The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 181 Qi’s “rice bag”

Although Yong'an City (i.e. Batavia) has been under the rule of Qi for only more than four years, the entire city seems to have undergone earth-shaking changes.

The native slum areas located in the west of the city were swept away and replaced by neat and beautiful two-story residential buildings.

In the past, most of the ditches (canals) and swamps throughout the city have been filled up, and the sewage that flows across the city has been placed in underground ditches, greatly reducing the environment for mosquito breeding.

The potholed streets and roads were smoothed by cement, cinder or asphalt.

In the neighborhoods with many European-style buildings, more oriental ancient buildings and Hanzhou-style high-rise buildings have been added, giving the city a strong Qi character.

The former Governor's Palace has been replaced by a new owner. A city official from Hanzhou and many of his staff and followers moved into this Dutch-style official residence built in 1626.

However, this is no longer the political center of Kaihua Island (Java Island) - the Governor's Office is located in Surakarta, the former capital of the Kingdom of Mataram on the island. Well, it has been renamed Shunchang (today's Solo City, Indonesia), but It has become a pure free trade port and is even more prosperous than before.

Walking on the wide and clean streets, you will see tall new buildings, brightly lit shops and busy traffic from time to time. This city has created a unique atmosphere over more than a hundred years of development, and everyone who comes here can appreciate the unique charm of this atmosphere.

In the center of the city, there is a magnificent square. On the square stands a tall and upright monument, which shows people the majesty of Qi State and the prosperous history of the city.

A towering flagpole stands on one side of the square, with a bright red yellow dragon flag flying in the wind.

When night falls, the city opens up another beautiful picture. The two rows of street lights on the road are shining brightly, which contrast with the noisy and lively shops and the lanterns in front of the door, creating a wonderful world. High-rise buildings and street food stalls coexist. The vendors shout and guide passers-by to come and taste them, and from time to time they emit pungent smell of oil smoke. Food and prosperity echo and blend together from afar, becoming the most coveted and beautiful scenery of this city.

In the suburbs of the city, there are many modern factories, steam engines make endless roars, and chimneys are erected one after another, constantly spitting out thick smoke. Many original residents of the countryside have turned to A loyal worker.

With a large number of immigrants and foreign residents, the city's various economic undertakings continue to develop, and its diverse workforce also attracts more investment and innovation. For this city, the attraction of the combination of modernity and tradition, the intersection of Eastern and Western civilizations, the interweaving of scenery and culture is irresistible to those who arrive here.

At this time, it is the Dragon Boat Festival, and the plant smell of reeds mixed with the sweet aroma of glutinous rice lingers in the streets and alleys of Yong'an City.

Ni Guolu is an ordinary grain and oil workshop owner in Yong'an City. He travels around the city's restaurants and grain and oil shops every day, selling his own polished rice, flour and oil. Although he is not rich, he is still relatively well off.

Today was such a good day that he stopped his trip early. He first went to the East Market to buy cherries and mulberries, and then bought a small jar of realgar wine at the end of the street. Nearing home, I went to the Western Market to weigh some cloud cakes.

The hostess of the house took advantage of the heat to make rice dumplings, pickle salted duck eggs, and cook a sumptuous dinner.

As the sun sets, the little family who has been busy all day is finally free. A table and a few chairs are set up under the banana tree in the courtyard. Two oil lamps are lit. They take out the newly purchased realgar wine and pour it carefully. In a wine glass.

Ni Guolu picked up the child who was playing nearby, dipped his index finger in wine, and wiped it around his ears, nose, and mouth. He also wrote the word "王" on the child's forehead, and then patted the child's butt, haha. Smile and let him play.

According to the rules passed down by the ancestors, as long as a child is smeared with realgar wine, he will not be harmed by poisonous insects throughout the summer. Of course, from the perspective of future generations, there is no scientific basis for this practice, but it is the diligent care of the flesh and blood of parents in this era.

Just as the family was enjoying themselves, a group of guests unexpectedly arrived, suddenly breaking the tranquility of the house.

"Hey, Xingbao, where are you from? Weiyuan? Or Jianye?" Ni Guolu watched his wife usher Fan Xingbao into the courtyard, followed by seven or eight young and strong men with restrained behavior. He put down his wine glass and dragged With a lame leg, he stood up from the table.

