Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 309 The Liao Emperor's Vision

Merchant Lu Datao had chartered a merchant ship to conduct business. After entering the inland area of ​​the Heiqiu River, he used the method of "paying homage to local lords" to visit several villages and meet with dozens of village owners. Some village owners waved him away, while others gave him face, which allowed him to successfully sell his seafood to these villages.

Lu Datao experienced all the ups and downs of life. After making money, he immediately spent it, signing contracts to buy straw and grain. As for the various iron nails, iron stoves, and other things that were lacking in the estate, Lu Datao also made a note of them, planning to try to buy a batch of goods next year to see if he could pry open the doors of other estates.

After filling his boat with baijiu, Lu Datao headed towards the next village. He also brought some apprentices on his boat. Some were the youngest sons of local leatherworkers, some were the sons of herbal medicine merchants, and some were the sons of ordinary farmers who toiled in the fields. They were sent over to beg for food because they couldn't afford to support them anymore.

For Lu Datao, he could still afford to raise these little kids; Dongtu was a coastal city and relied on the sea for a living.

A few months later, when he brought these lads back to Dongtu, he discovered at a business meeting that there were many others doing the same thing as him.

In order to settle the first batch of migrant workers from Heiqiujiang, the government specially built simple accommodation areas. Although the rooms were not well-ventilated and eight people shared one toilet, at least they could stay warm by huddling together. And for these young people from the countryside, at least they could move in with their bags and have a place to stay.

…Prosperity thrives under order…

In Xuan Chong's previous life, during the "Era of Economic Development," a large number of small business owners wrote about their experiences of "starting from scratch." These experiences were essentially self-aggrandizing claims made at a dinner party, attributing the prosperity of the entire region to their own hard work.

Of course, small businessmen like Lu Datao thought so too. They were running their businesses, each visiting more than twenty villages, drinking baijiu and entertaining customers with smiles, and then selecting local apprentices in various places to help them expand these business routes.

It's like a huge tree root that crashed into the Heiqiu River basin, with its roots spreading out in every village and town within the basin.

Of course, having these roots is not enough; those in charge of planning the main economic sectors also need strategic foresight.

Xuanchong successfully predicted this wave of migrants to Heiqiujiang. Of course, Su Ming's team executed the plan well; this scholar had led the scholars in discussions about urban planning more than once in the past six months.

These officials were specially assigned to a business trip six months ago to study topics such as "management" and "road construction planning" in several major commercial cities in Jiangnan and Guangnan.

When the economic boom arrives, "lack of planning" and "laissez-faire" will lead to various problems. There are negative examples all over the world of urban governance teams that have failed to plan properly.

For example, in the original timeline, Shanghai under the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China was a place where, apart from the bustling Bund, the rest of the area consisted of shantytowns. The shantytowns were chaotic, and gangs like the "Axe Gang" from the movie "Kung Fu Hustle" ran rampant.

For countries that cannot "start from scratch" from the bottom up, each major city only has one strategic opportunity period in the initial economic boom.

Before the economic boom arrives, we must take advantage of the low land prices to stockpile land for road construction, reserve areas for subway construction, and expand heating, electricity, and water supply in advance.

Can a businessman's hard work create a metropolis?

In the thirty years before Xuan Chong was born, emerging market countries around the world "rose" and began urbanization. But soon these countries all encountered the middle-income trap.

In megacities like Rio de Janeiro and Mumbai, where populations number in the tens of millions, urbanization has led to the formation of vast slums, which in turn have fostered entrenched illegal forces that monopolize the land.

These slums cause large cities with tens of millions of people to appear to have a large labor force, but they are unable to plan new industries and eventually become stagnant cities, merely having the shell of a megacity.

Now that Xuan Chong has climbed to a high position in the current Wuhan government, he understands that urban planning requires a high degree of professionalism. It necessitates forward-looking forecasting of various emerging industries and the increasing population's demands on people's livelihoods and industries.

City leadership teams must always maintain a competitive mindset, closely monitoring the "urban ills" that other major cities have already experienced, analyzing their causes, and identifying early warning signs in traffic, population, and other data to proactively avoid problems in their own city's development. For example, if establishing an industrial zone, it's essential to understand the "rust disease" that has already occurred in established industrial zones and design corresponding systems based on these symptoms from the very beginning of the heavy industrial area's development.

