Su Xiong was discussing with Li Fengming the issue of troop mobilization.
"Mr. Li, Brother Su Xiong.
Have all the troops been mobilized?"
Li Fengming replied: "Commander Su, we are about to leave Sichuan.
According to your instructions, in addition to the First Army and the Second Division, all regiments will be stationed at important locations in Sichuan.
Other troops gathered at the assembly point by the river and were transported to Rongcheng by the Yangtze River Navy. They returned to Hanzhong with us."
Su He planned to return to Hanzhong and proclaim himself king after inspecting the salt industry company, completing the reform of the salt industry.
"The Sichuan Governor's Office must make arrangements for the wounded soldiers."
For soldiers who died in battle, the governor's office sent people to deliver death notices to their homes, and their ashes were placed in the Martyrs' Pavilion of the large local ancestral temple.
The local government offices under the Ministry of Household Affairs will guide township offices and other grassroots governments to distribute pensions to military dependents on time every year.
Military dependents in need will also be arranged to go to suitable factories or government offices.
Wounded soldiers can only recuperate locally, and specific work can be arranged after they recover.
When Su Xiong was talking to Li Fengming in Su He, he found a piece of information and handed it to Su He.
"Commander Su, our Sichuan Governor's Office has detailed arrangements for wounded soldiers.
He was slightly injured and was able to return to the army.
They are usually arranged to return to their original units.
Those who had lost limbs but recovered quickly were assigned to serve as instructors in the Reclamation Corps.
For soldiers who want to retire and are literate, arrange for them to become township chiefs or patrol captains.
Illiterate, so I can only work as an ordinary patrolman.
The local government gave us feedback that these people have been on the battlefield and have physical disabilities that deter thieves better than ordinary patrolmen.
Most of the injured soldiers from various armies changed their careers and established ancestral temples in various prefectures and counties to serve as Zhushi.
There are also some experienced wounded soldiers who enter the recruit camp and are responsible for training new recruits.
There are more than 600 wounded soldiers left who are being treated by military doctors, and most of them are out of danger."
Su He briefly looked through the information and found that most of the wounded soldiers had been arranged.
He looked at Su Xiong and asked: "We have adopted new military pay for recruiting new soldiers in Sichuan. How is the reaction of the soldiers?"
At the beginning of the uprising, Suhe did not have a large amount of silver and could only use land as military pay.
Each soldier is paid one acre of land per year.
The current size of the army is 80,000, and the annual expenditure is 80,000 acres of land.
These military salaries can be easily spent now. When the army becomes larger and the war is less intense, a large amount of land will be needed to pay military salaries.
Use silver coins to pay military pay, and the military pay can be quickly recovered.
Use the fields to pay military salaries, and the military salaries will be deposited in the hands of the soldiers.
Suhe took the capture of Sichuan as a node, and the soldiers who enlisted before were among the meritorious soldiers.
Ordinary soldiers continued to receive an annual pay of one acre of land.
All officers were changed to use silver coins as military pay.
Newly enlisted soldiers will receive a new military pay of two taels of silver coins per month.
Su Xiong recalled the rumors in the army. He organized his words and said: "There is indeed some turmoil in the army.
But an officer's salary is much more valuable than an acre of land. After Zhu Shi's guidance, the matter quickly dissipated.
It has no impact on ordinary soldiers, and they are all emotionally stable."
When Su He heard Su Xiong's answer, he felt relieved.
By issuing this order, Su He wanted to balance the interests of all parties as much as possible.
Meritorious soldiers have rich experience and stronger strength.
These people are the backbone of the army and cannot cause them to resist on a large scale.
As the army expands, these people will basically become officers, and then there will be no need to allocate land to them.
If they can become an officer and gain more benefits, they don't care about the income from that acre of land.
As time goes by, soldiers' pay gradually converges, and there will be no estrangement among lower-level soldiers.
"This is very good. We should keep track of the soldiers' thoughts at all times and try to comfort them if there are any problems."
Su He praised them and said goodbye to Su Xiong and Li Fengming.
Walking out of Rongcheng with the guards, we followed the newly built cement road to Tuojiang Wharf.
Su He led his army to capture the city and territory in the front, while he kept building roads in the rear.
After the capture of Sichuan, the engineering team summoned local youths to build cement roads along the original roads.
Sichuan has developed water transportation, and cement roads give priority to connecting major dock areas.
