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It seems that he is really tired of life, and he can't be idle anywhere. After the gold mine inspection, the next step is to see the various copper and iron mines and the town's workshops. The situation of copper and iron mines is not very different from that of gold mines, except that there are more people here, there are more boilers, and the air around them gives people a feeling of heat. It took another two days to go through all the mines. After nearly a year of continuous development, the scale of each mine here has expanded a lot, the output has greatly increased, and there is still a lot of surplus for the army.

The mines in the distance were all patrolled, and finally it was the turn of the nearest workshop. Fortunately, at the beginning of the construction of the starting point town, after detailed planning, an industrial area is concentrated in the southeast corner. In this specially zoned industrial area, Geng Jingzhong originally planned to find some businessmen who specialized in textiles to come and set up a handicraft factory.

In fact, Geng Jingzhong's ideas are not very advanced, in fact, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the country's agricultural products have already shown a trend of specialization and commercialization of grain production. During the Xiaoice River period a few decades ago, grain production in the northern region was greatly reduced, leading to continuous peasant uprisings. However, the Jiangnan Huguang area was not greatly affected, until the Qing soldiers entered the customs, and the Jiangnan area was still singing and dancing for this reason. The most conspicuous area is a large area of grain production in Guangdong, which has become a grain import area because most or even eighty or ninety percent of it is used to produce cotton, sugarcane, and other cash crops, and most of the grain is supplied by Hunan, making many localities rely on grain supply to become commercial grain export areas.

More than 100,000 people in the whole starting point town gather here, and a large amount of food supply is also needed, so the major grain merchants in Fujian have opened grain and rice shops here, and the surrounding grain is continuously transported here. More than 100,000 people, except for nearly 50,000 miners, most of the rest are their families. Most of the women here are unemployed at home, or do their own small business or help people to subsidize the family, Geng Jingzhong also took this into account before deciding to attract investment.

More than half of these women are able to weave, and even embroidery is not a problem. This place is adjacent to the Moon Harbor, as long as the fine silk fabrics are produced, they can be quickly exported abroad and earn a lot of silver! Geng Da brothers went to Europe, visited a lot of workshops there but gained a lot of knowledge, according to what they saw and heard, and then according to Geng Jingzhong's requirements, set aside a large area for free for large textile manufacturers to open a handicraft workshop here. After a few months of construction, a large number of factories were built, and tens of thousands of women also came to work here. In this way, not only can these women earn money to support their families, but also businessmen can make a lot of money.

The inspection of the industrial zone of this starting point town does not have to go far, each workshop is in the industrial zone, and it is very convenient to ride a horse and watch it one by one. All of them are newly built factories, and the workers come to work from home in the morning and leave work until dark in the evening, except for some special ones, who need to work overtime at night, basically about ten hours a day. In the textile workshop, the wages given by the merchants are not low, 50 yuan a day, and the family's food and drink are not exhausted. If there is a special skill or a high level of craftsmanship, the salary is greatly increased, such as the apprentices of Geng Da's watch workshop, these people are the most clever group of young men they picked, and they have five big silver dollars a month; For example, those embroiderers who are skilled in embroidery can get three to five large silver dollars after embroidering a brocade, and there are at least twenty or more in a month.

Geng Da accompanied a large circle to look at it, Geng Jingzhong was generally satisfied, and when he saw some things that he felt unreasonable, he also proposed them to Geng Da in time, so that he could write them down and improve them later. In just two days, dozens of large and small workshops in the industrial zone were inspected by him one by one

In this quiet courtyard, I rested all day, reading books, playing chess, and the whole person seemed much quieter and peacefuler.

As soon as I got up in the morning, I had just practiced a set of boxing, and the guard at the door came to report: "Shizi, the three stewards ask to see you." ”

"Three stewards? Oh, Geng San, call him in! Geng Jingzhong stopped practicing boxing, took the towel handed by the maid on the side, sweated, and walked to the lobby. Before entering the lobby, I saw that Geng San was already standing by the door, slowly squatting back and forth. Seeing Geng Jingzhong coming, he immediately greeted him: "See the son!" ”

"Let's go, let's talk!"

