The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 445 I don’t think you are qualified to attend this meeting

In Suzhou City, Xu Wenzhong, carrying a load of glutinous rice, walked briskly and nimbly towards Gushi Bridge.

The little grandson at home was clamoring to eat fruit and honey cake, so he wanted to sell some glutinous rice in exchange for some sugar, walnut kernels, pine nuts and candied dates.

Thinking of his chubby and intelligent grandson, Xu Wenzhong couldn't help but smile lovingly even while carrying the load on his shoulder.

His great-grandfather Xu Fang and great-great-grandfather Xu Yi were both famous Confucian scholars in Suzhou and loyal ministers. However, by the time the family line came to him, they had become illiterate due to poverty.

Even the name Xu Wenzhong was given to him by his fellow townsman Yang Qingsun after Dayu was defeated, in the hope that he could continue the Xu family's "literary legacy".

But life is better now, because after Dayu came back, he highly respected his ancestors Xu Yi and Xu Fang, father and son, who were loyal and brave Han people who never bowed their knees.

The emperor posthumously named Xu Yi, who died for his country at Tiger Hill, as Zhenjian, and granted the Xu family one hundred acres of fertile land near Suzhou City, which immediately saved the Xu family, who relied on working as silk reelers, from the brink of extreme poverty.

After solving the problem of food and clothing and even his family becoming wealthy, Xu Wenzhong's biggest dream was the same as his name. He hoped to restore the glory of his ancestors and at least have a scholar in the Xu family.

Xu Wenzhong was already 37 years old, so there was naturally no hope. His son was almost 20 years old, so it was too late. His grandson, who was only three years old, looked smart and intelligent, and might be able to inherit the cultural heritage of his ancestors in the future.

However, when he arrived at Gushi Bridge, Xu Wenzhong did not sell the glutinous rice directly to the rice shop or sell it himself as he did before, because it was said that the new currency issued by the emperor was about to come down, and at that time the price of one tael of silver would increase from 1,500 coins to 1,200 coins.

As a result, many people kept their copper coins and refused to spend them. Everyone was waiting. The huge city of Suzhou returned to the era of barter overnight.

Therefore, even places like Gushiqiao, where we originally dealt in rice, were flooded with other small vendors.

After calculating according to the previous price, everyone would use large and small scales to barter. Unless there was absolutely no other way, no one would spend a single penny.

On the second floor of a small tavern not far from Gushi Bridge, Li Xun, the seventh place in the second class of the Jinshi in the Renchen year of the Qianlong reign (1772), and his good friend Cheng Weiyuan stood side by side, watching all this in silence for a long time.

These two people are not simple. Li Xun's Changshu Li family is a wealthy family in Suzhou. They once had deep business dealings with the Suzhou Weaving House. They are a big silk merchant in Jiangnan and have a rich family fortune.

Cheng Weiyuan is even more extraordinary. He is the 31st generation grandson of Cheng Yi, one of the Two Chengs and One Zhu, and a descendant of Confucian sages. The Cheng family is also a wealthy family in Suzhou. Of course, they also engage in silk business and are a major purchaser of raw silk in Suzhou.

Historically, he also co-edited Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber with Gao E, and published the Cheng Jiaben and Cheng Yiben versions of Dream of the Red Chamber. He was able to travel around the north and south and make friends as a scholar, which shows his family wealth.

"The emperor is really patient!" Li Xun couldn't help but sigh. Even Suzhou was using barter, and most of the mechanics had stopped working and were complaining. But he could still stay in Guangdong and not come back.

"Brother Cangyun, can't you see that our Emperor is a truly ruthless man. If he can't subdue something, he would rather destroy it and rebuild it.

You see, Dayu doesn't even have half of its territory now, but Your Majesty dared to give up the fight for the Central Plains and run to the southern capital Chengtian Guangzhou Prefecture, and even fought with the Dutch red-haired people and the English golden-haired people, and completely ignored the Northern Expedition.

I think this is to subdue us Jiangnan people first, and then deal with us before the Northern Expedition. If we don't surrender, he will keep fighting us until we can no longer hold on."

