Chapter 190: Chapter 122: How Can They Be Called Refugees If They Have Homes!

"Just showing up is enough. You didn’t have to bring anything!"

...

「At noon.」

In the back room of the Government Office.

Lu Yuan and Gu Gaoxu were sitting and talking.

Meanwhile, the three women from his household were holding hands, curiously exploring the Government Office.

Speaking of which, the three women had been to just about everywhere in Taiping City, with the exception of the brothels.

The Government Office was the one novel sight they hadn’t seen yet.

Now they could look around as much as they wanted.

"That fast?"

Lu Yuan looked at Gu Gaoxu with surprise, his legs crossed and a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

’The factory in Yandu is already built?’

’That’s way too fast. It hasn’t even been two months, back and forth.’

Lu Yuan had figured the factory in Yandu would take at least half a year, maybe four or five months.

But he never expected it to be finished already.

Gu Gaoxu, however, raised an eyebrow smugly and said:

"Of course! You should see how many people we got to work on it!"

Lu Yuan was taken aback for a moment, then raised an eyebrow.

"How many?"

Gu Gaoxu announced:

"A full eleven thousand!"

Hearing Gu Gaoxu’s words, Lu Yuan was bewildered.

"Huh?"

’Where did he get so many people?’

’Don’t tell me this kid even pulled soldiers from the barracks?’

Seeing Lu Yuan’s expression, Gu Gaoxu thought he was worried about having too many people, which would mean paying out a lot in wages.

Gu Gaoxu immediately rushed to explain:

"Don’t you worry. All eleven thousand of them are refugees."

"Once we get them into the factory, we won’t need to pay them wages. Just providing meals every day will be enough."

’Refugees?’

Lu Yuan paused, then understood what he meant.

Although Lu Yuan had never been to Yandu, he knew the general situation.

He could guess what was going on.

’No need to pay them?’

’Just providing daily meals is enough?’

As Lu Yuan was pondering this, Gu Gaoxu watched him and blinked repeatedly.

’What?’

’Is just providing meals not good enough either?’

Gu Gaoxu thought about it. ’Maybe he has a point.’

He had never run a household before, so he never knew the cost of living.

But after managing things for over a month, he realized that the cost of feeding over ten thousand people every day was like opening the floodgates of a reservoir—the money just poured out.

Gu Gaoxu considered this for a moment, then said:

"Is it still too many?"

"How about we kick some of them out?"

"We could keep eight thousand, or... six..."

Before Gu Gaoxu could finish, Lu Yuan cut him off with a raised eyebrow.

"Kick them out?"

"Kick them out, my ass!"

"We don’t have enough! How many refugees are there in Yandu in total right now?"

Gu Gaoxu blinked.

"Huh?"

Coming to his senses, Gu Gaoxu mused aloud:

"The refugees are hard to count. Anyway, we’ve got a little over eleven thousand."

"As for the rest, there might be another eight hundred or a thousand outside?"

"I’m not really sure. After all, they’re refugees. If they can’t get food in Yandu today, they’ll just run off somewhere else."

Lu Yuan’s eyes widened as he said:

"Then go round them up!"

"There must be more coming to Yandu from outside the pass, some who haven’t arrived yet."

"Send men on horseback to go get them!"

Gu Gaoxu:

"????"

"Wait... do we really need that many people??"

Seeing Gu Gaoxu’s dumbfounded look, Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow and said:

"Thinking too small, aren’t you?"

"I’m telling you to round them up, so just do it. Don’t ask questions."

Lu Yuan couldn’t be bothered to explain to Gu Gaoxu.

Putting other things aside, just the three-thousand-person factory here in Taiping City was already due for another expansion.

There was no helping it.

The things they were making sold themselves.

’Just go take a look at the shops in Taiping City.’

’The lines are still incredibly long.’

’Back in the dead of winter, even when it was snowing heavily, people wouldn’t leave at night.’

’They’d bring small stools, wrap themselves in thick quilts, and wait for days on end.’

’They wouldn’t give up until they bought a vehicle.’

This was especially true now that people from the Southeast Coast had heard about Lu Yuan’s vehicles, which were originally only sold in the western part of the province.

Now, people from the Southeast Coast were all coming over to buy them.

The factory in Taiping City needed to at least double in size.

And that was to say nothing of a place as big as Yandu.

Did Lu Yuan really suggest building a factory in Yandu just because he had a good relationship with Gu Gaoxu?

NONONONO~

’How much is a relationship worth?’

’It was the location of Yandu that mattered.’

It wasn’t just about Yandu’s large population. Building a large factory in Yandu meant it could directly supply the entire Northern and central regions of the Empire.

And also the Empire’s most fertile area, the Jianghuai region.

