Listening to Gao Ligong's words, Li Zhi was silent. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Gao Ligong said: "Your Excellency, the price of grain is getting more and more expensive day by day, and it has risen to three taels and one stone. I heard that the general opened a cheap grain store in Fanjiazhuang, selling grain to the people at the price of 221 stone, so that the people could buy grain with food stamps. However, if the price of grain rises to four taels or five taels in the future, how can the general's parity grain store continue to maintain low prices? ”

"When the price of food rises, everything goes up. If the general does not increase his monthly money, the people of Fanjiazhuang will fall into poverty. If the general raises his monthly money in a big way, how can he rise the price of goods in this chaotic situation? If the general's career is confined to Fanjiazhuang, he will be in danger and will be affected by the turmoil of the outside world. ”

"Xiaoliuqiu is a vast area and fertile land, and only by developing Xiaoliuqiu and cultivating and stabilizing grain prices on a large scale can the general's industry be solid."

"Xiaoliuqiu is located in the south, with sufficient sunshine, and one acre of land harvests three stones of rice a year. A farmer cultivates twenty acres of paddy fields, which can feed dozens of people. ”

Li Zhi was finally moved by Gao Ligong's words.

In troubled times, the industry is too susceptible to external fluctuations. In the Ming Dynasty, the prices rose day by day, becoming more and more chaotic day by day, and there was even a situation where the silver could not buy food in the affected areas. If you don't find a place to vigorously cultivate as a rear, it will be difficult to maintain a comfortable life in Fanjiazhuang.

Li Zhi gave the workers two or two months of money, if these two or two months of money could not buy one stone or half a stone of grain, then how could the workers' families survive? How can the workers still have the heart to produce products for Li Zhi?

Although Li Zhi has private land in various counties in Tianjin, he now has 390,000 mu of private land. However, the yield of these private fields is low, and the grain produced is a drop in the bucket for stabilizing grain prices in Tianjin. In Taiwan, the yield of one mu of land is three times that of Tianjin's dry land, and the result is twice the result with half the effort.

Only by developing Taiwan's agriculture can Li Zhi have enough foundation to support Tianjin's industry.

Li Zhi nodded and said, "Mr. Gao is talented, what he said is indeed reasonable. ”

"The great general Miao praised, the student has only been running the sea for a few years and knows some overseas things."

Li Zhi said: "Then ask Mr. Gao to contact a shipbuilder for me to build a big ship in Shandong." Since Mr. Gao has been to Xiaoliuqiu, he naturally knows where to run the Ryukyu waterway? Then ask Mr. Gao to connect me with a few experienced guides. ”

Gao Ligong arched his hand and said: "The students will work together to contact the general!" ”

Li Zhi said in a deep voice, "Mr. Gao is familiar with overseas affairs, so it is better to serve as an ambassador in the Overseas Affairs Agency of my shogunate, and specialize in various matters related to overseas affairs." If Mr. Gao makes meritorious deeds in the future, I will ask for an official position for Mr. Gao. ”

Gao Ligong heard Li Zhi reuse him like this, his face was overjoyed, and he knelt down and shouted: "The student is willing to serve the general!" ”

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After talking to Gao Ligong about shipbuilding, Li Zhi asked Gao Ligong to go to Dengzhou, Laizhou and other places to contact shipwrights to build big ships. It cost about 50,000 taels of silver to build five ships, and Li Zhi advanced 20,000 taels and asked ten trustworthy old accountants to take the silver to various shipbuilding sites to do finance, control expenditures and make account books.

Li Zhi also found ten shipbuilders from Wangjiawan who knew how to make high-density ribs, and went to Dengzhou and Laizhou to instruct those traditional shipwrights - the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty often did not make ribs, and even if they did, there were very few, and the shipbuilders did not understand the structure of ships with dense ribs. The shipwrights of Wangjiawan have already built three large ships with dense ribs, and they are already experts in this area.

Gao Ligong's action was very fast, and on 3 December, news came from Shandong that the construction of five large ships had already begun, and that all of them would be completed in less than three months.

