The Immortal Seeker: Legend of Bronze Mirror

The efficiency of the temporary Cabinet is very high.

Anyway, the person in charge is Xu Qing, and the knife is the army and Shadow Guard brought by the old Emperor from the south.

Once the strategy is out, they arrest who needs to be arrested, soothe who needs to be soothed, and do whatever needs to be done.

To put it bluntly, the more vested interests they have, the more they know the times.

Only those who have nothing truly resist to the end.

But the food problem is indeed the most troublesome issue at present.

Although Xu Qing has already invited the old Grand Secretary to experiment with the high-yield crops brought back by Fang Immortal Dao, like sweet potatoes, the time is still too short to promote them across the land on a large scale.

Moreover, there is an extremely serious problem that Xu Qing needs to solve now.

It's simply a big pit.

Actually, according to Xu Qing's original estimate, even if Jiangnan has suffered disasters in recent years, combined with the grain shipped from overseas by Fang Immortal Dao and the East Sea Gang, it is enough to solve some of the grain shortage problems.

But he still overlooked something.

"Cotton fields?" Xu Qing finally realized one thing, why the grain shortage problem in the north and south is getting more serious.

Due to Fang Immortal Dao's modification of the spinning machine, the efficiency of textile workshops has greatly improved. Moreover, with the use of steam engines and several large soul stone textile mechanisms workshops in Jiangning Prefecture, the efficiency of spinning cotton has greatly increased.

Especially in recent months, the prices of clothes and quilts have been lowered.

The problem is that even so, these types of goods are still facing the issue of sluggish sales.

Because the common people simply don't have much silver in hand, relying solely on wealthy families, the market is still not enough.

Xu Qing has a suggestion, which is to raise wages for workers. When their wages increase, they will naturally buy these cotton products.

But many workshop owners cannot accept this odd solution and are temporarily watching.

However, the scholars Hu and Lei from Jiangning Prefecture responded very actively to Xu Liushou.

Their idea is very simple, losing money is nothing; as long as they can appear in front of Xu Liushou and make the old gentleman happy, it's more worthwhile than any business!

This is called "the skill is outside the poem"!

But the workshops have been built, and they certainly cannot stop, and with so many workers, not letting them work hard makes the workshop owners still feel a loss.

This leads to an increasing demand for cotton.

This leads to a strange phenomenon.

In South Zhili, because Xu Qing's land-clearing was very successful, coupled with the strong propaganda of the newspapers, many farmers can also hear storytellers read the newspapers.

So many farmers intentionally or unintentionally started planting cotton.

Not only them, but even landlords in the countryside are turning farmland into cotton fields.

This involves another matter.

Xu Qing likes to do things according to the law.

So there are special people studying the Great Yu laws, and they actually found a good thing, which is that the Great Yu Emperor once stipulated that the farmland turned into cotton fields for the first time can be openly exempt from taxes for four years.

This policy now seems odd, but in the early years of the Great Yu Dynasty, cotton was still an exotic species, and few planted it, while at that time, the borders lacked supplies to keep warm, so the Great Yu Emperor set this policy to encourage the private planting of cotton.

The problem is the spinning efficiency of cotton is not improved, so the public enthusiasm is very lacking.

In short, the demand for cotton is not that great, and the revenue from planting mulberry trees is far higher than cotton.

But planting mulberry trees has another problem, which is soil exhaustion, and it takes several years to restore if used to plant grain.

Therefore, even though South Zhili implemented the national policy of changing rice fields to mulberry fields, it has strict regulations on this.

Because Fang Immortal Dao and the Ministry of Industry modified the spinning machine and improved the spinning efficiency of cotton, cotton suddenly became a sought-after commodity.

Naturally, it attracted many people seeking profit.

Even landlords promote the benefits of planting cotton.

In this way, they can buy cotton cheaply in the countryside and sell it at high prices, and naturally, when farmers plant cotton, they lack food, which is another good thing.

The places with the most cotton field conversions are Xu Qing's base camp, Jiangning Prefecture, and next is Yingtian Prefecture.

Because these two places have fast transmission of information and strictly adhere to the law.

Now the issue is, if cotton fields can be exempt from tax for four years, letting people plant further, the Court not only can't collect grain, but won't be able to collect cotton tax for years.

In this way, many nobles are waiting to see Xu Qing's joke.

This cotton field incident profits the people of Jiangning and Yingtian the most, all being Xu Qing's supporters, let's see what you do.

…

…

"A new Cotton Law must be promulgated." Xu Qing decisively issued the decree.

Every day delay makes the grain problem more severe.

Huo Jing knows the pressure is not on him, and for the passage of this resolution, he is more eager than anyone.

It's just easy to issue decrees.

Executing them is extremely difficult.

Especially in Jiangning Prefecture, even if the nobles actively cooperated, there are still many farmers who are stubborn and refuse to listen.

Because Xu Liushou never bullies nobles but never bullies the poor.

On the other hand, although the Xu family has no relatives in Jiangning Prefecture, the Zhou and Li family clan members are still many. These people did not ascend to heaven with chickens and dogs, now not even able to plant some cotton, stirred up by surrounding villagers, quickly caused an uproar.

Although Li Gongpu is now serving in Xijiang Province, the Zhou family is still in Jiangning Prefecture. Even if the Zhou family closes their doors to visitors, villagers and clan relatives curse at the gates daily.

They still have restraint, not causing trouble at the Xu Residence.

…

…

"Troublemakers, just a bunch of troublemakers." Jiangning Weaving Xie Quan sighed deeply.

It is said that the people's suffering is when they prosper, and suffering is when they perish, but there are bad people among the people!

This time he is truly worried for Xu Qing. If the punishment is relentless, Xu Liushou's reputation among the people will definitely plummet.

After all, the Great Yu Dynasty, no matter how you say it, is a Confucian society, emphasizing familial affection and mutual concealment.

If Xu Qing pits the villagers for reform, it absolutely belongs to evil deeds in today's world.

Though Xie Quan always has countless strategies, even he cannot think of a good solution for this matter.

Don't look at the nobles in Jiangning Prefecture actively cooperating, in fact, this move also seems to fuel the fire slightly.

If this matter isn't handled well, even the Recovery Society will be internally divided.

No matter how formidable Xu Qing is, he still needs people to do things.

Once his subordinates are divided, many things cannot be implemented.

If there wasn't the amulet of reform, how could the old Emperor endure Xu Qing like this?

This is a covert strategy!

In history, many great figures have fallen because of similar small matters.

Xu Qing looked at Xie Quan's worries and smiled: "Mr. Xie, no need to worry, this small matter won't reach the point of muscle and bone injury."

While he was discussing with Xie Quan, he suddenly saw Zhou coming, with a sorrowful face.

Xu Qing quickly greeted her and said, "Aunt, what's wrong?"

Zhou sighed: "The Li family's ancestral tomb was vandalized and the tombstone smashed."

Upon hearing this, Xu Qing frowned slightly, then calmly said: "Aunt, don't worry, I will handle this matter properly."

There was not a hint of fire in Xu Qing's expression.

He paused, and then spoke calmly: "Mr. Xie, it seems some people still don't understand that they only have food to eat by following Xu."

As his words fell, not long after, Jiangning Prefecture, Yingtian Prefecture, and even the entire South Zhili witnessed Xu Liushou's thunderous methods.