"The eldest young master is back! The eldest young master is back! ”

When the fleet approached the dock of Liujiagang in Taicang, the pedals had not yet been stabilized, and Shen Shuren was recognized by a group of dock workers just by showing his face on the deck, and then it caused a commotion.

The crowd came in and bowed, and it didn't look safe.

Shen Fu could only let the family musket team line up in two lines to maintain order, squeeze out the idle people, and then wait for the eldest young master to go ashore.

The bayonets and long-handled battle axes, which had just been forged ten days ago, were naturally new, without the slightest trace of rust, and they looked really bright and shiny in the daylight, reflecting the cold light.

This scene made Shen Shuren a little dazed, feeling how he looked like a villain.

"When I was a child, I read history books and said that Louis XVIII went against the grain and relied on the bayonets of the anti-French alliance to protect him and return to Paris for restoration. If you take the emperor back to Paris, you don't need a bayonet. ”

He couldn't help but secretly think in his heart, and also wanted Shen Fu not to be nervous and get closer to the people, but in the end, he couldn't resist the cowardice in his heart and acquiesced to all this.

There are a lot of people who have been offended recently, and security is still very important. It seems that a cautious person like him will not be able to become Napoleon in his life.

What's more, he went home for the New Year this time, but he brought Chen Yuanyuan and Dong Xiaowan back together, how could he let his woman be seen by idle people.

At this moment, both daughters are wearing hats, that is, hats that resemble hats and a veil on the outside, covering their faces.

Seeing so many people coaxing, the second daughter became more and more frightened, so she had to snuggle tightly around Shen Shuren. Shen Shuren could only hug them like birds, hugging them left and right in his cloak, and hurried to get into the car.

Under the looming hood, the faces of the second daughter cannot be seen clearly by outsiders, but just the vague peerless appearance and slender and seductive figure are enough to make others dare not look up.

"The woman next to the eldest young master is really like a fairy."

"I heard that the original Kunqu Qingqi people, who were the first in Kunshan, could only go to the eldest young master to be maids. and the lady of the Dong family embroidery workshop who built the shuttle loom, is just a maid. ”

Some of the little squires in the crowd who had a little insight couldn't help but lower their voices to show that they knew the inside story of the market. And ordinary dock workers naturally didn't dare to say half a word.

"I haven't come back for a year, and I made such a big commotion." After getting into the car, Shen Shucai breathed a sigh of relief and asked the left and right girls to take off their hats and hold them in their arms to keep warm.

Dong Xiaowan whispered: "Childe underestimates himself too much, let's follow you, we all feel like a dream, not to mention these villagers." As soon as you leave, it will be a whole year, and when you come back, you have been promoted three times in a row, in a small place like Taicang, you can't be used by the people as a talking point for several years. ”

Chen Yuanyuan, on the other side, was a little curious and worried:

"However, I feel that when we left last time, there was not so much labor on the wharf, and I feel that this time when we come back, Liujiagang is at least a few percent more prosperous than in previous years. Is there more homeless people from the north? It seems that the years are getting worse and worse. ”

Shen Shuren can't answer this question, but it doesn't matter.

He didn't have to move, he continued to sit with his arms left and right as he was, and directly raised his voice a few points: "Shen Fu, I ask you, why are there so many more people in Liujiagang." ”

Shen Fu, who was waiting outside the curtain on horseback, immediately replied: "Young master, you forgot, when you and the old man were in the capital, you played the matter of changing the sea to Caoyun. Zhu Dadian said that millions of Cao people are tied to food and clothing, and if they don't settle the Cao people, they can't change the sea, and the lord also promised it in front of the emperor.

A total of 300,000 or 400,000 Cao people will be resettled in five years, and 70,000 or 80,000 will be distributed this year. Jinmen in the north and Liujiagang in the south, the number of wharf workers alone has expanded by as many as 10,000 or 20,000 people.

There are still some that have not been settled, and they will also assemble here in Liujiagang first, and the Sankey fish ponds that should be pulled to dig the Sankey fish pond, and the ones who should be trained as sailors for sea ships, or the Latin as a group trainee, will also be arranged slowly. These people all moved here after the autumn harvest, and our family is now in charge of the livelihood of tens of thousands of people, and the tenants who can be plugged and those who dig fish ponds are all stuffed. ”

Shen Shuren rubbed his temples, and then remembered. I have been in office in Huangzhou for more than half a year, and I have almost forgotten the pit buried when I was a Beijing official before.