Su He and his party arrived at Tuojiang Pier, where the boat had already been parked.
They boarded the ship, surrounded by warships of the Yangtze River Navy, and headed south to Zigong Prefecture.
Suhe looked at the lush green scenery on both sides of the Tuojiang River, which filled people's hearts with joy.
His hometown, Sujia Village, Baoji, Shaanxi Province, has a cracked and khaki earth, which makes people despair just looking at it.
A breeze blew by, and the rice fields undulated like waves.
The rice is growing very well. Looking from a distance in Suhe, the rice has begun to ear.
There are two crops of rice here in Sichuan, and farmers spend most of their time busy in the fields.
This is also the reason why Su He dare not deploy more troops in Sichuan.
Su He went to Zigong Mansion this time mainly to check the situation of the salt well.
When Wu Cheng became the prefect of Zigong, Su He sent his secretary Jiang Zhiyu to Zigong to take over all the salt wells.
The produced salt is transported to various parts of Sichuan and Hanzhong County.
Now a salt company has been established to make and sell salt.
This is already on the right track, salt tax and benefit distribution need to be clarified.
Suhe's fleet docked in Fushun County.
Wu Cheng, the prefect of Zigong, and Jiang Zhiyu, his secretary, are both waiting here.
When I got off the boat in Suhe, I saw a newly built wharf, mainly for freight.
A mule cart came from afar, loaded with sacks.
Transport workers carry sacks and carry them to the transport ship.
From the occasional white particles falling from the gaps in the sack, it can be seen that the sack is filled with salt.
Wu Cheng quickly came over to greet him.
"Welcome Commander Su to Zigong Prefecture. Our entire Zigong Prefecture has completed the work of dividing the fields."
Wu Cheng rushed to claim credit and worked hard to express himself.
Su He praised: "Prefect Wu has done a great job. Zigong Prefecture is among the top three counties in Sichuan that has completed the work of allocating fields."
Jiang Zhiyu came over and said bitterly: "Prefect Wu moved too fast, which also affected the operation of our salt company."
Su He asked curiously: "What's going on?"
Wu Cheng invited Su He to board the donkey cart, and he explained the reason in the cart.
The processing of salt in artesian wells in the Ming Dynasty mainly relies on boiling in large pots.
These tasks are all handled by salt households, who belong to lowly status.
Each household has a quota that must be met. Failure to do so will result in penalties.
Boiling salt requires a large amount of firewood, and iron pots have become fast consumables due to corrosion by salt.
These need to be purchased by the salt households themselves.
The money given to them for boiling salt was not much, and their lives were very difficult.
After Wu Cheng arrived, he established an official government to attack the gentry and redress the grievances of the people.
Announced the abolition of all lowly status, and everyone could be divided into fields.
These salt households all rejoiced and celebrated their freedom.
They all went to the villages around Ziliujing and were allotted a field so that they could farm safely.
Jiang Zhiyu said helplessly: "I led people to take over artesian wells and other salt wells and turned them into salt factories.
Reinforce the area around the salt well with cement and build a salt drying pool.
After doing this, I found that all the salt households were able to farm their land with peace of mind.
I brought people to the door to persuade and paid wages in advance, so I recruited a group of people.
I also transferred a group of light-sentence reform-through-labor prisoners from the Zigong Prefecture Criminal Bureau to fill the gap in workers."
Su He also understood the suffering of low-income families in the Ming Dynasty, of which Lehu and Jianghu were typical representatives.
These lowly people generally live a worse life than ordinary people.
The donkey cart arrived at the gate of the salt company.
There are many mule carts and horse-drawn carriages here, waiting to transport salt.
Su He got off the car and walked into the salt industry company. He saw many ponds built with cement around the artesian wells.
Several pools of different heights are connected together to form one large pool.
There is a height difference between the pools, which allows salt brine of different concentrations to gather together.
Su He looked at these salt ponds.
The highest pool contains relatively clear brine freshly drawn from an artesian well.
After a few days of drying the brine, most of the water evaporates and turns into a higher concentration of brine.
Workers removed the baffles between the pools, allowing the highly concentrated brine to flow into the lower pools.
The baffle is being reinstalled, and the workers are carrying wooden buckets and pouring the brine just drawn from the salt well into the uppermost pool.
The lowest pool is already very viscous, and after a few days of drying, the salt will precipitate out.
