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

Chapter 553: Infrastructure Plan for the Han Area

Li Shang's proposal made all the governors look unhappy, especially those in remote small counties. They also built some steel mills by taking advantage of the boom in the steel industry brought by the railway construction. However, due to technical and financial reasons, most of these steel mills were small steel mills with a capacity of 5 or 10 shi. There were very few steel mills with a capacity of 20 shi. They even had some small blast furnaces with a capacity of 10 jin, which had not been demolished because of the profits. This time, the court demolished all blast furnaces below jin. For many small counties, this almost destroyed all their heavy industries.

The only one who looked normal among this group of people was Zheng Qi and other three counties that had carried out the government-run reform. This economic crisis affected the entire Han Dynasty, and they were naturally affected. However, all the factories in the three counties were adjusted. Faced with the reduction of external markets, they immediately chose to reduce production in the consumer industry, and explained the economic crisis to all the craftsmen. While retaining only the most basic wages, all the dividends and benefits of everyone were cut to save the company's costs. At the same time, they carried out internal infrastructure expansion and production capacity, formulated a railway network plan connecting the three counties, and a plan to build two Yangtze River bridges. At the same time, the three counties formed three 10-level reclamation teams to reclaim wasteland in Wuling County and Lingling County. According to the plan of the three counties, these three reclamation teams will build three -acre rubber plantations to meet the three counties' demand for rubber resources.

Such a planned economy serving more than 300 million people showed strong vitality in resisting economic crises. Compared with other groups of artisans who were all collecting unemployment benefits, the employment market in the three counties was extremely sufficient. After a series of combined punches, the domestic demand of the three counties filled the gap in foreign demand. In the somewhat panicked situation of the Han Dynasty, the three counties were like a paradise.

Of course, a more important point is that none of the blast furnaces in Sanjun’s steel mills has a capacity of less than 20 jin. Cutting off the market share of these small blast furnaces is actually a good thing for Sanjun.

Zhuo Hong, the governor of Handan, said with a bitter face: "Prime Minister, even though these steel mills are small, they are also the wealth of the Han Dynasty. It would be a waste to demolish or blow them up like this."

Handan County was one of the steel centers in the north of the Han Dynasty. Backed by the high-quality coal and iron ore resources of Taiyuan County and Shangdang County, the local steel industry was extremely prosperous and it was a resource-intensive steel center.

However, the funds are relatively less abundant than in Luoyang, which has led to a chaotic steel market in Handan County. There are 50-class blast furnaces, but most of them are 20-30-jin blast furnaces. Small blast furnaces of 5-10 jin are not everywhere, but there are also many of them. If a one-size-fits-all approach is adopted, Handan's steel production capacity will be reduced by %.

Dongjun Governor Lü Yi hurriedly said, "Prime Minister, Chang'an City is rich and powerful, and can do such a thing, but our Dongjun is poor. A blast furnace with a capacity of 10 jin is already the largest blast furnace. If this blast furnace is demolished, our only heavy industrial center in Dongjun will be gone."

Small blast furnaces are the focus of small counties in the Han Dynasty. Such small blast furnaces have low costs, are quick to build, and can generate profits in the same year they are built. Moreover, they do not have high-tech products locally and do not need to provide raw materials for the mechanical processing industry. They can just make some farm tools to meet the needs and manufacture some iron pots and rails, which are goods that do not require much technical difficulty.

Li Shang sneered, "These steel mills with poor efficiency, low production capacity and high pollution will only drag down the entire steel industry. I can tell you the truth that this is a prerequisite for the court to rescue the market. If you don't agree, then wait for the crisis to further erupt and eliminate all the uncompetitive steel industries. As long as those large steel mills can be saved, the steel industry will not collapse."

Xu Aimin sat aside and watched these county governors bargaining. He could clearly see that the economic development of various places in the Han Dynasty was different. Sanchuan County, Kuaiji County, and Chen County were happy to see this kind of thing. They didn't have small blast furnaces below 10 jin. For the second and third-class counties of the Han Dynasty, blast furnaces of jin were their treasures, and could even be said to be the source of tax revenue. If there was any glimmer of hope, they didn't want to demolish their own gold mines.

