Changguo County is considered to be established because of business, and it is an important town of Sino-Japanese trade, and the people are rich and rich, not under Lin'an. Walking on the street, you can often see people wearing fox furs, wearing silk robes, hanging sachets and jade pendants around their waists, and looking like a wealthy businessman who has so much money that he has fallen straight down.

Chen Dexing and Chen Huaiqing, father and son, are just dressed as scribes, except that they are very big and nothing attracts attention. However, Xiao Ai, who followed behind Chen Dexing and looked around with big eyes, attracted a lot of attention.

The residents of Changguo County are accustomed to seeing Japanese, and they can distinguish between Chinese and Japanese just by looking at their body size and behavior. How do you not know that this girl is from Dongying?

At this time, the Kamakura shogunate was not closed to the country, and there were many women from Toei who came to China. It is more common in Changguo County, most of these women are wandering women, and some are said to have come for the "degree of breeding", and they will take the initiative to dedicate themselves when they see handsome men. Looking at this girl's behavior, she doesn't look like a wandering girl in the skin and meat business, she is here for the sake of breeding, and she is so charming and cute, which is really enviable. Just looking at Chen Dexing's size and the sword hanging on his belt, this envy can only be hidden in the bottom of his heart.

Shenjiamen Wharf is more than ten miles away in the southeast of Changguo County, facing each other across the sea from Putuo Mountain, Zhujiajian and other islands, under the shelter of these islands, forming a natural sheltered harbor. In later generations, it was a large-scale fishing port, but now it is a large-scale trading port, where thousands of merchants gathered, and it is extremely prosperous. Even on both sides of the official road leading from Shenjiamen to Changguo County, there are shops, restaurants, and inns one after another, as if you are in the metropolis.

Chen Dexing estimates that although the population of Changguo County is only 100,000, the number of merchants who often come and go here is not less than that. Such a rich city, if it were in other parts of the world, I am afraid to describe it as rare. It is only in the southern part of the Southern Song Dynasty that there will be a dense concentration of Chengdù - Changguo, Dinghai (Dinghai in the Song Dynasty is on the mainland), Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Lin'an, Pingjiang, Shaoxing, and Jiankang. Almost everywhere is a bustling place. How a county town came out to surpass the capital of a European power at this time! Even when it came to North China, there were probably only Yanjing and Jingzhao in the Western Yuan. Can the Yidu of the Eastern Tang Dynasty be compared to Changguo County on this island, right?

As for Chen Dexing's Ming capital, it is just a sparsely populated rural village at this time!

"Qingzhi, you just said that you want to use businessmen as the basis for governing Jiangnan?" Chen Huaiqing asked in a low voice, but his eyes kept looking around. Since the Song army stationed in Changguo was bribed by Liu Yang, the residents and merchants of Changguo County hardly felt that the owner had changed. It's just that I don't know what will happen to them after they know that this is already the Chen family's world?

"Exactly." Chen Dexing replied in the affirmative.

"It is said that businessmen are mercenary, not gullible." Chen Huai said lightly.

In fact, he was a businessman himself. After becoming the right prime minister of the Great Song Dynasty, he has intervened in a lot of transactions. There are more than ten shops in Lin'an City, and it also colludes with two feudal towns in Huaidong. monopolized the trade of Huai rice, so that the price of rice in Lin'an City rose by 30% in just a few months, just like an unscrupulous profiteer!

"Only by seeking profit can you lure them." Chen Dexing said, "Actually, why doesn't Dr. Jiangnan like profits? It's just that they control the local area and the imperial court, and they have already taken advantage of Jiangnan. My father and son are here to fight with them no matter what! ”

Chen Dexing had a good conversation with the mercenary businessman because the merchant was dependent on the powerful in this era. For them, it is nothing more than clinging to the wealthy doctor or Chen Dexing. And Chen Dexing controls the sea and wants to make a fortune in sea trade. You can only follow Chen Dexing!

Otherwise, the Pujia family in Quanzhou, which was glorious in the past, is a negative teaching material! They have now lost most of their wealth and are living in Srivijaya and Java.

But Jiangnan Shi Dafu originally had a qiē. Chen Dexing came to fight with them for profit - now that he is in control of the sea trade, he has already made many Jiangnan wealthy families complain.

This sea trade has always been profitable. Those wealthy families in Jiangnan with a background in the DPRK took advantage of the system of buying (that is, using paper money to force purchase) of the city to suppress maritime merchants at will. In addition to the Pu family in Quanzhou, other maritime merchants either gave them shares. Or pay tribute to them. More than half of the hard-earned copper money went into their pockets!

But now. Chen Dexing abolished the buying system and controlled the ship tax and import and export tax. Moreover, the establishment of the Nanyang Fleet and the firm control of sea power were established. Although it can't wipe out a lot of pirates, it can easily turn the naval army of the Southern Song Dynasty into an army!

In such a situation, where would anyone give gifts to the bureaucrats who held the power of the court and the localities? In this alone, Chen Dexing successfully caused the wealthy scholars in Jiangnan to lose tens of millions of copper coins every year! It can be said that Chen Dexing is now taking the consistent money from the sea trade, and the wealthy families in Jiangnan will lose two pieces of money. This kind of thing that cuts off people's financial means is like killing their parents, what else does Chen Dexing and them have to say?

