Northern Dynasties

Chapter 707 Rising Popularity
In midsummer and May, Mianbei is a lively scene, especially the big cities in the city are even more overcrowded.

With the continuous construction and production of various workshops, various products are also continuously produced, attracting customers from all over the world to gather here to choose and buy.As the origin of goods in Jingzhou, people have also enjoyed the benefits of high quality and low prices.

Jingzhou City is located in the east of the city. There are hundreds of restaurants scattered throughout it, and there are countless small stalls opened directly on the ground.What is sold in the shops are often exquisite goods sold in distant places, and they do not receive many individual customers.The street stalls sell daily necessities, attracting many people to stop and choose.

Today's Jingzhou is no longer the chaotic depression of previous years. The permanent population in Rangcheng and the surrounding areas alone is tens of thousands, and the number of households has already exceeded [-].This is only the registered population of a city, and does not include data from subordinate counties.As for the number of people doing business and trading, it can exceed tens of thousands every quarter.

The gathering of so many people in one city reflects more than just the strict and thorough municipal management and household registration system.Just how so many people sustain themselves, provide food, and other matters reflect all aspects of the social structure.

The population explosion in Rangcheng is actually a relatively special situation. Although it is also due to the administrative skills of the general manager, it is also related to the special characteristics of the place and its people.

Guan Zhong has been in power for so many years, and under Yuwentai and Su Chuo's hard work, only Chang'an and Huazhou City have reached this level of population.There are also very few civilians living in these two cities. Most of them are clans, officials and their servants, as well as scholars, craftsmen and so on who are affiliated with the palace and government. For example, Huazhou City still has a large number of people living there. There are few real free people among the government, soldiers and families.

This was because Guanzhong was heavily plowed, and Yu Wentai was really frightened by the famine, so the focus of Bafu's governance was to encourage farmers to reclaim wasteland, which became the first criterion for assessing the performance of county officials.

Therefore, the newly added households in Guanzhong were basically scattered in the countryside through land equalization. In addition, the large manor farming model that was already prevalent in Guanzhong also meant that the people did not have the need to gather in cities on a large scale.

Although there is some development of handicraft industry, the degree of marketization is also very small. Putting aside the government's military industry or imperial production, the real folk handicraft production is mainly a series of handicraft workshops with Shangyuan Qumeng as the core.

Although the Jingzhou General Administration also puts the development of agriculture in the first place, it does not ignore the development of handicrafts and commerce. After all, the geographical advantage of the Nanyang Basin is too prominent, and it is different from the relatively closed terrain of Guanzhong. Even if we talk about It is not well connected in all directions, but its connections and interactions with surrounding areas are very comprehensive. It is an important hub for east-west and north-south communication.

Especially as the Jingzhou General Administration directly controls the Yangtze River port, this geographical advantage becomes even more obvious.In addition, Jingzhou's internal political stability, good public security, and prosperous industries have greatly attracted the surrounding areas.

The cities under the Jingzhou Governor's Mansion that were divided into various areas to receive refugees were often overcrowded. Since the General Governor's Mansion began to systematically accept refugees, the number of refugees who entered the country from all corners of the country has been estimated at more than 30.Coupled with the influx of people through various other channels, it is conservatively estimated that the increase in population should exceed [-].

Such a huge number is extremely astonishing, and even far exceeds the population originally controlled by the Jingzhou General Manager's Office.It's not that everything is desolate under the rule of the General Manager, but that there are still a large number of people in various places. For example, Shannan, Handong and other places have not carried out systematic household expansion and reorganization.

The inflow of such a large population is also an important reason for the rapid development of the Jingzhou General Administration Office. The high efficiency of the General Administration Office in resettling immigrants is also amazing. Within half a year, the resettlement volume of immigrants exceeded [-]% of the influx of people.

This number is of course very remarkable. After all, the immigrants who immigrate are in an extremely chaotic state. Whether they are healthy, obedient, detained for shelter, or intend to live permanently, etc., various situations are different. It can be said that all kinds of accidents aside Factors, as long as those who enter the territory of Jingzhou General Administration and are willing to accept resettlement can settle down within half a year, obtain a piece of land or learn a craft, and thus have the basic ability to make a living.

In order to avoid conflicts between natives and guests as much as possible, the main focus of the General Administration's resettlement of these immigrants is to divert them to handicraft industries. After all, even the General Administration does not have full say in the existing land resources.

Now the population migration dividend brought by Hou Jing's Rebellion has not yet ended. If the fundamental contradiction of land resource redistribution is rashly set off, it will be tantamount to a continuation of Hou Jing's Rebellion. Moreover, it is wise to mess with yourself and retain people. fundamental priority.

Against this background, Rangcheng became the base camp for the development of Mianbei's handicraft industry.Local powerful people from Guanzhong and Jingzhou were attracted to invest in building factories, and the General Administration provided them with space and qualified workers for production.And these investments in building factories are not a blind expansion of production capacity. Not to mention the external market, there is a huge demand within the General Administration alone, and the numerous government orders can absorb most of the workshop's production capacity.

