Chapter 456: Inspection workshop

There are more snow in Chang'an in January than in previous years. Almost every day there is light snow, and it is not dense. Powder-like snowflakes fly in the air and fall on the ground, forming a thin layer of snow.

On the third day after the Lantern Festival, several carriages guarded by more than a thousand Yulin Army left Chang'an City and headed towards Xinfeng County to the east. When the carriage passed a ridge of a field, a burst of laughter came not far away. The curtain of a carriage was opened, and Li Qi looked at the scenery in the distance curiously.

In the distance, there is an endless winter wheat field. A tributary of the Wei River passes through the winter wheat field. Tall water wheels can be seen everywhere on both sides of the river. At this time, it started to snow again. Snowflakes like plum blossoms fly in the air, quickly forming a hazy snow mist. The scenery in the distance becomes unclear. Not far from the official road, more than a dozen farmers built canals were sitting in front of a water wheel to rest. They chat and laugh, and the snowflakes fell on their heads and shoulders, and fell in the wheat field beside them. They were not annoyed, but were more excited.

Li Qi stretched out her hand and felt the crystal snowflakes flying outside the car window. The snowflakes gently fell on the back of his hand and then melted. The cold feeling made him laugh.

"What is Your Highness laughing at?" Li Mi, the master sitting in a car with him, put down the book in his hand, leaned against the window and asked him with a smile.

"When we passed by Chang'an City, we heard complaints about the snow. The merchants complained that the roads were muddy and difficult to walk, and complained that the sky would never clear up, which affected their business. But when we came out of the city and came to the fields, we heard the farmers' praise for the snowflakes. I was wondering, who should God listen to? Is it important to industry and commerce or farming and sericulture important?"

Li Qi is fourteen years old this year. From this year on, he no longer lives in the harem and moved to the Yong Palace of the Ten Kings House. He attends court every day like all officials. However, he goes to Hongwenguan in the East Palace. After his homework, he goes to the palace to pay tribute to his mother and then returns to his own palace. Since last year's tree climbing incident, Zhang Huan has begun to pay great attention to his son's growth and education. Every two or three days, he will choose memorials related to people's livelihood, copy them into copies and send them to him, so that his son can express his opinions on the memorials. Sometimes when he goes out to inspect, he will definitely bring his son with him, so that he can also learn about things outside the window while studying behind closed doors. Today, Zhang Huan went to Xinfeng County to inspect a textile workshop, and specially brought his son with him.

Seeing that Li Qi was quite interesting, it was clearly his own idea, but he pushed it to God. He smiled and said, "This is not a question of which is more important. People regard food as the sky, and farmers and mulberry trees are naturally the sky, while countries regard wealth as wealth, and businesses are the land. It can also be called yin and yang, agriculture and mulberry trees are the yang, and businesses are the yin. If yin is strong and yang is weak, everyone will make money from business, and the court will encourage farming and weaving, and increase taxes to suppress business;

But if the yang is strong and the yin is weak, it will affect the finances of the court, so the court should appropriately relax taxes and mobilize the enthusiasm of industry and commerce. Of course, the coordination of yin and yang is the best. Look at this, your father did this. He took you to inspect water conservancy and interviewed farmers in the fields. Today he took you to inspect textile workshops. This is the coordination of the two. Therefore, the key to the rulers is not to do anything big, but to be able to constantly fine-tune the existing laws, discover problems, solve problems, and enable the Tang Dynasty to quickly restore national strength. Do you understand?"

Li Qi nodded thoughtfully, "I read a note the day before yesterday, which was on the office of the Minister of Household Affairs. He said that since the Central Plains promoted cotton planting a few years ago, the raw materials were sufficient. The court began to encourage merchants from Guanzhong and Hedong to open large workshops. As a result, a large number of manor tenants went to the city to work. The manors had a shortage of labor, and many manor fields began to be deserted. Manors sold land or reduced rents in many places in Guanzhong and Hedong. It is unheard of in history. The land annexation problem that has plagued the Tang Dynasty for a hundred years actually had an opportunity to solve it. I was very moved. It seems that it is not without benefits to develop industry and commerce."