The reason why Chongzhen only promoted his father to the household carrier division was to see how well he did in the Caomin resettlement pilot this year, and only after good results could he continue to be promoted.

Father Shen Tingyang also knew all this, so he worked very hard, even if he recruited too many people temporarily, and there would be a small loss in temporary turnover, he endured it.

Thinking of this, Shen Shuren immediately asked, "Father should have arrived before me, right?" I remember that he mentioned in his family letter that he would go back for the Chinese New Year, and he would also organize next year's grain shipping, and he would be released for several months a year, but he was also at ease. ”

Shen Fu obviously remembered the schedule of the master's family, and said confidently: "Isn't it, the old man's letter should have gone south a few days after it was sent, and it should have arrived two or three days earlier than us." ”

Most of the Langzhong in the household department are stationed in Beijing all the year round, but those who are in charge of Cao Yun are just in time for the year of the reform pilot, and it is normal for them to travel frequently. Shen Tingyang is lucky, his hometown is in the shipping port in the south, so every time he goes on a business trip, he returns to his hometown.

Hearing that his father was expected to arrive first, Shen Shuren didn't dare to slack off, and immediately ordered the carriage and horse to speed up, and also pushed Chen Yuanyuan and Dong Xiaowan away. lest when you get off the bus after a while, you will still be red-faced, naked, and disheveled, and lose your family style.

Moreover, Dong Xiaowan has actually been in some bodies recently, and she has been pregnant for more than a month. Since the end of October, Shen Shuren has favored Chen Yuanyuan alone, so that Dong Xiaowan can have a safe pregnancy, at most he will only soothe his siblings.

When I come back this time, I will also leave Dong Xiaowan in my hometown in Suzhou, take care of it well next year, and then consider whether to bring it to office after giving birth.

The carriage galloped along the Liuhe River, from the wharf to the Shen family's mansion for more than ten miles, there were fewer pedestrians along the way, and Shen Shuren was not afraid of being peeped at, so he raised the curtain of the car to see some scenery.

I haven't come back for a year, Taicang County has also changed a lot, more than ten miles of mulberry gardens along the way, and the winter farming season is still densely populated, and there are some strong men who insist on digging mulberry fish ponds there.

It can be seen that the popularity rate of mulberry fish ponds has been very high, and the fields that could only be planted with mulberry and silkworms can now generally produce at least 100 catties of fish per mu per year to feed some more people. Fish manure fertilization can also slightly increase the yield of mulberry leaves by one or two percent.

In addition to the mulberry garden, there were rows of weaving mills along the river, but a year later, the number of weaving mills seems to have decreased, and some of the original dilapidated and old factories have been demolished and replaced by smaller but larger buildings.

Many laborers are still rushing to work in the winter to earn wages, and it is estimated that they can subsidize their families for a good year. Shen Shuren glanced at it casually, and he could see from the scale of the building that these workshops were at least thousands of looms, and there were very few small weaving mills with hundreds of them.

He asked worriedly: "Shen Fu, could it be that after this year, the local small weaving mill has closed down a lot?" The shuttle loom invented by Xiao Wan has been popularized for more than a year, and those small workshops that can't afford to buy new machines can't hold on? Will the prices of local silk and cotton cloth fall? ”

Shen Fu didn't know this problem, he hadn't paid attention to it recently, and at most he cared about his master's family affairs. After being asked, he immediately went to the car in front of him and called his second brother Shen Shou, and asked Shen Shou, who was in charge of the account room, to answer.

Shen Shou immediately came to the young master's car, sat on the wheel outside and replied: "Young master, this year, the price of cotton cloth has indeed fallen a little. The narrow cloth has fallen by more than a penny of silver, and the key is that the extra premium of the wide cloth is less.

Originally, the three-shuttle cloth was three feet wide and the narrow cloth was one foot eight inches wide, but the three-shuttle cloth could be sold for double the price of the narrow cloth and earned an area of six inches in vain. Nowadays, the same area of three-shuttle cloth can no longer be sold at a more expensive price. The shuttle cloth five or six feet wide can barely exceed the price of the same area.

