Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 284 The money spent is money
Since taking over Yu Chengwu's official position, he has also inherited a large amount of inheritance left by Yu Chengwu.

Yu Chengwu is an old soldier, and his management methods are far behind Yang Chao, so what he left to Yang Chao is actually the assets built here by the Ming Dynasty in the past, to be precise, those barracks and land.

During the glorious period of the Xinjiangkou Daying Camp, forty to fifty thousand soldiers and horses were stationed, and hundreds of treasure ships entered and exited, so the scale of the buildings here is quite large.

When Yang Chao was the commander-in-chief of Zuo Si, the barracks were very ample, and they could even raise pigs for others.

After being promoted to General Manager of Central China, he became even more affluent, and most of the barracks were actually idle.

The central part is just the barracks of the Xinjiangkou camp facing south and facing the Qinhuai River. The central camp faces southwest and is divided into Zuosi Yousi and Qianzong camps, which stretch more than 300 feet from north to south.

Here in Xinjiangkou, there are five other barracks like the central one, the Xinjiangkou Camp, which are the left and right general camps, the deputy general's camp, and some abandoned front and rear headquarters.

The location is like this. Facing the Xinjiangkou in the southwest is the central camp, which is more than 300 feet long. Along the Yangtze River in the west, there are the Qian Zong Camp on the left, the Vice General’s Camp on the right, and the Qian Zong Camp on the right. More than 1000 Zhang, facing the Lion Mountain in the northeast is the former Qian Zong Camp in the past, and facing the Longjiang Shipyard in the southeast is the Qian Zong Camp in the rear.

Except for the abandoned front and rear camps, the other camps are still intact.

After Yang Chao took office, he inspected it immediately and found that these large camps probably extended along the Qinhuai River and the Yangtze River. In the center, a playground with a length of [-] feet and a width of [-] feet is surrounded. This is different from the playgrounds in other barracks. joint practice.

Of course, practice has long since ceased, so this large playground has become a farmland. The default rule is that whoever is the chief officer of the Xinjiangkou Daying Camp is his private property here. Yu Chengwu was the previous chief officer, so this place has always been It is the Yu family's children who are farming. Now that Yang Chao has taken office, it is obvious that this place has become Yang Chao's property.

Such a large-scale playground, if calculated as acres, would be a full [-] acres, but not all of them have been opened, and the places near the camp wall, as well as some roads that were too hard in the past, are really impossible to open. , so the actual cultivated area is about [-] mu, and there are more than ten wells drilled in the playground to meet the water demand, so the farmland income here is still good.

There are barracks on all sides of the playground, the middle camp on the south side is the best, because Yang Chao spent money to completely renovate one side, the front barracks on the north side and the rear barracks on the east side have long been abandoned, the playground inside is covered with weeds, and the camp walls The wood on it was secretly picked up by the shipyard to build a ship, and the houses inside were basically taken away by the shipyard and the villagers near the Lion Mountain to build houses, so it basically became a wild land.

The barracks facing the Yangtze River in the west are relatively complete, but they can barely accommodate people. Like the Zuosi Daying in Yang Chao’s past, many houses can see the sky, but the foundation is solid and the walls are solid. Tile is a very good house.

It's just that outside the camp of the Chinese army, there are officers in the headquarters of Zuoqian, which makes Yang Chao not very active, so Yang Chao went to Mr. Zuoqian, and a large group of small generals such as the general manager under them. Officer, I discussed with them once. Regarding Mr. Qian, Yang Chao hopes that they can operate it and transfer him from Xinjiangkou. Yang Chao promised to give everyone 1000 taels of silver as an operating fee. up.

Although the two chief executives were very unhappy, they also hindered Yang Chao's power and did not dare to oppose too much, so they went to work secretly. As for whether they moved their positions or dealt with Yang Chao, it is unknown.

As for the two generals and other small officials under Chief Qian, there is no need to let them go, because they are too exterminated. Yang Chao adopted the same method as Huang Chong, promising to give them land and let them live outside the camp. open up wasteland.

There is a thousand acres of land from Daying in the middle to the Qinhuai River, and even more land from the west of Daying to the Yangtze River. The land here is nearly four thousand feet long, and the distance between one thousand and two thousand feet from the Yangtze River is a wasteland.

Just this piece of beach land that is often flooded by the Yangtze River has a total of [-] to [-] mu, which is enough for these people to reclaim. In the same way, as long as we build dikes to stop the flooding of the Yangtze River in the rainy season, the tens of thousands of acres of land can be reclaimed. Acres of wasteland turned into fertile land.

Needless to say, from the north to the east until the Lion Mountain, and from the west to the shipyard and even the moat, there are large areas that the emperor has not cultivated. As long as some measures are taken, the land can be obtained.

The only problem is that it requires investment, and it's a massive investment.

"My lord, why do you spend so much money? The little old man said something that shouldn't be said. How many years can you be an official here? It's done, so I left it for the people behind."

After Yang Chao took people to see the terrain, the craftsman from the Ministry of Industry couldn't help persuading Yang Chao.

Although Yang Chao spends money and he makes money, he does think about Yang Chao.

Carpenter is a sincere person. Yang Chao found out when he cooperated to clear the silt on the pier last time, so he asked him to cooperate again this time.

