Chapter 15 In Foshan

Zhang Xuan suddenly heard a Foshan Huang clan in his ears, and couldn't help but think of Huang Feihong. I smiled secretly in my heart, hundreds of years apart, I want to come to this Foshan Huang family, and it has nothing to do with Huang Feihong.

"Still." He Wuyu said: "It's not the right time for the old man of the Xian family to go. At the end of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, he went. Now the Xian family is thin, there are many disputes within the clan, and the current head of the Xian family is not a person who can convince the public. This Xian family ----"

Zhang Xuan listened to it and sighed.

Any family has its ups and downs. This is normal. But the old man of the Xian family, Chongzhen, went for seventeen years. Just after the peaceful days in Guangdong, leaving a lot of doubts about the main young clan, and it also coincided with the change of dynasty, the Xian family has been in charge of Foshan Town for more than 100 years, and now I am afraid that it will not be able to maintain.

He Wuyu said in a soft voice. But Xian Zijing could faintly hear some of it. I saw that his face was flushed and his hands were tense. It looks like he's trying to control his anger.

Zhang Xuan despised Xian Zijing again.

If nothing else, this city government is not enough.

Immediately, He Wuyu introduced the following to Zhang Xuan, the Huo family, the Li family, and the Chen family.

Some of the three heads of the family were older, and their hair was all white and sparse. Looks a little smart. Some are a little younger, and they look to be over forty years old, not to mention sleek and sophisticated.

After introducing the four major families, He Wuyu introduced the seven elements to Zhang Xuan. said: "Foshan iron industry is roughly divided into speculation and casting. If it is subdivided into pot line, iron stove line, fried iron line, iron wire line, iron lock line, farm tool miscellaneous goods line, nail line. ”

"These are the stewards of the guilds."

These seven people are different from the four masters, no matter who the four masters are, wherever they stand, they all look like scholars. The words were breezy and cloudy, and it didn't seem like he was born in iron at all. But the first appearance of these seven guilds made Zhang Xuan feel the breath of the working people.

Each of them was dressed in a short beat, and it looked like it had been cleaned, but it couldn't wash off the dark color of their hands. That's how many times I worked to get it, even if I was rich and prosperous. I can't wash it off.

He Wusu said: "General, Foshan lifts the town to smelt iron. There are tens of thousands of ironworkers. But specifically, some of them are regarded as family businesses like the four families. Generations of management, the whole family for it. But there are also some small people, a family of several people. Iron all day long. Generally, they form their own guilds and elect their leaders. It is convenient to deal with the government. ”

Zhang Xuan nodded, exchanged a few words with this, and said, "Let's go, go to Foshan Town to have a look." ”

In fact, in Zhang Xuan's view, Foshan Town can be used as a county seat. Tens of thousands of ironworkers, plus the people surrounding these ironworkers' businesses, are enough for the population of a county, but Zhang Xuan looked at it from a distance, but he didn't see the city wall of Foshan. Asked He Wuyu: "Why is there no city wall in Foshan?" ”

He Wuyu said: "General, Foshan is only a town, and it is customary not to build a city wall. ”

At this moment, Zhang Xuan suddenly remembered one thing, that is, it stands to reason that in such a big place as Foshan, there should be a magistrate to greet Zhang Xuan. But now Zhang Xuan found that it was only the local clan that greeted him, and the head of the guild, what does this mean? This shows that there are no magistrates stationed in Foshan.

In other words, a city like Foshan, built on steel, had neither walls nor formal official appointments, and relied entirely on gentry autonomy. When you think of the city there are tens of thousands of ironworkers, millions of steels. Zhang Xuan didn't know what to say for a while. secretly said in his heart: "Is this the so-called fish that leaks through the net?" ”

Zhang Xuan had a thought in his heart. The time has come. That is, Foshan will be separated from Nanhai County and set up a separate county.

Zhang Xuan's idea is not right. Although there are no officials in Foshan, there are many officials, after all, Foshan is also a major source of wealth for Nanhai County. That's Tieke. Fifty-three taels per 10,000 catties of iron cashier, which is a lot of income, naturally there are small officials stationed in Foshan Town to collect taxes.

