After Guan Yi finished speaking, there was silence in the room. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Speaking of which, it seems that all the methods that can be done have been thought of, and how to arrange these 45,000 rogue strong men is indeed a difficult problem.

"Why don't you send them to Jintang City in Xuanfu Town?" Xu Xiuqing thought for a while and said. "Perhaps, if there is still a shortage of labor there, if we send it over, we can greatly expand the output of coke, coal, sulfur and other raw materials."

After Xu Xiuqing finished speaking, Chen Zilong shook his head and said: "I have received a report from An Qian, the governor of Jintang City, saying that since Dolgon entered the Datong Land of Koushan West this year, there have been too many displaced people entering Xuanfu Town, and Jintang City has absorbed more than 20,000 people. In addition to the thousands of elites selected to enter the Golden Wolf Camp, such as coke factories, coal digging yards, sulfur digging plants, sulfur refineries, wool dewaxing factories, transport fleets, etc., have long been saturated, and even because there are too many male workers, they have to work on spinning machines and looms like female workers. ”

Speaking of this, Chen Zilong sighed again and said: "Rao is like this, there are still a large number of displaced people outside the city, although they have not had the opportunity to work in the city, they are still reluctant to leave, and they rely on the two bowls of rice porridge given in the city every day, which is also pitiful. It can be seen that it is impossible to accept these captives in the place of Jintang City. ”

Listening to everyone's words, Li Xiao fell into deep thought.

What to do?

Could it be that he was like those bureaucrats in the Ming Dynasty, pretending to give them a few days of food and a few strings of copper coins, and then sent them home?

Li Xiao immediately smiled and denied this idea.

He knew that this method and method were no different from an ostrich burying its head in the sand. The possibility of such a dismissed captives becoming rogues again is almost 100%.

Li Xiao sighed in his heart, but the land he owned now had been basically developed, and if he had more land, it would not be a problem at all to arrange these manpower.

O land, land, how can you get land?

Li Xiao groaned silently.

Suddenly, a thought, like lightning, flashed in Li Xiao's mind.

"This official has a way!"

Li Xiao's shout surprised the staff in the room.

"My lord, what a brilliant idea?" Chen Zilong asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"The official has thought of a good way to arrange for these people to grow tobacco." Li Xiao said with a radiant face.

"Growing tobacco?"

"That's right, it's to grow tobacco, and use the way of growing tobacco to arrange the remaining 45,000 rogue prisoners."

In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, it was not uncommon to plant tobacco, this thing originated in South America, as early as the early years of Wanli, it has been introduced to China, and began to be planted in southern provinces such as Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi. Over time, there were also scattered places in the north that began to be cultivated, mainly to make shisha and shoddy dry tobacco.

In modern China, Henan, Shandong, Yunnan, Gansu and Hunan provinces have become important flue-cured tobacco producing areas in China. In Shandong, especially in the areas of Luxi and Luzhong, the amount of tobacco planted is the largest.

Of course, if tobacco is grown, Li Xiao will not make it so casually, he plans to open a cigarette factory to produce high-quality cigarettes and cigars in a standardized way.

You know, cigarettes are a real profiteering industry. In later China, it was one of the country's main sources of finance, just like salt.

"My lord, if you want to grow tobacco, where does this land come from?" Xu Xiuqing asked.

"It's very simple, just go to other states and counties in Shandong to rent." Li Xiao said with blazing eyes: "Everyone, didn't our army save the general Yao Wenchang in Jinjiazhuang Fort in Xuanfu Town last year?" This person led the minister to the northwest of Shandong, but he happened to find this person to take the lead and go to the local land to lease land to grow tobacco. ”

"Rent land?" Xu Xiuqing asked a little confused: "Are those landlords and squires in states and counties willing to rent land to our army?" ”

"Absolutely." Li Xiao said confidently: "Yao Wenchang has received the grace of our army to save his life, and he has been unable to repay it, and now our army wants him to take the lead and negotiate with the local landlord about renting land, and this person will not postpone it." Besides, as long as our army can pay a reasonable rent, and there is Yao Wenchang, a local general, as a guarantee, those landlords and gentry will have no reason to refuse. ”

"But I don't know how much area the adults have to rent, how long they have to rent, and how much they have to pay for rent?" Chen Zilong interjected on the side.

"According to the calculation that a captive can cultivate and take care of 10 acres of land, there are 45,000 people to arrange, so let's rent 450,000 mu temporarily. Rent it for a year and see how it works. At present, in Shandong, there is basically one acre of middle field, and the tenants pay rent for five or six buckets a year, and according to the price at the time of grain collection, it is equivalent to less than six or seven yuan of silver. Our army rents so much land that the rent price of one acre of land may be as high as five yuan. Li Xiao said eloquently.

