The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 438 Labor Reform and Border Trade
The return journey was long but leisurely.

In her spare time, Gan Minglan began to slowly organize her thoughts.

Emperor Qianwu had an in-depth discussion with her about the future development of Kansai before returning to the capital.

Emperor Qianwu displayed remarkable patience regarding the question of whether or not to conquer the Kashgar Khanate in the Western Regions.

He said:

"The 100,000 troops stationed in Guanzhong are not only a sharp dagger planted at the pass to the Western Regions, but also the trump card for the court to establish itself in the Central Plains. My requirement for you is to maintain your fighting capacity at all times."

Gan Minglan gave a solemn response:
"Mission accomplished! The Ganluchuan Vanguard Battalion has been removed from the front lines of the military reclamation effort, and its work and rest schedule is now in line with wartime operations. We are ready at any moment!"

It's not just a slogan.

This expedition to the southwest is the best proof!

Emperor Qianwu himself was very satisfied with the performance of the 20,000 Guanzhong troops this time.

At the same time, he also confided some heartfelt words to Gan Minglan.

Those in positions of power never consider short-term victories or defeats.

It is easy to destroy a country, but difficult to govern it.

As long as these nomadic peoples in the Western Regions are not completely wiped out, they can form tribes and become their own kingdoms at any time, as long as they have horses and people.

"Therefore, General Gan! Before the imperial court has the ability to govern the entire Western Regions, the main approach should be to deter and divide."

Ask the natives around the Nine Guards of Guanzhong, let them choose between the Khan of Kashgar and the Guanzhong Army, which side do you think they'll side with?

Gan Minglan sincerely expressed her willingness to learn:

"Your Majesty is wise! The Yugur, Uyghur, Hui, and Harahui tribes in Guanzhong, as well as more than a dozen tribes near Weilumu, have long been on friendly terms with us in Guanzhong."

They sell us finished cattle, horses, and sheep, and at the same time, they purchase daily necessities such as iron pots, wheat flour, salt, and cotton cloth from the market held once a month by the garrison at market prices.

The young chieftain of the Eastern Yugur tribe often remarked that it wasn't that the Kansai region couldn't do without them, but rather that their lives, thanks to the Kansai army, were several times better than before.

When these border trade goods were mentioned, Emperor Qianwu reminded him:
"Other things are fine, but we need to be especially careful when selling them iron pots, to prevent those tribes from melting down the iron to make knives."

"Your Majesty, please rest assured, General Xiong had taken precautions. He had the blacksmiths in Hami forge a particularly thin pot."

These thin iron pots weigh less than five pounds, compared to the previous ones that weighed more than twenty pounds.

Furthermore, General Xiong issued a strict order that tribes buying new pots must register at the garrison, and each household was only allowed to buy one.

If a new cast iron pot is accidentally broken, you must present the old pot to exchange it for a new one.

In this way, it can be minimized that iron products can be exploited by those tribes.

Emperor Qianwu's eyes lit up, and he praised it highly:

"This old bear has such a good idea. Why didn't he mention it when we were in the border town? The Tatars raided the pass a lot back then in order to seize the iron pots."

Gan Minglan touched her nose.

Making thin iron pots is a skill of blacksmiths, but the suggestion of exchanging broken pots for new ones was hers, since each household only has one pot.

His original intention was to say a few good words about his superior to the emperor, but he almost got caught.

She quickly patched it up:

"The blacksmiths in the border town couldn't make thin-walled pots, but they found skilled craftsmen among the people who went to Guanzhong."

Emperor Qianwu: "."

"Then General Gan, please tell me about your plan to build a granary in the Northwest."

She had no concrete plan, but because she possessed a max-level wood-type ability, she was fully confident in cultivating high-yield grains and high-quality pasture.

Unlike later generations, we now have a population of over a billion, requiring much more arable land and continuous increases in production.

The Yongtai Dynasty, with only a half-finished empire, still had a population far short of 15 million.

Is there a lack of land?
That's a lot!
Gan Minglan lowered her head and pondered for a while before saying:
"Your Majesty, the windbreak forests in Guanzhong have gradually grown, and the yield of high-quality seeds has stabilized."

The only way to create a granary in the northwest for the imperial court is to increase the cultivated area. However, the current labor force in Kansai is already fully engaged in farming, and it will take at least another ten years for the second generation of immigrants to grow into the workforce.

The quickest way is actually immigration.

As long as Kansai can maintain 500,000 people's daily farmland, the surplus grain can feed an additional 2 million people without any problem.

Therefore, I request that the court henceforth exile all prisoners who have committed crimes, are of good age and have a certain capacity for labor, to Guanzhong for labor reform.

"This"

Upon hearing this, Emperor Qianwu couldn't help but swallow hard.

This General Gan really dares to ask for things.

Not only did they siphon off hundreds of thousands of immigrants before, but now they're even eyeing prisoners.

Do you want prisoners to undergo labor reform?
General Gan's words were resolute and decisive:
"Yes, if we put these criminal prisoners in jail and they don't do anything, how can we make them feel the consequences of their crimes?"

When I was in the previous dynasty, I was unfortunately implicated by my husband's family and became an exiled criminal. Traveling those three or four thousand miles, I would have been severely injured even if I hadn't died.

For those who have truly committed evil deeds, the greatest punishment is the loss of their freedom and the daily toil they endure.

Gan Minglan had thoroughly studied the laws of the previous dynasty, and in her opinion, the crimes committed by most of those imprisoned were far more heinous than those of political prisoners who were often exiled thousands of miles away.

Her initial target was the farmers who had lost their land inside the Great Wall.

But I sensed that Emperor Qianwu was very determined to break the land system of the previous dynasty.

As a second-best option, she thought of the labor camps of later generations.

That's pure, free labor!
No way, why not take it!

In order to secure more free labor for the Kansai region, General Gan painted an increasingly grandiose picture.

Emperor Qianwu was captivated by the aroma of her cakes.

They quickly relented and agreed to use Kansai as a labor camp for prisoners serving sentences of three years or more.

Prisoners: What?! Labor reform?! Has a demon fallen from the sky?!

Emperor Qianwu did not care about the lives of the prisoners.

Regarding the issue of seeds for high-yield grains in the Kansai region, he wanted to know who the foreign merchants who sold the first batch of grain seeds to Gan Minglan were.

Gan Minglan: If you tell one lie, you'll have to tell countless more to cover it up.

Fortunately, she had already memorized this set of lines.

"Those foreign merchants claimed to be Sogdians from thousands of miles west of the Western Regions. These people were particularly skilled in business, and they liked to sell the goods they carried along the way."

Before his arrival, Emperor Qianwu actually had reservations about whether the Silk Road should be reopened.

However, the high-yield grain varieties sold by the Sogdians forced him to pay attention.

Everything has two sides.

It was the Sogdians who unintentionally sold grain seeds to General Gan, and Guanzhong used these seeds to grow high-yield grain.

High grain yields were the foundation upon which the imperial court was able to feed 15 million people.

As for the future, will foreign tribes come to invade the pass based on the information provided by the foreign merchants?
There was a 100,000-strong army in Guanxi.

Nothing to fear!

When it came to General Gan, this trivial concern was no problem at all:

"We can set up a trading post on the Silk Road at Weilumu, which connects the north and south of the snow-capped mountains. We can build a city in Weilumu specifically for trading."

No troops were stationed in the city; only some market management personnel were left to maintain commercial order. Merchants from various countries, tribes, and regions were allowed to open shops in the mother city of Veru.

In this way, the journey of foreign merchants was reduced by more than half, and they no longer had any reason to enter the country.

(End of this chapter)