Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

As the saying goes: There is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below.

This saying originated in the pre-Song Dynasty, when people in Suzhou boasted:
Suzhou is compared with the capital Lin'an, or even ranked ahead of it.

But in the Ming Dynasty, this became a reality:
Suzhou's prosperity is not only comparable to that of Hangzhou, but even exceeds that of Hangzhou. The annual taxes it pays are as high as nine times that of Hangzhou.

When ordinary people mention Jiangnan, they must include Suzhou and Songjiang.

When we talk about the four prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River, we usually refer to the four prefectures of Su, Song, Jiaxing and Huzhou, or the four prefectures of Su, Song, Changzhou and Zhenjiang outside Yingtian Prefecture, which are under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Jiangnan.

The five prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River usually refer to the five prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou that paid the white grain. Sometimes Hangzhou is used to replace Changzhou and the name is Susong, Hangjia and Huzhou.

If the scope is expanded further, whether it is the six prefectures, seven prefectures, eight prefectures, nine prefectures, or ten prefectures in Jiangnan, Suzhou and Songjiang will definitely be included. And Suzhou must be at the front, ranking first in Jiangnan.

It can be said that Suzhou is the most prosperous city in the Ming Dynasty and the center of the entire Jiangnan region.

The prosperity and wealth here have always been praised. The scenery and culture are also desirable, and it is regarded as a paradise.

This impression was further deepened when the emperor arranged for Qiu Ying's "Along the River During the Qingming Festival in Suzhou" to be exhibited in the capital.

Everyone who has seen the painting thinks that Suzhou deserves the title of "Paradise on Earth".

Liu Lishun had visited this painting in Beijing and had a good impression of Suzhou. When he went south to preside over the provincial examination, he deliberately passed by Suzhou.

But when he arrived in Suzhou by boat, he found that this paradise stinked and was greatly disappointed:
"Mud, shit, and urine..."

"Why is Suzhou so dirty? Even the docks are like this?"

"The station in Zhuolu District is much cleaner than this!"

After two years of his management, the roads in the entire Zhuolu District were basically hardened, and even the rural roads began to be repaired.

But in Suzhou, most of the roads, both inside and outside the city, are dirt roads, with only some alleys paved with stone slabs.

In addition, it rains a lot here, and the road becomes muddy after every rain. After Liu Lishun got off the boat in his cloth shoes, he didn't know where to go for a while.

Being used to the roads in Beijing and Zhuolu District, he felt a little uncomfortable with this muddy road.

Not to mention that there is human and animal feces in the mud, which makes people feel disgusted when they see it.

"Master, change your boots!"

"Or should we call a rickshaw?"

His follower said.

Liu Lishun shook his head and said:

"It's so hot, wearing leather boots will make your feet stuffy."

"Besides, with roads like this, can Suzhou have rickshaws?"

Pointing at the bumpy and stair-covered stone road, Liu Lishun thought that rickshaw drivers would be exhausted to death if they pulled rickshaws on such a road. Passengers would also have a bad experience and would vomit their food due to the bumps.

This made him very disappointed. He felt that although Suzhou had the reputation of "paradise on earth", it did not live up to the title.

He even had doubts in his mind:

In this situation, how did Suzhou’s reputation as a “paradise on earth” spread?

Could it be that the literati in Suzhou have been bragging about themselves?
-
His attendant, seeing that his master was unwilling to change his boots and indeed did not see the rickshaw, said:

"Then how is the master going to get out?"

"Would you like me to go to the post station first and have someone arrange a carriage?"

Liu Lishun rejected his proposal:

"If I go to the post station, won't the whole Suzhou know about it?"

"Let's just keep going around like this. We'll go to Nanjing in two days."

As the chief examiner of the Jiangnan Provincial Examination, if people knew he was here, all the scholars in Suzhou would probably flock to him.

Liu Lishun did not want to meet these people before the exam, so he rejected his followers' proposal.

Finally, after observing the local people's clothing, the two bought two pairs of tung oil boots and solved their travel problem.

When buying boots, the two felt inconvenienced again:

Silver coins and subsidiary notes have long been popular in the capital. One only needs a wallet to put the change for daily use and buy most things.

But in Suzhou, although silver coins are not rare, they are not popular. Moreover, there are very few small-denomination silver coins here, and even fewer subsidiary currency notes.

Merchants in Suzhou refused to accept subsidiary currency notes, so Liu Lishun had to take out silver coins and ask the merchant for change.

Looking at the broken silver and some scattered copper coins cut by the merchants, Liu Lishun laughed after weighing them. He had a deeper understanding of the changes in Zhuolu District:

"A day in the mountains is a thousand years in the world."

