Yang Peng stayed in Youzhou for a few days, and now Tianjing New City knows that the city lord has given the emperor the title of King Yan. Yang Peng first changed into a new official uniform. The official uniform of the prince is different from the Zhengyipin, and the embroidery on the complement is a unicorn and Bai Ze. Yang Peng looked in front of the mirror in his new official uniform, and felt that he had added a bit of majesty.

Yang Peng looked at the new Yinxin waist card again: the big seal of King Yan for himself was made of jade, and it was very well made. The waist card is ivory texture, tattooed with four cloud dragons, and carved with the words "Yan Wang Yang Peng". The most crucial thing is that Yanwang iron scroll.

The so-called iron roll is commonly known as the gold medal for avoiding death. With this iron scroll, even if Yang Peng commits a capital crime, he can use the iron scroll to pay for his life and avoid death. "Where the prince and uncle are first knighted, they will be given iron coupons. Completed from the Ministry of Industry, sent to write a text, and completed the rules of the bond. Transferred to the silver bureau to engrave and fill in the gold. and give it to the right side. The left side of the year-end performance is sent to the ancient and modern collection library for storage. All iron coupons are shaped like tiles. and engrave it on it, and fill it with gold. One side on the left and right, the right to the hero, and the left to hide the inner house. ”

The size of the iron roll varies with the title, and the iron roll in Yang Peng's hand is tiled and made of fine iron. The iron roll is about 40 centimeters long, 20 centimeters wide, 2 centimeters thick, and weighs more than 4 catties. The front of the iron scroll is engraved with inlaid gold characters, the font is regular script, and the content is that the official family canonized Yang Peng as the king of Yan according to Yang Peng's merits, with a total of more than 200 characters.

On the reverse side of the iron scroll, it reads, "The so-called exemption from death, except for rebellion and rebellion, all death sentences are exempted." However, after the dismissal of the knight, he is not allowed to still be sealed, but he is allowed to lend his life. If he commits a capital offense, the first offense, he shall not pay all the rice he has eaten. "It's about the use of iron rolls to avoid death, stipulating that in addition to crimes such as rebellion, Yang Peng's iron rolls can pay for his life once. With this iron scroll, murder and arson will not be sentenced by the imperial court, and it can be said that it is a stable privileged class.

Of course, with Yang Peng's current power, he can kill people and set fires with impunity without iron scrolls. But it is not the same to get the official promise in black and white. Yang Peng put away the iron roll and put it in the box. After accepting the canonization, Yang Peng took up the honor guard and returned to Cangzhou. Now Yang Peng's banner reads "Prince Taifu of Yanwang Zuodu Governor Cangzhou Hussar General", and the weight of this set of titles is heavier than before, a proper pillar of the country. Now Yang Peng's guard of honor not only has flags and flags, but also golden melons, flags and other counts, and the whole set of honor guards needs more than ten personal guards to complete.

Yang Peng's honor guard walked in the cities of Tianjing City and Cangzhou, and when the people saw the mighty honor guard coming, they panicked and got out of the way after a long distance, hiding on the side of the road to watch Yang Peng's team march. Especially the people of Cangzhou, they really haven't seen such a luxurious guard of honor, standing on the side of the road one by one to discuss.

"The lord of the city has been promoted again?" "Crowned king!" "Tsk, the city lord is in his twenties, right?" After Yang Peng returned to Cangzhou, the reward for his subordinates came down.

This time, in the sixteen states of Yanyun, Yang Peng also reported his military exploits to his generals. Soon, the rewards given to Zhang Xiang and others arrived one after another: Huyan Chijin and other management personnel were also promoted to the rank of soldier and horse supervisor, one level lower than Zhang Xiang and others. The battalion commanders and company commanders in the Tiger Division were also rewarded. The battalion commanders were all promoted to the capital supervisors, and the company commanders were also promoted to the capital heads.

After the reward came down, Tianjing New Town was full of joy, like the New Year. Yang Peng set up wine in Cangzhou Mansion to celebrate, and the subordinates who came to the banquet wore crimson or cyan official robes to the banquet one by one, gathering together.

The people of Tianjing New Town who attended the banquet in the mansion were very proud, and they wanted to know how many people wanted to squeeze in at the prince's celebration banquet, but they were all turned away. Although the adult is already the prince, Yang Peng's subordinates all feel that the adult can still make great progress, and go further, as long as they follow the adult, it will be easy to be promoted to official wealth at that time. The crowd was so happy that a dozen people were so drunk that day that they collapsed under the table.

