Traveling through ancient times.

Chapter 173 Worrying about the country and the people

Another year passed in the blink of an eye, and after three years of excavation, the canal outside Tianshui Tianzhuang was basically opened.

In recent years, all the grain harvested from Tianshui and Yunshan was stockpiled except for daily needs and the normal operation of grain stations in various places.

After the canal was officially dredged, the ships purchased by Jiang Yizhou also arrived.

The ship was ordered from Haizhou a year ago.

Haizhou is located in the easternmost part of Zhou State, close to the sea, and has a developed shipping industry.

Basically 60 percent of the Zhou Kingdom’s ships came from there.

Jiang Yizhou knew nothing about ship technology, but she had a system. After seeing the world's most advanced transport ship, she directly asked Xiao Tongzi to retrieve the optimized drawings.

She spent more than ten thousand to exchange it, and then had someone build it according to her drawings.

According to the analysis of the shipbuilding master, this type of ship has higher stability and faster speed.

These drawings were very valuable, so they discussed with Jiang Yizhou that they would like to use these drawings in the future to build two ships for her free of charge.

This kind of large ship with a carrying capacity of several hundred tons would cost tens of thousands of taels to build. It is not uncommon to exchange a blueprint for so much.

But the shipyard’s requirement is that the drawings belong to them only.

After all, there are still many shipyards with good development momentum. If there is this new blueprint, it will still pose a great threat to their leading position.

Jiang Yizhou decisively refused. She spent more than 10,000 merits to exchange it, not to let capital monopolize it, but to improve the productivity of the world as a whole.

They could use her drawings, but she would never agree to supply them exclusively.

As for the shipbuilding costs, she paid a penny less.

They used her blueprints, and she took 5 percent of each ship.

The shipyard was also depressed, but seeing the other party's tough attitude, the most important thing was that they also had a strong background behind them and knew more or less about this "Master Jiang".

Although there was no evidence, everyone knew privately that even many important figures in the court, including "Master Kang", could not do anything to her.

It's better to have less trouble than more. The court's attitude has changed now, so let it be.

Jiang Yizhou ordered three ships from this large factory.

Then she took the blueprints to two other companies and ordered one each, again paying the full amount, using the blueprints, and taking a commission.

As for the helmsman, crew members and so on, Jiang Yizhou had asked his subordinates to pay attention to these earlier.

So, when the canal was dredged and the ships were in place, the crew was fully equipped in all aspects.

Because of the huge wealth gained from the counterattack in the previous two years, they were able to support the completion of this huge project, and there was also enough money left to buy ships, hire helmsmen, sailors, etc.

In the past two years, due to the drought in Zezhou, a large number of refugees have been taken in one after another, and these people have become an important human resource for the farm.

Select skilled people from among them, or provide training, so that she can carry out her work.

After a month of reorganization and preparation, the fleet officially opened for water transportation.

After owning the fleet, Jiang Yizhou's first thing was to stockpile a large amount of food, carbon stone, firewood, etc.

The glass, deep-processed food, improved seeds, cement, and other materials produced by the farm are transported along the river to various places along the coast, and then exchanged for grain and stored in the "Yunshan Grain Stations" in various places.

Regarding the carbonite mine, the Huo, Chen and Zhou families lost power because of the Wang family above them. The Huo family's officials in the court were implicated in a corruption case and were dismissed and the confiscations were investigated.

Coupled with the repeated attacks from Jiang Yizhou, Liao Qi and Qi Hao, the huge families finally collapsed.

Slaves and servants fled, women and children as well as various branches and offshoots fell apart and became a loose sand.

Naturally, it is no longer able to control the huge carbon stone industry.

On the other hand, Qi Hao gathered his clansmen and friends who were still left in this world, and Liao Qi found his parents and brother. With the help of Jiang Yizhou, they regained a small half of the shares of the carbonite mine, and the other half went to the court.

At this point, Qi Hao and Liao Qi’s revenge was finally completed.

Jiang Yizhou thought that they would return to his family. After all, Jiang Yizhou had paid them a lot of money over the years, and with the shares of the carbon stone mine, he could be said to be very wealthy.

However, they handed over their shares to the family to manage, and they still worked for Jiang Yizhou.

Besides, they have already become independent. Qi Hao is in charge of security, and he is basically responsible for the training of the guards when all the farms were established. He also set up an independent boxing gym, which is larger than their original one and has more than ten branches across the country.

Liao Qi is in charge of transportation, and has already established an independent transportation department with hundreds of people under him.

Now with the addition of river transport, his power is even greater.

Of course, if they wanted to stay, Jiang Yizhou would naturally welcome them. After all, the time was turbulent and it would be difficult to find people who could get started quickly to replace them.

But when it comes to Jiang Yizhou, what she trusts most is herself.

So, when the two continued to stay and serve as the right-hand men of her huge group, she decisively used the Soul-pulling Silk on them.

…………

Another year has passed, and it is the eighth year since Jiang Yizhou came into this world.

She has established more than ten "farms" across the country, with more than 300,000 acres of land, more than 20 dock warehouses, and more than 30 "grain stations".

In the past three years, with the endorsement of the imperial court and strong financial support, Jiang Yizhou's business empire has expanded like a snowball and finally covered all parts of the Zhou Kingdom.

Some of the most important improved seeds were also promoted.

Because the weather was getting worse, with drought killing people in dry places and flooding killing people in flooded places, she not only stored food and carbon stones, but also planted cotton, sugarcane and other cash crops on her own farm.

Exchange cotton spinning technology and white sugar refining technology to make cotton clothes and white sugar.

Jiang Yizhou's farm has now basically become a local weather vane. Whatever her farm grows, the local landlords and other farmers will follow suit.

It’s easier for the wealthy families as they have stored up more food than they can eat for decades, so there is no problem for them to follow the trend and grow cash crops.

But it is different for ordinary farmers. The land is a little more difficult, and if they grow cotton and sugarcane, they cannot grow grain.

Fortunately, the "Yunshan Grain Station" stabilized prices, allowing the surrounding people to have enough food to eat.

But in places far away from the grain stations, the situation became very bad.

Logically speaking, the grain yield per mu is several times higher than before. Even if one-third of the land is used to grow grain, people will not starve.

However, the news Jiang Yizhou received from information collection centers in various places was that some people were maliciously destroying grain planting, frantically driving up grain prices, and forcing farmers to lose their land through cruel means.

When Jiang Yizhou saw the collected information, he felt a strong sense of resentment.

She knew that no matter whether she was in this place or not, this situation always existed and was always happening.