Xiahetun was an unknown small village more than half a century ago. Because it was located on the Bohai Sea, most of the villagers at that time made a living by boiling salt.
But I am not a kitchen owner, so it is illegal to boil salt. I can only sell the salt to those private salt dealers. The price is very low, and it is very hard. I have to live hard. It is the poorest place in the surrounding villages.
However, by now, Xiahetun has undergone earth-shaking changes.
The stoves used to cook salt on the seaside have long since disappeared, replaced by a busy port, although it is not a deep water area and cannot berth large ships.
But as long as they are willing to invest, ports and wharves capable of berthing thousand-ton ships have still been built here. Thanks to the prosperity and development of the Beijing-Tianjin area in the Ming Dynasty, the ports and wharves here have also become extremely busy, taking on part of the external load of the Beijing-Tianjin area.
transportation of goods.
The scale of Xiahetun Village has also undergone tremendous changes. It used to be just a shabby little village, but now Yanran has become a densely populated, prosperous and lively town.
The former thatched houses and mud houses have now been transformed into reinforced concrete houses, which are neatly built and painted with various colors of paint on the exterior walls, making them look much more beautiful.
Some people even painted on some walls, making the whole village look full of vitality.
As for Xiahetun, no, it has been renamed Xiahe Town now.
As for the villagers in Xiahe Town, their appearance has already changed drastically.
This is located in the peripheral area of the Beijing-Tianjin area. Following the development of the Beijing-Tianjin area, it is also developing rapidly.
Some people opened factories and trading houses, some were engaged in shipping and driving ships, and some people traveled north and south. Just like this magnificent era, earth-shaking changes were taking place.
There are many big factory owners, trading house owners, ship owners, large manor owners, large plantation owners, etc. here, which has made Xiahe Town extremely wealthy.
The cars parked in front of every house are all of good brands, and Mercedes-Benz and BMW can be seen everywhere. The roads are spacious and neat, and they are all equipped with street lights.
There are also many various parks, football fields, sports fields, etc., and you can see a large number of adults and children sweating there.
A beautiful school, with the sound of loud books coming from inside, young and full of vitality.
In an open space, a large number of old people gathered together, recalling scenes from the past, pointing to various places, and talking about everything that happened here decades ago.
Liu Jin walked slowly and leisurely in Xiahe Town. The changes that had taken place here were really too great. He had not been back for many years and many places in his memory could no longer be found.
The last time I came back was when my mother passed away, and I stayed here for three years. Counting the time, it was already decades ago.
The changes here are so great!
So much so that Liu Jin could not find the southeast, northwest, and Xiahetun in his memory had long since disappeared. Just like countless villages in the Ming Dynasty in this era, they were undergoing earth-shaking changes.
"What a big change!"
Liu Jin sighed and shook his head as he spoke.
At this time, several children were playing and playing with the football. The football came to Liu Jin's feet. Liu Jin gently picked up the football and looked at the children.
"Grandpa, can you give us the football?"
Several children came to Liu Jin and said politely.
They looked at the old man in front of them curiously. This old man seemed not to be the old man around them.
"well!"
Liu Jin smiled and handed the football to these children. Neither the child nor the adults around him recognized him now.
Even people who are in their forties or fifties are still very young to Liu Jin, and they may not have seen him before, so it is normal not to recognize him.
At this moment, Liu Jin felt like a young boy who had left home and returned home, his local accent unchanged and his hair on his temples faded. Children who met each other did not recognize each other, but laughed and asked where the guests were from.
"Thank you, grandpa!"
The child got the football and looked at Liu Jin in front of him again. He always felt that the old man in front of him was very kind and seemed to be a little different from the old men around him.
Liu Jin continued to walk around Xiahe Town, taking a walk and seeing everything here.
It can be seen that the development here in Xiahe Town is very good.
On the one hand, this is related to the geographical location here. It is located in the Bohai Bay and is close to the Beijing-Tianjin area. There are a large number of factories spilling over from the Beijing-Tianjin area. There are many factories here in Changli County, and there are also many here in Xiahe Town.
of large factories.
A few large factories in a small town are enough to feed the entire town and allow the people in the small town to live a good life.
The factories here in Xiahetun were moved here by Liu Jin on purpose, mainly to promote the development of his hometown. Over the past few decades, there have been more and more factories here, driving more factories to settle here, and also allowing Xiahetun to move to Xiahetun.
Hezhen is developing rapidly.
Another aspect is mainly related to Liu Jin. Liu Jin has been in the government and the public for decades, holding a high position and holding great power. This will naturally benefit his hometown.
