Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 197 The Celestial Masters' Rebellion Sparks a Prairie Fire (Part 2)

Little Celestial Master Zhang Yun has truly rebelled.

He occupied Xing'an Prefecture and all the counties east of Hanzhong Prefecture overnight!

In each city, tens of thousands of troops suddenly appeared, and the prefects and magistrates were arrested before they even woke up, without having time to organize a resistance.

The next morning, he raised the banner of "acting on behalf of Heaven to save the people" and declared himself King of Hanzhong, claiming to have an army of 500,000 under his command!

However, he was different from other rebels.

Other rebels, once they raised the banner of rebellion, would plunder everywhere, not only from local tyrants and gentry, but also from the imperial court's treasuries in prefectures and counties.

Instead of looting, he even ordered people to transport grain, potatoes, and sweet potatoes to the warehouses of the prefectural and county governments!

This means he's not going to wander around anymore; he wants to occupy the Hanzhong region, establish himself as king, set up an office, and recruit a large number of people and disaster victims.

He did indeed do just that. In each city, he also sent a trusted disciple, known as the Master, to oversee the situation. In the government offices, he would arrest the local officials and interrogate them thoroughly.

These gentlemen not only investigate, but also sentence. Any corrupt officials are dragged out and beheaded. They don't recruit truly honest officials; they just release them!

His approach was indeed different from that of other rebels.

Most other rebels are not interrogated. At most, those guys will ask if you will surrender. If you don't surrender, they'll just stab you in the back, no matter if you're a corrupt official or an honest person!
In short, he was the kind of person who planned big things, acting only after careful consideration, with lightning speed, remaining silent until he made a stunning debut, and after acquiring a huge territory, he did not act recklessly or rush to expand. Everything was in good order and without any chaos.

He even set rules, explicitly forbidding his subjects from violating the law and breaking the law, and forbidding them from committing crimes. Anyone who dared to act recklessly would be expelled from Hanzhong Prefecture at best, and beheaded as a warning to the public at worst.

Under his governance, Xing'an Prefecture and its surrounding counties were so peaceful that no one picked up lost items on the road and no one locked their doors at night. Both disaster victims and local civilians lived in peace and prosperity, as if they were living in a time of peace and prosperity.

Of course, all of this comes with prerequisites.

For example, the current emperor secretly ordered people to send him grain, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.

Without these grains, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, the disaster victims would starve to the point of madness, and the dream of living in peace and prosperity would be just that—a pipe dream.

Another point is that they must safeguard the peace of the four borders.

If other rebels were to infiltrate, then the peace in Hanzhong would be jeopardized. Even if the imperial army were to storm in, everything they currently possessed would seem to vanish like a mirage.

Therefore, after the situation stabilized somewhat, he summoned several loyal disciples to Xing'an Prefecture to discuss the construction of a defensive line.

At this time, Zhu Jue was also gathering his confidants to discuss the matter.

However, they were not discussing anything about building a defensive line.

Early that morning, around 7 a.m., he summoned all his confidants, including Lu Xiang-sheng, Wang Zheng, Song Ying-xing, Song Ying-sheng, Bi Mao-kang, Bi Mao-liang, Yuan You, Tian Hong-yu, and Wei Zhong-xian, to the main hall of the Yu Xi Palace.

He also ordered someone to offer him a seat and serve him tea, and placed a huge map of the capital in the middle of the large desk.

This means we need to have a serious discussion about the development of the capital.

Seeing that everyone was seated and looking at the map in the middle, pretending to listen attentively, he immediately picked up a long wooden stick and pointed at the map, saying, "Gentlemen, I have already ordered Zhongxian to begin acquiring the land."

Apart from the original lands in the inner city and the southern outer city, I will have Zhongxian pay to acquire all the lands in the other seven outer city areas that have not yet been acquired.

After acquiring these lands, we will begin large-scale development. This is our development plan for next year. After this development is completed, the nine-square grid of the capital city will be basically finalized.

As you can see, this inner city is already a thriving commercial area and there is no need for further development. I intend to leave the southern outer city to the people to develop on their own.

Next, the eastern outer city was almost fully developed, mainly focusing on shipbuilding and textile production of silk fabrics. The western outer city was also almost fully developed, mainly focusing on loom manufacturing and weaving.

Furthermore, the northeastern outer city has been fully developed, consisting of three sections: the eastern section is a barracks, the middle section is a steam engine factory, and the western section is a boiler foundry.

What remains are most of the northern outer city, the northwestern outer city, the southwestern outer city, a small part of the southeastern outer city, and other scattered areas that are still undeveloped.

He was simply giving a general overview of the nine-square grid in the capital. Everyone present knew a little about it, and his explanation made it even clearer to them.

Everyone nodded slightly to show that they understood.

Seeing this, Zhu Jue pointed to the map and continued, "In the past few days, Zhongxian has taken over all the land in the north city. I plan to turn all of this land into a commercial and residential area."

The so-called commercial and residential area is an area mainly for opening shops to sell goods and for living. Although the North City is not large, it is about ten miles in all directions, and the total area is roughly 40,000 mu.

Let's divide it in half. We'll build over 20,000 mu of shops and over 20,000 mu of residential buildings. As for the size, we'll build them all on about one mu each. The style will be simple: the shops will be shops in the front and residences and warehouses in the back; the residential buildings will be the main house in the middle, the courtyard in the front, and the outhouse, vegetable garden, and so on in the back.

In short, the simpler and more convenient the better. My only requirement is speed. Ideally, the entire residence should be completed before the end of the year, and the shops should also be completed before the lockdown is lifted after the new year.

