Chapter 336: Production Battalion

"If those fallen soldiers could hear this, they would smile even in the netherworld."

Even though Chang Wei was a tough man, his eyes couldn't help but turn slightly red at this moment.

The many policies proposed by Yan Wang were too considerate toward the soldiers.

Even he himself couldn't have thought of these things, nor could he have achieved them.

After all, in the Imperial Guard, generals viewed silver as more important than the lives of soldiers.

"Compared to the soldiers who have died, what does it matter what we, the living, do for them?" Zhao Xu waved his hand.

Chang Wei nodded heavily, and remembering that the matters in the battle report had not been fully discussed, he said: "This time, there are twenty thousand soldiers of the 'Zhuanglinglang' who surrendered to Yanzhou, and over twenty thousand Xiliang soldiers were captured; the rest were all annihilated. How to deal with these soldiers still requires the Prince's instructions."

Zhao Xu pondered for a moment. The Zhuanglinglang were originally Song People, and since they had now surrendered, they could no longer be treated as enemies.

However, the intentions of these Zhuanglinglang soldiers were bound to be mixed.

Rashly scattering them throughout Yanzhou would likely cause chaos.

Therefore, they must be managed centrally, and after undergoing ideological transformation and adapting to the life of the Great Song, they could gradually be integrated into Yanzhou.

Thinking of a method, he said: "Organize these Zhuanglinglang into a separate army, call it the Production Battalion, and place it under the jurisdiction of the Prince's Personal Army."

"Production Battalion?" Chang Wei was stunned for a moment; he had never heard this term before.

Zhao Xu explained: "The Production Battalion, as the name implies, is an army responsible only for production and not for fighting. Externally, I will not acknowledge them as an army."

Clearing his throat, he continued: "The main tasks of this Production Battalion are to reclaim wasteland, engage in farming, and handle affairs like water conservancy."

"Does the Prince mean to have them farm the land?" Chang Wei grasped the meaning.

"That is exactly what I mean," Zhao Xu laughed. "The terrain of Yanzhou is flat, with mountains only in the north and west; both to the south and north are plains, and there is much land that can be reclaimed. Reclaiming this land will not only provide grain and fodder for Yanzhou but can also be distributed to these soldiers as private fields in the future."

In fact, in ancient times, there was much land and few people, so it was far from having no land to cultivate.

But after the commoners' land was annexed, they were often unwilling to reclaim wasteland.

The reason was that the areas near water that could be developed had long since been developed.

At the same time, even if wasteland were reclaimed, the land would eventually be seized, and the Imperial Court would not protect it.

But now that he was in charge of Yanzhou, the situation was naturally different.

The Rich Clans had been completely wiped out, and no one could wantonly seize the commoners' land anymore.

At the same time, he had Liu Fu issue a policy to give legitimacy to the land reclaimed by the commoners.

Therefore, among the commoners who fled from Jinzhou to Yanzhou, many were currently actively reclaiming wasteland.

The local commoners of Yanzhou also had their enthusiasm greatly increased.

If there were another twenty-thousand-man reclamation legion, Yanzhou could add even more farmland this year.

And with more farmland, the grain produced in Yanzhou could continuously increase.

Although he was currently obtaining a lot of grain from the Xie Family by supporting the Crown Prince.

This grain was enough to sustain them for a period of time.

But relying on others is not as good as relying on oneself; having Yanzhou's grain be self-sufficient and having a surplus was the most reassuring thing.

Besides this, he had another consideration.

On the land reclaimed by the Production Battalion, it would be convenient for the Government Office to test various agricultural technologies.

After all, the commoners needed to rely on the land to eat, so he dared not mess around recklessly.

This Production Battalion was an auxiliary army, considered a logistics force, and the soldiers received military pay.

As for the land, it would not be too late to distribute the farmland to them when the Production Battalion was no longer needed.

Simply put, he was equivalent to establishing an army to conduct agricultural production for himself.

