As for the strategy of Liaodong, Zhu Youxiao currently intends to use the Guangning defense line as the front to contain the main force of Jiannu. Then Tongguò Dongjiang Town attacked and harassed the rear of Jiannu, thus helping the Ming army on the front line of Quang Ninh to reduce the pressure.

The low number of Jian Nu troops was always a problem, and if they were to deal with Dong Giang Town, they would pose no threat to the Quang Ninh Line. And the main materials of Dongjiang Town are stored on various islands, and Jiannu's maritime combat ability is the five scum of war, even if the Dongjiang Army is defeated, it is impossible to lose its vitality, let alone let Jiannu rob any materials.

If Jiannu were to attack the Quang Ninh line of defense to loot supplies, then their rear would be attacked by the Dongjiang army. This strategy is to bully the few Jiannu people.

Under such containment, even if the Ming army did not achieve any results, for a group of Jiannu who had transformed into a bandit gang and were not very good at production, as long as it dragged on for a few years, it was enough to put Jiannu on the verge of collapse.

Therefore, the point is that the Quang Ninh defense line must be strong enough not to be broken by Jiannu lightly, and at the same time, it must also have a certain offensive ability. The other is that the Dongjiang Army must be powerful enough.

Anyway, it is to let the wild boar skin take care of one or the other, wander left and right, and finally in vain.

……

On the other hand, Xu Guangqi, who was ordered to go to Cizhou to look for ore and coal mines, found a high-quality rich ore after arriving in Cizhou, which not only has a high iron content, but also a very low sulfur content. Cizhou is named after the production of high-quality iron ore, at this time in the north, its steel smelting is also famous, there are five or six private iron factories in the local area, these high-quality ores are in the mining of these private iron works.

The only thing that didn't go well was the low-sulfur coking coal, Xu Guangqi looked around, but found no low-sulfur coking coal being mined. I had to take the prospecting craftsmen and look for them near Cizhou.

After nearly two months of searching, low-sulfur coking coal was finally found in a coal outcrop. This made Xu Guangqi overjoyed, and hurriedly circled the territory, and then immediately returned to the capital to report to the emperor.

At this time, Zhu Youxiao was no longer as diligent as before, and basically only took half a day in the morning to deal with the recitals every day, and listened to the information collected by Jinyiwei and Dongchang, and was tired of being with the queen and the two concubines in the afternoon and evening. Only every two or three days I would go to the barracks or the Ministry of Political and Religious Affairs.

Although the working hours have been reduced, because the framework of many things has been built, there are many fewer things that need to be built by Zhu Youxiao himself.

In terms of capital operation, the Royal Bank is responsible. The Royal Bank is now developing very rapidly, and the absorption of capital has exceeded 20 million taels, but recently the savings funds have skyrocketed by 20 million taels again, and the funds of the Tongzhou Chamber of Commerce and the Jin Shang Ticket have poured into the Royal Bank to prepare for a run, so the Royal Bank has to tighten the monetary base, and is ready to have a needle-to-wheat confrontation with the Tongzhou Chamber of Commerce and the Jin Shang Bill.

The pace of investment in agriculture has slowed down considerably, and the wasteland reclamation of the Royal Agricultural Company has only completed an investment of 7 million mu, settling a total of 230,000 households.

Cao Jinyu's Jimin Grain Bank also needed a lot of funds, and borrowed more than 6 million taels of silver from the Royal Bank, and at this time it had quickly done business in the whole of Beizhili (Hebei). Because of the deposit of the tax bureau, the grain merchants in the entire northern Zhili have collapsed, and a large number of grain stores have closed down.

Those big grain banks are the key targets, and when the tax bureau collects taxes, it is called a ruthless one, such as grain retail tax, personal income tax, health management fees, and grain transportation tolls. Under such brutal taxation, these big grain banks basically all went out of business.

And those small grain shops generally survived.

These small grain shops are not privileged operations, they could not participate in the purchase of grain by the government in the past, and at the same time, these small grain shops and small grain stores also have many conscientious businessmen. For grain merchants with a good reputation, the tax bureau is much lighter in terms of tax collection, and although they still have to pay the grain retail tax, they still have profits. Moreover, the tax bureau has recently issued a policy, that is, if you participate in the charity activities initiated by Jimin Grain Bank, you can reduce the tax rate by half.

