Chapter 140
Although money is not everything, it is absolutely impossible to have no money. No matter what you do, starting capital is very important.
If Cheng Shijie had not received the money that the former Dengzhou guard Zuo Qianhu Gaowang had obtained during his years as an official, he would not have had the capital to support his retainers. Without his retainers, it would have been impossible to defeat the ruthless bandit Qin Wu and suppress the With the capture of the bandits, Ning Haijun could not develop. Without Cheng Shijie's extraordinary treatment, Ning Haijun's officers would not have been able to take risks for him...
All of this is a cycle. The most critical person in this cycle is Cheng Shijie, and the most critical factor is money.
The same is true for the development of southern Liaoning. Without vigorous renovation and dredging of ditches, the settlements in southern Liaoning would not have the most basic fertilizers. Without fertilizers, there would be no high grain yields. Another similar cycle is that if Cheng Shijie did not use the work-for-work method to attract a large number of refugees into southern Liaoning and bring a sufficient working population to southern Liaoning, the ditches in southern Liaoning would not be able to spread rapidly like magic. Come.
Relying solely on agricultural reclamation is actually far from making southern Liaoning so prosperous. More importantly, Cheng Shijie has opened a variety of factories. These factories can not only provide jobs for refugees, but also produce a large amount of materials. .
More importantly, these factories can continuously make money for Cheng Shijie. Just one salt factory earned Cheng Shijie 3.6 million taels of silver in less than nine months. Among all Cheng Shijie's current industries, The most profitable factory, followed by the textile factory.
Because it uses linen, cotton, silk and wool, and adopts mixed textile technology, the wool cloth produced has become a hot commodity in Jiangnan due to its good breathability, comfort, and good warmth retention.
In later generations, people in the south of the Yangtze River would rarely be able to wear woolen sweaters. However, during the Little Ice Age in the late Ming Dynasty, even Guangzhou and Kunming would have extreme weather and snow, and southerners would not have a hard time in winter. The textile factory managed by Jin Qiaoer earned Cheng Shijie 1.6 million taels of silver while meeting Liaonan's internal consumption. By the end of the year, it is expected to equal the salt factory and become the most profitable factory under Cheng Shijie.
Once again, it was the turn of Cheng Shijie's carriage factory. Due to the successive expansion of Ning Haijun's army, the number of military transport carriages increased again and again. Under this situation, although the external sales of two-wheeled carriages and four-wheeled carriages were not large, they took the high-quality route, but there were three Income of four hundred thousand taels of silver.
Finally, it is the turn of the profits from the military fields. The goods sold to Jiangnan or Shandong are okay and the prices are reasonable. However, the goods smuggled to the Jiannu through Hu Erqi and Xie Jinglin include salt, tea, linen, cotton, canvas, various It is conscientious to make more than ten times the income from growing spices, but it is not impossible to make twenty, thirty times or even hundreds of times.
Under this situation, Cheng Shijie relied on the Shandong Mutiny, Kong Youde's Rebellion and extortion of Zu Dashou to obtain a total of more than 8 million taels of start-up capital. Of course, if you include the seizures from bandits and pirates, this capital exceeded Ten million taels of silver.
In less than a year, Cheng Shijie surpassed the wealth accumulation of seven generations of Fan Yongdou. Cheng Shijie used factories, war seizures, and smuggling to obtain more money than the Ming Dynasty's annual fiscal revenue. If Emperor Chongzhen knew that Cheng Shijie would make so much money, he probably would not let Cheng Shijie serve as Liaodong manager again.
Instead, let Cheng Shijie be the Minister of Household Affairs, or the Minister of Industry... But the problem is that Cheng Shijie is not a Jinshi and cannot hold such an official position.
If he didn't have so much capital, what would Cheng Shijie use to open a bank?
Especially as more and more factories increase their production capacity, there are more and more profitable factories, especially the dozen or so steel factories whose products are not ready. These factories have always been mainly producing military supplies. In order to meet the needs of the armed Ninghai Navy, After the needs of soldiers, there are already products that can make money.
