The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 233: Making Money from Prisoners
It was still chilly in the capital in February, but the banks of the Yongding River west of Wanping were bustling with activity.

The Shenji Camp mobilized tens of thousands of soldiers, the Summer Resort also mobilized tens of thousands of craftsmen, and tens of thousands of horse-drawn carts carrying coal were gathered together. The Shenshu Camp also mobilized tens of thousands of young and strong men captured by the three guards of Doyan.

Duke of Peng Qi Jiguang, Duke of Ding Xu Wenbi, Earl of Yongnian Wang Wei and Minister of Works Lu Guangzu were all present here in person.

Not only did they want to open up all the coal mines here, they also wanted to build a bridge over the Yongding River and build houses for the prisoners to live in.

At this moment, the mountain hollow where the coal mine was first discovered has been leveled, rows of houses are rising from the ground, and the bridge over the Yongding River is taking shape at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Wanli has issued an edict that everything here must be completed before March, so naturally no one dares to neglect it.

Everyone worked day and night, even the prisoners did not slack off.

At this time, the construction technology of the Ming Dynasty was extremely advanced, there were a lot of people, and the speed of building things was extremely fast.

In mid-February, before the ice on the Yongding River melted, Chengping Bridge was completed. Chengping actually means Fuchengmen to Wanping, and it is also a homonym of "peace and prosperity in the world".

When Wanli received the news, he immediately rushed over with tens of thousands of imperial guards and cavalry.

Early in the morning, before noon, he had already arrived at the newly built Chengping Bridge.

Chengping Bridge is a single-arch bridge with a span of about ten meters and a height of more than two meters above the water surface. It looks extremely majestic.

As for why a single-arch bridge was built, it was mainly because it was too troublesome to build bridge piers in the river in ice and snow. Moreover, a single-arch bridge is easier for boats to pass through. A centipede boat weighing 800 tons can shuttle back and forth on such a high single-arch bridge.

Wanli stopped at the bridge, holding up a telescope and carefully scanning the area. He couldn't help but praise it, "Yusheng, this bridge is really well built. I didn't expect it to be built so quickly."

Lu Guangzu said modestly, "Your Majesty, building bridges is the responsibility of the Ministry of Works. If I can't even build a bridge like this, then I don't deserve to be the Minister of Works."

Well, this person is honest and responsible in his work.

Not bad.

Wanli took another closer look and asked, "This bridge has such a large span, will it collapse?"

The arch bridge does look a bit suspended. It has such a large arch, and the bottom is completely empty. There was no reinforced concrete in those days, and coal trucks weighing thousands of pounds had to pass over it. Couldn't it have been able to span?

Lu Guangzu explained in detail: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, this bridge's span is not the largest. There is a bridge in Zhaozhou, Zhending Prefecture, with a span even larger than this one.

The Zhaozhou Bridge spans a full 11.5 meters and was built during the Sui Dynasty, nearly a thousand years ago. It's still very solid and there's no problem at all."

Well, I have heard of Zhaozhou Bridge.

It turns out that the span of Zhaozhou Bridge is even larger than that of Chengping Bridge.

The bridge built in the Sui Dynasty is still in good condition, so this arch bridge must be fine.

The bridge-building technology of the Ming Dynasty was definitely higher than that of the Sui Dynasty. At that time, the Sui Dynasty did not have as many officials and craftsmen who specialized in bridge-building as the Ming Dynasty.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "Have you decided where to dig the canal?"

Lu Guangzu nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I have investigated and found that the moat in the southwest corner of the outer city is only about ten miles away from the Yongding River at its closest point. That would be the most suitable place to start excavating."

This canal of about ten miles should be very simple, but the Grand Canal is thousands of miles long.

Wanli pondered, "Yusheng, how many people do you think it would take to dig this canal in a month?"

This one.

Lu Guangzu said carefully, "Your Majesty, how wide and deep do you plan to dig this canal?"

I haven't delved into these things.

Wanli said very straightforwardly: "You can think about this. Anyway, this canal should be like the Tonghui River, and can accommodate centipede boats weighing 800 tons."

This one isn't that hard to dig.

Lu Guangzu estimated, "Your Majesty, if we want to dig it through in a month, we'll have to recruit at least 20,000 young and strong men."

Twenty thousand young and strong people.

This one is simple.

Wanli directly addressed Qi Jiguang, "Yuan Jing, order the soldiers of the Shenshu Camp to bring over all the young and strong men captured by the three guards of Doyan. There should be at least 30,000 of them in the Laoha River Valley, right?"

There are enough young and strong prisoners over there.

The problem is that if we bring so many captured young and strong northern barbarians to the vicinity of the capital to dig coal and canals, something might go wrong.

Qi Jiguang cautiously warned, "Your Majesty, if those captured young men cause trouble, the entire capital will be in danger. After all, the canal is connected to the moat."

