Chapter 1145: The Economic Front Determines Success or Failure

 However, Feng Ziying still advocated promoting the construction of this road.

 Because he believed that the journey from Lulong via Funing to Yuguan (Shanhaiguan) should not only be viewed from an economic sense, but also from a military and political sense.

Needless to say, economic significance. The completion of the Lulong-Funing-Yuguan (Shanhaiguan) road can greatly improve transportation efficiency, especially in winter and summer rain and snow seasons, so there is no need to worry about delays.

In addition, Lulong will become the most important industrial center in the Jingdong region in the future. The development of the major industries of iron smelting, iron making, charcoal (coke), military industry, and cement will be enough for Lulong to prosper rapidly, but the biggest bottleneck restricting it is Outsourcing.

Lulong, which is located inland, can only use the most convenient way to get through this bottleneck, and it can greatly promote the development of Yuguang Port, and the prosperity of Yuguang Port can directly radiate to the entire western Liaoning corridor, making the future through western Liaoning and The Eastern Mongolian grasslands are more closely connected, making the entire Eastern Mongolian grasslands economically dependent on the Great Zhou Dynasty.

 This is a huge value in an economic sense.

From a military perspective, Yongping Prefecture has very favorable conditions to build it into a core area relying on iron smelting, steelmaking, military industry, and building materials industries. This core area can not only effectively support the military needs of the entire Liaodong, but also Coordinate the entire east block of the nine-sided defense, including Jizhen and Xuanfu, to meet the military needs of Liaodong, Jizhen and Xuanfu.

According to Feng Ziying’s vision, in the future Yongping Prefecture will not only become a pioneer area for industrial development in the entire Northland, but will also become a trial area for new crops grown with potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn. Potatoes, in particular, are very suitable for planting in the counties of Yongping Prefecture. The growth can also play a very good role in alleviating the food pressure in Liaodong and Jizhen, which all require the use of this road.

The political meaning is even simpler and more straightforward. Qi Yongtai also asked Feng Ziying to give him a few words before he left. The meaning is also very simple. It is expected that Shuntian Prefecture may encounter great pressure on the livelihood of the refugees this winter and next spring. Of course, the imperial court needs relief. However, the hundreds of thousands of refugees were not given relief just because the government was short of financial resources and needed to be raised from all parties.

Then Yongping Mansion can divert some of the refugees and help the court reduce some pressure.

As long as we can survive the next spring, the problem of refugees will be much easier to solve.

In Feng Ziying's view, even if the iron smelting factories and iron-making factories and even charcoal fields and cement plants in Lulong and Qian'an fully expand their production, it is impossible to accommodate too many refugees. So the jobs that can best accommodate the refugees are What, naturally it is to engage in engineering, and it has always been like this throughout the ages.

In this case, it is better to build the concrete road from Lulong-Funing-Yuguan (Shanhaiguan) first. The road in the early stage requires a lot of labor. This can just achieve work-for-relief, allowing the strong labor force among these refugees to to participate in road construction and obtain food for their family to survive the winter and spring.

Feng Ziying has also told Wang Shaoquan and others to transport rice and wheat from Shandong and Nanzhi to Yuguan as early as possible to prepare for the arrival of refugees in the next few months.

“What do you mean, sir, this kind of iron track will definitely have to be built in the future?” Wang Shaoquan was greatly troubled.

“Shao Quan, do you think the current output of the iron smelting furnace is much greater than our original estimate?” Feng Ziying asked.

Wang Shaoquan was speechless for a moment. Previously, everyone had doubts about what the new process would be like and the quality of the iron produced. But until the batches of molten iron came out, they saw this kind of Only after the smooth operation of the model that could be continuously copied did they realize the power of this new technology.

"You think now that we can continue to expand and replicate. As long as our mining can keep up, there are actually many mines available for mining in Lulong, Qian'an, and Luanzhou. The only limitation for us now is the number of our craftsmen. Especially those skilled craftsmen are not enough. When batches of craftsmen grow up in three to five years, how much do you think the production capacity of this iron material will expand? How much the cost will drop? This has not yet been calculated. If we do this during this period Are there any better new processes to improve output and quality?”

Feng Ziying's words were full of longing, "So what I'm talking about is not now, maybe five years from now, maybe ten years from now or twenty years from now. You also know the price of iron now. A pound of pig iron is about eight copper coins. Now It has risen to 12 cents. A pound of scrap iron was only worth 30 cents in the 30th year of Yuanxi, but now it has risen to 45 cents. A pound of mung beans and iron wire was worth about 45 cents in the 30th year of Yuanxi. , now it’s sixty-five cents, what’s the reason for this?”

Wang Shaoquan pondered and said: "The output of the North Metro has basically not changed much in the past twenty years. On the contrary, the output of the Zunhua Iron Works has declined due to various reasons. In addition, the demand has increased, including the North itself and the grasslands. There were frequent wars in Liaodong, and the demand for iron materials was even greater..."

In fact, there is another reason here, and that is the rise in silver prices. Due to the sea ban of this dynasty, the channels for the massive amounts of silver brought by Japanese and Spanish galleons in previous lives to enter the Great Zhou Dynasty were severely blocked, so the silver price continued to rise, to a certain extent. Inflation has been suppressed, otherwise the increase would have been even greater, but this would be detrimental to people's livelihood.

