Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 289 The Gentry's Total Defeat (Two in One)

"… Your Majesty, I, Wang Shouren, have a report. Recently, during the artillery test in Xuanfu, the gunpowder was mostly mixed with mud and sand, and all of it needs to be replaced. If there is an enemy situation, the consequences will be disastrous! And the officials in charge of gunpowder in the capital must be corrupt. Your Majesty, please investigate it strictly, otherwise it will destroy the foundation of our Ming Dynasty!

...In Xuanfu, everyone from the general to the generals concealed the truth. I received a huge sum of money to get the secret. After investigating this matter, I found that it was related to the eunuch Wei in the palace. I dare not make rash assumptions, so I have informed Your Majesty and ask Your Majesty to make the decision..."

After Zhu Houzhao read Wang Shouren's secret report, his expression became serious:

"Wei Bin? He is now in charge of the gunpowder bureau. I never thought that he would dare to collude with the border army generals to adulterate the gunpowder!

So, Wei Bin is undoubtedly a corrupt official. I have been in power for a long time, so I can't help but not see the dark side under the lamp. The ministers in the court also didn't notice it? Why did they still recommend Wei Bin?"

Zhu Houzhao had a premonition that he seemed to be deceived by everyone, or that everyone was using him as a fool.

But no matter what, Zhu Houzhao felt that he had to at least adhere to the principle of trusting people when employing them and not employing people he doubted. No matter who between Luo Xiang and Wei Bin was more suitable to go to Songjiang Prefecture to open a new weaving bureau, at least he could not change the generals at the critical moment.

Regardless of whether the cabinet ministers were right or wrong in persuading themselves to replace people on the grounds of improper employment, at least the Wei Bin they recommended does not seem to be a better candidate. This shows that these cabinet ministers either made unclear recommendations or were acting against their conscience. In other words, the people who recommended Wei Bin were either stupid or bad!
Zhu Houzhao called Wen Zhengming from the attendant room and said, "Draft an imperial decree and tell Luo Xiang that if he still can't start the new weaving bureau before the announcement of the spring list of the 18th year of Zhengde, he will be hanged! He doesn't need to come back to Beijing to see me!"

Zhu Houzhao gave Luo Xiang an ultimatum. He believed that even if Luo Xiang was a pig, he would be forced to come up with a solution.

Emperor Zhu Houzhao did not replace Luo Xiang, but simply demanded that Luo Xiang do something in the form of a death order, which surprised the cabinet chief Wang Qiong and others. They were a little disappointed that His Majesty did not follow the trap they set, but they did not try to stop the emperor, because for the gentry of Songjiang Prefecture, they could only help here.

At the same time, they now had to think seriously about why the emperor suddenly changed his mind.

……

Songjiang Prefecture at this time.

Luo Xiang also knew that if he dragged on like this, it would not only cause the emperor to be furious, but would also give these gentry and the civil servants behind them the opportunity to frame him.

But Luo Xiang did not sit idly by.

In other words, the situation in the Ming Dynasty did not sit idly by; the entire social structure was fluid and changing.

In order to expose the lies fabricated by the gentry to the people of Songjiang Prefecture, completely separate the two forces of gentry and people, and to enhance his credibility as a high-ranking eunuch in the inner court, Luo Xiang took out 10,000 silver dollars and stated that the first ten people who sold cotton and raw silk to the weaving bureau would receive a one-time reward of 1,000 silver dollars.

In the current Ming Dynasty, the value of silver dollars is not much different from that of old silver, and one thousand silver dollars is equivalent to a huge sum of money in this era, which can basically make people rich!
Under such temptation, there were naturally people who dared to try and came to the weaving bureau with carts of cotton and raw silk.

Luo Xiang paid the one thousand silver dollars in full, and gave them one more silver dollar, asking them to spread the news that his weaving bureau was purchasing cotton at a high price.

Luo Xiang's method was quite similar to that of setting up a wooden stake at a city gate, but the effect was indeed obvious. Once they were convinced that the inner court really wanted to purchase cotton and raw silk at a high price, they all flocked to him, no longer caring whether Luo Xiang was a eunuch or not. Some even rushed to transport their own cotton and raw silk overnight in order to get a reward of 1,000 silver dollars.

Besides.

Some people who had already sold their cotton and silk to the gentry, or had agreed to sell them to the gentry, also began to change their minds and demanded that the gentry who had bought their cotton and silk increase the price or return the money, saying that these gentry had deceived them and fooled them into not believing that the weaving bureau was buying their cotton and silk at 50% higher than the market price.

