Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 199 Economy

The Ming Dynasty can now be said to have sores on the top of the head and pus on the soles of the feet—rotten to the core, and the wind of corruption has penetrated into every aspect of this old empire, eating away at the foundation of the empire. It was used to search for people's fat and people's anointing.But sometimes a phoenix will fly out of the chicken coop. In this bureaucratic system that exudes a strong sense of stagnation and rancidity from top to bottom, there are still some people who are willing to do some practical things for the people and the country, such as Say Lu Xiangsheng, or Fang Yizhi.

Fang Yizhi came from a poor family. Three people in his family starved to death when he was a child. He knew how miserable the people were.He was also a civil servant, and he was not as brave as Lu Xiangsheng. During the Battle of Dingxing, he mustered up the courage to climb the city wall twice, and he had nightmares for half a month after the battle.He knew that he was not a Confucian general, and he did not seek to be remembered in history. He would be satisfied if he could provide the common people with a full bowl of food and be scolded as a "dog official" a few times.His idol is Pan Jixun. Old Pan is a great water conservator who can stand shoulder to shoulder with Li Bing. He has harnessed the river four times, managed the Yellow River submissively, and saved countless people in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River from flooding. It is still in use after a hundred years, and will benefit future generations. For example, in the late Qing Dynasty, when a western water conservancy expert advised the Qing court to control the Yellow River, he proudly proposed a package plan: adopt double embankments, and build embankments along the river to slow down Water dikes, high dikes diverting sediment from the Yellow River... Qing Dynasty officials were amazed by it: "It's very good, very powerful, very high-end and high-end, but...it seems that this is a theory that our ancestors put forward and put into practice 300 years ago. And technology!" As a civil servant, if he can reach the level of Lao Pan, there will be no regrets.He thought that he didn't have such powerful water control technology as Lao Pan, so he had to work hard on the development of farming --- it is also a great achievement to make the common people full of food and meat!

However, the ideal is rich, but the reality is skinny.It was only after he put his ideals into practice that he realized how much resistance there was: there was no way to carry out his decrees, and he couldn't even get out of Nanyang City.What's more terrible is that he managed to organize the common people to reclaim some wasteland. It didn't take long for the local gentry to go to the yamen with the land deeds to make a fuss. Witnesses were able to prove that the reclaimed land was theirs!After being hit hard again and again, Fang Yizhi was a little frustrated. Seeing Yang Menglong farming so well, he wanted to drag him to Nanyang to help him, but this kid refused to do it, so angry He blows his beard and stares!

"Believe it or not, I will join you for a copy?" Fang Yizhi began to threaten because he could not gain the upper hand in the competition of eyes.

Yang Menglong said: "It's useless to read my ten books!" He muttered: "Unless the government takes the lead, rich businessmen invest in it, and organize the common people to set up large farms, otherwise no matter how much land is reclaimed, it will only go to those greedy bastards. Deliver food!"

Fang Yi was stunned: "Organize ordinary people to run large farms?"

Yang Menglong said: "That's right, didn't you realize that what I'm running now is a large farm? Of the 40 million mu of land reclaimed one after another, none of the mu is privately owned, and it's all owned by Wuyangwei, military households in Wuyangwei. Shareholders don’t have to worry about seeds, oxen, farm tools, fertilizers, and they don’t even have to worry about paying taxes. As long as they take good care of their crops, they can get enough remuneration for their family to live on! I stretched out my claws on the land, and I had to honestly spit out the military fields that I had occupied before. Why? Because we are not scattered military households, but a whole. If we move our military fields, we are going against the whole Wuyangwei is against Mr. Cheng Ji, who invested 10,000+ taels of silver, and they are too powerful to allow them not to think twice.” He spread his hands and said helplessly, “The problem now is that the common people are too weak. Even you, the prefect, are too weak to fight against these local snakes. You organize the people to reclaim wasteland, and whatever they reclaim will be occupied. Even if you bring the lawsuit to the emperor, you will lose because those bastards are in the court. There are a lot of backers here! Only by finding a way to recruit more wealthy businessmen who also have people in the court, and let them crush those greedy bastards, can we keep the reclaimed fields, otherwise it is nonsense!"

Fang Yizhi remained silent.

Yang Menglong added: "There is another trick, which is to let those gentry see investment channels that can gain more benefits than occupying the fields, so that they will lose interest in the fields!"

Fang Yizhi and Zhang Tong asked in unison, "What's your plan?"

Yang Menglong pointed to the tall chimney in the distance: "I've already told you the method, which is to set up a factory! Look at the iron smelting plant, phosphate fertilizer plant, sulfuric acid plant, potato processing plant and other factories that Mr. Cheng Ji and I set up. , make more money! I won’t talk about the iron smelting plant and the phosphate fertilizer plant, which are not yet profitable. Just the potato processing plant..."

