Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 252 Liaodong's Great Victory and Minor Success in the Americas (Part 2)

Eunuch Wei has started acquiring land along the Haihe River again!
This excited the ordinary people on the north bank of the Haihe River; they had never expected such a sudden stroke of good fortune.

They had already heard about the land being taken over in the capital. The common people whose land was taken over did not lose their livelihoods. On the contrary, they were able to find many jobs that were more profitable than farming.

The reason for acquiring the land is to develop it. Once the factories are built, there will be a job that is more profitable than farming.

What's more, after taking the house, Eunuch Wei built a new one for them, so they essentially got a new house for free and received a large sum of money.

This time, the land acquisition on the north bank of the Haihe River is different. All the ordinary people who have acquired land can immediately go to work. They are doing simple jobs such as boiling water and cooking. The elderly, women and children are all paid wages!

Eunuch Wei was essentially giving them money, so they were naturally overjoyed.

As for those corrupt officials, court officials, and local gentry who have annexed large amounts of land and want to make money while lying down, doing nothing but needing to be served, Eunuch Wei will not tolerate them.

In any case, Wei Zhongxian would just take everything, and anyone who didn't want to work could get lost and not be an eyesore!

This is not over yet.

Immediately afterwards, the emperor's father-in-law, Tian Hongyu, came to conscript young and strong farmers. The work was very simple: digging the ground, digging waterways, and digging foundations. They would also pay two taels of silver a month for their work.

At this moment, young men and women from both sides of the Haihe River flocked to the site. Anyone could dig a field, and such a simple job paid two taels of silver a month. It would be foolish not to do it.

Lu Xiang-sheng was very efficient; the next day, he led the soldiers of the Beijing garrison to bring boilers, pipes, tarpaulins, and other equipment to get to work.

Setting up a five-person marching tent is actually quite simple; it just involves nailing two A-frame supports together with a crossbeam, and then covering it with a tarpaulin.

The A-frame supports, beams, and even the ground pegs used to secure the tents were all prefabricated, making it incredibly fast to set up the tents. Two soldiers from the Beijing Garrison could easily set up ten tents a day, and 20,000 soldiers from the Beijing Garrison could set up 100,000 tents a day!

The scale of 1.5 million people sounds daunting, but in reality, it only requires setting up 300,000 tents, which can be done in three days by 20,000 soldiers from the Beijing Garrison.

As for boilers and steam pipes, they were used to installing them in the capital, and it wouldn't take more than a few days to install them.

Within a few days, tents were set up all over the north bank of the Haihe River. More than 200,000 carpenters and farmers from nearby areas, as well as more than 100,000 young men from both banks, gradually gathered there, and the shipyard soon started construction.

The north bank of the Haihe River was immediately packed with people, so densely packed that it looked like ants carrying food.

When Zheng Hongkui led his fleet back from the Americas, they were all stunned.

When they set off, there were only a few simple docks at the mouth of the Haihe River, and the shore was mostly farmland with hardly any people around.

At this moment, the Haihe River estuary was densely packed with docks, and the banks were teeming with people!
After he disembarked from the ship and was led into the station, he was even more dumbfounded.

This station is filled with strange and unusual horse-drawn carriages!
When he boarded the carriage again and headed towards the capital, he was utterly astonished by the tents and figures on the north bank of the Haihe River.

The road was packed with people, and the tents stretched for over a hundred miles!

He truly never imagined that the once remote and desolate Haihe Riverbank would become like this. He also never imagined that warhorses could pull such large carriages, and that each carriage could carry forty or fifty people.

To his surprise, there were even more of these large carriages after he arrived in the capital; they were everywhere on the streets and alleys.

He couldn't quite understand the speed of development of the Ming Dynasty.

He also set off from the Haihe River dock early in the morning, around 5 a.m., so he arrived at the capital around 9 a.m.

At that moment, Zhu Jue had just finished reviewing the memorials and hadn't left yet.

After he paid his respects at the main hall of the Yuxi Palace, Zhu Jue earnestly pulled him to sit down and ordered someone to serve him fragrant tea before solemnly asking, "How is the situation in America, Hongkui?"