When Li Xiao said this, Wu Liang asked, "My lord, if the price is right, but it is better to rent it for a few more years, so what's the matter?" ”

Li Xiao said with a smile: "Mr. Wu, this tobacco planting, and growing grain, generally speaking, an acre of land, depending on the degree of fertility of the land, can produce 100 to 200 pounds of tobacco leaves, but if planted continuously, grain and grass, the yield will decline rapidly, the output of the second year, often only six or seven percent or even half of the first year, so the tobacco land can only be planted on the other land, and other crops are rotated, but it cannot be the same as wheat and rice, has been planted on the same land for a long time. ”

In fact, in modern China, because of the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to control insects, the yield of tobacco is quite high, generally up to 200 catties to 300 catties per mu. In Ming Dynasty China, because there was no chemical fertilizer available, and the fertility of the land was also insufficient, Li Xiao estimated that it could produce half of the output of later China, which was not bad.

Wu Liang stroked his beard and sighed, looking like he suddenly realized, and then he sighed: "Master Li is really a strange person, he even understands this tobacco cultivation so well, but it has opened the eyes of the students. “

Listening to Wu Liang's words of admiration, Li Xiao smiled secretly in his heart. He knew that of course he couldn't tell them that this was the knowledge he had seen when he visited the cigarette factory in his previous life. So, he thought for a moment and replied: "Well, when I was in my hometown in Jinzhou that day, there were tobacco farmers in the village who knew how to grow tobacco, and the official also learned about it without any intention of chatting at that time. ”

"Master Li, if 450,000 acres of land are planted, it may be planted in several counties, so that there will be more land to supply. But I don't know what the profit is from growing tobacco? Xu Xiuqing asked.

"Yes, you must know that even if the rent per mu of land is only five yuan, it will cost 255,000 taels of rent a year." Wu Liang looked distressed.

After listening to the inquiries of the two, a mysterious smile appeared on Li Xiao's face.

Having visited a cigarette factory in his previous life, he knew that in modern China, generally speaking, one kilogram of tobacco leaves can produce four ordinary cigarettes in 12 packs. Or 2 long cigars.

And Li Xiao now, because it is not possible to develop a cigarette machine immediately for the time being, it is mainly manual packaging and production, the means are sparse and simple, and in order to ensure the quality, Li Xiao plans to remove some low-quality tobacco leaves, coupled with the loss of transportation and storage, in this way, it is estimated that one kilogram of tobacco leaves may only be able to produce 2 ordinary cigarettes, or a lengthened cigar.

At present, if you can produce 50 kilograms of tobacco leaves per acre of tobacco land, you should be able to produce 100 cigarettes or 50 cigars. In this way, the total annual output of 450,000 acres of tobacco fields can produce a total of 45 million cigarettes or 22.5 million cigars.

As for the price of this cigarette, according to the data of the Dutch East India Company, the factory price of an ordinary cigarette is 2 yuan and 5 cents silver.

It is said that after these Indonesian cigarettes were sold to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and other places, the price of an ordinary cigarette could be 1 pound, which was exchanged for the price of silver in the Ming Dynasty, which was 2 to 3 taels of silver!

This is simply a huge profit from drug trafficking!

Of course, Li Xiao now, because there are no ocean-going vessels, it is impossible to sell to Europe. Japan and the South Seas are already forbidden by maritime merchants and sea cowards such as Zheng Zhilong in Fujian, and Li Xiao is absolutely not allowed to get involved. Therefore, the market that Li Xiao can have now can only be in the Ming Dynasty, as well as Mongolia, Houjin and North Korea.

Rao is so, in the domestic market is still in the primitive state of self-production and self-sale, Li Xiao's tobacco industry still has a broad space for development.

Li Xiao even thought that considering the living standards of most people in the Ming Dynasty, in order to cultivate and lead the market, he planned to greatly reduce the ex-factory price of the Dutch, and sell it at the wholesale price of 1 yuan and 5 cents of silver for an ordinary cigarette and 3 yuan silver for an ordinary cigar.

At the same time, to make more people accept cigarettes, he plans to bundle a cigarette with a small piece of flint and velvet to make smoking more convenient.

Of course, in addition to selling to the mass market, Li Xiao will also target the wealthy, develop high-end cigarettes, this kind of cigarettes, will select the best tobacco leaves, carefully roasted, and then with luxurious and gorgeous packaging, so that the price can be greatly increased.

It can be simply calculated that if all the tobacco leaves produced by these 450,000 acres of tobacco land are sold, the total sales will reach 6.75 million taels!

The cost of producing these cigarettes, in addition to the rent of 255,000 taels of silver, is that because the workers are prisoners of the labor camp, they do not have to pay wages, as long as they are covered with food and lodging.

In order to ensure physical strength, a captive laborer has to eat about two catties of rice grain and three taels of pork every day, and one soldier has to eat 60 catties of rice grain and 9 catties of pork a month. In a year, it needs 720 catties of rice grain and 108 catties of meat.

