allendalepharm Chapter 479 Jia Cong’s big plan
Chapter 479 Jia Cong’s big plan
Chapter 479 Jia Cong’s big plan
The carriage came out of Deshengmen, and the noise in the city was gradually replaced by the silence of early winter.
When the cold wind just hit the capital, the emperor was still thinking about asking the ministries to prepare for snow disaster relief as usual. However, after a private visit to the city incognito, he accepted Lin Paixiu's suggestion from the Ministry of Revenue and cut off five Prepare food for disaster relief.
Even if natural disasters occur from time to time, the people of Daxia today are not short of food.
The imperial court has reduced taxes and reduced taxes for farmers for three consecutive years. High-yielding grains such as potatoes and corn have allowed 90% of the people to fill their granaries.
In Taicang, yamen all over the country were adding new grains before the old grains were used up. Officials began to have a headache and had no place to store grains, so they began to research various delicious drinks.
It is said that Fenjiu from Shanxi and Xifeng from Shaanxi are sold well in the Western Regions, Anbei and Beiting, and have brought back a large number of cattle, sheep and horses to the two provinces...
"People are not short of food now. What they pursue now is not food and clothing, but a more comfortable life. For example, making more money, building stronger and more beautiful houses, marrying beautiful wives for their children, and sending their children to better places Study in the school."
The emperor looked at the fields on both sides of the official road. The green seedlings were growing stubbornly and resolutely in the cold winter. In the distance, there were faint sounds of chickens crowing, dogs croaking and children playing, and he couldn't help but sigh.
Yuanyou's tenth year is about to pass. He has inherited the throne for a full ten years. He can finally proudly say in front of his father: Dad, when it comes to governing the country, I am not inferior to you!
Since taking over the throne from his father, the stubborn Lao Si has step by step broken the situation of having no power, no one, and no money.
The lord of the inner peace vassal, fights against strong enemies abroad, purges the officials, clears the deficit, appoints talents and uses them, implements new laws...
As of today, Daxia has become the Queen of Qin, and in a true sense, the territory has been pushed to the south of the North Sea, north of the South China Sea, and Goryeo in the east, and reaches the Western Regions in the west.
Thousands of miles across the country, even the best horse has to die from exhaustion on the way to deliver the message.
If it weren't for this restriction, the emperor felt that his warriors could push further west until they could reach the royal territory in the world.
Not to mention internal affairs. From the Three Emperors and Five Emperors to this day, which emperor has been able to make the people dislike the relief food distributed by the court as not delicious?
Crunchy~
The wheels turned leisurely, and the emperor's mood became lighter with the swaying of the seedlings in the fields on both sides.
He really wanted to take a deep breath of fresh air and get rid of the boredom caused by a row of heavy government affairs.
unexpectedly……
"Cough cough cough~"
The emperor couldn't help but frowned. Why did the air here have a choking smell?
Jia Cong hurriedly dug out a cotton mask from a drawer on one side of the carriage, and each person, including the guards outside the carriage, was given one.
"Fourth Master, we are now in the industrial area, you must wear a mask."
Daiyu helped the emperor fasten his mask, and after getting off the car, he put on the hood of his cloak to prevent dust from falling on his hair.
The air here will feel choking even if you wear a mask. The originally blue sky is gray here. There are tall chimneys standing all around, and black smoke is constantly spitting out.
The Gyeongbuk Industrial Zone was built eight years ago by Yuanyou and is now the largest heavy industry base for steel, coal, building materials and other industries in Gyeonggi Province.
If it weren't for the confidentiality of firearms manufacturing, Jia Cong would have wanted to move all the weapons workshops of the Ministry of Industry here. Near the weapons workshop in the west of the city, many people have complained that the noise and smoke from the workshops are ruining their peaceful lives. .
Industry is inseparable from pollution.
Jia Cong is not a professional, so being able to push Daxia as far as possible onto the development path of the "First Industrial Revolution" is already his limit.
As for environmental protection? It seems that in my previous life there was a girl from Norway who was good at this...
I digress~
The craftsmen here can be said to be the essence of Daxia today. Tens of thousands of craftsmen are busy, and the bustling scene is an eye-opener for the emperor.
He did not reveal his identity. Jia Cong, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, could take the emperor to visit the industrial area just by brushing his face.
The molten iron was cast into the required steel ingots and steel bars one after another. The mountains of steel made the emperor's ambitions rise a lot again.
Steel, that is, powerful artillery pieces, railways that stretch into the distance, and the cornerstone for the warriors of Great Xia to continuously expand their territories.
"There is a shortage of everything in steel smelting, but a shortage of people. Including exploration, mining, smelting, etc., just relying on these tens of thousands of craftsmen is not enough."
