Ancestors of the Li family also served as officials.
Although it is said that they have never produced a high-ranking official above the third rank, they have once produced a family official in the first government, and they were able to reach the position of prefect of a government. The Li family is also a famous gentry in the local area.
However, our ancestors were both rich and unlucky. Because of the turmoil in the previous dynasty, the Li family was unlucky. Although the family was saved, the official position was definitely lost.
After losing their official position and being affected, the Li family in Suzhou had no choice but to find another way out and started doing business.
Fortunately, there were still some connections in the past, and the Li family gradually became a big business owner. It was originally a family of officials. Although the official title was lost, the dignity was still there. Both the local gentry and the government gave the Li family face.
After all, it is very common to lose one's official position.
Today you may lose your official position because you are with the wrong person. Tomorrow, when the emperor is happy, your official position may be back.
Therefore, as long as the criminal officials are not confiscated of property, exiled to the market, etc., but can still save their own bodies and even their wealth, the local government and the gentry will not be offended. After all, who knows when they will rise again?
The Ming Dynasty, or in other words, all dynasties from ancient times to the present, have always emphasized human relations and connections. It is normal for human relations to be greater than the legal system. After all, the law is the royal law. If the emperor is happy today, he can promote you, but if he is not happy tomorrow, he will dismiss you.
, legal principles are always inferior to human feelings, no matter things, this is the case.
Therefore, whether it is a local government, a gentry, or a powerful person, there are only a few people who can survive in the local area who are not smart. You can be stupid, but you cannot be stupid. You can be arrogant, but you must be discerning. No matter where you are,
This is true whether it is in the local government or in the imperial court.
When the Li family reached Li Shan's generation, they were already a wealthy gentry under the care of the local government. However, after all, they were once a family of officials. The family still wanted to restore its previous status, so there was no need to bully men and dominate women in the local area, and there was no need to be arrogant and domineering.
, on the contrary, he often helps poor families and is very supportive of some local government policies.
For example, building bridges and roads, as long as the yamen has this idea, the Li family will definitely contribute money and effort.
Therefore, the Li family has a good reputation as a benevolent family in Suzhou, both among the government and the gentry and common people.
People carried people in sedan chairs, and everyone helped each other. The situation of the Li family was getting better and better.
Nowadays, the Li family has money and shops. They are rich. However, without their official positions, they always feel that something is missing. Everyone in the family analyzes the current political affairs and believes that: the emperor is chasing death in the north, and the Ming Dynasty's army is fighting in the south and north. The emperor's
His prestige is already comparable to that of Taizu and Chengzu, and no one inside or outside the court can resist him.
Now that the emperor is young and strong, his will will still dominate the world for decades to come. And judging from his current attitude, his successors will inevitably implement new policies and encourage trade.
Therefore, the Li family believed that if their business grew bigger, they would still be favored by the court, and it would be good to be able to enter the commercial government office.
After all, there are rumors among the government and the public that the chief minister has always wanted to upgrade the commercial yamen and water conservancy yamen.
The family's idea is also Li Shan's. As the current head of the family, Li Shan also wants to expand his business. It is just in time for the New Deal to be implemented in Jiangnan, and Jiangnan will open five ports to trade with foreign barbarians. This is absolutely
It's a good opportunity to make big money.
Just developing in Suzhou is nothing. If you really want to attract the attention of the imperial court, you must at least have a certain scale, so Li Shan went to Yangzhou again and opened the Li family's silk reeling factory and weaving factory here.
After all, both Yangzhou and Suzhou were among the first places in the south of the Yangtze River to open trade ports. If the Li family wanted to gain momentum, it could not be limited to Suzhou. It must have its own reputation throughout the south of the Yangtze River.
Don’t you see that those real big shopkeepers of big chambers of commerce can even be received by the Chief Minister of the Ming Dynasty?
In such an era where there is no lowly status and the court encourages commerce and pays attention to merchants, it is undoubtedly a rare good time for merchants. They do not have to worry about being targeted by corrupt officials because of their family wealth. Their social status is constantly improving, and their
Children can also go to school and even become officials in the court.
Implementing the New Deal, developing science and technology, encouraging the investigation of things, liberating people's livelihood, and developing commerce, this is undoubtedly the best era for daimyo.
In such an era, Li Shan was also proud of his identity as a Mingren.
