Fu Shanhe

Chapter 552 The Three-Five Plan
"My lord, this is a plan jointly formulated by our various departments. Please take a look."

As they spoke, Wang Jingchuan handed over the documents.

This is the third such plan since the establishment of the Annam Protectorate.

The first two plans mainly revolve around land reclamation, strengthening the military, and immigration.

There are too many newly occupied areas, and the government cannot keep up with the staffing needs. The core task of the government is to maintain stability.

In terms of local development, besides focusing on unifying the language and script, the government has largely adopted a laissez-faire approach.

The results were excellent. After the farmland for subsistence farming was allocated, the people's enthusiasm for production was very high, and the local economy recovered quickly.

After these years of transition, the local people have forgotten their former identities, and many are actively learning the official language and script.

The outside world attributes this to benevolent governance, but Li Mu is very clear that the main reason for all this is that the Annam Protectorate is powerful enough.

In addition, the reputation of the Great Yu Empire was already very prestigious, and the culture of Great Yu was always regarded as a classic among the local officials and nobles.

The people had always longed for the Celestial Empire, and after enjoying a few years of good life, their determination to integrate became even stronger.

Now that the area has stabilized, it's time for construction.

Except for certain areas, the infrastructure development in most parts of Annam Protectorate was very backward.

Let alone developing industry, even basic road access cannot be guaranteed.

In many areas, roads become muddy and impassable during the rainy season.

"According to your plan, priority will be given to building four north-south and four east-west major transportation arteries to connect the Indochina Peninsula."

Have you considered the local climate and natural conditions?
You've all seen steam trains.

Although the technology is not yet mature and cannot be put into use for the time being, it is the mainstream of the future.

In terms of transportation capacity, the advantages of trains far surpass those of horse-drawn carriages.

Railways must be taken into account in road construction planning.

Even if we don't plan to lay the railway along the original route, at the very least, the existing roads will provide convenience for future railway construction.

Li Mu asked with concern.

The delay in undertaking large-scale infrastructure projects was due to two main reasons: firstly, the conditions were not yet ripe and the government's finances could not sustain the projects; secondly, the issue of railways was also a consideration.

Steam locomotives have been developed, and although the technology is not yet mature, the most difficult step of going from 0 to 1 has been overcome.

Going from 1 to 100 is just a matter of time.

As long as we are willing to invest in research and development, we will definitely be able to develop it.

Spending a lot of money on roads at a time when railways are about to be built is really not cost-effective.

After all, with the current level of technology, it is extremely difficult to develop automobiles.

Instead of spending money on building a nationwide network of roads, it would be better to go straight to the point and build a railway network.

Let roads serve as a substitute for railways, acting as a link connecting towns across the country.

In an era lacking machinery, road construction relied entirely on manual labor, with workers carrying loads on their shoulders and backs – a massive undertaking indeed.

Previously, the roads built by the Protectorate General were all contributed by prisoners of war.

Although the number of prisoners of war remained high due to the war, their mission was extremely demanding.

They are the main force in mining, land reclamation and farming, and water conservancy projects...

Now that we need to carry out nationwide road construction projects, it's clear that those prisoners of war are not enough.

Once it is fully rolled out, local residents will definitely need to be mobilized to participate.

In this era where people were used to bringing their own food and performing corvée labor, no one asked the imperial court for wages, but the government offices certainly had to provide construction equipment and explosives.

In theory, the subsequent road repairs and maintenance could be entrusted to the local government, but ultimately it is up to the local people to complete them.

From Li Mu's perspective, one cannot simply focus on a single project; rather, one must consider the overall picture.

The construction of the road network is only one part of the plan, which also includes a comprehensive development plan for agriculture, animal husbandry, industry, military and education.

The operation has expanded so much, yet the Annam Protectorate is still at war!

During wartime, undertaking such large-scale engineering projects is fraught with risks.

"My lord, it is precisely because of the climate issue that this plan is mainly focused on the Indochina Peninsula."

As for the Southeast Asian region, it is full of islands, and our current development areas are mainly along the coast.

The convenience of waterway transportation can basically meet the needs, and the main construction is of port terminals.

The Indochina Peninsula is a vast territory and serves as a link between the mainland and Southeast Asia, making it strategically important.

Unfortunately, the area experiences frequent rainfall, which places very high demands on road construction.

Whether laying rails or using sleepers, they are extremely prone to rust and corrosion, and are also at risk of landslides and mudslides.

For a long time to come, railway construction costs will remain high.

In comparison, the cost of building a highway is much lower, and the subsequent maintenance and upkeep do not require much technical expertise.

If it weren't for the concern about injuring the horses' hooves, building a concrete road would actually be the best option.

Transport Minister Ni Zhihong began to explain.

Since cement was invented, this new building material has become a favorite among officials.

Whether it's building cities, constructing docks and ports, or constructing military facilities, cement is ubiquitous.

If it weren't for limited production capacity, it would probably be used on a large scale for residential housing construction.

