“Having children exempts from taxes!”
“A subsidy of five Golden Dragons for each child!”
“…”
Amidst the festive New Year atmosphere, the policy encouraging childbirth spread throughout the Great Yu Empire via newspapers.
Now, for scholars of the Great Yu Empire, newspapers were the barometer of the Great Yu Empire’s trends. Many scholars even collected newspapers to consult the policies enacted by the Great Yu Empire over time.
The newsboys’ tender voices made many people chuckle. They took out copper coins one after another to buy newspapers and learn about this newly enacted decree.
Undoubtedly, for officials, merchants, or common people alike, this decree was a joyous occasion. For families who still wished to have children, they would receive a substantial income.
Such a beneficial decree naturally spread the fastest. After the New Year, this decree was transmitted from Qingzhou Province to other provinces, and various provincial offices also increased their propaganda efforts.
Within half a year, all the common people in the northern prefectures and counties learned of this childbirth encouragement policy.
And the effect brought by this policy was that many young and strong men in the Great Yu Empire grew thinner before spring began. The trend of competing to have children gradually expanded.
However, this decree also gave the ministers a reason to have Xiao Ming continuously produce heirs. He unwillingly fell into the trap he dug for himself. After Cui Xue’er conceived, Lu Luo and Ziyuan also successively conceived. The imperial family’s descendants would increase to four.
While the north was executing childbirth as a war, the accumulated contradictions in the State of Chu erupted.
On June 13th, Jiang Ying, a general under Li Chuyuan, led eighty thousand soldiers to attack Suzhou. The two sides clashed in Wuxian, the southern gateway to Suzhou.
At the same time, two other major generals, Hua Cheng and Liu Xu, each led fifty thousand men to attack Jiaxing and Songjiang. For a time, the south was filled with gunsmoke.
“Your Majesty, I have already dispatched soldiers equipped with ‘Falcon Rifles’ to Jinling Province. The remaining twenty thousand men are estimated to complete equipping and training by September.”
In the General Staff Department of the Qingzhou Grand Camp, Niu Ben reported the army’s deployment to Xiao Ming.
After Niu Ben finished speaking, Luo Quan said, “On the naval side, we have already conveyed orders for them to be ready at any time. The cannery in Dengzhou is also working day and night to produce canned goods for wartime use.”
“Hmm, excellent. This time, logistics must absolutely not involve large-scale mobilization of hundreds of thousands of commoners as before. With canned goods, we must leverage their advantages and primarily use the army’s own logistics units,” Xiao Ming instructed.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Niu Ben and Luo Quan said in unison.
Xiao Ming nodded. He had received news of the State of Chu’s war breaking out before it officially began.
For Li Chuyuan, the soldiers trained for over half a year were sufficient for use. With this confidence, he formally declared war on the merchants’ council.
As for Cao Kun, he did not initially have enough confidence to defeat Li Chuyuan, as the merchants’ council’s power was still somewhat weak.
However, for the past six months, he had actively expanded his army. The number of troops controlled by the merchants’ council doubled, and they gained confidence.
Having arranged his army, Xiao Ming returned to the palace. Immediately after, he summoned Pang Yukun. The Great Yu Empire’s Grand Secretariat was officially fully staffed during the New Year.
Besides Pang Yukun and Fei Ji, there were now Zhan Xingchang, Ge Yiren, Yang Chengye, Chang Yuchun, Kong Yong’an, Chao Jun, and others.
Among these nine, Pang Yukun remained the Senior Grand Secretary, responsible for overall coordination. Therefore, Xiao Ming could sometimes just directly approach Pang Yukun.
According to the plan, he would march south this autumn. By then, Li Chuyuan and Cao Kun, who had been fighting for three or four months, would probably both be exhausted. At that time, he could easily sweep them aside. However, compared to the sparsely populated Guandong, the south was a densely populated area with many cities.
Once war broke out, it would inevitably cause displacement among the common people, and at that moment, it would be the perfect opportunity to guide the population flow.
He had summoned Pang Yukun this time precisely for this matter.
“According to Lin Wentao’s statistics, the number of steam engines sold to the common people in Qingzhou Province last year reached two thousand units. Even if a merchant’s factory uses four steam engines, the Great Yu Empire has now established five hundred steam-powered factories. And this number increased even more rapidly in the first half of this year, reaching the total quantity of last year in just half a year. This shows the merchants’ enthusiasm for building factories since the railway opened.”
After a pause, Xiao Ming continued, “And the imperial court’s official factories have developed even faster than private factories, using more steam engines. However, the result of this is a current shortage of workers in Qingzhou Province.”
Pang Yukun nodded. Last year, the Great Yu Empire issued a series of specialized terms. Workshops were officially renamed factories, and artisans were renamed workers.
So, he understood what Xiao Ming was saying.
“I understand Your Majesty’s meaning. Currently, the Great Yu Empire’s industry is mainly concentrated north of the Yangtze River. This is difficult to change in the short term. Therefore, the north of the Yangtze River needs more common people to enter factories as workers. And the current chaos in the south presents us with this opportunity. If handled properly, the Great Yu Empire’s industry will experience another surge.”
A faint smile appeared on Xiao Ming’s lips. Pang Yukun had keen insight. It was a clear fact that the resources brought by the railway, the profits from the northern expedition, and the Goryeo market provided funds. Now, the bottleneck in industrial development was the mobile workforce. The current chaos in the south filled this gap, and industry would naturally boom. Cities along the railway would surely see great development.
“That’s right. In addition, the Grand Secretariat must quickly draft preferential policies for migrating people to Guandong. I will give you a strict order: you must migrate at least three million people to settle in Guandong this time,” Xiao Ming said.
“Three million!” Pang Yukun immediately felt immense pressure. Although this number was not large relative to the Great Yu Empire’s total population, this was no small project. To achieve this, he would need to mobilize many officials.
Gritting his teeth, Pang Yukun hardened his resolve and said, “Yes, Your Majesty, I guarantee its completion.”
“Excellent,” Xiao Ming said. “Oh, by the way, how is production in Guandong recovering now?”
Pang Yukun said, “After the war ended last year, the household registration system for the Guandong people has been perfected, and land has been distributed to the Guandong common people. At the same time, because Guandong was a blank slate, I implemented a household contract responsibility system according to Your Majesty’s orders, with production managed by production teams. According to the feedback I have received, the Guandong common people welcome this land contract responsibility system and are very active in cultivating their own farmland. Coupled with the fertile land in Guandong, they had a great harvest before the New Year, and the second wheat harvest is about to begin.”
“If the effect is good, then Qingzhou Province and other provincial offices should gradually abolish collective labor in production teams. After all, collective production encourages laziness. However, production teams cannot be abolished. They must still be responsible for supervising and assisting the common people in production.”
Previously, Xiao Ming promoted collective production because production tools were scarce, but now it was different. The development of animal husbandry in recent years had greatly increased the number of draft cattle.
Moreover, the development of the steel industry also allowed sickles, steam threshers, drill seeders, and animal-powered harvesters to enter civilian use. For him, it was time to boost the common people’s enthusiasm for production and elevate agriculture to a new level.