The Chinese people are the most industrious, as long as there is an opportunity to change their fate, they will definitely do their best to fight for it, and at the same time they are also the most practical, even if the gains and losses of a penny can be calculated very clearly. When someone found out that the income from being a tenant to the emperor was very good, many people were asking how to obtain the identity of a tenant of the imperial village, and those tenants who had no wives also became fragrant in the eyes of the matchmaker.

may be the reason for the contradiction between supply and demand, the men outside the Huangzhuang see the tenants of the Huangzhuang, in addition to envy and jealousy, they naturally have a little hatred, especially because of the promotion of new crops, so that the tenants of the Huangzhuang no longer worry about food, it is even more eye-catching.

Speaking of new crops, in fact, farmers do not feel fresh at all, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, potatoes, corn and other crops have been introduced to China, Wanli years there are people to write poems for potatoes, it can be seen that its popularity rate is not high, and only dignitaries can eat.

Coupled with the continuous alternation of natural and man-made disasters later, there is no basis for large-scale popularization, so Zhang Tao, who has really planted the land in his previous life, must promote these high-yield food crops, but the common people do not buy it, and they also need to accumulate some planting experience, and in the end they can only sow seeds in the Huangzhuang.

At the beginning, some people also questioned that the emperor was blindly commanding, but they were afraid that the royal pro-army would come to chat with them, so no one dared to disagree, and even those big landlords in Jiangnan still wished that the emperor would make irreparable mistakes, so that they could have the opportunity to promote their own set of things. It's just that people who have been waiting to see the joke for the past two years can't laugh.

After coming to Tianjin, he really came into contact with the agriculture and farmers of this era, and Jiang Tian knew why Zhang Tao hated these big landlords, as the so-called no investigation and research, there is no right to speak, don't you Jiang Tian want to develop industry and commerce? In order to solve agricultural problems, we must first familiarize ourselves with the means of production and the relations of production in the rural areas.

It sounds very tongue-twisting, but it can be summed up in one sentence: the land does not produce enough food, and it can't feed so many people, and it is useless for you to have any knowledge to help the people! Therefore, Jiang Tian can only build a new urban area according to his own ideas, and at the same time find ways to improve agricultural production efficiency.

This is also the reason why Jiang Tian, who advocates natural evolution, has gradually hardened his methods, and the tenants of Huangzhuang are not just farming, they must participate in the construction of farmland infrastructure when they are not working, but they are different from the previous official labor, and the work is paid, but it is less than the outside work.

The lack of people has always been Jiang Tian's biggest headache. The construction of the highway requires a lot of labor, and in order to ensure the progress of the project, a series of factories ready to be launched can only be stuck in the preparatory stage, and even those that have been established only stay at the level of small workshops.

Fortunately, the first batch of laborers he had been thinking about for a long time had an eyebrow, a group of prisoners of war on the grassland and laborers from Japan arrived one after another, and at the same time, a bridal group composed of a group of Japanese girls was also resold under the operation of Japanese merchants...... It was introduced, and it immediately balanced the urgent need of more men and fewer women in the local area.

In fact, these Japanese women originally planned to fill the border reclamation area, but because the tribes on the grassland killed a group of young and strong, and later the entire tribe moved inward, resulting in more boys and girls in these places now, the originally prominent gender structure contradiction was suddenly alleviated, so Jiang Tian intercepted this part of the people with peace of mind.

However, as the kingdom of the Celestial Empire and the state of etiquette, of course Lord Jiang will not directly tell the Japanese women that they are going to get married, this kind of thing is of course agreed by both men and women, and looking at their short stature, the average height is basically maintained at about one meter three, of course, there will be some "werewolves" in the future generations with green eyes, but in this era, it is definitely not an ideal wife.

But the good thing about these Japanese women is that they are not influenced by Confucian etiquette, and they have no problem doing what they can in a garment factory, a cleaner, a nurse in a future hospital, and all the jobs they can do on the construction site. As for finding a husband who is willing to partner after work, Jiang Tian is also very happy to see it.

