Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 418
Sun Xiangfu did not come to Jingzhou with a large amount of cash for investment and development, because Li Shimin, who was not relentless in asking for shares, could not spend millions to build the entire waterway transfer company.

Therefore, he came here to start a leather bag company, and using other people's money to make money is a common way of doing business in later generations.

"Their families moved very quickly. Almost all the official land in various states and counties was swallowed up by them, including more than 80 mu of land replaced by five surnames and seven families. Not a single mu was left, and the average price was consistent. A little more, all sold out."

Shangtian in the Central Plains is the most expensive in Guanzhong, and the market price has reached the level of ten guans per mu. Luoyang is about six or seven guans, followed by Yangzhou, with four or five guans per mu. Yizhou and Jingzhou are almost three or four guans. It seems that the imperial court only sold these Shangtian fields in the Jingxiang area at the usual price of one mu more, as if they were giving the benefits to these local tyrants for free. It is no wonder that they would choose to make concessions in terms of policy and system.

There are 32 prefectures in Shannan Road. Except for some tenants who are going to farm the official land as Yongye land, the total number of other official land is more than 300 million mu. Therefore, this round of land sale, all After the deal is finalized, Samurai Xun can get more than 400 million in cash.

The cash of more than 400 million guan is at least in the hands of a dozen local clans headed by Cai, Huang, Kuai, Deng, and Liu. Nearly half of the wealth is enough for Sun Xiangfu to start the Jingzhou project.

"Ying Gong, as the old saying goes, for a period of time in the future, you must maintain the fairness of the policy, send more people to the local inspections, and ensure the basic rights and interests of the people who have obtained the new household registration. How to use the final payment, you just follow the order in the booklet I gave you."

On the fifth day of the new year, Sun Xiangfu had to go to the local area to guide the actual work, because the spring floods came earlier in the land of Jingxiang, and the samurai Xun, as the general manager of Shannan Road, still needed to be in Jingzhou to control the overall situation.

In Sun Xiangfu's plan, all things are arranged in more detail. The money belongs to the local finance, so it should be invested in local construction. The wharf belongs to local construction and is not needed by the waterway transfer company. The scope of investment, because after these piers are built, the local government will send people to manage them, and collect the fees for berthing and storage of passing merchant ships.

The manpower used to build the wharf is the water bandits in the lake area who have been recruited. The total number is tens of thousands, including men, women and children. Do the corresponding technical guidance, build one, and give them a certain amount of wages after they meet the standards and acceptance. Before that, only provide them with food and drink.

In view of the fact that the wharf in this period is not as demanding and complicated as the later generations, in fact, as long as the place is selected, it is not difficult to get it done, clearing the bank slope, digging deep berths, making some cement unloading platforms, and wide enough for getting on and off the ship. Wooden springboards are enough. Generally speaking, it is simpler than building a house. Tens of thousands of people can be scattered in many places and start building at the same time.

After the completion of the wharf, there will be a lighthouse for direction guidance, and some warehouses that are not easy to be flooded, which can be used for distribution of goods. I believe that within a year, some major state cities will be built first.

As for building embankments, those who have sold their fields are used as the main force to temporarily receive fixed wages and build dikes at designated locations. When these embankments are completed, their value will definitely exceed the existing so-called upper fields, because, It can guarantee the water source and fertility in the field, and it will basically not be affected by flood disasters.

After all, the ecological environment in this period is relatively good, and there will be no sea level rise and seawater intrusion as in later generations. The scale of floods will generally not be too large. With a levee higher than the city wall, it is enough to resist the floods of this period. Flooded.

In addition to the initial investment, the subsequent output of the embankment can almost cover most of the expenses of the embankment construction team. It is a project that can be continued for a long time, with high output and stable water sources. , for the imperial court, the more the better.

As for the promotion of some of the crop industries and breeding industries mentioned by Sun Xiangfu, at present, the warriors can only look at the existing conditions and do some encouraging support. To the extent that they can achieve it, they can achieve it. The real big development, It has to rely on the improvement of the Ministry of Agriculture's system, and promote it with the children of the farmer's family after they leave the mountain. This year should not be free, and it will gradually start next year. In this regard, Sun Xiangfu has multiple arrangements.

Sun Xiangfu braved the cold spring wind to come out to choose sites for the people to build embankments, and to guide those water bandits who accepted the surrender to repair the wharf and do model projects.

Even with the information gathering of the intelligence team for more than a month, Sun Xiangfu ran around the wetlands for several days before finally choosing the location of the first paddy field, which is more than 200 miles south of Jingzhou. , close to Yuezhou, in later generations, it should be in the vicinity of Honghu Lake in Jianli.

Sun Xiangfu didn't give it any lofty name, but called it the big embankment, because it is really big. After the entire embankment is built, the circumference may reach more than 300 kilometers. Calculated according to the size of the fields in later generations, the circumference is one The irregular shape of the kilometer is about a little more than 150 mu. According to the size of the field in this period, it is almost 4 mu. That is to say, this embankment alone covers at least [-] mu of flat irrigated land. .

Such a high-yield irrigated land can be cultivated by one household with intensive cultivation, at most twenty or thirty mu. A new village, or a large market town.

