Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 346 Enlightenment
Zhang Shou had just helped Zhu Tingfang in, leaving Zhu Ying standing there in a daze, in order to let the eldest lady calm down; but now that he had almost understood the situation on his brother-in-law's side, and found out that the person was actually fine, and that Zhu Er, his legitimate brother from the same mother, was there to take care of Zhu Tingfang, of course he had to turn around and go back to find Zhu Ying.
Otherwise, even if we are sure that my brother-in-law is safe and sound, what if his fiancée flies away?
Sure enough, when he hurried back to the front yard, he saw Zhu Ying wipe her eyes with her sleeves, then suddenly turned around and walked towards the gate of the county government office. He was secretly glad that he had caught up with her quickly, and hurriedly called Yingying. Seeing that the young lady first stopped, then continued to walk out in a huff, even faster, he could only chase after her.
"Yingying, where are you going?"
"Didn't you just ignore me and help big brother walk away?" After replying in a temper, Zhu Ying glanced at Zhang Shou's face, which looked calm. She couldn't say anything bad, so after a while she whispered, "I'll find a place to vent my anger and calm down, so that big brother won't call me willful again! You might even call me willful!"
"How could I say you are willful? I know you are angry that your elder brother doesn't cherish you."
Hearing Zhang Shou say this, Zhu Ying could only snort in hatred and said, "That's right! Even if you say that Big Brother thinks I'm getting married, so he thinks I'm willful, childish and immature all day long, and that you'll dislike me in the future, he won't be able to vent his anger on me all the time, and he'll be worried about gains and losses all day long... But he shouldn't hide everything from me. I'm not that talkative, and I won't ruin his plans!"
"Your elder brother came to Cangzhou with me under the order of the emperor. He didn't even tell me. Even Du Heng only informed him at the last minute and forced him to come. How could he reveal the secret to you? You are angry that he hid it from you and fought desperately... But you should know that many men in the world are like this. They are either indifferent or lazy at home, and they are either desperate or decisive outside."
Hearing Zhang Shou praising his elder brother so highly, Zhu Ying's anger finally subsided a little, but he was still a little unhappy: "It's obviously safer, why do we have to fight like this! Can't we just let Du Heng go and take down those people? Besides, Uncle Hua is elusive, and if he goes alone, he might be able to take down all of them."
"If they don't take action, even if they arrest all the people, what crime will they be charged with? To put it bluntly, I think your elder brother intends to kill people, and he wants to have a deterrent effect by killing them all at once. Anyway, they are definitely not the emperor's men, so no matter which side they are on, they can only swallow their anger and curse your elder brother for losing such a group of assassins. "
"Pfft... draw a circle and curse... Ah Shou, you talk so funny!"
Although she knew it was just a satire, Zhu Ying still tilted her head and imagined the , and couldn't help laughing. With Zhang Shou's explanation and jokes, her mood gradually improved.
But she couldn't bring herself to go and see her elder brother immediately to ask about his well-being, so she simply grabbed Zhang Shou.
"Forget about Big Brother, let's go see Zhang Chen and Jiang Da. Anyway, this time Big Brother will take care of long-term peace and stability, and you will take care of the people's livelihood."
Zhang Shou couldn't persuade the eldest lady, so he had to let it go. As for whether Zhu Tingfang would be angry because Zhu Ying ignored her brother, he didn't care. Even if he was the eldest brother, if he fought so hard that he angered his sister, wouldn't he have to pay a price? But even so, he still called Zhu Yi, who didn't retreat.
Some things are not easy to ask Zhu Tingfang directly, but can't you ask Zhu Yi who went to deliver the letter to Du Heng?
Young Master Jiang was fine, knowing his identity, and he sat there obediently. However, Zhang Chen could not help but pace back and forth, stopping abruptly at the door several times. Sitting in the room waiting for news was not Zhang Chen's style. However, he was about to go out to find out the news, but Ah Liu was watching the door outside, and he just glanced at him, and he obediently retreated back and continued to wait.
Therefore, when he heard Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying talking outside, he was relieved and quickly opened the door to greet them. Before he could ask, Zhang Shou pointed at Zhu Yi behind him and said, "You don't need to ask. I just heard a little bit from Brother Zhu, so I called Zhu Yi over. I'll let him tell me what's going on later."
