Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 587 Xijing is Prosperous
"Boom bang bang-"

At the end of May, as ships sailed into Jingmen Port, the port salutes also began to fire to welcome them.

This is the No.19 month of the voyage of the Western Fleet around the world. After nineteen months of voyage, they finally arrived at the last country they needed to visit.

This country is also the Qi State that is currently causing discussions among the Ming government and the public.

When the fleet sailed into Jingmen Port, all the cargo ships moored in Jingmen Port were visible to the eyes.

The number of ships is huge, and the reason is that Qi State ushered in the third immigrant fleet today.

Beginning in March, immigrants from Daming to Qi arrived one after another.

Migrants did not set off all at once, but migrated on a scale of 1 people on twenty boats.

Now it is the third batch of immigrants accepted by Qi State, and the place where they live is the Jingzhaofu Basin where Xijing City is located.

Counting from the 12th year of Tianqi, Qi has been developed for seven years.

In the past seven years, although the development of Qi State was not as fast as that of Daming, but in terms of per capita, it can be said to be far stronger than that of Daming.

The [-] immigrants, according to the pre-immigration rules, should be [-] mu per household and [-] mu of cultivated land per person.

However, when they came here, Jin Xuan did not make such arrangements. Instead, he gave each of them [-] mu of national cultivated land and [-] mu of raw land while going to the sparse.

The reason he did this was because Zhu Youjian asked Jin Xuan to develop Chengshanfu, so except for the necessary tractors, the other tractors were transferred to the marginal plains of Chengshanfu in April.

There are currently more than [-] tractors in Qi State. Except for the necessary [-] tractors, the rest of the tractors were sent to Chengshan Prefecture. Not only that, the labor camp workers who were originally responsible for reclaiming the Jingzhao Prefecture Basin were also sent there.

Therefore, after the planting of more than [-] million mu of arable land in the Jingzhaofu Basin in spring, only the local [-] natives are responsible for taking care of it.

The state of Qi treats the natives with five acres of cultivated land and 95 acres of raw land per person, and most of them have received seven years of language education.

At present, although they cannot speak official Chinese fluently, they can at least speak it and understand it, and they can also write Chinese characters.

This is true for the natives of Jingzhao Mansion, and it is also true for the people of Anling Mansion and Pingling Mansion in the north.

The cultivated land in Qi State is only more than 260 million mu, but the raw land is inexhaustible.

Giving the people and locals a place to live can actively stimulate them to reclaim the land, which will bring unexpected benefits to the country.

"Den..."

When the ship docked, the soldiers of the Ming Navy also disembarked one after another, but here, they almost felt that they had returned to Daming.

Familiar concrete ports, familiar large Ming-style buildings, familiar faces of Han people, familiar Mandarin...

The lively scene almost made everyone think that they had come to a small seaport in the southern part of Daming.

The reason why the word "small" is used is because there are too few Han people here compared to Ming Dynasty.

But even so, Qi is also the country with the largest number of Han people among the many vassal states and foreign countries they have passed through along the way.

But with a little effort, Qi's current Han population has reached more than [-], including the garrison.

There are more than 6000 Han Chinese living in Xijing City alone. Jin Xuan prepared houses for them in the style of his hometown in Jiangbei.

A large area of ​​forest was cut down, and what the Xijing City of Qi State got was a large area of ​​building materials.

He forbade the felling of trees in the mountains, and he properly reserved the trees in the basin.

The 10,000+ Yingzhou reform-through-labour laborers have actually emptied the trees for dozens of miles north and south of Xijing City, leaving only a few forests along the river.

Of these places, less than a third has been cleared for arable land, and the other third has been cleared of stumps and roots.

What the people of Qi State have to do is to burn them and clear the stones in the field, and then use the tractors that will arrive in Qi State this year and later to reclaim them as fields.

After reclaiming the felled land as cultivated land, Qi's cultivated land area can reach more than 600 million mu.

However, this area of ​​arable land is not worth mentioning compared to the 7000 million mu of basin plain that can be developed in the Jingzhaofu Basin.

The current state of Qi only needs time and population.

