Time flies quickly, in a blink of an eye, a month has passed, and the family has gradually become accustomed to life in the North Island, and Jupei's lower abdomen is slightly bulging, in terms of time, it should be that Fan Ning was pregnant on the eve of going to Datong Mansion to fight, and now it is exactly four months.

The palace of Chu is very large, although the back house and the atrium of Cuiyunlou are built according to the Fanning Mansion of the capital, but the front yard part is still a little different, mainly there is an official office covering an area of 100 acres in the east, the official office is the main gate, this structure is a little similar to the palace, the front is the imperial city, the back is the palace city, the front of the palace of Chu is the official office of the palace, and the west is the palace covering an area of 200 acres.

The back house is very large, it is completely a garden, there is a small lake covering an area of about 50 acres, and there is a hot spring courtyard for bathing, all kinds of pavilions and pavilions surround this lake, there are more than 200 houses, and there are more than 30 courtyards.

In addition to the servant women brought from the capital, there were more than fifty handmaidens bought from all over Japan, most of whom were fourteen or fifteen years old and knew a little Chinese.

Fan Ning's grandmother Yang originally lived with her third son, Fan Tieniu, and when she heard that her grandson was coming, she insisted on moving in with her, but she moved back after living for two days, and she couldn't rest assured that she had planted a few vegetable plots and raised chickens and ducks.

Fan Ning was not in the palace of the king of Chu during this time, but inspected the counties, especially he decided to build the fifth county town and prepare to name it the new Wu City, and the current Wu City is ready to be renamed Chu City, in order to correspond to Fan Ning's current title of King of Chu.

The location of Xinwu City is still in the north of Han Bay, west of the mouth of Zhushui, and two hundred miles away from Songcheng.

At this time, Fanning stood on the bank of Zhushui to inspect the construction of the city, about 8,000 Japanese laborers were responsible for the construction of Xinwu City, they were drawn from the mines, and they were very handy in building the city, burning bricks, building walls, cutting wood, and building houses, which was very efficient.

The standard for New Wucheng is 2,000 households, about 10,000 to 12,000 people.

It was only at this time that Fanning realized that Wucheng accounted for half of the population of the North Island, 10,000 households, more than 50,000 people, including a county seat and more than 40 villages scattered around.

The entourage accompanying Fan Ning to inspect Xinwu City is Mingren and Ouyang Hua, he is the vice president of the North Island Chamber of Commerce, holding the economic lifeline of the North Island, the North Island Chamber of Commerce is jointly controlled by Fan and Zhu, and it has always been Fan Ning as the president, when Fan Ning is not there, Fan Mingren, Fan Mingli and Zhu Lin are in charge, the Chamber of Commerce has gold, silver and various industries, worth millions of yuan, rich and rival the country.

Ouyang Hua will serve as the chief of the palace of Chu and will be responsible for coordinating the specific government affairs of each county, while Fan Ning is only in charge of the strategic direction, and the specific implementation will be the responsibility of the Changshi Palace, and the funds will be provided by the Chamber of Commerce.

Now the Changshi Mansion has just been established, and there are only a few officials at present, but Fan Ning is still a high-ranking official in the Song Dynasty, a university scholar, a teacher, and also has the qualifications of the Great Song Dynasty, and the situation is still relatively embarrassing, he cannot fully enter the role of the King of Chu, so the Changshi Mansion is his spokesperson, so this time he inspected the counties, and Fan Ning still took Ouyang Hua with him.

Fan Ning looked at the county seat and said slowly: "The official family promised me that the imperial court will successively move 100,000 households to Beidao within ten years, plus the immigrants we recruited ourselves, I estimate that after ten years, the population of Beidao will reach 150,000 households, at least 700,000 people, in addition to increasing the population of each county, at least 30 county towns will be built, divided into one city, five prefectures and 35 counties, so the next step of the Changshi Mansion is to make a ten-year plan, Ouyang Changshi has a heavy task!" ”

Ouyang Hua nodded silently, he was not good at the intrigue of officialdom, but let him do things, he believed that he could do it well.

"The next step is to recruit people, improve the Changshi Mansion, divided into six Cao Division and Secretary Division, the plan that His Highness said, the Secretary Department is responsible for compiling, which may take a year to run to every place in the North Island."

"Yes, I'll give you a year, and you can discuss with the Elder Hall when you go back to recruit people, and try to streamline the organization."

Speaking of this, Fanning turned back to Ming Ren and said, "Now Wucheng is still a little too small, and I am going to consider building an outer city, and I want to build a big city with a scale of 200,000 people." ”

"Two hundred thousand!"

Akihito was taken aback, "There won't be so many people, right?" ”

"How could it not be!"

Fan Ning glared at him and said: "In the future, it will be the royal city, and the population of the royal city must account for about thirty percent of the total population of the North Island, in fact, it is more than 200,000, but considering the evacuation to the countryside, 200,000 is already the minimum requirement." ”

"Humble, remember!"

Fanning turned his gaze to the sea to the south again, and asked Mingli again, "How is the situation in the South Island?" ”

"The situation in the South Island is also good, the population is currently 12,000 households, about 60,000 people, three county towns have been built, at present it is mainly based on agriculture and animal husbandry, grain can be self-sufficient, sheep raising has reached one million, the workshop has only a textile farm of 2,000 people and a leather mill of 3,000 people, the textile factory will weave wool into carpets and sell them to the Great Song Dynasty, and the leather mill tanned sheepskin, made leather boots and furs, and it is said that they sold quite well in the Great Song Dynasty."

