Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 729 Patrol the Territory
Time passed quickly, and in a blink of an eye, a month passed, and the family gradually got used to the life in Beidao. Zhu Pei's lower abdomen swelled a little again. Based on the time, it should be that Fan Ning was pregnant on the eve of going to Datong Mansion to fight. Exactly four months now.

The Palace of the King of Chu is very large. Although the back house and the atrium of the Cuiyun Tower were built according to the Fanning Mansion in the capital, the front yard is still somewhat different. The main reason is that there is an additional government office covering an area of ​​[-] mu in the east, and that government office is the main entrance. , This structure is a bit similar to the imperial palace, with the imperial city in the front and the palace city in the back. The front of the Chu Palace is the official office of the palace, and the west is the palace covering an area of ​​[-] acres.

The back house is very big, it is completely a garden, there is a small lake covering an area of ​​about 200 acres, and a hot spring yard for bathing. Various pavilions and pavilions surround this lake. There are more than [-] houses. There are more than thirty.

In addition to the maids brought from the capital, there are more than [-] maids bought from all over Japan, most of whom are fourteen or fifteen years old and understand a little Chinese.

Fan Ning's grandmother, Yang Shi, originally lived with her third son, Fan Tieniu. When she heard that her grandson was coming, she insisted on moving in with her, but she moved back after two days of living. And raised chickens and ducks.

Fan Ning was not in the Chu Palace during this time, but was inspecting various counties, especially he decided to build a fifth county seat, which was going to be named the new Wu City, and the current Wu City was going to be renamed Chu City, to correspond to Fan Ning’s current The title of King of Chu.

The location of the new Wucheng is still in the north of Hanhai Bay, west of the mouth of Zhushui, two hundred miles away from Songcheng.

At this time, Fan Ning was standing on the bank of Zhushui River to inspect and enter the city. About [-] Japanese laborers were responsible for the construction of the new Wucheng. House, very efficient.

The standard for New Wucheng is 1 households, between 1 and [-] people.

It wasn't until this time that Fan Ning realized that the population of Wucheng accounted for half of the population of Beidao, with [-] households and more than [-] people, including a county seat and more than forty villages around it.

Accompanying Fan Ning to inspect New Wu City are Mingren and Ouyang Hua. He is the vice president of the North Island Chamber of Commerce and controls the economic lifeline of the North Island. The North Island Chamber of Commerce is jointly controlled by Fan Zhu and Fan Ning. Chairman, when Fan Ning is not around, Fan Mingren, Fan Mingli and Zhu Lin will be in charge. The chamber of commerce owns gold, silver and various industries, worth millions, making it as rich as an enemy.

Ouyang Hua will serve as the Chief History of the Palace of Chu, responsible for coordinating the specific government affairs of each county. Fan Ning is only in charge of the general strategic direction.

Now the Changshi Mansion has just been established, and there are only a few officials at present, but Fan Ning is still a high-ranking official in the Song Dynasty. , so the Changshi Mansion is his spokesperson, so Fan Ning still brought Ouyang Hua with him when he toured the counties this time.

Fan Ning looked at the county town and said slowly: "The officials promised me that the imperial court will move 15 households to the North Island within ten years. Including the immigrants we recruited by ourselves, I estimate that the population of the North Island will reach 70 in ten years. 35 households, at least [-] people. In addition to increasing the population of each county, at least [-] counties need to be built, divided into one city, five prefectures and [-] counties. Therefore, the Changshi Mansion will have a ten-year plan in the next step. Ouyang Changshi’s task Heavy!"

Ouyang Hua nodded silently. He is not good at intrigue in the officialdom, but if he is asked to do something, he believes that he can do it well.

"The next step of the humble job is to recruit people, improve the Changshifu, and divide it into the Six Cao Division and the Secretary Division. The Secretary Division will be responsible for the preparation of the plan that His Highness said. It may take a year to travel to every place in the North Island. Just do it."

"Okay, I'll give you one year. You can discuss the recruitment with the elder hall after you go back, and try to streamline the organization."

Speaking of this, Fan Ning turned back to Mingren and said, "Wucheng is still too small now, and we are planning to build an outer city. We want to build a big city with 20 people."

"20 people!"

Akihito was taken aback, "There can't be so many people, right?"

"Why not!"

Fan Ning glared at him and said: "In the future, it will be Wangcheng. The population of Wangcheng must account for about 20% of the total population of the North Island. In fact, it is more than 20, but considering the evacuation to the countryside, [-] is already the minimum requirement. .”

"Remember the humble job!"

Fan Ning turned his gaze to the sea to the south again, and asked Mingli again, "How is the situation on the South Island?"

"The situation in the South Island is also good. The population currently has 1 households, about 6 people. Three county towns have been built. At present, agriculture and animal husbandry are the mainstay, and the food is self-sufficient. The number of sheep has reached one million. The workshop only has a textile factory with 2000 people and a leather workshop with 3000 people. The textile factory wove wool into carpets and sold them to the Song Dynasty, and the leather workshop tanned sheepskins to make leather boots and furs. It is said that they sold quite well in the Song Dynasty. "

"Only two workshops?"

