Xinshun 1730

Chapter 594 The Hope of Life

Liu Yu also knew that it was impossible for these people to trust the imperial court so quickly. It took him more than ten years to reverse the atmosphere in Songjiang, which finally reassured the merchants a little.

In order to achieve this change in atmosphere, I had to go to Japan to lick it, not just for the little money.

How could a businessman like a court with absolute power like Dashun?

"I know you're hesitant, but you're not in a hurry. I'm just showing you a way. If it's okay, go to Songjiang and Tianjin. You can't miss a piece of meat. You can come to Batavia and take a boat. Is it still difficult to take a trip to Songjiang?"

"There is also the Fujian Guild Hall over there. After you go there, look around and ask more questions, and you will understand."

"You might as well talk about this with those who, like you, are going to sell their properties and go back. Go and see, right?"

The sugarcane contractors hurriedly thanked them, but Liu Yu said no, and thought that Songjiang and Tianjin only had the organizational foundation of this model, but they still had to be driven by capital after all.

The imperial court couldn't afford to develop Nanyang.

If ordinary people come, it will still be a small-scale farmer model, which is not suitable for the future positioning of Nanyang.

It is definitely impossible for Batavia to revive. In history, the Seven Years War broke out, and Batavia's sugar industry revived.But if Dashun goes to Nanyang, Batavia's sugar industry will definitely end. Whether the Batavia military town can stand firm depends on whether the rebel land reform in the Bandung area can succeed.

As for the capital in the hands of the current sugarcane contractor, it is better to concentrate and prepare for the future rubber, cinchona, gold mining and other industries.

This is not something that can be done by the smallholder model.

While speaking, a group of people came to a big tree, they had already been told what to do, they didn't have to be polite, and the sugar factory slave workers who had nothing to do there got up and knelt down to salute.

Liu Yu asked the sugarcane contractors around him to leave first, and after only the slave workers in the sugar factory were left, he asked someone to bring some wine, expensive canned sugar water, corned beef for ships, etc., and used what the slave workers in the sugar factory preferred Way, sit down and chat with these people.

After drinking a few glasses of strong wine used by sailors, pretending to be approachable, these people may also know that the old man in front of them is pretending to be approachable, so if they are willing to be, then let them go.Anyway, there is no disadvantage.

Liu Yu first asked where their homes were.

"From Putian."

"Chaozhou."

Basically, it is either from Fujian or from Guangdong.

"How would you like to go to Ceylon?"

At this time, the wine had already drunk a lot, and the few bold people looked at each other, and with the strength of the wine, they boldly said: "It's good if you can live. The red-haired ghost said before that it would be sent to Ceylon, but everyone It is said that ten people who go there will not survive. There is also a saying that when the boat reaches the sea, it will be thrown into the sea to feed the fish. Now that the court has come forward, this red-haired ghost will keep his word, right?"

They really don't care too much about the hardships they may suffer in the future.

They are not businessmen who go to sea to do business and make a lot of money.

It was a group of people who couldn't survive in their ancestral home, and were deceived and lured to Batavia to do hard labor.Who would come to Nanyang if they could survive in their hometown?
The life of the sugarcane department as a slave laborer was hard, and he often died of one or another tropical disease, but the victory was that he could not go hungry.No matter how bad it is, although there are no watermelons in the cotton fields to eat here, it is okay to gnaw on sugarcane.

In the future, I can still find a black woman in Bali, and I will live my whole life just to make do with it.

Thinking that the sons "would not worry about work" when they were born, and could continue to cut sugarcane and squeeze sugar; the daughter could be sent to the city to be a slave or a concubine.This life still has a purpose.

Those who are really unwilling to live like this have already pulled the pole and went to the volcano Juyi in the south.

But this kind of life is also very fragile.

If it hadn't been for the uprising of Niu Er and others, who directly pulled away the core force, and didn't do big things around Batavia, I'm afraid these people would follow along.

How did they know that it was all the calculations of the imperial court, and even their going to Ceylon was the result of the imperial court's support behind the scenes.

Liu Yu is well aware of the death rate of immigrants to Ceylon, so at this time, he can only speak bad things.

"Don't worry, it won't happen that you are put on a ship and thrown into the sea."

"As soon as the imperial ship is here, how dare the red-haired ghost?"

"After I came to Ceylon, I counted the heads and counted the money. His Majesty was kind enough to pay you a poll tax for three or two years. I also knew that you really had no way to make a living, so you had to go to sea. I also hoped that you would arrive in Ceylon , in the future we can always divide up three to five acres of land.”

"When you arrive in Ceylon, you will pay a head tax for every person alive. Red-haired ghosts will also use more dim sum."

Listening to these words, these slave workers felt that it was still a human saying. The imperial envoy in front of him seemed not a bad person, and he finally said some words that had been held in his heart for a long time.

"My lord, our court can't control the red-haired ghosts, but can't those fake foreign devils also be cured? The one who talked to your lord just now, detains us all day long, and whips us if we don't obey. He always uses the red-haired ghosts to oppress us."

"It's just that we don't have a residence permit. If anyone dares to make trouble, he will be handed over to the red-haired ghost and do hard labor for the red-haired ghost. Hard labor for the red-haired ghost is no different from death."

"To be honest, we work in the sugarcane department, and the red-haired ghosts have never bullied us. The main reason is that we can't see them. But the worst is the group of fake foreign devils."

Liu Yu picked up the wine bowl with a smile, touched these people who dared to speak, and said with a smile: "If the red-haired ghost really doesn't bully you, then why are you afraid of going to hard labor?"

A simple sentence made these people fall into contemplation, thinking that it seemed to be the same reason.

