Chapter 774 Shengze’s Thoughts

Shen Qingqian quickly got dressed and went out.

It was not cool outside at night, so the two did not go out, but talked at Cheng's house.

"I've figured out how to deal with those foreigners." Sheng Ze said.

Shen Qingqian held the teacup in her hand and looked up at him, "Are you talking about the people we caught that day?"

"No," Sheng Ze shook his head, "it's the hundreds of thousands of people outside the Great Wall."

Shen Qingqian: "How do you want to deal with it?"

"Northern Hubei is in need of people. Instead of wiping out all those people, it would be better to capture them and select those with various skills. We will initially treat them better than prisoners but slightly worse than ordinary people, and then allow them to marry and integrate with the people of Ezhou."

Sheng Ze expressed his thoughts in detail, writing down the key points on paper as he spoke.

He did not want to divide people into different classes, but the two forces that had been hostile to each other for many years must go through this process if they want to completely integrate.

Shen Qingqian nodded frequently as she listened. She already understood what Sheng Ze wanted to do.

Ezhou's population gap is more than 100,000 or 200,000. She can say without exaggeration that in three years, with the popularization of various high-yield crops, Ezhou will only become more and more short of people. On the current basis, it will not be difficult to feed another 500,000 people.

Productivity determines production relations, and production relations react on productivity. Coupled with the continuous promotion of basic industries by Qin Lao and others, society will gradually develop.

Now there is another factor in their favor, that is the natural environment.

There are no magical springs in other places, and there is a severe water shortage. However, northern Hubei can take this opportunity to develop hard. When the drought is over, Shengze will be able to prepare to take back what belongs to him.

In just a short moment, Shen Qingqian had already turned countless thoughts in her mind. When Sheng Ze finished speaking, she immediately nodded and said, "Your idea is feasible in theory, but the supervision of these people is a big problem. Have you thought about it?"

"Well, we can't concentrate them all together. Ezhou has eighty counties. We just need to disperse these people into these eighty counties, manage them in a unified way, and let them work through corvée and odd jobs, then they won't be able to cause any trouble." Sheng Ze said thoughtfully.

The specific implementation needs to be discussed with Zheng Shicheng and Zhang Zhiyao.

Shen Qingqian thought for a moment and said, "This is a long process. It will take at least ten years to achieve your goal."

"I understand, but it would be good if we could use them even temporarily. At least it can solve Ezhou's current dilemma of lack of manpower." Sheng Ze nodded. According to Shen Qingqian's world, what Ezhou lacks now is actually labor.

In her world, if there was a shortage of labor somewhere, the local government would go to densely populated areas and recruit people with high salaries. Now that those people from outside the Great Wall had come to her door, it was easy to defeat them, but it was difficult to get them to contribute to the construction of Ezhou.

But Shengze firmly believed that those scattered soldiers were definitely not as united as they seemed on the surface, and when the time came, he would just need to make good use of the "role of example."

Let those people see that as long as they live in Ezhou sincerely, they can live like ordinary people. He believes that more than half of them will no longer have any bad thoughts.

"Okay, I will first select people with special skills for you. For example, there were a few people in the dungeon before who came from places that are good at shipbuilding. These are not the common ships you see, but another kind of large ships that can be used for war." Shen Qingqian said thoughtfully.

Being able to come to Dajin from such a faraway place, shipbuilding technology must be indispensable. And what the Hubei Northern Army needs most is actually naval warfare, and naval warfare is naturally inseparable from warships.