It's a pity that Jiang Tian doesn't know that his reserved approach is completely unnecessary, not to mention that these women are also at the bottom of society in Japan, not to mention that they have enough to eat, many of them are still used to pay off the debts after their families owe debts, so since they got on the ship in Japan, whether it is the merchants who sell them or themselves, they know that what awaits them is probably only the work in the custom shop.

This is also considered traditional in Japan, and there is still a bit of chastity @ concept of chastity when a commoner marries, but as a pariah, he can only go with the flow. When they crossed the sea, many people had been defiled by the sailors or merchants on the ship, and they belonged to the merchant's goods anyway, and the merchants had no right to say no to how they could use themselves to make money.

Just like that, a group of people got off the boat in a daze, and then changed to a crowded carriage to Tianjin Wei, but when the carriage drove onto the newly paved road, these women, who had no concern for their fate, began to open their eyes in surprise and carefully look at the road under their feet, occasionally passing by the construction site under construction, smelling the smell of rice from the shed, they seemed to begin to believe the rumors heard in Japan.

Because considering that this highway should be used while repairing, even if the concrete has to be poured again after the spring, Jiang Tian is also concentrating on pouring more than 30 kilometers from the port to the urban area of Tianjin, so that the material distribution speed of the port will be greatly accelerated.

Jiang Tian first considered the issue of private use of tolls, the reality is that this plan is not feasible at all, not to mention how many people you want to put to inspect and inspect, the existing roadbed can not raise the ground too much, not so much a highway, but not as high as the provincial highway level in later generations, the only place that can be charged is the bridge across the river, and it happens that this road is not a small wide river.

When the convoy finally drove to the city of Tianjin, a Japanese woman wearing Hanfu said a few words to the businessman who led the team, and then began to count the personnel who were handed over. This is one of the four women Jiang Tian brought back from Japan, she looked at these former compatriots, but there was no sympathy or sadness at all, but there was a faint trace of arrogance of seeing poor relatives.

"From now on, you will be the servants of my family, you will have a salary for your daily work, and you can redeem yourself if you save enough money, if there is a man outside who can redeem yourself, the salary and the price of redemption will tell you later......"

According to Jiang Tian's regulations, although these people were bought with his own private money, he didn't plan to feed so many people, so he asked these four Japanese women to set up a labor dispatch company, although there were spies from the Tokugawa family among them, but Jiang Tian was not afraid of the other party spying on useful information. He hoped that his approach would inspire other businessmen.

He did inspire others, these businessmen are shrewd people, and when they settle accounts, they know that there is a shortage of labor everywhere, and men's wages are changing at any time. 、

"When they look back, they will know that buying slaves in Tianjin is not what you want to do." Jiang Tian shook his fan and pointed at the group of Japanese who had just gotten off the car.

Looking at these thin and short women in front of him, who were obviously malnourished and swaying when he walked, the prince who was standing on the side opened his mouth and didn't speak, but Liu Baokai couldn't look at it and asked, "Sir, what can these people do?" ”

Everyone knows what he means is that these women can't do heavy work, and when they are maids, they can't understand the language, so even if they are sent to the custom industry, they may not be able to sell for a price. But Jiang Tian just smiled slightly: "Don't underestimate a person's potential, if they are called as ordinary maids, of course it will not work, but the characteristics of the Japanese are used to the law of the jungle, and they can obey the superior unconditionally." And the sense of community is relatively strong, and he is an excellent worker in the factory. ”

Others don't know, can he Jiang Tian still not know the character of the Japanese? Since he has been to Japan in this era, he is very sure that he can completely cut off the foundation of the Japanese, but this plan still needs time, and these Japanese women are an important beginning.

Jiang Tian, who is very confident, still looks like a childe and points out: "Speaking of which, do you guess that a Japanese woman who is less than 25 years old was sold by their own businessman to make an offer?" ”

The Japanese not far away can naturally see him, just look at the clothes of these people, although they don't understand the rules of the Han family, but whether the fabric is exquisite or not, they can still recognize it, so there are also many people who want to stand on tiptoe to look a little taller, in case they are favored by Brother Gongzi.

