After appeasing his excited subordinates, Liu Bei received a report from Guan Yu and learned that the Shaodang Qiang had accepted his opinion and agreed to take water from Qinghai Lake to make salt.
He was very happy and immediately started planning other more detailed things.
For example, the issue of fuel, a large component of the price of salt is the price of fuel, because it needs to be cooked.
The price of fuel was not cheap in ancient times, especially in places where vegetation was not very rich. The price of fuel was relatively high, so for ordinary people in some places, it was not a simple matter to cook food. For this reason, it was not easy to cook food. There are many places where it is customary to eat food raw.
Life or death depends on luck.
In a place like Liangzhou, if you simply use firewood to make salt, it will still be a large-scale salt boiling, which is somewhat problematic. Moreover, Liu Bei also needs firewood to do a lot of things, so there is more demand in this area.
This prompted Liu Bei to look for cheaper and more convenient fuel.
Fortunately, Liu Bei found out that there was coal production in Liangzhou, and that some people there also used coal as fuel to smelt iron. He was very happy and immediately sent people to investigate, preparing to set up coal workshops at the same time and collect coal as fuel on a large scale.
In addition to coal, Liu Bei also heard about two things.
One thing is about something called Jishui.
An official from Beidi County told Liu Bei that this kind of thing often floated on a river in his hometown. Someone in his hometown discovered that this kind of thing could burn, and the burning was quite violent, so some people in the area collected it. This water is used as fuel.
Another thing is a being called the Well of Fire.
It is said that in Shu in the south, the locals found an existence called a fire well. For some unknown reason, the well would spit out fire, and once it was ignited, it would not go out for a long time. The locals used the fire in this fire well to cook. Salt, so the local salt price is quite cheap, and almost all local people can afford salt.
Liu Bei thought for a while and began to suspect that one of the two things was oil and the other was natural gas.
The Chinese have a long history of using oil and natural gas, but they don’t have any special understanding or extraction methods for these two things. They usually use them only after they appear on the surface. Serious mining will have to wait a long time. .
Liu Bei couldn't go to Shuzhong, and he couldn't use the natural gas there, so he sent the official back to his hometown in Beidi County to collect some water and bring it to him to see if it was confirmed to be oil. Mine it and use it as a reserve.
In ancient times, petroleum was called stone paint, and it also had another name, fierce fire oil.
Fierce oil that can be used in combat.
The kind that cannot be destroyed with water.
This is quite meaningful if used on a fortified battlefield.
He suddenly made several unexpected discoveries. Seeing that the salt production industry in Liangzhou was about to develop, Liu Bei was very happy, but the industries he wanted to develop were not limited to this.
The livestock industry in Liangzhou is developing very well.
From the current point of view, Liangzhou's livestock industry is divided into several systems.
The imperial court system, the Liangzhou government system, the local powerful system, and the foreign system.
Among them, the foreign system is naturally the largest, and the scope of livestock husbandry is not only in Liangzhou. The vast areas outside Liangzhou are their grazing places. A large-scale tribe can often have millions of cattle, sheep, and horses, and the scale of grazing is very large. huge.
Han local powerful people also learned from foreigners to engage in animal husbandry. They could often occupy some relatively high-quality pastures to engage in animal husbandry. The scale was relatively small, but it was enough for a local county or county.
The court system used to be the largest, and the former imperial servants were responsible for raising horses in the six northwest counties. However, since the Eastern Han Dynasty, the scale of the court's horse breeding has been greatly reduced. After the Liangzhou War, it was even more dilapidated.
What remains is the Liangzhou government system, which includes the animal husbandry departments set up by the state and county governments respectively. They are not part of the system. Some even depend on the preferences of the local governor, so they are smaller in scale.
The livestock industry controlled by Liangzhou Prefecture is very small, mainly concentrated in Hanyang County and Longxi County.
It was almost completely destroyed due to the war, and it was almost as if it was no longer there. If Liu Bei wanted to run it, he had to start from scratch.
Fortunately, in the previous war, the five generals obtained more than 200,000 cattle, sheep, horses and other livestock for Liu Bei.
Originally, some of these trophies were given to the soldiers, and the rest was divided among everyone and sold. A good meal was also regarded as a reward for everyone.
But Liu Bei didn't.
He wants to find a place to raise these cattle, sheep and horses, rebuild the livestock system of Liangzhou Prefecture, find high-quality pastures within Liangzhou, raise these livestock to breed and grow them, and then do business and sell them to make money. Provide high-quality war horses to the Liangzhou army.
It is true that this requires a lot of investment, but as long as the salt production industry is up and running, the income that the Liangzhou government can get will definitely be able to support the initial investment in the animal husbandry industry.
So far, Liu Bei has planned four one-stop industries for the entire Liangzhou: one-stop industry for salt production and sales, one-stop industry for coal mining and coal production, one-stop industry for planting and brewing sycamore wine, and one-stop industry for raising and selling livestock. Industry, if each industry can operate normally, it can bring great industrial benefits to Liangzhou.
However, Liu Bei was not satisfied yet and continued to plan.
He continued to plan for Liangzhou an one-stop industry of mining, smelting, and manufacturing iron products, a one-stop industry for attracting investment from the Western Regions, and a one-stop industry for catering and accommodation, etc. He also planned more distant plans for Liangzhou.
Some of them seem far away and difficult to achieve.
But some industries are starting to start construction right now, and the level of results will be seen soon.
This ten- to twenty-year development and construction blueprint made the subordinates of the Prefectural Mufu Mansion speechless.
Liu Bei kept planning, kept meeting to discuss the development plan, spitting at the speech meetings, and dumbfounded everyone by talking about professional terms.
But after being stunned, all the local officials in Liangzhou had to admit that this Han clan clan member and Confucian disciple from Youzhou was sincerely considering the future for Liangzhou, and he really wanted to make Liangzhou a better place. of.
With such a long-term blueprint as the foundation, when Liu Bei immediately proposed to implement political reforms, the resistance was really not that big.
"If you want to achieve great governance in Liangzhou, you must have great determination and perseverance. In addition to great determination and perseverance, you must also have a long-term plan, a long-term vision, and be willing to invest and build. You must establish a series of local Industry, and only industry, can drive development.
As officials, you cannot turn a blind eye to this, and you cannot think that you can just give orders. If you need to conduct on-the-spot inspections, you should conduct on-the-spot inspections. If you do not understand, you should ask, and you should not be ashamed to ask.
Confucius said that when three people walk together, there must be one teacher. Don't think that just because you have read a lot, you know everything. Regarding Confucian classics, who among you dares to say that you know more than me? What I say is not modest, but it is also true. No one here understands it better than me.
Despite this, I also feel that I have many shortcomings in many matters. When it comes to industrial construction and productive labor, like you, I still have many shortcomings, so I still have to ask what should be asked.
Ask the farmers, ask the craftsmen, ask those who we did not pay attention to in the past, Master said, don't be ashamed to ask, this is the right way! You should keep this in mind and alert yourself at all times.
Don't let me ask you questions and you don't know everything you should know. Then you will be eliminated because of poor political performance, and you will be the ones here! "
(End of chapter)
