prosperous age

Wei Guangde continued to ramble on about his "ingenious ideas." Without a doubt, if the plan in the capital succeeded, he would open Wei Family Restaurants all over the provincial capitals of the Ming Dynasty.

This is actually the most basic real estate development model, occupying the most prosperous commercial area in the city and building such a landmark building.

It can be said that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Wei family could maintain their wealth and prosperity for three generations, or even longer, thanks to these Western-style buildings scattered throughout the Ming Dynasty.

Wei Guangde was talking with Zhang Juzheng in the Grand Secretary's office when a clerk brought him a bowl of medicine. Wei Guangde asked in surprise, "Uncle, are you unwell?"

"No problem, no problem."

Zhang Juzheng, holding a bowl of herbal medicine, replied with a smile, "The imperial physician said I'm getting old and need recuperation, so this is the herbal medicine for recuperation."

Upon hearing that it was a nourishing and conditioning tonic, Wei Guangde felt relieved at first, but then he thought of his previous cough.

Without a change in expression, Wei Guangde simply replied, "Indeed, not to mention you, Uncle Brother, I've also been feeling the need to take care of myself lately."

"Oh? You're not feeling well lately, are you? Hehe."

Zhang Juzheng had already finished the medicine in the bowl, handed it back to the clerk, waved him away, and then smiled at Wei Guangde, saying, "You should know that the body cannot tolerate strong tonics; moderation is the best policy."

In addition to his wife and two concubines in his mansion, Wei Guangde also had two separate residences, one in the inner city and one in the outer city, where he kept his mistresses.

It was a secret to the general public, but Zhang Juzheng knew it very well.

To outsiders, Wei Guangde only had two sons and one daughter, but Zhang Juzheng knew that he had two sons and two daughters. One of his sons was born to a barbarian woman brought back from the Western Regions by Yu Dayou. It is said that his hair was a bit brownish and his eyes were slightly blue, but his face shape was no different from that of a Han Chinese.

Although young, he was already very well-behaved and was deeply loved by Wei Guangde.

Of course, these are all well-known secrets within officialdom, and no one would bring them up.

For example, trying to impeach someone on this basis is nonsense and will only make one a public enemy.

Which official hasn't taken several concubines outside the official life? Strictly speaking, most of them are overstepping the bounds.

"Hehe, how could that be? My health is still pretty good."

Wei Guangde smiled amiably, but his eyes were not stealing glances at Zhang Juzheng.

"In addition, it is said that they also brought back some firearms from Europe."

Wei Guangde immediately changed the subject, telling them not to keep dwelling on these matters, as they were not topics for discussion in the cabinet.

However, just as he finished speaking, footsteps approached quickly from outside, almost jogging.

Wei Guangde was surprised, shut his mouth, and looked at the door.

The next moment, the clerk brought in an official in a blue robe.

This person is not a secretary in the cabinet; judging from his insignia, he should be a sixth-rank official in some department.

"Grand Secretary Zhang, Grand Secretary Wei, I, Yan Liang, the Chief of the Military Affairs Department of the Ministry of War, have urgent official business to report to you, Your Excellency Vice Minister."

Yan Liang took out a memorial from his sleeve, bowed respectfully, and presented it to Zhang Juzheng.

"Minister of War, what happened?"

Zhang Juzheng took the memorial and asked directly.

"An urgent report came from Xuanfu: Altan, the Shunyi King of Anda, died two days ago. The news was sent back by fast horse from Guihua City."

Yan Liang replied solemnly.

"died?"

Wei Guangde remained expressionless and simply asked the question.

They were actually prepared for this result, so they weren't surprised at all.

However, this news had a significant impact on the officials below.

In particular, the clerks in various government offices in the capital had mostly experienced the Gengxu Incident and still vividly remembered the panic in the capital at that time.

Now that the perpetrator of this incident has died, many people are actually happy.

As for the title of king conferred by the imperial court, just listen to it and don't take it seriously. The Ming Dynasty was the same.

"Reporting to Grand Secretary Wei, he is dead."

Yan Liang replied.

"What is the Ministry of War's attitude?"

Wei Guangde asked.

For any important matters, Zhang Ke would come in person.

What happened today isn't a big deal, but it's not insignificant either.

If we hadn't known beforehand, this would have been a very urgent military matter.

In any case, Altan Khan was a prince appointed by the emperor.

Well, only those of different races are qualified to live and be crowned kings.

"The Ministry of War is still discussing it, but official documents have already been sent to the generals guarding the border towns."

Yan Liang clasped his hands in a fist salute and replied.

"I understand. You can go back to the Ministry of War now. The Cabinet will discuss this matter, and we will have to wait for the Ministry of War to submit its memorial."

Wei Guangde said to him.