Of course, the prince didn't know what the price of the people buying a handmaid was, but Wu Yuan thought for a while and replied to him: "If you want them to come across the sea, one person should be no less than twenty or thirty taels, right?" ”

"What?" Liu Baokai was a little surprised: "How much did it cost to buy a maid in the former Ming Dynasty?" The good ones are only one hundred and ten taels, and the general dozens of taels are enough, even if it is the most famous Yangzhou thin horse, the high price is only one thousand five hundred taels. If it's this kind of little girl who hasn't grown up, a few taels of silver will be given more! ”

Song Yi wanted to express his opinion, but after listening to the pervert's emotion, he decided to pretend to be stupid. But I saw Jiang Tian snort with his nose: "Your Liu family's businessman has traveled south and north, but the price of this girl ring is still the same as before, you go to Jiangnan now to ask, see who sells you an eleven or twelve-year-old girl without thirty taels!" ”

"This ......" The prince finally couldn't help but open his mouth: "How did I hear that my father had decreed that he would prohibit raising Yangzhou thin horses?" ”

As the saying goes, there are policies and countermeasures, and this is not a problem that only later generations, otherwise there would be no empty seal case in the four major cases of Hongwu, so Zhang Tao, who has proletarian revolutionary ideas, if he wants to abolish human trafficking, he will start with the most famous Yangzhou Skinny Horse, but in fact, how can it be banned.

These traffickers who bought little girls to train them have already spent a lot of money on them, and the government has reported it in the name of a righteous daughter, and now it is appropriate for people to marry their "daughters" and receive some bride price, right? As for how much to collect, isn't it a matter of mutual consent? How can I say that I sold my daughter?

So from the beginning, this ban was a virtual reality, and no one would take it seriously. So will Zhang Tao, who has been a man in two lifetimes, not know the truth? In fact, he knows everything, but he doesn't have the energy to take care of these things now, so he can only let the people of the world know his attitude first.

"In recent years, with the popularization of rice, potatoes, corn and other crops in Nanyang, the price of grain has not been high, coupled with a large amount of silver circulating in the market, the purchasing power of silver is only about 60% of that in the early Ming Dynasty.

As a result, many large landowners in the south of the Yangtze River would have been unable to make ends meet if they only relied on farming to make money, but now they have to ask the gentry to pay grain and apportionment to the mu, and the land tax has become the last straw that crushes them, so they first boycott new grain crops. However, because the Huangzhuang was not under its control, this method failed, and later they wanted to restore the sea ban, which was vetoed by His Majesty, and finally the stop-loss method they thought of was not to grow grain......"

Zhang Huan nodded: "Mr. This question has been said before, but what does this have to do with the maidservant?" ”

In fact, the relationship here is very large, and not planting land or planting other cash crops means that a large number of tenant farmers are unemployed, and because the large-scale war is over, a large number of veterans have returned to their hometowns, and these people have money but no land, which makes the problem of unemployment even more serious.

Although the imperial court encouraged them to go to the border several times to reclaim land, and Taiwan's Zheng family also recruited many displaced people from the southeast coast, the problem of unemployment was still very prominent, and the first pot of gold in the opening of the sea ban was also earned by more nimble businessmen. This is the real reason why the traditional forces in Jiangnan have always wanted to counterattack, and it is also the confidence that Jiang Tian is not in a hurry to carry out land reform, anyway, those big landlords will not last long.

In order to alleviate this problem, Zhang Tao ordered all localities to repair the original official roads, and when the construction technology was not developed, more road construction workers were needed, and some of the unemployment problems were finally eliminated. Because Zhang Tao did not like the feudal court's forced labor system, he needed to be paid for his work, so he increased the circulation of funds in the market, and prices also produced benign inflation.

