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

Chapter 529 Rapid Development

The 29th year of the Han calendar, April 1st, Shouchun Wharf.

A steam transport ship loaded with silk slowly left Shouchun.

Zheng Qi said reluctantly, "Did the Chenjun Steel Plant agree to send its best craftsmen to help us build the steel plant?"

Xiong Ju said: "I assure the county governor that I will use the best craftsman and the best equipment."

Zheng Qi had been in Jiujiang County for four years and had been the prefect for three years. During these three years, Zheng Qi joined forces with the Farmers' School and the Mohists to carry out earth-shaking transformation of Jiujiang County.

After purging the Han officials, he took agriculture as the starting point of the reform. He supported farmers in establishing agricultural cooperatives in Jiujiang County and organized farmers who were in the status of self-cultivating farmers. Under the leadership of these farmers, he transformed the barren hills into mulberry gardens and directly placed the silkworm houses near the mulberry gardens. He learned the advanced experience of Chen County and established special processes and personnel for both the transformation of mulberry gardens and silkworm breeding. Such division of labor and cooperation greatly improved production efficiency. More importantly, it increased the scale of mulberry silkworm breeding in the entire Jiujiang County by 20 times.

At the same time, Jiujiang County was connected to Chen County's industrial chain, providing raw materials for the huge Chen County textile industry.

In the 1th year of the Han Dynasty, Jiujiang County provided dan of raw silk to Chen County.

In the 27th year of the Han calendar, after a year and a half of transformation, the production capacity of raw silk in Jiujiang County skyrocketed to 90,000 shi.

In the 28th year of the Han calendar, the raw silk production capacity of Jiujiang County doubled again, reaching 200,000 shi.

By this year, the annual output of spring silk alone has reached more than 6 stones, and Jiujiang County can raise mulberry silkworms all year round. The raw silk industry alone has made Jiujiang County earn billion yuan, and the income of tens of thousands of people in this industry chain has doubled in three years. Now more and more young people in Jiujiang County have begun to stay in their hometown to work.

Although the income in their hometown is still not as high as that in Chen County, the gap is not as huge as it was three years ago. These young people are willing to work with their relatives even if the income is lower. With the participation of these young and strong people, the farmers began to organize the people of Jiujiang County to build water conservancy projects, repair rural roads and other infrastructure. The countryside of Jiujiang County finally looks a bit like Chen County.

The industries developed in Jiujiang County are not limited to raw silk. Under the regulation of farmers, Jiujiang County has added 30 mu of tea gardens and 10 mu of orchards in three years. The tea making industry and canning industry have begun to develop in Jiujiang County and brought Jiujiang County huge profits. Jiujiang County is backed by Kuaiji County, and tea is one of the pillars of the Han Dynasty's maritime trade. Although Jiujiang tea is not famous, Zheng Qi's main attraction is its low price and its production capacity is close to Kuaiji County.

Many sea merchants from Kuaiji County liked to take the train to Jiujiang County and sign purchase contracts with the owners of tea gardens and tea factories under the supervision of the county governor's office. For these sea merchants, the higher price of tea was not a problem at all. The key was to ensure quality and quantity, not to mention that the tea from Jiujiang County was of high quality and low price.

For the tea farmers in Jiujiang County, they had found a sales market before their tea was even produced, so they did not have to worry about sales at all. For the new tea farmers in Jiujiang County, this was no less than playing the novice mode in the game of market economy. More importantly, with the deposits from these sea merchants, they had sufficient funds to transform the tea gardens, solving their problem of insufficient production funds.

This is even better for Jiujiang County. Not to mention that they own four floors of shares in the tea garden, and as the tea industry develops, the taxes will increase several times. In this way, half of the profits of the tea industry belong to them. In the past three years, the tea tax in Jiujiang County has increased 12 times. Of course, they attach importance to the development of the tea industry. Zheng Qi even ambitiously wants to set standards for tea gardens in Jiujiang County to obtain the greatest benefits.

