Chastity Layman

Lingnan.

At the end of February, Guangzhou was still caught in a cold spring. Even the bustling Guangzhou pier seemed much deserted. The southerners who were used to the cool spring in the south of the Five Ridges couldn't help hiding in the house and warming up by the fire.

Although it is far away from the Central Plains, Guangzhou is open to the world and connected with the world. Those merchants who travel south and north are well-informed.

In the major commercial halls on the wharf, merchants gathered around the fire and drank tea while exchanging various information, including business information from various places and political and current events from Chang'an in the inland. In the past few days, one of the most discussed news in Guangzhou Port is undoubtedly the death of the Supreme Emperor in the Hall of Longevity in the Tai Chi Palace.

The death of the Supreme Emperor Dragon Yu at the age of 71 is actually not a big deal to the merchants. Gaiyin, the founding king of the Tang Dynasty, abdicated as early as nine years ago. Today's son has been in power for nine years, so the death of the Supreme Emperor will not affect the current situation and policies in the slightest.

The most important thing for businessmen is the stability of policies, especially the emphasis on the development of industry and commerce in the Zhenguan Dynasty. If today's Khan, who is heavy on industry and trade, dies in the Tai Chi Palace, it is estimated that every businessman will feel like a mourner, and everyone will worry about the future. With the direction of the political situation, I don't know whether people will die or not.

But has the Supreme Emperor in Daming Palace left? Life is still the same.

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News of the death has reached Guangzhou.

Guangzhou's economic strategy envoy Xingyuan and the Governor's Mansion set up white banners immediately, and the servants also spread the funeral news to Chuzhou, counties and towns, and then the whole country wanted to mourn for the Supreme Emperor.

Fortunately, the national funeral of the Supreme Emperor has little influence on ordinary people. The governor's office has ordered that the nine prefectures in the south of the Five Ridges prohibit entertainment and drinking for seven days, and marriage and marriage are prohibited for seven days.

After seven days, back to normal.

The governor's mansion, government offices and schools all over the country will set up altars to commemorate the emperor Yutian in Chang'an.

Sitting in front of the charcoal stove, setting a side stove, and replacing wine with tea, everyone also changed from the gorgeous silk jackets and mink fur coats, and rarely put on cloth clothes.

In fact, this commoner looks plain, but it is cotton cloth woven from white cotton, which is a specialty of the Qin family in Wu'an Prefecture, and it is paired with the brocade woven by the local bureaucrats in the Lang Son mountain area. The surface is plain, but the dark is low-key and luxurious.

The merchants in Guangzhou are also grouped together. Just look at the rows of guild halls built at the port docks. The first large hall is the Chang’an Guild Hall. These are businessmen from Chang’an, the capital city of the Central Plains. These merchants have a characteristic, most of them are The front shopkeeper of the rich and powerful.

Each of them is powerful, rich and powerful, behind each of them is either rich or noble, either a prime minister or a prince, and at last must be a foreign relative. If you only have General Hou Bo as the backstage, you can only be one in the Chang'an Guild Hall Running errands.

Second only to the Chang'an Guild Hall is the Luoyang Guild Hall, which is dominated by Shandong gentry, with five surnames and seven clans in Shandong, such as Liu Zhang Zhao Wang Yan and so on. They are all well-known gentry clan surnames who have been famous for centuries or even hundreds of years.

Behind these two top-level guild halls are Yangzhou guild halls, Yizhou guild halls, Jingzhou guild halls, Hangzhou guild halls, and other local businessmen who joined forces to establish them.

On the contrary, the local business gangs in Lingnan, such as Guangzhou Guild Hall, Guizhou Guild Hall, Yongzhou Guild Hall, and Jiaozhou Guild Hall, seem to be a bit weak, no matter the size of the guild hall, the height of the building, or even the staff they employ, etc. They are far inferior to those dragons crossing the river.

Even the Wu'an Guild Hall is much larger than the Guangzhou Guild Hall.

As for Jiangxi guild halls, Xiaoxiang guild halls, Fujian guild halls, Zhejiang guild halls, Jiangdong guild halls, etc., are even smaller.

But no matter which businessman in the guild hall, they like to talk about current affairs, and even talk freely, pointing out the country, just like the prime minister of the Zhengshitang.

Changsun Fu was holding a teapot, listening to the chatter of his companions from the capital, but he just didn't say a word. This businessman with the surname of Changsun knew that it was unusual just by hearing his surname. Members of the Queen's family are descendants of the Changsun family in Henan. They work outside the home for the Changsun family and manage business.

He is the nephew of Prime Minister Zhao Guogong's eldest grandson Wuji's family, and he bears the title of the eldest grandson family, but he is just a very humble son of a side branch, even a maidservant. In the Tang Dynasty, children born to maidservants were sometimes humble and could not be recorded in the genealogy, and their status was not recognized by the clan.

Especially if the maid is still a slave instead of a hired maid, sometimes the sons born may also be reduced to the status of slaves. After giving birth, the status is very low when they grow up.

The family's reputation, title and wealth have nothing to do with them. Their best way out is actually to take care of the family's affairs and be a reliable steward.

He can be regarded as a high-level servant, but he still can't get rid of this status.

Changsun Fu understood this since he was a child, and he also started to work for the Changsun family very early. Now he is in his forties, and he is known in the family for his shrewdness and ability. He has even been praised by Changsun Wuji several times. The property of the eldest grandson's family in Lingnan.

He prefers Guangzhou to Chang'an.