"The lower official Qi Guochang Shi Jinxuan, see the two upper officials..."

When Huang Fei and Xu Xiake lamented the development of Qi State, Jin Xuan also brought people to welcome them.

"Is this the capital of the Qi Kingdom, Xijing?" Huang Fei couldn't help asking, after all, the development here is too good.

But Jin Xuan smiled and said: "No, this is only Jingmen County, a port county, Xijing City is still in the river, please two adults and the officials to follow me on board the ship."

When Jin Xuan raised his hand, everyone looked in the direction of his finger, only to find that there were steam ships docked not far away.

It has been almost four years since the steamships were launched in batches, and everyone has naturally seen and ridden them.

They followed Jin Xuan on a steamship, and soon after they heard the whistle of the steamer, the steamer sailed to Xijingshui, upstream all the way, and headed east.

Without too many stops, the boat went upstream all the way, which seemed to take a long time.

"Jin Changshi, what is the current situation in Qi State?"

"That's right, why are there so many immigrants here? Has His Highness opened the door to immigrants from Qi?"

Huang Fei and Xu Xiake inquired about Jin Xuan, ordered someone to bring chairs, and Jin Xuan, who was sitting on the deck with everyone, also explained with a smile:
"At the beginning of the year, His Royal Highness began to recruit immigrants. At present, 10,000 immigrants have arrived, and I am afraid that [-]+ immigrants will arrive one after another."

"As the two adults saw, there are not many Han people in Linzi County and Zibo County in the south. There are only garrison troops, native people, and labor reformers."

Jin Xuan's explanation made everyone suddenly enlightened, but when they heard that there were still 10,000+ immigrants from Daming to Qi, they were a little speechless.

You must know that the vassal state with the largest number of immigrants is Zhou State, and the number of immigrants in Zhou State is only 12.

Looking at Qi State's posture, perhaps Zhou State's efforts in seven or eight years are not as good as Qi State's one-year effort.

This is just the population. If we only analyze it from the perspective of architecture and culture, Qi State can be said to be a small Ming Dynasty, while Zhou State shows some signs of Hu Hua.

This kind of phenomenon not only exists in the state of Zhou, but also in the various vassal states of the vassal states of the Little Western Ocean.

After all, although there is a gap between the aesthetics of the native women in India and the people of Ming Dynasty, it is not very big.

For this reason, all the vassals have been migrating their population to their own vassal states.

Compared with the smaller Western feudal vassals, Qi State can be said to be uniquely endowed.

Not only is there no big difference between the local natives and East Asian races, but even the population is not catching up with Ming Dynasty.

Based on the local conditions, as long as the Qi State insists on emigrating, it may be possible to assimilate the local people in less than 100 years.

Thinking of this, Xu Xiake also saw the dams and canals on both sides of the Xijing River, and the people who had already skillfully used tractors in the fields.

The concrete canal is enough to show how far Qi has developed. At least except Daming, no country can use concrete to build canals on such a large scale. .

Xu Xiake and many officials of Ming Dynasty hadn't recovered from the shock. After a quarter of an hour, they gradually saw buildings appearing on the horizon in the distance.

The first ones to appear were some tall towers under the supervision of Jin Xuan. They were far higher than the surrounding buildings, which made Xu Xiake unavoidably ask: "How tall are these three towers?"

"About 26 feet." Jin Xuan explained with a smile, obviously he is also very satisfied with his work.

"26 Zhang..." Hearing the height of the tower, everyone gasped, and at the same time the ship sailed into the port of Xijing City.

Qi State does not have the ability to build a bridge across the river, especially in this era, the water width of Xijing is close to [-] steps.

Therefore, the ship soon berthed at the port of Xijing City.

After they got off the boat, open-air carriages led them to gallop on the concrete road, heading for the distant city of Xijing.

The large tracts of farmland along the way are full of people using tractors.

They formed a group of three. One squatted next to the machine on the field ridge to control the speed and strength of the machine's retraction of the rope, and the two supported the plow for reclamation.

When they reach the edge of the field with the plow, they have to drag the plow to the opposite side, and then signal to the person squatting next to the machine to turn on the machine again.

