July in Suzhou is the hottest season of the year, and this year's July is even hotter and darker, especially when it is close to noon every day, the white and bright white of the direct sunlight is difficult to look at.

The canal on the side of the street, which was originally used for boats, has also been exposed to a black layer of silt due to the long drought, emitting a foul smell, and some stranded boats can be seen from time to time on the dry river.

As synonymous with the south of the Yangtze River, Suzhou has always been a city of poetry and painting shrouded in smoke and rain, full of idyllic and quiet atmosphere. But if someone comes to Suzhou now, they will be greatly disappointed, this scene of decay does not meet the imagination of this famous city in the south of the Yangtze River.

In the eyes of the people of Suzhou themselves, the current lifeless Suzhou city is too different from the Suzhou city in the past. Perhaps in the eyes of the literati, there are only those exquisite and gorgeous gardens in Suzhou, as well as an endless stream of talented and beautiful women.

But in fact, Suzhou is a commercial capital with a strong market atmosphere, and there are thousands of dyers who make a living from dyeing "color" outside the West Gate alone, and various handicraft industries in the city are endless.

The development of the city's handicraft industry has also made the famous craftsmen here famous all over the world, such as Lu Zigang who treats jade, Bao Tiancheng who treats rhinos, Zhou Zhu, who is a master of mosaic, Zhao Liangbi who makes pewter, Zhu Bishan who makes gold and silver jewelry, Ma Xun who makes fans, Lotus Leaf Li, Zhang Jixiu who makes pianos, and Fan Kunbai who makes three strings, etc., all of which are known as famous craftsmen who come out once in a century.

And the industry segmentation here has also reached an astonishing point, which can almost be compared with the industry division of Jingdezhen porcelain. For example, an industry that makes furniture and ornaments has been subdivided into different crafts such as ornaments, square pieces, and round pieces in Suzhou, and there have been craftsmen who have become famous because of this.

As for the most prosperous silk weaving industry in Suzhou, just an embroidery in the later process, it has developed into an independent industry, because of the embroidery and the place name has embroidery workshop, embroidery lane, rolling embroidery workshop, embroidery lane and other alleys. From these place names, you can know how many people are supported by the silk weaving industry in Suzhou.

However, due to this year's climate disaster, which led to a large-scale reduction in raw silk production and the shrinking of the silk market in various places, this has become a thriving commercial capital. The decline of the silk industry has directly affected the prosperity of other handicraft industries in Suzhou, and only two industries in the whole city have become unusually prosperous, one is the rice shop and the other is the people's market.

And the more depressed the market, the more merchants dare not invest in capital production, the more unemployed workers will be, and the worse the market will be, and this will become another vicious "sex" cycle. This is why Li Jin took the risk of offending the Internal Affairs Office and took Suzhou weavers to surround the Suzhou Weaving House.

In the past ten years, although Jiangnan Weaving, which has undergone institutional reform, has removed most of the official "color" color, it has now become the industry leader of the Jiangnan silk industry with the huge capital investment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Whether it is the buying and selling of raw silk or the buying and selling of silk, the Jiangnan Weaving Mansion controls more than forty percent of the circulating quantity in the market.

The weaving and dyeing workshop in Suzhou City, Jiangnan Weaving Mansion has invested more than forty percent. Those weaving and dyeing workshops that are still developing production according to the old model, whether in terms of technical strength or strong capital, can no longer be compared with Jiangnan Weaving House.

Therefore, when Li Jin proposed various policies to protect workers from unemployment, it was inevitable that he would first deal with the industry giant of Shangjiangnan Weaving House. Only if the Jiangnan Weaving Mansion first accepts his policy propositions will other workshops have to follow. And this is also why, the gentry, who have always been incompatible with Wei Zhongxian, will stand on the side of the Jiangnan Weaving Mansion uncharacteristically this time, hoping that the Weaving Mansion can withstand Li Jin's rude request, which is really related to their own interests.

Suzhou Xuanmiao Temple, founded in the second year of Xianning in the Western Jin Dynasty, is a real thousand-year-old ancient view. However, most of the buildings in the temple were rebuilt during the Southern Song Dynasty, so the actual lifespan of the buildings is only five or six hundred years.

The high-walled compound across the street from this first place in Jiangnan is where the Jiangnan Weaving Mansion is located. Although this place is located in the center of the city, it is a quiet area because it is adjacent to the Taoist temple and the left and right are high-ranking dignitaries. However, in the past few days, tens of thousands of weavers have gathered here, which has turned this quiet place into a lively scene like a vegetable market.

However, today, the weavers who were surrounded outside the weaving house did not continue to shout some noisy slogans as they had done in the previous two days, but quietly hid in the shade of the trees and waited for something. Although the gate of the Weaving Mansion they surrounded was still closed, the eunuchs of the Weaving Mansion who had been guarding the door before finally brought the prosecutor Li Jin who was guarding the door into the mansion to negotiate. The weavers were hoping that they would be able to negotiate a good outcome and not let their wives be separated.