The canning industry in Jiujiang County has the best timing, location and people. Jiujiang County is a place with abundant fruits, and oranges and peaches are everywhere in the mountains and plains. There is an old saying that oranges grown in the south of the Huai River are called oranges, while oranges grown in the north of the Huai River are called chi. During the Spring and Autumn Period hundreds of years ago, oranges from Huainan were famous all over the world.

What makes Jiujiang County better than other places is that its production and consumption areas are extremely close. After the canned food in Jiujiang is manufactured, it can reach Kuaiji County in one day. Whether by land or water, the cost of land transportation is extremely low. In addition, Jiujiang County has large-scale planting, the local people have low salaries, and there are the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal. It can be said that it has a unique advantage in developing this resource-intensive and labor-intensive light industry.

During the four years since Zheng Qi came to Jiujiang County, the county's fiscal revenue has tripled, exceeding 2 billion coins, and has risen from the bottom county in the Han Dynasty to the middle position.

Compared with the official reforms in Chen County, there is a large amount of private capital. Even now, private capital in Chen County is still relatively active. Although private capital in Chen County is scattered and guerrilla, they are their own industry, and even under the advantages of Chen County's industrial chain, they can survive with difficulty.

Jiujiang County was really a place with a high-end economy. There were not many workshop owners in the local area. Most of the industries were owned by feudal officials. After several rounds of purges by Zheng and Qi, these industries were basically under the control of Jiujiang County Government. Due to various factors, there were not many private factory owners in Jiujiang County. There were collective workshops led by Mohists and government-run workshops, as well as agricultural cooperatives led by farmers. Compared with Chen County, the economic model of Jiujiang County was more like that of later generations.

But the wealth brought by agriculture and light industry only stops there. Starting this year, Zheng Qi can clearly feel that Jiujiang County's development has reached its limit and it is difficult to achieve explosive growth. If it wants to continue to develop rapidly, it can only enter the upstream of the industrial chain, such as weaving raw silk into silk and directly processing silk into clothes. This can bring billions of wealth to Jiujiang County.

Zheng Qi did the same. Last year, he invested all the money from selling raw silk and tea into the textile industry. He imported a large number of the most advanced steam looms from Chen County and established a large textile industrial zone in Shouchun. He produced 100,000 tons of silk that year. Although these silks were all cheap sea trade goods, it was already a good start.

This year, Zheng Qi wants to develop the steel industry. There is no other way. Ever since the Han Dynasty decided to replace wooden tracks with iron tracks, the steel industry has entered its golden age. There is a rumor among the people of the Han Dynasty that one furnace of steel is worth one furnace of gold.

Although because of Xu Fan's suppression, the Shaofu of the Han Dynasty restricted the government from building steel mills on a large scale, lamenting that the industry's expansion speed could not keep up with market demand, the profits of the steel industry skyrocketed, attracting a lot of capital. The Han Dynasty court could restrict the Shaofu, but the people of the Han Dynasty were not subject to the restrictions. As a result, the coal bosses and mine bosses had accumulated some money over the years, and they felt that mining was too unsafe, so they invested their money in the steel industry.

The merchants have made hundreds of millions of dollars and feel that they are the ones wearing shoes. It is too unsafe to continue risking their lives on the sea, especially now that there are more and more pirates on the sea, their artillery is becoming more and more powerful, especially there are foreign pirates, although they are poorly equipped, they value money more than life.

Now, every year, many sea merchants in Dahan have retired after making enough money, but they cannot just live off their savings. After inspecting various industries in Dahan, they found that the steel industry is the most profitable. The most important thing is that the steel industry is a capital-intensive, technology-intensive, and talent-intensive industry. No one can squeeze into this market, so it is suitable for wealthy and powerful merchants like them.

What is more crucial is that this market has a promising future. Based on the current calculation that Han Dynasty adds 300 miles of railway tracks every year, the bonus period of the steel industry will last at least one hundred years, and five generations of wealth can be expected. Such a hard-core crop will naturally be welcomed.

The people of Jiujiang County were all thinking about entering the steel industry. They were not willing to just be miners and wanted to enter the more profitable steel industry.