Mo Zibu's silver dollar policy has been in effect for seven months, and the eight-month buffer period given to the wealthy families in the four provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi is about to expire, but less than 30% of the silver taels handed over for exchange for silver dollars, totaling less than 15 million taels of silver.

As for what many people imagined, that prices of goods soared due to a shortage of silver dollars, this did not happen.

Because the problem in Jiangnan now is not that there is too much money and too few goods, but that there is a general shortage of money after the Qing Dynasty's plundering and the wealthy families' hoarding.

At this time, money is much more valuable than goods. If Mo Zibu had not done this, it would not be soaring prices, but deflation caused by insufficient currency.

Are you still raising prices in this situation?
snort!
You can raise the price as much as you want, but I won't buy it. Mo Zibu even spread the news that the copper coin exchange rate had increased, which greatly stimulated the occurrence of barter among the people.

As for the food problem of hundreds of thousands of mechanics in Jiangnan, that is easier to solve. In other dynasties, it may be a world-shattering event, but to Mo Zibu, it is just a trivial matter.

In the past few months, rice and salted fish from Southeast Asia have been shipped to Jiangnan free of charge. If any worker has no food to eat, he can go to the Jinyiwei Beizhenfu Yamen to register. The emperor will give you food on credit and pay you back in installments when you get your salary. He will never let you starve to death.

You can even choose to go to Southeast Asia. As long as you have skills, the court will lend you money to start a business, and you can become a small workshop owner when you go there.

If your skills are average, or your skills are not needed in Nanyang, then it is easy to deal with.

Most of the mechanics in Jiangnan are literate, so they can go to Nanyang to work as teachers. If they understand Nanjing Mandarin, they can also go to Fujian, Guangdong and Nanyang to work as language teachers. There are much larger vacancies and the treatment is good, which is definitely better than being a mechanic in their hometown.

Therefore, some Jiangnan gentry still wanted to use the old tricks and incite the workers to strike as a threat, but they could not withstand Mo Zibu's three-pronged approach.

I, the Great Emperor Mo, have nothing else but abundant land and food in Nanyang. Whether you need food or development, Nanyang can satisfy all your needs.

By the way, when China really owns Southeast Asia, or even just occupies some places, it will have too much room for strategic maneuvering.

As long as you are a normal person with hands and feet and are willing to endure hardships, you can get rich.

With only over 200 million people, they own the entire East Asia and Southeast Asia. They can never be conquered no matter how hard they try. If the landlords and gentry exploit you too harshly, you can vote with your feet.

Moreover, anyone who dared to raise the price under the control of the Emperor's Jinyiwei at this time must have wanted to exile his entire family to Nanji Island (Java Island).

If you are really exiled, it is different from going there voluntarily. Those who go there voluntarily are completely one of us, while those who are exiled can only be considered half of us.

The people in the south of the Yangtze River have long passed the era of the Spring and Autumn Period when people wielded swords and killed people in anger.

Thousands of years of good life have made them very unaccustomed to that kind of life. If they really have to give up their cultural and technological advantages and live with swords and spears like the ghost-fire boys from Guangxi and western Guangdong, it will definitely be extremely uncomfortable.

At the same time, the difficulty of monitoring prices at this time was completely different from that in later generations.

In later generations, it is almost as difficult as hell to monitor prices, because there are too many commodities, too many merchants, and too many distribution channels.

But at that time, the commodity economy was not so developed. There were only so many shops in towns and cities. Many county towns only had shops on one street. The distribution channels were completely fixed, and the big customers behind the merchants were also fixed.

This makes it very easy for special agencies like the Jinyiwei to identify those who are causing trouble with the cooperation of the government.

If it were the end of the Ming Dynasty, the gentry class from top to bottom would cover for you, and you would have your own people from the cabinet minister to the county magistrate and chief clerk.

But this did not work in Dayu. The Qing Dynasty had already swept away the system in which the scholars completely controlled everything, and the foundation had been lost.

Dayu can even form its own system without relying on the people of Jiangnan. If anyone dares to cover up for each other, hehe, the Jinyiwei and the Beijing camp will be dispatched together to go to Southeast Asia.