Su He saw some salt ponds. The water in the ponds had dried up and was filled with white salt.
Workers use wooden shovels to scoop up the salt and put it into sacks. This is salt that can be sold directly.
Well salt is close to snow white in color and has very few impurities.
Unlike sea salt, which has many impurities, its color is yellowish, and its taste is bitter.
Jiang Zhiyu happily introduced: "Commander Su, we can meet the basic needs of the people of Sichuan just by relying on the salt produced by our artesian wells.
With the addition of tribute wells, we can not only satisfy ourselves, but also sell salt to others."
He pointed to the salt pond and said excitedly: "The existence of cement allows the sun salt method to completely replace the boiled salt method.
In the past, the bottom of the pool was paved with stones. Due to sealing problems, most of the salt brine seeped into the ground, and the solar salt method was very inefficient.
Now the speed of artesian well extraction can no longer keep up with the speed of drying salt."
Su He looked at the artesian shaft: "We still need to increase the production capacity of the salt industry company. The current salt is completely insufficient."
After Su He finished speaking, he walked to the artesian well to see how the workers drew brine from the well.
The production capacity Jiang Zhiyu introduced was only enough for the people to eat and stay alive.
This batch of low-priced well salt entering the market only alleviates the salt shortage.
When the price of salt in Hanzhong was at its highest, it cost 51 copper coins per pound.
Su He sent people to investigate the market and found that because the current price of salt was too expensive, most people did not dare to eat salt every day.
Many people eat salt every other day.
Eating too much salt can easily cause cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, but now the vast majority of people will not live long enough to develop cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
Eating too little salt will lead to drowsiness and fatigue. The person will basically lose his labor force, and in severe cases, he will coma and die.
In addition to its daily use, salt is also used in processed foods.
Pickled food lasts a very long time.
Nowadays, vegetables cannot be stored for a long time, and fresh meat and eggs are also easy to spoil, so they can only be provided to towns close to farms.
With enough salt, you can make a variety of pickled foods.
In this way, vegetables, meat and eggs can be stored for a long time.
It is very easy to build a salt pond, but the production capacity of the salt industry is limited only by the extraction speed of brine from artesian wells.
Su He walked into the artesian well, which was a salt well with a huge mouth.
A large windlass is placed above the salt well, which is used to extract brine from the well.
The windlass is a large rotating shaft with a rope attached to it, and a large iron bucket is tied to the rope.
Workers shake the rotating shaft and the rope drives the iron bucket to move up and down to absorb the brine from the well.
Su He saw the iron bucket being slowly lifted up.
There is a large hole in the iron barrel, and there are small holes around it. Hemp rope is worn on the small hole to fix a large piece of leather.
The iron bucket sank into the water, and the water pushed away the leather and flowed into the bucket.
When the iron bucket is lifted, the water presses against the leather, blocking the hole and preventing it from flowing out.
When Su He saw this iron bucket, he remembered the pressurized water well he saw in his hometown in the countryside in his previous life.
The mouth of an artesian well is so large that only one windlass can be placed there.
But with pressure rod water wells, about three can be placed, and the pressure water wells can draw water very quickly.
Pressure wells are simple to manufacture.
Su He immediately drew a sketch of the water well.
Jiang Zhiyu saw the pressure well and said, "Commander Su, I can understand the schematic diagram of the water well you drew.
But it needs to be connected to a pipe, what kind of pipe do we use to connect it to the salt well?"
Su He nodded and said: "You can see the key point at a glance. We must ensure that this pipe has a certain degree of air tightness."
He did not explain the principle of water pressure well, and Jiang Zhiyu and others could not understand it.
This is done by creating a partial vacuum and using atmospheric pressure to draw up the brine from the salt well.
"The connecting pipe is preferably an iron pipe.
But the craftsmen here in Zigong Prefecture do not have machine tools to process seamless iron pipes.
They also have no way to cut the iron pipe to form threads so that the iron pipe can be tightened.
I can only try using bamboo and try to seal the gaps as much as possible."
After Su He finished speaking, he asked Wu Cheng to arrange craftsmen to build a pressure well.
They were waiting for the pressure well manufacturing process, and Su He explained to Jiang Zhiyu the plan for salt industry reform.
The salt industry reform designed by Su He was the salt monopoly system.
Except for salt companies, no one is allowed to engage in the manufacture and large-scale sale of salt.
Before the salt leaves the factory, the tax bureau collects all salt taxes.
