"Mingde, Jiang Hong, what problems have you encountered in resettling the refugees in the past three days?"
“Have you finished summarizing all the questions and written all the documents?”
Chu Qianqiu comforted his master's wife and once again confirmed that there was nothing wrong with Tan Xiaoli's information.
He then came to the living room to deal with the matters that had been delayed for the past three days.
When Chu Qianqiu returned to Linghu City from Beijing, big events happened one after another. In just three days, the entire Linghu City seemed to be turned upside down.
The Longhu Chamber of Commerce was investigated by the Yamen, Li Taixuan secretly attacked, and the bad guy commander of Daxia was exposed. One major incident after another made Li Mingde and Jiang Hong want to get some first-hand information.
Unexpectedly, when Chu Qianqiu summoned them, it was to ask them about work matters, and their knees couldn't help but feel weak.
The lord is really terrible.
It's as if your boss is a senior technical person and is standing behind you to supervise the work. The mental pressure will be full in an instant.
They are under high-intensity work pressure every day. They no longer listen to songs or drink wine. They just focus on work every day.
Chu Qianqiu wanted to train the two officers' subordinates so that they could develop efficient work habits so that they could make more contributions to society in the future.
"Already have it, please take a look, my lord." Li Mingde quickly replied, glanced at Jiang Hong, and both parties exhaled.
Fortunately, I stayed up late and finished writing it.
“Thanks to the care provided along the way, the refugees’ emotions are relatively stable and they are willing to be hired by us.”
"We pay a long-term worker 20 taels of silver a year according to the original market price, and the price for heavy physical labor is higher."
"As a result, many local gangs came to our door and wanted to discuss with us, saying that we should not recruit outsiders first and that the price they offered was too high."
"Why is it too high?" Chu Qianqiu asked with a frown.
"The price of long-term labor in the market has dropped sharply. Yesterday it even dropped to one tael of silver a year."
"We offered the refugees 2 taels of silver, and many people came to ask if we were recruiting workers. They were willing to pay 2 taels of silver for the job, but we can no longer advertise the price of 2 taels of silver."
Li Mingde quickly reported.
The income of two taels of silver is basically the bottom line for long-term workers to maintain their minimum livelihood. It is the result of many years of games between long-term workers in Lingzhou and the landlords, and it has been maintained relatively stable.
Now it has fallen to one or two silver, which is a dangerous signal.
"How is this going"
"Why do they think two taels of silver is too high?"
"Tell me carefully."
Although Chu Qianqiu heard Xiaoxiao mention similar things in the last cycle, he still didn't quite understand the ins and outs of the matter.
It's quite surprising that people from Japan would take the initiative to lower prices when they come to contract work.
"Lord, Junior Brother Jiang knows more about this, why not let Junior Brother Jiang speak."
Li Mingde glanced at Jiang Hong and gave up his position.
"Can."
When did your relationship get better?
Chu Qianqiu nodded. Like Li Mingde, he belonged to the aristocracy of the Shenwu Dynasty. He could not understand the sufferings of the people.
The most painful thing in his memory was just that practicing martial arts was a bit hard, that's all.
Only Jiang Hong, who was born as a beggar, has a better understanding of folk life.
"Lord, do you know who the poorest person in the world is?"
"Nature is a farmer in the field."
"My lord, you are ridiculous. The farmers here are very wealthy." Jiang Hong said with a smile.
"Oh, how can I say this?"
"Although this kind of land has to pay royal grain and rent, it also has to do chores for the yamen and pay exorbitant taxes."
"But farming is not a simple job."
"A piece of land requires hard work for a year, but it is very easy to destroy it."
"If the wealthy landlords go too far, some farmers will even destroy their fields and run away."
"As long as you open the cellar in those farmers' homes, there will always be rice, flour, wine, money, etc. hidden in it. Some even have swords and leather armor, and they even have the ability to express themselves!"
"We walked from Yongzhou to Lingzhou, and many of the cottages we destroyed were farmers pretending to be farmers."
"They usually farm, but if they encounter a caravan of weak persimmons, they will turn into bandits and make a fortune."
"You're right, what next?"
Chu Qianqiu thought of a certain large-scale armed fight in his previous life. The farmers on both sides were ruthless. They would build earthen buildings and bunkers, and use artillery and fire attacks.
The two sides fought, killing and injuring millions of people, showing great martial virtue.
Farmers are by no means stupid fools, they have unique cunning and shrewdness.
They knew that the old man knew martial arts and wanted to learn it, but they didn't have the conditions.
