Chapter 127 Agriculture, Industry and Military
On the 20th day of the first lunar month, Jinmao's wedding was held as scheduled.

A grand banquet was held in Shanyin County for the whole day and the whole county was celebrating.

That night.

Shi Yu, whom I haven't seen for a long time, has become much whiter and looks more radiant.

Originally, tonight belonged only to Tang Ji, but Jin Mao insisted on sleeping with her.

Tang Ji couldn't resist and agreed.

That night, the three women won and Jin Mao surrendered. After that, he never dared to make excessive demands again.

Early in the morning of the twenty-first day of the first lunar month.

Jinmao pulled himself out of the arms of comfort and held the annual meeting with weak legs.

"Mao'er, you are already incapable at such a young age?"

"Young people should exercise restraint."

This is a joke from Jin Gao and Liu Ye.

The other relatives couldn't help but snicker.

The counselors had different expressions, some were as still as a mountain, some were dozing off.

The military officers laughed loudly, but Lanzhi, the only woman present, was the most serious.

"Master, are you feeling well?"

Jin Mao looked at Liu Ye again: "Master, please take care of yourself. You have to wait until I give birth to my son before you leave."

"You little brat! How can you talk like that?" Jin Gao pretended to hit him.

Liu Ye narrowed his eyes, bent his body, and nodded cheerfully: "Okay, I'll wait until I carry Mao'er's baby before I leave."

After a little fooling around, the meeting officially began.

First, Jin Mao gave benefits to the soldiers: "Any soldier who has been in the army for more than three years and has entered the Imperial Guard, I will find him a wife!"

This was a new preferential policy he thought of during his wedding. Blind date candidates would be recruited from the three counties, and those who could read and write would be given priority.

"boom!"

The generals could not sit still any longer and asked Jin Mao to be their matchmaker. The soldiers had one, and they wanted one too.

"Get out of the way!" Jin Mao couldn't stand these people the most. Except for a few who were not married, most of them had wives and concubines.

The second item of the meeting was for each locality to report on their achievements.

Jin Gao: "The annual salt production in Zhang'an and Yongning counties has reached 2 million kilograms. After the production increases next year, it will double again."

Kan Ze: "Huiji County rapeseed is expected to produce 80,000 barrels of oil this year. In addition, Dongye County sent a letter asking whether it is going to plant cotton on a large scale?"

"Plant! Of course we should plant!" Jinmao made the decision immediately.

The cotton seeds were found in the mountainous area near Dongye County. Jinmao had experienced the cold weather in the north of Wujun. If he were to go further north in the future, how could he survive without cotton clothes?

"Not only Dongye County, but also Zhang'an, Yongning, Juzhang, Haiyan and other areas with abundant sunshine will all plant cotton."

Cotton is a good thing and will play a huge role in the future.

Yu Fan: "Qu'a County is working at full capacity this year and is expected to produce 4 million kilograms of iron."

This output is very good, equivalent to about one thousand tons, which is equivalent to one twentieth of the entire iron output of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

However, the problem is also huge.

Yu Fan: "There is a shortage of iron ore near Qu'a County. We need to go to Guangling County to buy it."

Purchasing iron ore in such a large quantity will not make the price lower because of the big customer, but will attract the attention of relevant departments.

It will be really fun when the time comes and we are accused of treason.

"If we only use the Qu'a iron ore, how much can we produce annually?"

Yu Fan: "About two million catties."

"Then let's practice like this for now."

Jin Mao thought that 500 tons would be enough for the agricultural use of the three counties and the repair and manufacturing of military equipment. With the existing number of craftsmen, in addition to the manufacture of agricultural tools, they could probably produce a thousand sets of iron armor and corresponding weapons every year.

The weapons consumption is less than one-tenth, 50 tons, which is completely sufficient. It will not be too late to increase production when there are enough blacksmiths.

Gu Yong: "More than 800,000 refugees in Yuzhang County have resumed production, and more than 150,000 have become refugees due to land loss."

"I suggest that the surplus refugees reclaim wasteland and provide work in exchange for relief, with half of the proceeds from the reclamation going to the government and half going to the refugees."

Jin Mao nodded and said, "Okay, Yuan Tan, find a way to get these refugees to work on water conservancy projects and the construction of ecological circles in the counties of Yuzhang County."

"Yes." Gu Yong continued: "Yuzhang County is expected to produce 100,000 barrels of oil and 10 million shi of grain this year."

“Do we need to leave the land fallow next year?”

Jin Mao waved his hand and said, "No need."

Are you kidding? A county produces tens of millions of shi of grain. How can it stop? If it stops, what will the more than 2.6 million people in the three counties eat?

However, the problem of soil fertility loss must be taken seriously. Animal husbandry is not yet developed enough and there is too little manure to quickly restore production.

Don't even think about fertilizers, which cannot be produced without an industrial foundation.

"Then we should focus on building the ecosystem first." Jin Mao adjusted his strategy and said, "Water conservancy first, then release it."

The so-called ecosystem is actually just digging a manure pit and piling the manure together.

"In addition, we will make every effort to develop the animal husbandry industry in Yuzhang County, and all livestock cubs will be supplied to Yuzhang County first."

The combined grain output of Wu County and Kuaiji County is not as high as that of Yuzhang County. In the future, Jinmao’s development focus will definitely be in Yuzhang County.

Another way is to continue to annex the remaining three counties of Yangzhou and the lands of powerful families.

Lujiang and Jiujiang counties are not large in area, but their cultivated land is not small. As for Danyang County, its poor mountains and bad water are not much better than Kuaiji County.

