Jinan Prefecture, Shandong Province of the Great Chu Empire, has always been a water transportation hub and an important industrial and commercial town in Shandong. However, its previous development was average, and its current development is actually not that good.
The development is not good. This was Luo Zhixue's first impression after arriving in Jinan City.
Of course, this kind of development is not very good, compared with some large cities in the south with good economic development, and is a comparison within the Great Chu Empire.
If compared with the pre-Ming Dynasty or any previous dynasty, Jinan City today can be beaten.
And it's a slingshot that's more than ten levels behind.
Jinan in the industrialization era, even if its development was unsatisfactory in Luo Zhixue's eyes, was far from being comparable to cities in the agricultural era.
Whether it is industrial and commercial output or people's living standards, these are things that cities in the agricultural era need to look up to.
This is a huge gap in productivity!
While the royal carriage was walking on the streets, Luo Zhixue looked at the roads, bridges and buildings around the streets in the city, and secretly estimated in his heart that the development of Jinan City was at least ten years behind the big cities in the south.
In terms of urban infrastructure, it is probably similar to what Jinling City was ten years ago.
This kind of intuitive scene seen with one's own eyes is far more intuitive than looking at various reports and cold figures in documents, and makes people understand the local development difficulties more clearly.
Moreover, Luo Zhixue knew better that the backward development of Jinan City was not an isolated case, but a common situation in all provinces north of the Yangtze River.
Even the two major northern industrial regions of Tianjin and Liaodong, which the empire strongly supports, are far less economically dynamic than the Yangtze River Delta Industrial Belt and the Pearl River Delta Industrial Belt in the south.
The reason for this is inseparable from the fact that several northern provinces suffered serious war damage during the late Ming Dynasty.
Take Shandong as an example. Because Shandong is located in the north, it was affected by wars during the Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasties. It has a sparse population and poor economic development.
During the Jin Dynasty, it was due to wars and the Jin Dynasty's own exploitation. In the early Yuan Dynasty, the local population was only a million, and this situation did not improve much during the Yuan Dynasty.
Why?
The ruling class of the Yuan Dynasty were Mongolians. The core area of their rule at that time was in the northern region. Naturally, they exploited the Han people in the northern region. At the same time, because the Mongols were nomadic people, they liked to enclose land for grazing and raising horses. The enclosed land is all farmland!
At that time, the Yidu Horse Farm in Shandong was one of the most important large-scale ranches in North China during the Yuan Dynasty... A large amount of local farmland was used by the Mongols to herd and raise horses. It is conceivable that the local food output was definitely not high. The population is not that good either.
When the Ming Dynasty regained this area, the population was sparse and a large amount of land was uninhabited. Later, the Ming Dynasty encouraged reclamation in the area and the area gradually recovered its vitality.
By the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu's reign, Shandong's cultivated land area had exceeded 70 million acres, ranking third among all provinces in the country.
After Zhu Di established his capital in Youzhou during the Ming Dynasty and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal became a transportation artery, Shandong along the canal also developed, but it was limited to the early and middle Ming Dynasty.
In the late Ming Dynasty, especially after the rise of the Dongli people, Shandong was in misery again... On one side there were various rebel armies, and the rebels were wreaking havoc, and on the other hand, the Dongli detoured to Mongolia from time to time to enter and plunder.
As a result, Shandong, like other places in Beizhili, suddenly became a place where people had a hard time making a living.
Of course, in the last few years there were also wars between the Chu Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty competing for hegemony.
At that time, the armies of both sides fought all the way around the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, from Jiangbei to Tianjin and even to Youzhou. Shandong was inevitably affected by the war. The two sides also fought fiercely in various parts of Shandong.
The war resulted in a large number of young people being killed and injured, and a large amount of farmland was abandoned.
This was not just the case in Shandong. In fact, the situation in many provinces north of the Yangtze River was not very good at that time. In many places, hungry people were belittled, and rebels or rebels were everywhere.
The biggest pressure that the Chu army faced during the Northern Expedition was not military pressure such as the Ming Dynasty's army or the intervention of the Eastern Captions, but the inability of the hundreds of thousands of troops heading north to obtain enough food locally.