After practicing boxing for a while, I still feel thirsty even though I drank water. Geng Jingzhong lifted the teapot and poured himself a bowl of warm water, raised his head and poured it down, and then looked at Geng San: "Is the matter done?" ”

"Yes, according to the order of the prince, the big merchants in Zhangzhou and Xiamen have been invited, a total of twenty-one. I came back overnight last night, and they should all be there by noon today at the latest! This is a specific roadmap for measurement, please take a look at it. ”

Geng Jingzhong took the map and didn't open it immediately. Seeing that Geng San's eyes were a little red and his face was quite tired, he knew that he had indeed stayed up late and hurried: "I don't have a time limit, you can come back today, staying up late is not good for your health!" Let's go back and rest! ”

"The affairs of the prince are big things, of course, we must do it as soon as possible! The subordinates have retired! ”

Before noon, Geng San came again to report that the principals of those big merchants had all arrived in the town. Now all the invitees are waiting in Hongbin Building, the largest restaurant in town, which has been chartered by them today, and there is no noise in the past! Geng San too, he only rested for more than an hour when he went back, and he had to get up and work again, which was indeed hard enough.

At the door of Hongbin Building, although there are no more people coming and going in the past, there are many more guards, and the people in the restaurant are not less than in the past. There are also seventy or eighty people in these 20 or so big businessmen plus the entourage, and the entourage is downstairs, and the major merchants have basically dealt with each other and chatted upstairs. Some of them are the most engaged in cotton cloth and grain business, and the richest businessman is the Lu family in Haicheng Town, a century-old salt merchant specializing in sea salt and owning two large salt farms. Although after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, he had to pay a large amount of salt taxes and dredge up relations, but the emaciated camel was bigger than the horse, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he was rich enough to rival the country.

The Lu family bought five cents of the shares in the last Sino-Ocean Company share auction, but it was not the head of the Lu family who went personally. At the invitation of the prince this time, he originally wanted to let his younger brother come, but the "Red Army Giant Ship" that entered Moon Harbor a few days ago made him change his attention, and the Mawei Navy already had enough strength for him to pay attention to. Although King Jingnan has not been guarding Fujian for a few years, he does not have much foundation, but now the extremely strong military strength makes them have to bow their heads.

"The prince is here?" A housekeeper who had been watching out the window on the second floor shouted. He had participated in the auction of shares of Sino-Ocean Company, and although he did not buy shares, he knew Geng Jingzhong himself.

"Let's go out and have a look!"

The crowd that had been sitting stood up and walked downstairs to the door, and they also heard the sound of horses' hooves, which should not be wrong. As soon as they arrived downstairs, they saw Geng Jingzhong appear on horseback. Geng Jingzhong is wearing the latest marshal uniform today, which looks very similar to the marshal's uniform during the Republic of China period in later generations. As soon as it appeared, everyone present was surprised. They had never seen such a costume, it was a little similar to the costume of a Western soldier, but it was different in every way.

"I've seen the son!" Geng Jingzhong got off his horse and as soon as he walked to the door, everyone began to salute.

"Everyone has worked hard from afar, let's talk inside! Please come in! With that, he took the lead and walked inward. The downstairs of Hongbin Building is full of round tables, and the upstairs is much more spacious, and the group will go up to the second floor.

Geng Jingzhong looked around, some of the twenty-one people he had seen and some had not, and the ones he had seen were the businessmen who had participated in the auction of the shares of Sino-Ocean Company, but he couldn't remember their names.

"Everyone, please be seated! Thank you all for giving me face and being able to come here. Geng Jingzhong said while making a gesture to sit down.

"Don't dare to be, don't dare to be, the son of the world is polite!" Everyone bent down and didn't even dare to say it! But they sat down one after another.