"Haha, Mr. Bai Jiangtou, thank you for reminding me. But I feel that the money is still spent when it is spent, and it is just a pile of silver if you keep it in your hands."

"Isn't silver just money? It's worth more than money!"

Bai Jiangtou secretly slandered in his heart that when the common people said money, they all meant valuable money, even those Kongfang copper coins sometimes referred to silver, but obviously silver was more valuable than valuable money.

"Bai Jiangtou, you can do it. Calculate how much silver it will cost from the embankment I built at the mouth of the Qinhuai River to the foot of the Lion Mountain along the Yangtze River. Is 3 taels of silver enough?"

When Yang Chao built the Xinjiangkou embankment, he spent 1 taels of silver, but at that time the wharf dredging was added, and the embankment along the Yangtze River was more than three times longer than that of Xinjiangkou, so Yang Chao said 3 taels.

As a result, Bai Jiangtou shook his head, lowered his head and pinched his fingers to count.

Yang Chao thought it wasn't enough, because he had to build it all the way to the foot of the Lion Mountain, and if it was connected to the slope in his eyes, it might be more than 3 feet, and [-] taels was not enough.

As a result, Bai Jiangtou finished the calculation and said, "2 taels of silver is about the same."

Yang Chao didn't expect that 1 taels was missing.

Bai Jiangtou continued to report the account in detail: "Last time when we repaired the section of the Xinjiang Estuary, because of the dredging, we needed to hire boats and labor, which cost a lot. If we only repaired the section along the Yangtze River, we only needed to hire people to dig ditch, and some stone costs.”

Yang Chao understood that this craftsman didn't count his profit at all.

The last time he was sent by Huang Jin from the Ministry of Industry as a servant, so he never considered the issue of profit. No wonder he thought about it for Yang Chao, saying that Yang Chao lost money for repairing the embankment.

Yang Chao said with a smile: "Bai Jiangtou, if I give it to you, how much silver do you want?"

Bai Jiangtou was stunned: "What? Give it to me!"

Yang Chao nodded: "How?"

Bai Jiang blushed, "No, no, it's too much work. How about losing money?"

The folk economy in the late Ming Dynasty was very active, and there were a large number of craftsmen engaged in contractor business. Bai Jiangtou also knew it, but he was a craftsman who repaired water conservancy. Most of the water conservancy was repaired by the imperial court, so it was impossible to contract it to private individuals. So he didn't make a living himself.

Yang Chao said: "I say it's a success. When the construction starts at that time, there must be hundreds of people working here, and managing these people will also take care. You can't let your troubles be in vain."

Bai Jiangtou sneered and said, "The little old man can't afford it."

There are profits and losses in contracting labor, even if you earn a lot, not everyone can afford the risk.

Yang Chao said: "Who told you to pay for it, how about it, how about giving you a commission as your management fee?"

Compared with such a big project, even if it is worth 200 points, the profit is not bad, [-] taels of silver is there.

But here comes the problem, if it is drawn according to the construction fee, if Bai Jiangtou is not honest, he can completely report the amount of work.

Of course, once he lost his integrity, he would also involve cutting corners, which was what Yang Chao couldn't tolerate the most.

"Also, just set 2 taels. I won't give you a lottery. The rest is yours. You can ask me for the extra. As long as it is reasonable, I will accept it. But if you cheat and cut corners, you will be fine." Don't blame me for being rude."

Although he believed in Bai Jiangtou's character, Yang Chao still wanted to give him a vaccination.

Bai Jiangtou bowed again and again: "Oh, my lord has flattered me, my lord, don't worry, I never dare to lose my lord's money."

Yang Chao nodded: "It's easy to do. Once it's done, there will be these barracks in the future, and I will leave them to you to repair."

Bai Jiangtou thanked again and again.

Building a polder embankment and clearing up tens of thousands of acres of land is enough to send off the officers and soldiers in the water camp. In this way, Yang Chao has all the officers and soldiers in the water camp in his hands from top to bottom.

Before and after the two thousand headquarters of the Xinjiangkou Water Battalion were not abolished, there were five or six thousand soldiers. After the abolition, there were only more than 3000 left. Yang Chao decided to run it if he had the opportunity to restore the scale to the level of five thousand.

Bai Jiangtou is very fast. They are all craftsmen from Nanjing. They are familiar with each other. When they say hello, there are some craftsmen who have no work.

But Bai Jiangtou calculated carefully, after all, all he saved was his, so he originally planned to recruit [-] people, but he gritted his teeth and only recruited [-] or so.

More than 200 people is already the limit, but Yang Chao asked him to fix it before the spring flood next year, otherwise the spring water will flood the farmland, and he will have to settle the score with him.

As for land reclamation, sporadic military officers have already started to try it. When the sky is dry and the vegetation is yellow, they burn the weeds and plant the seeds. As for how much food they can harvest, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, try it. If there is a polder embankment, it can be collected more or less. If there is no such thing, they will never give up their barracks, let alone resign.

The officers and soldiers reclaimed wasteland, and the craftsmen and craftsmen repaired the dikes almost at the same time, and the Yangtze River was busy for a while.

But trouble soon found Yang Chao.

Shi Kefa came to invite him to go.

(End of this chapter)