Kong Kaikang was resentful of his tenure in Liaodong.
He was just like a big kid who was born in the land of plenty in the south of the Yangtze River, but he never thought that one day he would come to the bitter cold land of Liaodong... and if nothing unexpected happened, he would stay there for several years.
He hated the coldness of Liaodong, and even more hated that the military in Liaodong was too greedy. He also complained that the yamen personnel in Liaodong were focused on food production. He only said that they would cooperate with the factory to recruit and resettle workers in the customs, but he wanted to let They directly transferred thousands of laborers from the local people, and everyone was shaking their heads.
Although intellectually he could understand the thinking of local officials. There was so much to eat in the world, and the first thing they had to solve was the food problem, not economic development.
On the other hand, Ji Dehua, the governor of Liaodong, is concerned about industrial development and believes that if Liaodong wants to get rid of the current embarrassing situation of being a crying place, it must open up a new situation. Liaodong's rich natural mineral resources are the best stepping stone.
But even Ji Dehua never expected that the upper echelons of the empire would move so quickly. Just a few months after retaking Liaodong, a delegation from the Ministry of Industry came over, followed by more than two dozen medium and large factories/mines. The construction plan has been finalized.
This left Liaodong seriously underprepared.
Originally, according to Ji Dehua's estimation, Liaodong would still have to rely on agriculture to restore people's livelihood in the first year. At least it would have to be self-sufficient in food, and then use some extra food to supply military supplies and industrial needs.
In this way, industry can be developed naturally.
At the same time, the two years during the early development of agriculture can be used to survey various mineral resources in Liaodong, and at the same time, make various reports to the upper levels of the empire to convince the upper levels of the empire to prepare for the establishment of a national-level industrial zone.
This is just the right way to connect...
But he didn't expect that the empire's top brass would be so impatient...
When Liaodong was still poor and could not even be self-sufficient in food, it had already finalized a huge industrial development plan, and even started construction without even mentioning the plan...
Damn it, there is a shortage of labor in Liaodong right now, and the only labor force has to be invested in restoring people's livelihood and agricultural production. That woolen industrial zone... Now we can't even find workers to build factories in the industrial zone...
Therefore, Ji Dehua is both happy and helpless now, but he is helpless, and things still need to be done.
The top officials of the empire have finalized the plan, so they will definitely not give up easily. If Ji Dehua does not do a good job, cannot effectively coordinate and balance the development of agriculture and industry, and cannot bring Liaodong to a new height, then the top officials of the empire will not give up at all. Don't hesitate to change someone to be the governor of Liaodong.
Therefore, Ji Dehua took the initiative to find a large government-run enterprise that was newly established and did not even have a signboard, and invited their supervisor for a discussion.
The main content of the discussion is how to solve the labor problem urgently needed for industrial development.
Ji Dehua first stated at the meeting that the existing population in Liaodong, especially young people, healthy women and even half-grown men, is the basis of people's livelihood in Liaodong and should be used to vigorously develop agriculture.
The governor's office in Liaodong has allocated land in different ways according to population, such as returning it, selling it in installments, opening up wasteland, etc., and has allowed nearly one million local people in Liaodong to have land per capita. Starting from last year and even next year, these people will be on the land. Work hard to completely solve the food shortage in Liaodong this year, and to produce abundant food next year to supply the industrial population and military supplies.
The great development of Liaodong is based on sufficient food.
Considering that the freight of grain is extremely high, Liaodong cannot always rely on grain imports from the customs, because Liaodong must be self-sufficient in grain.
Under such circumstances, the existing nearly one million people must be devoted to food production.
Ji Dehua's first statement made a group of corporate officials from the Ministry of Industry look unhappy... Damn it, if you don't want to spare a single labor force, then why don't you ask us to hold a ridiculous meeting? I'm not your subordinate...
For government-run enterprises directly under the Ministry of Industry, the organizational relationship of their corporate officials is with the Ministry of Industry and has nothing to do with the local government.
