Sorry, I'm busy with business on Monday, and more tomorrow

Information about the changes in the situation outside the customs can be said to be delivered to Li Han as soon as possible

At that time, he had already arrived in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, which had just been incorporated into his own rule, is a large-capital province. Although the total population is not high in the province controlled by Li Han, it has a high status in China's territory that has been planned in Li Han's mind. The reason is that Shanxi Province has rich mineral resources, including coal, bauxite, iron, etc., which are uniquely coal resources, distributed in many counties in the province. In later generations, Shanxi has been elites for half a century, mainly energy and metallurgy, and has barely been regarded as an industrial strong province. Unfortunately, the light industry is too poor, coupled with historical problems and some government officials in later generations only value immediate interests in exchange for their careers, and do not care about rational planning of the industrial development prospects of Shanxi Province. As a result, an industrial strong province that should have become the Ruhr area in Asia has become a pure energy and primary mineral export base. Its status in the national economic system is far inferior to its potential foundation.

Of course, the future prospects of Shanxi are still in his imagination, and it is only in his mind. After all, Shanxi is now small and has a large population, and the industry is not well developed. Many people can only rely on a few acres of thin fields to make a living, and the land in Shanxi is not very fertile. Therefore, although the cost of irrigation grain production in Chengze Yellow River system has always been higher in the past than in some major agricultural provinces in the south. Last year, the provinces under the control of Li Han, especially Hubei, were in Sichuan. The mixed grains in the two major provinces in Sichuan have been introduced and cultivated for more than a year. After more than a year of introduction and cultivation of good varieties, the western military government has been vigorously promoting the plan of "mixed grains instead of good grains". Under the impact of high-yield mixed grains, the income of the people in this era is naturally willing to choose low-priced and not bad taste for buying mixed grains. Various measures have led to a sharp drop in the prices of grains in the west, which has led to a significant difference between the western region and other provinces in the country. The price difference between the western region and other provinces in the country has become more and more obvious.

Although the local grain prices in Shanxi have fallen to a certain extent, they are not obvious. Moreover, under the rule of the Beiyang government, the Lijin checkpoints have not been abolished. Both the landlords, the people and the grain merchants are actually victims of high grain prices. Although Yang Shande was not smart during his reign, he also understood the reason that the people could not starve to death. Therefore, he turned a blind eye to the low-priced grain in the west and sold it to Shanxi through Shaanxi. His semi-indulgence caused the grain in the west to flock. In the face of the low-priced grain in the west, the local grain in Shanxi had almost no competitiveness.

Because of this, at the end of last year, the early this year, a grain purchase and sales war broke out between high-yield and low-priced grain noodles in the west and high-priced white noodles in Shanxi. Originally, there were many ticket numbers in Shanxi Province. Although there had been a decline in modern times, the lean camels were larger than horses. Shanxi merchants, like Hui merchants, are still one of the most active capitals in this country. Local capital in Shanxi saw the influx of low-priced grain in the west, and thought about the previous "Battle of Yuan", which caused by the war in Shanxi Province.

At that time, due to the war, western merchants cut off grain exports under the high pressure of the military government to avoid flowing into the hands of hostile forces and become military rations. Seeing that the food prices in the western region were still low, they thought it was profitable, and they all ate in it. They even went crazy to say "how much to eat as much as you come", and they desperately paid the money to the bank to pay the money while controlling the grain source and maintaining the high grain prices in Shanxi Province and profiting from the people. On the other hand, they took the opportunity to hoard grain to cope with the collision between Wuchang and Beijing again in the future.

In a sense, the Shanxi merchants have indeed had a good vision, but it’s a pity that they underestimated the high-yield grain production in the western region. Since they mastered Shaanxi and Gansu and Qinghai two years ago, the military government’s land reclamation and construction corps have built many farms in various places. They used semi-mechanized production of major farms. After knowing that Shanxi purchased at high prices and obtained the approval of Wuchang, they transported nearly 10,000 tons of low-priced grains to Shanxi in just one month, and took away a large amount of silver from the Shanxi merchants who were approaching the Beiyang government.