"I didn't notice it when I was in Zhuolu District, but now that I'm outside, I realize how much Zhuolu District has changed."

"Things that I used to be used to are no longer my habit now!"

In the past, Liu Lishun, who came from a poor family, would look at the small change given by merchants again and again, carefully considering its weight, quality, and so on.

For copper coins, you must count them carefully to see if they are short or bad, and then check whether they are inferior.

But after getting used to dealing with silver coins and subsidiary notes in Zhuolu District, his two skills quickly deteriorated. He almost forgot these two points when looking at small silver and copper coins.

Thinking about the fact that people in Suzhou still trade with small coins, and thinking about the flat roads and busy streets in Zhuolu District, Liu Lishun finally determined:

Suzhou's urban construction level and prosperity are no longer as good as Zhuolu District.

As long as Zhuolu District maintains its current momentum, it will surely catch up with a county in Suzhou or even surpass it in the future.

This filled him with confidence and made him firmly believe that his governance measures were correct.

At the same time, he became more confident in the task assigned to him by the emperor:
"Even Suzhou is like this, not to mention Songjiang."

"Urban governance in Jiangnan is already lagging behind, and we really need to set up a pilot project as a benchmark."

"Let's talk to the governor of Jiangnan first and ask Governor Cao to mark out a place for us."

The benchmarks for the southern parliament pilot, or county-to-district transformation, were originally set at Chuzhou and Hezhou.

However, there were major problems in the elections in these two states: various social groups and clans manipulated the elections, and many people disagreed with the election results.

In view of this situation, Shi Kefa proposed to suspend the election until he had governed for three years and completed the education of the two places.

Because of this, another election is needed for the Southern Parliament pilot.

After Liu Lishun pointed out the problems in the parliament, the emperor arrested him and ordered him to establish a new district in Suzhou and Songjiang and to organize a parliament according to his own ideas.

After the Jiangnan provincial examination is over, Liu Lishun will be given the title of Inspector Imperial Censor, responsible for inspecting Jiangnan and presiding over the construction of the new district.

Originally, he was a little worried about whether he could do it well, but now after seeing Suzhou like this, he suddenly became confident:
He believed that the new district he built on the basis of Zhuolu District would be better and let people all over the world know what the real paradise is.
-
There was a lot of rain in Suzhou, and it started raining again soon.

Liu Lishun was strolling in the streets holding an oil-paper umbrella. Looking at the pedestrians and vendors who were in a hurry in the rain, he shook his head unconsciously.

Zhuolu District does not receive as much rain as Suzhou, so there are many public toilets and straw huts on the roadside, and even pocket parks for pedestrians to rest.

Suzhou has so much rain, but you rarely see these, or you can say there is no trace of them at all. Compared with Zhuolu District, there are too few public facilities here.

Even the roads are not standardized. There is no requirement to drive on the right, and no distinction between vehicles and pedestrians.

This will cause vehicles and horses to compete for the road and traffic will be jammed.

It can be said that in Liu Lishun's eyes, Suzhou, the most prosperous city in the world, has many shortcomings.

If no changes are made, it will be surpassed by new cities such as Zhuolu District within ten years.

This made him feel the difference between the old and new cities even more, and he admired the emperor who implemented the three districts in the urban area even more:
"In the past, I felt that there were too many officials in the three urban district offices, and supporting them increased the burden on the people."

"Now it seems that these are all necessary. Without those officials to govern, wouldn't it be as chaotic as Suzhou?"

"Also, the sanitation in Suzhou is really poor. Why is there so much sewage?"

While walking, Liu Lishun accidentally stepped into a puddle and was splashed with dirty water.

No one knows how long this sewage pit has existed. It is mixed with something unknown, and the smell emitted after splashing made Liu Lishun almost vomit.

His attendant hurried over to wipe it, and advised:

"Master, let's find an inn first!"

"Let's change our clothes and avoid the rain."

He helped Liu Lishun into an inn and booked a room upstairs.

When Liu Lishun saw the shopkeeper, he simply asked his name and place of origin, then shook his head again. He felt that the governance level of Suzhou was far behind that of Zhuolu District.

This most prosperous city under the old system is completely different from the city transformed by the new system.

Especially after seeing that the fire protection facilities in the inn were just for show, he felt the gap even more.

Pointing to the water tank in the yard, Liu Lishun said:

"Shopkeeper, is the water in this tank fireproof?"

"It must be filled up at ordinary times, otherwise it will be a big problem if something goes wrong."

The shopkeeper looked at the water in the jar, but was indifferent. Instead, he sighed and said:
"Forget about the water in this jar. It's good enough to have water to drink in the kitchen."