For example, hoes made of fine steel from Liaonan are of good quality, durable, and most importantly, cheap. There are also curved shaft plows, axes, and hatchets that can be sold to the outside world.
Even furniture factories are selling to foreign countries after satisfying the Ning navy officers and the people of southern Liaoning. The production of these factories is very hot. With a weak industrial production base, Cheng Shijie can do more things.
He has money and technical reserves. He can open cement factories, mine copper and iron ores, and even open shipyards. Starting from the beginning of the year, he will not send people to Jiangnan to recruit factories that can build ships.
Although the Lushun Shipyard has not yet officially started production, it has recruited more than 800 shipwrights.
In order to attract the refugees to live in southern Liaoning with peace of mind, Cheng Shijie now provides each refugee with a new set of clothes, bedding, washbasin, lunch box, single-family bag, and kettle.
The refugees who owned these belongings immediately changed from the proletariat to the possessing class. When these things were resold, they could be exchanged for three or four taels of silver, and the actual value of these materials had exceeded ten taels of silver.
If they are skilled talents, in addition to free distribution of basic living supplies, they will also provide housing. Of course, this housing standard is that ordinary craftsmen are not as good as ordinary Ning Haijun soldiers, but professionals in a certain field enjoy better treatment than ordinary Ning Haijun soldiers. Soldiers can even be compared to officers.
Cheng Shijie also prepared a good living and working environment for immigrants. As long as people arrive in southern Liaoning, they can take free showers, new clothes, and eat sticky multi-grain porridge. These multi-grain porridge is not to save money, but to provide relief to the refugees. Nourish the stomach.
As long as their stomachs are well maintained, they will increase nutrition and eat dry rice, such as rice, steamed buns, steamed buns, etc. As for meat, there is indeed not much. Cheng Shijie is still in the accumulation stage. Even Ning Haijun, the best-paid soldier, I can’t guarantee that I’ll eat meat every day, but I can guarantee that I’ll eat some meat every other day.
Although Lady Hong has a Tanlong Valley and a certain amount of money and food, her capital is far less powerful than that of Cheng Shijie. Of course, she cannot compare with Cheng Shijie.
The red lady brought people to southern Liaoning, and soon the immigrants were assigned to factories according to their vocational skills. As for those who only knew how to farm, they were eventually assigned to the Hundred Farming Houses or the Hundred Engineering Houses.
Watching the familiar refugees being sorted away one by one, Red Lady finally couldn't help but find the director of the Immigration Management Center.
This is another characteristic of Liaonan. Unlike the Central Plains, Liaonan has a three-level management system of province, prefecture (state), and county. Prefectures have magistrates, prefectures have magistrates, and counties have magistrates. But in southern Liaoning, there are only two levels: the management committee and the executive committee. Below the executive committee, the original mayor or mayor of each town sets up a working committee, which is called the XX town working committee.
There is a chief director, a director, and ten hundred households, that is, members. The working committee established is responsible for management. Except for factories, which are called managers or general managers, local governments are uniformly called directors or deputy directors.
The management level of the resettlement center is the same as that of a town. The director also has the same surname as Cheng, but is not related to Cheng Shijie. He is a member of the Cheng clan from Fangcheng, Luoyang, and his surname is Cheng Yaodong.
Fangcheng, Luoyang, is actually Cheng Shijie’s real ancestral home.
"Director Cheng, everyone has made arrangements, why not me?"
As the leader of this group of more than 20,000 refugees, Red Lady's treatment is actually quite good. She has a separate room in the immigration resettlement center. This is actually three rooms, a bedroom, a living room, and a small study. .
The treatment of eating is in a small canteen, which can be the same as that of director Cheng Yaodong.
"Tang Sanniang, I'm about to find you. Our rules in southern Liaoning are based on voluntariness. Children under minors can choose their own careers by their guardians or parents!"
Cheng Yaodong did not despise the red lady because she was a woman. After all, southern Liaoning was a little different from the Central Plains. Women here could be officials. Yang Yunniang, Jin Qiaoer, Liu Xue, and Wang Wei were all officials, and their ranks were higher than his. Be high.