When Sun Xiangfu set up the perimeter route, the samurai Xun finally sent him the tens of thousands of people he had recruited, and distributed some of the tools he had prepared years ago to their hands. After building some work sheds for rest, the work of tens of thousands of people began.

Sun Xiangfu grew up rolling on the embankment when he was a child. He couldn't understand the composition of the embankment very well. Given the water conditions of this period, it was enough to build a large slope with a height of eight to ten meters. Enough area should be planted to protect the embankment, and even in the area along the river, an embankment should be built to prevent the river water from hitting the embankment too violently. On the inside of the embankment, a small embankment should also be built to widen the area occupied by the entire embankment , the middle of the waist, under force, there is no danger of collapse.

In addition to the berm forest on both sides of the levee, the levee itself also needs to be planted with slope protection grass that is difficult to be washed away by floods. Of course, the current work is only embankment construction. As for the grass, there is basically no need to plant it, and it will grow naturally in a year or two Full.

The saplings need to be cultivated in a nursery. Poplar and water sand are the best. These two kinds of trees grow very fast and are not afraid of water. After they grow up, the branches and leaves are very lush. The local people can cut the branches for firewood, and the trunks are also used for construction. Good materials, five to eight years, can be cut and planted in rotation.

The most important thing is that the saplings of these two kinds of trees are very simple, and they can almost live by cutting branches. Sun Xiangfu only needs to arrange a group of people to do this kind of work.

The day before the Shangyuan Festival, Sun Xiangfu returned to Jingzhou from the construction site. After two or three days of adaptation period, the workers already knew how to work. Don't look at the scene of tens of thousands of people. It is a few hundred meters long. Even if there are more tools in the future, and everyone is proficient in doing things, the speed will increase a lot, but the improvement is very limited. I am afraid that this embankment can be built in this year and the inner embankment will be completed. The water conservancy facilities are already considered good.

After actually doing it, you can understand why it took several dynasties and nearly a thousand years of accumulation to build all the more than 500 embankments in later generations, because there is no dynasty that dares to bring tens of thousands of people like Sun Xiangfu. Full-time construction of the embankment, the cost is difficult for the imperial court to bear. Just this embankment, placed in other dynasties, with the same manpower, it would take at least two or three years to build it. In any period of national turmoil or economic tension , had to suspend work indefinitely, and what they got was only more than 4 mu of paddy land.

Based on the monthly consumption of these embankment workers tens of thousands of guan, the investment in wages alone will bring the average price of these fields to more than ten to twenty guan per mu. If there are other lands that can be cultivated Under the circumstances, it is not worth the loss for the experts to spend money on building embankments, and the reason why Sun Xiangfu did this project is that he wants to completely solve the flood in the Jingxiang area through these embankments that are destined to be connected in the future.

"Ying Gong, His Majesty called me back to preside over the spring plowing in Guanzhong. Tomorrow, I will set off. The situation in Jingzhou has basically opened up, and we can proceed step by step. After a while, there will be ships from Guanzhong coming to Jingzhou. When the time comes , The wharves of several major cities here should have been built, and it's time for you to promote the development of local businesses."

"Shouldn't we leave after the Shangyuan Festival?"

"No, the spring plowing in Guanzhong cannot be delayed. In addition, the envoy team sent by the imperial court to the Western Regions will leave in a few days. I will try to catch up and see them off."

"Well, the old man still has some confidence in business matters. After you go back, just follow the arrangements we agreed upon."

Business in this period is actually very simple, nothing more than buying and selling. When someone buys some local things with a clear price tag, someone will naturally sell it. The government only needs to do a good job of publicity and tax management. , can benefit from it.

For example, the production of rice field eels and loach in the lake area is particularly large. These things are not valuable locally, but they can be sold at a good price in Guanzhong. The samurai only needs to organize some vendors in advance and pay for them at the wharf. The local people will Think of various ways to catch and sell for money.

When the merchant ships from Guanzhong come, they only need to pay money to get a large amount of fish from these traders, and the goods they bring from Guanzhong will also be bought by these merchants and sold to fish sellers. People who got money.

Of course, fish is just one of them. In the pamphlet that Sun Xiangfu gave to the samurai before, there are many types of local specialties. Gradually, these things will be produced by the common people. If the court can provide the common people with a set of high-yield method, then, soon, the production capacity here will be enlarged, and at the same time, they will have a large demand and consume some output from other places when they have income.

Once such a situation is achieved, it means that the entire market is activated. It will continuously stimulate the market to produce and develop various new products, or product raw materials. When people come into contact with more and more comprehensive commodities, their productivity will increase. , will continue to improve, it can be regarded as entering a virtuous circle.

In the whole link, the waterway transfer company just got some boats and recruited some sailors to communicate with different places. This can make a lot of profits while improving everyone's life, which is why Sun Xiangfu The reason why he would rather sell the land at a low price and give the profits to these local clans is also the reason for promoting this project, because without the start-up funds provided by them, Sun Xiangfu may have to delay the revitalization of the entire urban economy in the Yangtze River Basin for several years.

(End of this chapter)