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Chapter 1450 Master Jia 2
Two days later, Jia Yihui suddenly took his grand-nephew to the county town. He spent more than an hour reading the land requisition notice word by word, and then went into the county government office to find the officer in charge of the matter.

Gritting his teeth and enduring the pain of cramping in his calves, he shakily pulled out the deeds to hundreds of acres of land that three generations of his family had painstakingly saved up, and took the first step from being a farmer to an entrepreneur!
In reality, with just the money from selling the land, the Jia family could at most set up a small workshop locally, buying a few cheap second-hand machines from the provinces that were among the first to implement reforms, and producing some insignificant small parts for large factories. Making money was certain, but the chances of getting rich were slim.

So he wasn't satisfied with that. Instead, he boldly made a suggestion to the officer in charge of land acquisition: to acquire all the land the court needed within six months at a price 20% higher than the current acquisition fee.

Jia Yihui dared to make demands of the military officers and even raised the price by 20%, all because he believed every word in the announcement and the detailed explanation and personal experience of his clansman regarding the current state of the court.

Then he guessed right. The officer didn't fly into a rage or order his men to arrest him. He just asked how he managed to hand over the land on time, emphasized the penalties for being late, and then agreed to this very unequal deal.

However, they weren't entirely relieved. No advance payments were made; they only promised immediate payment according to the land deed each time the land was handed over, with no delays. They also wouldn't be responsible for any unforeseen circumstances that might arise. If anyone complained to the county government, the military would not only refuse protection but would also help arrest people!

The reason this person in charge of the General Staff could tolerate a small landowner discussing cooperation on equal footing was not out of kindness, but because the General Staff had strict orders against forced land expropriation and, even more so, against using the name of the imperial court to bully others. Even if a single acre of land did not conform to the principles of fair trade, the person involved would be held accountable.

However, in this relatively isolated and impoverished land, acquiring so much land from local farmers in a short period of time at a cost not exceeding market prices is no easy task.

The more isolated and impoverished a place is, the more wary the people are of outsiders. Moreover, the land is their lifeline; without it, they can do nothing but wait to starve to death, or they have to wander to other places to beg for food. Even when they die, they cannot be buried on their own land and become wandering ghosts.

If Jia Yihui can acquire the land through legitimate means, he'd be willing to pay 20% more, or even 50%. As long as it doesn't exceed market price fluctuations, he'll have earned the credit.

As it turned out, Jia Yihui actually succeeded. He first used his family's influence to persuade the villagers in his own village, setting a positive example of leading the way in responding to the imperial court's call. Then he painted a rosy picture for the people in several neighboring villages, telling them that they could make even more money by starting factories instead of farming.

Of course, nothing in the world is universally supported, and there will always be people who are unhappy. But Jia Yihui was quite adept at dealing with the local people. Regardless of whether his methods were legal or not, he ultimately got the land, and no one went to the county government to file a complaint.

With the land secured, the military had completed its mission, and Jia Yihui had made a modest fortune. But he wasn't satisfied; he set his sights on factories. Under the pretext of helping local farmers who had lost their land find a way to survive, he approached the military seeking cooperation.

Through the land acquisition incident, the General Staff personnel in charge of the construction of military industrial enterprises in Lanzhou had a very good impression of this enlightened local gentry. After hearing his request, they agreed immediately without hesitation, and assigned the military factory project, which had not yet found a partner, to Jia Yihui.

This not only accomplished the mission, but also created hundreds of job opportunities for the local people. That year, he received personal commendation from the General Staff and the Emperor, becoming a role model at the time.

Jia Yihui reaped even greater rewards. Even before the arsenal was fully operational, it was already profitable during the learning-on-the-job phase. He was absolutely right; running a factory was indeed more lucrative than farming. He also kept his word, giving most of the factory's jobs to the farmers who had sold their land at his suggestion. Over the next four or five years, the Jin County Arsenal underwent three expansions, gradually developing from a factory initially producing only fixed-pack paper ammunition into one of the larger private arsenals in Shaanxi Province.

The product range expanded to include rifles, revolvers, copper-cased shells, bullets, and grenades. They made a lot of money and also used their connections with the military to invest in coal mines, oil fields, and related industries in Shaanxi Province.

Having fulfilled his promise to the villagers and realized his long-cherished wish to develop and expand his family, Jia Yihui felt that he was getting poorer and poorer.

Since starting his factory job, Jia Yihui, who had spent half his life holed up in the village and had only ever been as far as the county town, finally had the opportunity to go out and, step by step, go further and further away.

First, he took all his wealth on a military-style carriage to Xi'an, where he saw people and things he had never seen in decades. Then, taking advantage of the opportunity to obtain a permit, he went to the capital, where he visited Jieyun Tower for the first time and spent nine full taels of silver coins to treat others to a meal.

It should be noted that the monthly salary of the magistrate of Jin County was only 12 silver coins. This was after Emperor Jingyang significantly increased the salaries of officials. If we go back to the Wanli era, the monthly salary of the magistrate of Zhong County was equivalent to only a little over 7 taels of silver, which was not enough to afford a meal at a big restaurant in a major city.

As the Jin County Arsenal grew larger and its products became more diverse, Mr. Jia traveled to more and more places, his footprints covering the north and south of the country. These trips weren't intentional sightseeing; most were necessary business trips to procure raw materials, and a few were simply sightseeing along the way.

Besides traveling to more places and broadening his horizons, what Jia Yihui was most proud of was the people he met. He got to know many business people and learned a lot of useful knowledge and business strategies from them.

Then he discovered that the Jia family and the arsenal, which were so prestigious in Jin County, might be considered something special in Lanzhou Prefecture, but they seemed quite ordinary in the Jiangzhe region. The large factories near the capital were mostly owned by the imperial family, so they couldn't compare, but compared to private factories in Guangdong and Fujian, they were still very small.

It is said that there are even larger private factories and plantations in Luzon and Annam Special Region, and those shareholders and families can be called big business owners. It's just a pity that Mr. Jia never had the time to go and see them.

But that's alright, the local big merchants alone are enough for him to learn from for a while. Those factories that specialize in producing goods for overseas trade are the ones that make the most money. No matter the season, whether it's war or peace, as long as the big ships dock, mountains of goods are transported up to exchange for chests of silver coins.

Or, equivalent to bank drafts from the Sun and Moon Bank, a single piece of paper could be exchanged for thousands upon thousands of silver and gold coins. At such times, without anyone saying a word, he felt utterly ignorant, like a frog in a well, still digging a cellar in the backyard of his old house to bury silver coins!

(End of this chapter)