Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 602: Prosperity of Qi Kingdom
"Forget it, 87 tribes have surrendered."

At the end of February in the Yamen of Xijing City, when Xia Yunyi reported to Jin Xuan with the military reports in his hand, Jin Xuan who heard the words also took it and looked at it.

"According to this situation, there should be no fewer than 50 natives in the country. I estimate that the soldiers and horses of the three prefectures on the east bank east of Qishui (Mississippi River) should not be surrendered to this number."

"There are not as many natives in North America as His Highness estimated. It seems that there are less than 150 million."

"According to this situation, the number of natives in South Asia Merriga and the central areas of the two states should be [-]% lower than His Highness's judgment."

"The number of indigenous peoples in the south is estimated to be between 2000 and 3000 million."

Jin Xuan judged the number of natives living in Central America and South America based on the data he obtained, but he was not worried, but said to Xia Yunyi:

"The indigenous people are weak and have no mature culture, so they are easily absorbed by the court."

"Although there may be 3000 million natives, I estimate that it only takes tens of millions of immigrants to assimilate them."

It sounds unbelievable that 1000 million people assimilated 3000 million people, but it is very possible for Kim Hyun.

In his view, the 3000 million natives of Qi in the future do not have their own national outlook and values, and technology is still at the stage of tribes, stone tools, and bronze tools.

Such a culture is difficult to evaluate with the history of the Central Plains.

In the history of the Central Plains, there were some Sinicization of the minority people, and there was also a reduction of the Han nationality. The reason is that the forces and nations close to the Central Plains dynasty will have their own culture in the process of learning.

In this way, once the Han immigrants from the Central Plains Dynasty cannot form an overwhelming number, the local Han people will be assimilated by the large number of minorities.

But the problem is that many tribes in Qi State hardly have much culture of their own tribes, and their culture is completely different from Qi State.

What's more, Jin Xuan discovered that the local indigenous people have a very serious internal fighting culture, so even if they are ruled by Qi, they may still conflict with other tribes.

For example, after the Qi army crossed the border, they had basically conquered these 87 tribes, but they still had three battles in less than a month, and the men of the defeated tribes were beheaded one after another, which surprised Jin Xuan and the others. .

In their conception, it seems that becoming a village of Qi State is attached to the large tribe of Qi State, so they feel full of courage, so they challenge other tribes and conquer them to obtain the hunting grounds allocated by Qi State to other tribes.

When Qi officials went to question them, they didn't think there was anything wrong.

Because in their conception, they simply cannot understand the villages, market towns, county towns, prefectures, provincial capitals, and capitals, which have been used by the Central Plains dynasty for more than 800 years.

In their view, Qi State ruled them as a big tribe. All Qi State needed was to let them send people to help at certain times, and they still had their own autonomy at other times.

The conflict between them and other small tribes will not be taken care of by a big tribe like Qi.

This concept gave Jin Xuan a headache at first, but later on he was too lazy to take care of it, and simply let the natives fight among themselves.

The natives of North America are like this, and the natives who want to come to the south are not much better.

Therefore, Jin Xuan felt that if the Qi State unified the northern and southern América, it would not only not increase the population of the natives, but would cause the tribe that first obtained the Qi State's ironware to massacre other tribes.

This is the reason why Jin Xuan believes that there may only be 3000 million of the 2000 million natives left in the end, and it is also the reason why he does not want to control it.

Because right now, he still has more business to attend to.

"The Xijing Railway now runs from Anling County, Anling Prefecture, through Xijing City, Jingzhao Prefecture, to Zibo County, Pingling Prefecture in the south."

"Next is the most difficult Anling County to Jinshan County, Jinshan Prefecture. [-] kilometers out of [-] kilometers are mountainous."

Jin Xuan spoke with a slight headache, and the railway he was talking about was a Pacific Railway from Alaska in the north to Los Angeles in the south.

The entire railway has a total of [-] miles, and now it has been repaired for [-] miles in six years. The most populous Anling Mansion and Pingling Mansion have been opened to traffic, and the next one to go is Jinshan Mansion in the north.

