Xuande

Chapter 830

Twenty big ships are definitely not enough for large-scale commercial transportation, but they should be no problem for the first exploration.

Liu Ye lowered his head and thought for a while.

"Your Majesty may want more, and His Majesty still wants to go to many places. Twenty large ships should not be enough, but it should be enough for the first use..."

"It's definitely enough for the first time. Such a large ship can carry more than tens of millions of catties of goods?"

Cheng Yu looked at the huge sea ship and said with a smile: "We will try our best to make it bigger so that we can bring more goods and food. By then, Great Qin Kingdom will be able to arrive smoothly even if it is thousands of miles away. As for your majesty's needs I will also find ways to speed up the progress of more sea-going ships.

By the end of the year, I will deliver another [-] to [-] large ships to form the second merchant fleet. The number of ships should be fine, and the sailors should be fine. There are many people here who are familiar with water and ships. It can be used with practice, but on the vast sea, if there are not enough experienced people to discern the direction, it will be very problematic.

You'd better tell His Majesty after you go back. I heard from people with sailing experience here that it is very common to get lost at sea. You can still see your way when the weather is clear. It will be very dangerous, please see if there is any solution for His Majesty. "

"Your Majesty can solve this kind of thing?"

Liu Ye smiled and said, "Your Majesty is the emperor, the Son of Heaven. Why bother Your Majesty with this kind of thing?"

"Don't tell me, how many problems we have encountered are all solutions that His Majesty has come up with."

Cheng Yu said with a smile: "The structure of this sharp-bottomed sea ship was requested by His Majesty. At first we didn't think it was very powerful. After trying it out, we found that this structure is really powerful. The hull is very strong. Stable, able to withstand wind and waves, no one has done this before, but it was proposed by His Majesty, all these are too numerous to enumerate."

Liu Ye thought about the things he had heard in Luoyang, including the legendary story of Liu Bei making salt in Liangzhou, etc., one after another, it seemed that it really started from Liu Bei, let alone The current Royal Institute of Craftsmanship is also Liu Bei's painstaking effort.

Maybe, he really has a way?

With some ideas in mind, Liu Ye took a boat from the port of Wujun and continued southward after finishing his business trip in Yangzhou. He sailed along the coastline and headed towards Rinan County. He arrived in Rinan County in March of the second year of Zhenguan.

After landing at the port in the northern part of Rinan County, Liu Ye quickly went to see Fazheng. When he arrived at the county seat, Fazheng just sent away a group of foreign businessmen. Go out to meet.

"Ninan County abides by the law and welcomes the angels!"

"It's okay."

Liu Ye smiled and looked at Fazheng: "As expected of your majesty's proud disciple, these proposals you made this time were brought to an official meeting by your majesty to discuss with us, discussed many things, and many people gave you suggestions It is very appreciative, and His Majesty is even more pleased."

"In this way, being a courtier is very satisfying."

Fazheng smiled and said, "Then how does His Majesty plan to advance this matter?"

"Divided into two ends, the household department and the Shaofu advance separately."

Liu Ye said: "Because the iron belongs to the household department and the Shu brocade is under the management of the Shaofu, the household department should also be involved in this matter, and the household department also has its own views."

As Liu Ye spoke, he told Fazheng Zhen Yan's opinion on this matter. Fazheng thought about it and thought it made sense.

"Indeed, the steel of our Han Dynasty is indeed the best in the world. Even the iron of cast iron pots is very good. We cannot just sell it to outsiders, lest they use it to make weapons. What Zhen Butang said is reasonable. I agree."

"That would be the best."

Liu Ye said with a smile: "In addition to these two things, His Majesty thinks that we can sell these merchants some of the things they need, but more importantly, we must also control the routes to their countries, take the initiative to sell things, and sell more. more things, and sell them directly to those who need them.”

Liu Ye told Fazheng the news that Liu Bei was going to organize a large fleet of large ships to go to the home countries of these foreign merchants, and told him that the large fleet of large ships heading to the Great Qin Kingdom would be ready in the middle of the year, at the earliest, in the second half of the year. We are about to set off to explore the Great Qin Kingdom. "

"I will recruit reliable people to help the fleet operate."

