Daming: I asked you to hang yourself, but I didn’t ask you to rebuild the Ming Dynasty

"You are all gentry, and your vision has always been further than that of ordinary people."

Zhu Youjian smiled:

"Why is Jiangnan so rich? With your eyesight, you can naturally see it."

Why is Jiangnan so rich?

To put it bluntly, this place is really hard to describe.

According to the national policy set by the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty set very high taxes in the Jiangnan area where Zhang Shicheng and Fang Guozhen were based.

But, there are so many officials who can’t stand it!

For example, Suzhou has been complaining about unfair taxation for hundreds of years.

According to the Guo Huan case during the Ming Dynasty Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's time, after a detailed review, we came to the following conclusion:

Zhu Yuanzhang's grain and tax foundation was less than half of the best mansion completed by the Jiangnan generation.

For example, in Suzhou, 44.4% of taxes paid by Suzhou residents are in banknotes, 42.3% are in arrears, and only 13.3% are in visible food.

Isn’t that strange?

The Ming Dynasty’s fucked-up paper currency system made it easy for the country to use treasure banknotes, but it was absolutely impossible to treat it as silver and hand it over to the country!

Otherwise, the precious money will not quickly become a piece of paper!

However, it was still when Zhu Yuanzhang was in power!

People in Suzhou can pay half of the taxes with treasure banknotes!

Niubi not?

It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang was a tyrant, capable of killing tens of thousands of officials at a time.

However, under such circumstances, Jiangnan alone can save the country more than 2000 million shi in tax revenue.

In order to prevent the common people in the world from not believing it, and for the common people's trust in the new Ming Dynasty, even Zhu Yuanzhang did not dare to announce the actual amount of corruption, so he had to write it vaguely as 700 million shi.

This is the beginning of Ming Dynasty!

This was during Zhu’s “beheading” reign!

At that time, everyone dared to do this - in the year 276 of the Ming Dynasty, all generations had accumulated savings. If Jiangnan was not rich, how could it be rich?

As mentioned at the beginning, as long as there is no political chaos and the three generations of our ancestors work from dawn to dusk, the next generation will be left to eat and die!

This family has been around for more than ten generations. How can they not be rich under such "heavy taxes"?

……

Li Shusheng naturally knew this situation.

After all, we are all members of the gentry circle, so no one knows who’s butt is clean or not!

Perhaps this is the new word that the emperor accidentally spit out - "The primitive accumulation of capital always involves flesh and blood."

……

Li Shusheng rolled his eyes:

The emperor was obviously not referring to the bad blood between officials and gentry.

In the morning, the emperor cut off his own hair to punish the gentry. I still remember it vividly!

Li Shusheng, who had already received advice from the emperor, said before other gentry spoke:

"Your Majesty, the Jiangnan area focuses on commerce. This is the reason why Jiangnan is rich."

Li Shusheng concealed the internal cause and only talked about the appearance.

Zhu Youjian glanced at Li Shusheng approvingly.

Talking to smart people is such a tacit understanding.

He pointed at the surging river and said with a smile:

"Yes, after Huang Daopo improved the textile machine, the Jiangnan area relied on cotton spinning and silk, and made a lot of money."

Zhu Youjian smiled:

"I have a new machine that can defeat all Jiangnan cotton cloth. Would you like to take part in it?"

what?

Can it defeat the famous Jiangnan cotton?

The gentry were stunned.

When Li Shucheng saw everyone dumbfounded, he hurriedly said:

"Your Majesty, I am willing to spend 300 million in silver just to be able to become a shareholder. Please give me your permission!"

Three million silver is already half of the Li family's property.

After he returned home, he persuaded the elders of his clan and donated the land to the emperor for free.

The price was that Li Shusheng spent [-]% of his family's private money to compensate the family members.

Li Shusheng had a vague misunderstanding. Following the emperor would definitely enable him to achieve great achievements.

So he took a big gamble!

"Very good, I'll give you one!"

Zhu Youjian nodded.

Everyone originally wanted to follow, but when they heard the emperor said that they could only get one share for 300 million silver, they hesitated.

Li Shusheng kept winking at everyone, but a dozen gentry pretended not to notice.

The price is too high and the stock ratio is too low, so we will not get involved in this matter!

Just when it was quiet, a petty official from the Zhang family stood up.

This person was none other than Zhang Shutang, an official in the Tang Dynasty, who had been delivering meals to Zhu Yujian for more than ten years.

"Your Majesty, the Baishui Zhang family is willing to invest 500 million. I beg your Majesty to allow the Zhang family to also participate in the business."

Zhu Zhuyoujian laughed loudly:

"You, Zhang Shutang, owe your clan King Tang's life to you. I will spare you 100 million and give you two shares!"

It doesn't matter whether these people are willing to take shares or not, it's just a reason anyway.

Everyone comes here, and it’s not up to him to decide whether they make money or not.

big deal...

The soldiers shut up and used their names to show off and deceive.

uh, no!

That's called "publication of accounts."

……

As soon as Zhang Shutang opened his mouth, everyone's hearts suddenly moved.

Although the Zhang family has long been divided into many branches, the Zhang family is still the largest family in the entire Nanyang and Xiangyang area.

Even though Zhang Shutang is not the patriarch of the Zhang family in Nanyang, he has been a royal official for generations, so his reputation is not small.

This person can basically summon most of the Wanxiang Zhang clan members.

At that time, the news that this man invested in the imprisoned Zhu Yujian and made a lot of money in one fell swoop had already spread throughout Nanyang.

Seeing that Zhang Shutang directly spent a huge sum of 500 million to invest in the shares, someone else was immediately tempted.

"Your Majesty, the Pang family is willing to invest 100 million in shares..."

"Your Majesty, our Wang family is willing to spend 400 million to invest in shares..."

"Your Majesty, the Gao family doesn't have much silver, so we are willing to offer 80 in cash and 120 million shi in grain to become a shareholder."

……

Zhang Shutang's words completely became a reassurance for the gentry.

More than a dozen gentry, all of them to a greater or lesser degree, took shares.

In a matter of seconds, Zhu Youjian received money and goods equivalent to more than 300 million yuan in silver.

Ni Yuanlu, the Minister of Household Affairs, was so happy that she couldn't close her mouth.

With so much money, His Majesty's plan can go a step further!

The internal supervisors took out a piece of equity certificate, filled it out in triplicate, and asked everyone to sign it.

……

Bi Maokang was old and fell ill from exhaustion after working for several days.

When Bi Maokang fell down, Bi Maoliang also had a cold.

Zhu Youjian was shocked, fearing that this veteran who died around this time in history would die.

So he forcibly ordered Bi Maokang and Bi Maoliang to rest.

He gave the two veterans the title of dean of the Royal Arms Manufacturing Bureau, allowing them to rest in peace and recuperate. After their health recovered, they could take care of their apprentices and teach.

At this time, it was their apprentices and nephews who took over the affairs of the two old officials.

Among them, Zhang Jimeng, Bi Dengfu and Bi Denghan are the most outstanding.

(The former is the most outstanding apprentice of the two. The latter two are the heirs of the two. As for whether they are direct descendants, there is no record. These three people have all left their names in history.)

Zhu Youjian said to Wang Lian:

"Bring the drawings of the textile machine and give them to Zhang Jimeng."