The moonlight was like water, and Lin Jue rode his horse slowly along the avenue back to Hangzhou City. In the distance, the noise of the city could be heard, and the gongs, drums and lights were noisy. It was the lantern parade after the Oiran Competition, and it was in full swing at the moment.
.
When he came outside the South City Gate and listened to the hustle and bustle of the city, Lin Jue suddenly felt like he didn't want to go into the city. He refused to throw himself into the noisy and noisy market again, even though he knew that as long as he
If you show up, you will definitely be enthusiastically welcomed by everyone. But in fact, you are not expecting any of this.
Lin Jue turned over and dismounted, and pulled the horse down the willow forest beside the road, letting it eat the grass on its own, while he sat down on the dirt beside the forest. The moonlight was bright all around, and under the full moon, the mountain scenery appeared.
It felt as quiet and peaceful as an ink painting. Looking up at the bright moon in the sky, Lin Jue felt an indescribable emotion in his heart.
Tonight's Oiran Competition was finally over. He had worked hard to complete his mission, but Lin Jue actually had no sense of accomplishment in his heart. He even felt a little disgusted with this form of Oiran Competition.
An oiran contest that wastes people and money is nothing more than for some wealthy officials to achieve their own vanity. Under all these flowers, hidden political purposes, vanity comparisons, and even mutual strife are really unpleasant. In this oiran's prestigious reputation
Under the circumstances, it is actually not as simple as entertaining people. In order to win the oiran, some people can deceive, and some people can use power to suppress their opponents. This is already very disgusting.
On the other hand, the amount of money spent in the Oiran Competition is also huge. Lin Jue had no idea before, but this time, Lin Jue watched helplessly as a large amount of money was used for this competition. Back and forth,
Lin Jue watched with his own eyes as the young princess approved a huge sum of nearly one hundred thousand taels of silver and spent it on various expenses.
Nearly one hundred thousand taels of silver were spent in two days, just for this oiran competition. This was only the silver taels spent by the Liang Prince's Palace for Qunfang Pavilion. The Hangzhou Palace built a floating platform for the venue, and used the imperial troops and officials.
The manpower is countless. The Yangzhou and Jiangning governments have invited so many helpers, so how much money is spent? A rough calculation shows that this oiran contest will cost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.
However, what did the money get in the end? What did it bring to the people? It was nothing more than a night of carnival. If these hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were used in other ways, it would be much more beneficial.
Lin Jue doesn't understand what's wrong with him. Recently, he always can't help but dig into the corners of things. He never had any opinions on these things before. Lin Jue has never been a hypocritical person, and he is not willing to say anything.
If you want to disgrace the scenery, make a gesture of caring about the sufferings of the people. Because he doesn't have such feelings in his heart at all, and he can't pretend to do it.
But since he took over the Lin family's business, and when Lin Jue really came into contact with those people at the lowest level who were struggling to make a living, Lin Jue suddenly seemed to be a completely different person. The Holy Mother's heart was always overflowing in his heart from time to time.
It’s easy to think of everything to another level. Lin Jue didn’t know what was wrong with him?
The Lin Jue of the past, and even the Lin Jue of the previous life, although he was bullied by his family, at least he had enough food and clothing and did not worry about his livelihood. Although he was a concubine and had a low status, he was not comparable to ordinary people.
So after his rebirth, Lin Jue was only worried about the fate of his family and his own fate, and had no thoughts about other things. However, after experiencing another destiny path that was completely different from his previous life, when he took over the Lin family's business,
It was only after he came into contact with the ordinary employees of the Lin family that he had such a profound feeling.
In the past month, Lin Jue, as the chief manager, visited various docks of the Lin family, contacted hundreds of ordinary Lin family employees, and got close to their lives. Only then did Lin Jue truly realize that the ordinary people in Hangzhou were in a
What kind of living conditions.
The coolies on the dock go to work every morning, carrying goods weighing hundreds of kilograms on and off the ship, stepping on the thin and trembling springboard, running on the edge of death and injury. Most of the coolies have back injuries, but they
They still work hard because as long as they don't work for a day, their whole family will go hungry.
After Lin Jue began to understand the working conditions of the coolies, he did not want to sacrifice the health of these coolies to obtain greater benefits. So Lin Jue prepared to formulate a fixed time and quantitative work system to limit the hard work of these coolies to earn money. However,
Soon, after the news came out, many people came to beg him not to do this. Lin Jue was very curious. His system was obviously designed to ensure their health and reduce their harm, so why did they disagree? So Lin Jue
After having in-depth contact with more than a dozen coolies, he suddenly discovered that the money each of these coolies earned was needed to support their entire family, and they could only work hard.
Lin Jue was very surprised. Hangzhou, such a prosperous and super big city, can be called a paradise city in the richest southeast. Why are the parents of these coolie families whose wives are already older actually no longer able to earn a living?
A large family can only be supported by one middle-aged man? After some investigation, Lin Jue finally got some clues.
