knife

Chapter 210 Things Will Get Better in the End
Mao Daxian proudly unfolded a newly made map in front of Xiao Changche, Li Dachui, and others.

The map shows the area now under the jurisdiction of the Anxi Protectorate.

Aside from places like Yuan'an County, Baoping Prefecture, Tai'an City, Du County, and Helan County, the new areas specially depicted with red cinnabar are the new results of Xiao Changche's sweeping campaign in the Black Domain over the past six months.

Xuanwei County, Huai'en County, Zhenyuan County, Ningwu County.

Although they are only four counties, the area they control is no smaller than the previous places.

Of course, when it comes to population size, there's no comparison.

“These four counties now have a total population of 102,000!” Mao Daxian said. “This is the most detailed statistical result. Even if there are still some savages wandering around, there won’t be many left. Of course, those mountain kings captured by the Protector-General are not included in the count. These people are still serving their labor service. After three years of labor service, it is unknown how many will be left, so they are not counted.”

"A county with only 20,000 people, it's truly pitiful!" Li Dachui shook his head and sighed.

“Although there are only over 20,000 people, most of them are young and strong. The old, weak, sick and disabled will not live long in the Black Domain!” Mao Daxian said: “In the past, in the Black Domain, men who were over sixty years old would automatically leave the village to find a way to make a living, while those who were sick or disabled would be abandoned even if they did not leave on their own.”

"The law of the jungle prevails over the weak; that's the rule of the underworld!" Li Dachui said. "Most of these people are gathered around the county town, right?"

“It’s called a county town, but it’s really just a fortified village now!” Mao Daxian said. “The current county seat of Xuanwei County was formerly the home of the Zhou family, the largest family in Xuanwei. The Zhou family refused to submit to the king’s rule and were wiped out by us. But their fortified village was quite good, and the surrounding area was full of fertile farmland, so we made good use of it. So after our people took over the area, they moved as many people as possible from the surrounding area to this place, forming more than a dozen large villages around the original Zhou family fortified village.”

"That's all we can do for now! How's the business setup going in these newly opened counties?"

“Of course it’s not good!” Mao Daxian said, “The roads are bad, and it’s a newly surrendered region. Experienced managers and employees are unwilling to go because the costs are high. Whoever goes will lose money. We are still working on it in Tai’an City, hoping to mobilize a group of powerful people to go there first.”

"What a bunch of short-sighted people!" Li Dachui said with dissatisfaction. "The more remote the place, the more money you can make in the future. They don't even understand the importance of investing capital to seize the market. Hmph, tell those merchants that the first ones to go will be granted a thousand acres of land each, and all transactions in these places will be tax-free."

"This transaction tax is nothing, it probably won't amount to much, but isn't 1,000 mu a bit too much?"

"Instead of leaving it barren, let's give it to them!" Li Dachui said. "Do we lack land outside the Great Wall? What we lack is people. Damn it, we lack land and have many people inside the Great Wall, but asking these people to come outside the Great Wall to make a living is like asking them to die. They'd rather beg for food than come!"

"From the perspective of those inside the pass, the area outside the pass is a desolate and remote place, so naturally they don't want to come. But once they come, they don't want to leave!" Mao Daxian laughed loudly, "There's nothing we can do. We know this place is good, but if we tell people inside the pass, they won't believe us!"

"Chief Secretary Mao, the Protectorate is going to issue a decree that all unmarried men aged 15 and women aged 14 will be assigned marriages by the government." Li Dachui banged on the table and said, "If we don't have enough people, we can just have as many children as we want. We can also issue a decree that allows each child born to receive a lump sum of fifty taels of silver from the Protectorate."

Mao Daxian was taken aback: "Protector, this is unacceptable. The Anxi Protectorate has a total of 600,000 people under its jurisdiction, which has increased to 700,000 this year. Last year, more than 50,000 babies were born, and more than 6,000 died. Once your decree is issued, there will be an additional expenditure of more than 2 million taels of silver every year. Where will the money come from? Ten taels is still worth considering."

"Then ten taels!" Li Dachui laughed.

“However, it will be a decade or two before this is effective. It’s too late to solve the immediate problem!” Mao Daxian shook his head and looked at Xiao Changche. “The arrangement for the local troops is to set up a Zhechong Prefecture in each of the four counties. However, considering that they have just submitted and are not yet loyal, each Zhechong Prefecture will only be given five hundred men for the time being. The captains and the battalion commanders and captains of the Zhechong Prefecture will need to be selected by the Protectorate General who are experienced.”

Xiao Changche nodded, his gaze falling on Xiao Dongwei: "You go and arrange this matter. The original regimental commander will be promoted to Zhechongfu Captain, the captain to regimental commander, and the squad leader to captain. At the same time, the subsidy for each person for the first three years will be three times that of other places."