It can be said that the original Dongtu lacked such talent. Now that Xuan Chong has passed the imperial examination and has Su Ming, a more capable "confidant" in the circle, a professional team has been brought in to manage the city of Dongtu.

In the entire year of 2110 of the Han calendar, the total trade volume in Dongtu and the Heiqiu River basin was only four million silver dollars. This was far less than the total trade volume of sixty million silver dollars in the capital region and beyond the pass. However, the total trade volume in the capital region came from seventy-five large companies, and the exported trade products were very limited, involving only more than one hundred and thirty kinds of trade products such as medicinal materials, grains, and minerals.

But Dongtu has more than 8,000 micro and small enterprises. These micro and small enterprises are rooted in the economic field and are distributed in various complex industrial and consumer sectors.

These small businesses have now secured start-up capital and will grow in the future, covering thousands of sub-sectors, from small matches to toys, to iron chimneys needed by farmers, and even small speakers.

These are the areas that large business groups in the Gyeonggi region cannot penetrate. For a region with intensive industrial and commercial management and an increasingly fertile economic foundation, these small industries that are currently "selling nails" may very well become "big industries" in the future.

This is similar to how the giants of the Slavic regions sold oil and grain, and the predecessors of these oil and grain sellers were aristocratic oligarchs, whose origins were originally great lords. They exchanged power for wealth, rather than driving its development. In contrast, the giants of the Rhine, such as Krupp, did not originate as aristocrats, but as a blacksmith workshop. This "small detail" from the early stages of the Rhine economy—the process of this blacksmith workshop developing into a steel mill—was part of the process that drove the complexity of the entire industry.

For example, a distribution factory under the Dongtu Steel Plant in Xuanchong is preparing to produce gas cylinders. These are intended to be a substitute for honeycomb briquettes in the future. Currently, the annual turnover is only five thousand silver dollars, which is even less than the daily entertainment expenses of large grain merchants in the Yan-Jin region in the Heiqiu River area.

In future wars, seamless steel pipes, with slight modifications, can be transformed into aerial bombs, auxiliary fuel tanks, and even mortars. Who says they don't have the potential to become like Krupp in the future?
A small factory with a registered capital of 10,000 silver dollars can grow and expand with the development of the times.

More importantly, the first wave of commercial exchanges on the East side attracted migrants from various parts of the Heiqiu River region, something that exchanges in the Gyeonggi region hadn't seen. Large companies in the Gyeonggi region might make money from the Heiqiu River, but they wouldn't hire the people from there. But the East side was different; both sides were connected by the Heiqiu River, a major artery, and shared a high degree of language and customs. With the opening of the small steamship route, the movement of people was extremely convenient.

Dongtu is not only attracting people now, but also making it easy to transfer industries in the future.

Economically, a pattern of "dragon playing with a pearl" has already taken shape. The "dragon" is the great river that runs through the traditional agricultural population area, and the "pearl" is the large city at the estuary.

If the dragon is strong enough, it will bring a constant stream of new blood to the pearl; and since the pearl is a window to the outside world, it will inevitably absorb the young labor force of the entire region.

The high efficiency of the "pearls" allows the advantages of labor and commodity exchange generated by the dragon to be fully transformed, forming top-tier enterprises. As the manufacturing chain expands, large enterprises within the "pearls" transfer their industries to the dragon, demonstrating tremendous potential when engaging in industrial exchanges with other "pearls" around the world.

…Xuan Chong: We must give full play to the leading role in the economy…

Xuan Chong looked at the map; as the owner of the "Dragon Ball," his perspective now extended to a thousand miles. He picked up his brush and wrote a single word: "Great Liao." This region encompassed an immense area, nearly three million square kilometers, and vast ocean waters.

Xuan Chong's return to this history now is to break through the national borders of his previous life and re-examine the geopolitical landscape of the entire northern Asia.

In the past, the number of times the Northeast and Central Plains regimes in Asia split and reunited over a thousand years was roughly the same as the number of times the Central Plains and Jiangnan regimes split and reunited.

The Central Plains civilization sphere is not just the Yu region, but the nine provinces defined by the Yellow River during the time of Yu the Great's flood control efforts; the Jiangnan economic region is not just Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, but the entire population area connected by the Yangtze River.

The development potential of either the Central Plains or the Jiangnan region, taken individually, is no less than that of the combined German and French forces in Europe.

