king of war

Chapter 94 The Spark of the Future (Ticket Request)

In the end, Qin Rongshuai spent [-] million in exchange for the technology tree of the steam age and started the manufacture of steam engines.

For this reason, Qin Rongshuai had to spend a lot of money to hire craftsmen. After careful study by skilled craftsmen, it took him half a year to finally successfully create the first steam engine.

And his silver was also spent like running water. Originally, he spent more than half of the money in training the new army, and it cost him more to come to Liaodong to farm and open a base. This made him who was not rich even worse.

Qin Rongshuai had no choice but to reluctantly take out some gold reserves and at the same time think about opening up new sources of income. After all, it was too slow to make money just by selling steel products and raising livestock.

So Qin Rongshuai came up with the idea of ​​sea salt while sending people to mine gold mines.

They dug salt fields on the seaside, dried the salt, and then purified the resulting coarse salt and began selling it to the grasslands and North Korea.

At the beginning, the salt field was opened only to solve the problem of salt price in Liaodong and expand grassland trade at the same time, but it was unexpected that the fine salt produced was very popular in the capital.

The profit of fine salt sold in the capital is more than [-] times that of coarse salt. Qin Rongshuai was overjoyed, and quickly sent more people to hire a large number of workers to make fine salt.

For a time, Liaoyan's reputation was unmatched, and it began to sell in several northern provinces.

With this income, Qin Rongshuai began to implement his various plans. As the most senior military officer in the Liaodong region, as well as the position of ambassador to the frontier, holding the Shangfang sword, he was in a unique position in Liaodong.

But the biggest problem he encountered was not money, but the problem of underpopulation. The population of Liaodong was originally sparse. After years of wars, there are now no more than 300 million people at best, and most of them are concentrated in the area south of Shencheng.

Relying on these is far from enough, not to mention the development of industry, even agriculture.

So Qin Rongshuai began to use salt to exchange people with various provinces. As long as they were willing to come, they would not refuse anyone who came, and promised to divide the fields when they came.

It didn't go very smoothly at the beginning. There were very few people who came, which disappointed Qin Rongshuai, but he knew that this matter could not be rushed.

Anyway, he won't age in the dungeon world, so he has plenty of time to waste.

Moreover, the Little Ice Age at the end of the Ming Dynasty has already arrived. In less than two years, there will be successive disasters. At that time, there will be even more homeless people.

But before that, it is necessary to lay a solid foundation. Qin Rongshuai immediately began to implement a free education plan. All children who are willing to study will be sent to Shencheng, and they will be admitted to government-run schools to start studying.

At first, it was just people from nearby Shen City. They heard that they could go to school for free and provide room and board, so they sent their own children.

The vast majority of them are from poor families who cannot afford to support so many children, so they are specially sent here for a meal to reduce the pressure on the family. In this way, only [-] to [-] children have been gathered together.

These children from the age of seven or eight to thirteen or fourteen were all sallow and thin, and their eyes were full of confusion and ignorance.

Qin Rongshuai couldn't help but smile when he looked at the children in front of him. These children will become the fire and hope of this land in the future, and they are the future.

Standing on the podium, Qin Rongshuai wrote two words on the blackboard, country.

Qin Rongshuai looked at the confused eyes of the children with a smile, "Today we have the first lesson, what is a country."

Although the children still don't understand what he said, they will understand the meaning of these two words sooner or later.

The "Young Seedlings Plan" is Qin Rongshuai's most important plan. It can even be said to be the core of all farming plans. Through continuous education measures, students will cultivate their own talents.

Not only does he give a lot of money, but he also participates in the writing and proofreading of all textbooks, and even teaches in person.

In autumn, the corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes planted by Qin Rongshuai were all harvested. Although it was not as high as the high yield that was nourished by chemical fertilizers like the original Huaxia Time and Space, it was already quite amazing in this world.

Looking at the piles of grain, Qin Rongshuai's heart was completely relieved.

With food, there will be population, and we can safely survive the Little Ice Age. Food is even a strategic weapon.

Food is everything in this day and age.

As long as food, especially high-yield food, is planted on the land, this land has been a territory since ancient times, and no one can take it away.

Qin Rongshuai began to order that after the spring of next year, all the land reclaimed by the new army will be planted with these food crops, and there will be a bigger harvest next autumn.

Due to the long winter in Liaodong and the long slack period, Qin Rongshuai took advantage of this opportunity to pay close attention to infrastructure construction, repair the dilapidated city walls of Shencheng, increase water conservancy facilities, and expand the area of ​​salt fields.

Qin Rongshuai was in full swing in farming in Liaodong, and some people in the court began to impeach him. At first, it was just a few censors, and then a large number of officials came forward.

It is said that Qin Rongshuai was arrogant and domineering in Liaodong, expropriated and extorted, colluded with the Tartars, opened border trade privately, expropriated the people for large-scale construction, and the people of Li people suffered unspeakably.

After hearing the news, Qin Rongshuai was shocked. What kind of crimes are these? It can be said that he is arrogant and domineering.

What is extortionate extortion?
Liaodong has been exempted from taxes for three years, and the government cannot collect a penny. I spend money like water every day. What kind of extortionate taxation is this?
As for the collusion with the Tartars, it is even more ridiculous to open border trade privately. The mutual market with the herdsmen on the grassland was established by the imperial court, but after the rise of Jianlu, the power of the Ming Dynasty withdrew, and the mutual market existed in name only.

But it was never cancelled, Qin Rongshuai just restored it.

The large-scale construction is for the repair of water conservancy facilities and the reclamation of wasteland. This is the official job of officials, and this can be brought out for impeachment.

In fact, the officials on the list didn't know, but they couldn't help it. Qin Rongshuai had no desires and desires, and they couldn't find any flaws, so they could only bite the bullet and collect a few charges.

Qin Rongshuai wrote a letter to Lu Wenzhao, asking him to find out the details of these officials.

Lu Wenzhao replied quickly, stating that some officials from Shanxi were impeached, but more officials from Lianghuai, Jiangnan and other places were impeached.

Qin Rongshuai was a little puzzled, why did these people follow him?
Then the court began to have some wind direction, and a large number of officials proposed to increase the salt tax in Liaodong.

Fang Congzhe, the chief assistant, was shocked. He had just exempted the Liaodong region from taxes for three years. Before the three years are over, you are going to increase the salt tax. Isn't it a bit too shameless?

But Qin Rongshuai quickly understood why these officials did this.

It turns out that it was Liao Salt that affected the interests of the salt merchants.

Liao salt not only has a large output, but also has good quality, and soon spread to the northern provinces. Not only the markets in Beijing, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Shandong were filled with Liao salt, but even the upper classes in the south of the Yangtze River liked to use Liao salt.

Especially after Qin Rongshuai opened up the shipping channel south of the Yangtze River, he used ships to transport large quantities of fine salt southward, destroying the salt in the Huaihe and Huaihe areas.

In particular, private salt dealers added fuel to the fire. They found that selling local salt was unpopular and the profits were not as profitable as Liao salt, so they began to purchase Liao salt and spread it to various regions.

Qin Rongshuai smiled, you can't help it with just a little salt, that's it?
The good show is yet to come.

(Ask for a recommendation ticket!)

(End of this chapter)