Li Mi smiled slightly, "This is actually the result of your father and several prime ministers' careful consideration. A few years ago, he strictly implemented the abolition order, and searched more than a dozen powerful families who resisted abolition. Even Guo Ziyi's family was fined 50,000 jin and confiscated 80,000 hectares of land rewarded. Then he granted a large amount of land in Jianghuai, Jiangnan, and Bashu to ensure the supply of grain in the Tang Dynasty. He also mined a large amount of silver mines in Shayeye, implemented tax reform, and used money instead of renting mediocre people to force the surplus population of each family to flow to industry and commerce, thereby revitalizing industry and commerce. In this way, if the people do not farm, they will have another way to survive. Who is willing to be a tenant farmer and be exploited? Without the excess population of farming, the annexation of land will lose its meaning. Every year, a waste of land tax has been paid. Therefore, there are few people who have heard of land annexation in the past two years, which is the reason."

Li Qi pondered for a moment and asked again: "Now it is because of the small population. If the population reaches 8 million households and even more in the prosperous Kaiyuan period, and the land for growing grain is not enough to support the Chinese people, will the wind of land annexation recur at that time?"

"You don't have to worry about this. There are always foods with higher yields than rice and wheat. Just like cotton, if you didn't learn cotton planting and textile technology from Egypt, the price of white cloth would not be as cheap as it is today. Furthermore, the land west of the Pamir Mountains is vast and the population increases can immigrate to the West. This is the real reason why your father used the whole country's efforts to break the Leaf War. It is not only that the silver mine of the broken leaves is related to the strategic interests of the Tang Dynasty, but more importantly, it is to preserve the territory of the Western Regions and provide a way to resolve domestic conflicts in the future."

The master's temptation of inducing Li Qi further broadened his ideas. He looked at the snowflakes flying outside the car window and fell into deep thought.

At noon, the convoy arrived in Xinfeng County. The magistrate of Xinfeng County received the news early and was waiting at the Wuli Station outside the city early in the morning to welcome the emperor's arrival. Not long after noon, the dragon carriage that the emperor inspected finally arrived.

Zhang Huan came here to inspect and decided before the New Year that there was a Guoji textile workshop in Xinfeng County, which had 2,000 looms and employed more than 4,000 workers. Not only did the textiles have good white cloth, but also the textiles were light and light silk. The goods produced were in short supply, which brought generous profits to the owner and also brought considerable taxes to Xinfeng County. This was a typical successful workshop, which attracted widespread attention from the court.

This time, Zhang Huan was accompanied by Zhang Huan to inspect the Minister of Works Li Han, the Shaofu Supervisor Yang Minzhong and the Minister of Works Song Lianyu. The team stopped in front of the post station in a mighty manner. The magistrate of Xinfeng County came up and knelt down in front of the dragon carriage. "My magistrate of Xinfeng County, Wang Hongxing, kowtowed to Your Majesty."

The car door opened, Zhang Huan walked out of the carriage, and saw that he was single, he couldn't help but smile and said, "Wang Aiqing, please calm down."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" The county magistrate Wang stood up and said, "I received a quick letter from the court, saying that the emperor did not want to disturb the people, so I have arranged everything."

After saying that, he pointed not far away, where there were several carriages from the post station. "Your Majesty can enter the county town later. Guo Ji Workshop is close to the west gate. If Your descendant goes, the people in the city will not know."

Zhang Huan nodded, "Then I'll trouble you."

He turned around and looked at his son's carriage. Li Qi had already got off the carriage, followed by Li Mi, Zhang Huan smiled at his son and said, "Is the emperor hungry?"

"Report to my father, my son has eaten some pastries in the car and is not hungry now."

"Okay, let's change to the carriage, go earlier and go back soon."

Several people changed into carriages at the post station and continued to drive towards the county town under the escort of more than 300 Yulinmen. After a while, the group arrived at the west gate of Xinfeng County and entered the city gate. Pedestrians came and went on the street, which was quite lively, especially Hu merchants. They were all merchants who came to Guoji Workshop to buy goods directly. When they arrived at Guoji Workshop, they heard the dense sound of looms from afar.

