New Shun 1730

Liu Yu was still in Shaanxi at this time. To be more precise, he was in Tianbaofu, the old place where he started his career in Dashun.

In the first year of Yongchang, Emperor Taizu established Chang'an and changed Yan'an Prefecture to Tianbao Prefecture, Yulin County to Tianbao County, and Qingjian County to Tianbo Prefecture.

This Yan'an Mansion is where Dashun started, just like Fengyang in the Ming Dynasty. In addition, Xi'an was called Chang'an, and later also called Xijing. It was an important node in the fight against the northwest and the stabilization of Mongolia. It was different from Fengyang Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty, and its political status was still quite high.

However, being poor is still poor.

It was mid-spring, and in Tianbao Mansion, people who were going to the Ili Valley to reclaim wasteland were being summoned.

Although the sky is high and the road is far away, I heard that the water and grass are fertile, so I was exempted from taxes for a few years after I went there, and the court distributed rations of seeds to cattle and horses. This place is poor, but there are quite a few people willing to go.

Since it is the place where Dashun started, it can get some credit, and the policies of the imperial court are also tilted. Nowadays, a group of people are recruited to go to reclaim wasteland and stay there for a long time. Such "good things" may not be available elsewhere.

Liu Yu, who rode back from Yili, was quite satisfied with the situation there. Several cities have been built, adopting the standard armed colonial model. A bastion structure is established in the central city, and land is cultivated around it.

At the beginning, Liu Yu first beheaded and then killed some religious leaders, and he firmly opposed recruiting Mao Huihua to go back to Ili to reclaim wasteland, claiming that he would rather spend more money to ensure the local base.

The emperor has also been rich in recent years, so he understands the method of long-term peace and stability. Either they force the government soldiers along the Songhua River, or they recruit farmers from around Xijing. Not many people are sent there every year, but they are sent there according to the maximum number of 20,000 a year.

In the past few years, there has been an outbreak of smallpox in the Junggar region. After Liu Yu plans to return, he will first promote the method of inoculating cowpox by cutting meat in Zhucheng District of Ili to ensure the survival rate as much as possible.

As long as smallpox can be controlled, the mortality rate of immigrants there will be much lower than that of Southeast Asia.

It should be said that, looking at it now, Dashun has basically established effective rule in the Ili Valley area.

After the military reform, a group of garrison troops with the Qingzhou Army as the core dared to walk sideways with only two thousand people.

The prestige he had built back then could still intimidate him for a while, the Han army still had its remaining power, and the combat effectiveness of the regular army after the reform of the 2,000-man army was also considerable, so there would be no trouble in a short time.

Immigration is a long process, even more boring than emigrating to the Whale Sea.

Whale Sea can also use trade, whaling, seal and walrus oil, etc. to promote the development of immigrants; immigration to Yili is completely a farming system, and no private capital can help. That poor place will soon be destroyed. It has become the place with the lowest food prices in the country, estimated to be even lower than the Songhua River.

This time after returning from his westward journey, Liu Yu came specifically to Tianbaofu. It was not because of immigration.

He came to Tianbaofu mainly to take a look at the Yanchang oil field.

This place has produced oil since ancient times. Shen Kuo mentioned it and named it after oil.

"Compendium of Materia Medica" also introduced it, saying: The smell of petroleum is the same as that of male sulfur, so it kills insects and cures sores. However, porcelain and glass do not leak, so Qian Yi is used to treat convulsions, diarrhoea, vomiting, phlegm and saliva in children. It is used in silver liquid pills, and is mixed with mercury, light powder, borneol, scorpion tail and white powder to form pills. Not only is it used to resolve phlegm, but it is also used to clear the meridians and guide the orifices.

"Yuan Yi Tong Zhi" even directly said: There is an oil well drilled in Nanying River in Yanchang County, and the oil is flammable.

It can be seen that the oil layer here is very shallow and can be exploited with current technical means. After all, the Bashu region has accumulated technology for drilling salt wells, so drilling is not a problem.

Moreover, the early stage of oil refining is also very simple.

Gasoline and diesel are garbage in this era.

What is really useful at this time is the simplest refinement of kerosene and the lubricating oil prepared for the coming industrial era.

Liu Yu believes that Dashun now has the foundation to try oil production. Of course, it cannot be as advanced as later generations, but local methods can still be adopted to accumulate technical reserves for the future. Technology is not achieved overnight.