"But ......" Zhang Huan became more and more confused the more he listened: "According to what Mr. said, this labor should be worthless!" Why do you need to recruit overseas? ”

The key is how vast China is, and after the Northern Expedition, the population of the north has plummeted, and it is not enough to fill up the people in the north, and now it is necessary to develop Taiwan, Hainan, and the grasslands in the north, and the population is even more insufficient. And because the price of food is not high, the existing grain production can carry more people, what is the reason for this full thought? The demand for brides has increased greatly, so not only do young girls not need to sell themselves as maidservants, but the price of the bride price has also risen.

"As early as the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were large-scale textile workshops in the silk weaving center in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is said that there were many masterpieces of more than 100 looms, so it gave birth to a market for the distribution of weavers...... Jiang Tian no longer looked at this group of Japanese who had not grown up, and turned around and walked into a workshop on the side of the road.

There were a few young people who looked like scholars in the shed, all of them were seconded from the Naval Research Institute, acting as supervisors and inspectors of road construction, and when they saw their immediate boss and mentor walking in, although Jiang Tian opposed the past master-apprentice system, they didn't dare to make a mistake and hurriedly got up and saluted.

Jiang Tian waved his hand: "No need to be polite, let's just sit down and rest." ”

Whether it is the crown prince or Song Yi, they have become accustomed to Jiang Tian not caring about Sven's sweeping appearance, and even running around with him all the time, and they have long been accustomed to his casual character. So I didn't dislike the dirty and simple shed, so I found a bench to sit on.

"Where did you just go? Oh......" Jiang Tian took a sip of the large bowl of tea shared in the shed and continued: "These workers who live by weaving are the first farmers to leave the land, they have no land to plant, and secondly, they may earn more by virtue of their craftsmanship......

However, these weavers are not the female textile workers that later generations believed, in fact, they are still dominated by men, after all, the requirements for women in the Jiangnan region are also higher. However, the craftsmen who lived entirely on handicrafts promoted the prosperity of the market in disguise because of the increase in their consumption power. Sadly, this prosperous market was not exploited by the Ming Dynasty, but instead allowed a large amount of silver to flow into the silver cellars of the gentry.

"So my latest news said that many families in Jiangnan who have just eaten a full meal, in order to let their daughters sell at a good price, secretly began to wrap their feet again! Otherwise, a girl with big feet won't be able to find a good family......"

Speaking of this, Jiang Tian was helpless, in fact, the custom of binding feet in the late Ming Dynasty was not too popular, because the extremely poor peasant women were also an important labor force, especially in the Jiangnan paddy fields, how did the three-inch golden lotus work in the mud? (Refer to the tenacity and diligence of rural women in the southwest mountainous areas of later generations) But just a few years after the founding of the Chinese Dynasty, the common people have just gotten rid of the threat of hunger, so they can't wait to pick up this feudal dross, in Jiang Tian's view, this is purely full of food!

Wu Yuan already understood a little at this time: "What does Mr. mean to let these Japanese women work to make money, if ordinary people find that their daughters can also support their families by working and earn a lot of money, they will naturally change their course and support the new law?" ”

"Yes!" Jiang Tian nodded, then turned his head and asked the technician who was listening: "What is the salary of a laborer on the construction site for a day now?" ”

Although the technician didn't know who Wu Yuan and the crown prince were, he knew the identities of Liu Baokai and Song Yi, so he could guess who they were. He hurriedly got up and saluted Jiang Tian again and replied: "If you go back to your lordship, the ordinary labor has risen from 50 wen a day during the farm slack last year to 100 wen a day now, and it takes two meals before anyone can work." If it is an old man who worked with him last year, knows how to mix cement or is familiar with the process, it will cost 200 yuan a day! ”

These gentlemen are not very sensitive to this price, and they only know two hundred words about technology, which is not enough for a certain pervert to go to the Qinglou to drink tea. But Jiang Tian frowned: "The price has increased again...... Now I will tell you what the price of those Japanese is, ten taels of silver for men, and eight taels of silver for women over the age of 16, who are in charge of food and housing, and their wages are fifty yuan a day. ”