year-old children.

Yu Dayou also talked about the new situation in Zhejiang in his letter.

Hu Zongxian was promoted to the governor of Zhejiang Province, the censor of the capital of Youqin. Although he has not yet added the title of governor like Zhang Jing, the imperial court has granted Hu Zongxian the right to military affairs in Nanzhili, Zhejiang and Fujian.

Hu Zongxian ordered Yu Dayou to be stationed in Taizhou, under the control of Tan Lun, the prefect of Taizhou, to be responsible for the work of preventing Japanese in Taizhou.

Yu Dayou also mentioned a general who was transferred from Shandong to Zhejiang and was in charge of defending the Second Shaoxing Mansion in Ningbo near Taizhou. Yu Dayou had a feeling that he hit it off with this general, and the two often discussed the art of war.

From the mouth of General Qi Shen, Yu Dayou also knew about the military situation in the north, and Ida violated the frontier more seriously, and even went to Datong Mansion to behead the officials of Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Jiajing decreed that whoever offered my answering head would be given 10,000 taels of silver and be awarded an earl.

But the situation in the north is still deteriorating day by day.

After closing the letter, Su Ze sighed. The people suffered the most under the chaos of war. According to Yu Dayou's letter, Zhejiang, which was originally prosperous, is now "starving and dying everywhere", and the people are "naked and without property".

Lin Mojun said: "Yu Shibo also mentioned bird guns in his letter. Yu Shibo believed that bird guns are more powerful than bows and arrows. The new Governor Hu has already asked the court to make bird guns."

Su Ze was not surprised. It would be strange if the Ming Dynasty hadn't noticed advanced weapons like bird guns until now.

From the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, the Ming army began to gradually equip bird guns, but Su Ze was not worried about the combat effectiveness of the Ming army equipped with bird guns.

Weapons and equipment are only one aspect that determines the outcome of a war. Wars are never necessarily won by the side with advanced weapons and equipment.

Don't explain the logistical support of the army's hips, the corrupt weapon manufacturing industry, and the backward military technology and tactics.

The thirty-fourth year of Jiajing finally came to an end, and it was almost the end of the year. Su Ze finally remembered that he still had a fiancée in Quanzhou Mansion, so he set off from Changningwei with gifts, first to give New Year gifts to his future mother-in-law.

This time, of course, we still take the sea route, but the New World is too eye-catching. Su Ze chose a lucky boat, which is the remaining spoils on Dongao Island. It should have been a marine merchant in Fuzhou, but was later robbed by King Lu. into the fleet.

Since he was going to visit Fang's house, Su Ze also brought Fang Aizhu, a book boy.

After returning from the last township examination, Su Ze saw that Fang Aizhu was smart in handling things, could write and count, so he arranged for him to be the shopkeeper of a shop in Nanping.

Fang Aizhu's ability is really good, and he manages the store in an orderly manner, and Su Ze also gave him a dividend as agreed.

Bringing the new rouge from the rouge shop, the new dyed cloth from the dyeing workshop, and some Nanping specialties, Su Ze embarked on the road to Quanzhou Prefecture.

From Changningwei to Quanzhou City, you only need to drive along the coastline. There are no storms along the way, and you will see Quanzhou Port in less than five days.

Quanzhou Port was the first port of foreign trade in the southeast during the Tang and Song dynasties. It was once the most prosperous city in the southeast, bar none.

The court of the Southern Song Dynasty was not good at everything, but the maritime trade was very developed. Quanzhou Port was the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road. The court of the Southern Song Dynasty relied on the benefits of maritime trade for more than a hundred years.

Su Ze looked at the withered scene of Quanzhou Port, and it was a pity that such a good port was wasted like this.

Quanzhou is one of the areas with the strictest ban on the sea. Since the implementation of the ban on the sea in the year of Hongwu, all the ports in Quanzhou have been demolished, and all the houses along the coast for ten miles have been leveled.

The Ming court also ordered the scuttling of ships moored in Quanzhou port to block the port, thus destroying a good natural port.

Quanzhou Port, where thousands of sails once sailed, is nowhere to be seen even fishing boats. Su Ze can only dock at a small port near Quanzhou, and then pull the presents onto a truck to enter Quanzhou City.

Approaching Quanzhou City and seeing the towering city walls, Su Ze was even more moved by the decline of this famous city.

