76: Chapter 76: Not wanting the Qin Empire to follow the path of imperial autocracy.

Besides using coal as fuel, the steam thresher can also use wood.

The cost is much lower than manual labor.

Many Landowners invite people to help harvest millet without paying wages, instead providing them with meals.

But grain is so expensive that the money for the food a farmer eats in a day could buy several tons of coal.

Several tons of coal would be enough to keep a steam thresher spinning continuously for a month without any problem.

"I have realized it!"

"I have realized it!"

Suddenly, Li Si shouted at Zhao Fusu.

He had a look as if he had seen through everything.

"Huh?"

"What have you realized?"

Zhao Fusu was somewhat bewildered.

A confident smile appeared on Li Si's face as he said, "Fuehrer, you want to publish the introduction of this steam thresher on the front page of the first issue of the Great Qin Empire Weekly, don't you?"

"This Divine Threshing Tool is indeed worthy of appearing on the front page of the newspaper."

"No."

Zhao Fusu answered very bluntly.

Although he didn't want to embarrass Li Si, he was an honest young man and didn't like to lie.

"Ah!"

The smile on Li Si's old face froze.

His deep eyes grew confused.

Zhao Fusu's words left Li Si puzzled.

Wait, such an extraordinary divine tool as the steam thresher isn't even worthy of the newspaper's front page?!

Then what content is actually worthy of the front page?!

Li Si really couldn't contain his curiosity and asked Zhao Fusu once more, "Fuehrer, what content are you actually planning to arrange for the front page of the newspaper?"

Zhao Fusu smiled and replied with the same words as before: "You'll know once General Wang Li brings my things back from Shangjun."

At this moment, General Wang Li was on the Qin Straight Road, rushing back to Xianyang City...

"Alright, fine..."

Li Si sighed.

"Find more Painters."

Zhao Fusu instructed, "Besides text, some illustrations can also be inserted into the newspaper."

"Yes."

Li Si replied.

The Bank needed to hire Painters, and the Newspaper Office also needed to hire Painters; Zhao Fusu's decisions had sparked a boom in the painting industry.

There was no paper in the Qin Dynasty, so Painters had to work on wooden boards, silk, cloth, or bamboo slips.

The poor conditions for Painters also meant they were a relatively small niche group in the Qin Dynasty.

"Fuehrer, the steam threshers must be mass-produced!"

Feng Quji said, "During the summer harvest, we can provide the common people with a large number of steam threshers to aid production."

"Mhm."

Zhao Fusu nodded; Feng Quji's thoughts were aligned with his own.

"Fuehrer."

Li Si said, "I will buy this steam thresher."

"How much does it cost?"

Zhao Fusu thought for a moment and said, "Three hundred coins."

With twenty coins for materials and another twenty for employee wages, Zhao Fusu 'tearfully' made a small profit of two hundred and sixty coins.

"So cheap."

Li Si said very decisively, "Deal."

This was the first steam thresher Zhao Fusu sold in Great Qin.

It was sold just like that!

Zhao Fusu hadn't expected to sell a steam thresher so easily.

It seemed a Steam Thresher Factory could be opened in the Industrial Zone specifically to produce them.

Zhao Fusu began designing the blueprint for the Industrial Zone.

He directed Cui Wenzi's team to select sites in the Industrial Zone to build Coke Ovens, blast furnaces, Open-hearth Furnaces, as well as workshops and housing.

He wanted to establish a Steel Mill in the Industrial Zone.

The entire Industrial Zone would center around the Steel Mill, with the produced steel used for both military and civilian purposes.

The military factories had the highest level of confidentiality.

No one was allowed to enter except for soldiers who had been imprinted with his Thought Steel Seal.

For civilian factories, the confidentiality level didn't need to be that high.

After the Steel Mill produced various components for the steam threshers, they would be sent to the Steam Thresher Factory for assembly by workers on a production line.

The steel produced by the Steel Mill could also be transported to a Steel Sword Factory to be processed into steel swords.

The Steel Sword Factory was a military plant, and the swords produced were all for the army.

The military factories would also produce Horseshoes, mingguang armor, and Iron Pagoda.

These military items would be much easier to make once Elder Mos Team created the molds for casting.

Currently, there was no progress on the Horseshoes, mingguang armor, and Iron Pagoda.

The reason was simple: a lack of funds.

Currently, there were two million people in corvée labor and one million in the army, totaling three million people.

The Qin government was currently out of grain.

To maintain the grain supply, they were spending money to buy grain from nobles or merchants.

These people ate far more than Zhao Fusu had imagined; each person consumed 2.4 jin of grain a day, totaling 7.2 million jin daily.

With the current grain price at a thousand coins per dan, and one dan in the Qin Dynasty being 120 jin, the cost of the consumed grain amounted to sixty million coins.

The salaries of the Great Qin Empire's officials were also settled in grain, which was another massive expenditure.

This didn't even account for the grain lost during transportation.

The personnel transporting the grain also consumed quite a bit of it during the process.

Only because Great Qin had conquered the six kingdoms and seized their treasuries could it afford such squandering.

Zhao Fusu didn't dare use the money from the national treasury.

He hadn't touched the money in the Imperial Treasury either.

The Imperial Treasury's funds were essentially the imperial family's private money. The sources mainly included timber extraction from mountains and forests, taxes on lake fisheries, income from workshops, and it also managed coinage affairs.

The First Emperor had twenty-three sons, and even more if daughters were counted.

The living expenses and salaries for the First Emperor's numerous concubines, palace maids, and eunuchs were all paid from the Imperial Treasury.

The previous construction of the Epang Palace and the current construction of the Lishan Mausoleum were also funded by the Imperial Treasury.

The First Emperor's body had been lying in state for over half a month; in another month and a half, the Large Alloy Coffin would be sealed within the underground palace of the Lishan Mausoleum.

Organizing the First Emperor's funeral would require another large sum of money.

Therefore, Zhao Fusu did not touch the money in the Imperial Treasury.

Hu Hai's enthronement would also have required funds from the Imperial Treasury, but Zhao Fusu felt that the enthronement—which involved going to Mount Tai to receive heaven's recognition—was feudal superstition, so he had banned it.

Hu Hai's performance in court was terrible, and his teacher Zhao Gao had already fled.

To show his loyalty to Zhao Fusu, Li Si had squeezed all officials from Zhao Gao's faction out of the National Assembly, leaving them with no voice.

Thus, Hu Hai could not influence the politics of the Great Qin Empire.

Hu Hai was quite depressed at first; he felt very useless as emperor.

However, after spending his days in pleasure—watching palace maids dance, drinking fine wine, and having no one disturb him to make him recite books and study—he found this kind of life to be quite comfortable.

Zhao Fusu was currently using the more than five billion provided by Li Si and Chunyu Yue.

Despite having over five billion, there were too many places to spend it. He had Zhang Han buy shops at key traffic points in Xianyang City to renovate into Banks, and the Banks were hiring Painters.

While designing the industrial route, Zhao Fusu also thought about the scientific research route.

It was also necessary to reform the Great Qin Empire's workshops.

The imperial handicraft workshops could keep the gold and silver jewelry, clothing, woodwork, ceramics, Qin brick, and Carriage Equipment workshops, but industries like the Forging Workshop and weapon manufacturing had to be spun off.

Zhao Fusu intended to reduce the imperial family's armed strength.

He did not want the Great Qin Empire to follow the path of autocratic imperial power.