Seeing Lei Yuan pondering deeply, Zhou Hu hurriedly asked, "Zong...oh no, sir, is there anything wrong with it?"
Lei Yuan smiled and said, "It's nothing. Remember to remind me after the spring next year that these roads must be completed as soon as possible."
“Yes, yes.”
Everyone continued to move forward. Not long after walking, they were catching a team of forces transporting carbon. The entire team had more than 200 people, each of whom was pushing a wheelbarrow. Because the load on the car was very heavy and it was difficult to control the balance, several thin-dressed boys were frozen and the mouths were blue, but steaming steam came out from their heads. There were several strong men in the team who looked like leaders, who took the green servants to patrol and scolded them repeatedly, allowing the Liyou to speed up their pace.
Lei Yuan led several people to the side of the road, and the team left first.
"Is this the carbonite transported to Yidao City?" he asked.
Zhou Hu said: "That is. In addition to the carbide output along the Yishui River, there is also carbide in the deep mountains in the northern part of Zigui County. Because it can be shipped directly along the river after it is harvested, the price to arrive at Yishu is quite appropriate. The iron workers in Yishu City mostly use their carbide. It is said that the Wen family in Zigui used more than 2,000 people and mined them unremittingly every day. These should be the laborers under the name of Wen family and Deng family."
"So that's it." Lei Yuan nodded.
This situation makes him happy and sad.
What’s good is that the demand for carbonite is so huge that it seems that the development of the iron industry in Yidao City is very vigorous. This is obviously due to the explosive recovery after a long war in Jingzhou. In addition, it is also related to the huge growth in Jingman trade. Whether it is Han or Man, the demand for iron products is endless.
But he became worried.
Since serving as the head of Le Township, Lei Yuan has attached importance to the means of labor-for-relief, applied the labor force he controlled to the extreme, and fully deployed various infrastructure construction. When there were many engineering projects, he not only sent out all the clan men he could mobilize, but even the servants in the mansion who served daily life were left with only a few women.
But once a war occurs, the army needs to go to war more than everything, and the labor force can be collected will never be enough. All projects and every stall will only stop. When the military operation is over, it is time to see that ensuring the most basic agricultural production has made local officials do their best. As for the others, they can only give up temporarily.
As Duke Xuande's strength becomes stronger and stronger, it will be impossible for Jingyi and the two prefectures to be peaceful for a long time in the next few years. By then, frequent mobilization of the main force between the two prefectures is inevitable, and every time he passes along the Xiajiang water and land route from Badong to Yidu, it will inevitably bring heavy burden to the local area.
If it were two years ago, it would be easier to deal with. Various constructions of labor-for-relief were stopped, and the additional labor levy was not a big problem. The people worked for the county government and served the army through the border, which was also a meal. After all, Xuande Gong was kind, and there was no problem in providing two full meals a day when recruiting the people.
But starting next year, the construction of the county government will come to an end. What occupies manpower during the slack season will be various iron yards, charcoal yards, shops, labor workers in the market, etc., which are all local families, and wealthy merchants come forward to hire them, which is paid!
Contemporary commodity trading is not yet developed. Some ordinary people in the countryside have long been uninvested, but the employment demand in cities has existed for a long time. The price of human employment generally fluctuates with the price of grain. In the early Han Dynasty, the price of grain was flat, and the employment price varies from five to ten cents per day.
After Huan and Ling of this dynasty, because the price of grain increased by more than four or five times, there was a painful cry in the middle of the dynasty that "we should use tourists to rent as wealthy families and serve them, and they will be thousands of years old." In other words, more than ten dollars a day could not support their lives. Later, all kinds of privately minted bad money and small money were rampant, and the employment price soared again.
Lei Yuan remembered that before he sent troops to Sichuan, Jingzhou had been roughly stable, so the price offered by several larger carboniferous farms and iron farms floated around twenty-five cents a day.
Of course, this is the price for the Han family's short-term workers, and the skilled craftsmen get much higher. The price for hiring Jingman Liuren as laborers is lower. Sometimes you only need to take care of two meals. However, the leader who is responsible for organizing barbarians to work out of the mountains and Qu Shuai makes a lot of money.
In this way, if the civil servants are recruited in the form of temporary remittance due to war needs, it will be a huge loss for ordinary people who sell their labor to make a living, for merchants and clans who hire labor to operate!
At that time, as the prefect, I will have a way to deal with Duke Xuande?
Lei Yuan thought for a while, but couldn't help laughing.
In this moment, there is no more important than war? I was actually planning the loss of income for the people. I was a little stunned. When the Cao and Liu families had a war, men were in the war, women were in the fortune, and their lives were all expected to be defeated, so how could they care about those small amounts of money? At that time, as the leader of the Lei clan of Lujiang, I came forward to join forces with local merchants and powerful people to give the people some extra money and subsidies.
Thinking of this, he asked Zhou Hu with a smile: "There are Wen family and Deng family's charcoal farms in Zigui County, which are very good. Can other counties have similar powerful and big merchants who are good at operating?"
Zhou Hu was thinking, at this time, someone in the convoy running over Lei Yuan was angrily shouting: "What a f*ck! If there are more powerful businessmen who are good at operating, can the people still have a way out?"
Lei Yuan looked up suddenly, and wheelbarrows passed by in front of him. The person pushing the cart was expressionless, as if no one had ever spoken.
Lei Yuan looked back at Li Zhen and other entourages, and Li Zhen and others shook their heads in confusion.
Looking at the front of the team, several strong men with the appearance of leaders probably heard the sound and were rushing towards him with confusion on their faces.
Lei Yuan shouted: "Who is the one who has just spoken? I am a member of the Lei family in Lujiang, and I can meet the Duke! If you have any reason for your love, you might as well tell me!"
Before he finished speaking, a young Liebing overturned the wheelbarrow to the ground, allowing the black charcoal to scatter. With his movements, the entire team stopped in an instant. Liebing, who was traveling with him, carefully put the vehicle down and tried to stop him, but was thrown away by him.
He clenched his fists and took two steps towards Lei Yuan: "You just said, can you see Lei Fujun?"
Li Yi was in his twenties and was so ragged that he was just wrapped in a few strips of cloth. But his dark face had a stubborn look. Lei Yuan noticed that the skin on his shoulders and back showed a unique copper color, which was the result of long-term exposure to sunlight, cracking and bleeding, and continuous recovery.
Lei Yuan nodded and said, "I am a child of the Lei clan. I have a relative with the Lei Mansion Lord, so I can indeed see him."
The leaders in front and behind the team noticed this, shouting to speed up, and someone waved his whip and crackled in the air.
This man seemed to care about it at all. The accent he spoke was a little difficult to understand, but his voice was very loud. He heard Lei Yuan claiming so, and he knelt down on the ground: "Then please give the sir to the Leifujun, please leave a way out for the people of Yidu!"
Chapter completed!