Seven counties in the west, a certain county
After going through untold hardships and spending nearly half a year, the Li family's father and son finally arrived in Yancheng from Shu. This is because both father and son have good cultivation. Otherwise, if someone else had walked so far, he might have been eaten by some monster on the way.
"Selling newspapers, selling newspapers!"
"The first issue of Yancheng's new newspaper, Yancheng Bond Trading News, is officially released. It only costs one penny, one penny!"
"The Yancheng Bond Exchange is about to undergo major changes. Do you want to know? Spend a penny to buy one!"
"The Yancheng Bond Trading News is tentatively scheduled to be issued every ten days. Within three months, all will be worth one penny, only one penny!"
"Brother, buy two copies." With that, Li Erlang took out two Yancheng copper coins from his arms.
Li's father went to the bank to exchange this copper coin. One tael of gold sand can be directly exchanged for ten thousand yuan. Since you have come to Yancheng, it is natural to do as the Romans do.
However, at this moment, the father and son have just arrived in the Seven Western Counties. They have just entered the country and are unfamiliar with everything in Yancheng.
"These seven western counties should have been conquered in the autumn and winter of last year, right? But why do they look so calm? It's completely impossible to tell that they are still very energetic less than a year after the war ended!" Li Erlang said directly.
Immediately, he handed a newspaper to his father opposite and started reading it himself.
At this moment, there were dozens of newspapers in front of Li Erlang, and Father Li was slowly reading them. Sometimes Father Li would read a newspaper several times.
"The prices here are very stable. Food is stable at one penny per catty. Pork prices are stable at fifteen cents per catty. Mutton is slightly more expensive at fifty cents. Beef can also be sold openly and only costs fifty cents. ." Li Erlang recounted his experiences, feeling that everything was new, puzzling, and curious.
"It is said that every town has a grain store and a meat store directly under the jurisdiction of the emperor, and every county has a cold storage center. There is a Taoist priest and dozens of warlocks sitting there. Their main tasks are to maintain the operation of the formation and freeze preservation. There’s meat in it.”
"Every few days, rail cars will transport a large number of live pigs, live cattle, and live sheep, and send them to the county's slaughter center for slaughter, and then transport them to counties and even towns on the same day. This can not only ensure the supply of meat, but also It also guarantees the price of meat.”
"It's so luxurious. The people here are really enviable. The people in our fiefdom can't live such a good life, right?"
Father Li thought for a while and nodded: "The people in our fiefdom are not short of food and will not starve to death, but other meat and daily necessities are far behind."
"For example, the clothes here, in addition to coarse cloth, include a lot of silk and satin. There are also many types of clothes with many styles and colors. Yancheng has probably solved the problem of large-scale and low-cost production of pigments. Just like purple, purple clothes were very expensive in the past, but here, purple clothes are not a rare item."
"Furthermore, this is called the equalization system. This was done during the Guanzi reform. Hanoi County, where Mr. Wei is located, also adopted a similar system in the past few years when Li Kui was in power. Basically, construction was carried out all over the country. In warehouses, when the price of grain is high, grain is sold on a large scale to bring down the price of grain. When the price of grain is low, the price of grain is purchased at a higher price to raise the price of grain, so as to maintain the supply of grain in the long term. Prices remain stable.”
"As for Yancheng, it has a lot of money. Every county has built a large number of warehouses, some to store grain and some to store meat. Moreover, I heard that Yancheng has also built a large number of wooden tracks, and a large amount of materials are transported along it every day. These railcars go to various counties.”
"Yancheng's material production capacity and transportation capacity are enough to ensure that most prices remain stable for a long time!"
"The national power contained in this is terrifying to think about!" Father Li said calmly.
How much does this cost?
Thinking of this, Father Li looked at the Yancheng Bond Trading News that Li Erlang had just bought. After reading it for a few breaths, Father Li subconsciously closed his eyes, rubbed his eyes, looked at it again, and then closed it again. Eye.
Li's father's reaction made Li Erlang very curious, so he picked up the bond trading newspaper and read it. After a while, a gasp came out: Hiss!
