In order to let Xu Wei know more about the drought in Jizhou, Zhang Baiqi took Xu Wei all the way to the most drought-stricken areas in Jizhou!
Then he smiled bitterly and said: "The government cannot look at the situation in Jizhou based on the water conservancy facilities in Mayi. No matter how severe the drought is in Mayi, there will be no shortage of water sources in the fields with the help of elevated canals. However, most of the land in Jizhou has no water conservancy facilities at all.
, when there is a drought, the food supply will be reduced by 60-70%. Now there is still a grain harvest of one stone, which is already produced by the local people who have tried their best to carry water."
Sure enough, there are no canals or windmills to extract groundwater in places far away from water sources. People can only use wooden barrels to carry water from streams and rivers a few miles away. Although Zhang Baiqi has found a way to support them, these fields
The wheat growth is still very poor, and one acre of land is only about the size of a stone!
During the harvest, the tribesmen also looked depressed. Obviously, this year's drought was an unbearable harm to the people of Jizhou.
Xu Wei shook his head when he looked at the fields. He didn't see them being planted in the fields. He thought they were growing weeds! At this time, most of the fields in Jizhou had such harvests. If taxes continued to be collected, then
It really drove the people of Jizhou to death!
Xu Wei could only say: "Jizhou will not collect land tax this year! Let the people of Jizhou take a breath! 30 acres of land per household is still too little, leaving farmers with no ability to fight drought. We still have to find ways to increase each household's land.
field!"
Xu Wei originally calculated based on the grain output in Mayi. Now the average land in Mayi can have 5 shi of grain per mu. 30 acres is 150 shi of grain. Even if they pay a 30% tax, a common person can still have 105 shi of grain.
, plus three kinds of crops every two years, and one crop of soybeans every two years, plus the common people earning a little money from working, this income can be regarded as the income of the Han and small landlord class.
But this drought broke Xu Wei's calculations. He discovered that he had calculated based on the most ideal situation, but the current Han Dynasty was in the Little Ice Age. Nine disasters in ten years was not an exaggeration, just like this time.
During a drought, one household could only collect 30 shi of grain, which was not even enough for them to eat!
Why did Zhang Baiqi get funds from Xu Wei to build canals? It's because the people in Jizhou can only work to feed their families and don't do basic projects. How can they feed these millions of people!
Zhang Baiqi said: "This is indeed a big problem. At the beginning, we thought that Jizhou's land was much better than Bingzhou's, and Jizhou's food income would be higher than Bingzhou's. But first, we did not expect that Jizhou's water conservancy facilities would be so poor. Second, we did not expect that Jizhou's water conservancy facilities would be so poor.
A natural disaster that exceeds the Han Dynasty will reduce farmland production! I calculated that a household must have at least 100 acres of land to live a stable life and not be afraid of ordinary droughts, at least before the construction of supporting water conservancy facilities!"
Xu Wei smiled bitterly and said: "If we can really allocate 100 acres of land in Jizhou, I'm afraid no one will have the reason to go to the frontier! Let's see if we add 20 acres first!"
Xu Wei no longer wants to immigrate to the densely populated Jizhou, and he also wants more people from Daqian to go to sparsely populated places like Liaodong, so that the entire population of Daqian can be balanced!
This drought can be said to have come at the wrong time. Although Youzhou did not have much impact, the impact on Bingzhou was not small. Although Bingzhou's water conservancy facilities were much better than Jizhou's, grain production was generally reduced by 20-30%. It can be said that all the food saved by Xu Wei's emigration of 2 million tribesmen from Bingzhou this year was swallowed up by this drought. The food crisis in Daqian has not been resolved!
Zhang Baiqi continued: "The geographical environment of Jizhou is much better than that of Bingzhou, but the land is wasted in the hands of wealthy nobles. They only occupy the most fertile land, but are unwilling to spend a little money and food to build water conservancy facilities and stay a little away. The fields along the rivers can only depend on the weather for food. If Jizhou was full of canals like Mayi, even if there is a drought this year, the harvest in Jizhou would be enough to feed all our tribesmen!"
"My subordinates plan to take advantage of this drought to dig a canal across the entire Jizhou and connect the nine rivers in Jizhou! With this canal, not only can it connect the waterways in the entire Jizhou, it will also make the transportation of goods in Jizhou more efficient. It is convenient and can save twice the time whether transporting goods to Bingzhou or Youzhou."
"And with such a canal, when we attack the Han Dynasty, we will have a waterway to transport grain and grass. When the time comes to attack the Central Plains, we will save more than double the grain and grass and more than 500,000 civilians! It can be said that this is also preparing for the advance. Prepare to attack the Central Plains!"