The gentry naturally would not agree and took out the contract.

This immediately caused a rift in the relationship between the gentry and the common people.

She Kaide also found Zhou Jiansheng and begged him, "Mr. Zhou, please cancel my order. I will return the deposit to you. You said that you were at a disadvantage by buying my cotton and raw silk. Now that the weaving bureau is really going to buy them at a price 50% higher than the market price, it would be better to sell them to the weaving bureau. They are at a disadvantage anyway, so this way you won't suffer any loss. What do you think?"

She Kai now deeply regretted that he had believed Zhou Jiansheng's words and agreed to sell his cotton and raw silk to Zhou Jiansheng at a price half higher than the market price. Now that the news spread that the Weaving Bureau indeed purchased at a price 50% higher than the market price, he naturally came to find Zhou Jiansheng.

However, he couldn't directly tell Zhou Jiansheng that he had deceived him, so he just begged Zhou Jiansheng tactfully, hoping that Zhou Jiansheng would show mercy.

How could Zhou Jiansheng give up the large number of cotton and raw silk orders that he had already signed? So he did not agree to this request:
"Uncle She, you signed it in black and white and put your fingerprints on it, so how can you go back on your word? It's your kindness that you don't want Zhou to lose money, but the transaction must be carried out according to the contract!"

She Kaide knew that he could not afford to offend Zhou Jiansheng alone, so he had to leave Zhou Jiansheng's mansion in anger. However, he immediately took a group of neighbors to the Zhou ancestral hall to make a scene, demanding that the Zhou clan members preside over a public discussion and return the cotton and raw silk that they had cheated from the neighbors.

Naturally, the Zhou clan members were unwilling to return the money. After all, they had the contract in their hands. They were busy gathering clan members and even persuaded the Huating County Magistrate to bring people to suppress the rebellious farmers.

Naturally, She Kaide and other peasants were unwilling to give up, so they came to the government to file complaints, and they went to the prefectural government office in Songjiang Prefecture.

Like She Kaide and other farmers, many common people and small landlords in other counties of Songjiang Prefecture who were unwilling to have their cotton and raw silk cheated by gentry with merchant backgrounds had disputes with their local gentry and even gentry of the same clan. Many of them even had direct fights, and there were even cases of casualties.

Of course, many people came to the Songjiang Prefecture's yamen to file complaints.

For a while.

Because Luo Xiang's new weaving bureau purchased cotton and raw silk at a price 50% higher than the market price, the relationship between the gentry and the common people in Songjiang Prefecture suddenly changed from being inseparable to being incompatible!
All of a sudden, the gentry and the common people were separated.

Even the contradiction between gentry and common people became more and more intense. Some gentry relied on their clan power to prohibit common people and small landlords from selling cotton and raw silk to the weaving bureau. The common people and small landlords were naturally unwilling to lose the opportunity to make money, so they stood up against the clan.

In Songjiang Prefecture, where urbanization has been highly developed, most common people and small landlords have some shadows of modern citizens. In addition, with the improvement of education, these common people and small landlords are evenly matched with the gentry in fighting. The gentry can join forces with the government to suppress them, and they can also force the government to suppress the gentry.

at this time.

The one who had the most headaches was Xiong Jia, the prefect of Songjiang Prefecture.

He was now in a dilemma. On the one hand, he was threatened by the six ministries in Nanjing and even by the nobles and high-ranking officials to send troops to suppress the troublemakers. On the other hand, he was strictly ordered by the governor and even the capital not to incite civil unrest and to deal with the situation properly.

Xiong Jia did not expect that the relationship between gentry and common people would suddenly become so bad.

But he could only appease both sides. On the one hand, he arrested all the gentry and common people who had committed criminal cases, and on the other hand, he strictly ordered all counties to release the common people and gentry who were detained in the classroom without reason.

At the same time, Xiong Jia could only strengthen the strength of the police force and set up police stations in all towns and villages in Songjiang Prefecture. Some large towns even had two or three police stations to maintain public order and avoid large-scale armed fights.

In this way, the grassroots controlled by the gentry clans were invisibly brought back into the hands of the court officials, strengthening the court officials' control over the grassroots.

The gentry group, because of their selfishness and profit-seeking in the commodity economy, began to gradually lose their credibility among the common people and small landlords, and gradually lost their control over the grassroots, allowing the government to continuously strengthen its power to intervene in civil control.

