Chapter 68                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             �

In the governor's yamen, Xu Wei said, "I see that more than 50,000 young and strong people stayed in Yulin. They were placed along Yulin to Shahukou. As long as they were allowed to settle for a few years, they would allocate funds to build new border walls. The Yulin area is also within the border walls. Now we can only wait."

"The biggest problem is that the old and weak are still different. There are almost no women. There are only some elderly people who cannot give birth. There are about 10,000 elderly people, with poor physical conditions and plagued by old age and illness. Many things cannot be done and need to be settled. But there are more children left, the youngest is five years old and the oldest is thirteen years old. If you get older, you will be used as adults. The number is huge, with as many as 50,000. I guess there should be no Han children in the Tartars."

This is also the particularity of the population structure before the Industrial Revolution.

That is, there are a lot of children, even in some industrial revolution demographics. The number of children accounts for half of the total number of humans. It also reflects that children are terrifyingly dying.

Yang Jisheng said: "Mr. Zhou, among me, I will rebuild the Yangjianyuan in Datong. All children who are too young will be included in the Yangjianyuan. Allow the people to adopt it. But this is also a considerable amount of money."

Xu Wei said: "This is not a solution. This burden is a little too great. My advice to you is that if you have no choice, this method can be used to provide a guarantee."

"I have a way." Li Ru touched his beard and said, "In fact, the royal family has always had a tradition of adopting children of soldiers who died in battle. Of course, this was a few years ago. The legacy of Taizu Chengzu. Now it is not as large as before. However, there are some. There are not many. We can report to the court and send older children into the palace and guard the palace in the future. It is also considered a future."

The tradition of the Zhu family in the Ming Dynasty actually started by Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang had the habit of raising an adopted son. There was nothing we could do about it. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang's clan was weak and there were few people around him. He chose a group of orphans to keep him as his eyes and eyes.

Only Mu Ying left his name in later generations. But in fact, it was not just Mu Ying. There were more than a dozen names and surnames. There were no names and surnames. I don’t know how many of them were. But most of them died in the founding war. They died in the war with Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng. Some seemed to be involved with Zhu Wenzheng and disappeared into the political territory of the Ming Dynasty, so many people did not know that there was such a person.

After that, Chengzu also did this. Many generals who died in the battlefield were kept in the palace.

But later, the emperor's approach became indifferent. The originally very humane thing became the ancestral system. And if there were no big wars, there were no so many orphans in generals.

However, if you don’t do it, don’t do it. But the system is still there.

That is, the Fengcheng Hou Mansion was born into a noble family and was familiar with the anecdotes. Ordinary civil officials generally don’t remember that there was this system in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhou Mengchen didn't know it, and asked, "Is this a matter working? The fathers of these children were not soldiers who died in battle?"

Li Ru pondered for a moment and said, "It should be possible. What I received in the entry was that there was no matter in the king's affairs and no matter in the national crisis. These people were captured by the Tartars and died in the northern desert. It was also considered a national crisis."

Zhou Mengchen also understood that Li Ru actually had some things he didn't say.

Doing so can bring some good reputation to Jiajing.

The Ming Dynasty's palace consumed at least one or two million taels of silver in a year, which was comparable to that of Datong Town. This was just a regular expense. It did not count the financial burden brought by Jiajing's own hobbies. Whether it was the rituals before, it was now a large-scale experiment.

It can even be said that one of the reasons for the financial collapse of the Ming Dynasty, or even one of the most important reasons, is that Jiajing never counts the money spent. Yan Song hopes that Jiajing has not counted the money spent. If not, how could Yan Song make money from it?

There are more people in the palace, even thousands of people. Zhou Meng is not worried about Jiajing's money bag.

This can also bring a good future to these children. Indeed, it is not the time to start the country. These orphans raised in the palace are different from those raised in the palace during the founding country. They are really under the knees of Queen Ma. The orphans at this time, the so-called raising in the palace is nothing more than finding a place in the palace to raise them.

However, even so, they are likely to become members of the Luanyi Guard, that is, in the future. In the eyes of officials, this position is nothing more than a person. But for these children, it is a world of difference from their original lives.

Then Zhou Mengchen discussed several plans with others. But in the end, he had to build an extra-standard nursing home outside Datong City to raise these elderly people and children first.

In fact, as Zhou Mengchen’s original intention was to send students from Datong Academy to become teachers and turn Yangji Academy into a school, and to start with the baby. However, there was no money.

Reading is a very expensive thing.

After this matter was confirmed, Xu Wei said: "There are still 300,000 sheep, what should we do?"

This topic is simple. Whether it is sold to Shanxi merchants, to military officials, or directly sent to Beijing for sale, it is very simple. However, Zhou Mengchen thought about it and said, "Wait for this question first. There is one thing I want to confirm."

After the meeting, Zhou Mengchen came to Datong Academy and went directly to the innermost courtyard. When he saw Wang Su, he immediately asked, "Have you done your canning experiment?"

Wang Su said: "Please rest assured, Master, I have checked it. Using the previous method, it can be stored at least four to five months."

Zhou Mengchen felt aroused in his heart and said to himself, "Four months to five months? It's enough."

Zhou Mengchen said: "Is there any canned food from five months ago?"

Wang Su immediately took out a can from the shelf on one side. Zhou Mengchen pried open the lid with a dagger without saying a word. Then he smelled the scent of chicken. However, Zhou Mengchen felt that the smell seemed a little heavy.

However, it doesn't matter.

As long as the food is not deteriorated, it is enough.

Zhou Mengchen first observed carefully and found no large area of ​​plaques or hair growth. Then he carefully picked up a piece of chicken with chopsticks. Although it was a bit salty and lacked fresh flavor, it was still edible.

Zhou Mengchen looked through Wang Su's experimental records again, and there was no problem overall. The biggest problem was that time was a little tight and the expiration time had not been calculated.

If possible, Zhou Mengchen could wait. But now Zhou Mengchen saw a great opportunity. Zhou Mengchen finally understood what could make Datong rich quickly and make Da Yongzhen's pockets bulge quickly.

Otherwise, based on this year's model, digging money from the land can only maintain the current situation in Datong Town. Money must be based on industry. Iron was a good project before, but now it has become a one-time transaction.

Moreover, heavy industry has never been easy to develop. It is important to have a lot of investment, so it won’t make too much money, and it is sensitive. However, the canned product is different. As a food processing industry, production is simple and investment is small. There is no need to think about sales. You can sell both inside and outside the city.

However, whether it is business or taxation is a big source of profit.

When it was more important, there were cheap raw materials for 300,000 sheep. Zhou Mengchen wanted to take advantage of the situation. Yin Zhengmao pushed the price of sheep to this point. The Tartars also bought it, which shows how panicked the Tartars were.

Moreover, the Shanxi merchants gave too much, which made Zhou Mengchen still have some remaining food. Since this is the case, why not take advantage of this great opportunity to get a vote. If it really succeeds, then the canned production industry will take root in Datong.

When Zhou Mengchen thought of this, he immediately sent someone to invite Yang Jisheng.

After Yang Jisheng came, Zhou Mengchen first invited Yang Jisheng to a canned meal. Yang Jisheng was unsure, and he agreed happily. After drinking and eating, Zhou Mengchen said, "What's the dish today?"

These cans are heated and poured into the plate before serving. Yang Jisheng said: "The dishes are good, but the chef's skills are too bad."
Chapter completed!