Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 418 Outing
"Look, that is the waterwheel built by your husband, which cost tens of thousands of taels of silver!"

Yang Chao pointed to a large water wheel that was slowly turning by the river and said.

Around him, Yingying and Yanyan are surrounded by a group of beauties, including his wife Aimee Zhu, concubines Dong Xiaowan, Li Xiangjun and Chen Yuanyuan.

It can be said that Dong Xiaowan and Li Xiangjun posted it by themselves, but Chen Yuanyuan was entirely Yang Chao's own wish.

Chen Yuanyuan's name is too big, and her appearance is astonishing. The aura on her body and the name of the most famous beauty make any man's heart itch. Anyway, Yang Chao asked Dong Xiaowan to tell Chen Yuanyuan, and she also agreed. There was no objection, and so it was.

It is worth mentioning that Yang Chao fulfilled his promise and carried Li Xiangjun and others into the house in a big sedan chair in broad daylight.

It's not that Yang Chao used his status to destroy the customs of Ming Dynasty, but Yang Chao abolished the music books.

Yang Chao issued a decree through the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to abolish all the music registrations in the Southern Zhili area, and all the music registration population will be naturalized, so people like Chen Yuanyuan are now civilians.

This is Yang Chao's dowry to Dong Xiaowan and others: abolish the Le Ji!
Yang Chao has been in the Qinhuai River for a long time, and he has deeply realized how terrible the music registration system is. Those who have never seen it will never understand how terrifying this system is for people.

The original intention of the establishment of the so-called Yueji is to take in the women and children of criminal officials and use these women as official prostitutes to humiliate the convicted officials. As a punishment system, ordinary people who hate officials may applaud.

But for the descendants of these criminals, that is not the case. After one of their ancestors committed a crime, they were reduced to a state of entertainment. Not to mention selling themselves in government-run brothels, their descendants still have to make a living out of it. This is the so-called eternal life and eternal man who steals women and prostitutes, and this is how the term "man steals women and prostitutes" comes from.

With 200 years of reproduction, the population of Le Ji in Nanjing is close to 10. They also formed families like ordinary people and had children. However, their children cannot marry and have children to carry on the family line like ordinary people. A generation is lost.

There are many such families in the Qinhuai River government-run old courtyard. For example, the Kou family from Kou Baimen is a well-known Le family.

Just imagine how sad it is to be a mother who wants to send her own daughter out to pick up guests.

The reason why Qinhuai River women like to cling to the powerful and marry them to the powerful as concubines is not necessarily because their parents love vanity, but because only in this way can their daughters get rid of their happy status, and future generations can become good citizens.

And another bad thing about this system is that not only the offspring of criminal officials will live forever as slaves and prostitutes, but once those women who are forced to do nothing, are abducted, or sold into brothels by themselves, they will also be included in the music book. Bearing a sad identity, it has been passed on to future generations.

This is exactly Yang Chao's original intention of abolishing Le Ji. It is not entirely for his own concubines. If it is for several concubines, Yang Chao can use his status to buy and sell their hometowns. Officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs have a hundred guts, but they dare not add them to the music register.

But Li Xiangjun and the others believed that Yang Chao did this for them. People always want to add a beautiful background to other people's behavior. Not as pretty as Yang Chao abolished Le Ji for his concubine, it's about love.

Therefore, the matter of Yang Chao's abolition of the music book has something to do with love, and it has become an anecdote circulated in the streets and alleys.

The concubines were also very moved. Although they knew that it was impossible for them to do so, they decided that Yang Chao's abolition of Le Ji had something to do with them. They allowed them to enter the house with eight sedan chairs, and he did not hesitate to abolish the birthplace system of the Ming Dynasty. This kind of generosity is enough to make every little girl stare at her eyes.

Of course, at the same time as the abolition of the Le Ji, Yang Chao also abolished the Craftsmanship, just like linking the abolition of the Le Ji with doting on concubines. That's why Yang Chao wants to abolish the artisan household system.

In addition to the abolition of these two native place systems, and the music register and craftsman register have become civilian registers, Yang Chao also plans to abolish the military household system, abolish, and abolish the cheap register system.

It’s just that the difficulty of the latter two is a geometric multiple of the difficulty of the first two. Military households are too involved. One-third of the population of the Ming Dynasty is almost all military households. It is too much work to completely abolish them, and military households are not like The main population of Le Ji is concentrated in the city, and the rural area accounts for less than one-tenth of it. The main population of military households is in the huge rural area. The number is huge and not concentrated. It is impossible to complete the conversion all at once, so it can only be done step by step. implement.