Jia Cong led the emperor around the vast industrial area for more than an hour, taking a general look.
After the emperor had a basic understanding, Daiyu and his party left the industrial area and came to the bank of the Yuhe River to the west of the industrial area. There was no longer a pungent smell here, but instead it was a lively, prosperous and picturesque place. small town.
Daiyu's eyebrows were picturesque, and she glanced at Jia Cong, who was lying on the carriage shaft looking for something, with a smile on her face.
"Father, this is the Family City of the Industrial Zone. The people living in it are the families of the craftsmen who work in the industrial zone. Brother Cong spent two years and millions of silver taels to build a city for the country that can make Daxia The foundation for strength to take off.”
"This……"
Standing on the hill, the emperor could overlook the entire town.
The hands hidden in his sleeves behind his back couldn't help but tremble slightly, because this small town was larger than the prefectures and counties in Gyeonggi Province.
"My son Wen'an, how many people are there here?"
Daiyu raised a finger: "Father, do you still remember that Brother Cong asked you for a few officials who are good at governance? At that time, this place had just been built, and Brother Cong only realized that 100,000 people gathered together. In the land, a complete administrative office must be established.”
The emperor then remembered a "little thing" that he didn't pay much attention to before. In early August, Jia Cong told him that the industrial zone in the north of the city was basically completed and needed a few sixth- and seventh-grade officials with high abilities and good reputations to manage it. .
He really didn't care at that time, thinking that Jia Cong might have set up a second Ministry of Industry weapons workshop with thousands of people. For the emperor who was worried about the military and political affairs of the country every day, it was really a big deal. Nothing is too small.
But what was in front of him today turned out to be a city with a population of more than 100,000 people.
"One hundred thousand people, one hundred thousand people... Jia Cong, come here!"
The emperor is no longer calm, and no one can be calm when they see the grand scene in front of them.
"Fourth Master, please wait, right now, right now..."
Jia Cong finally found what he wanted from a box of documents and trotted over with several memorials in his arms.
He pointed proudly at the prosperous and peaceful city under the hill, and said proudly: "Fourth Master, this is the gift I have laid for you... Ahem, this is the gift that Sister Lin and I gave you, the gestation of Daxia Industry. The pond is the cornerstone of eternal rivers and mountains!”
The emperor ignored his nonsense, put his hand on Jia Cong's shoulder, and asked seriously: "Tell me about its situation, in detail!"
Jia Cong did not answer the emperor's question directly, but respectfully handed over a memorial. "This is the three-step strategy draft for the Ministry of Industry that I drafted before. Now the first step has been basically completed. I plan to officially implement the second step plan next year. Please review it!"
After getting along with each other for these years, the emperor also knew that what Jia Cong liked most was to speak with facts and never do anything that was uncertain.
"According to the plan I originally set, use the master craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry as professors to train a new generation of qualified craftsmen. Then gather the craftsmen in the capital, select outstanding people, and break away from the complicated and useless affairs of the capital to establish the capital. industrial area……"
While the emperor was reading the memorial, Jia Cong began to describe the construction process of the industrial zone.
Jia Cong actually began to conceive of Daxia Industrial's three-step strategy as early as the age of eight.
Later, with the help of Daiyu, he thoroughly understood the current situation of the country, including the divisions between the four peoples and the living conditions of the craftsmen's households. He improved his plan step by step so that it could minimize the impact on class interests. Next, tens of thousands of craftsmen households in the capital were moved to the industrial zone in the north of the city, and a basically complete city of craftsmen was built.
This is the first step. The moment the Craftsman City is built, Jia Cong has the basic foundation for continuous reproduction.
The second step cannot be implemented without the emperor's support.
Because Jia Cong wanted to strive for the highest possible social status for the workers.
Scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, farmers are higher than workers. Not to mention anything else, these landless craftsmen's households and slightly affluent farmers are unwilling to marry their daughters to poor craftsmen's families.
Jia Cong's idea was to allow the court to unshackle the entire craftsman family, so that they no longer need to continue to perform labor service, but adopt the employment system.
In this way, craftsmen can use their skills to make money to support their families and improve their living standards, which invisibly improves the social status of the craftsmen's households.
As for the preachers, the opportunity is not ripe yet, so we will not consider it for the time being.
"Although I have worked hard in the Ministry of Works for several years, I can say that the craftsmen in the Ministry of Works have a prosperous life and a high status. However, there are hundreds of thousands and millions of craftsmen in the country who have to go there regularly every year. I was working as a laborer, but I received only a meager salary. In the past few years, I couldn’t even earn basic food rations..."
Jia Cong couldn't help but feel sad when he recalled the scene he had seen at the craftsman's house in the capital.