If food cannot be obtained locally, then the only option is to organize food transportation northward from the southern provinces.
In addition to the food rations for the hundreds of thousands of soldiers, civilian officials, tax patrols and other personnel heading north, some food is also needed to feed the hungry people.
The amount of food required was an astronomical figure. The Chu Empire used the entire country to gather a large amount of food, and continuously transported the large amount of food to the north through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and other river transport networks and even land transportation. .
This was the result of the military victory of the Northern Expedition, and the subsequent smooth establishment of local governance institutions, and then large-scale suppression of bandits to pacify the local area.
Therefore, during the so-called Northern Expedition, a large part of the important work centered on how to organize the transportation of grain from the south to the north, how to relieve the hungry people in several northern provinces, and organize them to resume agricultural production to help themselves.
After the Chu Empire completely controlled the Shandong area, it established Shandong Province with Jinan as its governor. Then, like other northern provinces, it launched large-scale suppression of bandits and restoration of farming.
After working hard in the north for several years, several northern provinces were able to relax.
The northern provinces, which had regained their composure, began to catch up with the southern provinces and began to develop industry and commerce... but they were already many years behind the southern provinces.
Every step is a step ahead. Coupled with inconvenient transportation and the lack of river and sea transportation channels like those in the early industrial development period, logistics costs remain high, which makes it difficult for some inland areas to develop.
Far less rapid development than coastal cities!
This is why in the Great Chu Empire, the economy of coastal areas was generally higher than that of inland areas, and the southern coast was higher than the northern coast.
Mainly the area south of the Yangtze River did not suffer much war damage in the late Ming Dynasty. It was captured by the Chu Empire early on, and then it was able to rapidly develop industry and commerce, and successively built around resource areas and places with convenient transportation. Four large industrial bases have been established: Daye Industrial Zone (Hantianfu), Dangtu Industrial Zone (Yingtianfu), Susong Industrial Zone (Jiangnan Province), and Guangzhou Industrial Zone (Guangdong Province).
Then it gradually extended outwards, and a considerable scale of industry and commerce developed in provincial capitals and important cities, such as Changsha, Nanchang, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Quanzhou, Lianzhou, Huizhou and other places, all of which developed quite well.
The region north of the Yangtze River started a little slower. Of course, the northern Chu region where the Chu Empire started is an exception. Xiangyang began to develop the textile industry early and was one of the five major textile centers in the Chu Empire.
The areas north of the Yangtze River and Jiangbei Province in Anlu Province were troubled by the early Yellow River diverting water from the Huaihe River into the sea. Floods occurred every year, with one major flood every three years. The local government was busy with disaster relief and relief for the people every year. How could they have the time, energy and capital to do so? Develop industry and commerce.
In the area north of the Yangtze River in Anlu Province, the early government made great determination, but only supported one Huainan Mining Company.
Not to mention Jiangbei Province. Before the development of Xuzhou, Tongzhou had a good textile industry and was the fourth largest textile industry center in the country. However, Yangzhou and Huai'an, the two economic centers during the Ming Dynasty, were No longer satisfied with the prosperity, they can only rely on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the salt service to barely maintain the dignity of the big city.
Further north, Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu, these provinces were all war-torn areas in the late Ming Dynasty. In the late Ming Dynasty, various rebels and rebels as well as the Eastern Captives... In the end, the Ming Dynasty was indispensable. Officers and soldiers.
Like a comb, they combed these areas over and over again.
Not to mention the industrial and commercial economy, the population was more than half less than in the early years of Chongzhen.
The activities of the rebels were the most active. In places such as Shaanxi and western Henan, where the rebels and the official army were back and forth, there was no one left in Dingkou.
When the rebels played rebellion, they were not gentle and gentle. In the early days, the rebels played rebellion with coercion.
What is coercion?
To put it simply, when the rebel army arrives at a place, it kills everyone who dares to resist, steals all the edible food, and burns down all the houses it sees.
Then he raised the so-called banner and said that King Chuang would not pay for his food... and then called on the young and strong to join him in overthrowing the evil Ming Dynasty.
The farmers, whose food had been robbed, their houses burned down, and even the young crops on their farmland trampled on, had no choice but to join the rebel army in order to survive.