If you are in Guanzhong, this mode may not work well.The old Shaanxi people have a very fierce demand for land. If they don't have fertile land, they have to give them at least a piece of wasteland in order to retain people.

However, the immigrants accepted by the General Manager's Office are mainly from Nanliang people, and these Liang people are relatively receptive to production methods other than farming and weaving, and their own market economy is relatively prosperous. Even rural farmers have some farming in their families. It is normal to use the by-product surplus to exchange for some needles and thread.

In large cities such as Xiangyang, daily seasonings such as onion, ginger, and garlic are sold in specialized shops.This is unimaginable in Guanzhong. To eat a green onion, you still have to buy it in the market?What kind of prodigal son could do such a thing!Where can’t I plant a few green onions in front of and behind my house?Therefore, the refugees do not have much resistance to workshop work, and are even more active than reclaiming wasteland and conferring land.Because after learning a craft, you can take it with you, and if you do a day's work in exchange for a day's meal, if the situation in Mianbei goes bad one day, or the war in your hometown ends, you can just pack up and leave.However, once naturalized and granted land, there will be the burden of industry, but the freedom of advancement and retreat will be lost.

After all, these southerners were still forced by the war, and they came to Mianbei just for a temporary residence. The nostalgia for their hometown cannot be easily cut off in their hearts.

Most of the people who had industrial skills or could pass short-term training were transported into the workshops.As for the others, they were reorganized by local governments and carried out unified land reclamation work to expand the area of ​​cultivated land while meeting basic food supplies.

At any time, population is the most precious.Even if it is a rebellion, it must coerce more people to become stronger.

While accepting a large number of refugees, Li Tai also knew that although this resettlement method was efficient and quick, it would also make people feel dissatisfied and might not lead to long-term settlement.After all, there was a deep gap between the Southern and Northern Dynasties, not only in terms of emotions and habits, but even their fundamental ideologies needed to be unified.

Therefore, in order to avoid a wave of population returning home after the war, resulting in a large loss of labor force and interrupting the current prosperity and development rhythm of Jingzhou General Mansion, Li Tai also made a lot of preparations.

On the one hand, he strengthened the control over the outflow of people at various border crossings. In principle, large-scale outflows of people were not allowed without orders from state and county officials.

However, border control cannot be comprehensive, and if the blockade is too strict, it will affect commerce with surrounding areas and cause certain obstacles to the inflow of people.Therefore, this ban is limited to internal intimidation caused by the legislation, and the actual implementation is not strict.

There is another way to prevent people from leaving the country, and that is to bribe the other side.The immigration of immigrants will always have a negative impact on local people's livelihood. In addition, not all local powerful people are keen on sheltering the population and accumulating food to become kings. They mainly expel immigrants who cross the border and rarely take in them.

Such people can become the eyes and ears of the government. Through their monitoring of the countryside, they can prevent the refugees from fleeing. They can protect the village from intrusion and at the same time obtain a reward from the government.

Of course, in the face of such a large-scale refugee group, any coercive means are actually inferior.The wages are sufficient to ensure the fruits of their labor, the public security is good to ensure the safety of their personal and property, and the material supply is sufficient to ensure food consumption. As long as these are done well, most people can be appeased.

Coupled with some public relations methods to create a benevolent image of the General Manager's Office, these immigrants will gradually settle down and will no longer mess around looking for trouble.

After entering May, Mianbei is not only busy with business and people's livelihood, but also another activity has become lively, that is, people from Jiangling return to their hometown to worship their ancestors.

Li Tai decided on this project as early as the beginning of last year, and ordered Liu Guangde, the son of Liu Zhilin from Nanyang, to compile a book "Where Are the Ancestors?"

In the middle of last year, this book named "Nanyang Shicui" was compiled, and with the blessing of printing technology, thousands of copies were printed in a short period of time. Through different channels, Jiangling and other It spread throughout the country and soon became the focus of public opinion.

However, at that time Jiangling was busy counterattacking Jiankang, and Xiao Yi, the king of eastern Hunan, declared martial law on personnel, which greatly restricted Jiangling's personnel exchanges with the outside world.It was not until the news came that Jiangling was recaptured and Hou Jing was conferred the title that the martial law in Jiangling was lifted, so the filial sons and grandsons went north to search for the location of their ancestral graves.

"We must treat these Jiangling Shiliu who come from the north to find their roots with all our heart. If their search does not go well, the state government can also come forward to help."

Li Tai seriously explained to the government officials that no matter how he felt about these Jiangling people, these people still had appeal in the eyes of the people of Nanliang. The movements of their group to come north were regarded as a piece of cake in the eyes of these people. an emotional comfort.

As for Li Tai himself, he had no time to entertain these Jiangling celebrities in person. It was rare that Wang Sengbian still remembered to send Hou Jing's hands and feet, so he had to send them back to Guanzhong for everyone to see before they were dry.Of course, the most important thing was that the Chinese and foreign government summoned him to return to the government to discuss the conquest of Shu.

(End of this chapter)