Since the Luzon government sent to the countryside to inform the various estates, the landlords of these estates have been dismissed.

Luzon Province is huge, and the whole of Luzon Province includes the Luzon Islands, Sambo Islands, and the Medan Islands in the south. The large island of Luzon in the north alone is the size of three Taiwan islands, and the entire Luzon province is said to be the size of three Shandong provinces.

But such a large territory, but the land is vast and sparsely populated, when Spain surrendered, the imperial court allowed them to leave. The Spaniards left, with their families and families, and even the Catholic clergy who had been preaching here. One island of Luzon is the size of three islands of Taiwan, but the imperial court has only set up two counties here, one is Cagayan County in the Cagayan River Basin Plain to the north, and the other is Luzon County in the south.

Such a large island, such a fertile plain, but there is a great shortage of manpower. In particular, after the imperial court took over Luzon, a large number of indigenous people moved out of Luzon, which greatly reduced the population and caused a great shortage of labor.

The imperial court used the land here to replace the fields of the landlords of the Central Plains, so that many landlords of the Central Plains sent their children to operate, but the lack of availability was still a big problem. Now everyone has finally found a way to solve it, but the court has reiterated the prohibition of slavery, doesn't this kill them?

Because of its proximity to the Central Plains and the fact that it has been developed by Spaniards for decades, Luzon is better than the rest of the South Seas, and many landowners have chosen to replace their land. A large number of landlords have built plantations here one after another, and even many rich peasants have come here directly to settle down and buy real estate, everyone has built manors, bought cattle and sheep, bought farm tools, took loans, and bought Kunlun slaves, but now the imperial court has come out like this, which makes everyone panic.

Zhao Jizu has 1,000 acres of land in Luzon, and his land is one acre for three acres. More than 300 acres of land in Shandong were exchanged for this thousand acres of land, if it weren't for Zhao Jizu's brothers who thought that the land here was not valuable, and they also used these lands to prevent him from going back to divide the family property, plus Old Man Zhao compensated him some more, he would not have been able to get so much land. More than 300 acres of land, in Shandong, that can be regarded as a large landlord.

Many of his neighbors have only three or four hundred acres of land. It is only in the middle of nowhere, especially in Cagayan County, which is more susceptible to typhoons, that more land can be changed.

Zhao Jizu had already bought sixty Kunlun slaves, and the landlords next door to him had more or less bought forty or fifty or twenty or thirty.

After receiving the notice, everyone immediately drove the carriage to visit each other, asked each other about their style, and looked for a way.

The Kunlun slave in everyone's hands is not only a great property, but also the foundation of everyone's life here.

But everyone connected with each other, gathered together and discussed for a long time, but they couldn't come up with a result.

There are also some who are calmer, saying that since the imperial court has sent us here, then they must also know our difficulties. The imperial court has always been more particular about doing things, no matter what it is, it is reasonable. It is impossible to say that it is forbidden to keep slaves, it is really necessary to force us all to a desperate situation, listen to the words of those officials who came down to inform, there is still room for this matter, I don't think we need to worry blindly, guess, or wait for the meeting to listen to the results.

In this way, it only makes everyone feel at ease.

But there's really no other way. Some people say that we have to hide the Kunlun slaves, but everyone can only smile bitterly, so many living people, where to hide? Can you hide it for the rest of your life? I don't have to work.

After jumping up and down for several days, Zhao Jizu didn't get the slightest result of making himself feel at ease, and when the last three days came, he could only pack up neatly, put on a robe and black boots, tie a belt and put on a turban, and let Lao Wang prepare the carriage and send him to Luzon Port.

Out of the door, Zhao Jizu took a carriage to the intersection, where there was a pavilion, he waited here for a while, and saw that several neighbors from the same township also came in a carriage. Everyone said a few words, and then walked together.

Everyone was worried, but only one person was more relaxed. This person is Tang Yuanwai of Tangjiatun, who is across the river from Zhaojiazhuang, and Tang Yuanwai is much older than Zhao Jizu, and he is already in his fifties. In his hometown of Tangshan, Hebei Province, his family also has some land, and he also does some small business.

