Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 240 If you don't want to get beaten, then obey (Part 2)

Zhu Jue was well aware of how many artisans the Ming Dynasty had.

The reason he hadn't conscripted all the artisans before was because there weren't enough wages or enough space.

Even after the capital is expanded into a nine-square grid, it can only accommodate four to five million people. If all the artisans are conscripted, the capital can only accommodate artisans. There will be no room for other military households, farmers, merchants, court officials and their families.

This is clearly unrealistic; he cannot allow the entire capital to consist only of artisans, with no one else in sight.

The key is that he can't let the artisans he recruits starve; they have to be paid, and he can't let their wages be lower than those of the existing artisans in the capital.

The wages needed for millions of artisan households and four to five million people are not a small amount. Even if we only calculate an average of five taels of silver per household per month, that would be more than five million taels per month and more than sixty million taels per year!

He wouldn't have dared to even think about getting paid like that.

However, things are different now.

Driven by profit, the Spanish were frantically mining gold in the Americas. Nowadays, the Spanish alone send him tens of millions of taels of gold every year, which is more than 140 million taels according to the Ming Dynasty's exchange rate!

In addition, gold and silver from Japan and Southeast Asia flowed into the Ming Dynasty at least 20 to 30 million taels every year.

He is not short of money now; he can easily afford to pay 60 million taels of silver a year.

As for the local area, Jizhou Town only needs to build a few cities that can accommodate millions of people to house all the artisans. Moreover, he also needs to transfer artisans to develop the Americas.

Now that wages and location are no longer issues, he naturally wants to gather all the artisans together, as these artisans are invaluable assets for industrial development.

While he was mobilizing ships and recruiting artisans, Xu Guangqi finally returned to the capital.

Around 9 a.m. that day, he had just finished reviewing the memorials and was about to go to the steel foundry when Xu Guangqi strode in, cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

You are finally back.

Zhu Jue glanced at Xu Guangqi, whose face was tanned dark, and quickly stood up to greet him, "Zixian, you've worked hard. Come on, sit down and get some fresh air."

Upon hearing this, Xu Guangqi quickly and carefully stepped forward and sat down.

Zhu Jue then asked, "How are the disaster victims doing in Qiongzhou Prefecture?"

Xu Guangqi nodded repeatedly and said, "They are all fine. There are water-cooled fans blowing constantly, so the room is not very hot. They are used to working in the morning and evening and resting during the day. As long as they are not exposed to the sun, it is not very hot to work."

That's good.

Zhu Jue then asked with concern, "And you, can you stand such hot weather?"

If the disaster victims can endure it, how can I not?

Xu Guangqi nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I don't have to do any work. I stay indoors during the day with the fan blowing, and I can go out for a walk in the morning and evening. It's very relaxing, and I don't feel hot at all."

You've gotten so tanned; you must have spent a lot of time in the sun.

Okay, as long as you don't feel hot.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then said solemnly, "Zixian, you know about the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru, right?"

I have already signed an agreement with them. From now on, we will send people to develop the copper and saltpeter mines there, and we will organize people to collect raw rubber. They don't need to worry about it anymore.

There are an abundance of copper mines, nitrate mines, and rubber trees over there, and developing them would require a huge workforce. Considering the food problem, we need to first promote high-yield crops there.

You are the most skilled in this area, and the climate there is similar to that of Qiongzhou Prefecture, so you have experience in developing it. Therefore, I want you to go and develop the Governor-General's territory of Peru.”

what?
I thought you wanted me to develop Hubei and Hunan or Sichuan.

You actually want me to develop that Viceroyalty of Peru in the Americas!

That's their territory, and those guys are just like bandits.

Upon hearing this, Xu Guangqi thought carefully before cautiously saying, "Your Majesty, for developing a place as hot as Qiongzhou Prefecture, we definitely need to install water-cooled fans."

The European countries are all thuggish. Putting aside the water-cooled fans, if we really develop the Viceroyalty of Peru, we will definitely be able to produce large quantities of grain, copper, raw rubber, and saltpeter.

These things alone are enough to make them envious. Given their temperament, they might start looting. Not to mention other European countries, they might even find various pretexts to rob Spain, since it's their territory.

You know the temperament of those colonial bandits very well.

You've already considered security issues first when it comes to overseas development; that's truly commendable. Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "We certainly have to be wary of this. Don't worry, I will send Lai Pin with 50,000 soldiers from the Beijing Garrison for the first batch, along with ships. I will reserve 30 small Weiyuan warships and 100 medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships for you."