"Brother-in-law, I came back from Qin." Fan Xingbao walked a few steps, came to Ni Guolu, and put the two packages of gifts in his hands on the table, "No, I just came from the dock and went straight to your place when I entered the city. coming."

"Oh, I went to Qin..." Ni Guolu looked at the two large packages of gifts on the table. He thought they were souvenirs bought from Qin or some overseas territory along the way. He didn't take it seriously and looked over there. Several honest and somewhat bewildered Fan brothers laughed and said, "...are they all brought from home?"

"Well, they are all relatives from my hometown. Come, come, come and call me..." Fan Xingbao frowned, stretched out his hand to greet: "They all have no knowledge, they are stupid!... This is our brother-in-law, hurry up Call someone. Our brother-in-law was a brave cavalry officer in the Daqi Army back then, so he was so impressive!"

"Brother-in-law..."

"Brother-in-law..." Fan Agui and other brothers came over immediately. Some of them clasped their fists and bowed, and some even hesitated to curtsy respectfully. They chaotically paid their respects to this former leader of Qi State. "Jun Ye" shows respect.

"Definitely..." Ni Guolu smiled and waved his hand, and then motioned his wife to go into the house to get some more dishes, move some stools out, and then invited several Fan brothers to sit down for dinner, "What kind of bullshit was there in the army before? An officer is just a squad leader and a soldier. Not to mention, at that time, he was naturally majestic and arrogant. But now, we, Lao Ni, are just a cripple with an injured leg and a beggar begging for food on the street. .”

"Brother-in-law, look what you said." Fan Xingbao took out a handful of silver coins from his arms and gave them to his nephews as a greeting. Then he poured himself a glass of realgar wine with a smile and took a sip. "You are running a grain and oil mill in Yong'an City, and you have deep connections in the military. How can you be a beggar? If you become a beggar, then the mainland will be starved and full of refugees! "

"Xingbao, you don't know." Ni Guolu shook his head and said: "In less than four years since Yong'an City came under the rule of our Qi State, countless wealthy people came from the mainland and Xuanhua (today's Timor Island). People. In addition to robbing the Dutch business, they also don’t let go of small businesses such as grain, oil and non-staple food. Look at the entire Yong’an City, there are at least twenty or thirty grain and oil processing plants. Hey, good guy, it’s a mess. The water steam engine, its efficiency, and its scale are beyond what a small business like mine can compete with. There is no other way, so the grain and oil shop at home can only follow other machine factories to cut prices to grab customers, and the profit is suddenly reduced by several percent. Damn it, if I hadn’t used my old connections in the military to get the grain and oil supply orders from the coolies who built the roads, I’m afraid the workshops passed down by the old man wouldn’t be able to open, and there would be no income!”

"Really?" Fan Xingbao couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this. The last time he traveled from Weiyuan (today's Port Moresby) to Qin, he passed through Kaihua Island and stopped in Guangning (today's Cilegon City, Java Island, Indonesia). , did not have the opportunity to visit this second brother-in-law, and naturally did not understand his current business difficulties.

"In that case, my brother-in-law can also get some machines to process and produce grains and oils. The cost has also been reduced and the scale has been expanded. Won't the competitiveness also increase?"

"Oh, it's easier said than done!" Ni Guolu sighed and said: "This machine is not cheap, costing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. Moreover, after getting the machine, we have to build a new factory, which is another huge expense. .Although you can borrow some money from the bank to solve the financial problem. But you also know that your second sister is a conservative person. She is afraid that there will be problems in the business, and even the old capital is included in it. I am willing to take this risk. So, this matter has been postponed until now, and it has not been completed. As a result, the grain and oil shop at home is not as good as before, and the money earned is not as good as before. "

"However, your second sister's worries are not unreasonable. I'm afraid you don't know that last year the government merged several large state-owned grain and oil trading companies in the country to form the Imperial Reserve Grain and Oil General Trading Co., Ltd. That capital, that scale, look at the entire world , is also a giant. It is a large-scale monopoly trading company that integrates grain planting, management, processing, storage, and sales. It has enclosed millions of acres of cultivated land in Kaihua and Guangning alone. From now on, The grain and oil business is probably not as easy as it used to be, especially for a small workshop like mine with low production efficiency. I don’t know how to survive these days.”

