In Jiangbei in May of the fourteenth year of Yongli, the peach blossom snow in March was gone. It was the turn of spring and summer, the weather was warm, and the fields were full of people who were busy with farm work, and their faces were a little serene of prosperity, and they looked like the troubled times had ended.

Although the implementation of the "first-class soldier system" conscription in March caused an uproar among millions of people in Jiangbei, and even in some places, it led to a slight civil uprising, and thousands of people were killed and expelled as a result. But at this time, Jiangbei has returned to its former calm.

In addition to the conscription system, for the people of Jiangbei, since Zhu Mingzhong became the ruler of Jiangbei, he has focused on developing the economy, abolishing fire consumption and implementing light taxes, but also let the people make the most of their benefits.

For Luo Lun, who was Zhang Huangyan's secret envoy, after he came to Jiangbei, he did not choose to go north from Guazhou from the river boat to the river boat all the way north to the Qinghe River where the Jingluo Envoy Office was located, but went directly to Anqing, Anqing at this time, more prosperous than in the past, especially after the implementation of salt tax reform in Jiangbei and the implementation of on-site taxation, in order to facilitate the people of Jiangxi and Huguang and other places to buy salt, a salt station was specially set up in Anqing, so that Anqing merchants gathered, and thousands of large and small ships traveled to and from Jiangxi, Huguang and other places. In order to transport Huai salt to various places, in this way, Anqing is more prosperous than in the past, and even not inferior to the previous dynasty.

As for Luo Lun, who is a native of Yingtian, he is no stranger to Anqing, many years ago when he was young, he also came here, but now when he comes to Anqing, he is still surprised by the changes in Anqing, not only the lively wharf, but also the rows of waterwheels under construction near the wharf.

"What is the watermill for?"

Looking at the waterwheels lined up on the riverside, Luo Lun asked Zuo Shuren, who came to greet him, he was the contact person sent by Zhang Huangyan to Jiangbei, responsible for purchasing ordnance from Jiangbei, and now, whether it is Zheng Chenggong or Zhang Huangyan, they are more willing to buy ordnance from Jiangbei than to produce weapons by themselves, the reason is because the ordnance produced in Jiangbei is cheap enough, even the most ordinary red tassel gun head is more than 20% cheaper than its own production, and like Hongyi cannons can be cheaper than more than 60%, and the quality is much higher than that of self-production. In this way, whether it is Nanjing or Nanchang, they are naturally willing to like to buy ordnance produced in Jiangbei, and Zhang Huangyan, who has no artillery casting craftsmen, is completely dependent on the purchase of artillery from Jiangbei, and even now a large number of gunpowder is also purchased from Jiangbei, because of this, in order to ensure the purchase of military funds, they specially sent representatives to Jiangbei, however, their representatives are not in Qinghe, but in Anqing, not only because in Anqing, there is now an ordnance branch, but because there is a large ordnance warehouse of the loyal and righteous army here. If the Nanchang side needs to purchase ordnance, it can directly purchase it nearby, so as to avoid delaying the military situation. Of course, it is also to avoid people from meeting on both sides of Nanjing and Nanchang.

"General Luo doesn't know, this waterwheel is the magic weapon of Jiangbei, Jiangbei's ordnance accuracy, all rely on the work of the waterwheel, it relies on the waterwheel to forge weapons, and this waterwheel is not only used to make weapons, it can also be used to saw, paper, and even spinning, weaving all need waterwheels, if Jiangbei is different from other places, it is in this waterwheel, the general may not know, at present, there are two kinds of cotton yarn in Jiangbei, a kind of yarn spun by ordinary people, although the quality is high, the price is high, and there is a yarn spun by its yarn factory with a hydraulic yarn, The quality is slightly inferior to the best yarn, but better than most of the yarn, but its price is much lower than the yarn spun by the people, the reason why the price is low is precisely because of its use of hydraulic yarn machine, a machine can be produced by hundreds of skilled yarn workers, so that it is not cheap, and even the cotton yarn produced by this yarn factory is at most slightly more expensive than the price of cotton, so buy cotton and then spin yarn, and even may be more expensive than using factory yarn,......

As he spoke, Zuo Shuren whispered beside Luo Lun.

"Now not only the salt merchants in Yangzhou have set up a yarn factory in Yangzhou, this Anqing is no exception, but also set up a yarn factory, General Luo, you see that there is the machine of the ordnance factory that is being run, and there is the waterwheel of the yarn factory, this yarn factory, but it is a good business to make money without losing money......."

