choke element

Amidst the mother-in-law's cries, someone said unhappily: "Boss of the Chen family, what you are doing is not very kind."

Before he finished speaking, someone beside him pulled him hard, almost making him stagger. Another person bowed his hand to Chen Ziming and said politely:

"Liangfu, you don't have to be like this. We people are not cunning and deceitful people, as you know. Life is really hard, and we have to help each other go on. I heard earlier that Dr. Chen made money at sea, and we We just have a little bit of unnecessary hope, since Dr. Chen has already taken care of others, we have nothing to say, so we will say goodbye."

The Zhuangzi where Chen Ziming was born is called Chenli Zhuang. The person who spoke politely was very senior among the Li clan, he could barely be considered the clan leader, and his words had weight. After he finished speaking, everyone turned around and left without delaying. The group of people huffed and puffed out of the main house and left the yard. The last two also closed the courtyard door for Chen Ziming.

The Chen family is not a wealthy family. The only people who live in the same house are the Chen family's wife and Chen Ziming, two younger sisters who have not yet grown hair, and an old servant who has been with them for two generations. As soon as the creditors left, the courtyard instantly became quiet. The old servant poured tea and looked at Chen Ziming happily. The two girls also came out of the backyard to greet Chen Ziming.

Hearing his mother-in-law sobbing, Chen Ziming helped her up and said gently: "Don't be anxious. I haven't been here for the past two years, and the family expenses have not been taken care of. I owe some money and food, which is not a big deal. Now that I am back, I can always live a good life."

The wife of the Chen family cried: "It's been two years since you left! How hard it has been for me without a man in the family to support me! I miss you coming back every day!"

The lady cried miserably, and Chen Ziming comforted her repeatedly. He held her hand and said earnestly that she had lost weight.

Suddenly I heard the lady lower her voice: "Did you really bring nothing home?"

Chen Ziming sighed again and said loudly: "It's only seventeen miles away from Linchuan City to Zhuangzi. Forty or fifty family members are begging for mercy. What can I do? I, Chen Liangfu, have nothing in my hand! It's really gone!" "

These words were shouted loudly, and the words were heard outside the courtyard. Someone could vaguely hear complaints and the sound of footsteps.

Those who were waiting at home just now walked away so neatly, it turned out that they were hiding under the wall to spy. At this moment, I was sure that there was nothing to gain, so I left disappointed.

Chen Ziming said softly: "My pockets are indeed empty now, but I will go to the city tomorrow... In the past two years, I have traveled around various places, gained some knowledge, and figured out a few new and effective prescriptions. Sell them to pharmacies, anyway. I can get it back in exchange for more than ten guan. But..."

But a dozen dollars is nothing. Chen Ziming knew his temperament, and even more doubted how much of this money he could leave for his family. In all likelihood, he would use it to help the poor.

At this point, he shook his head and asked: "We in Zhuangzi have always had a good life, why has it become like this? There are so many families, and every family can't survive?"

The wife felt that her husband might not really care about others, but he was probably still implicitly accusing her of being incompetent in running the household, and she almost cried again. After finally working up the energy to explain, the old servant also added.

After listening, Chen Ziming didn't know what to say.

All in all, the world is changing so fast that ordinary people can't catch up anyway, but the wealthy and powerful have many ways to peel off the skin and bones, and even the court officials are becoming more ruthless every day. I can't tell what went wrong. Anyway, in the past two years, it has become easier and easier to spend money, the court's taxes have increased, and the land in everyone's hands cannot be kept. The savings are being depleted day by day, and it will last until this year. , it is difficult to maintain at the end of the year.

The reason why they sought help from Chen Ziming so passionately was because the villagers had no other choice but to attack this local doctor who was famous for his kindness. If Chen Ziming came back a few months later, some people might have to leave their hometowns and work hard to make ends meet in Linchuan City or even Longxing Mansion further away.

Thinking about it carefully, Chen Ziming passed those cities on his way back home and often lamented that there were more and more residents in the city and it seemed extremely prosperous. But why did those residents come? Isn’t it difficult to survive in the countryside?

