Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

Bingchen in February 15th year of Wucheng

It is a day, light rain and breeze.

[Ningbo Prefecture NO.17] Merchant ships arrived in Jixian County. This is a large island with a radius of seventy to eighty (summer) miles. There are two ports in the north and the south. The Seogwipo Port in the south is a military port under the jurisdiction of the Seogwipo Township Mansion. , civilian ships are not allowed to enter, so we can only sail into Jixian Port in the north. In this way, it is equivalent to half a circle around the island.

It is said that Ji County was originally a small independent country, which was later annexed by North Korea, and then leased to Dongning at that time, and finally sold to the father. The island was sold at a lower price. There are two reasons: one is because the North Korean side ignores the right to control the sea; staple food of rice.

So I understood: perhaps in the eyes of North Koreans, if there is not enough food production, they cannot feed the people; if they cannot support people, the land is worthless; therefore, take a small island of importance to please Dongning and Zheng Zheng Shi, and by the way, he can also get a lot of income, and the North Koreans think that they have taken advantage of it. [

However, North Korea obviously underestimated the value of this small island, which was mainly used as a place of exile, so that it has now become one of the main ports of call for the North Navy of Huaxia Town and the largest horse farm in the past --- Speaking of this, I want to add , it is said that in the future only purebred Thai and Western horses will be bred on this island. As for the original Mongolian horses and mixed-breed horses, they have begun to be transferred to the new horse farm of the Ministry of War and Horse Administration in Shuofang. Transport to Jinlan and Boni for cultivation.

In addition, the Korean people on the island have all been relocated to Yunnan-Guizhou, Guangnan, Beiliao, Jinlan and other places.Most of the people who stay on the island today are the Chinese people brought in later. They are mainly engaged in grazing and serving the garrison in exchange for the rice shipped from Siam and Vietnam and the large amount of fish caught by the trawler of Seogwipo Township. .Among them, the savvy ones also buy the daily excess catches and process them into salted fish for sale to the outside world. Many merchants docked in Jixian Port will buy some, and transporting them to North Korea and Japan will bring a small amount of income. Because I want to play Huaxia I am a merchant, so I also bought some at the suggestion of Mr. Tao

Wuwu in February of the 15th year of Wucheng

It is day, sunny and rainy.

I finally set foot on the land of North Korea, a port called Zhenhai.

However, my first feeling about this country that belongs to me in the future is very bad.

Because the wharf is full of ragged Korean coolies, these people humbly help people carry things and carry their luggage, but they are often scolded by the boatman or anyone for some reason---this is something you can't see in China Well, although China also has poor people who work hard, others will not and dare not insult them easily when these people are working, otherwise the Xijia Guild at the wharf where they are located will unite to seek justice for them. Obviously, North Korea does not have Xijia Organizations like the Household Bank.

After getting off the boat and leaving the pier, Mr. Tao and I followed the crowd to the North Korean customs.The customs work is extremely slow, and often people with the names of high-ranking officials jump in the queue first. If you can report the name of a large Huaxia company operating locally, you can also enjoy the same treatment.Moreover, these big shots enjoy exemption from inspection, but those small businessmen without backgrounds are often made things difficult by the customs, unless you pass some benefits in private.Of course, for Chinese businessmen, North Korea Customs did not dare to openly ask for bribes, so as not to be stabbed by Chinese envoys stationed in Honglu to the Shangguan, but it is inevitable to be slow.

Since I also brought some salted fish, when paying taxes, Master Tao also stuffed a few half silver coins in the past. As a result, the North Korean tax collector took a cursory look at it and reported the ultra-low value of [-] coins and [-] coins. It was dozens of times lower than the initial valuation of [-] strings, and the natural tax payment was also hundreds of times less.

But this doesn't make me happy. If North Korea is like this everywhere, how will the central government finance it?

For this reason, I specifically asked Mr. Tao about it.

Mr. Tao told me that the annual silver package paid by Huaxia merchants when they opened mines is the first annual income of the North Korean government. It is said that the annual silver package for a single Musan Iron Mine alone is as high as 15 guan; the second is the license of forest logging rights Income; the third place is the land tax; as for the customs tax and commercial tax, North Korea takes the Confucian hadith as the classic of governing the country, and everything follows the example of the previous Ming Dynasty. Officials can make troubles and collect improper benefits.

Of course, this is good news for merchants in China, because they only need to add limited freight and a little tariff to the domestic price to dump in North Korea, so that more than 90.00% of the goods currently on the North Korean market come from In China, only less than [-]% is locally produced.Therefore, it can also be said that the money paid by the Chinese merchants to the North Korean government was returned directly to another group of Chinese merchants before the North Korean side warmed up.

I asked Mr. Tao, Huaxia has taken all the minerals and forests from North Korea, will the North Koreans complain?

