Northern Dynasties

Chapter 587
The New Year's Eve is approaching, and the people in the village are gradually ending their busy year and starting to prepare for the festival.

For most people, it is already lucky to be able to pass another year in peace. It is quite a rare enjoyment to take a break from the busy schedule near the end of the year, sleep a little longer in the morning, and eat a few more bites for dinner. What to do to prepare for the festival.

But there is one exception, and that is Shangyuan, which is located on the east bank of Luoshui River and belongs to Wuxiang County.

Today's Shangyuan is a well-known rich town. When it comes to prosperity and bustle, it is not far behind Huazhou.

Even the most inconspicuous houses in the village are large brick and tile houses with three bays at the entrance and one or two side rooms on both sides. One of them must be the weaving room for the housewife, and the other is for storing Carriages and horses, or placing farm tools.

As for the more affluent mansions, they would enter two or three times before and after, and the halls and houses would add up. A family of more than a dozen people would still be affluent, and they would have to raise a few Jihu male and female servants.

The living environment in the village is already so magnificent, and the supply of various livelihood materials is even more abundant.The Shangyuan market offers all kinds of seasonal products from all over the world.It not only meets the various needs of the common people in Shangyuan, but also there are many merchants in Zhoucheng, Chang'an and even further places to buy goods here.

People in Shangyuan also had various ways of earning a living. Men and women in their prime either worked in various workshops, or farmed and weaved as households.

No matter what they do for a living, a couple’s annual income is enough to maintain the family’s life and the rent is still there. Moreover, the men and women who work in the workshop will be paid part of the money by the workshop owner, and the Qumeng will be responsible for the rent. Make Shiwu solve it.

Li Xiaoce rode his horse on the clean gravel road in the village, looked frequently to both sides, and couldn't hide the surprise on his face: "In the early years, I only heard that the people in Guanzhong were narrow and poor, and their livelihood was difficult. I didn’t expect it to be so rich and beautiful. Hebei used to be called rich, but it’s far inferior to this town in comparison!”

Wu Jingyi, who insisted on leading Li Xiao's horse and guiding him, heard Li Xiao's emotion, turned his head and said with a smile: "Minggong's old news is not false. Before Shangyuan, it was indeed a narrow village and poor land, and the livelihood was not prosperous. But in Mr. Lang's After settling in the countryside, everything is different..."

When it comes to the changes and benefits that Li Lang brought to Shangyuan, any commoner in Shangyuan can talk endlessly. No matter how much they say, there is only one meaning in summary, that is, without Li Lang, there will never be Today's Shangyuan!

So not long after Li Tai and his father returned to Huazhou, the villagers repeatedly urged Wu Jingyi and other old family members who stayed in the hometown to invite Li Tai and his father back to the hometown.

What Li Xiao saw before was only the warm welcome of the people in Kansai to his son on human occasions. Today, when he entered the village, he actually saw the various contributions Li Tai made in the village, and he was very happy. Looking at Li Tai, he said with emotion: "I heard my son's wild words before, and I still feel a little uneasy. But now, seeing the richness of the village, what else to worry about?"

The Shangyuan City is now larger in scale, and at the end of the year, people and goods gather all day long. In order to avoid unnecessary disturbances, Li Tai specially asked Li Zhusheng to tell the villagers not to hold any grand welcome ceremony.The villagers wanted to come to congratulate him on the reunion of his father and son, so they set up a running water mat on his village, and just entered the village to have a drink.

After leading his father to visit Shangyuan, Li Tai and his party returned to the village.At this time, there were already a large number of congratulatory people in the manor. The county magistrate Zheng Man led the county yamen servants to preside over the situation here in person.

"How is this going?"

Li Tai asked when he saw a large amount of dried dried delicacies and other ingredients piled up on one side of the village.

Li Zhusheng, who went back to the village first, walked up and explained with a wry smile: "They are all gifts from the villagers. I have persuaded them many times, but I just can't stop them."

Li Tai knew that although the living standards of the villagers had improved greatly, they were only food and clothing. These rare and fashionable goods were nothing to him, but they could be a rare delicacy in each of the villagers' homes, so he decided to I plan to distribute it back to the staff.

At this time, Party Leader Zhao drove an ox cart, which was also full of dry goods.

After the car stopped, party leader Zhao got out of the car and said with a smile: "Although the common people are clumsy, they are affectionate. Knowing that the gentleman has finally returned from visiting the old man, I am very happy for the gentleman, but I am afraid that Mr. Ming I don’t feel comfortable with the local customs here, so I prepared some local delicacies and sent them to each other. I hope that there will always be one flavor that can make Minggong appreciate and cherish it, and I will love this hometown from now on!”

Hearing what Party Leader Zhao said, Li Tai also laughed, and even announced that the running water banquet in the village will last from today to the seventh day of the first month of the next year, and during this period, all villagers can come to the village to eat.

After hearing this, people in Zhuangzhong Township clapped their hands and applauded to express their thanks, and some even started singing and dancing.