Do they still dare to cause trouble?

Wanli said coldly: "You let the soldiers of Shenshu Camp tell them that whoever dares to cause trouble will be punished with nine generations of his family." Uh, so cruel.

Qi Jiguang nodded slowly and said, "That shouldn't be a big problem. However, they don't seem to be working with any enthusiasm. Even if we bring in all the remaining 30,000 strong captives, I'm not sure if they can dig the canal in a month."

this problem.

Wanli thought for a moment, then waved his hand and said, "Come on, take me to see the captives."

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang immediately took the lead, leading tens of thousands of imperial guards across the bridge and arriving at the mine in the mountain.

At this moment, tens of thousands of prisoners are building houses and digging coal under the supervision of thousands of soldiers from the Shenshu Camp.

They all did physical work. Although none of them was lazy and they were all moving, they all looked as weak as if they had not eaten.

Wanli raised the telescope and took a careful look, and he had an idea in his mind.

It’s probably because there is no profit in doing this job, and these jobs are much more tiring than herding.

It seems that the prisoners have to make some money, otherwise the efficiency will be too low.

He thought about it carefully, then said decisively: "Tell them to quickly build the houses and start digging coal. There is a wage for digging coal. They will be paid one cent for digging 100 catties and ten cents for digging 1,000 catties. If they can dig 50,000 catties a month, they will be paid 500 cents. If they can dig 100,000 catties a month, they will be paid one or two ounces of silver.

They can use the wages to buy food and daily necessities, and they can also ask the soldiers in the Beijing camp to send these things to their families."

You also pay the prisoners their wages!

However, this amount of money does not seem to be a lot, because the current wholesale price of coal is one ounce of silver for one hundred catties, and one thousand catties is one ounce of silver.

In other words, the wages paid to the prisoners were nothing compared to the selling price.

The key point is that after being paid, these guys will be more motivated to work and will definitely dig more coal.

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang nodded quickly, and then called over the general of the Shenshu Camp who was leading the team and gave him detailed instructions.

Soon, the soldiers of the Shenshu Camp started shouting.

Upon hearing this, the captured young and strong men from the three guards of Doyan were instantly as if they had been injected with chicken blood and were full of energy.

They just think that there is no money to be made, so it doesn't matter how much they work. They can't make any money even if they work themselves to death, so they are so listless.

Now that they heard that they could get paid for mining coal, they instantly felt full of energy. Although one or half a tael of silver a month was not much, the food they could buy was enough to feed their families.

At this time, the rations that the Ming army soldiers gave to their families were only enough to cook some porridge every day. At least they could still squeeze out some cow's milk or goat's milk, otherwise they would be too hungry to walk.

If they could earn one or two taels of silver a month, not only would their families have enough to eat, but they would also have some extra money to buy some cloth to make clothes.

The cloth in the Ming Dynasty is very cheap. One or two taels of silver can buy three pieces of cloth. If they buy three pieces of cloth, it will be enough to make several new sets of clothes for all their family members.

Seeing this, Wanli smiled slightly and said, "Look, they are really motivated. From now on, we will pay them some wages when we ask them to work. The minimum is ten cents a day."

Qi Jiguang quickly bowed and said, "I understand."

Wanli turned to Lu Guangzu and said, "With the rope, we have enough manpower now. We should be able to bring over 30,000 captured young and strong men here by the end of February. We'll start digging on the first day of next month and finish by the end of the month. Is that a problem?"

Now we have almost double the manpower, so what problems can there be?

Lu Guangzu shook his head repeatedly and said, "No problem."

Duke Dingguo Xu Wenbi saw that they had finished their conversation and then asked cautiously, "Your Majesty, who will be responsible for this coal business?"

Didn't I let you be responsible before?
Why are you asking this again all of a sudden?

Wanli simply asked: "What's wrong? Is there any problem?"

Duke Dingguo Xu Wenbi said cautiously, "Your Majesty, there are tens of thousands of young captives digging coal here. Judging from their enthusiasm, each of them is probably digging more than a thousand kilograms every day.

That's over 10 million catties a day. I'm afraid it won't be easy to sell. However, if we can really sell over 10 million catties a day, the profit will be quite terrifying."

Well, the profits from the coal business are indeed terrifying.

You know, just in the capital, more than 10 million catties a day means more than 10,000 taels of silver, at least 40,000 to 50,000 taels a month. If all the more than 100 prefectures and 1,000 counties in the Ming Dynasty used coal, the gross profit would be at least several million taels a month!

Now that enough coal mines have been explored, transportation is no longer a problem.

This business needs to be planned carefully. It is not easy to make several million taels a month. It will probably take several years to expand such a large business.

Wanli looked at the captives who seemed to be energized, then waved his hand and said, "Let's go back to the palace to discuss this. General Shan, send someone to summon Luo Sigong to the palace for an audience."

(End of this chapter)