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

Chapter 527: Their respective solutions to the world
On the 15th day of the third month in the 25th year of the Han calendar, at the Military Supervisory Office in Jiujiang County, Zheng Qi and all the disciples of the Legalists and Mohists he brought with him gathered here.

Zheng Qi said, "Everyone has been inspecting Jiujiang County for a month, and we have a preliminary understanding of Jiujiang County. Now let's talk about what we know."

Mo Jia Xiong Ju was the first to speak: "Jiujiang County has an extremely poor industrial base. There is no heavy industry, only some small light industries. At the same time, the number of local craftsmen is small and their skills are extremely poor. It can be said that the craftsmen in Jiujiang County are still living in the era of the Qin Dynasty. It is no wonder that Jiujiang County has failed several times in trying to build a steel plant. Market competition aside, the skills of local craftsmen are not up to standard. The official-run model that we want to promote in Chen County is simply not feasible, because Jiujiang County has only a few workshops, so how can there be a government-private partnership? The Chen County model does not work in Jiujiang County."

The official-private partnership in Chen County was not only the result of the efforts of the Legalists, but also the participation of the Mohists. The two schools of thought were united again in Chen County.

Zheng Qi sighed and said, "I have also noticed that the people of Jiujiang are indeed different from those of Chenjun in terms of their toughness. The foothold of the Jiujiang Reform should still be among the villages."

Xiong Ju said: "The technology of planting is not what my Mohist school is good at. The county supervisor can go to the upper county to invite agricultural scholars."

Zheng Qi said: "I do have this plan."

During the Warring States Period, the two major allies of the Legalists were the Mohists and the Agriculturalists. Now, there is also the intention within the Legalists to reconcile with the Mohists and the Agriculturalists. If the Legalists want to transform the world, they cannot do without technical schools like the Mohists and the Agriculturalists.

Zheng Qi continued, "But in today's world, agriculture is not as profitable as industry. Xiong Mozhe, what profitable industries do you think Jiujiang County can develop under the current circumstances? Only if we can bring benefits to Jiujiang, will the Han officials of Jiujiang County cooperate with us in reforming the law."

Xiong Ju thought for a long time and said, "The only advantage of Jiujiang County in industrial development is its low labor cost. According to statistics, the minimum salary in Jiujiang County is 700 coins, and the monthly salary of local people generally does not exceed 800 coins. The minimum salary standard in Chen County across the river is more than 1500 coins, and the average salary of craftsmen is 2000 coins. In Kuaiji County, the minimum salary is 1700 coins, and the average salary of craftsmen is 2300 coins."

"That is to say, the salary cost of developing labor-intensive textile machines in Jiujiang County is only about 30% to 40% of that in Chen County and Kuaiji County. This is a huge advantage, but the premise for taking advantage of this advantage is that the craftsmen are qualified. As far as the current situation is concerned, most of the young people in Jiujiang County have gone to work in Chen County and Kuaiji County, and most of those who remain are Yue people who have difficulty integrating into the Han Dynasty. It is still worrying whether they can adapt to the job of textile production."

Zheng Qi thought for a while and said, "Then how about we set up a textile technology school in Jiujiang County to train Yue women in textiles? Jiujiang County has a better geographical advantage than Chen County. I want to develop silkworm breeding first and provide raw silk for Chen County and Kuaiji County. After accumulating a certain amount of money, I will develop the textile industry. For agriculture, I will develop the tea industry, convert the mountains and forests into orchards, and develop the canned fruit industry. After all, Kuaiji County is just to the east of Jiujiang County, and sailors cannot do without high-quality canned fruits, and they are wealthy people in the Han Dynasty."

After discussing for a while, they found that Zheng Qi's idea was the most feasible.

Finally, Zhao Yu said, "Brother, we should keep up with the popularization of law. Otherwise, with the tough people in Jiujiang, I'm afraid it will be difficult for this industry to develop. Even if it develops, there will be many bandits who block the road and rob people."

Zheng Qi thought for a moment and said, "All problems still need to be solved through development. I will write a letter to the court, requesting that Jiujiang County recruit 3 construction soldiers to build infrastructure."

