Yang Peng stayed in Youzhou for a few days. Everyone in Tianjing New City now knows that the city lord has conferred the title of King of Yan on the emperor. Yang Peng first put on a new official uniform. The prince's official uniform is different from the original one, and the patch embroidered on it is Qilin and Bai Ze. Yang Peng looked in front of the mirror in their new official uniforms and felt that they had gained a bit more dignity.
Yang Peng looked at the new seal waistband again: the Yanwang seal given to him was made of jade and was very well made. The waistband was made of ivory, with four cloud dragons tattooed on it and the characters "Yanwang Yangpeng" engraved on it. .The most crucial thing is the Yanwang Iron Scroll.
The so-called iron scroll is commonly known as a gold medal to avoid death. With this iron scroll, even if Yang Peng commits a capital crime, he can use the iron scroll to pay for his life and avoid death. "Fan Gonghou Bochu was awarded a title and an iron coupon. It was made from the Ministry of Industry After finishing, send the imperial edict to be written, and the certificate will be sealed and the case will be completed. It will be forwarded to the Bank of China to be engraved and filled with gold. It will still be collected and awarded with the right side. The left side will be sent to the Gujintongji Treasury at the end of the year for storage. All iron coupons are in the shape of Cover it with tiles, engrave the seal on it, and fill it with gold. There are two sides on the left and right, the right is for the meritorious officials, and the left is for the inner palace."
The size of the iron roll varies with the title. The iron roll in Yang Peng's hand is tile-shaped and made of fine iron. The iron roll is about 40 centimeters long, 20 centimeters wide and more than two centimeters thick. It weighs four kilograms. The front of the iron scroll is engraved with gold-inlaid characters in regular script. The content is the official's words to confer Yang Peng as King of Yan based on Yang Peng's achievements. There are more than 200 characters in total.
On the reverse side of the iron scroll, it is written: "The so-called exemption from death means that except for treason and treason, all death sentences are exempted. After being exempted, he will be dismissed from the title and salary. He is not allowed to remain in the same title, but his life will be given. If he commits a capital crime, he will be punished for the first time. No rice will be paid." It talks about the iron scroll's use to avoid death. It is stipulated that except for crimes such as treason, Yang Peng's iron scroll can be used to pay for one life. With this iron scroll, murder and arson will not be sentenced by the court. It can be said that they are a stable privileged class.
Of course, with Yang Peng's current power, he could kill people and set fires without punishment without the iron scroll. But it was different to get an official commitment in black and white. Yang Peng put the iron scroll away and put it in the box. Accepted. After the canonization, Yang Peng returned to Cangzhou with a guard of honor. Now Yang Peng's flag reads "Prince of Yan, Taifu, Left Commander, General of Cangzhou Huqi". This set of titles carries more weight than before, and it is appropriate. Yang Peng's ceremonial guard now not only includes flags and banners, but also gold melons, flags and streamers, and other attires unique to the count. The entire set of ceremonial guard requires more than ten personal guards to hold it.
Yang Peng's honor guard marched in Tianjing City and Cangzhou City. When the people saw the mighty honor guard coming, they hurriedly moved out of the way and hid on the roadside to watch Yang Peng's march. Especially in Cangzhou. The common people had never seen such a luxurious guard of honor. They were all standing on the roadside talking.
"The city lord has been promoted again?" "He has been crowned king!" "Tsk tsk, the city lord is only in his twenties, right?" After Yang Peng returned to Cangzhou, the rewards for his men came down.
This time, Yang Peng also reported military exploits to his generals in the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun. Soon, rewards for Zhang Xiang and others arrived one after another: Huyan Chijin and other managers were also promoted to the military capital. The supervisor is one level lower than Zhang Xiang and others. The battalion commander and company commander in the Huben Division are also rewarded. The battalion commander is promoted to the capital supervisor, and the company commander is also promoted to the capital commander.
After the award was awarded, Tianjing New City was filled with joy, just like the Chinese New Year. Yang Peng held a banquet in Cangzhou Mansion to celebrate, and his subordinates who came to the banquet all dressed in crimson or cyan official robes gathered together.
The people in Tianjing New City who attended the banquet at the mansion were very proud. You know how many people squeezed their heads to squeeze in at the prince's celebration banquet, but they were all turned away. Although the Lord is already the prince, Yang Peng's men
They all felt that you can still make great progress, and if you go one step further, as long as you follow your Excellency closely, promotion and wealth will not be a problem. Everyone was very happy. That day, more than a dozen people got drunk and fell under the wine table.
