The Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 489: Go to Nanyang

Views:

On August 18, the Red Star Spinning Factory officially opened. In the first phase, 20 bamboo spinning machines and 20 skilled female spinning workers were all in place. These spinners have signed a contract with the Red Star Spinning Factory. Complete the number of spindles specified by the factory every day, and the monthly remuneration shall be no less than eight bucks.

In the grand opening ceremony of the Red Star Spinning Factory, there was no Zhu Youjian. He had left Suzhou and went to Songjiang Mansion.

From Suzhou Mansion to Songjiang Mansion, it took only two hundred miles. Zhu Youjian and his party would have a quick horse. If you travel in a hurry, it would only take one day. However, Zhu Youjian had to stop and go all the way to inspect Songjiang Mansion’s textile industry and spent three. Days, when I arrived at Songjiang Fucheng, it was already after noon.

Wang Mujiu stationed outside the city as usual. Zhu Youjian brought Fu Xiaojian and his guards into Songjiang City and ordered a meal in a medium-sized restaurant called "Haibin".

Zhu Youjian discovered that this restaurant stocked a lot of fish and shrimps, including squid, scallops and other seafood. Upon asking, I learned that these fish, shrimps and seafood are mainly from Shanghai County, a subsidiary of Songjiang Prefecture.

Shanghai County is located at the estuary of the Yangtze River, and its fishery resources are particularly rich. The fish and shrimps delivered to restaurants are basically live and quite fresh.

Along the way, Zhu Youzhen’s deepest feelings are still the textile industry of Songjiang Prefecture, which is very similar to Suzhou Prefecture, and it is also "every family has a spinning machine." Spinning has become the most important and most common item for the urban and rural residents of Songjiang Prefecture. income.

Zhu Youjian only stayed in Songjiang Mansion for a day and a half. Before leaving, he handed Fu Xiaojian a paperwork and asked him to find the local Jinyiwei agent, "Xiaojian, give this imperial order to Jinyiwei, let him ten days After that, it was sent to Nanjing City and passed to Tian Mingda, the governor of Jiangnan Province, and told him that the Lord had been here!"

"Master," Fu Xiaojian is accustomed to carrying out Zhu Youjian's will, but he can't help it this time, "Master came to Jiangnan Province, but he didn't summon Tian Mingda..."

"Xiaojian, you don't understand," Zhu Youzhen smiled slightly. "The Lord did not summon him, but to tell him that Jiangnan Province's New Deal propaganda is seriously lagging behind, and the Lord is not satisfied. He Tian Mingda is obviously waiting and watching!"

"Master, will Tian Mingda..."

"Don’t worry, Xiaojian, now that the New Army has taken over the defense of the entire Jiangnan Province, he is not so courageous," Zhu Youzhen said to Xiaojian, holding his hands upside down, "The Lord did not summon him, but ordered Jin Yiwei to go. The order, plus the decree passed by the court to Nanjing a few days ago, was to tell him that the reason why the Lord knew everything that happened in Jiangnan Province, the reason why he didn’t dismiss and investigate it was to make him guilty and make meritorious deeds. Tian Mingda is a shrewd man and he will understand ."

"The Lord warned him so, he is more wise than Tian Mingda!" Fu Xiaojian stood beside Zhu Youjian, "but the Lord's southern tour is a microservice, and he is still in the south of the Yangtze River. If you let Tian Mingda know, Will it reveal the whereabouts of the Lord?"

"No, I let Jin Yiwei go to Nanjing after ten days. I'm afraid no one knows where the Lord is after ten days." Zhu Youjian smiled mysteriously, "Go, Xiaojian, find Jin Yiwei first, and confess. Clerk, let’s go out of town right away!"

"Yes, Lord!"

Outside the southern gate of Songjiang Mansion, Wang Mujiu and other soldiers had prepared their horses. Zhu Youjian stepped on the "Xuehuo", raised his whip, and ran toward the southwest.

