Silk is a very magical thing. It is obviously a group of small bugs. In order to survive, they made a small home for themselves. However, in the hands of smart people, they pulled out long silk threads and woven them into gorgeous silk, which then became the driving force behind globalization.
strength.
That's right, for the first time, it was not strong ships and cannons that connected the world as a whole, but silk.
The pioneering businessman crossed the desolate desert and came to Chang'an.
Facing this celestial city, they bowed to the ground and knelt down obediently.
There are endless delicacies and endless views here.
Millions of people, orderly, prosperous, and everything.
They condensed all the beautiful memories into pieces of exquisite silk.
Through these gorgeous fabrics, not only can they be provided with a hundredfold reward, but it can also prove that they have indeed visited the Chang'an Heavenly Kingdom.
Then this story was spread along with the businessmen one after another as they traveled westward.
Silk goes to the west, gold and silver comes to the east.
A Silk Road was formed.
Extract wealth from the far west and transmit it to the east, maintaining the prosperity and prosperity of the eastern world, allowing people to live and work in peace and contentment, and provide the unified dynasty with abundant financial resources.
Correspondingly, the West, whose wealth is constantly being extracted, has vassal towns, neighbors, and countless feudal countries, and is broken into pieces like Lay's potato chips run over by a train.
As for the middlemen who connected the east and west, they earned huge wealth in the process of reselling goods, and then they raised powerful cavalry, which made them invincible and dominant.
This Silk Road took more than a thousand years to shape the layout of the largest landmass in the world.
Is it Xiao Chong or the female textile workers from Jiangnan...who is the biggest contributor?
Zhang Ximeng really couldn't explain it, but he just hoped that Feng Guosheng would not sell the silk at a low price and must get a good price.
After all, Peiping is raising troops and there is Changlu Salt Field to count on.
When we get to the northwest, we really only have silk for the time being.
Zhang Ximeng looked through his house, and to his surprise, the Zhang family had quite a lot of inventory, more than two hundred horses.
Zhang Ximeng was shocked, my God?
Where did so many come from?
You won’t be corrupt, right?
Zhang Ximeng asked the housekeeper to inquire, and then he learned about the situation.
It turns out that in these years, Zhu Yuanzhang had awarded more than thirty pieces of silk to the Zhang family.
But since Zhang Ximeng doesn't like to wear silk, most of them are left.
But even so, it's only a fraction. What about the big one?
The bulk is Jiang Nan's dowry.
For the first time, Zhang Ximeng realized that his wife's family was in good condition, and when she got married, she was given a lot of dowry, including hundreds of pieces of silk.
Another time when Zhang Ximeng went to Peking, his father-in-law and mother-in-law came to take care of Zhang Shuning. They worked hard but didn't get much benefit, so they spent a lot of money and bought a lot of things.
This old couple buys whatever clothing material they think looks good.
By the way, Zhu Di also helped Zhang Shuning get some from the palace.
Zhang Ximeng was helpless when faced with such a large pile of silk.
"My dear son, would you like to donate all the silk to my father?"
"good!"
Zhang Shuning almost didn't hesitate and agreed immediately, which made Zhang Ximeng hesitate, "You little guy, are you really willing to give up?"
Zhang Shuning said: "Anyway, I have clothes to wear, and my father is the one who makes the decisions at home."
Zhang Ximeng pinched the little guy's face in relief. What a good boy. He is so obedient. He is much better than the gangster from the old Zhu family.
However, Zhang Ximeng was not so conceited as to give away his wife's dowry directly. He still took a careful inventory and estimated the family assets to see how much money he had earned over the years.
After a cursory look, Zhang Ximeng was dumbfounded.
I'm completely dumbfounded, doesn't it make sense?
How come there are so many?
More than 700,000 yuan!
Are you kidding me?
I, Zhang Ximeng, am as honest as water, neither greedy nor embezzling. I am not Li Shanchang. How could I have so much money?
Someone must be harming me!
Then Zhang Ximeng began to rummage through the boxes, and finally he found a box with remittance receipts piled neatly inside.
Zhang Ximeng hurriedly checked them one by one, and then used the abacus to calculate.
When he was busy working until midnight, Zhang Ximeng, who was sweating profusely, finally confirmed that he was indeed very rich, and the money had nothing to do with corruption and abuse of law, but mainly his royalties.
It is difficult to tell clearly how many scholars there are in the Ming Dynasty now... But since Zhu Yuanzhang occupied Jinling, he began to build schools on a large scale. It has been more than ten years since Zhu Yuanzhang occupied Jinling.
It has been almost ten years since women were allowed to enter school and all localities were required to ensure a 45% female enrollment rate.
At present, because the Ming Dynasty is basically peaceful, Yingtian, Jiangxi, even Huguang, the Central Plains... all have begun a population explosion.
It is normal for every household to have three or five children.
The more children you have, the more people will go to school.
Looking at the literacy class, seven or eight years have passed since the first batch of students passed the three-year school system.
Counting the five years of primary school, the first group to obtain a primary school degree lasted more than five years.