"With these conditions, I'm afraid the soldiers will fight tooth and nail to seize it!" Xiao Dongwei glanced at Gu Xiaoman, Fang Xiaomao, and the others and said, "Gentlemen, this time let me, Xiao Dongwei, use my power for personal gain. I'll just send my original subordinates over there. They're all poor and have weak foundations. This is a good opportunity for them to turn their lives around."

Gu Xiaoman, Fang Xiaomao, and the others laughed and said, "Please make yourselves at home." To be honest, compared to Li Dachui's men, Xiao Changche's subordinates were indeed pitifully poor.

"You can use your power to take care of your old subordinates, but don't forget one thing: the people who go must have organizational skills and be able to control the situation with their martial arts. Generally speaking, it's difficult to get people to submit to these new places all at once. I don't want the Protectorate to have to clean up their messes later!"

Xiao Dongwei nodded repeatedly: "Of course, we wouldn't dare to delay our business."

"Chief Secretary Mao, tell me more about the commercial layout of Tai'an City and Baoping City!"

"There was a plan before that after taking over Treasure City, all the large-scale commodity transactions would be transferred to Treasure City. Now Treasure City is almost ready. I plan to hold the first transaction here after the goods from the south arrive. As for Tai'an City, it will focus on the trading and production of military supplies and daily necessities in the future. After all, it is our core area and the safest place."

"Yao Dali, how's the reorganization of the navy going?" Li Dachui asked, looking at Yao Dali, who was sitting near the door.

Yao Dali immediately stood up and said loudly, "Reporting to the Deputy Protector-General, the navy is ready. After three months of reorganization and downsizing, the navy now has fifty warships and three thousand sailors and soldiers. The remaining seventy-odd merchant ships have all been handed over to the Protectorate. The navy has now begun escorting ships on the two rivers."

"The merchant ships were separated from the navy and sold to the public, raising over 1.2 million taels of silver for the Protectorate. These ships now belong to more than twenty merchants from Baoping City and Tai'an City. From now on, trade on the two rivers will be highly competitive!" Mao Daxian said. "We will only collect taxes and will no longer be involved in the specific transactions. I estimate that these ships will bring the Protectorate more than 500,000 taels of direct revenue each year, and the indirect revenue should not be less than 2 million taels. However, Protector, don't even think about taking this money. Just the dredging of the two rivers and drought and flood prevention will be a huge expense."

"Why are we going through all this trouble if we have no income?" Xiao Changche asked, somewhat bewildered.

"It may not look like much, but all of this money has been used for the infrastructure construction of our Anxi Protectorate. That's considered a basic investment. Moreover, the wages and other expenses for workers will eventually return to the treasury of our Protectorate. It's a rather complicated process. In short, as long as it can be circulated normally, not only will life get better and better, but you will also see the waterways improve, the roads widen, and the people become richer and richer!" Li Dachui explained succinctly.

Although I still don't quite understand, the fact that the river channels are getting better and the roads are getting wider means that the speed of troop mobilization will be faster in case of trouble. In the ever-changing battlefield, whoever can seize the initiative and transport troops to the places where they are most needed first will naturally win.

As the people become richer, it means an increase in wealth. If the people under its jurisdiction are wealthy, how could the Protectorate be short of money?

"I suggest that the Protectorate General refrain from deploying troops in the Black Domain this year!" Mao Daxian said. "The main focus should be on properly managing these four newly established counties, while also accumulating strength to prepare for the possible major battles to come."

Speaking of the war, Xiao Changche sat up straight, coughed lightly, and then said, "You should have all seen the briefing sent by the Protectorate General. The commander of the Southern Frontier on the Northern Yuan side has changed. The eldest prince, Jebe, will take over as the commander of the Southern Frontier, and with him heading south are 30,000 elite Yuan troops. Among these 30,000, 15,000 are the Northern and Western Hu barbarians conquered by the Yuan Dynasty, and their fighting strength is quite astonishing."

Everyone pricked up their ears.

"It is estimated that there will definitely be a major battle after the autumn harvest and before winter. So in the next few months, we need to focus our main efforts on dealing with this battle. Only by winning this battle can we talk about the future." Xiao Changdao said, "Don't expect Anton to give us much support. It will be good enough if they don't trip us up."

“We expect to mobilize all our forces then!” Li Dachui continued Xiao Changche’s words: “Zhebie will definitely want to make a big splash in his first battle after taking office, so he will definitely go all out to win this battle and hurt Zhebie so that he will turn his attention elsewhere instead of focusing on us.”

Elsewhere, of course, was the Andong Protectorate. Upon hearing this, everyone couldn't help but laugh.

Although we are allies, we would be happy if Zhe could focus on Linghuye's attacks.

Ideally, they should fight to the bitter end, forging a blood feud so that Linghu Ye has no way to escape.

Otherwise, if Linghu Ye were to actually run away, leaving the Anxi Protectorate to face the Northern Yuan alone, given Anxi's current strength, it would be quite a challenge.

(End of this chapter)