However, with the lifting of the sea ban, the speed and intensity of silver's entry into the big week in the past two years have obviously shown a rapid upward momentum. I believe that prices will rise significantly in the next few years.

However, the whole story is very complicated, and even Feng Ziying has a hard time explaining it clearly. He can only know a rough idea.

"Then once the output of our iron smelting factories and ironmaking workshops increases significantly and continues to increase, even in the future, other areas with iron ore will gradually use our existing new iron smelting process, you Do you think we can consider this feasibility in the future?

Wang Shaoquan knew that he could not convince the other party, but the other party also said that this was a relatively distant future, so there was no need to think about it for the time being. This also made him feel relieved. At that time, the business group would have spent a fortune There's nothing wrong with satisfying this person's hobby.

Feng Ziying didn't bother to talk to Wang Shaoquan, not saying it was a summer insect, but at least these people couldn't understand it at this stage, and he had to accept this reality.

  ************

Jia Yun took a deep breath and walked into the Hubu public house with steady steps.

　　When he received the notice from the Ministry of Household Affairs, he felt an indescribable sense of joy and relief, which was simply better than the feeling of ordering a Qinghuo Ren at Yunxianglou.

He is not a person who has never seen the world. In the past few years, he has dealt with the Ministry of Finance many times, but the money was handed over from other places, passed through the channels in Haitong, and finally handed over to the Bank of the Ministry of Finance.

But this time is different. It is the first time that the Ministry of Household Affairs has borrowed money from Haitong Bank. The amount is actually not large, just five hundred thousand taels. For other merchants, it is of course a quite astonishing amount, but for the Ministry of Household Affairs of the imperial court, it is It's a small sum.

Without him, the imperial treasury is empty, and it will take time for the autumn taxes to be paid to various places. However, the current situation in the southwest war is dangerous, and more than 50,000 prisoners in the Beijing camp need to be redeemed. In addition, the Japanese pirates in Nanzhili are in Nantong Prefecture. After disappearing, he suddenly appeared in Zhenjiang Mansion. Unexpectedly, Dantu and Danyang were attacked by Japanese pirates one after another. Water transportation was interrupted and Jiangnan was shaken.

The defense of the Yangtze River in South Zhili has always been fragile, especially in the past ten years, which has been almost non-existent. Therefore, after being harassed by Japanese pirates, the Nanjing Ministry of War wrote to the court and strongly requested to revitalize the defense of the Yangtze River. This also received a collective response from the Jiangnan scholars in both the government and the public. This also put great pressure on the court.

According to the opinions of the Nanjing Ministry of War, the Yangtze River Navy should be immediately established, even twice the size of the Denglai Navy, in order to protect the Yangtze River and coastal defense of the entire South Zhili and even Huguang. The standards were set very high.

In view of the Japanese pirate attacks that blocked water transportation, and this winter and next spring, the capital city is facing the pressure of displaced people from the northern part of Shuntian Prefecture. It also needs to transport a large amount of grain and cloth from the south of the Yangtze River to the capital to ease the demand. Under these circumstances, the request of the Nanjing Ministry of War seems to be reasonable. middle.

As a last resort, the cabinet also preliminarily agreed to establish the Yangtze River Navy, allocating 300,000 taels of silver first, plus the silver taels needed to redeem the Beijing camp and the military salaries needed to be prepared in advance for the Denglai Army and Guyuan Army for the Southwest War. One million two hundred thousand taels of silver were needed, but there was less than 800,000 taels of silver in the bank. The difference was huge, so the court had no choice but to borrow 500,000 taels from Haitong Bank.

 “Jia Yun has met Mr. Wei.”

Wei Dazhong looked at the young man in front of him and couldn't help but sigh in his heart. The court was in a difficult situation, but Haitong Bank was developing extremely rapidly. Now all the banks in Beijing are following Haitong's lead. How many years has it been?

I think Haitong Yinzhuang also hoped that the imperial court would become a shareholder, but the imperial court hesitated for a long time and finally rejected the invitation. But now it seems that it was a mistake.

"Sit down, Shopkeeper Jia." Wei Dazhong knew that this man was a descendant of Rongguo Gong's Jia family. He was originally quite down and out, but later he got in touch with Feng Ziying, and he also had some business skills, and he became Haitong Bank in one go. Zhuang is the big shopkeeper in Beijing.

"Thank you, sir." Jia Yun's previous high-spirited courage quickly disappeared after entering the household department, and was replaced by indescribable depression and restraint.

Although he kept cheering himself up mentally, this time it was the Ministry of Revenue that borrowed money from him, and he was the creditor, but this innate awe of the government still lingered. To be able to behave like this, Feng Ziying saw that I almost feel that Brother Yun has become a promising man, and he can actually enter and leave the public house of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

"Yeah." Seeing that Jia Yun was also respectful, Wei Dazhong's inner resentment calmed down a little. He also knew that this was not the time to be impulsive, so he nodded, "I'm here to ask you. I'm afraid you also know the specific matter. The imperial court The current situation is difficult, and the autumn taxes have not yet been paid, so I have to temporarily spend some money, so I want to make some money from your Haitong."

 (End of this chapter)