Chapter 222 Rapid Development

Having obtained the power to establish a government and open an office, the first thing Zhao Xiyao did was impatiently appoint her husband to an official post: Great General of the Nanyue Kingdom, responsible for leading all the Nanyue Kingdom's armies.

As for the others, they were re-invested according to their original official positions, and Wu Guiyi, who had perfectly completed his mission this time, also obtained a formal official post: Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial of the Nanyue Kingdom.

As for Gao Yuan's three fathers-in-law, they were granted the titles of the Three Ducal Ministers: Zheng Ji was appointed Grand Tutor, Song Jinglian was appointed Grand Guardian, and Mu Sheng was appointed Grand Marshal.

Although these were honorary positions, they were considered transcendent existences.

As soon as the edict was issued, Zhao Xiyao felt that the attitudes of the three sisters at home became even more respectful toward her, and the atmosphere in the house was exceptionally harmonious.

Various regions also began to rush to produce brand-new banners; previously, they always had to march under the banner of Da Qian when going to war, which always felt a bit awkward.

Now that they had their own formal national title, everyone was incredibly excited and worked with even more vigor.

After nearly a year of recuperation and experiencing a rare bumper harvest, the four northern powers had also slightly recovered some of their strength and were becoming restless once again.

Especially for Lu Heng; for him, his father Lu Kuan was already over fifty, and the topic of an heir had been brought to the table. Defeating Chang Xingrong as soon as possible to fully occupy the Central Plains had become a necessary condition for him to consolidate his status as the heir.

Therefore, after obtaining the bumper harvest, Lu Heng began to prepare for the next great war.

Chang Xingrong's side was not intimidated at all. If you had a bumper harvest, I had one too; if you were making preparations, I was also making preparations, recruiting soldiers, buying horses, and transporting supplies.

The commoners, who had just finished their farm work, were forced to be conscripted again. This corvée labor not only provided no wages at all, but they even had to bring their own food, and they had to endure illness or injury on their own.

Unlike in the Nanyue Kingdom, where all of this had already taken on a market-oriented meaning; temporary service not only meant they could eat their fill, but there were also wages to be earned, military doctors to look after them if they were sick or injured, and pensions to be received.

This was why it was particularly easy for Gao Yuan to recruit civilian laborers, because for the commoners, it was a part-time job that also reduced the consumption of food at home. Eating their fill put them in a good mood, their work efficiency was higher, and costs were actually reduced.

With spare money in hand, the commoners' willingness to consume increased; with less food consumed at home, their willingness to sell grain also increased.

With commerce flourishing, merchants and workshop owners were more willing to expand their scale, the number of people hired increased, the output of goods increased, and prices naturally became lower.

All of this led to the rapid prosperity of the market, the tax revenue of the government treasury became abundant, and more and more grain was purchased from the commoners.

A perfect closed loop; in just a few short years, the power of Gao Yuan's reform of the corvée system became apparent.

The first batch of cement workshops had been established, and production had finally increased, though it only met the needs of the government offices; it was still far from civilian use.

Compared to repairing city walls, Gao Yuan was more willing to put money and grain into repairing roads. As someone from a later generation, the concept that 'to get rich, one must first build roads' was very deeply rooted.

Without fighting a war, all the money and grain could be used for development, which made the entire Nanyue Kingdom look like a scene of thriving prosperity everywhere. In just two months, the mileage of cement roads exceeded five hundred li.

The The two Jiangnan Circuits and the Jiannan Circuit under the rule of Da Qian were now without war and had also entered a stage of stable development, with peaceful scenes everywhere.

However, beneath this peaceful scene, undercurrents were surging.

As the large number of Powerful Families families that followed the Great Qian Imperial Court south needed to settle down and establish themselves, they required a large amount of land, but this land all had owners.

So what was to be done? Naturally, it was their specialty—land annexation.

Through forceful seizure and setting traps to swindle people, they used every dishonorable means and showed their ugliest faces for the sake of land and industry.

A large number of commoners lost the land they relied on for survival and were forced to become tenant farmers and servants for the Powerful Families families, or even became displaced refugees.

In the third year of Shaoxing alone, people from all over fled to the area around Jiangnan East Circuit. This gave Wan Sanqian an opportunity; he transformed into a master swindler, traveling everywhere at full speed, bribing officials, and recruiting refugees.

Almost every day, a ship full of refugees could be sent out from Linan. To support his actions, Gao Yuan even had to increase the intensity of transporting goods to this side.

This kept the workshops producing white sugar and paper incredibly busy. Many refugees who arrived in Nanyue entered the workshops as soon as they got off the ship and immediately had a livelihood.

Yet the Great Qian Imperial Court and The Emperor Zhao Ji didn't care about any of this at all; it seemed that in their eyes, losing a few hundred people a day was not an issue at all.

Everything was developing in a good direction, and the only one with a face full of worry was Zhao Xiyao.

Looking at Gao Yuan, who spent money like water, she hesitated for a long time before making up her mind to talk to her husband.

After finishing dinner, just as Gao Yuan was about to leave the table, he saw Zhao Xiyao looking as if she wanted to say something but was hesitating, so he sat back down just after lifting his backside.

"Zhao Xiyaos informal address, what's wrong?"

"Husband, has the spending from the government treasury been a bit too much in recent months? We're already running a deficit now. Do you think maybe..."

Song Yao also spoke up to advise him.

"Yes, the government treasury's loans from the bank are increasing. If this continues, I'm afraid we won't even be able to afford the interest soon."

Gao Yuan shook his head decisively.

"I know what you're thinking, but time waits for no one. We must seize this rare opportunity to go all out and develop quickly; otherwise, once the war starts later, we won't have the energy, money, or grain for development."

However, Gao Yuan did not simply and crudely refuse directly; instead, he proposed a new suggestion.

"I think we should do this: our Prince's Mansion will issue bonds through the bank to raise funds from the people."

"Bonds?"

The four beautiful women immediately turned into curious elementary school students, sitting up straight and waiting for the wicked Teacher Gao to preach and solve their doubts.

"It's actually very easy to understand. It's borrowing money from the commoners in the name of our Nanyue Prince's Mansion, promising a repayment time, interest returns, and so on;

The bank acts as the issuing institution, and they can take a certain percentage of commission from the issued bonds. This way, we solve the problem of lacking money, the bank earns money, and the commoners get interest returns—killing three birds with one stone."

"This... will Yang Xin agree?"

"Don't worry, she will definitely agree."

Just as Gao Yuan said, as soon as Yang Xin heard about issuing bonds—especially the safest kind, government bonds—she immediately agreed to this plan.

Soon, the novel concept of bonds was spread everywhere through notices and government office publicity.

The first batch of people willing to 'eat the crab' were those Powerful Families families who had made a fortune following Gao Yuan; they now had an almost blind worship of Gao Yuan.

With these wealthy families taking the lead, plus the temptation of interest returns slightly higher than bank deposits, commoners with surplus wealth could no longer sit still and joined the ranks of those buying government bonds one after another.

For a time, throughout the Nanyue Kingdom, the greeting between people changed from 'Have you eaten?' to 'Have you bought it?'

Having raised a large amount of funds, Gao Yuan's rapid development finally didn't have to stop. The work of building roads, digging reservoirs, and widening river channels in various places was able to continue.

In the following years, people couldn't help but sigh with emotion during idle chats.

"Commandery Duke Gao was truly farsighted. If it weren't for the construction during that period, how could there be today's prosperity, and how could it have supported the later great wars?"

The women were also filled with admiration for Gao Yuan's persistence in the third year of Shaoxing.

While the south was developing vigorously, the north was already at daggers drawn.