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

Chapter 545, The project and obstacles of the vegetable basket

The 30th year of the Han calendar, May 16th, Prince’s Palace.

Xu Aimin read all the strategies of Liu Heng and others, and then smiled at Zhang Pijiang and Jia Yi and said, "As expected of the elites of the academy, everyone has something to say. It shows that everyone knows about the housing problem and has even found many solutions. It's just that the court has not solved the problem of money, so it has not been implemented."

Many ideas such as self-built houses and temporary residence permits were not what he had thought of, and yet they seemed to be effectively implemented.

However, Xu Aimin most approved of Yuan Ang's strategy. There was no other reason. This strategy could make money and was most in line with Xu Fan's statement.

Then Xu Aimin said seriously: "From today on, we must take action. Jia Qing, I appoint you as the Minister of Internal Affairs, and you will be in charge of planning the industrial chain integration plan for the factories under the Internal Affairs Bureau."

Jia Yi suppressed his excitement and said, "Yes!"

Then Xu Aimin looked at Zhang Pijiang and said, "I plan to set up a construction department in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Pijiang, you will be the commander of the department and be responsible for the land management in Chang'an. You will work with Jia Yi to demolish the relocated factories and build new market areas. All buildings will be five stories high or higher. In addition to the houses for the local people, the rest will be sold to make up for the houses built. Chang'an is the capital, and there will be no shortage of buyers for houses."

Zhang Pijiang hesitated and asked, "Your Highness wants to allow farmers who come to Chang'an City to work to buy houses in Chang'an City?"

Xu Aimin shook his head and said, "I also know that the housing prices in Chang'an City are so high that farmers can't afford them. These houses are built to make money, and then the money earned is used to build guarantee houses for craftsmen. In order to save land, the houses are built to 7 stories high. The residents of a building share a toilet and kitchen. As long as the farmers who come to Chang'an spend 200 coins, they can move in. A house is divided into seven floors, each floor has 8 rooms, and each room has 4 people. In this way, one house can accommodate 224 people, and the people of Chang'an City can't live in such staff houses. The court only needs to build 1000 such houses in Chang'an City to meet the living needs of 22 farmers, which is enough to meet the living needs of most working farmers. So in order to build such craftsmen's houses, you, the construction department, must find a way to make money, build some high-quality and high-priced houses to sell to rich households, and then use this money to build a batch of houses that can meet basic living needs and rent them to farmers. These houses do not need to make money, as long as the rent can cover the construction costs of the houses."

Zhang Pijiang nodded and said, "It's a good idea to use houses to compensate for houses."

Starting from May 17th, the servants in the Prince's Mansion also received their tasks.

Among them, Liu Heng, Li Qiang, Li Hao and Gao Di were formed into a four-person team, responsible for building a high-standard off-season vegetable garden in Chang'an City.

Li Qiang frowned when he heard the task and asked, "How big of an off-season vegetable garden does Your Highness want us to build?"

Liu Heng said: "From what your Highness meant, the bigger the better. Now the internal history reform needs money. Your Highness means to build off-season vegetable greenhouses. On the one hand, it can solve the problem of Chang'an people eating vegetables in winter, and on the other hand, it can accumulate some money for the internal history. "

Li Qiang said, "Off-season vegetables are not uncommon in Chang'an City, but the cost of construction is too high, so it has not been popularized. One square meter of glass costs 529 coins, and one acre of off-season vegetables requires glass worth about 10 coins. Add the steel support and labor costs, and the cost of such a greenhouse exceeds coins. What is the budget your highness has given us?"

As Xu Fan's patent expired, the price of glass began to plummet. After all, the price of coal was not high. There were also factories specializing in the manufacture of silicon dioxide and soda ash in Chang'an. These two kinds of raw materials were not difficult to find. At the beginning, because the price of glass was high, but the technical difficulty was not great, and the investment was very small, the cost of building a glass factory was not even as high as that of a flour mill, but the profit was very high. As a result, everyone in the Han Dynasty who had some spare money wanted to invest in the glass industry and wanted to seize the industry. There were glass factories in almost every county of the Han Dynasty, and there were more than one. There were hundreds of glass factories of all sizes in the Han Dynasty.

