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Just last year, Jiangsu maritime merchants finally couldn't hold back.This trading company lost the competition in Asia and decided to go to America with Li Quan. The first fleet consisted of only three merchant ships, but they made a trip back and forth, excluding various costs and expenses, and made a full eight times the net profit.

Only eight times the net profit, this is because the crew wages are high.

The salary of the senior crew is five times, and that of the junior crew is three times, and a settling allowance must be given in advance, otherwise no one is willing to venture to America.

Ministers can no longer understand the current financial situation.

A few years ago, I was still worried about the fiscal deficit, but in a blink of an eye the court has money, and it can have a surplus of several million every year.

cabinet.

Wu Yingji took out the data given by the Ministry of Finance: "In the past seven years, the average annual growth rate of industrial and commercial taxes and tariffs has exceeded 6%. Especially after Portugal married Chittagong, countless Indian cottons were shipped to Chittagong, which solved the cotton problem. The problem of insufficient supply. The cotton spinning factories in the south of the Yangtze River are increasing their production, and more and more cotton spinning factories are newly opened.”

Zhu Shunshui sighed: "I don't know whether it is good or bad. I went back to my hometown during the Chinese New Year. There are two textile factories in the town. The male and female workers add up to hundreds. Counting the boat transportation, more than 1000 people rely on two textile factories. Home textiles make a living. The chimneys of the factory are tall and big, and black smoke is floating all day long, and the dining tables of nearby villagers can be stained with black ash."

Chen Maosheng said: "Anyway, the life of ordinary people is better than before."

"That's true," Zhu Shunshui nodded, "All those who work are considered well-off families, especially skilled female workers. The housework and children are all handed over to the parents-in-law, and the woman has become the pillar of the family. But there are fewer families without work. An income. There are also those who spin and weave their own cloth, all of which are woven and worn by themselves, and they can’t be sold at a good price.”

Zhu Shunshui was talking about the situation in the coastal provinces. His hometown had a thriving textile industry.

The further inland the industry was, the weaker the industry was, and there were not many steam engines to be found in the whole province.Those provinces are still stuck in the past, even the small peasant economy has not been destroyed, and there are still a large number of home weaving.

Wu Yingji said: "The problem now is not to save money, but how to spend it. More and more silver is pouring into the coast, and the price of goods is going up. More money will be allocated to the Ministry of Industry, and people will be recruited across the country to work and build More water conservancy and roads. And you can’t use the money from the imperial court, you must absorb the excess private silver along the coast, and try to keep prices from rising too fast.”

Fei Chun said: "Build more roads in Tibet, Northeast and Southwest to connect all the mountainous areas. In the future, whether it is sending troops to fight wars or transporting local goods, it will have long-term benefits."

When Zhao Han went on an expedition to Mobei, he used a policy of raising interest rates, and used private silver as military expenses. A war cost the old nose money.

At that time, some ministers felt that they were militaristic, but now that they think about it, they have come to think of it, and they have begun to follow the emperor's train of thought.

Isn't it just too much money?

Who wouldn't spend money.

No one has mentioned corvee for a long time, and now there is money, and people are recruited to work with silver.

Liu Ziren reminded: "Don't be too extravagant. The expedition to Mobei and the recovery of Beihai cost tens of millions of taels of silver. The court still owes the bank money, and it hasn't been paid off yet. There is a surplus of silver along the coast. But the court is still short of money.”

Fei Chun said: "Your Majesty's policy strategy is very obvious. It is to turn the excess silver along the coast into water conservancy and roads in the inland provinces. Your Majesty has repeatedly said that as long as it is not built for personal pleasure, it is not a bad thing to build .”

Yuan Yunlong suddenly said: "Should the salaries of officials in the world be increased? Last time someone mentioned in the memorandum that although His Majesty did not agree, he has loosened his tone."

The cabinet ministers repeatedly discussed and came up with a plan to build water conservancy and roads across the country, and mentioned a salary increase for officials.

Domestic infrastructure construction has actually been going on all the time.

However, many mountain roads are carried out by villages, and villagers contribute free of charge to build roads in their own villages.Then the government allocated part of the funds to recruit people to make repairs and connect the roads in various villages.And there are many continuous mountains, roads cannot be repaired, and even aqueducts cannot be excavated.

Now that the imperial court allocates funds and distributes money, the efficiency will definitely be improved. It plans to allocate 150 million taels of silver every year to build official roads in more critical mountainous areas.

In addition, another 150 million taels will be allocated every year for the construction of water conservancy and irrigation facilities-this is an additional allocation and does not involve the annual routine allocation of the Ministry of Industry.