But in the end, Li Shang won. All the governors present promised that after the meeting of princes, the imperial court would dismantle the small blast furnaces. The reason why the imperial court would dismantle them was mainly because Li Shang was afraid that these people would pretend to obey but actually disobey the order.

On October 32, the 10nd year of the Han calendar, it was night in Chang'an City.

Xu Aimin, Zhang Pijiang and Yingxiong were walking on a dark street. The street lights were dim, with only one light on every two. These dark places made Chang'an, the city of light, unworthy of its name.

Yingxiong sighed a little: "It's not even winter yet, but Chang'an City can already feel a little chilly. Even the street lights are out so much?"

This year, Yingxiong came to attend the meeting of princes on behalf of his father. Now Ying Bu is over 60 years old and has begun to gradually delegate power to Yingxiong to take over Britain.

Xu Aimin said helplessly: "The current situation is tense, so we have to save as much as possible."

Then he pointed to a tall building not far away and said, "This place was originally intended to house craftsmen, but now there are more than 100,000 unemployed people in Chang'an City. It's not easy to find a job, so many people have returned to their hometowns in advance. Rice is expensive in Chang'an, so going back can save some money."

A few people walked in and found that the streets here were even more empty, and even the street lights were not on.

This is the craftsman's home built by Xu Aimin this year. He plans to use it as a benchmark so that he can promote it to the whole world. The construction speed and efficiency will be very high.

There are 550 high-rise buildings in the entire Lifang, each with 7 floors. Each floor has 8 independent units. Each unit can accommodate 4 craftsmen, and there are also independent small single rooms to meet the needs of working couples. The key is that the craftsmen who rent here do not need to spend too much money. A single room for 4 people only costs 200 coins, and a small single room for a couple only costs 500 coins. Workers in Chang'an can fully afford this money.

In addition to covering the maintenance costs, this rent can recover the cost in ten years. It is a welfare project, and it is extremely cost-effective for the Internal History to be able to recover the cost.

Don't just think of it as a working people's neighborhood, it has all kinds of welfare facilities such as clinics, schools, libraries, parks, markets, and theaters.

One such craftsman's house could house 12 people, which was more than the population of an average county town in the Han Dynasty. According to Xu Aimin's plan, if two such craftsman's houses were built in the entire Chang'an City, it would be able to meet the needs of 25 foreign craftsmen. He would then promote this model in Sanchuan County, Chen County, Kuaiji County and other wealthy counties in the Han Dynasty, until every county in the Han Dynasty had such a craftsman's house.

The rent of Chang'an City dropped by 10% right after the construction of this Craftsman's House, which shows its power. Of course, it also affected the commercial housing market. Some people originally planned to buy commercial housing and then sublet it to make money, but the appearance of Craftsman's House directly shattered these people's ideas.

The hero said: "Prince, the conditions of the craftsman's house you built are much better than those of most residents in my country. Most of our citizens still live in brick houses, and there are also many wooden houses. I can only say that Chang'an City is worthy of being the imperial capital."

The hero hasn't been back to Chang'an for five or six years. After staying in his own capital for a long time, Chang'an City has become more and more unfamiliar.

Xu Aimin smiled bitterly and said, "My plans have been disrupted since this crisis."

Now the construction of the Artisans' Quarter has been completed, but there are only a few craftsmen living here. The workers in Chang'an City, like migratory birds encountering winter, have all flown back to their hometowns to spend the winter.

Zhang Pijiang said: "This is the first time I have felt the power of the economic crisis. It is indeed not to be underestimated. Even though the court has taken so many measures and provided so many welfare benefits, Chang'an City is still visibly depressed."

The last crisis was 13 years ago, when the three of them were still in school. They didn't feel much about that crisis. It seemed that the crisis suddenly broke out because of a policy of Prime Minister Zhou Bo, but it was resolved in a very short time. The three of them stayed on campus and didn't feel much.

