Amidst the mother-in-law's cries, someone said unhappily: "Boss of the Chen family, what you are doing is not very kind."
Before he finished speaking, someone beside him gave him a strong tug, almost causing him to stagger. The other person held up his hand to Chen Ziming and said politely:
"Liangfu, you don't have to be like this. We people are not cunning and deceitful people, as you know. Life is really hard, and we have to help each other go on. I heard earlier that Dr. Chen made money at sea. We We have only a little bit of unnecessary hope. Since Dr. Chen has already taken care of others, we have nothing to say, so we will take our leave."
The village where Chen Ziming was born is called Chen Lizhuang. The person who spoke politely was very senior among the Li clan, he could barely be regarded as the clan leader, and his words had weight. After he finished speaking, everyone turned and left without delaying. The group of people shouted out of the main house and left the courtyard. The two at the end even closed the courtyard door for Chen Ziming.
The Chen family is not a wealthy family. The only people who always live in the same house are the Chen family's wife and Chen Ziming, two younger sisters who have not yet grown hair, and an old servant who has been with them for two generations. As soon as the creditors left, the yard became quiet. After coming down, the old servant poured some tea and looked at Chen Ziming happily. The two girls also came out of the backyard to greet Chen Ziming.
Hearing his mother-in-law sobbing, Chen Ziming helped her up and said gently: "Don't be anxious. I haven't been here for the past two years, and the family expenses have been limited. I owe some money and food, so it's not a big deal. Now that I'm back, I can always live a good life."
Mrs. Chen's wife cried: "It's been two years since you left! How hard it has been for me without a man in the family to support me! I miss you coming back every day!"
The lady cried miserably, and Chen Ziming comforted her repeatedly, then held her hand and said earnestly, she has lost weight.
Suddenly I heard the lady lower her voice: "Did you really bring nothing home?"
Chen Ziming sighed again and said loudly: "It's only seventeen miles away from Linchuan City to Zhuangzi. Forty or fifty family members are begging for mercy. What can I do? I, Chen Liangfu, have nothing in my hand! It's really gone!" "
These words were shouted loudly, and the words were heard outside the courtyard. Someone could vaguely hear complaints and the sound of footsteps.
Those who were waiting at home just now left so neatly, it turned out that they were hiding under the wall to listen. Now they were sure that there was nothing to gain, so they left in disappointment.
Chen Ziming said softly: "My pockets are indeed empty now, but I will go to the city tomorrow... In the past two years, I have traveled around various places, gained some knowledge, and figured out a few effective new prescriptions. I can sell them to pharmacies, anyway. I can get it back in exchange for more than ten guan. But..."
But a dozen dollars is nothing. Chen Ziming knew his temperament, and even more doubted how much of this money could be left for his family. Nine times out of ten, he would use it to help the poor.
At this point, he shook his head and asked: "We in Zhuangzi have always had a good life, why has it become like this? There are so many families, and every family can no longer survive?"
The wife felt that her husband might not really care about others, and was probably still implicitly accusing her of being incompetent in running the household, and she almost cried again. She finally managed to work up the energy to explain, and the old servant also added.
After listening, Chen Ziming didn't know what to say.
All in all, the world is changing so fast that ordinary people can't catch up anyway, but the wealthy and powerful have many ways to peel off the skin and bones, and even the subordinate officials in the court are becoming more ruthless day by day. I can't tell what is wrong.
Anyway, in the past two years, it has become easier and easier to spend money, the government's taxes have increased, the land in everyone's hands has been unable to be kept, and the savings have been depleted day by day. It seems that it will last until this year, and it will be difficult to continue to maintain it by the end of the year.
The reason why they asked Chen Ziming for help so passionately was because the villagers had no other choice but to attack this well-known and kind-hearted local doctor. If Chen Ziming came back a few months later, some people might have to leave their hometowns.
I went to Linchuan City or even further to Longxing Mansion to work hard to make ends meet.
Thinking about it carefully, Chen Ziming passed those cities on his way back to his hometown and often lamented that there were more and more residents in the city, which seemed extremely prosperous. But why did those residents come? Isn't it difficult to survive in the countryside?
Chen Ziming doesn't think that the businessmen in the city are more conscientious than the wealthy people in the countryside. Will people who can't survive in the countryside definitely be able to find food in the city without starving to death? This question is really difficult to answer.