"Yes, I am resigning."

Yan Liang bowed to the two men again before leaving the duty room.

Zhang Juzheng had already read the official document sent from Xuanfu and casually handed it to Wei Guangde, saying, "As expected, now we just have to wait for the grasslands to report this matter to the court."

"It's probably not that simple. If Huang Taiji doesn't take over the Khanate, this memorial probably won't get through."

Wei Guangde laughed.

"Oh, yes, yes."

Zhang Juzheng then laughed.

The Ming Dynasty court's decision to appoint someone as the Prince of Shunyi was essentially a recognition that he would become the ruler of the grasslands and the new Khan.

Huang Taiji is most likely not going to take the risk of requesting an official title from the court now.

We must take control of everything that needs to be done and everything that needs to be grasped before we can report this matter to the court.

He was definitely wary of the Ming court using a double-peach strategy to kill three warriors. What would happen if the Shunyi Prince was granted to his brothers?
Although the Mongols would not obey the Ming emperor, they were still a potential threat.

"Let's see if things can settle down within two months."

After reading the official document from Xuanfu, Wei Guangde placed it directly on the table and said only one sentence.

The Ming court knew about this matter, and the only order it issued was to strengthen the defenses of the border towns and forts. Otherwise, it was as if nothing had happened.

There wasn't much discussion about it in official circles; if there was, it was mostly in private.

The public was abuzz with discussion about it. Many elderly Beijing residents seemed quite pleased, either gathering in groups of three or five to go to taverns for a celebratory drink, or setting up a table at home for a lively celebration.

Suddenly, the prices of chicken, duck, and alcohol in Beijing soared, leading to a short-term supply shortage.

Furthermore, the transfer of supplies from surrounding prefectures and counties significantly increased the revenue of the Ministry of Revenue's customs offices in places like Chongwenmen.

Wei Guangde never issued any policies to encourage the raising of chickens, ducks, and geese. In fact, the Ming Dynasty had always delegated power, leaving it entirely up to the people to decide what to plant and what to raise. Even the Agricultural Promotion Office, which Wei Guangde personally managed, only promoted selected agricultural products to gentry and farmers in various regions; there was no policy of mandatory promotion.

However, even without policy support and encouragement, the market in the Ming Dynasty was still thriving.

Do you think people who have farmed all their lives don't know how to produce crops?

Do you think people don't know when to raise poultry like chickens, ducks, and geese and when not to?
The Ming Dynasty was not as ignorant as later generations thought.

In reality, the people of the Ming Dynasty at this time were generally living quite well, except for the lazy ones.

If there's one thing that has changed, it's probably prices.

With the influx of silver and the reduction in tax arrears in various regions due to the performance evaluation system, production costs slowly increased, and prices began to show signs of rising.

Prices of poultry and grain have risen to some extent, especially after the introduction of the new monetary and tax laws based on silver, which made the price changes even more significant.

For most officials, rising prices seem like a matter of course and no one cares, but Wei Guangde is different.

If price increases are in line with income, people will naturally not have any complaints. If income increases are greater, people will be quite happy.

However, if prices rise while people's incomes do not increase, it means their living standards are declining, and they will not have smiles on their faces.

Is your surname Hu?

In fact, a rough estimate can be made by investigating prices and people's income, rather than asking them in person.

The premise is that the data is true.

Meanwhile, Wei Guangde was in his duty room looking at the price and income data of the capital city that Lu Bu had collected and compiled.

Several days had passed since the Ministry of War received the message from Xuanfu, and as expected, no official news came from the grasslands.

However, Hannaji still conveyed the news of his grandfather's death to the Governor-General of Xuanda through a letter, which can be considered an informal memorial.

"Are these data accurate?"

After reviewing the data, Wei Guangde saw that it listed the prices of grains, cloth, vegetables, and other commodities on the market, reflecting price changes over the past five years.

These were all collected by the surplus soldiers that Lu Bu found in the Beijing garrison.

They were all the second sons of their parents or those who couldn't join the camp. They couldn't find work and could only spend their days loitering on the streets.

In later generations, they were called hooligans or thugs.

However, these people know many people, so it's easy for them to collect information from all sides, and they can guarantee its authenticity.

Lu Bu came from the Jingying garrison. Because he knew a few words and had a clean background, he was recruited into the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard) as a spy and was sent by the Ministry of War to various government offices to serve as a clerk for the officials.

In the Beijing garrison, there were many familiar friends who had nothing to do.

Wei Guangde often asked him to do tasks such as gathering information. Since he wanted to work in the cabinet, he naturally sought out many such cronies for help.

Of course, his help wasn't for nothing. He would periodically withdraw a sum of money from Zhang Ji, keep a portion, and distribute the rest to his subordinates.