Mr. Tao told me with a smile that the high-level North Koreans are happy to see the big trees and minerals in the mountains in exchange for a lot of money; Opening a business, working in a mine, can get some extra income to some extent.

Hearing that the farmers themselves were not fed enough to wear clothes, I suddenly had an uneasy thought, so I asked Mr. Tao, what is the land tax in North Korea?

Master Tao told me that the land tax in North Korea is actually similar to that in China, but the crux of the problem is that North Korea still has labor tax and servants. The part they spared was shared among the middlemen and the lower people, which made life difficult for the Korean people.The self-cultivating farmers are like this, and the tenants are even more miserable. It's just that there was no second way out before, so they could only live half-dead. Now they have the opportunity to work for my Huaxia firm, but most people are willing.

I asked again, why don't the people on the wharf go to work in the mines or in the firms of Chinese merchants?

Mr. Tao gave me an unimaginable answer. It turned out that those coolies on the docks were so-called servants, a kind of slaves and untouchables. No one dared to hire them.The reason why they appeared on the wharf was that the North Korean government paid for the conscripted labor, and the income was taken away by the government. They only sent them with some chaff every day, and said that this was the so-called relief. [

Untouchables!There are still untouchables in North Korea, which I did not expect, after all, the emperor abolished the untouchable system early on

Renshen in February 15th year of Wucheng

It is day, cloudy and rainy.

After selling the salted fish in our hands to a large Huaxia firm with sales channels, Mr. Tao and I left Zhenhai and headed for the interior of North Korea.North Korea originally had the so-called Eight Provinces, which were equivalent to the eight provinces of China. However, after the reunification of North and South Korea, according to Huaxia’s suggestion, North Korea’s administrative district was changed to 22 prefectures, which were Seoul, Incheon and Kaesong, which were originally under Gyeonggi-do; Hamheung, Gyeongseong, and Gapsan were formerly under Hamgyong-do; Pyongyang, Uiju, and Ganggye were formerly under Pyongan-do; Haeju were formerly under Hwanghae-do; Chuncheon and Gangneung were formerly under Gangwon-do Gongju, Chungju, and Hongju that belonged to Chungcheong-do; Daegu, Andong, Jinju, and Dongnae that formerly belonged to Sangcheong-do; Jeonju, Naju and Namwon.Among them, Zhenhai is located in Jinju Prefecture. Jinju City, the capital of the prefecture, is on the bank of the Nam River, and it is not on the way, so I will go along the Nakdong River to Kimcheon County in Daegu Prefecture, and then cross the Sobaek Mountains from Kimcheon County. Cheongju County in Gongju Prefecture, and finally went to Seoul, the capital of North Korea, along Chenghuan Road.

Because the road was long, I used the proceeds from selling salted fish to buy a healthy donkey to carry myself and Master Tao.It’s just that I didn’t expect that when I left Zhenhai, I would be arrested because of this—this is a new type of policeman set up by North Korea to imitate the Chinese police system—and charged a donkey tax of [-] yuan, saying that donkey dung will pollute the streets, God knows , I purposely filled the donkey with a dung bucket, and the reason for the patrol is not to collect benefits.But Mr. Tao said that this price is estimated to be deliberately low for the sake of us being Chinese businessmen. If it is an ordinary North Korean citizen, it is estimated that there is no three to five hundred cash and it is impossible to let it go.

Even if it is three hundred cash, according to the normal income of North Korean people that I know now, this is already a month’s income of a restaurant clerk, and the annual net income of an ordinary farmer is already quite a lot. It is conceivable that You know, the exploitation is severe.

But I didn't come to quarrel with the North Koreans, so in the end I gave the money, but my already bad mood became heavier and heavier.

Fortunately, the scenery along the way is refreshing --- because North Korea is surrounded by the sea on three sides, the climate is similar to that of the south of the Yangtze River in China. Excellent people or those who farm for two shifts can use animal power, otherwise they have to work obediently.

I asked Mr. Tao about the distribution of land in North Korea.Master Tao told me that, unlike the situation in China where large landowners and self-cultivating farmers are equally divided, most of the land in North Korea is in the hands of Liangban and large households.However, unlike Huaxia's self-operated super-large farms, these two shifts and large households still rent out the land to middle-aged and lower-level people for farming, and the production efficiency is much lower than Huaxia's intensive labor.More importantly, for their own luxurious life, the landowners collected high land taxes, oppressing the lives of ordinary people in North Korea. Whenever there was a famine or disease, they had to sell their sons and daughters, and even sold their wives and themselves.

Moreover, the land suitable for farming in North Korea is very limited. There are slightly more land in the south, but the north is divided by continuous mountains. Regarding the reclamation of wasteland, North Korea's confrontation with the Qing court was also based on the conflicts caused by the people crossing the border.