, unless people go further, rush to the riverside and the seaside in one go, and eat the food of the North-South trade. But that bowl of rice is really not easy to eat...
When he was at sea, he often dealt with crews from all over the world. Many of the crews in the north had a background in the Zhou army, and almost all of them had lives on their hands; while the crews in the south were not just crew members, but sometimes also
Pirates or similar elements would inevitably be defeated when encountering strong men from the north, but that ferocious look was enough to frighten Chen Ziming. Only such ruthless people could hold on to the gold and silver on the trade line between the north and the south.
In the last six months of his stay at sea, Chen Ziming became familiar with several high-ranking captains, especially the Shandong man named Wang Erbai, and he had no scruples about talking to each other.
I heard from Wang Erbai that various parts of the Central Plains were invaded by the Mongols and their massacres severely damaged their vitality. To this day, the system of military households and shady households relying on the Great Zhou Dynasty is in the process of slow recovery. And this
A large territory only needs to supply the army financially and has almost no other burdens.
The financial resources of the Great Zhou Dynasty almost entirely depended on trade, and many major items of supplies provided in trade came from the Northeast or behind the Monan Mountains. Those barbarian tribes were so poor that they didn’t even have a single iron nail.
Brocade robes are treasures, but some of them are furs, ginseng, gold, pearls, horses and other products, and some of them are worthless manpower.
Countless tribes contributed manpower and products to obtain agricultural tools, food, daily necessities and luxury goods. After they developed one after another, they were able to continue to penetrate further into the north and provide more products and wealth.
The Great Zhou Dynasty used special official offices to support these tribes; it used special and powerful force to severely punish tribes that violated the rules; finally, it used many large cities and ports in the north as transit links for trade to allocate demand and supply from various places.
, earn more profits from it, use those profits to support the army and the court, and stabilize the huge territory.
Wang Erbai is very proud of this entire operating system. This is what he learned when he went ashore last year and participated in training as a shiphead representative. He feels that this is undoubtedly the source of the prosperity of Dazhou.
But according to Chen Ziming, the key is not how Zhou Dynasty governs.
The biggest advantage of the Great Zhou Dynasty is that what it inherited was the mess left after the Jurchens had messed around for decades and the Mongols killed hundreds of people.
The Great Zhou Dynasty itself was a savage warrior regime that arose out of a mess. The warriors were so vulgar that they should not have achieved much in the first place. But in this mess, Han'er was just a ghost who was lucky enough to survive under the axe. Apart from his life, he had nothing to lose.
There are none left; the aliens are more like beasts than people, their lives are worthless, they are no different from driven hounds.
Anyway, they are already living in hell and have nothing to lose. No matter what the Zhou Dynasty does, as long as it has a little result and brings some benefits to a certain part of the people under its rule, it is better than the Jurchens or the Black Tatars.
Stronger.
Maybe those northerners are used to the days of war and chaos, and as long as they wake up one night without being trampled to pulp by the iron hooves of the Tatars, they will feel that it is Zhou's virtuous policy, and they will kneel down and shout a few words, "Long live your Majesty, long live your Majesty."
And the people who were close to the Emperor of Zhou, including his army, and his trading system, spent their days eating and drinking and reaping the benefits. This was exactly the nature of a military man ruling a country.
Chen Ziming recalled Wang Erbai's triumphant face, thought of the strange behavior of this bow on countless occasions, and thought of the virtues of many northerners who talked about the past of fighting, and felt that his judgment must be right. To a certain extent, this
This was also one of the reasons why he rejected the high-paying offer from the northerners and returned to his hometown.
The Song Dynasty was the opposite of the Zhou Dynasty.
The Song Dynasty originally valued culture and education. A hundred years after the southern crossing, the people had become accustomed to peace and formed a relatively stable and peaceful life pattern. Once this pattern was broken, no one knew how to deal with it, including the imperial court. And faced the difficulties head-on.
The people were even more frightened and confused, and were in chaos.
Chen Ziming couldn't blame them. He didn't necessarily say that the people of the Song Dynasty deserved to live the miserable life of the Northerners. After all, that kind of terrible life was only rumored by mouth. In front of him, the villagers fell into poverty one after another and were about to slide into the abyss.
