In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 618: One manages the country, the other manages the throne

With his eloquent tongue, Zhao Yurui got along well with the immigrants on this level and asked everyone the reasons for their immigration. Most of them were forced to do so due to financial difficulties, while some wanted to make a fortune in Dongyan.

When he came out of the cabin, stood on the deck, feeling the sea breeze, his expression was still quite depressed.

It took him nearly half a century of hard work to bring the Song Dynasty to its peak. At that time, people throughout Asia and Europe were proud to be Song people. But in the blink of an eye, the Song Dynasty became the Yuan Dynasty and its situation went from bad to worse. The people of Song left their homes one after another, preferring to go to overseas places such as Dongyan rather than stay in the country.

His son Zhao Yi is simply a sinner for all eternity.

But now he has no way out and no ability, and can only watch the Yuan Dynasty's national power become increasingly deteriorating.

Unless you become a great noble or a cabinet minister, you will have a chance to change all this?
"Brother Zhao." Just as he was thinking about something, Chang Yuchun and others surrounded him.

"Hunan is at war," said Zhang Youcheng.

“?” Zhao Yurui.

It turned out that Chang Yuchun and his companions had just met a family from Hunan and heard that some people in Hunan were dissatisfied with the imperial court and had risen up in rebellion, and the Yuan court was sending troops to suppress them.

However, this time the commotion seemed to be quite large. It took the Yuan Dynasty more than two years to put down the rebellion, and many people also fled their hometowns in a hurry.

This family fled to Dongyan.

The Yuan Dynasty now had telephones, telegraphs, and relatively developed communications, but the news of the Miao uprising in Hunan had not yet reached Dinghai County.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yurui immediately went to find the Hunanese family. After asking, he found out that it was the uprising led by Wu Tianbao, a Miao people from Hunan.

Wu Tianbao is a Miao from Jingzhou, Hunan.

In December of the sixth year of Emperor Wu's reign (1346), at the end of the Ding period, Wu Tianbao started an uprising in the local area. The Miao, Yao and Dong ethnic groups in Jingzhou and other places responded one after another and quickly captured Qianyang. In May of the following year, they captured Wugang, and in July they captured Yuanzhou. Their momentum grew, and by September, their troops had approached Baoqing.

Baoqing was an important city of the Yuan Dynasty in Hunan. The imperial court was greatly shocked for a time, and Emperor Wu successively dispatched troops from Huguang and Jiangxi to suppress the rebellion.

However, Wu Tianbao had a huge momentum and took advantage of the local terrain. In the eighth year of Emperor Wu's reign, Wu Tianbao attacked Yuanzhou for the fourth time, but this time he failed to break in and had to retreat.

It is now the ninth year of Emperor Wu's reign. Wu Tianbao has been rebelling for nearly three years, and the imperial court has yet to suppress it.

In history, Wu Tianbao could fight for another one or two years. After his death in battle, the remaining troops dispersed and some surrendered to Liu Futong or Xu Shouhui.

The main reason for Wu Tianbao's failure was that after he captured the important cities, he plundered them all instead of defending them, which resulted in him having no fixed base.

Of course, he might have thought that he couldn't hold it, so he moved to another place after each shot.

Wu Tianbao rebelled for several years at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and dragged down a lot of Yuan Dynasty troops, but he is not well-known in history, probably because he was a Miao ethnic group.

Zhao Yurui was silent for a moment after listening to this. Is this a good opportunity?
In the current Yuan Dynasty, Liu Futong and Xu Shouhui have not yet started their rebellion, but Wu Tianbao has been fighting for several years. This guy cannot be allowed to be destroyed too quickly.

Zhao Yurui also wanted to destroy the Yuan Dynasty, even though it was founded by his grandson.

A few days later, Zhao Yurui and their ship finally arrived in Dongyan and landed in Jiuzhou.

Kyushu was the former location of Dazaifu in Japan, and Dazaifu was considered the front-line headquarters of the shogunate.

After Zhao Xie founded the country, he set up Kyushu as the Western Capital. At that time, he often lived here and commanded the war with the Song Dynasty.