There is no need to tax any more during the distribution and sale of salt.
The sale of salt is a monopoly, and the salt industry company transports the salt to various prefectures for unified sales.
The terminal sales of salt can involve grocery stores and small vendors.
They went directly to various salt companies to purchase salt.
Salt production and sales are all handled by the Salt Industry Company under the Secretariat.
Salt, an industry with a natural monopoly nature, will not be open to private ownership in Suhe and will be controlled by government-run companies.
Jiang Zhiyu heard what Su He said and said happily: "What Commander Su means is that our salt company has complete control over the manufacturing and sales of salt.
For every bag of salt produced, a portion of the tax must be paid.
We will keep the remaining money to expand the company."
Su He's eyes widened and he said: "What good thing do you want to do, except money to pay taxes?
90% of the money earned by the salt industry company has to be handed over, and only 10% is left for development.”
Su He told the Salt Industry Company the sales price of salt.
In order to make salt affordable for the people, the price of salt was set at 2 copper coins per pound.
The price of salt is uniform in all regions, and this is the sales price.
The retail price will not exceed 5 copper coins per catty at most.
For salt, a commodity, Suhe adopts the strategy of small profits but quick turnover.
With such a low salt price, the governor's office, including taxes and surrendered profits, can get at least three million taels of silver coins from the salt company every year.
Selling salt was too profitable, and more than half of the cash stolen from Suhe came from the homes of Sichuan salt merchants.
The profits from the salt company were enough for him to build hundreds of primary schools.
After a period of development, the salt industry company's mechanism became bloated and corruption was rampant.
At least the people can eat low-priced salt, and the government can also receive large amounts of tax revenue and profits from salt companies.
All we need to do is dispatch a few supervisory censors, arrest all corrupt people, and clean up the salt company.
Once the salt industry is handed over to salt merchants, corruption will become more serious. Suhe will not receive a penny, and some officials will be enriched.
The common people can only eat high-priced salt, and even dare not eat salt.
The salt merchants of the Ming Dynasty were synonymous with great wealth.
The benefits they gained were obtained by poaching the Ming Dynasty and embezzling the Ming Dynasty's salt tax.
Su He learned the lesson of the Ming Dynasty and never gave businessmen an opportunity to take advantage of him.
"Jiang Zhiyu, you stay in the salt company and wait until the salt company forms a large scale.
After the scientific examination, a manager will replace you, and then you can return to Hanzhong.
I will ask Su Que to send people from the tax bureau to station at major companies.
The accounts must be clear, and multiple departments will review the accounts."
Suhe has strict control over these companies, and all money transactions go through the banking system.
Banks, tax bureaus and various companies will review the incoming and outgoing accounts.
If an account is not reconciled, we will conduct an in-depth investigation.
Su He knew that by doing so, there was no way to eliminate corruption, but it could effectively curb corruption.
If corruption does occur, it will be exposed quickly.
Jiang Zhiyu smiled after hearing this and said, "Don't worry, Commander Su, I will definitely manage the salt company well."
He won't tamper with the accounts. He has a long career and it's not worth it to be greedy for money.
Su He and Jiang Zhiyu were talking about the expansion of production capacity of salt companies and the establishment of salt companies in various places.
It was getting dark, and Jiang Zhiyu took Su He to the salt industry company's house to rest.
Su He got up very early and did not wait for Jiang Zhiyu to send someone to deliver food.
Take the guard directly to the salt industry company canteen for dinner.
There you can get in touch with the workers at the bottom and hear the most authentic voices from the bottom.
Su He came to the canteen and saw many workers eating here.
He received the tableware and lined up to serve the meal.
No one here knows him, and when communicating with them, they will always tell the truth.
Unlike in Chengdu, everyone who sees Su He wears a mask.
The canteen of the Salt Industry Company provides three free meals a day, including boiled sweet potatoes until you are full.
Provide a bowl of egg soup and a large pot of water with an egg in it.
There is also a small dish of kimchi, including spicy cabbage and salty radish.
Su He led two guards, pretending to be new workers, and came to a big table carrying the dishes they had just finished.
At this table, two workers, an old man and a young man, were eating.
"Uncle, is it convenient for me to sit here?"
The old man smiled, with almost all the teeth in his mouth falling out.
"Haha, I just look older. I am only twenty-five years old this year. This is my brother, who is only five years younger than me."