This time, Zhang Pijiang was in charge of the construction project and witnessed that the hot real estate sales became quiet in a short period of time. Even the houses in Chang'an were not bought by many people.

The once prosperous Chang'an City suddenly changed its style. There were fewer people, the streets became deserted, and the brightness dropped significantly.

The factories that were once crowded with people began to become deserted, and the stocks on the stock exchange fell sharply. At this time, Zhang Pijiang finally understood why the emperor set the stock price so high. If ordinary people were also involved, the number of people receiving relief funds in Chang'an would probably increase several times.

Yingxiong was puzzled and asked, "The economic crisis has already broken out, and the government doesn't care?"

Xu Aimin said, "We are ready to take action, but before that, we must punish those who should be punished, take responsibility, and give warnings. Do you know how much damage this crisis has caused to our Han Dynasty? The bad debts caused by the banks alone amount to hundreds of billions. If we don't punish those who caused the crisis, the next crisis will only be bigger." Zhang Pijiang also smiled bitterly and said, "You don't know until you count. Once you count, you will be shocked. Now the Han Dynasty's steel production capacity is as high as more than 230 million tons."

The hero was confused. Is 230 million tons too much?

Xu Aimin rolled his eyes and said, "That's 100 billion kilograms of steel! The imperial court has issued the metric system for nearly a year, don't you know how to convert it yet?"

"Ah!" This number is familiar to the hero. A simple conversion means 500 billion yuan. The annual fiscal revenue of the United Kingdom is only 13 billion yuan. This is because the rubber trees have started to be tapped this year, which has earned Britain hundreds of millions of yuan.

Yingxiong said awkwardly: "For the past twenty years, I have been talking about jin and liang. Now, I suddenly hear ton. I am not used to it."

Zhang Pijiang continued, "According to statistics, the warehouses of the Han Dynasty have more than 200 million tons of steel, and the annual steel production capacity of our Han Dynasty is only 170 million tons. Among them, railroad tracks consume the most, but at most they can only consume less than 40 tons per year. These inventories alone are enough for our Han Dynasty to consume for a year, but our Han Dynasty's steel production capacity exceeds 230 million tons, which means that the inventory will increase by 60 tons every year. This is why the court wants to reduce production capacity."

Yingxiong was surprised and asked: "Even if the production capacity is reduced, what about the inventory?"

Xu Aimin asked, "Do you plan to build a railway in the UK to connect Jiujiang County? In this way, your cash crops in the UK will be easier to sell."

The hero counted on his fingers and said, "England is more than 1000 miles away from Jiujiang County."

Then he looked at Zhang Pijiang and asked, "How much does it cost to build one mile of track?"

Zhang Pijiang said: "The cost of steel is five million, but the cost of craftsmen is not low. In addition, the laying of rails may encounter long mountains and rivers. In the Central Plains, the average cost of one mile of rails is 700 million coins. There are no big rivers in Britain, and there are only a few hills here. The construction difficulty is not great, but the infrastructure is poor. It will cost between 80 billion and 100 billion to build this railway."

Hearing the price, Yingxiong smiled bitterly and said, "I can't possibly sell out Britain to build this railway, right?"

Xu Aimin said, "Don't worry, you are not the only prince going out. Dozens of princes in the south should be able to raise a lot of money together. Moreover, the four major banks in the court will give you interest-free loans, which will not put much pressure on you southern princes. After the railway is built, you southern princes can also buy their specialties in the Central Plains."

The hero felt relieved after hearing this. If the court provided an interest-free loan, it would be a great thing for them. These southern princes of the Han Dynasty had already reclaimed the land quite well, but the infrastructure construction between them and the Central Plains had not kept up with the economic development. They also laid wooden tracks, but the effect in the south was hard to describe. After a rainy season, all the wood rotted and all the iron sheets rusted. The maintenance cost was frighteningly high, so that the south had to go by land or water, and many princes simply gave up maintaining infrastructure. The major princes in the south relied more on natural rivers.

The hero suddenly asked, "We, the southern princes, are not the only ones involved in this railway project?"