But the initial reason for all these changes was simply because Luo Xiang came to Songjiang Prefecture to open a weaving bureau and brazenly purchased Songjiang Prefecture's basic economic products, namely cotton and raw silk, at prices 50% higher than the market price. This led to the gentry losing their market monopoly power, while the common people had a better channel to sell their surplus labor value, that is, they no longer had to rely on the gentry to obtain wealth.

However, now, Luo Xiang and his weaving bureau, who were the cause of all these changes, did not experience any more turmoil. They successfully established the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau in Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture, and officially started the production activities of spinning and reeling silk using steam spinning machines. Within just a few days, the entire Jiangnan Weaving Bureau began to spin new yarn and reel new silk continuously.

The people in the surrounding areas also began to transport cotton and raw silk to the weaving bureau, and some even came from Huzhou, Suzhou and other places. The reason was that the purchasing price of the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau was high.

The gentry also knew that they had lost the war for the textile raw material market. Because of this war, their relations with the common people of their clan or village began to deteriorate, giving the court an opportunity to profit.

But what they didn't understand was why the New Weaving Bureau, which represented the interests of the royal family and the court, dared to purchase cotton and raw silk at a price 50% higher than the market price!

"Don't they want to make money in the Weaving Bureau?!"

Zhou Jiansheng had this question at this time. He didn't understand why the new weaving bureau should raise the price so high.

“Your Majesty’s servants are raising the purchase price of cotton and raw silk, just to take the cotton and raw silk away from us. From now on, the people will no longer live under our rule, but under their rule. In this way, the court officials can naturally control us gentry at will!

However, in this case, I do not believe that his weaving bureau can make more money. The price of exported cotton and silk has been reduced by half this year. I want to see if his weaving bureau dares to reduce the export price! "

At this time, Nanjing Minister of Works Zhou Yongze was sitting in front of Zhou Jiansheng and laughed coldly.

"Just as my brother said, their weaving bureau has already raised the price of purchasing cotton and raw silk by 50%, and then reduced the export price by half a percent. I'm afraid their weaving bureau will suffer huge losses! Even if His Majesty does not investigate, how can His Majesty's officials not investigate? At that time, my brother can just ask the inspector to check the accounts of his weaving bureau according to the rules. If the profit is small or even loss-making, the weaving bureau will be reported. Then we'll see what Luo Xiang will do!"

Zhou Jiansheng also said with a sneer.

"I'm afraid there's no need to go through so much trouble. The officials in the court have probably already persuaded His Majesty to transfer Luo Xiang back to the capital. By then, the new seal holder of the Weaving Bureau will naturally be of the same clan as us literati," Zhou Yong said.

"This is even better. If a new eunuch comes, we will have the final say on how the weaving bureau purchases cotton and exports it. As long as the new eunuch is willing to understand current affairs, he will naturally understand that no matter how well the weaving bureau is run, it still belongs to the emperor, and only what goes into his pocket is real money!"

Zhou Jiansheng said goodbye to his brother and immediately returned to Songjiang Prefecture. Coincidentally, on his way back to Songjiang Prefecture, Zhou Jiansheng also met the eunuchs from the palace who were delivering the message. He thought it was the imperial decree to transfer Luo Xiang back home, so he couldn't help but laugh and said:

"It must be that the court wants to transfer Luo Xiang back to the capital. It seems that my brother's guess is correct. The officials in the palace have persuaded His Majesty! Let this unsympathetic eunuch go back to the capital! Let's go to the Weaving Bureau and see how Eunuch Luo looks so dirty. Just thinking about it makes me excited. Hahaha! I have never seen a eunuch look so disappointed!"

This week, Jiansheng came to the Weaving Bureau, and at this time, he heard that the Emperor only issued an edict urging Luo Xiang to open the Weaving Bureau as soon as possible, and did not want to transfer Luo Xiang back to Beijing.

"How could this happen? Did the officials in the court fail to persuade His Majesty to transfer Luo Xiang back to the capital?"

Zhou Jiansheng felt very disappointed and his mood suddenly became bad. He was so depressed that he just wanted to bang his head against the wall three hundred times.

Luo Xiang was in a very bad mood at this time. Although Zhu Houzhao did not transfer him back to Beijing as the civil officials and literati wished, the emperor's decree that he would die if the school could be opened as soon as possible made him feel the anger from the emperor Zhu Houzhao. He also guessed the pressure from the court officials and the secret frame-up of a group of civil officials in the outer court.