After successfully repelling the Song Dynasty, Zhao Xie moved the capital to Tokyo. Kyushu remained the western capital, and Kyushu Province was established, with important positions such as the Administration Office and the Governor-General. This was still the front line against the Yuan Dynasty.

In the following decades, people from the Yuan Dynasty migrated here one after another. Dong Yan opened the door to convenience, and the population of Jiuzhou increased.

Currently, Kyushu Province has a population of over two million, making it one of the most prosperous provinces in the area.

The Jiuzhou Port was extremely large. After being expanded by three generations of Zhao Zhen’s family, it became the second largest port in Asia, second only to the Guangzhou Port of the Yuan Dynasty.

As Zhao Yurui and his crew's ship approached, Zhao Yurui stood at the bow and looked ahead. He saw that the front was densely packed with ships of various sizes. For a moment, he seemed to have returned to the time when he was the emperor of the Song Dynasty and was looking at the port scene of the Song Dynasty.

Fortunately, this was the Eastern Yan Kingdom founded by his son Zhao Xie. Zhao Yurui secretly thought that if Japan developed like this, it would definitely be a major threat to the Song Dynasty.

"Who is the emperor of Dongyan Kingdom now?" Zhao Yurui suddenly thought of this and turned to ask a crew member on the ship.

This ship often goes to Dongyan, and everyone has heard of it.

"The current emperor of Dongyan is Zhao Jin, who is also considered a famous ruler."

Zhao Jin was the grandson of Zhao Xie. The three generations of emperors of Eastern Yan were all famous rulers. They vigorously developed industry, agriculture and commerce internally and fought against the Yuan Dynasty externally and stabilized the borders. Eastern Yan's national power was growing day by day and it was likely to replace the Yuan Dynasty.

Because the current Dongyan includes Japan, Goryeo and the Far East, Japan's lack of resources is compensated by Goryeo and the Far East, which allows them to develop faster and better.

Goryeo's mineral resources and the Far East's forest resources made up for Japan's shortcomings.

The only thing restricting Dongyan now is oil production.

Their oil needed to be imported from the Southern Song Dynasty.

The Southern Song Dynasty was a country established by Zhao Qi, the eldest son of Zhao Yurui, in Southeast Asia. It included Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and other countries in later generations. It had a large territory and a large population.

When the Song Dynasty split between Zhao and Rui, the Southern Song supported the independence of Persia and established good relations with Persia. They joined forces with Eastern Yan to fight against the Yuan Dynasty. Persian oil and natural gas were continuously imported into Eastern Yan over the years.

Emperor Zhao Jin of Eastern Yan is 41 years old. His elder brother Zhao Qi served as the crown prince for 11 years and later died of illness.

Zhao Jin became crown prince at the age of 32 and emperor at the age of 35.

At the beginning of his tenure, he vigorously developed overseas trade and attached great importance to overseas immigration. One of the most interesting things he did was to ask the warships of Dongyan to throw glass bottles into the waters of Dayuan, which contained the benefits of immigrating to Dongyan.

Glass bottles drifted to various places along the coast of the Yuan Dynasty, and people picked them up one after another, increasing the speed of immigration and the population.

Precisely because of the emphasis on immigration, Dongyan’s population has grown in recent years and its national strength has become increasingly stronger.

When Zhao Yurui and his companions went ashore, they could see plaques erected everywhere on the shore, which promoted the benefits of moving Dongyan in Chinese.

There were officials at the dock watching the people getting off the ship, and they would ask questions every time they saw a group of people.

"Immigrate now, and you will get money, land and houses."

If someone says they have moved, Dongyan staff will immediately take them aside and start processing the formalities. It is very quick and convenient.

Zhao Yurui secretly shook his head. If Dongyan continued like this, within a few years, the population of the coastal towns of Dayuan would probably become smaller and smaller.

Dinghai is also considered a wealthy place, but this time there were more than 20 households on one ship.

If ten ships come here every day, that would mean more than two hundred households.

How many households per year?
Not to mention other underdeveloped towns, there are definitely more immigrants.

Dongyan is gradually weakening Dayuan in the manner of ants moving.