"Since its establishment, the Yancheng Bond Exchange has undertaken the development bonds of twenty counties. In the past three years, the total amount has been six trillion. The guarantee methods of different counties are different and can be roughly divided into three categories. The first category is the Taiping The county is the typical example, using martial arts as a guarantee... The second type is Wei's Young Master Si, who uses family reputation as a guarantee... The third type is..."
"Today, the daily trading volume of the exchange reaches tens of billions. All along, a large number of people have written letters saying that there are too few types of bonds, the total amount of bonds is too small, there are too few options to choose from, and there is no place to invest if you have money..."
"For this reason, we have decided to start releasing new projects in half a month."
"This time there are hundreds of projects, ranging from one billion to tens of billions, with a total amount of about 300 billion."
"The following is a brief description of hundreds of projects. Detailed descriptions can be found at the Yancheng Bond Exchange."
"My dear, Yancheng's money is not money. If you have too much, it will be like running water. If you have too much, you will never be able to spend it all!"
After Li's father saw one of the projects, he shook his head: "It's just random!"
Li Erlang took a look and asked, "Why are you so messed up? I don't think it's quite good as mentioned above?"
"Look, it says that once this project is completed, one million acres of dry land can be transformed into paddy fields. After this transformation, it is possible to produce ten dan per mu, and the grain harvest this year will be one billion yuan. This time they raised five One billion, if you use future food income as a guarantee, you can repay it. As long as the interest is not too outrageous, you can definitely repay it."
"Moreover, after raising 5 billion, we can directly hire Taoists to cast spells to create rivers and sort out earth and water veins. The plan seems to be feasible. Although it is a little difficult, Taoists can indeed find earth and water veins. In fact, If that doesn't work, you can also cast spells to directly change the environment. What is this called? This is called conquering and transforming nature."
Father Li did not answer directly, but casually drew a map of the entire Chao Kingdom: "The most important thing about Chao Kingdom is the Chao River, and the Chao River transformed the entire Chao Kingdom."
"Chaohe River water control should not simply look at a certain county, but should be considered as a whole, and should revolve around the Chaohe River, or even around the Yangtze River."
"If Mr. Yan does not want to continue to expand in the future and just wants to live his own life behind closed doors, then no matter how he builds, there will be no problem. As long as Mr. Yan only occupies the territory of Chao Kingdom in the future and does not continue to expand outwards, then the problem will be Not big."
"And if Yanjun wants to expand to the outside world in the future, then the water control this time must have an overall concept. It cannot be limited to a certain county or county. We must see the Chaohe River, the Yangtze River, and the sea."
"To control water, we must understand the vitality of water and the changes in underground water veins, and we must make good use of water power. A truly suitable water conservancy project must not only take into account the immediate decades, but also the next hundreds or even thousands of years! "
"A good water conservancy project must fully take into account the changes in terrain and topography, and it must last at least three to five hundred years."
“As for what this county is doing, I am not maliciously cursing it, but I think that this construction method will have problems after thirty years, problems will be obvious after fifty years, and it will be completely ineffective after a hundred years. "
Hearing this, Li Erlang touched his head and said helplessly: "Father, is there such a possibility: It's not that people haven't considered this far, but that they don't need to think so far at all?"
"Moreover, it is normal for a water conservancy project to last for decades. As you said, it is abnormal for a water conservancy project to last for hundreds or even thousands of years!"
"People in Yancheng have a lot of money and are very wealthy. Now in order to control floods, hundreds of Taoist priests and thousands of magicians can be directly mobilized to work together, just to build water conservancy projects in a certain county."
"In thirty years, Yancheng may be richer. At that time, even if there is a problem, the worst is to continue spending money, and let the minister or Taoist priest be responsible this time. Anyway, thirty years later, five billion The bond money has been paid off long ago, and the local people have enjoyed it for thirty years, so what’s wrong?”
Father Li thought for a while and shook his head: "No, if I hadn't seen this, I would have thought it was a good thing. But after I saw this, I just felt it was a waste. So much money." The intention of using it to control floods and build water conservancy projects is good, but it has caused a lot of waste. This is very inappropriate, and I want to advise Mr. Yan."