Currently, the railway is being built by 80 Yingzhou labor reformers, and it is expected to take another 20 years to complete.

However, Jin Xuan does not want to build this railway at this moment, since Qi has steam ships that can help transport supplies to the north.

"I'm going to stop work when the railway arrives in Gaomi Prefecture in a year. Jinshan Prefecture's supplies will be more economical by sea."

"The annual output of the steel mill is only 200 tons, and the iron output is only [-] million tons. The rails must be used where they are worthwhile."

"I am going to report to Your Highness to build a railway from Xijing City across North America to Tokyo City in Gyeonggi Province in the east."

"Compared to the permafrost in the north, this railway is more important to the country."

"I sent someone to investigate last year. This railway is at least [-] miles away."

"However, under the construction of 80 people, and most of the places are plain areas, so as long as the steel can keep up, we can open to traffic in eight years!"

"As long as this railway is opened to traffic, the distance between the east and west capitals will be shortened to nine days, and commerce will be more developed."

Jin Xuan's words were fascinating, and Xia Yunyi nodded without doubt:

"Eight years...that's really not as good as building this railway."

Xia Yunyi did not doubt Qi's infrastructure capabilities. The reason why each railway in Daming can only advance more than 400 miles per year is that Daming started construction on multiple railways.

For example, nine railways are under construction in Daming, and the railway mileage is increased by nearly [-] miles every year.

Qi State does not have that much steel production, but it still has a speed of eight or nine hundred miles a year.

"Although this railway is very important, nearly 120 of the 30 million reform-through-labor laborers in China are about to finish their service."

"You have to take this into consideration, so as not to delay the construction period." Xia Yunyi reminded Jin Xuan, and Jin Xuan also laughed:
"I've thought about it. Even the youngest labor camp in Yingzhou is about 32 or three years old."

"During the ten years of their labor reform, although they have saved more than [-] taels of silver, it is not enough to rent a tractor to cultivate the [-] mu of raw land given to them by the imperial court."

"They have to work for at least ten years to save enough money to turn raw land into cultivated land. We can also take advantage of this and use them as workers in charge of logistics. The wages can be increased from five to ten dollars a day."

Since the reform-through-labour workers in Qi State cannot enjoy the tractor policy, even if Qi State gave them a quota of [-] mu of raw land, if they want to reclaim the [-] mu of raw land into cultivated land, they can only rent tractors.

A tractor is rented for [-] Wen a day, and one person cannot control it. If someone is hired, each person is paid [-] Wen a day.

If you want to reclaim [-] mu of raw land as cultivated land, you need to rent at least five tractors and [-] workers to reclaim it for one year before you can reclaim the raw land as cultivated land.

The cost was calculated to be 91 taels of silver, and ordinary reformed laborers simply did not have that much capital to cultivate this hundred acres of cultivated land.

Perhaps some reform-through-labor labor unions ignore it because they desire freedom, and first reclaim more than a dozen acres to live and work in peace and contentment, but even if 10,000 of the 3+ reform-through-labor workers are willing to stay, then Qi will still make money.

"I will report to His Highness King Qi, and His Highness should agree."

Jin Xuan made one last statement, and then motioned Xia Yunyi to continue talking about other things.

Regarding this, Xia Yunyi also took out another booklet from the pile of books she brought:
"Last year, the Qi State's summary has come out, gold and silver have increased a lot, and with the arrival of immigrants, commerce has been established, and the imperial court's third department of salt, wine and tea has also begun to operate to obtain business taxes."

"The total number of arable land is 430 mu, and the land tax is more than 430 shi."

"The gold and silver mined by the Mining Department is 12 taels of gold and 430 cents, and the value of silver and copper is more than 170 taels, totaling about 3 taels."

"Including the taxes from the other three divisions and the State Store, the total is more than 340 taels."

"According to His Highness's rules, the gold is kept, and the silver and copper ingots excluding expenses will be shipped to Daming, and they will be exchanged for tractors and other machines back home."

"This year we spent more than 82 taels of silver, so we can transport 140 million taels of silver to Daming."

