As soon as Wang Wei left, hundreds of Qinwang scholars poured into Yilun Hall. More than a dozen scholar leaders, including Xia Yunyi, Chen Zilong, Fang Yizhi, and Huang Zongxi, even arrived in front of the Chongzhen Emperor.
Chongzhen's heart was like a mirror, and he deliberately asked: "What are you doing?"
"Your Majesty, the students and others also want to publish a statement in the Huangming Times." Xia Yunyi and other scholars bowed their heads and said, "The students and others want to draw a clear line with the Donglin Party and break away from Fushe."
"Students and others must also draw a clear line with the Donglin Party and break away from Fushe."
Hundreds of Qin Wang scholars outside Yi Lun Hall also followed suit and bowed to the ground.
These Qinwang scholars are basically the disciples of the Donglin Party or members of the Fushe Party.
Up to now, the actions of Gao Hongtu, Jiang Yueguang and other Donglin Party members have aroused great indignation in the Shiziying.
In the past, they might have been proud to be the children of the Donglin Party, but now they are deeply ashamed of it, so they can't wait to cut ties with the Donglin Party. Fushe has also suffered a disaster.
In fact, not only the Fushe, but also several societies, the Wenshe, and the Tongshe under the Fushe would be destroyed in the next period of time, and the scholars began to feel ashamed of forming a party.
Some people analyze that there are two main reasons for the collapse of the community.
One is because of Chongzhen's decisive attitude towards the Donglin Party's mission to eliminate evil.
Second, the emergence of the Scholar Camp gave scholars a second way out, and the opportunities were much greater than taking the imperial examination.
Chongzhen was much more tolerant of the Qin Wang scholars: "As long as you have this determination, there is no need to publish a statement in the newspaper. After all, this is not a glorious thing."
"Students and others are ashamed." Xia Yunyi and other scholars were grateful and ashamed at the same time.
"Okay, during this time, you can gather Cao Jiang's soldiers and Beijing soldiers for training."
After sending away Xia Yunyi and other scholars, Chongzhen asked Wang Chengen again: "Wang Daban, how are Shi Kefa and the others doing?"
Wang Chengen responded hurriedly: "Back to Lord Long Live, most of the prisoners have already written their confessions. Now only Gao Hongtu, Jiang Yueguang and a few other criminals have not done so."
Chongzhen's face immediately fell.
"Today is the deadline."
"Go tell Shi Kefa and ask him to hurry up."
"My time is precious and my patience is limited."
Without the confessions of Gao Hongtu, Jiang Yueguang and other Donglin Party leaders, the matter would not have been complete.
So we have to put some pressure on Shi Kefa and the others. As for Shi Kefa, Jie Xuelong and the others, how they will persuade Gao Hongtu is their business. Anyway, he only wants results.
"Old slave, accept the decree." Wang Chengen received the decree and left in a hurry.
Chongzhen turned his attention to Gao Qiqian again: "Gao Banban, when will the prince and the others arrive?"
Gao Qiqian turned his head and glanced outside the door, and responded respectfully: "Go back to Lord Long Live, and count the time. The prince, the princess, and the uncle should have arrived at Yilun Hall by now."
This afternoon, Chongzhen made an appointment with Kang Wanwan, Zhan Yangzhi and other workshop owners for a discussion.
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhu Cihong led Kang Baiwan, Kang Xi and his daughter in.
"My son/daughter-in-law bow to the emperor father." Zhu Cixiang and his wife paid homage to Chongzhen.
Kang Baiwan also bowed his head to Chongzhen: "I bow before the Holy One, may the Holy One be blessed with thousands of blessings and gold."
"Pingshen." Chongzhen gestured with his hand to Zhu Cihong, his wife and Kang Wanwan to get up, and then asked Kang Wanwan, "Where are the in-laws, Zhan Weng, Fang Weng, Zhang Weng and the others?"
Kang Baiwan said respectfully: "When we return to the Holy Father, everyone is waiting outside the hall."
"Please come in." After Chongzhen finished speaking, he ordered Gao Qi Qiandao, "Gao Banban, please bring more chairs."
"Old slave, take the order." Gao Qiqian hurriedly took the young eunuch to move the chairs. Kang Baiwan also invited Zhan Yangzhi, Fang Wenzhen, Zhang Han and other workshop owners into Yilun Hall.
All the workshop owners paid homage again.
Chongzhen motioned to stand down and gave Zhan Yangzhi a few words of comfort.
Zhan Yangzhi actually cried in front of the audience, and he really cried.
Zhan Yangzhi really didn't expect that he would see the light of day again.
If it were another emperor, even if the Tongkou case was found to be a frame-up, the Zhan family would definitely be doomed. Think about it, you are a big fat pig who has been dragged to the chopping board, will the butcher let you go?
The final result is most likely that the pig will be killed and the meat will be eaten.
But the Holy One did not kill the pigs or eat the meat. This is truly an unprecedented benevolent monarch!
In terms of their attitude towards Zhan Yangzhi, merchants such as Kang Wanwan and Fang Wenzhen also gave up their last worries.
Needless to say, these merchants are really good emperors, and they have caught up with the good times for merchants. Once they have met the emperor this time, they will hurry up when they get back!
When everyone was seated, Chongzhen asked Kang Wanwan: "My dear, the workshop owners who came today are from all walks of life, right?"