Zhao Han's imperial pen Zhu commented: "Quite."

Including the salary increase for officials across the country, Zhao Han also approved it this time, and it will be raised by one level on the original basis.

The pressure on salaries in poor provinces is even greater, especially the salaries of officials, including the expenses of teachers, are all paid by local finance.This has to allow them to withhold more taxes, otherwise they will all cry poorly. After all, the steam age has just started, and the development of all parts of the country is extremely uneven.

Not only is it unbalanced, but it is also very chaotic, with many contradictions emerging one after another.

"Your Majesty, the latest census has been completed." The household department handed over a report.

Zhao Han said, "Let me have a look."

Many coastal provinces and overseas territories have dual household registration.

After the introduction of the new policy, it took several years to finally straighten it out, and took advantage of the trend to do some demographic statistics.

The Pingnan Military and Civilian Mansions in Burma, the Protectorate Mansions of Tibet, Qinghai, Mongolia, Heilongjiang, etc., as well as the Guangnan Province established by the recovery of Vietnam, and the population of the Ryukyu Islands, even including Siberia, as long as they are registered by the government, even the indigenous people All counted.

There are 12 million people over the age of 690 nationwide.

Luzon Island, Palembang, Yecheng, Malacca and other overseas territories (excluding King Jin’s side), counting the naturalized indigenous people, there are a total of 91 eight people—most of them are descendants of Chinese immigrants during the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. A large number of Nyonya (Chinese mixed-race descendants) went to the Governor's Office to register, claiming to be Chinese and seeking preferential treatment.

The population of the northern provinces has recovered to a certain extent.

Take Hebei as an example, the wilderness is no longer everywhere, and it has been reclaimed into farmland one after another.

The Beiping Prefecture directly under the Central Government has a total of ten counties, and its population has increased to more than 300 million. There are more than [-] people in Beijing alone.

In this case, there is no need for the government to organize immigration, and the natural reproduction of the northern population is enough.

With a swipe of his pen, Zhao Han said, "Order the Ministry of Rites to speed up the establishment of schools in Qinghai, Tibet, Mongolia, and Heilongjiang, so as to attract more children from other races to study."

The Ryukyu Islands are the easiest, where there are already 36 Chinese surnames.

These Han people were thrown to the islands to reproduce, and they became mayors and village chiefs one after another.Although it will inevitably make them bigger, the speed of civilizing the indigenous people is very fast. The Ryukyu Islands have been completely regarded as the mainland, and they belong to the two counties of Ryukyu and Fangzhang in Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian Province.

Japan's Satsuma clan is next to the Ryukyu. Although they were beaten up by the Datong army, they were greatly hurt by the compensation.However, due to the convenience of trade, smuggling is the most rampant, and the strength develops extremely fast, and there are a large number of wanderers who have access to China's advanced ideology, culture and technology.

The Satsuma domain is brewing a ronin riot. The poor ronin want to lead the farmers to fight the "local tyrants" to divide the land.

The ronin rebellion will definitely fail. Even if the Shimadzu family is killed, the shogunate army will be recruited to suppress the rebellion.However, the follow-up impact is difficult to estimate. It may force the shogunate to close the country, or the failure of the shogunate may cause the prestige of the shogunate to plummet.

"Your Majesty, Zhongyuzi sent a mission to Beijing to ask for your seal, and... also sent a princess from Zhongyuzi to present to Your Majesty." The minister of Honglu Temple came to report.

Zhao Han was very happy: "Kazakh asked for the seal? Can you know the details?"

At this time, Xie Yuan was still in Madagascar and did not bring back relevant news, but he left an envoy as a guide for the Kazakhs.

The information of Honglu Temple came from the guide envoy: "Your Majesty, Zhongyuzi is torn apart. The mission this time was sent by the son of Zhongyuzi's previous Khan, asking His Majesty to canonize him as the king of the Kazakh Khanate. "

Zhao Han said with a smile: "But he has a vision. Even if Zhongyuzi is not unified, he wants to be the king of Kazakhs."

Regarding the westward expansion, Zhao Han only planned to occupy the land of the Kyrgyz people, that is, the Kyrgyzstan of later generations. Taking it there is equivalent to regaining the homeland of the Tang Dynasty.It is difficult to manage further west, mainly because of the terrain. Only Kyrgyzstan is good for defense and can be connected with the Kashgar area.

Of course, if there is spare power, Tajikistan can also win, all of which are mountainous terrain that is conducive to defense.