"Jiandou, I intend to entrust this task to you. There are still nearly 200,000 Imperial Guard infantrymen remaining in the capital; you can take charge of their training."

Well, I've really become a foreman now. However, working outside in this freezing weather definitely has a great effect on strengthening the body and even building up the willpower.

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiang-sheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand. There is no problem with the completion of more than 20,000 residential units before the end of the year, and there is also no problem with the completion of more than 20,000 shops before the lifting of the lockdown after the new year."

He wasn't bragging; it was simply because at that time, it wasn't difficult to build houses and shops in the countryside.

In the countryside, building a large house of about one acre only requires hiring a few able-bodied men to help. The family members also need to cook, buy materials, and so on. The house can be almost finished within a month.

Each of his residences has nearly ten strong soldiers from the Beijing Garrison, and there's still about a month and a half until the New Year, so there's no problem with building the residences.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then carefully instructed, "Jian Dou, these houses and shops should be built in a simple style, but you should use good quality materials."

For example, when building a wall, you would use glutinous rice lime mortar. And when it comes to timber, you would ask Liangfu to find you the strongest and most durable timber possible, and to use a saw to process it into square shapes for you.

Furthermore, we will be installing heating pipes in all 20,000+ residential houses and 20,000+ shops. Chang Gung Hospital will send people to build the boiler room and connect the boilers and heating pipes.

Why would they use glutinous rice-lime mortar to build a house?

Lu Xiang-sheng nodded slightly, then said cautiously, "Your Majesty, the cost of building such a residence might be a bit too much. Building one residence would require at least one hundred pots of glutinous rice paste, with each pot containing at least three catties of glutinous rice, which would cost more than two taels of silver. For these 40,000 residences, we would have to spend an extra 100,000 taels just on the glutinous rice alone."

This little bit of money is nothing.

Zhu Jue replied without hesitation, "Just use the good ones, it's fine. Apart from the more than 10,000 houses that are for the original residents of the northern outer city, the rest of these houses and shops are for sale. We will sell the houses for at least 100 taels each and the shops for at least 200 taels each."

The reason I developed the northern city first was to recoup my investment. Otherwise, even if I used all the silver in the imperial treasury to acquire all the land in the northwest and southwest outer cities, it wouldn't be enough.”

Are you going to sell it?
The house costing 100 taels isn't expensive, but the land itself costs 20 taels per mu, plus about 10 people working for a month, which costs another 10 taels. If we split the labor and materials equally, the materials will also cost around 10 taels, bringing the total to 40 taels.

Therefore, at this time, the price of a house per mu in ordinary places is generally more than fifty taels. If it is less than fifty taels, you will lose money. In the capital, a house selling for one hundred taels is not expensive at all.

As for shops, they're located along the street and can make money; two hundred taels for a set isn't expensive.

The question is, can all these houses and shops be sold?
Lu Xiang-sheng didn't want to say it, but after hesitating for a moment, he still carefully reminded him: "Your Majesty, the price is quite fair, but the problem is, there may not be enough ordinary people and merchants in the capital to buy it."

You don't understand this as well as I do.

Zhu Jue shook his head slightly, then asked probingly, "Shi Gao, what do you think?"

Why are you suddenly asking me again?
Bi Maoliang thought about it carefully, and then solemnly said, "The capital is so prosperous and has such a large population, there is no shortage of houses and shops to sell. If you ask me, those who did not buy this year will definitely see their prices double next year."

Hmm, she certainly has a good business sense.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then decisively said, "Okay, these houses and shops are yours to sell. Don't rush to sell them. Just sell some this year. Next year we'll double the price."

By the way, don't tell anyone about this. Don't try to make such a paltry profit. We can't make money off of something like this. I just want to break even. Don't drive the price up too much.

Upon hearing this, Bi Maoliang slowly nodded and said, "Your Majesty, I understand. Perhaps we could build some residences in the northwest outer city, the southwest outer city, and other places as well? After all, those who want to move to the capital need a place to live, so that we can try to recoup some of our investment."

If this business were to succeed, the profits would be staggering.

However, this is just exploiting ordinary people, and going too far will cause problems.

Zhu Jue pondered and said, "Well, the southwest and northwest outer cities are already very large. The confiscated land is more than 100,000 mu. The original residents in those two areas were estimated to be more than 20,000 households. We will build 40,000 units in each of the southwest and northwest outer cities."

As for the other outer cities, you can handle that. Let's not focus on recouping our costs there. We can build a maximum of 20,000 units per outer city to sell.

Bi Maoliang nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

Next is the development of other areas. Zhu Jue mainly wants to use the outer city in the northwest for industrial development, such as rubber factories, cement plants and the like, which will be built on a large scale.

He planned to develop the southwest outer city for civilian use, such as fertilizer plants, feed mills, shoe sole factories, and civilian hardware factories. He also wanted to move the canal wharf to the north outer city, which would require widening the moat.

As everyone was discussing, Fang Zhenghua strode in again, carrying a memorial, and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, an urgent report from Hanzhong Prefecture, delivered by express messenger from 800 li away."

It seems that Pan Yunteng has raised the flag of rebellion.

Zhu Jue took the memorial and read it. Sure enough, the prefect of Hanzhong reported that Zhang Yun, the Little Celestial Master, had risen up in rebellion, proclaimed himself King of Hanzhong, and occupied all the prefectures and cities in the eastern part of Hanzhong Prefecture overnight. This guy even boasted that he had 500,000 troops under his command. His power was terrifying.

He already knew all this.

He merely smiled slightly, then handed over the memorial and said calmly, "Ruoyu, keep this as well."

This means ignoring everything and letting things develop as they are!

(End of this chapter)