The rise of Fuzhou Port was also one of the reasons for the decline of Quanzhou. The Ming court designated Fuzhou Port as the port for Fujian tributary trade, and all ships paying tribute had to dock at Fuzhou Port. After moving to Fuzhou, Quanzhou lost the right of official navigation.

And Zhangzhou Yuegang, not far from Quanzhou, is in full swing relying on smuggling trade.

After the opening of Longqing, the Ming Court also chose to open and close at Yuegang, which made Yuegang surpass Fuzhou Port and become the largest port in Fujian.

Under the pressure of one south and one north, even smuggling ships are reluctant to go to Quanzhou Port.

The decline of port trade has also made Quanzhou more and more withered. Su Ze walked on the stone road paved in the Tang and Song Dynasties. There was no money to repair the potholed road, and the carts pulling goods were about to fall apart due to bumps.

However, there are a lot of ancient buildings in Quanzhou City. Su Ze saw a Buddhist temple in the Tang Dynasty style, a Mazu Temple in the southern Fujian style, and even saw many exotic buildings.

Based on Su Ze's [religious knowledge], it was identified that there were also Nestorian and Manichean temples. Sure enough, Quanzhou used to be China's most important port to the outside world.

However, although the port trade has declined, Quanzhou’s commerce is still very developed. It follows the style of the Song Dynasty. The houses along the street are almost all shops.

Before the Tang Dynasty, almost all businesses had to be carried out in the designated "city". When the commodity trade flourished in the Song Dynasty, "street shops" appeared. In the Qingming Riverside Picture, all the streets are shops for business.

But in the Ming Dynasty, the commodity economy regressed a bit compared to the Song Dynasty, and both Nanping and Fuzhou were similar to commercial streets.

That is, a main road is a shop, or a special market is formed in a place with convenient transportation.

Quanzhou still inherited the "street shop" form of the Song Dynasty, and unlike Nanping, the rich in Quanzhou prefer to live in the city where it is convenient, rather than living outside the city like Nanping.

Mrs. Li's natal ancestors were also rich, otherwise they would not have supported Fang Ruolan's uncle to study.

After the development of the Fang family and the Li family in recent years, the old house of the Li family has also been renovated. Under the guidance of Fang Aizhu, Su Ze walked into an alley. The concierge informed that it was the visit of the future son-in-law, and immediately led Su Ze into the house.

Because most of the rich people are crowded in the city, the houses of the rich and noble families in Quanzhou are not big. However, after entering the door, Su Ze discovered that the Li family's house is actually not small. It is just hidden in this downtown area. Can't see the universe inside.

I have really become a rich woman. If future generations can have such a villa in the downtown area, it will be a top rich family.

While Su Ze was thinking, he walked into the front hall, and the Li family actually built an exquisite garden between the front and back houses.

Su Ze continued to walk towards the main hall where the guests were received, but heard Mrs. Li's voice in the main hall.

"You said you don't want to continue the imperial examination, so that's all! Now your brother-in-law has resigned because he got you a position in the Imperial Academy! Li Zhi, what are you going to do! How about selling this ancestral property tomorrow?"

Su Ze shrank his neck, and Fang Aizhu trembled when he heard Mrs. Li's roar, and the two stopped at the side of the main hall.

A middle-aged man said: "Sister, I really can't stand the gang of rotten scholars in the Imperial College. I want to travel around and learn more."

"Study tour? It's fine if you don't go to school! You don't take care of the family's property, just throw it all to me, and the neighbors say that I miss the ancestral property!"

The middle-aged man said with a playful smile: "My sister has always been in charge of the family. These people gossip, so don't argue with them. The family business has become more and more prosperous these years. It's not all thanks to my sister."

"Fart! That's because your brother-in-law is getting bigger and bigger!"

"Extremely, extremely!"

"You don't want to go to school, and you don't want to be a housekeeper. Your brother-in-law wrote to ask you to go to Suzhou to help him prepare money, but you don't want to go either."

"How do I know about those things in Chaoguan? I can't help even if I go there. Let me tell you, isn't my future nephew going to report to the Imperial College after the new year? The Imperial College has nothing to learn. Let him go to help his brother-in-law, okay?" Is it better?"

Su Ze knew the identity of the person who spoke to Mrs. Li. He was the uncle Li Zhi that Fang Ruolan often mentioned.