In rainy regions like the Indochina Peninsula and Southeast Asia, traditional wooden houses are not very suitable, as they are easily affected by dampness during the rainy season.

Immigrants from the north, in particular, found the local climate very difficult to adapt to.

"Ok!"

"The plan is too big; we need to cut some parts or extend the planning period."

According to your plan, you need to invest five million workers and work hard for five years.

The pressure on the Protectorate was immense.

I can provide you with a maximum of one million prisoners of war; you'll have to find your own way to fill the remaining labor shortage.

If laborers are to be recruited from the countryside, it should not be during the busy farming season, and the working hours should be carefully controlled.

Agricultural production must not be affected, and a large number of casualties are not allowed.

After you go down there, you need to continue to refine the plan.

For each specific construction phase, responsibility must be assigned to an individual.

They need to complete the tasks with high quality and quantity, but they also can't cause me any major problems.

It is extremely irresponsible to lay everything out at once.

Not to mention that we don't have that many laborers, even if the scale of the war on the front lines expands and we manage to bring in a few million laborers, do you have that many people to manage them?

Road construction is a technical job, you should know.

Without professional personnel in charge, relying solely on enthusiasm to forge ahead will likely leave hidden dangers!

Li Mu said irritably.

Annam Protectorate was a typical place with a vast territory and sparse population; no one knew exactly how big it was.

Place names have varied in different historical periods, so one can only roughly determine their location from their position on a map.

According to the estimates of the Protectorate General's Office, the territory under the jurisdiction of the Annam Protectorate General was approximately four to five million square kilometers.

Of course, this number is definitely inflated, as many overseas islands are merely maps showing territorial expansion without actual control.

Anyway, there's no international law these days, so whoever has the bigger fist gets to call the shots.

Any uninhabited island that is marked on a map belongs to the Annam Protectorate.

No matter what others say, it's useless. The Annam Protectorate is the most powerful force in Southeast Asia and has the highest authority to interpret territorial issues.

This vast territory has a population of just over 30 million, of which nearly half are indigenous people.

With limited manpower, it was necessary to support foreign wars while also developing industry and manufacturing.

The workforce available for infrastructure construction is already extremely limited. Knowing it's impossible, the Ministry of Transport's proposal of such a plan clearly indicates their intention to target prisoners of war on the front lines.

Compared to conscripting laborers, these prisoners of war are more useful; their deaths are in vain, and there's no need to worry about being held accountable by their superiors.

Similar things have happened before.

When the Jiaozhi region was being developed, the military was responsible for solving the labor shortage.

Thanks to the efforts of the prisoners of war, the infrastructure in the region of Jiaozhi was able to be improved in a short period of time.

Having tasted success once, they naturally want to repeat the same trick.

Unfortunately, Myanmar has a limited population, with only a few million people in total.

If it weren't for the anticipation that the Mughal Empire would be drawn into the war, Li Mu wouldn't have been able to come up with even one million prisoners of war.

Eat as much food as your stomach can hold.

Even including the Mughal Empire, it would be impossible to capture five million prisoners of war on the battlefield.

No country can mobilize an army of five million at once, even if you add civilian laborers to make up the numbers.

Before this level of military mobilization could be completed, the logistics system had already crippled the empire.

"My lord, the problem of labor shortage can be resolved later."

If the military were to initiate war with the Mughal Empire ahead of schedule, our policies would inevitably provoke strong opposition from the local elites.

In order to protect their own interests, these die-hards will organize a large army to fight against us.

Once they take up arms, they become the enemy; turning them into prisoners of war is something no one can fault.

The Mughal Empire has a huge population; without reducing their numbers, we couldn't possibly swallow them whole!

Ni Zhihong tried his best to persuade her.

Although the ambitious transportation network plan carries certain risks in its implementation, once completed, it will bring a surge of political achievements.

Unlike the Six Ministries system of the Great Yu Empire, the Annam Protectorate had a more detailed system, comprising more than a dozen ministries of varying sizes.

And this is just the beginning; no one can guarantee that more departments won't be added later.

With such a massive organizational structure, all reporting directly to Li Mu, the workload must be immense.

It's only a matter of time before an organization similar to a cabinet is added above the various ministries to help handle government affairs.

Whether someone stays in their current position or gets promoted depends mainly on their political achievements.

Because different departments have different achievements, some things cannot be directly quantified, but the transportation department is different; all the achievements are clear at a glance.

The number of roads repaired and bridges built is all visible to the naked eye.

The extent to which infrastructure projects will boost the local economy can also be quantified.

Such an epic undertaking requires a huge amount of labor. Conscripting laborers to complete it would be too taxing on the people's resources.

No matter how beneficial it may be for generations to come, it will still cause widespread public resentment. The Qin and Sui dynasties in history are classic examples of this.

A whole host of large-scale projects were planned, but before all of them were completed, the empire collapsed prematurely.

With past mistakes already made, the Annam Protectorate certainly couldn't afford to repeat them. Mobilizing their own people for such a costly and exhausting task was pointless; instead, they would have relied on prisoners of war, and that would have been a much better option!
They were provided with free labor, only needing to be fed. Even the food they ate was created by other prisoners of war who cultivated the land.

