January 12, 1728, Penglai.

In the territory of Daqin, if you say that there are the most Qi people in any place, in addition to Nanjing City, it should be Penglai, the seat of Dengzhou.

Seven miles south of Penglai County, there was once a village, called Qilizhuang. In the second year of Jianping in the former Ming Dynasty (1675), when Qi Yuanshan, the special envoy and vice premier of the Qi State and the vice premier of the cabinet, visited the mainland, he was entrusted by Emperor Taizu of the Qi State to visit the place where the ancestors were buried.

After confirming the remains and tombs of the ancestors, the State of Qi invested a huge amount of money in a radius of several miles in Qilizhuang, and began to build the tombs of the ancestors of the Great Qi.

At that time, Sun Kewang, the king of Qin, was also very generous with a stroke of his pen, and allocated the villages, mountains, wasteland, and part of the cultivated land within ten miles around the imperial tomb of the ancestors of Qi to the Qi State for the construction of the imperial mausoleum city attached to the tomb, including many buildings such as palaces, pavilions, hills, and stone carvings.

In order to build the mausoleum of the ancestors of the Great Qi royal family, the royal family of Qi invested more than 2.5 million Hanzhou silver dollars in the construction process of more than five years, and successively levied more than 200,000 people's power, which has a positive role in promoting and promoting the local economic and people's livelihood development of the entire Dengzhou Prefecture.

The construction of tombs, imperial tombs, palaces, and pavilions requires a lot of masonry, cement, and wood. To this end, the people of Qi have invested in the construction of more than a dozen brick kilns, cement kilns, stone processing plants, wood processing plants, furniture production plants, pottery casting processing plants, iron processing plants and other construction-related workshops near the Imperial Tomb City.

Later, the Qi people used coal from Xishan and Yunzhou in Beijing to build several coal processing plants and iron furnace manufacturing yards to process briquettes and coal blocks for heating local houses.

Before enough, the Qi people extended the coal industry chain downward, built several coking coal yards, and sold a large amount of coke to Zunhua in the north and Foshan in the south. The dyes extracted from it are sold in many cotton textile factories in Jiangnan; The gas is sold to the luxury and wealthy homes in Shandong and surrounding provinces for lighting.

The establishment of these factories can be said to have opened up the earliest chemical industry of modern significance in the mainland.

In order to facilitate the transportation of goods, the people of Qi not only renovated and upgraded the original Penglai Port, greatly improved the berthing and loading and unloading capacity of the port, but also used the coal asphalt produced after coal refining to lay the first asphalt road in the mainland, which laid a solid foundation for improving and upgrading the local traffic situation.

In view of the construction of the imperial mausoleum, the number of people used was kept at tens of thousands of people every day, and in order to ensure their daily food needs, the Qi people would bring several boatloads of grain from Korea, Yunzhou, Annam and other places every ten days. Correspondingly, some businessmen seized the opportunity to set up more than a dozen grain processing plants, oil processing plants, and fish product processing plants one after another.

Merchants and hawkers from Penglai and Dengzhou have also settled in the vicinity of the Imperial Tomb City, providing various daily necessities for Qi people and tens of thousands of migrant workers. Various commercial facilities such as inns, wine shops, restaurants, medical halls, and garment shops were established one after another, and many craftsmen such as stonemasons, carpenters, blacksmiths, shavers, goldsmiths, and silversmiths also flocked to the store.

Up to now, Penglai and Huangling City have been connected and evolved into a medium-sized industrial city with nearly 250,000 residents, which has gathered hundreds of various workshops, workshops, and many street frontages, attracting countless merchants from the north and south to stop here.

Under the drive and influence of the Qi people, Penglai City and the Imperial Mausoleum City of Qi are like the two most dazzling economic "pearls" under the jurisdiction of Dengzhou Mansion, which is not only the largest building materials production and processing center in the northern region, but also the most important grain and oil transit and trading center in the north.

Qi merchants also transported various precious furs from Zhenzhou (now east of the Ussuri River), Kuye Island (now Sakhalin Island) and Lingbei in the Northern Ming Dynasty to this place, and after simple processing, they were transported to the rich Jiangnan, making it the largest fur distribution center, trading center and processing center in the Qin State.

The vigorous development of industry and commerce has greatly promoted the recovery of people's livelihood in Dengzhou Prefecture and effectively promoted the prosperity of the local economy.

At present, with only 9 counties and 1 scattered prefecture and a population of less than 1 million, Dengzhou has created nearly 1.6 million silver dollars in taxes for the entire Shandong Province, accounting for more than eighty percent of the total taxes in the province, and almost supporting the financial revenue of the entire Shandong Province with the power of one government.

In addition to most of them concentrated in Penglai County and Huangling City, Huang County, Wendeng County, Fushan County, Rongcheng County, Ninghai Prefecture, Haiyang County and other coastal prefectures and counties are also distributed, which not only brings a large number of employment opportunities to the local area, but also allows hundreds of people here to get rid of a trace of ignorance and backwardness.

