MTL - Chastity Layman-Chapter 1406 Longgang

  Chapter 1406 Longgang

  Futang County.

  This was originally Fuqing developed by the Qin family, and later it was officially established as a county and renamed Futang. This county, which is only a hundred miles away from Fuzhou City, is very famous in Fujian.

   This is the most famous place where camphor incense is produced in Datang.

  Qin Lang's fleet passed by and purposely entered the port to berth.

  During the Sui Dynasty, this place was just a barren place for the islanders who crossed the sea to seek captives. Thousands of islanders were thrown here to fend for themselves.

   Later, the Qin family built a village here, opened up grain fields, and built a shipyard. They sent ships to the opposite Liuqiu Island to purchase camphor from Daofan, processed it in Fuqing, and shipped it to the whole country.

Afterwards, Qin Lang went on a tour to the east and landed in Liuqiu here. He conquered the big island of Liuqiu for the imperial court and established a new Liuqiu prefecture. As a result, Futang became more and more prosperous. Over the past few decades, the population of this county has exceeded 100,000. household.

   Xu Jingzong and others were shocked to see the prosperity of this county after they went ashore.

When they were prime ministers in the center, they didn't seem to notice that Futang County is so developed. In their impression, only the Mawei Shipyard on the Mawei River in Fuzhou is famous. factory.

   There are numerous shipyards on the southeast coast, with strong strength.

  The section of the Minjiang River in front of Mawei Village in Fuzhou has clear water and solid soil, and is as deep as twelve feet.

After decades of development, although many of the original major shareholders such as the Changsun family, the Gao family, the Fang family, the Du family, and the Wei family have all fallen, and the shares have changed owners long ago, the Qin family has always been the largest shareholder among them. one of the shareholders.

The Qin family came from behind in the shipbuilding industry, and now it has become the top existence in Datang's shipbuilding industry. The Qin family not only has several large shipyards of its own, but also operates shipyards in partnership with many people in various places, from seagoing ships to From river boats to canal boats, it can be said that there is no boat and no boat.

  Shipbuilding is a high-tech industry, but also a high-profit industry, and even an industry with a large industrial chain. It requires not only technology but also capital and contacts, otherwise it will be difficult to operate.

  After seeing the camphor incense processing industry here in Futang, Qin Lang, Xu Jingzong and others came to Fuzhou again to watch the Mawei Shipyard.

   These prime ministers were also very surprised by the huge shipyard. Many ships were built in the dock at the same time, and what was once Mawei Village has now become Mawei Town, where shipbuilding-related industries are everywhere.

   Shipbuilding timbers are everywhere.

   There is also a Mawei Shipbuilding School in Mawei Town, which offers various related majors related to shipbuilding. It specializes in training various shipbuilders in large quantities, and directly enters the shipyard for internship after graduation.

   There are also water villages and land camps of the navy in Mawei Port, and there is even a naval academy.

   "Now it is mainly building sea ships, and more than half of the orders are for naval ships, various warships and transport ships."

  With the order of the Navy from the Ministry of War, it is enough for the Mawei Shipyard to be overwhelmed. A shipyard has countless related industries to settle down and develop together.

  Although the Qin family of this shipyard is one of the major shareholders, it is now mainly managed by the Shaofu Supervisor and the Ministry of Industry. For the Qin family, it can only get a large amount of dividends every year. However, Mawei Shipyard cannot do without the Qin family, because the Qin family almost outsourced the design, and the Qin family has a strong advantage in this regard.

   "I heard that Sanlang circled a lot of land on the opposite Liuqiu Island?"

   "That was when I first came to the island to open up. I did enclose some land."

Today's Liuqiu Island has been divided into four states, and it still belongs to Fujian Daoxia. Today's Liuqiu Island is well developed. The main purpose of the island is to develop agriculture. Because of the particularity of this island, it is closely related to the Central Plains It is a different development model.

Most of the above islands have been taken away in the past few decades. Now there are only some island tribes in the mountains, but they have long been subdued and surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. As for the plains, they are almost invisible now. , because the land in those plains has been enclosed long ago.

  Except for some Han people who immigrated from Fujian Province to distribute land and become landlords there, those powerful aristocrats from the Central Plains raced to enclose land and set up plantations there.

  The main thing is to grow sugar cane. Liuqiu is now an important sugar production area. There is a large amount of sugar cane planted here, and there are many sugar cane factories. Anyway, the Qin family owned a large number of sugarcane plantations on the island, and the sugarcane growers were all slaves, more than half of which were the island barbarians captured earlier.

Because the Qin family treated these islanders pretty well. They established a contract system for them, subcontracted the sugarcane gardens to those slaves, and rewarded those who exceeded the target output. Therefore, although they are slaves, they work hard and have enough food and clothing. If there is a problem, you can even have a little private property, and occasionally you can eat meat or something, and you can even marry a wife and have children.

  In addition to planting sugarcane, mining and logging, sulfur mines, copper iron, and gold mines on the island have been developed vigorously in recent years, and the demand for camphor incense has also driven the island's economy.

   But after all, this is a wild island that has only been conquered for a few decades. Although it is large, it is still a new world full of commercial villages, plantations, and mines. There are not many immigrants.

  It is very different from the Central Plains society. Although the imperial court also set up prefectures and counties here, it also organized townships and villages.

The islanders are often taken away as slaves, and the government also turns a blind eye. There are not enough immigrants. They are all manors and mines of nobles and powerful people, and slaves are everywhere. This model makes the island early It has been reduced to a colony of nobles and powerful people, and it is almost impossible to develop into a normal Datang county.