For one thing, since he became the governor of Whale Sea, Dashun's whaling industry and seal and walrus hunting industry have developed rapidly.

A large amount of whale oil entered the cities, especially in the capital, replacing some candles and becoming a high-quality lighting fuel.

As for kerosene and whale oil, if they are only used as lighting fuel, they can be replaced by the market.

With the foundation laid by whale oil, replacing it with kerosene is not a problem.

Of course, without the early foundation of whale oil, the development of the glass manufacturing industry, and the impact of new goods in recent years, there would be no conditions worthy of exploitation now.

Now there is a market foundation laid over the past ten years or so, which can ensure that as long as it is put into production, it will make money, and the emperor will be happy to mine it.

Secondly, Liu Yu estimated that the steam engine was almost ready, the principles were basically understood, and the key boring machine had already been built. The age of steam is almost here.

As soon as the steam age comes, the demand for lighting will increase significantly.

If nothing else, the steam engine starts spinning and cannot stop, so lighting is needed to achieve a fourteen-hour or sixteen-hour working day.

Gas has a slightly higher technical content and is prone to accidents. If something happened, someone might take the opportunity to cause trouble and start a wave of opposition. Of course, it is best to continue the tradition and use oil lamps.

The conditions of basically no loss of money, technology and market are all achieved.

But the more important purpose is not for Dashun's Tianbaofu. This place is considered the core area of ​​Dashun, and there is nothing to worry about. Liu Yu is still planning for the Western Regions and Nanyang.

There is also an oil field in the Hexi Corridor, the Yumen Oilfield near Jiayuguan, and it is similar to the oil field in Yanchang County. It is not impossible to mine it with local methods. As long as the steam engine is in place, the scale of mining will definitely be increased.

In order to strengthen the control of the Western Regions, in addition to this kind of farming-style immigration, a large primary industrial city is also needed to gather enough population and be located in the core position of the core corridor to ensure that if there is any accident in the future, an army of industrial workers can be pulled out.

At the same time, the city's advantages are also used to move Dashun's Northwest Field Group from Xijing to the west near Jiayuguan to ensure that the situation in the Western Regions can be stabilized at any time.

Industrialization is the best way to fight against those separatist forces.

In the short term, it is really difficult to industrialize the Northwest.

There is no market, transportation is inconvenient, and wool and cotton textiles are estimated to be more expensive to transport to the main consumption areas than to ship them from Europe by sea.

Now it seems that we can only find another way to do something that can make money through long-distance transportation.

It would be best to attract a large amount of private capital here, and lay a good foundation for building railways in the future: it is not affordable to rely solely on the court to pay; if private capital can be raised, the pressure will be greatly reduced, and railways can be built on the northeast and northwest lines as much as possible. Even if the northern border of Dashun is completely stable, it can expand to Nanyang and even India in the future.

Only when it is profitable can it attract enough people. Pure farming-style immigration is too difficult for Dashun after all, with insufficient organizational strength, and it really lacks the help of private capital, and its efficiency is extremely low.

Liu Yu also knows that after returning to the capital this time, he will prepare to go to Nanyang.

And from the current point of view, and his plan, he will not be able to pay attention to the problems in the northwest and northeast for a long time.

Whether this side is stable is directly related to the efficiency of Dashun going to Nanyang and robbing India.

So before returning to the capital, try to make some arrangements for the future of the northwest and western regions.

The oil fields in Tianbao Prefecture are just preliminary preparations for the future Hexi Corridor and the Western Regions oil fields, in order to verify the technology and train a team of craftsmen.

This team of craftsmen is not only for the Western Regions, but also for Nanyang.

Regardless of the chemical raw material identity of oil, and regardless of the internal combustion engine, which is impossible at this time, using oil for lighting is still a promising industry.

Nanyang also has oil, and some oil in Borneo is also easy to mine. Without going to a large oil field, slowly accumulating technology and increasing the number of immigrants in Nanyang as much as possible, this is also for Dashun to gain a firm foothold in Nanyang in the future.

Since there is gold in Borneo, and there are already Chinese immigrants mining there, if kerosene can be refined in the near future, as a hot commodity in Dashun's internal and overseas markets, it will undoubtedly quickly "reform the natives and return the officials" in Borneo.

Liu Yu thought very clearly about this point. Batavia in Java is of great significance to the Netherlands. But for Dashun, it is a chicken rib.

