The Hezhong Land has developed well in recent years. The entire Hezhong Appeasement Zone has a population of 1.1 million. But the problem is that this is an appeasement zone under the rule of Lifanyuan. Many of the populations are ethnic groups of various nomadic attributes, and this is still in the context of rapid development of the cotton industry.

The most unlucky place in the river is its geographical location. It is located in the deepest part of the mainland. No matter which direction the immigrants come from, they have to go through a long journey. From the provinces in the sea, they have to pass through the deserts, the mountains and ridges, and from the direction of Xijin, and also through the grasslands and oceans, with no one.

More importantly, the places where they pass by are often places where immigrants are absorbed. The Xijin Province and the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains have a huge demand for immigrants.

The immigrants from the Hezhong Appeasement Zone have developed to the current level with the initiative of the Empire Center. In the long run, the Empire also knows how to solve the problem of population shortage in these inland areas, that is, to complete the construction of the Eurasian Continental Bridge Railway, but with the current conditions, this is a difficult task.

The Eurasian Continental Bridge has been built for more than fifteen years. It starts from Qingdao in the east and ends to Xijin in the west, and is well carried out at the east and west ends. Within two years, the western railway can directly from Xijin to the Fergana Basin, and the east railway also runs through the four provinces of Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi and Gansu, and the Hexi Corridor has been opened.

Only in the middle section, there are a lot of problems that are within the scope of Western Xinjiang.

From Fergana to Ili, Luntai and Turpan, it is necessary to pass through two steep mountains, the Arata Mountain and the Tianshan Mountains, and to build a large number of bridges and tunnels. At this time of the 43rd year of the Empire, only a few teams under the Imperial Railway Company had such engineering capabilities, which obviously took a long time.

From Turpan to Dunhuang, there are a large number of wind belts that affect railway safety. In addition, there are deserts and Gobi in the middle. Often, sleepers are covered with sand shortly after they are laid. This kind of technical problem has not been effectively solved yet.

So much so that at the high level of the empire, a new solution was proposed to the Eurasian Continental Bridge railway, which solved the technical problems by changing the lines.

The new Eurasian continental bridge starts from Tianjin, head north to Beijing, Zhangjiakou, then along the Greater Xing'an Mountains to the north of the desert, then head west, and enter the Tianshan North Road through the low southern foot of the Altai Mountains, and go north to Luntai. Instead of going to Yili City where the general's headquarters in Xijiang is located, they enter the Kazakh grassland from the Alashan Pass and directly arrive at the Wucheng Industrial Zone.

Although this line is rarely blocked by mountains and does not need to be dug so many tunnels, the problem is that the locations it passes through are all economically declining and sparsely populated places. It does not take into account the economics of the Eurasian Continental Bridge and cannot be passed in the Cabinet and House of Commons.

The reason is actually very simple. Only the entire Eurasian Continental Bridge Railway is profitable from Xi'an to Qingdao, and the rest of the routes were subsidized by Imperial Railway Company. If the emperor had not promoted the construction of the railway, this big project would have stopped long ago.

Due to technical reasons, Imperial Railway Company is generally in a state of losing money and needs to obtain a lot of financial support from the finance every year. This is because in the Li Junhua era, the Empire launched a large number of railway projects, but as time goes by, these railways have fallen behind in technology. For example, the railway lines cannot bear heavier fronts and cannot meet the speed of new trains. They need to be re-layed, and some old-fashioned bridges need to be re-installed and reinforced.

Therefore, the method of speeding up the opening of railways through political orders is no longer feasible.

The foreign immigrants that the river land used to rely on, in addition to cotton planting, the empire immigrants recruited mainly rely on judicial exile and administrative migration.

With the development of the empire and the awakening of civil rights awareness, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the people to punish exiles. After all, even criminals should have the right to be visited. If they are exiled for thousands of miles at once, they will basically never be seen in their lifetime.