Such a high investment naturally caused the price of glass to plummet. Now the price of a square meter of glass in Dahan is only more than 500 coins, which is completely different from the price of gems that Xu Fan sold glass for. Of course, after two bankruptcies and integrations, Dahan's glass industry has temporarily maintained stability, and the low price has instead rapidly expanded the glass market.

Now the main usage is to use it as glass windows in various houses to solve the problem of indoor lighting, especially in Chang'an City, the use of glass windows has become a trend, because Chang'an City has a high income, even ordinary families can afford to buy some glass to decorate their homes, and after the lighting is transparent, it can also reduce the consumption of lamp oil. To some extent, installing glass windows is always beautiful and practical. Now about one-tenth of the houses in Chang'an City have installed glass windows. This is an extremely huge market, so there are the most glass factories around Chang'an. They have technology, market and capital.

Of course, it's not that no one sells at the price of gems. The Han Dynasty's maritime merchants like to buy some glass beads and then use them to fool the natives of other continents. Of course, this kind of business of deceiving fools can only be done once. By the second year, even the natives will not be fooled. This method can only make a maximum of 100 yuan.

Liu Heng said: "One million coins."

Liu Heng was even a little glad that the prince was asking them to build a glass greenhouse. He remembered that his father also wanted to build a glass greenhouse in the early years. It was not very big, just a few acres of land, and it was built in the Peihou Mansion. But such a small glass greenhouse cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, just to eat a few kilograms of vegetables in winter. Later, when the brothers grew up, one broke a piece of glass, and the other broke a piece of glass, and the glass greenhouse worth hundreds of thousands of dollars was gradually useless. The high cost of glass is also the reason why off-season vegetables are difficult to popularize.

Li Hao frowned and said, "The best-selling off-season vegetable is cabbage. Off-season cabbage can be planted three times and harvested 600 kilograms. The price of cabbage in winter is as low as 20 coins per kilogram and as high as 30 coins per kilogram. Even if we calculate it at the highest price, the income for one winter is only 18000 coins. One acre of glass greenhouse vegetables can only make 2 coins a year, and this does not include the land cost and labor cost. Otherwise, it will take seven or eight years for the greenhouse to pay back. Does the prince really want to make money with off-season vegetables?"

Liu Heng was speechless when he heard this. He knew that the prince had high hopes for the vegetable greenhouse and wanted to use off-season vegetables to make money to provide funds for the reform. "Is there no valuable off-season vegetables?"

Gao Di said, "Yes, there are. They are watermelons. The price of off-season watermelons is about 40 coins. Moreover, the production capacity of watermelons is high. One acre of watermelons can produce 2000 catties of watermelons. In this way, one acre of greenhouse can earn about 8 coins in one winter. However, the only drawback of watermelons is that the production capacity is too high. If too many are planted and unsalable, the price will drop quickly. In summer, watermelons cost one coin and two catties. Therefore, we must grasp the time and start planting watermelons in August. When the cold winter comes in November, watermelons will be on the market. The price is the highest at this time. And we have to hope that no one else is planting watermelons. One watermelon costs four or five hundred coins. Even the people in Chang'an can hardly afford it."

Li Hao thought for a while and said, "It's not very stable to just grow watermelons. With the money we have, we can build a 10-acre glass greenhouse and grow some of each vegetable. This way, we can better adjust the price of vegetables."

Liu Heng said, "Then we will plant watermelons on half of the land and other vegetables on the remaining half. It is already mid-May and we have limited time. We need to choose fields, buy fiberglass supports, and hire craftsmen to build glass greenhouses. We need to split up and leave the construction of the glass greenhouse to Li Qiang and me, while you and Gao Di will be responsible for preparing for planting and teaching the farmers."

Li Hao and others said: "Yes!"

After assigning the tasks, Liu Heng, in the spirit of keeping the wealth within the family, gave the glass order directly to the glass factory controlled by the Internal Secretary. These people knew that Liu Heng was working for the crown prince, so they gave him 8% of the price and helped them transport the glass to Shanglin Garden. Then they went to the steel plant to order steel brackets. Chang'an was very experienced in building glass greenhouses.

