The four counties in Jiangnan were the engines of Chu in the past. One-third of the taxes came from here. This was also the focus of the Ming Dynasty when it was governing Qi. After the Chu Ming Dynasty had a feud, it became the most miserable place in Chu. However, when the war ended and the Ming State took over the four counties in Jiangnan, his recovery speed was even better than the entire Chu. In just two years, the four counties in Jiangnan had returned to their heyday.

Of course, now the four counties in Jiangnan have reached a dangerous junction. Speaking of which, the initiator of this junction is the Ming Dynasty itself. In order to defeat the economy of Chu in the shortest time, the Ming people planned for many years and used economic leverage to turn the economy of the four counties in Jiangnan into an extremely deformed model, that is, silk. The cotton spinning industry is extremely developed, with a large number of silk weaving factories everywhere, and the huge overseas market has allowed these products to maintain high profits.

Stimulated by huge profits, a large number of fertile fields in Jiangnan were destroyed and mulberry trees were planted, and most of the people were engaged in silk-related industries. This also became the reason why the economics of the four places in Jiangnan were destroyed by the Ming Dynasty with one blow. Only by blocking the export route of silk, the entire Jiangnan four counties immediately turned into a stagnant mass.

Now the Ming Dynasty has taken over the four counties in Jiangnan, but how could this pattern that has been painstakingly managed for more than ten years be corrected in a short time? What's more, now that Chu has returned to Ming Dynasty, the Maritime Silk Road has been reopened, the price of silk textiles has been stable at a certain high level, and the people's income has returned to its heyday. At this time, if you ask the people to destroy mulberry grains, you are afraid that the people will spit on your face.

However, the smooth road to export silk does not mean that there is no crisis. After the invention of the steam engine was applied to the textile industry, the crisis began to appear.

A steam engine can bring hundreds of textile machines, which used to mean that the textile workshops needed to hire hundreds of workers, but now, it only takes three or five people to solve the problem. For the bosses, this is naturally the best thing. After Chu returned to the Ming Dynasty, the wages of workers have been relying on the Ming Dynasty. The labor sector has become the heaviest place for the bosses. Now, although a steam engine is expensive, he can work sleeplessly for countless years with one investment. After calculating the general account, it is naturally a big profit.

When this machine was successfully experimented in Qinghe County and the Tiangong Department was setting up a factory to start mass production, orders from the four counties in Jiangnan were piled up on the desks of the steam engine factory manager.

When every machine arrives in the four counties in Jiangnan, hundreds of workers are unemployed. Behind every unemployed worker, there is a family that needs him to support.

The workshop owners don’t need to care about these. After giving the unemployed workers enough compensation for the breach of contract as required by the contract, they fired these people openly. These people have been engaged in such a job for more than ten years, but now they suddenly lose this job, so they are naturally at a loss. When they want to go to other workshops to find familiar jobs in the past, they are shocked to find that the silk workshops and silk workshops in the four counties of Jiangnan are almost all firing people at the same time.

More and more people are unemployed.

Of course, this messy stall fell on the government.

Although Ma Xiangnan was only the governor of Shangjing County, he had another title, which was the Political Affairs Hall to discuss politics and govern the affairs of Chu. Qin Feng wanted to use the influence of Ma's family in Chu to make the Chu area smoothly transition. With Ma Xiangnan in Wen and Yang Zhi in Wu, both of them had deep connections with Chu area.

The Ming court actually had predictions about the problems that the four counties in Jiangnan might face. Therefore, when the steam engine was started, Ma Xiangnan immediately launched a large-scale infrastructure construction in the four counties in Jiangnan. The investment in the four counties in Jiangnan was even Shangjing County, the political, economic and cultural center of Chu, could not be compared with it.

However, investment in infrastructure cannot be achieved overnight, but the unemployment rate of textile silk workers in the four counties in Jiangnan far exceeds the number of people absorbed by these industries.

An uneasy mood began to savage in the four counties of Jiangnan. Whether it was the court or Ma Xiangnan, Yang Zhi knew it well, but he was helpless. Emperor Qin Feng of the Ming Dynasty once clearly told Ma Xiangnan that this was an inevitable process, and this process would definitely not be calm, and bloodshed and sacrifice would become a necessity. Jiangnan must survive such pain.

What Ma Xiangnan is working hard to advance now is immigration. Whether it is the six eastern counties in Chu or another sparsely populated area in the Ming Dynasty, there are a lot of Dingkou, while the four counties in Jiangnan are the most densely populated areas.

But the progress of this work is difficult.

Everything is good at home, but it is difficult to go out. If you really can't live, who would want to leave your hometown and leave your familiar landscapes to go to another place where you are unfamiliar with your own place?

