Chapter 35: There’s a long way to go
When He Xi returned to his residence, he was not sleepy at all.
He Xi wrote down the problems he encountered one by one.
Management issues, technical issues, personnel issues, market issues, etc.
After thinking for a moment, he smiled bitterly and said: "I kind of know why, it is said that those who walk a hundred miles are half ninety. Many things become more and more difficult, and the harder they are, the harder they are to do. Otherwise, it will be a mountain of nine feet, and the success will fall short." Then He Xi comforted himself. Own.
Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, at least there is something now.
That's not bad.
Then He Xi thought about it for a long time and wrote a memorial. That is the memorial about building the city of Beijing.
One sentence explains the content of this memorial, that is, all projects in Beijing must be calculated using money.
This seems simple, but in the Ming Dynasty it was an earth-shattering thing.
When cities were built before, people were recruited to serve as corvees. Consign a certain section of city wall to a certain county. Then the court will accept it. Some county magistrates had the ability, and the county exported grain to provide tools. Some county magistrates did not have the ability, so they asked the people to bring their own dry food to serve.
Most of the raw materials are also supplied through this model. A certain county has this mineral, and the superiors ask this county to hand over a certain amount of this mineral to exempt it from corvee. Or reduce taxes.
Therefore, the large-scale construction of cities in the early Ming Dynasty did not actually cost the court too much. The imperial court was more about collecting corvees than paying for them.
In He Xi's view, there was an astonishing waste.
First of all, officials are never lenient in oppressing the people.
Even more ruthless than the capitalists, at least the capitalists are profitable. Don't do loss-making transactions. But some officials are different, because their power has no capital, so how can they lose money?
Therefore, these officials are always greedy in using the people, and they really use them to death.
Human life is worthless in their hands.
Large projects generally involve casualties, but the casualties of ancient corvee labor were too great. It even happened that when Zhu Yuanzhang was building Zhongdu, the craftsmen who built Zhongdu wrote some curse words on the beams of the palace.
Their resentment is visible.
Secondly, extensive and repetitive labor.
Specialized labor can reduce costs. But the corvee system itself cannot reduce costs. According to Zhu Yuanzhang's system, peasants performed corvee service once every ten years, for three months at a time, so they would not learn any professional skills for this once-in-ten-year labor, let alone think of any more sophisticated methods.
Therefore, everyone uses the stupidest and most wasteful method to work, and naturally there is a lot of waste.
Not to mention, many supporting facilities are only used once and then discarded. The most typical example is the iron mines in various places. Zhu Yuanzhang mined them when he needed them, and closed them when enough was enough. In fact, it represented this way of working.
There is a place in Beijing called Liulichang, which is where glazed tiles were made during the construction of Beijing. After the palace was built, the Liulichang was no longer needed. Capacity reduction or even scrapping. But in fact, can't this Liulichang be converted into building other Liulichang products?
Use it once and throw it away. Isn’t it considered a waste?
But this waste is in terms of social production. Specifically speaking to the court, it was the most economical method.
Because it won’t cost a lot of money in the court’s account books. But this cost is actually passed on to society as a whole.
But if everything is clearly priced and operated commercially. That requires an astronomical amount of money. He Xi only estimated that it would be around 20 million taels. It’s almost time to pay taxes next year. This was after He Xi had already reduced many costs by developing industry in Daming.
If He Xi had not done anything, the cost would have only been higher.
And He Xi is just an estimate, what exactly will he encounter in it? He Xi doesn’t know either. not understand. It is difficult for project construction to go smoothly, let alone how to predict without even a drawing.
It's even more unreliable. He Xi felt that doubling or even quadrupling was possible.
How much did it cost Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty to build Beijing City? This is something that even historians find difficult to explain clearly.
But the amount of twenty million taels was money that the court would never be able to come up with.
