Since ancient times, Dezhou has been known as Jiuda Tianqu, strangling the west gate of Shandong, and adjacent to Wuyi, the center of Li Ze's reign, which is where Li Ze attaches great importance to it.

After more than a year of construction, Texas is now slowly recovering. Dezhou New Town has begun to take shape, and the workshops of each family have officially settled here, and they are continuously producing most of the materials they need for Wuwei.

Although most of the entire Texas is still in a wasteland, in the vicinity of Texas New Town, it is already vibrant.

Li Ze's overall plan for Dezhou basically follows a line, starting from Dezhou New Town, then passing through Wuqiao County, Dongguang County, to Nanpi County, and finally connecting with Cangzhou as a whole.

Abundant water resources have powered many of Wuwei's heavy industries, and along the Weixin River and Zhangweixin River, workshops using water power have been set up over the course of a year.

Here, there is a military workshop to make weapons and armor, and now all the soldiers of the Wuwei Army are equipped with standard plate armor, which is made here by using hydraulic rams, and the weapons and equipment needed by Li Ze's army, as small as the feather arrows reach the siege equipment, nearly eighty percent are made here.

This is also the minting place of Wuwei's new money, which Li Ze attaches great importance to. The new Wuwei money produced from here, through the Wuwei Qianzhuang and Changlong Qianzhuang, is spreading in Datang at an incredible speed, and for Li Ze, there is no more profitable business than minting money. And in addition to making money, the existence and circulation of Wuwei copper coins and the squeezing of the original Datang coinage market have countless other wonderful uses. These uses may not be effective in a short period of time, but in the future, he can play no less role than a heavily armed army.

Of course, there are also a series of factories such as silk reeling, weaving, and ready-to-wear.

Here, it not only produces heavy weapons for the military, but also is a strong competitor for many civilian products.

"Guo Tingshi, Texas is a gold-swallowing beast, and in the past two years, we have invested millions of dollars here." Xia He looked at Guo Fengxiao, the accompanying Texas assassin, and said, "When will Texas be able to be self-sufficient?" ”

Guo Fengxiao spread his hands and said with a smile: "Madam, if the Duzhi Division allows us to collect taxes from the military workshop and the Money Division here, then we can be self-sufficient this year, but the problem is that these are all directly under the jurisdiction of Jiezhen, we can't collect money from them, and we still put a lot of money into them every year, there is really no way!" ”

Wang Mingyi said: "I don't think I should make up my mind about this matter, whether it is military industry or coinage, this is an important weapon of the country, and it is absolutely impossible to hand it over to the local government to operate." ”

Xia He waved his hand: "Not really." It is not impossible to hand it over to the locality, although Texas is a local, but it is also a part of the jurisdiction of the town. ”

Guo Fengxiao was overjoyed: "Madam, does Taifu already have this idea?" ”

"No, it's me!" Xia Ho Road.

"Isn't it too much?" Guo Fengxiao was disappointed.

Xia He glanced at him and said, "In the first two quarters of this year, the Duzhi Division was not very satisfied with the entire operation of the Military Workshop and the Money Minting Division. Doing exclusive business, there is no need to worry about anything, some officials, it is obvious that they are slacking, in our opinion, the cost of these industries can be greatly reduced. The Duzhi Division had sent them several official letters suggesting it, but it was clear that they had not taken it to heart. My idea is to hand them over to the local government to manage, and issue orders to them every year, the price is also negotiable between the two sides, and the more they earn, the more you will get in the local area, and the less you earn, and if you can't feed the people, your local will have to be upside down. ”

When Guo Fengxiao heard this kind of method, he was immediately unhappy. "Madam, it is obvious that the price will be greatly reduced by Jiezhen, and we will have to produce with quality and quantity. This is leaving the problem to the local government! ”

Xia He was happy when he heard it: "That's really the idea, otherwise why would the prince put you Guo Fengxiao in this place?" If you want to make these industries the old hens that can lay golden eggs in Texas, then you have to find ways to make them more efficient and reduce costs. ”

"If that's the case, then I'd rather not." Guo Fengxiao shook his head again and again: "I'm willing to work hard in other places." ”

"This is not up to you, the feasibility report has been drafted by our branch division, and when the son comes back from Luzhou, it will be submitted to the childe's desk, the son is a batch, you Guo Fengxiao is not happy to go and tell the son!"

Guo Fengxiao suddenly had a bitter face.

