Chastity Layman

"We brought a total of more than 7,000 people from central Guizhou, and recruited more than 3,000 people from Rongzhou, Yizhou, and Liuzhou."

Xunzhou, Guangxi, Guiping Port.

Zhang Chao reported to Qin Lang with satisfaction, "These people are all excited about the gold panning dream of Treasure Island in the East China Sea."

After Qin Lang left Dongning Mansion, he came all the way. He took the Yingliu Road, that is, he walked along the Rongshui of the Duliu River. The road along this road is all backward and remote mountainous areas. Many people plant some crops in the crevices of the rocks. Then watch the sky and eat. These years, this road connects Guizhou and Guizhou. Many people come to the caravan, or stretch their muscles, or work as porters. Although life is much better than before, they can barely get enough food and clothing.

And the poor always like to have more children. This has not changed from ancient times to the present.

No matter how hard you work, strength is cheap after all. If you have too many children, you will not be able to feed them enough. Zhang Chao just sent people along the road to publicize it, and countless people were moved.

Many people with children may still be hesitating, but some young people who have nothing to worry about resolutely decide to go gold digging.

After all, he was walking with Duke Wei. Although Duke Wei had only walked this road twice, Duke Wei's name would be a thunderous name even for foolish men and women in remote mountains.

And there is a gold and silver island in the East China Sea. The island is full of gold and silver. The stories and legends of many people who went to pan for gold and became rich overnight have actually been passed down by merchants, but everyone was dubious before.

But now that it is Wei Guogong who said this, of course it is worth believing, and it is worth a try.

"Have you paid the settlement fee?"

"Yes, 3,000 yuan per person." Zhang Chao nodded, "I don't understand, we are taking these people to pan for gold to make a fortune, why should we pay them the transportation fee, the boat ticket, and the food? Settlement fee?"

Qin Lang smiled.

"It's because others trust me, Qin Lang, so we can't live up to this trust. Besides, it's true that they go to pan for gold to make a fortune, but they are also of great help to us when they go to Luzon to pan for gold. We have to look at it in the long run. You Seeing that we are giving some settling allowances now, wouldn’t their families feel at ease? Besides, didn’t the local government dispel their doubts and even express their support?”

Besides, wool always comes from sheep.

This is Qin Lang, if others recruit people like this, how many local officials are willing?

Although the imperial court has vigorously promoted industry and commerce in recent years, has not suppressed mergers, and encouraged the urban economy, so it no longer blindly restrains the people on the land and allows the people to move conditionally, but for local officials, population is still an important issue. performance indicators.

Without a population, how can we talk about political achievements?

Therefore, there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. Local officials are restricting population outflow and encouraging inflow. If you dare to recruit people in such a large number, the government will definitely embarrass you, and even directly convict you.

So Qin Lang not only gave the people who went to pan for gold three guan qian per person to settle down, but even paid two thousand qian per head to the local government.

Anyway, for Qin Lang, everything has a cost, and the reasonable cost must be spent.

They recruited all the way along the way, and when they arrived in Xunzhou, they had already recruited over 10,000 people. This is why Qin Lang's name is good, otherwise the local garrison would be alarmed.

More than 10,000 people spent more than 50,000 guan on settling expenses and labor costs to the local government, and then they had to be responsible for food and drink, even tents and blankets for sleeping, etc., as well as renting boats for transportation and expenses. huge.

However, Qin Lang has now met the people from the fiefdom, and has a detailed understanding of the current situation in Luzon. After another year of development in Luzon, the rapid development there is now very gratifying.

There are already more than 50,000 gold diggers, and the Qin family has also built towns, farms, docks, and handicraft workshops in Luzon, which already has a preliminary scale.

Now there can accommodate more gold diggers, and more immigrants are needed.

Now that the conditions are so good, Qin Lang certainly doesn't want to miss the opportunity, so he has to speed up his pace.

It is true that many Luzon gold diggers have made a fortune. Although only a few lucky ones made a fortune, even the vast majority of other ordinary gold diggers, their income is far better than that in the Central Plains.

Many people worked hard to pan for gold, and then sent the money back to their hometowns. Because the boat tickets were expensive and it took time to go back and forth, everyone made up their minds to work hard on Treasure Island for a few years, and maybe they would be the next lucky one.

Even if you are really unlucky, if you dig hard for a few years, you will be able to make a lot of money by then.

Now Luzon is very lively, but there is a relatively big problem, that is, most of the gold diggers just come to make a fortune. They work hard to pan for gold, and then send the money back home. No one wants to stay or send their family members. bring.

Although the Qin family has begun to offer many attractive settlement rewards, such as those who voluntarily stay and settle, can obtain a large piece of land, and even allow them to choose freely.

The larger the population, the more land they can get, as long as they can reclaim wasteland, and these lands are completely rent-free for the first five years, with an increase of 20% each year for the next five years, until full rent is charged in the eleventh year.

And even if it's a full rent, the Qin family's rent is very low now.

This rent is equivalent to the land tax of the imperial court, but the Qin family now uses the name of land rent to avoid some troubles. Land rent is levied in rice, and only three liters of rice are collected per mu, and rice is not directly collected. If you grow cotton, sugar cane and other crops, you are also allowed to exchange money, or you can buy rice by yourself and turn it in.

Except for the land rent of three liters per mu, no additional fees will be collected.

This is quite a good condition. You must know that even in the Central Plains where the people's burden has been greatly reduced after the reform of the tax system, there are two taxes. In addition to the land tax, there is also a household tax. As for the land tax, there are additional righteous warehouse grain, communal warehouse grain, and dime money spread into the fields.