This strength is enough to intimidate the Spanish. As for the threats from the Netherlands and Britain and France, by the time they discover that we have developed the Viceroyalty of Peru into a prosperous land, it will be at least a few years. At that time, I will send more troops and warships over.

You don't need to be too polite to the Spaniards. Just do what you want, ignore them. If they dare to disobey or cause you trouble, just have your servants catch them and beat them until they obey.

If they disobey, you hit them?
Alright, when it comes to dealing with robbers, only fists are the most effective.

Upon hearing this, Xu Guangqi slowly nodded and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

Zhu Jue then carefully instructed, "Zixian, developing such a large area as the Governor-General's territory of Peru is not something that can be done overnight, so you don't need to be too eager for quick results."

There isn't enough grain there this year, and even if we send another 300 medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships to haul grain, we can only transport a maximum of 400,000 shi (a unit of dry measure), and each trip will take us about four months.

Therefore, this year we can only take 50,000 soldiers from the Beijing garrison and 50,000 artisans with us. Otherwise, if we can't supply enough food, we'll be in big trouble.

Don't rush into development. After these 100,000 troops arrive, lead them to build ports, docks, and cities. The ports should be able to accommodate at least 500 ships at the same time, and the cities should be able to hold at least 500,000 people.

Next is the issue of high-yield crop cultivation. You can use these four months to go and investigate what crops are suitable to grow there. Next year, we will start large-scale grain cultivation there.

There are also mineral deposits. We need to lay special tracks there and use railcars to haul them to significantly increase production. We definitely can't make the trip with the tracks and railcars this time; we'll have to wait for the next trip.

In other words, it's definitely not going to be developed this year. It would be good if it could be developed slowly after the grain harvest next year.

This year we have prepared some tools and equipment for collecting raw rubber. After you bring them over, the rubber production there should gradually increase.

What we need most right now is rubber; as for copper and saltpeter, we can expand production next year.

Developing such a large area as the Viceroyalty of Peru is certainly not something that can be done overnight.

Upon hearing this, Xu Guangqi slowly nodded and then asked, "Your Majesty, how many people do you plan to bring to develop the Viceroyalty of Peru? Please give me a rough number so that I can determine how much land to cultivate for growing grain."

We can't bring too many people over.

Zhu Jue pondered, “Next, we still need to develop Jizhou Town. We don’t have enough manpower to begin with. At most, we can bring over 100,000 artisans and their families, which will be about 400,000 to 500,000. In addition, there are the soldiers from the Beijing Garrison. You can calculate it as 100,000 for now.”

In the past, our people mainly did technical work such as building factories, manufacturing equipment, and laying railcars. Physical labor such as mining, farming, and loading and unloading goods was still done by the local natives.

However, we cannot follow the Spanish example and use whips to force people to do manual labor.

We must learn from the lessons of Liaodong. The Jurchens used whips to force the soldiers and civilians of Liaodong to work, and as a result, the yield from 100 mu of land was less than that from 50 mu.

Therefore, whipping is the worst method. We should make sure people are well-fed, well-clothed, and live in houses with water-cooled fans. We should use a life of plenty to motivate people to work hard on their own initiative.

Also, the inefficiency over there is probably largely due to the hot weather. We need to find a way to install fans in the mine, otherwise it's so hot inside that you'll be sweating buckets, let alone working.

This means that when people are well-fed, well-rested, and have a good working environment, they will have more energy to work.

Upon hearing this, Xu Guangqi nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise, I understand."

Oh, and fertilizer too.

Zhu Jue then explained in detail: "Zixian, you can also build a fertilizer factory over there to produce fertilizer in large quantities."

The nitrate mines there are practically inexhaustible. They can be used to make potassium and nitrogen fertilizers. Also, there should be phosphate mines there, and I think there are quite a few.

In other words, the region already had no shortage of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers. If the fertilizer industry there were developed, the entire Ming Dynasty would have no shortage of fertilizers.

There's even phosphate rock over there!

The Viceroyalty of Peru is a wonderful place.

It has abundant resources such as gold mines, silver mines, copper mines, rubber trees, nitrate mines, and phosphate mines; it's like a huge treasure trove.

When it came to fertilizer production, Xu Guangqi got excited.

If there were enough fertilizer, the Ming Dynasty would never lack food again.

He couldn't help but nod excitedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

(End of this chapter)