Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 417: Aristocratic Family for Firewood, Jinling Rubber Factory [Please Subscribe]

One hundred thousand taels of silver may sound like a lot, but it is actually only about six thousand kilograms. And because silver has a high density, its actual volume is not that large, so it can be packed into three slightly larger wooden boxes.

As for the five thousand taels of gold, its volume was even smaller, and a small box was enough to hold it.

By the time Zhao Wei and the silver inspector from the Baochao Office checked all the gold and silver, it was almost dark.

Pei Dongxian originally wanted to keep Zhao Wei and others for dinner, but Zhao Wei refused on the grounds that official business was more important. After finishing his business, he took several officials and fifty Ming soldiers with him to escort the exchanged gold and silver back to the city.

The next day.

Pei Dongxian and his eldest son Pei Kewen brought prepared gifts and visited every household in Lijia Village, giving them cloth, bacon, pens, ink, paper and inkstone, which naturally won the favor of the villagers.

Afterwards, under the guidance of the village elder Li Erqi, he went to see the land allocated to his family by the court.

"The official said that Mr. Pei's family had eight males over ten years old, so they were allocated four acres of paddy fields and eight acres of dry land."

"These paddy fields were all taken from government farmland. They can barely be considered top-quality fields. With careful cultivation, we can easily harvest 300 kilograms of rice per acre."

"Don't underestimate those dry lands. If you plant sweet potatoes carefully, you can probably yield 1,000 kilograms per mu."

Pei Dongxian and Pei Kewen were listening absent-mindedly at first - when his family was in Goryeo, they owned thousands of hectares of land, and they really looked down upon the few acres of land in front of them.

But when Li Erqi introduced the sweet potatoes, both father and son were stunned and asked in unison: "How much?"

"How much?" Li Erqi didn't react for a moment.

Pei Dongxian asked, "Mr. Li said what is the yield of sweet potatoes per mu?"

"A thousand catties per mu." Li Erqi answered, then recalled the scene when Lijia Village first learned of this, and said, "Mr. Pei, don't be unconvinced. Every household in the village grows sweet potatoes now. If they are well cared for, a thousand catties per mu is definitely not a problem."

Although Pei Dongxian had never farmed, as a super landlord in Goryeo, he still knew the grain yield per mu.

Therefore, he still found it hard to believe Li Erqi's words and asked, "What kind of crop is that sweet potato? How can it produce a thousand kilograms per mu? Is it edible?"

Li Erqi laughed and said, "Why would I call it food if it's not edible? As for the origin of these sweet potatoes... I heard that the imperial court found them in America, thousands of miles away from the East China Sea. Similar things include corn, potatoes, peanuts, etc."

"Anyway, if you come to Daming and farm, your life will definitely be better."

Seeing that Li Erqi's words were so certain, Pei's father and son began to believe it.

After returning home, Pei Dongxian told his other sons about this and sighed, "The Ming Dynasty was able to find grain seeds that yielded 1,000 kilograms per mu in America. It was truly blessed by God."

"Now it seems that Goryeo has annexed the Ming Dynasty. Although we, the aristocratic and wealthy families, are in trouble, the common people are about to live a good life."

Pei Kewu couldn't help but mutter, "What does it have to do with my family whether those common people live a good life or not? If we hadn't submitted to the Central Plains, my family wouldn't be in such a miserable state now..."

"Shut up!" Pei Dongxian interrupted Pei Kewu. "If I hear you criticizing the court like this again, I'll kick you out of the house, lest you bring trouble to the whole family!"

Pei Kewu was actually a man who looked strong but was actually weak. After being scolded by Pei Dongxian, he dared not say anything.

Pei Dongxian said, "In the afternoon, I will go to the city with the eldest and third brothers. First, we will look at the houses and shops that Fang Ya introduced, and second, we will see if there is any business to be done."

"Not only is the Ming Dynasty's military might awe-inspiring, it has also acquired crops like sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes. It has entered an era of peace and prosperity that surpasses even the heyday of the Tang Dynasty."

"At a time like this, doing business is the easiest way to make money—leaving too much money at home will only attract attention. Using it for business not only saves you some trouble, but also allows you to make money."

Pei Kewen said: "Father is right."

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A few days later.

After dinner, Liu Kuan read and chatted with Zhu Huilan, Su Caiwei and a few children in the side hall.

Su Caiwei smiled and said, "I heard that the Gao Lipei, Liu, and Song families who moved to the capital recently have purchased a lot of valuable items, and they have also purchased several sets of high-end ceramic bathroom products from our Chaojie Exhibition Hall."

Liu Kuan looked at the book without looking up and said, "These three great Goryeo families all came to the capital with a lot of gold and silver treasures. As long as their heads of families are not stupid, they know how to buy peace with money."

Zhu Huilan said, "Since they have all moved to the capital, even if they bring a lot of money, the court won't target them, right?"

Liu Kuan said, "The imperial court won't target them, but the powerful and influential people in the capital might."

Zhu Huilan seemed to understand something, and then couldn't help asking, "So is there any use for them spending so much money?"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "This can at least show the court their determination to integrate into the Ming Dynasty. This way, even if something happens, the court will not ignore it."