After joining the rebel army, Qing Zhuang became the cannon fodder soldier of the rebel army, while his wife and children followed behind the rebel army.
These rebels will eat one place and then move to the next place, eating up all the food places along the way like locusts, and taking the young and strong away with them. Therefore, once the rebels have done well in the beginning, they will be able to eat in a very short time. The scale will expand rapidly in a short period of time...it only takes a few months to go from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
Therefore, we often see tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of rebels... But most of these so-called rebels are actually hijacked rebel family papers, and real rebel soldiers only account for a small part of them.
This coercion mode allows the rebels to pull out an army of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people in a very short period of time. Regardless of the combat effectiveness, the number of people is definitely enough.
Therefore, it is true that wherever the rebels passed, not a blade of grass grew.
Of course, the official army is not much better than the rebel army. The official army does not play coercion, but the official army robs food...
And sometimes the officers and soldiers are even worse, because the officers and soldiers only grab food without holding it back, which is equivalent to taking away all the people's food rations and not caring whether the people live or die.
After the rebels also robbed the people of their food, they also took away the young people inside!
Are you talking about the officers and soldiers not grabbing food?
Are there any armies in this world that don’t have guns and food?
Even when the Chu army fought in wars, they often played the game of "feeding off the enemy". This was true during the civil war during the Unification War, and it is also true now when they go to the frontiers and expand overseas.
Although the words "feeding on the enemy" seem to be more elegant than grabbing food, there is no difference in essence. At most, the Chu army's methods are more gentle when doing things, and the target group they target is more special and the number is sparse.
The Chu army generally does not directly grab grain. This kind of food collection is usually done by the tax department.
Why are the tax policemen in the tax department so notorious until now? It's because they were too ruthless in collecting taxes back then, and the targets of tax collection were often the landlords and gentry.
After all, the grain reserves in a place are basically in the hands of the wealthy landlords.
Those miserable untouchables can't even get a few ounces of oil out of them. The price/performance ratio is too low!
Therefore, during the war, the target of the tax department's work was never the people at the bottom, but the middle and high-level people, especially the landlords and wealthy people who were most popular with the tax police.
Back then, these tax policemen spent every day either searching homes or on their way to search homes.
And these landowners and gentry are often the group that controls the right to speak in social public opinion...
I can't fight you, I can't deal with you with my hands, so why can't I just scold you behind your back?
So even though many years have passed, various tax law systems have now been deeply rooted in people's hearts, and gentry and businessmen are used to paying taxes... but they still scold the tax police when they should.
There is a view within the tax department that the tax collection efforts were too light back then, so that there were a large number of remnants of the previous dynasty, old and young, left behind.
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Due to early wars, several northern provinces had small populations and abandoned land. In the early days, they basically focused on restoring people's livelihood and developing agriculture.
After I calmed down, I started to follow up on industry and commerce, but the overall development speed is still relatively slow.
In the end, the situation that Luo Zhixue saw in Jinan City was formed. A dignified provincial city was even worse than an ordinary city in the Yangtze River Delta in terms of transportation facilities and architectural appearance.
Its industrial development is not good either.
Luo Zhixue had seen a report before that the industrial and commercial output value of Jinan Prefecture was only 30% of that of Zhenjiang Prefecture...
This is only talking about Zhenjiang Prefecture... not prefectures with big economic powerhouses like Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture.
However, this is also one of the reasons why Luo Zhixue visited the north, because he wanted to see with his own eyes how backward the development of the north was.
At the same time, a message is sent to the outside world, that is, the empire intends to invest certain policy support and financial support in several northern provinces, and is determined to improve the economy of the northern provinces.
In Luo Zhixue's view, the northern provinces still have great potential for development, especially after the large-scale opening of railways. The traffic problems that plagued several northern provinces in the past have been alleviated to a certain extent, and logistics costs have dropped. These are all beneficial to the northern region. This is especially helpful for the development of inland areas.
The development path in Shanxi is an example worth emulating and learning from. Shanxi has many mountains and little land, and has not been an economic powerhouse since ancient times.
