The price of grain in Nanzhili has risen amazingly during this period.

Originally, the price of grain in Nanzhili was higher than in other places, the price of rice was three or four hundred wen per stone, the price of wheat was seventy or eighty wen, and the price of beans was one hundred wen.

As a result, the price of rice in the Susong area has risen to one stone, one two, two or two or three yuan, and the price of rice in some areas, such as Shanghai County, is as high as one dollar and six cents per bucket, which is amazing.

The reason why grain prices have skyrocketed is because the Jiangnan Town Guard Yamen sent people everywhere to buy grain.

Grain merchants in Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, and even Yangzhou, Taizhou, Jiaxing, and other places have received grain orders from the central official yamen in Jiangnan Town.

The profits given by the officials and yamen in the town guard were very considerable, which caused grain merchants in various localities to transfer the grain that should have been put on the market for sale to the Wusong Special Zone, which caused the grain stock in the market to decrease at once, which naturally led to an increase in grain prices.

In the south of the Yangtze River, crops have been reduced due to large-scale cultivation of cash crops, making grain prices much higher than in other places. After this large-scale grain harvest, it would be a miracle if the price of grain did not rise wildly.

Local governments cannot sit idly by while food prices rise, as this is a fundamental issue involving people's livelihood, and if it is not dealt with in a timely manner, civil unrest will occur.

However, whether it was the governor of Yingtian or the local officials, the town guard officials who bought grain on a large scale had no choice but to scold Wei Biao for causing trouble in the place, and at the same time send people to buy grain from farther places.

In some places, the government even stepped in to force grain merchants to set aside a certain amount of grain to supply the market, but in areas hard-hit by rising grain prices, such as Shanghai County, they directly opened and closed their positions, which reluctantly pushed down some grain prices.

Gonggong Wei, the lieutenant guard of the town, is also very innocent in his accusations against the outside world, he is an old man who buys food with real money, does not steal or rob, and does not force him to buy and sell, how can he be a bad person.

It is also difficult for the father-in-law to do it, if he wants to support people, he must have food to support people.

In this big place as a slap in the SAR, there is no grain output, and we can only rely on buying it.

Regardless of when, buying a certain commodity in large sums will definitely lead to an increase in commodity prices, which is determined by the market economy and cannot be recovered by human beings.

Fortunately, the rise in food prices is also a wave of things, and after meeting the basic needs, it is impossible for Father-in-law Wei to buy it anymore.

After all, he also has limited money.

The father-in-law planned the grain demand for the special zone and even the Ming Dynasty in Annam, and as the weather gradually gets colder, domestic grain production will definitely encounter big problems in less than ten years.

At that point, there will be only two options to solve the problem.

The first is large-scale massacres, artificially reducing the population and relieving the pressure on food, just like after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs. When everyone is killed, the place is vacated, there are not so many displaced people, and the order of production can be slowly restored. Otherwise, no matter how well the Eight Banners can fight, they will have to face the rebellion of the Liukou in the Chongzhen period.

The second is the large-scale import of grain from abroad.

There is no doubt that Gonggong Wei will definitely choose the second option.

Combined with the compulsory transfer of tuntian or conditional land transfer, the impact of natural disasters should be mitigated to the greatest extent and the people's strength and national vitality should be preserved as much as possible.

This time, the large-scale purchase of grain totaled more than 200,000 taels.

In addition, in addition to buying grain, oil and salt must also be purchased in large quantities, including food, clothing, housing, and transportation, and as long as it is needed by the special zone and the officers and men, my father-in-law will ask the following to do it.

It is true that he got a lot of silver from Nandu, but no matter how much silver he spends, it is valuable, otherwise what is the difference between it and scrap iron.

Some businessmen of the Yangzhou branch of the Jiangbei Chamber of Commerce found business opportunities and volunteered to take care of these businesses. One is to make profits from it, and the other is to be able to get closer to the relationship with Wei Gonggong and the maritime special zone.

Father-in-law Wei would not refuse to accept the requests of these businessmen, but asked these people to set up factories in the SEZ, in the name of promoting the economic development of the SEZ.

Whether it is oil extraction, weaving, or dyeing cloth, even if it is opening a tailor shop, you can hire a certain number of people to engage in production. With the complete set of upstream and downstream commercial systems, and the intermediate and service industries, there is no need to worry that the popularity of the Special Economic Zone is not strong, and why is there no further enlivening of the commercial atmosphere in the Special Economic Zone.

