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Chapter 713: The Phantom of Changmen
"The paradise on earth is Wuzhong, and among them is the most majestic place, Changmen. Three thousand green sleeves go up and down the building, and millions of golds flow east and west. The market never stops at five o'clock in the morning, and the dialects in different places are always different. If you ask a painter to describe it, the painter should say that it is difficult to paint well."

This poem was written by Tang Yin, a famous poet, calligrapher and painter in the middle period of Ming Dynasty. It is titled "Things at Changmen". "Chang" and "Chang" have the same pronunciation but different meanings. Changmen specifically refers to the northwest gate of Suzhou at that time, not Tang Bohu's visit to a brothel.

From this poem, we can see the scene of Suzhou in the middle of Ming Dynasty. The first sentence is, "The paradise on earth is Wuzhong". Tang Bohu believes that Suzhou in the middle of Ming Dynasty is the paradise on earth. Why do we say that? The following verses are the reason.

Cuixiu Sanqianlou up and down, this time it is really about brothels. How to evaluate the wealth of a city, the number and quality of girls in entertainment venues are very important parameters. This is not only universal in ancient and modern times, but also in China and abroad. It is an eternal truth.

For example, when Paradise on Earth was at its peak, Tangshan nightclubs were booming, and Dongguan was bustling with people, the country's economy was also developing rapidly. When nightclubs, dance halls, and seafood malls were doing poorly, the economic growth rate was also declining.

It is not easy to make money, so not many people are willing to spend a lot of money every night. Without the support of big money sponsors, the entertainment market will shrink immediately, and the number of practitioners will also decrease.

Three Thousand Green Sleeves Up and Down the Brothel is Tang Bohu's description of the prosperous night life in Suzhou Prefecture. The girls in the brothels are busy entertaining guests, and their figures can be seen everywhere upstairs and downstairs.

"A million taels of gold flowed east and west", this is to describe the expenditure of Suzhou Prefecture at that time. Although it is a bit exaggerated, it also shows that the money was spent like water, which indirectly shows the prosperity and large economic scale of Suzhou Prefecture.

Why was Suzhou so prosperous? Tang Yin said, "The market never stops at five o'clock in the morning, and the dialects in different places are always different." In a word, there are many shops, many transactions, and many merchants from all over the world.

From the Spring and Autumn Period when the King of Wu built his capital here, to the Sui Dynasty when it was renamed Suzhou, to the Song Dynasty, Suzhou was a regional city. But after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Suzhou Prefecture transformed itself from a regional city to a large national central city. Together with Beijing, Hankou, and Foshan, it is located in the north, east, south, and west, and is known as the Four Gatherings of the World.

Not only prosperous but also fashionable, in the clothing styles of the late Ming Dynasty, Suyang and Suyi represented the trend, a bit like Shanghai in the 70s and Guangzhou in the 80s.

So what is so unique about Suzhou Prefecture that it became one of the four economic and cultural centers in the late Ming Dynasty? The first is population. No matter what you want to develop, you can’t do without people.

From the Song Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty and then to the Ming Dynasty, the north was always in a state of war and the population gradually migrated south. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the most densely populated area was Nanzhili, with a population of over 1000 million.

Among the prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of Nanzhili, Suzhou Prefecture had the largest population, reaching more than 40 households and more than 200 million people, which accounted for a quarter of the total population of Nanzhili. Songjiang Prefecture and Yingtian Prefecture were second, with a population of just over 100 million, and Shuntian Prefecture, where Beijing is located, had a population of only more than 70.

In addition to population, economic development is also inseparable from geographical location. Suzhou Prefecture governs Wu County, Changshu County, Changshu County, Wujiang County, Kunshan County, Jiading County, Chongming County and Taicang Prefecture. It is located in the northeast of Taihu Lake and south of the Yangtze River, belonging to the Taihu Plain.

Before the Three Kingdoms period, this area was densely covered with rivers, swamps, and frequent floods, and it was not a very good agricultural area. When a large number of people moved in from the north, they had to make great efforts to manage the situation in order to survive, and gradually summed up a set of effective methods, called Jinggang. The general meaning is to use permeable bamboo nets to build dams, forming ditches arranged vertically with the lakeshore to dredge floods. The land between the ditches is called Yutian, and then fish are raised in the ditches, rice is planted in the muddy land beside the ditches, and vegetables and fruits are planted in the land of Yutian.

By the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, according to imperial statistics, there were 985 million mu of registered farmland in Suzhou Prefecture, accounting for only one percent of the country's 8.5 million mu. The actual tax grain collected was more than 281 million dan, accounting for nearly one-tenth of the country's tax grain, and 8 times the average tax grain payment. The swamp was turned into a land of fish and rice.

In addition to fertile land, transportation is equally important. The Grand Canal passing by and the numerous rivers leading to the Yangtze River make Suzhou a major transportation hub between the north and the south, while also taking the Yangtze River into account, taking it to a higher level.

Does a city develop rapidly just by having a large population and convenient transportation? Not necessarily. To become a national economic center, it must have sufficient funds and adapt to the times.

Suzhou also had a unique advantage in terms of capital. Since the Song Dynasty, Suzhou embroidery and Song brocade have been high-end fabrics, which has driven the development of Suzhou's textile industry. By the Ming Dynasty, raising silkworms and embroidering in every household had become the norm in Suzhou and even in the surrounding areas. It is no exaggeration to call it the textile center.

It is not only a land of fish and rice, but also a textile center and the largest sea salt production base. It has a large population, developed handicrafts, abundant capital, convenient transportation, and key industries, which have created the glory of Suzhou Prefecture.

However, if the economic boom of a place cannot drive the healthy and orderly development of the entire industrial chain and becomes a fertile ground for the breeding of bureaucratic capital, it will not only fail to be a locomotive for the entire country, but will instead become a burden.

Unfortunately, Suzhou Prefecture, including Southern Zhili and northern Zhejiang, were all the strongholds of the Ming Dynasty's traditional interest groups, with intricate connections between officials and gentry. From agriculture to handicrafts to salt industry, all were regarded as forbidden areas by the big families, and outsiders, including the imperial court, were not allowed to interfere.

In fact, when Zhu Yuanzhang first established the country, he focused on cracking down on the powerful forces in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, but not because of the economy, but out of revenge for personal grudges.

Suzhou was once Zhang Shicheng's stronghold. When Zhu Yuanzhang launched an attack on it, most local people supported Zhang Shicheng in his desperate resistance, causing considerable losses to Zhu Yuanzhang's army.

Zhu Yuanzhang had a broad mind and a broad mind, so he would definitely seek revenge after becoming powerful. However, as the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he could not raise the butcher knife against his people, so he thought of a shady trick.

No beating, no killing, no house confiscation. Aren't you a land of fish and rice? Well, then pay more grain. How high should the grain tax be raised? As mentioned earlier, the tax paid by Suzhou Prefecture was 8 times the average of the prefectures in the Ming Dynasty. That's tough enough! Don't pay? Then Zhu Yuanzhang would be very happy, and he was just worried about not being able to find a reason.

When Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, two emperors with relatively high military power, were alive, no one in Suzhou Prefecture dared to think about paying taxes and grain, and they had to pay them in full even if they tightened their belts. However, as the weasel's nest of rats became worse and worse, the local officials, gentry, and landlords gradually rose up and began to protect their own interests in a group.

(End of this chapter)