nanming man

Chapter 1008 Capital Germination
The time came to 1652 AD, July of the second year of Wuding in the Great Wei Dynasty.

The war between Ming and Wei basically came to an end. The remnants of the Ming army retreated to Guangdong, Fujian, and southern Jiangxi. The Wei army occupied southern Zhili, Zhejiang, Huguang, and northern Jiangxi.

Gao Yihuan immediately issued a decree to change Nanzhili into Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, and Huguang into Hunan and Hubei provinces. However, Beijing and Nanjing did not change their names and were still called Beijing.

After Zhu Cihong crossed Lingnan and retreated into Guangzhou, the Wei army had to digest the occupied area, and was not ready to continue the attack, so the army stopped and did not pursue it. Only Guanwai and Bashu were still fighting.

Gao Yihuan is not worried about these two battlefields. As the Wei army occupies Jiangnan and Huguang, the population, resources, and taxes have increased significantly, and the national power has skyrocketed. Consumption can also consume them.

In July, it was scorching hot in the south of the Yangtze River, and the scorching sun turned the earth white. Jin Shenghuan retreated from Hengzhou Prefecture to Changsha, Zhao Daxian also retreated from Xianxia Pass to Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, and all Wei armies retreated to different degrees to escape the scorching heat.

At this time, Gao Yihuan did not rest, but under the scorching sun, inspected various places in the south of the Yangtze River, and visited the workshops in Suzhou, Songjiang and other places.

Jiangnan gentry landlords and big merchants were originally wary of the Wei state. After all, Gao Yihuan was born as a bandit and a thieves general. They were always worried that the Wei Congress would attack them and suppress the Jiangnan gentry and merchants.

However, Gao Yihuan personally inspected workshops in various places, distributed large orders, carried out government procurement, and helped various large workshops in the south of the Yangtze River resume work, which gradually changed his view of the Wei regime, and even made some merchants feel ecstatic.

The dynasties of the past dynasties basically emphasized agriculture over merchants. The big merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, even if they had a lot of money, still had to be attached to the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, and their status was relatively low. However, the emperor of Wei personally inspected the workshops of the major merchants, which made some people keenly aware of it. Here comes the opportunity.

Songjiang Mansion is the most developed area in Jiangnan's silk weaving industry. After Gao Yihuan left Changshu and spent more than a month in Suzhou, he led a group of people to Songjiang County.

In the south of the Yangtze River, the economy is developed, and the population gathers in the cities. The city built earlier cannot accommodate that many people. Therefore, outside the county, long streets, markets, and workshops have been formed along the official roads.

Gao Yihuan and his party came on horseback. From afar, they could see the streets outside the city, with flags and streamers fluttering, and people passing by. In the distance, pillars of smoke rose from the silk reeling workshop.

"Your Majesty, Songjiang County is ahead!" Ma Hongshan, a merchant accompanying the inspection, pointed to the distance, "Should Your Majesty rest in the city, or go to the workshop now to have a look!"

Although Gao Yihuan has checked many workshops, he is still very interested in the budding capital of Jiangnan and these primitive handicraft workshops.

"Go and have a look at the workshop!" Gao Yihuan pulled the reins of the horse, pinched the horse's belly with his legs, and rushed out with a "swoosh" under his crotch.

Li Laiheng immediately led thousands of cavalry, galloped out, overtook Gao Yihuan and his party, and headed towards the workshop first.

Songjiang County knew the news of Gao Yihuan's inspection earlier, and the county magistrate and a large number of gentry and merchants greeted him outside the city. Hearing that Gao Yihuan went directly to the workshop, he hurried to the workshop.

When Gao Yihuan arrived at the workshop, thousands of Wei soldiers and guards in Xuanyi had put martial law around the workshop.

"Grassman Xia Yunxi, I greet Your Majesty, long live my emperor, long live, long live!" A middle-aged businessman in his 30s bowed to the ground, his fat body trembling slightly with excitement.

Gao Yihuan jumped off the horse, threw the whip to the guards, and said with a fatherly smile: "There is no need to be polite, I came here uninvited, I hope it will not affect the production of the workshop!"

"Your Majesty's presence is Xiaomin's blessing. It doesn't affect Xiaomin at all." Xia Yunxi kowtowed hurriedly.

Gao Yihuan waved him to get up, and seeing that he didn't look like a businessman, he couldn't help asking casually, "Do you know Xia Yunyi and Xia Wanchun from Huating, Songjiang?"

Xia Yunxi was agitated, and timidly replied: "Your Majesty, Xia Yunyi is a brother of the small people, but the small people don't approve of their behavior."

Gao Yihuan smiled slightly and said, "You don't have to be nervous. They follow Nanming and have nothing to do with you. Well, let me show you your workshop."

At the moment, Xia Yunxi took Gao Yihuan to visit the workshop, and it took nearly an hour just to go around.

The workshop covers an area of ​​more than [-] mu. There are multiple workshops for silk reeling, weaving, and cloth dyeing. In each workshop, there are hundreds of machines running at the same time, which makes Gao Yihuan a little dazed.

Along the way, Xia Yunxi explained the various procedures to Gao Yihuan. Gao Yihuan was confused, but kept nodding slightly, but only he knew if he understood.

"How does your workshop work, how many new looms can you add in a year?" Gao Yihuan looked at it, and couldn't help being full of confidence in the Jiangnan handicraft industry.

At this time, the handicraft industry in the West has not yet developed, and the products circulating in the world are mainly Chinese products. If you seize the opportunity, there is a lot to do.

Xia Yunxi said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, this workshop has not added looms for more than ten years."

"You employ so many workers, you should earn a lot every year, why not expand the scale!" Gao Yihuan frowned slightly. After capital accumulation, shouldn't it be expanded?

Xia Yunxi said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the villain does earn some money every year, but the money is used to buy land, or to lend money."

Gao Yihuan frowned, "Is rent collection and lending more profitable than workshops?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, this is not true, but more stable. In the past, the villain added looms every year, but later found that there were too many looms, and the goods could not be sold, so he stopped adding looms."

Gao Yihuan pondered for a while. Merchants in Jiangnan did not choose to continue to expand. There should be no enough market. Merchants have a low social status, cannot influence the political power, and do not have the strength to create and open up the market.

If merchants enter the political arena and can influence the imperial court's policies, they will have the confidence to continue to expand.

Gao Yihuan was silent in thought. An official came in suddenly and whispered to Chen Mingxia. After hearing this, Chen Mingxia showed a gleam of joy on his face. Then he walked up to Gao Yihuan and said angrily, "Your Majesty, Qian Muzhai was detained by the Zheng family. .”

Gao Yihuan was taken aback when he heard the words, "Why did Zheng Zhilong deduct money from Qianyi?"

Chen Mingxia's face was a little unnatural, but in the end he didn't dare to hide it, "Zheng Sen, the son of Zheng Zhilong, detained him!"

Gao Yihuan said, "What's Zheng Zhilong's attitude?"

Chen Mingxia said: "He is willing to surrender, but Zheng Sen took a group of people and ran away from Fuzhou to Quanzhou, obviously wanting to fight against Wei."

Chen Mingxia clasped his fists with a sullen face, "Your Majesty, I think the Zheng family is trying to hedge their bets, so they can't keep it!"

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(End of this chapter)