Among them, now in the Shandong market, a stone of rice grain is 188 catties, excluding the bran impurities, only 150 catties are edible, that is to say, a captive laborer, a total of 4.8 stone of grain is consumed a year, according to the price of a stone of grain 2 taels of silver, a total of 9.6 taels of silver.

The price of pork in Shandong is 2 cents of silver for a pound of meat, and the meat consumption of a laborer in a year is about 2.2 taels.

Counting vegetables and other side dishes, a worker's annual food expenses are about 12 taels.

Counting the cost of building temporary housing, living utensils, and related farm tools, seeds, cattle, etc., and including the food and salary expenses of supervising the soldiers and soldiers, the average cost of a laborer's work in a year is about 16 taels.

In this way, Li Xiao's 45,000 captives will cost a total of 720,000 taels a year.

Counting the local officials, as well as personal contacts, etc., the annual expenses, to the majority, are only 800,000 taels of silver.

In Li Xiao's planning, next, the dried tobacco is transported to the cigarette factory to be built in Squatting Dog Mountain for packaging and production.

Li Xiao plans to arrange for 10,000 workers to work in the cigarette factory. In this case, it should still be possible for a worker to roll 10 to 13 cigarettes in a day. At this rate, it is enough to ensure that the workers can work all year round.

In this way, the construction of a cigarette factory and the purchase of equipment cost about 50,000 taels of silver, and the monthly salary and bonus of the workers in the case of food is 6 taels of silver, and the salary for a year is 72,000 taels, and the cost of food is 120,000 taels.

The paper, packaging box, and matching flint velvet used to roll cigarettes, according to the Dutch East India Company, calculated that the additional cost of a cigarette was 0.15 cents of silver.

The cigarettes and cigars that Li Xiao wants to produce also plan to install filters like later generations. Although this thing cannot really prevent the harm of cigarettes to the human body, the simple filter equipped with acetic acid soaked in defatted cotton and then dried will undoubtedly be more conducive to the health of smokers, so that they can consume for a long time.

In this case, the additional cost of a cigarette, calculated by Li Xiao in width, is about 0.2 cents of silver. In this case, the total additional cost of producing these 45 million cigarettes is 90,000 taels of silver.

In this way, it can be calculated that if the cigarette factory is built and kept running smoothly, it will cost about 332,000 taels of silver a year, and then 350,000 taels of silver will be enough after counting other miscellaneous costs, as well as transportation and storage.

Now calculate the general account, the cost of producing tobacco, 1.5 million taels of silver a year is enough.

In this way, Li Xiao still has a net profit of 5.25 million taels!

This is quite an astonishing profiteering, and its profit is comparable to that of Li Xiaojun's silk and steel industries.

It is no wonder that in later generations, the state will firmly grasp the tobacco industry in its own hands, make it the focus of state profits and taxes, and carry out monopoly operations.

With more than 5 million taels of tobacco silver this year, Li Xiaojun's future development space will be broader.

Thinking of this, Li Xiao smiled and said to Xu Xiuqing and the others: "Don't worry, everyone, this planting of tobacco is a rare and good deal, and the degree of profit in the future is probably not expected by everyone here." According to our preliminary estimates, if all of this batch of tobacco can be sold, the profit will be millions of taels! ”

Everyone screamed unconsciously, and after Li Xiao briefly told him about his plan, everyone's eyes began to flash with longing.

At this time, because the 45,000 rogue prisoners were finally arranged, everyone at the venue felt much more relaxed.

At this time, Wu Liang thought of another question, and he asked Li Xiao: "Lord Li, how does Lord Li plan to settle the scorpion block father and son who surrendered to our army?" ”

Li Xiao pondered for a moment and said slowly: "Although the two of them are thieves, they can lead the crowd anyway and save our army from a fight, but it is also due to our army. In this way, Scorpion Block himself, because I have done a lot of evil and is capricious, this officer does not intend to let him stay in the army anymore. He was appointed deputy director of the ammunition factory to assist Zhao Jie, the chief firearms officer who was also the director of the factory, so that Zhao Jie could work with the Portuguese to better develop all kinds of firearms. ”

Li Xiao paused, and then said: "As for his son Tuo Xingzhong, because he is young, he is very malleable, so let's go to the Golden Wolf Camp in Xuanfu Town to serve." At that time, the officer ordered Duan Shidi, the commander of the Golden Wolf Battalion, to arrange for him to be a shield soldier or spear captain. In the future, it depends on his personal efforts. ”

After Li Xiao finished speaking, everyone had no objection.

After the meeting was over, Li Xiao decided that all kinds of matters decided in the meeting would be arranged by everyone and implemented immediately. The congregations did not mention it one by one.

As for the matter of planting tobacco, Li Xiao knows that this matter is very important and should not be delayed, but it needs to be handled immediately.

So, only one day later, he immediately took several of his relatives to Wuding Prefecture, that is, Yao Wenchang's residence, to discuss the matter with him personally. (To be continued.) )