Moreover, Chen Dexing's colonialist policy will sooner or later make Jiangnan Shi Dafu hate him to the core-because the premise of foreign colonization must be the people! At this time, it was not the Northern Song Dynasty, where tenants and servants had personal freedom, but the Southern Song Dynasty, where tenants were serfdomed -- this matter began in the era of Gaozong Zhao Gou, who, in order to gain the support of Jiangnan scholars, issued several edicts to determine that the landlord had personal control over the tenants, and could buy and sell them with the land!

Therefore, now the tenants of the Southern Song Dynasty can buy and sell with the land, and their personal freedom is basically controlled by the landlords (of course, the big landlords with official status)! Even before the rise of the Chen family, there were also more than a dozen serfdom customers, and Wang Ronger, who was not very favored in Chen Dexing's back house, was originally Chen Huaiqing's tenant.

And in the law formulated by Chen Dexing, a first-class man cannot become a serf! If Chen Dexing established his rule in Jiangnan, it would mean that tens of millions of tenants would no longer be the property of the landlords - this would be a naked expropriation of private property!

And in the 13th century, because of the massacre of the Mongols, the land had become worthless. Except for the Jiangnan Five Roads in the Southern Song Dynasty, the entire Eurasian continent was empty and empty. There are less than 10 million people in the northern Han region, about 1.5 million in Sichuan, and at most 3 million people in the entire northeast, including the outer northeast.

Now the Northern Ming Dynasty, the Eastern Tang Dynasty, the Western Plains, and even Sichuan under the rule of the Great Song Dynasty are all using free land as bait to recruit the people of the Southern Song Dynasty. But is anyone going? Few and far between! The reason for this is that most of the peasants in the south of the Southern Song Dynasty became serfs, and their lives were controlled by the landlords, and it was impossible for them to retreat!

"My lord, we really don't have any common interests with the scholars in Jiangnan!" Chen Dexing's tone was indifferent, "And I want to deprive them of the right to dominate customers, starting with Changguo!" ”

"Customer .......," Chen Huaiqing shook his head, "If that's the case, there's really nothing to say." It's just that...... How are you going to get the support of the merchants? They also have some servants. If you count as a customer, you will also get a free body. ”

"Merchants can buy gentry status from me!" Chen Dexing said his plan, "In fact, it doesn't have to be a businessman, all Han people can buy a gentry status, only 200 copper yuan." ”

"The gentry?" Chen Huaiqing was stunned, "gentry" is another name for scholars, how can he buy and sell?

"What good is it for the gentry? This 200 copper is not cheap! ”

"Nature is good!" Chen Dexing said, "First of all, the gentry, like the gentry, can vote for the election of councilors, and the status is not lower than that of the squire, they can see the official without kneeling, and they are not subject to corporal punishment in the public court. ”

"Can the gentry also elect councillors? So how is the gentleman and the gentry better? ”

"Shijue is a nobleman, he can obtain a grange, he can pass on the title to his descendants, and his children can have priority access to the Heavenly Dao Academy and the Military Academy. The gentry were only the upper class of the commoners, belonging to the princes, their status could not be hereditary, there was no grange, and their children did not have the right to be admitted to school first. ”

"I see...... But such a gentry costs 200 guan, and someone will buy it? ”

"Naturally will buy it. Because becoming a gentry allowed to legally possess ordnance and armor, except for cannons, all qiē weapons could be held. Chen Dexing spoke, looked at his surprised father, and said with a smile, "This is a great benefit for maritime merchants!" As long as the bow of the ship is a Ming gentry, the ship can be equipped with a three-bow bed crossbow and a heavenly thunder arrow produced by the Military Affairs Department, and the sailors can also wear armor. ”

The maritime pirates are a family! It is impossible to go to sea to do business without being armed, and the strength of the armed is a matter of life. Nowadays, maritime merchants are generally equipped with three-bow crossbows without permission, but there is no place to sell the Heavenly Thunder Arrows - especially the Heavenly Thunder Arrows loaded with black H medicine!

If you can buy the Heavenly Thunder Arrow produced by the Military Affairs Department of the Ming Dynasty (in fact, it is the Northland Recruitment Division), going to sea is undoubtedly equivalent to an extra life! Compared to life, what is 200 copper runs? If you are a maritime merchant and still treat 200 pieces of copper as a lot of money, you will be laughed at.

"Moreover, whenever the Ming gentry encounter someone looking for trouble in the southern country or Japan that has diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty (Beidi Recruitment Division), the diplomats of the Ming Dynasty and the Tiandao Sect will provide protection."

"And such a good thing?" Chen Huaiqing was stunned, "Then what if there is a conflict with the countries because our people protect these merchants?" What if people ignore us? ”

"Then hit hard!" Chen Dexing said coldly, "I believe that the axiom is within the range of the cannon!" If the countries dare to be unfavorable to our Ming gentry, they will ignore our Ming Dynasty and the Heavenly Taoism, and have their own North and South Ocean fleets to reason! ”

His gaze swept over the businessman-like people passing by on the road, made a gesture to count the money, and said with a smile: "With so many benefits, this Ming gentry should be able to sell a lot, right?" (To be continued......)