For example, Kong Kaikang, although he was transferred to Liaoyang Prefecture in Liaodong Province to serve as the co-organizer of Benxi Coal Mining Company, his files were not directly transferred to Liaodong Province, let alone Liaoyang Prefecture, but belonged to the Mining Department of the Ministry of Industry.
Not only him, but all other officials of the mining companies directly under the Ministry of Industry are directly under the jurisdiction of the Department of Mines, because the Department of Mines is responsible for the management of all mining companies directly under the Ministry of Industry.
Therefore, Kong Kaikang and the others actually had no direct relationship with the Liaodong Governor's Yamen. Although Ji Dehua was a second-rank official, he could not control them.
Of course, if Kong Kaikang really wants to manage, he can actually manage it. After all, these companies are in Liaodong and under his rule, Ji Dehua. But that is the relationship between the local government and the company, and it is not the same concept as human relations.
Therefore, the supervisors of these companies gave Ji Dehua face to attend the meeting, but if Ji Dehua continued to talk nonsense, then don't blame them for being too lazy to pay attention to him.
Fortunately, after Ji Dehua stated that he could not use the local labor force in Liaodong, he immediately stated that Liaodong local government would provide strong support for major enterprises to introduce labor from the customs.
I won’t talk about other fictitious things, but I will only talk about one thing, which is to provide cash subsidies. Major enterprises recruit workers from within the customs. The Liaodong local government will provide certain cash subsidies according to the situation to reduce the cost of recruiting workers for enterprises.
They were also invited to accompany the Liaodong Governor's Yamen to the team that went to the pass to recruit people for reclamation, forming a large agricultural and industrial recruitment group to go to the pass to recruit.
The local government in Liaodong also planned to recruit immigrants from within the customs, but the people recruited were all people working for land reclamation.
After all, Liaodong has a vast land and rich resources, and there is a lot of black soil along the Liao River. These places can grow food on a large scale, but there are few people in Liaodong now!
The Western Liaoning Corridor, the areas along the Liao River, and even the Liaodong Peninsula, etc., now have a large amount of wasteland that can be reclaimed and has good facilities waiting to be developed.
To this end, the Liaodong Governor's Office has previously formulated a plan to attract at least three million agricultural immigrants within the customs within five years.
As long as you come to open up wasteland, the land will be allocated for free.
This subdivision is not limited to immigrants, but also locals.
To put it simply, no matter who you are, as long as you are willing to open up wasteland, the government will give you a certain area of land to open up wasteland. The land that is cleared up will be yours and can be passed on to future generations.
At the same time, there will also be a preferential agricultural tax policy of tax exemption for the first three years and half tax for the next two years.
Opening up wasteland must be encouraged, otherwise why would the farmers work so hard to open up wasteland?
And this does not conflict with the various policies of returning land and purchasing land in installments that were previously implemented in Liaodong. Although the previous series of land policies were essentially all about land distribution, they were all mature fields that had been cultivated. At the same time, these There is no agricultural tax benefit for mature fields.
The preferential policy for land reclamation given by the governor of Liaodong was to reclaim more wasteland and attract immigrants to increase the population.
And this does not conflict with the recruitment of major factories.
Not everyone is willing to drag their family and move directly to the bitter cold land of Liaodong. Some people think of going there alone to work and make money, and then send money home to support their families, or save money to live a better life in their hometown. Life.
And these people can be recruited to work in factories in Liaodong. These people may resign and return to their hometown after working for a few years.
Ji Dehua, the governor of Liaodong, stated that he could provide recruitment subsidies, and at the same time took them to recruit workers in various provinces within the customs, and made official arrangements to provide various conveniences along the way.
This made the supervisors of major enterprises nod slightly.
At this time, the Liaodong Governor's Yamen finally did some personnel matters.
Anyway, they have to go to the customs to recruit workers. It will be better if the Liaodong Governor's Yamen can help with all kinds of trivial matters.
Although these enterprises directly under the Ministry of Industry are not low-level, no matter what, they are not as good as the governor of any province.
Ji Dehua personally stood up to help them recruit workers, which was a good thing.
As a result, an intention was quickly reached and it was agreed to send multiple recruitment delegations to various provinces within the customs, mainly places with a large number of people and a small amount of land.