Su He looked at this man and saw that he looked like a fifty-year-old man. His half-white hair and wrinkled skin all showed that he had aged.
"Sorry, I made a mistake."
Su He immediately understood that this was a typical premature aging phenomenon caused by overwork and malnutrition.
He has seen a lot of people like this. They were squeezed so hard that they basically wouldn't live past the age of thirty.
"I haven't seen you before, you must have just arrived!
The treatment here is very good, don't worry, it's much better than in Daming.
When I saw the salt bath, I was shocked.
In the past, a large iron pot was used to boil salt. It took a day and a night to boil a small handful of salt.
From this salt-drying pond, it only takes a few days to fish out several carts of salt..."
Su He ate while listening to the worker talk about his past and present life.
He has been assigned his own land and is still working in a salt company.
He knew that he would not live long, so he worked hard to earn money and leave more money for his children.
Compared with his previous life, his current life is simply a fairyland.
Su He watched the worker talk about his previous life and his fearful expression during the conversation, and he could think of the suffering he suffered.
When he talked about his current life, his face was full of smiles and hope.
Su He looked at this man's heartfelt smile and felt very satisfied.
You are on the right path, and it is completely worth it to help more people and make them live a happier life.
After dinner, he chatted with many workers.
Su He understands the situation of the salt industry company.
Jiang Zhiyu lived up to his expectations and the salt company was managed very well.
Su He walked out of the canteen and saw Wu Cheng walking in with several craftsmen.
These craftsmen used donkey carts to pull several things. The carts were wrapped in linen and couldn't be seen clearly.
When Wu Cheng saw Su He, he quickly walked to Su He and asked for credit: "Commander Su, I didn't sleep last night.
Accompanying the craftsmen in manufacturing, solving problems for them, and finally creating several pressure wells."
Su He smiled when he heard that the pressure well was completed so quickly.
I thought it would take a few days, but I didn't expect it to be done in one day and one night.
"Let's go find Jiang Zhiyu and find a small salt well to test the pressure well to see if it can be used normally."
Wu Cheng said with a smile: "Commander Su, we have tried it on the river bank according to your instructions. This kind of pressure well can really draw water over long distances."
When Su He heard Wu Cheng said that he had tried it, he stopped asking for the pressure well to be tested.
Find Jiang Zhiyu directly and use an artesian well to test the pressure well.
Craftsmen removed the windlass above the salt well.
They started to connect the finished bamboo.
These bamboos have been punched through, and both ends have mortise and tenon structures that can be cleverly stuck together.
The joints of the bamboo are tightly wrapped with a layer of leather and tied with hemp rope.
Soon the bamboo penetrated completely into the artesian well.
The iron pipe at the lower end of the pressure well is directly inserted into the bamboo joint.
The craftsmen plugged the gaps with hemp ropes, wrapped the outside with leather like bamboo tubes, and put a layer of mud on the outside.
The craftsmen set up the pressure well at the upper end of the wellhead and fixed it.
Su He looked at the pressure well. The one-way valve and piston at the bottom of the well were both made of leather.
He scooped a ladle of salt brine and poured it into the pressure well.
Ask the guard to quickly press the pressure well with his hand. When pressing upward, the air in the bamboo tube will be pumped into the well.
When it is pressed downward, the air in the well is blocked by the one-way valve, so it cannot enter the bamboo tube and can only escape through the gaps in the well.
There is a liquid seal inside the pressure well. When the piston moves downward, external air cannot enter the territory.
By repeatedly pressing up and down, the air in the bamboo tube is evacuated, forming a vacuum.
The atmospheric pressure directly pushes up the brine.
At the mouth of the pressure well, there was the sound of rushing water.
Jiang Zhiyu said excitedly: "It's out of the water, it's really out of the water."
Suhe looked at the water flow. A pressure well drew brine many times faster than a windlass.
The space above the artesian well can accommodate at least three pressure wells.
The output of artesian wells and tribute wells will be increased several times.
A large amount of salt will be produced, and cheap salt will soon be in the hands of the people.
Suhe was not afraid of draining the artesian and tribute wells. Later generations drained them for hundreds of years, and there was still well salt in these two areas.
Pressure wells are also patented, and the patent is disclosed to the public, allowing craftsmen to make pressure wells. It is easier to draw water than a windlass.
It is also suitable for many areas. Nowadays, cities and villages rely on wells or rivers for drinking water.
