Chapter 118 Night Illuminates the Night (Don’t Subscribe yet, It’s Going to Be Overhauled

Chapter 118 Night illuminates the night (don't subscribe yet, this chapter needs to be revised)

When Wei Yinghong set the tone for this meeting, his officials had a general direction. Since the prefect has decided to recruit farmers to renovate the Baobao Lake and strengthen the embankments of the two rivers.

"Sir, do we still need to recruit corvée labor from the prefecture next year?" someone asked.

Wei Yinghong shook his head and refused decisively: "The cost of disaster relief has already cost the people money and labor, so it is better to issue an official document to inform the counties in the prefecture, so that the people can recuperate and farm at home next year, and don't miss the autumn harvest."

"Also, let them sort out the situation in the county and make preparations for flood prevention next year. If there are any difficulties in the county, they are not allowed to hide them and report them quickly."

An official lowered his head and wrote quickly, writing down all the words of the prefect, and it was his job to inform the county magistrates of various places.

"Sir, you are wise." Someone stood up and praised, is this a lie?

If the able-bodied men outside the city can replace the corvée of the people of Yangzhou, it will be a good thing for both sides.

The people in the city will definitely praise this matter, and the reputation of the government office will also be raised.

Wei Yinghong gestured to the official to sit down, and continued to say to others: "Continue to talk about other refugees."

"More?" Someone lowered his head and looked at the list circulated in his hand. Apart from more than 40,000 strong laborers and thousands of elderly widows and children who have no one to rely on. The remaining list still has less than 40,000 women and children.

But aren't these people the families of the civilians? There is no work for them to do in our Yangzhou city, right?

An official asked quietly: "Sir, what do you mean?"

"We can't leave them alone." Wei Yinghong's face showed a firm look. It is better to teach people how to fish than to give them fish. Everyone understands this truth.

"How about giving them relief loans?"

This is a method that has been passed down since the Spring and Autumn Period. Food, seeds, livestock, farm tools, etc. are loaned to disaster victims in need, so as to maintain their livelihoods and restore agricultural production.

Someone objected on the spot, "This is not a joke. All the men in their families are working as laborers. How can you let women farm? Where can we prepare so many cows? Besides, where can we find so many fields?"

"Since they can't work, why not give the laborers more wages? So that they can live in peace?"

Halfway through the words, the official in charge of the treasury stood up and refuted, "Have you ever calculated more than 40,000 people? How much money is a little more? Over the years, there are some savings in the treasury, but if we continue to spend like this, how long will we have to support them? Don't even think about it."

Seeing the dispute in the field, Wei Yinghong glanced at Lin Ruhai and Huang Weizhong. The latter two nodded tacitly, and both felt that it was time to take out the booklet.

"Everyone, wait a minute, take a look at this booklet first." Wei Yinghong coughed a few times, and just as he finished speaking, the master behind the screen came out with a pile of books. When everyone saw that the prefect seemed to be well prepared, they hurriedly took the books.

Seeing that his subordinates were reading carefully, Wei Yinghong simply took a sip of tea.

Lin Ruhai's eyes paused for a moment, looking past his colleagues to the gate, and in the sunlight in the house, it seemed that Chen Heng was standing there confidently and eloquently.

It should be said that Chen Heng's perspective was quite advanced. He first stood at the end of the long river of time, looking back from the decline of Yangzhou, and his vision was always different from that of people today.

Hundreds of years later, Zhu Ziqing described his hometown with a slightly sad taste, "When mentioning the name of Yangzhou, many people think of the place where women come from."

Then connected to the current situation, the people in Yangzhou are rich and healthy. No one can connect the two together, but if you really unfold the context, everything becomes traceable.

Yangzhou prospered because of the salt policy, but it also relied too much on the salt policy. Covering the two words "salt policy" with your hands, the impression left by the world of Yangzhou seems to be only the famous prostitutes and skinny horses.

From this, we can see the so-called prosperity of Yangzhou, and the degree of danger hidden in the dark. But now it is undoubtedly alarmist to publicize these things. Chen Heng does not want to be a weirdo in the eyes of others.

He turned his attention to the refugees this time. The men still have a place to go, but what about the women?

Sitting on the convenience of the Chang and Huai Rivers, there are canals running through the north and south, and lakes all over the east and west. Yangzhou's geographical advantages make it inherently possible to create a large market.

It's a pity that so far, the trade routes from south to north have only brought finished products here for sale, and there are no finished products worth mentioning in Yangzhou that can be sold nationwide. Why?

