Chapter four hundred and ninety second tricks to death
Yang Guang wants to build a new eastern capital, Luoyang, and recruit two million young people at once!
Soon after, in order to build the Grand Canal from north to south, millions of young and strong civilians were recruited, and suddenly the entire Central Plains cried out.
"Yang Guang is seeking death!"
After hearing the news, Lei Hu took his wife and children back to Qiantang City, summoned his civil and military officials, and said this, which made his civil and military officials confused.
Seeing that his subordinates had not paid attention to the important point, Lei Hu reminded: "To build the eastern capital of Luoyang, Yang Guang recruited two million young and strong civilians. It took less than three years. In the end, just over half of the young and strong civilians were still alive!"
When Lei Hu mentioned this matter, the atmosphere in the meeting hall suddenly became solemn.
There was no way around it. The construction of Luoyang, the eastern capital, almost killed millions of young people in one breath. It made the civil and military ministers here feel heavy and at the same time quite incredible.
They were different from traveling in the north, because Wu Guogong Lei Hu always valued the people, and because the number of people in the territory was always small, he was very sensitive to the large number of casualties among the people.
In order to build the eastern capital of Luoyang, millions of young people were killed or injured in just three years. It is terrifying to think about it. The number of families affected is probably no less than five million, right?
After many years of efforts to encourage births and immigrate to the entire Wu Guogong territory, the population in the fifth year of Daye was only close to 9 million. One can imagine how big a change would affect a population of 5 million at once.
If it happened in Wu Guogong's territory, I'm afraid at least 80% of the civil and military people here would have to go to labor camps to report, and half of them would have to do labor camps until death!
From this aspect, the behavior of Sui Emperor Yang Guang is indeed suspected of committing suicide.
Of course, while I was shocked, I also felt quite incredible.
Large-scale projects in Wu Guogong's territory were carried out one after another, including building roads and bridges, digging canals, renovating city walls, planning cities, building ports, and so on.
It can be said that since Leihu came to dominate, there has never been a year when Leihu did not do projects.
The civil and military officials here are all good at engineering projects. The total number of various projects within the territory alone can be compared to the construction of several eastern capitals, Luoyang.
Although nearly 100,000 laborers were injured or killed due to high-intensity labor, most of them survived the injuries and were still good workers as long as they recovered.
If we calculate based on the labor loss of the young men who built the eastern capital of Luoyang, I am afraid that by this time all the young men under the leadership of Wu Marquis would have died out, and the entire territory would be in mourning.
Not to mention economic development, it is difficult to have enough to eat.
But the fact is that the infrastructure construction in Wu Guogong's territory is very complete, which can be said to be the first in the entire Sui Dynasty.
At the same time, the territory's economic development is very rapid, the people's living conditions are quite good, and the government's tax revenue is not even a bit higher than that of its counterparts in the north.
It can be said that the tax revenue of Wu Guogong's territory alone is comparable to the total tax revenue of several elite provinces in the north, and the resources that the government can mobilize are even different.
At present, the restriction limiting the development of Wu Guogong's territory, besides population, is the territory area.
It's not an exaggeration. If Wu Guogong could control the entire south, the development level and population of the south would be equal to or even surpass that of the north within ten years.
The most important difference is that Wu Guogong can easily mobilize a large number of warriors under his rule and use them as the main force of development. The northern court simply cannot do this.
With the continuous economic development of Wu Guogong's territory, the living standards of the people in the territory have been greatly improved. Lei Hu has even put forward the slogan of healthy nutrition. The people's quality of life and nutrition will far exceed those in the North. After decades of persistence,
The physical quality of the people in the territory will gradually surpass that of the people in the north.
This is truly people-oriented!
With years of habits and the influence of Duke Wu, territorial officials gradually became more scientific and rational in their local management. It was quite difficult to understand that their northern counterparts had killed and injured nearly a million young people when they built an eastern capital, Luoyang.
According to their many years of experience, as long as the personnel allocation is reasonable, it is very simple for two million young people to build Luoyang, the eastern capital.
At least it is easy to dig the foundation, and the high wall behind it also has exquisite engineering machinery. There are still many architectural talents in this era. Otherwise, how about the city walls that are as high as a hundred feet like Daxing City, and other provincial capital cities are often as high as 50 or 60 feet?
Built?
With the help of construction machinery and a considerable number of warriors, the task of building the city wall, which consumes the most physical labor, can be solved.
Then came the cumbersome city construction, which was nothing compared to the two million young and strong labor force!
Of course, this is only equivalent to the territory of Wu Guogong. If there are two million young and strong laborers, almost commercial and civil projects can be easily taken over. Differently, their counterparts in the north are obviously still trying their best to squeeze the labor force and do not take the names of the laborers seriously.
within the category.
