Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 151 All Tigers
Time passed quickly as we walked and talked.

Soon they arrived at the workshop. Similar to the Hundred Households Office, there was also a group of houses built here. These houses looked quite good. Apart from ordinary residential houses, most of them were used as workshops.

"Sixth Master! Why are you here?" Upon hearing the news, Zhao Da rushed over to greet him.

Looking at Zhao Da, he was dressed differently. Now Zhao Da was wearing the clothes of a governor, with a hat on his head. Coupled with this familiar face and the flattering smile on his face, he looked like a "monkey in human form".

The Wei Suo Shi was a clerk directly under the Wei Suo. Although he did not have a formal official rank, the power he actually held was higher than that of ordinary captains and small flag officers.

Zhao Da used to be a craftsman. It was not easy for a craftsman to become a governor. An ordinary craftsman might not even have this opportunity in his entire life. But now Zhao Da has become a governor and officially left the lower class of craftsmen. This is a good thing for Zhao Da that he had never thought of before.

Zhu Shenzhui greeted him with a smile and asked Zhao Da about the situation and whether everything was going well.

Zhao Da nodded repeatedly, and took Zhu Shenzhu to look at the workshop first, and talked about the situation there while looking.

Although it has only been two months, the workshop here has begun to take shape. Whether it is ore smelting, iron making or forging, it looks quite good. Many craftsmen are busy under Zhao Da's arrangement. While Zhao Da introduced it, there was a hint of pride in his expression.

"How many artisans are there here now?"

"Sixth Master, there are fourteen craftsmen here besides me. A small half of them are old people who came here from Wangjia Village, and most of the rest are from the relocated military households. In addition, Lord Hu from the Hundred Households Office also sent six apprentices, making a total of twenty people." Zhao Da said with some pride.

Twenty people, this number is still too few, Zhu Shenzhui nodded without comment. There are twenty people in the workshop, and the number of miners is about the same, adding up to less than fifty people.

For a hundred households, a workshop and miners with fifty people are not a small number, but for Zhu Shenzhui, these people are far from enough.

After taking a look around and carefully examining the facilities and production conditions in the workshop, Zhu Shenzhui spoke to Zhao Da alone. As Zhu Shenzhui spoke, Zhao Da's expression gradually became serious. After Zhu Shenzhui finished speaking, Zhao Da seemed to be thinking about something.

"Old Hu!"

"Sixth Master, please give your orders."

"I remember that the imperial court has abolished the mining tax supervision system, right?"

"Sixth Master, you have a good memory. After Emperor Wanli passed away last year, the imperial court issued an edict. Now all the mining supervisors and tax supervisors in various places have left."

"Haha, tell me, now that the mining supervisor and tax supervisor are gone, are the lives of the miners and the people better? Or are they getting more difficult?" Zhu Shenzhui asked with a smile.

"This..." Hu Yishen didn't know how to answer for a moment. He was originally a miner. The main reason why he followed Li Hu to cause trouble in the mine and killed people and ran to Yangtou Mountain to become a bandit was because the mine supervisor and the mine manager at that time oppressed him too much.

But to be fair, as a miner, Hu Yisheng was very familiar with the conditions in the mines. Even after he arrived at Yangtou Mountain, he also had some understanding of the conditions of the local mines. What Zhu Shenzhui asked seemed to be easy to answer, but in reality it was not as simple as black and white.

During the Wanli reign, the Emperor sent mining and tax supervisors to various places to control the mining and tax revenues of the country. This practice caused great dissatisfaction among the civil service group. In the eyes of the civil service group, the emperor's actions were equivalent to competing with the people for benefits. In order to stop Wanli from doing so, the civil service group asked the emperor to withdraw this practice countless times, so as to "return the benefits to the people."

But in fact, although Emperor Wanli verbally agreed, he had always firmly controlled the mines and taxes across the country, and delayed implementation for so many years. In these years, he always used eunuchs as mine supervisors and tax supervisors to ensure the court's mining income and tax revenue. Until the day of Wanli's death, Emperor Wanli did not give up this right. After Wanli's death, the civil service group no longer had any suppression, so they took the opportunity of drafting the will and persuaded the successor Emperor Taichang to completely abolish this system by order of the court.

In theory, the abolition of mining and tax inspectors seemed to be a good thing, but the problem was that without the mining and tax inspectors sent by the emperor, there would be no change at all for the common people.

Regardless of whether the civil officials said that they were competing with the people for profits or that they later benefited the people, the "people" here never represented the common people. The so-called people were nothing more than the interests of the civil officials and local groups. When Wanli did this, the people who suffered were not the common people, but the civil officials and the local governments themselves.

In fact, for ordinary people, no matter what they do, whether it is farming, mining or doing some small business, they just want to support their families and live well. What do mineral resources have to do with ordinary people? Ordinary people are nothing more than workers. Does who controls the company have anything to do with the workers? If you change a big boss, workers are still workers. As long as the wages are paid on time and there is no wage arrears, isn't it the same for workers to work for whom?

