89: Alternative Work-for-Relief

Chapter 89: Alternative Work-for-Relief

Several days later, Zheng Yi indeed received the battle report.

This battle report was written by four people.

The first was Wang Anshi.

The second was Minister Miao.

The third was Chen Wannian.

The fourth was a Shadow Guard hidden within the army.

Two batches of mysterious people were hidden beside Chen Wannian, Minister Miao, and Shi Heilang.

One batch was the Jinyi Guard, whose overt mission was to monitor the movements of the large army, while covertly hiding the identity of the second batch.

The Shadow Guard.

Under every dispatched general, one to three Shadow Guards were planted among their subordinates.

The purpose was very simple: to monitor the generals campaigning outside.

Once a general showed any unusual movement or rebellious intent, the Shadow Guard would strike, secretly assassinating the outward-bound general and then taking over the army with an imperial decree.

These four battle reports all recorded the inexplicable sudden death of Huang Wan'er, the leader of the Yong Province rebel army this time.

It turned out that when the rebellion broke out, Wang Anshi, serving as the judicial official of Extended Commandery, had already sensed it and wanted to stop it.

Unfortunately, the root causes of the drought and civil unrest in Extended Commandery were deeply entrenched, and he simply could not resolve them in a short time.

Left with no alternative, he could only gather a batch of government troops to protect himself.

Sure enough, on the first day of the seventh month, the rebellion had already broken out; the rioters captured the prefectural yamen and slaughtered all the officials.

As for Wang Anshi, because he had prepared early on, he escaped disaster.

He secretly hid among the rioters, slipped away quietly while the rioters besieged Changan Prefecture, headed all the way north, and contacted Tian Wenjing, the Junior Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel who was overseeing the excavation of the Canglong River Grand Canal, as well as Lu Lian, the Assistant Commander of the Jinyi Guard.

After some discussion among the three of them—especially since Wang Anshi had been hiding among the rioters for the past few months and had some understanding of their situation—

under his strong push, Tian Wenjing and Lu Lian gritted their teeth and agreed.

They dispatched three hundred elite soldiers and ten Jinyi Guards under the leadership of Wang Anshi, quietly infiltrating the rioters and returning to Huang Wan'er's army.

One day.

Taking advantage of the time when Huang Wan'er coerced the main army to continue besieging Changan Prefecture without success and the entire rebel camp was fast asleep, they directly charged the military camp on horseback.

More than three hundred people set fires everywhere in the rebel camp, and the monstrous flames spread across more than half of the encampment, burning the rebel army so that they cried for their fathers and mothers.

Taking advantage of such turmoil, Wang Anshi personally led more than thirty elite soldiers to charge straight into Huang Wan'er's military formation.

Under panic, Huang Wan'er's personal guards were actually directly scattered by the elite soldiers led by Wang Anshi.

As for Huang Wan'er, his head was personally lopped off by Wang Anshi.

It was not until late at night that people in Changan Prefecture discovered the turmoil here, sending out troops to beat the drowning dog and completely crushing Huang Wan'er's force, the largest group of rioters in Yong Province.

Over the course of a single night, over thirty thousand people were beheaded, their own losses were virtually unnoticeable, and at the same time tens of thousands of people were captured, along with countless food supplies and heavy equipment.

With the bandit chieftain's head presented, the Yong Province rebel army completely changed its previous momentum, being chased and suppressed everywhere by the government troops.

The main armies led by Chen Wannian, Minister Miao, and Shi Heilang had already merged with the Changan Prefecture commandery troops to jointly resist the rebels.

After this battle, the Yong Province rebels were like grasshoppers after autumn and could not jump around for many more days.

"Hahaha, Wang Anshi, not bad, not bad! Truly someone I have taken a fancy to!"

Zheng Yi laughed heartily; among the top three of the imperial examinations this session, Wang Anshi performed the best.

Li Ziyang... had already died amidst the rebel army, which was truly a pity.

As for the top scorer Cui Xia Zhao, his performance could also be considered commendable.

When Wang Anshi led his troops to charge the rioters' camp on horseback, the initial commotion was huge, but many officials in Changan Prefecture were too cowardly to come out, fearing it was a trick by the rebels.

Cui Xia Zhao was so furious that he cursed the officials, pointing out that the rioters were mere mud-legged peasants—how could they have any strategies?

Moreover, even if it were a strategy, there was no need to burn down their own encampment!

Afterwards, under Cui Xia Zhao's coercion and lure—even dragging out his own old man—he helplessly persuaded the Changan Prefecture officials to send commandery troops to attack the rioters' encampment.

Otherwise, Wang Anshi and the others might not have been able to survive.

Unfortunately, out of the three hundred and ten people who charged the formation, only twenty-seven survived!

After reading the battle report, Zheng Yi could not help but feel his heart surge, showering high praise on these twenty-seven people.