As we all know, there are thousands of islands in Nanyang, and there are several islands larger than Kaihua Island. However, the most elite and fertile island in the entire Nanyang region is Kaihua Island.

This island, which covers an area of ​​more than 13 square kilometers, is nearly a thousand kilometers long from east to west and more than kilometers wide at its north-south point, forming a long and narrow shape. The terrain is mainly mountainous and hilly, with many broad basins between the mountains. The northern coast is an alluvial plain, which can be used as an excellent port with a little construction. The southern coast has steep and hilly terrain. There are many volcanoes on the island, and many of them are even violently active. The island also experiences frequent earthquakes and tsunamis from time to time. Everything seems to be a harsh environment.

However, the island has many rivers, abundant rainfall, and volcanic ash periodically fertilizes the land, making the island's soil extremely fertile and its agricultural conditions extremely favorable. Moreover, Kaihua Island is surrounded by the sea and has a tropical rainforest climate. There is no change of cold and hot seasons. The climate is hot and crops can basically be harvested twice or even three times a year. It is definitely the best place for agricultural production.

After successively deposing several indigenous kingdoms, the State of Qi gradually took control of Kaihua Island. Over the past few decades, it has continued to fill the island with new immigrants. So far, the population has reached more than 900,000, which is more than 400,000. Years ago, it increased by five times.

Thousands of plantations were opened here, and the island soon became Qi's main food supplier. The rice, corn, and peanuts produced accounted for more than 30% of the domestic output.

The output of rubber, cane sugar, coffee, oil palm, cocoa, kapok and other cash crops is also growing at an extremely fast rate, becoming an important domestic industrial raw material base.

It can be said that as long as Qi State holds Kaihua Island firmly in its hands, even if the country declines in the future, it can at least rely on the extremely superior agricultural resources on this island to avoid starvation.

Therefore, even before the Dutch East India Company withdrew from the island, the Qi government had already made industrial plans to build Kaihua Island into the agricultural base of the empire, thereby ensuring the "rice bags" of tens of millions of people.

In view of this, large and small grain and oil processing companies have sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain to deeply process rice, corn, peanuts, oil palm and other crops produced by plantations and farmers, and then supply them to Hanzhou and many overseas territories. .

Batavia, the predecessor of Yong'an, has been gradually developed into a world maritime trade contact center since the Dutch East India Company founded the city in 1619. With the extension of the Dutch's commercial tentacles, trade has expanded to Asia, Europe and Africa, and has become the center of Southeast Asia. The largest commodity distribution center and trade center in the region.

After Qi State brought it under its rule, in order to prove its superiority, it not only did not cancel or suppress its inherent trade status, but also spared no effort to invest various resources to create its new identity as a free trade port and give it more preferential trade policies.

Therefore, as a local grain and oil producer, the market demand that Ni Guolu faces is not only Yong'an City, nor the entire Kaihua Island, but the world market on a much larger scale.

Therefore, for him to complain to his brother-in-law, it can be said that it is purely for show. Although the grain and oil workshop he runs is small in scale and not very efficient, with the low grain purchase price, even if the profit is not much, it cannot cope with the huge market demand. The annual income is still considerable, enough for him and his family to live a prosperous life. .

Just the spacious two-entry courtyard he owns in Yong'an City shows that he still has "a few dollars" in his pocket.

But in business, the key is to retreat if you don't advance. Seeing the growing scale and efficiency of those grain and oil merchants who introduced large machinery for production and seized more market demand, how could Ni Guolu be willing to do nothing like this.

My father-in-law's family runs several large-scale plantations in Weiyuan. I heard that the profits are good, and I estimate that the annual interest income must be tens of thousands.

Is it possible to play the emotional card and borrow tens of thousands of dollars from my father-in-law in the name of my wife? I can also purchase several advanced large machines from the local area to update my small grain and oil workshop, thereby making it stronger and bigger. , seeking a century of wealth? ——

(End of this chapter)