There are four workshops in Xinfeng County. The largest one is close to the west gate, covering an area of ​​about 100 acres and surrounded by a long courtyard wall. The owner is a Chang'an merchant named Guo Fu. He started with 200 looms four years ago and developed into a huge workshop with 200 looms in just a few years. He also knew yesterday that the emperor was coming to inspect his workshop today. Although he had received several groups of senior officials from the court since the second half of last year, the emperor came to inspect himself, which made him so excited that he did not fall asleep all night.

He was waiting in front of the gate early in the morning. The yard was cleaned up. After waiting for a whole morning, it seemed like he had been waiting for more than ten years. Just when he was about to go for lunch, there were messy footsteps outside the gate. A yamen runs in and whispers: "Here is here! Come! Open the gate quickly."

Guo Dongzhu was so nervous that he was about to jump out. He hurriedly stepped forward and opened the door. He saw that the outside was controlled by a large group of soldiers. Several people were walking towards the door. The one on the left was County Magistrate Wang. He knew him. Another young man named Yang Minzhong came in November last year. He also knew him. The man in the middle was about thirty years old. He was wearing a white bunch of cloth robe, a black net hat, and a faint smile on his face, which made people feel very friendly. He was also surrounded by a teenager.

Lord Guo’s heart beat violently. He knew that this person must be the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. He hurriedly stepped forward and knelt down: “Guo Fu, a grass man, bowed to His Majesty, I wish His Majesty long live His Majesty, long live His Majesty!”

County Magistrate Wang quickly introduced to Zhang Huan: "Your Majesty, he is Guo Fu, the owner of Guo Ji Workshop, from Chang'an."

Zhang Huan quickly ordered someone to help him up and smiled and said, "I am visiting privately today, so Master Guo doesn't have to be too polite."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, I did not tell the people in the workshop that your Majesty is coming today. Everything is as usual. Please follow me."

After saying that, he hurriedly stepped forward and pushed open another door, "Your Majesty, please go here."

Zhang Huan nodded and took two steps. He suddenly remembered something again and turned around and asked him, "I heard that you have a son who is joining the army. Is that true?"

Guo Dongzhu hurriedly replied: "Yes! Caomin's second son is Mo Daojun of Saiye. He participated in the Battle of Saiye. He sent a message a few days ago. He was fine, and he also made meritorious contributions and received a lot of rewards."

"I also have an adopted son who is joining the army in Saiye. This time I have made contributions. The children are promising, and we fathers have a bright face!"

"Yes! Two days ago, the Ministry of War sent someone to beat drums and drums and hang a big red flower on the door of my Chang'an house. I don't know how many people envy me."

"Why don't I?" Zhang Huan turned around and smiled at Li Han: "When I go back, I want to protest to the Ministry of War, but they actually forgot about my red flowers."

Everyone laughed together. Seeing that the emperor was kind and friendly, Guo Dongzhu gradually disappeared and he led Zhang Huan to the inner yard. Although it looked very small outside, it occupied a large area inside. Five long houses were lined up side by side. Each house had three hundred looms, and hundreds of workers were working inside. Most of them were young women wearing uniform white skirts. At first glance, the white skirt in the room was better than snow, which was very pleasing to the eye.

Zhang Huan and everyone walked into a room, and a huge "crack!" sound came towards us. Here was a workshop that weaved white cloth. There was a large frame next to each loom, and there were a ball of cotton thread spun by another workshop. One loom operated by two people. One person weaved cloth during the day and rested at night, and the other person weaved cloth at night, so that the loom would not need to stop from morning to night. There were dozens of healthy women responsible for carrying balls of thread, cloth and other items, and several foremen in black who were responsible for counting each weaving girl.

Zhongfang Niang was concentrating on weaving cloth, and no one paid attention to Zhang Huan and the others coming in. There were many senior officials in the court who had visited in the past few months, and they were used to it.

"How much wages do you pay for them?" Zhang Huan raised his voice amid the huge loom.

"Depending on how much cloth they can weave, I usually pay 20 cents per piece of cloth. They work for five hours a day. The most skilled one can weave ten pieces of cloth every day, which is 200 cents. They can earn six cents a month, but most of them can earn about three to five cents. I also provide food and accommodation. People who sell coolies in the East City of Chang'an only earn so much, which is already very good. Many people are scrambling to send their daughters, and there are even female workers from Chang'an."

