The most arrogant in history

Chapter 260 Small moves.

Wei Dingshan was a vassal, and according to etiquette, his body had to be kept for forty-nine days.

Ye Kun couldn't wait any longer, so he consulted with Wei Ning and decided to change the date to the 21st.

Wei Ning was also eager to attack Kuai Qu and others, so he announced a simple funeral.

Twenty-one days later, after Wei Dingshan was buried, Ye Kun said goodbye to Wei Caiqin and planned to return to Chengdu.

Wei Caiqin naturally had to stay and mourn for her father.

"Brother Ye, I am in deep mourning and cannot go to see my mother-in-law. Please apologize to her on my behalf." Wei Caiqin was still in grief and held Ye Kun's hand:

"I will go to see my mother-in-law next year. When you return to Chengdu, don't worry about me. Just write to me often when you have time."

"Qin'er, take care of yourself too. I'll leave a few people behind to deliver your letters by carrier pigeon. No matter what happens, you must tell me."

Ye Kun was reluctant to leave, so he hugged Wei Caiqin and waved goodbye.

It has been a long time since I left Chengdu. If I don't go back, Han Chun, Xie Tong and others will probably whisper in private or even do something small.

Yan Liuhai led the troops and stayed in Changsha to support Wei Ning in suppressing the rebellion. He was also responsible for coordinating the relationship between Wei Ning and Shangguan Jifu.

Ye Kun led his personal troops and traveled day and night, returning to Chongqing three days later.

The project of cutting through mountains and building roads in the west of Chongqing has already begun.

Fortunately, during the mountain excavation process, an iron mine and a small coal mine were found.

Ye Kun stayed for two days, directed the mining work on site, set up a coking plant and an ironmaking plant, and required that they be put into stable production within a month.

When I returned to Chengdu, it was already early October.

Early winter.

Everything was safe in Yizhou, and the autumn grain harvest was great.

He Tiantian was very happy. He took out the tin foil can that he made last time and said with a smile:

"Master Ye, this can has been preserved for a month. It is really not bad. It is edible and smells good."

"If you lose the bet, what do you want to lose to me?" Ye Kun said with a smile.

"I have saved a year's salary, plus the reward from Lord Ye, which makes 1,000 taels of silver. I will give it to you."

"Forget it, you can keep it as a dowry." Ye Kun smiled and said:

"Go get the blueprints and ask the blacksmith and kiln master to come over. We'll design a coal stove and make honeycomb coal so that we can eat hot pot in winter."

The large coal mines in southern Sichuan have begun to produce coal stably and carry out on-site coking.

The first batch of coking coal, weighing 100,000 kilograms, was delivered to Chengdu.

From now on, 10,000 kilograms of coking coal will be delivered every day.

Ye Kun planned to make a batch of honeycomb coal and send it to local governors and Chengdu officials to let them see it.

As long as they realize the wonderful uses of coal, these guys will not oppose coal mining.

The mold for honeycomb coal is very simple, the kind used for hand-squeezing, and the blacksmith can just rub it with his hands.

The design of the coal furnace is also simple, mainly the refractory furnace. If a high-temperature crucible can be made, an ordinary furnace is no problem.

When making honeycomb coal, Ye Kun also mixed in some clay to prevent the coal balls from sticking together.

In the Yizhou region, the era of using coke to make steel officially began.

In the northern part of the Dading Kingdom, there were also experiments in coal-based steelmaking, but they did not understand the principle of making coke before steelmaking. The sulfur and phosphorus in the coal were mixed into the steel, resulting in very poor quality of the steel.

In the Wu and Yue areas of the south of the Yangtze River, charcoal is used for coking, which has a very low sulfur content and the quality of steel is better than that of steel made from coal.

Wu Gou and Wu Ge are both famous weapons in the world because of their good quality.

It is a foregone conclusion that Ye Kun uses coke to make steel, and the quality is better than Wu Yue’s steel products.

The iron ore is in Qionglai Mountain and the coal mine is in southern Sichuan. It is impossible to send them all to Chengdu for steelmaking.

Ye Kun planned a highway between the Qilian Mountains and southern Sichuan, and selected the middle area to build a large steel plant.