Just like the Qin family, they have no intention of serious business at all. They just regard this place as a source of resources, using Silla slaves, Baiji slaves, Goguryo slaves, Kunlun slaves, Turkic slaves, Nanman slaves, etc. to plant sugar cane here to make sugar, and also to grow cotton. Mining for gold.

  The money earned will not be invested on the island at all, but will be transferred to Luzon.

  Even the Qin family only used Liuqiu as a sugar cane planting place, and did not engage in sugar processing and refining on the island. After processing it into rough sugar on the island, it was directly shipped to Luzon, and then processed into white sugar and rock sugar in Luzon.

   Even the camphor purchased on the island is transported to Futang to be processed into camphor incense, camphor oil, perfume, etc.

  If there is no Lu Song, Qin Lang will definitely focus on managing Liuqiu, but since there is Lu Song, and Liu Qiu has already become the imperial court's administrative state and county, there is no need to waste too much energy there.

Now the development of Liuqiu is really deformed. There are too few immigrants. Over the past few years, there has not been any handicraft manufacturing. There is only basic agriculture, and then sugarcane planting and mining. Most of the handmade goods , have to be transported from the mainland.

  Although they only face each other across the sea and Shaanxi, they are separated by a strait after all.

  Although the immigrants on the island have been allocated a lot of land, there is no market for agricultural products. Although self-sufficiency does not need to go hungry, it is difficult to live a better life.

  The things in the fields are worthless, but the pots, pans, hoes, shovels, plows, etc. are not cheap, and the same is true for cattle and horses and other livestock. Their hard work is equivalent to being cut by scissors and leeks.

   It has been decades since Liuqiu was conquered and merged into Datang. The island is not even self-sufficient in salt. Basically, it is supplied by Guangyan salt or Huaiyan salt and Zhejiang salt.

Except for self-sufficiency in food, they are almost self-sufficient in other aspects. They have to rely on the supply from the mainland on the other side of the river, and all things have to be traded in the field. However, agricultural products are still cheap and cannot be sold at a high price, so Liuqiu immigrants have been in the past 20 to 30 years. , Life has always been barely enough to solve food and clothing.

Compared with Fujian on the other side, it is completely in two states. Although Fujian has more mountains and less land, it is like Fuzhou with Mawei Shipyard and Futang with camphor incense processing. They all have their own pillar industries, driving The development of local people.

  Mawei Town has a small population of 200,000 people, all of whom are related to shipbuilding, as well as the family members of the navy and the students of the shipbuilding school. With such a large population, it is itself a big consumer market. Those skilled shipbuilding workers can still get a good salary without farming.

Just like the chief designer sent by the Qin family in the shipyard, the monthly salary is as high as 1,000 guan, which is higher than the basic monthly salary of the prime minister, and those nine-level master craftsmen also earn more than 200 guan per month. Can have a hundred dollars of income.

A Mawei shipyard gave birth to a Mawei town, and also made Fuzhou City not far away a wealthy city in the southeast. It is these industrial workers who rely on the shipyard, ship material factory, ship cable ship, ship sail factory, and shipyard. Nail factory, ship paint factory, shipbuilding school, naval academy, naval battalion and so on.

   Besides the sugarcane plantations, cotton plantations, mines, and lumberyards, Liuqiu Island is just an immigrant village.

  Xu Jingzong was surprised when he heard this.

   Liuqiu Island sounds no worse than Luzon Island, even closer to the Central Plains, but it has been like this for decades, so why is Luzon so rich?

After resting in Fuzhou for two days, the fleet sailed east, directly to Liuqiu. After Xu Jingzong and others went to the island to visit many ports, towns and villages, they were indeed a little disappointed with this Haidong treasure island, which was completely a big country. .

  When they left, Cui Yixuan and other people who had been leisurely on the road before couldn't help feeling a little sad.

   Liu Qiu is so backward, how can Lu Song be any better?

  Thinking of staying on such a remote island like this for the rest of my life, I feel so sad.

  The fleet did not return to the southeast coast, but sailed directly to the deep sea, heading south to Luzon. After passing through some small islands, the continuous land of Luzon finally appeared.

  The ship sailed to Ningyuan Port in northern Luzon.

  Cui Yixuan and others crowded onto the deck, looking at the Ningyuan Port Wharf in front of them.

"That's it?"

   "This is Luzon?"

   "Didn't you say that Luzon is very rich and developed?"

   "Why do you think it is not as good as the ports on Liuqiu Island?"

   “It feels like it’s not even as good as Penghu Port.”

   "What's going on here?"

Qin Lang stepped out of the cabin, heard these doubts, and said with a smile, "Don't panic, everyone. This is Ningyuan Port in the northern part of Luzon. Hong Kong, Yancheng and Lancheng in the south are far more lively and prosperous than here. The state city of Ningyuan Prefecture is in the middle and upper reaches of Ningyuan River. This is really just a small port. Jinshan, also known as Whale Harbor, is already a big port with a population of 100,000."

   "And San Francisco, also known as Longgang, has just exceeded 200,000 households."

   "The household registration in Ningyuan Port has just exceeded 3,000 households. It is mainly based on agricultural planting and fishing, so it is indeed not developed yet."

  After hearing this, the expressions on Cui Yixuan and the others' faces improved a little, but they were still dubious.

   Can Longgang, San Francisco have 200,000 households? Xinjinshan Whale Harbor has 100,000 households? Bragging, didn't Luzon say that there were only a million or so immigrant Han Chinese in total?

  (end of this chapter)