As soon as the imperial court limited the land acquisition, Tang Yuanwai immediately handed over all his excess land, he chose to replace the land in Luzon, and also exchanged 1,000 acres, and he still left 300 acres of land at home, and several sons were unwilling to come overseas. Tang Yuanwai was very courageous, and directly distributed the family's land to several sons, and then came to Luzon with his wife and youngest daughter.

When Tang Yuan came out, he only brought a dozen people, and after he arrived here, he bought Kunlun slaves earlier than everyone else. Zhao Jizu bought sixty of them, but Tang Yuanwai's family bought more than two hundred. Outside of this Tang member, both old and weak, men and women buy everything, and he doesn't buy it all for his own use, but for training.

The Tang Yuan bought slaves from India, and he bought a few Indian slaves from the original Spanish estates at high prices, who had been in Luzon for a long time and could speak not only Spanish but also some Cantonese. He used these men as overseers for the newly bought slaves in India, and had them supervise them, train them, and teach them how to speak and behave, especially Chinese.

The Tang Dynasty used those overseers to train many Indian slaves who had just been bought and were unruly and could not understand Chinese, and they were quickly trained to be obedient and could understand and even speak some simple Chinese.

In this way, those Indian slaves were trained in his hands, and then sold to other Han landlords or merchants, and he could immediately sell a lot more, relying on this shrewd mind, Tang Yuan's external neighbor Zhao Jizu and other new immigrant landlords were still busy running around for their own estates, only when he was out and not in, he had already begun to make money.

Tang Yuanwai's brain is very active, and it is said that in his early years, he was just a poor man who carried work at the Tianjin wharf and pulled fiber on the canal. Later, he worked hard to save a little money, and then he went to buy goods and became a merchant, and went around the village to sell goods. When the capital was more, I bought mules, bought goods and traded with the Mongols. Later, he had more capital, and he had his own mule team, and even went to the border to make a deal with the Jurchens.

In this way, little by little, little by little hard, by the time Tang Yuanwai reached the age of fifty, he already had hundreds of acres of land and several shops in his hometown.

Tang Yuanwai has never read a book, but he usually looks like a well-informed old gentleman.

has a lively brain, and is also very attentive to things and things.

Several sons refused to come to Luzon, but Tang Yuanwai felt that this was actually a great opportunity. He also took his wife and daughter to Luzon despite his age.

It is said that after he came, after seeing the fertile land here, he went to the Yamen of the Luzon prefect and asked the official to buy more land. It's just that the official didn't agree, so he didn't mention it for the time being.

But in a blink of an eye, Tang Yuanwai began to discover the serious shortage of people here, and when he found that many slave traders were selling slaves, he immediately realized the business opportunities inside. He found that many slave traders were unruly at first, and they could not understand or speak Chinese, which made many Han landlords who wanted to buy slaves dissatisfied. As a result, Tang Yuanwai soon began to do his current business.

Unlike Zhao Jizu and other manor owners who were bent on buying slaves to build houses and grow crops, Tang Yuanwai had contacts with officials in Fuli County, and was also very familiar with the merchants in the port.

Everyone is now worried about the official documents of the imperial court, but Tang Yuan is not worried. He clearly understood that the imperial court spent so much effort, of course, it also wanted to firmly control the overseas territory of Nanyang. However, the imperial court continued to move these natives of Nanyang to the Central Plains and send them to those workshops and mines, while laboriously encouraging Han people to immigrate to Luzon, and even came up with a method of limiting land replacement so that the landlords of the Central Plains also came to build plantations and develop them.

But when they came, there was no one to hire, and now they can only buy slaves to plow, and the court will not know? The imperial court must have known about this, but would the imperial court simply take away their slaves because it violated the prohibition of slavery? Definitely not let go, if people let go, who will farm.

It doesn't do anyone any good to do that.

Therefore, he believed that the prefect would definitely have a better solution by summoning the farmers to the meeting.

Maybe the end result will be a bit of a loss for the landlords, but he believes that it will never be to the point where there is nothing to worry about.

Listening to Zhao Jizu, who was still sighing and worried, he laughed in his heart. If the imperial court really freed slaves or something, then this Luzon would be finished sooner or later. This Zhao Jizu is still too young, but he squinted at this young man, in his early twenties, one meter eight tall, and very stout, he is a Shandong man. I heard that he also had an exam, although he was not successful in the imperial examination, but at least he had read a book.