Everyone in the Yuan Dynasty was concerned about these matters.

The imperial court only issued an order prohibiting the picking up of glass bottles on the beach, but in fact people still picked them up, and some even went to the Yuan Dynasty to spread the word.

"Immigration? Immigrating now, you will be given money, land and houses." Just then, an official appeared in front of Zhao Yurui and the others, and he handed them a note.

Chang Yuchun wanted to turn it down, but Zhao Yurui took it and said with a smile, "Let's take a look first."

"Okay, okay, okay. The contact number and address are above. If you want to immigrate, feel free to contact us." The official also smiled and his attitude was very good.

Zhao Yurui took the promotional paper and looked at it carefully as he walked.

It is written in great detail above. For the Yuan people who want to immigrate to Dongyan, various rewards will be given according to the population or household. If you are willing to go to the Far East, you will be allocated housing in the Far East. Each household will be given 20 square meters according to the population, and a family of three will be given 60 square meters. In addition, each person will be given 10 mu of land and 100 mu of forest according to the population, and agricultural tax will be exempted for ten years.

Ten years later, the agricultural tax was 10%.

And guaranteed that they would not be conscripted for ten years.

The last one, no conscription for ten years, is still very attractive.

There are uprisings everywhere in the Yuan Dynasty, the country is in chaos and conscription is also quite frequent.

In order to avoid military service, many wealthy people are willing to immigrate to Dongyan.

Compared with immigrants to the Far East, the treatment in Dongyan is a bit worse, but if you are a businessman, craftsman, etc., Dongyan also has great benefits. Overall, Zhao Xie basically inherited the practices of Zhao Yurui back then, attracting immigrants everywhere and increasing population and other resources.

In Zhao Yurui's opinion, Zhao Jin is working hard to manage Dongyan.

Zhao Meng was devoted to building his throne and turned a blind eye to the various shortcomings of the Yuan Dynasty.

If Zhao Jin had marched westward at this time and sent troops from Eastern Yan and the Far East at the same time, he would have been very likely to defeat the Yuan Dynasty.

However, Zhao Jin was dedicated to domestic affairs and had not engaged in a large-scale war with the Yuan Dynasty for several years. There were only minor frictions in some local areas, mainly in the Far East and Liaodong.

From a long-term perspective, Zhao Yurui believed that the Emperor Wu era was a good opportunity. The current Yuan Dynasty was very similar to the end of the Yuan Dynasty in history. There were uprisings everywhere in the country and the people were living a difficult life. If Eastern Yan could march west, it would be very likely to destroy the Yuan Dynasty and annex it.

If Zhao Jin continued to manage the country in this way, although the national strength would prosper, he would not fight a war and would not destroy the Yuan Dynasty. Once the Yuan Dynasty had a new emperor and managed it well, the size of the Yuan Dynasty would still be far greater than that of Dong Yan.

Then Dongyan will be in danger.

They arrived in Kyushu in the afternoon and found an inn to stay in that day. The conditions were pretty good and it felt like home.

And the price is not cheap. It costs twenty-five dollars to stay for one night without breakfast.

Fortunately, the Yuan Dynasty’s currency can also be used here, but there is also an exchange rate, which is the opposite of the ratio in later generations.

Here, one hundred Dayuan coins can be exchanged for eighty Dongyan coins. Dayuan coins are not as valuable as Dongyan coins.

Zhao Yurui discovered that Kyushu was full of Han people. Of course, many of their ancestors might be Japanese, but after being ruled by Zhao Zhen for decades, all the Japanese had become Han people. No Japanese could be heard on the streets, only Chinese.

The local wages are relatively high. According to the information Zhao Yurui had obtained, the salary of an ordinary inn waiter is about 1,500 yuan, while the equivalent salary of a waiter in the Yuan Dynasty is around 1,300 yuan.

Dongyan also has Jinyiwei. The local Jinyiwei’s salary is between two thousand and three thousand, which is slightly higher than Zhao and Rui.

Early the next morning, Zhao Yurui took a few people to the largest machinery factory in the area.

Unlike Dayuan where all domestic machinery factories are state-owned, the best machinery factories in Dongyan are all privately owned.

