my wonderful zoo

Chapter 124
On September [-]th, all the autumn field crops in the six counties were finally harvested.

According to statistics, the seven counties (including Chenjiazhuang County) have a total of 39 acres of cultivated land, with a land tax of 12 shi and a share of land rent (public land) of 11 shi.

This food alone is enough to keep the military and political systems of the military government strong for a year and there is still some leftover.

Because the land tax collected by the military government did not have to be turned over to the central government (Song Dynasty), it was very comfortable.

In addition to the above-mentioned non-capital income, Liu Yu also spent money to purchase 60 shi of grain in seven counties of Guangzhou and several surrounding counties, which suddenly consumed less than half of the cash flow of the general government.

Counting the expiration of part of the previously signed futures contracts, the military government's grain reserves have reached 130 million shi.

A very scary number.

It is enough to feed the people of seven counties for a year even if there is no harvest.

This is still the savings of the military government, and does not include the food stored at home by ordinary people, nor the food hoarded by landlords.

The military government was established through rebellion. Most landowners did not trust it and secretly resisted it, so they basically hoarded food.

If the "Land Law" had not stipulated that large-scale private transactions in grain were not allowed, it is estimated that the landowners would have taken away the grain from tenants and farmers, and the military government would not have been able to purchase 60 shi of grain.

Chen Xun especially remembers Liu Yu's pleased expression when he reported to himself: "Finally, I no longer have to transport grain from the South China Sea to Guangzhou. Every year, I feel heartbroken when shiploads of grain are shipped back."

Yes, no matter what you transport, you will make more money than transporting food.

But food is the foundation, and I don’t feel panic when I have food in hand. In the past, Chenjiazhuang’s self-produced food could not meet its own needs, so how could it dare not transport food.

Some of the generals under his command excitedly said after learning the news: "It's good to have a larger territory.", "Song Ting's cultivated land exceeds [-] million acres, how much food must be harvested."...

In fact, not all cultivated land on the mainland has such high yields as those in Guangdong, where the yield per mu can exceed [-] kilograms.

In the north, a dry land yield of more than [-] kilograms per mu in a season (or a year, or half a year) is considered acceptable.

The ratio of seeds to harvest in Jiangnan can reach 1:30, while in the north it is only 1:15.

Not to mention that historically, dynasties were generally unified from north to south, or from west to east.

Because the lives of the people in the north and west are too hard, and the hard life has forged their tough bodies and savage spirits.

The character of the people created by the comfortable life in the south, after meeting on the battlefield, the gap came out.

It’s not that the people in the south have bad character. The Ming Dynasty in later generations was unified from south to north.It’s just that with a high probability, people from the north are stronger than people from the south.

In the same way, in Southeast Asia, if you scatter a handful of seeds on the ground, you will have enough food to eat in the coming year. The people there are even more lazy.

At least the Chinese nation is diligent, and excellence is rooted deep in their souls.

There is enough food, and the material the military government lacks most now becomes iron ore.

The iron mine located in the Tiantang Mountains of Zengcheng County is the only iron-producing area in Guangzhou. It was originally mined by the Song Dynasty government. After hundreds of years of evolution, the iron mines there are now private mines.

More than half of the iron ore required for Chenjiazhuang's production in recent years has been purchased from there.

Since the Chen Jiajun uprising and the occupation of six counties in Guangzhou, the demand for iron ore has increased significantly, and the increased demand has basically been purchased from nearby Tiantang Mountain.

In the past six months, Tiantian Mountain's iron ore production has been stimulated to double.According to those mine owners, this increase in production is already huge, but for Chen Xun, doubling the ten yuan is only 20 yuan, which is still not enough.

Not to mention machinery, the mine owners' use of absenteeism was too primitive, and they did not give full play to the independent initiative of absenteeism.

According to Pei Ren's investigation, more than half of the absentees at the Tiantang Mountain Iron Mine are "debt slaves."

That is to say, if you owe money to a landlord, wealthy businessman or mine owner, and you cannot repay it with interest, you will have to work in the mine to pay off the debt.

For those mine owners, these debt slaves are equivalent to free workers, and it is impossible to give them a chance to escape.For those debt slaves who are absent from work, the day to pay off their debts is far away, and there is no end in sight. How can these people be motivated and just hang out day by day?

In addition to debt slaves, there are also landless poor peasants, jobless refugees, criminal hideouts, etc. The components of absenteeism are very complex.

The mine owners give these people a fixed salary, which is supervised by the supervisor, and the fixed production volume is completed every day before the money or food is paid.

In addition, the tools are crude, safety facilities are poor or almost non-existent, everyone is doing their own thing and there is no cooperation, and other problems.

How high is the production capacity of this production model?
In Chen Xun's view, this small workshop-style mining model must be abolished. The military government must organize large-scale mining using the power of machinery to exponentially increase iron ore production.

Moreover, Tiantang Mountain also produces coal, and the preliminary smelting of iron ore can also be placed near Tiantang Mountain to avoid wasting manpower, time, and increasing costs by transporting iron ore and coal back and forth.

In Chen Xun's plan, the Heavenly Mountains will become the heavy industry production base of the military government in the future, and will support the iron needs of the military government's initial development until the military government's territory expands and a more suitable and larger-scale Heavy industrial production base.

The idea is great, but the actual implementation is very difficult.

A commercial tax was collected before, which forced the merchants to gather in Foshan Fort to "rebel". If the iron ore and coal mines of the mine owners were to be collected, would they not be overwhelmed?
The business tax only increases the cost of doing business for merchants, while the ore collection directly destroys the jobs of those mine owners.

Moreover, the miners that the mine owners can gather are completely different from the craftsmen that the merchants can gather.

If you look at how many powerful arms and armies in history were composed of absentees, you will know how high the innate advantage of this type of work is in rebellion.

Saying this does not mean that Chen Xun will give up his plan.

Chen Xun had promised Liu Yu before that he would take back the mine in Tiantang Mountain after the next year.

The reason for putting the execution time of the plan after the year is because only after the year can the second batch of Chen Jiajun's recruits be trained, and Chen Xunfang can mobilize a large number of Chen Jiajun to directly solve the mine owners of Tiantang Mountain by overwhelming them.

Only by overwhelming the enemy can the losses of both parties be minimized.

If the mine is seized, the military government will also need to miss work to dig.Otherwise, if we kill them all, who will mine for the military government?

And Chen Xun also wants to give those mine owners some opportunities.

During this period, Chen Xun would spread the word that the military government planned to take back the iron ore and coal mine official camps.

It depends on whether those mine owners will choose to surrender voluntarily or resist with force.

If they choose to surrender, Chen Xun will give them corresponding compensation.

If you resist with force, it will be over by crushing it without saying anything.

(End of this chapter)