Chapter 180
Xuzhou
Sima Xian flipped through a copy of the Yichun proclamation and sighed, "Tsk, those people in the Yichun City Lord's Mansion are truly skilled writers. This proclamation has a powerful appeal to the common people. We'll see, another group of common people will likely head north with their bags packed."
Sima Xian's voice was filled with amusement and helplessness.
He had already realized the importance of population. Cultivating the land required manpower, and running workshops also required manpower, not to mention the continuation of the population...
The right thing for Xuzhou to do is to try to retain more people, just like what Yichun has always done.
While it's true that restoring agriculture requires manpower, the majority of those heading north were impoverished civilians, many in rags, with the elderly, women, and children comprising 90%. To be honest, most young men under 40 were conscripted into the army. This was not just done by the imperial court, but also by both the King of Ruyin and the King of Annan.
These elderly, weak, women, and children are penniless. While they certainly have labor value, their food, clothing, and shelter must be provided for before that value can be realized. Not to mention the possibility of sick people and children among them, who require additional or long-term expenses but are unable to immediately become part of the labor force. They constitute a significant proportion of the population, unable to support themselves for the time being. If these people were taken in, the local government would have to cover their entire living expenses.
Their Qing and Xu provinces are currently facing financial constraints, making it difficult to accommodate a large number of refugees and disaster victims. As for labor, they've adopted a military settlement model, so they're not particularly short of labor. As long as the farm work isn't delayed, they won't require much else. Furthermore, for this year's spring plowing, they've adopted the new farming methods promoted by Yichun last year. Even without retaining more civilians, they believe that with the population of Qing and Xu, their harvest this year won't be too bad.
"Isn't it? After hearing this manifesto, the common people will be so moved that their hearts will lean towards Yichun." Prince Ruyin said sourly, "Yichun is truly full of talented people."
King Ruyin did not care about the ordinary people who went to Yichun, but he cared about the talents who went to Yichun.
Since the uprising began, Yichun has seized the initiative and attracted many talented people to Yichun.
Compared to Yichun, Xuzhou still lacks talent. Often, they can only rely on the saying, "One person's plan is short, two people's plan is long," and appoint more people from the short list. This is a last resort, as talent is hard to come by. They issued a recruitment order immediately after the Yichun one, but the results were mediocre.
Sima Xian added, "And, if my predictions are correct, Youzhou will be unified soon."
After hearing this, the King of Ruyin secretly compared himself with Xing Changfeng. Xing Changfeng's Youzhou and his own Xu and Qingzhou were almost the same size, but the King of Ruyin had to admit that Yichun was superior in terms of local governance.
"By the way, has the other party agreed to trade salt with us?" asked King Ruyin.
Mentioning this issue, Sima Xian felt a headache, "I agreed, but the other party does not accept gold, silver or jewelry. They want to barter with us, and the transaction amount is only two-thirds." The other party only accepts iron ore, and does not accept gold, silver or copper coins.
Due to the trade between Yichun and Xirong, many forces now know that Yichun can produce salt on its own.
"Why can't we trade in full? Is it because they don't have the production capacity? Tell them it's okay, we can wait."
"It shouldn't be." Sima Xian tried to find out, and the result was that it shouldn't be a problem of production capacity, their production capacity should be sufficient. In addition, he also found out that the other party's salt cost might be very low.
Prince Ruyin didn't understand. Yichun had sufficient salt production capacity, and they were trading without paying. So why didn't Yichun do business?
Puzzled, Sima Xian was helpless, saying, "They're only willing to trade that much." He even offered to trade the rest, including refined iron ore. Zhu Yongnian, who was in charge of the salt business in Yichun, was tempted, but ultimately declined with a look of regret.
But why they were unwilling to trade more salt to them was very puzzling. Sima Xian vaguely grasped something, but when he thought about it carefully, he had no clue. Now that the salt shortage in Qing and Xu states was over, they had to find a way to trade it with Daliang, which was very troublesome!
If Sima Xian had gone to the future, he would have known a word called sustainable development.