Cheng Yaodong continued: "In view of your work ability, you brought over more than 20,000 people here. You should continue to use your expertise and hold management positions!"
“What is a management position?”
“To put it simply, it’s to be an official!”
"Being an official? Can a woman be an official?"
"It's definitely not possible in other places, but it's possible in Liaonan!"
Cheng Yaodong said: "Your situation is a bit special. It is not something I can make the decision, nor can the executive committee make the decision. Now it needs to be approved by the management committee and Marshal Cheng."
As a refugee leader with more than 20,000 people, the level given cannot be too low when resettled, otherwise no one will come to seek refuge with Cheng Shijie in the future. The issue of the popular lady was reported to the management committee. Song Xiance meant that he should give the popular lady a Super treatment, it can be regarded as a thousand dollars to buy horse bones.
So, this problem was reported to Cheng Shijie. Of course, Cheng Shijie was now on the banks of the Taizi River, more than five hundred miles away from Jinzhou. Even if he reported it quickly, it would take two or three days.
The red lady looked at Cheng Yaodong and said, "Can I choose by myself?"
"Can you choose?"
"The Haizhou Executive Committee still lacks a deputy director!"
In order to make it easier for Lady Hong to understand, Cheng Yaodong explained: "Our deputy director of the executive committee in southern Liaoning is just like your Chenzhou in Kaifeng Prefecture in Henan or the magistrate of Zhengzhou!"
After saying this, the red lady understood.
But the red lady shook her head and said: "I want to join the army and lead troops to fight!"
From the moment she was captured by Yu Langjun, there was no turning back for the Red Lady.
With her character, it is impossible to accept her fate, she will definitely resist.
Once she killed the first person, there was no turning back.
Killing the handsome man with her hands and staining the bridal chamber with blood, the red lady opens up another path in her life, a completely different path.
On this road, she needs to keep killing people, killing the bandits who want to kill her, killing the scum among the refugees, and killing the local tyrants and evil gentry...
In short, the number of lives on Red Lady Red Lady's hands was not eighty, but a hundred. The number of people she killed naturally left a shadow in her heart. Whenever she closes her eyes, she has nightmares.
Without a knife, she wouldn't even dare to sleep. It's not that she likes wearing that red wedding dress very much, because as long as there is no red wedding dress, any clothes she wears will look like they are stained. Blood.
"Joining the military...this problem...I'm very sorry. This is not within my scope of authority and I can help you solve it!"
Cheng Yaodong said: "If you want to join the army, you need to wait for Ning Haijun to recruit troops and sign up for the army, or go directly to Ning Haijun's General Military Office and sign up directly to join the army through special recruitment. If you are specially recruited, you need to have special skills!"
The red lady bit her lip and said, "I can ride a horse, does that count as a specialty?"
"Calculate!"
"I can shoot arrows. Although I don't dare to say that I can hit a target with a hundred steps, if I shoot someone within a hundred steps, I can hit nine out of ten arrows!"
"Calculate!"
"I can also lead troops!"
"Forget it!"
The red lady rode her bay-red horse, carried her long bow on her back, and hung a long knife on her waist, and rushed towards Jinzhou City.
…
Cheng Shijie never thought that his meeting with Yang Qingyun would be in the manner of a patient and a doctor, garrisoned by the Taizi River. Cheng Shijie went to swim in the Taizi River when the weather was too hot.
When he came ashore, Cheng Shijie accidentally stepped on a sharp object and received a small scratch on the sole of his foot.
Cheng Shijie didn't pay attention. In just three days, his foot swelled and the wound festered...
Cheng Shijie originally wanted to return to later generations for treatment.
However, Wu Sheng rode a horse overnight and took advantage of the newly established inn system to bring Yang Qingyun, the only son of a former imperial doctor in southern Liaoning who had received his father's true biography, to the bank of the Taizi River. camp.
Yang Qingyun also knew very well that Cheng Shijie was now the sky in Liaonan. If Cheng Shijie had an accident, the sky in Liaonan would definitely collapse.
He did not dare to neglect. After diagnosing and treating Cheng Shijie, he quickly took out a sharp blade and scraped out the abscessed area of Cheng Shijie.