Even if Liu Jin doesn't say it himself, the local officials here will know how to do it, so there is always a lot of funds allocated here for infrastructure construction and so on.
Railways, trains, ports, highways, etc. are all indispensable and everything that should be there is available. The construction of infrastructure can also drive the economic development of a place.
As the saying goes, there are people in the court who are easy to do things. This is actually the truth. It is just like building roads in later generations. If a capable person comes out of a certain place, this place has great advantages in infrastructure construction, and some roads are crooked.
Who is Liu Jin? He is the most powerful person in the entire history of Changli County.
The chief minister of the official cabinet, he had been in power for decades, and was granted the title of Duke of Liao. He had disciples and former officials all over the world. More importantly, Liu Jin himself was the God of Wealth of the Ming Dynasty.
There are countless various industries under his command, and if you just add some water to your hometown, it will be enough for the people in your hometown to benefit endlessly.
Xiahe Town and even Changli County as a whole are developing very rapidly. Yanran has become a pearl on the Bohai Bay!
Walking, walking, Liu Jin came to a park where many old people gathered, many in their sixties and seventies, and some in their eighties and nineties.
With the development of various fields in the Ming Dynasty, people's living standards have become higher and higher, and there are more and more elderly people living long lives.
In the past, there was not even enough food to eat, and there was no way to support the elderly. Many elderly people would find a way to get away when they reached a certain age and could no longer work, so as not to cause trouble to their children.
Things are different now. There is no shortage of food at all. Even though there have been constant natural disasters over the years, the Ming Dynasty's food is still very stable and sufficient.
Moreover, people nowadays not only need to eat enough, but also eat well and have balanced nutrition. With such a high standard of living, older people do not need to do any work and can take care of themselves in peace and contentment.
Naturally, there are many old people who live long lives.
In the past, reaching sixty was regarded as a long life, but reaching seventy has become rare in ancient times.
But things are different now. With higher living standards and advanced medical technology, one can easily reach seventy or eighty years old.
At this moment, many old people gathered together, basking in the sun and chatting about past events.
"Old Zhao's family is really powerful. I heard that his son now has a fortune of one million taels!"
"Isn't that right? The old Zhao family is very proud now. In the past, he was just a guy who cooked fires and boiled salt. Back then, his grandfather went to the beach with me to fetch water and boil salt."
"Old Li, I heard that your grandson is also very good. He has already passed the exam. If he takes the exam next year and is named on the gold medal list, he will be an official by then."
"Oh, it can't be that easy. Now the imperial examination is very difficult. There are too many people taking part, too many, so it's difficult to take the exam!"
"The children of Lao Wang's family are also very powerful. I heard that two more large oil fields have been discovered here in Huangjinzhou. From now on, I can collect a steady stream of money just sitting there."
"My darling, we have discovered two more large oil fields. These are people who sit and collect money!"
"you do not say!"
"This oil field is a guaranteed profit. The oil inside flows out like water, and it is all silver. The money flows out like water. The money comes very fast. I didn't see the old prince.
Are all old houses so splendid?"
"I have to say that our Xiahe Town has produced a lot of capable people. The rich bosses are more powerful than the others. The grandson of Old Man Sun has several gold mines here in Huanghuangzhou. I heard that
I can hardly put down the gold in my house."
"The descendants of the old Yang family heard that there is an iron mine in Australia, and they are planning to build a large steel plant there. This steel plant has also been built, and from now on they will be the cashiers."
"The children of Hu Laosan's family are also very powerful. All of them have been admitted to university, passed the imperial examinations, and even become officials. I heard that the most powerful one is now a fifth-grade prefect."
"That's really amazing. A fifth-grade magistrate. We have never had such a high-ranking official in Changli County."
Some younger people also sighed quickly when they heard it.
Who would have thought that as soon as he finished speaking, everyone around him immediately said in unison: "Who said no!"
"I don't even know if you are from our Xiahe Town. Even the most powerful person from our Xiahe Town doesn't know. Have you seen the yard in the center?"
"The Liu Mansion hanging above, don't you know that we have the most powerful person in Xiahe Town?"
"That's right. If you want to say that the most powerful person in the history of our Xiahetun, and even Changli County, is naturally the Duke of Liao, Liu Jin!"
"Liu Jin?"
When Liu Jin heard someone talking about himself, he couldn't help but smile and continued to listen.
"Liu Jin?"
When the young man heard this, he was a little confused. He thought for a while and said, "I was born and grew up in another place. I just came back to my hometown recently. I don't know much about things in my hometown. Can you tell me about Liu Jin?"