Yao Chunnuan's order to Zhu Yongnian was to control the total output of salt. Their Yichun salt production was limited to grabbing only one-third of the Daliang market share, and even if it went too far, it could not exceed one-half.
Yao Chunnuan had a reason for doing this. She knew that both the Western Rong and the Annan regions of Xuzhou preferred to buy their salt. Even the smugglers were happy to have their premium iodized salt from Yichun. As long as they dared to sell it, they would buy it and consume as much as they could.
But Yao Chunnuan is not the kind of person who would lose his mind because of short-term benefits.
Their entry into the salt market was meant to compete with Daliang for a living. It could be said that they were constantly testing Daliang's patience. If they snatched away all the customers, leaving Daliang with no profit in the salt business, then it would be Daliang's turn to overturn the table and destroy his job. No one would be able to eat.
If Daliang can no longer make a profit from using official salt, and someone makes a fuss and sells or publishes the method of making official salt, then the salt in Yichun will also be greatly affected.
If Daliang did so, the beneficiaries would be the forces of Xuzhou and Annan, which would only prolong the civil war.
Therefore, Yao Chunnuan has been deliberately limiting the share of Yichun high-quality iodized salt in the entire Daliang and abroad.
Not only was the amount of salt traded to Xuzhou restricted, but even the volume traded with Xirong was limited to only two-thirds of the requested amount. Yao Chunnuan intended for them to contact Daliang to fill the remaining one-third. As long as Daliang consistently generated more than half of the profit from the salt business, they would certainly not be willing to sacrifice their livelihood.
Yao Chunnuan's calculations were so meticulous because Yichun also needed the profits from salt. There was no other way. Yichun was constantly developing and expanding, and the gradual investment in infrastructure required a large amount of funds and resources. Salt could bring Yichun great benefits.
Just as Prince Ruyin and Sima Xian had expected, after Yichun's rebuttal to the court spread throughout the world, the people were deeply moved. Some of them had shallow eye sockets and shed tears, as if the grievances they had suffered for a long time were finally noticed.
After wiping away their tears, these people had only one thought: to go to Yichun. They had to go to Yichun. There, ordinary people like them would be blessed! They heard there was a public school there, and many children of ordinary people could go there to study. So, even if it was just for the next generation to have the right to choose, they had to go!
Their lives were destined for hardship, but their children were different. They had an opportunity before them. They could live a different life, free from the toil of the earth and the hardships they endured. So, let's go to Yichun.
Qiannan
Wang Lang looked at the transfer order in his hand, feeling rather unhappy. He had never expected the Crown Prince to transfer him back to fight against Xing Changfeng, Yao Chunnuan, and the others. At the same time, Wang Lang had to admit that the current situation was very different from his previous life. Furthermore, the current situation was very unfavorable to the court, and he saw no hope of resolving these rebellious forces anytime soon.
The Crown Prince had transferred him north because he thought highly of him. But to be honest, he didn't have much idea about how to deal with Xing Changfeng, Yao Chunnuan, and the others. Everything was very different from his previous life.
He didn't have any powerful weapons to defeat the enemy. As for the oil Wei Qiuyu mentioned before his death, he had sent many people to the north to explore, but no good news had been received. Furthermore, some of the people he sent out disappeared, some died, and the feedback he received was dwindling. In this chaotic world, death and disappearances were all too common, so he didn't care.
This time heading north, he could only take one step at a time and see what happened.
After the capture of Suihua, the chief of Jiachuan surrendered with the help of the Gaoshan people. From then on, Jiachuan was incorporated into the territory of Yichun. With no other choice but to surrender, Suihua was occupied by Yichun, and Jiachuan was cut off from Daliang by Yichun. Isolated outside Daliang, it was helpless.
At this point, Houcheng was the only city left in the entire Youzhou.
The general reorganized his troops and prepared to capture Houcheng in one fell swoop. They were determined to capture Houcheng.
