Chapter 107: Profitable Industry

While Li Mu was taking action, various powerful and noble families and major clans also rushed to the two Two Huai regions from all over.

In order to raise funds for post-war reconstruction, Two Huai'an Prefecture released news of selling land to the outside world.

Although Yangzhou Prefecture did not officially announce it, selling land was also a matter of time.

In peacetime, this kind of opportunity for legal land annexation is rare.

Those with a bit of strength all came over to join in the fun.

Even if the family is not here, it doesn't matter.

After a family develops to a certain extent, it is inevitable to diversify risks.

It is rare for wealthy places like Yangzhou and Two Huai'an to have a power vacuum.

Migrating a branch here to develop is a significant temptation for every family.

For a time, people were everywhere looking for connections and favors.

As a powerful figure in the Yangzhou region, Li Mu also received many visiting cards.

He pushed away all that he could, and for those he couldn't, he could only bite the bullet and receive them.

He said all the nice things, and if something really happened, he would see the situation then.

In this human-relationship society of the Great Great Dayu, as long as one is in the vanity fair, no one can escape human relationships.

Fortunately, the borrowing of prisoners of war went very smoothly, smoothing out this little bit of depression.

Generals from all sides were worried about the food and drink for the prisoners of war; having someone come to share the pressure was the best thing.

Clearly, the plan was only to borrow 5,000 people, but in the end, over 20,000 were stuffed in.

There were men, women, old, and young, all of them bringing their families, scaring Li Mu into immediately canceling the plan to transfer people from Two Huai'an Prefecture.

Yangzhou's mineral resources are not rich; the large mines with high output were all registered by the imperial court.

Li Mu, who is afraid of trouble, didn't want to deal with the mining tax supervisor and avoided these hot potatoes.

What he got were only three coal mines, two copper mines, and one silver mine with low output.

The specific production capacity is unknown; the original owners all became ashes and left no data to check.

Li Mu is not a mining major, and his professional knowledge in this area is approximately zero.

The miners found from the refugees can barely be considered technical personnel.

Daring to do this business is purely because he felt that since someone was mining before, it proved that it was profitable.

Copper mines and silver mines need to be smelted; how much money can be made depends on the quality of the ore.

Coal mines are much simpler; anyway, the labor cost is cheap enough, and whatever is dug out is money.

The buyers are the salt fields in the two Two Huai regions; after years of boiling salt, the surrounding trees have long been cut down.

By the Great Great Dayu, major salt fields all use coal as fuel.

In order to distinguish it from traditional charcoal, the common people call this black stuff "stone charcoal."

Not only in salt fields, but in several major cities of the Great Great Dayu, stone charcoal is also widely used as heating fuel.

Taking Yangzhou as an example, as a metropolis with a population of hundreds of thousands, if everyone used charcoal for heating, the mountain forests of Yangzhou Prefecture would be burned out in one winter.

The most critical thing is the price; charcoal is 3.3 coins per hundred catties, while coal is only 1.3 coins per hundred catties.

Li Mu went to the mine to see; now they are digging shallow coal mines, the mining technology difficulty is relatively low, and it is not difficult for each person to dig hundreds of catties a day.

Under the condition that labor cost = feeding, even if the wholesale price is only half of the retail price, there is still a generous profit.

"Prefect, the matter can't be suppressed.

Two Huai'an Prefecture has already started selling land, and now the eyes of the outside world are all fixed on us; it really can't be dragged on any longer.

Especially that group of soldiers, coming over to ask for pay every day.

I don't know which bastard came up with the idea, but those bastards also brought a group of old people and children, crying at the gate of the government office at dawn.

Now it has almost become a scene in Yangzhou; those who don't know would think we are extorting and causing the people under our rule..."

By the end of his sentence, Assistant Prefect Ma couldn't go on.

Because of the money and grain problem, Prefect Gu went to Nanjing a few days ago, and all the things were thrown to him.

Being followed by a group of soldiers every day, he was on edge every day, fearing that those guys would suddenly explode and give him a hard time.

It wasn't just him who suffered; the officials in the government office were all harassed.

To prove the treasury was empty, officials were forced to eat coarse grain.

People who hadn't eaten coarse grain for half their lives were now forced to eat coarse grain and pickled vegetables.

He didn't want to live this bitter life for even a day.

But there was no way; that group of soldiers didn't care about anything.

They came over to follow him every day and wanted him to be responsible for feeding them.

Servants tried to drive them away, but every time they were beaten very badly, making him completely lose his temper.

"It's not just Yangzhou that is like this; Nanjing has also been harassed.

It's just relatively more restrained and didn't go so far.

I went there this time and didn't get any substantive support; instead, they urged us to solve the problem quickly.

Forget it, since no one can be relied on, then we will follow suit and sell land.