"Then why did you think of opening a store in Xinfeng? Why didn't you open a store in Chang'an?" Li Qi asked next to him.

Lord Guo already knew that this young man was the eldest son of the emperor, His Highness Yong. If nothing unexpected happens, this would be the next emperor. He did not dare to neglect and quickly said respectfully: "When you say to your highness, the land in Chang'an is mainly because the land in Chang'an is too expensive. In order to save some money on buying land, I came to Xinfeng County. The land price here is only half of that of Chang'an, and it is close to Chang'an. Due to the shortage of goods, the shops in the East and West City of Chang'an will hire carts to transport goods by themselves, saving me a lot of shipping costs."

"So that's it." Li Qi suddenly realized. He thought about it and asked again: "I just saw many Hu merchants on the street. It seems that they are coming to you to buy goods. Will it be cheaper for them to buy goods directly from you than to go to the East City?"

"No! No!" Guo Dongzhu waved his hand quickly, "The prices are the same. This is the industry rule. I cannot sell them cheaper than the West Market. If I don't abide by them, all the stores will not buy goods from me. But you can buy more directly from me, and there is sufficient spot. Those Hu merchants are impatient."

Everyone said as they walked, but Zhang Huan suddenly squatted down and asked a young Weaver Girl, "How much can you earn in a month?"

Wild girl blushed, lowered her head and said in a low voice: "I have been here for only half a year, not very skilled. She got thirty-five silver coins last month."

The official price of a silver coin is 100 cents, which means that she earned three or five hundred cents of money, and the monthly salary of a ninth-rank chief clerk is only 5 cents of money. Of course, the county magistrate also has land income and grain income, but that's all, it's still very good.

Zhang Huan stood up and said to Guo Dongzhu again: "Let's go and see the textile lightweight!"

Light-rein, also known as the flowerless tulle, is the lightest yarn on the market. It seems to be weightless and cut into clothes. It looks like a layer of light fog. The textile method of this yarn is extremely secret. Originally, only two textile families in Bozhou could spin. In order to prevent the leakage of technology, the two textile families intermarried for generations to prevent the technology from leaking. However, during the Central Plains Rebellion six years ago, Bozhou was also affected. Several families of the two textile families fled to Chang'an. When Guo Dongzhu got the news, he spent a lot of money to learn this technology from one of the families. Now, Qing-rein is his most profitable goods. It has always been in short supply and the price is very expensive. The order has been scheduled until October this year. Only Guo Ji Workshop can do this light-reinforcement in the entire Guanzhong area.

Currently, there are only 30 people in Guo Dongzhu's Qingrong Workshop. Each of them is carefully selected by him. He has signed a contract with him, so he will not spread the skills. Their income is the highest, and the highest one can even get twenty coins per month.

After leaving the door of the White Cut Cloth Workshop, his ears suddenly became quiet. The Qingrong Workshop is located in a separate courtyard, and is separated from other workshops with special people to guard it. No one except the senior officials of the court who came to inspect were allowed to enter.

After entering the door, Zhang Huan saw that the place was very cautious, he smiled at everyone and said, "Forget it, since it is Master Guo's secret, we won't go in."

Guo Dongzhu hurriedly bowed and said, "Your Majesty is okay. This kind of light-bearing technology is very complicated, and the layman can't understand it?"

Zhang Huan walked to the window and saw a slight sound of looms coming from the big room. Thirty weaving ladies were concentrating on weaving veils. He turned around and smiled at Master Guo and said, "I have an inappropriate request and I want to ask Master to agree."

Lord Guo was so scared that he knelt down quickly, "Your Majesty just speaks, how dare the Caomin refuse to agree."

"That's right." Zhang Huan pondered for a moment: "My queen likes light-heartedness very much. She also organized palace maids to weave light-heartedness in the palace, but she couldn't spin it anyway. Before I came to inspect this time, the queen specially asked me to invite a weaving mother who can weave light-heartedness to teach the palace, but I don't know."