Zheng Hongkui quickly explained in detail: "Your Majesty, the situation in the Americas is not bad. Their governor, Alfonso, doesn't dare to interfere with us at all. He doesn't even bother to look at what we're doing. The natives there seem to have been terrified of the Spanish. They're all very obedient and do whatever they're told."

When I set off on my way back, Lord Xu had already decided on the location for building the port, wharf, and city, and Lai Pin had also led his men to occupy a vast area of ​​land, spanning tens of millions of acres.

Those 50,000 artisans began constructing cities and ports.

Lord Xu said that during our four-month round trip, the city and port will definitely be completed, and it will be no problem for the 50,000 soldiers of the Beijing Garrison to lead the local natives to plant the five million mu of potato, sweet potato and waterway seedlings we brought.

He said the weather there is similar to that of Qiongzhou Prefecture, and the waterways there can definitely yield three harvests a year. Potatoes and sweet potatoes are estimated to ripen in about three months.

In other words, by the time we get there again, the potatoes, sweet potatoes, and the first season's waterways should have all been harvested. In terms of yield, the potatoes and sweet potatoes should have yielded at least 30 million shi (a unit of dry measure), and the waterways at least 5 million shi.

Lord Xu also said, "This time we can bring a large number of people over there, even a million, because potatoes, sweet potatoes, and rice can be grown continuously. The key is that we need a large number of people to develop the mineral resources and extract rubber."

Sending Xu Guangqi to take charge this time was definitely the right decision.

Once the food problem is solved, attracting people to develop the area will no longer be an issue.

However, it's unlikely that a million people could be brought there at once.

He didn't prepare that many people, and a medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ship can only carry a maximum of 500 people, so even a thousand ships can only carry 500,000 people.

Fortunately, we don't need to haul grain over there, and people don't take up much of the load.

Zhu Jue thought about it carefully, and then decisively said: "This time you should take 100,000 people over. I will also prepare 50,000 artisan households and 50,000 Jurchen prisoners for you."

However, you can send over more steam engines, boilers, water-cooled fans, machine tools, and horse-drawn railcars. This time, I plan to provide you with a thousand medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships. By the way, how's business with the Spanish? Have they increased their orders? How much copper, rubber, and saltpeter did you bring back?"

Upon hearing this, Zheng Hongkui explained in detail: "The Spanish can probably only mine and smelt this much gold and silver, so they have not increased their purchases."

They smelted over 40 million catties of copper concentrate this time, which filled 200 ships. The rubber was around 10 million catties, which filled 50 ships. The saltpeter ore was only a little over 1 million catties, which filled about five ships.

These guys are so lazy.

Oh well, I wasn't counting on them anyway.

Zhu Ming nodded slowly, then pondered and said, "Alright, unloading will take time anyway, so you can wait here for a few days."

I will order people to go to Liaohai City to bring over the Jurchen prisoners, as well as steam engines, boilers, water-cooled fans, machine tools, and horse-drawn railcars.

However, these supplies, along with the work of the Spanish, the 100,000 people, and the food, fresh water, and other necessities needed for the journey, would probably fill even 500 ships. It's best not to send the remaining 500-odd merchant ships empty. Did Zixian say what he needed?

Upon hearing this, Zheng Hongkui nodded repeatedly and said, "Lord Xu said that the natives there seem to really like our cloth and porcelain. He said he would use cloth and porcelain to win over the natives. If possible, I will bring more cloth and porcelain with me on this trip."

Also, the development over there will require a lot of steel, so if possible, I'd like to haul as much steel as possible over there.

These are all things we produce in large quantities, so there's naturally no problem.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue nodded without hesitation and said, "Alright, I'll have Shi Gao and Yuan Jiu go and see if they can spare any cloth, porcelain, or steel to send over to you."

With this batch of personnel and supplies delivered, large-scale development can begin in the Americas. Everything else seems fine, except for the manpower.

Xu Guangqi said he needed over a million people, so where was he going to find so many?

(End of this chapter)