On April 2nd, Yang Peng, accompanied by Zhang Xiang, went to Tianjing New City to take a look. In the half year since Yang Peng went on the expedition, under the command of Zhang Xiang, the new city of Tianjing New City has been built. There is a new city outside the new city.
The city wall has been covered with bricks and is integrated with the old city wall. The wall between the new city and the old city has been demolished and dug out, and the roads in the new city and the old city are connected together. Tianjing New City has doubled in size and is no longer as large as
It is a small county town, but it has the style of a state town.
The newly built new city is already very lively. Now the textile factory is expanding on a large scale and recruiting new people every month. The current scale has expanded to 15,000 people. These 15,000 workers all live in Tianjing New City.
In the newly built villa. In order to increase the family income of the workers, Yang Peng now tries to recruit couples at the same time. Generally speaking, two families share a villa. Of course, most of the workers who are not married yet only rent a villa.
Four families rented a villa together. Therefore, these more than 10,000 new workers occupied more than 3,000 new villas.
The design capacity of Tianjing New City is 7,000 villas, but that is the theoretical capacity. In fact, the new city not only has villas, but also factories and military camps, plus various commercial facilities. In fact, only more than 4,000 villas have been built.
It was fully built. Now there are only more than 300 villas left unoccupied.
If Yang Peng still wants to expand the textile factory, he must build a new city. After looking around the new city, Yang Peng praised: "Zhang Xiang, you have done a good job in the past few months."
Zhang Xiang said with a smile: "It's all about following the rules. No matter how bad I am, I can still do it by learning what my elder brother has done and doing it again." Yang Peng thought Zhang Xiang was quite capable and nodded with a smile.
Yang Peng walked into the new textile factory and found Zheng Yuan, who managed the textile factory. "Now that the textile factory has expanded to such a large size, how is the management?" Zheng Yuan nodded and said: "There is no big problem in management. Now the textile factory has
There are 15,331 workers, with a monthly output of 268,000 pieces of cloth. The workers' monthly wages and food expenses are 59,000 taels per month, and the purchase of coarse cotton costs 143,000 taels per month.
The monthly profit is sixty-six thousand taels."
Yang Peng nodded and said: "Food expenses seem to be more than before." Zheng Yuan said: "Sir, the price of rice is so expensive now. Although the price of rice in Fanjiazhuang has been controlled by the affordable grain store, it has not increased. But other things
The prices of everything have increased along with the price of rice. The price of vegetables has increased a lot. The pig farm said that the price of pig food has increased, and the settlement price of pigs for slaughter has also been increased, so food expenses have also increased."
Yang Peng thought for a while and asked: "How much is the price of rice in other places now?" Zheng Yuan said: "It has dropped a bit in the past few months, down to 2,000 yuan per stone."
Yang Peng nodded and said: "When the price of rice rises, the prices of various commodities generally rise. In the past, we gave workers two or two months' salary, which was a high salary, but now that prices are soaring, it was not as attractive as before this month. Workers
They work hard every day and cannot let them suffer. Zheng Yuan, starting from this month, you will increase the monthly salary of the textile workers to two to five yuan a month."
Zheng Yuan was stunned and said: "Sir, this is a big expense." Yang Peng nodded and said: "We can afford it. We would rather earn less than let the workers become poor. Workers in the textile factory at night
It was already dark when we got off work. However, the vendors at the Tianjing Xincheng Market knew that the workers would come to the market to buy things when they got off work, so they set up stalls and waited in the market. Speaking of which, it was when the workers got off work in the evening.
When the market is most lively.
Gu Laoer bought a live fish, two pig ears, and a pot of rice wine at the Xincheng North Market, and walked back to his yard while humming a tune. Gu Laoer was happy, today the general gave all the workers an extra monthly payment.
. Originally, the textile workers were given two or three meals a month with non-vegetarian food, which was already very good. Although the price of various items has increased due to the increase in food prices in the past year or so, the price increase of other items has not increased much.
, after all, food prices have not risen that much.
Gu Laoer and his wife, one working in the old city textile factory and the other working in the new city textile factory, have a monthly income of 40 taels. Although rising prices have made this monthly money less durable, the 40 taels of silver can only be used as
They originally spent only three to five dollars, but the couple still lived a life that was envied by relatives and friends.
Gu Laoer bought a villa in the new city. He borrowed money from the city lord to buy it, and his family moved in. Now Gu Laoer's home is very spacious. Not only does the old mother with her two-year-old daughter have a separate room, but her five-year-old daughter also has a separate room.
