Chenggu County, the Qian family.
Early that morning, a group of vendors gathered together to block Qian Shengfu who was about to go out.
"Master Qian, you can't do this. The people in Osmanthus Alley have made all this money. What should we do? We all have to support our families!"
"That's right, Mr. Qian, you can't just make them rich but hurt us, right? My 70-year-old mother still has to rely on my small shop to make money for medical treatment."
"Mr. Qian, please do a good job and close it down directly, otherwise the market price will be restored directly!"
……
For a while, there was a lot of hustle and bustle, and it was so noisy that Qian Shengfu had a head and two heads.
"Everyone, be quiet, be quiet! Listen to me first! Everyone, you also know the situation over there. Although we do make money there, we don’t make much money. It’s all hard-earned money. Our main purpose is to allow people to buy affordable things and live a good life. . "
"Then you can't go by the cost price. How will we survive?"
"That's right! We all earn hard-earned money, but if you do this, we will all lose money!"
When Qian Shengfu heard this, he waved his hands and waited until everyone calmed down before continuing to explain:
“Everyone, I think I know more about the cost of opening a store than you do.
I know very well whether you make money or not, so there is no need to cry poverty in front of my money that brings happiness. "
"But, but, but I really make less money!"
"By the way, it's [-] to [-] percent missing. What should we do?"
"You can also lower the price and snatch back those customers! Small profits but quick turnover, do you understand?"
"Mr. Qian, don't bully us because we don't understand business. There are only so many people in this county. The more people go to your house to buy, the less people go to my house. Even if we have the same price as you, our customers won't No matter how much you increase, you will even earn less. Mr. Qian, aren’t you going to kill us!”
"Then what should we do? How about you find someone to close all the shops over there? See if the people over there agree!"
"Then, then, aren't we discussing this with you?"
"Then if you don't agree with what I said, why should we discuss it? Okay, okay, don't get stuck, I'm going to work in the store! That's it!"
……
After returning home in the evening, Qian Shengfu was called to the study by his father again.
"Shengfu, have you ever thought about the problem that your model will also harm our Qian family's business? In the past month, the business of our Qian family's tofu shop, rice shop, rice noodle shop, and pawn shop has been shrinking. If your scale continues to expand, then these shops of ours will not be opened, and they will die immediately! "
"There are also restaurants and jewelry shops. I heard that the business of these two has more than doubled."
"You, the business of these two has grown, but can you guarantee that you won't open a restaurant or jewelry shop there? I have seen that everything you use, you have to keep it in your own hands.
Can you really hold back? "
Qian Shengfu is speechless.
This really needs to be opened.
In fact, he has heard related complaints for a long time, saying that the food in the city center is too expensive and too far away. If they can open one there, it will be much more convenient, and you may even eat it often.
He even saw what Meng Huai and others were thinking. They just didn't want to impact their Qian family's business anymore.
But it's better to open up than to block. This restaurant and jewelry shop will have to open sooner or later, because they have the largest population.
There was nothing he could do about it, "What does daddy mean?"
"You have to find a way for us to survive. Otherwise, it will be a dead end and it will be of no benefit to anyone!"
"Let us also participate, so that everyone is a family, and naturally there will be no more complaints!"
"No, that is our property. It is the common property of the entire Osmanthus Alley and the four nearby streets. Besides, there is also a princess in it. Dad, you really think about it."
"Then have you ever thought about a problem? In this Chenggu County, with you and the princess here, you can do whatever you want, but when you go to other places, people will still let you go?"
At this point, Qian's father came to the conclusion, "You can't leave the county at all!"
As soon as these words came out, Qian Shengfu fell silent.
Yes, Master once said that interests are the key to achieving harmonious coexistence. Now that they want to squeeze the living space of those wealthy businessmen, they will naturally fight back strongly.
Yes, with the princess backing him up and him, the son of a wealthy businessman, dealing with it, there is basically no need to worry about Chenggu County, but what about outside, what about other counties, can they get in? Even if you can get in, I'm afraid you won't be able to use it.
Not to mention anything else, first of all, their skilled workers and production tools may not be able to handle it.
As for transporting it from here to there, let's not talk about whether it is cost-effective. The key point is whether the wealthy businessman will allow them to transport it smoothly?
Don't encounter dozens of robbers just after leaving the city.
So this matter still needs to be considered carefully.
Thinking of this, Qian Shengfu bowed deeply to his father and said, "Thank you, dad, for your advice. I understand! I will go to the princess and the others to discuss it now."
