Great Qing Dynasty talker

Chapter 584: Rebuilding the Small Farmer Economy and Replicating Heavy Industry Factories

After opening up the land immigration route in the Liaoxi Corridor.

A large number of sea vessels turned to transporting supplies, continuously transporting all kinds of supplies to the Daliao River for distribution, in preparation for the immigrants to go north to open up wasteland.

The first immigrants to arrive divided up the cultivated land in the Liaohe River basin, saving the process of clearing wasteland.

The lands further north are mostly virgin land.

To cultivate virgin land, you need to reclaim it first.

It is difficult for modern people to understand the hardships involved. If you try to dig a pit in the park that can accommodate Wu Dalang's body, and get blisters, calluses, cracks on the knuckles, etc., you will understand how terrible physical work it is to open up new land.

For such a large-scale land reclamation, there are obviously not enough oxen!

But looking at the 50 mu of land that already belonged to them and the fact that the government would not collect any grain for five years, everyone felt full of energy. If there were no cows, they would become cows themselves.

……

Before the first season of grain harvest outside the Great Wall, Wu Ting still needed a steady supply of blood transfusions.

The empire was under tremendous financial pressure.

Fortunately, Emperor Wu dug the Jing Mine himself, which greatly reduced the pressure.

Today, everyone from the emperor to the immigrants outside the Great Wall are optimistic and firmly believe that the future of the empire is bright.

There are currently two immigration lines:

From Shanhaiguan to Shengjing, from Lushun to Shengjing.

Divide the land along the way and move forward.

Soon, the two routes met.

For more than a hundred years, there has never been such a lively scene outside the Great Wall. People from all corners of the country and villages with smoke rising from cooking fires seem to have grown out of the ground overnight.

I mistake Shengjing for Bianjing.

……

The old capital of Yanjing gradually returned to normal order.

Shops are open, people are going out, everything is back to normal, but the prosperity is gone.

Emperor Wu still lived in the Forbidden City and concurrently served as the mine manager, commanding two legions of soldiers to continue digging. The amount of floating wealth seized had soared to 2 million taels.

This is the romance that belongs exclusively to conquerors.

Li Yu ordered the return of Heshen's mansion, part of his estate, and a few antique calligraphy and paintings, and confiscated the rest.

Anyway, it was Yongyan who ordered the raid on He Mansion. What does it have to do with me?
Speaking of,
Yongyan's move of escaping was decisive. He only took a scoop of the city's wealth and left the rest to Wu's army.

Free and easy!

Wu's scouts left Zhangjiakou and went 400 miles ahead to investigate, but did not see a single soldier.

The Qing army's hunting team maintained a speed of 60 miles a day, running westward and disappearing without a trace.

Maybe,

As Yongyan wrote in his letter:
~ Completely leave the traditional territory of the empire and never dare to provoke border conflicts with the superior country.

……

Li Yu has a lot of things to do next.

Prioritize things.

The integrity of the Golden Bowl, the clearing of land, the colonization of Southeast Asia, the governance of the Yellow River and Huai River, and the introduction of paper money are all very important, far more important than pursuing Yongyan.

Even instigating a full-scale war between Agui and the Konbaung Dynasty would be more important than hunting down Yongyan.

So, let's wait and see.

A guard hurried in and handed over the paperwork.

Li Yu started reading and then frowned.

This is an "Immigration Work Report" from Shengjing, in which the civil servants currently in charge of immigration work elaborated on their ideas - to proceed step by step.

In simple terms, the original Shengjing General's jurisdiction was filled first. The surplus immigrants were settled around the Liaohe River to facilitate the transportation of food, and after a season of grain harvest, they were organized to migrate northward.

……

Li Yu wrote:

"The Northern Expedition and immigration was a rare window of opportunity, and the cost was huge. It will never happen again in the future."

"When you want to achieve your goal in one fell swoop, abandon the cautious and be aggressive."

"Use the 6th Corps as the pioneer of immigration, first march eastward and destroy the Eight Banners of Jilin. Then go northward and attack Heilongjiang."

"Before winter comes, we must first push the immigrant settlements to the northernmost part of Heilongjiang. Then we can consider filling in horizontally and gradually divide up all the land in the Northeast."

"For the immigrants north of Hulan City in Heilongjiang (a suburb of Harbin), no grain will be collected for 10 years. They should also be provided with muskets, swords and spears to resist attacks by the remnants of the Qing Dynasty, bandits and Cossacks."

"Immigration should be fast, not slow. Take bigger steps and be more efficient. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. Occasional mistakes will not harm the overall situation."

The blank space is filled with densely packed small characters.

I believe that the officials in the Colonial Office will know what to do after reading this.

……

In the Yangxin Hall,

"Your Majesty, Mr. Fan, Director of the Agriculture Department, and Mr. Huang, Director of the Water Resources Department, are here."

"Call him in."

Fan Zhongmo and Huang Wenyun hurried in.

"Greetings to my emperor, long live long live long live."

"sit."

The guards had already brought chairs and two cups of hot tea.