This would be easy to handle in the Qin Dynasty. The Qin law was strict and they could simply arrest these fierce Yue people and make them prisoners for infrastructure construction. The people in Guanzhong were much more fierce than the Yue people back then. Qin Mu Gong's horses could be killed at will, but they were still obedient because of the manipulation of the Legalists.

But it is obviously impossible to implement this in the Han Dynasty. However, another way of thinking is the same. Recruit Yue people as soldiers, train them in military discipline, make them infrastructure soldiers, and improve the infrastructure of Jiujiang County. At the same time, after these soldiers come out, they will be qualified craftsmen. At this time, the official workshops are in need of craftsmen. The most important thing is that the Han Dynasty has a three-year compulsory military service system. Recruiting Yue people as soldiers only requires a small allowance, and it is paid by the court. This is no different from the prisoners of the Qin Dynasty. They are almost free labor. His Legalism is to transform the world, not to turn the world into a cage.

After they formulated the entry point for the changes in the official camp, Zheng Qi wrote to the Han court to ask for policies, and at the same time contacted farmers and asked them to send agricultural scholars to guide the people of Jiujiang to establish plantations.

March 17th.

The Han court agreed to Zheng Qi's proposal to recruit 3 infrastructure soldiers in Jiujiang County.

March 20th.

Farmer Ding Yue led hundreds of farming students to Jiujiang County.

Zheng Qi was surprised and asked, "Master Ding, isn't your family in Shangjun? How did you come to Jiujiang County so quickly?"

Ding Yue smiled and said, "Didn't the expedition team get a lot of new crops in the New World? My family has established a crop training base in Kuaiji County. It only takes half a day to get to Jiujiang County by train."

Zheng Qi said: "Jiujiang County has been included in the pilot counties for the reform. Is Master Ding aware of this?"

Ding Yue nodded and said, "I saw it in the Dahan Monthly Report."

Zheng Qi said: "But Jiujiang County's industrial foundation is extremely poor. Chen County's experience in reform is not suitable for Jiujiang County. In Chen County, I plan to use agriculture as the starting point and organize local people to develop mulberry silkworm breeding, build tea and orchards, develop textile industry, tea industry, and fruit canning industry according to local conditions. These are all related to agriculture, so I can only ask farmers for advice."

Ding Yue nodded and said, "Jiujiang County is indeed suitable for developing these industries. As long as it is a move to enrich the people, my farming family has no choice but to help. However, with only one county, there are only a hundred of us who are not able to do it. I will ask my senior brother to send more farmers to the south so that we can organize the people of Jiujiang County to produce in advance."

At this time, Zhao Yu said, "The people of Jiujiang County are tough and sturdy. It is better to wait until the court recruits some soldiers before going to the countryside."

Zhao Yu followed Zheng Qi on a tour of the entire Jiujiang County. This journey almost shattered his three views. He had lived in Guanzhong since he was a child, and it was hard for him to imagine that there was such a lawless place under the rule of the Han Dynasty. He even felt that Jiujiang County was no different from the late Qin Dynasty as written in history. It was too dangerous for Ding Yue to go to the countryside like this.

Ding Yue smiled and said, "As long as we work with the people, they will know that we are farmers, so how can we be dangerous?"

March 22nd, the 25th year of the Han calendar.

Jiujiang County's conscription notices were posted all over Jiujiang's counties, towns, and villages, big and small. The notices clearly stated that Jiujiang County would recruit 3 soldiers in November, and hoped that people from all counties and towns would sign up enthusiastically.

As soon as this news came out, the whole Jiujiang County was in an uproar. The court used to recruit only a few hundred soldiers in Jiujiang, but now it has increased dozens of times. This made the whole Jiujiang County feel like it was a festival. Joining the army in the Han Dynasty was equivalent to passing the imperial examination to become a Han official. This was a morale that could directly change the fate of a family, especially the local Yue people. They had fewer ways to change their fate, and joining the army was the best way. However, the court only had tens of thousands of places to join the army every year, and an average of only a few hundred people were allocated to each county. The difficulty of joining the army was not much different from the imperial examination. As this news spread, people in Jiujiang County who went out to work received letters from their families, asking them to return home before the conscription.