Cheng Ji said with a smile: "Last year, I hired more than [-] people to process potatoes into potato noodles and sell them, with a profit of more than [-] yuan. Now no less than ten wealthy businessmen have proposed to cooperate with me to process potatoes. The processing fee is between one yuan and five to two yuan. Although the scale of the potato processing factory has been expanded several times, the potato production is too high, and it will not be able to be busy if it is expanded several times. At least half of the potatoes have to be hired Others help with processing.”

Wuyangwei has planted 160 mu of potatoes this year. If calculated based on the average yield of 20 shi per mu last year, 140 mu is 70 million shi.Even if Yang Menglong had to keep [-] shi for himself to eat, that would be [-] million shi, and half of it would be [-] shi.The processing fee of one yuan to five to two yuan per stone, after excluding all costs, the profit that this business can earn is at least tens of thousands of taels, which is indeed much better than farming. Most importantly, winter There is still one season of potatoes, how much money should I earn after counting the two seasons?It's no wonder that so many gentry have sold their fields to set up potato processing factories—you don't make money, are you stupid?
Fang Yizhi was still a little embarrassed: "No one has ever done such a thing as setting up a factory. It violates the ancestral system..."

For thousands of years, the Chinese have been guarding a dozen acres of land, working at sunrise and resting at sunset, and passed down from generation to generation. The small-scale peasant economy has long been deeply rooted in the soul of the Chinese people. It is indeed a bit embarrassing for them to set up factories.

Zhang Tong thinks more realistically: "It is good to build a factory, but... who knows what kind of factory will make money and what kind of factory will not make money? If the factory is not profitable, the workers will have nothing to eat, and the farming will be abandoned. , who can bear this responsibility!"

Yang Menglong bulged his eyes and scolded: "Are you an idiot? You won't let them do it themselves? What kind of factory will make money and what factory won't make money? They figure it out and then do it. Why do you worry? Just catch the winners. Come here, give them a piece of land that is worthless to cultivate and let them build factories, and then collect taxes and management fees from the factory to collect garbage disposal fees, just do it!" He drew a big circle with his finger, making a big pie shape: "Build A factory has many advantages. First of all, to build a factory, you must have land, right? You need bricks? You need tiles? You need wood? You need someone to build a factory? The brick and tile workshops have made money, the loggers have made money, and the local masons have a bite to eat. If more factories are built and the business of the brick and tile workshops is booming, more talents must be recruited to be busy. In the end, with so many factories, you have to pay taxes, right? The more factories open, the more money they make, and the more taxes the government can collect. In this way, the people who run the factories make money, The people without land have food to eat, and the government has received more taxes, so everyone is happy!" After thinking for a while, he added: "There are too many people going to work, and it is difficult to recruit long-term and part-time workers. If it can be recruited, the commission will definitely be greatly increased. In this way, the income from farming will be much thinner. I believe that many landlords will lose interest in farming and sell their fields to set up factories. More common people have land to farm? After all, the problem is the size of the cake. The current cake is too small, even if it is eaten by one person, it is not enough to fit between the teeth. But if it is made ten times bigger, one hundred times bigger, one bite Once you’re full, you don’t need to fight so fiercely!”

Everyone was a little silly.After a while, Fang Yizhi asked, "Is there really so many advantages to running a factory?"

Yang Menglong said: "Nonsense!"

Fang Yizhi still has doubts: "If it is really profitable to run a factory, no one will be willing to farm. Wouldn't it be a waste of agriculture and mulberry? Agriculture and mulberry are the foundation of a country..."

Yang Menglong became impatient: "Please, no matter how profitable it is to run a factory, not everyone can afford it! To set up a factory, you need to buy land, build a factory building, purchase machinery, and recruit workers. It takes a lot of money, and anyone can afford it." Can it afford it? The more factories there are, the more people will come to work, and the more people in Nanyang will have to eat. As a result, the prices of food and vegetables will naturally rise, and farming will still be profitable. Since it is profitable, is there any need to be afraid that no one will do it?" With a big wave of his hand, he said arrogantly: "I don't care what you think, anyway, I plan to build more factories on my site, refine Iron factories, ironware factories, wood factories, sulfuric acid factories, phosphate fertilizer factories, grain processing factories... I will build any factories that can make money as long as I want! In the future, I will also build glass factories, canning factories, soap factories, Lime factories, cement factories...there are too many to count, and I want everyone in Wuyang to have several jobs, and they are so busy that their hands cramp when counting the money!"

Cheng Shi applauded vigorously: "Listening to your words is better than reading ten years of books! Today I really opened my eyes, good!"

Cheng Jun asked eagerly: "Master Yang, I intend to invest in Nanyang like my second brother, but I don't know if my lord can give you another chance?"

Yang Menglong smiled and said, "You want to invest? Welcome!"

Cheng Jun said: "I also intend to underwrite potato processing and sales, and I hope you will give me another chance!"

As soon as these words came out, Cheng Ji's face darkened.Although he had been mentally prepared, he still felt very unhappy when his boss was so blatantly grabbing business.

(End of this chapter)