He Xi knew very well that if this plan was submitted, it would never be approved. He Xi needs to decompose and optimize this plan. The first is money, the leverage of banknotes. Of course it needs to be used. In addition, many factories and mines have been built around Beijing. It will also be property in the future. It was used by the imperial court. 33
There is also real estate, etc.
In short, He Xi is deducting money from many aspects. We will do everything we can to turn the city of Beijing into a major move to change the industrial structure of Beijing and introduce the flames of Liaodong industry into Beijing.
After having this idea, He Xi's attention to Liaodong actually dropped. Therefore, He Xi simply asked Yang Shiqi to handle the aftermath. He also ordered the researchers from Shenyang Iron Works to be moved to Zunhua. Perhaps, they are the first batch of people entering the industry.
There will be many more in the future.
He Xi then browsed some of the situation in Liaodong and took a fleeting look at some of the factories in Liaodong. Learned something about Fu Youde’s situation in Japan.
I can only say that Fu Youde is really patient. The Ming army did not mobilize in large numbers, but the Japanese and Koreans were bleeding like rivers. The Ming army only struck a fatal blow on a few key occasions. Thereby influencing the situation on the battlefield.
Now the battlefield is already on Honshu Island.
And it’s getting closer to Kyoto, Japan.
In fact, in He Xi's view, if Fu Youde had not broken the bones of Japanese resistance in order to consume Japan's manpower and material resources, he would have achieved long-term peace and stability. Fu Youde can use the navy to attack the Kyoto area instead of moving over land bit by bit.
It was Japanese gold and silver that satisfied He Xi.
Although these gold and silver were sent directly to Nanjing. But He Xi can know the number. With so much gold and silver as capital, many of He Xi's plans can be launched.
Although these gold and silver are bloody.
Apart from dealing with these things. The last thing He Xi had to deal with was to go to Changchun to meet King Yan.
King Yan wanted to launch a final attack on Yuan Ting. This matter was already an open secret in the court. Feng Sheng was privately dissatisfied with this incident, but there was nothing he could do about it. If it hadn't been for the death of King Qin, it might have been launched now.
But the changes within the imperial court will naturally make the generals feel uneasy.
He Xi needs to go to see King Yan. Let’s talk about this matter and make a good connection.
Thanks to Liaosong Canal. With the Liaosong Canal, it is very convenient to travel from Liaodong to Changchun. Although the few hundred-household residences He Xi passed by back then still had the atmosphere of war left in them. But has recovered. There were even more people.
Because to the north of the Liaosong Canal, there are several castles and the Changchun capital with hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians. All their logistics must be transported through the Liaosong Canal. As a result, the cargo traffic volume of the Liaosong Canal will naturally increase significantly. This also led to the prosperity on both sides of the Liaosong Canal.
Changchun Fort has changed even more.
In the past, Changchun Fort was mostly used as a military fortress. There isn't much farmland outside Changchun Fort. But things are different now. From this point of view, the dozens of miles of fields outside Changchun Fort look like newly reclaimed wasteland.
It will take several years before the wasteland becomes mature land. If you want to be self-sufficient, it will take several years.
But this is a good start.
But what He Xi didn't expect was that he didn't see King Yan Zhu Di in Changchun Fort, but instead saw Zhang Yu. Probably because Zhang Yu was the most trusted general of King Yan, King Yan gave his back to him.
He Xi asked: "Commander Zhang, where is King Yan now?"
Zhang Yu said: "Reporting to your lord, His Highness King Yan is currently at Sanhekou in Zhaozhou City."
He Xi thought for a moment, do you know where it is?
It is where the Nen River and Songhua River meet, and it is also considered an important waterway. You can reach all directions by boat. It can be considered that King Yan has a good vision. It is a strategic location, which is more in line with the river-based approach in the Northeast region.
However, He Xi also has some hidden worries.
That's too deep.
It's not far from where Naha's headquarters gathered at the beginning. The army went deep alone and faced enemies on three sides.
I don’t know whether to call it bold or arrogant.
Some people died, but not completely...