The "gold standard" established by Zhu Youjian has been known to Xia Yunyi and Jin Xuan, so they are not surprised to take away the silver and gold.

Qi State is actually ready to start using banknotes, but under the same vassal system, the banknotes used by Qi State are naturally Daming Tongbao, but the denomination of banknotes is only one hundred cash for the time being.

The reason why we do not plan to issue banknotes of one, five, ten, twenty, and fifty is that the common people are not yet in the habit of accepting such banknotes.

For the time being, Qi State still needs to use the size of copper coins to make the transition, but the transition time will not be very long.

Starting next year, the salaries of Qi officials and soldiers will be distributed in banknotes.

Officials, soldiers, and common people who are willing to come to Qi State will undoubtedly come only if they have confidence in Qi State.

"Qi Guo Weekly" also explained the composition of banknotes and the difference between banknotes and banknotes.

For the issuance of banknotes in Qi State, Jin Xuan is quite confident.

As long as the officials and soldiers accept it, it will only take a few years for the common people to accept it, and then smaller units of banknotes can be used.

The denomination of one hundred Wen is already the largest denomination that the common people can use in their daily life. For example, the ten tael and one tael banknotes issued by the Ming Dynasty are mainly used to harvest gentry.

After all, for the people of Daming whose annual family income is only a dozen taels or twenty taels, they basically don't need ten taels of silver.

Compared with the people of Ming Dynasty, the annual family income of the people of Qi State is only twelve or thirty taels.

Qi country has low prices and low wages, while Daming has middle wages and high prices due to the drought.

When the drought passes, Daming will maintain a medium wage and a low to medium price level.

An average daily wage of ten cash is a low wage, twenty cash is considered a medium wage, and thirty cash is considered a high wage.

The advantage of Qi is that it is not so dependent on grain, because there are tens of millions of bison and billions of passenger pigeons on the North American continent.

The "Huangming Qi State Law" stipulates that bison and passenger pigeons can only be encircled and suppressed by government servants, soldiers and horses, and the army. Although individuals can hunt, they cannot sell meat.

In other words, the buffalo herds and passenger pigeons are under the control of the State of Qi, and their numbers are basically under the supervision of the State of Qi.

Before Qi State had only hundreds of thousands of reformed-through-labor workers and [-] troops, Qi State did not hunt bison and passenger pigeons frequently, basically three or four hundred per day.

However, with the arrival of immigrants and the increase of native people, the hunting of bison herds in Qi State has reached a scale of 30 head. At least 10,000 bison are killed every year, and five to [-]+ passenger pigeons are hunted.

This number is not too small. Zhu Youjian stipulated that the annual bison hunting should not exceed 50, and passenger pigeons should not exceed 500 million.

In this way, the country of Qi can rely on bison and passenger pigeons to survive the early stage and support the country's animal husbandry in the later stage.

In short, the overall national policy of Qi State is based on the "Five-Year Plan" issued by Zhu Youjian to Jin Xuan, and it is also carried out in accordance with the "Five-Year Plan" without any deletions or modifications.

However, Jin Xuan and Xia Yunyi still need to complete some of these minor details. For example, Xia Yunyi picked up a booklet and said:

"The six ministries have been dispatched separately, and additional manpower and officials are needed to prevent the resettlement of immigrants this year."

"The Bingma Division needs to recruit one battalion of soldiers and horses, the government servants need to recruit two battalions of government servants, and the officials need to recruit [-] more officials."

"The Governor's Mansion did not propose a plan to expand the army, but felt that the [-] troops in North America and South America were enough."

"According to this situation, after this year, the number of civil and military officials and yamen servants will reach 7, and the court expenditure will increase from the original 10,000+ taels to 110 million taels."

"You have to talk to His Highness about this matter, but it should not affect finances. After all, new immigrants will also bring new taxes."

Xia Yunyi explained the changes that need to be changed in Qi State, and Jin Xuan also nodded when he heard this, saying that he knew it.

