Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 480: Things Change

Chapter 480: Things Change (American Version)

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng nodded to show that he understood.

Li Hongzhang nodded slightly and continued to ask.

"By the way, has the recent population distribution statistics report for the Nanyang region come out?"

If the Tang Dynasty wanted to actually manage Nanyang, the first thing it had to do was to clarify data on the population and land area in the Nanyang region.

If these basic data cannot be sorted out clearly, then it will be very difficult and difficult for the Tang Dynasty to exercise actual control over the local areas.

Therefore, after arriving in Southeast Asia, Li Hongzhang began to count and collect relevant data.

Wang Zheng just nodded when he heard this.

"Don't worry, sir. The population distribution statistics report has now been roughly completed. It only needs to be checked once more and then it will be sent to you for your review."

Li Hongzhang nodded slightly and then spoke.

"As soon as possible!"

Wang Zheng nodded in agreement, then took his leave.

Li Hongzhang continued to review the documents at hand.

As the Tang Dynasty issued policies to promote industrialization and economic development, applications for land grants to build factories and industrial parks have been submitted to Li Hongzhang throughout the Nanyang region.

Although there is no heavy industry among them, most of them are light industries such as processing of agricultural and sideline products, such as rubber processing, fruit processing, tobacco planting, sugar making, chocolate production, etc.

However, most of these matters still needed to be reviewed and approved personally by Li Hongzhang, the Governor-General of Nanyang.

Time passed quickly in the busyness, and soon it was the next day.

That morning, Li Hongzhang's secretary Wang Zheng submitted a statistical report on the population distribution in the Nanyang region.

Li Hongzhang immediately put down all the things at hand and began to read the report.

【The first population census report on the distribution of population in Nanyang】

[As of the fourth year of Kaitai in the Tang Dynasty, the 4557th year of the Kaiyuan calendar, and the end of 1860 in the Western calendar, there are currently more than 280 million Chinese and 510 million indigenous people in the Nanyang region.]

[Among the Chinese, there are about 120 million descendants of immigrants to Southeast Asia, and 160 million immigrants from the Tang Dynasty in recent years.]

[These 280 million Chinese are mainly distributed in Borneo, Luzon Island, and Malacca; the indigenous people are distributed everywhere. ]

It is worth mentioning that the indigenous population data compiled by the Tang Dynasty is actually not accurate.

Most of those who could be counted by the Tang Dynasty were relatively civilized and enlightened.

These civilized natives are all willing to accept the management of the Tang Dynasty and are willing to live under the rule of the Tang Dynasty.

The larger number of unruly savages were mostly not included in the statistics of the Tang Dynasty.

Well, it was these savages who attacked the Tang immigrants and interfered with the Tang's development of Southeast Asia.

It was they who were to be cleared out when the Tang Dynasty established the security team.

Looking at the population distribution statistics report in his hand, Li Hongzhang knew that it would be a long and difficult road for the Tang Dynasty to take over Southeast Asia.

Apart from other things, just from the perspective of population, this is not an easy task.

If you want to turn a piece of land into Han territory, apart from other things, the prerequisite is that the Han people must account for more than half of the local population in terms of population.

Only when the Han people become the dominant ethnic group in the area can they assimilate this land.

Otherwise, it is hard to say whether the natives are becoming sinicized or the Han people are becoming barbaric.

In this era, population is the basis of everything.

However, in Southeast Asia today, the Chinese population is far less than that of the indigenous people.

The number of civilized aborigines who were willing to accept the rule of the Tang Dynasty was almost twice that of the Chinese, not to mention the even larger number of uncivilized aborigines.

Therefore, in Li Hongzhang's view, immigration work must be accelerated.

Thinking of this, Li Hongzhang found a memorial and started writing.

He hoped that the government could increase its immigration efforts to the Nanyang region.

Double the immigration quota from 500,000 per year to 1 million per year.

The Tang Dynasty began to organize large-scale immigration to Southeast Asia in the second year of Kaitai.

From the second year of Kaitai, to the third year, to the fourth year of Kaitai, in three years, the government organized a total of 150 million immigrants, plus some spontaneous immigrants from the public, and one person two years ago.

In just a few years, the number of immigrants in the Tang Dynasty reached 160 million.

