I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 670 The Crown Prince Crosses Tianjin
The prince's ship landed at the North Port of Dagukou (Dago River) in Tianjin.

The name of Tianjin comes from the place where Emperor Taizong of the former Ming Dynasty settled in Tianjin. It was the place where the emperor crossed over to Tianjin.

From then on, Dagukou became an important coastal defense town in Beijing during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Nowadays, Beijing's status as the capital is no longer there, but Dagukou has not declined because of this. On the contrary, in recent years, the northern section of the coast has rapidly emerged as a major maritime trade port in the North with the continued investment of the court.

The affiliation of Dagukou Beigang is also interesting. From a strict administrative perspective, it should be under the jurisdiction of the Tianjin Prefect, but in fact it is jointly managed by Shuntian Prefect, Tianjin Prefect, and Hebei Chief Secretary.

The administrative system seems chaotic, but it maintains a strange balance. The prefect of Tianjin, the governor of Shuntian, and the chief secretary of Hebei have all made several reports to clarify the jurisdiction of Dagukou North Port, and even further proposed the administrative ownership of Tianjin.
Zhu Yijiong did not give a clear reply. He planned to leave this issue to his son. When the prince ascends the throne in the future, the administrative ownership of Tianjin House will also determine the new emperor's attitude towards Beijing to a certain extent.

Even before Zhu Boxi got off the ship, he could already feel the bustling port.

Looking around, there are merchant ships docked at the port, and there is an endless stream of traffic. The entire dock is full of busy coolies, and there are batches of goods waiting to be loaded and unloaded. Most of these goods come from the south, and some are shipped from Liaodong, grassland and other places, and Tianjin Port is not used as a transit station.

Even though Tianjin Beigang was newly opened a few years ago, it is adjacent to Beijing. Even though Beijing is no longer the capital, its strategic and economic status cannot be underestimated.

What's more, the emperor specifically turned Beijing into the Zhili Prefecture, which further enhanced Beijing's political and strategic status. This is equivalent to an old capital in the past, plus a military town, which is not far behind Nanjing, the companion capital of the Ming Dynasty.

The businessmen are not stupid. They know that even if Beijing cannot regain its status as the capital in the future, it can at least keep a large northern city and a military center. The demand for materials and the profits it can earn are enough for businessmen from all over the world to come here to trade.

These are relatively few at present. After all, the port has only been opened for a few years, and many businessmen are still waiting and watching.

The Prince ship docked and landed, and the warship cleared the port in advance.

This may be a bit disturbing, but today's sea trade is not as civilized as in later generations, and sea capital can be seen everywhere on the sea. In order to protect themselves, private merchant ships generally carry artillery. These artillery will be dismantled after arriving in port, and they need to be reported to the government.

Zhu Boqi disembarked at a pier, and the guards and officers and soldiers accompanying him cleared a road at the port in advance.

The originally bustling and busy port came to a standstill in an instant. All the dock workers, merchant shipkeepers, crew members and sailors were all gathered and driven to a certain place, looking in awe at His Royal Highness the Prince who got off the dragon ship.

Zhu Boxi was a little unhappy about this, but he also understood the difficulties of the guards and officers and soldiers.

"That dark, strong man over there, call him over and ask him if you have anything to say." He pointed to the crowd in the distance.

The strong black man who was called was quite uneasy. When he saw Uncle Zhu, he kneeled down subconsciously and said, "I pay my respects to the Crown Prince!"

Zhu Boqi stretched out his hand to help him, not with empty hands: "Don't be nervous, I just want to have a brief chat with you. What is your name?"

The dark and strong man said: "Back to the prince, our name is Liu Sangen. We are the third eldest in the family. Our hometown is in Anhui. A few years ago, Long live the Lord said that he would move to the north. I thought that there would be nothing to do in my hometown. , so he gritted his teeth and moved here with his wife and children..."

This dark and muscular man named Liu Sangen looks honest and shy, but seems to be unable to hold back his words. Zhu Boqi quickly raised his hand to change the subject: "Ahem... I see you are working at the dock. How much does it cost?"