"Yes, Your Highness, this subordinate understands," Chang Wei laughed.

Others also understood; farming the land was a very good measure for the army.

Supporting an army required a large amount of grain; if the army solved the grain problem itself, it would save a large amount of silver.

The monarchs of the early periods of successive dynasties often engaged in farming the land, but later, this would collapse.

Because of corruption, these military fields first fell into the hands of generals and were eventually sold to Rich Clans.

And later, ambitious emperors who wanted to pick it up again often could not do so.

After a mature system of corruption and fencing stolen goods was formed, these reclaimed fields would still disappear quickly.

But the situation in Yanzhou was clearly different.

Yan Wang had destroyed everything belonging to these Rich Clans.

The current Yanzhou was like a blank slate, and everything could start from scratch.

Therefore, he highly agreed with Yan Wang's idea.

"As for the surrendered Xiliang soldiers, hand them over to the merchant firms and let the firms assign them to mine," Zhao Xu said.

This time, he had forcibly seized eight large coal mines from the hands of the Jinzhou Rich Clans.

It was said that the coal in these coal mines only needed to be scraped from the surface; they were clearly open-pit coal mines.

By putting these Xiliang soldiers into the coal mines, the coal supply in Yanzhou would no longer be a problem in the future.

This was only the problem of coal.

At present, there was another problem, which was iron.

The Artillery orders given by the powerful clans made Iron Ore suddenly scarce.

Jinzhou had much coal, while Yanzhou had much iron, especially in the current eastern part of Ping County and western part of Yan Commandery.

In the contemporary era, this location was equivalent to Tangshan.

The quantity of Iron Ore here was second to none.

However, although Yanzhou had much Iron Ore, the ability to mine it was still insufficient.

Putting these twenty thousand people into it would greatly alleviate this problem.

Of course, besides coal and iron, he needed other mineral resources if he wanted to embark on the path of the Industrial Revolution.

Next, he would also make arrangements in this regard to find all the minerals that could be found in Yanzhou.

After speaking of the collision with the young master and the Xiliang soldiers, Chang Wei reported the amount of spoils seized in Jinzhou: "150,000 taels of gold, a total of 1.8 million taels of Silver, 2 million shi of grain and fodder, 360,000 bolts of cloth, and thousands of other items including jewelry, porcelain, and calligraphy and paintings."

Zhao Xu nodded.

During this war, not long after he entered Jinzhou, the Imperial Court had allocated Silver and grain and fodder.

Now that he had obtained these spoils as well, this war had ultimately not caused him a loss, but had instead earned him a large profit.

"I have always kept my word; this time, take half of the spoils to reward the soldiers." He recalled the promise he had made while in Jinzhou.

Chang Wei wanted to laugh out loud, but he held it back, "Your Highness, isn't this a bit too much? If so, every soldier will be able to receive 30 taels of Silver."

"Stop pretending, laugh if you want to laugh." Zhao Xu rolled his eyes at Chang Wei.

"Hehehe..." Since Yan Wang said so, Chang Wei finally could not hold it back anymore.

Seeing Chang Wei in this state, Zhao Xu shook his head, "However, you must show the list of rewards to me; even rewards cannot be handled recklessly. Also, even the soldiers who died in battle must be given their due rewards; the pension Silver is a separate matter."

"This general will remember." Chang Wei cupped his fists heavily.

As the two were talking, Feng'er bowed outside the door and said, "Your Highness, Ma Han requests an audience."

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

Zhao Xu signaled for Feng'er to allow Ma Han to enter, and at the same time said to Chang Wei, "The matter of Jinzhou is over, and it is time to face the matter of the Ma Family. After all, the Ma Family guards the northwestern frontier; if Ma Chong and Ma Jin are allowed to be in charge, I fear there will be big problems in the future."

Chang Wei's expression was solemn as he cupped his hands to take his leave.

There were some things that were sometimes inconvenient for him to hear.