Logically speaking, this speed is not slow, and can even be considered fast.

However, Li Hongzhang was not satisfied with this.

He urgently hoped that the Tang Dynasty would increase its immigration efforts in order to speed up the development of Southeast Asia.

Only in this way can Li Hongzhang, the Governor-General of Nanyang, achieve political achievements as soon as possible.

Only in this way could Li Hongzhang enter the cabinet and become prime minister as soon as possible.

……

The end of the fourth year of Kaitai passed quickly.

After the beginning of the year, Li Yi focused his main energy on handling government affairs.

The first of the government memorials now placed in front of him is the financial data report of the Tang Dynasty last year.

Last year, Datang's total fiscal revenue reached a staggering 560 million.

Compared with previous years, the growth rate is quite obvious.

It has almost reached an annual growth rate of 16%.

Although the Tang Dynasty is now in a period of rising national strength and the industrial revolution is in its explosive period, this growth rate is still frightening.

Among them, taxes alone reached a staggering 430 million.

Among them, agricultural taxes, industrial and commercial taxes, customs taxes, and land taxes are the largest.

Especially with the opening of the Tang Dynasty to the sea, the development of industry and commerce, and the outbreak of the Industrial Revolution, the total tax revenue of industrial and commercial taxes and customs duties continued to rise.

Today, the two together account for half of the total fiscal revenue of the Tang Dynasty, which is almost 52%.

Of the rest, agricultural taxes account for 20%, land taxes related to real estate account for about 15%, and other taxes total about 14%.

Compared with last year's data, the proportion of agricultural taxes has dropped significantly, while industrial and commercial taxes, tariffs, and local taxes have all increased to varying degrees.

The main increase in Tang Dynasty’s tax revenue comes from these three areas!
The remaining 130 million in revenue, apart from the revenue from state-owned enterprises run by the government, came from arms trade and war reparations.

Among them, the state-owned enterprises operated by the government are mainly large-scale heavy industrial enterprises such as large steel mills, fertilizer plants, cement plants, shipyards, automobile manufacturing plants, machinery manufacturing plants, etc. in various places.

With the industrial development and large-scale infrastructure construction in Datang, these enterprises have developed very rapidly and their profits have increased year by year.

Among them, the most representative is the automobile manufacturing plant.

The public selling price of a car was 1 silver dollars, and even after discounts for officials and nobles, the selling price was still 8888 silver dollars.

The profit here is at least half.

Last year alone, Datang's car factory produced and sold hundreds of cars.

One can only imagine how huge the profits are here.

Needless to say, the arms trade has always been one of the most important sources of fiscal revenue for the Tang Dynasty due to its huge profits.

Last year, the Tang Dynasty's military trade mainly focused on three aspects.

The first is Myanmar, the second is India, and the third is the United States.

Among them, Myanmar mostly pays in cash.

As for India, it is a loan.

Even if the Mughal Khanate in India wanted to pay in cash during the war, it could not pay so much money.

Therefore, you can only take out a loan!
After the war, the Mughal Khanate would pay off its debts with food or minerals.

Well, given the current situation in the Tang Dynasty, food and minerals are the kind that no matter how much you have, there is never too much.

With the population size of the Tang Dynasty, it can digest any amount of grain and minerals.

The biggest part actually comes from the United States.

In order to fight the civil war, both the North and the South of the United States are now fully preparing for war and purchasing arms and weapons from the Tang Dynasty.

The arms trade volume between the Tang Dynasty and the United States has been increasing for several consecutive years. In the fourth year of Kaitai alone, the United States, both the North and the South, purchased arms worth nearly 20 million silver dollars from the Tang Dynasty.

It is worth mentioning that the payment methods used by the North and South of the United States in military trade include payment in cash.

They also used industrial products such as railroad tracks and dispatched labor to pay off their debts to the Tang Dynasty.

The reason for this is that the first railway in the Tang Dynasty was built in partnership with the United States.

Later, the United States wanted to purchase arms from the Tang Dynasty, but due to insufficient cash, it came up with the idea of labor dispatch.

He planned to pay off his debts by sending people to build railways for the Tang Dynasty.