"Furthermore, this canal also irrigates 3,000 acres of land in Jizhou. Based on this canal, as long as it is built continuously for five years, the entire Jizhou will become like Mayi, with irrigated land everywhere. By then, Jizhou will Floods and droughts can be controlled by people, and we can become our great land of abundance!"
Xu Wei was not too excited when he heard Zhang Baiqi's grand plan, and then asked with a wry smile: "How much will it cost?"
Zhang Baiqi laughed and said: "With an investment of 3 billion yuan a year, the entire project only costs 15 billion yuan. By then, not only will all the 150 million acres of land in Jizhou be turned into the best irrigated land, but 50 million acres of land will also be developed. Acres of wasteland!”
"The government can think about it. With 200 million acres of irrigated land, even if their grain output is only three shi, this is still 600 million shi of food. By then, the food in Jizhou alone will be enough for each tribe to eat 30 shi. Voting will become a thing of the past! And if the tax is 30%, this will be nearly 200 million shi of food. Even if it is 100 yen per shi, this is still 20 billion. Developing Jizhou can double their strength!"
Looking at Zhang Baiqi who was so arrogant, Xu Wei could only smile bitterly. The officials in Daqian were all raised by Xu Wei, and each plan he made was extremely grand. Even Zhang Baiqi dared to imagine that 200 million stones of water would be poured into the ground. ! He is not afraid of overstretching himself. An example will show how exaggerated Zhang Baiqi’s plan is.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Zheng Guoqu who made Guanzhong a land of abundance was less than one-tenth of Zhang Baiqi's plan.
"Historical Records: River Canal Book" records: "When the canal was completed, the water that filled the silt was added, and more than 40,000 hectares of land were harvested. As a result, Guanzhong became a fertile field. In the unlucky years, Qin became rich and powerful, and merged with the princes. , so it’s called ‘Zheng Guoqu’.”
It was this Zhengguo Canal that allowed the Qin Dynasty to conquer the world without any shortage of food. More than 40,000 hectares is equivalent to 4 million acres, and one hour is equivalent to a little more than 6 shi. Of course, the unit conversion of the Qin Dynasty may be a little different from that of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but it is not too big. It is too huge, which means that the Qin Dynasty can harvest 20 million shi of grain every year by relying on the Zheng Guo Canal, and it is not afraid of droughts and floods. It is because of this stable granary that the Qin Dynasty has been able to maintain a million-strong army for thousands of miles!
And now Zhang Baiqi wants to build a project equivalent to 50 Zhengguo canals. Even if Daqian is cheated by Xu Wei all the way, it has iron tools, soil, cement, cattle, horses and other large livestock than Daqin, and its productivity is Daqin's. Several times, but this is also an extremely huge plan. This is a project that requires almost mobilizing the entire force of Daqian to run it!
Xu Wei could only shake his head helplessly and said: "This plan is too big and beyond the scope of our Daqian!"
But Zhang Baiqi said: "Being in power is not big at all. 3 billion is only one-tenth of my fiscal revenue. If you are in power, you can invest 3 billion in Liaodong. Why can't you invest 3 billion in Jizhou?" Can Liaodong get 600 million shi of grain? But Jizhou can get it! Even according to the output ratio mentioned by the ruling party, our cadres should focus on the development of the granary of Jizhou!"
Xu Weidao: "Developing Liaodong is not only for food, but also to protect the land of the Han people. Liaodong still seems to be our land of Dagan, but there are only hundreds of thousands of Han people in the land of several thousand miles, and the Hu people But there are millions or even millions. If we don’t increase the land of Han people in Liaodong, even the local Han people will become barbarians, and then we will lose this land that our ancestors spent thousands of years to develop!"
Xu Wei knew that there was a kingdom of Goguryeo in the land behind, which was considered a small tyrant and even dragged down a powerful dynasty!
Xu Weidao: "And the development of Liaodong is not unprofitable. In just half a year, Liaodong's timber support and fishery resources alone have repaid nearly 1 billion in bonds. It can be seen that the development of Liaodong is very promising!"
Then Xu Wei patted Zhang Baiqi on the shoulder and said: "Of course, we can't let go of the construction of water conservancy facilities in Jizhou. You should narrow down your plan, and make the required funds and planning period longer! The main funds are still needed. You Jizhou government should find a solution on your own!"
There is no way, now Daqian's army is getting bigger and bigger, the territory is getting wider and wider, and there are more and more things to do, including the expansion of Ji County, the construction of Youzhou Industrial Zone, infrastructure construction such as roads and canals, Jizhou's Industrial construction and so on require a lot of money to carry out. There are too many things to do and too much money to spend, but it is difficult for income to increase as much as before. Now the fiscal revenue of more than 30 billion a year is already a little beyond the means. .
