"Yes, yes, how dare the light of a firefly compete with the bright moon?" Yi Kejiu filled Zhao Shouzheng's glass with wine again, but said depressedly in his heart, "If Zhao Hao was my son, I could go to heaven, do you believe it?"
"Then I will handle the matter impartially." Zhao Shouzheng remembered Zhao Hao's letter saying that Jeonra Island needed a large number of stonemasons. "Then sentence them to exile to Jeonra and make them contribute to the Ming Dynasty's recovery of lost territory."
The Ming Dynasty's exile generally followed the principle of exile from the south to the north, that is, exiles from the south were sent to the north, and exiles from the north were sent to the south. Kunshan County naturally had to be exiled to the north, and the usual destinations were Shaanxi, Liaodong and other nine border areas.
However, Mr. Zhao was familiar with the law and knew that Tamra was also an option. In the early years, the subordinates of Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang were all exiled to Tamra Island. Although they were not exiled there for more than a hundred years, the Ministry of Justice never took Tamra off the list of options, so there was nothing wrong with him exiling the criminals to Tamra.
It's not a transfer of benefits.
"Of course, of course." County Magistrate Yi naturally agreed. As long as Mr. Zhao didn't complain to his son, he wouldn't frown even if all the people in the county were sent to Danluo.
~~
On the official ship on Dianshan Lake.
After discussing today's aftermath, Yi Kejiu toasted again with a shameless face: "In addition, I have another unreasonable request, please do not refuse it, brother."
"What's the matter?" Mr. Zhao's alcohol tolerance was still as poor as ever. After drinking three glasses of wine on an empty stomach, he was already a little tipsy.
"Brother, can you please say hello to Jiangnan Group and give us some cement?" Yi Kejiu said awkwardly, "We want to repair the Taipu River..."
"Taipu River?" These three words brought back unpleasant memories in Mr. Zhao's mind. When he first took office, in order to solve the flood in Kunshan, he had begged this person humbly, wanting to use Wujiang County to build a Taipu River connecting Taihu Lake and Huangpu River to relieve the pressure on Wusong River, but Yi Kejiu refused.
The two sides had a very unpleasant quarrel. County Magistrate Yi relied on the fact that his county had a hundred-mile stone pond and really didn't give face to Zhao Zhuangyuan. Zhao Shouzheng was so angry that he slammed the table and swore that he would build a two-hundred-mile stone pond and let Wujiang County have a taste of what it's like to be soaked in water for half a year!
At that time, County Magistrate Yi didn't believe it at all, and even teased them that they would not be able to repair it even in a hundred years!
As a result, the entire county of Kunshan joined in and repaired 300 miles of steel in just half a year, which really made Wujiang County feel like it was being soaked in water.
"Hahaha!" Zhao Shouzheng burst into laughter, looked at Yi Kejiu with disdain and asked, "How is it, Fengpo? Am I Zhao Gongming bragging?"
“No, no.” Yi Kejiu’s face turned red with embarrassment.
"The levee has been built, right? And they built an extra 100 miles!" Master Zhao crossed his legs with increasing pride and said, "I said I would seduce you, so how's it going? Did you seduce me?"
"I soaked it, soaked it all through." Yi Kejiu completely straightened his posture and let the man do whatever he wanted. "Little brother, I really regret it. I didn't listen to the good advice, and now I'm suffering."
"Remember this lesson." Zhao Shouzheng took a sip of Sanbai wine and said, "Some things are missed once they are missed. At the beginning, our Kunshan County provided money and manpower, but you refused to repair it. Now we don't need it, but you are crying and shouting to repair it. But the Taipu River is now only harmful to our Kunshan, not beneficial. How can I help you?"
Once the Taihu River was opened, ships between Taihu Lake and Songjiang River no longer had to go around Kunshan, which lowered the status of Kunshan.
"Yes, yes, it's my fault for not thinking it through." Yi Kejiu nodded quickly. He knew he was thinking about Taozi, so he took a step back and said, "How about we repair the Dianpu River?"
"Dianpu River?" Mr. Zhao was suddenly moved and asked, "From Dianshan Lake to Huangpu River?"
"Yes." Yi Kejiu quickly unfolded the map and pointed to the dotted line drawn on it, saying, "Brother, look, once this river is repaired, we no longer have to take the winding Wusong River to get from Guixian to Songjiang. We only need to enter Dianshan Lake from Kunnan and go east directly for 80 miles to enter the Huangpu River. Another ten miles will bring us to Shanghai County."
"Hmm." Zhao Shouzheng looked along the dotted line. If the river was built, the journey from Kunshan to Shanghai would be shortened by half. He remembered Zhao Hao saying that Shanghai would be extremely important in the future, and might even surpass Suzhou...
"Isn't Kunnan in your county a difficult problem? If this river is repaired, won't Kunnan be revived?" Yi Kejiu spitted everywhere, trying his best to promote his real plan, "Moreover, Huating, Shanghai, Chongming and our Kunshan and Wujiang counties will be closely connected. Isn't your son promoting the integration of Jiangnan? I think Jiangnan Group will also strongly support it!"
"Well, this plan is reasonable." Mr. Zhao's face was flushed, and he was obviously drunk again. He pointed at the map and said, "It's just that this river doesn't seem to have as much impact on your county as the Taipu River."
The Taipu River connects Taihu Lake and Huangpu River, runs across Wujiang County and directly connects to Songjiang Prefecture. Of course, it is much stronger than the Dianpu River which is only in a corner of Wujiang.
But the pressure of flood discharge was on his head, and County Magistrate Yi could not care less. Who made him lazy in the first place and rejected the Taipu River plan? Now he could only settle for the second best and choose a plan that was most beneficial to Kunshan County and also to the county.