The charity activity of Jimin Grain Bank is to open porridge sheds in the affected areas, and these grain merchants are willing to contribute, that is, the groups that are beneficial to the country, and they are allowed to develop and grow.

And those big grain merchants who operate in privilege can develop to that point, and they are generally profiteers who raise grain prices in disaster years, and they will all be eliminated.

The profitability of Jimin Grain Bank is very considerable, and the only problem is that the capital occupation rate is relatively high. After all, there is a backlog of grain from purchase to sale.

Under the auspices of Lin Jusheng, 500,000 acres of salt pans were reclaimed in July. There are 60,000 households in the salt works who are employed by the Royal Salt Company as regular employees, and are paid two taels of silver per month. During the peak season of summer salting, these cooks participate in the drying of salt and employ a large number of temporary workers for production. In the winter, they are responsible for the maintenance of various facilities, and in the spring and autumn, they cultivate new salt pans, build roads to transport salt, and so on.

As for the peak period of salt drying, the labor required is indeed relatively large, so it is to recruit temporary workers to produce, and the wage standard is one or two or five dollars a month, and the wage is settled on a daily basis, which is thirty yuan per day. Even if you do half a day's work, you can settle it. Such wages are relatively high, which attracts many people to work in the salt works.

The private salt in the North Zhili area still exists, but after the reform of the Changlu Salt Farm, the problem of private salt has been greatly curbed.

In the past, the ships transported goods from the south to the north, and when they returned, they could not let the ships be empty, so they transported smuggled salt from the Changlu salt field to the south to sell.

Recently, due to the reform of the Changlu Salt Farm, there is no salt to transport. However, this is only a temporary phenomenon, and the vacated market will soon be filled again with private salt. Many powerful people, and even many ordinary people, went to the beach to boil salt, although this behavior is illegal, but it can't stop people's **.

Both Jinyiwei and the salt company reported the situation, and Zhu Youxiao was already considering whether to drive out the Beijing camp and use armed force to crack down on illegal salt.

When the news came that Xu Guangqi had found low-sulfur iron-rich ore and low-sulfur coking coal, Zhu Youxiao was not only overjoyed, but also decided to go to the Royal Military Factory that afternoon.

Yang Guang's side had already made people ready to drive Luan, but Tian Ergeng, the commander of Jinyiwei, hurriedly entered the palace and reported to Zhu Youxiao: "Your Majesty, Li Kezhuo, the young secretary of Dali Temple, committed suicide by hitting the wall in the Labor Reform Bureau. ”

"What! Committed suicide? Zhu Youxiao asked in disbelief, 10,000 grass and mud horses galloped past in his heart, this Li Kezhuo is also a talent! Originally, he planned to use the Red Pill case to deal a blow to the Donglin Party, but at this time, the plan fell through.

"I was killed on the spot, and when the doctor arrived, he couldn't be saved." Tian Ergeng knelt on the ground as he spoke, "Weichen is ineffective, please punish the emperor." ”

"Forget it, forget it. Li Ke burned to death, and all the young people in his family were assigned to mining, and the woman became an official prostitute. Zhu Youxiao waved his hand and said, although Li Kezhuo is dead, he still has a lot of Donglin Party charges in his hands, and he does not necessarily need the Red Pill case as an opportunity.

But as soon as Li Kezhuo died, the first emperor Zhu Changluo died unclearly, and this breath always had to come out.

"Obey." Tian Ergeng breathed a sigh of relief, this time he was really negligent, he didn't expect Li Kezhuo to commit suicide at all. However, Tian Ergeng still understood the emperor's intentions, Li Kezhuo is dead, and his three clans don't want to have a good life.

Nowadays, the factory guard system of doing three clans in a row seems to kill no one, but this chronic punishment is more cruel, first after being sat in three groups in a row, the men of the three clans are official slaves for life and cannot reproduce. And the women in the three clans, like Li Kezhuo, will be used as official prostitutes. If the circumstances are slighter, the female dependents may be rewarded to meritorious soldiers as concubines and maids.

Decades later, the three clans were cut off from their children and grandchildren, and there was no more incense.

Moreover, within the three clans, the young and strong have to continue to work as coolies until they can't do it, which can be described as a lot of torment, and there will never be a day.

After dealing with Li Kezhuo's problem, Zhu Youxiao took Tian Ergeng and went to the Royal Military Factory together. Today, he wants to use the iron ore and coke brought back by Xu Guangqi to make steel, and Zhu Youxiao is still full of expectations for this furnace.