However, there are two economic zones that were only partially conquered in the previous life. This resulted in the people of the Xuanchong era having a "limitation of the times" when they came to understand the other two ancient civilization radiation zones. This limitation was filled after they met Qin Tianyi and Xu Xi.

The South China Sea Economic Zone, centered in Guangzhou, is an economic entity encompassing the entire South China Sea. Guangzhou, located at the mouth of the Pearl River, holds a position comparable to Rome in the Mediterranean. Like Rome, it faces south and relies on its fleet to maintain order in the region. Of course, since Xuanchong is not in the south, there's no need to consider its geopolitical implications at present.

The other economic zone is the Pan-Han Northern Coastal Economic Zone, which includes Japan and South Korea. Currently, Xuanchong is located in the north, and the territory he sees is similar to that of the Liao and Jin rulers of his past life—great minds think alike.

The territory wasn't limited to the area south of the Heiqiu River. The Heiqiu River's estuary was in the "Tartary Sea," at a place called Laomiao. Investing in shipbuilding there could extend its influence to the entire Tartary region. Similar industries in Silla and Japan would face competition. Of course, neither of these regions had shipbuilding industries during the Han Dynasty, so Dongtu would take the lead in this "flying goose" industrial development model. After all, being close to the Heiqiu River landmass and also an island offered significant advantages.

In Xuan Chong's previous life, these lands were not under his control. However, in the eyes of the Liao and Jin rulers, these were their own territories.

When relations with the Central Plains were good in the south, the Liao and Jin dynasties traded furs for salt and iron. Seal furs, among other things, were obtained from these tribes. The Xingan Mountains within Xuanchong's territory, as shown on the map, could not produce so many furs. These tribes were widely distributed along the coast of the Tatar Sea.

When regimes like the Liao and Jin dynasties clashed with the Central Plains, they would often conscript people from the tribes in that region to fill their armies.

Yes, every time Sun Quan was boosting Zhang Liao's battle achievements below Hefei, he was always capturing Yue tribes. Just as when calculating the territory of the Great Wu, one cannot only consider the Jiangsu area, one cannot calculate the territory of the Liao and Jin dynasties only south of the Heiqiu River.

The Bobei region fought against the Central Plains dynasties for over a thousand years, demonstrating far greater resilience than the Jiangnan region, which is underpinned by a sufficiently large economic territory.

The population may not be as large as that of the Central Plains, but the territory is by no means a small corner of the land. Of course, like the Liao and Eastern Wu, they are all of the same lineage as the Chinese people, a lineage dating back to ancient times. —Xuan Chong now wants to make a claim.

…“If you come in the depths of winter…”

Xuan Chong's icebreaker docked, and he put on a thick fur hat, just like the Jin people in the TV series of his previous life. Because, if he didn't cover his ears with fur, the cold wind would blow his ears off.

At this moment, Xuan Chong held a new appointment in his hand, namely the governor of the Hanbei Protectorate, whose duty was to garrison and defend the border.

In 2110, hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Montenegro arrived in Dongtu, but instead of being settled in cities, they were sent to temporary settlements built along the coastal railway line.

The living conditions in this residential area were similar to the tin shacks where Xuan Chong, a civil engineer in his previous life, lived when he built houses. Of course, there was no electricity; lighting was provided by kerosene lamps, and heating relied on steam pipes filled with metal pipes. The sound insulation was extremely poor, which is why Mao Xiong always liked to hang blankets on the walls.

Xuan Chong took out a list, and after checking each residence in each place, he would call the neighborhood head to come and hold a meeting.

Although the term "community" is used to delineate the residential areas of immigrants, a term familiar to Xuan Chong from his previous life, these communities still retain a strong nomadic character.

Firstly, these district chiefs wield immense power and are extremely brutal in enforcing rules among residents. If anyone disobeys, they're whipped. Xuan Chong recalled seeing something similar in his previous life – certain Russian-style management practices. Russian village chiefs, when carrying out mediation tasks, behaved much the same way.

In Dongtu, the community leaders of these grassland resettlement communities were originally the "hundred-household chiefs" of the grassland areas. Alright, that's what you call cultural heritage.

Only when, decades later, a scholar emerges from this community, can the authority of these former "hundred-household chiefs" be challenged.

The district heads' current heavy-handed approach is impossible to correct because the first phase of the large-scale immigration project isn't about "appearance," but about organizing so many people to prevent chaos. —A negative example: in my previous life, America introduced foreign labor, leaving it to the individual conglomerates to absorb. The result was that they couldn't absorb it, leading to urban bandits constantly engaging in illegal activities.