Fazheng said: "We don't know anything about sailing, so we need to find a reliable person to inquire carefully. If there is a slight carelessness, the ship will be destroyed and people will die. No matter how many people go there and how many things they bring, they will all sink into the sea and there will be no survivors." opportunity, so be careful."

Liu Ye nodded in agreement.

The two talked about sailing for a while, and Liu Ye suddenly asked about something he saw when he was at the port.

"When I was at the port, I found that the army escorted a group of hundreds of people who looked like prisoners of war to board the ship. Everyone was locked with ropes. What is this doing?"

"Oh, those are native prisoners captured in the war, and they are to be sent to Jiaozhi County."

Fazheng smiled and said: "Jiaozhi County is the place where these prisoners of war are most needed in Jiaozhou, and they are willing to bid, so we will give priority to sending prisoners of war to Jiaozhi County, and we can also earn a fortune to subsidize the county's expenses. , to share the concerns of the court and His Majesty."

"Is there such a thing?"

Liu Ye asked curiously: "Who is buying these natives? Did Rinan County send troops to arrest these natives? Has Your Majesty agreed?"

"Your Majesty and the Privy Council are aware of this."

Fazheng nodded and said: "This matter was actually a helpless move at the beginning. Although the district company died after the recovery of Xianglin County, the rest of the natives still insisted on making chaos, often harassing the county town and farms, making our officials and people Very tough.

The people are also very cunning. If the army is not there, they will attack, and if the army is attacking, they will avoid it. The mountains are high and the roads are far away, and the jungle is deep. If the army enters the jungle, it is easy to get lost. The natives live in scattered places. Even if you are lucky and find a native settlement, you can't destroy it in one attack. There are more than [-] native people.

Later, we felt that this was not an option in the long run, so we thought of capturing prisoners of war and selling them as slaves to those who need them, so as to form a long-term interest exchange, so as to call more people to actively capture natives and sell them, so that we can achieve two birds with one stone good effect.

Now it seems that the effect is really good. Except that the government will dispatch some county soldiers, the rest will be done by local people. Some local families and even individuals will join the arresting team and form a joint arresting team , act together, and the money from the sale of the captured natives will be shared together. "

"How to divide it?" "No matter how many people the government dispatches, they will always account for [-]%."

Fazheng said: "And if you don't have an arrest certificate issued by the government, you are not allowed to arrest the natives privately, otherwise you will be severely punished by the government. The [-]% is equivalent to the government's taxes and fees. As for the other [-]%, it mainly depends How much they personally seized and sold, the government will do justice to avoid internal disputes."

After hearing this, Liu Ye nodded repeatedly.

"I see, this is a good idea. Indeed, His Majesty allows the use of foreigners as slaves in Jiangnan. In this case, these natives can not only sell their talents in Jiaozhi County, but also in Jingzhou and Yangzhou. Yes, in this case...are there enough native people here?"

"This is not a problem. At present, there are a lot of dense forests in the south and west of Nichinan County that have not been explored. We don't know how many natives live here. We will count them later. At present, the most important thing is to complete the order. .”

Fazheng smiled and said, "By the way, there is an interesting thing. Do you know where the largest order of native prisoners of war comes from?"

"where?"

"Inspector of Jiaozhou, Liu Biao."

Fazheng smiled and said: "Liu Shijun is the biggest buyer of natives in Rinan County at present, and he placed an order for 300 natives by himself. This time, the joint arrest team sent out 510 people, and only captured 84 six people. There are still [-] people who need to be arrested next time, and now everyone is discussing where to be arrested next time."

"so many?"

Liu Ye was surprised: "Does Mr. Liu want so many servants? How much land does his family have?"

"It is said that Liu Shijun led 60 people from his family to go south to Jiaozhou to serve. According to the provisions of the land transfer law, the court approved a total of more than 4 acres of land to Liu Shijun and his family."

Fazheng smiled and said: "But because the land approved by the imperial court is undeveloped wasteland, a large number of people are needed to reclaim it, so Mr. Liu needs a huge number of servants to reclaim these wastelands.

