After several months of war, Shuntian Prefecture finally ushered in peace. Although the cultivated land outside the city was also affected by the war to some extent, and some wheat fields failed to harvest, most of the wheat fields achieved a bumper harvest. This year's wheat output was higher than last year's.
A few percent more.
After two consecutive years of bumper harvests, the stock of wheat was sufficient, which caused the price of grain in Beiping to drop sharply. In order to prevent the low price of grain from hurting farmers, Wan Lei and Tie Xuan negotiated and urgently transferred 200,000 silver dollars from the "treasury" to reduce the price of grain.
After purchasing grain, part of it was transported to the two prefectures of Hejian in Baoding for sale to make up for the surplus. The larger part was transported to Liaodong.
Due to the recent war, the grain harvest in Liaodong has basically stopped, and the food gap is huge. In order to avoid raising lazy Liaodong people, Wan Lei did not directly allocate food to the people this time, but used work-for-relief, that is, allocating projects to the people of Liaodong.
, If you work, you will get food. If you don’t work, you will have no food.
The amount of projects Wan Lei assigned to Liaodong was quite large, including building roads and cities, clearing wasteland and digging ditches, building dams and ports, and also mining, logging, and building factories, etc. The most important project was
Build a large dam on the Taizi River near Liaoyang.
Liaodong has much richer water resources than Shuntianfu, but the water flow gap is small and water resources are still insufficient. The reason why Wan Lei built the reservoir is to use water resources to drive water mills and produce much-needed cement; on the other hand, Wan Lei built a large reservoir.
The purpose is to adjust water resources, prevent and control droughts and floods, and facilitate agricultural development in the Liaohe Plain.
Building a large-scale water conservancy project like a dam is not just a matter of construction. After the site is selected, a drainage channel must be dug beside the river, and then the rockfilling of the river can be started to build the dam. After the river is crossed, steel bars must be used.
For concrete reinforcement, the investment cannot be small.
In order to complete this project, Wan Lei spent countless efforts. From site selection to preparation for construction, he sent many people to conduct on-site inspections, drew many topographic maps for his reference, and finally decided on the location of the dam.
In the Qinghe River Valley, thirty miles away from Liaoyang, there is a large canyon in that area. After the completion of the reservoir, the water level can be raised by fifteen meters, and the water storage volume is expected to reach hundreds of millions of cubic meters.
Once this reservoir is built, it will not only have enough hydraulic power to drive water mills for cement production and meet the needs of town and factory construction. It can also adjust the distribution of water resources to ensure the irrigation of tens of thousands of hectares of land near Liaoyang, so as to develop a Northeast
Come to the granary.
This project is just a model project. Wan Lei also plans to build dams on the Liaohe River, Hunhe River and other tributaries to establish a complete water conservancy system to regulate floods and droughts and promote agricultural development in the downstream Liaohe Plain. In addition to the Liaohe Plain, Jinzhou
The large and small Ling Rivers in the area can also be developed for water conservancy, and even the Yalu River can be developed and utilized.
Of course, to build a dam project, the most important thing is to ensure the supply of cement. There is a cement burning plant outside Beiping City. Sintering cement is not difficult, but the difficulty lies in grinding. The cement process requires two grindings and one burning.
Without a pulverizer, we can only rely on water mills for grinding. The production efficiency is low and the price is high. It is really reluctant to use it in general engineering construction.
The cement burning plant has been established for nearly two years. According to the distribution of required products, Shuntian Prefecture received nearly a thousand tons of cement. After excluding the used part, there were still more than 600 tons, all of which were shipped to Liaodong. At the same time, Wan Lei also returned to the burning plant
The factory placed a large order, requiring the supply of 4,000 tons of cement within two years. In the future, the newly built reservoir will have a 30% stake in the Yan Chamber of Commerce. At the same time, the Yan Chamber of Commerce is allowed to build a large cement factory next to the reservoir and use larger water mills to produce cement.
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In fact, the biggest reason why Wan Lei attaches so much importance to reservoir construction is because of cement. He needs a lot of cement, not only to build fortress defense lines, but also to build residential buildings to keep out the cold, and to build water conservancy facilities.
To ensure agricultural production, after all, Liaodong is too far away from the Central Plains and the cost of food transportation is too high. If the grain production is insufficient and cannot feed hundreds of thousands of people, then Liaodong's industrial construction will be impossible.
On the fifth day of May, the Dragon Boat Festival, a dragon boat race was held in Peiping City. Wan Lei was recovering from his gunshot wound. He also came to watch the competition. More than a dozen small dragon boats competed on the back sea, with drums beating and sounds on the shore.
Tens of thousands of people, both men and women, also gathered, cheering and cheering desperately.
This kind of group celebration has been held many times in Beiping City, but this time it is special. There are visitors from Liaodong watching the battle. These people have personally experienced the prosperity and civilization of Beiping City, and they have come from Baoding and Hejian Prefectures.
Like all the visiting groups, they are all yearning for it.
"Nephew, I heard that you will go to Liaodong in a few days?" Tie Xuan sat next to Wan Lei, watching the battle with a smile and talking in a low voice.
"The trip is scheduled for May 13th. It may take a few months for me to leave, and I will be troubled by matters related to Beiping Province." Since Liaodong is going to be developed on a large scale, Wan Lei of course wants to go and see it in person.
Otherwise, we can’t rest assured, after all, the investment scale is huge.