Although the Jiangnan Weaving Mansion was an institution for the emperor to purchase Jiangnan tribute, it was also an institution for the palace to monitor the local situation in the south of the Yangtze River in the earliest days, and the Jiangnan Weaving Mansion was naturally an extremely important garrison in Suzhou City. Therefore, there is also a huge earthen platform in the back garden of the Weaving House, which was originally used to observe the surrounding enemy situation in the event of a war.

But today, this earthen platform has become a place for the weaving house to enjoy the wind. In addition to a large pavilion built on the platform, many trees are planted around the platform to shade the sun.

When Li Jin climbed this high platform, a cool breeze through the woods blew from the platform, which suddenly made him sweat a lot more relaxed, and he felt that even breathing was much easier.

Although the 72-year-old Wei Zhongxian has a white beard and a little can't straighten his waist, when he speaks to Li Jin, he still speaks clearly and in an organized manner.

After the two sat opposite each other and talked for a while, Wei Zhongxian introduced the topic to the main topic. To be honest, the current Wei Zhongxian really just wants to retire in Suzhou in a down-to-earth manner, and he doesn't want to get involved in the affairs of the DPRK and China at all.

Therefore, even if Li Jin and the weavers surrounded the weaving mansion for nearly four days, he still calmly persuaded the other party, hoping that Li Jin would not make such unrealistic dreams again and take the industry under the name of the internal affairs office, which was obviously not conducive to his future career.

However, even if Wei Zhongxian persuaded Li Jin for a long time, the other party still refused to let go, which finally made Wei Zhongxian a little annoyed, and he couldn't help but raise his voice and warn: "Li Jin, you have to understand that these workshops are actually Your Majesty's property, and our Internal Affairs Office is just taking care of Your Majesty." Have you ever thought about the consequences of doing this? ”

Li Jin looked at Wei Zhongxian's eyes and replied without showing weakness: "But this country is also Your Majesty's country, and those people outside are also Your Majesty's people, they are Your Majesty's biggest industry, how can you compare with them with just a few things?" ”

Wei Zhongxian was dumbfounded for a while, and after a long time, he said leisurely: "But those scholars outside don't look at it like this, compared with the people of this country, they always think that their own belongings are more precious." When you do this, you're digging your own grave. ”

Li Jin immediately asked: "When my father-in-law suppressed the Donglin Party and collected taxes from the gentry that day, didn't he think that he was digging his own grave?" Why did my father-in-law do this? ”

Wei Zhongxian looked at his face and became a little tangled, and after a long time, he shook his head and said: "That's different, we are the house slaves around the emperor, and the miscellaneous family is deeply trusted by the emperor, so naturally we have to support this family."

The Donglin Party is not something that the miscellaneous family wants to suppress, but the miscellaneous family has shown favor to them several times, and they still have to think about getting rid of me, and the miscellaneous family naturally can't help but fight back.

Those of us who have no roots, once we change the dynasty, we will naturally be the first to be eliminated. But you literati and doctors are different, even if you change the dynasty, you can change the emperor to serve, so there is nothing wrong with the miscellaneous family supporting the family business for the emperor, but why do you erect so many enemies for yourself? ”

Li Jin's face suddenly turned blue and white, and it took a long time before he suppressed his anger and said, "Can't we scholars be loyal to the monarch and love the country?" My father-in-law's words are too biased. ”

Wei Zhongxian went from a country scoundrel to a high-ranking and powerful 9,000-year-old in the Ming Dynasty, he had never seen anyone in his life, except that he had never seen a truly loyal and patriotic scholar. Therefore, he had no pressure at all on Li Jin's questioning.

I think that when he was on an errand in front of the apocalypse, he never thought of interfering in national affairs. As a countryman who entered the palace halfway and didn't even know a few words, Wei Zhongxian was still a little self-aware at the beginning, knowing that national affairs were not something he could play, so he just wanted to serve the emperor well, and by the way, let himself enjoy the power of the great eunuch in the palace.

But who would have thought that these scholars who read poetry and books in the court were regarded by the common people as the ministers of the court who were stars in the sky and descended from the earth, and they would be so incompetent in governing the country. Even he, Lao Wei, knew that if he wanted the soldiers to work hard, he had to pay the army food and salary. The local area has been affected by the disaster, and the common people can't even eat, so where can they still hand over the emperor's grain.

But these old men of the stars don't know, they think that the soldiers should work for the court, even if there is no salary, they should support it with loyalty. As for what to do if the treasury is empty, it is enough to urge the imperial grain and national tax, even if the people are hungry, they must pay off the imperial grain and national tax first.

He just said a few words in front of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, and he should let the gentry who were deeply favored by the country pay so that the country could tide over the difficulties, but as a result, he was regarded as the culprit of the corruption of the state by those loyal and patriotic scholars, and shouted at him one by one, as if as long as he killed Wei Zhongxian, the world would be peaceful.

It is precisely because he has seen through what these scholars who put loyalty and patriotism on their lips are that he has no burden in his heart when dealing with these Donglin Party members. Facing the Li Jin in front of him, who really regarded loyalty and patriotism as a belief, Wei Zhongxian glanced at the other party and invited him to come in and talk. But this does not mean that Wei Zhongxian is willing to help the other party provoke those gentry again.