New Shun 1730

Liu Yu also knew that these people would not trust the court so quickly. He had tried every possible means and spent more than ten years to change the atmosphere in Songjiang, which finally made the merchants feel a little relieved.

In order to achieve this change in atmosphere, he had to grovel and lick Japan, not just for that little bit of silver.

How could merchants like the court with absolute power like Dashun?

"I know you are hesitant, but I am not in a hurry. I am just pointing out a way for you. Can you go to Songjiang and Tianjin to have a look? You can also get some meat. If you can come to Batavia, is it difficult to take a boat to Songjiang?"

"There is also a Fujian Guild Hall there. After you go there, take a look and ask more questions, and you will understand."

"You might as well say this to those who are like you and are preparing to sell their properties and go back. Let's all go and have a look, right?"

The sugarcane contractor hurriedly thanked him, but Liu Yu indicated that it was not necessary. He thought that Songjiang and Tianjin only had the organizational foundation of this model, but they still had to rely on capital to drive it.

The court could not afford to develop Nanyang.

If ordinary people came, they would still be small farmers, which was not suitable for the future positioning of Nanyang.

Batavia would definitely not be able to revive. In history, when the Seven Years' War started, the sugar industry in Batavia revived. But if Dashun conquered Southeast Asia, the sugar industry in Batavia would definitely be finished. Whether the Batavia military town could stand firm depended on whether the land reform of the rebels in Bandung could succeed.

As for the capital in the hands of the current sugarcane contractor, it was better to concentrate it and prepare for future industries such as rubber, cinchona, and gold mines.

This is not something that can be done by the small farmer model.

As they were talking, the group came under a big tree. The sugar factory slaves who had been told not to be polite and were doing what they should do and were smoking in a group with nothing to do hurriedly stood up and knelt down to salute.

Liu Yu asked the sugarcane contractors around him to leave first. After only these sugar factory slaves were left, he asked someone to bring some wine, expensive canned sugar water, ship-made salted beef, etc., and sat down to chat with these people in the way these sugar factory slaves liked more.

After a few glasses of sailor liquor, they pretended to be approachable. Perhaps these people knew that the master in front of them was pretending to be approachable. Since he was willing to be the official, they just followed his lead. It was no loss anyway.

Liu Yu first asked where they were from.

"Putian."

"Chaozhou."

Basically, they were either from Fujian or Guangdong.

"What do you think about going to Ceylon?"

At this time, they had drunk a lot of wine. A few brave ones looked at each other and said with the help of the wine, "It's good to survive. The red-haired devil said before that they would send it to Ceylon, but they said that only one out of ten people who went would survive. There were also people who said that when the ship reached the sea, they would be thrown into the sea to feed the fish. Since the court has stepped in, will the red-haired devil keep his word?"

They really didn't care too much about the hardships they might have to endure in the future.

They were not businessmen who went out to sea to do business and make a lot of money.

Instead, they were a group of people who couldn't survive in their hometown and were deceived and lured to Batavia to do hard labor. Who would be willing to come to Southeast Asia if they could survive in their hometown?

The days of being a slave in the sugarcane department were hard, and they often died of various tropical diseases, but they were not hungry. At worst, although there were no watermelons in the cotton fields, it was okay to chew sugarcane.

In the future, I could get a black woman from Bali and make do with it for the rest of my life.

Thinking that my sons would have no worries about work when they were born, they could continue to cut sugarcane and squeeze sugar; my daughters could be sent to the city to be slaves or concubines. This life still had a purpose.

Those who were really unwilling to live like this had already pulled their poles to the volcano in the south to gather.

But the purpose of this kind of life was also very fragile.

If it weren't for Niu Er and others' uprising, directly pulling away the core forces, and not doing big things around Batavia, I'm afraid these people would have followed suit.

How could they know that this was all the calculations of the court, and even their going to Ceylon was the result of the court's behind-the-scenes instigation.

Liu Yu knew the mortality rate of immigrants in Ceylon, so he could only say bad things at this time.

"Don't worry, we won't throw you into the sea on the ship."

"First, the court's ship is here, how dare the red-haired devils?"

"Second, after arriving in Ceylon, we will count the heads and count the money. Your Majesty is kind and paid you a head tax for three or two years, knowing that you really have no way to make a living, so you have to go to sea. We also hope that you will be able to get three or five acres of land in Ceylon in the future."

"When we arrive in Ceylon, we will pay a head tax for each person who lives. The red-haired devils will also pay more attention."

These slaves listened to this and felt that it was still a human word. The imperial envoy in front of them didn't look bad, so they finally said some words that they had been holding back for a long time.

"Sir, our court can't control the red-haired devils, but can't we control those fake foreign devils? The one who just talked to you, he deducts money from us all day long and whips us if we don't obey. He always uses the red-haired devils to oppress us."

"Just say that we don't have residence permits. If anyone dares to make trouble, we will be handed over to the red-haired devils and do hard labor for them. Doing hard labor for the red-haired devils is no different from being dead."

"To be honest, we work in the sugarcane department, and the red-haired devils have never bullied us, mainly because we can't see them. But the worst are those fake foreign devils."

Liu Yu smiled and picked up the wine bowl, touched it with those who dared to speak, and said with a smile: "If the red-haired ghost really doesn't bully you, then why are you afraid of doing hard labor?"

This simple sentence made these people fall into deep thought, thinking that this seemed to be the case.

"You can't say that. Then you said that when Emperor Taizu raised his army, you arrested and beat Emperor Taizu because he owed debts. Wasn't it Chongzhen?"

After laughing, he didn't say anything about curing those "fake foreign devils". Instead, he used a very disgusting metaphor.