Even if it's an out-of-house illegitimate child, but those are not very important. He inquired that the 1,000 acres of land in Zhaojiazhuang belonged completely to Zhao Jizu alone, which was enough. And he often observes this neighbor and watches him do things, and he is quite steady and clear-eyed.

Zhaojiazhuang has a thousand good land, as well as sixty slaves and ten servants, which is very good.

Tang Yuanwai was thinking in his heart that maybe he could marry Zhao Jizu and marry his little daughter to him, so that the little daughter would have a good trust, and he would also have a reliable son-in-law who could help him.

My daughter is also sixteen this year, and he originally told his daughter about his relatives in his hometown in Hebei, and that person was still an officer. The father is a battalion commander, and the son is also a sergeant major, with a promising future, but unfortunately he has just been promoted to sergeant major, but the marriage is still being discussed here, and the child over there died in battle.

The daughter became a widow before she got married, but there were rumors that her daughter was not good, her life was too hard, and she killed her fiancé.

The daughter who was troubled by this incident was looking for death and life, and the Tang Yuan came to Luzon and brought his daughter with him.

Both the Luzon Prefecture Yamen and the Luzon County Yamen are in the port of Luzon, which is the original port of Manila. Tang Yuan has a shop in the city, with a front shop and a back house.

In the past few days, his wife and daughter have been living in the city, and Tang Yuanwai has paid attention to Zhao Jizu, and the more he looks at it, the more he feels that this young man is good.

"After a while, everyone will enter the city, so they will go to my shop to rest for a while, and it will be open in the afternoon, everyone will rest in my shop, and lunch will be eaten there, and we will go to the meeting together in the afternoon after eating."

"How embarrassing is this, it's too troublesome for Uncle Tang, it's better for everyone to find a restaurant, and I'll be the east." I usually bother Uncle Tang to help! Zhao Jizu said busily.

"What's the trouble is not troublesome, take care of it or not, we are all from the Central Plains, and when we get here, we are a family. Usually take care of each other, that's how it should be. Tang Yuanwai stroked his long beard and smiled.

Luzon Mansion.

Huang Zongxi, a young prefect of Luzon, was sitting in front of the case in a light long shirt and was looking through the case file. Huang Zongxi officially left the Senate and came to Luzon after the year.

From the senator of the National Assembly to the prefect of Luzon overseas, this is a demotion in the eyes of many people. But what many people don't know is that this Luzon prefect was actually requested by Huang Zongxi on his own initiative.

Huang Zongxi didn't want to stay in the Senate all the time, he felt that he wanted to go abroad, be a parent official, and do some practical things. He wrote a letter requesting to go to Nanyang or Central and South China to serve, Liu Jun was also a little surprised when he saw his request, but after finally confirming that he did have this request, Liu Jun finally personally awarded him the prefect of Luzon.

Others believe that the emperor demoted Huang Zongxi's position and degraded the Nanyang, which is thousands of miles away from the capital, which is farther away than in the past to Hainan Island. But Liu Jun trusts Huang Zongxi very much, so he will hand over such a big piece of Luzon to him. The prefect of Luzon, which is in charge of the entire Philippine Islands. It's just that there are few people now, so only a government has been set up.

Liu Jun took a fancy to Huang Zongxi's young man's drive.

The Luzon Prefecture is now also a troika in parallel, the Luzon Prefect Yamen, the Luzon Prefect Yamen, and the Luzon Imperial History Yamen, each in charge of one piece. In addition, the Seventh Fleet was stationed in the Luzon Islands, and there were three indigenous people on the island.

"Are you ready for the afternoon meeting?"

"Back to the adults, everything is ready, the venue is located in the Luzon Grand Theater, and the police station is responsible for all security work." A young clerk replied in Mandarin.

"Check it again, be sure to be prepared, and don't make another mistake when the time comes." Huang Zongxi said.

"yes, I'll check it again right away."

It has been three months since Huang Zongxi took office, and he has not made any major moves in the past three months, but in fact, he has been preparing for a big move.

Before leaving Beijing, he was summoned to meet the emperor, and the emperor talked with him a lot, and finally focused on one thing, that is, the slave question. The slave trade is now beginning to take place in many places, especially overseas, and the slave trade is becoming more and more active in overseas territories due to the high demand.