Yang Chao is not in a hurry, the time given to Huangfeng's mansion is three years, and within three years, all the general households will be converted into civilian households.

The most difficult thing is the low status system. Low status refers to the vast lower class, commonly known as domestic slaves. Which big family does not keep a few slaves, so the abolition of the low status system is equivalent to targeting the entire wealthy class. The resistance and turmoil encountered far surpassed the abolition of the music and artisan registration system, which is only concerned with the interests of the government.

Yang Chao also didn't want to really confront all the wealthy classes, so he planned to promote this system more slowly and gave a three-year buffer period. Within three years, he only encouraged big families to release their domestic slaves.

But there are two problems to be solved. The first is that it is impossible for a big family to solve the labor problem by itself. Whether it is a rich family in the countryside or a big family in the city, it is not their own family who do chores, and domestic slaves also depend on their masters for a living, so Yang Tide not only needs to find legal labor for the big families, but also solves the problem of domestic slaves living on their own after freedom.

The Yang family set an example by burning all the deeds of prostitution of the maidservants in the family, and then agreed with these maidservants that those who are willing to stay and work will be paid monthly. The contract system is promoted. There is a contract to guarantee the rights and interests of both the employee and the employer, and the government guarantees the contract.

Yang Chao also spends 10 taels of silver every year for the family's concubines to redeem the women in the brothel, insisting on cracking down on various unreasonable feudal dependencies.

"1 taels of silver, how can ordinary people afford it?"

When the topic turned to the windmill, Dong Xiaowan immediately realized that this was another playful act by her husband.

Yang Chao laughed and said, "No! You are too impressed with the wisdom of the people of Ming Dynasty."

But Yang Chao didn't explain right away, but put on a trick: "Look at the water wheel, lift the wooden barrel as big as a water tank to a height of [-] feet, then guide it into the wooden tank, and flow into the large water tower through the wooden tank. That water tower has [-] cubic feet of water, which is enough for the entire pier. Weifu plans to build a total of [-] waterwheels and [-] water towers along the river, from Xinjiangkou to Lion Mountain. Nanjing City has enough water.”

Dong Xiaowan sighed: "Then it will cost 100 million taels of silver to irrigate only tens of thousands of mu of land. If it is used to build canals, it may benefit the people of a county."

Yang Chao shook his head: "Wrong, this is only the cost of the first waterwheel. Now the second one is only 2000 taels."

"2000 taels is not a lot. This water truck can only irrigate 200 mu of land, so it is still too expensive. To repair some overturned cars, [-] taels of silver is enough."

Dong Xiaowan continued to do the calculations. She was meticulous and good at managing money. Now that the financial power of the Yang family's back house had been handed over to her, she never made a mistake in paying wages to the servants every month. Everyone admired her.

"It is true that a simple machine like a rollover is really cheap, because it is mature enough, but we have to take a long-term view. With these large machines, he can drive a series of technological developments. The social effect of this kind of technology diffusion is inestimable. "

Yang Chao said.

But the concubines couldn't understand what he said, and they didn't take it seriously. There were obviously cheaper overturned cars available. Apart from Yang Chao's personal preference, they couldn't see any other reasons for building this kind of big and scary water truck. reason.

"Talking about the construction of this test car, after the craftsmen used the technology of splicing masts in shipyards, they no longer need a whole piece of large material to make spokes. The cost of splicing two or three shorter pieces of wood is lower than that of a complete The hundreds of years old wood is more than ten times cheaper. You probably don’t know that the technology of splicing masts with short pieces of wood is only available in our Ming Dynasty. Western fans don’t know that their masts are all one end. And our Ming Dynasty Excellent craftsmen used wrought iron to connect the splicing gaps, and they can also withstand strong winds and waves. With a little light, Daming's ships are hundreds of taels cheaper than Western ships."

Yang Chao continued to emphasize his theory of beneficial technology.

Dong Xiaowan said: "2000 taels of silver is still too expensive, when will ordinary people afford it."