Hangzhou is a prosperous city. You can find a thousand beautiful and prosperous places, but you can also find 10,000 ugly places at the same time. This is just a beautiful shell with a bright appearance.
Underneath, the inside was riddled with holes.
As far as Hangzhou is concerned, big merchants have monopolized most of the industry, and it has been difficult for small workshops to establish themselves. It is already difficult to compete with big merchants. In addition, the court has imposed heavy taxes in recent years, and many small workshops and small merchants have closed down.
A large number of people are unemployed. When Hangzhou's business was booming decades ago, many citizens moved into the city from outside the city. They originally had some acres of land that could be cultivated, but after entering the city, even the acres were mortgaged and sold.
It fell into the hands of wealthy landowners. Now they have nowhere to work and no land to farm.
Of course, this is not all the case. Many people can still find things to do. However, this is no longer the free competition between small workshops and merchants as before. Under the monopoly of big merchants, there is a surplus of manpower, which is very difficult for the common people.
As a result, the options became even smaller. The conditions for merchants to hire were also extremely harsh. It was common practice to lower wages and exploit employees. In order to get enough money to support their families, the common people had no choice but to swallow their anger.
According to some old people Lin Jue asked, in Hangzhou City, twenty years ago, the average monthly salary of ordinary people could still reach the level of four taels of silver. But now, the salary of three taels of silver is already a very good income.
Well, many people only get two or three taels of silver a month, but they do the heaviest work.
Lin Jue didn't know where the root cause of all this was. He just felt worried for no reason. Under such circumstances, the unemployment rate in the city was so high and the people's livelihood was gradually becoming difficult. This was definitely not a good thing. On his dock
The hard workers work hard to make money and work hard at the expense of health, which is helpless. Lin Jue can't actually do much. He has to consider the Lin family's business, and he can't be a philanthropist. The only thing he can do is
Yes, order each dock to prepare meals for these coolies to ensure that they have the strength to work, and at the same time, slightly increase their wages.
Therefore, Lin Jue always likes to calculate something recently. For example, the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver spent in this oiran competition, Lin Jue can't help but think in his heart: ordinary people in Hangzhou can live for a year with only 20 taels of silver.
One hundred thousand taels of silver is enough to support tens of thousands of families for a year. However, it was spent like water on this luxurious thing. I really didn’t know what to say. Reason told Lin Jue that he might not
You should think about it this way. After all, you can't ask others to live frugally just because they live in poverty. But under the general premise of the entire Zhou society, Lin Jue always felt that there was something wrong with this. The extreme polarization between rich and poor is by no means a kind of
normal social phenomenon.
…
The noisy lantern parade in Hangzhou is coming to an end. It's almost the fourth watch, and the people are tired. They have to get up early tomorrow morning to resume their livelihood, and they have to end this rare indulgence and carnival tonight. After the oiran lady is looking forward to it,
After returning to Qunfang Pavilion, the common people dispersed one after another. Only the rich, gentry and rich people who were not engaged in farming did not want to leave. They poured into Qunfang Pavilion to continue drinking and having fun, unwilling to waste this beautiful Mid-Autumn Festival night with full moon.
any minute or second.
After the fourth watch, the city gradually became quiet. However, tonight is destined to be a sleepless night. Needless to say, the winning side of the oiran competition, the excited cerebral cortex cannot calm down for a while, and is destined to toss and turn. Similarly, for the losing side, naturally
Tossing and turning and being unable to fall asleep. Of course, that's not because of happiness, but because of anger and frustration.
In the official posthouse located on the bank of the Xihe River, lights flickered in a room in the back house. Wu Chunlai, the head of the official house of the Dazhou Political Affairs Hall, was sitting under the bright candlelight with squinted eyes. Beside him,
The two prefects Shen Fang and Liu Sheng who had lost the fight were chatting away.
"There is an article here. This oiran competition is unfair. Originally, I, Fengyue Tower of Jiangning Mansion, had won the first place. Why did I suddenly give up the competition? Give up the oiran? This must be someone behind the scenes. I told you earlier, we
We cannot set the competition venue in Hangzhou, that is other people’s territory. Someone must have done something to Feng Yue Tower, and this matter must be investigated clearly."
Shen Fang was frothing at the mouth and gesticulating, looking filled with indignation. He, who had always shown himself to be elegant, seemed a little careless about his image at this moment. A strand of messy hair hung down on his forehead, which looked very funny.
"Mr. Shen, what's the use of talking about this now? When we decided to hold the Southeast Oiran Competition that day, I proposed that it be held in Yangzhou. But you just wanted to show some generosity and said that we would compete in Hangzhou. What's the use of talking about it now?
?" Liu Sheng rolled his eyes and said.
"Do you think I don't want to? Yan Zhengshen obviously has no interest. If I said I would compete in Yangzhou or Jiangning, he would definitely not come. If he doesn't come, what's the point?" Shen Fang said with bulging eyes.