The input is greater than selling, and the local forces in Shanxi only lasted for less than two months. The grain prices in Shanxi Province fell sharply. Those speculators could not afford to eat and threw out the grain in their hands. This sale led to the decline in the grain prices in the hands of major grain merchants, causing panic. For a period of time, the grain prices in Shanxi were even lower than Hubei, which had the lowest grain prices in the country. As a result, the western region not only made a big profit, but also defeated many speculators and grain merchants in Shanxi Province. As well as the Jin merchant money houses that approached Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government also went bankrupt. This laid the foundation for Li Han's future construction of Shanxi.

In fact, the person who directed the Shanxi grain purchase and sales battle at the beginning of the year was Li Han's secret mission. He sent him to Shaanxi a year ago Chen Tianxiang, who served as the Shaanxi Civil Affairs Minister. At this time, he was temporarily coming from Shaanxi because Li Han arrived in Shanxi for inspection and reported some situations to him.

"What is the current price of grain in Shanxi?"

"Maybe due to the impact of the previous war, the prices of grain in Shanxi have rebounded a little during this period, but we can take Shanxi so quickly, resulting in the failure of local grain merchants to raise the price of mixed grain flour imported from our western part of Shanxi Province now 100 pounds and 27 cents per charcoal, Shanxi local white flour is about 160 pounds and 59 cents per stone, and 7 cents per stone of rice is seven cents per stone in the past few months. In the past few months, grain prices in Shanxi Province have risen and fallen so much, which is beneficial to the people of Shanxi, and it is not good." Chen Tianxiang sighed, "It was a good thing that the price of grain fell, but if the grain was low, it would be bad."

Li Han smiled, "You little brat have learned to express your feelings, okay... You learned the politician style in Shaanxi, don't show off in front of me."

Chen Tianxiang had been his adjutant for a long time. At that time, Li Han's identity did not want to be so prominent now, so he was still respectful to him, but he still had some closeness. For example, Li Donglai, Ma Rongcheng, and Chen Tianxiang all called him "Mr.", and Cai Qing and the current group of confidential secretaries, who were not serious about calling him "Surveyor" or "Commander-in-Chief"

Of course Chen Tianxiang was a joke, but his words were not unreasonable. Li Han had already made plans and just said casually: "Everything has advantages and disadvantages. Grain is a disadvantage that is inevitable. But now it is not the season for food to come down. The gap in losses is borne by a group of opportunistic Shanxi merchants. Now Shanxi is in my hands. In the future, we will promote tax cuts in other provinces. Shanxi also needs them. I heard that Shanxi people are the most stubborn. To put it nicely, they are obsessed with it. To put it nicely, they are just trying to build Shanxi, forcing those landlords in Shanxi Province who are rich enough to rival the country. Merchants reduce rent and rent, and the government must give them some iron fists to eat. You did a good job this time. Only by reducing the grain prices in Shanxi and letting them know that they have no future can they make concessions on the land, roots, and children."

Li Han obviously had already been confident, "When the peace talks are over, we have the power of this country, and they must spit out the land in Shanxi for me, but this year's grain price will indeed hurt farmers. It is certain that some people's harvest will be much lower than last year. I turned around and ordered Wuchang to send some teams as soon as possible to build up the Shanxi government's stance, and then we can take the opportunity to promote our household registration and identity system. I have thought about it, and said that anyone who completes household registration and identity certification before the autumn harvest can enjoy the agricultural subsidy of the military government, rent reduction and tax reduction. I have been talking about this matter with a group of old guys in the past two days. How can everyone agree to the matter of cutting the flesh? Now they are waiting for the government's concessions and guarantees."

Fortunately, Shanxi merchants are not ignorant of the current development of the other provinces in the western region. They know that other provinces have agreed to cooperate with the government to reduce taxes and rents and get compensation from the government. They are now watching what guarantees can Li Han come up with.