Li Yu looked at the two of them and said with a smile:
"But is this your first time in the Forbidden City?"

Fan Zhongmo: "This is my first time."

Huang Wenyun: "This is my third time."

Huang Wenyun entered the Forbidden City for the first time when he passed the imperial examination. He entered the Forbidden City for the second time when he was the prefect of Suzhou. Now is his third time.

"My dear Mr. Huang, when you revisit your old place, do you feel sad that things and people have changed?"

"I am ashamed."

……

"Do you know why I summoned you here?"

The two looked at each other.

Fan didn't say anything, so Huang spoke up.

"Your Majesty, are you measuring the land in the north?"

"good."

Li Yu stood up and walked to the door of the hall.

"The rise and fall of dynasties is rooted in land annexation. If this problem is not solved, our dynasty will not last more than a hundred years."

The two were embarrassed and didn't dare to answer this question.

"Winter has gone and spring has arrived. Time waits for no one. There are two things we need to do right now. First, clear the hidden fields in the north. Second, distribute them to the local landless and landless people. Fan Zhongmo, you will be responsible for Shandong and Henan. Huang Wenyun, you will be responsible for Zhili and Anhui."

"Your Majesty, please explain?"

"All households with less than 30 mu will have their land made up to 30 mu. Tell the people that the court is not giving it to them for free, but selling it to them."

……

Fan Zhongmo was shocked and blurted out:

"Your Majesty, the people have no money."

"I know. I will not collect money, but grain. I will collect 150 catties of rent per mu every year. After five years, the land will truly belong to them."

750 kilograms of grain for one acre of land.

This price is very low.

"Your Majesty's benevolence is rare in ancient and modern times. You are truly a sage king."

Li Yu waved his hand:
"It's not that I'm merciful, but I just can't bear to watch the Northern Expedition. Bones are exposed in the wild, people die of hunger on the road, and villages are deserted. The so-called hell is nothing more than this."

The atmosphere in the hall suddenly became gloomy.

Li Yu stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the sky.

"Throughout the dynasties, when the dynasty encountered difficulties, it was nothing more than making the people suffer more. Frankly speaking, I am no exception. But everything should have a limit."

"It can't be bitter forever, right? No more waiting. Now the time is basically ripe, it's time to give it some sweetness."

……

Fan and Huang choked up and knelt on the ground crying.

Whether it is true or not, I think they were indeed touched.

Li Yu turned around and stared at the two people seriously:
"Do you know why I am determined to emigrate?"

"I know that there are too many people in the north and too little land. There won't be enough to go around anyway."

Li Yu smiled:

"I will assign two battalions of troops to each of you to escort the measurement and distribution of land. All land without land, regardless of its original ownership, will be regarded as unowned land and redistributed.

"We will give you 30 taels of funding each, and allow you to freely form a temporary land division team of no more than 500 people. When you divide the land, the boundaries and deeds will be produced and issued at the same time."

"Time is short and the mission is heavy. You must set off now."

"I obey your command." Li Yu thought about it and threw out a tempting bait.

"The Ministry of Economy is too big for Fan Jing to manage. I want to separate the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. It depends on your performance this time."

……

The reason for delaying the Northern Expedition was to allow the North to reshuffle in the chaos and consign the local forces to the dustbin of history.

Only when the land is divided can there be land to be divided.

Only when the land is divided will no one stop it.

The timing of land distribution was also critical. We had to wait until tens of millions of immigrants had passed through Shanhaiguan, then close the gate, lock it, and cut it off with a click.

All right.

People outside the Great Wall were busy reclaiming wasteland, while people inside the Great Wall were busy dividing the land.

Everyone is very satisfied~
Just imagine,
If you knew that the land in your hometown was about to be divided up, who would be willing to leave?
Therefore,
Wu Tinghui blocked Shanhaiguan for a long time, cutting off the flow of information and personnel inside and outside the country.

Everything is within your majesty's calculations.

……

Fushun, not far from Shengjing, has coal and iron ore with rich reserves and extremely high quality.

From a geographical perspective,

It is rare to find a place like Fushun where coal and iron coexist.

Fushun's West Open-pit Coal Mine is the largest open-pit coal mine in the empire and also the largest open-pit coal mine in Asia.

A brand new factory, Fushun Heavy Industry, has sprung up.

The Empire has three major heavy industries, which are arranged in order of their launch time: Ma'anshan Heavy Industry, Daye Heavy Industry, and Fushun Heavy Industry.

The three major heavy industries all integrate metallurgy, forging, and weapons manufacturing, and have subordinate coal mines or are close to coal producing areas.

There are numerous departments within a factory.

The number of workers is as high as tens of thousands.

Brick making, house building, furniture making, medical care, canteens, and transportation are all self-sufficient.

The workers and miners were young and strong and highly organized. The head of the factory security department was a lightly wounded soldier who had retired from the field army.

Emperor Wu gave an order.
The factory manager could mobilize a musketeer team of several thousand men or even a small inland fleet at any time.

A workshop is like an infantry company.