Others oppose judicial exiles are also families of victims in cases. Generally speaking, when a prisoner is sentenced to five years in prison, he will be exiled. If he is sentenced to fifteen years, there is no limit on the exile distance. However, the victims' families found that although the prisoners who hurt or even kill their relatives were exiled, they were not detained and renovated when they arrived at the exile site.

The management is relatively strict. Working on some state-owned farms is essentially no different from farm workers. In some places where management is not strict, such as Australia and several provinces in the Americas, these exiles have come, and no one cares about anyone. They only need to go to the local security office every three months to half a year to report.

When exiled prisoners went to America, they found a job to marry and have children, they were basically not much different from ordinary immigrants. They were only restricted in their career choices, such as not being able to hold public office. Some exiled prisoners even joined the army directly on the road and served overseas. After a few years, they returned home in glory.

Therefore, the empire is very cautious in using the exile system. Only when some people who confess their guilty attitude are not good will they be exiled. The exile site is no longer an overseas province, but has become an island in the Pacific Ocean, which directly allows them to fend for themselves.

There are fewer and fewer people from judicial exiles in China, and the support provided by the Lifan Yuan is also decreasing. In the past, the Lifan Yuan would prepare for the Zasak, whose population has grown too fast in the inner Xinjiang region, and form a new Zasak, which directly and systematically immigrate to the riverside, but now it cannot be done.

The reason is that in the past, the inner Xinjiang region had many nomadic peoples, few farming, and nomadic peoples packed up their tents, drove cattle and sheep, rode horses and pulled carts, and did not place them wherever they were grazing. But now it is different. In the inner Xinjiang region, more and more herders have changed from nomadic to fixed herdsmen, and they live in tents, but brick and stone houses.

Anyone who has received education is willing to live and work in big cities. Who is willing to go to other places?

In the early years, the Army also organized agricultural reclamation groups, which recruited some men to join the army in disaster areas or densely populated areas, and then went directly to the Hezhong area to settle down, and paid wages were paid every month. However, with the development of the industry, similar things could not be done anymore, and the Army's military expenditure could not afford so much consumption. The development of the economy, especially industrialization and urbanization, has improved the digestive capacity of the population a lot.

Li Zhaoyu asked Shen Changhe to sit down and said to him: "Mr. Shen, in my opinion, the Hezhong Appeasement Zone or all places in the empire that lack immigration is not as good as a problem of money than population problems. Why do so many people come to Hezhong to grow cotton every year? That is because growing cotton can make money, and why do immigrants who come every year intercept a lot of them by Xijin, Xijiang and other places? That is because the money is not given in place."

Shen Changhe is the key point. Why did there be many army agricultural reclamation groups in the river back then? It was because the money was paid in place. The soldiers joined the agricultural reclamation group and paid monthly salaries. When they arrived at the local area, they also gave a foreign wife, who paid to purchase various materials to build houses, plant grains, and paid for the annual surplus.

As long as the money is in place, some people are willing to come.

Seeing a smile appearing on Chen Changhe's face, Li Zhaoyu spread his hands: "Mr. Shen, don't think too much, I can't get you money from the central government."

Chen Changhe immediately pulled his face down. Li Zhaoyu said so lively that he thought that this young master could bring more financial subsidies to the situation in the Hezhong Appeasement Zone.

"But it's not just the Imperial Finance Ministry that is rich. Look at the people who come with me are all rich people." Li Zhaoyu said.

When Chen Changhe heard this, he became interested again. He recalled Li Zhaoyu's concern for cotton planting in the river and the special invitation of so many foreign businessmen and messengers. Chen Changhe understood what Li Zhaoyu meant: "Does the eldest son want to borrow European chickens to lay Chinese eggs?"

"No?" Li Zhaoyu asked.

Chen Changhe shook his head: "Okay, of course."

If it was not possible five years ago, but it is really possible now. The reason is that the political ecology within the empire is changing. For example, if the same problem was opposed by someone five years ago, people would think that if the empire exported cotton to Britain, France and other countries, the textile industry in these countries would develop and rob the empire's textile industry market. This is to cut one's own meat and promote the other's industrialization.

But now, people don’t think so, especially the decision-making level of the younger generation gradually moves towards the empire. These people are more confident and professional than before.