Cheng Shijie finally saw the magic of traditional Chinese medicine. Yang Qingyun only took a few silver needles, sterilized them, and inserted them into his head, then into his thighs and feet. After inserting dozens of silver needles, he I found that my entire left foot had no feeling.
Watching Yang Qingyun scrape out the pus from the sole of his foot with his own eyes, Cheng Shijie saw Yang Qingyun start to clean up the wound, apply medicine and bandage it for nearly a stick of incense.
It wasn't until most of the silver needles were pulled out that Cheng Shijie felt a faint pain.
"Is this the legendary acupuncture?"
"It's a small trick that makes Marshal Cheng laugh!"
"True ability is real ability!"
Cheng Shijie said: "Mr. Yang has excellent medical skills. I want to hire Mr. Yang as the dean of Liaodong Medical College. I wonder if Mr. Yang is willing to give in?"
"this……"
Yang Qingyun stood up and refused: "Why should Yang He De worry about the director of the hospital? He asked the commander to hire another Gao Ming!"
Yang Qingyun was bitten by a snake once and was afraid of well ropes for ten years.
Because his father was an imperial doctor, he was obviously right and did not treat the wrong disease or prescribe the wrong medicine. He just found out that Emperor Tianqi had been poisoned by lead, so he was silenced.
Originally, he just wanted to be a little doctor in peace, but because he was treating Hou Shu of the Suiyang Hou family, it was clear that Hou Shu overdosed on the tiger and wolf medicine, so he had to let him...
Cheng Shijie also understands what doctors think. In this era, the requirements for medical skills are very low. If ten patients can save seven people, they are qualified doctors. If eight out of ten patients can survive, then that is a good doctor. If ten patients can save nine people, this is a miracle doctor.
As a doctor, I don’t actually like to treat the rich and powerful. If you are cured, you will be rewarded. But the problem is that if something goes wrong, the consequences will be disastrous.
The most ideal patients are those who live and fight against common people. They have no power and power, and they can only consider themselves unlucky when they die.
"Mr. Yang has misunderstood. What I mean is to establish a medical school and let Mr. Yang establish a sect and teach students!"
Cheng Shijie pondered: "I wonder if Mr. Yang has ever heard of Zhenhai City?"
"Six Sages City?"
"Six Sages City?"
Cheng Shijie became confused instead.
Although Cheng Shijie named Zhenhai City Zhenhai, the problem is that in the central square of Zhenhai City, there are statues of the six peasant sages, namely Shennong, Jia Simiao, Fan Shengzhi, Chen Min, and Wang Zhen. , Xu Guangqi, six agricultural majors, although these six agricultural sages were awarded by Cheng Shijie.
But the problem is that there are many former officials of Xu Guangqi's disciples. How could he let go of something like this that could make Xu Guangqi famous?
As a result, the name of Zhenhai City has not spread, but Liuxian City has spread all over the world.
The reputation of this farmer as one of the Six Sages even reached the ears of Emperor Chongzhen.
Yang Qingyun's eyes became eager. He did not want to be Cheng Shijie's personal doctor, nor did he want to be a full-time doctor for the powerful people in southern Liaoning, but it did not mean that he was unwilling to become a medical representative.
"What do you mean, Commander-in-Chief, to build a medical city like the Six Sages of Farmers?"
"I'm handsome...yes!"
Cheng Shijie thought for a while and said: "I want to build a new city in Jinshishan, Gaizhou, named Xinghai City, establish Liaonan Medical College in Xinghai City, and set aside 600,000 acres of land around Xinghai City as medicine fields. , planting Chinese medicine to meet the medical school’s research and demand for Chinese herbal medicine.”
Yang Qingyun looked excited: "Commander, this medicinal field is different from farmland. It can only be cultivated intensively. If we want to manage 600,000 acres of medicinal fields, we will only need 20,000 to 30,000 people."
"I don't favor one or the other. I will also give you five towns and fifty military households. You can direct these fifty military households to plant the medicinal materials you need!"
"The climate in southern Liaoning is still very suitable for the cultivation of most Chinese herbal medicines. We can also purchase some Chinese herbal medicines that are not suitable for cultivation from other places!"