In other words, nowadays, it is no longer the Chinese workers who are building railways for the Americans, but the foreign workers who are building railways for the Tang Dynasty!

This is called the changing of fortunes!

The rails are a by-product!

Although Datang's steel industry is developing rapidly today, it is still unable to meet Datang's local infrastructure needs.

Therefore, if the production capacity of your own factory cannot meet the demand, temporarily purchasing from outside is also a good solution.

Anyway, by exchanging arms for railroad tracks, given the huge profits from the arms trade, the Tang Dynasty will definitely not suffer any loss.

In addition, after the signing of the New Treaty of Nanjing, Britain paid war reparations to the Tang Dynasty.

4200 million silver dollars!

This is indeed a huge benefit to the financial revenue of the Tang Dynasty.

I can’t say anything else, but at least the war reparations of 4200 million silver dollars were enough to cover the military expenditure of the Tang Dynasty after it declared war on Britain.

There’s even a surplus!

Soon, Li Yi finished reading the financial revenue report of the Tang Dynasty in the fourth year of Kaitai.

Afterwards, he began to read the fiscal expenditure report submitted by the Ministry of Finance for the new year. In the fifth year of Kaitai, the fiscal expenditure of the Tang Dynasty was mainly in the following aspects.

The first is administrative expenses.

There is no doubt about this.

If the Tang Dynasty wants to maintain its rule, this is indispensable.

The administrative expenditure of the Tang Dynasty accounted for about 18% of the total fiscal revenue of the court, which is not small.

The second is military expenditure, which can also be simply referred to as military expenditure.

In the fifth year of Kaitai, the Tang Dynasty's military expenditure accounted for about 24% of the court's total fiscal expenditure.

This includes military expenses in recruiting soldiers, training, replenishing military equipment, combat, building fortresses, etc.

If this ratio were placed in later generations, it would definitely be abnormal, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it was warmongering.

But in today's era of great contention, in this post-industrial revolution, when the great powers are scrambling to grab territory around the globe, the proportion of Tang Dynasty's military expenditure is not exaggerated.

Among them, the bulk of the efforts are mainly in the navy.

Li Yi has just approved the Military Affairs Council's application for a plan to build an Indian Ocean fleet.

If you want to build a fleet, let alone other things, the cost of building ships alone is an astronomical figure.

In addition to recruiting soldiers, training, building naval ports, replenishing ammunition and military supplies, etc., the numbers add up to a huge amount.

Apart from administrative expenses and military expenditures, the remaining expenditures are mainly in two aspects.

The third is education expenditure.

The imperial court allocated funds to build schools and develop education in various places.

Education is the foundation of a country, and it will never be wrong to develop education.

Fourth is infrastructure spending.

It includes building railways, hardening the road surfaces of official roads across the country, repairing water conservancy facilities in various places, and urban renewal projects.

Among them, education expenditure accounts for about 16%, and infrastructure expenditure accounts for 31%.

The remaining 11% is various miscellaneous expenses including royal expenses, activity funds of the Military Intelligence Department and the Supervisory Department, cultural propaganda expenses, etc.

It adds up to a considerable number!

After reading these, Li Yi made comments on the report and then stretched hard.

Just as he was about to have a cup of tea and take a rest, footsteps were heard outside.

Wang Zhong walked up to Li Yi and started reporting.

"Your Majesty, the cabinet has sent us the latest report."

Li Yi heard this and nodded slightly.

"Well, present it!"

After Li Yi finished speaking, Wang Zhong turned around and went out. After a while, he brought back a memorial and presented it to Li Yi.

Li Yi took the report and began to read it.

Soon, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

Li Hongzhang wanted to increase immigration efforts, which was actually not a bad thing for the Tang Dynasty.

Because, with the advancement of the industrial revolution, the Tang Dynasty is now gradually experiencing the pain of economic transformation.

A large number of people who have lost their livelihoods due to industrial development and the bankruptcy of small peasant economies exist in the rural areas and towns of the various prefectures in the Tang Dynasty.

These people are all hidden destabilizing factors.

If all these people could be immigrated, it would undoubtedly be a good thing for the Tang Dynasty.

Well, for the Tang Dynasty today, Nanyang and Liaodong are two pressure relief valves.

Now is the right time for them to play their role.