When Zuo Shuren looked at the waterwheel on the shore, his face was full of envy, if it weren't for the fact that he couldn't participate in the shares, I am afraid that he would have invested in the yarn factory a long time ago. After all, this is the most profitable business right now, but the shares are not something that can be bought on a whim.

"It's a pity that all those who can invest in the yarn factory are all people with heads and faces in Anqing, and we outsiders naturally can't take our turn, otherwise it's not bad to participate in a share!"

The stake in the yarn farm is often to buy the hearts of the people, so that the rich gentry in Jiangbei can become supporters of the new policy in Jiangbei, after all, the policies promoted in Jiangbei are subverting tradition. Subvert the traditions of the Ming Dynasty.

The reason why these people are bought with profit is not because of anything else, but to avoid pushing power over the side of the enemy. It's like in another time and space, 200 years later, the Manchu Qing Dynasty used a "self-protecting religion", and when it was on the verge of collapse, it successfully "revived" and maintained its rule for half a century. When the power is not strong, you must learn to compromise. And as long as they are given enough benefits and let them see the benefits, then they will become supporters, not opponents of the New Deal.

"What's the use of producing so much yarn?"

Shaking his head, Luo Lun looked at the waterwheel and said.

"According to you, the cotton yarn in this factory is only slightly more expensive than the price of cotton at most, so buying cotton and spinning it may even be more expensive than using factory yarn, and what if the yarn spun by the people cannot be sold in the long run?"

Although he joined the army as a member of the army, Luo Lun was more often a civilian official, so now he is naturally worried that when a large amount of cheap cotton yarn floods the market, it will harm the interests of ordinary people.

"General Luo doesn't know anything,"

Luo Lun's worry made Zuo Shuren smile.

"Although in the past, people spinning yarn at home can subsidize the family, but those women's families understand very well, when they see that the yarn price is cheap, they will naturally not spin again, but turn to weaving, although the yarn price is low, but the price of cloth is not low, change to use factory yarn weaving, the income is more than in the past, roughly speaking, now the factory yarn is not much, and in the future, the number of yarn factories will increase, the more yarn will be produced, the people will no longer spin yarn, but will switch to factory yarn weaving......"

Zuo Shuren explained how ordinary people dealt with the impact of factory yarn, and led Luo Lun to sit in the carriage, Luo Lun is no stranger to the four-wheeled carriage, even in Nanchang, there are four-wheeled carriages, but compared to the four-wheeled carriages everywhere in Jiangbei, the four-wheeled carriages in Nanchang are often used for military transportation, and are not used as ordinary transportation vehicles like here.

Sitting in the open-top carriage, Luo Lun looked at the carriages that could be seen everywhere on the street where the carriage was located, and asked curiously.

"I see a lot of horses on this street, where did these horses come from?"

In Jiangxi, the reason why four-wheeled carriages are not widely used is precisely because there are not enough horses, and in Anqing, there seem to be many horses. Now here is not like Jiangxi. Plagued by a shortage of horses, even material transportation had to be carried by people on their shoulders.

"General Luo, these horses are all bought from the horse market, the general does not know, although now the Qing Dynasty in the south strictly orders that sulfur and horses are not allowed to be sold into the south, but in fact, for the merchants, there is not so much attention at all, for them, there is nothing more important than silver. You don't know, now in Jingshi and other northern places, the silver mirror produced by the Qing River is extremely popular, and those merchants often do not hesitate to violate the ban in order to obtain war horses, and smuggle a large number of horses from outside the customs to the south in exchange for the silver mirror, and for the Qing officials, as long as they are excessive, and filial piety continues, they will naturally turn a blind eye......"

Just like in the past, in order to grab huge profits, the Jin merchants disregarded the national ban and wantonly smuggled grain, salt and iron to the Houjin, so that the blockade order of the Ming Dynasty became a dead letter, so that the Jurchens spent the most difficult years, and now, it is thanks to the pursuit of interests by the merchants that tens of thousands of horses were imported into Jiangbei by those merchants in the ban of the Manchu Dynasty, so that Jiangbei not only has enough horses for pulling gun carriages and baggage carriages, but also the people have obtained enough horses for pulling four-wheeled carriages. And these horses were not exchanged for real money by the Jiangbei Trade Bureau, but by Jiangbei products such as silver mirrors.

