Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2349 Fengtian Mansion ([-])

At three o'clock, Feng Yu, who had taken a nap, got up comfortably and ordered the old servant to serve a pot of tea.

The tea is the top-quality tea sent from Huizhou in the south of the Yangtze River. Feng Yu has been an official in Haizhou and Huai'an for many years. He has been deeply involved in the imperial court's foreign tea trade and has a deep understanding of tea, so he knows that the tea is not fooling himself. top grade.I heard that the rich merchants and gentry in England drink bad stuff. Although they are not bad, they are still far from the top. I really don’t know what to say, it’s degrading!

But then again, the foreigners really don't know how good the tea is, and they think it's too expensive to sell them good tea.Therefore, in important ports such as Xiangshui, Haizhou, and Rizhao, most of the tea exported abroad is low-end goods, such as brick tea and the like.Occasionally there are some high-grade and medium-grade ones, and the quantity is not large, and they are not willing to spend too much money to buy them, which is really strange.

Although Feng Yu liked to drink tea when he was young, but he really reached the point of loving tea after he went to Huai'an as an official.The Tea Office in Haizhou was in charge of the tea trade in the Qing Dynasty. Feng Yu was also very familiar with the officials in the yamen, and was often invited to taste it.Tasting, especially the tea tasted by the gentlemen who are in charge of this area, is naturally the best of the best - to put it bluntly, it may not be worse than the emperor's tea - so come and go, Mr. Feng The love for tea has also greatly deepened.

After being transferred to Fengtian as the magistrate, because the future is quite promising, the local officials in Haizhou can also behave, so they will send some top-quality tea from time to time, so Mr. Feng's life is really enjoyable.The only thing that doesn't go well is probably that the development of Fengtian Mansion is a little bit unsatisfactory.

Of course, it's not that the imperial court is dissatisfied with Feng Yu. In fact, Mr. Feng has high demands on himself and is quite eager to serve the country. It's just that he competes with himself.In fact, looking at all aspects of Fengtian Mansion, they are actually pretty good.The household registration has increased greatly, the grain output has continued to rise, and the tax collection has basically completed the task. Mr. Feng also took the time to repair some rivers and canals with treasury money. The weather in the local area is actually good. It can definitely be judged as an upper-middle class.

But so what?These actually belong to the "old politics". They are traditional affairs that every parent official has done for thousands of years. It's hard on the body.Feng Yu didn't really pay much attention to these things. What he cared more about was whether the "New Deal" was done well.And this is what the imperial court pays more and more attention to, and it may be included in the official performance evaluation system in the future, Mr. Feng is very concerned about it.

Fengtian's New Deal, the biggest is naturally the arsenal.Fengtian Manufacturing Bureau is not small in scale and has a long history. It can be traced back to the meeting of Taizu Taizong.Although many skilled old craftsmen were recruited when entering the customs, the foundation is still there, and large sums of money have been invested in these years, so it is still the top ordnance manufacturing organization in China.But Fengju is the property of the Ministry of Industry. Although the imperial court also asks for local assistance, in the final analysis, whether Fengju is good or not has little to do with Fengtianfu, and it is not their political achievements.Therefore, Feng Yu's most important thing is actually the local enterprises such as noodle mills, oil pressing factories, cooking pot workshops, silk cloth factories, and foreign nail workshops that have gradually developed with the large-scale influx of Han Chinese over the years.

The land outside the customs is fertile, with fewer people and more land—this means that the fields are high-yielding, and there is not much exploitation. People are highly motivated in agricultural production—so the grain output is increasing year by year.In Fengtian Prefecture, three prefectures, six counties and one hall, where is the granary not full?Even after the two ports of Lushun and Yingkou were repaired, they were transported to Zhili and Shandong provinces by sea, which can be seen.

And so much surplus grain naturally provides a very good foundation for the grain deep processing industry.Therefore, all kinds of enterprises have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.Especially in the grassland wars in the past few years, Fengtian transferred a lot of grain to Mongolia. The business of these factories was very good, and each of them made a lot of money.After Feng Yu took office, he asked the imperial court to exempt some exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes that were levied during the war with the people on the east coast. These enterprises had lighter burdens and developed more rapidly.

As an official from the Han Army Banner, Feng Yu once persuaded the local bannermen to run some industries.But most of these people are adou who can't afford to support them. They would rather provide Han people with umbrellas and collect dividends from dry stocks, rather than engage in those "not very manly" jobs.Of course, the Eight Banners outside the Guanwai are not too depraved. These people are not idle every month. At the end of the month, they go to the factory or store to show up and get money. They still often ride horses and archery, learn skills, and sometimes practice muskets. Shooting is not particularly hard work, but it must not be said to be slack.They were simply unwilling to farm or do business. They had neither the talent nor the mood, which greatly disappointed Feng Yu.

Master Feng has been paying close attention to domestic developments these years, and knows that many provinces are implementing new policies, and many businessmen who have become rich have emerged.There is no doubt that these sudden riches are basically Han Chinese, and those who provide them with protective umbrellas are mostly Han officials and generals. For example, Yuan Baodi, a well-known coal merchant in the two northwestern provinces, is a typical example.