"Shanxi has a lot of coal. I plan to build more thermal power plants in Shanxi. This is a big project. I think I will invest at least 20 to 30 million in the next three to five years... Shanxi merchants are rich enough to compete with the country. As long as they are willing to pay, they can give them some benefits to eat."

"Sir, don't forget Shaanxi..."

Chen Tianxiang was anxious. If he hadn't received Li Han's hint a year ago, he wouldn't have been to Shaanxi for a year and a half without any movement.

Li Han nodded, "I can't forget it."

He once planned to vigorously develop industry in Shaanxi, and to do his best to minimize the gap between the east, central and western regions like the future countries. It is obviously a country, but the coastal provinces discriminate against the mainland. The many disadvantages of the southern discrimination against northerners are that Shaanxi Province is located in the inland region. The inconvenience of transportation causes dozens of tons of machinery purchased from overseas and hundreds of tons of machinery to be transported to Shaanxi Province. In addition, there is also a diseased river of the Yellow River passing through. There is also a serious flood threat. This year and a half.

Since then, although he has formulated a plan to strengthen Shaanxi's industry, he has only allocated funds to allow Chen Tianxiang to build the foundation in Shaanxi Province. For example, after a year and a half, it is expected that by the middle of this year, the railway extending from Yunyang, Hubei will arrive in Xi'an. By the end of this year or the beginning of next year, the railway from Lanzhou to Shaanxi will also be open to navigation. In addition, by the time the water conservancy of the Yellow River tributaries near Xi'an, Shaanxi will be initially rectified, and the removal of some of the threats of the Yellow River floods will be a suitable opportunity to vigorously develop Shaanxi's industry.

He looked at Chen Tianxiang, who was more excited, and said, "Shaanxi's strategic position in my heart is very important. Just as I told you two years ago, Xi'an is the most ideal capital in my plan, both from a geographical point of view and from a national security point of view."

That's right, the reason why Li Han attached so much importance to Shaanxi was that he secretly sent Chen Tianxiang, one of his confidants, to Shaanxi to become the second civil affairs chief, more than a year ago. This is precisely because of this.

China is too big. We have evil neighbors in the north, and jackals in the east. One of these two countries has become a behemoth after hundreds of years of expansion. The other has defeated the Qing Dynasty for decades and has become a beast. The Qing Dynasty is not heartbroken. To put it nicely, the Northeast is still in the hands of the Republic of China. In fact, the Great Wall checkpoint is said to be semi-colonial by Japan and Russia. The railways are crossed by Japan and Russia. The rubles of the Russian garrisons in the northeast are everywhere. Russian banks have seized half of the economic power of the Northeast. In the south, the Japanese yen is also valuable than the coins of the Republic of China. Japanese ronin show their power, burn, kill, plunder, and bully the market.

It is too difficult to block the threat from Japan and Russia alone by relying on a Great Wall that has been declining for thousands of years. Moreover, the great powers have heavy troops stationed in Beijing. No matter who becomes the ruler of this country, if they do not solve these problems for a day, they will never be able to drive down a bunch of foreign emperors sitting on their heads. To put it bluntly, the influence of foreigners in Beijing is far greater than that of the president of the Republic of China. That city has long lost its qualification to be a capital of a country.

Xi'an, Shaanxi, chose to establish its capital. First of all, Xi'an is surrounded by Shanxi, Inner and Outer Mongolia, Gansu, Hubei, Sichuan, Henan and other provinces. It is not as strategic as Beijing. In order to build Beijing, the infrastructure investment in 60 years after establishing its capital, more than one trillion yuan will be built. This huge amount of capital will be built into a small city with a population of only one million at the beginning of the century. It has become a city with a population of 20 to 30 million and a population of ordinary small and medium-sized countries. However, this huge amount of money is thrown into any province to vigorously build infrastructure. The reward it can generate is far more than building a Beijing in the next few decades.

In later generations, Beijing, with over-concentrated population, not only became a giant beast that swallowed up infrastructure funds, but also emptied the groundwater resources in Beijing, raised housing prices, and worsened the gap between the rich and the poor. The descendants of over-concentrated officials have made that city truly become the capital of the emperor like the capital during the Qing Dynasty.