Xu Aimin said: "The court also plans to build a railway connecting the Western Regions and establish a railway network in Liaodong, increasing the progress of track laying from the current 1500 li to 3000 li."

Xu Fan certainly knew the role of railways in boosting the economy, but he slowly improved the progress of railway construction. At least he didn't want to be like the Hope Country, which built tens of thousands of miles of railways in ten years, went completely bankrupt when faced with an economic crisis, and then began to dismantle the railways, owing a lot of debts and wasting resources.

Although many people in later generations said that this was the cleverness of the Hope Country, once the railway company went bankrupt, all the powerful railway investors and financiers were cheated, and more than one billion in debts were suddenly defaulted on.

This is basically nonsense. If Hope Country had really calculated so accurately, a civil war would not have broken out a few years later, with their own people killed and blood flowing like a river. The war was the most concentrated manifestation of their contradictions. The contradictions in Hope Country were so great that it almost split.

The Han Dynasty was an early industrial country with no competitors or pursuers, so there was no need for anything too radical. At the beginning, Xu Fan's idea was to build a few hundred miles of railway a year, no more than 1000 miles at most, which would create a period of prosperity for to years.

Last year, the Han Dynasty built 1500 miles of railways, but it was still difficult to digest the inventory in the steel market. Now that the steel industry has expanded here, he can only reduce production capacity while speeding up the progress of railway construction to digest the inventory, and connect the main export territories of the Han Dynasty with railways. Let the territories of several major princes become commodity markets and flood discharge areas for the Han Dynasty to ease internal conflicts.

10 month 11 day.

In the early morning, Jia Yi found Xu Aimin and reported: "Your Highness, the merchants in Chang'an City have secretly united and are planning to huddle together for warmth. Several private banks have already injected money into some steel mills to stabilize the situation."

This period was the most exciting time for Jia Yi. When a crisis came, the court's Shaofu was notified in advance, cleared out the inventory and hoarded funds. Although it cannot be said that there was no impact at all, it was the least affected. Those private factories that suffered losses had to go to prison to avoid debt.

Because he had plenty of money and orders from the court, Jia Yi quickly began to reap the relatively high-quality factories during the economic crisis. The progress of the government-run reform this year increased by dozens of times. Now, as the Minister of the Imperial Household, he was in charge of more than a hundred factories, all of which were the best factories in the Han Dynasty. Now these private merchants dared to take food from the court, which Jia Yi thought was audacious.

Xu Aimin said: "Haste makes waste. You should focus on taking control of these factories first. In this situation, if we can keep more factories running, we will have fewer craftsmen who need to receive relief funds."

The economic crisis was also a heavy blow to the Han Dynasty. As many as one million people were unemployed, and the court had to spend nearly 10 billion in unemployment benefits and equivalent supplies every month. These figures made Xu Aimin terrified. If more unemployed craftsmen were to be added, the court might go bankrupt just to feed these people.

Moreover, Jia Yi wanted to annex the factories, and the factory owners in Chang'an City also resisted vigorously. They believed that after this meeting of sages, the court would definitely find a way to save the market. As long as they could find a way to survive this period, they would be able to come back to life. So they did not want to be run by the government.

At first, they planned to apply for loans from money houses to get through this period, but after being rejected, these factory managers simply organized their own craftsmen and took to the streets to protest. Under the banner of "anti-hunger, anti-unemployment", they also said that the court discriminated against private factories and took advantage of the situation to government-run their factories.

In addition, life has been difficult in the past six months, and a large number of craftsmen followed these factory owners in marching and demonstrating to vent their inner dissatisfaction.

Faced with this kind of public opinion, Xu Aimin could only ask Jia Yi to slow down the pace of official operations.

Jia Yi said anxiously: "Your Highness, this opportunity only comes once every 10 years. If you miss this opportunity, those merchants who have recovered their vitality will definitely hinder the court's policies."

Xu Aimin said: "For the court, stability is the most important thing now. After all, Chang'an is the capital of the Han Dynasty. Now officials and princes all over the world are watching here."

(End of this chapter)