Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1527, all castrated

Songhu, Liu Jin came here again, standing in a tall building overlooking this Songhu, there are many high-rise buildings on both sides of the Huangpu River, the port terminal is extremely busy, and the spacious concrete roads divide this flat land squarely.

There are neatly arranged factories in the industrial area, and the tall chimneys emit white smoke, extending to the road at the end of the field of vision, and four-wheeled carriages full of goods come and go in a hurry.

The bustling commercial district here is full of traffic and crowds. All the most fashionable elements of the Ming Dynasty converge here, and the minimalist style of the north softens the unique petty bourgeoisie sentiment of the south of the Yangtze River.

Traditional gowns and long sleeves are combined with tight pants which are becoming more and more popular now; with long hair shawls and high crowns, you can see a large number of young people with cropped cuts.

Here at the Huangpu River Wharf, billowing white smoke is billowing, steam steamers beckoning their whistles from time to time, and traditional large ships with sails are docked side by side.

"What a big change!"

Liu Jin sighed.

I vaguely remember that the last time I came to Songhu was when I was preparing for the expedition to Nanyang. Songhu at that time was just a very small ordinary county with continuous rice fields on both sides of the Huangpu River.

However, the vicissitudes of life have changed, and it has become a bustling metropolis in a blink of an eye.

It really deserves to be a place where half of Kyushu's luck is gathered. The Yangtze River is its gas vein. In addition, it is right on the middle line of the north-south shipping, and it is blessed with unique geographical advantages. Its rise and development are inevitable.

"Liu Jin, there is news from the capital that the memorials to impeach you and me will almost drown His Majesty's Qianqing Palace."

Wang Shouren said while holding a few urgent letters from the capital.

"Isn't this a normal thing?"

"I'm surprised no one has impeached you."

Liu Jin didn't care at all. Anyway, he was impeached once or twice, and he was used to it.

Anyway, as long as your skin is thick enough, you don't have to pay attention to them.

"After these people conducted thorough investigations in various places in the south of the Yangtze River, we found more than 20 slaves in factories in various places in the south of the Yangtze River. In fact, there were about [-] white slaves and about [-] black slaves. The slave trading firm in Songhu is a slave merchant who specializes in selling slaves to local factories."

Wang Shouren didn't continue to worry about whether he was impeached. As Liu Jin said, being impeached is nothing more than normal.

This time on the Jiangnan side, the Jiangnan officialdom was almost swept over. There were hundreds of officials, big and small, imprisoned in the cells, plus the confiscated gentry, big businessmen, big landlords, big families, etc. Yes, they even don't know how many people there are in the officialdom of Ming Dynasty.

These people not only impeached Liu Jin and Wang Shouren, but also conveyed their meaning to Liu Jin through various methods, asking Liu Jin to raise his hands and let him go, and make big things small and small, and don't go into Nanjing anymore. Hundreds of thousands of workers rioted.

Obviously, Liu Jin will not give up so easily. He finally waited for the opportunity to clean up the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, attack the most powerful stubborn conservative forces in Ming Dynasty, and promote the deep development of capitalism and colonialism in Ming Dynasty. How could Liu Jin stop like this.

What's more, this is a political struggle. Under the cruel reality of either you die or I live, Liu Jin has been beaten to death by these people for countless times, and now he naturally wants to repay him.

From the overall situation of Daming, the conservative forces in the south of the Yangtze River must be dealt a heavy blow, preferably completely disintegrated, so as to be more helpful to the future of Daming.

Otherwise, half of the Ming Dynasty, because these conservatives have been unable to keep up with the pace of development of the times, they always try various methods to hinder the progress of Daming.

If the confrontation between the traditional conservative forces and the emerging capitalist forces persists for a long time, a vigorous bourgeois revolution will inevitably erupt at that time, and it will naturally hurt the power of Ming Dynasty in the end.

So now that we have the opportunity, it is natural to crack down on the traditional conservatives, weaken their power, increase the power of emerging capitalism, and then gradually and completely defeat the traditional conservatives.

In Jiangnan, troubles must continue.

"20 slaves?"

Liu Jin raised his eyebrows slightly after hearing this. He didn't expect that there were so many Kunlun slaves, and there were still [-] Kunlun slaves.

Capital is profit-seeking, and the use of slaves can greatly reduce costs. Capital will naturally use slaves, especially Kunlun slaves, which have the lowest and cheapest prices. It is perfect to reduce costs.

"What about these slaves?"

Wang Shouren nodded and asked for instructions.