Under these restrictions, the local tyrants in Jiangnan were basically restrained. Thanks to the Qing Dynasty's heavy blows against them, few of them were brave enough to take the initiative to cause trouble.

People like Li Xun, Cheng Weiyuan, and Zou Bingtai of the Wuxi Zou family, who formed a small alliance and frequently gathered to discuss countermeasures, were considered courageous. But the more they discussed, the more powerless they felt. Zou Bingtai lamented, "I heard that the emperor called this a major change unseen in a thousand years. He was right!"
Since Emperor Gaozong of Song moved south, Jiangnan has been the richest place in the world. I dare not talk about military matters, but when it comes to money and food, as long as we don’t agree, even the court can’t do anything about it.

However, the current emperor came from Southeast Asia, has the righteous cause of expelling the Tartars, has Fujian and Guangdong as his foundation, and Southeast Asia is vast.

I think His Majesty is really planning for us to go against him, so he can simply build a place with abundant money and grain, encompassing Southeast Asia, with Guangzhou as the center."

Mo Zibu inadvertently achieved an accomplishment that no feudal emperor since the Song Dynasty had been able to accomplish.

That is, he had ample strategic room for maneuver and did not have to rely entirely on Jiangnan for financial resources. He could completely rebuild Jiangnan.

For example, during the Ming Dynasty, the emperor also wanted to restrict the gentry class in Jiangnan, but he had no options at all.

Beijing is far away from the south of the Yangtze River and has nothing but the land of the North China Plain. Therefore, even if there had not been the tragedy of Tumu Fortress, the noble class that relied on the capital would have been defeated by the civil officials of the south of the Yangtze River in later years. Because they could not be economically independent, there was no need to talk about anything else.

As for supporting a Jiangnan in other places, the objective conditions do not allow it. Even in the future republic, the most likely Pearl River Delta cannot be compared with the Yangtze River Delta.

But in Mo Zibu's business!

The biggest problem of the Pearl River Delta is that its hinterland is too shallow, but Mo Zibu can use large sea vessels to bring resources from the Red River Plain, the Mekong River Plain, and the Chao Phraya River Plain to the Pearl River Delta.

This is too powerful. Although it may not last long, if it persists for a few decades, it will be no problem to defeat the gentry and wealthy people in Jiangnan.

At the same time, Mo Zibu also had a bunch of fellow Fujian and Guangdong people who relied on the emperor's development of Southeast Asia for their livelihood, so they were closely tied to Mo Zibu.

These people's strengths lie precisely in commerce, development, and capital. Southeast Asia has grain, and the Fujian and Guangdong folks can make money.

In this way, the gentry and wealthy merchants in Jiangnan would not be able to defeat the Fujian and Guangdong noble group behind Mo Zibu like they defeated the Huaixi nobles in the Ming Dynasty.

While a few people were having a small meeting upstairs, a tall and thin old man with white hair and beard walked up.

When Li Xun saw it, his face changed immediately, because this old man was none other than Wang Zhefu, the governor of Suzhou.

Historically, Wang Zhefu would have died in October this year, but he is alive and well in this time and space. It turns out that in this time and space, Mo Zibu rose too quickly and disrupted the selection of some officials in the Qing court.

Wang Zhefu was not exiled to Jilin for his crimes, but was dismissed from office and returned to his hometown. He did not suffer torture in the Northeast for several years, so he is still alive and well.

After Dayu recovered Jiangnan, Wang Zhefu was appointed as the prefect of Suzhou because of his long service experience in Guangdong, especially in Jiaying Prefecture, and his proficiency in Cantonese and Hakka.

However, when they saw Wang Zhefu coming, they were not too panicked. After all, although the old prefect was upright, had a bad temper, and was sharp-tongued, he was not a bad person and would not retaliate or frame others.

Wang Zhefu sighed deeply when he saw them. "Li Cangyun, Cheng Ziquan, and Zou Zhongwen, do you three really want to kill all those who followed you?"

Li Xun twisted uncomfortably and retorted in a somewhat timid manner, "Wang Futai, we didn't intend to kill anyone.