The sky is high and the emperor is far away. Here, everyone respects him. Most of this respect comes from the word "changsun". He likes this feeling very much. servant.

He is the representative of the eldest grandson family.

"I heard that the imperial decree ordered Duke Wei to return to Chang'an as soon as possible."

Gao Dalin from the Gao family in Bohai said with a smile, "Mr. Wei is still the envoy of the Xianling Mausoleum, and he will definitely go back. I heard that because Duke Wei is not in Beijing, the sage appointed seven former prime ministers and current prime ministers to serve as envoys of the mausoleum."

"Actually, Duke Wei has already built the Xianling camp when he was the envoy of the mountain mausoleum. Even the Zhaoling Mausoleum of Jiuyi Mountain, which is now a saint, has been under construction for several years, and it is basically completed."

The Taishang Emperor’s mausoleum was consecrated with earth as the mausoleum, but today’s Zhaoling Mausoleum is made of mountains. Fengtu Mausoleum is to pile up a huge man-made earth mountain directly on a flat ground to make the emperor’s mausoleum, and because of the mountain as the mausoleum is to choose a mountain. , Dig out the emperor's tomb.

Because the mountain is a mausoleum, the amount of work is undoubtedly smaller.

However, the Zhaoling Mausoleum was built early, and it cost a lot of money. The emperor circled a large piece of land as the mausoleum area, and the entire Jiuyi Mountain was used as the emperor's mausoleum. Hundreds of positions were marked out, and special rewards were given to the heroes and generals of the Zhenguan Dynasty, as well as the noble family and so on.

The major families who were honored to be buried with the Zhaoling Mausoleum also began to build their own tombs early on. They were basically earth-covered. They were built early, piled up the soil and left a good place, and then built a small manor with various stone figures. Stone horses, etc., can be repaired for many years.

The construction of only one Zhaoling Mausoleum, the Emperor's Mausoleum and the tombs of the honored relatives recruited countless craftsmen and peasants to do the work, and even led to the prosperity of Liquan County. The population of Liquan County increased greatly and consumption soared.

Building mausoleums is very costly. The number of stonemasons alone is astonishing. Since Zhenguan, the imperial court has sufficient finances. The imperial court conscripted for service at every turn, free of charge, and had to bring their own dry food.

Now it has been changed to hiring, spending money to hire labor, the treatment of craftsmen has risen, and they are all looking forward to being recruited by the government, because now they have money to work, and the wages are still quite a lot.

Works such as the construction of the Xianling and Zhaoling Mausoleums are big jobs and can be done for many years. Except for the temporary suspension of work during the busy farming season every year, the craftsmen can work for many months a year, have a stable income, and the wages are not low. , especially masons.

Due to the huge increase in demand, the treatment of stonemasons has risen. In recent years, the income of stonemasons in Guanzhong has increased several times.

As a result, countless children from poor farmers went to learn masonry. This work used to be hard work, laborious, hard and dirty, but now the income is the highest among all kinds of workers, second only to blacksmiths, and before carpenters.

After working for a year, you can buy a lot of new fields, and after working for a few years, you can build a new house.

Many fathers took their sons, and elder brothers took their younger brothers to do it.

For businessmen, these big projects are also good projects for them to make money. Needless to say, providing various raw materials, and even repairing various kilns, such as brick kilns, charcoal kilns, tile kilns, etc., these can be regarded as high-tech and high-profit industry.

Not to mention purchasing and transporting some giant logs, boulders and other materials from thousands of miles away, the profit is higher.

The Guanzhong merchants in the Lingnan Chang'an Guild Hall purchased all kinds of wood and stone from Lingnan and transported them back to Guanzhong among many business projects.

This kind of work can't be done by ordinary small businesses, it must be done by big businesses like them, and it is profitable.

Just like Mr. Qianwei proposed to rebuild the Meiguan Road in Dalingling, from planning and design to construction, and then to the completion of the road, connecting the south and north sides of the Lingling Mountains, the whole journey is nearly a hundred miles, but it was completed in just a few months.

Its efficiency is quite astonishing.

And the secret here is also very simple, that is, the planned route of Meiguan New Road is very good, and the second is to adopt the form of investment contracting, which greatly improves the efficiency of the project.

Qin Lang did not adopt the traditional government-hosted method of recruiting civilian workers for construction. Instead, he directly split the entire Meiguan New Road into multiple projects, and then bid for investment. Everything is a business model. Sign a contract and pay in advance. 30% of the payment will be paid after passing the acceptance in stages.

Merchants opened mountains, felled trees, provided stones, repaired canals, paved roads, and a new road at Baili Meiguan. its long.

From Zhangshui in Ganzhou at the southern end of the Jiangnan West Road to Dayu, out of Meiguan in Dayuling, along the tributary of the Beijiang River, Zhenshui, through Nanxiong, Shixing to Shaoguan, and then along the Beijiang River, passing through Qujiang, Yingde, Qingyuan, to Guangzhou in the south .

The Meiguan New Road and the Beijiang Waterway started construction at the same time, and it took only a few months for the entire line to be completed.

The Meiguan New Road, which is one foot wide, is hundreds of miles long. The Meiling, which was the most difficult to walk in the past, is also paved with bluestone slabs. Once this road is opened, it can be said that Guangzhou has opened up a new line of governors in an instant.

Countless merchants directly crossed Meiling and connected to the south of the Yangtze River.

This saves a lot of time compared to the traditional Hunan-Guangxi passage, not to mention that it is closer to the Jiangnan area.