Moreover, Jizhou is not as poor as Zhang Baiqi said. Although it suffered from drought this year, which caused heavy losses to Jizhou, because Daqian reduced the middlemen of the aristocrats, most of the interests of the aristocrats were lost to the people of Jizhou and the Daqian government. Divided, Xu Wei estimates that Jizhou's fiscal revenue this year should exceed 3 billion yuan.
Of course, Jizhou's financial support is not small. After all, in order to change the situation where the imperial power did not extend to counties, Xu Wei directly built officials into village-level units. There were thousands of officials in Jizhou to maintain the operation of the government. These people alone would have to be divided. There are hundreds of millions in fiscal revenue, and there is a standing army of 50,000 infantrymen in Jizhou that Zhang Baiqi wants to support. The annual expenditure of this army alone is more than 1 billion, so the fiscal revenue left among Zhang Baiqi is not very much. !
For Zhang Baiqi, the current Jizhou can be considered poor. His years of experience in Bingzhou have taught him that if you want to make a fortune, you must develop industry, and you must build textile factories, steel plants, ocean fishing, salt plants, etc. These factories, but each of these factories requires a large amount of capital to open. Just establishing an industrial center in Jizhou has spent all the fiscal revenue of Jizhou. That's why Zhang Baiqi wants the government to help Jizhou's water conservancy. Pay for the facilities!
Zhang Baiqi lowered his head helplessly after hearing this. Who said that Jizhou has no specialty products? It shouldn't be said that Jizhou's specialty is grain. But firstly, it cannot be sold to outsiders. Secondly, it must be supplied to the people of Daqian at a low price to maintain the price of goods in Daqian. If it is stable, Jizhou will suffer a great loss.
Although he also built a fish processing and canning factory, a salt farm, and a fertilizer factory, they were not built as early as Youzhou, and the coastline is relatively short, so it is difficult to compare with Youzhou. It can be said that Jizhou now has no specialties!
Zhang Baiqi thought of Xu Wei's ability to turn decay into magic and said: "In power, the price of food in the Central Plains has now exceeded 500 yuan, and it continues to rise. Our Jizhou has made an extremely huge contribution to Daqian. Just these low-priced grains The food should be worth more than a billion dollars anyway. Since the ruler said that the court can’t afford the money, I won’t say anything, but it shouldn’t be difficult for the ruler to help us come up with a profitable specialty product in Jizhou!”
“The ruling government created the textile and steel industries in Bingzhou, which are making huge profits every day, turning Bingzhou into a barren land that can earn tens of billions of dollars every year. In Youzhou, they created distant-water fisheries, salt fields, struvite, and shipbuilding. Factory, it is easy to make a hundred million a year when these industries develop. However, we in Jizhou only have one specialty: grain, and we have to supply it to other areas at low prices. This is unfair to Jizhou. If the government does not help It seems a bit unfair to Jizhou that we create a profitable industry!"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Xu Wei found it hard to refute these words. Even though there was a drought in Jizhou, he still provided 30 million shi of food to Daqian, which greatly alleviated the problem. The food problems in Bingzhou and Youzhou were resolved.
It can be said that although the entire Daqian has been affected by drought this time, which has reduced food production, because of the existence of Jizhou, each tribe in the entire Dagan will eat one and a half stone of grain this year! If we add the tribesmen who immigrated to Jizhou from Bingzhou, This is equivalent to an increase of 20% of the food for each tribe of Daqian!
The current low food prices are indeed unfair to the tribesmen in Jizhou. Xu Wei thought carefully for a long time, searching in his mind for other profitable industries. It would be easy to make ordinary inventions, such as soaps and perfumes. It can be easily made. It is not difficult for Xu Wei to make anything that is not available in this era. However, there are very few with potentials not lower than those of the textile industry and steel mills, because these two industries are the symbols of the first industrial revolution. Then It is possible to be surpassed so easily!
Fortunately, Xu Wei read hundreds of online novels, and he actually found an industry. Although it is not as good as the textile industry and steel mills in terms of output value and importance to the people, in terms of making money alone, it far exceeds the textile industry.
industry and the steel industry.
This is what is known as one of the three treasures of time travel, the glass manufacturing industry! Glass is called colored glaze in this world. You may not know that it is also a kind of gem. You can make money by selling gems! And after you make no money by selling glass, you can also make a mirror.
Let’s make another fortune. It’s not like the Pharaoh’s Queen spent 160,000 gold francs on a small mirror. There is no better industry than glass and mirrors to make quick money.