But what the Qin family is doing in Luzon is very simple now. There is no poll tax, no land money, and no money for commuting labor. They just levy rice per mu, and three liters per mu, and you don’t need to pay nine. Calculated by two meters, for example, one hundred catties of rice is converted into seventy catties of rice when paying taxes.

There is no need to pay any additional consumption, and there will be no fire consumption.

It will not require everyone to only pay rice or have to pay it in exchange for money, and will not give profiteers the opportunity to exploit the common people. For example, the consumption of the Ming Dynasty was astonishing, and when the common people paid taxes, they had to pay a lot more. Then those tax-collecting subordinates may deliberately use the excuse that the food is not dry, etc., to levy more.

And if the discount is forced, then during the tax season, merchants will deliberately suppress the price of grain, and the common people have to sell grain for money to pay taxes. Normally, a stone of rice may be two silver coins, but the merchants deliberately join forces to lower the price. In the end, the common people may only be able to sell for one Money is half a stone. Most of the people have no money at hand, and can only endure the deliberate exploitation of profiteers.

The Qin family doesn't do this kind of thing, and the mu levy is three liters, and there is no other increase.

Such conditions should have been very good, but after all, Luzon is overseas. For many people, it is hard work for a while, and they will desperately seek gold for a few years here, and then return to their hometown, buy land and land, or marry a wife and have children. It is good to make capital and do some small business.

Staying here, most people don't even think about it.

Qin Lang wants to keep the people on Luzon Island, but it is still very difficult. He can only find a way to increase the number of people on the island by panning for gold, and then rely on more and more gold diggers to drive the consumption demand on the island. Slow perfection.

"Why didn't Saburo just buy more slaves and ship them over?"

Qin Lang could only smile.

He can't go to Luzon to be a slave owner, and his hands are full of black, white, and brown slaves. What's the point of that?

He wanted to develop Luzon and colonize overseas, and he wanted to establish an overseas Qin family, and he wanted the Han people to spread the Han civilization overseas.

Otherwise, Qin Lang would not be so complicated. With his current strength, it would not be difficult for him to go to the Indo-China Peninsula to conquer some local barbarians and call himself king.

But when the people are all barbarians?

After a few generations, wouldn't Qin Lang's descendants also become barbarians?

When Huaxia enters barbarians, they will be barbarians, which is not what Qin Lang wants.

Qin Lang wanted to turn the land of barbarians into China, not to turn his descendants into barbarians.

Qin Lang doesn't need that little tax now, and collecting too much tax is nothing like killing the chicken to get the eggs. He wants to raise chickens now, he wants the chickens to lay eggs, and the eggs lay eggs.

Therefore, not only the land rent is very low, but also there are no pennies, miscellaneous fees, and no forced labor. It is industry and commerce, and there is no tax.

Now Luzon doesn't even have tariffs. It only charges one per cent for every commodity, so it is called lijin, which can be described as very low.

This lijin is a transaction tax, which is levied at the place of sale and collected from merchants, but it is not levied on merchants, that is, no passing tax is levied.

These are all to promote the development of Luzon Island and attract and encourage more business people to come here.

But now the industries on the island are basically owned by the Qin family, from the bank to the gold shop, from the tailor shop to the tool store, to brothels, restaurants, and teahouses, all belong to the Qin family.

There are more and more people on the island, gold diggers are increasing, rice farms, cotton plantations, sugar cane plantations, jute plantations, etc. are all increasing, and various handmade commodity workshops are also improving, but the problem is still outstanding. The people who come here revolve around panning for gold.

However, there are not many formal immigrants and settlers. Even with so many favorable conditions, it is still impossible to retain people.

The stewards were at a loss, Qin Lang planned to go there in person to break the stiffness and open up the situation.

The more than 10,000 people recruited this time were all recruited from the most remote mountainous areas. They were basically jobless people, and they even had no worries. Qin Lang felt that after these people arrived in Luzon, they might slowly Attracted, willing to choose to stay and settle down.

Although there are many natives on Luzon Island, Qin Lang is not very interested in them. He may accept the natives in the future, but what he needs more now is the people from the Central Plains. The barbarians are also far more reliable than the natives on the island.

"Our Wu'an prefecture has already had a population of one million in just a dozen years. Luzon is such a big place and so fertile, but it is unexpected that it will not be able to retain people." Zhang Chao lamented.

"Then how can it be the same? After all, Luzon is overseas. Maybe in fifteen or sixteen years, there will be a big change there. Some people may be willing to stay by then, but right now, it really makes people hesitate."

"I think there is still not enough publicity. Many people have not seen it with their own eyes. For example, these people recruited this time eat bran and swallow vegetables here, and they are not covered with clothes. Do you want to give them one or two in Luzon Island? Isn’t it good to be a self-cultivator on a hundred acres of land? Isn’t it good to rent three liters per mu?”

Qin Lang smiled and said, "I think if it's just these things, it will be difficult to retain people. We have neglected an important thing before. We have to recruit some women to go there. Let them get married at that time, and it will definitely be easier to retain people. .”

"It's not easy. These poor men are single and have nothing to worry about. Of course they are willing to venture out, but which woman dares to venture outside? Anyone who has a family will not feel at ease."

"So we have to find a way, such as giving their families more settling expenses, or even guaranteeing that if they marry in the future, they will give their family a dowry money?" Qin Lang said.

"If you're looking for it in those mountainous areas, it's possible. Many barbarians in the mountains don't treat women as human beings, so they would definitely be willing to exchange them for money. Why should we waste all our energy and money?"

"It's all for the future of Luzon."

Zhang Chao sighed, "This is a loss-making business, it's too bad!"