He immediately ordered Liu Chengen to write: "Charging through the rioters on horseback, these twenty-seven men are people of great loyalty and righteousness!"

"Pass down the imperial decree: reward each of these twenty-seven men with a hundred mu of fields and a hundred liang of silver, double the rewards for their fallen comrades, and promote them by three ranks!"

"Understood!"

"Wang Anshi's loyalty and righteousness are unrivaled, and Cui Xia Zhao's loyalty and bravery are second to none. Temporarily have them remain in the Yong Province army as left and right chief historians. After pacifying the Yong Province rioters, I shall have my own rewards for them!"

"Understood!"

Liu Chengen hurried down to transmit the decree, and someone from the Ministry of Works requested an audience.

"Your humble subject, Kuang Zhengren, Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, greets Your Majesty!"

"Beloved minister, please rise. What urgent matter brings you here?"

"Replying to Your Majesty, according to Your Majesty's hints, the officials of our ministry have successfully developed the latest model of the jacquard loom, and its weaving efficiency is more than ten times that of previous ordinary hand spinning looms!"

"Moreover, it is simple to operate, and a skilled person can learn it in half a day, making it very convenient."

Zheng Yi's eyes lit up as he said, "Well done. Everyone involved shall be rewarded."

"Many thanks, Your Majesty!"

During this period of time, the Yong Province rioters caused chaos, but Zheng Yi was not idle either.

In his speculation, perhaps due to the Little Ice Age, the entire Great Yu was just like the Ming dynasty in his past life, plagued by continuous natural and man-made disasters.

Ultimately, the reason was still that land annexation was too severe; a massive number of commoners had no fields to till and no food to eat, which was why they had no choice but to take the path of rebellion.

Over these past two or three years, intelligence gathered by the Jinyi Guard spread across Great Yu showed that the environment of Great Yu had suddenly undergone many changes.

Previously drought-stricken places like Bin Province, Qing Province, and Yong Province had successively experienced several heavy rains over the past two years, and the frequency of floods in the south had also decreased.

In many places where the commoners could barely survive originally, who would have known that grain production in the fields would suddenly increase just a little bit.

Coupled with the fact that Zheng Yi had always supported disaster relief, many refugees managed to get a mouthful of food to eat and thus no longer rebelled.

Zheng Yi guessed that perhaps it was related to those five strands of innate spiritual energy!

Nourished by the innate spiritual energy, it could not only increase the Spiritual Qi content of Great Yu, but also adjust Great Yu's heavenly phenomena and resist the Little Ice Age.

Making the whole world warmer, with abundant rainfall, a warming climate, and drastically reduced natural disasters.

If the refugees could survive and have a mouthful of food, they would no longer rebel.

And how to handle so many disaster victims had also become a lingering worry in Zheng Yi's heart.

After much deliberation, he could only think of two methods: crime-redemption fields and work-for-relief.

The crime-redemption fields had long been implemented, and besides the Grand Canal for work-for-relief, Zheng Yi now set his sights on commerce.

Or rather, a planned economy and state-owned mega-factories!

Zheng Yi asked again: "What about the other things?"

"Replying to Your Majesty."

Kuang Zhengren said: "The plans for items requested by Your Majesty such as cement, glass, soap, refined salt, and strong liquor have all been successfully developed, with only the perfume yet to succeed."

"However, we subjects already have a lot of experience, and at most half a month's time, we will be able to develop it successfully!"

"Very good!"

Zheng Yi said with satisfaction.

He had some memories of the production methods for these things, but wasn't proficient in them.

It didn't matter; if he wasn't proficient, there were plenty of people who were.

He only needed to state the key steps for manufacturing these items, and after a long period of extensive research by the people of the Ministry of Works, they would always be able to develop them.

Zheng Yi continued: "Continue having people build factories outside the city, and at the same time recruit refugees, teach them relevant production knowledge, and temporarily provide them with accommodation and food."

"These refugees will be my employees in the future; absolutely do not neglect them."

"Understood!"

"Dismissed."

Cement, glass, soap, strong liquor, and refined salt were all methods he came up with for 'work-for-relief'.

If he had transmigrated into an ordinary person and developed these things, sooner or later he would have been completely devoured by some powerful factions.

But since he was now the emperor, who dared to touch him?

On the twentieth day of the eighth month of the fifth year of zhengyong.

The First Great Yu Cement Chemical Plant was established, with more than 1,200 employees in the initial batch.

It could manufacture 200 tons of cement daily.

This cement was used preferentially for building the factory buildings, worker dormitories, and repairing roads of the 'Great Yu First Special Economic Zone'.

On the twenty-first day of the eighth month of the fifth year of zhengyong.

The Great Yu Royal Chamber of Commerce was established, with Zheng Yi serving as the Chamber President, and Empress Lu Liner, Consort Duan Xu Qingluan, and Consort De Li Changle serving as the three Vice Presidents.

