Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1654
After February passed, it was the imperial examination month that the whole country paid attention to.

There are too many topics in this year's imperial examination.

Although Jinshi subjects still take the old Nine Classics, many people's minds are already on the new Nine Classics three years later.

Those who are poor academically are anxious.Because if you fail the exam this time, you will have to change the content next time, which will increase the cost of learning.

People who are good at school are also fucking anxious.Because of the increased uncertainty, it is not as stable as before.

The happiest ones are the agricultural science students, because they finally got the chance to enter the center of the imperial political arena.

Against such a background, the few personnel appointments issued by the imperial court did not attract much attention.

On the fifth day of March in the fourth year of Tongguang, the imperial decree was passed to Nanjing, and Wei Wang Shao Mianren was transferred to stay in Beijing to replace Feng Heng who died of illness.

After Shao Mianren received the order, he left Nanjing on the tenth day of March and went to Beijing to take up his post.

Since Jianji took office 12 years ago, he has been in Nanjing for seven full years.

In seven years, he watched Nanjing transform from a barren city into a city with increasing popularity.

In seven years, he watched Jiangnan turn from war-torn to a land of fish and rice where people live and work in peace and contentment.

For seven years, he watched the people of Wuyue go from being hesitant at the beginning to enjoying this peaceful and prosperous world.

"Seven years ago, this place was full of weeds." Shao Mianren said, pointing to the location of Yang Gong's Linhua Hall.

"I still remember that day, when His Highness sent me to investigate a beautiful place in the south of the Yangtze River. When I came here, I saw three or five children playing in the grass. When digging the foundation, I often saw broken tiles from the previous dynasty." Jiang Ning Fu Shaoyin Li Guizhen said with emotion: "His Royal Highness has made great contributions to the establishment of Nanjing with one hand and one foot."

The extremely prosperous capital in the Southern Dynasties was completely razed to ruins and the people were moved out in order to "lock the king's spirit".

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Feng Hongduo was the governor of Shengzhou, a prince of one side, and was soon destroyed by Yang Xingmi.

Lao Yang also took a fancy to this place, so Yang Wo started to manage this area under the name of Governor of Shengzhou.But the so-called business is only limited to agriculture, and Miyagi has not recovered.

When Shao Mianren first came, the place where Yang's uterus was located was full of weeds, water pools, vegetable fields, and farmland.

Although the construction of Nanjing Palace City did not start with him, he did make great efforts.

The imperial court moved people from Kansai, Henan, and Hebei to the south of Shengzhou, and it took a lot of effort to resettle them.

He is also responsible for the management of slaves recruited from all over the country.

The imperial court sent tens of thousands of captives from Yunnan, and he also needed to intervene.

After serving for seven years, he thought he had hard work without credit.Leaving suddenly, I was a little bit reluctant for a while.

His wife and children were divided into several carriages, and at this time they all lifted the curtains and looked outside silently.

As northerners, they are used to the life in Nanjing, the weather, the environment, the products and the people here.

Jiangnan is actually pretty good.

Rich products, convenient transportation, don't have some peace away from right and wrong.

There are also many foreign products on the market that can satisfy their various enjoyments.

After staying for a long time, a lazy thought arises from the bottom of my heart, I just wish to live like this, without thinking about anything.

Shao Mianren actually felt the same way.

When I was the governor of Zangzhou, my mind was tense all the time, and I was always worried that there would be civil unrest somewhere and needed to be suppressed.

It is not rich materially, but after getting used to it, it is nothing.

Only the south of the Yangtze River is the most debilitating place to wear down people's will. No wonder there have been partial security regimes since ancient times.

"There is no banquet in the world that never ends." After arriving at the pier, Shao Mianren turned around, saluted the Nanjing officials who were seeing him off, and said, "Please go back, gentlemen."

******
The boat sailed into the river that afternoon, and went down the river, heading straight for Guangling.

On the big river in March, there are not many boats, and a few boats are seen occasionally, and most of them left.

Oceangoing ships are not limited to activities in coastal cities.In fact, many cities in the Mainland are also their targets.That is to say, they will go upstream along the inland river to sell and buy goods.

Shi Jianwu, the No. [-] scholar in Tang Xianzong's reign, once visited Tonglu County, and met Hu Shang at that time.

It is worth mentioning that Shi Jianwu immigrated to the Penghu Islands with his family in his later years.He found that there were no permanent residents on the island, only "daoyi" who came here seasonally to pick pearls and fish, and there was a smell of fishy smell everywhere. There is a poem "Inscription on Penghu Island".

This is true along the Qiantang River, and even more so on the banks of the Yangtze River.

The ports of Suzhou, Runzhou, Changzhou and Yangzhou are densely covered with sea merchants.Because it is connected to the north with richer and richer products, Guangling in Yangzhou has become the largest port, and tens of thousands of Hu people live all year round.

Since the mid-Tang Dynasty, Hu merchants have been repeatedly blackmailed and robbed by Guangling's Jiedu envoys and big soldiers, but "the original intention has not changed" and they will not leave.

"It's really a river flowing with gold." Shao Mianren held the side of the boat and said with emotion.

The passing foreign merchant ships had a deep draft and were obviously fully loaded.

They may go back to China directly, or they may sell their goods elsewhere and return to Daxia in the summer—the latter is more likely.

Big cannibals are not just engaged in long-distance ocean trade between the mainland and Daxia.

They are often seen in the shipping between the states in Daxia and surrounding countries.