Many small weaving mills specializing in three-shuttle cloth were the most severely affected. However, they can't talk about bankruptcy, Suzhou people are not so easy to admit defeat when doing business, they can't make up enough money to buy new machines, and they join forces with several small workshops to set up a large workshop together. ”

When Shen Shuren heard this, he couldn't help laughing: Isn't it because of the scientific and technological progress he led, which led to the upgrading of industrial equipment, and small enterprises could not afford the cost of upgrading, so they had to unite into a "cartel"?

In the process of upgrading capital attention to industrial capital monopoly, trusts appeared in the United States, cartels appeared in Germany, and now this wave at the end of the Ming Dynasty should be regarded as cartels.

Daming has been sprouting capital attention buds for so long, but they have not been able to grow for a long time, so they have to be officially ignited in their own hands.

"That's good, as long as you don't go out of business and stabilize the situation, otherwise there are only a few huge rich tens of thousands of looms or even more, and the small workshops are over. Give them food and unite to fight the risks, so that I can manage them. ”

Although the Shen family itself also has a large workshop, it still plays the role of a buyer and reseller, and Shen Shuren certainly does not want the capital concentration in the production link to be too high. It's best if small businesses can work together to weather the storm.

As the convoy got closer and closer to the Shen family, the streetscape on both sides of the road became more and more prosperous. Finally, when passing by the Shen family's own weaving mill, Shen Shucai noticed that his family estimated that there were at least tens of thousands of looms.

This year's more than a year of technological iteration and the adoption of new technologies have relied on profits to become bigger and put into reproduction, and the power is really not something that ordinary people can withstand. What's more, the Shen family is still working with the Songjiang Xu family to collect "patent fees" in disguise, relying on power to control the place.

When the carriage finally stopped at the door of Shen's house, Shen Shuren actually saw that his father also had to come out to pick him up, so he hurriedly stepped forward to salute, and as for the female dependent, he could only let other maids support him.

"Father, I haven't been troubled in the capital, it's all the children who provoked Zuo Liangyu, I should tell you in advance."

Shen Tingyang didn't care at all, his face was full of spring breeze, and he was so proud of his son's competitiveness: "What's this, there is no danger, when can you stay when you come back this time?" ”

Shen Shuren: "At most, it's the Lantern Festival, and then I have to go to Nanjing to do some errands and deal with Zuo Liangyu and Hou Sui." At this time, let's just discuss how to prompt Your Majesty to make up your mind next year and give you the determination to change the law. ”

It took several minutes for the father and son to go from the first courtyard to the fifth and sixth, and if there was nothing to talk about, such a large house would have been eager to sit on a sliding pole in their own garden.

Chatting and chatting, Shen Shuren couldn't help but ask about his fleet and business, which he hadn't had time to care about for a year.

Shen Tingyang was also very proud, saying that the Shen family's fleet of sea vessels had expanded from one hundred and fifty or sixty searches to nearly double in just one year! At least spend hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to build a ship, and it will rise so much every year in the future.

As for the source of the shipbuilding silver, about one-third of it came from the income from helping the imperial court carry the transport, and other turnover silver, and two-thirds came from the expansion of the family's textile industry, the profit from the sale of machinery, and the additional profit from the maritime trade of the textile industry.

I told Chongzhen before that "we will complete the transformation of Cao Yun into the sea in five years", which means that the Shen family will add at least one hundred and fifty sea ships every year in the past five years, and the total number will increase to eight hundred within five years.

You must know that the Zheng family in Fujian only has one or two thousand self-operated sea vessels.

At the beginning of Shen Shuren's crossing, the Shen family's family property was only equivalent to one-twentieth of the Zheng family, and after a year and a half, this has properly exceeded one-tenth of the Zheng family, more than doubled.

In the next three or four years, according to this expansion plan, it will grow to one-fifth or one-third of the Zheng family...... At that time, the Shen family will also become the first-rate force in the rich and rival country, which is the financial foundation for Shen Shuren to compete for hegemony in the future.

After making so much money, Shen Shuren is also happy to pay a little more tax to the imperial court to ensure that his business is legal.