.”
"That's not surprising."
"In our Xiahe Town, the most powerful person is Liu Jin."
"In the past, he had a first-rank official position. He was the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty's cabinet and the emperor's minister. During his decades in power, he had the emperor's trust deeply and held great power."
"Although Mr. Liu was a civil servant, he led our Ming army across the four directions, punching the Japanese countries in the east, kicking many small countries in the Southeast Asia, sweeping the Western Regions and Rivers in the west, and destroying the Jurchen Tatars in the north."
"He opened up territory for our Ming Dynasty and assisted Emperor Zuo in governing the Ming Dynasty, creating an unprecedented prosperous age for our Ming Dynasty. Therefore, he was named the Duke of Liao Kingdom, which is hereditary and will not be replaced!"
An old man said very excitedly and proudly.
The old people around him also nodded. At this moment, they were also proud that their hometown could produce such a capable person like Liu Jin. This was definitely something to be proud of and something worth bragging about.
"My dear, I didn't expect that such a big shot would come out of our Xiahe Town!"
When the young man heard this, he couldn't help but marvel.
The first-rank official position, the chief minister of the cabinet, the Duke of Liao, and hereditary succession are all enough to become a highlight of a place, and now they are all the same person.
"But why haven't you heard of their family? I've also never seen their family."
"I see that the mansion is indeed very big and grand, but there doesn't seem to be many people there."
"This is just the hometown of the Liu family. Very few people come here. Only during the Qingming Festival every year, the children of the Liu family will come back here for a while, sweep the tombs and pay homage to their ancestors, and then leave."
"Their children have already spread all over the world. Some of them are here in the capital. The most important one is the Duke of Liao in the capital."
"In addition, the Governor of South Africa Liu Da is Liu Jin's son, and the Governor of Ceylon is also Liu Jin's son. Liu Jin's son is also in charge of the largest oil company, gold and silver mines in Golden Continent."
"The descendants of the Liu family are all very promising. We can't keep them here in Xiahe Town."
"Yes, yes, during the Qingming Festival this year, I even saw Liu Jin's eldest son Liu Xin come back to worship his ancestors. He was quite polite to us fellow villagers."
"There are so many descendants of the Liu family, and they are all very capable. They are distributed all over the world, and they are giants in various fields. I heard that the big business houses, factories, etc. in our Ming Dynasty all belong to the Liu family."
"Such as the First Bank of the Ming Dynasty, Mercedes-Benz Automobile, Tianjin Trading Company, Daming Petroleum Company, Daming Electric Company, etc., these are all the Liu family's industries."
"Oh my God, these are all the properties of their Liu family?"
"If any one of them comes out, it will be an extremely huge behemoth."
When some people heard this, they couldn't help but exclaimed. These world-famous large trading houses and large factories are behemoths all over the world. They didn't expect that they were the Liu family's industry.
"These are just some of them. The large and small schools here in the capital, such as the Ming Imperial Institute of Technology, the Ming Medical College, the Ming Architecture Institute, the Tianjin Maritime Institute, etc., are also the Liu family's industries. They were all created by Liu Gong.
Founded.”
"In addition, in these overseas colonies, such as the South African Colony, the Western United Trading Company, etc., Liu Jin is the major shareholder. The Liu family's wealth is simply difficult to calculate and count. It is so huge that it is beyond imagination."
The old man next to him smiled and continued, if it were really necessary to count the Liu family's property, it would be difficult to count it. What everyone is talking about is only a part of it.
"I didn't expect that our Xiahe Town would have such a big shot and a big family!"
The young people sighed and couldn't believe that such a big family and big shot came out of this small town of Xiahe.
"Then is Mr. Liu no longer alive?"
After thinking about it, the young man also asked.
"Here he is, he's still here."
"After all, he is now over eighty years old. I heard that he has been retiring here in Nanyun Province. He has not returned to our Xiahe Town for many years."
"Yes, he is okay. When his son came back to visit his grave, I asked about him and heard that he was in very good health."
"You may not believe it when I tell you, but I went to the beach with Liu Jin when I was a child."
At this time, an old man in his eighties recalled what happened decades ago.
"real or fake?"
Someone asked immediately.
"Of course it's true. At that time, our Xiahe Town was not called Xiahe Town, but Xiahe Tun. The village was just that big and there were not many people. Liu Jin and I were about the same age."
"At that time, he had been studying since he was a child, and I had been working since he was a child. When I had free time, I would go see what books he was reading, and when I had free time, we would go to the beach to play together."