Zhu Yi was not a storyteller, and he was afraid that Zhu Ying would get even angrier after hearing about the dangerous situation, so he tried to be as concise as possible. Moreover, in order to please the eldest lady and the future son-in-law, he deliberately repeated roughly what Zhu Tingfang had said to ridicule the other party.
Realizing that it was the allusion that Zhu Ying had used to mock Ding Hai when he faced Ding Hai in Qingfeng Xulaitang, about the irritating villain who died because of talking too much, Zhu Ying actually told Zhu Tingfang without hesitation, and Zhang Shou couldn't help but laugh and cry.
"Hahaha, I didn't expect that the usually serious Boss Zhu could be so sharp-tongued when he teases people!"
Zhang Chen had personally experienced the night when the rebels attacked, so he could naturally empathize with the background of Zhang Shou's words and couldn't help laughing out loud.
Young Master Jiang, who was standing by, saw that Zhu Ying was also laughing happily, but he felt a little frightened. He deeply regretted that he had not been observant enough and did not seize the opportunity to leave quickly.
This kind of thing may involve internal strife in the royal family or even a deeper conspiracy. What would he, a young master from a wealthy family in Cangzhou, do after listening to it? Zhu Tingfang had ruthlessly killed everyone today. When he turned around, the mastermind was furious, but he couldn't do anything to these rich young men and women with deep backgrounds in front of him. Would he vent his anger on him?
Zhang Shou saw that Young Master Jiang looked distraught, and after Zhu Ying smiled, she finally seemed to have let go of all her grudges against Zhu Tingfang, and said with a smile that she wanted to go see how her elder brother was doing. Zhu Yi hurriedly escorted the young lady away. When the door was closed again, Zhang Shou changed the subject.
"Jiang Da, since you have visited every household today and everyone is willing to take out the cotton they have stored, then plan to resume work. But so many machines have been destroyed that it will be impossible to make them all in a short time. Before resuming work, each household should first sort out the list of former employees and give them a ration according to the list to avoid famine."
When Zhu Tingfang first arrived, although he first captured Xian Yunhe and then took down Changlu County Magistrate Xu Cheng and the eldest prince to establish his authority, the key that really allowed him to suppress the chaos... was that he directly sealed up the eldest prince's "small treasury", took out a sum of money from it, and bought a batch of grain at a fair price on the grounds that the eldest prince regretted his previous infatuation, and used it to appease the group of landless and unemployed vagrants.
Of course, the rations were only for five days... It wasn't because the eldest prince didn't have enough money, but because Zhu Tingfang had to be generous to others. Moreover, a Suzhou merchant who had previously used the trick of lowering the price or not buying cotton yarn to collude with the eldest prince and the wealthy families had already escaped and was no longer in Cangzhou. He was afraid that the grain merchants would use the same trick.
After all, grain merchants are also profit-seeking, and they have nothing to do with the radical rebellion of good citizens. It is impossible for Zhu Tingfang to force "peaceful purchase" all the time.
After hearing what Zhang Shou said, Young Master Jiang hesitated for a moment, then hurriedly said, "It's not that I don't want to, but how much does a hundred dan of grain cost? After I went to those families, I felt that people were in a panic. Some of them were already at odds with the head of the family, and some were not close to their brothers, uncles, and nephews who were arrested and imprisoned by General Mingwei after being reported by others. They felt that they were innocent, so they wanted to divide the family or sell their property and leave."
"Although a hundred dan of grain is really worthless, it would be difficult to deal with them if they started to cry foul... Moreover, not everyone is as cowardly and incompetent as the eldest brother of the Qi family. Some people actually have their own ideas, but they are usually suppressed and treated coldly. Everyone has their own ideas, so it's hard for them to work together..."
Seeing that Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying were both looking at him, Zhang Chen said helplessly, "There are people like this everywhere. Today, I accompanied Jiang Da to visit those five families. The Liu family and the Wang family are like this. Although they are willing to give up the hoarded cotton at a fair price and have promised to resume work, they are afraid that the court will investigate and exacerbate the good people. Even if they are willing to give out this ration, I am afraid that the subsequent resumption of work will be a stalemate."
"Oh. We won't force them to do that. Just let them spit out the cotton they have hoarded." Zhang Shou sneered, looked at Zhang Chen and said bluntly, "What was put into use in Cangzhou before were just new spinning machines and new looms with higher efficiency. If they don't want to do it..."
After taking a look at the stunned Jiang Dashao, he smiled and said, "Then Jiang Dalang, you might as well take over their employees as well."
