Whether it is Jiangnan Group or Kunkai Company, they are both companies first. Since they are companies, they must be profit-oriented and cannot do business that loses money. Otherwise, the shareholders will rebel and the company will have to close down.

However, all the projects that Kunkaisi took on were money-losing ones, because the government simply could not afford the cost of large-scale projects.

The Ming Dynasty was an absolutely small government, and the government was extremely poor. Even the richest county government in the world, such as Wuxian and Changshu, could not match the wealth of a powerful family. How could they afford the tens of millions of taels of silver for repairing the dike?

The solution proposed by Zhao Hao was that Party B would advance the project funds and Party A would repay the debt with the land use rights.

The success of this so-called "Kunshan model" depends on whether it can obtain sufficient profits from these lands.

Considering that the benefits brought by large-scale projects far exceed the economic scope, as long as the income and expenditure are roughly balanced, or even a small loss is made, this model can be promoted throughout Jiangnan, and the Jiangnan Group will have a solid foundation.

Of course, it would be great if a positive cycle could be formed.

Therefore, Zhao Hao has put a lot of thought into the hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Kunshan County. Just to protect his own golden signboard, he will never allow the Kunshan model to become a business that loses money but gains publicity.

The reason why so many Jiangnan bosses regard this young boy as their leader and are willing to listen to his orders is simply because he always wins!

As long as you can move from victory to victory, your enemies will become fewer and fewer, you can speak with conviction and your words will be followed by the law, and whatever you do will be right.

After a long period of thinking and discussion, Zhao Hao finally decided to learn from the "employee family farm system" to implement a unified planning and household production management model for the 600,000 acres of land in his hands.

The so-called "employee family farm system" is a new production model explored by state-owned farms after the reform and opening up. It is the application of the rural contract responsibility system in state-owned farms.

It not only promotes the production enthusiasm of farm workers and improves productivity, but also avoids the shortcomings of farmers fighting on their own after contracting land, scattered production, lack of planning, and some large agricultural machinery and new production-increasing technologies cannot be promoted.

Specifically, the farm land is contracted out to farmers in blocks, and production is carried out on a family basis. However, the farm manager and technicians are responsible for arranging a unified production plan, unifying the planting pattern, the supply of seeds and agricultural tools, the technical guidance, the production cost assessment, and the purchase and sale of agricultural products, so as to improve agricultural production efficiency and achieve the goal of high yields and increased income.

Moreover, the planting risks are borne by the farm, and the planting costs are also paid by the farm without interest, completely eliminating the farmers' worries.

After the harvest, after deducting taxes and planting costs, all land income is divided equally between the farm and farmers, which ensures the farmers' enthusiasm for production.

Zhao Hao was confident that his system was still very competitive. But the problem was that Jiangnan Group had taken too much labor from Kunshan, so that there were not enough local farmers...

Dai Gao told Mr. Zhao that based on the current situation, local farmers could only cultivate about 300,000 acres of land, and the remaining half needed to recruit refugees to come to the county to cultivate.

Zhao Hao nodded. The northern part of the Ming Dynasty had suffered from natural disasters for years, especially in Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and Shaanxi where the princes had multiplied excessively. A large number of farmers had abandoned their land and fled with their families.

Zhao Hao encountered this problem in both Nanjing and Beijing. Whether it was his Xiaocangshan Project or the Beijing Xishan Company, all the employees he employed were refugees.

There is no way, our Master Zhao has a kind heart. He doesn't treat them as cheap labor...

The most affluent Jiangnan region in the country was naturally where a large number of refugees gathered. Especially in big cities like Suzhou, the number of refugees from other places could even reach 200,000.

Last year, the Suzhou market was sluggish and a large number of workers were unemployed, but Kunshan was carrying out large-scale projects, which naturally attracted many refugees to come to the county to work temporarily.

Before the end of the third phase of the project, Zhao Hao specifically instructed Kunkaisi to try to keep these refugees and let them continue to serve Kunkaisi.

Because the people of the Ming Dynasty were naturally wary of the rich. Especially for those refugees who had been badly harmed by the princes and nobles, it was even more difficult for them to believe any promises from their employers.

Through last year's project, these refugees should have established basic trust in Kunkaisi. Letting them recruit new refugees would be more effective than Kunkaisi shouting at the top of his lungs.

To this end, Kunkai Company announced that all the "farmers" who had signed contracts would be rewarded with one or two taels of silver for each qualified farmer or worker recruited by the company.

The enthusiasm of these refugees was immediately aroused. As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together, and the refugees who interacted with them on a daily basis were also refugees. They took the opportunity of returning to Suzhou for the New Year to vigorously promote and agitate among their fellow townsmen. As a result, before the 15th day of the first lunar month, a large number of refugees left Suzhou with their families and headed towards Kunshan along the Lou River.

"As of yesterday, 17,000 refugee households have registered in our county." Dai Gao reported to Zhao Hao: "In addition to the prefectural capital, we have also set up more than a dozen recruitment points in Songjiang, Taicang, and Wujiang. It should not be a problem to recruit another 10,000 households before the end of the month."

"Hmm." Zhao Hao nodded and reminded: "We must properly resettle these farm workers, avoid conflicts with local farmers, and do a good job in preventing infectious diseases. Before starting work, you might as well give them some nutrition so that they can get healthy and have the strength to work."

"Young Master is always so kind and righteous." The old master Gu Dadong is now full of flattery.

"Don't worry, sir. All the advance rations will be deducted at the time of harvest. We won't be stingy." Dai Gao was much more honest.

"You big landlords are really good at calculating." Zhao Hao cursed with a smile, tacitly agreeing that 'the wool comes from the sheep'.

"No way, sir." General Manager Dai repeated his catchphrase and said with a wry smile, "Not to mention that we have never planted two crops of rice in Kunshan before, no one knows what the harvest will be like this year. Even if everything goes well, the yield per mu in one crop is only 2.5 dan at best, and the total yield for two crops is only 5 dan. One dan has to be paid as tax, and half of the land has to be rented to the landlord. On average, the last acre is only 2.5 dan, and this has not yet deducted the cost of seeds, farm tools, fertilizers, and irrigation. If we provide free meals to the farmers, I'm afraid we will lose money."

Gu Dadong and the others nodded sympathetically. They also felt that the young master was too kind. If he took on all the responsibilities, he would have a good reputation, but how would he make money?

“Hahaha.” Seeing those bitter faces, Master Zhao laughed and said, “Don’t worry, the two-season rice crop will be a great success. Pan Zhongcheng’s family has been planting rice for more than ten years. We couldn’t plant rice in the past because of the floods every year.”

After a pause, he continued mysteriously, "Besides, I will invite a contemporary Shennong to come over in a couple of days to help you increase your production. Wouldn't that make everyone happy?"

"Oh?" Everyone felt relieved, and all their worries were gone. What was there to worry about when the young master had promised?