Xu Wei didn't pay much attention to Yan Xing's fear. After all, he exiled the entire Han Dynasty's noble families. It would be strange for people like Yan Xing not to be afraid of him.
He directly asked the question he was most concerned about: "There are so many cotton fields in Xiliang? So that you lack labor and have to go to Sichuan to find it?"
Yan Xing said respectfully: "Not much! It's about 1 million acres, but too many people in Xiliang go to herding. Herding makes more money and is easier. There are relatively fewer people farming in Xiliang, and
Although growing cotton is highly profitable, it is also several times harder. In recent years, the cotton output in Xiliang has not been too high, and it is no longer enough for textile factories. Therefore, the prefectures and magistrates from various places in Xiliang commissioned villains to come to Chengdu to recruit some disaster victims.
Xiliang!"
Originally, the people in Xiliang had to engage in trade if they wanted to be rich, but now the merchants in Xiliang were shocked to find that their caravans could not rob the population of the livestock industry. The livestock industry in Xiliang even developed better than commerce, with a large number of
The common people began to think of ways to build a small pasture and raise hundreds of cattle and sheep. This way they could earn more money than ordinary caravan workers, and it was also safer.
Now more than half of the population in Xiliang is grazing, and Xiliang is originally a semi-agricultural and semi-animal husbandry area. Most of the people are good herders, and the vast and sparsely populated environment of Xiliang determines the need for grazing.
Industry is more suitable here than agriculture. Even if your pasture is short of fodder, will anyone care if you go to the wilderness to graze or cut some grass?
The silage feed technology brought by Xu Wei has completely changed the nomadic habits of herdsmen, allowing herdsmen to settle down, and opening up the border has allowed herdsmen to freely buy and sell their livestock. This has also greatly increased the income of herdsmen. Now, as long as herdsmen have the upper hand,
A yield of 10,000 acres can raise hundreds of cattle and sheep, so today's herdsmen also live in settlements like the Dagan people, and their incomes are also extremely high.
The great development of animal husbandry has even affected the development of agriculture. After all, even commerce is not as strong as animal husbandry, let alone agriculture. Now in Xiliang, only those lands close to water sources have fields, and all counties in Xiliang
The county has built a large number of farms to ensure food security, but many people in places far away from water sources have simply converted them into pastures.
Under such circumstances, it is naturally difficult for the cotton planting industry to develop much, so everyone in Xiliang wants to recruit some Han people to go to Xiliang. They are all out-and-out farmers who do not know how to herd cattle, so naturally they can only farm.
, and growing cotton is a relatively high-yield cash crop, and they are not worried about people who go to Xiliang not planting it!
But Xu Wei was surprised and said: "There are 1 million acres of cotton fields, but it's not enough for you?"
There should be dozens of kilograms of cotton per acre of land. If one piece of cotton cloth is woven from 10 kilograms, Xiliang can produce millions of pieces of cotton cloth a year. Calculated at 5,000 yuan for one piece of cotton cloth, this is already an output value of tens of billions.
, this is actually not too much?
But Yan Xing said: "In power, the yield of cotton is not as high as you think. Half of the weight of a cotton is cotton seeds, and cotton is a new thing, and there are often no harvests. And these are
We need to guarantee the bottom line, otherwise the people will not dare to plant it!"
Ordinary people are the most conservative. Many people have never seen cotton, let alone planted it. In order to reassure the farmers who grow cotton, the merchants in Xiliang signed a contract with them. If they pay in advance, any losses will be counted on them. Only then will the people be willing to plant.
Then Yan Xing said respectfully: "Of course the most important thing is that the steam engine in the office is too efficient. When we use it for textiles, it not only improves the efficiency, but also does not need to place the textile factory next to the river. It can operate all year round. So the raw materials are a bit worse!”
Another thing Yan Xing did not mention is that the cotton cloth industry has become a new battlefield for Daqian businessmen to resist Daqian's government-run factories.
In recent years, textile factories in Daqian have continued to use new technologies and expand their scale. Especially after Xu Wei invented the steam engine, the productivity of textile factories skyrocketed again. Textile businessmen like Zhen An were defeated and had to hide in the Central Plains. The region is gasping for breath, but the Central Plains is a place far away from the grasslands. Their textile factories cannot open much, and now the entire woolen cloth industry is basically monopolized by Cai Qiao.
The businessmen of Daqian knew that in the woolen cloth industry, they could no longer compete with the government-owned enterprises of Daqian, but the new cotton cloth gave them hope, so they changed all their factories to textile cotton cloth and also purchased new models. They even signed contracts with cotton farmers in Xiliang in order to control the raw materials.
And these actions have paid off greatly. The price of cotton cloth is several times higher than that of wool cloth, and the profit is more than 10 times. Their profit in one year is as much as the profit of wool cloth in 10 years.
So now they want to completely monopolize the cotton market while Cai Qiao is not aware of the cotton industry, and now cotton, the raw material, has become the key to their monopoly market. That's why they are so anxious to expand the scale of cotton fields!
Of course, Xu Wei doesn't know all this at the front line, but now Yan Xing's behavior is beneficial to Daqian. It is the best thing to take the initiative to let these nobles leave Shuzhong and go to Xiliang. But if they don't go, Xu Wei will also They will be forcibly relocated!
Xu Wei said calmly: "You can persuade them to go to Xiliang, and you can tell them clearly that if I go to Xiliang now, I can forgive them for what they have done, but until we take action, they will not even want to keep Xiliang. Maybe, I will directly demote them to the Western Regions. It just so happens that the Western Regions are short of Han people. Having a million people will allow us to firmly control the Western Regions. In the future, things like the Han Dynasty giving up the Western Regions will not happen. It can stabilize the situation. In the Western Region, they can be considered as atonement for their sins!"
Xiliang is the largest state in the north of Daqian. If the Western Region Protectorate is included, it can even be said to be the largest state in the world. However, this state has an extremely sparse population. It can even be said to occupy the entire Daqian area. Among the states, the population is the smallest, with only more than two million people, while the Western Regions do not even have large Han people.
Xiliang's development is not considered slow. It is the only link between Daqian and the Silk Road. In addition, Daqian has pacified the desert in recent years and sent large armies to station in the Western Regions. Even if there are only 20,000 people, they are still Han people. Leading an army here again in hundreds of years!
Originally, the eastern part of the Western Regions was the sphere of influence that the Han and the Hu people fought for, but now these two forces are under the Dagan. To the kings of the Western Regions, the Dagan is now a behemoth that is more powerful than the Han and Xianbei people. , the small countries in the Western Regions were very aware of current affairs, and each of them followed the rule of Daqian. As a result, the trade route in the Western Regions was completely opened. However, population has always been a big problem, and it is impossible to defend the Western Regions with only the army.
Xu Wei noticed that the powerful nobles in central Sichuan were so disrespectful and planned to let them fill the Western Regions!