This was true even after the Great Chu Empire. For a long time, Shanxi's economic development level was very low, and its economic output basically relied on agriculture... The limited industries were also small and medium-sized factories, which mainly produced ordinary industrial products. , such as cloth, daily iron products, small machinery, etc., mainly supplied to the local limited market.
As a result, industry will naturally not be able to develop, even if it is discovered early that Shanxi has a large amount of local coal resources.
Coal is useless just by itself. It must be dug out and transported, and the cost must be low enough so that it can be developed and utilized on a large scale.
The Dachu Empire was vast and rich in resources. It had developed many iron ore and coal mines over the years, but not every mine was worthy of heavy investment in development.
Especially in places with inconvenient transportation, large-scale development will not be carried out even if there are large amounts of minerals.
Because it can’t be transported out... let alone the minerals, some of the medium and large equipment purchased cannot be transported in because of the inconvenient transportation.
Shanxi's coal resources have been in this embarrassing situation in the early years.
Coal resources are abundant, but they cannot be transported!
This situation was improved after the railway was opened in Datong, Shanxi.
Departing from Datong, Shanxi, trains transporting coal can reach Zhangjiakou all the way, and then enter the southern section of the Central Plains Railway, that is, the Hebei section, to Youzhou and Tianjin.
Tianjin is currently the largest industrial town in the northern region of the Chu Empire, and is also the largest coal demand market. Even though Tianjin is located next to the coal mines of Tangshan, with the concentration of a large number of heavy industries, Tianjin is also the most important port and railway in the north. transportation hub.
Huge amounts of coal are needed for industry and transportation fuel every day.
In addition, Tianjin is the largest city in the north. The urban resident population alone reaches one million. Add in the surrounding counties, towns and even suburbs. The population in the surrounding areas is millions. The people use coal for cooking, water and heating. It is also a huge problem. number.
The important thing is that Tianjin is also a transportation hub!
This place is the northern terminus of the Central Plains Railway and the starting station of the Northeast Railway and the Prairie Railway. The three main railway lines converge here.
At the same time, the local area is the second station to the north of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Relying on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, all kinds of goods and personnel can easily reach Shandong and even Jiangbei and other places.
More importantly, it is actually the largest seaport in the north. The throughput of Tianjin Port is the largest among many coastal ports in the north. Looking at the country, it also ranks third, second only to Shanghai and Guangzhou.
After the coal from Shanxi arrives here via railway transportation, it can be supplied to local factories, used for transportation, and can also be spread to surrounding areas for residential use.
More importantly, it can also be directly transported by large-tonnage sea-going ships to coastal and riverside cities in the south, especially the Yangtze River Delta region.
At present, the Yangtze River Delta region in the Chu Empire is the area with the largest coal consumption in the Chu Empire. Whether it is residential coal, industrial coal, or transportation coal, the amount of coal consumed every day is an extremely huge number.
Locally produced coal is far from enough for consumption in the Yangtze River Delta, and coal needs to be transported from other places.
The coal produced by several large coal bases in the empire can be seen in the Yangtze River Delta, such as Pingxiang in Jiangxi, Tangshan in Hebei, Fushun in Liaodong, and Guangning in Guangdong.
Nowadays, we have to add Shanxi Datong.
Generally speaking, the coal industry in the Chu Empire has a situation of coal transportation from the north to the south.
As for Guangning coal in Guangdong, because it produces all anthracite coal, because anthracite coal is of high quality and expensive, not many people are willing to use it as industrial coal or residential coal at present. It is basically used as thermal coal. It's a steamship.
Among them, the Da Chu Empire Navy only uses anthracite coal produced in Guangning Coal Mine, and other coal navies look down upon it...
Putting aside the relatively special coal mine of Guangning Coal in Guangdong, the current coal pattern in the Chu Empire has formed a situation of coal transportation from the north to the south.
Shanxi seized the historical opportunity of the opening of the train and sold coal to the south. Only in recent years has the local economy developed by leaps and bounds.
In just a few years, Shanxi Datong has quickly surpassed the provincial capital Taiyuan in terms of industrial output and fiscal revenue, becoming the largest city in Shanxi.