"Everything is available." Kang Wanwan stood up quickly, pointed to the merchants present and introduced, "This is Yuan Wai Sun, who is engaged in making and selling tea; this is Yuan Wai Cheng, who is engaged in extracting and selling oil; this is Yuan Wai Sun, who is engaged in extracting and selling oil;
Wu Yuanwai specializes in tailoring and ready-made clothes; this Cheng Yuanwai is engaged in groceries and soy sauce brewing; and this is Xu Yuanwai, engaged in papermaking and printing..."
Kang Wanwan introduced them one by one, and the merchants he mentioned quickly stood up in fear and bowed to each other.
Chongzhen listened briefly and found that people from almost every industry were invited. Kang Wanwan really put his effort into it.
After Kang Wanwan finished his introduction, Chongzhen continued: "I won't talk about cliches. What I hate most is official articles, clichés, lies and empty words, so let's go straight to the topic."
“The ancients said that without farming there is no stability, without work there is no wealth, and without business there is no life.”
"This shows that for a country, industry and commerce are as important as agriculture."
"Therefore, in order to secure the Ming Dynasty forever, I decided to use the whole nation to develop industry and commerce."
"Everyone here is a leader in all walks of life in Ming Dynasty, so I want to hear your opinions. What is your biggest difficulty? What kind of help do you want?"
"Missing people!" As soon as Chongzhen finished speaking, Zhan Yangzhi was the first to say.
"Your Majesty, the biggest difficulty is the lack of people. The arsenal cannot recruit enough craftsmen."
The biggest factor limiting the production capacity of the Ming Dynasty Arsenal is the lack of craftsmen. For example, many processes such as gun making, pipe rolling, drilling, polishing and correction must be skilled workers.
With apprentices, the quality of the blunderbuss tubes produced is worrying.
Chongzhen said: "Didn't the Ming Dynasty Arsenal originally have many craftsmen?"
"Not enough." Zhan Yangzhi shook his head and said, "Although there are many craftsmen's households, there are not many craftsmen who can be used. Unless the imperial court can abolish the craftsmen's registration and allow the craftsmen's households to move freely, more craftsmen can be recruited."
"That's right, abandon the craftsmen's registration and allow the craftsmen to move freely." A few merchants nodded.
But most of the merchants looked at Zhan Yangzhi and the others with surprised eyes, thinking to themselves, you are not crazy, are you?
How can we, the merchants, be allowed to comment on the imperial court’s national policies? The Holy Spirit should be furious at this time.
However, the expected thunderous fury did not appear. Instead, Chongzhen nodded and said: "The craftsman household system has seriously restricted the development and growth of industry. I have already mentioned this to the cabinet."
"If nothing else happens, the craftsmanship system will be officially abolished soon."
"Not only the craftsman registration system, but also the military registration system and the music registration system will also be abolished."
After a pause, Chongzhen continued: "From now on, all my people in the Ming Dynasty can move freely, and local officials, squires and clans cannot stop them for any reason."
The free movement of people is a prerequisite for the development of industry and commerce.
Otherwise, farmers would be tied to one-third of an acre of land, and they would have to seek guidance from the village chief when traveling far away. How could industry and commerce become stronger?
Hearing this, the atmosphere in Yilun Hall suddenly became heated.
Obviously, no one, including Kang Wanwan, expected to hear such good news.
Chongzhen asked again: "The craftsman's problem has been solved. Apart from this, are there any other difficulties?"
"Yes, capital." As soon as he finished speaking, a merchant rushed to say, "Your Majesty, it is too difficult to raise capital, which seriously affects the expansion of the workshop."
"Are you Weng Xu of the State of Xu?" Chongzhen asked with a smile, "Are you engaged in papermaking and book printing?"
"Back to your Majesty, that's right." Xu Guo stood up hurriedly when he heard this, "The Huangming Times was also printed in Xiao Lao's workshop. Xiao Lao printed it entirely at cost price and didn't make a penny."
"Eh, that won't work." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "Business is business, and the money that should be earned must still be earned. Don't dare to make money from Huangming Times just because of his status. This is wrong."
"Yes, yes, yes." Xu Guo repeatedly said with cupped hands, "Earn, earn, earn, you must earn."
Chongzhen knew that Xu Guo was just talking about it and would definitely not dare to make real money, but he didn't want to care about it.
As an emperor, how could he manage so many specific affairs? He could only focus on general directions and policies.
At that moment, Chongzhen asked again: "Weng Xu, you just said that you couldn't raise enough capital, so you restricted the expansion of the papermaking and printing workshops. Is that true?"
"Yes." Xu Guo nodded repeatedly, "Nowadays, there is no need to worry about selling all kinds of books. Many scholars cannot afford them because the books are too expensive. If the price can be lowered, no matter how many copies are printed, they can be sold and then printed
The larger the quantity, the less the cost per book will be, and the price of the book will be lower."
This is actually the biggest difference between small workshop operations and large-scale operations.
A small workshop operation will never be able to compete with large-scale operations if the cost is reduced.
At this time in the Ming Dynasty, all walks of life were in the stage of small workshop operations.
Even in the textile industry, various prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River often have tens of thousands of looms, but these are not large factories concentrated together, but small family workshops scattered among tens of thousands of families.
The looms of the three major weaving bureaus are also scattered in thousands of households.
Therefore, at this time, Daming did not operate on a large scale at all.
But businessmen like Xu Guo have realized that large-scale operations can effectively reduce costs and increase profits.
However, the expansion of production scale requires huge costs. Several generations may not be able to complete this arduous task just relying on the accumulation of small workshops.