On December 5, Li Zhi took Zheng Hui as his commander and asked him to take 200 soldiers, 800 masons, brick-burning and lime-burning craftsmen, and under the guidance of his guide, drive three large boats to Xiaoliuqiu.

It doesn't matter if the three big ships don't trade with Japan for the time being, Li Zhi has a surplus of profits every month, and he can afford the cost of using the ships elsewhere.

Speaking of which, cultivating new fields in Taiwan is a lucrative business. The most expensive thing in these years was grain, and if Li Zhi could successfully develop a large amount of farmland, the profits would even exceed Japan's trade revenues.

This time to develop Xiaoliuqiu, Li Zhi decided to let Zheng Hui take charge.

Zheng Hui is shrewd and calm, good at organizing complex affairs, and Li Zhi's 400,000 mu of private land is all cultivated by him. At present, 200,000 acres of private fields for plum plants in Wuqing and Baodi counties of Tianjin have been built, and winter wheat has been planted. Zheng Hui didn't have anything to do, just let him go to Xiaoliuqiu to develop something.

The first people Li Zhi transported to Xiaoliuqiu were masons, bricklayers, and lime burners.

When you arrive in Xiaoliuqiu, you must first build a house to live in. Food and clothing to support newcomers can be brought in, but bricks and lime are not cost-effective. Raw materials for burning bricks and lime were available everywhere, so Li Zhi asked the craftsmen who burned bricks and lime to go first, and built brick kilns and lime kilns in the local area to supply products to subsequent immigrants to build houses.

The cement was shipped to Taiwan as ballast. With cement, lime and bricks, the masons on the island can start building houses.

As for the soldiers, it is to protect these craftsmen.

Li Zhi gave the hired craftsmen three taels of monthly money, and these craftsmen were very excited, forgetting the dangers of clearing the wasteland. They only have more than one or two earnings in Tianjin on weekdays, how can they not be excited about doubling their income all of a sudden?

Li Zhi also gave the soldiers a subsidy of one tael per month for land reclamation, and promised that the casualties during the land reclamation would also have compensation and honor.

Li Zhi asked Zheng Hui to focus on exploration and choose a good place to settle. The first foothold should be near a river for irrigation and a large plain suitable for farming.

When it was time to set off, Li Zhi took the gong and drum team, beating gongs and drums, and sent the first batch of people who set off to open up the wasteland to Dagu Port. Before boarding the ship, Li Zhi told Zheng Hui again: "Xiaoliuqiu has a lot of malaria miasma, and when establishing a settlement, the surrounding grass and trees should be burned clean, avoiding large-scale mosquitoes, and clearing the stagnant water next to the settlement." When I arrived on the island, I had to build a toilet as soon as I arrived. Once the settlements were built, wells were dug for water and unclean river water was avoided. ”

Although Zheng Hui is older than Li Zhi, he has been accustomed to following Li Zhi over the years, and has become accustomed to obeying Li Zhi's orders, so he nodded and said, "Okay Metropolitan Governor, I must pay attention to hygiene and build the first settlement well." ”

"If a wild man comes to harass him, the soldier will immediately kill him, and he will not need to show mercy to his men."

"I see, Grand Governor."

Li Zhi said: "If you succeed in clearing the wasteland this time, I will give you a promotion next year." ”

Zheng Hui is a self-motivated person, his eyes lit up when he heard Li Zhi's words, and he said loudly: "Don't worry, the Metropolitan Governor, I will definitely live up to my mission and build a big house there and wait for you." ”

Li Zhi said with a smile: "There are many deer in Xiaoliuqiu, and you can hunt a few wild deer to improve your food when you have nothing to do." ”

Zheng Hui and the others laughed and waved their hands to get on the boat.

Three large ships rowed out of Dagu Harbor with oars, ignited steam engines outside the harbor, and drove east with thick black smoke. Li Zhi watched until the ship was out of sight before returning to Tianjin. (To be continued.) )