Mainly due to the lack of dedication of the officials in the North, who treated young laborers like livestock, coupled with imperfect logistics and supplies, resulted in a horrific situation with nearly a million casualties in just three years.
Lei Hu had discussed these situations with his subordinate Wen Wu before. Besides sighing, what else could he say about the merchants?
You can't go to Daxing and tell Yang Guang that your officials are a bunch of rubbish. You should let me do projects like building Luoyang, the eastern capital, which can at least reduce the consumption of people's labor by more than 90%.
I'm afraid Yang Guang will fall out on the spot!
As for the people's power wasted in building Luoyang, the eastern capital, for a being like Yang Guang who did not take the lives of the people at all, he would not be moved at all even if they all died, let alone nearly a million casualties.
Otherwise, this man would not have just started the construction of the Grand Canal on a larger scale after just finishing the construction of the eastern capital of Luoyang.
If we really want to operate according to the behavior of the officials in the North, it would be abnormal for the Grand Canal project, which stretches for thousands of miles, not to kill millions of young and strong civilians.
Lei Hu expressed his thoughts, which immediately frightened all the civil and military personnel present and made them turn pale.
Millions of young and middle-aged civilians died?
This would affect at least seven families in the Central Plains and above, and would even shake the foundation of the Sui Dynasty.
etc……
The civil and military personnel present immediately reacted, and everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. According to their guesses, Sui Emperor Yang Guang's behavior of building the Grand Canal was really no different from being executed.
"Everyone, we can't interfere in matters in the north, but you must be mentally prepared for matters in the territory!"
Lei Hu said coldly: "The imperial court's conscription of millions of young men and women into labor force will definitely cause a backlash from the people everywhere. At that time, many people will come to us to avoid the labor force!"
Having said this, his face slowly softened and he said: "You must be prepared to receive it. I hope that this time the population of the territory can break through the tens of millions mark in one go!"
The civil and military officials present became excited, and their faces glowed with excitement.
If the number of people in Wu Guogong's territory can really break through the tens of millions mark in one go, it would be a gratifying thing.
During Yang Jian's reign, the population of the entire Sui Dynasty reached its peak, reaching nearly 9 million households and 45 million people.
Of course, if the total population is in the hands of aristocratic families, Buddhist hermits, those hiding from war, and ethnic minorities, the total should exceed 50 million!
Before high-yielding crops such as potatoes and corn were introduced to the Central Plains, such a population was quite impressive.
Compared with the heyday of the Han Dynasty, the population was only less than 10 million. It can be seen that the statement of the founding emperor's prosperous age is no joke.
Unfortunately, after Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, in just five or six years, various large-scale projects were launched one after another, and various internal conflicts also caused countless casualties.
Just building the eastern capital of Luoyang would cost nearly a million young people and civilians. If the Grand Canal was built, millions more young people would be killed and injured. The Sui Dynasty could still afford it, but it would also damage the foundation of vitality.
Moreover, the casualties are mostly young adults, which will have a huge impact on agricultural production. If it is not handled well, there may be a situation where there is land but not enough labor for farming.
At that time, local powerful people colluded with the government, and it was easy for them to annex the land and create a large number of refugees. This was quite fatal to the Sui Dynasty.
These have little to do with the territories of Leihu and Wu Guogong.
Of course, Lei Hu also ordered his subordinates, Wen Wu, to be prepared. Whenever refugees appear wherever they appear, the people below can go there secretly to recruit them.
Anyway, the cultivated land area of Wu Guogong's territory was very large. According to the situation in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as long as it was developed and utilized properly, it would be easy to support hundreds of millions of people.
Lei Hu is not that ambitious. If the population of the territory can exceed 20 million before the chaos of the late Sui Dynasty, it will be easy to unify the south and sweep the world. Using the strong to attack the weak will not bother the merchants at all.
Just as Wu Guogong's territory was getting ready for civil and military service, and even began to accept sporadic civilians who had escaped from service, the imperial court sent a document requesting that Wu Guogong also provide a sufficient number of young and strong laborers to join the excavation project of the Jiangbei Canal section.
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It’s simply wishful thinking!
Lei Hu didn't need to say anything, as the civil and military officials in the territory were fiercely opposed.
Are you kidding? Duke Wu is a standard prince. How could the southern vassal towns listen to the announcement but not listen to the instructions of the imperial court and actively organize labor to participate in the rough Grand Canal project?
If you send someone away, it's like a meat bun beating a dog. It's a deal with no return!
"I think this is a good opportunity for us to intervene in Jiangbei affairs and take the initiative to attract the refugees!"
After his subordinate Wen Wu vented his dissatisfaction and anger, Lei Hu slowly put forward a contrary opinion: "Originally, our approach of recruiting deserters was too passive. Now that Yang Guang has given the opportunity, if we take the initiative and directly
Take over the excavation project of the Jiangbei section of the Grand Canal and firmly control the initiative!"