Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 79 Weaving Bureau
As the saying goes, "live by the mountain, eat by the mountain; live by the water, eat by the water." Wu and Yun are the two places with the most prosperous mulberry, hemp and textile industries in the southeast. Since Yan Yi has occupied Yuncheng, he naturally has to adapt to local conditions and vigorously develop the textile industry to enrich the land and strengthen the people.

He was well aware that when the textile industry in Jiangnan reached its peak, it occupied an important position in the government's fiscal revenue.

Needless to say, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were hundreds of thousands of looms and hundreds of thousands of weavers. The textile industry in Wu County alone contributed one-tenth of the tax revenue to the national treasury.

Taking Jiangdong as an example, Sun Quan, during the reign of Emperor Sun Quan, attached great importance to the textile industry, repeatedly issuing orders to increase silk production. The number of women weaving silk for the imperial harem alone reached several thousand. The taxes and profits from the textile industry, as well as sales to various regions and overseas, became a vital source of income for the Sun family during the Three Kingdoms period.

Even if Yan Yi was slow-witted, there was no way he would not pick up this kind of wealth that was delivered to his doorstep, not to mention that he had always been a smart and decisive person.

The day after he captured Yuncheng, he publicly announced the establishment of a weaving bureau and reserved twenty acres of land and dozens of houses in the north of the city in advance to be used for the reconstruction of the weaving bureau's official temple, temple buildings and weaving yards.

Immediately afterwards, he issued an order to encourage the planting of mulberry and hemp, and reduced taxes for farmers who planted mulberry and hemp as an encouragement. At the same time, he promoted some agricultural officials and sent them to various townships to guide the people on planting methods to ensure that the mulberry seedlings could be planted in each township before the spring rain ended.

In addition, he also allocated 10 million coins from the confiscated private treasury and sent people to Wuxian and Moling to purchase looms. At the current selling price of 40,000 to 50,000 coins per loom, he could buy about 200 looms.

Notices for recruiting weavers and purchasing silk have also been posted. Once the looms are delivered, the weaving workshop of the weaving bureau can start operating.

It is worth mentioning that Yan Yi did not implement a government-run monopoly on the operation of weaving mills like he did in the salt industry. Instead, he focused on government weaving and also encouraged private individuals to set up their own weaving mills. They only had to pay a certain amount of taxes based on the amount of cloth they wove and sold.

This series of actions stunned everyone around him. It was too swift and decisive.

If they knew that Yan Yi only planned to stay in Yuncheng for a month at most and would immediately attack Zou Ta, they would not be so surprised by Yan Yi's urgency in political affairs.

He had to set up all aspects of Yuncheng's administrative framework before the army set out.

Apart from eating and sleeping, he is almost always running around every day. He doesn't even have time to enjoy the new maids and concubines he has brought into the house. He is a real workaholic.

That day, Yan Yi did not finish his city patrol until nightfall. After having dinner with his soldiers at the western military camp, he hurried back to his residence.

Just as he sat down in the main hall in the backyard and drank a few sips of hot tea, Yin Li walked in from outside and whispered beside him, "Young Master, Qian Tong has been taken to the prison. Do you want to see him now?"

When Qian Tong was first captured by Xu Sheng and Zhao Cuo, he was detained in a medical facility for treatment due to his serious injuries. He was only transferred to a prison cell recently when his injuries improved.

Yan Yi thought for a moment and said, "You go ahead and take his two sons and three daughters to meet him. I'll be there soon."

Yin Li responded with a yes and walked out of the house.

Yan Yi slowly finished his cup of tea, stood up, and accompanied by more than ten personal guards, walked out of the hall and headed towards the prison.

Prison is the Yin, and Yin governs punishment and execution. Therefore, the prison is located to the north of the official temple, facing the hearing hall in the distance.

Because the entire mansion was so large, although the prison was far away from the hearing hall, it was still within the mansion wall and was surrounded by four two-meter-high walls, isolating it from other areas of the official temple.

At this time, the moonlight is as bright as a silver thread, the sky is full of stars, and the gentle evening breeze blows across your body, making you feel refreshed and relaxed.

Yan Yi suddenly stopped and looked up at the night sky. He was momentarily intoxicated by it, and couldn't help but remember that it had been a long time since he had quietly gazed up at the stars like this. In the early days of this era, as long as it didn't rain, he would almost always look at the stars alone for a while before going to bed.

Whether in the past life or this life, we are all under the same starry sky.

Whenever he looked up at the starry sky, he would feel very close to his previous life and silently recall every detail of his past life.

But now, this feeling has faded, and he no longer misses his previous life as much as before. The positions of the two worlds in his heart seem to have shifted unconsciously.

"Bah! When did you become so sentimental?"

Yan Yi shook his head to dispel the distracting thoughts in his mind. The soft light in his eyes disappeared, and he became calm again. He walked slowly along the aisle under the wall.

After walking more than a hundred steps, they came to a concave place in the wall. Yin Li, dressed in black warrior clothes, was waiting here like a ghost. Behind him was a low prison door, which exuded a somewhat gloomy atmosphere.

Yan Yi was quite tall and had to bend down slightly before entering the prison gate.

On both sides of the prison gate are seven or eight rooms for the jailers to rest. You can see that hemp straw is burning in several of the rooms. As the flames move, several black shadows projected on the wall also sway.

The black shadows were the prison guards on duty. Hearing the noise coming from the prison gate, they came out of their rooms one after another to check. When they saw Yan Yi, they were surprised and bowed to him.

Yan Yi did not stop, and walked towards the northwest under the guidance of Yin Li and a jailer. After walking silently for dozens of steps and passing through another prison gate, two rows of prison cells appeared in his eyes.

The prison on the left, located above ground, consisted of over twenty enclosed buildings clad in dark blue bricks and black tiles. These were known as the Yang Prison, and were used to hold prisoners with less serious crimes. The prison on the right, located underground, was known as the Yin Prison. Over a dozen small cells, approximately 1.34 meters high and 3 meters long, were scattered along a low, narrow corridor. They were pitch black and filled with a foul odor, and held only serious criminals or those on death row.

Yan Yi had been to the Yin Prison once, and after one visit, he never wanted to go back. It was simply not a place for human beings. The prisoners were kept in a dark, enclosed environment for long periods of time, unable to stand and forced to curl up on the ground. Being locked up in such a place for ten days or half a month would drive them crazy if not dead.

According to Wan Bing, there was originally only the Yang Prison here, and the Yin Prison was built later on the orders of Qian Tong.

Perhaps even Qian Tong himself did not expect that one day he would be imprisoned in the underworld.

When Qian Tong was first brought to the prison, he was dragged to the cell No. Hai in the Yin Prison by the jailer and locked up for a long time. It was not until Yan Yi came tonight that he was taken to a cell on the ground floor.

crunch
In front of the prison, the jailer untied the chains, pushed open the wooden door wrapped in iron sheets, and bowed to the side.

Yan Yi walked into the prison cell and saw Qian Tong sitting crookedly on a dirty and torn mat, his clothes disheveled and his hair disheveled. His gaze, following the voice of the man, happened to meet his.

After only six or seven days of not seeing each other, Qian Tong seemed to have aged ten or twenty years. His former high spirits were gone, leaving only depression, numbness and uneasiness.

"Greetings, young master." He prostrated himself on the ground, touching the ground with his forehead, and tremblingly knelt down to pay his respects to the boy in front of him whom he had never looked at directly before.

(End of this chapter)