In the summer of the thirteenth year of Wanli, a torrential rain made Jiangnan ink-colored.

Lu Shude had no intention of appreciating the smoke and rain in Jiangnan, only with a gloomy face.

However, the hired workers and peasants in the major cities and towns in the south of the Yangtze River were in a hurry because of the rain, so they became more idle, and went to the wine stores and wild shops in twos and threes to live happily.

Only the newly opened village social science and the sound of reading aloud appeared in the hazy smoke and rain, which made people stop.

Lu Shude's eyebrows only stretched out after hearing the sound of reading, although he couldn't see the people lazy, but he was willing to see children study diligently and read well.

However, without the sound of the shepherd boy playing the flute, it is not an unsatisfactory thing for Lu Shude.

Yes.

Lu Shude searched for a long time, but he didn't see a shepherd boy hiding from the rain and playing the flute under the thatched hut.

This made Lu Shude feel that all the children in Jiangnan had been enrolled in school.

"If you go back to the public, there are more children studying now than before, and there are indeed fewer children herding cattle for the rich family!"

"Therefore, several of our fathers and even filial masters here have begun to set up private schools, not just to cultivate the children of the clan, but to make money!"

"Who is willing to spend money to send their children to study now is more and more villagers every year, especially this year, the Qing army is in trouble, and no matter how tough people are, they would rather work harder and spend money to send their children to study in order to gain fame!"

Because of this, the students are still a little worried that there are more and more people studying here, and we old Gongsheng are afraid that it will be more difficult to be promoted. But we can't not forbid people to study, not to mention, we still rely on teaching people's children to make a profit for the sake of rice. ”

When Lu Shude was resting at a post station in Gaoyou, he specially asked a local old gongsheng Mao Qide, and Mao Qide also told Lu Shude about the local phenomenon.

Lu Shude nodded after hearing this: "In this way, the common people have indeed become a lot richer because of the new policy, and it is no wonder that there are officials who are in a hurry to plunder the people by taking advantage of the Qing army's hooking up the army, but now although the Qing army is not allowed to hook the army, it is also not allowed to violate the service system to make the sergeants and gentry suffer, it is too much, and it is inevitable that there will be a suspicion of choking and abandoning food." ”

"That's what the public said!"

"But even if the court doesn't do this, the sergeants are not as good as before!"

Mao Qide sighed.

After hearing this, Lu Shude asked, "What do you say?" ”

"Because since Mr. Gangfeng, the governor of Nanzhi, mobilized the people to set up agricultural cooperatives and industrial cooperatives, now the common people are now in a big swing!"

"There are also so-called soldiers' mutual aid societies among the sergeants, and even the post men near the post station also have mutual aid societies, if the government does not give money, and wants to serve directly, they will also make trouble, in short, there are more and more fierce people, and even coerce and bully the gentry, and the scholars are becoming more and more disrespected."

Mao Qide replied.

As Mao Qide said, from the first year of Wanli to the present, the Ming Dynasty has been reforming for more than ten years, and has deepened to change the etiquette law, and clearly use the national policy of foreign expansion to benefit the people and enrich the country, so even if the powerful bureaucrats still take most of the increased cake in the distribution system, it is still inevitable that the people will also increase their income through various direct and indirect ways.

When people have money, especially when there is no pressure to survive, they will take the initiative to pursue the quality of life, as well as the respect and freedom of personality, and even more power.

The same is true for the common people, so by now in the Ming Dynasty, individualism has begun to appear.

A large number of ordinary people will pay more attention to themselves, pay more attention to pleasure, be more willing to consume, buy all kinds of good goods to satisfy themselves, and are more willing to read books to pay attention to society, to improve their understanding of the world, and they are no longer completely afraid of officials.

In addition, it is true that the trend of reading has become more prevalent, and people are more willing to spend more money on themselves and their children.

The same is true for the people of the Ming Dynasty, especially in the Jiangnan area, where a large number of children of the common people read, not only men, but even women began to read.

Because of the emergence of large-scale textile industry and pad-dyeing industry, a large number of female weavers have changed from home-based production to workshop-type production, coupled with the emergence of better textile machines, all require female weavers to have a certain level of literacy, which is easy to manage.

As a result, schools have sprung up, and women's private schools have begun to appear.