But the imperial court uses seven cents and two fen as one ounce of silver, clearly treating us common people like fat pigs. This is competing with the people for profit and plundering their blood and sweat!

Wang Zhefu raised his cane and pointed it at Li Xun fiercely, "Li Cangyun, just based on these few words of yours, you should have lost your head when the Anti-Qing Rebellion was here two years ago. And you still say you are going to drag everyone down with you to death!

If you really think so, then I will grant you your wish. I will write a letter to Yuan Jianzhai right now. I see that you have the style of Gu Xiancheng of the previous dynasty. I will ask him to recommend you to the emperor and ask him to preside over the Donglin Academy.

Li Xun's expression suddenly changed, and Wuxi native Zou Bingtai's expression also changed.

Over the past year or so, the reputation of Donglin Academy and the Donglin Party has plummeted.

In the great criticism initiated by the emperor, the Donglin Party had become one of the culprits who claimed to be righteous but was actually engaged in factional fighting. They claimed that the world was for the public but secretly harmed the public interest for their own benefit, destroyed the court's finances, and caused the overthrow of the world.

Although the Donglin Party may not be so bad in reality, it was the Donglin Party, which was full of upright people in the court, whose ability to govern the country was not as good as that of the eunuch party like Wei Zhongxian, which led to the destruction of the country.

In today's Jiangnan, the emperor has basically grasped the direction of public opinion after controlling literary masters such as Yuan Mei, Yao Nai, and Zhao Yi, as well as textual scholars such as Qian Daxin.

This is also an important reason why the Donglin Party’s reputation has deteriorated over the past year.

If anyone is labeled as a remnant of the Donglin Party now, it will not just be the end of his official career. His morality, character and other aspects will be ruined, and he will be completely cut off from the scholar community.

Seeing that Li Xun didn't dare to speak, Wang Zhefu sighed again, "Look at you, I scared you with just one sentence. With only these few tricks, why bother pretending to be a hero?"

Li Xun was so angry that he was about to speak, but Wang Zhefu immediately interrupted him.

He placed a set of tableware heavily on the table with a clang, then spread out the dishes one by one and said:
"If you, Li Cangyun and the others, are still not blinded by money and goods, then look at the current situation and see how much benefit His Majesty has given us, the gentry of Jiangnan.

Abolishing the strict rule of avoiding one's native place of origin that was strictly enforced by the Qing dynasty, establishing a republican parliament, allowing people from Jiangnan to participate in the colonization of Southeast Asia, and opening a special imperial examination specifically for Jiangnan scholars, etc., one by one, this truly meant sharing the world with the gentry."

Every time Wang Zhefu mentioned something, he placed a bowl or plate on the table. In the end, the bowls and plates filled half of the table.

"After giving you so many benefits, what do we want? All we want is for you to pay taxes properly and make Jiangnan more prosperous within the scope allowed by the court.

Now the great cause of expelling the Tartars and restoring China has not yet been completed. The Qing Dynasty has taken away a large amount of silver and the court has encountered difficulties. Although the new silver dollar is not heavy enough, it does not have much impact on you.

If you still oppose this request that benefits both the country and the people, then you are being ungrateful."

As he spoke, Wang Zhefu lifted up the largest plate and shook it, "This is the biggest benefit - the Republican Parliament. Once you enter here, you won't be convicted for your words, and you won't be targeted and have your family destroyed just because of your wealth.

"Those who follow the imperial court's policies and obey His Majesty's arrangements are entitled to a share of the benefits at this table. Those who are unwilling, humph!"

Wang Zhefu snorted coldly and threw the big plate onto the table with a clang. Then the old man in his sixties exerted force with both hands and overturned the table.

Ding ding dang dang, the dishes on the table fell to the ground and broke into pieces. Li Xun, Cheng Weiyuan and others looked pale.

"If you don't want to, I don't think you are qualified to join this association, and you are not qualified to become a gentry of the new dynasty!

This is all I have to say. There are still twenty days until the final payment of silver. I urge you to act quickly. If you continue to dawdle and be reluctant to part with a few copper coins, the next troops to come will be the imperial guards and the imperial guards."

(End of this chapter)