Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1719 Untitled 2
Despite the support of this charity education conference, it only helps maintain public schools in various places; educational resources remain extremely scarce!
However, Ma Runshan set up a model project for himself: Licheng Public School, located in Licheng, the capital of Shandong Province. Almost half of the two to three thousand taels of silver raised annually at the charity education conference was invested in this school. This allowed Licheng Public School to have relatively ample funding, enabling it to provide each student with a book.

They also built a university, and there's a fascinating little story about the establishment of this university.

Because the land for this university was approved by Ma Runshan as the provincial governor, and the manpower and material costs were covered by funds from the Charity Education Conference, Zhang Hao, the supervisor of Licheng Public School, took the initiative to propose naming the university Runshan Hall after Ma Runshan when it was nearing completion. He also wanted a statue of Ma Runshan to be erected in the school.

Ma Runshan was a scholar by birth, holding the title of Jinshi in the Great Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, Zhang Hao's actions were exactly what he wanted. Although he was very satisfied with Zhang Hao's proposal, Ma Runshan still pretended to decline.

However, Zhang Hao saw through Ma Runshan's true intentions. So when Ma Runshan declined, Zhang Hao insisted, even saying it was the shared wish of all the teachers and students of the public school. Only then did Ma Runshan feign reluctance and agree to name the newly built public school hall Runshan Hall. Ma Runshan even personally attended the opening ceremony of Runshan Hall…

With the connection of Runshan Hall, Ma Runshan treated Licheng Public School even better. Later, with the special funds allocated by the Ministry of Revenue for the construction of a library, Ma Runshan used these funds to build a library with 100,000 books in Licheng Public School, making it the first public school in the Great Qian Dynasty to have a library.

Ma Runshan himself regarded Licheng Public School as an important achievement of his time as Provincial Governor in promoting the development of education in Shandong. Therefore, if Ye Mingsheng were to come to Licheng, he would certainly invite His Majesty to take a good look around, so that His Majesty would understand that Ma Runshan actively implements and supports Your Majesty's strategy of revitalizing the nation through education!

Fourthly, Ma Runshan also focused on the direct reason for Ye Mingsheng's visit: the disaster. He knew that Ye Mingsheng would not just stay in the government office and look at the files. Ye Mingsheng would definitely go to the countryside to visit the affected people and ask them questions in person. Ma Runshan had made some corresponding preparations for this. This year, Shandong Province suffered from drought first and then floods, which caused a lot of trouble for everyone in Shandong.

Fortunately, under Ma Runshan's personal supervision, the grain output of Qilu was somewhat preserved this year. Including some previous reserves, Qilu was able to produce enough grain to be self-sufficient this year, without needing the imperial court to provide additional grain.

Ma Runshan was very proud to have achieved this, so he was determined to give Ye Mingsheng a proper introduction.

Fifthly, Ma Runshan, in line with Ye Mingsheng's other major political slogan, "Industry and commerce revitalize the country," also built an industrial park around Licheng!

The industrial park currently has seventeen factories, including textile mills, brick factories, and match factories. However, the one that Ma Runshan values ​​most is a steel mill. Through Gu Sansi's connections, Ma Runshan has had contact with the Ministry of Industry and learned from the Ministry that it is currently testing a brand-new type of ship.

Currently, the ships of the Great Qian Dynasty are mainly made of wood, but the Ministry of Works actually wants to use iron to build ships, and even calls them ironclad warships.

When Ma Runshan first heard the news, he thought the people in the Ministry of Works had gone mad. Could a ship made of iron really only sail? Wouldn't it sink at sea?
To answer Ma Runshan's question, Su Junjie arranged for him to visit Taogang and observe the ironclad warship experiment.

Ma Runshan will never forget that day. Although he still couldn't understand the underlying principles, the shock he felt as he watched the small steel boat trembling on the sea, driven by a steam engine, was beyond words. Ma Runshan, whose understanding was overturned, also became convinced that ironclad ships were the future direction of ship development.

However, since the design and construction of ironclad ships are still in the exploratory stage, Ma Runshan did not blindly participate in it. Instead, he cooperated with local businessmen in Shandong to build the Qilu Steel Plant in the industrial park of Licheng.

