Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 388 Rapid development stage!
The students of the Su Society who came to Yan'an Prefecture in an endless stream solved a major problem, which was what route Yan'an Prefecture should take.

After occupying a large piece of territory, the general uprising forces will inevitably face a problem, that is, who to rely on.

Some peasants revolted, and after they occupied land, they needed someone to help govern the territory.

Generally speaking, farmers lack this ability and can only rely on aristocratic landlords for governance.

In the end, although the political power seemed to be in the hands of the rebels, it was actually usurped by the aristocratic landlords.

If there had not been a steady influx of students from the Su Society, Yan'an Prefecture would have faced the same problem.

After all, it takes at least 10 to 20 years to train talents, and Yan'an Prefecture simply does not have that time. With the rapid expansion of the territory, a large number of talents are needed to fill various positions.

If these students had not come in, Su Yun would have had to employ the landlords and gentry of Yan'an Prefecture to govern Yan'an Prefecture, and would have lost control over the grassroots.

For Yan'an Prefecture, losing control over the grassroots meant losing the ability to mobilize forces on a large scale.

As for them, the situation now is that they have to fight against three big countries with the strength of 300,000 people in one city and 60,000 to 70,000 soldiers. It is almost certain to die!
However, the steady influx of students from Suxue relieved Su Yun of this concern.

Students of Suxue were arranged to be trained in the six houses and the lower prefectures, counties and even towns. With the assistance of the Jingsai Army, they firmly controlled the grassroots of Yan'an Prefecture on behalf of Yan'an Prefecture.

Of course, the gentry and landlords in Yan'an Prefecture would not surrender. They also used the land, industries and population in their hands to fight against Yan'an Prefecture openly and covertly, but the students of the Su Society were not pushovers.

The students of the Su Society are not ordinary scholars. The knowledge disseminated by the Su Society is a real tool for governing the world.

Students of the Su Society are good at social management, economics and other things that truly involve the essence of social operations. How could they be deceived by the gentry and landlords?

Students of the Su Society usually don’t pay much attention to the gentry and landlords after they arrive at the grassroots level.

Instead, they would carry out propaganda when they arrived and implement various policy support measures for the poor people. Only after winning the support of the people would they negotiate with the gentry and landlords.

The land was redeemed from them and then redistributed.

The peasants who were allocated land supported Yan'an Prefecture from the bottom of their hearts. Under such circumstances, the gentry and landlords had no choice but to remain silent.

Of course, there were also some wealthy landlords who took risks. The Bao'an Army was close to a large fortress of the Dingbian Army. There was a big family inside the fortress which occupied half of the area. They planned to rely on the Western Army of the Dingbian Army to rebel against Yan'an Prefecture, and even killed the students of the Su Xuehui who had governed the place in the past.

Afterwards, the Jingsai army broke through the fortress and sentenced the patriarchs of the major clans and the young men who launched the attack. The leaders were sentenced to be beheaded, and the accomplices were required to perform labor to atone their sins.

This major case completely contradicted the Soviet learning society's image of being as gentle as a spring breeze and rain. The counties and cities under the Yan'an Prefecture only then realized that these scholars could actually kill people!

It was also after this battle that the prestige of the Su Xuehui in Yan'an Prefecture began to rise.

After achieving these achievements, the students of Su Society have become more determined to go deep into the grassroots and seek welfare for the people.

As the top leader, Su Yun knew very well that if he wanted to maintain long-term stability in Yan'an Prefecture, it was far from enough to rely solely on military deterrence. He must also make comprehensive efforts in people's livelihood, economy, culture and other aspects.

So he instructed Wang Baopu and others to speed up the various reform measures so that the people of Yan'an Prefecture could truly enjoy the real benefits.

In terms of agriculture, Yan'an Prefecture organized experienced farmers and specialized agronomists to guide farmers to improve planting techniques and promote new crop varieties.

They went deep into the fields and personally guided farmers to apply fertilizers and irrigation rationally and build water conservancy facilities to increase crop yields.

At the same time, farmers are organized to form mutual aid cooperatives to share means of production such as farm tools and oxen, thereby enhancing their ability to resist natural disasters.

For a time, the fields of Yan'an Prefecture were busy and orderly, and the farmers' faces were filled with anticipation for a good harvest.