"Your Highness, the imperial court is paying more and more attention to maritime trade. This transaction is really amazing. It would be hard to believe it if it hadn't come to Nanjing." Shi Wangzhen, head of Wei Palace, held a wine glass in his hand, standing against the wind, very chic.

Shao Mianren glanced at him and said, "It's better to drink less of this wine."

That's what a bohemian wit looks like.

In Wang Zhenbai's heart, he still has a lot of nostalgia for the former Tang Dynasty, and Shao Mianren is well aware of this.If it wasn't for his repeated invitations, he might not be willing to go out of the mountain and serve as an aide in his hopeless palace.

At this time, what he was holding in his hand was the so-called "fragrant wine" prepared with borneol oil (camphor), which was very popular among scholars.

Shao Mianren thought it was weird and didn't want to drink it, so he advised Wang Zhenbai not to drink it.

"Your Highness." Wang Zhenbai smiled, hid the wine glass behind his back, and said: "It is mentioned in "Zhizhi Geography" that the weather gets colder every year. After so many years, I feel the same way. Take Jiangxi as an example, The swamp receded, and a lot of land was silted up. The people rushed to cultivate it, and the harvest was very fruitful. If it continues to be cold for decades, Jiangnan will become more livable and comfortable. There are more fields and more products. Overseas There will be more merchants."

"You're right." Looking at the mighty river, Shao Mianren said, "Don't talk about anything else. Today, coal is used everywhere in the world, and there are few rivers in the north, so there are not many places that can be transported by boat. In some counties, even Coal is being transported by horse-drawn carts and camels, and the price is very expensive.”

"Let's talk about the iron wares. The mine supervisor Yang Xingmi set up in Xuanzhou made the iron wares and armored wares. They can be transported down the river by tens of thousands of pieces, and they can reach Nanjing and Guangling within a few days. They are also very cheap."

"Tea, silk, porcelain, medicinal materials, etc., have the advantages of river and water transportation, and everything is too convenient."

Transportation costs, whether ancient or modern, are unavoidable problems.

The production side needs to reduce transportation costs, and the sales side also needs to reduce transportation costs.

In this regard, Jiangnan's advantage is really too great.Not only the Yangtze River, the main transportation line, but also many tributaries, together constitute a huge water transportation network, which is naturally suitable for the development of industry and commerce.

Shao Mianren has been in Nanjing for seven years and has a deep understanding of the benefits of water transportation in the south of the Yangtze River.

Last year, he went directly to Shu, and asked to build a shipyard in Nanjing to build a large number of ships for the benefit of sea trade.

The sage promised, but he did not let the imperial court come forward directly, but ordered Annan Trading Company to send people to Jiangning Mansion to find land and build a shipyard. If it is completed, this trading company will own two wharves and boatyards in Quanzhou and Nanjing, and its strength is not to be underestimated. watch for.

"His Royal Highness once said that with the wealth from the south of the Yangtze River, we can raise the powerful soldiers in the north..." Wang Zhenbai said.

"This is the original words of the saint." Shao Mianren interrupted and corrected.

Wang Zhenbai didn't take it seriously, and continued: "This is actually the most reasonable thing. Many ports in the Northland, no matter how hard they toss, how much money can they get? Huainan, Jiangdong, and Jiangxi, the wealth sent to Luoyang every year will sooner or later exceed Henan and Hebei. A hundred years after the founding of the Great Xia, Huainan and Jiangnan have become the most important areas of wealth."

Wang Zhenbai is from Jiangxi and is very proud of his hometown.

In his view, after 300 years of vigorous development in the Tang Dynasty, Jiangnan has reached the eve of surpassing Hebei and Henan.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the former Tang Dynasty could not receive taxes from Hebei, and the money and food from Henan and Hedong had to be kept there as much as possible to support hundreds of thousands of warriors.The emperor of Chang'an, all the officials, and the imperial army all depended on the money and food transported from the south of the Yangtze River to support them.

Today, there is no shortage of people in the south of the Yangtze River. In the late Tang Dynasty, in the densely populated Taihu Lake Basin, as far as ordinary households were concerned, there were more than ten acres of land, and five or seven acres less, which was much less than that in the north. However, rice can be planted stably and the harvest will be more.

In Wang Zhenbai's view, the south of the Yangtze River no longer needs immigrants, and it can develop rapidly and become a wealth center of the country by relying on the existing population alone.

In the Xia Dynasty, it will be the model of taxation in the south of the Yangtze River to support the strong soldiers in the north - food from the south is not necessarily needed, but money must be needed.

It's a pity that because it is the old land of Yang Wu, it was conquered late, and Jiangnan's status is a bit low.

Huainan, Jiangdong, and Jiangxi each have only five Jinshi and one agronomy quota.But the Longyou and Hexi schools can all get four Jinshi and one agricultural science. How can they compare with Jiangnan, a place where talents gather?
There are more than a dozen prefectures in Hedong Dao, and the total number of household registrations in the whole Dao is only two or three big prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River, but it has five places for Jinshi and one place for agricultural studies. Isn't this bullying?
Hedong, is that important?

"Let you drink less." Shao Mianren shook his head and laughed.

Although he is also optimistic about Jiangnan's development, it's really not about money.

But then again, we talked about "soldiers" in the early years of the founding of the country, and "money" after the founding of the country for a hundred years.Jiangnan has unique conditions, and its status in the future will definitely rise slowly.As for which step they can rise to, it depends on their good fortune.

The boat arrived at Guazhoupu that night.

Even at night, the place is still brightly lit, and there are many masts, which is very shocking to see.

The smell of money is in the air!

(End of this chapter)