For example, the Empire's Foreign Trade Department found that although the Empire advocated free trade for so many years, it was not realized in the end, and the whole world is still in a protective and exclusive trade.

Especially European countries, Britain and France, will impose large tariffs on the empire's textiles to protect their own textile industry. The faster the country's textile industry develops, the higher the tariffs will be, and they will expel the empire's textiles little by little.

Because of the rise of cotton industries in Egypt, Brazil and India, these countries can develop regardless of whether the empire exports to them. On the contrary, the empire's cotton planting industry was also hit hard by restrictions on overseas markets.

Chen Changhe continued: "But the question is, do you have any better suggestions?"

In recent years, the expansion of cotton planting area in Hezhongzhidi has largely relied on gaining a larger overseas cotton market. So, this has been done all the time. Li Zhaoyu also mentioned that he can only say that he has a better way.

Li Zhaoyu said: "I have read a lot of rural survey reports on various appeasement zones in Western Xinjiang. I have also conducted on-site inspections in the past few days. I found a problem. Most of the immigrants from the provinces in the empire are poor farmers, and these immigrants have various doubts about the land in the river.

Generally speaking, farmers hope to have a piece of land of their own, and the land in the river can also be provided, but the problem is that they have to pass through cities such as Xijin and have many temptations along the way. When they arrive at the Hezhong Appeasement Zone, they are allocated to them, but they also have to buy planting, tools, and oxen. These appeasement zones can be provided, usually borrowed or borrowed.

Therefore, when farmers start farming, they owe debts. On the contrary, cities such as Xijin have relatively complete relief systems. Even if a farmer cannot find a job in the city, he will not starve to death. He can use an adaptation period. In this way, there will be a gap between the two places."

"But in the long run, the land in the river is more suitable for farmers."

Li Zhaoyu continued: "You are right, but I found that there are many problems here. For example, when growing cotton in a concentrated manner, farmers are very suspicious because they are not panic when they have grain in their hands. They want to grow grain, but they have to go far away. Some farmers who join private farms do not owe debts, but do not have their own land. In fact, they force farmers to become agricultural workers.

Even though the farmers gritted their teeth and accepted the arrangements of the Hezhong Appeasement Zone and planted cotton, they had no sales channels. Most of the profits of cotton were earned by trading companies and buyers. The purchase price of local cotton is much different from the transaction price of the cotton exchange in Xijin, and the growth rate is also different."

Chen Changhe couldn't help but become nervous. Could this young master really be here to find fault?

Li Zhaoyu continued: "So can we formulate a unified cooperative, directly link cotton farmers with textile factories and trading companies, establish a long-term procurement system and unified pricing, reduce intermediate links, so that cotton farmers do not have to worry about the price of cotton every year, but sell at a protected price, so that they will be guaranteed in the medium and long term.

Trading companies and textile mills can also have stable supply channels and do not have to worry about the sharp rise in cotton prices every year."

Chen Changhe smiled: "Similar plans have been considered since Master Pei's time, and there were also practices in Xijin, but at that time it was not cotton but wheat, but the result was not optimistic. Although the contract was signed, once the price rose in the second year, farmers would sell their products to small buyers. If the price fell, the big merchants on the other side would make things difficult for farmers by various means."

Li Zhaoyu said calmly: "Even if this cooperative is cancelled, it will directly allow Europeans to invest locally and hire locals to build cotton farms."

Chen Changhe was shocked: "What do you mean is to let European merchants have the right to rent and use land in the land in the river?"

"Yes!" Li Zhaoyu answered very simply.

The reason why the cooperatives in the Pei Yuanqi era cannot be organized is because farmers and big merchants have no bargaining chips in each other's hands, especially those foreign merchants. What can they do if they breach the contract? They cannot be punished at all. On the contrary, cotton farmers are local and will be punished once they breach the contract.

If foreign merchants had farms within the empire, the rent of land and agricultural machinery for renting land would become collateral, and they would not dare to be too presumptuous.
Chapter completed!