On 2 April, Yang Peng, accompanied by Zhang Xiang, went to Tianjing New Town to have a look. In the past half a year of Yang Peng's expedition, under the command of Zhang Xiang, the new city of Tianjing New City has been built. Outside the new city, a ring of city walls has been covered with bricks, which is connected with the old city wall. The walls between the new town and the old town have been demolished and dug up, and the roads between the new town and the old town are connected. Tianjing New City has doubled in size, and it no longer looks like a small county town, but has the grandeur of a state town.

The new city, which has just been built, is already very lively. Today, the textile factory has expanded massively, recruiting new people every month, and today it has grown to 15,000 people. The 15,000 workers lived in newly built villas in the new city of Tianjing. In order to increase the family income of the workers, Yang Peng now recruits workers as much as possible to hire both husband and wife, and these workers are generally two families sharing a villa. Of course, most of the workers who have not yet married only rent a house, and four families share a villa. As a result, more than 10,000 new workers filled more than 3,000 new villas.

The design capacity of Tianjing New Town is 7,000 villas, but that is a theoretical capacity. In fact, there are not only villas, but also factories and military camps in the new city, plus various commercial facilities, in fact, only more than 4,000 villas have been built. Today, there are only more than 300 villas left unoccupied.

If Yang Peng still wants to expand the textile factory, he will have to build a new city. After taking a look at the new city, Yang Peng praised: "Zhang Xiang, you have done a good job in the past few months. ”

Zhang Xiang said with a smile: "It's all a matter of following the rules, no matter how bad I am, I can learn from what my eldest brother has done and do it again." Yang Peng felt that Zhang Xiang's ability was good, and nodded with a smile.

Yang Peng walked into the new factory of the textile factory and found Zheng Yuan, who was in charge of the textile factory. "Now that the textile factory has expanded to such a big size, how is the management?" Zheng Yuan nodded and said: "There is no big problem in management, now there are 15,331 workers in the textile factory, with a monthly output of 268,000 horses. The monthly money and food expenses of the workers are 59,000 taels per month, and the purchase of coarse cotton costs 143,000 taels per month, and the monthly profit is 66,000 taels. ”

Yang Peng nodded and said, "It seems that the food expenditure is more than before. Zheng Yuan said: "My lord, the price of rice is high now, although the price of rice in Fanjiazhuang is controlled by the parity grain store and has not risen. But the price of other things has risen along with the price of rice. The price of vegetables has risen a lot. The pig farm said that the price of pig food has risen, and the settlement price of slaughtered pigs has also been raised, so the food expenses have also risen. ”

Yang Peng thought for a while and asked, "How much is the price of rice in other places now?" Zheng Yuan said: "In the past few months, it has fallen a little, and it has fallen to two or five dollars and a stone." ”

Yang Peng nodded and said: "As soon as the price of rice rises, the prices of various commodities rise. In the past, we paid workers two or two months, but now that prices are high, it was relatively not so attractive a month ago. The workers toiled day in and day out, and they could not be allowed to suffer. Zheng Yuan, from this month onwards, you will adjust the monthly salary of textile workers to two or five yuan a month. ”

Zheng Yuan was stunned and said, "My lord, this is a big expense. Yang Peng nodded and said: "We can afford it, and we would rather earn a little less than let the workers become poor." By the time the workers of the textile factory leave work at night, it is already dark. However, the vendors at the Tianjing New Town Market knew that the workers would come to the market to buy things after work, and they kept setting up stalls in the market. Speaking of which, the market is at its busiest when the workers get off work this evening.

Gu Lao Er bought a live fish, two pig ears, and a pot of rice wine at the Xinchengbei Market, and walked back to his yard humming a song. Gu Lao Er is happy, today the general has added monthly money to all the workers. Originally, the textile workers were treated with meat for two or two months, and three meals were already very good. Although the price of food has risen for more than a year, the price of all kinds of things has increased. But the price of other things has risen less, after all, not as much as the price of food.

Gu Lao Er and his daughter-in-law are two people, one works in the old city textile factory, and the other works in the new city textile factory, and they have four taels of monthly money a month. Although the rise in prices has made this monthly money less useful, and four taels of silver can only be spent as the original three taels or five dollars, the couple still live a life that is the envy of relatives and friends.