"Oh, it's not what I said to you. You are injured and you have to travel far away. You are really born with a hard life. My brother and sister are pregnant now. You should be at home with me." Tie Xuan and Wan Lei have a strong relationship.
They are like real brothers. Even Mrs. Tie and Fu Wei have become good sisters. The affairs of the Wan family are almost the business of his Tie family.
"Liaodong is newly settled. I won't be relieved if I don't go there and take a look. In addition, a lot of refugees have been transported from Shanxi and Shandong. These people will be moved to Liaodong for resettlement. This matter is also of great importance. I have to personally intervene." Wan
Lei smiled, he also wanted to be at home with his wife and children on the bed, but things had to be prioritized and what had to be done had to be done well.
"By the way, Commander Zhou said that he has recruited 40,000 new troops in the Hejian and Baoding Prefectures. This will increase military expenditures by several percent. Now the money in the provincial treasury is obviously insufficient." Tie Xuan.
No longer trying to persuade him, he began to complain as soon as the topic changed. Instead, he said that the chief executive did not care about the military, but the army was expanding too fast and the finances were a little tight. He had to mention it to prevent the people from the Military Commission from going into war unrealistically.
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"Don't worry, the caravan that went to Japan to trade has been away for three months and will be back soon. They can bring back at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver." Wan Lei said confidently. He still understands the principle of eating according to the food.
, just do as many things as you have, and you will definitely not be successful.
"That's true, but I heard that Madam Liu's side seems to have lost the battle. Without her as a partner, many products cannot be transported to Jiangnan, especially privately minted copper coins, which are now beginning to accumulate." Tie Xuan was a little confused.
Said worriedly.
"Mrs. Liu and her group have fallen. Let's just recruit another agent. I have asked the Jingzhong Guards lurking in Jiangnan to look for candidates. I believe they will be found soon." Wan Lei had already received the news that Mrs. Liu was defeated and died.
information, but he also
It’s not surprising, after all, Mrs. Liu lacks the overall situation and has no foresight. She can’t be considered a hero. She can only be regarded as a small businessman who likes petty gains. She will definitely not get any benefits from meeting Xu Huizu, who is shrewd and good at fighting. Even if she loses the battle,
Sooner or later.
Although it was determined that Mrs. Liu and her group could not achieve great things, her downfall had a great impact on Beiping Province. Without her as a Jiangnan agent, the privately minted copper coins in Beiping City would have one less person to circulate.
Currently, smugglers in Shandong and Shanxi can only rely on smugglers in Shandong and Shanxi to resell, and the quantity sold is not large, resulting in hoarding.
To solve this problem, we can only support another agent. The situation in the Ming Dynasty is still chaotic. Although the Ming army defeated Mrs. Liu's troops, the rebels headed by He Miaoshun are still besieging Jinling. The Ming Dynasty
The imperial court was too overwhelmed to take care of itself, so naturally it could no longer take care of such trivial matters as maritime smuggling. It would not be difficult to cultivate new agents.
"My dear nephew, the King of Qin who vassed Xi'an is interested in self-reliance. He has sent people to deliver a message to us. He wants to unite with our Peking Army. He also said that when the matter is accomplished, he will make us kings and draw the Yangtze River to rule." Tie Xuan whispered.
Do said mysteriously.
"If you want to recruit the Peiping Army to serve as thugs, then the King of Qin has a pretty good idea. Our Peiping Army occupies the provinces of Liaodong and Beiping. If you want to be the king, you can be the king and use him to seal it. It's true." Wan Lei was very unhappy.
He said, in fact, since the Jiangnan Rebellion, this is not the first wave of people to win over the Peking Army. However, everyone who comes here is extremely aggressive, and Wan Lei is too lazy to offend them.
"These are all wishful thinking. Of course we don't need to pay attention to it. But I heard that King Qin was very ambitious. He not only united with King Su of Lanzhou, but also sent people to contact Guilichi, the leader of the Tatar tribe. It seems that
An alliance was also formed. It was precisely because of the Tatar backing that the people he sent were so loud."
Tie Xuan came from a political background, and of course he understood the meaning of this: this time the King of Qin sent people, it was obviously to win over, but in fact it was to coerce. If the Peking Army did not obey, the alliance composed of the King of Qin and the Tatars would probably
This is also something that must be guarded against when it comes to the use of troops by the Peking Army.
"Let them make trouble, and if the soldiers come to cover up the water and the earth, they won't be able to make a big mess." Wan Lei said calmly. He was full of confidence in the strength of the Peiping Army. The Peiping Army could defeat the tiger-wolf Liao Army.
He could also repel the Tatar army. As for the King of Qin, King Su, he even ignored him.
While Wan Tie and Wan Tie were talking, a Jingzhong guard hurriedly drove up behind Wan Lei and whispered a few words in his ear. He suddenly said with great joy: "Haha, Cao Cao is here, our sea caravan is back.
"
"It's so fast. Didn't we agree to come back in June?" Tie Xuan was also overjoyed.
"Not only did the caravan come back, but it also brought an envoy from Japan." The Jing Zhongwei reminded with a smile.
"So, this overseas trade must have been very smooth. It seems that they came back with a lot of money. Haha, they were worried that they didn't have enough money to spend, so they came back. I really want to sleep and someone gave me a pillow." Tie Xuan's face said.
The smile became even stronger, now it was finally over.