At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 314 The first overcapacity industry and emerging handicraft city
January 27, the fifth year of the Han Dynasty, Danyang County, Kuaiji County.

Xu Fan crossed the Yangtze River and entered Kuaiji County.

On the dock, Ye Teng saw Xu Fan's fleet and rushed over immediately when Xu Fan and others disembarked.

Ye Teng led the Kuaiji County officials to salute Xu Fan and said, "Your Majesty, Ye Teng, pays homage to you."

Although Xu Fan had already said that there was no need to meet him, no official dared to do so. Xu Fan didn't want to embarrass them, so he said, "Prefect Ye will stay, and the rest will return to the government office to handle government affairs."

"No!" the emperor ordered, and the officials in Kuaiji County could only leave with regretful expressions.

Then Xu Fan said to Ye Teng: "I just want to see your achievements in governing Kuaiji County in the past few years."

Ye Teng said confidently: "I will not let the emperor down."

In the four years since Ye Teng became the prefect of Kuaiji County, the population of Kuaiji County doubled and its finances increased more than ten times. He originally wanted the emperor to see his achievements.

Then Xu Fan and the others rode south along the galloping road. On both sides of the road in Kuaiji County, channels are intertwined. From near to far, you can see fields distributed along the channel. The fields are also full of green, and there are several farmers weeding in the fields.

Ye Teng said: "This is a soybean field for planting. The Jiangdong area is no better than the Central Plains. There is no winter at all. The land can be grown twice a year, but this is very labor intensive. Fortunately, the emperor has discovered that soybeans can fertilize the fields, so the people of Kuaiji County have begun After the autumn harvest, plant another season of soybeans to fertilize the land, and the grain harvest will be higher next year, and the soybeans can also be sold for money.”

Zhang Liang looked at the waterwheels and windmills standing in the distance and sighed: "With so many windmills and waterwheels, only you in Kuaiji County can see them."

Waterwheels and windmills have become very popular in the Han Dynasty. They can be seen in almost every county in the Han Dynasty. However, Zhang Liang does not have so many waterwheels and windmills. Ordinary people cannot afford them at all. In many villages, even the entire village has I can't even afford a water tanker.

Along the way, they could see these behemoths within a few miles of each other. These behemoths and small canals formed a tight irrigation network. Just by looking at this, you can know that Kuaiji County is wealthy and can manufacture so many waterwheels and windmills.

Paddy fields generally have a grain production capacity of more than three tons, not to mention that they are two types a year. If struvite is also included, one acre of field in Kuaiji County can produce as much income as 5-6 acres in the Central Plains.

Zhang Liang asked: "How many acres of farmland are there in Kuaiji County? How much can the local people earn from two crops a year?"

Ye Teng said: "Since Xiaguan came to Kuaiji County, he has recruited people to clear river mud, repair canals, and build waterwheels and windmills every year during the slack period. So far, the entire Kuaiji County has nearly 200 million acres of farmland. These people produce food every year. The profit is over 300 stones.”

"Nowadays, it is popular for people in Kuaiji County to build windmills. People with money will find ways to make windmills by themselves."

Ye Teng pointed to this windmill: "Most of the windmills here were built by the people themselves. I don't have such a big capital."

As long as the benefits can be seen and people have money and food in their hands, they are willing to increase investment in farmland. Obviously, agricultural production in Kuaiji County has entered a positive cycle.

Xu Fan applauded: "Back then, the Zheng Guo Canal in Da Qin was only 400 million acres. Ye Teng, you built half of the Zheng Guo Canal in less than 4 years. The people of Kuaiji County also benefited from you. You should be regarded as the official of the world." example."

"This is also because the emperor has given you meritorious guidance and the people are willing to produce. In addition, the industry in Kuaiji County is booming, and there is enough money to invest in water conservancy construction." Although Ye Teng is modest, he can't stop the smile on his face. Yes, the emperor's praise was more exciting than his appearance in the "Dahan Monthly".

Ge Ying was shocked and said: "One stone of grain costs hundreds of dollars. Your farmers in Kuaiji County can earn 3 yuan a year. Are the people in Chang'an City not as wealthy as your farmers in Kuaiji County?"

Now the price of hired workers in Chang'an City has risen rapidly, but it still cannot reach the annual income of 3 yuan.

