amaotonovel Chapter 909 You just schemed against your brother-in-law, and now you're scheming against me!
Chapter 909 You just schemed against your brother-in-law, and now you're scheming against me!
Zhu Biao, Li Shanchang, Hu Weiyong, and others kept a close eye on Yang Shaofeng.
Yang Shaofeng wanted to strangle them.
Good heavens, let me think of some ways for the people of Liaodong to get rich and attract more people to Liaodong.
What, do I possess the magic to turn stones into gold?
What kind of bastards are these, daring to daydream in broad daylight!
While mentally ranting, Yang Shaofeng said with a dark face, "Aren't there deer in Liaodong?"
"First, send two to the capital. Say that the deer and its antlers are tribute items, and that the deer blood is highly nutritious. Let Yang Qing and the others spread the word."
"While you're at it, hunt a few more sables, skin them to make sable fur coats, and select the best ones to make into tribute items."
“We can’t waste the deep mountains and forests. Hu Buzheng can send people to contact the shipbuilding workshops and sell the wood to them.”
"Li Xiang can cooperate by issuing a decree prohibiting the indiscriminate felling of trees in the provinces within the pass."
"And there's ginseng from Liaodong. We'll get you a few hundred-year-old ones, and they'll say this stuff has miraculous effects like bringing the dead back to life and healing flesh and bones."
"Raise gypsy dragons, cultivate hazel mushrooms, and chicken stew with mushrooms is a great dish."
"By the way, pick a few good plots of land to grow some rice."
"The rice grown on one of the plots of land was to be used as tribute, and not a single grain was allowed to be taken out of the country."
“Rice from other places is taken over and sold at a high price as tribute rice that was accidentally leaked out.”
"Crabs can be raised in the rice fields. We can have people from the agricultural college come and study it. Maybe those crabs can even be made into tribute items."
"..."
Yang Shaofeng slowly recounted some ways to get rich that he could think of for the time being.
Zhu Biao's face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
Deer, sable, rice, and crab—four kinds of tributes were presented in just a few words.
Is there anyone speaking up for our Zhu family's royal family?
I must solemnly declare that my father rarely designates any specific items to be offered as tribute.
Furthermore, to date, most of the small dragon teas presented as tribute from Jianning and Yangxian have ended up in the hands of some imperial son-in-law. The teas we, the Zhu family, drink are either teas that my father personally grew in the palace, or jasmine-scented and osmanthus-scented black teas that were bought from Ningyang County.
By the way, the jasmine tea from Ningyang County is of very average quality, while the osmanthus flowers in the osmanthus black tea are sourced from Zhili Province.
Furthermore, the smoked chicken, roast goose, mushrooms, and other items presented as tribute by Ningyang County were not ordered by the imperial family, but were forcibly given to them by a certain prince consort.
Even Ningyang's jasmine tea and osmanthus black tea were given the title of imperial tea by a certain prince consort.
Zhu Biao was internally ranting, while Hu Weiyong stroked his chin in deep thought.
Could you please tell me if tiger bones, tiger skins, roe deer, muntjacs, hazel mushrooms, red mushrooms, yellow mushrooms, and the flying dragon that Yang the Madman mentioned could also be sent to the capital as tribute?
If Yang the Madman dares to use the big fish caught in Dengzhou Prefecture at the end of the year as tribute, can I also use the big fish in the rivers and lakes of Liaodong as tribute?
Dengzhou Prefecture had mackerel dumplings as tribute, so does that mean Jinzhou doesn't produce mackerel?
If Yang the Madman can set up a sanatorium in Dengzhou Prefecture, why can't I set one up in Gaizhou?
As the saying goes, the moment plagiarism arises, the world becomes vast and boundless.
I'll just copy Yang the Madman's homework!
Hu Weiyong immediately smiled and looked at Zhu Biao and Li Shanchang, saying, "Your Highness, Prime Minister Li, shall we go and visit the common people's homes?"
……
"The homes that the people of Liaodong call their homes are actually just simple houses built of wood, mud bricks and thatch."
"It's not that ordinary people don't know how to make bricks, nor that they don't want to build brick houses, but that the conditions don't allow it."
“In Liaodong, it gets extremely cold after September. If you build a house with blue bricks, it will cost several times more.”
“It would be different if we used adobe bricks.”
"Soil is free, and rice straw, wheat straw, sorghum straw, etc. are also free, so you can cover it as thickly as possible."
"But adobe bricks also have their disadvantages."
"It snows frequently in Liaodong, sometimes for several days in a row."
"Don't even mention the snow reaching knee-deep; it's quite normal for it to collapse under the weight of the snow."
"Even if the houses are not destroyed by the heavy snow, they are still at risk of collapsing when the snow melts in the spring."
"If the Prince Consort could provide some manpower and set up a few more brick kilns in Liaodong, thus lowering the price of blue bricks, the people could build houses with blue bricks and tiles, which would at least be able to withstand wind and snow."
Yang Shaofeng simply snorted coldly.
Even though Hu Weiyong was acting like a dog, he still kept telling me that he wanted to fleece me.
Hu Weiyong continued, "In fact, the biggest problem for the people of Liaodong is that they cannot store food."
"Only one crop can be grown per year, and intercropping is not an option."
"But winters in Liaodong are quite long, lasting for about half a year from autumn to spring."
"Moreover, it's not suitable to repair roads or reclaim wasteland during these six months; we can only stay at home and hibernate."
Hu Weiyong sighed slightly and said, "The grain supply is already low, and with half a year left to eat stored grain, the people simply cannot store any more grain."
"Even the aquaculture that the prince consort mentioned is not easy."
"We raise poultry and livestock such as chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep, fearing they will freeze to death if the snow is too heavy."
"To raise fish, you have to break through the thick ice in winter."
"That ice is more than a person's thickness; it would take at least dozens of strong young men to break through it to catch fish."
"..."
As Hu Weiyong led Zhu Biao, Li Shanchang, and Yang Shaofeng toward the village, he explained the predicament of Liaodong to them.
Zhu Biao and Li Shanchang exchanged a glance and then sighed in unison.
This isn't Liaodong at all, it's a living hell!
Looking at the small village of a dozen or so households in the distance, Hu Weiyong smiled bitterly again, "Actually, these problems are all easy to solve. The real problem lies in the number of people."
"The entire Liaodong region, from Jinzhou to Huanglongfu, is about the same size as Shandong, but the number of Han people is even less than that of Shandong in the first year of Hongwu."
"There are only a little over 100,000 households in total, but less than a million people."
"After removing the elderly, weak, women and children, there are less than 200,000 able-bodied men available."
Even including those barbarian tribes that submitted to Liaodong, their total population was only slightly over a million, not even 1.1 million.
Hu Weiyong turned his gaze to Zhu Biao: "Your Highness, I have considered directly copying the methods that the Imperial Son-in-Law used in Ningyang County."
"Reclaim wasteland, set up workshops, let the people recuperate and gradually become prosperous."
"But the court is not relocating more people to Liaodong, so I am truly at a loss."
As Hu Weiyong finished speaking, Zhu Biao's face darkened even more.
Hu Weiyong, you've really made something of yourself!
They just schemed against my brother-in-law, and now they're scheming against me!