Twenty large ships are definitely not enough for large-scale commercial transportation, but they should be fine for the first exploration.
Liu Ye lowered his head and thought for a while.
"Your Majesty may want more, and His Majesty also wants to go to many places. Twenty large ships may not be enough, but it should be enough for the first use..."
"It's definitely enough for the first time. Such a large ship can carry more than tens of millions of kilograms of goods?"
Cheng Yu looked at the huge large sea ship and said with a smile: "We will try to make it bigger so that it can carry more goods and food. By then, even if the Great Qin Kingdom is thousands of miles away, it will be able to arrive smoothly. As for what your Majesty needs,
I will also find ways to speed up the progress of more sea-going ships.
By the end of the year, I will deliver another 30 to 40 large-scale ships to form a second merchant fleet. There should be no problem with the number of ships, and there will be no problem with the sailors. There are many people here who are familiar with water properties and ships.
It can be used with practice, but on the vast sea, if there are not enough experienced people to identify the direction, it will be very problematic.
You'd better talk to His Majesty after you go back. I heard people with sailing experience here say that it is very common to get lost at sea. When the weather is clear, you can still tell the direction. Once the clouds are overcast, if you don't drive near the shore, you will
It will be very dangerous, please see if your Majesty has any solution."
"Can Your Majesty solve this kind of thing?"
Liu Ye smiled and said: "Your Majesty is the emperor, the Son of Heaven, why should I bother Your Majesty with this kind of thing?"
"Don't mention it, many of the problems we encountered were all solved by His Majesty."
Cheng Yu smiled and said: "The structure of this large pointed-bottomed ship is what your Majesty requested. We didn't think this thing was very powerful at first. But after we tried it, we found that this structure is really powerful and the hull is very powerful."
It is stable and can withstand wind and waves. No one has done it like this before, but it was proposed by His Majesty. There are many such things."
Liu Ye thought about the things he had heard in Luoyang, including the legendary story of Liu Bei making salt in Liangzhou, etc. One by one, it seemed that it really started from Liu Bei's side, let alone
The current Royal Institute of Art and Crafts is also Liu Bei's hard work.
Maybe he really has a way?
With some ideas in mind, Liu Ye took a boat from Wujun Port and continued southward after completing his business trip in Yangzhou. He sailed along the coastline and headed towards Rinan County. He arrived at Rinan County in March of the second year of Zhenguan.
After landing at the northern port of Ninan County, Liu Ye quickly went to see Fa Zheng. When he arrived at the county government office, Fa Zheng happened to see off a group of foreign businessmen and chatted and laughed with them at the gate of the county government office. Seeing Liu Ye arriving, he hurriedly
Go out to greet.
"Ninan County abides by the law and welcomes the angels!"
"It doesn't matter."
Liu Ye looked at Fazheng with a smile: "As expected of His Majesty's proud disciple, this time your proposals were brought to a formal meeting by Your Majesty to discuss with us. Many things were discussed, and many people expressed their opinions on your suggestions.
I highly approve of it, and His Majesty is even more happy."
"In this way, I will be very satisfied as a minister."
Fa Zheng smiled and said: "Then how does Your Majesty plan to advance this matter?"
"Divided into two ends, the Ministry of Revenue and the Shaofu will advance separately."
Liu Ye said: "Because the iron is under the control of the Ministry of Husbandry and the Shu brocade is under the control of the Shaofu, the Ministry of Hunan must also be involved in this matter, and the Ministry of Hunan also has its own opinions."
As Liu Ye said this, he told Fazheng Zhen Yan's views on the matter. Fazheng thought about it and felt it made sense.
"Indeed, the steel of our Han Dynasty is indeed the best in the world. Even the iron of cast iron pots is very good. We cannot just sell it to outsiders, lest they use it to make weapons. What Zhen Butang said is reasonable. I agree."
"That's the best thing."
Liu Ye smiled and said: "In addition, regarding these two matters, Your Majesty believes that we can sell these businessmen some things they need, but more importantly, we must also master the routes to their countries, take the initiative to sell things, and sell more
If you have a lot of stuff, sell it directly to the people who need it.”
Liu Ye also told Fazheng that Liu Bei was going to organize a large-scale shipping caravan to go to the home countries of these foreign merchants, and told him that the large-scale shipping caravan heading to the Great Qin Kingdom would be ready by the middle of the year, and at the earliest, in the second half of the year.
