There were large-scale iron factories in both Tingzhou and Jianzhou, and the blast furnaces for iron-making were everywhere, and the thick smoke covered the sky and the sun, and many literati in the Great Wei Dynasty recorded such a peculiar scene.

Most of these Fujian iron factories are privately run, miners range from more than 100 people to several thousand, the Great Wei Dynasty has a strong control over the local area, iron is a semi-monopoly state, most of the official iron factories are floating, low quality and high cost, so from more than a hundred years ago, the Great Wei court no longer opened a government-run iron factory, but turned to issue official licenses to private mine owners and iron farm owners, and the owners used a certain amount of money to buy, official salt licenses to obtain the qualification of mining and iron smelting, and then pay high taxes every year, so that the imperial court got a stable source of incomeIt is not necessary to meddle in mining and smelting iron yourself, as long as law and order is maintained, and licenses are withdrawn and issued on a regular basis.

With this kind of power in hand, the king of Jianzhou Zhizhou will definitely not let go, before this there is the king of Qi, these cows, ghosts, snakes and gods in the place where he can be subdued, as soon as the king of Qi goes, the king of Zhao, who has a high opinion of himself, will find that he has no way to deal with these places, and can only compromise to buy his allegiance, and can only turn a blind eye to many destructive behaviors in the locality.

is the obvious difference between the two clan princes, and the difference is too far.

Jianzhou has few mines and many iron fields, while Tingzhou produces a large number of raw ores, and there are not many iron fields, but the scale is very large.

If something happens in Jianzhou, it is inevitable that many Tingzhou businessmen will be worried.

"Wang Yue has already cut off the supply to our Hou Mansion and Changwen Hou Mansion." Xu Zixian said: "It doesn't matter, I have already asked people to continue to buy refined iron in Jiangling, and the price is four to six yuan more expensive per catty, and the difference is not too big." ”

Zhang Mingliang said with a grateful face: "In the matter of Nan'an, if it weren't for the fact that Wu Tongzhi resolutely drove back the officials of Jianzhou, the villain and the family would be in danger." ”

"Proprietor Zhang is fine."

Zhang Mingliang said with determination: "If the prince and the marquis don't dislike it, the villain is willing to do something for the Nan'an Hou Mansion in the Eastern Domain, the villain's books are all here, and they can be regarded as businessmen for many years, and now there are sea fishing documents, and they can't return to their hometowns for a while, the villain doesn't want to be wasted, and wants to do something for the Hou Mansion. ”

"Since that's the case, I'll ask Gong Li to arrange Brother Zhanguang to do something suitable......" Xu Zixian said: "But don't worry about it for the time being, let's talk about it when we settle down." ”

Compared with the cold and calm Wu Shizhong, Zhang Mingming's attitude is much more enthusiastic, after all, he really escaped death.

If he and his family fell into the hands of Wang Yue that day, it would really be better to live than to die.

Wang Yue's reputation has now spread, greedy, brutal, and without scruples.

This is the case with the constraints of the Great Wei on local officials, high salary, pension, and honesty, and there is no systematic supervision and impeachment system.

Even if the impeachment is carried out, the stability and balance of the local area must be taken into account, and the entire Great Wei is already riddled with holes.

Wu Shizhong may have been touched in his heart on the side, this was not the case in the Great Wei twenty years ago, even if an official like Wang Yue was not arrested and imprisoned, at least he would lose his official position because of impeachment.

Now it is rampant, and no one can restrain it.

It is ridiculous and shameful to even openly threaten and harm the lives of good businessmen who can do their duty, and even forcibly take the net worth of businessmen.

King Zhao, Lin Douyao, these clans and local officials in Fujian, are completely unqualified to be the masters of the house.

Wu Shi's heart became gray for a while, and his complexion was not very good-looking.

But when he saw the large storage area, the factory area, and the straight roads, his mood only slightly recovered.

Wu Shizhong said to Xu Zixian: "Mingda, I have never been to the Eastern Domain, but I don't think it will be like this before?" ”

"Yes," Xu Zixian said, "Most of the houses and roads here are newly built. ”

"It's a lot of money, isn't it?"

"It's a lot of money, but it's not difficult to travel in order to get immigrants to live, and it's worth spending a little."

"How much does the house cost, what about the road?"

"The house is a workshop, the cost of the factory is uncertain, and the house is three main houses and two partial rooms, and the cost is about 65 yuan."

"This is because everything is created, so the cost is much more expensive than Fujian Road?"

"Exactly."

"Where's the road?"

"The roads are all rammed earth with lime gravel and snail shells repeatedly rammed, and the cost per mile is about 40 times."

"It's also a lot of money."

"It's almost 20,000, it's not much."

"But there are really not many local officials with such thoughts."

Wu Shizhong is not a corrupt Confucian who does not understand the economy of the world, how can this kind of person who can impress a large number of smart people with his knowledge and be famous throughout the country, how can he be a nerd who does not know the world?

A little calculation shows that this large area of factories, shipyards, and roads that run through it, plus a large number of people's houses, the settlements with white walls and black tiles, and the farmland that are connected to Qianmo, all cost a lot, at least more than one million.