Lu Shude was also on a high-rise building, and through the rain curtain, he saw an old monk teaching many girls to read, and he didn't know whether to be happy or worried for a while.

Originally.

He was happy to see more and more people reading, but he couldn't help but think that if more and more people read books, would they become less and less worthy of respect.

A kind of ambivalence spread in Lu Shude's heart, just as he supported the reform but also saw Shen Shixing and other reformers becoming more and more arrogant, so that the official did not even dare to hear the rumors at will, and as long as he was found to be untrue, he would be punished.

Of course.

The contradictory gentry are not only Lu Shude.

Many of the gentry and wealthy families still enjoyed most of the benefits of the New Deal reform because they took advantage of their family's advantages in learning and connections, but they also felt conflicted because the New Deal increasingly challenged their old privileges and status, and they did not know whether to criticize the court or sing praises.

Most of the time, they can only compromise, while twisting and saying that our emperor is holy and good governance, and on the other hand, they are also angry and frantically smearing only individual officials, and in the end they become anti-powerful ministers and not anti-emperor, and oppose a specific policy, but they no longer negate the entire direction of reform.

In any case, the increase in people's incomes has indeed contributed to the expansion of the domestic demand market.

Moreover, the Qing army's hooking up the army promoted the consumption of the people, which was a blessing in disguise for the entire Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, this directly leads to a surge in demand for industrial products.

In particular, cotton cloth processing, ceramic smelting, agricultural tools, vehicles, clocks and other equipment manufacturing, and mineral development industries.

Because the common people need industrial products, and the nobles need handicrafts more, after all, handicrafts can show nobility.

Therefore, industrial products can lead to mass production, which in turn leads to the emergence of industrialization.

Because handicrafts require artisans with artistic talent, and aristocrats prefer to spend more money on limited handicrafts, the pursuit of a different one, so even if the handicraft technology is exquisite, it is difficult to produce it in large quantities.

Arguably.

The premise of industrialization is that there must be a large consumer group of ordinary people, who can afford to sell cheap goods through mass production.

And now, because the reform in the early years of Wanli has not been interrupted, has been deepening, and has always regarded benefiting the people as important as a rich country and a strong army, so it has led to the increasing demand for industrial products among the people of the Ming Dynasty.

The Qing army's efforts to disturb the people that did not come from the central government also became a catalyst, catalyzing the people to consume and causing a surge in demand for industrial products.

The surge in demand for industrial goods also led to the transformation of the handicraft industry to industrialization.

"The order volume of the carriage increased by 30% yesterday compared with the day before yesterday, but our craftsmen are not enough, even if the processing money makes the craftsmen stay up late to work, they will not be able to complete the order."

"Look, how are we going to do it?"

Xu Minshi, who is in charge of the official affairs of Ying Tianbu, specially asked Sun Wei about this matter.

After hearing this, Sun Wei asked, "This is a question, what does Gong Ke think?" ”

Xu Minshi thought for a while and said: "There is a way for the subordinates, which is to recruit more young people who don't know skills as apprentices, and let them do some simple things with the old craftsmen first." ”

Sun Wei asked: "If there are too many people, it is easy to leak secrets, but the skills of our government-run car dealership are the new carriage developed by Shaotsuka Zai Shen Gong when he was appointed by Tianfu, and the best thing about it is that it will no longer shake so much after we have added our own smelted springs!" Once this secret is leaked, we may not be able to deal with any private business. ”

"Xiaguan has also taken this into account!"

"We can let these young men and women only need a part of their skills and only be responsible for part of the manufacturing, so that even if they want to leak out, they can only leak a part, and they will not be able to understand the essentials after all, and even the complete core place is not allowed for them to learn, but only let reliable officials and craftsmen learn."

Xu Min style said.

After hearing this, Sun Wei took the case: "This method is good, then order a group of young people to be recruited as apprentices, and this institute will also ask Ying Tian to set up a government-run mechanical school." ”

Xu Min arched his hand and said yes.

As a result, under the influence of the background of the increase in demand for industrial products, where the commodity economy in the south of the Yangtze River is developed, even the government-run industries have begun to recruit people on a large scale to learn manufacturing technology and strive to achieve larger batch production, and also have the idea of assembly line production.

After Zhu Yijun received Sun Wei's recital, he was also very happy: "This Xu Min-style thinking is flexible, he ordered praise, and allowed Tianfu to play. ”

(End of chapter)