Chapter 1022 [Ji Bie Ke]

The name of the Kazakh princess is "Jibeke", which can also be translated as "Jibeke", "Jibeke", and the free translation into Chinese means "silk".

When she was still in her infancy, news came from the front that her father had died in battle.Then many tribes rebelled, everyone claimed to be Khan, and some tribes even killed them directly.

The mother took her and three older brothers and fled with a small number of loyal followers.

During the migration, an older brother died of illness, and the whole family took refuge in their uncle.Until the eldest brother turned 16 years old, the uncle lent three hundred cavalry, and the original group had dozens of cavalry.Relying on more than 300 cavalry, the eldest brother has grown step by step, and now has 2 tents and controls more than [-] herdsmen.

For nomads, a thousand tents is considered a big tribe, and five thousand tents can definitely occupy one side.

Gibecque was wearing a pleated dress with a tightly tied belt that accentuated her slightly oversized breasts.Her 14th birthday was spent in Hami. It was very cold at that time, and Hami Burke left them in the city for the winter.

After the snow melted, we continued to move forward, and it was already summer when we arrived in Henan.

The round fur hat on her head was also replaced by a flower hat.The hat was decorated with agate around it, which fell down like tassels, and she braided many small hairs when she was bored with the journey.

Ji Bieke misses his mother and elder brother a little, and also misses the grassland a little, and feels uneasy about the unknown fate.

From Jiayuguan to Jiangsu, she has seen many Han Chinese cities, as well as Han Chinese villages.These are completely different from the grasslands, novel and mysterious. She doesn't know why the population of Han is so large, as many as cattle and sheep on the grasslands.

official ship.

Li Cong walked to the princess' cabin, and there were already two Kazakhs standing at the cabin door.

Li Cong bowed his hands to salute, the Kazakh guard bowed back and carefully opened the hatch.

Ji Bieke got up and saluted, and greeted in broken Chinese: "Morning, sir."

"Princess, please sit down." Li Cong said in Mongolian.

Two Kazakh guards stood next to them to prevent any deviant behavior.

Ji Bieke opened the primary school Chinese textbook, which they bought in Gansu, and Li Cong was in charge of teaching the princess to learn Chinese.

"We're almost in Nanjing, we're going to learn etiquette today." Li Cong said.

Jibeke said: "We Kazakhs also pay attention to etiquette. If you pass by a yurt and see that it is full of food, if the owner is not at home, even if you have been hungry for several days, you cannot move the food. This is very impolite. Behavior. If there are guests at home, it is very impolite to hide the delicious food and only serve ordinary food to the guests. When the guest comes to the house, you should first ask him if he has eaten, and then prepare a sumptuous meal for the guest.”

How does this all have to do with food?

Li Cong grumbled in his heart, and said, "What we are going to talk about today is the etiquette of the Han family. The etiquette used to be very complicated. Your Majesty has simplified it a lot, but you should always pay attention to it."

Ji Bieke said: "Sir, please tell me."

Li Cong said: "If you want to learn the etiquette of the Han family, you must first know... Well, how should this be translated? Let me think about it."

Li Cong does not know how to speak Kazakh, and usually communicates in Mongolian.As for Jibeke's Mongolian, he only learned half of it.Everyday language is okay, but advanced vocabulary cannot be translated at all.

After pondering for a long time, Li Cong continued: "In this world, there are heaven and earth, as well as men and women. Heaven and men belong to 'Yang', and Earth and women belong to 'Yin'. Chinese is the pronunciation of these two. Your Majesty said , yin and yang are one, heaven and earth are equal, men and women are also equal. But no matter what, there are differences between men and women, and it is manifested in etiquette. The left is yang, and the right is yin, so in terms of etiquette, follow the principle of men left and women right... "

Ji Bieke had only turned 14 a few months ago, half a child, half-understood.

Li Cong gave an example: "For example, when clasping fists and bowing, a man hugs his right fist with his left hand, and a woman hugs his left fist with his right hand. If it is reversed, it is a bad ritual and it is very unlucky."

Jibe could raise his hands, imitating the girl's clasping salute.

Li Cong also said: "The "Book of Rites" has records that in daily life, men tie their hair on the left and women tie it on the right. Although the folks no longer care about these things, some people who are particular about their hair still tie men left and women right. There seems to be no such thing in the palace. This is a request, but if the princess can do it, it is also a very polite expression. You should also know the direction of standing or sitting down at ordinary times..."

Ji Bie felt that the etiquette of the Han family was really cumbersome, how could there be too many rules, let alone doing it, it was hard to remember.