Chen Ziming didn't think that the businessmen in the city would be more conscientious than the rich people in the countryside. Will people who can't survive in the countryside definitely be able to find food in the city so that they don't starve to death? This question is really difficult to answer, unless people go further, rush to the riverside and seaside, and eat the food of north-south trade. But that bowl of rice is really not easy to eat...

When he was at sea, he often interacted with sailors from all over the world. Many of the northern crew members have a background in the Zhou army, and almost all of them have lives on their hands; while the southern crew members are not just crew members, but sometimes also pirates or similar elements. They will inevitably suffer defeat when encountering strong men from the north, but that This ferocious look was enough to scare Chen Ziming. Only such a ruthless person can protect the gold and silver in the trade line between the North and the South.

In the last six months of his stay at sea, Chen Ziming became familiar with several high-ranking captains, especially the Shandong man named Wang Erbai, and he had no scruples about talking to each other.

I heard from Wang Erbai that various parts of the Central Plains were invaded by the Mongols, and after the massacre, their vitality was severely damaged. To this day, Juzi relies on the military household and shade household system of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and is in the process of slow recovery. This large territory only needs to supply the army financially and has almost no other burdens.

The financial resources of the Great Zhou Dynasty almost entirely depended on trade, and several major items of materials provided in trade came from the Northeast or behind the Monan Mountains. Those barbarian tribes were so poor that they didn't even have an iron nail and used one or two brocade robes as treasures. But they had furs, ginseng, gold, pearls, horses and other products, as well as worthless manpower.

Countless tribes sacrificed manpower and property to obtain agricultural tools, food, daily necessities and luxury goods. After they develop one after another, they can continue to penetrate further into the north and provide more products and wealth.

The Great Zhou Dynasty used special official offices to support these tribes; it used special and powerful force to severely punish tribes that violated the rules; finally, it used many large cities and ports in the north as transit links for trade to allocate demand and supply from various places. , earn more profits from it, use those profits to support the army and the court, and stabilize the huge territory.

Wang Erbai is very proud of this entire operating system. This is what he learned when he came ashore last year and participated in training as a shiphead representative. He feels that this is undoubtedly the source of the prosperity of Dazhou.

But according to Chen Ziming, the key is not how Zhou Dynasty governs.

The biggest advantage of the Great Zhou Dynasty is that what it inherited was the mess left after the Jurchens had messed around for decades and the Mongols killed hundreds of people.

The Great Zhou Dynasty itself was a brutal military regime that rose out of the mess. The martial artist is so vulgar, he should not have achieved anything in the first place. But in this mess, Han'er is a ghost who was lucky enough to survive under the axe, with nothing left but his life; the aliens are more like beasts than people, their lives are worthless, and they are driven hounds. No different. Since they are already living in hell, they have nothing to lose. No matter what Dazhou did, as long as it had some results and brought some benefits to a certain part of the people under his rule, it would be better than the Jurchens or the Black Tatars.

Maybe those northerners are used to the days of war and chaos, and as long as they wake up one night and are not trampled to pulp by the iron hoofs of the Tatars, they will feel that it is Zhou's virtuous government, and they will kneel down and shout a few words of "Long Live Your Majesty, Long Live Your Majesty."

And the people who were close to the Emperor of Zhou, including his army and his trading system, spent their days eating and drinking and reaping the benefits. This was exactly the nature of a military man ruling a country.

Chen Ziming recalled Wang Erbai's triumphant face, thought of the strange behavior of this bow on countless occasions, and thought of the virtues of many northerners who talked about the past of fighting, and felt that his judgment must be correct. To a certain extent, this was one of the reasons why he rejected the high-paying offer from the North and returned to his hometown.

The Song Dynasty was the opposite of the Zhou Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty originally valued culture and education. A hundred years after the southern crossing, the people had become accustomed to peace and formed a relatively stable and peaceful life style. Once this pattern is broken, no one knows how to respond, including the court. And the people who faced the difficulties were even more frightened and confused, and they were in chaos.

Chen Ziming couldn't blame them. He couldn't necessarily say that the people of the Song Dynasty deserved to live the miserable life of the Northerners? After all, that kind of terrible life is only spoken of. The villagers in the countryside are falling into poverty one after another and are about to slide into the abyss. This is an urgent problem that needs to be solved.