According to rough statistics, there are more than 10,000 people of all kinds who live and live in Daqin all year round, and Dengzhou Mansion accounts for nearly forty percent, more than 3,800 people, and is the largest gathering place of Qi people except Nanjing City.

Recently, two nobles of the Daqi royal family came to Penglai to worship their ancestors' tombs, which really made the entire Penglai county lively and noisy.

According to the usual practice, all representatives of the royal family of Daqi come to the imperial tomb to worship their ancestors, and generally have to give benefits to the people of the whole city, without exception, either some rice, flour, oil, meat, eggs and poultry and other non-staple foods, or cotton and linen silk, soap, hardware tools and other gadgets, and even in some cases will directly distribute silver money.

Although the materials and silver money distributed did not fall into the hands of each family, it always made the residents of Penglai City rejoice and were full of gratitude to the Daqi royal family.

To say a big disrespectful thing in private, this Great Qi royal family is much better to the people of Penglai City than the current imperial court.

"In fact, while land annexation in the south has begun to expand day by day, the entire northern region has rarely maintained a large small-scale peasant economy, with a large number of yeoman farmers, and there has been no serious land annexation. If the wind and rain are smooth, after paying the taxes of the imperial court, most of the people have a good life, although they are not as rich as the people in the Jiangnan area, but at least they are not afraid of freezing and starvation, and they can live a comfortable year in peace. ”

In a luxuriously decorated carriage, Qi Dexuan, the town guard of the Imperial Mausoleum of the State of Qi, saw that the emperor's grandson Qi Zexuan was looking at the village on the side of the road through the car window, and seemed to feel a little unbelievable about those dilapidated houses, so he explained softly.

"The people in Dengzhou live a good life compared to other places. At the very least, in the off-season, you can go to Penglai City or the Imperial Tomb City to do some odd jobs and earn some cash to pay the taxes of the imperial court. This has to be put aside in other parts of the Qin State, and the year-round harvest also refers to the crops growing in the ground, and there is no extra silver money at all. With the summer and autumn taxes, they could only sell the small harvest for money, and in the end, there was not much grain left for them to spend the winter. Fortunately, the people of Qin were industrious and diligent, and would plant some potatoes and corn in the fields, as well as sweet potatoes, mixed with a small amount of rice and wheat, which could also fill their stomachs. ”

Compared with the densely populated and prosperous scenes of the people in the south of the Yangtze River, the northern regions are somewhat sparsely populated and economically relatively withered.

Gain, after decades of wars such as the rebellion of the displaced people at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the invasion of the Qing captives, and the Northern Expedition of the Great Qin, not only turned the entire northern region into a blank land, the economy was completely destroyed, and the landlord class was almost swept away, but also caused huge population losses.

After the Second Northern Expedition of the Great Qin, the expulsion of the Qing captives, and the recovery of the north, they actively restored the local people's livelihood and distributed a large amount of ownerless land to the peasants. For a long period of time, most of the northern regions were basically in a situation of few people and many places, and even many places were deserted, which also alleviated the class contradictions to a certain extent.

In addition, in order to prevent the Northern Ming Dynasty, Dongdan, Bohai and other forces in the outer northeast, Daqin also continued to migrate people from the interior to Liaodong to immigrate to the border area and enrich the population of the border area. Immigrants from Monan, Mobei, Qinghai, Hexi (corridor), and the Western Regions have also diverted a large number of surplus manpower from inland areas to a large extent.

In this context, although the population growth of the northern region has almost doubled compared to 40 years ago, it is still somewhat sparsely populated.

Not to mention, there are also many overseas Zhuxia countries that come to the mainland through various channels to recruit or "abduct" population, in addition to their activities in the narrow and densely populated Jiangnan region, there are also in the northern coastal areas, encouraging those Qin people who want to seek a better life to go overseas to pan for gold and make a fortune.

That's right, in addition to the news of the discovery of gold or silver mines somewhere in the mainland of Qi and overseas territories from time to time, the Northern Ming Dynasty also said conclusively that huge reserves of gold mines were found in Zhenzhou, Kuye Island, Yinzhou and other places, and the Zheng family and Wei Guo of Luzon immediately followed the hype, and there were also many gold and copper mines on the islands under their control.

For a while, it seemed that in addition to the Shenzhou Continent, there were gold mines everywhere overseas, which attracted the people of Daqin to yearn for it.

His grandmother's, support the bold, starve the cowardly!

If you go overseas and come back from digging for some gold, wouldn't you have stepped into a rich and noble family in one step, eating fragrant food and drinking spicy food, not only can you change your fate, but also bless your descendants.

With the dream of panning for gold and making a fortune, many people secretly boarded the immigration ships sent by overseas countries and embarked on a journey to find their dreams without hesitation.