Farmers are poor, comparable to craftsmen. They still have a ration of land, so when God rewards them, they will not go hungry.
But the craftsmen's household in Daxia is really miserable. A family of five can't even afford one person a pair of shabby clothes.
The rations given to them by the imperial court were even less. Whenever the Ministry of Household Affairs ran out of money, the first thing to be cut off was the food rations of the craftsmen.
The "iron rice bowl" for craftsmen that Taizu had originally set turned out to be a shackles on the craftsmen, making them unable to even go out to find work to support their families.
"Ugh……"
The emperor closed the memorial in his hand, looked at the smoke rising above the Craftsman City from a distance, and sighed: "I have always known the suffering of the craftsmen, but I have to worry about the overall situation."
What's the big picture?
The imperial court needs enough craftsmen to build cities, repair the Great Wall, dredge rivers, and forge weapons...
Wasn’t the “Iron Rice Bowl” policy formulated by Grandfather Taizu bad?
No, at the beginning, the craftsman was a formal employee of the imperial court. He could receive enough salary every month and lived a happy life.
However, with the annexation of land, the court's expenditures increased, and taxes collected became less and less.
Coupled with the misinterpretation of Taizu's system by corrupt officials and the endless embezzlement of money and food, the life of the craftsmen became increasingly difficult.
Hire? In the previous imperial court, which one of the household bank accounts and grain depots was not filled with rats starving to death?
Nearly one million craftsmen were the basis for the imperial court to maintain basic operations. No matter how much he sympathized with the craftsmen, he would not dare to change the status quo easily.
We can only try our best to squeeze out more grain money from the Ministry of Household Affairs, so that craftsmen can have one more grain of rice and one more mouthful of rice.
Now that the imperial court is rich, it can indeed allow the craftsmen to live a good life.
But if Jia Cong's suggestion is followed, there may be another big turmoil in the DPRK.
After all, it has become a common practice among officials to hire craftsmen for free. How many people can give up millions of craftsmen who can serve the government for free?
The emperor got a headache at the thought of having to quarrel with the ministers in the court again. He thrust the memorial into Jia Cong's hand, waved his hand and said: "Let me think about this carefully in advance, and take me around the city."
……
Craftsman City does not have a specific name, and it is not appropriate to call it a city because there is no city wall built here. There is only a stone tablet erected next to a spacious and flat bluestone road that connects to the official road.
"Baigongfang~"
The emperor murmured: "What a hundred craftsmen's workshop. "Mozi" says, there are hundreds of craftsmen in the world, and the wheels and carts are used to train the craftsmen so that they can do what they can. Jia Cong, you are a hundred craftsmen. Fang, well done!”
Jia Cong responded with a smile: "This is not your Majesty's Hundred Workshops, this is His Majesty's, Daxia's Hundred Workshops!"
The emperor smiled and said nothing, and walked slowly into the small town where the aroma of food was wafting around with his hands behind his back.
The streets of Baigongfang are very prosperous. The spacious streets are paved with bluestones, which are smooth and clean. There are water channels on both sides of the roads, covered with stone slabs.
On both sides of the main street are shops one after another, and there are stalls of various sizes but neatly arranged on the street. The shouts of the stall owners, the laughter of children, and the teaching voices of women who have headaches and teach their children are all mixed together. At the same time, it was very pleasant for the emperor to listen.
The emperor has a very poisonous eye when looking at people. This place is not only home to craftsmen, but among the people coming and going on the street, there are also family members of ministers in gorgeous clothes, wealthy merchants, and occasionally a few familiar boys. Who should they be? A little brat from a noble family.
However, the security here is very good, and there are government officials in public uniforms constantly patrolling, maintaining the peace here.
Jia Cong pointed to an official office not far away and whispered: "Fourth Master, over there is the government office established by the minister here, the Beijing Industrial Zone Management Committee. There is one chief official, sixth grade, and one deputy. , the seventh rank, and three assistant officers, from the seventh rank. There is also one person from a thousand households of the Forbidden Army, who leads a thousand-man team to be stationed in the west of the city, and maintains law and order in the city together with the Yamen of the Management Committee. "
The emperor nodded. One hundred thousand people was almost the same size as a city. There must be enough manpower to prevent various incidents from happening.
His eyes were attracted by a large courtyard next to the government office, and he asked Jia Congnu, "Where is what?"
This time it was not Jia Cong who answered, but Daiyu who responded: "That's the newly built Baigong Technical School. We plan to start enrolling students after the Chinese New Year. I'm asking you to come out of the city today because I want you to come and give me guidance."
Monthly ticket recommendation ticket
I’ll stop here tonight and continue tomorrow. Good night!
It’s 2024, and I have tickets in my hands again. Please give them to me~
(End of this chapter)