"Hey, hey, hey, let's go tomorrow. It's not good for you to go to the princess's place this late at night!"
"All right!"
……
Early the next morning, the five people involved in the plan to save the world and pacify the people gathered together again.
At the meeting, Qian Shengfu did not hide anything and directly stated all his father's concerns. He also emphasized that many people had complained to him recently, but he ignored them.
In response, the five people had different expressions.
Xia Yang was angry and said that these people wanted to pick peaches. They had just done it and they came to snatch them.
When those people made money in the past, why didn’t you think of giving them a share?
In this regard, Qian Shengfu has nothing to say.
Instead, Shen Mu expressed his helplessness, "Xia Yang, we do rely on them in some areas, such as some iron ore, copper ore, and salt, which are all in their hands.
Once they cut it off for us, our plan will be completely over. "
"What are you afraid of? There are many of us!"
"There are a lot of people, but do you want everyone to fight to the death? Everyone is here to eat, and they all want to live a stable life. You woke everyone up with a thought, and then put all the iron ore, copper ore, etc. Grab them all, what will we do next? From now on, we will be trapped in Chenggu County, so we can’t even think of leaving. "
"Then we can find other people to buy it. They are not the only ones who have those things!"
"Yes, it is true that they are not the only ones who have it, but mature business methods come with a price. If we don't give the other party high returns, will the other party be willing to come over?
Besides, you should have heard the relevant news. Most of the robbers outside the city are related to those big families. Do you think they will find a replacement through us? "
Xia Yang was speechless.
After all, they are too weak. If it is the government that implements the plan, then all this will be easily 's just a pity...
The government doesn’t want to do this at all!
I don’t have the motivation! As long as people sit in their original seats step by step, without any hassle, they can fully enjoy their desire for power and the wealth and support of the people. How can they have the motivation to carry out those reforms? This is purely useless work that is not very strenuous!
After studying under Confucius for so many years, they are all quite proficient in empathy.
Of course he knows what kind of virtue those officials there was no hope over there, and they had no choice but to do it.
Meng Huai and Ji Mingyao had no objections to this, even if they agreed to ask those big players to join in.
However, several people had different opinions on the profit sharing stage.
Some people said it was too high, some said it was too low. In the end, a few people unanimously agreed that the interests of all stores should be divided into three parts. The five of them would take [-]% and take the initiative. The wealthy businessmen would get [-]% according to the size of the last [-]% belongs to all the people and will be used to transform the people's living environment, open academies, improve the reading environment, etc.
In this regard, the wealthy businessmen naturally have opinions, saying that they control the resources, the key lifeline, and also own a large area of land, so they should occupy the majority.
But there was no other way. The situation was stronger than the people. When the first small aristocratic family agreed to join, Meng Huai began to spread his wings and no longer faced strong threats from resources.
And these aristocratic families who joined in advance did not encourage Meng Huai and others to pass a resolution, saying that they had made a great contribution by joining in advance and should enjoy more benefits.
Then, among the three aristocratic families, large, medium and small, everyone who joins in advance can enjoy more shares and higher-level shares.
(Big ones can only be raised by half a level) What can other aristocratic families say about this, they can only join in at a faster pace than others.
Because they all can see that they can't stop this "Plan to Help the World and Conquer the People". Since they can't stop it, they might as well join in as soon as possible and gain more benefits.
As for those who joined later, it can only be blamed on their poor judgment.
In less than three days, all large and small merchants in the county, Heshi Furniture, joined Meng Huai and the others in the embrace of the "Plan to Help the World and Animate the People."
At the same time, all the people in the entire county also joined in, working under Meng Huai's banner to make money and support their families.
Because all the people participated in production and were allocated uniformly, the production efficiency of the people was greatly and pans, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, cotton and linen cloth, etc. have all entered the explosive , it no longer seemed like an empty promise that everyone had enough to eat and clothing to wear.
Of course, another very important thing here is that due to all the people working, conflicts in the city have dropped sharply. Taking this opportunity, Princess Ji Mingyao directly proposed that the government reduce its manpower and reduce taxes.
There is nothing the government can do about this, because everyone is in the hands of the other party.
There's nothing he can do if he doesn't agree.
With this alone, the people's taxes were reduced from the original [-]% to about [-]%.In this way, the people naturally have surplus is also a chance to eat well.
