Time flies, and it has been several months since Zhao Ming returned to Nanjing. It is gradually late December, and ten days will be the New Year of 1665.

As the New Year approaches, Nanjing City is more prosperous than before.

Today, as the cultural and political center of the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing has a large number of powerful people, gentry and merchants living in the city. The fixed population and migrant population have exceeded one million, making it the world's number one metropolis.

At this time, as the New Year approached, the city was bustling with people, and people from Nanjing came out to buy New Year's goods on the street.

At noon that day, Zhao Ming put on some makeup, wore a six-held hat, a cotton coat inside, a brocade robe on the outside, a leather belt on the waist, and a fan in his hand. He dressed up as a young man to visit the city in a private manner.

However, he spent two years in Southeast Asia, and his years of conquests made his skin dark and rough. He really didn't look like a young master or a scholar. His outfit looked a bit out of character.

I went on a private visit with Zhao Ming. Du Yinxi and Chen Ming met two cabinet ministers, but they looked very much like teachers.

Although, if the peace is coming today, all the enemies of the Ming Dynasty will be eliminated, the Regent destroyed many countries, and there may be remnants of forces with ill intentions, so behind the three people, more than 30 Jinyiwei were still following far away.

The guards all looked nervous, staring at the surrounding situation without blinking, fearing that Zhao Ming would make any mistakes.

However, Zhao Ming, who was protected, was not at all cautious and ran around in the city, not worried about his own safety.

This is because Zhao Ming felt that no one wanted to kill him in the Ming Dynasty. Secondly, he felt that except for muskets, it was difficult for ordinary assassins to get close to him.

At this time, Zhao Ming and the other two watched around the street, with the purpose of understanding the lives of all walks of life in Nanjing, the people of the Ming Dynasty, especially the feelings of the people at the bottom.

The three of them walked around the street for a while, and at noon, they found a stall facing the street and sat down.

The guards who followed him were so angry that they could only scatter around, observing the surrounding situation without affecting the Regent's investigation.

Zhao Ming ordered a pot of wine and a few snacks, so he sat down and ate while chatting.

Zhao Ming sat for a long time and found that there was no customer in the tavern stall for a long time. He couldn't help but ask the boss: "Brother-in-law, you have been staying in this stall for a long time, why is there no one here?"

The boss looked at the three of them and smiled and said, "It's a cold weather. Now everyone has money. The customers are willing to sit in the house, so it's naturally a little deserted here. However, I see that the three guests are also wealthy families. They just came back from Nanyang, so why don't they spend a few more copper coins to sit in the store?"

Zhao Ming raised his eyebrows, "Are all Nanjing people rich?"

"That's natural. Nanjing Ming Dynasty capital, many princes and grandsons live here. They are all rich. We ordinary people do something with them or go to factories in Waiguocheng, and their income is not bad!" The owner of the food stall smiled and said, "It's not that we Nanjing people brag, but now even Suzhou, Yangzhou can't compete with us!"

Zhao Ming smiled and said, "Everyone is so rich, so no one will eat the stall of the father-in-law!"

The father-in-law said, "That's not the case. Those who work for people only have two or three silver dollars a month. How can they go to restaurants every day? After the work is done, my business will be fine."

While we were talking, there were already a few men who sat down at the stall and ate relatively simple, just a large bowl of noodles. When we looked through, we should be workers from a nearby workshop.

The worker seemed to have heard the conversation between Zhao Ming and the old man and interrupted: "Although you can't go to restaurants every day, you can eat and drink enough, and you can still have some money left every month. At the end of the year, add a new clothes for your family, cut half a sheep and dozens of kilograms of pork, and life is much better than before."

"Yes! Thank you to the Regent." Although the diners were blowing the cold wind and eating noodles, they still praised Zhao Ming. "If it weren't for the Regent, they eradicated the vassal kings and asked the gentry and merchants to pay taxes, and if they didn't put the tax on us poor, there would be no such good life."

"But it's annoying. Those old money pay taxes are still richer than us. We are exhausted, but they earn the money from the factory!" A worker cursed with a smile.

Zhao Ming listened for a while and it seemed that his approach to making the cake bigger and alleviating internal conflicts basically felt the results.

Although gentry and merchants now bear the main taxes and pay a large amount of taxes to the court, they enjoy the dividends of overseas trade and colonial expansion. Overall, they must have made a lot of money before, so they are basically satisfied with the court, not as opposed to before.

Because Zhao Ming pacified the vassal states and reformed the royal family, solved more than 100,000 privileged classes, confiscated the royal family's land, and in addition to pursuing commercial taxes in Jiangnan, the tax situation in the Ming Dynasty changed the tax situation and solved the gentry and vassal states, the two stubborn problems of not paying taxes, which naturally reduced the pressure on the people who originally borne taxes.

Now the taxes the people have to pay have become less, and they have participated in the commercialization and industrialization of the Ming Dynasty, their income has increased and their lives have improved. However, when facing richer gentlemen and merchants, they have some imbalance in their hearts.

Zhao Ming asked with a smile: "My brothers, the money from the factory has been earned by merchants. How did that merchant treat his colleagues?"

Some of the men said, "Before, living a little, and working hard every day, I could only barely get enough food and clothing. However, in the past few months, I heard that because the Regent won a battle in Nanyang, opened up a market of tens of millions of people, and factories were looking for people to expand production, so the wages given by the owner increased!"

"Hmph! Can he not rise? If he doesn't rise, I won't work with him. Go to the Li family factory in the west of the city. Their boss, Yueyin, has already opened to three yuan!" An irritable man was obviously a little dissatisfied with his current boss.

"Li gave more, but he worked until the third update in the morning and worked for more than six hours a day, and even people couldn't stand it if they left."

"If you say that, you can only find a way to enter the state-owned factory. Four hours a day, the moon silver is also high, but it doesn't matter, it's difficult to enter!"

"Speaking of this, it's the workshop run by the Regent, and the treatment is the best, but it's a pity that it's not easy to get in!"

After listening to the people's comments, Zhao Ming knew that the Ming Dynasty's business-oriented policy and the majority of overseas trade were taken away by merchants and gentry, but the people actually did not get much benefit.

The development of business has brought more opportunities to the people and made more money, but it is still hard-working, and oppression and exploitation are still very heavy.

Zhao Ming did not want to cultivate big capitalists and monopoly chaebols to squeeze and absorb the blood of the people, but to let the people of the Ming Dynasty live a prosperous life. It seems that laws to safeguard the interests of workers should be introduced.
Chapter completed!