The Annam Protectorate was able to complete its epic strategic expansion under the conditions of "light corvée labor and low taxes" not only because it benefited from the era's dividends, but also because of the hard work of millions of free laborers behind the scenes.

Essentially, the history of the Annam Protectorate is a history of blood and tears, the difference being that most of the blood and tears were contributed by the enemy.

However, these efforts are destined to remain unspoken.

The prisoners of war didn't cause any major trouble, mainly because their previous living conditions were too absurd.

Many people only discovered upon entering the prisoner-of-war camps that the standard of living there was actually better than that of cattle and horses outside.

Exhaustion was unavoidable; the problem was that the POW camps had enough to eat.

Even the food consisted mainly of grains and vegetables, and those who behaved well could get a bowl of meat soup, which was much better than eating coarse food, grass roots, and tree bark outside.

As a result, some well-behaved prisoners of war, even after being granted a pardon, were unwilling to leave and instead chose to stay and continue working.

To encourage other prisoners of war to work hard, he served as a role model and successfully earned an income commensurate with his daily labor.

The prisoners of war who should have hated him had actually become loyal workers. Li Mu didn't know how to describe this era.

In the eyes of officials, this was the result of implementing "benevolent governance." Even enemies could be won over; a truly enlightened ruler had descended from heaven to end this chaotic era.

With such low standards of benevolent governance, Li Mu could only passively accept it.

However, the feudal lords in the country are destined not to learn these things.

The Annam Protectorate could operate in this way because it possessed vast lands, abundant mineral resources, and most importantly, no middlemen taking a cut.

The local vested interest groups were all wiped out in the war. The new land policy directly restricted land transactions at the source.

Unless it was awarded for military merit, the land that was not owned by an individual was limited to five mu of land for food rations. Even if one went out to reclaim wasteland, the upper limit was locked at twenty mu.

All private land transactions are illegal. If discovered, not only will the land be confiscated by the authorities, but the individual will also face hefty fines and forced labor.

With transactions locked up, land consolidation is out of the question.

With no middlemen taking a cut, all the wealth created is concentrated in Li Mu's hands, so naturally he can share more with the wealth creators.

Not only is land owned in China, but even easily exploitable mines have been completely mined out by our ancestors.

Whenever you want to do something, there's always a group of people holding you back. And if you infringe on the interests of vested interest groups, you'll face endless trouble.

"If you can coordinate with the military to solve the labor problem, I will naturally not object."

However, I must remind you that even if the military can provide that much labor, it will still take time.

The last plan was about to conclude in two months, and a new plan needed to be implemented.

If you set a goal and fail to achieve it, you'll have to bear the consequences yourself.

Li Mu responded calmly.

He was happy to see his subordinates motivated.

Even strategic planning seemed too grandiose to him, but the Chinese nation is best at creating miracles.

Road infrastructure construction is different from other projects. As long as you are willing to invest labor, you can build it up by manpower.

The Ministry of Transportation wanted to do something big, and he was willing to support it. However, this put pressure on the military to get involved.

Besides pacifying Burma as quickly as possible, the war must also be extended to the subcontinent as soon as possible. Without neighbors to fill the gaps, this plan is nothing but a castle in the air.

Compared to the Ministry of Transport's grand strategy, the plans of other ministries are much more conventional.

It's not that people don't have aspirations for political achievements; it's just that the nature of their work is different.

Taking the Ministry of Industry as an example, technological breakthroughs are full of luck; investment does not guarantee a return.

The R&D team consists of people who came from other fields, and the system for cultivating scientific and technological talent is still under construction and improvement.

Planning in this area is limited to how much funding to invest, how many new research projects to add, and how many results to expect to achieve.

The ultimate gains and the possible outcomes remain unknown.

Industrial capacity expansion must be supported by the market. It's not something that can be done on a whim, like increasing steel production capacity to ten million tons and then blindly launching projects.

If improving comprehensive national strength were as simple as ramping up production capacity, then a powerful nation would be worthless.

Given the current market demand in Annam, increasing steel production capacity to one million tons in five years would be a huge challenge.

With an annual production capacity of over 100,000 tons, Annam Protectorate has become the world's largest exporter of iron products.

Needless to say, growth in the commercial sector must be based on reality and developed step by step.

Making arbitrary leapfrog development plans will only leave lower-level officials at a loss.

The only sector that can really emulate the Ministry of Transportation is probably the Ministry of Agriculture. There's no such thing as too much water conservancy work; as long as the government is willing to invest money, there will be countless projects.

Unfortunately, the situation in Annam Protectorate was unique; the agricultural predicament was not drought or lack of rain, but rather excessive rainfall.

Compared to large-scale water conservancy projects, the Ministry of Agriculture's strategic planning mainly focuses on the construction of drainage projects, with a greater emphasis on river channel management.

As for building reservoirs and dams, that would be far too extravagant and too cost-effective for a time before electricity was even invented.

(End of this chapter)