Luo Xiang did not hate Zhu Houzhao. What he hated was that the entire civil service group actually wanted to transfer him back to Beijing so that they could succeed in their conspiracy. Luo Xiang knew that the new weaving bureau he had to open this time must be run well and realize huge profits through the application of new steam engine technology. Only in this way could he make His Majesty believe in him and make the civil servants and literati who attempted to harm him dare not speak out even if their interests were damaged.

The depressed gentry such as Zhou Jiansheng were still unwilling to accept that Luo Xiang and his new weaving bureau were nailed to Songjiang Prefecture like a magnet, and almost all the cotton and raw silk in Songjiang Prefecture were sucked over there. Therefore, they continued to fight with the new weaving bureau in the textile market.

Zhou Jiansheng and other gentry directly united and lowered the price of textiles shipped overseas by half, hoping to monopolize the entire export market through price wars.

"Godfather, the prices of textiles exported by major trading companies in Songjiang Prefecture to Haimao Company have dropped by half compared to last year! They are deliberately targeting our Weaving Bureau!" Diao Yong hurriedly reported this phenomenon to Luo Xiang.

Luo Xiangze looked at the workshop where the fire was roaring and the hot water and steam were boiling, and smiled:

"How can these guys who only know how to make money, buy land and women know what is called technological advantage? I have asked the business administration students hired from the Imperial University to calculate. According to the level of our weaving bureau's steam engine, even if the export price is reduced by 70% compared to the previous year, it will still be profitable. This is the result after we increase the price of cotton and raw silk and the wages of workers. Inform the Haimao Company that the prices of our weaving bureau's cotton cloth, silk and other textiles will all be reduced by 20% compared to the export market price last year!"

"What? Reduce it by 30%! What is Luo Xiang trying to do? Does he really want to fight the gentry of Songjiang Prefecture to the end? Does he really want to bully all the gentry of Songjiang Prefecture and make them afraid to fight? After all, we are all wealthy businessmen! How can we be bullied by a castrated dog like him? Even if we don't make any profit this year, we must fight to the end and continue to reduce the export price by 30%!"

Gentry like Zhou Jiansheng were completely furious. They didn't expect the Weaving Bureau would dare to do this.

Luo Xiang is now relying on his technological advantage in steam engines to continue lowering prices, announcing that the export price will be reduced by 40% compared to last year!
The gentry had no choice but to grit their teeth and lower the price again, to 45%!
Luo Xiang already knew that his weaving bureau had steam engines, so he could still make a profit even if the export price dropped to 70%. Therefore, he simply lowered the price to 50% of last year's export price!

Zhou Jiansheng and other gentry continued to reduce the price to 55%, even at the cost of reducing the wages of their own shop workers a little more.

But Luo Xiang's weaving bureau continued to reduce the price to 60%.

This time, the gentry no longer dared to surrender and had to give up.

Luo Xiang's weaving bureau also won the price war.

but.

The gentry were all waiting to see Luo Xiang's joke and the extent of his losses. Some gentry had even contacted the censor to impeach Luo Xiang for his poor management of the weaving bureau, which resulted in the bureau's losses.

But in fact, Luo Xiang's bottom line is that he can still make a profit if the price drops to 70%. Now it has only dropped to 60%. Naturally, the profit is still higher than the profit the gentry made from exporting textiles last year.

of course.

The gentry and civil servants were still confused. They just thought that since Luo Xiang dared to lower the price so much, he must be risking the weaving bureau to suffer huge losses.

then.

Hu Shi, the imperial censor of Nanzhili, sent troops to suddenly surround the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in the eighteenth year of Zhengde! The reason was to check the accounts!

The Inspector-General had this power. As long as it was within the jurisdiction of Nanzhili, he could investigate almost anything.

Luo Xiang did not stop the inspector Hu Shi from checking his account books. He just sneered and said, "Inspector Hu is really courageous. After all, the Weaving Bureau is a royal property. The East Factory didn't check it much, but you dare to check it."

"I have also received reports that the people in your weaving bureau are operating the bureau recklessly, causing huge losses to the bureau. It is precisely because this is a royal industry that I feel that this matter cannot be underestimated!"

After saying this, Hu Shi shouted, "Let me carefully examine it and see how much the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau has lost!"