"You can't say that. Then you said that when Emperor Taizu raised his troops, he was arrested and beaten because of his debts. Isn't it Chongzhen?"

After laughing, he didn't say anything about treating those "fake foreign devils", but used a very disgusting metaphor.

"When you were young, if anyone cried, your parents would say that if you cried again, the big hairy monkey would eat you. Then tell me, is the big hairy monkey bad?"

This can be said to be very reactionary.It is as if the sugar factory contractors are the parents of these slave laborers.

Even though the original purpose of these words was to say that the "big hairy monkey" was bad, these slave workers were not stupid even though they were drunk, and immediately said: "My lord's words are wrong, if we don't do things, how can he have money to spend? But when we were young, we were breastfed, but we didn’t say that we would help our parents with work in exchange for milk.”

"The big hairy monkey is bad, but they are not bad? We just can't swallow this breath. They are all from the villagers. Using red-haired ghosts to scare us, what is this?"

A man who was eighty percent drunk snorted and said, "Fucking folks from the countryside, in the Celestial Dynasty, all the rent collectors were from the villagers, but you are half a cent less? Dare to sue, isn't it the same? , just say that the yamen is full of their people, why not use the yamen to scare you?"

"What's the difference between scaring you from the court's yamen and scaring you with red-haired ghosts? Let me tell you, they're all the same, unless there are clean officials like Bao Qingtian and Hai Qingtian, otherwise, it's the same everywhere."

"The imperial envoy is a good man. It would be great if the imperial envoy could become an official in Ceylon. Our days are truly hopeful."

Being able to say this proves that the drink is almost enough, Liu Yu asked someone to refill the wine, continued to drink the crowd and asked: "When those people started the incident, did you feel so much resentment in your heart? , why didn't you follow?"

"I wanted to walk, but I didn't catch up. They were busy leaving, and they were all trustworthy brothers. We didn't have time to leave." People who are ninety percent drunk completely forgetting this may lose their heads.

Still sober after being drunk for three to five minutes, he hurriedly said: "At that time, there were also rumors that the red-haired ghost had gone to the capital, and His Majesty the Emperor already knew about it. Some people said that the current Emperor is a good Emperor, Those who are attacking Raksha ghosts and the Japanese country can't leave us alone. Maybe we will send a master Qingtian to investigate this matter."

"Isn't this, Master Qingtian is really looking forward to it for us?"

Liu Yu smiled bitterly, took a sip of the wine to himself, and asked suddenly: "At the beginning, you thought the court would take care of it, but have you ever thought about what kind of situation you want the court to take care of this sugar factory? How?"

The tradition of those who work hard on others and those who work hard on others makes this question sound a bit weird, and those who are drunk or not are stunned for a while.

What do you want to manage?

They really haven't thought about this, they just think that as long as the master Qingtian comes, everything will be fine, and there must be a good way to solve it.

However, not only did Master Qingtian ignore it now, but he asked them what kind of management they hoped to manage, and they were all dumbfounded.

Liu Yu strained his ears and waited for a long time, but he still didn't get the answer he wanted, which awakened his identity consciousness.

After a long silence, someone finally said something that all the slave workers present agreed with.

"It's still the same as it was in the days of Emperor Taizu, equalizing the land. If the land in the world is equal, and every family has three to five mu of land, and they don't pay rent but only pay the emperor's grain, who would want to work?"

These words immediately elicited a burst of enthusiastic response.

"Yes, my lord, if the court equalizes the land, everyone's life will be easier. No one wants to leave their hometown and come to Nanyang to seek a living."

"We used to be tenants who rented land in our hometown. Later, we really owed a lot of debts. There was no way. The master said that we would go to Nanyang to work, and the debts would be cleared. We never wanted to get on the boat and land. I was thrown into the sugarcane garden. I was not familiar with the place, and I had nowhere to run. When I was caught outside, I had to serve corvee to the red-haired ghost. Life was too difficult. The twenty or so people who came together Only three or five people died because of wobbles, malaria, and diarrhea... If the land is equalized, who will do this?"

This is a standard answer that can be imagined at this time, but it is not the answer Liu Yu wants to hear.

It is a pity that the manor servants in the south of the Yangtze River, the tenants in Shaanxi, and the weavers in Songjiang do not have this "consciousness", and they refuse to be An'an and starve to death. Not to mention, there is still a lack of the British. "consciousness".

Even the next Nanyang will not go directly to the "ownerless" vast America to farm, but will be thrown here as slave labor.

There was a shortage of people in the Americas and a black slave was short of 50 pounds, 150 taels of silver. He really couldn't bear to ask the slave labor in these sugar factories how much they were sold for.

The ultimate dream is still the retro well field, but can the retro well field solve the problem?

The Batavia sugar factory where the slave laborers were bloody and tearful; the Bangka tin mine where the miners were in danger;

When the last drop of wine was poured into his mouth, the conversation ended, and in the next few days, more people were asked in similar ways.

The day came day by day, and when it came time to discuss the Ceylon issue with the Dutch, the person who followed Liu Yu and listened to the talk for a few days asked Liu Yu a question before sending Liu Yu to negotiate.

"Sir, if the imperial court goes to Nanyang in the future, and if the market opens up, it will also sell sugar, but it will compete with sugar from Bangladesh, Brazil, and the Caribbean. What will you do, sir?"

Liu Yu thought for a while and asked back, "What should you do?"

A young man hesitated for a moment, but then said firmly: "I will find a way to make sugar affordable for the common people in China."

Liu Yu smiled and said, "Then how can I afford it?"

"Uh... Kinta."

"Hahahahahahaha..." Liu Yu laughed for a while, neither said right nor wrong, and just jumped into the carriage to the Batavia governor's mansion.

(End of this chapter)