The 25th year of the Han calendar, April 2, Baihua Township, Anfeng County.

The people of Baihua Township are also the Baiyue people. They were the first Baiyue people to surrender to the Han Dynasty. Now they have been integrated into the Han Dynasty for more than 20 years. They can speak Chinese and write Chinese characters fluently. It can be said that they are the same as the Han people. But today, Xiang Qiangfu notified all the villagers of Baihua Township that the agricultural scholars wanted to discuss something with them and asked them to come to the township office.

"Fellow villagers, although there is an abundance of goods in the Han Dynasty's empire, you still have to spend money to buy things. Do you think my statement is correct?" Ding Yue said to the villagers of Lijiaxiang.

An old man said, "Now the boys can only make money by going out, but the colorful world outside is attractive. Our Baihua Township's population has not increased in the past 20 years, and it has even decreased. What's going on?"

Ding Yue said: "It's not that our Jiujiang County is poor. For the same work, you can earn 2000 coins in Kuaiji County, but only 700 coins in Jiujiang County. If you want to make money, you have to leave your hometown."

Everyone present was silent. There were 3,000 people in Baihua Township, but there were not many young and strong people at the scene. Instead, there was a large group of middle-aged people with white hair and a large group of children. It was obvious that the young and strong people were all working outside.

"Yes, what can we do? Jiujiang County is poor, and we can only make money outside. The boys can only leave their wives and children to work in other places, leaving us, the old and the young, behind. But if everyone leaves, what will happen to our village? Our ancestors are all here."

Ding Yue said: "If we want to change this situation, we can only change the backwardness of Baihua Township and allow young people to make money by doing things locally. We farmers want to change the poor appearance of Baihua Township."

"How can we, young and old, change the situation in Baihua Township?"

"One person has little power, but a group of people has great power. We farmers want to organize everyone to form a farming cooperative, that is, everyone works together and harvests together. Farming can only feed you, but it is difficult to make money. But if we unite, we can grow food on part of the land and mulberry trees on part of the land. We can even use the peach mountain outside to make canned peaches, which is also a fortune. This kind of thing cannot be done by one person. It can only be done well when everyone works together."

But the farmers in Baihua Township remained silent. They did not trust Ding Yue. At the beginning, the villagers still trusted the Han officials of Jiujiang County. After all, they were given land when they were recruited to come down from the mountains. At that time, the villagers of Baihua Township had the highest trust in the court. But the Han officials of Jiujiang County always used the excuse of doing good for them. They either asked them to grow sugarcane or spices. As a result, they worked hard for a year but did not make any money. They cheated these villagers badly.

As this kind of thing happened more often, people became skeptical about the good things mentioned above. They might not get rich if they did not follow the court, but at least they would not lose money.

Ding Yue understood the situation and said with a smile: "How about this, my farm will hire you to do some work for 20 coins a day. What do you think?"

His family had encountered too many such things. The poorer the counties on the border, the more the Han officials wanted to develop their political achievements, and the more they would mess up and leave a lot of mess behind. If the court had not had the equal-field system to back it up, so that the people of the Han Dynasty could have a meal, the Han Dynasty would probably have also erupted in rebellion.

The scene suddenly became noisy. This income was not high even in Jiujiang County, but it was very high for Baihua Township. Farmers were not afraid of working hard, but they were afraid that the higher-ups would cheat them out of money, not to mention that this was a daily payment. Even if they didn't get paid, it would just be a day's work in vain.
"Hello, boss!" Many farmers bowed directly to Ding Yue.

Ding Yue was not polite and directly hired hundreds of farmers, and then took them to Taoshan. Taoshan, as the name suggests, is a mountain full of peaches. At this time of spring, peach blossoms are flying on Taoshan. But Ding Yue and other farmers did not understand the customs, and cut down miscellaneous trees and trimmed peach trees.

The villagers were curious and asked Ding Yue why he did this, but Ding Yue smiled and said, "The farmers have already purchased the peach mountain from the court, and now this is to make the peach trees bear better fruits."

The local people secretly laughed at this behavior. By autumn, all the peaches on the mountain could not be eaten up and would have to rot on the mountain. Now there are people who actually buy peach mountains and want more peaches. This is no different from being a fool. However, the villagers can make money from Ding Yue, so naturally they will not tell this matter.