"You don't have to worry about that." Xia He continued: "Since the problem is handed over to you, it will naturally give you the corresponding power, and it is estimated that your position of Guo Tingshi will also be promoted at that time, although you are still serving as the assassin here, you will also have another position that can effectively manage these special industries." In the next two years, Wuwei will stop fighting, and the demand for weapons and other things will drop significantly, which is also an opportunity for you to calmly rectify them. These workshops have only been in operation for more than a year, and many of their ills have been exposed, and in the final analysis, it is still a one-person problem. In the past six months, Childe has not been very satisfied with the research of many weapons, and has obviously given ideas and feasible methods, but new things just can't come out. Many people are comfortable, thinking that now our Wuwei weapons are already the best in the world, and they can lie down and sleep, but they don't know that the better our weapons and equipment, the fewer people will die on the battlefield, and the more abundant the finances. They are given so much research funding every year, but they are not allowed to use it on some messy things. ”

"That's true." Guo Fengxiao said with deep sympathy: "The ambassador in charge of military production has a bigger shelf than me in Texas. ”

Xia He smiled and said, "When he becomes your subordinate, you have a way to clean him up." Don't talk about this, let's discuss it after everything is a foregone conclusion, Guo Tingshi, let's talk about your other industries here, I'm very interested in the wool industry. ”

"The textile industry, in the military industry, coinage and other industries can not bring profits to Texas, is now our pillar industry in Texas!" Guo Fengxiao said: "The wool spinning in Boxing has formed a scale, and it can produce tens of thousands of wool spun cloth every year, and the added value of these fabrics is much higher than that of ordinary cotton cloth, and it has caught up with silk." In Boxing, we have built several large-scale textile factories, and the people there have been organized to work in the factories with great efficiency. Today's problem is that there is a shortage of raw materials, and wool production is far from keeping up with the pace of production. ”

"Now that the mouth has basically been calmed down, the people sent out by the Yixing Society are vigorously pacifying the people and recruiting all kinds of miscellaneous beards, so far, it has been fruitful, and the large-scale breeding industry has gradually formed outside the mouth, and after this year, the raw materials will continue to be transported. When the time comes, I'm just afraid that you won't be able to consume it. ”

"How is that possible?" Guo Fengxiao said: "Now near Dezhou New Town, a large number of women basically have nothing to do, the military industry here does not recruit women, and the work of the farmland is too heavy for women, but these are all labor, there is really a steady stream of raw materials, I can let these people have a spinning wheel, work at home, and then spin out the thread, so that the textile workshop in Boxing is uniformly purchased, so that not only the employment problem of these women, but also the problem of raw materials in the textile factory." ”

When Wang Mingyi heard this, he couldn't help but extend his thumb: "Guo Tingshi seems to be also an expert in business, buying from these individuals, and these people are using their spare time to do these things, presumably you must want to make a profit from the middle." ”

"This is natural, the geese have plucked their feathers!" Guo Fengxiao laughed. "But ma'am, there's one more thing I please."

"What's the matter?"

"This time, when the Golden Highway passed through Texas, he gave me a carpet, allegedly from distant Persia, I asked the price, but I was shocked, but I looked at the texture, but it is not better than the quality of our textile factory here, I heard that this kind of thing is priceless in Jiangnan, why don't we make it? But the only problem is a problem of dye, the carpet that Jin Gong gave me is colorful, the pattern is bright, and it will not fade for a long time, I heard that there are some people under the command of Taifu who specialize in these things, can you ask Madame to help send these people to me? ”

"Oh, you mean the people in the team of the Chamberoons!" Xia He thought for a while: "It seems that there are some people like this, but I don't know very well, when Taifu comes back, I'll help you ask!" It's not a big problem. ”

"Then thank you." Guo Fengxiao was overjoyed.

"The problem in Texas now, in addition to these, the most important thing is the problem of insufficient people." Guo Fengxiao said: "The people who moved away back then are now in Wuyi, Nangong, Shiyi, and Yizhou, compared to Texas, they are only stronger and not weaker, and those who left refused to come back." Now that a large area of land in Texas is abandoned, it is the most distressing. ”

"This problem can only be taken slowly." Xia He thought for a while and said, "Some time ago, there were a lot of prisoners of war, or some people will be sent to you, by the way, those prisoners of war in Lu Long at the beginning, can they still be in peace now?" ”

"I've been happy for a long time." Guo Fengxiao said: "The earliest batch of these people have left the status of prisoners of war and settled in Texas. With their statements, even those who are still prisoners of war are now working hard and ready to live and work here in peace after the identity change! ”

"That's good. It is best to have people who are easy to do things and can make people do things willingly. Xia He said happily.