Zheng Qi said anxiously, "This is the wealth accumulated by the people of Jiujiang County after a year of hard work. We can't let it go wrong. The Accounting Bureau has been warning private merchants that the steel industry is overinvested. Is there a risk now?"

The steel mill is different from other light industrial workshops. If he built a textile mill, he could make his investment back in three years at most. But this time, he almost used up all of Jiujiang County's annual raw silk profits to build a steel mill, and it would be difficult to make his investment back in less than ten years.

Xiong Ju said: "County Governor, it is impossible to do business without taking risks, but since the court has approved our Jiujiang County steel plant, I think the current risks are controllable. And judging from the current development of Jiujiang County, if we want to continue to move forward and let the people of Jiujiang County live the same life as the people of Chen County and Kuaiji County, our Jiujiang County must enter these high-profit industries. A silk craftsman has a salary of only 1500 coins at most, but a steel craftsman has a salary of 5000 coins. For this 5000 salary, we have to move forward with difficulty." Zheng Qi sighed: "Yes, if industrial development does not advance, it will retreat. Who would have thought that in just a few years, my Jiujiang County would compete with Chen County for silk and with Nan County for the tea market. Although every industry can make money, every industry is also under great pressure."

Xiong Ju comforted him, "My Jiujiang County model is better than other counties in the Han Dynasty. I even think it is better than the Chen County model. The wealth accumulated by the industrial development of Jiujiang County in the past three years has either been used by us to develop industry or obtained by the people of Jiujiang County. When the people get money, they will buy all kinds of goods. This is the reason why Jiujiang County has a booming supply and sales this year."

"I think the economic model of Jiujiang County is the most perfect. The wealth brought by industrial expansion has been perfectly retained by Jiujiang County, and the remaining accumulation has been used by us to develop industries. The wealth of the entire Jiujiang County is in circulation, and there is no saving at all. Under this model, the speed at which our Jiujiang County accumulates wealth far exceeds that of other counties in the Han Dynasty, and even exceeds that of Chen County, because Chen County still has wealthy businessmen with assets of hundreds of millions, while in our Chen County, although there is a gap in wealth, it is not hundreds or thousands of times like in other counties in the Han Dynasty."

"We use our wealth to strengthen our own industries. Although the industrial system of Jiujiang County is still weak, as long as we accumulate more and increase it faster, we will sooner or later catch up with the industrial counties of the Han Dynasty, and even Chen County is not impossible."

Zheng Qi thought about it carefully for a long time and found that there was really no loophole in Xiong Ju's statement. Most of the dividends from industrial development in other counties and prefectures of the Han Dynasty were divided up by factory owners, and the money used to develop industries was naturally not as good as theirs. In the short term, nothing can be seen, but if there is a long-term competition, Jiujiang County will definitely win.

On May 1st, the 29th year of the Han calendar, the city of Qishi was established on the Yinzhou continent.

As the sun slowly rose and the roosters continued to crow, Wang Lei slowly opened his eyes and walked down from his bed.

His three Yinzhou wives had already prepared toiletries for him. He took the toothbrush and cup prepared by his eldest wife and quickly cleaned his mouth with salt.

Then he took the towel from his second wife and washed up.

Finally, his concubine brought him breakfast, a small bowl of rice porridge, a boiled egg and two corns, which was his breakfast for the day.

The most expensive of these are rice porridge and eggs, which are 10 times more expensive than those in the Han Dynasty. In the starting city, only wealthy families can afford them.

Then the whole family sat together and had a lively breakfast. After breakfast, Wang Lei led the ox out of the cowshed and walked towards his own field. On the way, his neighbors kept greeting Wang Lei, and Wang Lei also waved back enthusiastically.

"This is the life I want." Wang Lei sighed.

Wang Lei is a citizen of Julu County. His father is an honest farmer there. He has never had any great ability or luck in his life. The best thing that happened to him in his life was that he caught up with the Han Dynasty's equal distribution of land and had 100 acres of land. Wang's father worked hard for more than ten years, built a new house, got married, and had five boys in a row. This was his greatest achievement in life. Every time Wang's father talked about this, he was extremely proud. As the only child in two generations of the Wang family, his father was worried that the Wang family would be extinct in his generation. But with his efforts, not only did the family survive, but he also gave birth to five big fat boys, which expanded the Wang family.