"The most fundamental reason is that farming is hard work. Taking care of a field is not an easy task, but destroying it is very easy." Jiang Hong talked about it. He can also be regarded as the son of a landless farmer.
He had no choice but to go to the city to beg for a living, and ended up becoming a beggar.
"Landlords are also unwilling to abandon their stable tenants and push them to a dead end."
"So farmers in Lingzhou have accumulated grain for many years, and their cellars often contain enough grain to last one to two years."
"The reason why farmers in Fengzhou abandoned their fields is because the drought has lasted for too long."
Jiang Hong said with some sadness.
Fengzhou has been experiencing a severe drought for more than two years now. Even if farmers are prepared to accept a year of famine based on past experience, they really cannot survive it. (Note: Chapter)
A normal farmer will prepare one year's worth of food, and a prudent farmer will prepare two years' worth of food.
As for three years of food, it is beyond their capabilities and cannot be saved.
The continuous severe drought finally destroyed the farmers' savings and even the seeds for reproduction were eaten up.
So the entire Fengzhou began to collapse.
"Lingzhou has suffered less severe disasters in recent years, and the farmers' families are relatively wealthy."
"So compared to farmers in the fields, long-term workers are the most impoverished group."
"Some of them work for a day, get a day's wages, and have no permanent income. They come when they are called, and they go when they are called."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "The dream of many long-term workers is to work for the landlords and then return to their hometowns to buy land."
"I'm not afraid of my master's jokes. When I was a beggar, I just wanted to make money and then go home and buy a piece of land."
Jiang Hong said with some regret that he probably never dreamed that he would become the young leader of the Sixth Expo, and that by chance, the young commander who followed the Shenwei Army would have the opportunity to become a big shot in charge of the party.
"What's this?"
"I just wanted to buy a manor and live a comfortable life."
Chu Qianqiu said with a smile, and then motioned to Jiang Hong to continue.
"Lord, in summary, the long-term workers have the hardest time. They are the most sensitive to recruiting workers. They are also attached to some martial arts schools and tooth people, ostracizing people from other places."
"Yes, you have done a lot of homework, I am very satisfied." Chu Qianqiu praised it, which moved the two of them. If he knew that Chu Qianqiu would master this knowledge after a while, he would probably regret it.
"But senior brother feels that it is very strange. The long-term workers are being squeezed out too quickly, as if there is some pusher behind the scenes." Jiang Hong said here and decided to stop talking and give the opportunity to the senior brother to express his feelings.
The friendship of fellow disciples.
After the last cooperation, the two have quickly reached a reconciliation.
As the saying goes, it is better to dissolve enemies than to make enemies. Under Chu Qianqiu's extreme pressure, they really had no energy to engage in internal fighting, so they turned their hostility into friendship.
"So Mingde, what did you find out?"
"Lord, that's it." Li Mingde quickly stood up.
"We found some people who were deliberately spreading rumors that the landowners in Lingzhou were willing to hire long-term workers at the price of two taels of silver."
"But the refugees from Fengzhou fled here and were willing to accept lower prices in order to grab jobs."
"So the current price on the market is that for locals, it's two cents, while for the refugees in Fengzhou, it's two cents."
"Now all landlords in Lingzhou are paying this price."
"It took me a lot of effort to find out that it was the head of the Wang family in Baixiang Town who was promoting this matter."
"Other landowners thought it was profitable, so the Wang family leader followed suit and hoped to bring down the price of long-term workers together."
"Some landlords and wealthy people also said that the legitimate son of the Wang family is also working as a personal guard with the lord, and everyone is one of his own." Li Mingde said cautiously.
It was difficult for the two of them to decide on this matter.
It turns out that Wang Rong is playing quite smoothly.
Only then did Chu Qianqiu understand the whole story.
On the one hand, Wang Rong told the long-term workers in Lingzhou that your salary must be higher than that of the refugees in Fengzhou. On the other hand, he said that it was the refugees from Fengzhou who had taken away the jobs, and they were willing to accept lower prices.
So I had to tear down my salary.
The long-term workers in Lingzhou accepted the tragic loss and lost almost a quarter of their salary, so they naturally directed their hatred at the refugees in Fengzhou.
"This old bastard is just causing trouble for me."
Chu Qianqiu scolded him first, but Wang Rong was very clever in his tactics, so you can't punish him openly.
Even in the previous life, it was a common tactic used by major countries. You need to have a good talk with him.
If talking about the law doesn't work, just talk to him about iron fist.