A factory is like a field army.

Guns, cannons, swords and spears can be made and repaired, and martial virtue is very abundant.

……

The idea of ​​building a new factory is mature, and everything is just copy and paste.

Wu Ting transferred a group of young technical workers from Maanshan Heavy Industry to form the team for the new factory.

Come on, upgrade to level 2.

Salary also doubled.

The three major factories all have red brick houses with underfloor heating and living areas with public baths, a true reflection of 18th century civilization.

The workers felt extremely superior to this.

Apart from the three major industrial enterprises and the official residences of important officials, where else in the world can one have the freedom of floor heating and hot showers?

What needs to be explained here is that,
Factory boilers generate a lot of waste heat, which is a waste if it is not used to improve the lives of workers.

……

In order to facilitate the transportation of raw coal and iron ore, the Ministry of Industry tried to lay the first steam narrow-gauge railway outside the factory with a distance of only 11 miles.

The steam locomotive was very primitive and bulky, the train was very slow, and malfunctions were frequent.

But at least I really started running.

The train runs by itself without being pushed.

The workers looked at the locomotive, which was running at about the same speed as walking and emitting black smoke, and laughed happily.

They did not look down on the crude new technology, because Maanshan Heavy Industry also started out this way, gaining experience through hard work and trial and error along the way.

Going from 0 to 1 is difficult.

From 1 to 10 it's much easier.

Wu Ting worked hard and finally trained the empire's first batch of industrial workers.

In order to expand this group, Emperor Wu made another opening for the three major heavy industries - allowing them to run their own schools and enroll children of the factory workers.

As soon as the order arrived, a brand new factory-owned school was built in just a few days.

The workers proudly expressed: wood, tile, mud, stone, paint, we can do everything.

A few years later,
A large number of young people will graduate from here and enter the workshop.

Experience can be copied, technology can be copied, and factories can be copied.

In 5 to 10 years, the empire's industry will experience exponential growth. Emperor Wu's ambition to dominate the world with steel is not far away.

……

One month has passed.

As the temperature gradually warms up, the ice and snow melt.

The 6th Corps and the 2nd Expeditionary Corps set out from Shengjing and were divided into three routes.

Behind the army was a large crowd of immigrants.

When we capture a city, immigrants will occupy it.

Destroy a village and settle immigrants in that village.

At the beginning, the immigrants were very afraid of war and they all hid their heads in fear.

Gradually, they tasted the benefits of war and became more courageous. As soon as the guns in front of them sounded, the people behind them were eager to try.

Just wait for the messenger to ride over and shout:
"Come three to five hundred people and clean up the battlefield."

The immigrants cheered and ran in the snow.

Cleaning up the battlefield is a good job.

Weapons and gold and silver must be handed over, but the rest can be kept privately.

For the immigrants who have walked thousands of miles unarmed, everything is good. They will not leave anything behind except the corpses.

……

The 6th Corps suffered more than 50 casualties when attacking Jilin, including the killing of more than 500 bannermen, more than 1000 bondservants, and dozens of assistant commanders.

General Jilin committed suicide by taking poison.

Later, the casualties became fewer and fewer.

Invincible and with high morale.

The immigrants were no longer content to simply follow the army, but actively asked to help push the cannons.

In accordance with His Majesty's instructions, the 6th Army allowed and encouraged a group of immigrants to stand out, allowing these young and middle-aged men to develop mutual trust with the army through low-intensity combat.

after that,

These people were appointed as town and garrison chiefs, and were given muskets as implementers of the empire's will outside the Great Wall.

……

Commander Zhao Erhu sighed:

This is no longer a war, but an armed march in the Northeast.

Whenever there was a war, hundreds of thousands of immigrants would stand behind the army, holding up their hoes and cheering loudly. They frightened the enemy to death.

More than 500 cavalrymen from Ningguta fled directly and joined the Heilongjiang general.

Because even if the Wu army did not use cannons, Ningguta could not withstand the attack of so many crazy refugees.

Don't underestimate the mob.

Before they lose, the mob is like a rolling mudslide, unstoppable. Even if the Jade Emperor stands in front, he will be slapped in the face.

Looking at Ningguta with its gates open.

Zhao Erhu drew his sword:
"superior."

The immigrants held high the axes and hoes distributed free of charge by the court, walked quickly, howled loudly, and rushed into the city ahead of the soldiers.

……

Some old and weak Bannermen who were hiding at home were pulled out and beaten to death in the street.

After the 6th Army entered the city, it restored some order and ordered the bodies of the immigrants to be dragged out of the city and buried.

In Ningguta, more than 800 people were captured.

A lieutenant staff officer approached Zhao Erhu:

"Commander, we think we can keep some of the prisoners. This will help to weaken the enemy's fighting spirit and also help to siege the city."

Zhao Erhu nodded:

"Yes. All prisoners, regardless of age, will be handed over to the dispatched troops."

The staff officer laughed happily.

When fighting in Heilongjiang, it would be quite interesting to use the flag soldiers to attack the city.

(End of this chapter)