Start Being a Vassal King Today - Chapter 328

[Chapter 328 Production Camp]

“If these soldiers who died in battle could hear this, they would all be smiling.”

Chang Weirao was a strong man, and his eyes could not help turning red at this time.

The many decrees proposed by King Yan are too considerate to the soldiers.

Even if he asked himself, he couldn’t think of these things, and he couldn’t do them.

After all, in the Forbidden Army, generals value silver more than soldiers’ lives.

“Compared to the dead soldiers, what we living people do for them is nothing.” Zhao Xu waved his hand.

Chang Wei nodded heavily, remembering that he hadn’t finished talking about the battle report, he said: “This time there were 20,000 soldiers who surrendered to Yanzhou, and more than 20,000 Xiliang soldiers were captured. The rest were all wiped out. Your Highness needs to show you how to deal with these soldiers.”

Zhao Xu pondered for a while, and he was originally a eulogist, since he has surrendered now, he can no longer treat them as enemies.

However, these techniques of bumping into son soldiers must be good or bad.

Hastily scattered them all over the four northern counties, fearing that it would cause chaos.

Therefore, they need to be managed centrally, and after they have undergone ideological reform and they have adapted to the life of Da Song, gradually let him integrate into the four northern counties.

Thinking of a way, he said: “Make these young masters form an army separately, and call it a production camp, which will be under the jurisdiction of the royal family’s own army.”

“Production camp?” Chang Wei was startled, he had never heard this word before.

Zhao Xu explained: “The production camp, as the name suggests, is an army that is only responsible for production and not for fighting. The king will not recognize them as an army.”

Clearing his throat, he continued: “The main tasks of these production camps are It’s land reclamation, farming, building water conservancy and other things.”

“Your Highness, do you want them to farm?” Chang Wei thought about it.

“That’s exactly what I mean.” Zhao Xu said with a smile, “The terrain of the four northern counties is flat, only the north and west are mountainous, and there are plains to the south and north, and there are many places that can be reclaimed. The four counties provide grain and grass, and in the future they can be allocated to these soldiers as private fields.”

In fact, there were few people in the ancient land, and it is far from no land to cultivate.

However, after the land of the common people is annexed, they are often unwilling to reclaim wasteland.

The reason is that the places that can be developed by the water have already been developed.

At the same time, even if wasteland is reclaimed, the land will still be taken away eventually, and the imperial court will not protect it.

But now that he is in the North Four Counties, the situation is naturally different.

The aristocratic clan is completely wiped out, and no one can arbitrarily seize the land of the common people.

At the same time, he asked Liu Fu to issue a decree to protect the land reclaimed by the people.

Therefore, among the people who fled from Jinzhou to the North Four Counties, many of them are now actively reclaiming wasteland.

The enthusiasm of the people including the former four counties of Babei has also increased greatly.

If there are another 20,000 people in the land reclamation army, the four northern counties will be able to add more land this year.

With more land, the grain produced in the four northern counties can continue to increase.

Although, he now gets a lot of food from the Xie family by supporting the prince.

These grains are enough to last for a period of time.

But it is better to ask for others than to ask for oneself. The four northern counties are self-sufficient in food, and having a surplus is the most reassuring.

In addition, he has another consideration.

On the land reclaimed by the production camp, it is convenient for the government to test various agricultural technologies.

After all, the people need to rely on the land for food, so he dare not mess around.

This production battalion is attached to the army, which is regarded as the logistics army, and the soldiers are paid by the army.

As for the land, it will not be too late to distribute the land to them when the production camps are no longer needed.

To put it simply, he is equivalent to building an army to engage in agricultural production for himself.

“Yes, Your Highness, I finally understand.” Chang Wei smiled.

Others also know that farming is a good move for the army.

Feeding the army requires a lot of food. If the army solves the food problem by itself, it will save a lot of money.

The kings in the early stages of the dynasties often engaged in farming, but then the farming would collapse.

Because of greed for ink, these military lands first came into the hands of the generals, and finally sold to the rich.

Afterwards, ambitious emperors often failed to pick it up.

After the formation of a mature system of corrupting ink and selling stolen goods, these fields that were dug out quickly disappeared.

But the situation in the four northern counties is obviously different.

King Yan destroyed all the belongings of these powerful families.

Now the four northern counties are like a piece of white land, and everything can be started from scratch.

So he agrees with King Yan’s idea.

“As for the Xiliang soldiers who surrendered, they will be handed over to the trading company, and the company will assign them to mine.” Zhao Xu said.

This time he forcibly took eight large coal mines from the Hao family in Jinzhou.

It is said that the coal in these coal mines only needs to be dug from the ground, which is obviously an open-pit coal mine.

Put these Xiliang soldiers into the coal mines, and the coal supply in the four northern counties will not be a problem in the future.

And it’s just a matter of coal.

Another problem at the moment is iron.

The artillery order given by the powerful family made Iron Ore suddenly tense.

Jinzhou has a lot of coal, while the four northern counties have a lot of iron, especially the east of Pingjun and the west of Yanjun.

The location here is equivalent to Tangshan in contemporary times.

The amount of iron ore here is second to none.

However, although there are many iron mines in the four northern counties, the mining capacity is still not enough.

Putting 20,000 people into it can greatly alleviate this problem.

Of course, in addition to coal and iron, he needs other minerals if he wants to embark on the road of the industrial revolution.

Next, he made some arrangements in this area, finding out all the mines that could be found in the four northern counties.

After talking about bumping into the son and Xiliang soldiers, Chang Wei reported the amount of spoils confiscated in Jinzhou, “150,000 taels of gold, 1.8 million taels of cash in cash, 2 million shi of grain and grass, cloth Three hundred and sixty thousand horses, and thousands of pieces of jewellery, porcelain, calligraphy and paintings.”

Zhao Xu nodded.

In this war, not long after he entered Jinzhou, the imperial court allocated money and grain.

Now that he got these trophies again, he didn’t lose money in this battle after all, and made a lot of money.

“This king has always kept his promise. This time, half of the spoils will be rewarded to the soldiers.” He remembered his promise when he was in Jinzhou.

Chang Wei wanted to laugh out loud, but held back, “Your Highness, isn’t this too much? If so, each soldier will be given thirty taels of silver.”

“Stop pretending, just laugh when you want to. “Zhao Xu gave Chang Wei a supercilious look.

“Hey hey…” Chang Wei finally couldn’t help it when King Yan said that.

Seeing Chang Wei’s appearance, Zhao Heng shook his head, “But you have to show me the list of rewards, even if it’s a reward, you can’t mess around, and even if it’s a soldier who died in battle, you still have to give the reward. It’s another matter.”

“The general will remember.” Chang Wei clasped his fists heavily.

The two were talking, when Feng’er bowed outside the door and said, “Your Highness, Ma Han is asking to see you.”

“Ma Han?” Chang Wei frowned, “Your Highness brought him to Yancheng?”

Zhao Xu signaled Feng’er to allow Ma Han to come in, and at the same time said to Chang Wei: “The matter of Jinzhou is over, and it is time to face up to the matter of the Ma family. After all, the Ma family guards the northwest border. If Ma Chong and Ma Jin are in charge, I’m afraid there will be big problems in the future.”

Chang Wei said his goodbyes with a solemn expression and left.

Sometimes it is inconvenient for him to listen to some words.

(end of this chapter)