It's just because the people of Yangzhou are too comfortable. It was so comfortable that even the salt merchants were controlled by merchants from Shanxi and Anhui.

They only needed to collect rent and drink tea every day, repeating the happiness of every day.

To force the people of Yangzhou to join in production and creation would undoubtedly result in half the effort with twice the results.

Who would be willing to give up their comfortable life and run to do hard labor with you?

However, the refugees this time gave Yangzhou a chance to take off again. They needed money, jobs, and a family to support. They needed a city to accept them temporarily, or forever.

Among the refugees, the lives of men were well arranged. According to Chen Heng's idea, based on the premise of flooding, after dredging the river and protecting the lake, they should have saved enough money to barely make ends meet.

But the women would have a headache. There were really not many things that were suitable for them.

The method Chen Heng came up with was to pick up the declining Yang embroidery again.

Yangzhou embroidery was once as famous as Suzhou embroidery, until a large number of Huizhou merchants poured into Yangzhou during the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty. These merchants, who became rich due to the salt policy, spent their gold and silver recklessly in Yangzhou.

Over time, it directly gave rise to the tertiary industry that Yangzhou is famous for in the country.

"In its metropolitan area, there are thousands of people living in it. In other outlying towns and cities, there are often people who live by their doors, laugh and sell their livelihood." A scholar named Xie in the former Ming Dynasty described the women of Yangzhou in just a few lines. life is summarized clearly.

This kind of industry is a double-edged sword. Although it attracts tourists from all over the world, it also brings a lot of income to the government. But it also forced many Yangzhou people to lock their wives and daughters at home. Anyway, we have rent at home, and if you go out and show off all day long, what do people think our family does?

However, when Yangzhou officials realized this, the female workers who were originally skilled in embroidery had almost dispersed, and the remaining ones were all elderly embroidery workers, and it was useless to try to save them.

If Chen Heng hadn't specifically pointed out this time that women and children among the refugees could be used in Yangzhou embroidery, Wei Yinghong would have never thought of this declining industry.

If rouge and perfume can be created together, then Yangzhou will no longer become a monster that relies solely on salt policy.

Wei Yinghong and Lin Ruhai also saw this, so they identified the wasteland in the west of the city and planned to build a tapestry street as described by Chen Heng there.

Thousands of small workshops were gathered into one place, and the government government personally eliminated them, exempting them for one year and reducing them for three years. In addition, someone was sent to teach women crafts, and Wei Yinghong was very confident that he could accomplish this.

Everything is difficult at the beginning. What is more difficult than the beginning are ideas and people. Now that there are tens of thousands of women on hand, there is no need to worry about them not doing it.

Chen Heng concluded at the end of the article: "Knitting is now popular today, and various techniques are no longer what they used to be. Mianfang fabrics are produced in Songjiang Prefecture and Suzhou Prefecture, and silk fabrics and raw silk are produced in Huzhou Prefecture and Jiaxing Prefecture."

"The climate of Huzhou and Jiaxing is similar to that of Yangzhou. You can go here to learn sericulture techniques. Ask for advice from Suzhou and Songjiang. With the help of business travelers traveling from south to north in the city, this can be done."

After the officials in the hall read the contents of the booklet, some of them didn't react and asked blankly: "What about the remaining food, clothing, and housing?"

"You're stupid. Others have made money. Are you still worried that they won't be able to eat or wear clothes?"

“Is there enough wasteland in the west of the city?”

"It's enough. If it doesn't work, we can add more. The west side of the city is close to the Yellow River, and few people go there to sell land. We only need to raise the foundation to ensure that when the Yellow River floods, it will not be flooded."

"Where's the money in our treasury?" Someone looked at his colleague.

People who manage money like to hear about the issue of open source. After thinking for a moment, he gritted his teeth and said, "If you really want to do it, sir, we can grit our teeth and get through it. We just need to go to the salt merchants next year to make some connections." They need to help with the expenses of the academy.”

It was good that everyone could discuss the matter to this point, but Wei Yinghong didn't expect them to come up with any solution immediately. Things should be done step by step. He and Lin Ruhai looked at each other and smiled, and then said kindly to Huang Weizhong: "Help me go outside the city and see what that kid is doing."

"Yes, sir."

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Under the background of this era, people in Yangzhou City are still comfortable and comfortable. Xue Biao, Qian Dayou and others went out for half a day and came back with several carts of old clothes.

No one is short of a few worn-out clothes, and since they don’t want you to donate money, these clothes are useless just sitting there. No one asked them for it before, but today I saw someone asking for it, so I just took it out to accumulate merit.