It's just that now, Zhang Xuan's investigation of Xu officials is tight, and there are vacancies in many places. In Foshan, there are only two or three bookstores that do not enter the stream, regardless of identity and status, it is not enough to welcome Zhang Xuan.

Zhang Xuan naturally didn't know these details, and before he entered Foshan Town at the moment, he felt a heat wave coming.

It seems that the temperature in the air has risen several degrees out of thin air. Advance from winter to summer as well.

The cause of this problem is nothing else, but the iron furnace, large and small stoves are burning on fire, and the steaming heat spreads and condenses with each other, which is artificially caused, and the problem here is several degrees higher than outside.

As soon as Zhang Xuan entered the town, he saw the people kneeling on the ground in an uproar.

Zhang Xuan immediately ordered Ma Sanbao to shout loudly: "The general is here, he has no intention of disturbing the people, just wait for everyone to settle down." ”

However, Ma Sanbao's loud shouting could only make the people awe-inspired, but not enough to make the people obey. Whether it is the real industry or the fake industry, in short, the unique sound of the tinkling iron in Foshan Town sounded again.

One place sounded, and everywhere responded. This sound has almost become the background music of Foshan Town.

Zhang Xuan's concern at the moment was something else. He secretly said in his heart: "It seems that I have to find a collaborator in Foshan." ”

Zhang Xuan has a bit of a bogeybox for Foshan. Zhang Xuan still wants to grasp the iron processing capacity of Foshan, but the problem is that the four major families and the seven major guilds are intertwined in Foshan Town, and they affect the whole body.

He can't use a knife to force the other party to work for him.

So it's important to pick a surrogate. It is best to choose from these already powerful people in Foshan. As for who it was, Zhang Xuan didn't think much about it for a while, he just wanted to see more.

It's just that after coming to Foshan Town, Zhang Xuan was a little disappointed.

Why?

In his mind, the place that can produce tens of thousands of tons of steel per year must be a big factory, but the reality gave him a hard blow, and the first thing he saw was a continuous blacksmith shop. A family of four or five, or more, is working hard to strike iron. The so-called fried gang.

Maybe there is another trick in this, but in the eyes of laymen like Zhang Xuan, there is no difference from ordinary blacksmiths. It's just a little bit large-scale, and there are a few more people.

Soon, Zhang Xuan also saw that the blacksmith in Foshan Town seemed to be better at casting.

He Wuyu said: "The reason why Foshan can become what it is today is related to the soil here. The soil here is especially easy to burn pottery and make clay molds, which is why so many people gather here. Foshan iron is famous all over the world. ”

Zhang Xuan nodded and said, "I see, there are a lot of people in the bead pot in Foshan?" ”

He Wuyu said: "The general's eyes are like torches. These iron pots are used to boil sugar. The iron pot in which the sugar is boiled is the most likely to break, and it needs to be replaced every few years. Therefore, Foshan iron pot sells the best. ”

Zhang Xuan heard the words "boiling sugar", and suddenly seemed to remember something, it seems that during the Zheng Chenggong period, sugar was one of the main goods in the east-west trade, and then looked at Foshan to the iron pot behavior first. Zhang Xuan quickly deduced a series of questions.

It is the sugarcane sugar industry, which is promoted on a large scale, making the iron pot a bestseller. The large demand for ironware has caused the rise of Foshan.

Zhang Xuan had a headache for a while. He said secretly: "Economic problems are really much more difficult than wars, and they are linked one by one." In the face of a myriad of clues, Zhang Xuan only hated that he had read too little back then, and in the face of the current situation, how to vigorously develop the steel industry on the basis of Foshan. No, it's the iron industry. In Zhang Xuan's view, most of the iron produced in Foshan cannot be called steel.

He wanted a coal and iron syndicate. But where to start, Zhang Xuan couldn't figure it out for a while.

The more you look. The more questions you have in mind.

After looking at some of the industries in Foshan Town, He Wuyu asked Zhang Xuan to look at the Xian family's industries. The industries that Zhang Xuan has seen just now are all small households, but the industries of these big families are different. Many large families simply built their own industries by water and had their own docks. It does not transport goods from Foshan wharf, and is almost self-contained.