Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 449: Discussion in the Palace
The rumor that the navy had discovered Tanzhou quickly spread in Jinling under Bai Tu's deliberate promotion...
Almost a state of unowned land?
The pristine wilderness is certainly not as good as cultivated fields, let alone fertile fields with water conservancy facilities, but if it were given for free, no one would complain about it - no matter how low the yield is, isn't slash-and-burn farming better?
If Yizhou makes people feel like an overseas yellow island and they feel less secure after immigrating there, then Tanzhou, which is so large in area, does not have this problem at all.
This is why, given Gan Ning's character, he became cautious after discovering the size of Danzhou. Even at the palace meeting, Lu Su and Jia Xu also advised Bai Tu to be cautious...
"Given the size of Danzhou and the fact that it is located overseas, the selection of the governor must be made with extreme caution." Jia Xu simply mentioned this.
Lu Su said directly: "Yes, once the population of Tanzhou expands to one million, if the Governor's Office has the heart of 'Zhao Tuo', it may repeat the mistakes of Nanyue in the late Qin Dynasty!"
The two of them were talking about the same thing, but Jia Xu would not point it out directly - what if the future governor of Tanzhou holds a grudge against me because of limited power?
In contrast, Lu Su was almost outspoken, saying that people who came from aristocratic families or had serious tendencies to seek personal gain should never be appointed as governors.
Of course, because of Chu's current navigation technology, no one thought that Tanzhou should be abandoned.
With the area of Danzhou, as long as it was managed properly, the State of Chu would be completely invincible - even if there was a shocking reversal and the two states of Jing and Yang were swept away, it could retreat to Danzhou and take its time.
Even without considering this unexpected situation, Danzhou, as an undeveloped land, can still benefit itself.
Bai Tu agreed with the views of Lu Su and others, but made some minor corrections. In fact, the shortcomings and advantages of Danzhou were not as obvious as they thought.
“As for the issue of maritime travel, actually, with the current navigation technology of the Chu State, and the ports of Youzhou and Zhouhu as relay stations, as long as the route is determined, Danzhou should not be as far away as imagined... Just like Yizhou, it took several months when we first found it, but now it only takes ten days to go back and forth.
It’s just that in terms of land, although Tanzhou is large enough, Xingba has already emphasized in his letter that most of what has been discovered is mountainous.”
Bai Tu did not explicitly state the geographical disadvantages of Danzhou. After all, there was no evidence, and... Bai Tu did not want to dampen everyone's enthusiasm.
In fact, Bai Tu knew that in terms of land fertility, because there were many volcanic areas in Danzhou, the land fertility was indeed very good under the buff of volcanic ash, but... 70% of the territory was mountainous areas, and plains accounted for only one twentieth.
In the late 16th century, Toyotomi Hideyoshi conducted a comprehensive land survey and found land with an annual output of 18 million koku...
It is equivalent to 1/44 of that in the Ming Dynasty at the same time, and it is not because of the small population that the amount of cultivated land is small. At this time, the population of Danzhou was one-tenth of that in the Ming Dynasty, which means that the per capita arable land area was only one-fourth of that in the Ming Dynasty!
Maybe the arable land in Tanzhou is not "barren", but it is definitely "poor". It is only because of the rich fishery resources and the ease of dealing with the untouchables that the population is supported...
Historically, almost all farmers in Danzhou grew rice, but the vast majority of them would never be able to eat rice in their entire lives. Rice and radishes were considered luxuries in the eyes of the untouchables.
As for completely "living off the sea", it is not realistic. When Huainan was hit by a severe drought, the General's Mansion had this experience - relying purely on fish and meat, people simply had no strength. According to the medical school, even without staple food, the consumption of fish is not very effective.
Gan Ning also mentioned to Bai Tu in his letter that Danzhou was mountainous, so Bai Tu mentioned it, but he didn't say more.
After all, if the land is just "poor", it is not considered a defect now.
It was impossible for the State of Chu to immigrate millions of people at one time. In the early stage, there were only tens of thousands or at most hundreds of thousands of people, which was far from the limit of arable land in Danzhou. Moreover, in terms of fertility per acre, the volcanic ash buff in Danzhou was still very powerful. Even after the population skyrocketed, with the help of Chu's farming technology, there was great potential for intensive cultivation.
More importantly, "reclaiming arable land" was only the basis for ensuring the stability of immigration and the effective incorporation of Tanzhou into the State of Chu. The truly competitive industries were fisheries, animal husbandry and silver mine resources.
"However, Danzhou has a long and narrow land, facing the sea on both sides, so there is great potential for fishery. In addition... it is hard to find a place with vast land and sparse population. The Chu State is just lacking a horse farm. If the conditions are right, we can introduce northern horses to Danzhou in the future." Bai Tu emphasized.
It is not only grasslands that can be used for horse grazing, suitable mountains and forests can also be used.
Although the horses initially introduced for breeding in Danzhou were small and weak in history, history later proved that as long as the "breed" was well matched, tall and strong horses could be raised in the mountains and forests of Danzhou. The Oriental horses during World War II had surpassed the Mongolian horses of Chinese civilization in size and charging power.
Although the population of Jingyang is not as dense as in later generations, it is obviously not cost-effective to develop animal husbandry on a large scale given the development speed of the Chu State.
"As for mineral resources, I hope Tanzhou can give us a surprise. The Ministry of Industry will also send out a group of surveying scholars as the first batch of pioneers." Bai Tu added.
Actually... Bai Tu also knows what mineral deposits there are in Danzhou?
Copper, iron and tin are all in short supply. It’s not just because the area is small and the deposits are scarce, but the deposits are really sparse…
But there is one thing that is not lacking and is extremely abundant - silver mines.
From the 16th century to modern times, one-third of the silver in circulation in the world originated from Tanzhou.
Bai Tu was worried about having enough precious metals as a general equivalent to promote transactions. With the Danzhou silver mine in his hands, he could basically support the silver standard without worrying about other princes suddenly producing a large amount of silver and impacting the Chu market...
Fisheries, animal husbandry, and silver mines, this is basically Bai Tu’s psychological positioning of Tanzhou.
"Yes, the Ministry of Civil Affairs can also send a group of scholars specializing in farming to help clarify the land situation in Danzhou." Lu Su agreed.
"But now the people of Chu are stable, and the common people are all grateful for the king's benevolence. But in this case... there are only a small number of refugees flowing in from the Central Plains, which is not enough to develop Danzhou. If you want to relocate the people, you have to consider the means carefully." Lu Kang said at this time.
Old Lu remained calm about Lu Su's previous suggestion that the development of Tanzhou should never be centered around aristocratic families.
The position of governor is indeed not suitable for someone from an aristocratic family. It is much more dangerous than Yizhou. Old Lu doesn't dare to say that no one would think of establishing a separatist regime overseas if they have the conditions.
However, Lu Kang was not optimistic about the reclamation of Tanzhou, as he only relied on ordinary farmers to complete the reclamation!
Whether it is Bai Tu's character or the culture of Chu, it is impossible to forcibly relocate the people. If it is voluntary, ordinary farmers desire stability more.
In other words, Lu Kang did not want to fight for the position of governor on behalf of the noble families. If the Chu State was already in power and the noble families had not developed into clans, they would not have been particularly demanding for this position if they had no ambition to secede. However, they still had to fight for the interests of Tanzhou...