(The field tax is one in twenty taxes, which must be paid to the court, and the rest are mostly taxes and fees from local governments.) Of course, during this process, Meng Huai and others also organized people to open up wasteland for farming many times, greatly expanding the area of the fields.
(Originally, the main reason for opening up wasteland was fear of forced occupation by landlords and gentry. Now Meng Huai and the others are the biggest, but they are not afraid of those people. What's more, those people have also joined in, so there is no need to worry.) In the early spring of the next year, Chenggu County's taxes increased by [-]%. The county magistrate was praised for his merits in governance, and was promoted to the governor of Hanzhong County.
Only then did Meng Huai and others discover that their old classmate Gong Yu had actually left the county long ago and went to Jiangnan.
After sighing at this, they started to get busy again.
This time, they plan to open five academies to include all school-age children in the city.
However, they had a serious conflict with the aristocratic families they had joined before as to whether to include women.
The aristocratic family means that as long as a woman takes good care of her body and moral character, she doesn't need to worry about anything else.
Meng Huai and others said that women are also human beings and should naturally have the right to education.
Even Ji Mingyao, a princess, revealed her gender and said that she was also a woman and also liked reading. Even women from aristocratic families studied in private, so gender was not a factor that hindered women from studying.
In this regard, aristocratic families can only quote the words of saints, saying that women are virtuous if they have no talent, and that women are not suitable for studying anyway.
In the end, Meng Huai and the others made a decisive move and voted directly.
Voting is based on proportional shares.
Needless to say, the results of the voting showed that the people were naturally on the side of Meng Huai and others.
Of course, the most important point is that Meng Huai and the others have long announced that all workshops are not allowed to recruit underage children.
As a result, the girls who were still busy with work had nothing to do and could only be sent to study.
(People have enough money and can afford it. Besides, the entire "Relief of the World and Peace of the People Plan" will reimburse half of the tuition, food, and book fees.)
(There are too many workshops and they are too developed, which directly eliminates the family-based handicraft industry.
Just like it used to take several months to make a set of clothes, now the workshop produces hundreds of pieces in a the clothes in the workshop are very are paid, so they naturally know how to choose the best deal. ) After the problem of studying was solved, Meng Huai and others changed the name of their "Plan to Help the World and Contain the People" and called it "The Alliance of Workers, Peasants and Commerce".
"The Alliance of Workers, Peasants and Commerce? This is a good name. It shows that we are just an alliance and have no intention of replacing the imperial court.
As for workers and peasants, it means that our main subjects are workers and peasants.
Not bad!Very good indeed! "
Chen Mu couldn't help but admire, and then expressed his desire to travel far away.
"Traveling far away? Where are you going? We have just started here, and we are going to expand to the entire Hanzhong County and the entire Dayong Kingdom!"
"It's enough to have you here, I'd better go and realize my dream!"
"Your dream? To be kind to others? Aren't we also trying to be kind to others?"
"I want to try to see if simple kindness can lead to our current results."
When Meng Huai heard this, he remained silent.
Their current alliance of workers and peasants is actually mixed with many interests and too many calculations, but there is no way. If you want to organize everyone, you must do all this well.
As for simple kindness, maybe it can do all this, but it takes too long.
Meng Huai didn't know why his original idea of being good without profit became like this, but he was indeed very happy and very happy.
With his efforts, everyone lives and works in peace and contentment, and is happy. This is his reward.
Of course, he will not stand in the way of his friends' dreams.
In fact, he also wanted to see if that dream would come true.
"Okay, good luck!"
"Bon Voyage!"
After bidding farewell to Chen Mu, Xia Yang also ran over to say goodbye.
"Are you going too?"
"I won't leave. I plan to rely on the imperial examination and become a high official! I know the main obstacles in our implementation. I want to try. If I become a high official and take control of the government, can I force it? roll out!"
"Okay! Then be careful when the time comes!"
"Don't worry about this! I have found a group of companions who are equally ideal, and we will protect each other!"
……
After his friends left one after another, Meng Huai did not delay and directly led his elite soldiers and generals to begin rapid expansion.
Chenggu County, Yang County, Shimen County, Mian County...
In less than three years, he brought all ten counties in Hanzhong County into the arms of the "Industrial, Peasant and Commercial Alliance".
As for the final county seat of Nanzheng, it took less than a month to completely renovate it.
At this point, Hanzhong County, one of the 36 Dayong counties, has completely entered a stage of prosperity where the people are prosperous and the country is strong. (End of chapter)