"When I was a child, if anyone cried, my parents would tell me that if I cried again, the big hairy monkey would eat you. So, do you think the big hairy monkey is bad?"

This can be said to be very reactionary. It's as if the sugar factory contractors are the parents of these slave workers.

Even though the original purpose of these words was to say that the "big hairy monkey" was bad, these slave workers were not stupid even though they were drunk. They immediately said: "What you said is wrong, sir. If we don't do things, how can he have money to spend?" But we were fed milk when we were young, but we didn’t even say that we would help our parents to get milk after we were born.”

"If the big hairy monkey is bad, they won't be bad either? We just can't swallow this breath. We are all from the countryside, and they are trying to scare us with a red-haired ghost. What is this?"

A man who was already eighty percent drunk snorted and said, "You damn villagers. In the days of China, all the rent collectors were villagers, but you are missing half a point? If you dare to file a complaint, it will be the same." , I just said that all the people in the yamen are from them, isn’t that to scare you with the yamen?”

"What's the difference between the imperial yamen trying to scare you and trying to scare you with a red-haired ghost? If you ask me, they're all the same. Unless there are upright officials like Bao Qingtian and Hai Qingtian, it's the same everywhere."

"The Imperial Envoy is a good man. It would be great if the Imperial Envoy could serve as an official in Neng Ceylon. Our days are really promising."

Being able to say this proved that he was almost drunk. Liu Yu asked someone to add another round of wine, continued to drink everyone down and then asked: "When those people started the uprising, you were so resentful. , why didn’t you follow?”

"I wanted to leave, but I couldn't catch up. They were all busy leaving, and they were all trustworthy brothers, so we didn't have time to leave." The man who was already ninety percent drunk completely forgot that these words might cause his head to fall off.

There was also someone who was still sober after being drunk for 30%, and said quickly: "There was also a rumor at that time that the red-haired ghost went to the capital, and His Majesty the Emperor already knew about it. Some people said that the current emperor is a good emperor. Those who are fighting Rakshasa ghosts and Japanese countries cannot leave us alone. Maybe we will send Master Qingtian to investigate this matter."

"Isn't this true? Master Qingtian really gave us hope?"

Liu Yu smiled bitterly, took a sip of wine, and suddenly asked: "At first, you thought the court would take care of it, but have you ever thought about the situation in this sugar factory? How do you want the court to take care of it? How?"

The tradition that those who work hard should govern others, and those who work hard should govern others, made this question sound a bit strange, and for a while, both drunk and not drunk people were stunned.

How do you want to manage it?

They really haven't thought about this. They just think that as long as Master Qingtian comes, everything will be fine and there must be a good way to solve it.

However, now Mr. Qingtian not only doesn't care, but also asks them what kind of control they want, and they are all confused.

Liu Yu cocked his ears and waited for a long time, but he didn't get the answer he wanted, which awakened his identity consciousness.

After a long silence, someone finally said something that all the slave workers present agreed with.

"It's still like it was during the time of Emperor Taizu, equalizing the land. If all the land in the world was equal, and every family had three to five acres of land, and they didn't pay rent and only paid the royal grain, who would be willing to work?"

These words immediately triggered a warm response.

"Yes, sir, if the court equalizes the land, everyone's life will be easier. No one is willing to leave their hometown and come to Nanyang to seek a living."

"We used to be tenants renting land in our hometown. Later, we really owed a lot of debt. We had no choice but to let us go to Nanyang to work and the debt would be cleared. Who would have thought that we would get on the ship and land on the shore? He was thrown into the sugar cane field. He was unfamiliar with the place and had nowhere to run. If he was caught outside, he would have to serve as a slave laborer for the red-haired ghosts. Just three or five people died because of fighting, malaria, and diarrhea... If the fields were equalized, who would be willing to do this? "

This is a standard answer that can be imagined at this time, but it is not the answer Liu Yu wants to hear.

It is a pity that the manor slaves in Jiangnan, the tenants in Shaanxi, and the weavers in Songjiang did not have this "awareness" and refused to live in peace and starved to death. They also lacked the British peasants whose land was enclosed and entered the workhouse and did not revolt to equalize the land. "consciousness".

Even when they went to Southeast Asia, they didn't go directly to the vast "ownerless" America to farm. Instead, they were thrown here to work as slave labor.

There was a shortage of people in America. A black slave was short of 50 pounds and 150 taels of silver. He really couldn't bear to ask the slave workers in these sugar factories how much they had been sold for.

After all, the dream is still the retro mine field, but can the retro mine field solve the problem?

The Batavia Sugar Factory where the slave workers were stained with blood and tears; the Bangga Tin Mine where the miners were precarious; the Suzhou Silk Weaving Factory where they were forced to call for rest... after all, this is the direction of progress of the times.

When the last drop of wine was poured into the mouth, the conversation ended. In the following days, more people were asked in similar ways.

Days came one after another, and the day came when they had to talk to the Dutch about the Ceylon issue. The person who had followed Liu Yu and listened to his story for a few days asked Liu Yu a question before sending him to the negotiation.

"Sir, if the court goes to Southeast Asia in the future, if the market is opened, we will have to sell sugar, but we will have to compete with the sugar from Bengal, Brazil, and the Caribbean. What will you do, sir?"

Liu Yu thought about it and asked back, "What will you do?"

A young man hesitated for a moment, but then said firmly, "I will find a way to make the people in the country able to afford sugar."

Liu Yu laughed, "Then how can we afford it?"

"Uh...Equal distribution of land."

"Hahahahahaha..." Liu Yu laughed for a long time, and didn't say it was right or wrong, so he jumped on the carriage to the Governor's Mansion in Batavia.