"Besides, with them spending so much money, who knows how much floating wealth they will have left? Maybe it can discourage the greed of some people." There were some things Liu Kuan didn't say to Zhu Huilan and Su Caiwei - the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to move these Korean families to various cities in Ming Dynasty was not only to remove their influence in Goryeo, but also to use these Korean families as firewood and use their money to add fuel to the development and prosperity of some cities in Ming Dynasty.

As for whether these Goryeo families would become a hidden danger to the future of the Ming Dynasty, neither Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, nor he was worried.

Firstly, with the current size of the Ming Dynasty, absorbing the noble families and powerful clans of Goryeo is a piece of cake.

Secondly, Goryeo was not a later-day cosmic kingdom, and was heavily influenced by Chinese culture. Among other things, the men from aristocratic and wealthy families could all write Chinese characters, and many even spoke Chinese, making it easy for them to integrate into the Ming dynasty.

Of course, if someone is too depressed and wants to do something naughty, that would be exactly what Zhu wants.

Liu Kuan was certain that Zhu Yuanzhang had sent the Embroidered Uniform Guards to keep an eye on those aristocratic and wealthy families. Once anyone caused trouble, Zhu Yuanzhang would definitely use them as the second scapegoat to scare the monkeys.

The next day.

Not long after Liu Kuan took up his post at the Tiangong Academy, a eunuch from the palace came and indeed delivered a copy of the telegram.

"Liu Yuanzheng, this is the telegram that the Prince of Qi sent yesterday. The Emperor asked to show it to you."

"Thank you for the trouble."

"Don't dare to take it seriously."

After the young eunuch left, Liu Kuan began to read the telegram. After reading it for a while, Liu Kuan shook his head.

"This Zhu Gui is indeed far inferior to Zhu Gang in ability, not to mention Zhu Di. He had such a good hand, but he played it like this."

It turned out that in this telegram, Zhu Gui wanted to tell about the incident in which the Qi vassal fleet was besieged while resupplying at the port of Mannar, and his change of mind to establish a vassal state in Sinhalese instead of in Nagar.

It’s okay to temporarily change the destination of the vassal state.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang relied on advanced guns and weapons and elite troops to capture Mannar and Colombo, the capital of the Sinhalese kingdom. However, because he stayed in Colombo for too long, the second Sinhalese prince besieged Mannar.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang defeated the tens of thousands of troops led by the second prince of Sinhalese after returning, Qi lost several ships and nearly a thousand soldiers were killed in the battle!

If it were on the Ming Dynasty side, the death of a thousand people in a battle would be nothing, and Zhu Yuanzhang might not even care.

But overseas, not counting the 3,000 Annan people recruited by Zhu Gui, he had 8,000 Ming troops at his side. Now that nearly a thousand had died in battle, it was like shedding a layer of skin.

Most importantly, Zhu Yu also let the second Sinhalese prince escape in this battle. This meant that his original plan of "taking Colombo and splitting Sinhalese into pieces" was likely to fail.

Once the second prince of Sinhalese is able to unify all the forces in the country, even if the Qi clan can gain a foothold in Sinhalese, its initial development will be extremely difficult.

If Zhu Gui made one or two more big mistakes, he might be driven to the sea by the Sinhalese.

If he had not been able to complete the enfeoffment, even if Zhu Yuanzhang had not died overseas, he would probably not have had the face to return to the Ming Dynasty.

After Liu Kuan finished reading the telegram and worked for another hour or so, an official from the Ministry of Works brought him a letter saying that the construction of the "Jinling Rubber Factory" had been completed today and asked him to come and inspect and provide guidance the next day.

The Ming Dynasty has been planting rubber trees for five or six years. It has established large-scale rubber plantations in Yunnan, Beibei, Luzon, and Hailong. Luzon has the most and largest rubber plantations.

Therefore, Daming Rubber is no longer dependent on the Americas.

Taking into account the rapid increase in natural rubber production year after year, which was more than enough to meet the experimental and production needs of multiple departments such as the Tianjin Institute of Technology and the Ministry of Industry, Liu Kuan proposed to open the "Jinling Rubber Factory" last year.

One is to expand the production of various existing rubber products and even industrialize rubber products.

Secondly, we are also preparing to release rubber products to the public, in preparation for opening up natural rubber materials to the public in the future.

Liu Kuan believes that once the public also participates in the research and production of natural rubber, the relevant research progress will inevitably be faster, and more rubber products will be invented.

After discussion, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao felt that although natural rubber was important, it would not pose a threat to the rule of the court, so they agreed to this matter...

Two days later, Liu Kuan arrived at the Jinling Rubber Factory in the eastern suburbs of the capital at nine o'clock in the morning and found that Zhu Biao was also there.

He immediately stepped forward and bowed, explaining, "I didn't know that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was also coming to inspect today. I am a little late. I beg Your Royal Highness to forgive me."

Zhu Biao smiled and said, "I just wanted to come over and take a look on a whim. I didn't inform Tiangong Academy. What crime has my brother-in-law committed?"

The two chatted for a few more words about the rubber factory, and then, under the guidance of relevant officials, entered the factory together.

As they walked along the road, Zhu Biao couldn't help but ask, "What can this rubber factory produce after it's built?"

(End of this chapter)