Chapter 41 (Page 1/1)

There has never been a war that has made Canton feel as urgent and dangerous, as well as the opportunities and fortunes that come with it, as did the Ming-Western War in Luzon.

There has always been no shortage of wars between the two provinces, and in recent years, they have taken place in this land about twice a year. Whether it's a rebellion that spreads to hundreds of thousands, or hundreds of thieves plundering land, the locals seem to have become accustomed to such warfare.

Officers and soldiers beat them up, and the people's lives should be lived or lived, but they were only affected by the waves of timely migration and escape, and then walked back to their hometowns when the war was over, which never had a lasting impact on their lives.

But this battle was different, they didn't see the war, the nearest battlefield was on a lonely island thousands of miles away, but it gave Guangcheng the illusion that the war was close at hand.

In the streets, people talk about the war, as if everything is about them.

But they have nothing to do with this war, and the biggest connection between them and the war lies in Chen Mu.

From the preparatory stage of the war to September, the Canton government underwent earth-shaking changes in half a year.

On the coast of Xinhui, where the Nanyang Weigang used to be across the sea, only the light of General Chen's temple shone on the poor fishermen who had been plundered by the Japanese pirates. In the past few months, a large number of merchants and nobles have poured in, and land has been set up there as factories and shipbuilders have been hired.

Climb up Nanshan, look towards the bay, there are big ship skeletons everywhere at a glance, countless workers work like ants, you can find fortune boats, Guangzhou boats, foreign ships, shark boats and even cao boats here, all ship shapes can be found in the southern bay of Xinhui.

The government-run shipyards under the Nanyang Yamen built a large number of large warships, which gave rise to large civilian cargo ships built by local private shipyards to transport wood and ironware. Orders for cargo ships were in short supply, and the finished cargo ships were immediately taken away, and those who went to the southwest to buy the wood needed for shipbuilding, and those who were close to Nanhai County were sent iron and iron tools.

In Nanhai County, the ironware workshop centered on Foshan Town has spread, and with the support of the government, the small ironworks began to merge with each other in order to survive, because more Fujian and Guangzhou merchants who were not originally engaged in the iron industry have been stationed in Foshan, and they have opened iron-making factories in Nanhai County with foreign technology and hired labor.

As long as the iron-making standard is up to standard, there is no need to worry about not being able to sell it, because they are facing the war beasts of the Ming Nanyang.

Compared with the above, Xiangshan County is much gentler, the pillar here is the textile mill, and a large amount of cotton brought to India by Haojing is made into cotton thread by the collective spinning mill, and the cotton thread becomes cotton cloth, which is loaded on ships and sea vessels.

All kinds of factories require a huge amount of manpower, although the factories in various places have purchased from the Nanyang Guard Ordnance Bureau or made their own water-powered spinning wheels, water-powered forging hammers, water-powered sawing wood and other equipment, it seems that the number of workers required for production is less, but the total manpower has not decreased.

The hydraulic spinning wheel allows a worker to see three or even four looms, and the original output of the loom in the Ming Dynasty is already very high, and the result of the substantial increase in output brought about by the progress of productivity is that the original material capacity can no longer keep up, and more manpower is needed to put into transportation or logistics work.

The people of Guangcheng are relatively enlightened, but this is not comparable to the manpower needed in this changing metropolis, and there are fewer and fewer landless and unemployed people, and then more tenants who originally worked in agriculture are also engaged in wage production.

The manpower shortage in Chen Mu's plan soon happened, but not in the way he imagined, but from a warrant issued by Governor Yamen Yin Zhengmao in August - each household in Guangren can only pay one ding, and only one ding is not allowed to participate in maritime employment.

Some people don't farm anymore, because the profit of farming is not as much as that of a family, and the result of the cross-management of the provincial government and the Nanyang Yamen is that the original ancestral method is not so easy to use at this time, and even some military households have fled into the factory to work, not to mention others.

Yin Zhengmao could not let this happen, because Guangdong did not produce much grain, and the price of rice every year depended on the price of grain in Guangxi. Now that the people of Guangzhou have begun to stop farming, the impact must be huge, which cannot be solved by a few large ships of rice brought by the Portuguese from Vietnam.

In just half a month, businessmen who opened factories and hired workers from all over the country took a boat to Nanyang Port to complain to Bai Yuanjie, what could Bai Yuanjie do, he could only write to Chen Mu while discussing with Zhou Xing, the prefect of Guangzhou.

"Bai Moujie is a martial artist, and he didn't come to the prefect to do things for the merchant because he received gold and silver, and Bai didn't care if they made money or lost money."

Bai Yuanjie has lost weight recently, and she is in charge of the mess left by Chen Mu all day long, not only to manage the transportation of baggage, but also to manage the construction of warships, artillery and ordnance, and to watch the flag army restrain them, not to mention the trade with the Portuguese to sell war profits, and she is so busy all day that her feet do not touch the ground, either riding a boat or riding a horse, which is miserable.

He sat in the prefect's yamen, raised his hand to order some tea, and said, "But the merchant is out of stock, and the baggage can't be supplied, no." ”

Chen Mu's southern expedition is very interesting, in terms of qualifications, he is actually not qualified to lead a war of this scale, or to lead the war of his imagination. He won this opportunity, and all the supply came from the people.

The Guangzhou government does not care about the two Guangxi government governments, at most the military households of the Guangdong capital department participate, and the others rely on businessmen.

He had to buy his own rations and make his own weapons, and the increasingly huge demand in Guangzhou Prefecture formed a closed loop from civilian merchants to war. He expected that sooner or later there would be a shortage of manpower in the Guangzhou Prefecture, but this was not the case.

Zhou Xing nodded, he shook his head with a wry smile and said: "These things are unprecedented, the minister of Nanyang is a problem for Zhou, the dynasty has always emphasized agriculture, and now the people value profit over agriculture, flock to work tens of thousands of families, and the fields in Guangcheng are deserted." ”

"Although Chen Shuai said that he could increase the commercial tax, and indeed let the ships, iron, and cloth all those who pass overseas draw 15 according to the market, but now many commercial banks are not easy to collect, and some are easy to bully, and the local government collects taxes twice or even three times, and it is impossible to operate at all; Some of them are difficult to collect, and they can't even collect taxes once. ”

Nowadays, the composition of the merchants who have opened factories in Guangdong is too complicated, including Fujian, Guangzhou, and salt merchants, not to mention the Zhang, Wang and other big clans in the north.

"I have already put the matter in my hand and sent it to the cabinet, hoping to establish a new tax law in Guangcheng and make it a maritime port, but I don't know what the cabinet ministers will consider, and I don't know if Zhou, the prefect of Guangzhou, can continue to do it."

Zhou Xing pretended to smile lightly, and said to Bai Yuanjie: "The matter of Shangjia, Commander Bai is too early to worry now, the rebellion in Guangxi has been quelled, and the military gate has already been established, and it will not be long before he will guide the displaced people from other places to work in Guangcheng." It's just that this tax matter, please ask the commander, communicate with the businessmen more, and no one wants to spoil Chen Shuai's big things - if they don't pay taxes again, Zhou has no other way but to kill. ”

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