This also makes Luo Zhi pay more attention to transportation, especially the role of railway and maritime transportation.
Nowadays, the railway mileage in the Chu Empire is still small. Even in the eastern region, there are only a few main railway lines of isolated groups, and the corresponding number of railway branch lines is too few.
To improve the economic backwardness of the northern region, the transportation problem needs to be solved first.
If you want to get rich, build roads first!
Therefore, unlike previous inspections, after arriving in Jinan City, Luo Zhixue did not visit any factories or farmland. Anyway, the local industry and agriculture were just like that, and there was nothing worth showing off.
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Luo Zhixue mainly went to see the conditions of the embankments and docks along the Yellow River. At the same time, it was indispensable to see the docks and ports of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
Even more important is the railway.
Jinan is actually a railway hub, not only with the north-south Central Plains Railway.
There is also a railway in Shandong Province, namely the railway from Jinan to Qingdao. This railway is also a strategic railway to some extent, because Qingdao is an important military port of the Chu Empire in the northern seas.
At the same time, the existence of Qingdao Naval Shipyard also made the place the third warship construction base of the Chu Empire.
Around the Qingdao Naval Shipyard, there are a series of other supporting factories, and around Jiaozhou Bay, the Ministry of Industry and the Navy have joined forces to create a defense industry system with the main purpose of producing naval equipment.
Due to the particularity of this place, in the early stage of railway planning, the railway line from Qingdao to Jeju was included in the planning, and it has been completed.
Today's Jinan has the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Yellow River for river transportation, which is enough for thirty years.
Yes, the Yellow River is also navigable these days. Before the Dachu Empire carried out artificial diversion, it had already considered the navigation needs and planned and constructed the predetermined waterway in advance. Especially at the seaport, it invested heavily in straightening the river. , dig deep.
Therefore, after the Yellow River is diverted, the lower reaches of the Yellow River can be navigable, but the navigation capacity is not high, far from being comparable to the Pearl River and the Yangtze River.
In addition, because the Yellow River water carries too much sand, over time, it is estimated that the navigation capacity of the lower reaches of the Yellow River will no longer be possible in a few decades.
But that is all for the future. At least for now, the lower reaches of the Yellow River have certain navigation capabilities, even if they can only navigate some small inland river ships.
In terms of maritime transportation, it can be directly connected to Qingdao via railway, which can be regarded as solving the problem.
However, railway transportation is still lagging behind, especially the lack of a railway line to the eastern part of Shandong and the southern part of Hebei.
That night Luo Zhixue looked at the terrain map, and then frowned at the large plain terrain in eastern Shandong and southern Hebei.
There is a huge plain terrain, but there are no railways or rivers!
No matter how you look at it, it’s an eyesore!
After thinking about it, he simply drew a zigzag line on the map, taking the ancient road from Taiyuan, Shanxi, to Zhending Prefecture, Hebei Province, and then to Dezhou Prefecture to connect to the Jinpu Line of the Central Plains Railway.
Then a line was drawn starting from Youzhou, going south through Baoding Prefecture, Zhending Prefecture, Shunde Prefecture, Guangping Prefecture, then entering Zhangde Prefecture and Weihui Prefecture in Henan, and then all the way to Zhengzhou in Kaifeng Prefecture.
Once these two lines are drawn, it looks much more pleasing to the eye!
Then he turned his attention to other parts of the map. The map was not small, but there were not many railway lines on it.
So much so that the huge empire map looked empty. Luo Zhixue started drawing lines on the map with reference to the terrain and cities, as well as population, economy, resources and other movement speeds!
As he was drawing, Luo Zhixue suddenly stopped!
There are already too many dense lines on this map, even Siberia has more than a dozen lines... Not to mention other places, the eastern region and even every county Luo Zhixue drew a railway branch line.
Looking at these lines, Luo Zhixue sighed... There is no point in drawing so many!
Let’s build some mainline railways and some important branch railways in the eastern plains first!
Thinking of this, he simply burned the topographic map filled with lines...
This thing cannot be spread, otherwise others will say that he has no brains and it is just a trivial matter to build the railway. He is afraid that his officials will take it seriously and he really plans to do it to please himself... That would be embarrassing!