There is a Cao machinery factory in the local area. It used to be a craftsman from Jeju. The whole family was brought to Dongyan, where they built a factory. After several decades of development, it became the largest machinery factory in Kyushu, mainly engaged in various types of machinery, especially in bearings.

The level of this machinery factory is not only the highest in Kyushu, but also ranks among the top in the world at that time.

At present, the largest machinery factory is still in Dayuan, but the most advanced ones are basically in Dongyan.

At about nine o'clock in the morning, Zhao Yurui met the other factory manager Cao Wang.

Cao Wang is a thin man wearing gold-rimmed glasses and looks very gentle. "What kind of machinery do you want to buy?"

"I have a blueprint and would like to discuss with your craftsmen whether we can customize a batch of machinery?"

"Custom-made machinery?" Cao Wang was stunned: "Is it not available on the market?"

"Yes, no."

"This may be quite difficult and may not be as effective as you think."

"It's okay. The machinery is relatively simple. The craftsmen will surely find a way."

"I am the craftsman. Show me the drawings."

Zhao Yurui took out the blueprints and a pack of cigarettes.

He rolled the cigarettes one by one himself and then folded them into a cigarette box.

"This is a cigarette. The machine rolls the tobacco leaves and then puts them into cigarette boxes. The cigarette boxes may be easier to pack, but how to pack the tobacco leaves is the key, which requires both efficiency and quality."

It was also the first time Cao Wang saw cigarettes. He looked around and asked, "Did you roll these by hand?"

"That is, if we produce in batches, we won't have enough time to do it manually and the cost will be high."

"Have one." Zhao Yurui motioned for him to light one.

Cao Wang wanted to refuse, but after thinking it over, he lit one anyway.

"Cough cough" The quality of the tobacco leaves was a bit poor, and he choked a few times. He frowned and felt it was boring.

That’s right, Zhao Yurui deliberately made the tobacco this time the worst.

"Where is this roll of paper?" Cao Wang asked about the key material paper.

“We make our own paper.”

Zhao and Rui only wanted them to make cigarette-making machines and cartoning machines.

Of course, before their paper arrived, Zhao Yurui allowed them to experiment with their own paper.

But Cao Wang said, the quality of paper is also critical. Our machines need to cooperate with the paper to roll it up. We need to see your paper before our machines can produce the finished product.

Cao Wang is a very serious person. If their paper is used, there is no guarantee that the machine will be able to work with Zhao Yurui's own paper in the future.

Zhao Yurui thought it made sense and promised him that he could deliver the paper within half a year at the latest.

Cao Wang nodded and said, "We are also planning to divide the machine into two parts, one for rolling cigarettes and the other for packing them."

"The finished product will take about half a year, but it will take at least half a year."

Cao Wang didn't dare to guarantee it. This kind of machine, which had never been made before, would need multiple debugging, so it would take at least half a year.

Of course, this is because cigarette making machines are relatively simple. If it is a complex machine, it will not take half a year, but at least several years.

Zhao Yurui was overjoyed and quickly explained the operation and running process of the cigarette-making machine based on his memories of his previous life.

Cao Wang listened and took notes. Although this machine did not exist before, with the information provided by Zhao Yurui, if they could think of a solution themselves, the difficulty would be reduced a lot.

Although there were no mobile phones at that time, there were telephones, and the two countries could talk to each other. However, international calls were more expensive. Zhao Yurui asked for their phone numbers and also left their home phone numbers.

"Are you from the Yuan Dynasty?" Cao Wang's face changed slightly.

Dongyan is still quite sensitive about exporting machinery, but fortunately for Zhao Yurui, these are cigarette-making machines, not military machinery.

But the cigarette-making machine needs to roll up the tobacco leaves, which is similar to the machine that makes bullets and rolls up bullet shells.

"To export machinery to the Yuan Dynasty, you have to wait for the approval of the Jiuzhou Provincial Department of Commerce. You'd better get the approval first."

Well, Zhao Yurui had no choice but to ask for the address of the Commerce Department and plan to go there.

(End of this chapter)