The maritime special zone as a whole is to serve the maritime industry, but the ultimate goal is to become a window for the Ming Dynasty's foreign commerce, and also a base for the Ming Dynasty's foreign export influence.

As long as it was a commodity that could be circulated, Gonggong Wei encouraged merchants or commoners to participate in it. Only when more people are involved and more industries are involved, can the SAR slowly influence the periphery, and eventually expel the political influence of the Donglin Party through commercial influence.

As my father-in-law has constantly emphasized, the economy drives people's livelihood, and then enriches the people and strengthens the country.

The word "economy" is now on the lips of everyone in the maritime zone, because wherever they go, they can see slogans painted with lime on the walls. These two words appear more often than the sages preached.

On the seventh day of returning to the Special Administrative Region, the father-in-law officially decided to expand the Ming Imperial Army and establish the first divisional and regimental unit of the Ming Imperial Army.

To this end, he referred to the Qi family army and the current Ming army system, and stayed up late to draw up a division expansion plan.

In this plan, a division has about 28,000 soldiers.

Each division has 3 brigades and regiments, with a fixed number of about 9,000 troops.

Each brigade has two infantry wings, one engineer wing, one artillery wing, and one baggage wing.

The infantry wing has 2,800 combatants and 400 non-combatants, totaling 3,200 people.

The wing has four brigades, each with about 800 people.

The artillery wing used 120 double soft vehicles, 120 artillery trucks, and 60 grain trucks, a total of 300 vehicles.

In terms of artillery configuration, there are 104 Franc machine guns, 150 other copper and iron cannons, and about 200 tiger squats and big poles.

An artillery wing with non-combatants totals about 1,800 people.

The baggage wing is temporarily established as a brigade, with more than 400 vehicles of all kinds and about 1,000 soldiers.

The plan is available, but it is not immediately implemented, and it must be reported to the emperor for approval.

Therefore, Gonggong Wei sent a letter to His Majesty the Emperor to reveal the secret.

“… The line is the battle, and the stop is the camp. In the event of a major enemy, the artillery wing will be used to attack it first, and if the enemy is near, the infantry wing will attack him. If the enemy comes on horseback, he will be attacked by an artillery wing, or by an infantry wing..."

At the beginning, the father-in-law first told the emperor about the division and regiment combat plan, focusing on proposing that the artillery should be grouped separately to make it more effective, rather than being mixed with infantry and vehicle battalions in the past.

This is the result of actual selection and practice, and it can be obtained by non-uneducated people. It's not as good as that, it's not enough to break the enemy. The minister said that five years later, the imperial army should be organized into no less than three divisions and 90,000 people, thinking that it would be a permanent standing division... If all are recruited, the cost of money and food is huge. Therefore, the minister first trained the first division, recruited and prepared personnel, weapons and equipment, and the actual number of soldiers... To be conquered in the east and the Ryukyus, the actual combat test of it. If the division can, it can be continued. ”

This section is also the father-in-law must point out to Wanli that the Ming Imperial Army must have a fixed number of soldiers and really strengthen training, so that the cost of money and food is huge. In view of the limited funds at present, he can only organize one division and regiment first, and then consider expanding the second division after testing his combat effectiveness in actual combat and after he has gained money and food.

This is called one step at a time, and it must not be expanded at will in order to lower the combat effectiveness of the imperial army.

"The minister thinks that if there are three or five first-class standing divisions, which can be gathered or dispersed, they will not worry about maritime affairs, and they can also be used in Liaodong and Northwest. In order to familiarize the officers and men of the division and regiment with the tactics of war, the ministers thought that they would be selected to recruit Western coaches to sign them, and the coaches would study together, and the battalions and formations would have the same methods and equipment. Officers and soldiers are not limited to my Ming children, but people from overseas, but those who have naturalized our dynasty can be recruited..."

After writing his expansion plan, Wei Liangchen read it repeatedly, and after confirming that there was no problem, he wrote again: "The minister will return to Beijing to face the saint in the near future, and it should be decided by His Majesty whether it is approved or not." During this trip, the minister will also bring more than 450,000 taels of silver to the inner treasury. ”