But Li Cong taught very seriously because he received expensive gifts.Ji Beke's elder brother, let him teach the princess well, don't be underestimated by the Nanjing monarchs and ministers.

After learning to dock at noon for dinner, Ji Bieke was very tired, and remembered her headache from the messy etiquette.

After lunch, teaching begins again.

Jibe Ke wanted to be lazy, so he took out his dombra and said with a smile: "I just finished eating, let me sing to my husband."

"Don't dare." Li Cong quickly avoided.

But Jibeke played and sang on her own. She sang the Kazakh poem "Lark".The general content is that a brave and clever hunter, in order to hear the beneficial philosophy of the lark, promised to release the prey he had already obtained.

It can be understood that there is only gain when there is loss.It can also be understood that if you want to achieve your goals, you must learn to give up.

Li Cong stood sideways, not daring to look directly at the princess in order to avoid suspicion.Although he couldn't understand the lyrics, the princess's crisp singing voice was so pleasant to the body and mind.

After singing "The Lark", Ji Bieke sang "Farewell Song".

This is a song sung by a Kazakh bride who is about to marry far away, facing the doorframe of the yurt at home, and can only confide to the doorframe her reluctance.

"In front of the door is a green prairie, the door frame of my house, please don't let me go. I can't hold on until I cry, and my heart is about to be crushed by sadness. The skylark is flying in the sky, and its fluff is as soft as brocade. Think yourself How sad it is to leave the grassland here. Goodbye, my door frame, I wish you peace, my dear hometown..."

As she sang, Jibeke shed tears quietly. She thought of her mother, brother and the grassland.

Li Cong glanced at the tears on the princess's cheeks and guessed that she must be homesick, so he retreated silently outside the cabin door.

I don't know which factory on the shore, the chimney is emitting black smoke, which seems a bit abrupt in rural China.Folk literati are divided into two factions. One faction praises the steam factory and says that the big chimneys have brought prosperity;

Although the workers worked hard, it was not too outrageous.

Both kerosene and bitumen were born as crude oil was extracted.But now the amount of mining is still relatively small, and it is far away in Sichuan, Shaanxi and other provinces. The price of kerosene is relatively expensive in the south of the Yangtze River. The capitalists are reluctant to let workers work night shifts with kerosene lamps.

Coal gas has also been used. Craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty knew how to make coking coal, and the use of by-product gas was natural.

But gas lamps are very dangerous and have poisoned dozens of people.Now I dare not use it in the house. Even if I use it, I will open the big windows in advance. Everyone is studying how to make the gas lamp safe and reliable.

Looking at the black smoke in the distance, Li Cong suddenly felt a little confused.

The times are developing too fast, and new things come out every year, so many people feel at a loss as to what to do.The more intellectuals I am, the stronger this feeling is, and the familiar environment gradually becomes strange.

In particular, that set of traditional ideas is being questioned more and more. The cosmology of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism can no longer explain the new world.

Li Cong leaned on the side of the boat, humming to himself: "To save Li Lang from his home, who would have expected to win the top prize in the imperial list. The top prize, wearing a red robe, hat with palace flowers, so fresh..."

The story of "The Son-in-Law" was told by Emperor Zhao to the King of Chu, and the King of Chu invited someone to compile it and serialize it in "The Literature and Art of the King of Chu".

Due to the wonderful and bizarre plot, and the fact that there was also a female Jinshi in this dynasty, this movie was quickly sought after by all walks of life.Then, it was adapted into a storybook and redistributed in the form of opera and storytelling.

Li Cong's hometown is in Anqing, and he could sing tea-picking operas since he was a child, which is the predecessor of Huangmei tune.

In the Ming Dynasty, Anqing was one of the gathering places for grain and water, and thus became extremely prosperous.Although there is no water transportation anymore, the prosperous commercial transportation has made Anqing, which has an excellent geographical location, more prosperous.

Business prosperity will inevitably bring entertainment prosperity.

The tea-picking opera originated in Huangmei County and was carried forward in Anqing.Just like Kunqu Opera, which originated in Kunshan, was carried forward in Yangzhou.

Today, several major dramas are competing for splendor.

Tea-picking opera has sprung up in Anqing and has been officially named Huangmei Opera.

Qingyang tune continued to grow and was brought to various places by Huizhou merchants. This thing is the predecessor of Peking Opera in another time and space.

Kunqiang (Kunqu Opera) continues to be popular in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

The Yiyang Opera in Jiangxi has a lot of fans of honorable operas, and has occupied half of the opera circle in Nanjing, so it is also called "Jing Opera".