In the city of Yangzhou, which has more than one million people, you have to say that except for the top wealthy households, everyone else is living a miserable life. Chen Heng didn't believe it. The economic situation of any commercial city was like a pyramid.

If you want to compare Yangzhou today with a city in later generations, after much thought, only that city is suitable. Outsiders come to do business, while locals collect rent, occasionally find a job to kill time, or hang out with friends for tea.

At this time, it was time to take out the list Du Yunjing had made. Chen Heng started distributing it to the old, weak, women and children, paying special attention to those households with children at home.

Seeing the smiles on the faces of the victims who received the clothes, Xue Biao and Qian Dayou felt that their hard work was not in vain. He picked up a few cups of tea in the greenhouse and asked Chen Heng, "Brother Heng, what are we going to do next?"

"Keep going, it will take at least two or three days to do this." Chen Heng signaled them not to rush, "Right now, we still have to wait for news from the government office."

"Prefecture?!" Xue Biao and others didn't know Chen Heng's plan, so they had no choice but to suppress their doubts. I asked my friends for fifty more people and rushed to the city again.

Not long after the two men left, Huang Weizhong, the magistrate of the prefecture, came over with instructions from Wei Yinghong. As soon as Huang Weizhong arrived at the scene, he saw a dense crowd of people outside the porridge shop.

Looking around, Huang Weizhong can clearly feel the changes in the refugees. Groups of three to five people stood talking at a distance, and the expressions on their faces were slightly relaxed, no longer as alert and cautious as in the past.

Master Zhizhou secretly thought that it was a good thing. As long as the victims were willing to speak, it would be a first-rate good sign.

He first went to the porridge shop to check the consistency of today's white rice porridge. There are special regulations in the Dayong Law, commonly known as "the chopsticks float, the head falls to the ground", and there is also a saying that "the scarf will not leak".

After all, I just hope that the refugees can have enough to eat. Wei Yinghong asked Huang Weizhong to personally manage the granary and charity warehouse in the mansion, which was equivalent to equating the porridge for disaster relief with his black gauze hat.

Seeing that everything was correct, Huang Weizhong came to the greenhouse and sat down next to Chen Heng, who had been waiting for a long time.

"Sir." When Chen Heng and Huang Weizhong met for the first time, they couldn't figure out the appropriateness of their conversation. After saluting and saying hello, they stood aside with their hands down.

"You did a good job." Huang Weizhong couldn't help but praise him as soon as they met. Not only because Chen Heng changed the atmosphere of the camp in just a few days, but also because he was able to immediately think of ways to open up resources through the refugees.

If this happens, Yangzhou can really prosper for another hundred years.

Chen Heng thought that Zhizhou was just a matter of praising the camp, so naturally he did not dare to take credit, so he gave all the credit to the students from major academies. After all, without sincere scholars like them, no matter how many ideas he had, it would be useless.

Huang Weizhong didn't point it out. He just pulled the other party and asked about the current situation of the camp.

The two people sat together, Chen Heng was mainly talking, and Huang Weizhong was mostly nodding.

After Chen Heng finished talking about what happened in the past few days, Zhizhou came to his senses and told Chen Heng what the government had just decided.

When I heard about it from the government office, I decided to start Yangzhou Embroidery. Chen Heng was not surprised, just a little excited.

As the person in charge of this plan, he thought even deeper.

The benefits of this matter have been laid out in the open, but there is another hidden aspect that is not easy for ordinary people to know.

If a large number of laborers suddenly flood into a city, the idlers and day laborers in the city will definitely be afraid that they will take away their jobs. This kind of contradiction and panic is irreconcilable.

Nowadays, among these refugees, the men are responsible for the corvee service in the government offices. Women find another way. It will basically not affect the current lives of Yangzhou people, but will make them live more comfortably.

This was the beginning of Yangzhou people’s true acceptance of the refugees.

As long as they are given some time to each other, Chen Heng believes that the two parties will be able to slowly merge together.

Huang Weizhong was still talking when he mentioned that the government was preparing to distribute money to the old, weak, women and children.

Chen Heng thought of another idea and asked: "Since we are ready to distribute money to the old, weak, women and children and enter the city, we might as well make this matter more lively."

"Lively?!" Huang Weizhong is from Shandong, and he values ​​​​and upholds rules. Although he didn't object, he still felt disgusted with the word in his heart.

Chen Heng was not innocent. He said frankly: "Sir, although the refugees have lowered their guard now, most people are still frightened rabbits and are easily startled. You see, the city gate has been open for half a day, but there are still very few refugees coming and going in the city. Not much.”