However, there were more powerful families in Lujiang and Jiujiang counties than in Wu County, and Jin Mao had not figured out how to annex the lands of these forces. He was now having trouble digesting Wu County.

If it weren't for the support of the Gu and Lu families, Jinmao would probably have to fight with the aristocratic families to annex their land.

What he needs to do most now is to develop in a low profile to avoid being targeted by the eunuchs.

At the earliest, we have to wait until my father-in-law Tang Mao actually enters the court before we can let go of our hands and feet a little.

After discussing agricultural issues, the next thing to look at is industrial development.

Jinmao doesn't know how to climb the technology tree, but he knows which contemporary technologies are the best and most practical.

"How is the papermaker?" Jin Mao asked Liu Fang and Liu Mu: "How many apprentices have you trained?"

Liu Fang looked at Liu Mu, who hesitantly said, "Mr. Cai only teaches people who can read and write, and there are only ten people following him now."

"Tell him to bring more people, at least a hundred!"

Jin Mao said, "Tell Mr. Cai to find a way to make paper out of bamboo. If you can accomplish these two things, I will recommend you as a subordinate of the Minister of Agriculture."

My father-in-law Tang Mao has already made connections and has been appointed as the Minister of Agriculture. He will soon set off for Luoyang to take up the post.

This time, in order to help his father-in-law get promoted smoothly, Jinmao spent a lot of money again.

Oil is certainly not as expensive as it used to be, but 20,000 barrels is still a lot of money!

However, it was all worth it, as the father-in-law promised to get Jinmao a higher official position in the court.

Forget about the governor of Yangzhou, that guy needs to be gilded in the imperial court before he can be assigned.

Jinmao didn't dare to leave the base camp because it was so chaotic outside.

After papermaking came printing, which was not difficult. As long as people knew the principle, they could make it.

It can be said that with these two technologies, Jinmao will have more and more talents under its command.

However, everything has to wait until papermaking reaches a certain scale.

It’s just like iron smelting. If there is no output and we just pursue how to make harder steel, what will we use to farm?

In addition, the production of water-powered mills and wheelbarrows must be increased, and efforts must be made to spread them across every township and even every pavilion.

Jinmao also assigned the cotton seed remover and water-powered spinning machine to Liu Fang to create, since Liu Fang also loved doing this.

After the arrangements for agriculture and industry were completed, the highlight of the meeting came.

military!

Whether it is developing agriculture or industry, everything is for the military.

Jin Mao now has about 3,000 soldiers who have been with him for more than a year, and the remaining 6,000-plus are all new recruits who have been with him for half a year or even less.

The 4,000 soldiers that were promised to be recruited in Kuaiji County have already been selected and are waiting to enter the recruit camp for training.

As a result, the soldiers who were eliminated from the previous recruit camp will never be able to go down and will have to continue training with the new recruits, and the county soldiers will always be a long way off.

Therefore, Jin Mao allowed each garrison unit to recruit no more than the original number of troops as reserve county soldiers.

But there is one thing!
These soldiers are recruited temporarily and do not have corresponding salaries. This point must be made clear to those who join the army. Each unit must also provide for its own daily meals.

In other words, each unit has a fixed amount of food and fodder every month, and if additional soldiers are recruited, they must either bring their own food or pay for it themselves.

There was no other way. With the addition of the 4,000 recruits later, Jin Mao had more than 13,000 professional troops under his command, of which less than 4,000 were Baiyue.

In this case, it would not be surprising even if he was accused of rebelling.

Not to mention the huge military expenditure every month, we really can't afford to support more soldiers.

Jinmao thought the meeting had come to an end here.

Unexpectedly, Lanzhi said, "Lord God, please forgive the sins of the female soldiers. We already know that we were wrong."

Then, Lanzhi told all the changes that had taken place in the female soldiers over the past six months.

Jin Mao listened carefully, and when he heard Lanzhi say that the female army was going to set up a medical team, he became very interested.

“Isn’t this the prototype of a nurse?”

A nurse army with a certain combat effectiveness would be a huge boost to the morale of the army.

In addition, Jin Mao also noticed that Lanzhi said that female soldiers were very effective in calming the people.

"Will pacifying the army also have a miraculous effect?"

In an instant, Jin Mao dismissed this unrealistic idea. The army was full of animals, and female soldiers would no longer be pure if they stayed with male soldiers for too long.

However, this is powerful enough!
Imagine a corps of nurses treating the wounded in the rear of the battlefield. The morale of the front line was boosted, and the county town was captured, and the corps of nurses became a magical tool to appease the people.

The advancement speed is simply amazing.

"You said it very well." Jin Mao made a decision: "Expand the female army and temporarily increase it to 3,000."

“Do you have the confidence to train them?”

Lanzhi cried with joy, "Lord God, I have faith!"

"Okay!" Jin Mao was overjoyed: "I will teach you some emergency treatment measures on the battlefield."

"I hope that in the future, female soldiers can save others and themselves on the battlefield, and comfort the people and eliminate banditry in the rear!"

"If you can do this, I will recommend you to serve as the assistant military commander!"

Lanzhi cried and laughed, and knelt three times and kowtowed nine times to Jinmao: "Thank you, God, for your gift!"

"You deserve this." Jin Mao waved his hand and said, "From now on, the female soldiers' weapons will no longer be swords, but a heart to save people."

Lanzhi kept it in mind silently.

Most of the generals didn't understand and couldn't help but ask Bai Shi.

As soon as the latter explained, the generals were instantly furious.

(End of this chapter)