The trend of off-season vegetables was first started by Xu Fan, and later the wealthy people in the Han Dynasty also built some glass greenhouses, but they were very small in scale, and were used by these wealthy businessmen themselves or given to their relatives for consumption. There were very few off-season vegetables in the market. Farmers could not afford such things because the price of glass was too high. It was too costly to grow an acre of off-season vegetables, so most of the glass greenhouses were owned by wealthy families, and theirs might be the only glass greenhouse that was purely for the market.

After purchasing the construction materials, Liu Heng and his team began to build the vegetable greenhouse. The construction was not too difficult. After the steel frame was built, the glass could be installed. Before the end of July, the glass greenhouse was completed. Then Liu Heng reclaimed the land, spread fertilizer and seeds, and watched the vegetables grow. Liu Heng and his team of vegetable baskets could only be said to have touched the surface of Chang'an City, so there were no obstacles along the way. They successfully completed their predetermined goals. The next step was to wait for the growth and harvest of these off-season vegetables.

Chang'an City, Guangming Glass Factory, factory director's office.

Jia Yi came in with a gloomy face and said, "Director Qian, our county's Shaofu has informed you that the glass factory will be relocated to Pinyang County. The new factory building has been built there, and even a special glass industrial zone has been established. The Internal History Office plans to move the entire glass industry to Pinyang County to form economies of scale and industrial clusters. The county magistrate has been waiting for you for more than two months, but you just sent a few craftsmen to the new factory building and let you use it as a warehouse. Why don't you obey your highness's order?"

It was no wonder that Jia Yi looked so ugly. When Jia Yi approached the magistrate of Pinyang County and asked them to build a new factory to accommodate Guangming Glass Factory, the magistrate was so excited that he almost swore brotherhood with Jia Yi. Guangming Glass Factory had an annual output value of more than 30 million yuan, which was not worth mentioning in Chang'an City, but it was the largest factory in Pinyang County. After Guangming Glass Factory came, it could provide tens of millions of taxes, occupying more than a quarter of Pinyang County, which was enough for his excellent assessment. Not to mention that Jia Yi also said that he wanted to build them into the glass industry base of the entire Guanzhong, which would be a golden rice bowl falling from the sky.

As a result, Pinyang County waited for almost two months before only a few craftsmen arrived. The factory building they had built at great expense was used as a warehouse. There were actually only a few factories in the so-called glass industrial zone.

This was not a joke. Even though Jia Yi was the prince's confidant, people in Pinyang County did not look at Jia Yi well. It was also very expensive to build an industrial zone. They were busy for several months and spent a lot of money, but got nothing.

Director Qian calmly took a sip of tea and said, "Glass is a fragile product and cannot be transported. The largest glass consumption market in the world is Chang'an City. We, Guangming Glass Factory, will not stay in Chang'an City, but will go to the small county town of Pinyang. Shaofu Cheng, this is not how you do business."

Jia Yi said: "But the labor cost in Pinyang County is low, more than half of that in Chang'an City. The cost savings of craftsmen can increase the profits of your glass factory. Moreover, the entire Guanzhong area is now connected by train, so it is not a problem to transport goods from Pinyang to Chang'an City."

"What do you mean it's not a problem? This is the biggest problem. Our craftsmen are all from Chang'an City. Would they abandon their families to live in the small county of Pinyang? A large number of these craftsmen are meritorious officials of the court. Do you want to dismiss them? Moreover, our Sunshine Glass Factory is doing well in Chang'an City. Why should we leave? Moreover, Chang'an County does not want us to leave. You will offend people if you insist on your own way and do not conform to the group."

There were many internal oppositions to the transfer of Chang'an City's industrial chain. The first opposition force came from Chang'an County. The Han Dynasty wanted to assess their performance. If they collected 10 billion in taxes last year and only million this year, it would basically be a mediocre evaluation, which would affect one's career. Naturally, the Han officials in Chang'an City did not want their factories to be moved out.

Secondly, the factory craftsmen and managers who were relocated also opposed it. Working in Chang'an City and working outside Chang'an City are completely different things. They were simply unwilling to leave Chang'an City, not to mention that their homes were also in Chang'an City.