"All slaves are castrated~"

"Then sell all of them to Nanyang."

"The slave trading houses were closed down, the slave merchants were tried, and all the trading houses and merchants engaged in slave trading were told that only female slaves were allowed in Daming, and no other slaves were allowed."

After thinking about it, Liu Jin also ordered.

Killing all of them is naturally impossible. At any rate, it is a labor force of [-] taels. If they are sent to Nanyang, a slave can be sold for a dozen or twenty taels of silver. Calculated, this is a huge amount of several million taels of silver. wealth.

However, Liu Jin, who came from later generations, is also well aware of the dangers of slaves. If no measures are taken at the beginning for slaves, later on, after the slaves are liberated, it is very likely that doves will occupy the magpie's nest and eventually destroy the accumulation of ancestors. The huge ancestral property and the great situation.

So in this regard, we still have to learn from the Arabs in the Middle East. Arabs in the Middle East have liked to use slaves since ancient times. Whether it is black slaves from Africa or white slaves in Europe, the nobles and chiefs in the Middle East like to use them very much.

But without exception, all male slaves are castrated to protect their blood well.

"Yes!"

Wang Shouren nodded quickly, thought for a while and asked, "What about the factory owners who use slaves?"

"It's enough to fine them a symbolic amount."

Liu Jin thought of Lu Daquan. This factory owner is a very good capitalist, he is good at calculating and controlling costs, and everything else is fine. It cost him a large fortune.

"Hmm~"

Wang Shouren also agreed with this. Daming still needs capitalists like Lu Daquan very much. The local big businessmen, gentry, and families in Jiangnan have been hit hard this time, and they also need some capitalists like Lu Daquan to support them.

After all, the country of Daming is not only the north, but the south is also very important, and since ancient times, the land in the south of the Yangtze River has been a prosperous and prosperous place, and it is also a place of outstanding people.

Liu Jin didn't want to destroy Jiangnan, on the contrary, Liu Jin hoped that Jiangnan could develop and become more prosperous, so that Ming Dynasty could become more prosperous.

"This time in Nanjing, I think we need to solve it at the source."

"Now in my Daming's factories, workshops, and even commercial firms, many of them pay their workers wages once a year, and what's better is to settle their wages once a quarter or half a year."

"Although everyone attaches great importance to reputation, it is rare for wages to be settled at the end of the year. The incident in Nanjing this time was also deliberately done by them."

"But it's not a solution. Now that the market is good, large and small factories, workshops, commercial firms, etc. are doing well, and they can make money, so there will be no such thing as wages that cannot be paid."

"However, the moon waxes and wanes, and the market cannot always be good, and there will always be bad times, just like the sugar industry now."

"There are too many people growing sugar cane in Nanyang, even in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian in the Ming Dynasty, there are a lot of plantings. The output of cane sugar is increasing year by year, and the price continues to fall. It is already difficult for commercial banks to settle sugarcane money for plantations and settle wages for workers."

"I think the imperial court should introduce a new law to protect the rights and interests of workers. For example, in terms of wages, they must be settled every month and paid to workers, so that things like Nanjing will not happen again."

Wang Shouren looked at Songhu who was busy in front of him, and said carefully.

"What you said is very reasonable. I will write a detailed memorial to His Majesty later, and it will be brought up at the court meeting. However, I estimate that there will be opposition from many people."

Liu Jin couldn't be more aware of this matter.

Liu Jin himself has a large number of industries under his command, and there are millions of people working for Liu Jin. The wages paid out every year are extremely huge.

However, Liu Jin has always insisted on paying monthly wages to the workers in his industries, once a month, and mid-year and year-end bonuses are also indispensable.

This may not be the case for other people. Most factories and workshops provide food and housing. When workers work in them, they basically don’t need any expenses, and even clothes are provided.

That's why factory owners like to pay workers wages once a year, so that they can hold a lot of working capital in their hands, and even if the money is deposited in the bank, it can still earn interest.

Now if wages are paid every month, there will be less working capital in hand and less interest income. Many people will definitely not want it.

But what Wang Shouren said is also very reasonable. The rights and interests of workers must be fundamentally protected. If workers work hard for a year and don't get a penny at the end of the year, accidents will easily happen.

You must know that investment is risky. In many cases, the blind expansion of capital is extremely prone to crises, and under the model of paying wages once a year, crises are easy to occur, and when there is an economic crisis, it is also easy to cause a large number of deliberate wage arrears People who don't post.

(End of this chapter)