"It doesn't matter. Don't worry. Within three or two years, most of the Chinese herbal medicine can be cultivated in Liaodong. If you really can't cultivate it, you can buy it elsewhere. In short, I want traditional Chinese medicine to flourish in Liaodong."
Cheng Shijie knows that many people in later generations do not actually believe in traditional Chinese medicine, because there are many scammers in traditional Chinese medicine. Medical skills passed down from ancestors, family medical skills, and descendants of famous doctors for generations are all liars in all likelihood.
There was a time when Internet articles had similar prejudices, and Internet articles were equal to pornographic articles.
"It will definitely be no problem in three or two years. We have enough land and enough workers. In three or two years, it will be enough to cultivate a sufficient amount of Chinese herbal medicine. If the medical school can keep up by then, then there will be no problem."
Yang Qingyun is also confident that so far, Cheng Shijie has never failed in his work.
In fact, traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese herbal medicine have not received enough attention. Although rulers in the past dynasties have also supported Chinese medicine, the scale and intensity of support are far from enough. It can be called a drop in the bucket. Chinese herbal medicine is also not paid enough attention. Many doctors You also need to go into the mountains alone to collect medicinal materials. Occasionally, medicine dealers grow medicinal materials, but they are only driven by economic interests and are very arbitrary.
Cheng Shijie is willing to use 600,000 acres of land to grow Chinese herbal medicine because he knows that Chinese medicine is valuable. This is also a time when Western medicine is underfoot.
Although there is only one top Chinese medicine talent in southern Liaoning, Yang Qingyun. Regardless of how high the level of Chinese medicine in southern Liaoning can be, at least there is no problem in growing Chinese herbal medicine on a large scale.
In fact, the research of traditional Chinese medicine is not that difficult. As long as you are willing to spend money, you can always find a suitable ratio for those traditional Chinese patent medicines by repeatedly testing according to the formulas handed down.
As for the test subjects...
Ning Haijun was not lacking at all.
Yang Qingyun said: "Commander, although Yang has received the true inheritance from his father, his medical skills are not the best. Yang has a senior brother named Su Yong who is now in his hometown in Nanzhili. Yang wants to find a way to trick senior brother Su over. ...No, please come here, but it will take some time for the results to be known."
Cheng Shijie looked at Yang Qingyun's anxious look, which was a little funny.
Sure enough, there is no one in this world who cannot be bribed, only if you do not use the right method.
Regarding the opinions on establishing Xinghai City, Cheng Shijie directly sent it to the Liaodong Management Committee for discussion and specific implementation measures.
There is not much time left before autumn begins, and southern Liaoning does not have four distinct seasons. In fact, southern Liaoning has no distinct spring and autumn. It is cold to the bone when autumn begins, and when spring begins, you can ditch your cotton-padded clothes and wear single clothes.
Time is already running out.
After the Duke Wen who established Xinghai City signed it and sent it out.
Cheng Shijie looked at Yang Qingyun and said: "Mr. Yang, the biggest problem we are facing right now is that the infant mortality rate remains high, not to mention the common people, even the royal family. Just like Emperor Taichang, the father of the emperor today, he has seven Of the sons, five died in infancy, of the ten daughters, seven died in infancy, and of the seventeen children, twelve died in infancy.”
"There are actually many reasons for this problem."
Yang Qingyun has not yet begun to explain.
Cheng Shijie said: "The first thing you should do is gather all the Wen Pos in southern Liaoning and train them in medical knowledge."
In fact, Cheng Shijie knew all this knowledge, but the problem was that it was impossible for him to train midwives on birth knowledge and precautions.
Even before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the infant mortality rate was as high as two hundred per thousand, and the average life expectancy was only thirty-five years old. But how to solve the problem? That is to build more medical institutions, increase the production of medicines, and establish a public health system covering all levels of health and epidemic prevention, maternal and child health care, and health supervision across the country.
This is a huge system project that requires a little effort and a lot of difficulties.
But the problem is, no matter how difficult it is, you have to persevere.
(End of chapter)