Liu Sangen was honest and asked what he said: "What about wages? The wages are not bad. After all, there are few people here and we come from the south. With the help of the government, those merchants from other places dare not bully us, so the wages are all It's okay. We only came here a few years ago, so the officials gave us land and a house. Now that we have enough money, we plan to expand the house and let our youngest son and daughter go to the village. Go to a free school or something. The prefect and a few benevolent gentlemen jointly established the free school. They didn't charge us any tuition fees, and they even provided the children with lunch. In the past few years, the price of rice has increased a lot. Every year. It’s a few cents higher, but it’s a lot cheaper for those selling cloth and coal…”

Zhu Boqi nodded repeatedly without feeling bored and said with a smile: "It's good to be able to send my son and daughter to study together. Read more books and know more words, and you will be less tired in the future. Jianyi School will make decisions for you. The prefect of Tianjin has indeed done a good job." Liu Sangen said with a simple smile: "It's all thanks to Mr. Long Live. We heard from my parents that there was really not enough to eat in the past, and the government always liked to collect taxes, which is not as good as it is now. "Prefect."

This sentence alone is worth years of political achievements of the Tianjin prefect.

Moreover, from the words of this dock coolie, it can be seen that in the Ming Dynasty, the status of women is no longer as low as it once was.
It may be too early to say equality, but this is a good start. Women can also go to free schools in villages.

Even the people at the bottom, if they have the conditions, will also want to let their children read and read.

This is not a precedent set by the Ming Dynasty. As early as the Song Dynasty, the idea of ​​obscuring the people was already somewhat outdated. Also outdated was the idea of ​​"developing destiny from heaven".

Strictly speaking, Emperor Zhu actually set the trend of history, because he was the emperor of Fengtian Chengyun.

It was also the beginning of the Manchu Qing Dynasty to truly implement the idea of ​​obscuring the people and abolishing many traditional festivals. They were afraid that the Han people would gather together and rebel easily.

Including the stereotype that all ancient people were poor and skinny in later generations also came from the Manchus. Only in the Manchu Qing Dynasty did collective poverty sweep across the country, and even landlords had no food surplus.

Zhu Boxi summoned another maritime merchant: "Where are you from? What kind of business do you do?"

The merchant said: "Going back to the Crown Prince, Xu Youde, a grassroots man, is originally from Shandong. He is mainly engaged in the grassland wool business, and also does some Korean ginseng (Liaodong ginseng) and Dongzhu business. In recent years, Heilongjiang has cut redwood, and the grassroots people I also sold some from it.”

Zhu Boqi smiled: "You have done grassland wool, Korean ginseng, Dongzhu, and Heilongjiang mahogany. It seems that your business is really quite big!"

Xu Youde handed over his hand and said, "Your Highness, I have done this work for the Heilongjiang Redwood Grass Farmers for only one year, but I felt that my ability was too much, so I stopped doing it this year. Korean ginseng and Dongzhu were only done a few times in cooperation with others. The profit is very high, but the supply of goods is difficult to obtain. There are also some large trading companies that cut off the money. The grassroots have only done it a few times. The main business is wool from the grassland, but they really don’t have to worry about selling it. "

Zhu Boxi said: "It seems that doing business nowadays is not easy!"

Xu Youde smiled and said: "There is no easy way to do business. Fortunately, we have long live the Lord. Now that the sea routes are open, although there are more competitors, the money that can be earned and the trade routes to earn money are better than before. A lot. In the past, there were too many connections to go back and forth when doing business. Unlike now, even if you give money to those officials, no one dares to accept it. "

There is definitely some moisture in what he said, but the problem is no longer big, at least the businessmen can accept it.

After all, it is impossible to be absolutely free from corruption. Even if Emperor Zhu carried out anti-corruption investigations several times, it would be difficult to eliminate the phenomenon of officials collecting money.

But it's pretty good. At least now, on the surface, they are all honest officials. Even if they collect money, they will not affect the local people's livelihood. Moreover, no official would dare to openly ask for bribes or exploit them harshly. At most, they would use their small power to seek some personal gain.

Zhu Boqi successively recruited several dock workers and several maritime merchants to inquire. They talked about all over the world, and none of them were even from his hometown.

They all say that they have not been exploited by officials, and their lives are much easier now than before.

Confirming that the Tianjin prefect had not received the news in advance and had committed fraud at the port, Zhu Boxi changed ships directly to Beijing without making any further stops.

On this northern tour, he has to go to a lot of places!
(End of this chapter)