The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 527 Labor Dispatch
Building a prosperous trade route in the Western Regions, reminiscent of the Tang Dynasty, was not something that could be accomplished overnight.

After a month, the recruitment process is almost over.

The Uyghurs, Hui, Tibetans, and able-bodied laborers from Bukhara numbered only 120,000.

Gan Minglan shook her head:
"Not enough, far from enough! The oasis cities along the north and south routes, the post stations and underground water sources in the desert, and the construction of the imperial highways. Even with a million or two hundred thousand laborers working entirely by hand, it would take one or two years to complete."

Tian Jiu was extremely worried:
“Anzai does not have as many people as Kansai. Besides our garrison, we can at most draw 200,000 laborers from Kansai. We are still far from a million.”

General Gu nonchalantly stated:

"At worst, we can continue to go to the provincial administration offices within the Great Wall to promote the Anxi immigration policy. The location of the Hu people's royal court sounds very prosperous!"

“No, these past few years, the old immigrants bringing in new immigrants have angered the public. The provincial governors have submitted memorials impeaching this general, saying that the money could fill half a house! They will now strictly control the matter of people changing their household registration.”

Gan Minglan was self-aware enough to know that she couldn't do this job for long.

However, it's not entirely hopeless.

She came from a later era.

As a result, the Shangdu court soon received a letter from the General of the State requesting assistance.

The letter detailed the distribution of the oases in Anxi, their products, the local population structure, and a series of infrastructure projects that would require the garrison to build after the takeover, such as checkpoints, post stations, and roads.

According to her, if the asphalt road from Anxi to Guanxi were fully connected, the journey across the entire Western Regions could save at least half the time.

What does half the time mean?

For those foreign merchants, time is money.

Furthermore, with the garrison troops stationed along the route, the sense of security was at its peak.

Isn't it much better than maritime trade on the vast ocean?

After various plans and analyses, the General of the State concluded that the construction of Anxi was of utmost urgency!

Not only do we need to build it, but we also need to invest a lot of human and financial resources.

However, the entire Western Regions, including the garrison and all immigrants, has a population of less than three million. It would take them forever to complete this massive project.

She proposed that the Anxi Protectorate cooperate with the various provincial administrations.

How should we cooperate?
For each laborer (male or female) aged sixteen to thirty sent by each provincial administration, the Anxi Protectorate would pay the provincial administration an annual dispatch fee of eight taels of silver, in addition to their regular wages.

It was given away for free.

As long as these workers stay in Anxi, they will receive their wages every year!

This is a cooperative model that the ancients of the Yongtai Dynasty had never heard of before, either in ancient or modern times.

The imperial court debated this issue for several days.

The content of their argument quickly spread throughout the streets and alleys of the commercial capital.

The people of Shangdu were shocked.

This is absolutely shocking!
"The imperial court has been arguing for so many days, will they finally agree?"

"We don't understand what this labor dispatch means. Can someone who knows about it explain it to us?" "I heard from my cousin who works in the palace that dispatch means sending people to work in Anxi, but their household registration is still at home. They don't transfer their household registration or immigrate!"

"Now I understand. But it's fine for us men to go and carry bricks, but what can women do? It doesn't matter if it's men or women, is that what I mean?"

"Weaving: Anxi plans to build thirty cotton cloth, wool yarn, and silk weaving workshops within three years."

Of the ten bolts of cotton cloth we wear now, eight were woven in the Kansai weaving workshops.

As far as I know, the female workers in those weaving workshops earn no less than the men.

"That's wonderful! Husband and wife work together, the husband goes to the construction site to carry bricks, the wife goes to the weaving workshop to weave cloth, and the children stay with their grandparents to take care of them. Do you think that income is considerable?"

"You know what, it's quite a lot when you do the math! You can earn two hundred coins a day carrying bricks in Guanzhong! You can also earn that much by weaving cloth. A couple can earn four hundred coins a day, twelve taels a month, and one hundred and forty-four taels a year!"

"What a pipe dream! That's not how you calculate it. In the Western Regions, it's snowy and icy for four or five months of the year, so the time for outdoor work is only about half the year. I wonder what the situation is like in the weaving workshop!"

"That's quite a lot! A couple can earn a hundred taels in half a year! For people like us, without some family-inherited skills, where can we earn that much? While we're young, we can go out and work for three to five years, and we'll have enough for everything!"

"Oh my, you know what? As long as the imperial court agrees, I'll be the first to sign up for Anxi! I'm still young, I can do any dirty or hard work, I'm going to Anxi to make a fortune and come back to marry a wife."

"Young man, you'd better be careful! Once the court opens this door, there will probably be over a million people from the fifteen provincial administrations within the pass who want to go to Anxi! When it's your turn, you'll have to rely on your family's connections if you don't rely on luck."

"If you ask me, don't be so eager to sign up! Anxi has just returned, and with so many people flocking there, how can we possibly pay them all that? This doesn't even include the eight taels of silver we give to each provincial administration commission for dispatching people every year!"

"Since the General Who Protects the Nation dares to open this door, he must have a plan! When those foreign merchants send back the news that our Celestial Empire has recovered the Western Regions and built cities, post stations and highways along the way, how many foreigners will that attract?"

"Haven't you heard? Of the Ministry of Revenue's 80 million taels of tax revenue last year, 70% came from the Guanzhong Plain! The more taxes paid, the more money they make!"

"."

Money moves people's hearts.

Under the emperor's nose, many ordinary families earn no more than thirty taels of silver a year.

The temptation of earning a hundred taels of silver by working away from home for half a year was simply too great.

Those officials who habitually voiced their opinions were nearly suffocated by the rotten eggs thrown by the people.

"Damn it, how did the news of the imperial court's discussions spread throughout the streets and alleys?"

"My lord, it's most likely that some people with ulterior motives have been pushing things along. Whoever benefits from this is the most suspicious."

Wouldn't His Majesty be the one to benefit?
His Majesty has been in a good mood these days and hasn't shown any displeasure to anyone at court, but he's noticeably more amiable towards his supporters.

Emperor Qianwu: "."

If those incompetent officials in various places had outstanding governance abilities and could ensure that the people had enough to eat and earn money, who would be willing to travel thousands of miles to Anxi to make money?
For those short-sighted and incompetent officials, a dispatch fee of eight taels of silver per person per year was a guaranteed income, no matter the circumstances.

No wonder they're unhappy!
They haven't figured it out yet.

What does it matter whether someone immigrates or not once they've gone to Anxi?

If these workers can persevere for six months, they will stay in Anxi for the next ten or twenty years.

The Western Regions, which are larger than the territory within the Great Wall, have a population that is less than one-tenth of that within the Great Wall.

How can we develop this precious land without a million people?