Ye Teng shook his head and said: "That's not how the accounts are calculated. Farmers also have to invest in planting and buy farm tools and cattle. Especially the price of cattle in Kuaiji County has exceeded 10,000 yuan, and they also need to buy struvite. Farmers have to pay attention to this aspect." The consumption is very large.

At the same time, the price of grain in Kuaiji County is not as good as that in Chang'an City. Last year, the price of rice per stone fell below 30 yuan. This year, due to the imperial war, Kuaiji County transported a lot of grain to the Central Plains, and the price barely increased to 35 yuan per stone. . "

Xu Fan was surprised and said: "How come the price is so low? Didn't your Kuaiji County think of ways to stabilize food prices?"

Xu Fan remembered that when he was in Donghai County, the price of grain was not 70 yuan per stone. How could he cross the Yangtze River and the price of grain would drop so exaggeratedly.

Xu Fan is not an idiot like the rulers of this era, who thinks that the lower the price of food, the better.

He remembered that during the Zhenguan period, there was a scene recorded in the history of Qing Dynasty. Due to the good harvest in Guanzhong, the price of grain dropped from dozens of yuan per dou to five yuan per dou. Such drastic price fluctuations would be regarded as a disaster in the eyes of later generations, but Li Er also regarded this as a symbol of his prosperous age and recorded it in history. Because such low food prices also appeared during the Wenjing period.

But what Xu Fan was thinking about was how desperate the farmers must be with the food falling like this. The price of food has dropped, but the price of iron will not, the price of cloth will not drop, and the price of cattle will not. decline, the price of diesel, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea will not fall. In the whole world of love, only the farmer family suffers.

Therefore, Xu Fan set a minimum purchase price for grain in Guanzhong, just to protect the interests of farmers. If the price of grain in Guanzhong also fell to 30 yuan per stone, then farmers would really have nothing but enough to eat.

Ye Teng smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty, I have tried to maintain the price of food, but now Kuaiji County has tens of millions more dan of food every year. Now the official warehouses in Kuaiji County are full, and the private granaries are also full. Kuaiji County The people of the county could not eat so much food for three meals a day.

The minister wanted to transport grain to the Central Plains for sale, but the price of grain in Chen County was lower than that in Kuaiji County. Around Kuaiji County, Jiujiang County and Lujiang County had a bumper grain harvest, so they couldn't sell it even if they wanted to. "

If you really want to sell it, you can still sell it. You can sell it to Baiyue and other small vassal states in the south. But those vassal states are full of savages and they need it, but they don't have the money.

The price of grain in the hinterland of the Central Plains has not fallen as sharply as in Kuaiji County, but it is just not cost-effective. In this era, logistics costs are too high. Even though Kuaiji County uses a golden waterway like the Yangtze River, because the grain harvests in counties near the Yangtze River are also good, the price It’s so cheap that if you really sell food, you won’t even be able to make back the shipping costs.

"The revenue of the Kuaiji County Government is limited. It needs to build workshops, repair canals, build roads, and build docks. It cannot use all the tax money to buy food. I have tried every means but can barely maintain the price of food."

"And the more canals I build, the more grain production capacity I have. The more grain production capacity, the lower the price of grain. Now the people in Kuaiji County are no longer willing to accept grain employment. They only need Qin Banliang, but the more the people want, the more grain they can produce." Qin Banliang, the government will be unable to spend money to maintain the price of food. "

Xu Fan was speechless for a moment. Along the way, he saw that the coastal counties of Han Dynasty were frantically expanding their salt fields. He thought that the salt industry would be the first industry with overcapacity in Han Dynasty, but he did not expect that food would be the first to appear. Industries with overcapacity.

For the first time, Xu Fan felt the benefits of abundant resources per capita. If he just increased the efficiency of grain production and evened the fields, the grain warehouse would be full.

Compared to the hell dungeons of later generations, this is a simple dungeon with plug-ins.

At the same time, he also discovered why farmers have not been able to make money for thousands of years. They finally harvested more grain, but the grain price fell to the floor. The grain production capacity of farmers in Kuaiji County is three times that of ordinary people in Guanzhong, but their income is about the same. Ordinary people Farmers cannot accumulate wealth at all.

Xu Fan asked: "Can't we guide farmers to plant other crops?"