I was a little confused for a moment, but Li Han quickly came to his senses and solemnly promised him: "We still need an opportunity now. Shaanxi's economy and transportation will become the decision of the outside world to choose to establish the capital of 'Xi'an', so... wait a little longer, just build Xi'an and demolish all that city. Xi'an has been abandoned for so many years. In the end, the urban construction is no longer as good as Beijing and Nanjing."

"Yes, Boyong can't do it"

"Just know"

He was unwilling to talk about these things again, but instead focused on the thick account book on the table

"Before I read these books, I didn't know how poor the 'rich' Shanxi was. Now I know that Shanxi is no worse than Henan."

He sighed, "Henan's decline is somewhat because of the military government, because of the wars I have had in recent years. We have tried our best to maintain in Henan Province. With so many bullets and shells falling down, no matter how rich the place is, it cannot bear it... Shanxi has been poor for a long time, more than 10 million people in Shanxi are crowded on that little land. It is strange that Shanxi's mines are not allowed to open. Shanxi merchants are all tickets. After having some capital, they all went to Beijing and Shanghai. There are a few who are truly conscientious and remember that they will never be poor after giving birth to their hometowns for a long time. I think I want to think of ways to change the two provinces. After all, they will be close to the capital in the future, so the people cannot be poor."

"If you want to be rich, you must first build roads. Sir, have you been telling us this way?"

"Yes, I am planning to expand the railways of the two provinces, Henan is better. One Jinghan Railway is already richer. What is left is to expand the depth of the railway and the economic coverage. The key is to plan the railway in the future. And this is not enough. You think, Shanxi's land is not fertile and the harvest is not very good, but why is the land rent so high? The main reason is that there are too many people and too few land, it can be reversed. If this relationship can be changed, the situation of high land rents can be reversed. In the short term, it is unlikely to increase arable land, but it can start from reducing the population, especially reducing the labor population."

"Reduce the population? How to reduce the method?"

"We are in Qinghai and Gansu, and there are many deserts. Whether we are reclamating the west or working in the future, we have absorbed the surplus labor in Shanxi and supplemented by railways to absorb a large amount of labor and vigorously build railways to improve the traffic environment in Shanxi. I am recently preparing to build a railway team based on the more than 200,000 fixed young and middle-aged people controlled by the military government, and establish several railway companies from north to south, east and west. In this way, several companies will compete in the future. On the one hand, it will facilitate the supervision of the office to prevent the upper and lower levels of greed, and on the other hand, it will also increase efficiency. A large number of young workers without land or insufficient land will be absorbed to become full-time railway workers. If you think, the railway company pays money monthly and gives it not low, it is very attractive to those poor farmers. If you are not stupid, you will definitely give up the idea of ​​digging food in the soil and go to the construction site to work."

"There are more than 10 million people in such a small place in Shanxi. Not much land is diverted out. The land is not enough to rent and I have plans. After so many people go to build roads, the labor force in the fields will decrease rapidly, and no one will plant this field. There are low-priced and high-yield grains we brought from the south. Who would want to rent the land rent in the province? Especially those tenant farmers, when the tenant period expires in August, they will definitely not agree to continue to collect high taxes. We have many choices, but we can't help them.

On the one hand, the grain prices fell. In order to make up for the losses, the landlords wanted to increase the land rent. On the other hand, the farmers felt that the farming efficiency was not good. If the two sides could not reach an agreement, the tenant farmers would have to run away. The most anxious thing was not the farmers, but the landlords. People misled the land for a quarter, and the land was misled for a year. Can they not be anxious? They could only show their magical powers across the sea. If they sell, they would change their business methods. After all, the land was deserted and taxes were not deserted. If there was no perfect solution, they would wait for a loss next year..."

He was just talking happily, suddenly there was a knock at the door, and his guard Lu San hurriedly walked in.
Chapter completed!