This is the Ming Dynasty!
Now that the imperial court has come out with its latest policy, in addition to opening ports such as Suzhou and Yangzhou, it also encourages merchants to recruit female workers and encourage women to work and make money.
When this new policy came out, Li Shan did not hesitate at all. In order to show his attitude and show that he always stood with the court, Li Shan immediately announced that his Li family's silk reeling factory and textile factory would hire female workers from Yangzhou City, but it was difficult to make a living.
, anyone who needs to work to supplement their family income can come to his factory to sign up.
As the first factory in Yangzhou City to recruit female workers, Li Shan's name was quickly remembered by the people of Yangzhou City. Some people said that he was trying to please the treacherous ministers by grandstanding, while others said that this was a benevolent move. After all, people's lives were
It’s not easy.
In short, there are different opinions, which makes Li Shan famous in Yangzhou City.
After hiring these female workers, these female workers were indeed very serious. Everyone worked seriously and carefully, and they were very diligent in both silk reeling and weaving. This also made Li Shan feel that it was worth the money.
It has to be said that the female workers are diligent and hardworking, and their work is also precise. Although Li Shan does not give these female workers much money, these female workers are enough to supplement the family income.
Moreover, Li Shan's factory also provided lunch, which made the female workers even happier. They all said that Li Shan was a good person. Even Li Shan himself felt that he was a good person.
Not only that, Li Shan also reached an agreement with five farms outside Yangzhou to purchase ingredients from these farms and recruit workers.
At this time, Li Shan was able to prove his kindness. Not only did he gain a reputation in Yangzhou City, he also found a group of good friends.
After establishing a foothold in Yangzhou, Li Shan often invited a few friends to visit teahouses and brothels, where everyone talked and laughed and discussed how to do business.
This brothel is not a low-end place. On the contrary, the brothel is a very high-end place. Most of them focus on performing arts rather than selling themselves. Most of them are former ladies and daughters of officials who are proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, or they have been trained by the brothel since they were young.
famous prostitute.
This prostitute has a higher status.
Nowadays, the best courtesans are naturally in Jinling, and there are hundreds of beauties vying for beauty on the Qinhuai River. Although Yangzhou is not as good as Suzhou, Hangzhou and Jinling, there are also Yangzhou thin horses. Those trained by brothels are all high-level talents, and ordinary Goulan
But it's different.
The brothels in Yangzhou City are all owned by one family. I don’t know who the master behind Yanliu Lane is, but from the fact that they can monopolize the entire brothel in Yangzhou, we know that the master is very powerful.
After going here a lot to listen to music and watch operas, Li Shan also knew some of the secrets behind it.
There are voluntary people in this brothel, but they are only a minority. Most of them are forced to enter here due to helplessness, livelihood or status.
Some were kidnapped, some were convicted of crimes, some had their families broken up, and some were sold, etc. Once they arrived, they had to be trained from the beginning before they could come out to receive guests.
In fact, it is good to be able to enter a brothel. Those family members who have been abused by gambling and sold by families that favor boys may not be able to come to this brothel. It would be sad to actually go to the smoke willow hook fence.
In that kind of place, there is no such thing as dignity, and one cannot even be treated as a human being.
During these days, Li Shan knew that these people's lives were hard, and he took great care of them.
This made many sisters in the brothel have a good impression of Li Shanren, and Zhang Xiaowan was one of them.
Speaking of which, Zhang Xiaowan originally came from a kind family. However, her parents favored sons over daughters and looked down upon her daughter. She was obviously already learning knowledge in a school and could write and keep accounts to support her family in Hukou. However, her parents took her away because of a sum of money.
Sold to someone else for marriage.
Why is it so happy? It's because the man in that family is a consumptive ghost.
Although Zhang Xiaowan is unwilling to marry a sick man, but at the moment, what can her parents do if they order a matchmaker?
The orders of parents are greater than heaven, and it would be unfilial to disobey their orders, so Zhang Xiaowan eventually married a sick and consumptive member of the Feng family.
However, the consumptive ghost did not get better because of the wedding, and died of illness soon after the wedding. Her husband's family thought it was Zhang Xiaowan's fault and thought she was a loser, so they drove her back to her parents' home.
Zhang Xiaowan's parents were very happy to have received a sum of money for nothing, but when they saw Zhang Xiaowan came back, they wanted to marry Zhang Xiaowan off again to make more money.