We are about to prepare to set off to explore the Great Qin Kingdom."
"I will recruit reliable manpower to help the fleet operate."
Fazheng said: "We don't understand navigation matters, so we need to find reliable people to ask carefully. If you are not careful, the ship will be destroyed and everyone will be killed. No matter how many people go or how many things you bring, it will sink into the sea, and there will definitely be no survivors."
opportunity, so be careful.”
Liu Ye nodded, agreeing with this.
The two talked about navigation for a while, and Liu Ye suddenly asked about something he saw at the port before.
"When I was at the port, I found that the army was escorting a group of hundreds of prisoners-of-war-looking people onto the ship. Everyone was locked with ropes. What was they doing?"
"Oh, those are native prisoners captured in the war, and they are to be sent to Jiaozhi County."
Fa Zheng smiled and said: "Jiaozhi County is now the place in Jiaozhou that needs these prisoners of war the most, and it is also willing to pay, so we here give priority to sending prisoners of war to Jiaozhi County, and we can also make a lot of money to subsidize the expenses of the county.
, to share the worries of the imperial court and His Majesty."
"Is there such a thing?"
Liu Ye asked curiously: "Who is buying these natives? Did Rinan County send troops to arrest these natives? Has Your Majesty agreed?"
"Your Majesty and the Privy Council are aware of this matter."
Fazheng nodded and said: "This matter was actually a helpless move at the beginning. Although the district company died after regaining Xianglin County, the rest of the natives still persisted in causing chaos and often harassed the county town and farms, causing our officials and people to
Very difficult.
The people are also very cunning. If the army is not there, they will attack, and if the army is attacking, they will avoid it. The mountains are high and the roads are far away, and the jungle is deep. When the army enters the jungle, it is easy to get lost. The natives live in scattered places. Even if you are lucky and find a native settlement, you can't destroy it in one attack.
There are more than 200 native people.
Later, we felt that this was not the solution in the long run, so we thought of capturing prisoners of war and using them as slaves to sell to people in need. This would form a long-term relationship of interest and mobilize more people to take the initiative to capture natives and sell them. In this way, we could kill two birds with one stone.
good effect.
Now it seems that the effect is indeed good. In addition to the government dispatching some county soldiers, the rest are local people. Some local powerful families and even individuals will join the arrest team to form a joint arrest team.
, act together, and the money from the natives caught and sold will be divided together."
"How to divide it?"
"How to divide it?"
"No matter how many people the government dispatches, they will always account for 30%."
Fa Zheng said: "And if you don't have an arrest warrant issued by the government, you are not allowed to arrest natives privately, otherwise you will be severely punished by the government. This 30% is equivalent to taxes and fees paid to the government. As for the other 70%, it mainly depends on
How much they personally catch and how much they sell, the government will do justice to avoid internal disputes."
After hearing this, Liu Ye nodded repeatedly.
"I see, this is a good idea. Indeed, His Majesty allows the use of foreigners as slaves in Jiangnan. In this case, these natives can not only sell talents in Jiaozhi County, but also in Jingzhou and Yangzhou.
Yes, in this case...are there enough native people here?"
"This is not a problem. Currently, there are a large number of dense forests south and west of Ninan County that have not yet been explored. We don't know how many native people live here. We will wait for statistics later. At present, the most important thing is to complete the order.
."
Fa Zheng smiled and said: "By the way, there is an interesting thing. Do you know where the largest order for native prisoners of war comes from right now?"
"where?"
"The governor of Jiaozhou, Liu Biao."
Fa Zheng smiled and said: "Liu Shijun is the largest buyer of natives in Rinan County at the moment. He placed an order for 600 natives alone. This time the joint arrest team came out with 300 people, but only 511 were captured.
Sixteen people, and there are 84 people who need to be arrested next time, and now everyone is discussing where to arrest them next time."
"so many?"
Liu Ye was surprised and said: "Does Lord Liu want so many slaves? How much land does his family have?"
"It is said that Liu Shijun led fifty or sixty people from his family to go south to Jiaozhou to serve. According to the provisions of the land transfer law, the court granted a total of more than 40,000 acres of land to Liu Shijun and his family."
Fa Zheng smiled and said: "But because the land approved by the imperial court is undeveloped wasteland and requires a large number of manpower to cultivate the wasteland, Liu Shijun needs a huge number of slaves to cultivate these wastelands.
