While Zhao Gongfan was struggling to guard the county seat of Hanlong, the second battalion of the Fourth Regiment was stuffed into a stuffy can-like train heading north. Every half of the incense stick, a train leaves from Ava Station. Each carriage used four horses, which contained a squad of soldiers and guns and ammunition. This is a pain for the merchants who use the track for transportation, because all of a sudden, the entire track is occupied, not only the right of way, but also the train carriages are occupied by more than 80 percent, and it can be said that the entire rail bureau's capacity is dealing with this one battalion. What followed was a three-day increase in prices in Ava City, and the citizens complained that the imperial court was "reckless".

However, for businessmen, there are always opportunities in danger, and when he heard that the soldiers kept moving north, Zhao Qianzhong began to think about what kind of business he could do. Although the bonds he bought had not yet been repaid, the imperial court had recovered the whole of Yunnan, and he was still very confident in the imperial court's ability to repay.

Since the rail transportation capacity is tight at this time, why not invest the living money in another track? Although it is not as good as the imperial court, it is good to be able to invest a hundred miles. Zhao Qianzhong's caravans had to transport goods by rail almost every day, and he knew how expensive the rail freight fee was. Isn't it possible to get a track by yourself and collect money while lying down?

However, out of the sake of stability, Zhao made up his mind to visit the emperor once to ask for his opinion, whether it was commercial or political. With the title, it was not difficult for Zhao Qianzhong to see the emperor--- he only saw him after an hour and a half. Walking into a newly built bamboo building, Zhao Qianzhong asked: "Your Majesty, Weichen recently has the idea of investing in the rail industry. I don't know..."

"Oh?" Zhu Youlang touched his beard that had grown up again, and laughed loudly, "Does Aiqing think that it is easy to make money by operating a track because of the lack of track capacity in recent days?" ”

"Exactly."

"What if I told you that the Orbital Bureau has lost more than 20,000 taels since its establishment?"

Zhao Qianzhong was dumbfounded, why would such a magical thing as a railroad lose money? Losing money? Isn't this scientific?

"Normally, two horses pulling 300 catties are already very hurtful, but on the track they have to pull more than 1,000 catties or more, even if the wheels on the track are more special, they will be tired when they pull up, and the track bureau has been tired to death more than 100 horses so far. A horse is about twenty taels of silver..."

"What's more, the cost of building the track, the horse material has not been calculated. If you want to pay back in three years, the freight will have to be doubled. Therefore, Aiqing should not think about the investment track for the time being, and only the imperial court can afford to lose, and there is a reason to lose. If you really want to invest, the future construction of the track will be announced by the orbital bureau. Zhu Youlang's heart blossomed, and Zhao Qianzhong was able to take the initiative to find him because of this kind of thing, which shows that the desire for capital expansion is getting stronger and stronger.

"But it's good to think about investing in industry. In the past, the Ming Dynasty had a population of 150 million, and its annual tax revenue was only ten times that of England, which was only 10 times that of England, which was 4 million. The reason why this is so is because Daming didn't pay attention to industry at that time. From oxen to man, these people could have gone into the city to work, but they had to be tied to the land. ”

Zhao Qianzhong didn't know why, just nodded yes.

"Grow cotton. I heard that Zhao Qing already has this idea, right? ”

Since the Jenny machine and the shuttle were manufactured in large quantities at the same time, the price of cotton yarn and cotton cloth in Myanmar has declined for a short time, but it has risen again in less than half a year--- there is no cotton, but the planting area of cotton has not expanded much for various reasons--- in the north of Myanmar is because the land reform has not been completed, and the climate in Myanmar itself is not very good, and most farmers are still in the inertia of thinking in the small peasant economy, and even when the cotton yarn is low, few people go to sweep the goods--- otherwise the price of cotton yarn will rebound faster.

Therefore, Zhao Qianzhong saw that planting cotton was profitable, but he couldn't make too much money, so he just planted cotton on his land. Only by getting enough land as much as possible (whether buying or renting) can you make a profit.

Seeing Zhao Qianzhong nodded. "Therefore, I plan to land the ten counties in the south again for this purpose."

"This..."In the Burmese Political Envoy Division, only the vicinity of the Salween River has been reformed, and other areas are nominally set up as counties, but in fact they only pay taxes to maintain the status quo, and now, the big knife of land reform is going to be waved to the south?

Zhao had seen a map of Burma, and the ten counties in the south looked much larger on the map than the areas where the imperial court had great control, but they were sparsely populated and the climate was more humid and hot, so the population was not very large at this time. For a regime that relies on land as its main source of income, the more people the better, when there is enough land, and for a regime that relies mainly on industrial and commercial taxation, it may be more good to have fewer people and more intensive production.

"The imperial court has sent the security army to make them obediently land reform, but these people are still not enough, so..."

"Your Majesty wants the ministers to run their own group exercises and clean up the south?"

"Hmm. It is precisely in this way that the land in the place swept down belongs to the imperial court, but the imperial court gives each family the right to lease half of the land for thirty years. I originally wanted to inform the Chamber of Commerce through the household department, but since Aiqing is here, it is better to blow the wind in advance. ”

This condition seems to be the same as the promise of the Eastern Zhou to the Qin state, except that the imperial court is much stronger than the Eastern Zhou. After leaving the Fuming Palace, Zhao Qianzhong sent his family to inquire about the news, and asked people to purchase a batch of flintlock pistols and spears without bayonets, and openly recruited a team in the city. As for the name of the team, according to Zhao Qianzhong's words, since it is to assist the emperor in the land reform work, and it is armed with weapons, it should be called the martial arts team!

The monthly salary of a soldier of the New Army is three taels of silver, and that of the Security Army is one tael or eight cents. However, both the new army and the security army need political trial, and street gangsters cannot enter the army. The "martial arts team" does not need a political trial, as long as the body is okay and it is a man. Although the monthly salary is three cents lower than that of the security army, it is clear that this kind of private soldier does not prohibit looting, and it seems that the income is not low. Within a few days, the martial arts team recruited dozens of people, and invited a retired old army Xiaoqi as the team leader, pushing a wheelbarrow and carrying a gun on the back of the martial arts team to set off in a grand manner.

Like the magnates of this era, Zhao Qianzhong also had the habit of installing his own people, and this time, he stuffed a nephew named Zhao Dehan onto the boat to assume the function of "supervising the army".

It was only a dozen miles south from Ava City that the track came to an end, and the martial arts team changed into two large ships and continued to move south with the current of the natural conveyor belt. Several nearby counties have been leveled by Wu Sangui's security forces, or they have been divided into land, or they have become Huangzhuang, in short, Zhao Dehan can no longer intervene.

(End of chapter)