Zhao Yu asked Ding Yue in confusion: "Master Ding, why don't you just give orders to the local people and let them obey the law."

Ding Yue smiled and said, "If we want to organize the people, we must not act too hastily, but must win their trust. Now the local people do not trust us, so we must gain the initiative to organize the people by solving the problems they face and gaining their trust, and by leading them in labor."

Ding Yue sighed and said, "Many things go wrong because of impatience. In a sense, officials have not changed, but there is pressure from the emperor. Even the Han officials have less experience than the Qin officials, and they have to pay more tuition fees."

Ding Yue was hesitant about the official reform. After the reform, although these workshops still had shopkeepers, they were actually controlled by Han officials. Based on the quality of the Han officials, he doubted whether the Han officials could manage the workshops well.

He told Shangnong about his doubts, and Shangnong replied that Han officials were unreliable, but could merchants be trusted?

Ding Yue pondered for a long time, but couldn't figure out which side was better. In the end, he came to the conclusion that they were birds of a feather.

The merchants and farmers also provided a solution for the farmers, which was to organize the farmers so that they had the power to fight against the officials and merchants.

This continued until October, when the farmer built a factory near Baihua Township and hired 30 villagers as craftsmen, and then trained them. The villagers of Baihua Township saw the farmer's people transporting many large pots over,

The next day, Ding Yue once again gathered the farmers in Baihua Township and asked them to pick peaches, also for 20 cents a day. This time, all the people in the township were hired by the farmers, and everyone went up to pick peaches, fearing that they would not be able to enjoy such a good opportunity.

When the villagers excitedly transported peaches down the mountain in large and small bags, they saw that the peaches were washed and made into canned fruit. Each can of fruit was worth ten cents. The villagers saw horse-drawn carriages pulling canned fruit away every day. They could make tens of thousands of dollars a day. This caused a sensation in the entire Baihua Township. They had been eating peaches for decades, but they never thought they would be so valuable, and that they were even earned by outsiders. They were envious and jealous at the same time.

At this time, Ding Yue once again summoned all the villagers in Baihua Township and was willing to sign contracts with 100 households. The villagers occupied % of the cannery's shares with their labor, and the court occupied %. Faced with such a good thing, the selected villagers signed contracts with the cannery.

"This Taoshan belongs to all of us. Why should we only sign the contract with them?" But the other villagers who were not selected were naturally dissatisfied.

At this time, Ding Yue said, "Baihua Township is full of treasures. If we plant tea trees on the two hills of Taoshan, we can become wealthy by selling tea in less than two years. If we plant mulberry trees on this hill, we can raise silkworms and sell silk to make us wealthy. You see, Baihua Township is not poor, but we have not developed the treasures of Baihua Township. The court is willing to develop Baihua Township with you. Are you willing to join my farm's agricultural cooperative?"

With the example of the cannery, the villagers of Baihua Township all enthusiastically joined the farm cooperative.

In the entire Jiujiang County, people from hundreds of villages trusted farmers, joined farmers' cooperatives, and began to be organized by farmers to transform the entire Jiujiang County. They began to build tea gardens, orchards, and mulberry gardens. Although Jiujiang County had entered winter, farmers were everywhere busy transforming their homes.

At the same time, Zheng Qi established an industrial zone in Jiujiang County and welcomed merchants from the Han Dynasty to invest in Jiujiang County.

The situation in Jiujiang County was different from that in Chen County. In Chen County at that time, the imperial court had tens of billions of merchant debts, which were the most valuable wealth of the official and private enterprises. However, Jiujiang County did not have this industrial foundation. The imperial court could not come up with 100 billion yuan and only gave him a policy of not having to pay taxes for 5 years. He could use this money to complete the official reform of Jiujiang County, but even if all the taxes in Jiujiang County were retained locally, it would be less than billion yuan. This amount of money could not solve the problem of lack of industry at all. Instead, he had to find a way to attract investment to solve the problem.