Gu Lao Er bought a villa in the new city, borrowed money from the city lord, and the family moved in. Now Gu Laoer's house is very spacious, not only does the old mother with her two-year-old daughter have a separate room, the five-year-old son has her own room, and even the three-year-old daughter has her own house.

Gu Lao Er has two daughters and a son, and he is very proud to have so many children. Since keeping up with the general, Gu Laoer's family has become more and more well-off, and gradually there is no shortage of anything. This month, the city lord beat the Empress Dowager Xiao down in the north, and after coming back, the court gave the general the title of prince. The lord of the city was crowned king, which was a great joy for Tianjing New City. The greater the official and the greater the power of the city lord, the better the life of the people of Tianjing New City will be guaranteed. In the past few years, there have been a few incidents in Tianjing New Town, and there are some crumbs who want to steal secret recipes in Tianjing New Town, and there are also city lords who lead troops to search the general's factory and bully the city lord's officials and officials. But today's prince, there is no one who dares to covet it.

This time, the lord of the city crowned the king, as if to make the people of Tianjing New City celebrate together, and gave the workers of each workshop a monthly increase of five yuan of silver. Gu Lao Er and his wife have five taels of silver per month. Although there are many disasters and famines in other places now, and the prices are slightly higher than before, five taels of silver can still be used to offset the previous four taels and five cents. In this way, it is equivalent to the city lord giving Gu Lao's family an extra five coins of silver every month.

It's a joyous thing. With an extra five coins of silver, the standard of living can be improved again. Even if you raise another child, it's enough. Gu Lao Er walked into the house and saw his daughter-in-law holding her little daughter and talking to her old mother in the house. The daughter-in-law works in a factory in Xincheng, which is a short distance, and she has to go home a little earlier than Gu Lao Er every day.

Gu Lao Er and his wife both work in the factory, and Gu Lao Er's old mother is doing the things that take care of the children at home. Many of the workers in Tianjing New Town are husband and wife working together in the factory, and most of the children in the family are left to the care of the elderly. The Shogun encouraged such a family structure, saying that it would allow the elderly to have something to do.

Gu Lao Er said loudly to his daughter-in-law: "Child, mother, come!" Burn the fish and pig ears and serve the wine! The daughter-in-law of the Gu family walked out of the room when she heard this, saw the goods on Gu Lao's second-hand hand, and said with a smile: "Your old factory has also increased its monthly money?" Gu Lao Er took out the two taels and five coins of silver, put it on the table with a snap, and said, "Why not go up?" You don't know? The workers of the whole city have risen! It's all up to two or five dollars! I heard that the soldiers had even increased their monthly salaries by seven cents. Gu Lao Er said arrogantly: "This day is really happy. Tomorrow we will go to the cloth village to buy cloth and make a new summer dress for each of the whole family. ”

The daughter-in-law of the Gu family chirped: "You ate dinner and meat in the factory, and you want to eat another meal?" Gu Lao Er smiled and said: "The city lord has made the king, and our family has increased the monthly money, can you not celebrate when this double happiness is coming?" Drink today, you drink a little too! The daughter-in-law of the Gu family chirped: "You are getting fatter and fatter now!" Also eat! ”

Gu Lao Er raised his head and smiled: "How good is it to be fat, how can outsiders know that I am doing so well if I don't gain weight?" Gu Lao Er was talking there, but he heard the sound of crackling firecrackers outside the door. Then I heard children and adults shouting outside: "King Yan! ”

"King Yan!" The firecrackers here have not yet been put off, and another burst of firecrackers can be heard not far away. There was another shout from the neighborhood.

"King Yan!" "King Yan!"

The whole city seemed to be in a carnival, wantonly celebrating the promotion of the city lord Yang Peng and celebrating his monthly money. Gu Lao Er arched his lips at his daughter-in-law and said, "Listen, this is all about the joy of rising monthly money!" Gu's second daughter-in-law smiled and carried the fish and meat into the kitchen.

Gu Lao Er slipped out of the door with his hands behind his back, looked at the neighbors who set off firecrackers in the alley, shook his head and said, "Look at these people's happiness!" After thinking about it, Gu Lao Er shouted loudly into the house: "Son, take out your big red lantern, and we will hang it." ”

Gu's five-year-old son was writing in front of the desk. He is now old enough to enter the school, and he has to learn ten words a day. When he heard his father's words, he secretly said that he would not need to do his homework now, and immediately crawled to the table, took down the lantern hanging on the wall of his room, and happily delivered it to his father.

