OBS Chapter 765: You didn't teach them benevolence and morality, did you?
Chapter 765: You didn't teach them benevolence and morality, did you?
Q: What does it feel like to be betrayed by your own husband?
A: I didn't feel anything at all, and even felt it was normal.
As for being used as a scapegoat by Li Shanchang, the dozen or so students from Ningyang County present said they didn't care at all.
Travel to all the prefectures, states, and counties near the capital?
Let alone the entire capital, what difference would it make even if I traveled all over Zhili?
As the old man once said, one has no right to speak about a place without personally visiting and investigating it.
Auditing five-year plans of numerous states and counties?
Hilarious! Does this mean no one has ever audited the five-year plans of the ten counties under Dengzhou Prefecture? Or does it mean no one has ever audited the five-year plans of Dengzhou Prefecture itself?
Our master has become increasingly lazy in recent years. He personally drafted the first five-year plan for Dengzhou Prefecture, while the second five-year plan was handled by Xu Jingyu, the executive deputy prefect of Dengzhou Prefecture and magistrate of Penglai County, with us, his servants, assisting from the sidelines.
Furthermore, the five-year plan for Ningyang County was directly drafted by us and had already been prepared by the end of the fifth year of the Hongwu reign.
Therefore, Li Xiang's so-called five-year plan is, to us, tsk tsk.
It was just an opportunity to visit the local customs and culture of Jiangnan.
Li Shanchang also keenly noticed the strange expressions on the faces of the students from Ningyang County.
None of the students seemed nervous; on the contrary, they were all trying hard to suppress their laughter.
Li Shanchang stroked his beard and pondered for a moment, then suddenly looked at Yang Shaofeng and said, "Well, I remember the Prince Consort once said, 'If you want to get rich, build roads first.'"
"How about this, I'll have someone invite the Minister of Works... no, I mean the Minister of Transportation, to my home, and we can discuss the road construction matter first?"
After saying that, Li Shanchang did not wait for Yang Shaofeng's reply. He directly summoned Li Cunyi and instructed him: "Go to the Ministry of Transportation and have the Minister of Transportation bring the summary report on road construction over the past two years to his home."
Li Cunyi bowed and agreed, then hurried away. Li Shanchang looked at Yang Shaofeng and said, "Speaking of road construction, I suddenly remembered the issue of the population of each prefecture."
"After all, road construction requires manpower, and farming also requires manpower. There are hardly any days of leisure time for farmers throughout the year, so the time available for road construction is even less."
"But other state capitals don't have that many people."
"What are your thoughts, Your Highness?"
As Li Shanchang finished speaking, all the students from Ningyang County present were dumbfounded.
It's normal to be short-staffed, but the problem is, Li Xiang, isn't it a bit much for you to use this issue to test our master?
Is this a problem that our husband can solve?
However, Yang Shaofeng rolled his eyes and retorted, "Who said that road construction has to be done by the people of the Ming Dynasty? There are plenty of cheap laborers. Where can't we find tens or hundreds of thousands? With so many vassal states, it would be easy to gather a million laborers."
Putting aside other places, South Korea alone can provide 100,000 laborers.
If you include Annam, Siam, and all those other messy vassal states, you could easily pull together hundreds of thousands of laborers.
If we were to bring in laborers on a large scale like Dengzhou Prefecture, each provincial administration could easily be allocated 100,000 people.
It's all because Li Shanchang and Lao Deng kept dragging their feet and refused to bring in large numbers, which led to a shortage of manpower in various prefectures and counties.
Li Shanchang's face darkened, and he snorted coldly, "Your Highness, you talk about a million laborers all the time, but have you ever calculated how much food a million laborers eat in a day?"
"Furthermore, bringing in a million laborers means that millions of Ming Dynasty citizens will lose the opportunity to work and earn money, and it also means that millions of families will be affected."
"What's worse, with a million able-bodied laborers scattered throughout the Ming Dynasty, what would happen if trouble broke out?"
Faced with Li Shanchang's question, Yang Shaofeng simply chuckled lightly, then turned his gaze to the group of students from Ningyang County, pointed to one of them, and said, "Hao Fanwu, you answer Prime Minister Li's question."
Hao Fanwu stood up, cupped his hands and bowed to Li Shanchang, saying, "Reporting to Prime Minister Li, in my humble opinion, the million laborers consume about two million catties of grain every day. However, the grain consumed by the laborers is actually an opportunity for the people of our Great Ming to make money, and it is also an opportunity for our Great Ming to develop deep-sea fishing."
No one stipulated that the laborers had to be fed white flour buns.
Although laborers do physical labor and need to eat well and have sufficient nutrition, seaweed is not something that can't be eaten, nor is it devoid of nutrition.
Although mantis shrimp have little meat and are troublesome to eat, coastal people usually use them to feed pigs even if they catch them. But no one stipulates that laborers cannot eat them. At worst, they can just roast them until they are crispy and eat them shell and all.
There are so many big fish at sea, especially whales. It doesn't matter if the meat tastes good or not, as long as it can fill the stomachs of the laborers. Whale oil can also be used to make candles, and then sold to the market to make money.
It is said that some whales contain ambergris in their bodies, which makes them even more valuable.
Therefore, while importing laborers would indeed consume a large amount of food, it could also accelerate the construction of roads, bridges, and other projects, and at the same time improve the Ming Dynasty's deep-sea fishing industry, which could be considered a win-win situation.
After briefly explaining some of the ways of playing in Dengzhou to Li Shanchang, Hao Fanwu continued, "As for Prime Minister Li's concerns that laborers will take away the people's opportunities to make money, and that laborers will cause trouble, I also have some humble opinions."
"The first issue is how to stabilize the workforce."
“Now a laborer’s daily wage is ten coins, and it is settled with the household affairs department of each vassal state.”
"The students discussed it privately and thought that the wages of the laborers could be slightly increased to thirteen coins and settled in two parts."
"First, the original ten-copper-coin wage will continue to be settled with the household registration officials of each vassal state."
"Secondly, the increased three coins were directly distributed to the workers on a monthly basis."
"In this way, the laborers can use these three coins to buy things they think they need in the Ming Dynasty, or to improve their lives."
At this point, Hao Fanwu's face showed a hint of embarrassment: "If possible, we can also bring in more Japanese women and open some brothels next to the construction site."
"In addition, the length of service for workers can be set, such as one year, two years or three years."
"..."
Li Shanchang was completely dumbfounded.
Yang the Madman, you taught them all sorts of nonsense, but you didn't teach them how to write the four characters for benevolence, righteousness, and morality, did you?
Look at this, look at this! Is this something a bunch of teenagers should be studying?!
Their hearts are all black!
Just as Li Shanchang was internally ranting, Hao Fanwu gave his final summary: "We students have also heard that Japanese pirates have been frequently invading our Ming Dynasty's coastal borders recently. We students believe that we should order the coastal garrisons to send troops to search for and capture them, and then send them to Dengzhou to do hard labor. These Japanese pirates don't need to eat well, nor do they need wages..."