However, word spread that the Feng family's deceased tuberculosis ghost made the surrounding neighbors think that Zhang Xiaowan was a murderer. Seeing that their daughter could not be sold, Zhang Xiaowan's parents had no choice but to give up.
But who would have expected that people from Zuixianglou, a famous brothel in Yangzhou City, came to find her. Zhang Xiaowan was beautiful and had a good face. She could be a good youngster with some training. After knowing that Zhang Xiaowan’s parents had always wanted to sell Zhang Xiaowan,
, he suggested that the brothel spend money to buy Zhang Xiaowan.
Zhang Xiaowan's parents were moved, and Zhang Xiaowan begged, but her parents still signed a contract and sold Zhang Xiaowan to a brothel for the money.
On the same day, the thugs of Zuixianglou forcibly loaded her into a truck and transported her to Zuixianglou for training. Although Zhang Xiaowan refused to comply and even planned to hang herself, the people in the brothel took a strict look at her and she never succeeded.
The sisters in the brothel also sympathized with Zhang Xiaowan's experience, but how many of the brothel's painting boats came here voluntarily to make fun of themselves?
It is said that they are just selling their skills but not their bodies, but those wealthy gentry and officials are interested in her, so what can they do?
Now that they know that Li Shan has opened a factory in Yangzhou city, specifically hiring female workers to reel and weave silk, Zhang Xiaowan and others feel that Li Shan respects women.
While chatting at night, a sister said: "All the men in the world are the same, how many of them are good ones?"
Zhang Xiaowan knew that this sister was tricked by her lover into being sold to a brothel, so she sighed softly: "That Li Shan respects us women. Speaking of which, it's not like we women can't work, can't work, can't
You support yourself, why do you have to end up like this?"
The sister said: "How about we find a chance to escape. At worst, we can go to Li Shan's factory and work to support ourselves. It is better than living here all day long and being picked like meat."
Zhang Xiaowan was obviously moved.
One night, the two of them finally found a chance and escaped from Zuixiang Tower with the help of other sisters.
After escaping from Zuixiang Tower, they first found a place to hide. When they saw that Zuixiang Tower had not found them again two days later, they dressed up and went to Li Shan's factory to apply for jobs.
In front of the factory, Zhang Xiaowan and Zhang Xiaowan said that their family had been broken up and they had already realized that they wanted to find some work to support themselves. The manager of the factory was also a woman, and they couldn't bear to see this young girl like this. They thought about the hard days they had endured.
, he was soft-hearted and left them to work, but Li Shan didn't know this yet.
After all, whether it is a silk reeling factory or a textile factory, most of the workers are female workers. How could he, a grown man, go to the workshop of female workers? He is the shopkeeper, not the manager. He only needs to grasp the general direction.
So Li Shan continued to live his life, sometimes drinking tea and watching theater with his friends, and sometimes patrolling the factory. At the same time, he was actively preparing and studying new products with the master craftsmen, hoping to sew a good-looking fabric.
It's a good time to sell it to those barbarians in the West.
Sister Zhang Xiaowan also lived in the silk reeling factory. They worked and ate in the silk reeling factory on weekdays. They did not leave the factory unless necessary, and only occasionally went out to buy something.
But such good days did not last long. Even though Zhang Xiaowan and her sisters were careful about their whereabouts, they were still discovered by people from Zuixianglou.
Seeing Zhang Xiaowan and sisters entering Li Shan's factory, the thugs from Zuixianglou immediately went back and reported it to their master.
This master also had an identity. He didn't take Li Shan seriously at all, and immediately gave an order to his thugs: "Go and capture those two bitches."
"Also, let's teach that guy named Li a lesson. Why can he do whatever he wants just because he has a kind name?"
That night, thugs from Zuixianglou rushed directly into the silk reeling factory. Amid the screams of women, they smashed the machines of the silk reeling factory, injured several workers, and then captured the Zhang Xiaowan sisters.
The leader looked at Sister Zhang Xiaowan being dragged over by her hair and couldn't help but sneer: "Two bitches, where do you want to escape to?"
With that said, Zhang Xiaowan was slapped several times, and Zhang Xiaowan's cheeks became visibly red and swollen, and blood oozed from the corners of her mouth.