My son has his own room, and even my three-year-old daughter has her own room.
Gu Lao'er has two daughters and one son. He is very proud to have so many children. Since he followed the General, Gu Lao'er's family has become more and more prosperous and gradually has nothing. This month, the Lord of the City is in the north.
Empress Dowager Xiao was beaten to the ground. After she came back, the court conferred the title of prince on the general. The city lord conferred the title of king. This was a great event for Tianjing New City. The bigger the official of the city lord, the greater the power, and the people of Tianjing New City had a good life.
The more secure you are. In the past few years, there have been several incidents in Tianjing New City. There were some trivial people who wanted to steal secret recipes from Tianjing New City, and the city lord led troops to search the general's factory and bully the city lord and his junior officials. But now
Your lord, no one dares to covet you anymore.
This time, the city lord made the king a king. As if to let the people of Tianjing New City celebrate together, he gave the workers in each workshop a monthly salary increase of five taels of silver. Gu Lao'er and his wife now have five taels of silver a month.
Money. Although there are constant famines in other places and prices are slightly higher than before, five taels of silver can still be worth the four taels and five cents used in the past. Calculated in this way, it is equivalent to the city lord giving an extra five taels of silver to Gu Lao'er's family every month.
.
This is a joyful thing. With five more coins, the standard of living can be improved a bit. Even raising one more child is enough. Gu Lao Er walked into the house and saw his wife holding her little daughter and having sex with her old mother in the house.
Let’s talk. My daughter-in-law works in a factory in Xincheng. It’s a short distance and she has to go home earlier than Gu Laoer every day.
Gu Lao'er and his wife both work in the factory, and Gu Lao'er's mother is responsible for taking care of the children at home. Many workers in Tianjing New City work as husband and wife in the factory together, and the children at home are
Most of them are left to the care of the elderly. The General encourages this kind of family structure, saying that it will give the elderly something to do.
Gu Lao'er shouted to his wife: "My dear, come here! Burn the fish and pig ears and have some wine!" After hearing this, Gu's wife walked out of the room, saw the goods on Gu's second hand, and said with a smile: "Your old factory
The monthly salary has also been raised?" Gu Laoer took out two taels and five cents of silver, put it on the table with a bang, and said, "How can it not be raised? You don't know? All workers in the city have received a raise! They have all been raised to twenty taels.
Five cents! I heard that the soldiers' monthly pay increased by seven cents." Gu Laoer said proudly: "These days are so happy. Tomorrow we will go to the cloth store to buy cloth and make a set for each of the family.
New summer clothes.”
The Gu family's daughter-in-law spat: "You had dinner and meat in the factory, and you want another meal?" Gu Laoer smiled and said: "The Lord of the City has become a king, and our family's monthly salary has increased. This is a double blessing.
, can you celebrate? If you are drinking today, you should drink some too!" Gu's wife spat: "You are getting fatter and fatter now! You still eat!"
Gu Laoer raised his head and smiled: "It would be nice to be fat. How would outsiders know that I am living so well if I don't gain a little weight?" Gu Laoer was talking there when he heard the sound of crackling firecrackers coming from outside the door. Then...
I heard children and adults shouting outside: "King Yan!"
"King Yan!" Before the firecrackers were set off here, another burst of firecrackers was heard not far away. Another shouting from the neighbors was heard.
"King Yan!" "King Yan!"
The whole city seemed to be in a carnival, wildly celebrating the promotion of the city lord Yang Peng and the increase in his monthly salary. Gu Laoer bowed his mouth to his wife and said: "Listen, this is all because of the increase in monthly salary.
I'm so happy!" Gu's second daughter-in-law smiled and carried the fish and meat into the kitchen.
Gu Lao'er walked outside the door with his hands behind his back, looked at the neighbors setting off firecrackers in the alley, shook his head and said, "Look how happy these people are!" After thinking about it, Gu Lao'er shouted loudly into the house: "Son, let's go
Take out your red lantern and we'll hang it up."
Gu Lao's five-year-old son was writing in front of the table. Now that he was old enough to go to school, he had to learn ten words every day. When he heard his father's words, he secretly thought that he didn't have to do homework now, and immediately climbed up to the table.
He took down the lantern hanging on the wall of his room and happily gave it to his father.
Gu Laoer hung the red lantern on the door, glanced at his son and said, "Son, do you want to have a younger brother?" Gu Laoer's son looked at his father, blinked and said, "Dad, I have both.