A large number of students graduate every year. According to Zhang Ximeng's estimate, there should be more than one million female students and more than two million male students.
At present, the number of people under the Ming Dynasty has exceeded 20 million after taking Jiangxi. After taking Huguang, there are about 30 million people.
There should be 35 million people now.
In the next fifteen or twenty years, the population of Ming Dynasty will definitely increase explosively again.
It seems that in history, Zhu Yuanzhang worked hard for thirty years and made the Ming Dynasty household registration exceed 60 million.
Now with Zhang Ximeng's participation, it is possible to increase the population by 20%, that is, 72 million. And these 72 million are still a highly young population.
Among them, those under the age of 20 are estimated to account for more than 40%.
This population result, this age ratio, is coupled with the spread of education.
The number of people reaching school age is increasing every year.
Every child entering school needs a set of teaching materials.
And every set of teaching materials is written by Zhang Ximeng.
Although the royalties for textbooks are not high, Zhang Ximeng still has to pay a few cents for each copy, which adds up to a lot of money.
And this is just a small amount of Zhang Ximeng's royalties... He also presided over the compilation of so many military regulations, as well as officials' rules and regulations, and codes of conduct.
He also published anthologies and recently presided over the revision of the History of the Song Dynasty. There are more and more corresponding books, including many popular books. Zhang Ximeng even plans to compile a dictionary as a reference book.
These constitute 80% of Zhang Ximeng's property.
The other 20% comes from newspapers. He has also written many articles, and newspapers have also quoted his articles...
Faced with all this, Zhang Ximeng just wanted to sigh, who said coding doesn't make money? Isn't this just how I got rich!
Actually, honesty and poverty don't seem to be the same thing, at least in the case of Zhang Ximeng, they are not the same thing.
He really managed not to be greedy or possessive, and then he made a fortune.
The question now seems to be how to spend the money, because if nothing happens, his income will skyrocket in the future. Looking back at the house, there is really not much room for spending money.
"Son, do you like reading?"
Zhang Shuning, a child, lowered his head and looked through Zhu Di's teaching materials. Although he was almost two years younger than Zhu Di, he didn't seem to be burdened at all.
It is said that the old Zhang family can read. This is a talent. There is nothing we can do about it!
"I like it!" Zhang Shuning readily agreed.
"There are many children your age, or a few years older than you. They don't have money to study, or they can't afford textbooks after they study... How about you give some money to help them as a father?
?”
"Are you helping others?" Zhang Shuning asked, "Are you like my grandpa, who gave rice, noodles and clothes to the poor in winter?"
Zhang Ximeng was startled, "How did you know?"
"I gave it away. It was my grandpa who took me there. He said no, you can't be unkind for the sake of wealth, right?"
"Yes!" Zhang Ximeng agreed with a smile, "Yes, although the Ming Dynasty has equalized land and worked hard to govern, there are still some people who don't have enough food and clothing. It's right to care about them. But, we can't just think about food and clothing.
, and there are some more fundamental things.”
"What happened?" Zhang Shuning asked confused.
"It's just reading! As long as you study wisely and master survival skills, you can get better and better. Otherwise, you won't know anything, and you will waste your good years. When you can't move anymore, you will have to beg for your life."
Zhang Shuning thought about it seriously and said, "Is it true that teaching a man to fish is not as good as teaching him to fish?"
"right!"
Zhang Ximeng laughed loudly, "That's what you mean. I'm going to spend 200,000 yuan to buy teaching materials and donate them to poor students. Do you think it would be good to use your name to set up a Shuning scholarship for my father?"
"Why is it called Shu Ning Scholarship?"
"It's just in your name, saying you gave it to them."
"But it's obviously not me, it's my father!" Zhang Shuning shook his head, "No, I can't lie. And I don't want to make so much money."
Zhang Ximeng smiled and said, "What a good boy, you don't love money. Then tell me what you like!"
"I want to be a teacher, just like my father." Zhang Shuning stretched out his little hand and gestured, "Our family has such a big gold medal with four words on it: Fu Guoyuanshi. Grandpa said, that is
The meaning of teachers all over the world, I, I want to be a school teacher and teach people to read, my father said, okay?"
Zhang Ximeng raised his eyebrows and suddenly smiled, "Why not? Teaching and educating people is the best thing in the world. If you have this intention, you must study hard and know more, and then you can teach students well."
"Yeah!" The little guy's eyes gleamed and he nodded vigorously, "I will be like my father!"
Zhang Ximeng happily hugged his son and kissed the little guy's forehead hard, with a proud face... He said in his heart that the surname is Zhu, making you think about it. I think you are also daydreaming. Our baby has a lot of ideas, but it's not
You can control it!
Zhang Ximeng was so happy that on the next day, he donated 230 pieces of silk in one go, plus 100,000 guan of treasure notes.
When he announced the number, everyone else was stunned. Li Shanchang had only prepared thirty horses, which was only a fraction of Zhang Ximeng's, and the others were even less able to get it.
Lao Li has gone crazy. Zhang, please don't have a convulsion!