"Our Qi country will bring at least 10,000 immigrants from Penglai Port every year." Qi Dexuan said with a smile: "Almost eighty percent of the people will be sent to the Han Continent mainland and the Nanyang Territory, and the rest will be sent to several Governor's Territories in Yinzhou (Americas). ”

"Didn't the court of the Qin State strictly prohibit the people of the country from going abroad at will?" When Qi Zexuan heard this, he couldn't help but ask curiously: "In this case, how can Penglai alone attract tens of thousands of immigrants every year?" ”

"Your Highness doesn't know." Qi Dexuan said: "Now in the territory of Qin, the act of going overseas has been made into an industry. In Penglai County alone, there are no less than 100 tongues and intermediaries who organize immigration, and in addition to local tyrannical forces, there are also officials, town soldiers, sailors, and some underworld ruffians. Coupled with the involvement of various overseas merchants, plantation owners, mine investors, and the governments of the Nanyang domains, the Qin immigration activities were unforgiving. It's also annoying to say that the Nanyang feudal clans always secretly recruit immigrants in the name of our Qi country. After coaxing the immigrants onto the ship, they pulled people to their own territory in one go, and it was too late for people to cry. ”

"Even if the Nanyang feudal clans deceive people, they won't treat them harshly." When Qi Zexuan heard this, he couldn't help laughing, "At the very least, we have to divide the land and houses for others, so that they can have a life for two or three years, so that they will not make people cry and regret it." They also know that if they are not of my race, their hearts will be different. They are all of the same Chinese race, and they can rely on their own people. Only when the number of Han Chinese is large can they completely suppress the natives and barbarians in their respective countries. ”

"Having said that, the people of Qin know that our Qi country is rich and treats immigrants very well, and they all yearn for it. But who knows, after all his hard work, he will spend a lot of money, but he was deceived by the Nanyang Domain, and he will inevitably lose his heart. Speaking of which, it is also those tongues and intermediaries who are too black-hearted, which one gives more benefits, will do whatever it takes and do their best to coax the unknown immigrants to the ship. Well, as long as the migrant ship leaves the port, everything is out of their own hands. In order to prevent accidents, the emigrant ships of those feudal domains will not stop too long along the way, let alone sail into the ports and territories along the way of our Qi country, and will even sail back to their own ports in one go. ”

Qi Zexuan listened, just smiled and stopped talking.

As the envoy of the royal family stationed in the Imperial Tomb City, Qi Dexuan must have also used the influence of Qi and the network he built locally to participate in this kind of immigration smuggling and transfer activities, and made a lot of benefits.

Although the Qi government had stopped large-scale active immigration work decades ago, the governors of Hanzhou and Nanyang would provide corresponding financial subsidies (mainly loan guarantees for immigrants) for immigrants arriving through various channels to increase the population of the jurisdiction.

And if the businessmen who invested in the plantations and mines in the Nanyang Territory were able to attract a large number of immigrants, the local government would also grant some degree of tax relief to encourage them to import valuable immigrants into their territory.

It can be said that the Nanyang feudal domains are definitely the main competitors of Qi in terms of introducing immigrants from the mainland, and they all hope to gain more population and enrich their own strength.

"Your Highness, after the port thaws, you really don't consider going to Ningzhou (now Sapporo, Hokkaido)?" Qi Dexuan hesitated for a moment and asked softly.

"No, no." Qi Zexuan shook his head and said, "Between Qin and Ming, war is about to break out. Beiming invited me to visit Ningzhou with the obvious intention of giving the Qin court an illusion that our position on this war was inclined to theirs. Thus, when the Qin State fought against the Northern Ming Dynasty, it was jealous and scruples. ”

"And what is our attitude?"

"The people of Beiming asked you to ask?"

"......" Qi Dexuan smiled awkwardly and said, "They don't know the bottom of their hearts, and they are a little worried that it will be because of ...... Because of the initiative to provoke the war, our Qi country gave up support for them on the grounds that it was not in accordance with the "Treaty of Security and Mutual Assistance". ”

"The Qin court has always maintained the greatest degree of restraint and restraint in the provocations of the Northern Ming, that is, they don't want to open up a second battlefield when the war in the northwest is in full swing, so as to affect their overall strategy." Qi Zexuan sighed, "However, the Northern Ming wants to take advantage of the fact that the military arrangements of the Qin State in Liaodong are not yet perfect, and preemptively erode the entire Northeast, so as to delay the immigration of the Qin State and ensure the safety of their Zhenzhou territory." If our Qi State is involved in a war, and then a conflict with Qin State breaks out, it is very much not in our current national interests. ”

When Qi Dexuan heard this, he immediately understood.

It's not that this war can't be fought, but don't make things bigger.

Our Qi State doesn't want to turn against Qin State yet.

(End of chapter)