Well, this can be considered a way for Lu Bu to make money.

“Sir, these were collected by two separate groups of people; there’s no way to fake it.”

Lu Bu immediately said.

According to the figures submitted by Lu Bu, prices in the capital remained relatively stable for the first three years, and people's incomes were also relatively stable, with about thirty copper coins earned per day from work.

This was a relatively low income, because at that time a pound of pork cost fifteen coins in the market, and a day's work could only buy two pounds of meat.

However, in the last two years, people's income has increased significantly. Now they earn about fifty coins a day. Taking pork as an example, the price has risen to twenty coins per pound.

Other grains saw a smaller increase, only slightly over 10%, while most other fruits and vegetables also saw increases of 20% to 30%, especially cloth, which saw a significant increase, with prices rising by nearly half.

In recent years, the production of silk fabrics in the Ming Dynasty has increased, but because most of the new production capacity was shipped to Songjiang Prefecture, Tianjin and other places for export, the domestic sales of fabrics have not increased significantly. On the contrary, the price has risen as a result.

Moreover, as people in various regions now choose to work in workshops, where they have relatively stable wages that are better than farming, this has led to changes in the traditional production and lifestyle of men farming and women weaving.

Many women no longer weave at home but work in textile workshops, which has increased the demand for textiles in the market.

Most of these items are supplied to cities.

The information that Lu Bu could gather was limited to a small area around the capital, but from this glimpse, one could understand the whole picture. From this, Wei Guangde could roughly deduce the situation in other places.

At least in the productive Jiangnan region, the Ming Dynasty had unknowingly begun the process of urbanization.

Although it is the most basic level.

So, well, Wei Guangde had to admit that the people of the Ming Dynasty actually lived quite comfortably, and were definitely not in the dire straits that later generations imagined.

That's true, at least in the city.

In this respect, it seems that there is not much difference from later generations.

Moreover, the pressure of life is not that great.

Why did the ancients often say "clothing, food, housing, and transportation," placing clothing first? Because clothing is expensive. Not only is the production of fabric slow, but the making of clothes is also slow, which naturally increases the cost.

These days, ready-made clothes can be pawned at pawn shops, that's the reason.

Eating is relatively secondary, because the market can basically meet people's food needs.

Ultimately, after Zhang Juzheng's reforms during the Wanli era, many exorbitant taxes and levies were abolished, and "land throughout the country was measured in a uniform manner," so that "the amount of grain was not increased but the burden was evenly distributed, making it easier to collect taxes in the future, and the common people felt as if they had been given a new lease on life."

The Single Whip Law aimed to reduce the burden on ordinary people by making wealthy and powerful families who evaded taxes bear the bulk of the tax burden, thereby easing class contradictions and increasing national fiscal revenue.

Wei Guangde directly implemented the land tax reform, which greatly benefited ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Juzheng's reforms alone brought the Ming Dynasty to its zenith thirty years ago, a golden age that is no exaggeration.

Because the Wanli Emperor not only had appropriate laws and regulations, but also established his hegemonic position in East Asia through the three major campaigns, especially the aid to Korea, he was truly cultivating both internal and external strengths.

"Grain prices have changed relatively little."

At this moment, Wei Guangde was thinking about the food problem. If prices rose overall but grain prices rose only slightly, would it cause farmers to lose interest in farming and instead seek to work in the city?

It should be known that in ancient times, food was the most important thing for the people. Without a stable food supply, the country could easily descend into chaos.

Wei Guangde had these concerns, but Lu Bu could not share them.

The only thing he could think of was to check with the Ministry of Revenue to find out approximately how much arable land each household had on average.

If grain prices don't change much, but the amount of arable land increases, income can still be guaranteed.

However, if land prices remain unchanged while prices rise, problems may arise.

Farmers may not need to buy expensive textiles from the city, and the women in their families can weave cloth and make clothes themselves, but salt, iron, and tea are still indispensable.

The traditional small-scale farming economy, where men till the land and women weave, did not mean that farmers could meet all their living needs. It simply meant that they could solve most of their problems themselves and needed to purchase relatively few necessities from outside.

While Wei Guangde was carefully learning about the conditions of various social strata in the Ming Dynasty, Huang Taiji was throwing a tantrum in Guihua City.

Yes, he was very angry.

He entered Guihua City without any trouble, and Hannaji treated his uncle with utmost respect, which was considered an acknowledgment of his status as Khan, which pleased Huang Taiji.

However, he was rebuffed by Madam Zhong Jin.

Third Sister refused the tradition of levirate marriage, citing her admiration for Han culture, which angered Huang Taiji.

Actually, Third Sister didn't want to remarry because she disliked Huang Taiji's old age, illness, and ugly appearance. (End of Chapter)