In the view of this Shandong Provincial Governor, no matter how ironclad warships were designed or built, steel was the most important and indispensable raw material. Furthermore, the steel produced by steel mills could not only be used to build ironclad warships, but also for crafting agricultural tools, constructing houses, and many other applications…

With this in mind, Ma Runshan also promoted the construction of the Qilu Steel Plant. The steel plant has been in operation for about three months and currently has two blast furnaces and one steelmaking furnace, with a planned production capacity of 100,000 jin of steel per year.

Now that we have steel mills and production capacity, it's time to find markets for the steel.

When the steel plant was being planned, Ma Runshan had considered this issue. His idea was to use the produced steel for making agricultural tools and for building construction. To this end, Ma Runshan specifically consulted accountants to calculate the costs. After repeated calculations, the accountants concluded that the production capacity of the Qilu Steel Plant, which was 100,000 jin of steel, could be consumed by the local Qilu region every year.

The matter should have been quite satisfactory at this point, but what Ma Runshan did not expect was that shortly after his Qilu Steel Plant was built, an important message came from the neighboring Jiyu region: Zhao Wanxian, the provincial governor of Jiyu, planned to build a steel plant in Jiyu with an annual output of 200,000 jin of steel.

At first glance, this matter seems insignificant. You are in Hebei and Henan, and I am in Shandong. We keep to ourselves and do our own thing.

However, from ZZ's perspective, this matter does have a slightly different meaning!
Currently, economic development carries the highest weight in the performance evaluation criteria for government officials. This means that anyone who wants to advance further, aiming for positions such as Minister of the Six Ministries or a cabinet position, must strive to improve the economy and maintain a leading position in the competition.
So, in Ma Runshan's view, "I just built the Qilu Steel Plant with an annual output of 100,000 jin of steel, and you, Zhao Wanxian, want to build the Yujing Steel Plant with an annual output of 200,000 jin of steel in Yujing. What do you mean by this? Are you trying to outdo me?"
Ma Runshan is 45 years old this year, and Zhao Wanxian is 33 years old. When Ma Runshan was the prefect of Liaoyang, Zhao Wanxian was just a minor official. So, seeing this junior who was a generation younger than him now sitting on equal footing with him and competing with him for a higher position, Ma Runshan felt a mix of emotions. Deep down, he envied Zhao Wanxian's youth and the emperor's favor, which made him quite sensitive when facing Zhao Wanxian.

Regardless of whether Zhao Wanxian wanted to outshine him, Ma Runshan didn't want him to steal his thunder, but Ma Runshan couldn't stop Zhao Wanxian from building the Yujing Steel Plant.

Therefore, the only thing Ma Runshan can do is to build more iron and steel furnaces to expand the production capacity of Qilu Steel Plant to 300,000 jin per year!

In fact, building more iron and steel furnaces to expand production capacity isn't too difficult. The real challenge is selling the produced steel! According to the accountant hired by Ma Runshan, Shandong Province needs about 150,000 jin of steel annually. Therefore, the initial plan was to produce 100,000 jin per year, leaving some room for small blacksmith shops. But now, if production capacity is expanded to 300,000 jin, even if no room is left for small blacksmith shops, 150,000 jin of steel will still remain unsold.

Selling to other regions isn't so easy either. With everyone competing, I welcome your investment, but if you want to steal my business, well, I'm sorry...
Despite facing such a dilemma, Ma Runshan was still unwilling to be outdone by Zhao Wanxian, so he came up with a new idea on the advice of his advisor Feng Yuan.

The idea was to build a military factory in Shandong to produce swords, guns, and cannons, so that the extra 150,000 jin of steel could be used up.

When Ma Runshan received this suggestion from his staff, he was overjoyed and praised Feng Yuan highly.

However, Ma Runshan quickly realized that while the suggestion to build a military factory could help him solve the problem of 150,000 jin of steel production capacity and allow him to expand the production capacity of Qilu Steel Plant to 300,000 jin, it would also create a new problem.