It was very troublesome to hire Han people. Liu Shijun found out that some people here were arresting natives as slaves, so he placed an order with us. It is said that this is the first batch. Because it is difficult to reclaim wasteland, there will be many natives in the future.
The order needs to be placed.
Moreover, there are many officials and subordinates from Liu Shijun who have moved their families, and there is land that needs to be reclaimed, so if nothing happens to us here, we will continue to transport natives to Jiaozhi County, and the cooperation should be long-term."
After hearing this, Liu Ye nodded slowly.
"I heard before that many officials serving in Jiaozhou sent their tribesmen to settle down south. Now it seems that they really need these natives, and Rinan County can also rely on the sales of natives to make some money.
, it can also encourage local people to cooperate with the government and reduce the pressure on the government. Well, it is indeed a good thing."
"That's naturally a good thing."
Fa Zheng said: "The biggest task of the national soldiers in Ninan County now is not to maintain law and order, because the local people do not have the leisure to do anything that violates the law. Everyone, as long as they have the ability, are thinking about how to catch them.
More natives.
The natives are brave and difficult to deal with. They have to attack when they encounter them, and they have to tame them when they are caught. This will take some time, but the profits are quite huge. In just a few months, several families have already benefited from the sales.
The natives have made a lot of money and are now discussing with the government to go to the dense forests farther west to find native settlements."
"This is an unexpected bonus."
Liu Ye smiled and said: "In the past, the government was worried about the harassment by the natives, but now it doesn't have to worry about the harassment by the natives. Instead, it has to worry about whether the number of natives is enough... Having said that, in such a vast area like Jiaozhou, these natives can cultivate all the wasteland.
Was it successful?"
"Probably not possible."
Fazheng shook his head: "The county government made an estimate before. It is estimated that there are only five or six million natives in this area. I don't know how many there are further south and further west. And even these five or six hundred thousand natives are unknown."
If all the people are captured and made into slaves, it is estimated that the entire wasteland in Jiaozhi County will not be cultivated."
"Then...what if there aren't enough people?"
"Then we can only arrest the natives in Jiaozhou."
Fa Zheng said: "In this matter, I think all counties must contribute. The native people are not only found in Rinan County, but also in Jiuzhen County, Hepu County, Nanhai County, and Jiaozhi County. There are also many native people, including in southern Jingzhou.
, and Yangzhou, where there are also a lot of natives, thieves and bandits. According to the imperial decree, they can all be slaves and used to cultivate the fields."
"Are there so many natives?"
"really have."
Fazheng said solemnly: "Angels don't know something. In fact, I only realized this after arriving in Rinan County. Our so-called barbaric land is just too far away from Luoyang and there are few Han people, but the natives in these places
But it's not a lot at all, ranging from five to six hundred thousand, or even seven to eight hundred thousand.
A county with a population of five to six million cannot be considered a small county even in the Central Plains. It’s just that these people are not under the control of the government and cannot pay taxes, so it becomes a barbaric land. But if you think about it carefully, you can live for five or six years.
How can a place with a hundred thousand natives be a barren land? It is clearly a blessed land!"
"This... does make sense."
"The natives are also human beings and they also need agricultural production and food."
Fa Zhengdao: "These days, I have also visited the places where the natives live, and found that these natives actually have the habit of farming, and they can also cultivate the fields, but their farming skills are very poor. Despite this, they can survive for five years.
Six hundred thousand people.
This fully proves that Nichinan County is not a barbaric land, but a sacred land that has not yet been effectively controlled. If Ninan County, including Jiuzhen County, can be effectively controlled, there will actually be more than a million people farming here.
Farm the fields and carry out agricultural production.
In time, these remote places can even produce a large amount of food comparable to that of Zhongyuan County. By then, will Rinan County or Jiuzhen County be a deserted land?"
"indeed so."
Liu Ye stroked his beard gently and said slowly: "If the natives can survive, then the Han people can survive. The real deserted land should be a place where even the natives cannot survive. If the natives can survive here by agricultural production,
If they come down and multiply, it proves that the Han people can live better here! I must repay the imperial court for this matter and let the imperial court continue to adhere to its policy!"
"Then thank you angel."
Fa Zheng said happily: "Right now, Rinan County is not short of money, but it is short of people. It is short of Han people, farmers, merchants, soldiers, and capable officials. As long as you can win enough Han people for Rinan County, then I believe that,
Within five years, Rinan County will definitely be able to give the court and your Majesty a big surprise."