The four military towns in Nanyang that he envisioned were not centered on Java. The real core areas were Malacca, Bangka Island, and Borneo, which could be connected together.

Liu Yu felt that the prospects for the spice trade in Nanyang were not very good. In the short term, there would definitely be some profit. But long ago, Dashun would never have the ability to intervene in the affairs of Central and South America. The Portuguese knew that Southeast Asian spices were grown in South America. As Dashun gradually extended its reach to Europe, the import substitution plans of various countries would most likely be put on the agenda.

It is better to prepare some alternative trade goods in advance, especially to prepare an investment direction for private capital.

The current situation is very delicate. The emperor is very likely to control the spice trade himself and obtain huge internal treasury income.

This is almost inevitable.

And Liu Yu must also coax the emperor so that he may not close the door in Malacca, but continue to move westward on the sea.

Otherwise, the emperor would think that conquering Nanyang was for merchants? He would definitely be unhappy. The money belongs to the merchants, why do the emperor think he should fight?

At this time, oil, or kerosene for lighting, became an important growth point for private investment. It was also an important pillar for accelerating the immigration process in Nanyang.

Just like in the Whale Sea immigration, many policies rely on private capital. Only when it is profitable can the number and scale of immigrants be expanded.

To change the situation of "the rich don't want to go and the poor can't go", the best way at this time is "the rich are profitable, and send Chinese from Fujian and Guangdong to work one by one".

If the court can perfectly lead, it will of course be the fastest. But Dashun has no such organizational power. Liu Yu is very clear about this and has no illusions.

Just like what he said to the navy about the problem of Australia before leaving Nanyang: the problem of Australia must be solved by discovering gold mines, not just lush water and grass. It is meaningful to find gold mines and lush water and grass, otherwise it is impossible to achieve immigration results in the short term.

Just like Ezo, opening up trade with Japan and attracting capital with the profits of the local fishing industry can complete rapid immigration.

Otherwise, we will always face the situation of "the rich don't want to go and the poor can't afford to go". If they all relied on official immigration from the imperial court, the Dashun government, with its amazing financial capabilities, really couldn't afford the money.

Times are changing too fast. This is no longer the era of armed colonization in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which took four or five hundred years to complete. At this rate of technological development, it is probably only thirty or fifty years before nationalism awakens.

Dashun does not have that much time, and he can only try his best to improve the efficiency of immigration and change the population structure.

And given the extremely special national conditions of Dashun, even if the steam engine is developed, Liu Yu dare not touch Dashun's traditional advantageous industries such as the textile industry for the time being.

At least, before the power of capital and the imperial power have a little fight, Liu Yu dare not touch these industries that will be turned upside down if they move, and he can't move them.

In this way, he can only continue his previous established strategy: new industries, new industries that do not compete with old traditional industries, to fatten up capital and raise a large number of workers.

In Dashun, if the capitalists really want to accomplish something, it is actually quite [simple]: as long as they can suppress the disintegration of the small peasant economy, the large uprising of tens of millions of people, and can withstand a wave of large uprisings at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the scale of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and suppress them successfully, then they are qualified and can accomplish something.

This proves that they have the ability to replace the feudal imperial power and become the new ruling class. Without even this ability, how can they be qualified to be the ruling class.

The development and strength of the capitalists will inevitably be accompanied by a wave of reactionary shocks from the traditional small peasants.

But now it seems that they cannot bear this heavy responsibility in terms of ability and financial resources. Therefore, they still have to continue to fatten them up. If they are not fat, how can there be millions of real gravediggers?

With the current technical level and the framework of traditional advantageous industries that cannot be moved, there are not too many directions that can be excavated. They can only take advantage of every little bit of new industry.

After staying in Tianbaofu for a month and a half, he saw the oil flowing out with his own eyes, inspected the local population, transportation and other conditions, and had a rough idea in his mind, when the fast horse from the capital finally arrived.

"Marquis Jing, His Majesty has ordered Marquis Jing to return to Beijing as soon as possible, and hurry up. The affairs of the northwest can be delayed; other matters should be handled urgently."

The fast horse conveyed the emperor's oral order, only saying other matters, but Liu Yu knew it must be Nanyang.

The staff of the Privy Council should tell the emperor: The time to go to Nanyang can only be winter, and set sail in December, otherwise the storms in the Indian Ocean and the typhoons in Nanyang will make people very uncomfortable. If we don't take action this winter, we will have to wait another year. Most of the emperor is already in a hurry.