Xuan Chong and Su Ming also considered the future of these immigrants very carefully. First of all, these herders from the grasslands are currently unable to adapt to industrialized society, so it is impossible to get them into urban factories and quickly transform them into labor.

Just like how Hanscat brought in external labor to try to revitalize industry. The uncultured second-generation rich kids in the old European parliament, with their noses in the air, thought they were saints, and the poor bastards who were brought in were willing to work obediently.

This is as absurd as injecting milk into blood vessels as "plasma" to replace blood replenishment. It ignores the complexity of "hematopoiesis".

The migrant workers in the area can only engage in low-end jobs, such as unclogging sewers for the indigenous people and assembling furniture.

Xuan Chong: Immigrants from non-industrialized areas can only adapt to work in "clan alliance families" and cannot take on work in "industrial groups of hundreds or thousands of people".

The labor force that those technology and industrial groups lack in their factories is actually a population with "social collaboration habits of hundreds or thousands of people." That is, people who have at least undergone the pre-training in a small society of a thousand people, namely "school," rather than able-bodied laborers under a clan system or believers trained in seminaries.

Absorbing laborers from different cultures and backgrounds is a complex process comparable to human digestion.

The local working population suffers from insufficient blood production (weak newborn growth) due to excessive "labor service." It is impossible to improve anemia (labor shortage) by directly injecting "milk" (importing young and strong men from elsewhere) into their hearts.

The mistake Europe made in its past was that the imported foreign labor force was mismatched with the industrial culture, causing them to stagnate in the service industry and ultimately leading to an oversupply of low-end urban services. This influx of people reduced the industrial atmosphere and caused Europe to become like Stanislavsky.

The labor force introduced by Dongtu is not in the service industry, but in "agriculture and animal husbandry".

In Dongtu, a large number of standardized villages sprang up overnight, and eight fishing villages near the sea were designated as new agricultural ports. In these agricultural cities, instructors taught the herders how to adapt to their assigned ships, how to recognize lighthouses and starlight, and how to identify the designated fishing areas for each ship.

The shift from sheep herding to fish herding is a huge leap. So much so that some young herders complain and are unwilling to go to sea, but their port villages are blocked off, preventing these unemployed drifters from spreading their influence. Ultimately, they can be absorbed by the expanding military.

Since the women had already entered the fish processing plants to participate in the processing of the catch, the men, under the influence of the pastoral family culture, eventually couldn't stay idle. They put aside their resistance and began to train to go boating and see the sea.

…carrying Mount Tai across the North Sea…

The roar of blasting and quarrying echoed throughout the Dongtu area, lime kilns continuously fed materials, and small steel mills producing building materials were operating at full capacity. These factories did not require high technical skills, and their jobs were intended for the young and middle-aged people of Dongtu.

This production capacity is consumed by projects to create "artificial reefs." These "artificial reefs" are not very large, about the size of a "dormitory building" in real estate.

In coastal areas, as excavators dig wells, dry docks are being deployed along the river channels.

In the large pits along the coastline, one "cement boat" after another is being repaired and built. These cement boats have crossbars on both sides to facilitate fishing boats towing them into the designated positions. Once these "cement boats" arrive at the designated positions, the sea valve will be opened, and they will directly beach themselves in the coastal area.

Because cement ships are disposable, precious steel reinforcement was not used; instead, bamboo was employed. The goal was simply to ensure a lifespan exceeding one month. For every thousand tons of cement ship, only about three tons of steel were used, primarily for securing the cement hull with wire. The internal construction was so substandard that even the watertight compartments were reinforced with cement mixed with straw to increase strength.

As for the adults from the south who were inspecting the shipyard, they first shook their heads, then nodded.

The initial reaction was that this shipbuilding method was fundamentally incapable of being transformed into a legitimate shipbuilding industry in a short period. The subsequent nod was because this method of piling up cement ships allowed for excellent worker organization and coordination, leaving absolutely no spare time.

One after another, the ships were assembled. Once a batch of ships was assembled, the dam on the river was filled with water, which was then poured into a large pit. Then, batches of cement ships lined up and entered the river channel, flowing into the sea as the locks were lowered.

These workers, who are currently training in collaboration, can be trained to become actual shipbuilders after several years of practice.

(End of this chapter)