It is very troublesome to hire Han people. Liu Shijun heard that some people here captured natives as slaves, so he placed an order with us. It is said that this is the first batch. Because it is more difficult to reclaim wasteland, there will be many natives in the future. The order is coming.

Moreover, there are many officials under Liu Shijun and their families have migrated here, and there are lands that need to be reclaimed. Therefore, if there is no accident on our side, we will continue to transport natives to Jiaozhi County. The cooperation should be long-term. "

After hearing this, Liu Ye nodded slowly.

"Before I heard that many officials in Jiaozhou sent their tribesmen to settle in the south. Now it seems that they really need these natives, and Rinan County can still rely on the sales of natives to make some money. , It can also drive local people to cooperate with the government and reduce the pressure on the government, well, it is indeed a good thing.”

"That's certainly a good thing."

Fazheng said: "Now the biggest task of the national soldiers in Ninan County is not to maintain law and order, because the locals have no leisure to do anything that violates the law. Everyone, as long as they have the ability, are all thinking about how to catch them. More natives.

The natives are brave and hard to deal with. They have to attack when they encounter them, and tame them when they are captured. It will take some time, but the profits are huge. In just a few months, several families have already sold The natives have made a lot of money, and are now negotiating with the government to find a settlement of natives in the dense forest further west. "

"This is an unexpected bonus."

Liu Ye said with a smile: "In the past, the government was worried about the harassment of the natives, but now they don't have to worry about the harassment of the natives at all. Instead, they have to worry about whether there are enough natives... In other words, in such a vast area of ​​Jiaozhou, these natives can all reclaim wasteland. Was it successful?"

"Probably not possible."

Fazheng shook his head: "The county government made an estimate before, and it is estimated that there are only 60 million natives in this area. I don't know how many are further south and west. And even if the 60 million natives are all Being captured as a slave probably won't be able to reclaim the entire wasteland of Jiaozhi County."

"Then... what if there are not enough people?"

"Then the whole Jiaozhou can only arrest the natives."

Fazheng said: "In this matter, I think all counties should contribute. The natives are not only in Rinan County, Jiuzhen County, Hepu County, Nanhai County, and Jiaozhi County. There are also many natives, including southern Jingzhou , and Yangzhou, there are also a large number of natives and bandits, and according to the court decree, they can all be slaves and use them for farming."

"Are there so many natives?"

"really have."

Fazheng said solemnly: "Angels don't know something. In fact, I didn't realize this until I arrived in Rinan County. Our so-called wild land is only too far away from Luoyang, and there are few Han people, but the natives in these places But it's not a lot at all, as often as five or six million, or even seven or eight million.

A county with a population of 60 million, even in the Central Plains, is not considered a small county. It is just that these people are not under the control of the government and cannot pay taxes, so they become a barren land. But if you think about it carefully, you can live with 60 million people. Where the natives are, can it be a barren land?That's clearly a rich place! "

"This... does make sense."

"Natives are also human beings who also want to produce agriculture and eat."

Fazheng said: "I have also visited the land where the natives live these days, and found that these natives actually have the habit of farming, and they can also cultivate the fields, but the farming skills are very poor. Even so, they can survive for five years. 60 people.

This fully proves that Rinan County is not a wild land, but a fertile land that has not been effectively controlled. If Rinan County, including Jiuzhen County, can be effectively controlled, there will actually be more than a million people farming here Field farming, agricultural production.

In time, these remote places can even produce a large amount of food comparable to that of Zhongyuan County. By then, will Rinan County or Jiuzhen County be a deserted land? "

"indeed so."

Liu Ye stroked his beard gently, and said slowly: "If you can live the natives, then you can live the Han people. The real barren land should be a place where even the natives can't live. If the natives can live here relying on agricultural production Come down and reproduce, it proves that the Han people can live better here! I must report this matter to the imperial court and let the imperial court continue to stick to the policy!"

"Then thank you Angel."

Fazheng said happily: "Now Rinan County is not short of money, it is short of people, short of Han people, short of farmers, short of merchants, short of soldiers, and lack of capable officials. As long as you can win enough Han people for Rinan County, then I believe, Within five years, Rinan County will definitely be able to give the imperial court and His Majesty a big surprise."

(End of this chapter)