But what Zheng Qi did not expect was that instead of attracting many merchants, a large number of Mohists came to Jiujiang County and planned to open a textile workshop here. They also made an appointment with the Jiujiang County government. Jiujiang County invested 40% of the capital in land and factory buildings, and the Mohists contributed 60% of the capital in technology and funds.

Yes, faced with this new problem of the industrial age, the Mohists also came up with their own solution for governing the world, which was to get rid of factory owners and establish a world composed of craftsmen. To some extent, the Mohists were trying to use chickens to lay eggs, and they also planned to use official reforms to verify their ideas of governing the world.

November 12, the 25th year of the Han calendar.

Each pavilion in Jiujiang County was filled with young and strong men who wanted to join the army. The selection was extremely difficult in the past, but this year it was almost a choice between two. A large number of Yue people became members of the Han army with excitement and received three months of recruit training in the Jiujiang County military camp.

When they were full of expectations and thought that they would go to the frontier to make achievements, they did not expect that their captain would throw a shovel to them and ask them to repair the highway in Jiujiang County. It was only then that they were shocked to find that the Han Dynasty actually had a type of soldier called construction soldiers.

April 12th, the 26th year of the Han calendar.

The county military supervisory office and meeting hall.

Zheng Qi, Ding Yue and Xiong Ju were the three giants sitting at the top, and below them were several hundred Han officials from Jiujiang County.

Zheng Qi said angrily, "I don't know where this evil trend came from recently. It's said that mustard greens can be used to feed silkworms. It's also said that silkworms that eat mustard greens grow very fast. It's so amazing that you dare to slander that it was said by Master Ding. Do you have brains? You dare to believe such unfounded rumors. There are also idiots who order villagers to grow mustard greens. Are you still from Jiangnan? Even if you haven't raised silkworms, you have seen others raise silkworms. Have you ever seen silkworms eating mustard greens? You don't have the spirit of seeking truth from facts. You don't even remember what the emperor said. Do you still want to be officials of my Han Dynasty?"

It was no wonder that Zheng Qi was so angry. After more than a year of hard work, the people of Jiujiang County finally had some trust in them, and mulberry gardens, tea gardens, and orchards were being built rapidly everywhere.

At the same time, mulberry silkworm cooperatives were also established. This year, the number of mulberry silkworms in the entire Jiujiang County exceeded ten times that of previous years. This led to a shortage of mulberry leaves in Jiujiang County. After all, the mulberry garden had just been opened and needed a certain amount of time to grow. As a result, a rumor came from somewhere that mustard greens could also be used to raise silkworms. As a result, the anxious local Han officials really took it as a life-saving straw, and began to order farmers to grow mustard greens to solve the problem of insufficient mulberry leaves.

In fact, most of the Han officials thought that raising silkworms with mustard greens was problematic. At this time in the Han Dynasty, only a few high-dimensional northerners had never raised silkworms (Linzi County was the silk production center at this time, which shows how mild the climate was). Everyone had raised silkworms in their childhood, and they had never seen anyone raising silkworms with mustard greens.

But the trend had already started. In the beginning, there were only a few Han officials who asked the people under their jurisdiction to grow mustard. When the Han officials from other counties saw this, they also joined in, thinking that they could do something good. However, their joining surprised the other Han officials. They were worried that they would be the outliers, and based on the idea that the law should not hold everyone responsible, they also ordered the farmers under their command to grow some mustard.

So Ding Yue, who was inspecting the countryside, was surprised to find that the mustard planting in Jiujiang County was increasing. After asking the villagers, he realized that he had said that mustard could also be used to raise silkworms?
At this time, the mustard planting area in the entire Jiujiang County exceeded 10,000 acres. It is not an exaggeration to say that Jiujiang County is now the hometown of mustard.

Hundreds of Han officials in Jiujiang County were scolded by Zheng Qi, but no one dared to say a word, because Zheng Qi could be said to be the uncrowned king of Jiujiang County. News had come from the court that County Magistrate Yao Yuan would retire next year, and the new Jiujiang County prefect would be the county military supervisor Zheng Qi, who would continue to promote the reform in Jiujiang County.

After this news reached Jiujiang County, Yao Yuan began to hand over the government affairs of Jiujiang County to Zheng Qi. Now all that was left was a formal appointment.

(End of this chapter)