He himself was actually a little panicked when people asked for help along the way. So much so that I vaguely felt that my current embarrassing situation was caused by my failure to give advice to the villagers during my travels in the past two years.

How to get out of this situation?

Chen Ziming was anxious for a while.

A few years ago, the first thing that came to his mind would have been to go to the city and ask the officials to see if the gentlemen could do something noble. But after two years at sea, his knowledge was much wider than before. He knew that even in places like Lin'an City and Qingyuan Mansion, half of the lower-level officials were incompetent and half were greedy, not to mention that the emperor was far away in Linchuan.

Just two hours ago, when the officials in Linchuan City heard that Chen Ziming had returned from the sea, their eyes were red with envy. They praised repeatedly and said that when Dr. Chen was at sea, he took the money from Xianggong Shi and Guo Guan's family in the north. When it comes to money, as long as you work hard, you will have no worries about wealth.

After all, they are receiving royal salary. What can they expect from this kind of behavior?

If you want to live a better life these days, you have to rely on yourself. When Chen Ziming looked around, there was only one company that was willing to be a kind employer and share profits with its employees. This family happens to be within reach of Chen Ziming...

He suddenly stood up and walked back and forth in the hall twice.

When he said goodbye to the commercial bank a few months ago, the commercial bank was very sincere in trying to persuade him to stay, and they also told him a piece of news. That is, starting from this year, many trading houses affiliated to the Great Zhou Dynasty will recruit manpower in more than a dozen cities along the river and coast, and fully liberalize cooperation with the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty. This will inevitably bring greater trade benefits and make those involved make a lot of money.

Even if Chen Ziming is just a doctor, he still has his place.

It turns out that the Great Zhou Dynasty regarded the Tatars on the grasslands as their formidable enemy, so on the territory of Monan, they opened mines, factories, cultivated wasteland, and built cities, fortresses, roads and bridges, all of which required human labor. In recent years, the Zhou Dynasty has been moving people to the north. It is said that 200,000 to 300,000 people have been moved to the north, which is still not enough.

As a result of the large-scale transfer of personnel, various places in the south were also in urgent need of available manpower, and had to hire high-paying people from the Song Dynasty.

Not to mention the craftsmen who make iron, mint money, print, and make porcelain and pottery, or the skilled accountants, or the old farmers who know how to take care of the fields; they are all being robbed. Experienced doctors are in short supply everywhere, whether in military hospitals, pharmacies in cities, or caravans at sea, they are all vacant.

As long as you have real skills, you can get thirty or fifty guan every month. Just like Chen Ziming, his medical skills were highly praised last year, so in the second half of the year, he could almost walk around the business office in Qingyuan Mansion.

Even if the level is different, it doesn't matter. There are only a few common diseases by rivers and seasides. As long as you can prescribe a prescription according to the symptoms, you can make a living.

Therefore, if Chen Ziming wants to lead the villagers to live a better life, the easiest way is to organize them to go to Dazhou in the north. There is only one first-class good doctor like Chen Ziming in Chenli Village, but after all, there are many local people who practice medicine or grow medicinal materials. So many people are influenced by what they see and hear. If they are a little smarter and memorize medical skills, they can go out and pretend to be a wild man, which is enough to deal with the vulgar warriors in the north.

Thinking of this, Chen Ziming made up his mind.

He walked out of the hall suddenly and pushed open the ajar door.

Sure enough, several people gathered outside the courtyard gate, including Chen Zixin and the elders of the Li clan. These people naturally wanted to wait for an opportunity to explore Chen Ziming's family background. This approach was considered offensive. Seeing Chen Ziming rushing out, several people jumped up, feeling a little embarrassed.

"I have an idea that can solve all of your problems. However, you must have some courage." Chen Ziming said coldly.

Chief Li was taken aback and his expression changed: "We will not do anything like killing officials and rebelling."

Chen Zixin added: "It's not okay to rob a bank."

I have only been traveling for two years, and have interacted with northern warriors a lot. Who do you think I am? You took a lot of money from me and arranged me like this? Chen Ziming couldn't help but cursed angrily: "You guys fart!"