After the delegation that went to Guan Nei to recruit workers set off, Kong Kaikang also started to get busy.
He wanted to take care of other things before the recruitment delegation came back with a large number of workers. Let alone other things, he had to at least prepare a place for the workers to live.
As for Benxi Coal Mining Company, it is a planned large-scale enterprise. The number of miners hired in the first phase will reach more than 2,000. The food, drink and diarrhea of so many people will be solved.
For this reason, Kong Kaikang continued to run around. First, he pinched his nose and spent a large amount of food sponsorship. He found the Liaodong Provincial Garrison Headquarters and temporarily invited hundreds of prisoners of war to preliminary organize the terrain of the mine. and the construction of various types of buildings, especially housing.
Because of this, Kong Kaikang was disgusted!
Those people in the military are so popular that they say that the task of supporting the production of military food is very heavy, and at the same time they say that companies are coming one after another looking for people, and the few freed-up manpower cannot be allocated at all.
There was no other way, Kong Kaikang could only increase the price.
Because the price for hiring prisoners of war was too high, Kong Kaikang turned his attention to some local labor forces.
Of course, don't count on the young and strong labor force. These people are carrying out land reclamation in Tunken under the organization of the local government. Kong Kaikang dared to poach people, and others dared to raise the price of food and let the people of Benxi Coal Mining Company eat the northwest. The wind goes away...
To be precise, it's not the local government that raises the price, they don't have the ability yet, but the people from the Liaodong Branch of the Dachu Empire Grain Corporation raise the price...
They are now selling grain at a loss, waiting eagerly for Liaodong to become self-sufficient in grain.
If Kong Kaikang and the others dare to poach the farmers into the mines, resulting in no one growing food and unable to be self-sufficient in food, they will immediately dare to raise the price of food for you.
This price increase... is not a price increase of a few percentage points, but a doubling and doubling increase...
If you talk back, they will cut off the food and ask you to transport it from within the customs. The price will be even higher.
For today's Liaodong, food production is the most important. Whoever dares to hinder food production will have serious consequences.
Kong Kaikang naturally didn't have the courage... However, not everyone among the locals would go to open up wasteland and farm land. There were also some old and weak children. These people could not do heavy physical work, but they could do ordinary physical work and some light logistical matters. It can still be done.
Recruiting a group of prisoners and letting them do what they can will also allow the prisoners of war hired at high prices to devote themselves to heavy physical work.
In Liaodong these days, the young and strong are used as cattle and horses, and the old and weak are used as young and strong!
——
While Liaodong was busy with various affairs, Jinling City was as calm as ever.
Regardless of what will happen next to the Great Chu Empire that lasted for eight years, at least the first few months of the year were calm.
There are no large-scale wars outside. The Eastern captives in the northeastern region have fled into the deep mountains and old forests. Coupled with the long winter and heavy snow blocking the mountains, it is impossible for the Chu army to launch an attack. Therefore, the Chu army in the Liaodong region adopts In order to maintain a strategic defensive posture, relying on the Liaodong Great Wall and various fortresses to garrison troops, at most they would occasionally send cavalry troops out of the city to carry out attacks.
But the scale was not large, and the impact was not great, especially when the Dongji people further evacuated from the edge of the Great Wall, and there were even fewer cavalry attacks.
The war in Monan Mongolia has also calmed down. Many local tribes have surrendered to the Chu Empire. A few who have not surrendered have also begun to migrate far away to avoid the attack of the Chu army. In addition, it is also winter, so During the winter assembly, the Chu army did not take any large-scale operations on the Mongolian front.
The western front is still the same, with no large-scale wars. The Yarkand Khanate and the Empire in the northwest are better. With the support of the Empire, the Yarkand Khanate is resisting the attack of the Jungar tribe.
The chieftains in the Qinghai and Kangzang areas are now unable to protect themselves from the attacks of the Heshuote tribe, and have no spare power to invade the border. On the contrary, the Chu army is finding various excuses to expand and infiltrate on a small scale every day, and at the same time, it continues to Various weapons were imported into this area, and local chieftains and Heshuo special tribes were encouraged to fight to the death.