"I see......"

Thinking about it in his heart, Luo Lun naturally thought of a dressing box that could be sold for twenty-five taels of silver in Jiangxi, and the most valuable thing on the dressing box was not Huanghuali's dressing box, but the glass silver mirror in the dressing box. A large amount of real money and silver flowed into Jiangbei in this way, and Jiangbei also changed horses from the north.

"What is the price of horses here in Anqing now?"

This time he came to Jiangbei, Luo Lun did not just come here as a representative of Shao Sima to discuss important matters, but also shouldered other missions, and now seeing that there are so many horses here, he will naturally care about the price of horses.

When he got that each horse was only twelve taels, he naturally started to think about it, after all, there were only a few thousand horses in the army, which was far from being able to meet the needs of the army. If you can buy a large number of horses from here, at least you can solve the problem of transporting supplies.

"Lin Quan, since the price of horses is so cheap, why don't you buy some and send them to Jiangxi?"

Luo Lun's words made Zuo Shuren shake his head and smile bitterly.

"General Luo, I originally wanted to buy horses in Jiangbei, but although the price of this Jiangbei horse is cheap, but it requires procedures to transport it out of Jiangbei, and the horses sold by those northern merchants to the trade bureau are mostly third-class horses, or even fourth-class horses, at most they are only used as envoys, which is why although there are many horses in Jiangbei, the cavalry is still only a relationship of thousands of people, and the trade bureau in Qinghe will first select among those horses, and then sell the remaining inferior horses to the market, so that These horses were only ordinary servants, and naturally they were not suitable for the army. ”

The reason why the Qing army turned a blind eye to the smuggling of horses and other things was not only because of bribery, but more importantly, because most of the horses sent to Jiangbei were inferior horses that could not be used to form cavalry, which was the fundamental reason why they would turn a blind eye.

In order to obtain enough excellent military horses, Jiangbei will naturally select horses, so that the horses that eventually appear on the market are mostly inferior horses that have been selected several times, which is naturally embarrassing.

These horses were only used by the Trade Bureau to balance the balance of payments, and as far as he knew, the Trade Bureau could also make extremely good profits by selling horses, and they sold all the ones they eliminated and didn't want.

"Lin Quan, do you know something......

Luo Lun, who was sitting in the carriage, listened to the sound of horses' hooves in his ears and said.

"Although Jiangxi has the convenience of rivers and lakes, but it is also mountainous, this mountain baggage transportation especially needs to use horses to transport, these horses are poor, but it can always be used, buy some horses first, as for the rest, when I get to Jiangbei, I will naturally talk to them, this time, I have to take more Jiangbei from Jiangbei!"

Luo Lun said this, his eyes staring out of the car, his expression becoming more and more solemn......

He has too much curiosity about Jiangbei. This curiosity is not only in Jiangbei, but also in the vigor presented at this time. Again, more curious about that person,

Although it is the time of Zhongxing in the Ming Dynasty now, it can also be said to be a three-legged stand, and the Jianghuai Economic Strategy Envoy is one of them, it can be said that in the future, his choice is likely to determine the fate of the Ming Dynasty.

Shao Sima ......

Thinking of the relationship between the current Jianghuai envoy and Nanjing, Luo Lun's expression flashed with some worry. After all, they are relatives.

However, he is well aware of the history books that this kind of kinship is not reliable. In the face of interests, there is no family affection at all.

The question is, will he always be a loyal servant of the Ming Dynasty? With his enterprising appearance in Jiangbei now. How can you be satisfied with your current position?

If one day, will he be ambitious? Will it become a rebellion of the Ming Dynasty?

Maybe because of the difference in positions, Luo Lun has never doubted Shao Sima, but for Nanjing, for Jiangbei, he has doubted more than once, and even his suspicion of Jiangbei is far greater than his suspicion of Nanjing, after all, everything Jiangbei is doing now is constantly subverting the tradition of the Ming Dynasty.

The carriage continued to drive towards Anqing City, and Luo Ren's expression in the carriage became more and more complicated, occasionally listening to the words of those northern merchants coming from outside the car, and hearing the unfamiliar northern accent, he could feel the difference between this place and other places, the difference here is not only the vigor shown here, but also a change from the inside out.

"Is this change really beneficial to Daming?"