In fact, the money invested by Xu Zixian, plus the investment of the Marquis of Changwen, is now 1.56 million yuan, so much money is smashed, mainly because of the prosperity of the wharf to the warehousing and factory area, plus less than 100,000 people to form a residential area dominated by commercial areas and settlements.

Together with the barracks area, as well as the school under construction and the Nan'an Hou Mansion, these are the most important inputs.

These days, those brick factories and tile kilns have been completely non-stop, sparks have continued, there is thick smoke and black fog every day, and the strong men who employ workers are more than 3,000 people at all times.

Prior to this, it was not that the Great Wei Imperial Court did not have this kind of strength, and with the situation when the Great Wei was still in its heyday a few decades ago, it was not difficult to allocate two or three million yuan of money to create the current scene.

"It's not that these things can't be done." Wu Shizhong said with great emotion: "It's just that no one has ever really been able to make this kind of decision...... Mingda, you are truly extraordinary. ”

"I was also forced to ......"

Wu Shizhong glanced at Xu Zixian, although he was galloping on a horse, his eyes were still clear and bright, and extremely deep. Later, Wu Shizhong said: "It's okay to coax others with Mingda's words, but I don't believe it." Here in the Eastern Domain, even if there is no change in the Qi Domain of Fuzhou, you still have to operate, but if you still have the port of Qizhou in hand and take up a prominent position, you will not be so fast and eager to develop ......the Eastern Domain."

"Maybe." Xu Zixian smiled bitterly, it was an answer without an answer.

……

Dozens of horsemen galloped through the rammed earth official road, and went north for more than ten miles to the boundary of the Houfu Courtyard in the upper reaches of Nan'an River.

Along the way, there are many settlements, these settlements occupy a wide area, a hundred households are generally about 120 to 150 households, and now the hundred households are still in the process of being formed, and it is expected that it will take several months to fill the 10,000 households of Nan'an Hou Mansion, and there will be immigrants one after another, and there will be a large number of homeless strong men who are organized into hired laborers or arranged to enter factories, or as officials, as guards, as sailors, and those who are brave and strong will join the army.

By the end of the year, there will be more than 100 households, tens of thousands of official and private households, and a population of more than 100,000.

Wu Shizhong was constantly admiring the settlements built along the official road, and as a Confucian student, the current situation was not a small stimulus to Wu Shizhong.

According to Xu Zixian's introduction, the cost of the official household is charged, including the grain and living utensils, agricultural tools, and livestock kept by the public during the land reclamation, and the official households use it for free when they open the land, and they will either buy it on credit or rent it during normal production and operation in the future, and the official households will do it at their own convenience.

Every few hundreds, there will be a public office, either to file a criminal case, or to close a large warehouse, or to transfer the tax department, these dispatched branches are responsible for public security, punishment, case judgment, tax collection, and storage of materials.

In addition, there are almshouses, Salesian capitals and health insurance, etc.

Xu Zixian introduced to Wu Shizhong: "After Mr. Wu moves in, he should also be careful of the epidemic, or epidemic infection, or mosquito bites, before adapting to the water and soil environment, do not see many people at home, and are not in a hurry to open a school for the time being, our overall plan is to start school in September, to January for winter vacation, and then in March, summer vacation in July, before that, but also to build a school, recruit teachers, buy stationery, build tables and chairs, etc., epidemic gas infection is not trivial, not to be careful." And due to the special situation on the island, immigrants came to trust Nan'an Hou Mansion and also trust me, so epidemic prevention, isolation, treatment, rehabilitation, the whole process from medicine to some necessary nutritional products, are all paid by the Hou Mansion, which does not need to be owed by the people, and does not have to be returned. ”

"Good." Wu Shizhong didn't say much, just showed approval on his face.

Zhang Mingliang also followed on horseback, he was a businessman, his body was fat, and it was more difficult to ride a horse, but when he saw the scenery on both sides of the official road, he was also shocked.

The families of the Wu and Zhang families, as well as some newly arrived immigrants, spread all over the official roads, either by car or on the road, and almost everyone behaved similarly.

Or look left and right, looking at the situation on both sides of the official road, or look at those beautiful settlements in a daze.

Almost everyone broke free from the panic and anxiety of the new immigrants, and the situation on the part of the Eastern Domain had been described before they came, but most of them did not believe it.

How can there be such a good thing, beautiful small courtyards and brick houses, large farmland, livestock, tools, seeds, these are all provided in advance, and then slowly repaid with the harvest.

In the first two years, the Nan'an Hou Mansion would not collect taxes, only the entry of official households, and forty days of labor per person.

In this way, if the shackles are broken, everyone's hopes will be released.

No one is afraid of hardship, these ordinary people of Dawei are all screened and screened, they are all poor but down-to-earth ordinary people, no one is a traitor, nor is it a gangster and a scoundrel, they all believe that their work can be rewarded, but on the other side of Fujian Road, they live in a dilapidated house with rammed earth and straw, and they have to worry about paying taxes every day.