Of course, it would be fertile in the future. Right now, the Jianghuai region was in a rather miserable state.

Due to years of consecutive warfare, at the founding of the dynasty, Yangzhou was left with only a dozen or so people.

But the Empire had long since issued an Imperial Decree.

It was now a priority for support, especially since it was already the 15th year of Hongwu.

The Jianghuai region had already had a major chance to recover.

In a few more years, the Jianghuai region would once again become one of the most prosperous places in the Empire.

Jiangnan, after all.

It has been that way since ancient times.

And what did Yandu have?

The Grand Canal!

Let’s put it this way: in ancient times, no form of transport could compare to shipping by water.

And not just in ancient times.

It’s the same even in the modern era.

The lion’s share will always be water transport.

Back then, why was Han Xin able to fight his way out of the Shu Region, while Zhuge Liang couldn’t no matter how hard he tried?

Was it because Zhuge Liang was inferior to Han Xin?

No, it was because the river that Han Xin used to transport supplies when he left the Shu Region had run dry several hundred years later.

That river was like the dragon vein of the Han Dynasty.

The value of this Grand Canal was immense. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

In fact, Lu Yuan could also have built a large factory on the Southeast Coast of the province.

Then he could have used sea transport to go south.

However, with the current level of seafaring technology, it was too difficult.

The winds and waves at sea were treacherous.

And don’t say you’re not afraid of rough seas—this was for hauling cargo, damn it, not fishing.

One ship could carry goods worth over one hundred thousand taels. It wasn’t the same as a boat full of fish.

So, the factory in Yandu...

...the bigger, the better. This was a factory that would one day supply the entire Northern part of the Empire, as well as its most prosperous regions.

Originally, Lu Yuan had thought he would have to take it slow and expand gradually.

After all, if he expanded too quickly, where would he get the money?

No matter how rich the Zhao Family was, a factory wasn’t something that would see a return on investment overnight.

But now, things were looking up.

Heh!

’How did I not think of the refugee situation?’

’No need to pay wages... just think about it.’

"Then... then how many people do we need?"

Gu Gaoxu asked, blinking.

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow and replied:

"Thirty to fifty thousand, at least."

Gu Gaoxu was dumbfounded.

"Thirty to fifty thousand???

Where am I supposed to get that many people??"

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow.

"That’s not my problem. Just hurry up and get them."

"Starting tomorrow, I’ll have people start shipping equipment to Yandu."

"If we delay the start of operations, you’ll have to compensate me for the lost profits."

Gu Gaoxu:

"????"

Seeing the furious look on Gu Gaoxu’s face, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

"Just kidding."

"But you really do need to find more people."

"When the time comes, I’ll give you a twenty-percent cut of the factory’s profits."

’After all, I can’t just have him do all the work and not give him any money.’

Hearing this, Gu Gaoxu gave him a strange look and asked:

"A twenty-percent cut... how much is that?"

Although Gu Gaoxu was helping with the factory to solve the refugee problem...

...it wasn’t like he, Gu Gaoxu, was particularly short on money.

Lu Yuan crossed his legs, took a drag from his cigarette, and said:

"Well, last month, my three-thousand-person factory here..."

"...brought in, roughly speaking, close to two hundred thousand taels."

Now, a brief explanation is in order here, so please bear with the digression.

Everyone knows that the Ming Dynasty had heavy taxes.

However!

The Ming Dynasty did not levy heavy commercial taxes!

The commercial tax was practically nonexistent!

This is also why in the later Ming Dynasty, the ministers were rich while the Emperor was poor.

Because all those ministers had their names attached to the major merchant guilds and so on.

It wasn’t that the Emperor didn’t want to increase the commercial tax.

But doing so would harm the interests of his ministers.

The immense resistance Emperor Wanli faced when trying to levy a mining tax is a case in point.

Therefore, Lu Yuan’s two hundred thousand taels each month was basically pure profit.

He barely had to pay any taxes.

Hearing Lu Yuan’s words, Gu Gaoxu blinked.

Then he started counting on his fingers.

"Three thousand people make two hundred thousand a month..."

"So thirty thousand people would make two million a month..."

"And a twenty-percent cut... means four hundred thousand for me a month..."

"And a year..."

In a flash, Gu Gaoxu shot up from his seat and headed for the door.

Lu Yuan was stunned, completely baffled.

"Where are you going??"

Without looking back, Gu Gaoxu yelled:

"Back to Yandu!!"

"I’m going to the refugees’ homes to round up refugees!!"

Lu Yuan: "..."

"Hey, it’s the middle of the day! At least stay and eat before you go!"

’Eh?’

’Wait a minute.’

’What kind of damn refugees have homes to go to!!’