Chapter 797

Liang Dahai stood with his hands on his hips, watching the slaves being loaded onto the ships.

These slaves all came from Liaozhou. After Ye Qingyun occupied Liaozhou, large numbers of slaves arrived at Haigucheng.

Because the slaves numbered over two hundred thousand, they deployed all available ships, including warships, for transport.

Moreover, to prevent slave rebellions, a new contingent of eight thousand soldiers came to Haigucheng to act as escorts.

“Oh my, so many slaves! The Great Yu Empire’s current slave shortage is finally covered,” Li Kaiyuan was also in Haigucheng. His control over Goryeo’s commerce was still ongoing.

Liang Dahai’s mouth hung open. The scar on his face twitched with his smile. He said, “Indeed! His Majesty must be overjoyed.”

“That’s true, but the matter of conscripting laborers in Goryeo cannot be vague. His Majesty is ambitious now; he isn’t afraid of having too many slaves, only too few.”

With that, the two looked at the slaves and smiled knowingly. In their opinion, with so many slaves, the Great Yu Empire’s development would surely take a leap forward.

…

Shanhai Pass, Lu Fei, while implementing the Guandong people policy, had the slaves from Pingzhou City escorted here.

After a period of rest, this group of 120,000 slaves arrived in Qingzhou Province after a seven-day journey.

“Your Majesty, this batch of slaves must be given to our Railway Department. Currently, the railway is severely short of manpower. The few people Liang Dahai recruited from Goryeo are simply not enough.”

In the imperial study, Princess Pingyang assumed an air of stubbornness, unwilling to leave. The moment the slaves arrived in Qingzhou Province, she sought them out like a cat smelling fish.

Xiao Ming had returned to Qingzhou Province two days earlier than this batch of slaves. At this time, the news of the Great Yu Empire army’s victory had already spread far and wide through the newspapers.

When he returned to the city, almost all the common people of Qingzhou Province lined the streets to welcome him, making him truly experience the grandeur and heroism of a triumphant return.

Wielding the might of a great victory, Xiao Ming distinctly felt that the officials’ attitude towards him was more respectful than ever. It was just as he had initially predicted.

Coupled with a reputation for being a capable and victorious general, his position in the Great Yu Empire became even more unshakeable. There were even articles in the newspapers comparing him to a sagacious emperor of a thousand ages.

This article was personally written by Fan Zeng. Although the flattery was obvious, it also implicitly demonstrated the shock that this great defeat of the barbarians brought to the people of the Great Yu Empire.

Because this was not only a victory in national strategy but also a re-establishment of national confidence.

Beyond this, a byproduct of this victory was the very purpose of Princess Pingyang’s visit: a large number of slaves from the grasslands.

“Aunt need not worry. This batch of slaves is just the beginning. Slaves from Liaozhou will soon arrive in Qingzhou Province, and if we successfully capture Jinzhou, we will acquire even more slaves,” Xiao Ming said calmly.

The reason he returned from Shanhai Pass was precisely to deal with this slave issue. For him, the war profits this time were extremely substantial.

This slave tide would bring a large number of precious laborers to the Great Yu Empire. Only with an increase in labor force could he establish large-scale infrastructure projects in the Great Yu Empire.

Princess Pingyang, hearing this, smiled so widely her face was contorted with joy. As the chief official of the Railway Department, she had experienced a shift in mindset from merely coping at the beginning to wholeheartedly building the Great Yu Empire’s railway network now.

It wasn’t that she had become more noble, but rather that the miraculous effects of railways and the substantial profits they could bring made her feel that her status would be even more secure.

“Your Majesty saying so puts me at ease.” Princess Pingyang relaxed. She said to Xiao Ming, “Your Majesty, the railway from Qingzhou Province to Laiwu is already half-built. Give me another hundred thousand slaves, and the Railway Department can connect Qingzhou Province to Laiwu and Qingzhou Province to Kaiping in just one year.”

Xiao Ming’s eyes lit up. One year was neither long nor short. If this route was opened, it would bring incredible changes to the industry of the six prefectures.

After a moment of contemplation, he said, “These slaves will certainly be prioritized for the Railway Department. However, one year is too long. I want the railway opened by the end of this year.”

In fact, building railways on the flat plains of Qingzhou Province was not very difficult. According to records, in contemporary times, on June 9, 1881, China’s first self-built railway, the Tangxu Railway from Tangshan to Xugezhuang, took only three months to build.

Although this railway was only twenty li long, the number of workers used to build it was also very small.

And now, the Railway Department already had over two hundred thousand people building railways. Adding this batch of slaves, the total would probably exceed three hundred thousand.

With so many people, building a railway line over three hundred kilometers long could be completed within a year, even if they only built one kilometer a day.

Of course, the Railway Department was not just building this route; the route from Qingzhou Province to Dengzhou was also under construction simultaneously.

This route would pass through Laizhou, which was rich in gold and silver, and then reach Dengzhou, all the way to the port.

“Although the end of the year will be a bit challenging, it’s not impossible, provided Your Majesty agrees to the hundred thousand slaves,” Princess Pingyang’s eyes darted around.

The reason railway construction was slow in the first year was that the slaves had no experience, and at the same time, the output of railway tracks couldn’t keep up.

Now it was different. They had cultivated a large number of elite artisans for railway construction. These artisans could completely independently lead the slaves in building railways.

Moreover, after the establishment of the Laiwu and Kaiping Steel Workshops, the output of railway tracks had also caught up. Now, there was no need to worry about materials at all.

“Hmm, I agree.” Xiao Ming raised his eyebrows. Railways would be a long-term project for the Great Yu Empire.

In the current era where transportation was not very developed, railway transport would be like a divine tool. And this would also greatly facilitate the deployment of the Great Yu Empire’s army.

After asking a few more questions about railway construction, Xiao Ming dismissed Princess Pingyang.

Three days later, Liang Dahai successfully brought the barbarian slaves to Qingzhou Province. According to the agreement with Princess Pingyang, he allocated one hundred thousand slaves to her.

The remaining slaves numbered over two hundred thousand. Xiao Ming allocated one hundred and twenty thousand to the Mining Department, and the remaining eighty thousand were given to the slave plantations.

Industry was important, but food was also very important. And with the development of industry, the need for raw materials also increased, such as sugarcane, cotton, and rubber, which were now greatly needed.

While allocating the slaves, Xiao Ming also dispatched artisans from the Mining Department and the steel workshop to Liaozhou. This Liaozhou was contemporary Liaoyang, and the famous Anshan and Benxi iron mines were near Liaoyang.

Among the five major open-pit iron mines in contemporary China, Anshan and Benxi were included. Moreover, Anshan, along with the Benxi iron mine, had proven reserves exceeding 10 billion tons, making them dominant in iron ore.

For these past few years, the barbarians had used these two mines, where one could simply pick up iron ore, to cast cannons.

Precisely because of this, conquering Jinzhou was so important. Once Jinzhou was taken, it would form a straight line, connecting the three points. These two large iron mines would then be under his control, and the Great Yu Empire’s initial development would no longer lack iron ore.