Generally speaking, the entire western region poses no threat to the current Great Chu Empire. In order to resist the Mongols in the desert, the various local khanates and chieftains basically chose to make good friends with the empire, and even took the initiative to send tribute and request canonization.
The Great Chu Empire used diplomatic means to canonize a large number of so-called khans, living Buddhas, etc., and swore suzerainty in name to resist the eastward invasion of Mongolian Mongolia. Well, it also looked for opportunities to directly annex neighboring countries. Some toast or something.
In just a few years, more than a dozen chieftains in areas such as Qinghai and Kangzang, which are close to the areas controlled by the Chu Empire, have been de facto directly ruled by the Chu Empire. Some of these chieftains have obtained official titles from the Chu Empire, and they have transformed into Some became officials of the Great Chu Empire, and some directly became fertilizer for the earth... There were various endings.
How can I put it, as far as the local messy Khans, chieftains, living Buddhas, etc. are concerned, the Great Chu Empire is actually not much better than the Mongolian Mongolia, but the food of the Great Chu Empire is more hidden, and the methods are superficial. It seems a little gentler.
But in fact, in the end, it is all about controlling the vast Qinghai and snow areas and territorial areas.
At this point, the strategic goals of Mongolian Mongolia and the Great Chu Empire were the same.
On the southern route, the barbarian regimes in Burma, Vietnam and other places have basically sent envoys to the Chu Empire to pay tribute, in exchange for peace and trade rights, and the Chu Empire has nothing to do with this bad place in the southern peninsula for the time being. Interest... It's not that I don't want to, but I tried it and found that the cost is too high, that poor place is not suitable for people, and the non-combat casualties are too terrible.
Therefore, there is also no war on the southern front!
On the sea, although the disputes between the Chu Empire and Spain, Portugal and the Dutch still exist, the mutual interests are greater... Even if the empire completely squeezes out the Fuso trade route and the Dutch suffer a lot of losses, because of the The trade with the Da Chu Empire has tasted great benefits, and now there is no mention of the Fuso route. They are discussing with the Da Chu Empire the peaceful transfer of the colonial stronghold on Dayu Island.
In the early years, the Chu Empire had great conflicts with the Dutch because of the foreign colonies on Dayuang Island. However, in order to preserve maritime trade and ensure exports, they could not directly fall out, so they had been dragging their feet. Focus on negotiation.
It’s just that, in fact, negotiations are of no use. If it can be won through negotiation, it would have been won long ago. The real reason for the Dutch and Spanish to give in and fully withdraw from Damuan Island was because the Great Chu Empire opened the sea ban and After opening many trading ports, they no longer need the colony on Damuan Island to serve as a trade transit point with the Chinese region.
Why did the Dutch and Spanish establish colonial strongholds on Taiyuan Island in the first place?
The direct reason is that they wanted to trade with the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming Dynasty imposed a sea ban and ignored them... The only people who could openly trade with the Ming Dynasty were the Portuguese in Haojingli, and the Portuguese wanted to monopolize the official trade with the Ming Dynasty. , directly excluded the Spanish and Dutch, and did not allow merchant ships from other countries to enter Haojing at all.
Later, the Dutch and Spain unanimously set their sights on Damuan Island, because Quanzhou is opposite Damuan Island, and nearby is the northern Zhejiang and Jiangnan areas, where there are a large number of raw silk porcelain and other products.
After they established a colony on Taiyuan Island, they could purchase raw silk and other goods from various Chinese maritime smugglers nearby.
To put it bluntly, they established a colony on Damuan Island to facilitate trade with China.
In the early years, the Dutch also took the Fuso route, but the Fuso people ignored them. Before, they only traded with Zheng Zhilong. After Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Chu Empire, the Fuso people currently only trade with the Da Chu Empire, and no other trade is allowed at all. State ships enter Fuso Port.
The role of Da Yuan Island lies in trade. Once the Chu Empire directly opened many commercial ports along the coast and welcomed ships from any country to trade with China, Da Yuan Island also lost its role as the most important trade transfer station in the contemporary era. effect.