"Master, are we going to Hangzhou?" Fu Xiaojian followed closely behind Zhu Youzhen, but his horse was an ordinary war horse, and his feet were not as strong as the "Snow Fire" under Zhu Youzhen's crotch. Can only continue to beat the warhorses, barely keeping up with Zhu Youjian's pace.

"Leave Songjiang first, arrive at the boundary of Zhejiang, and then take a look along the way!" Zhu Youzhen kept running, but only slowed down a little bit so that the guards could not keep up.

Zhu Youzhen was a little strange in his mind. A good Taihu Lake Basin, with Changzhou, Suzhou, and Songjiang in Jiangnan Province in the north, while Jiaxing and Huzhou in the south belong to Zhejiang Province.

The people along the coast, although they drink the clear water of Taihu Lake and eat Taihu silverfish, they belong to Jiangnan and Zhejiang provinces, and their governance strategies are different. The power of a governor is even different. In Daming, where the rule of man is deep, there will be places in the north and south of Taihu Lake. Is it different

When Zhu You checked out Songjiang, he galloped all the way, and when he reached the Jiaxing realm, he held the horse's rein and handed the horse to Wang Mujiu, and asked him to take his soldiers and horses down the official road south, while he took Fu Xiaojian and other guards. We walked, pretending to be merchants going south, and went deep into the homes of farmers on both sides of the official road.

After walking all the way to Jiaxing Mansion, Zhu Youjian discovered to his surprise that, apart from the stone stele with the word "Jiaxing" in between, Jiaxing and Songjiang are almost indistinguishable. There is even farmland crossing this boundary stele. It is hard to tell whether it belongs to Jiangnan Songjiang Prefecture is still Jiaxing Prefecture, Zhejiang Province.

What comforted Zhu Youjian most was that, just as Liu Bingzhong said, Jiaxing Prefecture, like Songjiang Prefecture and Suzhou Prefecture, has a large number of spinning machines among the people.

Zhu Youjian made a detour to Huzhou and has not yet reached the city of Hangzhou. He is already convinced that the Taihu Lake Basin is already the textile base of Daming. As long as he uses his later experience, manages and guides properly, he may become the birthplace of Daming's textile revolution.

At present, the Taihu Lake Basin has a sufficient reserve of textile workers, who are quite skilled, and there are also a large number of wealthy businessmen and wealthy funds.

The only shortcoming is the technological awareness of the business owners.

The Red Star Spinning Factory in Suzhou was the first seed Zhu Youjian planted in the Taihu Lake Basin, and the Patent Office of Suzhou Prefecture, Zhu Youjian watered and fertilized the seeds in order to speed up the germination of the seeds.

But Zhu Youjian is now mainly investigating. Once he returns to the capital, he can take some necessary measures to promote the implementation of the New Deal in the five central and southern five provinces, create a "textile industrial zone" around Taihu Lake, and accelerate the emergence of the entire Ming Dynasty.

The goal of his southern tour this time is not yet this ancient continent, but the newly regained Nanyang by Ming.

As in Jiangnan Province, Zhu Youjian did not alarm the officials of Zhejiang Province, but sent Wang Mujiu as the commander of the Royal First Army to visit Zuofu, the commander of the 33rd Army stationed in Zhejiang.

After leaving Hangzhou, Zhu Youjian did not stop in southern Zhejiang, but went straight to Fujian along the official road.

Entering Fujian Province from the south of Zhejiang Province, the first piece of land is Jianning Mansion. There are also official roads here, but the official roads are narrow and curved, and the highlands are uneven. The official roads of Zhejiang Province are almost two days of ice and fire. Zhejiang And Fujian, clearly displayed in front of Zhu Youjian.

If you are not riding a horse, but riding a bicycle, you will basically have no road to Fujian.

This is still the hills in the east. If you enter the Wuyi Mountains in the west, you don’t know what it looks like. It’s no wonder that the people of Fujian often flee overseas. If they stay in Fujian, they will either die of poverty or starve to death. They are more likely to starve to death due to poverty.