Gu Lao Er hung the red lantern on the door, glanced at his son and said, "Son, do you want to have another brother?" Gu Lao's second son looked at his father, blinked his eyes and said, "Dad, I have two younger sisters, didn't you say that you want to save money for me to marry a daughter-in-law, and I can't afford to support my younger brother?" Gu Lao Er smiled and said, "I couldn't afford it before, but now I can afford it." Touching his son's head, Gu Lao Er said: "Son, you have to remember that as long as you follow the steps of the city lord, the good days will not end at a glance." When you grow up, you will also go into the factory like your father to do things for the city lord! ”

After thinking about it, Gu Lao Er said again: "No, you are more talented than your father, you have entered the academy to learn literacy, can you be the same as your father?" In the future, you will enter the Tiger Ben Division as a soldier and fight with the city lord. Gu Laoer's son looked at his father and nodded as if he didn't understand.

Gu Lao Er laughed, picked up his son, and walked outside the alley. I didn't walk a few steps when I saw a neighbor surnamed Zhang come out with a string of firecrackers. The Zhang family took an incense stick and lit the firecracker, and the firecracker crackled, Gu Lao Er was infected by the atmosphere of the city, stood with the neighbors, raised his left hand and shouted: "King Yan!" "King Yan!"

On this day, Yang Peng sat in Zhang Xiang's official hall in Tianjing New Town, summoned Cui Changwu, Lü Hu, and Gao Ligong to inquire about the situation of maritime affairs. Today's overseas affairs, the fleet is in charge of Lu Hu, the trade affairs of Hirado are in charge of Zheng Kaida, and the development of Taiwan is in charge of Guan Shan. At the same time, the Overseas Affairs Agency, as the department in charge of overseas affairs in the shogunate, also had a ledger that recorded the various expenses and revenues of overseas affairs, which could constitute supervision over specific operating departments.

This expedition to the south lasted seven months, and I don't know what happened to overseas affairs. Yang Peng was free on this day, so he summoned a few of his subordinates to ask. Yang Peng asked Lu Hu, "How many ships are there in the fleet now?" "Lu Hu was originally the deputy head of the Xuanfeng Regiment, in charge of the crossbowmen. Now after successive promotions, he is already an official of the Soldier and Horse Governor. He arched his hand to Yang Peng and replied: "Lord Wang, this year, the shipyard has been building day by day, and twenty-one pointed ships have been built, and now there are thirty-one large ships in the fleet. ”

"The fleet now consists of 1,100 shipwrights and 2,170 gunners, and the monthly expenses for food and clothing are fifteen thousand taels. The fleet is only responsible for transporting goods, and this monthly money is a pure expense. "These 31 big ships can transport 3 million pieces of cotton cloth at a time in Pinghu and 10,000 peasants in Taiwan. The fleet ran from mid-May to the end of August last year to Hirado, and the rest of the time it ran the Taiwan route. Today, 75,000 farmers have been transported to Hsinchu. ”

It turned out that Hsinchu already had 75,000 farmers, which was already the size of a county. Li Zhi thought for a while and asked, "How is Hsinchu currently developing?" Lu Hu arched his hand and said: "Uncle, Hsinchu is now quite large-scale. As far as I know, more than 400,000 acres of paddy fields have been reclaimed. For specific accounts, please ask the ambassador of the Overseas Office. ”

Yang Peng turned to Gao Ligong and asked, "Mr. Gao, do you have an account for the specific situation in Taiwan now?" "Gao Ligong has made a lot of contributions to Yang Peng's liaison with maritime affairs, and Yang Peng has not forgotten him when he recounted his merits this time. He was just promoted to the head of the capital a few days ago, and now he is a military attaché.

By the time of the fourth year of Xianping, the tradition of nobility and martial arts had been defeated by the situation of the flames. Nowadays, civilian officials cannot control military attachés at all, and the sense of superiority of civilian officials over military attaches has naturally disappeared. Compared with being a student, Gao Ligong felt that he still had more status as a military attache of a thousand households. He was very pleased with his promotion and was more diligent.

Gao Ligong bowed to Yang Peng and said, "Lord Wang, the lower officials have accounts here." Taiwan has so far transported 75,441 people, of whom 119 have died of malaria. Hearing Gao Ligong's words, Yang Peng was silent. Malaria is indeed a major pest in Taiwan, and more than 100 people died in the first year. However, Yang Peng repeatedly emphasized environmental sanitation to Guanshan, thinking that with the maturity and improvement of the living environment, fewer and fewer people will get sick in the future.