It is much easier to understand if we use this situation to describe it, but after the boss is replaced, whether the workers' lives are good or not, only the workers themselves can understand.

Hu Yishen was born a miner, and even though he had followed Li Hu and become a bandit because of the oppression of the mine supervisor, from the current situation, although the court abolished the mine supervisor and tax supervisor, and the eunuchs sent to the local areas by the emperor also left in disgrace, the civil service group and local interest groups that took over did not bring any benefits to ordinary people. It can even be said that in some aspects, the oppression of ordinary people is even worse.

To put it in one sentence, when the previous mining supervisor and tax supervisor were in office, the workers under them worked 996 hours a day. So after these people were driven away, people thought that life would be better. However, who would have thought that the civil service group and local interest groups not only failed to rectify the situation, but on the contrary made things worse.

From 996 directly to 007, these guys have bigger appetites than those eunuchs without balls. In addition, the local governments are all controlled by the civil service group, and an unbreakable interest group has been formed from top to bottom. Compared with the previous struggle and tit-for-tat between the imperial power and the civil service group, it has now almost become a one-man show.

Without any restraint, they became unscrupulous and exploitation became more serious. In many places, the situation was even worse than when the mining and tax supervisors were in office.

When Wanli was in power, at least the court could collect taxes from these places. But now, not only are these taxes gone, but even the lives of ordinary people are not much better than before.

Even though Hu Yisheng himself did not have a good impression of these mining supervisors and tax supervisors, he had to admit that after the imperial court abolished the mining supervisory and tax supervisory system, the miners and miners in many local mines did not have a very good life.

Hu Yisheng hesitated for a moment, then told the truth about his feelings. After he finished speaking, he couldn't help but sigh: "The tiger in the East Mountain wants to eat people, and the tiger in the West Mountain wants to eat people too."

Patting Hu Yisheng on the shoulder, Zhu Shenzhui nodded. What he said was true, and Hu Yisheng was right.

In the past, Emperor Wanli used mining supervisors and tax supervisors to control mineral taxes across the country. In order to oppose the nice words of this civil service group, he would also privately fight for some rights for the people appropriately. Coupled with high-sounding propaganda, the illiterate people would think that the emperor was wrong to do so. Only by abolishing this system and benefiting the people could everyone's life become better.

But once they achieved their goal, these people's true colors were revealed. Without the emperor's constraints, they did whatever they wanted and were much bolder than the original mine and tax supervisors.

It seemed that in order to get back the benefits that were taken away by the emperor, he wanted to eat himself into a fat man in one breath. In just half a year, with the departure of the mining and tax supervisors, many places in the local area suddenly became chaotic, and the common people not only did not benefit at all, but also complained bitterly.

"Talk to Lao Hu. Don't use the name of the Hundred Households Office. Try to gather some miners here privately and settle them here directly when the time comes." Zhu Shenzhui stretched out his hand, drew a circle, and said to Hu Yisheng.

"Sixth Master, it's not difficult to find some people, but please tell me how many people to find."

"Try to pick some strong men, preferably those who have no family ties. As for how many people..." Zhu Shenzhui thought for a while and said, "Let's find two or three hundred people first, and as for the future... we'll talk about it then."

"So many people?" Lu Yisheng was shocked. Zhaowuling was just a hundred-household unit, and the entire unit only had a few hundred people in total. If the people from Zhaowu Village were added, the population of the unit here was not small now, and was about the same as the previous number of people in Wangjia Village.

Excluding the old, weak, women and children, there are nearly two hundred strong men who can be mobilized. Now Zhu Shenzhu wants to get two to three hundred strong miners to the Hundred Households Unit at once. If their families are included, the number will be much larger. How can the current scale of the Hundred Households Unit support so many people?

What's more, Hu Yisheng was very familiar with the mining situation here. These people were enough for the moment and there was no need for so many people.

"I have my own plan for this matter. Go ahead and find the person. I will have my own arrangements when you find him. Don't worry, if the Hundred Households need anything, just go directly to the Guards."

Zhu Shenzhui had said so, and although Hu Yisheng was confused, he agreed immediately. After all, his current status and position were given by Zhu Shenzhui. Not to mention finding some miners, even if he was asked to go through fire and water, Hu Yisheng would not frown.

Compared with Yangtou Mountain, Zhu Shenzhui paid more attention to Zhaowuling. The reason was very simple, because of the mines and workshops here.

The mining of mines, the smelting and manufacturing of workshops are more important than the establishment of the 100-household offices. It can even be said that the establishment of these two 100-household offices is mainly due to this reason. It doesn't matter if Hu Yisheng doesn't understand it now, he will slowly understand it in the future.

(End of this chapter)