Yang Chao said: "It can be used immediately. Look, the second waterwheel is only half built, and someone has already figured out a cheaper way. It is still not cheap to use short logs to splice them together, and to use logs after all." Some people plan to use bamboo. If bamboo is used as spokes, the cost can be reduced to 300 taels, and the labor cost will not exceed 500 taels. 500 taels of silver can irrigate [-] mu of land, and water can be sent to various pools so that People can wash clothes without going to the river. In the future, when you open the pipe at home, water will flow out. How convenient it would be.”

Yang Chao was talking about the modern water delivery system.

"But how can bamboo turn such a big cart? Will it not break?"

Aimee Zhu expressed her deep doubts. No matter how you look at it, the strength of bamboo cannot be compared to a whole piece of wood.

Yang Chao laughed and said, "Who said a piece of bamboo was used?"

Aimee Zhu: "It won't work if you use two, or ten."

Yang Chao said: "They plan to use a hundred. Split the long bamboo into bamboo strips, and then put these bamboo strips together one by one to make a solid bamboo column as thick as a log, or even thicker than a log, as thick as you want. It is as thick as it is. Layer by layer, tied with hemp rope, it is very strong. Although this way, the labor cost will be higher and the time will be longer, but the cost of materials will be greatly reduced. In the future, a village will build a waterwheel. That's enough for irrigation and drinking."

"It is also necessary to build a series of elevated aqueducts to lead the water to where it is needed."

"You have so many strange ideas?"

"Strange idea? This is called the talent of the world!"

"If the father had used you earlier, Beijing would not have been broken by the rebels, and the father would not have—"

"Hey, are you going on an outing? What do you look like, Xiaowan, please persuade the princess."

Yang Chao saw that his wife suddenly thought of his father Chongzhen, and when he thought of her father, he would soon think of Queen Zhou, and when he thought of Queen Zhou, he would think of the prince who was arrested in Beijing, and when he thought of her father and younger brother, he would think of it. Will be sad and cry.

Yang Chao didn't dare to make Auntie Zhu cry, not because she spoiled her too much, but because she had Yang Chao's seed in her stomach.

Several concubines immediately surrounded the princess, and began to reassure her one by one, telling her to put the fetus first, so she didn't dare to get angry.

Yang Chao was not in the mood to look at the tall water towers and rotating waterwheels in the distance, and had no time to look at the near-completed exchange hall. He looked at the constant patrols from a distance away, and everyone in his eyes looked like the relatives of thieves. soldier.

"Zhang Dun, Li Liang, is it necessary for you two to send everyone away? They are also here for an outing!"

Zhang Dun and Li Liang, two old soldiers, according to their qualifications, it would not be a problem to be promoted to Mr. Qian or even higher, but they were unwilling to leave Yang Chao's side even if they were killed, and let them become officials. Kneeling in front of Yang Chao's house all night, Yang Chao had to take back his order.

Taking advantage of the mild autumn weather, Yang Chao took his family to Xinjiangkou for an outing. Due to the construction of a large water tanker and a large water tower, it has become a scenic spot. Many people like to come here to watch the excitement, but when Yang Chao came , Zhang Dun and Li Liang took their own soldiers and forced to disperse the people within a hundred steps.

According to their words, if someone has evil intentions, a bird gun can kill someone.

But Yang Chao said: "Even if you drive people one mile away, the cannon can still kill them!"

These two personal soldiers completely shattered Yang Chao's joy with the people.

"Uncle Yang, Uncle Yang. Get out of the way!"

A female voice suddenly rang out, and she hurried over from the barracks with a look of grief and indignation, but was blocked by the soldiers.

Seeing that he couldn't avoid it, Yang Chao waved his hand: "Let her come over."

I really don't want to see this woman, Wei Shuzhen, the daughter of the late Huaiyang Governor Wei Yinwen.

This woman has now turned into a workaholic. Since she was brought back to Nanjing by Yang Chao, Yang Chao gave her another task, asking her to take the group of skinny horses rescued by Yangzhou and have nowhere to go in the military camp. Teach soldiers to read and write.

Yang Chao now stipulates that from next year, officers above the commander-in-chief will not be able to be promoted if they cannot read and write, forcing all officers, big and small, to study literacy crazily. Enthusiasm comes from those beautiful skinny horses.

This is also the reason why Wei Shuzhen always troubles Yang Chao recently.

"Your soldiers abducted ten girls from me this month, ten girls!"

Just breaking free from the resistance of her own soldiers, Wei Shuzhen yelled at Yang Chao heartbrokenly like a brothel bust whose red card girl was pried away!
(End of this chapter)