Jia Yi, who was in charge of this matter, was young and had no prestige. With the efforts of many parties, the restructuring of the industrial chain of Neishi County was basically on paper.

But Jia Yi did not give up. Instead, he found Xu Aimin and said, "Your Highness, you can let the workshops of the inner court move first. With the inner court taking a good lead, the reorganization of the inner court industry can reduce many obstacles."

"How do I transfer?"

Jia Yi immediately became alert when he heard this and said, "The carriage factory of the Neiku can be moved to Huaide County, which is closer to the Central Plains and can boost the sales of the carriage factory. The glass factory can be moved to Pinyang County, and the luggage factory can be moved to Lantian, which is closer to the south. The workshops of the Neifu are at the upstream of the industrial chain, and we can order the downstream parts factories to move with them and tell them that if they don't move, the Neiku project will find new parts suppliers locally, forcing them to leave Chang'an City."

"As long as we complete the industrial chain migration and move the factories to other counties, we can create a small but fine industrial cluster county, and create more than a dozen industrially strong counties in Neishi County."

Xu Aimin said: "I will inform the inner treasury manager to do as you say."

Xu Fan took the lead in every change. His words and deeds made Xu Aimin recognize his leading behavior, which was the best way to reduce conflicts.

Jia Yi said excitedly: "Your Highness is wise."

Zhang Pijiang said, "The reason why the Han officials in the Internal Affairs Bureau are blocking the redistribution of industries is mainly because they are worried about the decline in tax revenue in Chang'an City. Your Highness is trying to make up for this decline in income. I think they will not oppose it so fiercely. Your Majesty has not developed a clock and a steam tractor during this period, which requires large-scale production. Why don't you ask the emperor to leave these two factories to our Internal Affairs Bureau? With these two emergency projects, there will be fewer voices of opposition."

Zhang Pijiang was worried that Jia Yi would create even bigger conflicts. The factories in the Neiku were not easy to move. These workshops of the emperor were high-profit and high-value-added industries. In particular, the emperor set an example by not only paying various taxes but also paying the most asset tax. For factories with the same output value, the emperor's family could match the output of three other such factories. The relocation of the Neiku factories itself was damaging the interests of the Han officials in Chang'an City.

After thinking for a while, Zhang Pijiang said: "Your Highness should go to His Majesty's laboratory more often. There are countless treasures hidden there. As long as you can pull out a few industries that can create wealth, the resistance below will naturally decrease."

Xu Aimin thought for a moment and said, "I can ask my father for help, but if the Han officials in Chang'an are still not satisfied, I also have thunderbolt methods. Now I finally understand why my father always cleans up the officialdom before implementing a policy. If I don't kill the chicken to scare the monkey first, these Han officials will not do things honestly. If they can't even unify their thoughts, how can my policy be passed on?"

Xu Aimin had not expected that even the transfer of an internal industry in the Nei Shi would be so troublesome. When thinking of the Han Dynasty's vast territory and hundreds of millions of people, he found it hard to imagine how his father balanced the conflicts among so many people.

Then he looked at Zhang Pijiang and said, "How is the situation of your construction? Are the people below not hindering your actions?"

Zhang Pijiang shook his head and said, "Renovating Chang'an is something everyone wants, and no one is blocking it. During this period, I have inspected the major districts in Chang'an City and decided to start the first batch of renovations from Yangshuli. According to my calculations, the cost of transforming Yangshuli into a district favored by wealthy families will be more than 5000 million coins. During the construction period, the cost of resettling the people will be roughly around million."

Xu Aimin felt a bit of a headache when he heard this number. Even as the Internal Secretary, it would be difficult for him to come up with so much money.

Zhang Pijiang also knew this, and he said: "I plan to raise this money in the stock market. The court will take 40% of the shares at the price of the land, and then raise another 400 million yuan from the stock market as construction costs and resettlement costs for the people. The construction period is one year. After the new city is built, 30% of the houses will be used as resettlement houses, and the remaining 70% can be sold, which can double the profit. I think merchants are willing to invest."

(End of this chapter)