Therefore, although the Ming Dynasty court gave extremely preferential immigration conditions, like the Cenzhou under the control of Yue Kaishan, the entire territory is as large as the four counties in Jiangnan, but the population is only hundreds of thousands. In order to attract people from the four counties in Jiangnan to settle down, Yue Kaishan has another condition of adding 100 acres of land to the conditions offered by the court, but the responders are still few.

The turmoil in the four counties in Jiangnan could naturally be hidden from the surveillance of Qi, the opponent of Ming Dynasty. For Qi, trying every means to make the Ming Dynasty uneasy is a must-do. The Ming Dynasty is becoming more and more stable, and the western land is too far away from them. The Ming Dynasty took over the western land for a long time, and it is difficult for them to do anything. However, the Chu region is different. The two were originally neighboring countries and had a deep conflict with each other. Such things happened to the four counties in Jiangnan. If they did not use it, it would be a waste of resources. If they could incite the four counties in Jiangnan to come to several riots and textile workers' uprisings, for Qi, it would be a great joy, and they could kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand, it would make the Ming Dynasty unstable and civil wars continued, and on the other hand, it would also cut off a huge source of wealth for Ming Dynasty.

The people of Qi began to spare no effort to intervene. Under the arrangements and incitement of those who are interested, the atmosphere in the four counties in Jiangnan became increasingly tense. As the end of the year approached, even ordinary people could smell the ominous smell.

At this time last year, the streets were filled with countless New Year goods waiting for the people to purchase. Even if the rich people in their pockets were frugal, they would generously donate during the New Year, allowing themselves, who had worked hard for a year, to have a good New Year. At this time of year, it was a big carnival for merchants.

But this year, the end of the year is getting closer and closer, but the goods on the street are not as good as in previous years. Merchants are all keen. At this time, I am afraid that in the end, I will be wiped out.

There were not many goods on the street, but there were quite a few people. However, these people were not here to purchase New Year's goods, but wandered around the streets without doing anything. They lost their jobs, but their lives had to continue. They could only find all odd job opportunities in the city. There were too many monks and less porridge, and there were only a small number of people who could get job opportunities. In the tense atmosphere, the merchants were all carefully shrinking, which further exacerbated the sharp reduction of employment opportunities.

Under the masts on the street and on the corners of the wall, there were rows of people wrapped in cold clothes waiting for job opportunities, shivering and shivering. But reality destined that most of them would return disappointed.

All kinds of crimes such as theft and robbery are increasing every day. Local governments are running around, constables, armed police officers are lenient in arrests, and prisons are overcrowded.

As the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, Jin Jingnan was very tough at this time. As long as the person who was arrested for committing the crime, there was only one sentence waiting for them, that is exile. The difference was only the severity of the crimes that were committed to determine the distance of exile. The farthest one was exiled to Cenzhou, which was under the control of Yue Kaishan.

Every time a hundred people are gathered, a journey of exile will begin. In a few months, more than 2,000 people have been sentenced to exile. Although Ma Xiangnan has made some slight remarks about Jin Jingnan's toughness, he has no better way to solve this problem. He also knows that this so-called exile is actually just a measure of forcibly immigrating. After these people arrive at the local area, they will be properly arranged, at least they will not slowly become extremely poor and starve to death in the four counties of Jiangnan. Besides, the arrest and trial of the Ming Dynasty are now under the responsibility of special departments, and the impact of local officials on them is minimal. Obviously, these departments have been instructed by the above.

For Ma Xiangnan and Yang Zhi, the turmoil in the four counties of Jiangnan will happen sooner or later. The difference is only where the outbreak is and how large it is. In Qin Feng's words, only after experiencing such a pain will the Ming Dynasty truly enter the fast lane and open a new era.

Qin Feng mentioned a new word in his letter to Ma Xiangnan, that is, the Industrial Revolution. Ma Xiangnan did not understand it very much, but he roughly understood that what Qin Feng said was that machines such as steam engines would become the greatest driving force for changing people's lives in the future. Ma Xiangnan had seen a series of new machines derived from steam engines, and he had to admit that this era was afraid that as the emperor said, we would really usher in an unprecedented change.

And it is obvious that when this change comes, there will never be peace and peace.

A large number of personnel from the Ministry of State Security have arrived secretly, and the troops under Yang Zhi are also approaching the four counties in Jiangnan under various names. Even Zhou Jiyun's troops stationed in Kunling County have also increased their alert level. Among them, the cavalry troops under Jiangshangyan were directly stationed in Jinghu County.
Chapter completed!