A large cement plant was built nearby because iron ore slag and iron smelting slag can be used to make cement!

Ma Zhao was worried, and brought Han Chun and Xie Tong to Ye Kun to report the situation, saying:

"Master Ye, we mine coal, cut mountains and build roads, and smelt steel and iron. Many poor people have stopped farming and go to work in mines and iron factories. If this continues, farmland will be abandoned and famine will occur!"

It was normal for the ancients to have this concern.

Food is the primary need of the people, and food production is the most important.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang governed the land of Bashu. He did not value the silver and gold of Zhuti and Hanjia. He once said: "The silver and gold of Zhuti are not enough to feed ourselves. We should focus on agriculture..."

Translated, it means that gold and silver cannot fill your stomach, you need to grow more grain!

Ye Kun smiled and asked, "Excuse me, gentlemen, is there any abandoned farmland in Shu?"

"Not yet, but I can't say for sure next year." Han Chun was very unhappy and said:

"Master Ye's hydraulic workshop, coking plant, coal refinery, textile factory, porcelain kiln factory, and bridge and road construction have absorbed tens of thousands of strong laborers in Yizhou. The wages are relatively high, and the food and drink conditions are good. Of course, the poor are unwilling to farm the land!"

Ye Kun was so angry that he laughed and asked back:

"I treat the people well, giving them jobs, food and money to spend. Is that wrong? Don't you gentlemen always say that you want to benefit the people? Do you think that the poor people have to be poor all their lives, working the land for you and working like slaves?"

Han Chun and Xie Tong were speechless.

Ye Kun paused and said:

"In ancient times, there was slavery, including the current Western Qiang, Southern Barbarians, and Northern Xiongnu areas. But later, our Chinese land abolished slavery and turned it into a feudal system with county management, which is called feudalism. Facts have proved that the productivity of the feudal system is greater than that of the slave system, so our great country of China is much stronger than the surrounding barbarians."

Ma Zhao frowned: "We are a country of etiquette, and the division of counties and prefectures is a benevolent and righteous act."

"Bullshit!" Ye Kun said without any hesitation, glaring:

“The transition from slavery to the feudal system was not because the slave owners had a change of heart, but because they found that controlling slaves was very costly and that they were not getting any results, so it was better to let them go, which would create more wealth.”

If slavery makes a country strong and its rulers worry-free, then the whole world will still be a slavery country for the next ten thousand years!

It is nonsense to expect slave owners to have a change of heart and promote social progress.

Seeing Ye Kun getting angry, Xie Tong and others didn't dare to say anything.

Ye Kun added: "So if we take another step and allow the people to choose their own occupations, social productivity will increase again. As for the farming problem, don't worry, I will accept a large number of refugees."

Han Chun was startled and waved his hands, saying, "Lord Ye, we can't take in too many refugees. Yizhou only has this little land..."

Ye Kun sneered: "Lord Han, you just said that no one cultivates the land in Yizhou, and now you say that there is only this much land. I don't understand, which of your statements is true?"

Han Chun and Xie Tong were both sweating.

"I know what you are thinking. It's all written on your faces." Ye Kun continued to hit Han Chun and Xie Tong:

"You are not worried about the lack of people to cultivate the land, but you are worried that the poor people under your command will run away and your power will become smaller and smaller, right? What about the abandoned land? That's all nonsense. I brought a curved plow to Yizhou, which changed from two oxen pulling a pole to one ox pulling a plow, greatly improving the speed of cultivation. The area of ​​cultivated land has increased, and the grain output has also increased a lot. Isn't it worse than before?

I produced high-speed spinning machines and flying shuttle looms, allowing rural women to spend more time on agricultural production. How come there is no one cultivating the land? "

Xie Tong didn't dare to talk nonsense anymore, and bowed:

"Master Ye, we are just concerned about agriculture and preparing for a rainy day. Since Master Ye has a plan to deal with it, we are not worried anymore."

Ye Kun waved his hand and asked Xie Tong and Han Chun to leave.

But he kept Ma Zhao.

Ma Zhao didn't understand what Ye Kun meant, so he frowned and remained silent.

Ye Kun smiled and said, "Master Ma, do you know why Han Chun and Xie Tong came to me to talk about this?"