They continue to plow and break the ground from afar. Although it is cumbersome and not as dexterous, strong and fast as the tractors of later generations, it saves labor and is cheaper than using cattle.

"Qi State implements the public ownership system, and the land and machinery belong to the state, not to the king of Qi or the common people."

"Civilians have the right to reclaim and cultivate land, the right to use machines, and the right to free maintenance of machines."

As Jin Xuan said, he also said to everyone: "In this way, there will be no land annexation in a short period of time, because farmers can reclaim land anywhere in Qi at any time, and they only need to report it after reclaiming."

"Their grain is purchased by the Qi State Farm Cooperative, and the currency they use is Daming's Tianqi Tongbao."

"There is an imperial store in Ming Dynasty, and there is a national store in Qi State. Their functions are the same. The main thing is that the state is responsible for the circulation and sales of goods."

"If citizens don't want to be farmers, they can also retain their land rights and then engage in state-owned and individual jobs."

As he spoke, Jin Xuan explained to them what individual work is.

There are two kinds of jobs in Qi State, one is to join the state factory as an individual, which is called state-owned jobs.

As for individual work, it is to run some small businesses by yourself. This is a work of personal behavior and is called individual work.

To put it bluntly, Qi State is a country with strong public ownership. Whether it is farming or working, the land and jobs are provided by the state. Only when individuals open a shop, start a business or work in an individual shop, this is an individual job.

It sounds like almost all industries in Qi are monopolized by the state, but that's not the case.

Except for raw materials, resources, and Guodian as a department store supermarket, other service and life industries such as clothing stores, flower shops, vegetables, etc. are all industries that Qi Guo has not intervened in.

This situation may continue to change and relax after Zhu Youjian takes over, but in terms of the current population of Qi, purely state-run and efficient execution can make the country develop better.

In seven years, Qi State has changed from being poor and blank to a country with more than 200 factories, more than 8000 jobs, 260 troops, and [-] million acres of arable land.

With such strength, Europe can become a regional power.

After all, Qi State can support 10,000 troops with only [-]+ population, and the people and the army have no burden at all. Even if there is no percussion gun, many countries can be conquered with flintlock guns alone.

"It has developed like this in seven years. In another ten years, I am afraid that Qi will really be able to catch up with Jiangnan..."

Looking at the Xijing City gradually appearing in the distance, Huang Fei, who was sitting on the carriage, felt his heart throbbing.

His voyage to the West not only has the task given by Zhu Youjian, but also the task given by Huang Long.

Huang Long knew that he couldn't stay in Daming for too long, so he asked Huang Fei to see for him how the situation in Qi was.

If it is very bad, then he will definitely go to Zhu Youjian to pretend to be wronged and act violently.

If the development is good, Huanglong can naturally come to Qi.

This task was entrusted to Huang Fei by Huang Long, and judging from the current situation, the development of Qi State is much better than that of Liaodong...

Before Huang Fei set off, Liaodong had a population of more than 600 million and only 500 million mu of arable land, and it was very cold every winter.

Although people can eat and eat meat, they still have to think twice about building houses.

On the Qi side, more than 260 million mu of arable land is distributed to less than 20 natives and nationals on average.

In addition, there are various gold and silver mines and coal mines in Qi State, and the construction of railways has also begun.

It is not difficult to imagine that the national power of Qi State may not be as strong as that of Ming Dynasty in the future, but the people of Qi State will definitely live happier lives than the people of Daming State.

Unless the people of Ming Dynasty moved tens of millions of people to Qi State, it would be difficult to defeat Qi State in terms of people's life with Daming's current arable land and population.

When he thought so, the carriage they were riding in also entered Xijing City.

It's okay if you don't enter, but once you enter Xijing City, even Huang Fei, Xu Xiake and others can't help being shocked.

In addition to the lack of people on the street, which is worthy of criticism, Xijing City is not inferior to Nanjing, Beijing, Suyanghangyiguang and other big cities in terms of buildings, streets, sanitation and other conditions.

"After five years of construction, Xijing City can now accommodate more than [-] people. As long as they move here, they will have a small courtyard occupying at least a quarter of the land."