Ye Teng said: "We have already guided you. Kuaiji County has added 20 acres of mulberry fields, 50 acres of hemp fields, and 10 acres of sugar cane fields. But most people still dare not plant other crops because they are worried about problems." , Even if the price of food is low, they will still plant rice.”

Xu Fan understands the concerns of farmers. They have no accumulation, and any changes will risk death for them. Therefore, farmers are also the most conservative group.

Zhang Liang said with relief: "It is a great thing for farmers to have enough food. Your Majesty, you don't regard having enough food as the second step in the world of great unity. Now that Kuaiji County has entered the second step, you should You should be happy." In Zhang Liang's opinion, this is not a problem at all. Even if the grain price drops to 30 yuan, the farmers will still make a lot of money after eating. If the price of grain is maintained like Guanzhong, the court cannot bear it. . He didn't even understand what the emperor was worried about. A farmer could earn tens of thousands of dollars every year, which was considered to be above the middle-class household in the Han Dynasty.

Xu Fan quickly accepted this. Just like Zhang Liang said, now the court is trying to find ways to bring up those farmers who are on the line of hunger, and the people of Kuaiji County are already the richest people in the Han Dynasty. , but also to deliver benefits to them, so what should the poorer people do?
However, Xu Fan thought for a while and said: "The war in Qidi has just ended, and the price of food there is high. Kuaiji County can transport the food to Qidi by sea."

Ye Teng said: "I will find a way to deal with this matter."

Next, Xu Fan went deep into the countryside of Kuaiji County and found that it was completely different from Donghai County. The local people's village was built like a small fort, and many of the people's houses in it were made of wooden boards and bricks. Xu Fan even saw many small double-story buildings.

And these people's homes are full of food. There are almost no rural primary schools in the villages of Donghai County, but it is relatively common in Kuaiji County. Almost every three or four villages can have a primary school. From all this It can also be seen that the wealth of the people in Kuaiji County is one level higher than that in Donghai County.

The local farmers are not dissatisfied with their current lives. Having enough to eat is their biggest wish. Each of them is smiling and welcoming their own prosperous age.

But Xu Fan thought of a very famous saying in later generations: this year may be the best year for these farmers in the next 10 years.

Xu Fan then followed Ye Teng to Wu County, the seat of Kuaiji County.

Wuxian was the area where Ye Teng spent the most energy. At this time, Wuxian's population exceeded 20, making it the largest city south of the Yangtze River. The city's area expanded almost every year.

Today, Wuxian County has five pillar industries: shipbuilding, salt industry, fishery, textile industry, and sugar industry. Most of the 20 people in Wuxian County are workers related to these five industries. It is said that Wuxian County is an emerging handicraft industry. Cities are not an exaggeration, and handicrafts create far more wealth than agriculture, so at this time Wuwu has become the richest place in the south of the Yangtze River.

The children of Kuaiji County spread the song everywhere: "Ye, the prefect of Kuaiji County, has been here and the people are happy."

Coupled with the propaganda of "Da Han Monthly", as long as scholars have been to Kuaiji County, they will praise Ye Teng's achievements and think that he is a wise minister like Guan Zhong Leyi.

Xu Fan and others observed the condition of the people in Wu County. They generally had rosy faces and were well-dressed. It was obvious that their living conditions were better than those of the farmers in Kuaiji County.

Within Wu County, Wu Jun also has theaters in Chang'an City and Wu County, as well as tea gardens, restaurants, bookstores and other facilities that serve the craftsmen and citizens.

Zhang Liang sighed: "The people of Wu County can already be said to have lived a well-off life, and the peaceful and prosperous times were nothing more than this."

Xu Fan said: "The industrial advantages of Kuaiji County are too great."

Xu Fan also felt that the Han Dynasty was now very divided. In Qi, Donghai County was still in the middle of the feudal period, but when it came to Kuaiji County, it jumped forward two thousand years to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In Chang'an City, there were already blast furnaces that could produce 10 kilograms of iron at a time, and rail carriages that could run hundreds of miles. These were the period before the First Industrial Revolution. And if we look at the Liaodong and central Guizhou regions, fishing and hunting are still the main production methods of these tribes, and their level of civilization belongs to the ancient times.

The entire Han world is too divided.

On February 7, the fifth year of the Han Dynasty, Wuxian County, shipyard.