"It's okay, it's okay. This way we will have less pressure in land acquisition." Yi Kejiu said embarrassedly.
"Okay, I'll ask two of my classmates to come over tomorrow, and we'll have a chat and see how to share the burden." From Master Zhao's tone, it was obvious that the matter had been settled.
But it is also true that the two county magistrates of Huating and Shanghai are both his peers, and they are the kind of people who cling to his thighs. A word from Mr. Zhao is more effective than that of the prefect.
"Don't worry, this is to relieve the flood for us, how can we ask your county to pay? Wujiang County will cover the cost of materials and labor." Yi Kejiu quickly took on the responsibility, and then looked at Mr. Zhao and said, "Brother, can you talk to Jiangnan Group and set up a Wujiang Development Company in our county? All counties have set up one, we can't always leave Wujiang out."
"Haha, okay, I'll tell you. I can't guarantee that it will work." Master Zhao nodded with a smile. It was really not a bad feeling to always be asked for help.
~~
As expected, once Mr. Zhao gave his order, all the counties responded positively. After discussion, the overall management of the Dianpu River project was handed over to the Jiangnan Development Corporation.
With the current strength of Jiangnan Development Corporation, digging a 90-li artificial river is not a big project. Kunshan, Wujiang, Huating, and Shanghai counties have all established development companies. Fortunately, Chongkai Company was busy with overseas projects and did not interfere. Otherwise, each company would not get more than 20 li.
The four companies competed with each other and managed to dredge the Dianpu River in just over a month before the flood season. They also built rubble concrete embankments on both sides.
As a result, several typhoons hit Jiangnan during the flood season. Fortunately, the flood discharge channel was repaired, otherwise the entire Wujiang County would have been destroyed. At least the county town and most of the crops were saved, and the vitality was not damaged.
Of course, compared with Changzhou in Wu County, which had basically repaired the Taihu Lake embankment before, it was still a bit miserable. Alas, who made me want to save face before... Yi Zhixian, who felt that he had done a good job, sighed secretly.
However, this year, Taicang, Changshu, and Jiading all experienced backflow during the storm, and the most important autumn harvest of the year was a foregone conclusion. County Magistrate Yi silently calculated that Wujiang County's harvest should be able to rank third in history, which is also a bright spot. I hope that the Minister of the Central Government will be merciful and treat me as a fart.
Who would have thought that after the autumn harvest, when the statistical results came out from the mansion, Yi Kejiu's jaw dropped in shock.
Wujiang County actually ranked fourth, and Changshu and Wu County ranked second and third respectively.
Kunshan County, which had been ranked last for thousands of years, unexpectedly won the championship in one fell swoop, and its total output exceeded that of the second place Changzhou County by nearly 20%!
"Could this be a mistake?" County Magistrate Yi put his chin back in place and whined to his master, "Could cement actually increase grain production?"
"How is that possible?" The lawyer shook his head and said, "I heard that first, Kunshan County was not hit by the disaster, and even the harvest in Kunnan was good. Second, they successfully planted two crops of rice and increased the yield per mu by a large margin."
"Alas, I can't compare with him. I really can't compare with him." Yi Kejiu sat back in his chair in submission, thinking that he had completely gotten rid of the label of Hua Kunshan.
~~
On the Wuwei ship sailing eastward, Master Zhao saw a more accurate income report of Kunkaisi.
Kunkaisi Agricultural Department has 100 farms with a total of 600,000 mu of cultivated land, including 300,000 mu of grain fields, 200,000 mu of cotton fields, and 100,000 mu of mulberry fields.
Under the scientific guidance of Ma Yilong and the careful leadership of the farm manager and technicians, 300,000 mu of grain fields successfully planted two seasons of rice, with a total harvest of 2.1 million shi of rice. The average yield per mu per season reached 3.5 shi!
In addition, the cotton and mulberry fields also had a bumper harvest, converting 3 million shi of grain. Therefore, the gross income of 600,000 mu of land was as high as 5.1 million shi!
After deducting the tax burden of 600,000 koku this year and paying 600,000 koku in rent to the landlord, there is a remaining 3.9 million koku. According to the agreement, the harvest will be shared equally with the farmers and workers, so Kunkaisi can get 1.95 million koku.
In addition, 100 farm managers and 500 technicians will be paid 1.5% of their bonus. This year, due to floods in various places, grain prices have soared to two taels of silver per stone. Therefore, the farm managers and technicians can share about 60,000 taels of silver, plus their daily salary expenses, a total of 100,000 taels of silver.
After deducting various costs such as production and consumption, the gross profit of Kunkaisi Agriculture Department was approximately 2.5 million taels.
In addition, the farmers and workers had to repay the borrowed grain of about 300,000 dan, so the final book surplus was about 3.1 million taels.
But don't be happy too soon. It's true that the Agriculture Department made a lot of money, but the Construction Department lost 400,000 taels last year when it built three phases of water conservancy projects. This year, the losses reached an astonishing 1 million taels including principal and interest in Chongming, Pudong, Changzhou, Wuxian and other places.
Of course, this is determined by Kunkai's business model - the Engineering Department must first advance the project funds, and then the government will use the land in its hands for long-term lease to pay off the debt. The Agricultural Department will then build the land into a farm, use intensive management and scientific planting to increase production, and ultimately make a profit.
This long process finally resulted in the first profit after one and a half years of continuous investment.
And it was a full 1.7 million taels!
Another 1 million taels of silver will be set aside for next year’s development funds, and this year’s dividends can reach 700,000 taels of silver!
p.s. I guess there won’t be the next chapter, so don’t wait.