"They are just worried that Yangzhou people will look down on them. The government officials regard them as passing locusts and a burden. If they really want to feel at ease, it is better to come with the money and distribute it to them on the spot.

One is to show it to the refugees, and the other is to establish the government's credibility. "

When Huang Weizhong heard this, he reacted and said with a smile: "You are trying to learn from Shang Yang's bounty for standing trees." After understanding Chen Heng's thoughts, he immediately changed his tone, "Then how much do you think is appropriate?"

"It doesn't take much, three to five thousand taels is enough." Chen Heng knew that this kind of thing only needed to be a gimmick. If you really want to get one or twenty thousand taels, placing them outside the city will disrupt order.

Don't go too far in anything, just let the refugees see the government's sincerity.

"Is there more?" Huang Weizhong had already been aroused by Chen Heng's desire to communicate, so he asked directly.

"Are there any porridge shops in the city prepared for them?" Chen Heng asked. These people have already entered the city, so there is no reason to go out of the city to fetch porridge every day.

"It's easy." Huang Weizhong said nonchalantly, "We will invite half of the refugees and half of the neighbors to open a porridge shop directly in the city and deliver food to the refugees."

This is the best, Chen Heng nodded happily.

"If you have any other requests, tell them while I'm here." Looking at Chen Heng's appearance, Huang Weizhong always felt that the other party could still do something.

"Sir, I..." Seeing Huang Weizhong's friendly eyes, Chen Heng chuckled and said shamelessly, "I want to get some things in the city to play with tomorrow?"

Seeing the mystery of what he said, Huang Weizhong asked curiously: "What is it?"

Chen Heng looked around, put his head into the other person's ear, and whispered.

After hearing this, Huang Weizhong didn't think much. He just waved his hand and said, "You can figure it out yourself. Just pay attention to safety."

Seeing that Chen Heng had nothing else to do, Huang Weizhong simply stood up and prepared to go back with a few subordinates. But before leaving, he suddenly stopped holding the horse's rope and asked, "Have you not finished writing your book on public security?"

Chen Heng blinked and said with some confusion: "Public security?"

"It was the prefect who gave it the name." Huang Weizhong thought about the booklet he was looking at. He always felt that there was something behind it, and he felt very scratched in his heart.

"I wonder where you saw it?" Chen Heng was also a little confused. It didn't make sense. Except for some things that shouldn't be said or couldn't be said, he basically wrote everything clearly.

"What about after persuading mulberry to plant silkworms? You have no follow-up?" Huang Weizhong stared.

Chen Heng suddenly realized that Wei Yinghong had read half of the volume to him. He couldn't help but laugh and said: "No more, really no more."

"Okay, I'll take it as what you're telling the truth." Huang Weizhong nodded at him and got on his horse with a smile.

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All the officials in the hall had dispersed, and Wei Yinghong chatted with Lin Ruhai in a good mood. He took out Chen Heng's booklet again, pointed at it and said, "I'm going to submit it to His Majesty, what do you think?"

"Okay." Lin Ruhai nodded and said, "Don't be too talkative. It's not appropriate for this child to show off."

"I know, I know. Hahaha!" Wei Yinghong narrowed his eyes and laughed uncontrollably, "When Master Pei comes later, I'll tell you two something funny."

"What?"

People really can't help talking. Just as Pei Huaizhen was mentioned, the headmaster came in with a cane.

The two greeted their mentor and met again in the afternoon. As the topic was talking, they talked about Wei Yinghong's matter just now.

"Do you still remember the article written by Chen Heng, Cui Youdao and Du Yunjing when Chen Heng participated in the provincial examination for the first time?"

Seeing that Wei Yinghong was deliberately keeping the secret, Pei Huaizhen urged impatiently, "Hurry up and tell me."

"I sent their articles to His Majesty at that time." Wei Yinghong's eyes swung around the two of them and picked a soft persimmon that was easy to squeeze, "Ruhai, do you want to guess what His Majesty said to me?"

Lin Ruhai was too lazy to pay attention to him and poured tea for Pei Huaizhen.

Wei Yinghong was not angry, he laughed and said: "Hahahahahahahaha, Your Majesty said, hahahaha, Wei Qing, your career as an official, sometimes even I can't understand it."

I've finished the revision, so that's it. For this chapter, I read the literature all night yesterday, and I want to cry. "Talking about Yangzhou, the rise and fall of the commercial capital of Ming and Qing Dynasties", I finished reading it all night. I wrote another 10,000 words, sorted it out, and explained the content that can be explained first, and the rest will be explained later.