This situation made Feng Yu very worried.He is a bannerman, and his ancestors were soldiers of Li Yongfang, Fushun's son-in-law. He feels superior to others and is very vigilant against the rise of Han officials.Especially now that the imperial court has set up new troops in eight towns. Except for two towns that are composed of bannermen's children, the presidents of the other six towns are all Han Chinese.This conquest of Galdan lasted for many years, and the new army played very well. It is almost inevitable to continue to train the new army in the future, which further boosted the power of the Han generals.If we relate it to the atmosphere in the capital today, many clan disciples are studying the Four Books and Five Classics, and some of them recite poems and write poems against each other—although in Feng Yu’s view, those doggerel poems like “yellow dog with white body” are simply nonsense— —Some people still wear Han Chinese clothes, which is even more serious.If it continues to develop, our imperial clan of the Qing Dynasty will intermarry with the Han people, and it will be a matter of course to break the defense of the Manchus and Hans, so how should they, the full members, deal with themselves?Studying and governing the country is not as good as the Han people, engineering technology is not as good as the foreigners, and the leadership of the army is also under the impact of the Han people. This is simply shaking the foundation of the country!

Actually, Feng Yu felt that the court was really in a dilemma now.The rise of the Han people is unstoppable. This is the general trend. You can either learn from the Jin Dynasty in the Southern Song Dynasty and actively integrate into it. The poems and articles written by the descendants of the Wanyan family are good, or you can simply continue to suppress the rise of the Han people in the system. Those who are right and left are actually the most dangerous.Of course, based on Feng Yu's original intention, he would prefer to see the imperial court regain the defense of the Manchus and Hans, suppress the power of the Hans, and prevent the country from changing color.But reason told him that this was impossible!

In what era is it now, the role of the heavy armored infantry and cavalry, which are proud of the Eight Banners, on the battlefield has been greatly weakened.Do not believe?Just look at the battle with Galdan!They learned from the Russians, with muskets and cannons and a ferocious cavalry team. Tong Guogang was overwhelmed at once, and more than 2 experienced Shaanxi-Gansu Green Battalion and Eight Banners were wiped out.Later, it was the new army that reversed the situation—of course, the Green Camp and the Eight Banners gradually adapted to it later, and their combat effectiveness also increased—it can be seen that in today’s world, the old army has fallen behind the times, and the new army is the direction of the future. .But the consumption of the new army is also astonishingly large. This requires changing the domestic production system and increasing government revenue. In addition, the tactics of the new army also cause heavy casualties, and a steady stream of cannon fodder is needed to make up for the war damage. unaffordable.Therefore, the best way is to integrate like the Jin Dynasty and win over the Han gentry, so as to survive-now there are obedience in the south and yellow-clothed thieves in the north, and the pressure on the Qing Dynasty is great.

It is also based on this understanding that after coming to Fengtian Mansion, although Feng Yu did not like the Han people very much from the bottom of his heart, he has always supported them at the policy level.The reason is the same, Feng Yu is a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty, loyal to the Qing Dynasty, and puts the emperor's interests first.

But policy support is one thing. Whether the industrial economy can develop depends on many other factors.The biggest problem facing Fengtian Prefecture now is that there is not enough market for their industrial products—mainly processed agricultural products.These deep-processed agricultural products are mainly supplied to the cities, or more precisely, to the citizens in the cities.Because they are not engaged in agricultural production, they can only buy food in the market, but the problem is that the number of the main workers of the citizen class is not large enough, that is to say, there are not enough people who do not farm the land to consume the food produced by these machines. It's so sad.

There are only two ways to change this situation.One is to enter the external market and export grain to foreign countries. For example, Ningbo is a very good market.But people have their own raw grain suppliers, and there are also a large number of machine-made rice mills and flour mills in the territory. It is difficult to get flour and rice from the Qing Dynasty; the second is to expand the Qing Dynasty’s own market and generate more workers. And rice has a market.But this will undoubtedly greatly enhance the influence of the Han people, and it will cause opposition from the conservative nobles of Manchuria and Mongolia, and the resistance is still great.

In fact, this is also the dilemma faced by the Qing Dynasty's New Deal today.Let’s change it. The more they change, the greater the power of the Han people. They open coal mines, run yarn factories, and build machine factories. Their economic income has increased significantly. The power of the Han civil servants, the spokesman for the interests of the people, has risen sharply.Not to mention, the proportion of Han military generals is also slowly increasing now, and the combination of civil and military is really quite a headache.

But it won’t work if you don’t change it. Shunni in the south is also doing a big new deal, and the scale of various machine bureaus is quite large. If the Qing Dynasty lags behind in this respect, how will it fight in the future?You know, if the new policy is not done well, the cost of the new army will remain high, and the maintenance cost of the old army will not be reduced. Even if the population and land of the Qing Dynasty are far beyond the good and bad, they will catch up sooner or later.An agricultural country cannot defeat an industrial country, this point has been clearly stated in the book of the thief in yellow, and Feng Yu also deeply agrees.

It's really difficult, a dilemma!

Well, don't worry about it.After drinking tea, I'd better go see how the carriage factory is doing.The factory was opened by him with his old face, forcing a group of banner people from Fengtian, old and young, to raise 50 silver dollars to start it. He imported a large amount of machinery and equipment from England, and currently hired more than a dozen foreign technicians.In this matter, Xu Sheng must not lose, Feng Yu is still very concerned, after all, it is the property of the Bannerman.If it is done well, it will set an example, and it may drive other wealthy Bannermen to invest. He has to go and have a look before he can rest assured.

I have been away on business for several days, and I am still busy on weekends.I didn't bring the treasure book with me, and it was troublesome to check the information, so the officials will just read it.

(End of this chapter)