On the day of its establishment, within Yongxingfang in the southern part of the capital city, the headquarters store of the Great Yu Royal Chamber of Commerce was established, with countless subjects and citizens watching.

The Great Yu Royal Chamber of Commerce was also personally founded by Zheng Yi.

The purposes were threefold.

First, to sell high-end goods produced by his own factories.

Such as soap, fine wine, perfume, gold and silver wares, and so on.

He was prepared to develop the Great Yu Royal Chamber of Commerce into the high-end luxury goods chamber of commerce of this world, catering entirely to imperial relatives and noble clans.

Only they would be willing to shell out money to buy so many luxury goods.

In the initial stage, they might support it slightly out of regard for the imperial family's Face.

But as time passed, and with the Propaganda Department under his control promoting it all day long, the Great Yu Royal Chamber of Commerce becoming synonymous with luxury goods was merely a matter of time.

Second, it was to give this group of women in the inner palace something to do.

The reason why the inner palace was constantly in turmoil, besides Zheng Yi's reasons, was largely because they were idle!

As long as they were given something to do, this group of people's energy for secret infighting would be greatly reduced.

Playthings like mahjong, playing cards, and aromas served this purpose.

And the Royal Chamber of Commerce was also the same.

For example, Consort Duan Xu Qingluan, after becoming the Vice President of the Great Yu Royal Chamber of Commerce, was also given the position of a factory area director by Zheng Yi.

Of course, official matters were still managed by eunuchs and people from the Ministry of Works.

Every few days she would run out to inspect.

Everyone's interests were different; Xu Qingluan and Li Changle liked careers, while Empress Lu Liner had always liked staying in the inner palace to manage the various imperial concubines.

He couldn't be bothered to care; as long as they liked it, that was fine.

As for Consort Cui, she had always been cultivating inside Jiao Fang Palace, and Zheng Yi frequently stayed overnight at Jiao Fang Palace.

The cultivation of the two of them was soaring at a speed visible to the naked eye.

On the twenty-fifth day of the eighth month of the fifth year of zhengyong.

The First Great Yu Glass Products Factory was established, with a total of over 800 employees in the initial batch.

On the first day of the ninth month of the fifth year of zhengyong, Zhao Su Ling advanced to the Innate stage.

Zheng Yi held a celebration ceremony for Immortal Master Zhao Su Ling at White Jade Capital, with over a thousand people attending to offer congratulations. This news spread across the entire Great Yu at an extremely fast speed.

On the second day of the ninth month of the fifth year of zhengyong.

The First Great Yu Soap Factory was established, with over 700 employees in the initial batch.

The product produced in the initial stage was only soap, but it caused a sensation in the capital, with countless people rushing to buy soap.

Great Yu soap was divided into three different grades.

Ordinary soap, made from ordinary grease, sold for five wen, targeting commoners. Unfortunately, sales were dismal, and only over eighty pieces were sold on the first day.

High Grade soap, made from grease and scented powder, sold for one guan of cash, targeting ordinary merchants and well-to-do families; sales were passable.

Premium soap, made from grease, scented powder, and special essential oils, sold for three taels of silver, targeting noble clans and major merchants; sales were red-hot.

Several days later, after Zheng Yi modified the plan, the ordinary soap was entirely dumped onto traveling merchants and foot peddlers for them to sell.

As for the Royal Chamber of Commerce, it only sold High Grade and premium soap to supply mega tycoons and descendants of noble clans.

On the tenth day of the ninth month of the fifth year of zhengyong.

Imperial Concubine Yue, Miao Yuesheng, became pregnant, and Minister Miao from Yong Province offered five tiger skins, seventeen snow fox skins, and ten millennium Tianshan snow lotuses, along with countless gold and silver as congratulatory gifts.

On the fifteenth day of the ninth month of the fifth year of zhengyong.

The First Great Yu Winery was established, with a total of over 1,600 employees in the initial batch.

It could produce one thousand tons of strong liquor daily, and on that very day, it swept through the entire capital.

Officials and wealthy merchants used this strong liquor entirely for hospitality events, and it was hailed as 'zhengyong Wine' and 'Royal Wine'!

The fine wine produced by the winery daily was completely bought up by large restaurants in the city, members of the imperial family, and members of noble clans, falling short of demand.

On the first day of the tenth month of the fifth year of zhengyong.

The First Great Yu Textile Mill was established, with a total of over 3,800 employees in the initial batch.

Aside from the initial two hundred or so strong-bodied transport personnel, the remaining personnel were all female spinners.

On the thirtieth day of the tenth month of the fifth year of zhengyong.

The First Great Yu Perfume Factory was established.

On that day, after the first batch of perfume rolled off the production line, it immediately ignited the entire inner palace and the capital.