It was a strange phenomenon that civil officials began to care about the profitability of the industries under the name of Emperor Zhu Houzhao, but in fact, this happened, and the Inspector General Hu Shi now became the most loyal person to Zhu Houzhao.

However, at this time, Hu Shi's staff came running over and said, "Master, we have found out that the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau has made a profit of 800,000 silver dollars from exports. This is just the total from December last year to February this year! This profit has exceeded half of the total value of textile exports in Songjiang Prefecture!"

"What! How can you earn so much? This is impossible! This is impossible!"

Hu Shiben thought that there was irrefutable evidence that the newly established weaving bureau was making losses, otherwise they would not have dared to lower the export price and even raised the purchase prices of cotton and other products before that. Therefore, after receiving instructions from bigwigs such as Nanjing Minister of Industry Zhou Yong, he hurried to search the weaving bureau.

But what Hu Shi didn't expect was that the Weaving Bureau didn't lose money, but made a lot of money! He couldn't believe it was true.

"Go check it quickly, check it again," Hu Shi roared hysterically.

After a while, the results of the recalculation came out, and the newly established weaving bureau still made a profit of more than 800,000 silver dollars from December last year to February this year!

"Why is this happening?" Hu Shi said dejectedly.

"This is confidential. Without His Majesty's permission, I cannot tell you. However, if Hu Xun'an still doesn't believe it, I can take you to see the cash and silver dollars that the New Weaving Bureau has recently earned!"

Luo Xiang naturally guessed that Hu Shi must have been instigated by the entire civil service group behind the scenes to come and investigate his weaving bureau. Therefore, when he saw that Hu Shi was frustrated because he failed to find out that his weaving bureau was losing money, he could not help but feel happy.

but.

The Inspector-General Hu Shi could only leave the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau in disgrace.

"Strange, how did the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau achieve such huge profits! What on earth do they rely on to be so fearless?" Zhou Jiansheng and other gentry had already learned about the skyrocketing profits of the Weaving Bureau, and because of this, they were in a bad mood. However, he would not have expected that something bad was happening.

In order to engage in a price war with Luo Xiang and seize all the textile markets in this way, the gentry of Songjiang Prefecture, however, did not want to lose too much, so they transferred the reduced profit margins caused by lowering prices to their own workers.

As a result, some workers began to strike and even petition in order to demand that these gentry bosses pay them the wages they were owed.

For a time, the gentry of the entire Songjiang Prefecture had to be harassed by the workers again after having just been harassed by the common people.

The prefect Xiong Jia had to run around busy with these matters.

On the contrary, Luo Xiang has now completely established the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau's leading position in the textile industry in Songjiang Prefecture. He allowed the people to profit by raising the prices of raw materials such as cotton and then monopolized the upstream raw material market. Then, because he had a highly efficient steam engine and a machine that did not require much manpower, he almost completely monopolized the export of textiles from Songjiang Prefecture.

"Asshole, these workers, why do they want wages? If it were a few years ago, they would only be doing corvée labor. It's simply wishful thinking to want wages for corvée labor! Beat the leading worker to death!"

Zhou Jiansheng was completely furious when he saw that the workers from his own shop had come to make trouble. He didn't expect that his workers would be so impatient, so he could only scold them a few words.

……

As expected, Zhou Jiansheng had the leading worker beaten to death, but the public sentiment did not subside, and instead became even more intense.

The contradiction between the gentry and the common people intensified again, and the contradiction between the urban class and the aristocratic class began to manifest itself.

But all this has nothing to do with Luo Xiang now. Luo Xiang now relies on his steam power to frantically expand the scale of production and occupy the entire maritime trade textile market. He attempts to transport more silver dollars into Beijing to make His Majesty happy and at the same time give a slap in the face to those who slander him in the court.

This is Luo Xiang’s purpose.

But maybe the steam industry can really bring about a revolution. Now Luo Xiang is relying on this to make all the gentry in Songjiang Prefecture fool around, making all the gentry in Songjiang Prefecture hated by the common people.

This chapter is actually mainly about the changes brought about by the application of steam engines. Because the imperial court's official enterprises, namely the weaving bureau in the article, mastered advanced technology, they were able to win the price war with the gentry. Thank you 20171129111609370 for the 500 reward! It's been a long time since I got a reward, and finally got one! Thank you to my book friend Mocha for the Qidian coins reward.

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(End of this chapter)