Young Master Jiang swallowed hard and said incredulously, "New...new loom? Can it be as...as fast as that spinning machine? My God, if one person can weave as much cloth as seven or eight people can weave..."
He pinched his fingers desperately, trying to calculate the efficiency and profit, but he was not a smart man at all. After pinching for a long time, he was finally confused. The only thing that was certain was that when the new spinning machine met the new loom, the last link that originally restricted the production of cotton cloth would be completely broken.
If this is the case, this incident is not a blow to the Jiang family at all, but a huge opportunity!
Young Master Jiang pinched his palms again to make sure he was not dreaming, then he said cautiously: "Dr. Zhang, are you serious about what you just said?" Seeing Zhang Shou nodded slightly, Zhang Chen on the side sneered, with an expression that said "get out of here if you don't believe me", he hurriedly said loudly, "If that's the case, I will do my best to appease those previous employees!"
Just as he said this, another idea suddenly popped up in his mind. After thinking about it carefully, he couldn't help but shudder.
Although he knew he shouldn't say this, since he had thought of it, he still said it anyway: "If the efficiency of spinning machines and looms is so much higher at the same time, then we probably don't need so many people. Even if we hire all the people now, it won't last long... After all, cotton is limited, and cotton fields are even more limited!"
Seeing that Zhang Shou not only did not stop him, but nodded slightly, indicating that he should continue speaking, Young Master Jiang suddenly felt more confident.
Young Master Jiang took a deep breath and mustered up his courage to say, "Moreover, even if you want to keep this new loom secret from outsiders, Dr. Zhang, someone will definitely find out if you ship the cotton cloth too quickly. And the people working in the workshop will definitely not keep their mouths shut. It is inevitable that someone will be tempted by profit and sell the key to those merchants who are flocking to it."
"But by that time, there will probably be many more unemployed workers in the world. Unrest like the one in Cangzhou will continue to occur."
"Hey, don't exaggerate! The incident in Cangzhou this time had an instigation. If I wasn't in Xingtai..."
Zhang Chen almost told the secret of "selling cotton at a high price", but it was too late to stop now. He hesitated for a moment, not knowing what to say next. But at this moment, he heard Zhang Shou speak.
"Now that things have come to this, Zhang Chen, tell Young Master Jiang about the good things you did in Xingtai. Let him know how the eldest prince and his family ended up in such a situation because of their greed."
Since Zhang Shou had spoken, Zhang Chen was immediately in high spirits. He had fled from the capital city by pretending to be injured, hiding his identity first, and then playing with a lot of people, but he couldn't tell anyone. The itchy feeling in his heart was like walking in the night in fine clothes, which was in vain. Therefore, he smiled and immediately began to brag about his great achievements.
When Master Jiang heard that Zhang Chen had come to Xingtai under the name of the Second Prince's subordinate, his eyes widened. When he heard that the First Prince's confidant who was sent there to form alliances was beaten, he couldn't even close his mouth.
When he heard that Zhang Chen used the financial support from his family to transfer cotton from one hand to the other, and used the new loom to sell cotton at a high price, and then used the cash to exchange for cotton yarn with Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu, which was then woven into cotton cloth and immediately sold to cloth merchants...for the first time in his life, he felt that his father, whom he had always admired, and the old fox Qi Yuanwai and others were really stupid, so stupid that they were overwhelmed by such a simple trick.
After a series of circulations, ordinary people only saw the high price of cotton in the front, so they thought that Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu were stupid and had a lot of money, so they desperately hoarded cotton. This trend even spread from Xingtai to Cangzhou, so that the eldest prince, his father Mr. Jiang, and several other people became greedy and eventually caused the Cangzhou uprising.
What a reason...
The more Young Master Jiang thought about it, the more frustrated he became, and the more powerless he felt, but suddenly he heard some words that shocked him.
"You just said that if such efficient spinning and looms were introduced throughout the country at the same time, the rich would definitely hire fewer workers, and by then many places would inevitably experience civil unrest like the one in Cangzhou. This is indeed not an exaggeration. When I went to see Xian Yunhe today, he also said that if he found that cotton fields were so profitable, wouldn't countless rice and wheat fields from the south to the north of the Yangtze River be turned into cotton fields? Where would the food come from then?"
Seeing Young Master Jiang looking at him , Zhang Shou said word by word: "On the one hand, the number of unemployed people may increase, and on the other hand, the amount of grain fields may decrease. If these two things are combined, there may be only one result."