I have two sisters. Didn’t you say you want to save money for me to get a wife, but you can’t support your younger brother?” Gu Laoer smiled and said, “I couldn’t afford it before, but now I can.” He touched his son.
Gu Laoer said: "Son, you have to remember that as long as you follow the steps of the city lord, the good days will never end. When you grow up, you will also work in the factory to serve the city lord like your father.
Do things!”
After thinking for a while, Gu Lao Er said again: "No, you are more promising than dad. You have already gone to school to learn literacy. How can you be like dad? In the future, you will join the Huben Division as a soldier and fight with the Lord of the City in all directions." Gu Lao Er said.
Er's son looked at his father and nodded in understanding.
Gu Laoer laughed loudly, picked up his son, and walked out of the alley. After walking a few steps, he saw a neighbor named Zhang coming out with a bunch of firecrackers. The Zhang family took a stick of incense and lit the firecrackers.
The firecrackers crackled, and Gu Laoer was infected by the joyful atmosphere in the city. He stood with the neighbors, raised his left hand and shouted loudly: "King Yan!" "King Yan!"
On this day, Yang Peng sat in the official hall of Zhang Xiang's Tianjing New City and summoned Cui Changwu, Lu Hu and Gao Ligong to inquire about the situation of maritime affairs. Today's overseas affairs, the fleet is in charge of Lu Hu, and Hirado's trade matters are in charge of
Zheng Kaida is in charge, and Taiwan's development is in charge of Guan Shan. At the same time, the Overseas Department, as the department in the shogunate that is responsible for overseas affairs, also has an account to record various expenses and income from overseas affairs, which can form a supervision of specific operating departments.
It has been seven months since we left for this southern expedition, and we don’t know what happened to overseas affairs. Yang Peng was free that day, so he summoned a few of his subordinates to ask. Yang Peng asked Lu Hu: "How many ships are there now?"
Is there a ship?" Lu Hu was originally the deputy commander of the Frontier Regiment, in charge of the crossbowmen. Now after successive promotions, he has become the military supervisor. He handed over his hands and replied to Yang Peng: "Your Majesty, this year
The shipyard continued to build day by day, and built another twenty-one large pointed ships, and now there are thirty-one large ships in the fleet."
"The fleet now has 1,100 boatmen and 2,170 gunners. The monthly salary and food expenses are 15,000 taels. The fleet only transports goods that it does not handle. This monthly salary
It's a pure expense." "These thirty-one large ships can transport three million pieces of cotton cloth at a time to Hirado, and can carry 10,000 farmers to Taiwan. The fleet sailed to Hirado in Japan from mid-May to the end of August last year, and at other times
Then we take the Taiwan route. Now we have transported 75,000 farmers to Hsinchu."
It turns out that there are already 75,000 farmers in Hsinchu, which is already the size of a county. Li Zhi thought for a while and asked: "How is Hsinchu currently developed?" Lu Hu raised his hand and said: "Uncle, how is Hsinchu now?
It has already reached a considerable scale. As far as I know, more than 400,000 acres of paddy fields have been cultivated. For specific accounts, please ask the Ambassador of the Overseas Affairs Department."
Yang Peng turned to Gao Ligong and asked: "Mr. Gao, do you have any account of the specific situation in Taiwan now?" Gao Ligong made great contributions to Yang Peng in contacting maritime affairs. Yang Peng did not forget him when he recounted his merits this time. He
He was promoted to the rank of Dutou a few days ago and is now a military attache.
Now in the fourth year of Xianping, the tradition of the noble and the military has been defeated by the raging war. Now the civilian officials cannot control the military officials at all, and the sense of superiority between the civilian officials and the military attachés has naturally disappeared. Compared with making a living,
Gao Ligong felt that being a military attache of Qianhu would have more status. He was very happy with his promotion and became more diligent in his work.
Gao Ligong bowed his hand to Yang Peng and said, "Your Majesty, I have an account here. Taiwan has shipped 75,441 people so far, and 119 of them died of malaria." Listen.
When asked about Gao Ligong, Yang Peng was silent. Malaria is indeed a major hazard in Taiwan. Unexpectedly, more than a hundred people died in the first year. However, Yang Peng repeatedly emphasized environmental sanitation in Guanshan. As the living environment matures and
If it improves, fewer and fewer people will get sick in the future.