Gao Ligong continued: "After removing masons and other handymen, there are now 70,000 peasants in Taiwan, and in February 440,000 mu of paddy fields have been reclaimed and distributed to 22,000 peasants. Farmers planted seedlings in March, and it is expected that more than 400,000 stone of grain will be harvested in June. At that time, the adults will receive more than 200,000 stone of rice as land rent. ”

Yang Peng nodded when he heard the figure of more than 200,000 stones. The benefits of developing Taiwan are really high. According to the current grain price of 221 stone in the grain store, the more than 200,000 stone of rice is the income of 4 to 500,000 taels of silver. And that's just half a year's rent.

As farmers continue to open more paddy fields, Taiwan's development will bring greater profits to Yang Peng. Gao Ligong also said: "Uncle, hiring these peasants to open up the wasteland is also costly, and now 50,000 farmers are still cultivating the wasteland, and we give these farmers the treatment of food and housing, and we will pay two taels of money every month, and the cost of this month is 160,000 taels of silver. If the fleet continues to transport farmers to Hsinchu, the cost will be even greater. ”

Hearing such an astonishing monthly expenditure figure of 160,000 taels of silver, Yang Peng was stunned. Yang Peng hired farmers to open up the wasteland, and the fields opened up were Yang Peng's private land, so it stands to reason that the migrant workers should be given money, food, lodging, and clothing. However, the expenses of these farmers are really huge. Each peasant spends three taels of silver per month, and more than 50,000 people are 160,000 silver.

Yang Peng asked Zhang Xiang: "Is there a big deficit in the account now?" Zhang Xiang said: "There was a surplus of 50,000 taels in the original account, plus 60,000 taels of profit after the expansion of the textile factory, 400,000 taels of profit earned by the fleet in three and a half months of flat trade last year, and 90,000 taels of rent income from Taiwan's late rice last year. ”

Hearing that there was no deficit in the account, Yang Peng was relieved. Zhang Xiang said: "Big brother, if the size of the fleet continues to expand, if the number of people in Hsinchu continues to expand, the deficit will appear, and it will get bigger and bigger. Now that the trade between our Cangzhou and the peaceful households is saturated, it is difficult to increase profits. I propose not to build new ships. ”

Yang Peng groaned and said: "The new ship still has to be built. These big pointed ships can only be used for seven or eight years, and if new ships are not built, the old ships will be useless when they are scrapped. But the speed doesn't need to be so fast, let's keep two shipbuilding points and start construction. ”

Gao Ligong nodded and said, "Then I'll go and inform the shipbuilding points in Dengzhou and Laizhou that no new ships will be built." Only the two shipbuilding sites in Dengzhou and Cangzhou will be left. ”

Yang Peng nodded. Zhang Xiang said suddenly: "Big brother, 30,000 farmers who fled from Henan a few months ago have found fields in Tianjing New Town!" Yang Peng asked, "What's going on?" Zhang Xiang said: "Big brother, over the years, we have cultivated 600,000 mu of dry land in Tianjing New Town and five counties, hired 60,000 peasants, and transported more than 70,000 peasants to Xiaoliuqiu, plus the 20,000 soldiers and 20,000 workers recruited, plus 20,000 traders in Tianjing New Town, we have absorbed nearly 200,000 people near Cangzhou, and the vast majority of them are still young people. ”

"Cangzhou, one prefecture, two prefectures and ten counties, is only more than 2 million people. Because we have taken away so many people over the years, many tenant fields near Cangzhou are now empty. Farmers who previously had less land to cultivate land were often able to farm more. Because of our development, the farmers in Cangzhou have plenty of land to cultivate, and they are slightly richer than before. ”

"Coupled with the fact that we have been guarding Cangzhou for many years, the Khitan has never plundered Cangzhou. The peasants in Cangzhou were in a much better situation than in other places because they were not plagued by the army. "Last year, there was a big drought in Henan, and there were places where people were eaten. Compared with Henan, Cangzhou is much richer. Tens of thousands of Henan refugees fled to Cangzhou when they heard that there was food to eat. Some of the vacant tenant fields were given by the landlords to the peasants from Henan. More than 30,000 people have found a way to survive in Cangzhou. ”

Yang Peng listened to Zhang Xiang's words and nodded constantly. Later, Yang Peng laughed and said: "I didn't expect that our development in Tianjing New Town could also benefit the farmers of Henan." ”

After all, what happens next, let's see how it will be broken down next time.