But after Xia Yunyi finished speaking, Jin Xuan also took out a military report from the Dudu Mansion and said:
"Mr. Yang sent back the news that the Franji people in the south dispatched another 3000 people to Europa. Now they only have 10,000 garrisons and [-]+ residents left."

"I feel like this is a good opportunity to regain lost ground, what do you think?"

"No..." Xia Yunyi shook his head: "Currently we are still developing the central and northern parts of North America, and the materials are basically used to appease some local indigenous villages."

"At least from this year's point of view, the imperial court is not enough to supply the army to fight against Franji in the south, even if it is supplied by sea."

Xia Yunyi paused, and then said from other aspects:
"At present, the annual grain production in China is only about 600 million shi, but the number of nationals, natives, and reformed laborers supported has reached more than 240 million."

"Combined with the 50 million immigrants who may migrate this year, food is already a bit stretched."

"Unless the immigrant population is reduced to 10,000+ per year and the arable land increases by more than one million mu per year, it will be impossible to support the army to regain lost land."

The resources of Qi State are limited, and at present, they are immigrating and developing the central and northern regions. It can be said that the entire country has been mobilized.

If it weren't for the sufficient supply of meat and oil, so that each person only needs to eat two stones of rice per year, Qi would simply not be able to supply the more than 200 million citizens, natives, and reformed-through-labor workers.

Originally, there were only a dozen or two 10,000+ immigrants from Qi State every year, but the disaster in the south of the Ming Dynasty caused a large number of people from the south of the Yangtze River to immigrate to Qi State, so Qi State almost collapsed last year.

If it weren't for fishing with its back on the ocean and hunting inland, Qi would have been unable to catch last year's wave of immigrants, and could only hand over the immigrants to other vassal states and provinces.

This year, the situation in Daming came again. The drought in the north subsided slightly, but the drought in the south got worse.

Before the arrival of summer, no one knew whether the drought in Daming would continue to worsen this year.

If it continues to deteriorate, Qi will usher in a new wave of immigrants.

Seizing this opportunity, Qi's national strength can be doubled again.

Compared with the growth of national strength and population, land is not too tempting for the current state of Qi, otherwise the king of Qi would have ordered the recovery of the lost land.

"Okay..." Hearing what Xia Yunyi, who was the servant of the household department of Qi State, said, Jin Xuan also nodded cooperatively.

It's not that he doesn't understand these principles, it's just that Qi Guo's plate is getting bigger and bigger, and it's hard for him to see it.

If he stays in the household department of Qi State all the time, then he can also make an understanding of the affairs of the household department and the national strength of Qi State, but what he needs to do is not this, but to coordinate the overall situation of Qi State.

Thinking of this, he pinched his eyebrows, Xia Yunyi knew that there was nothing to do when he saw this, so he bowed and exited the Changshi mansion.

At the moment when he walked out of the Changshi Mansion, Zhu Youjian also took his hand back from the Changshi Mansion in "Illustration of Xijing Fan of Emperor Ming Qi Kingdom".

"How? Qi Guo didn't let you down, right?"

Zhu Youjian turned around, but the people looking at the picture were no longer Man Gui and Sun Yingyuan, but Zhu Youjian's cousin Liu Wenbing.

Liu Wenbing, who is already 25 years old, looks handsome. After he graduated, he chose to be an official in the local area.

Right now, he is the prefect of Guangzhou Prefecture, and he is here today because this year is his return to Beijing to report on his duties.

Three years ago, Zhu Youjian's uncle Liu Xiaozu passed away, and Liu Wenbing became the backbone of the 45 members of the Liu family.

After Liu Xiaozu's death, Liu Wenbing's mother, Mrs. Du, often said to Liu Wenbing, "Our family has no merits and virtues. It is only because of His Highness that we have received this great kindness. You should be loyal to Your Highness and not form a party for personal gain."

Taught by his father and mother, Liu Wenbing became more cautious and kind after the death of Liu Xiaozu. He did not make friends casually, and never took bribes.

Even as Liu Wenyao and Liu Wenzhao grew up and entered official careers, Liu Wenbing did not come to Zhu Youjian, but let them become officials on their own merits.