In the economic field, Yan'an Prefecture actively encouraged commercial development.

Yan'an Prefecture promulgated a series of commercial regulations and treaties to establish a standardized market order, formulate fair and reasonable trading rules, and protect the rights and interests of both buyers and sellers.

In the city of Yan'an, several large markets were newly built, attracting merchants from surrounding areas to come and trade.

In Yan'an Prefecture, remove all the original tax checkpoints, clear all blockages that hinder business, and make Yan'an Prefecture a hot spot for business!

Students of Suzhou University also used their knowledge of economics to guide businessmen to carry out diversified operations and develop characteristic industries. For example, the animal husbandry and handicraft products of Yan'an Prefecture gradually emerged in the market and were sold far and wide.

In order to promote the prosperity of trade, Su Yun ordered the minting of coins to facilitate the exchange of goods, which further promoted the economic development of Yan'an Prefecture.

Of course, Yan'an Prefecture has no way to use its own currency now, but it doesn't matter. It can just print Song Dynasty copper coins, which everyone recognizes.

Of course, the premise of these measures is that Yan'an Prefecture itself has established a large number of state-owned industries. When ensuring that Yan'an Prefecture's own state-owned enterprises occupy the dominant position, the vigorous development of private capital will be beneficial. Otherwise, it will become the main force to destroy Yan'an Prefecture.

Su Yun did not relax in cultural education, and Yan'an Prefecture increased its investment in schools.

Not only was the scale of the existing schools in Yan'an Prefecture expanded, but new schools were also established in various prefectures, counties, and towns to allow more children, especially those from poor families, the opportunity to receive education.

In addition to teaching traditional classics, history, and literature, the school also added practical subjects such as arithmetic, geography, and physics to cultivate students' comprehensive qualities.

Students of Su Xue served as teachers themselves, passing on the concepts and knowledge of Su Xue to the next generation and reserving talents for the future of Yan'an Prefecture.

As a result, under the leadership of Su Yun and the efforts of the Su Society and the Jingsai Army, Yan'an Prefecture quickly stabilized and showed signs of economic and cultural revival at a very fast speed.

After defeating Weiming Awu of Western Xia, Liang Yibu seemed to be afraid of Su Yun and did not dare to send a large army to attack Yan'an Prefecture again.

This is normal. Since Su Yun occupied the Suide Army, he has defeated the Western Xia army several times. The first one was the Battle of Wuding Valley hosted by Zheng Chaozong. After that, Su Yun defeated tens of thousands of Western Xia reinforcements. This time, he basically annihilated the 20,000 elite troops of Weiming Awu!

In other words, since Su Yun occupied Suide Army, the Western Xia army has lost nearly 50,000 soldiers at Su Yun's hands, which is enough to make Liang Yi Bu terrified.

Yan'an Prefecture is certainly very tempting, but Liang Yibu knows that the Jingsai Army is just a piece of cake. If he insists on a head-on confrontation, the Western Xia army may be seriously damaged, and the Liang family may also lose power in the court. It is really not worth it.

Based on such strategic considerations, the Western Xia army actually gave up the attack on Yan'an Prefecture. The reaction of the Song court was also very interesting.

Su Yun learned from the information sent back by Ruanchuan Bridge that the Song court from top to bottom supported Zhao Xie's policy towards Yan'an Prefecture.

He thought that if Yan'an Prefecture was in his hands, he could attract the attention of Western Xia and fight a life-and-death battle with Western Xia, so he gave up attacking Yan'an Prefecture for a while.

Su Yun combined the information gathered by Ruan Chuanqiao, and then carefully considered the thoughts of Empress Dowager Gao of the Song court, Lu Dafang and others, and found them ridiculous.

The Song court's reaction was actually not normal. Logically, the Song court should have been sensitive and anxious about its rise in Yan'an Prefecture.

Because generally speaking, for a feudal court like the Song Dynasty, external enemies are terrible, but what is disturbing are the internal troubles.

Sometimes, in order to solve internal problems, we can even compromise with external ones. We should solve internal problems first and then external problems. This is the strategy of "pacifying the country before fighting the enemy abroad".

And now the Song court actually believed in Zhao Xie's strategy of "driving the tiger to devour the wolf" and wanted to use the Western Xia to destroy itself. But now that the Western Xia did not take action, the Song court actually stopped its efforts and pretended that nothing had happened!