Guo Dongzhu's heart was shocked. This was equivalent to spreading Qingrong's technology, but he did not dare to refuse to agree, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Your Majesty asks, if Caomin dares not agree, Caomin will definitely let the best Weaver Girl enter the palace professor."

After saying that, he said to a foreman: "Go and call Wu Xiuniang."

He turned around and said to Zhang Huan: "This husband of Wu Xiu is a soldier. He was transferred to Anxi to participate in the war last year. His life experience is very innocent. Please rest assured by Your Majesty."

After a moment, a young woman in a white dress was brought over. Zhang Huan saw her from afar. She saw that she was about twenty-five or six years old and looked pretty. When she approached, she felt that she seemed familiar, as if she had seen her. The lady Wu Xiu stepped forward and beat Zhang Huan opposite her. She was also stunned. Suddenly she knelt down and whispered: "The little woman is to bow to His Majesty the Emperor."

Zhang Huan hesitated and asked, "I see you a little familiar. Where have we seen you?"

"Have you forgotten? His Majesty had inspected immigrants in Tianbao County when he was in Wuwei. My father told His Majesty about the water car. His Majesty also gave us a famous sect."

Zhang Huan suddenly remembered that later, the father and daughter came to Jincheng to file a lawsuit, revealing Chen Ping's corruption and relief food. He laughed and said, "It's really a place in life. We actually met here again. I remember that your surname should be Liu! Get up quickly, why are you here?"

The lady Wu Xiuniang was also very happy. She stood up and said, "The little woman's husband's surname is Wu. He is a personal soldier who was injured by His Majesty. After being punished by His Majesty, he apologized and often came to take care of us. Over time, the little woman married him and gave birth to two sons. He was from Fengtian County and was promoted to Guoyi Commander. Last year, he was transferred to Anxi to fight. Both sons were studying in Chang'an, so I came here to work and earn money to support their tuition."

Zhang Huan felt extremely relieved when he heard that his personal soldiers knew that they could correct their mistakes. He smiled at Wu Xiuniang and said, "What a coincidence. My wife was about to invite a weaving lady who could weaving light faces to the palace to teach them textile skills. Lord Guo introduced you to me. Are you willing to go? I will not treat you badly. I will only stay for half a year. You can leave the palace to see your son at any time."

Wu Xiuniang thought about it and nodded and responded: "The little woman is willing to go to the palace to teach the Queen's light-heartedness skills."

"Okay, go pack up your things, I will return to the palace in a while." Zhang Huan turned around and said to Master Guo: "I came to inspect this time and wanted to hear the opinions of you industrial businessmen. I think the laws of the court are unreasonable. Even if I put them forward, I want to hear you tell the truth."

Master Guo quickly bowed and bowed and said, "Caomin thinks that the court is now very tolerant of us, but Caomin also thinks that there are indeed two small places that are not reasonable."

Someone brought a couch for Zhang Huan. He sat down and asked Li Qi to sit beside him. He said to Master Guo, "Please tell me, Master Guo."

Guo Dongzhu thought for a while and said, "Caomin wanted to say that the court had many laws on merchants, and many of them were contradictory. Two years ago, a Hedong businessman sold fake tea and deceived the people. The court tried to use all kinds of things. All Hedong merchants should not sell tea. This is really unreasonable. This is one thing. In addition, Caomin opened a 300 loom workshop in Yangzhou last year. The salt and iron supervisor in Chang'an said that my Guoji workshop was registered in Chang'an. According to the edict of the 13th year of Qingzhi, the store in Yangzhou should be paid in Chang'an.

Tax, but the salt and iron supervisor in Yangzhou said that my store was open in Yangzhou. According to the edict of the second year of Dazhi, I had to pay taxes in Yangzhou. According to the edict of the second year of Dazhi, I must pay taxes in Yangzhou. According to the provisions of the provisions of the Dazhi year, the provisions of the 13th year of Qingzhi were not abolished. As a result, I paid taxes at the same time. I had no choice but to change the name of the workshop in Yangzhou and register business in Yangzhou. But in this way, the famous brand of Guoji Workshop is gone. The Caomin means that the court can revise a complete commercial law and do not issue an edict at will to change it."
Chapter completed!