But as these boys grew up, the Wang family began to live in poverty, especially Wang Lei's eldest brother. After his second brother got married, he almost exhausted the family savings in order to build new houses for his two older brothers.

When Wang Lei came of age, it was difficult for him to get married. The young ladies in Julu County all envied the city life and wanted to marry city men. Naturally, a country boy like Wang Lei was not welcome.

At this time, news came from the New World, saying that there were silver mountains in the New World and that one could make a fortune by going there. Wang Lei gritted his teeth and took some food with him and rushed to Linzi County, where he was recruited by Cao Qiu. He was one of the first Han people to come to the New World.

He didn't know how long he had been on the boat. He was dizzy from vomiting, and he didn't know how long it took before someone informed him that they had arrived at the New World.

They went to the New World to look for a silver mine, and they actually found it. Master Cao hired them to dig for silver with a salary of ten thousand coins.

This price made the poor boy Wang Lei crazy. He had been digging silver mines in Yinshan for more than half a year and earned 6 coins. At the same time, he also privately stored more than ten kilograms of silver. His savings exceeded 10 coins. This was considered a wealthy man in Julu Territory.

This made Wang Lei sigh that life is unpredictable. His family had accumulated money for more than ten years in Dahan, but they still couldn't accumulate 10 yuan. However, he earned 10 yuan in just half a year in the New World. Although his father and brother worked hard, it was too difficult to earn 10 yuan in Dahan, but they could easily do it in the New World. It turns out that sometimes choice is more important than hard work.

Just when he was planning to make silver mining his lifelong career, an accident occurred. Dozens of miners were buried in a mining accident. Even though they dug and rescued day and night, they eventually dug out more than 20 bodies, and seven people were still missing.

This was a great shock to Wang Lei, because most of these miners were his acquaintances, and many of them took good care of him, but they died just like that. It was then that Wang Lei realized that although mining silver could make money, it could cost him his life.

At this time, Wang Lei began to miss his previous farming life. He took all his savings and returned to the starting city to register to be a farmer. The Han officials in the starting city gave him a 1-acre wasteland, five Yinzhou natives, and prepared farm tools for him.
Wang Lei used his accumulated money to buy Yinzhou cattle and various advanced farm tools. Sometimes he even went to the surrounding Yinzhou tribes and hired a dozen young and strong men to help him open up the fields. It took him five years to reclaim 500 acres of land and he became a famous small landlord in Qishi Town. At the same time, he also found a young wife in the Yinzhou tribe, who gave birth to two sons and a daughter for him. He lived a life similar to his father. He was very satisfied with his current life and wanted it to continue like this.

When Wang Lei was recalling his life, he suddenly noticed a trail of dust not far away. An army was marching towards the city with hundreds of Yinzhou wild buffaloes. There were dozens of ox carts behind the team, all loaded with dead buffaloes.

Wang Lei saw this scene and said enviously: "Liu Junhou, you are back from hunting again. You must keep one of these calves for me."

Liu Ruyi smiled and said, "This wild bull is strong and hard to tame. It is not comparable to my buffalo or yellow cattle. Even if it is a calf, it is very strong."

Wang Lei laughed and said, "If you are not strong, I don't want you. Wear a bull nose ring. No matter how strong you are, you have to listen to me. I have 500 acres of land. I can't plow it without a bull."

Liu Ruyi smiled and said, "You can just apply to the Governor's Office."

After six years of development, Qishi City has become the largest city in the entire Yinzhou continent. There are 14 people in the city, including 700 soldiers from the Governor's Office, half of whom are naturalized Han people. The surrounding land has exceeded one million acres, and these fields are all high-quality fertile land with canals built. In one fell swoop, Qishi City has become the largest grain producing area in the New World. The year before last, a large amount of saltpeter was discovered in southern Yinzhou continent, which can be used as potash fertilizer, increasing the production capacity of Qishi City by %, and grain production has reached an unprecedented level of million shi.

(End of this chapter)