In addition to the Fusang route that also passes through Taiyuan Island, maritime trade from the South China Sea to China no longer has to pass through Taiyuan Island.
In addition, the Fuso route was an exclusive route for the Chu Empire, and the Dutch and Spaniards had no business at all.
Under such circumstances, it was logical for the Dutch and Spanish to abandon their strongholds on Taiyuan Island. In the colonial era, there was no benefit, and colonial strongholds that had to be maintained at a constant loss were worthless.
Besides, they definitely wouldn't be able to defend themselves if they really fought.
A few years ago, the Dutch had simply withdrew the troops from the colonial stronghold on Taiyuan Island, leaving only a few dozen symbolic soldiers to maintain security there...
You must know that when the Chu Empire first took control of the coastal areas and landed on Daiyu Island, the Dutch were particularly nervous. They mobilized a lot of troops from their Southeast Asian colonies to garrison on Daiyu Island. At one time, their maximum number of troops reached 2,000. Multiple people.
But now... there are only a few dozen people left, and these few dozen people are only used to maintain law and order.
The Dachu Empire is currently in contact with the Netherlands, and is preparing to peacefully accept the Dutch-controlled colonial stronghold on Dajuan Island. It has now entered the final stage. Just waiting for the Dutch to move their own people back, then the Dachu Empire can Go directly to take over, and it is expected that all handovers will be completed by May this year.
As for the colonies controlled by the Spanish, they had long been peacefully handed over to the Chu Empire.
In other words, in May of the eighth year of Chengshun, the last colony on Damuan Island, a colonial stronghold controlled by the Dutch, would return to the Chu Empire.
After things are settled on Damuan Island, there will be no obstacles to maritime trade between the Chu Empire and the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and England.
At least, there will be no obstacles before the Chu Empire expands to the Southeast Asia region on a large scale.
This is of great benefit to the import and export trade of the Da Chu Empire. The Da Chu Empire’s silk, porcelain, tea, cloth, ironware and other various products will be continuously supplied through the Da Chu Empire’s own merchant ships and merchant ships from various countries. It was transported to various places in Nanyang and Fuso for sale, and then transported to India, West Asia, North Africa and even Europe through Western maritime merchants.
The export trade is still of great benefit to the primitive industrial system of the Da Chu Empire, which is currently in the stage of development and is still in the hydrodynamic period.
Although the market within the Da Chu Empire is also very large, who would dislike the market being larger.
Furthermore, despite the fact that the Chu Empire had a population of 70 to 80 million, the market for consumer goods was actually not as big as imagined.
Take cloth as an example!
China has been a typical small-scale peasant economic system for thousands of years. In the vast rural areas, it is normal for men to farm and women to weave. Therefore, for the rural population, they will not buy a piece of cloth for ten taels of silver or one tael of silver. cloth, because they themselves have...
Well, if the purchase price is expensive, they will also weave and sell it to you...
In the original time and space, the British had entered the mature period of the industrial revolution. Their cloth was cheap enough, but they still could not open the Chinese market... because this was not a matter of cheapness, but that the vast majority of the Chinese population did not buy cloth at all. .
If you take something they don't need and tell them how cheap it is, they won't even bother to look at you!
Cloth could not be sold, and other industrial products were basically useless. Finally, in order to balance the trade deficit, the East India Company began to sell large amounts of tobacco to the Chinese region, which eventually led to the outbreak of the Opium War.
What happened to the British cloth merchants in the original time and space was also encountered by the cloth merchants of the contemporary Da Chu Empire.
Their cheap machine-made cloth swept the urban market... squeezing out the living space of a large amount of homespun cloth. However, their cheap machine-made cloth still cannot enter the rural market.
Hantian Textile Company feels this the most. They have tried many ways to sell cloth in rural areas in the past few years, but they cannot sell it.
At this time, although the export market is still relatively small for the time being, it can continue to be cultivated.
Moreover, when selling cloth in other countries, you don’t have to worry about the life and death of rural families like you did in China. You can engage in various dumping and forced trade.
The Navy has stated that the Imperial Navy will escort the Empire’s commodity exports!
