A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 366 Industry

In the past few days, the imperial court had focused its attention on the military government of Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the south, which made the King of Yu and Wang Er in Henan become more and more powerful.

Mainly due to the combination of severe drought, locust plague and war, the area ruled by the Ming Dynasty in Henan has been eroded, with refugees fleeing in large numbers, and nine houses out of ten. Only the king's subordinates do not have to pay taxes, and they can still distribute grain after conquering the city. He could survive, so a large number of refugees fled to Runing, which he occupied, which greatly enhanced his strength.

Soon, he reversed his decline after being beaten to death by Lu Xiangsheng, gathered a large number of refugees, and became more powerful. He recaptured Nanyang, then went north to occupy Chenzhou, extending his power to Kaifeng Prefecture.

However, they were all in the north, and Wang Er's subordinates actually suffered the same disaster. He was relying entirely on the huge amount of food and grass accumulated in the homes of wealthy businessmen, but now it was beginning to be insufficient. The reason why Gu Junen proposed to start collecting taxes was also based on this consideration.

If you stay on the same page, there will be a lot more to consider.

But they are not fools. Now that the enemy is facing them, they will naturally not announce the news and disturb the people's hearts.

Therefore, when the Ming army's counter-rebellion team arrived, what they faced was the united Wang Er team.

This is naturally impossible to defeat, especially now that the Ming army is seriously in payment arrears, and its will to fight has dropped sharply, making it even more impossible to help the court risk its life.

Therefore, Emperor Wuxing once again received bad news in his palace. Fortunately, it was not news of a major defeat. The Ming army's attack was repelled by Wang Er, but several cities were lost, but the overall damage was not too much. .

Wang Er, who repelled the Ming army's attack, became even more famous. He marched north, fought consecutive battles, attacked Guide, fought against Xuzhou, and finally reached the gates of Kaifeng City, taking most of Henan into his pocket. His momentum was unparalleled for a while, and the people also had it. The titles "Northern King and Nanyan" are used to highlight the reputation of these two "big bandits".

It cannot be said that he is comparable to famous Ming generals such as Sun Chuanting, but at least he is capable of fighting.

At this time, in some other provinces of the Ming Dynasty, the bandits who had been beaten by Sun Chuanting and Chen Qiyu finally remembered their big brother, and headed for Henan one after another.

After experiencing a bloody conquest, in November of the 21st year of Wuxing, the world showed this situation:

About two-thirds of the land in Henan was occupied by Wang Er, and the northern part of Huguang also belonged to Wang Er. He even surrounded the important town of Kaifeng, which made the Ming Dynasty extremely fearful.

With the conquests during this period, some good generals were finally born even among the rebel bandits. For example, Wang Er's nephew Wang Yijing, his general Liu Zongmin, Gao Yingxiang's Liu Fangliang, Zhang Xianzhong's four son.

In terms of wealth, Wang Er is certainly much richer than these bandit leaders who are running around.

South Zhili, Zhejiang, northern Fujian, and eastern Jiangxi are occupied by the Jiangsu and Zhejiang military governments.

So when both sides had their own evil intentions, Shen Yikui and other bandit leaders led their respective subordinates to station themselves in the north of Huguang as a barrier to southern Henan.

Wang Er is also happy to accept these people. The elite soldiers of the old battalions under various bandit leaders have considerable combat effectiveness. Although he also knows that these guys have no morals and may not be sincere in seeking refuge with him, he can slowly penetrate them!

Zhang Xianzhong occupied a piece of territory on the border between Sichuan and Huguang. At this time, the offensive and defensive momentum had been reversed. While resisting the counterattack of the Ming army in Sichuan, he was picked off by Sun Chuanting. He relied on his four sons to support him.

Gao Yingxiang teamed up with "Cao Cao" Luo Rucai and other rogue bandits to confront Chen Qiyu in Jiangxi, and each had his own victory or defeat.

In addition, the other provinces are still ruled by the Ming Dynasty. Although there are still small groups of bandits, they are no longer a problem, and they are the only biggest threats. At least it seems that Ming Dynasty at this time is still a behemoth, the most powerful existence among all the forces.

……

Yan Ling didn't care too much about anything else. His focus at this time was entirely on the development of industry.

It is true that the area under the family's control has experienced rapid industrial development, but in other newly conquered areas, the degree of industrialization is extremely low. On this side, steam engines are roaring and products are being produced at a rapid pace, while on the other side, the Weaver Girl is still weaving by hand. , the hand-made firecrackers made by craftsmen look like two worlds.

If Yan Ling had not been controlling the flow of the family's industrial products mainly overseas, and only part of them flowing into the Ming Dynasty, the handicraft industry in the Ming Dynasty would have been impacted to an unknown extent, and there would have been many more unemployed people under his command.

Moreover, some factories in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are basically run by families and are "state-owned". There are almost no small factories owned by private individuals. This is actually not conducive to the development of local industry. You can't just rely on him to open factories, right?

How can this work? He also wants to lead the entire China into industrialization.

So he came up with the idea of ​​involving the landlord class, after all, they have money.

Anyway, some notorious landlords and gentry have actually been dealt with - the new government consciously declared the rule of law and expressed fairness in the ruled area, while some oppressed people held the belief that "the newly appointed officials may be Qingtian" The idea of ​​"big master" came to the county government.

Naturally, there is no need for the county government to protect these landlords and gentry. The evildoers are not in the ranks of unity. Naturally, according to the provisional constitution of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang military governments, they should be killed and sentenced for rebellion.

Just once it was successful, the follow-up became more and more uncontrollable, and many local tyrants and evil gentry were uncovered.

After this period of time, the remaining squires basically have a decent reputation, or even though they are guilty, they are not yet to the point of being jailed.

There is no big problem in using them. It just happens to slowly change their concept of "land is everything" and dig money out of their cellars.

It's a pity that most landowners and squires are actually very short-sighted - they would rather keep their one-third of an acre of land, even if the rent is now limited.

Businessmen, on the other hand, generally have a sharp eye. They saw the huge profits brought by these factories, and after registering them with the government, they opened them on their own.

So Yan Ling simply used these businessmen as a template to promote the benefits of opening a factory.

After receiving publicity for a period of time, it also worked. Some landowners were tempted and bought a few steam engines to set up small workshops, intending to try the water.

Of course, the export of steam engines is strictly restricted, and the drawings of steam engines are strictly kept, so that if they are leaked, they can be shot directly.

Yan Ling has no plans for the time being to let other countries share the convenience of the industrial age with him.

Although they already have some concepts of steam engines, they are still far away from the "universal energy" that can be put into use.

(End of this chapter)