The first problem is that building a military factory is a matter of great importance, even for Ma Runshan, who is the Provincial Governor of Shandong. It's not something that can be done on a whim; it requires the cooperation of the Ministry of Works and the General Staff, and finally, Ye Mingsheng's approval.

Putting aside whether the Ministry of Works and the General Staff cooperate, the current military production capacity of the imperial court is actually saturated and there is no need to build a new military factory. The existing military factories can fully realize the upgrading of the army's weapons.

When Ma Runshan realized these problems, he was somewhat frustrated, and Feng Yuan gave him some more advice.

Your Majesty encourages overseas trade, but the overseas world is not peaceful either. Pirates are rampant in various places. So if you want to do business, you must first have a gun for self-defense. Otherwise, let alone doing business, you will also have your life stolen by others.

Therefore, these swords, guns, and cannons produced can be sold to merchants who want to go to sea.

Although Feng Yuan's suggestion was good and constructive, Ma'anshan felt that it would be very difficult to implement in practice.

Although His Majesty encourages armed forces to go to sea, the Ministry of Justice, the General Staff, and the Joint Command Office strictly supervise the sale of weapons to merchants in order to ensure public order and prevent these armed fleets from becoming private armies. Not only are all weapons registered, but they are also frequently inspected. As a result, merchants do not buy many weapons.

Therefore, given the current political environment, it would be extremely difficult for these merchants to absorb tens or hundreds of thousands of kilograms of steel-made weapons every year. So, to get these merchants to absorb them, a change in the political system might be needed, which is beyond Ma Runshan's control.

Although Ma Runshan felt this was extremely difficult, upon careful consideration, he concluded that anything is possible with effort, and it wasn't impossible to give it a try. Since Ye Mingsheng was currently on an inspection tour, Ma Runshan thought he could take the opportunity to mention it to Ye Mingsheng and gauge his attitude…
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Yijing Ministry of Justice
Clerk Song Jie entered Zhang Mang's cell with a stack of case files, placed them respectfully on the desk, and said:
"Sir, here are the files you requested. I've prepared them all!"

Zhang Mang, who was reading the memorial, glanced at it and nodded upon hearing this. At this moment, Song Jie continued:

"My lord, I've found out about Ye Qiuming that you asked me to inquire about last time!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Mang became somewhat interested, put down the memorial in his hand, and looked at Song Jie. Seeing this, Song Jie organized his thoughts and began to speak:
"This Ye Qiuming was engaged to Cui Qing'er, the grandniece of Minister Cui. According to the engagement, Ye Qiuming should have married Cui Qing'er two years ago. Both families had already started making preparations. I heard that they were even planning to invite the chef from Xin Kang Ji to Ye Qiuming's house for the wedding banquet!"

"However, just two and a half months before the wedding, Ye Qiuming's father suddenly suffered a brain disease and passed away. Therefore, Ye Qiuming had to observe a three-year mourning period according to the rites. As a result, the wedding between Ye Qiuming and Cui Qing'er could not be held at that time and has been postponed until now!"

"Although it didn't happen at the time, the two families agreed that Ye Qiuming and Cui Qing'er would get married as soon as Ye Qiuming's mourning period ended. But unexpectedly, more than a month ago, news suddenly spread that Ye Qiuming and Cui Qing'er had broken off their engagement!"

"My lord, according to my investigation, the annulment of the engagement was quite sudden, and it was Ye Qiuming who brought it up first. It seems that he discovered that Cui Qing'er had been exchanging letters with other men. I don't know what the contents of the letters are, but I heard that Ye Qiuming was quite angry. His second uncle, Ye Zaiyuan, even slammed his fist on the table with the Cui family, and it ended up being quite unpleasant!"

Upon hearing this explanation, Zhang Mang seemed to be deep in thought.

According to Song Jie, although it's unknown what Cui Qing'er and the other man wrote in their letters, judging from the Ye family's reaction, Cui Qing'er is likely not very discreet, flirting and engaging in promiscuous relationships with other men in their letters...

(If you have any opinions on the recent plot, please feel free to share them. I will listen attentively.)

(End of this chapter)