Gao Ligong continued: "Excluding the masons and other handymen, there are now 70,000 farmers in Taiwan. In February, 440,000 acres of paddy fields were cultivated and distributed to 22,000 farmers. The farmers planted rice seedlings in March.
It is expected that more than 400,000 shi of grain can be harvested in June. By then, you can get more than 200,000 shi of rice as land rent."
When Yang Peng heard the figure of more than 200,000 shi, he nodded. The benefits of developing Taiwan are really high. According to the current grain price of 2 taels and 1 shi in cheap grain stores, the more than 200,000 shi of rice would be between 40,000 and 500,000 taels.
The income of silver. And this is only half a year's rent.
As farmers continue to open up more paddy fields, Taiwan's development will bring greater profits to Yang Peng. Gao Ligong added: "Uncle, hiring these farmers to open up wasteland is also very expensive. Today, 50,000 farmers are still opening up wasteland."
, we provide these farmers with food and accommodation, and two or two months of money every month. This month’s expenses are 160,000 taels. If the fleet continues to transport farmers to Hsinchu, the expenses will be even greater.
."
Yang Peng was stunned when he heard such an astonishing monthly expenditure figure of 160,000 taels of silver. Yang Peng hired farmers to open up wasteland, and the fields opened were Yang Peng's private fields. Logically speaking, the farmers who opened up wasteland must be given wages, food, accommodation and clothing.
.But the expenses of these land reclamation farmers are really huge. Each farmer spends three taels of silver per month, which is equivalent to 160,000 silver for more than 50,000 people.
Yang Peng asked Zhang Xiang: "Is there a big deficit in the account now?" Zhang Xiang said: "Originally there was a surplus of 50,000 taels in the account, plus the profit of 60,000 taels after the expansion of the textile factory. Last year, the fleet made three and a half months of trading in Hirado.
With the profit of 400,000 taels and the land rent income of 90,000 taels from Taiwan’s late rice last year, the overall account is a slight surplus.”
Yang Peng was relieved when he heard that there was no deficit in the account. Zhang Xiang said: "Brother, if the size of the fleet continues to expand, and if the number of people opening up land in Hsinchu continues to expand, the deficit will appear, and it will get bigger and bigger. Now we
The trade between Cangzhou and Heado has been saturated, and it is difficult to increase profits. I recommend not building new ships."
Yang Peng pondered and said: "New ships still need to be built. These large pointed ships can be used for seven or eight years. If new ships are not built, there will be no ships left when the old ships are scrapped. But the speed does not need to be so fast. Keep it.
Let’s start construction on the two shipbuilding sites.”
Gao Ligong nodded and said: "Then I will inform Dengzhou that the shipbuilding site in Laizhou will no longer build new ships. Only two shipbuilding sites in Dengzhou and Cangzhou will be left."
Yang Peng nodded. Zhang Xiang suddenly said: "Brother, in the past few months, 30,000 peasants fleeing famine came from Henan and found fields in Tianjing New City!" Yang Peng asked: "What's going on?" Zhang Xiang
Said: "Brother, over the years we have reclaimed 600,000 acres of dry land in Tianjing New City and five counties, hired 60,000 farmers, and transported more than 70,000 farmers to Xiaoliuqiu, plus recruited 20,000 soldiers and two
Thousands of workers, plus 20,000 vendors in Tianjing New Town, we have attracted nearly 200,000 people near Cangzhou, and the vast majority of them are young people."
"Cangzhou has one prefecture, two states and ten counties, with only more than 2 million people. Because we have taken away so many people over the years, many tenant fields near Cangzhou are now vacant. The original tenant farming land was less
Farmers can often rent more crops. Because of our development, farmers in Cangzhou have enough land to cultivate, and they are slightly wealthier than before."
"In addition to the fact that we have been guarding Cangzhou all these years, the Khitan has never plundered Cangzhou. The farmers in Cangzhou have not been harmed by the military, and their situation is much better than in other places." "Last year, there was a severe drought in Henan, and there were places where cannibals were found. Compared with Henan, Cangzhou
It became much richer. Tens of thousands of refugees from Henan fled to Cangzhou when they heard that there was food in Cangzhou. Some of the vacant land was tenanted by landlords to farmers fleeing from Henan. More than 30,000 people found refuge in Cangzhou.
A way to survive.”
Yang Peng listened to Zhang Xiang's words and kept nodding. Later, Yang Peng laughed and said, "I never thought that our development in Tianjing New City could also benefit farmers in Henan."
What happened after all? Let’s look at the breakdown next time.