Houcheng is the area of Shenyang in later generations. Yao Chunnuan values the two coastlines from Dandong to Liaoning and from Shenyang to Liaoning the most.
Previously, considering future trade needs, Yao Chunnuan had allocated a large sum of money to Han Chaosheng, allowing him to buy ships and develop river transportation.
Later, they even established a new shipbuilding factory in Yichun to produce large and small ships, and professional craftsmen were recruited from all over the country.
After the uprising, Yao Chunnuan believed that they would eventually occupy Youzhou. They occupied such a good geographical location in Youzhou, and it would be a shame not to develop river transportation and other things.
However, Daliang's maritime ban meant that specialized craftsmen were scarce. Despite their desperate efforts to recruit, they were still limited. Due to the shortage of skilled craftsmen, progress was slow. However, thanks to the Yichun City Lord's Mansion, and the generous support and funding provided by Yao Chunnuan, the craftsmen diligently studied and researched, and the shipyard did see some progress.
Miao Chengnan, the chief officer of Houcheng, could sense the determination of Xing Changfeng and his men to unify Youzhou. They also knew that Houcheng could not be defended. Houcheng had long coastlines to the southeast and north, and bordered Huining, which was occupied by Xing Changfeng, to the north. If they withdrew now and headed west, they could still return to the embrace of Daliang. If they defended the city to the death, they would truly die in the city. They dared not surrender. They were officials serving in the capital, and their families and clansmen were in the capital. If they surrendered, their families and clansmen would suffer. Although they were reluctant, they still ordered the retreat from Houcheng.
Miao Chengnan was even unwilling to hand over the entire Houcheng. Before evacuating, he tried to trick the people of Houcheng into following them.
Miao Chengnan could see that Xing Changfeng and his gang in Yichun valued the common people. If they took the common people with them, it might be safer. And since the common people were the same, he could order the city of Hou to be burned down, leaving a ruined city for Yichun to trouble them.
But the people of Houcheng were not stupid. They also knew that the people of Yichun lived well, and they were secretly looking forward to the day when Houcheng would annex Yichun. How could they be willing to follow Miao Chengnan and his men? Besides, Miao Chengnan was not an official who loved his people like his own children.
Most of the common people were unwilling to leave, which made Miao Chengnan ashamed and even furious. For a moment, he even wanted to massacre the entire city like Gan Huacheng did!
At this moment, the general arrived with the Yichun Legion, staring at the Houcheng officials headed by him with a covetous look.
The general sent someone to tell Miao Chengnan that their Yichun Corps could let them leave, but the other party was not allowed to do anything to harm the people or damage the city.
Finally, under pressure from the Yichun Corps, Miao Chengnan led his men away in disgrace.
At this point, Youzhou was finally unified, and all counties, towns and villages came under the rule of Yichun City Lord's Mansion.
Yao Chunnuan and Yu Chen led several people from the City Lord's Mansion into Houcheng. Matters such as pacifying the people and spring plowing were carried out simultaneously.
Perhaps they had already seen that Houcheng could not be defended, so Miao Chengnan and others did not organize the people to carry out spring plowing.
The common people were also in a panic. They reluctantly planted some land, but they were afraid that after the war, they would have no harvest and even not be able to get back the money they paid for the seeds, so they did not dare to plant more.
By this time, it was already late spring, and some crops had already missed their optimal planting time. Therefore, they could only plant late-sowing crops. Rice was also suitable for cultivation. During Yichun's previous seed breeding, he had deliberately planted hundreds of acres of extra rice seedling fields, which came in handy now.
After the unification of Youzhou, Yao Chunnuan counted the current population of the entire Youzhou, which was about four million.
She estimated that the entire Daliang region currently has a population of around 30 to 40 million. Ancient population density was always low, and many areas could truly be described as sparsely populated. Furthermore, most of these people were located in the Central Plains. The population density around Daliang was even lower than that in the Central Plains, as it was rarely visited.
Of the thirteen states, Youzhou's population of four million was only slightly above average. It had more than doubled since its inception, a feat not achieved easily.
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