"I invite you here today because I have an important matter to discuss with you. You are all from a family that lives in Zhangzhou and Xiamen, and you must have a deep affection for your hometown, and at the same time, you are much more familiar with the situation in this place than I do. We in Fujian have always had little land and many people, and it is simply unrealistic to rely on farming to feed such a large population. Therefore, developing business is the right choice. Saying this, Geng Jingzhong paused. At this time, there was also a whisper of echo around him. "Not bad!" "Correct solution!" "That's true!" , and some people nodded incessantly.

Geng Jingzhong smiled and continued: "But it is not so easy to develop commerce. When I came here the other day, when I set out from Moon Harbor, it had just rained in that large area of Moon Harbor, and the road was muddy, and caravans were found stuck in mud puddles every other distance. You're all smart people, you know what I'm trying to do! After speaking, Geng Jingzhong looked at everyone with a smile.

The surrounding family heads were all thinking about it, but their eyes couldn't stop glancing at the Lu family head. The head of the Lu family also looked around, then stood up and said, "The prince wants to repair the road leading to the Moon Port here?" My Lu family is willing to help the son! Contribute to the world! ”

"Cunning old man!" The surrounding heads of the family muttered silently in their hearts. He is rich enough to rival the country, and he gave two or three hundred thousand taels to the prince, it is not painful, and he can still make the prince owe favors, it is really a good calculation, and he should not let him speak first!

"Hahaha, it looks like you've misinterpreted me. I came to you today to ask you for money, but I didn't ask for money! Geng Jingzhong looked at their doubts, and then explained: "Let you pay, but it's not in vain, I can guarantee that you can get several times the return." ”

Now the heads of the family are even more interested, and they are most afraid of losing money in business, and now the prince has guaranteed a high return, and he suddenly has a great spirit, and his body is sitting up straighter.

"As we all know, doing business inevitably comes from north to south. Usually, it takes a long time to go to other places to sell goods, and it only takes one day to complete the journey of a hundred miles, but because the road is not good, it may take two or three days, and it may even take four or five days in rainy weather. Just like the road from Yuegang to here, after the rain, the car is stuck in the pit and it takes half a day to walk for ten miles, which delays how much effort! This is still a frequent businessman, if it is an ordinary person, may not have been out of the door in their lives, they don't want to go out, can't dig food in the soil, they all want to, but the road is difficult to walk, it is too difficult to travel. Just relying on two legs, not to mention this prefecture to that prefecture, that is, from this county to that county, it will take two or three days. ”

"Let's first think about the marriage situation in our own locality, whether it is all local people and local people marrying each other. Why? It's because it's so convenient to go back to your parents' home without having to go too far. Our Fujian is full of mountains, and if you marry in another town, it would be good to be able to go back to your parents' home once every two months. Besides, there were bandits on the road before, and they not only spent a lot of time on the road, but also worried about their own safety. ”

"Therefore, I not only want you to participate in the construction of a road leading to Yuegang here, but also the road from Zhangzhou to Quanzhou, Longyan to Zhangping to Dehua, of course, not only a few of you will participate in it at that time. As for the return I am talking about, it is also on the road that is built. If I want to build a road, I have to build a hard concrete road. Presumably, you all know the role of cement, and there should be a lot of cement yards here, right? ”

The surrounding family heads listened carefully, and nodded when they saw Geng Jingzhong's inquiry. Since the cement was fired in Fuzhou, Geng Jingzhong has made this technology public. Mobilize the owners of the original lime kilns in each province to fire cement. Cement is more useful than lime, so now large families will choose cement to build a house.

"All the roads I want to build are required to be three-zhang wide roads, and it is no problem for four carriages to run in parallel, such as the road leading to Yuegang here. After the road is repaired, you can travel 200 miles and go back and forth in a day by horse-drawn carriage! Your trucks can make a single trip in one day, without worrying about rain. After the repair, set up a toll road card on the road, and the carriage must pay a toll to pass, of course, this toll can not be high, my estimate is a small silver dollar for a horse-drawn carriage, and a large silver dollar for a large cart transporting goods. What do you think? ”

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