Fan Ning frowned slightly, which meant that all kinds of daily necessities could not be self-made, business could not start up, and the economic cycle could not be established.

"South Island should be distributed according to needs!"

Akihito nodded, "Nanandao envies our commercial development and money circulation. In fact, we only have a population of 10. Of course, we still have 100 Japanese laborers and [-] Japanese girls. Also, our total population is only [-]% larger than theirs, but there are already more than [-] various workshops, ranging from oil extraction, rice pounding, wine making, and sauce making, to textiles, shipbuilding, mining, smelting, precision forging, and steam engine making. , a hundred times stronger than the South Island."

"Then what do you think is the problem in the South Island?"

Mingren thought for a while and said, "I think the key to the South Island is that there is no chamber of commerce like ours, with abundant money constantly invested, or that the South Island is a bit congenitally deficient."

Fan Ning pondered for a moment and said, "Tomorrow you will accompany me to the South Island, and I will check their pulse and see if I can find a new road for them?"

The three counties of the South Island are also on the coast of Han Bay, across the sea from the counties of the North Island. Fan Ning took a fast boat of [-] shi to the South Island. After installing the propeller, the speed of the medium-sized ship is doubled. Zhu Qi is right. The propeller is not effective on the Wanshi ship, but it works very well on the medium-sized ship. The speed far exceeds that of the paddle wheel.

The ship was sailing through the waves, Fan Ning stood at the bow and felt the sea breeze, and Akihito next to him said deeply: "The steam engine is really a magical machine. It has been sailing at sea for more than ten years, and has never had such a fast speed."

Fan Ning smiled lightly and asked, "I drew you a picture of a train when I left the year before last. How is the development going?"

"It is still under development at the Divine Engineering Institute, and I have not asked about the specific progress."

"What is Shengongyuan?" Fan Ning asked puzzled.

"The predecessor of Shengongyuan was Mr. Zhu's steam engine factory. We split it into two parts, one part continues to manufacture steam engines, and the other half is responsible for the development of various new types of machinery, including in-depth research on steam engines. There are about 200 people."

Fan Ning nodded, and asked with a smile, "Screws and turnbuckles were also invented by Shengongyuan?"

When Fan Ning inspected the steam engine factory, he accidentally discovered that workers used screws and nuts as fasteners. Although they were handmade, the output was small and rough, Fan Ning was very interested. You must know that screws Nuts were not invented in Europe until 400 years later, and appeared 400 years earlier in the Song Dynasty, but they were called screws and buckles.

Akihito shook his head and said, "Screws and turnbuckles were invented by the shipyard when they were researching propellers. They have nothing to do with Shengongyuan. Shengongyuan just perfected the cutting machine for making them."

Fan Ning said with a little emotion: "It's unbelievable to say that there are only 10 people in Beidao, but there are so many factories. How did you do it?"

Mingren scratched his head, and said a little embarrassedly: "Actually, it's embarrassing to say that although we have many factories, they are all relatively small. There are only a few dozen people in factories such as rice pounding, wine making, sauce making, and soap making. There are also steam engine manufacturing. Listen It looks powerful, but it’s actually just an assembly factory. The manufacturing of parts was completed in the Song Dynasty. We shipped them over for assembly. Mining, coal mining, and coking were all done by Japanese laborers. There is also our cotton cloth textile factory in Songcheng County. Thousands of Japanese women workers."

Fan Ning pondered for a while and said: "In the final analysis, it is still a human problem. One is the small population, and the other is luxury before getting rich. The immigration conditions we offer are too generous. Many people are unwilling to do hard work when they come to the North Island. Can use labor, I heard that most of the bartenders in the hotel and shop assistants are Japanese girls, and people in Song Dynasty are unwilling to do it. That's fine, the conditions can't be too generous."

Akihito smiled wryly, "If the conditions are lowered, I'm afraid we won't be able to recruit immigrants, and we won't be able to compete with other islands."

"That's because if you don't investigate, how much can the favorable conditions offered by the various private islands in Luzon Mansion be realized? It is said that it is five hectares of land, but in fact it is good to give one hectare. The same is true for the southern mainland. In the end, only two hectares of land will be given, and the conditions for five hectares of land are very high. If there is no development and cultivation for three consecutive years, the government will take it back, and Beidao must also take measures to prevent lazy people.”

Mingren hurriedly said: "We also have the same regulations. Although each household is given five hectares, they must cultivate it within three years. 500 taels of silver, of course not all at once, but 200 taels at a time to build brick houses for them, and then 30 taels a year, paid in ten years, and it is stipulated that every man in the household must go out to work.”

"Is there any public dissatisfaction?" Fanning asked with a smile.

"Of course there are dissatisfaction, but most people can understand. In fact, most people don't come here for five hectares of land, but to live and work in peace and contentment. We can also satisfy their wish. In fact, because of the small population, many restaurants Shops can’t recruit staff, so they can only invite Japanese girls to do things.”

Just as he was talking, a boatman shouted that the Cao County Wharf had arrived.

(End of this chapter)