Workers in the shipyard were busy coming in and out. They were either carrying wood and placing hundreds of kilograms of wood on hydraulic saws. After a while of "sizzling" cutting, the planks were shaped into pieces, and then the craftsmen transported the planks and made them. Above the ship's craftsmen, these master craftsmen from the shipyard were hammering the hull of the ship. Xu Fan and the others saw a half-formed seagoing ship.

Ye Teng smiled proudly and said: "Your Majesty, this is a sea-going ship made of thousands of materials. Now this shipyard can build three such sea-going ships at the same time, and one such sea-going ship can be launched into the sea almost every two months. Such a ship A seagoing ship can be sold for 150 million yuan, and the court can earn 50 yuan.”

It can only be said that the profits of the manufacturing industry in this era are really high, and one-third of the profits can be earned. If this shipyard becomes a high-tech industry in later generations. But Xu Fan suddenly thought that the shipyard was really a high-tech industry of this era.

Zhang Liang sighed in his heart, no wonder Kuaiji County is so wealthy. This shipyard can make a profit of thousands of gold every year. This is already the annual tax of many border counties, but in Kuaiji County it is only a shipyard. income.

Ge Ying asked: "The price of sea-going ships is so high, will anyone really buy it?"

Ye Teng smiled and said: "Of course, although the whole Han Dynasty is crazy about the textile industry now, saying that they can make money by just opening a textile factory, but the fishing industry is even more profitable. It only takes half a year to buy a seagoing ship with thousands of materials like this." You can get your money back, and fishing is a more profitable industry than the textile industry in Kuaiji County.”

"Wuxian County also has two larger shipyards. One can manufacture two 2-material sea-going ships at the same time, and the other is building a 3000-material sea-going ship. After this ship is built, my big man can officially fish in the ocean. Among them is Kunpeng.

"Kunpeng, is there such a mythical creature in Kuaiji County?" Chen Sheng said with a look on his face that said, "Don't lie to me."

Xu Fan said: "Kunpeng is also called a whale. It is the largest creature in the world. A whale can grow to dozens of feet long and weigh millions of kilograms."

Chen Sheng was surprised and said, "Isn't this Kunpeng?"

However, Xu Fan asked Ye Teng with some surprise: "Can your fishing boats in Kuaiji County even catch whales?"

Although Qianliu Sea Ship is not small, it is nothing compared to whales. Although he also knows that there is a nation that can kill whales with just a canoe, but the Han people have never opened such a skill point. .

Ye Teng said: "Last year, a dead whale washed up on the shore and was captured by the ministers. As a result, I, Kuaiji County, got an unexpected fortune. The muscles and bones of the whale were bought by merchants at the price of 10 yuan per catty. This alone is enough." There are millions of dollars,”

The most expensive thing is whale oil, which is bought by merchants at a price of hundreds of yuan per catty. It is said that when it is made into dragon candles, the whale oil alone is worth tens of millions of yuan. "

Chen Sheng suddenly shouted: "Last year, a merchant selling dragon wax appeared in Chang'an City. A dragon candle cost thousands of dollars, which caused a frenzy of looting throughout Chang'an City. It is said that it was sold out in less than ten days. It turns out you made it here. "

Then Chen Sheng gestured with both hands and said: "Selling such a small candle for thousands of dollars is simply a money grab."

Ye Teng said seriously: "It seems that next time I catch a whale, I, Kuaiji County, will make my own dragon candle."

He thought he had made a profit, but he did not expect that the person who bought the whale oil would make even more, and the profit would be ten times that of his backhand.

Then Ye Teng continued: "The fish meat of the whale was also bought by the people of this county. It was bought for millions of dollars. Finally, thousands of kilograms of ambergris were found in the belly of the whale, which was sold for thousands of gold. This A whale brought me more than two thousand gold in wealth."

Zhang Liang and others were dumbfounded when they heard this. Kuaiji County was already rich enough, but God actually went after them to feed them. Kuaiji County had taken advantage of all the good things in the world. For a while, Zhang Liang and others looked at it with jealousy. Ye Teng was stunned.

Ye Teng continued: "It is precisely because of this profit that the people of Kuaiji County know that whales are very profitable. If we kill hundreds of whales, we can bring more than 200,000 gold to my man."

Chen Sheng was stunned and said: "Your Kuaiji County will make all the money in the world."

(End of this chapter)