Zhu Youjian kept frowning and walked along the official road to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province. The official road in the northern part of Fuzhou is slightly wider and straight. An unknown mass of weeds.

The harvest season in the south is about to enter, but few farmers are working on the crops in the farmland. "What's the matter? Are there no farmers in Fujian Province?"

"Master, are all mountains here?" Fu Xiaojian leaped off his horse and picked up two ivy.

"Mountains?" Zhu Youjian took a closer look and found that the surrounding areas are indeed hills and mountains. Although the elevation is not high, mountains are connected to hills, and hills are connected to hills. There is not even a piece of flat land. No wonder Fujian's official roads are difficult to repair. !

"Go, look far away!"

Zhu Youjian galloped his horse for more than 30 miles, and the terrain was everywhere. Only then did he understand the meaning of the word "Lingnan". The Han people usually call the area south of Fujian "Lingnan", which means uncivilized. It now appears that Lingnan is not only difficult to understand the language, but also very different from the Central Plains, and it is a barren land in terms of terrain.

It turns out that Daming has not only the capital, Taihu Lake, but also Lingnan. I don’t know what Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi look like. It is Sichuan. At this moment, I am afraid that it is also difficult for the mountain to reach the sky, right

However, the cement road from Chengdu in Sichuan to Fengxiang in Shaanxi has been opened. Sichuan will soon be connected with the Central Plains. The most difficult areas are the five southern provinces.

Zhu Youjian stopped the horse's rein, rolled over and dismounted, "Little sword, let's camp here!"

"Master, shall we not enter Fuzhou City?" Fu Xiaojian asked curiously. During Zhu Youjian's southern tour, every time he passed a mansion, he would enter the city to wander around, so that he could see the farmers outside the city, but also Can see the commercial development in the city, how come to Fuzhou City, but set up camp outside the city

"Don't enter the city!" Zhu Youjian handed the horse rein to the guards beside him, stepped up on a raised rock, and glanced around. The current Fujian is similar to the uncivilized land, and he has no intention of entering the city at all.

"Master, why don't you live in the military camp? Fujian's army is a new army reorganized, and it is under the direct control of the Lord and the National Defense Institute." Wang Mujiu also got off his horse and came to Zhu Youjian's side.

Zhu Youjian shook his head, "Let's camp!"

"Yes, Lord!" Wang Mujiu immediately summoned his soldiers, "Quickly camp!"

Zhu Youjian’s big tent had just been tied up, and the soldiers and guards were still having a picnic. Zhu Youjian took out the pen and paper he carried with him and wrote an decree to Fujian Governor Xiong Wencan: Immediately survey the roads running through Fujian’s north and south. , The north is connected with Zhejiang and the south is with Guangdong; the people who have registered for losing their land, especially military households, are ready to immigrate to Southeast Asia; new crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn are planted on the land of Fujian.

Because he did not carry the jade seal with him, Zhu Youjian asked Fu Xiaojian to hand the decree to the local Jin Yiwei. Ten days after Zhu Youjian left Fujian, he sent it to the Fuzhou government and handed it to the governor Xiong Wencan in person.

After leaving Fuzhou, Zhu Youjian didn't stop and went all the way to Xiamen.

Xiamen is the home port of the South China Sea Fleet. Wang Mujiu took out the imperial decree signed by Zhu Youjian in the capital and covered it with a jade seal, and as an imperial envoy, he asked the South China Sea Fleet for ships and prepared to enter the South China Sea from the sea.

From the inland of Daming to Nanyang, there are now two-day routes. One is to take the west route, starting from Leizhou in Guangdong, crossing the Qiongzhou Strait, stopping at Qiongzhoufu, and then sailing along the east coast of Annan to Malacca; the other is going The eastern route starts from Xiamen, passes through Taiwan's Danshui and Dayuan two prefectures, enters Luzon Province, and then goes along Lanzhu Province to Malacca.

Annan is now an enemy or not a friend of Daming, so Zhu Youjian will naturally not risk going west.