Therefore, Liu Wenyao and Liu Wenyao are just two eighth-rank officials in Wanping County, Northern Zhili, with an annual salary of 80 taels.

Zhu Youjian saw what the Liu family did. He didn't bestow any title on his uncle Liu Xiaozu because he didn't think it was necessary.

The Liu family has been involved too deeply with him, and they will definitely move to the Qi State in the future, and the posthumous title will only involve their family in the internal conflicts of the Qi Palace.

This time Liu Wenbing came to Qi Palace, and Zhu Youjian asked him to come, so he came.

The purpose of Zhu Youjian calling him here is naturally to let the Liu family move to Qi State early.

He introduced the current situation of Qi State to Liu Wenbing, and then said:
"I'm going to revise the "Da Ming Hui Dian" and "Emperor Ming Ancestral Instructions", so that the feudal states have the power to confer earls and dismiss ranks, and then find an earl for you."

"Brother, you must not be like this..." Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, Liu Wenbing quickly bowed and refused:
"The reason why the Liu family is still progressing now is because of life."

"There are 45 people in the family, and my three brothers' salary of nearly 800 taels is enough to support the family."

"In the future, in order to support the family, the children and grandchildren will inevitably make progress, and will not commit crimes and waste their days because of the surplus money of the family."

"If the eldest brother gives me the title, let alone whether the second and third brothers will be lost because of it, my lineage alone may become domineering because of the title in the future."

Liu Wenyao's reason for rejecting the title surprised Zhu Youjian. He didn't expect his cousin to see so far.

"In this case, let's take two steps for Wen Yao and Wen Zhao."

Zhu Youjian doesn't have much affection for the Liu family, but after all, they are related by blood. The old lady in Liu's house is still alive, and she is also Zhu Youjian's grandmother, so naturally Zhu Youjian should not be underestimated.

Liu Wenbing received a casual rank of a five-rank Xiaoqiwei back then, so he received 800 taels of salary every year.

Now that he is not accepted as a noble, what Zhu Youjian thinks is to confer two scattered orders on the two brothers Liu Wenyao and Liu Wenzhao.

Sanjie cannot be hereditary, which is acceptable to the Liu family.

"Let's give them both the rank six Captain Yunqi." Zhu Youjian gave the grades of the loose ranks.

The casual order of the sixth-rank Yunqiwei means that Liu Wenyao and Liu Wenyao can each receive 500 taels of salary each year. Compared with their relationship with Zhu Youjian, this is actually not much.

"I will ask the Ministry of Officials to count the three of you among the officials of the Qi State next year. It seems that the drought this year will not abate. There are still a lot of immigrants. It is not very good for you to emigrate at this time."

"Take a break for a year and go to Qi State next year. In addition, starting from next year, your salaries will also be distributed by Qi State."

Zhu Youjian told Liu Wenbing what he meant, and Liu Wenbing was not dissatisfied when he heard the words. He knew very early on that his family would not be able to stay in Ming Dynasty for a long time unless Zhu Youjian became the emperor.

Therefore, facing Zhu Youjian's arrangement, he behaved calmly.

"Brother Xie for taking care of me..." Liu Wenbing respectfully returned the salute to express his gratitude, and Zhu Youjian nodded slightly when he saw this:
"Go back and send my greetings to my grandmother."

"Yes... I will resign." Upon hearing this, Liu Wenbing also withdrew from the Chengyun Hall, while Zhu Youjian watched his leaving back, turned around and looked at the "Imperial Ming Qi Kingdom Xijing Fan Drawing".

"Let Huang Long prepare to move early next year, and tell that bastard that he can't go to Qi after me, right?"

Zhu Youjian spoke with his back to Wang Chengen and others, and there was a bit of ridicule in his words.

When Wang Chengen and the others heard the words, they all laughed too. It is true that Huang Long's brazenness has stayed for a long time.

Suppressing a laugh, Wang Chengen bowed respectfully in return:

"The servants take orders..."

　Update at [-] p.m.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)