"Oh, father, is it not appropriate for us to give advice to Mr. Yan when we first come to Yancheng? Let's learn more about it and visit more before we talk about it, right?"
"Besides, as mentioned above, we will start raising money after half a month. We can definitely conduct an on-site inspection first. Things like hundreds or thousands of years are really too exaggerated. With the vicissitudes of life, who can decide the future? How to change..."
"Okay, let's go and investigate first. It's not far anyway!"
"On the way, you can also take a rail car and observe, so you can have an in-depth understanding of Yancheng."
"Next, for my father, I would like to write down my experience in water control and submit it to the journal "A Hundred Schools of Thought". See if it can be published. Then you will know the quality of "A Hundred Schools of Thought".
"Father, don't worry. King Yu successfully controlled the floods back then and became the co-owner of the human race. For countless years, all wise kings and wise ministers have failed to control the floods."
"First of all, water control is a matter of great interest and what the people want."
"By taking advantage of the opportunity of water control, the monarch can legitimately infiltrate power into the fiefdom of the lord. The lord can't say anything. Anyone who disagrees or publicly expresses his objections will be killed on the spot by the monarch. Others All he says is that he deserves to die!"
"Secondly, water control can gain a huge reputation. Regardless of personal ethics in other aspects, as long as water control is successful, you will be a wise king and a wise minister. In other areas, there will naturally be people who will defend you and put in good words for you."
"Finally, water control can effectively increase the food production under your rule. Tyrants and foolish kings may not care about the lives of the common people, but they definitely care about the total domestic food production."
"Moreover, in the process of controlling water, you can also kill demons and many water monsters, and finally control the water veins. After controlling the water veins, there are many benefits."
"In my opinion, after my father's article is submitted, if this Salt Lord is really half as powerful as the legend outside, he will definitely invite my father to control the water."
"At that time, the entire Chao River, as well as many tributaries of the Chao River, can station troops or Taoist teams in the name of water control. By then, the remaining sixteen of the twenty-six counties within the Chao River will The county gradually fell into the hands of Yancheng."
"At least, in the name of flood control, we can transport the common people and savages from the sixteen counties to other places."
"When the common people and savages are gone, and only a group of nobles and countrymen are left, hehe, this scene is funny when I think about it. By then, these nobles will probably surrender without Lord Yan taking action. Nobles The most powerful thing is the ability to understand current affairs, and the ability to adapt to the changing circumstances. At that time, they should betray Uncle Chao and welcome Lord Yan to Chao City."
Father Li shook his head slightly: "I didn't think too much about it. I just felt that the topography of Chao Kingdom is very typical. Everything revolves around the Chao River. If it is managed properly, the entire Chao Kingdom can be brought to a higher level. Even , Not only water control, now relatively mature land reclamation technology has been born on Dongning Island, and my father feels that this technology can also be considered."
"For example, Dongning Island!"
At this moment, Father Li felt that his mind was filled with endless inspiration!
"My father has always said that when managing water, we must look at the overall situation, have a broad vision, consider the whole, and consider the changes in terrain and terrain in the next hundreds or even thousands of years."
"A new idea suddenly came to my mind as a new father. Dongning Island is only five hundred miles away from Yancheng."
"Moreover, today's Dongning Island has mastered relatively mature land reclamation technology. In this case, we can build two super dams, one starting from Huo County, the northernmost seaside of Chao Kingdom, to Dongning Island, and the other From Dongning Island to Yancheng, a super-large lake about 500 miles wide and 3,000 miles long will be formed in the middle."
"Then, the water flow from the Yangtze River estuary is used to scour this large lake day after day. After a few to decades, this large lake will change from a seawater lake to a freshwater lake."
"At the same time, we can strengthen the dam day after day and turn the dam into counties. Eventually, we can completely turn this big lake into an inner lake..."
"However, this is just an idea that has just been born. Whether it is actually feasible requires on-site inspection. It cannot be accomplished in a day."
"However, if Mr. Yan really does this, he may not be able to continue to expand outside in a short time. I just don't know if Mr. Yan is willing to..."
(End of chapter)