"Only two workshops?"

Fanning frowned slightly, which means that all kinds of daily necessities cannot be self-made, business cannot be started, and the economic cycle cannot be established.

"The South Island is still distributed according to demand!"

Akihito nodded, "The South Island is very envious of our developed commerce, envy that we have money circulation, in fact, we only have a population of 100,000, of course, we still have 30,000 Japanese laborers and 4,000 Japanese girls, but there are also in the South Island, our total population is only forty percent more than them, but there are more than 100 workshops of all kinds, ranging from oil extraction, rice cooking, winemaking, sauce making, to textile, shipbuilding, mining, smelting, precision forging and steam engine, which is a hundred times stronger than the South Island." ”

"So what do you think is wrong with the South Island?"

Akihito thought for a moment and said, "I think the key to the South Island is that there is no chamber of commerce like ours, and there is a lot of money to invest continuously, or the South Island is a bit congenitally deficient. ”

Fanning pondered for a moment and said, "Tomorrow you accompany me to the South Island, and I will take a pulse for them and see if I can find a new way for them?" ”

..........

The three county towns of the South Island are also on the coast of Han Bay, and the county seat of the North Island is across the sea, Fanning is to take a 3,000 stone clipper to the South Island, the North Island coastal wind and waves are not big, the ships are 3,000 stone medium-sized ships, after installing the propeller, the speed is doubled, Zhu Qi is right, the propeller is generally used on the 10,000 stone ship, but the effect is very good on the medium-sized boat, the speed far exceeds the paddle wheel.

The ship was cleaving the waves on the sea, Fanning stood at the bow of the ship and felt the sea breeze, and Akihito next to him was deeply touched: "The steam engine is really a magical machine, we continue to develop it in depth, and its range of use is getting bigger and bigger, we have been sailing on the sea for more than ten years, and we have never had such a fast speed." ”

Fanning smiled faintly and asked, "I drew a picture of a train for you when I left the year before last, how is it being developed now?" ”

"At present, it is still under development in the Shengong Institute, and I have not asked about the specific progress."

"What is the Divine Academy?" Fanning asked, puzzled.

"The predecessor of the Shengong Institute was the steam engine factory of Mr. Zhu, and we split it into two, one part continued to manufacture steam engines, and the other half was responsible for the development of various new machinery, including in-depth research on steam engines, and there were about 200 people."

Fanning nodded, and asked with a smile: "Screws and buckles were also invented by the Shengong Academy?" ”

When Fanning inspected the steam engine factory, he accidentally found that the workers actually used screws and nuts as fasteners, although they were made by hand, the output was very small, and it was very rough, but it still made Fanning very interested, you must know that screws and nuts were invented by Europe four hundred years later, and the Song Dynasty appeared four hundred years in advance, but the name is screws and buckles.

Akihito shook his head and said, "The screws and buckles were invented by the shipyard when they were researching propellers, and they have little to do with the Divine Engineers, which only perfected the turning machine that made them. ”

Fan Ning sighed slightly: "It's unbelievable to say that Beidao has a population of only 100,000 people, and there are so many workshops, how can you do it?" ”

Akihito scratched his head, a little embarrassed and said: "Actually, I'm embarrassed to say, although we have many workshops, they are all relatively small, such as rice, winemaking, sauce-making, soap-making, these workshops are only a few dozen people, and there are steam engine manufacturing, which sounds very powerful, in fact, it is just an assembly workshop, the parts manufacturing is completed in the Song Dynasty, we transported it to assemble, mining, coal mining, and coking are all Japanese laborers, and our cotton textile factory in Songcheng County is also a thousand Japanese female workers." ”

Fanning pondered and said: "In the final analysis, it is still a problem of people, one is the small number of people, the other is the luxury before getting rich, the immigration conditions we offer are too generous, many people are not willing to do hard things in the North Island, they can only use labor, I heard that even the bartender in the hotel, most of the guys in the shops are Japanese girls, and the Song people are unwilling to do it, so this is not good, and the immigrants should gradually reduce the conditions in the future, to ensure that the home has a house, and the laborer has his job, and the conditions can not be too generous." ”

Akihito smiled bitterly, "If the conditions are lowered, I'm afraid we won't be able to recruit immigrants, and we won't be able to compete with other islands." ”

"That's if you don't investigate, how many of the favorable conditions offered by the private islands in Luzon can be realized? It is said that it is given five hectares of land, but in fact it is good to be able to give one hectare, and the same is true on the southern continent, and in the end only two hectares of land are given, and the conditions of five hectares of land are very high, if it is not developed and cultivated for three consecutive years, the government will take it back, and the North Island must also have measures to not raise lazy people. ”

Akihito hurriedly said: "We also stipulate that although each household is given five hectares, it must be cultivated within three years, and if it cannot be cultivated, it will be bought back by the government, if you live in the city, then you will be given three acres of residential land, and five hectares of land will be converted into five hundred taels of silver, of course, the silver is not given at once, but two hundred taels at a time, and they will be used to build a brick house, and then thirty taels will be paid every year, ten years, and it is stipulated that every man must go out to do things." ”

"Is there any public resentment boiling?" Fanning asked with a smile.

"Of course, there are dissatisfactions, but most people can understand, in fact, most people are not rushing to the five acres of land, but to live and work in peace and contentment, we can also meet their wishes, in fact, the population is too small, many restaurants and shops can not recruit people, can only invite Japanese girls to do things."

As he was talking, a boatman shouted, Caoxian Wharf has arrived.