Yes, this is the problem that needs to be solved urgently.
He was actually a little panicked when people asked for help along the way. He felt that it was because he had been traveling for the past two years and failed to give advice to the villagers at all times that he was in a difficult situation now.
How to get out of this situation?
Chen Ziming was anxious for a while.
A few years ago, the first thing that came to his mind would have been to go to the city to ask the officials to see if the gentlemen could show their favor. But after two years at sea, his knowledge was much wider than before, and he knew that even in Lin'an City, Qing
In a place like Yuan Mansion, half of the lower-level officials are incompetent and half are greedy, not to mention that the emperor is far away from Linchuan.
Just two hours ago, when the officials in Linchuan City heard that Chen Ziming had returned from the sea, their eyes were red with envy. They praised repeatedly and said that when Mr. Chen was at sea, he took the money from Xianggong Shi and Guo Guan's family in the north.
When it comes to money, as long as you work hard, you won't have to worry about wealth.
After all, they are receiving royal salary. What can they expect from this kind of behavior?
If you want to live a better life these days, you have to rely on yourself. And Chen Ziming looked around and found that there was only one company that was willing to be a kind employer and share profits with his employees. This company happened to be within Chen Ziming's reach...
He suddenly stood up and walked back and forth in the hall twice.
When he said goodbye to the trading bank a few months ago, the trading bank was very sincere in retaining him, and also told him a piece of news. Starting from this year, many trading firms affiliated to Dazhou will recruit heavily in more than a dozen cities along the river and coast.
Manpower, fully liberalize cooperation with the merchants of the Song Dynasty. This will inevitably bring greater trade benefits, making those involved make a lot of money.
Even if Chen Ziming is just a doctor, he still has his place.
It turns out that the Great Zhou Dynasty regarded the Tatars on the grasslands as their formidable enemies, so in the territory of Monan, they opened mines, factories, cultivated wasteland, and built cities, fortresses, roads and bridges, all of which required human labor. In recent years, the Great Zhou Dynasty has continued to relocate people.
To the north, I heard that two to three hundred thousand people had been relocated one after another, but this was still not enough.
As a result of the large-scale transfer of personnel, various places in the south were also in urgent need of available manpower, and had to hire high-paying people from the Song Dynasty.
Not to mention the craftsmen who make iron, mint money, print, make porcelain and pottery, or have capable accountants, or old farmers who can take care of the fields; they are all being robbed. Experienced doctors are everywhere.
No matter the hospitals in the army, the pharmacies in the cities, or the caravans at sea, they are all vacant.
As long as you have real skills, you can get thirty or fifty guans a month. For example, Chen Ziming, his medical skills were highly praised last year, so by the second half of the year, he could almost walk around in the Qingyuan Prefecture's trading office.
Even if the level is not good, it doesn't matter. There are only a few common diseases by rivers and seasides. As long as you can prescribe a prescription according to the symptoms, you can make a living.
Therefore, if Chen Ziming wants to lead the villagers to live a better life, the easiest way is to organize them to go to Dazhou in the north. In Chenli Village, there is only one first-class doctor like Chen Ziming, but after all, there are many local doctors.
There are so many people who practice medicine or grow medicinal materials. If they are a little smarter, they can memorize medical skills temporarily and pretend to be a wild man, which is enough to deal with the vulgar warriors in the north.
Thinking of this, Chen Ziming made up his mind.
He walked out of the hall suddenly and pushed open the ajar door.
Sure enough, several people gathered outside the courtyard gate, including Chen Zixin and the elders of the Li family. Naturally, these people wanted to wait for an opportunity to explore Chen Ziming's family background. This approach was considered offensive, seeing Chen Ziming's fierceness.
When he rushed out, several people jumped up, feeling a little embarrassed.
"I have an idea that can solve all of your problems. However, you must have some courage." Chen Ziming said coldly.
The Li clan leader was taken aback and his face changed: "We will not do anything like killing officials and rebelling."
Chen Zixin added: "It's not okay to rob a bank."
I have only been on a study tour for two years, and I have interacted a lot with northern warriors. Who do you think I am? They took a lot of money from me and just arranged me like this? Chen Ziming couldn't help but cursed angrily: "You guys are farting!