The emperor's words are still echoing in Huang Zongxi's mind, and the imperial court will never change the fundamental national policy of prohibiting slavery.

Huang Zongxi asked at the time that if slavery was strictly prohibited overseas, it might be difficult for overseas development to progress.

The emperor smiled at the time and gave him a solution, one that surprised Huang Zongxi considerably.

The Han Dynasty still forbade slavery, and this national policy will never waver.

But.

The imperial court allowed the employment of foreign laborers.

This didn't sound like anything special, but Huang Zongxi came to appreciate the deep meaning after thinking about it.

Hired laborers and slaves, these are two fundamentally different concepts, but the result can be the same, both of which can solve the much-needed labor problem for the Han Dynasty.

The Han Dynasty allowed landlords and merchants to hire laborers, and as long as the slave trade was exchanged for the export of labor services, it was natural for slave traders to become labor intermediaries.

Slave traders became labor intermediaries, and slave markets became labor markets.

Those slaves naturally became migrant workers.

Labor agents only need to register in the labor market and pay the prescribed taxes and fees before they can promote the person who introduced them in the labor market.

Employers such as landlords and factory owners may hire foreign workers in the labor market from registered labor intermediaries and pay labor intermediary fees to these intermediaries.

After paying the agency fee, they will be able to hire these migrant workers.

At this time, these people were not slaves, but migrant workers, and they became employees of those employers.

They enjoy the right not to be abused or beaten, and they are entitled to wages and holidays.

In other words, the landlords paid a large amount of money for their labor, and they still had to pay wages after they hired people back. However, the imperial court allowed the landlords to count this labor fee as an advance payment for labor wages.

The imperial court stipulated that employers had to pay the laborers a minimum living allowance every month, which was also deducted from their wages, and when the migrant workers worked until their labor agency fees and monthly living expenses were deducted, they became completely free workers.

Since then, these migrant workers have enjoyed the right to freely choose to accept or refuse employment.

In a word, the imperial court did not allow the current slave trade and slave use, but it was not completely forbidden, but in a different way, this demand was more strictly controlled.

Slave traders, slave markets, and slave buyers all had to be supervised and controlled by the imperial court, and each link had to pay corresponding taxes.

The imperial court gave more protection to the rights and interests of those slaves, and they could enjoy a minimum of rights and interests when they worked in the Han Dynasty, not being abused, beaten and scolded, and having basic living security. When they earn enough to pay off their labor agency fees and monthly living expenses, they become completely free employees.

In this way, the imperial court avoided the emergence of an oppressed and miserable slave class.

Where there is oppression, there is resistance.

Liu Jun knew very well that the oppression of slaves by the slavery system was extremely serious, and such oppression would inevitably lead to a lot of trouble.

Slaves become hired laborers, and the cost of employing them increases, but this cost increase is not high, but it solves the problem of hiring workers. At the same time, the imperial court can also get many benefits, get more labor, escort production, and at the same time avoid the many troubles caused by slavery.

Leave a line in doing things, keep leeway, and be more stable.

Directly allowing the slave trade to be legal may seem more convenient, but it will cause more social contradictions, and every oppressed slave may become a time bomb.

Let everyone enjoy the minimum protection of rights and interests, so that they can be fed, have a minimum of freedom and dignity, Liu Jun believes that in this way, the country of the Han Dynasty can be more stable.

Let the landlords and businessmen pay a little more labor costs, but in exchange for a more stable country, Liu Jun believes that it is quite worthwhile.

Huang Zongxi has been preparing for this matter since he took office for three months.

Investigate, find out, get to grips with all kinds of data, investigate those underground slave markets, get hold of those slave traders, slave ships, and even build Luzon's slave files.

If you don't make a sound, you must be amazing. Once the new policy was implemented, Huang Zongxi had to get a quick grasp of the situation. Only by understanding all the circumstances thoroughly, can he be prepared, if the new deal starts, there will still be people who want to disobey the yang and the yin, Huang Zongxi has already made a plan to solve the problem, he will unite with the garrison of Luzon to wipe out all those slave traders who dare to disobey. (To be continued.) )