Jin Xuan opened his mouth to introduce, which shocked many officials who went to the West.

Compared to Daming, Qi State is naturally nothing.

But the problem is that Qi has only developed for seven years...

It can be like this in seven years, if it is 17 years, 70 years... what will Qi Ruo develop into?
For a while, everyone dared not imagine.

At this point they figured out why King Qi didn't care about the throne.

Perhaps for him, there is only one point where Daming is stronger than Qi, and that is a large enough population.

However, if Qi State can continue to migrate its population from Daming, then this shortcoming will be eliminated, and Qi State can develop slowly to catch up with Daming step by step.

Zhu Youjian rejuvenated Daming, and created a country that was not inferior to Ming. Such an achievement is that even Emperor Qin and Han Wu had to stand on his left and right sides.

However, such conjectures made Xu Xiake and the others feel that they were wrong. After all, where did Zhu Youjian have the confidence to think that the development of Qi State was stronger than that of Daming?
But after a while, they dismissed this idea, because the reason why Daming is strong now is also because of Zhu Youjian's "New Deal of King Qi".

He can make Daming prosperous and strong, why can't he make Qi prosperous and strong?

Moreover, with Zhu Youjian's influence, as long as he is alive, no matter whether it is Zhu Youxiao or Zhu Ciran, at most they will limit the immigration problem in Qiguo, and they dare not cut it off.

Zhu Youjian is only in his thirties next year, even if he can only stop in his 30s, he still has [-] years to develop.

In 30 years, judging from the information that Jin Xuan just heard, if there are 10,000+ immigrants coming to Qi State every year, then after [-] years, the number of people in Qi State may not be less than [-] million. It will take root and reproduce.

Xu Xiake and the others have traveled all over the world, and there are only seven countries with a population of more than [-] million.

Even if the number increases to ten ten years later, Qi will definitely occupy a seat.

Judging from the situation in North and South America, as long as the navy is well developed, Qi is almost invincible.

Thinking of this, Xu Xiake and the others understand why Zhu Youjian chose this place as Qi's vassal.

It is far enough away from Daming and independent enough, which is suitable for a person like him who is a threat to the throne.

After sighing, Xu Xiake and the others, accompanied by Jin Xuan, took a hasty tour of Qi State.

From the factory to the market, from the fields to the palace, they have seen all kinds of situations in Qi country, but the more they look at it, the more silent they become.

Maybe Qi State is not as powerful as Ming Dynasty, but Qi State is a country that is really close to the four words "the world is in harmony".

For people like Xu Xiake who are not good at politics, this is the best place to retire.

For an ambitious person like Huang Fei, this is the best safe haven and retreat.

In short, after seeing the Qi Kingdom, they did not gather together to discuss the deficiencies and potential of the feudal kingdom as usual, but went back to the small courtyard arranged by Jin Xuan for them to rest.

It's just that after returning, it's unclear whether they were resting or doing something.

On the fifth day of June, after supplying fresh water, food, and vegetables for the fleet to return, Xu Xiake and the others embarked on the road back to Daming, but even after leaving for a long time, some of them kept looking back in the direction of Xijing City.

Some are soldiers with a civilian background, some are officials with a gentry background, but generally speaking, they are still soldiers with a civilian background.

Perhaps in the future when Ming Dynasty weakens, when they reach the age of retiring from the army, they will also choose to migrate to Qi State.

"Bang bang bang-"

"it is good!"

Just as Xu Xiake and the others were on their way home, Zhu Youjian, who was sitting on the chair, also clapped his hands as three gunshots came from the palace of Prince Qi, and looked at the children in front of him with a smile.

In front of his eyes, those who were shooting guns were Yongwang Zhu Cixuan, Dingwang Zhu Cijiong, and Zhu Youjian's own eldest son Zhu Cihong.

The three of them shot with guns, but the guns they used were not the Apocalypse XI rifles, but a new type of gun.

This gun is very similar to the later Sharps pepper box pistol, the difference is that it has only two barrels and can only fire two bullets at the same time.