Before selling land, first arrange for people to check the amount of farmland, and the size of the mineral resources in the territory must also be figured out.

The same mistake cannot be made twice!

Those prisoners of war should also be dealt with together; take advantage of the opportunity to sell land and bundle them for sale together."

Gu Youwen said slowly.

Compared to Assistant Prefect Zhou's previous proposal of directly selling them as slaves, it was clearly much lighter.

However, dealing with it lightly is in line with the "benevolent governance" thought advocated by the scholar-officials.

The only problem is that handling it this way has significant hidden dangers; if these people launch a rebellion again in the future, they will need to be held accountable.

"For the current plan, this is the only way.

However, those vicious and evil people must be screened out in advance, otherwise there will be endless trouble."

Assistant Prefect Ma nodded in agreement.

Of two evils, choose the lesser!

Compared to the political hidden dangers buried, reputation is clearly more important.

"As for the vicious and evil people, there is no need to worry.

The strongest guys among the captives have basically all been borrowed by our Assistant Regional Commander Li to mine.

Even if there are stragglers, we can bundle them and stuff them to him.

Evil people need evil people to grind!

No matter how fierce the evil people are, when they encounter that group of soldiers, they can only work obediently."

Assistant Prefect Zhou said unpleasantly.

Because of a moment of carelessness earlier, Li Mu took a big advantage.

Although everyone didn't say anything on the surface, they still complained a lot in private.

After eating a muffled loss, naturally there would be no good words.

If it weren't for the sake of the big picture, he would have issued a document to generals from all sides, forbidding them from lending out prisoners of war.

Unfortunately, this can only be thought about; wanting to vent anger is simple, but the difficulty is how to clean up the mess.

The treasury can't bring out money and grain, and not allowing people to find ways themselves is forcing people to a dead end.

"Assistant Prefect Zhou is right; evil people need evil people to grind!

Just hand over all the young and strong in the rebel army to Assistant Regional Commander Li to manage, so as not to cause trouble outside."

Gu Youwen immediately agreed.

Deciding to take responsibility still requires reducing political risk.

After this period of contact, although they often scolded Li Mu for being arrogant and domineering, they still recognized his ability in their hearts.

Among the many armies stationed in Yangzhou, it is the soldiers under Li Mu who haven't come out to cause trouble.

Or rather, if they caused trouble, they didn't need them, the local officials, to intervene; they handled it themselves and didn't give them any trouble.

In this day and age, the requirements for the army are not high; a unit that can often win battles and doesn't harass the local area is a first-class good army.

For a general who can bring out such troops, the evaluation naturally won't be too low.

"Assistant Regional Commander, according to your instructions, we bribed the officials of the Nanjing Ministry of Works and dug out more than 20 craftsmen from below.

People have been arranged to the mine, and it is expected that the furnace will be opened next month.

Coal mine production is on the right track; currently, the three coal mines have a total daily output of 300,000 catties of raw coal.

Mainly because the mine tunnels were damaged, many mine tunnels are under repair, and it is expected that production capacity will double next month.

Land reclamation work is also progressing very smoothly.

With the help of the soldiers, the abandoned land has been reclaimed one after another.

Currently, 100,000 mu of land reclamation has been completed, and it is expected that by the spring plowing season next year, all abandoned farmland will be reclaimed.

The estimated total number of mu is about 130,000..."

Lan Lan Linjie reported happily.

The money and grain allocated by the court had long been spent, and subsequent expenses were all borrowed from the "bank."

Settling refugees and organizing manpower to mine, money was spent like running water every day.

Fortunately, the results were truly gratifying; after the initial investment, he finally saw a return.

Developing according to the current situation, after the spring grain is harvested, they can achieve a balance of payments.

The rest is the profit period; in less than two years, the initial investment can be fully recovered.

Unfortunately, these gratifying data didn't change anything in Li Mu's ears.

A daily output of 300,000 catties of raw coal is an output of 150 tons, and it is the output of three coal mines.

On average, each coal mine has an output of 50 tons; such data can't even catch up with the small coal kilns that were sealed off.

Profits are naturally non-existent; raw coal needs to be cleaned before it can be sold on the market.

Theoretically, one can earn about 200 taels a day, but the problem is that miners also need to eat.

Miners and their families, totaling more than 20,000 people, have income that is barely enough for everyone to eat.

Fortunately, there is still a lot of room for improvement in production capacity; in the past, gentry secretly mined, but they didn't dare to invest so much manpower and material resources.

By next month, the income from the coal mine alone can make the mining industry profitable.

If the silver mine and copper mine resume operation, the income will be even more considerable.

After all, in the Great Great Dayu, copper and silver are currency themselves.

Compared to other investments, mining is the fastest way to get rich.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 108 =====