Drive the RV back to Datang

Chapter 164 Chapter 170: Development Planning
Li Hao returned to Yazhong and waited for a while. Lu Yun brought a large group of craftsmen in ragged clothes. As soon as they met, all the craftsmen knelt down and kowtowed, begging for mercy: "My lord, please forgive me! People have done nothing wrong, and they have no money or food to pay taxes, my lord, please forgive me."

Li Hao frowned when he heard that, seeing their tattered clothes and weathered faces, he felt sad for no reason. Are these the people under his rule? beggar.

Although he felt sorry for these craftsmen, the official authority could not be compromised, so he suddenly slapped the table and shouted: "Shut up!"

All the craftsmen were so frightened that they didn't dare to shout any more. They all bowed their heads and knelt down in the hall. Li Hao asked, "You said just now that there is no money and food to pay taxes. Is the tax in Tingzhou very heavy?"

Everyone hurriedly shook their heads when they heard the words, and said in a horrified voice: "It's not serious, it's not serious..."

Seeing their frightened faces, Li Hao knew that they were not telling the truth, but judging by their current posture, he couldn't figure out why, so he put the topic aside for the time being, and said, "Lu Yun, the blacksmith with the best craftsmanship you mentioned and Who are his two sons?"

Lu Yun pointed to the three people kneeling in front, and Li Hao glanced at him. He was a middle-aged man with dark skin, his face was wrinkled as if carved by a knife, but his muscles were strong and his temples were slightly white. Seeing his strong muscles and black hair, Li Hao really thought that this man was 60 or [-] years old.

Two 20-year-old youths were kneeling beside him. They were also dark-skinned and covered in tendons. Perhaps this was a common problem of all blacksmiths.

Li Hao stepped down from his official position, came to the three of them, and asked, "What's your name?"

The middle-aged blacksmith hurriedly said: "The villain Qin Er."

The young man on the left followed suit: "The villain Qin Niu."

The young man on the right said: "The villain Qin Yang."

After hearing this, Li Hao frowned. It is not good to be uneducated. He always likes to use pigs, dogs, cattle and sheep for names. If such a name is in the future world, it is estimated that he will have dozens of nicknames before he graduates from elementary school.

But the point now is not the name, but their craftsmanship. He took an arrow from the case, handed it to them, and asked, "Can you make this arrow head?"

"This is..." Qin Er was stunned for a moment, and didn't dare to take the arrow. He was so frightened that he hurriedly prostrated himself on the ground, "The villain dare not, the villain dare not!"

"Why don't you dare!" Li Hao snorted coldly, "Tingzhou is an important place on the frontier. Now there is not even a single arrow in the warehouse, and the imperial court does not allocate it. If horse thieves or foreigners come to attack, how can I ask the official Do you use wooden sticks to kill the enemy, tell me if you can do this kind of arrow!"

Qin Er and his two sons took the arrow and took a closer look. They found that this kind of arrow was short and thin, and the head of the arrow was much smaller than that of ordinary arrows. This was the arrow used for Liannu.

"How about it, can it be done?" Seeing that they had studied for a long time, Li Hao asked impatiently.

Qin Er nodded quickly: "If you want to go back to your lord, you can do it. As long as you make a mold first, it's not difficult to do."

"Don't talk too much first." Li Hao said with a serious face, "I require all the arrow heads to be the same size." He then grabbed seven or eight arrows from the table and handed them to him. The continuous crossbow has very high requirements on the arrows. Once the size of the arrow is not correct, it is easy to get stuck in the crossbow, commonly known as "jamming".

Qin Er took a closer look, and found that all the arrows were exactly the same, and the craftsmanship was very exquisite, but Qin Er still said confidently: "My lord, as long as the mold is made well, the size will not be easy to make mistakes. You can also adjust the size at any time."

Seeing that he was so confident, Li Hao said happily: "Okay, you and your two sons choose two more people to make this special arrow for me. Control food and housing, one meal of meat a day, plus fifteen cash as a reward."

Qin Er's father and son turned pale when they heard the words, and quickly kowtowed and said: "The villain dare not ask the adult for money, and the villain does things for the adult, how dare he accept money."

"Bastard! I'm a bandit!" Li Hao stared and yelled, "The imperial court has its own rules. If I hire you to work, I will naturally have to pay you. There is no reason for forced labor!"

Seeing that Li Hao was angry, Qin Er naturally didn't dare to say anything. He hurriedly thanked and kowtowed. Li Hao raised his hand to stop them, then looked at the other blacksmiths, and said slowly: "As for the others, stay and make arrows together. Arrows, but they are made of ordinary arrows, which are relatively simple, so the wages will be a little less, ten yuan per person per day, but the official has a word first, during the construction period, you are not allowed to go out, and the official will send heavy troops to guard the governor's mansion. If you dare to violate it, you will die under the knife of the guards, don’t blame me for not reminding you when the time comes.”

"Yes yes yes..." the crowd kept talking.

Next, Li Hao sent people to buy scrap ironware around the city, and at the same time sent people to move all the furnaces of these blacksmiths' workshops to the governor's mansion, and began to arrange the blacksmith's workshop.

In the afternoon, Li Hao went to see Hu Shang Shi Najie and asked him to help collect a large amount of pig iron and timber to Tingzhou. The price was negotiable. Shi Najie was very righteous, so he agreed without saying a word, and then let the caravan start preparations , planning to leave tomorrow.