The pistol weighs less than a kilo, and the entire barrel is mounted on a brass base that slides back and forth, revealing the rear loading port when sliding forward, loading each barrel with a round, and then pulling the barrel back to lock it , trigger the hammer to fire two bullets at the same time.

As a pistol, its range is not too far, and it can kill the enemy within a range of forty steps, which is suitable for street fighting.

At present, because it is still in the improvement period, it is not equipped with the army, but it is used as Zhu Youjian's personal toy for children to practice marksmanship.

Especially for Zhu Cihong, who is only seven years old, he likes this small pistol very much.

"Okay, you can eat fruit."

At the critical moment, Yuan Xibing's words interrupted the fun of everyone, and she came with a maid and fruit.

Seeing the fruit, the three immediately put down their guns.

Zhu Cihong happily went to eat the fruit, but Zhu Cixuan and Zhu Cijiong stepped forward and said:
"Uncle Qi, we have to go back to the palace to help brother deal with the memorial, I'm afraid we won't be able to stay for long."

Since it was already July and Beijing School was on holiday, there was no doubt that Zhu Ciyun and Zhu Cijiong were arrested by Zhu Ciran.

They came here because Zhu Youjian summoned them, and the reason why Zhu Youjian summoned them is also very simple.

"Let's go, take those three pistols, you three brothers use them for self-defense."

Zhu Youjian smiled and signaled the two to bring their guns and bullets. The two of them were overjoyed when they heard the words, and immediately returned the gift with a smile, taking the three pistols away as gifts.

After they saluted and bid farewell to Yuan Xipin, everyone squeezed Zhu Cihong's face before leaving, and then reluctantly left.

Seeing their actions, Zhu Youjian also looked at Zhu Cihong.

Maybe he will look better than in the history books in the future, although he is seven years old, but with thick eyebrows and big eyes, slender fingers, and fair skin, no matter how you look at it, he won't be too crippled.

Because of her good looks, she was naturally loved by the concubines inside and outside the palace. When Yuan Xipin entered the palace to reminisce with Zhang Yan, Zhu Cihong often went there as the accompanying county king.

However, this is not to say that Zhu Cizhao and others are not good-looking, but that they look somewhat "ordinary" compared to Zhu Cihong.

"Your Highness..."

Zhu Youjian looked at Zhu Cihuang, and suddenly felt two hands on his shoulders, and when he looked up, Yuan Xibing was kneading his shoulders to relieve his fatigue.

"You're pregnant, you'd better take a good rest, and leave these things to them in the future."

Zhu Youjian comforted Yuan Xibing, and also revealed that Yuan Xibing was pregnant.

After seven years, Yuan Xibing was pregnant again, and she was naturally extremely happy about it.

Zhu Youjian couldn't say whether he was happy or unhappy, because in his opinion, the position of the son was elected as a virtuous person, rather than being judged by the eldest son.

Of course, this is the reason why he didn't think about it carefully. If he thought about it carefully, then it doesn't matter who the son chooses. Anyway, King Qi's power will not be very great in the future.

"Your Highness, Doctor Wang is here!"

When Yang Rushi's voice sounded at the gate of the palace garden, Zhu Youjian looked back and saw Yang Rushi, who looked a bit delicate and lovely, was standing at the gate of the courtyard, and then walked into the garden with Wang Kentang, who had white hair and beard.

"Your Highness, the old man is here to check His Highness's pulse today..."

After all, Wang Kentang sat on the chair brought by Yang Rushi, and stroked his beard while checking Zhu You's pulse:
"Well, Your Highness's pulse is much stronger than last year's..."

"Doctor Wang, how about you?" Zhu Cihong asked with a childlike tone, causing everyone to burst into laughter.

"This... the old man is eighty-seven, I'm afraid he is already half buried in the ground. His highness's pulse is naturally better than the old man's."

Wang Kentang couldn't laugh or cry, but Zhu Youjian next to him was speechless after listening to his words.

He heard from Wang Kentang that he was half buried in the ground when he was ten years old, but the old man is still walking like flying at the age of 87.

Zhu Youjian even wondered if he would become a grandfather himself, and this old man is still alive...

(End of this chapter)