"At that time, how could I have imagined that all this would happen now? Alas, my relationship with Liu Jin was just average, and the relationship between the Zhao Heishan family and the Liu Jin family was very good, so the old Zhao family has become more prosperous now, and the children of the family have also become more prosperous.
They are all over the world, each one more promising than the other."
"Speaking of which, I met him decades ago. He seemed to have returned to his hometown to observe filial piety and lived here for three years."
"What does he look like?"
"Of course there's nothing to say about his appearance. He's extraordinarily handsome. He was the star of Wen Qu. In the twelfth year of Hongzhi's reign, he was the number one scholar!"
"He's still the top pick!"
"you do not say!"
"He is the only number one scholar here so far. Therefore, the children at home should study more so that they can truly be successful. No matter how much money they make, they are nothing more than a boss and a businessman.
Can be compared with Liu Gong."
"Yes, yes, I still need to read more."
"I don't know how Liu Jin is doing now. He is over eighty years old. He is probably just an old man. I guess I might not recognize him in front of me."
"..."
Liu Jin also smiled slightly as he listened to them talking about him.
He has already become a legend in Xiahe Town and even Changli County, and countless people are talking about him.
Liu Jin returned to Xiahe Town without telling anyone and came back quietly. But soon, everyone gradually knew that Liu Jin was back and came back to Xiahe Town.
Many elderly people would also come to Liu Jin to chat and visit Liu Jin. However, because of the huge identity gap between the two parties, they would only meet once and not have much contact with each other.
Because of Liu Jin's return, Xiahe Town can often see some big shots coming to Xiahe Town. It is very convenient to come from the Beijing-Tianjin area.
At the same time, we can also see the descendants of the Liu family coming back from overseas to visit Liu Jin, especially during the holidays. The Liu Mansion, which has been deserted for decades, also becomes lively. A large number of descendants of the Liu family return to the ancestral home of the Liu family.
I’m here to spend the New Year with Liu Jin and so on.
The story about Liu Jin is also mentioned over and over again here. Those old people who were the same generation as Liu Jin are even more excited to talk about Liu Jin to the people around them.
Time passes slowly, day after day, year after year.
On this day, Liu Jin was lying on his master's chair, reading a book and looking at Xiahe Town and Bohai Bay in front of him.
The whole person looked at it, and was lost in the lake. It seemed that a long time had passed, and it seemed that he had had a dream, a long, long dream.
Familiar figures and people from the past seemed to appear around him all of a sudden. Emperor Hongzhi, Emperor Zhengde, Zhang Mao, Li Dongyang, Wang Shouren, etc., as well as his wife Xu Waner, Li Zhen and others, seemed to appear all of a sudden.
They all came to their side.
Their figures were so familiar and their voices were so clear, it seemed as if everything happened just yesterday.
The book slowly fell from Liu Jin's hands to the ground.
.....
The news of Liu Jin's death soon spread to the capital and all over the world. For a while, all the descendants of the Liu family were wearing mourning and weeping.
At the same time, the Ming Dynasty, which was in a precarious situation, also expressed its deep condolences for Liu Jin's death as soon as possible.
The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty also launched a vigorous pursuit of Liu Jin, and named Liu Jin the King of Zhenhai of the Ming Dynasty!
As for why he was granted the title of King of Zhenhai, this point has puzzled historians of later generations, because although the Ming Dynasty did not have the practice of granting the title of king during his lifetime, the title of king after his death was also the King of Zhongshan, not the King of Zhenhai.
.
Of course, none of this is important anymore. In addition to being posthumously named King of Zhenhai, Liu Jin was also given the posthumous title of "Wenzheng". At the same time, he was also granted a title to several of the Liu family's children and ordered the entire Ming Dynasty to mourn for a day.
Such an honor is extremely glorious!
The story of an era also ended with this!
ps: Brothers, I have finished the book. Calculating the time, it took almost more than three years to write. I am very grateful to everyone for your companionship and support along the way. Because of your support, I was able to write the book until now.
This book, King of Ming Zhenhai, is the first historical novel I wrote. It was very stumbling at the beginning, and I didn’t understand a lot of it. But because of your encouragement and support, I was able to keep writing.
Go on, thank you very much, thank you very much to the book friends who support me, thank you, I hope your life can be as perfect as Liu Jin in the book.
I will write a few extras later and write some future stories. In addition, I will take a rest for a week or so, and I will start a new book, still about the history of the Ming Dynasty. I hope everyone can continue to support me. I will also
I will work hard to write more exciting and better-looking articles!