Zhang Xiaowan remained silent and allowed her hair to be pulled by others. She knew that when she went back, she might be worse off than dead.
After Li Shan learned that his factory had been smashed, he hurried over. As soon as he arrived, he saw some men in black armed with sticks taking Sister Zhang Xiaowan away.
Li Shan immediately shouted: "Who are you? Why did you come to my place to destroy and arrest my workers?"
When the head steward saw Li Shan, the rightful owner, arriving, he was not afraid at all, and did not feel that he had broken the law at all. He swaggered in front of Li Shan and said, "Li Dashan, right? Do you know that in your factory,
Hiding our people?”
Li Shan was confused: "Who are your people?"
Seeing that Li Shan was pretending to be a fool, the manager directly brought Sister Zhang Xiaowan up, pointed and said: "These two bitches signed a deed of sale to us and sold them to us at Zuixianglou, but they escaped a few days ago.
It’s hidden in your factory, don’t you know?”
Li Shan looked at Zhang Xiaowan and Zhang Xiaowan, and now he recognized them: "You, you are not..."
Only then did Zhang Xiaowan speak: "Li Shanren, I have caused trouble for you."
"We escaped on our own and have nothing to do with Li Shanren. We are just hiding here. Don't embarrass Li Shanren."
The manager smiled: "You bitch, you can't even protect yourself, but you still protect him?"
"But you said you escaped on your own, so that's easy to handle. Shopkeeper Li, did you hear that? These two bitches escaped on their own, take them back!"
Originally, Li Shan should have asked the steward to take Zhang Xiaowan and Zhang Xiaowan back, but he didn't know whether it was because he was too passionate, or because he knew the tragic past of the women in the brothel, and felt pity for them, or because he couldn't bear to see the miserable appearance of Zhang Xiaowan and Zhang Xiaowan now.
, Li Shan actually stopped in front of these people: "This is a worker of my Li family. You smashed my factory and you came to my place to arrest people. Do you still have the law?"
"Believe it or not, I'm going to sue the official!"
When he heard that he was suing the official, the manager smiled even more happily: "Then you can sue the official and let's go!"
Seeing Sister Zhang Xiaowan being taken away by people from Zuixianglou, and then looking at the smashed factory and the injured workers, Li Shan was so angry that he had to clean up the mess first: "Injured workers, send them to the hospital quickly.
Heal your injuries, give each person a month's salary, and have a good rest."
"Record all the damaged machines and make a list. Tomorrow I will sue the officials and sue them!"
The next day, Li Shan actually went to the Yamen to complain.
"Powerful~"
Accompanied by the yamen servant's voice, he ascended to the hall.
Wu Renxing, the magistrate of Yangzhou, was shocked: "Who are you, and what are you telling me?"
Li Shan bowed and saluted: "Master Magistrate, Cao Min sued Zuixianglou. They smashed Cao Min's factory, injured the workers, and even kidnapped two female workers from Cao Min's factory!"
When Wu Renxing heard this, he immediately said: "Bring the steward of Zuixianglou here."
Soon the steward of Zuixianglou came and saluted Wu Renxing respectfully: "The common people have seen the prefect."
Wu Renxing said: "Manager Wang, Shopkeeper Li said that your people smashed his factory, injured his workers, and took away the female workers. Is this true?"
Manager Wang bowed and said, "It is indeed true, but Lord Magistrate, we have no choice but to do it."
Wu Renxing smiled: "We have no choice? We smashed the factory and injured the workers. Is this what we call no choice?"
Manager Wang quickly complained: "Master Magistrate, this is all because our people were hidden in Shopkeeper Li's factory! We went to ask for them, but they refused to hand over the people, so this conflict broke out and they pushed each other. This is not our responsibility.
.”
Li Shan became angry when he heard this: "Obviously it was your people who came into my factory at night with sticks. They beat people and smashed machines when they saw them. How come it was us who pushed and pushed you to stop you?!"
Wu Renxing listened to the quarrel between Li Shan and Manager Wang, frowned and slapped the gavel: "Shut up!"
"Manager Wang, Shopkeeper Li said that you took away two female workers from him. You said that these two female workers are yours. What evidence is there?"
Manager Wang quickly said: "Yes, there is a contract of sale. The contracts of those two bitches are with us!"
Wu Renxing said: "There is also a prostitution contract for bringing in female workers."