But the problem is, immigration comes at a price!

Apart from anything else, just how the immigrants survive after arriving is a big problem.

There must be basic accommodation, right? Food, right?

Also, after the immigrants arrive at a place, it takes time to cultivate the land.

As for the newly reclaimed fields, before they become mature land, even if they are cultivated, the yield will be very little.

In other words, before the newly reclaimed fields became cultivated land, even with the abundance of resources in Southeast Asia, it was difficult for these newly arrived immigrants to support themselves.

At times like this, the imperial court needs to step in and provide them with food and lodging. Apart from other things, the most basic food is definitely a must.

This is also the biggest obstacle restricting the Tang Dynasty's large-scale immigration to Southeast Asia.

If not, the Tang Dynasty's immigration progress would definitely increase.

After thinking for a long time, Li Yi gave his reply.

Let the cabinet formulate relevant immigration plans to speed up the process of immigration to Southeast Asia.

The reason why Li Yi made such a decisive decision was, on the one hand, because the current fiscal revenue of the Tang Dynasty continued to rise, leaving the court with spare capacity to support the expansion of immigration.

The second reason is that immigration is actually a snowball thing.

As the first few batches of immigrants from the Tang Dynasty gradually gained a foothold in Southeast Asia, grain production increased year by year.

Not only were the immigrants able to support themselves, but they were also able to pay taxes to the court and provide food and supplies.

And these food supplies can be used for new immigrants.

With a snowball effect, or a virtuous cycle, the scale of Tang Dynasty's immigration to Southeast Asia can naturally be increased appropriately.

As for how much the number of immigrants has increased?
This Li Yi is not a dictatorial person.

The best option is to leave it to the professionals below to calculate.

Because, if Li Yi rashly orders an increase in immigration without considering the impact of increasing the number of immigrants, it would be a bit of a closed-door and armchair talk.

However, if the matter is handed over to relevant personnel to account for, calculate relevant data, and count relevant impacts, the final conclusion will definitely be more scientific than the decision made by Li Yi himself.

……

Henan, Guide Prefecture!

Time passed and summer soon arrived.

Mr. Duan stood on the edge of the field and looked into the distance.

In the sky, a big sun hangs high, pouring light and heat onto the earth.

Just standing still, I felt myself starting to sweat, and in the distant fields, heat waves were surging.

On the flat plain in front of us, the wheat fields are neatly planned and connected to each other.

In the wheat field, the wheat seedlings are lush and golden. A breeze blows, and the wheat waves rise and fall.

The harvest visible to the naked eye is very good.

But there was no smile on his face.

Because, just now, he received news from the county.

A locust plague occurred in the direction of Kaifeng and Chenzhou.

Wherever the locusts passed, the sky was blocked out and the wheat seedlings, bushes, and everything edible and inedible in the woods were all eaten clean by the locusts.

The county sent people to deliver messages to all villages and towns, saying that locusts were spreading to surrounding prefectures, and it would not be long before Guide Prefecture would also be affected by the locust plague.

The government reminded the villagers to start harvesting food immediately in order to minimize the impact of the locust plague on the harvest.

Well, this is thanks to the popularization of telegraphs, which greatly increased the efficiency of information dissemination in the Tang Dynasty.

Otherwise, given the speed of communication during natural disasters in the past, a fast horse might not be able to outrun a locust plague.

Taking a deep breath, Duan Xiucai, the village chief and clan leader, turned around and spoke to the villagers behind him.

"My fellow countrymen, the imperial court has sent someone to warn us all!"

"The damn locusts are coming! They are going to eat up all our food, leaving us all hungry, and our wives, children and the elderly all starving to death..."

"Everyone, do we agree or not?!"

As soon as Duan Xiucai finished speaking, there was a chorus of shouts from the crowd.

"No, no, no!"

"Fuck those locusts!"

"..."

When Mr. Duan saw this, he was very excited and almost cheered.

"Since you don't agree, then everyone should work harder and harvest all the wheat in the fields before the locusts come."

"Snatch this bite of food from the locust's mouth!"

"Let those locusts have nothing to lose and starve them to death!"

"Can everyone do this?!"

As soon as Mr. Duan finished speaking, the villagers behind him shouted in unison.

"can!"