"Master Liu, you are from another place, don't you know that there is a strike in Suzhou now?"

"My shop assistants and cooks have been instigated by that Zhang to join some kind of workers' association."

"They said if we don't agree to their conditions, we won't resume work."

"Now everything in the store has to be done by my family..."

He sighed repeatedly and cursed the employment association. He also cursed the scholar named Zhang for giving birth to a child without an anus and for cheating them for no reason.

Liu Lishun listened to him scolding for a long time, and then interrupted to ask some questions. Only then did he know that the reason Suzhou was so dirty and messy was that Zhang Pu organized a strike:
Now the slaves, servants, dung collectors, porters, laborers, even combers, pedicurists, pot-menders, bricklayers... in Suzhou were all organized by Zhang Pu and joined the workers' association.

Zhang Pu also drafted a declaration of employment for workers, requiring all employers to comply with it, otherwise they would not resume work.

So naturally, no one cleaned up the sewage and mud in Suzhou City. Some shops even closed down and could not continue to operate.

The shopkeeper said that he was too tired these days. If the waiter did not return to work, his inn would not accept new customers.

Then he started scolding Zhang Pu, blaming him for disturbing Suzhou.

Liu Lishun frowned and asked the shopkeeper:

"Shopkeeper, you are already so old, this is not a solution!"

"What conditions did the employment association put forward, and why did you not agree to them?"

The shopkeeper took out a newspaper, pointed to the front page and said:

"Look, this is it."

"Can we agree to the conditions above?"

Liu Lishun took the newspaper and found it was the "Su Bao" that he had never heard of. Judging from the name, it should be a local newspaper in Suzhou, and he didn't know when it was founded.

Then he saw the words "First Issue" on the newspaper, and the "Manifesto of Wage Workers" signed by the "Wage Workers Association" on the front page:
"The Hired Workers Association is a society established in accordance with the Ming Dynasty's etiquette and laws to protect the legitimate rights and interests of hired workers and to fight for the interests of all hired workers."

"We believe that all hired workers are workers, belonging to one of the four classes of people: scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans. Hired workers are part of the citizens, enjoying the citizen rights and fulfilling the citizen obligations stipulated by the Ming Dynasty's etiquette and laws."

“All of us employees firmly believe that in the future, in a harmonious world, employees and employers should be equal, with only differences in occupations but no differences in status.”

“We demand that all employers respect the legitimate rights and interests of their employees, and respect their lives, health and personal dignity.”

"We have the right to strike and refuse to work for employers who withhold wages, infringe on the lives and health of employees, and trample on human dignity."

Then came the strike instructions: In order to fight for the legal rights of all employees, all those who joined the Employees' Association will go on strike starting August 10. Otherwise, they will be expelled from the Employees' Association and expelled from the association.

Liu Lishun looked at these, and then looked at the conditions proposed by Zhang Pu, and said to the shopkeeper:

"Shopkeeper, I think the conditions proposed by Zhang Xiucai are not excessive!"

"Why don't you agree to the conditions so that the guy can go back to work?"

The shopkeeper said "Pah" and cursed:

"A bunch of bastards, you want to be on an equal footing with us, saying there is no difference."

"I think they just have nothing to do after eating, and they don't know how much weight they have—"

"Let's see how long they can last without us to support them."

"At worst I will close down the business and never indulge them!"

Shouting to his family to greet the guests, he showed his determination to never compromise.

Obviously, with family to rely on, he intends to stick with it.

Seeing this, Liu Lishun shook his head and didn't talk much with the shopkeeper.

But when he read the newspaper, he became quite interested in the Workers' Association.

Under Zhang Pu's organization, the Suzhou Hired Workers Association had tens of thousands of members, and the number was increasing every day, with more and more people joining the association.

With so many people, the management of the association is naturally very demanding. Especially now that joining the association means going on strike, the employment association is also responsible for the livelihood of some people.

Liu Lishun wanted to know how Zhang Pu organized these people and how he made them obey and join the strike.
He was so anxious that he wanted to find Zhang Pu to ask for clarification immediately.

The two had communicated in Beijing, and Ming Pao even set up a column for Zhuolu District.

However, his current identity is the chief examiner of the Jiangnan Provincial Examination, so it is not convenient for him to meet Zhang Pu, a candidate.

This made him suppress his thoughts, and he took out a token and told his followers:

"Go to Susong to supervise the eunuchs' office and bring back all the news about Zhang Pu and the Suzhou employees."

"I want to take a closer look at what Zhang Tianru did in Suzhou." (End of this chapter)