The banquet in the village soon started, Li Tai saw that his father was also affected by this atmosphere, with a smile on his face, and he was far more relaxed and comfortable than when he was having a banquet with the crowd in Huazhou City earlier, so he also expressed his gratitude to his father Introduce these fellows present here, and ask about some interesting things in the village by the way.

Li Tai accompanied his father to the banquet for a while, and then invited party chief Zhao and others to continue to accompany him, while he invited Li Zhusheng, Wu Jingyi and other leaders of the Qumeng into the village to discuss matters.After Zheng Man was promoted to the county magistrate, although he no longer served as the head of the Qumeng, he was still very concerned about the affairs of the Qumeng, so he also went in to discuss matters together.

Today's Qumeng is no longer limited to things like rivers, canals, bridges, etc., but a comprehensive non-government alliance covering several nearby states.

Although the construction and maintenance of civilian rivers, canals, weirs and other fortifications are still their main business, sideline business has also penetrated into all aspects, the most important of which is lending.

There are two forms of Qumeng lending, namely, sericulture, silk and linen looms and other businesses for small households, and loans for various workshop owners.The former provides production raw materials and tools, silk cloth and other items, while the latter provides a series of support such as cash, technology and marketing. As long as the production scale and product standards required by Qumeng can be achieved, interest can even be waived.

Li Tai does not operate Qumeng as a profit-making organization, but as a platform for integrating local resources from various places in Kansai, and all he does is to promote the development of productivity.

Now Qumeng has more than 5 looms registered in Qumeng, and one loom is returned to hundreds of pieces every year. This is the cash flow of more than 500 million pieces of silk every year, although 150% of it is returned to the weavers in the form of goods. , but there are also gross profits of more than [-] million bolts of silk. Gao Aocao is becoming less and less valuable to him.

However, the management cost and initial investment of so many weaving households are also very high, and the depletion will increase as the scale increases. The profits that really fall into the hands of Qumeng are actually not as much as it seems.The most important thing about this business is to provide Qumeng with a large amount of cash flow every year, which can be developed in other industries.

In the beginning, there were not many workshops supported and invested by Qumeng. It was just some people in Shangyuan and the surrounding area who wanted to test the water, and what they took over were some upstream processing that Li Tai himself ceded without losing money.

After all, the current concept is still based on farming and weaving, and industry and commerce as the end, and a thousand horses of floating wealth is not as good as three hectares of Susukida.But for a hardworking and decent family, who would borrow money to survive?If there is another famine, the products in the workshop will not be used as food or clothing.

However, Kansai is a few years old, and the trade in Shangyuan and other places is becoming more and more prosperous, and there are more and more commodities on the market. The self-sufficient manor economy is becoming more and more cost-effective by comparison.

There are even some small households who weave diligently with only a few looms. After one year, they have enough food and clothing. In the second year, they boldly take a risk and set up a workshop with a loan. The site, technology, labor, etc. are all supplied by the canal alliance. Paying back the capital in half a year and seeing profit in half a year, the calculated income is more than the income from a few hectares of fertile land!
Last year was a year when the number of Qumeng workshops exploded. Qumeng invested in dozens of workshops just for firing bricks and tiles. The common people in Shangyuan could afford to build big houses with bricks and tiles. therefore.

As for other handicraft workshops, they are also very prosperous. Oil pressing, paper making, ink making, etc. are basically Li Tai's own manor industry. Workshops for production, so as to increase production capacity and obtain more products.

Now Li Tai's own manor no longer carries out the production of various daily necessities, and even the original core industries such as soap and essence have been gradually released to the outside world, and a complete production supply chain has been established.Li Tai's own manor is still preserved, leaving only the two cores of military industry and scientific research.

Of course, not all technologies are selflessly shared by Li Tai. For example, the water conservancy spinning wheel has not been disclosed to the outside world, and now even the ones erected along the Luoshui River have been dismantled.

Although the efficiency of this tool is amazing, it is not suitable for use in Guanzhong, where the water resource environment is relatively fragile.Once it spreads, it is foreseeable that local tyrants will compete to block the river and build weirs. Li Tai can find goods everywhere to satisfy some people in Shangyuan who leave agriculture and work, but if the whole Guanzhong really wants to play like this, it will be a lot of fun.

So today Li Tai convened Qumeng to discuss the core of Qumeng's southward movement, transferring Guanzhong's funds to Mianbei, Jianghan and other places, where both geographical resources and development prospects are better than today's Guanzhong.

The people in charge of Qumeng have been accustomed to following Li Tai's instructions in the general direction for several years. It is also a fact that Qumeng is developing rapidly. Although they have never even been to Mianbei, when Li Tai proposed to go south to Wuguan When planning, they still nodded and agreed, and each said that they would start preparations next.

Also full of confidence in Li Tai is Zheng Man, who looked at Li Tai pitifully and said: "In the past, a certain man came to this village with his lord, and the scenery in the village was getting better and better, but he didn't see him. It was really miserable. He will return next year." Town, can you take it with you?"

(End of this chapter)