The sun was setting towards the west mountain, and Li Hao was writing the development plan of Tingzhou before the case, when Lu Yun suddenly came to report: "Master, Cao Tian is back."

"Oh?" Li Hao got up when he heard the words, and then sat down suddenly. He felt nervous for no reason. The legendary Cao Tian was finally going to appear on the stage. In the past few days, he had dug a lot of walls while he was away. I don't know what he would do. How about dealing with yourself.

"Master, what are your plans?" Lu Yun asked him in a low voice.

Li Hao frowned and thought for a while, then said: "Ignore him for now, everything is as usual, and wait for him to make a move."

Lu Yun nodded and said: "It should be so, it is not appropriate to take the initiative to attack at this moment, first find out his attitude."

"I think so too." Li Hao nodded and continued to work on the proposal.

The plan written by Li Hao is actually not complicated, and the content is not very detailed. They are all general things, and they roughly outline the development direction and various projects of Tingzhou. The most important thing is the sequence.

The construction of a city is divided into economics and politics. The economy is divided into agriculture and commerce. The political aspect is nothing more than the appointment and dismissal of officials.

Now that Cao Tian is back, Li Hao temporarily gave up his plans on personnel appointments and dismissals. After all, the most important position has already been taken, so the next step is to work hard to develop the economy.

Tingzhou is located on the edge of the desert, the soil is poor, and it is not suitable for planting. In terms of farming, animal husbandry is still the main thing. Li Hao plans to open a piece of land and try to grow some corn. His corn is resistant to cold and heat, flood and drought. This kind of place can also be planted. If corn can grow normally here, then many things will be easy. He can use corn to make wine, and then raise chickens on a large scale and sell chicken wishbones.

This chicken wishbone can't just be sold at home, you have to open a franchise store, buy wine and open a franchise store, let some merchants in the city join, in this way, those franchise merchants will make money, the merchants make money, and those who work for the merchants People have also made money, from store management to chicken farms, and breweries, so that the work problems of many people in the city can be solved virtually. At the same time, he can also let the people in the city raise broilers. Follow to make money, as long as this plan is successful, there is no need to attract foreign investment. I am a super merchant, and I am still the boss of Tingzhou. There should be no resistance to all actions, so the feasibility of this plan is very high, but the premise is that corn can be grown here.

The series of business chains generated by planting corn is Li Hao's first business development plan, and it is also the most effective. However, the plan has not been finalized yet, and he will try to plant a batch of corn first.

He also has a second business development plan, which is the catering and service industry, that is, restaurants and inns. Tingzhou is an important town on the Silk Road. There will be caravans passing by every month. Every caravan will rest here for a few days, at least two days. The consumption power of the caravan is amazing. If you want to make money from the caravan, it is good to open restaurants and inns choose.

But there is a problem. It takes a lot of capital to open restaurants and inns, and the merchants and people in Tingzhou have been exploited by Cao Tian for many years. It is a bit difficult to follow them to steal money.

However, Li Hao soon had a countermeasure. He planned to open a bank in Tingzhou, which could deposit money and borrow money from others. Yes, it is the function of a bank. People who have no money to do business can borrow money from him. Anyway, he It is the governor, those who have borrowed money just need to send their children to their own homes to do hard work, and they are not afraid that they will take the money and run away. Besides, doing hard work here can also make money, killing two birds with one stone.

Loans from the bank can also give benefits. Anyone who borrows money from their bank to open a restaurant, Li Hao will give three delicious cooking recipes for free, which guarantees that the business of those who open a restaurant will flourish and crowd Cao Tian's relatives and friends. As for those who are too poor, they can borrow money to raise pigs, and Li Hao will teach them how to raise pigs, and the pork will be provided to major restaurants. In this way, many people can get rid of poverty and become rich.

Finally finished writing the plan, Li Hao started the first step of planning, planting corn, first of all, he needed to find a place with slightly fertile soil. There were fields outside Tingzhou City, but the soil was barren and the harvest was very low. He called Peng Hai, Ask him if there is anyone in You Xiaowei who is good at farming, Peng Hai replied that there is a farmer named Tian Yao, so Li Hao assigned this task to Tian Yao.

As soon as Peng Hai was sent away, Feiying suddenly came into the yamen to report: "Master, the housekeeper of the Cao residence has sent an invitation card from Cao Tian."

"Show me." Li Hao beckoned, Feiying handed the invitation to Li Hao, Li Hao unfolded the invitation and looked at it, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised, and let out a sneer.

Lu Yun asked curiously, "What did the post say?"

"Take me to Shengfu Restaurant for dinner." Li Hao threw the post to Lu Yun and asked with a smile, "Lu Yun, what do you think?"

Lu Yun looked at the post, and it was indeed to invite Li Hao to dinner. What he said was to wash away the dust. Hehe, Lu Yun thought about it, and said: "Master, he is testing your courage."

"Yes." Li Hao said leisurely, "If I go, I'm afraid it will be a Hongmen banquet. If I don't go, it will appear that I am afraid of him, which will damage my official prestige. It will be difficult to deter the officials of Tingzhou in the future. .”

"Exactly." Lu Yun said slowly, "Master, how do you break this trick?"

"It's not difficult." Li Hao grinned and asked Feiying, "Is the housekeeper of Cao's house still outside?"

(End of this chapter)