And Su Yun learned from the information sent back by Ruan Chuanqiao that Zhao Xie was actually controlling speech within the court, especially within the Privy Council, forbidding anyone to discuss the affairs of the Suide Army, especially forbidding anyone to talk about his "driving the tiger to devour the wolf" strategy.

Su Yun couldn't help but laugh. Isn't this just trying to cover up one's own mistakes?

But no matter what the reason was, Yan'an Prefecture ushered in a very valuable period of development, allowing the Su Society to stably control Yan'an Prefecture and promulgate many development policies, allowing Yan'an Prefecture to usher in an excellent period of development.

The Jingsai Army also completed the reorganization of the Yan'an Prefecture Army, reorganizing the 60,000 to 70,000 Yan'an Prefecture Army into 50,000 Jingsai Army, incorporated more than 10,000 unqualified soldiers into security teams, and absorbed nearly 10,000 new recruits from the public. The Jingsai Army expanded to 60,000 people.

But the biggest problem now is the lack of horses.

The entire Jingsai Army has only tens of thousands of usable war horses combined, and this is because of the thousands of war horses recently seized from Western Xia. Otherwise, there would only be five or six thousand usable war horses.

Of course, having tens of thousands of war horses is considered wealthy for Yan'an Prefecture, but if the Jingsai Army wants to exert its greatest power, it still needs war horses.

However, this problem is difficult to solve for the time being. In the northwest, the best horse is the Hetao horse, but the Hetao is firmly controlled by the Western Xia. If you want to obtain the Hetao horse, you need to get it from the Western Xia.

However, Western Xia has always attached great importance to war horses as a strategic material. It is not something that Yan'an Prefecture can get just by wanting it. It requires careful planning.

Time flies, and as the entire Yan'an Prefecture is developing rapidly, it is the summer of the fifth year of Yuanyou.

It has been nearly a year since Yan'an Prefecture defeated Weiming Awu.

It has been nearly a year since He Zheng arrived in Yan'an Prefecture. He was first assigned to the ritual room and was responsible for the development of the school. In the next six months, he went to the workshop to assist Zhou Xingji in developing industry.

After He Zheng arrived at the workshop, he quickly immersed himself in the intense and challenging work.

Zhou Xingji entrusted him with an important task, asking him to be responsible for coordinating the advancement of several key industrial projects.

He Zheng is fully aware of the heavy responsibility and dares not slack off at all.

In the workshop, He Zheng saw that the industrial development of Yan'an Prefecture was advancing at a speed that astonished him.

In order to encourage industrial development, Yan'an Prefecture established an industrial reward fund to offer generous rewards to craftsmen and Suxue students who made outstanding contributions to industrial technological innovation.

This series of measures has greatly stimulated people's enthusiasm for innovation and promoted the sustainable development of Yan'an Prefecture's industry.

Yan'an Prefecture started with the basic iron smelting industry. Under policy encouragement, craftsmen worked hard to improve iron smelting technology. At Su Yun's suggestion, they introduced advanced blast equipment, which greatly improved the output and quality of iron.

The small workshop that was originally only able to produce some simple farm tools and weapons gradually developed into a large-scale iron smelting factory with the support of new technology.

These factories not only met the demand for iron products within Yan'an Prefecture, but also exported high-quality iron products to surrounding areas, attracting many businessmen to purchase.

At the same time, the textile industry in Yan'an Prefecture was also quietly rising.

The workshop secretly sent people to Suzhou and Hangzhou to find talented textile technicians, and worked with other craftsmen to innovate traditional textile techniques. In the process, a large number of dexterous female workers were trained.

For a time, textile workshops in Yan'an Prefecture sprang up like mushrooms after a rain.

The silk, cotton and other textiles produced were of excellent texture and exquisite colors, and were in short supply in the markets of Western Xia and Liao.

He Zheng actively established contacts with merchants from all over the country and expanded sales channels, which enabled Yan'an Prefecture's textile products to quickly open up the market in surrounding areas and brought huge profits to Yan'an Prefecture.

Of course, the purpose of developing industry is to make Yan'an Prefecture prosperous, but the development of basic industries is also giving birth to the military industry.

The development of basic materials has enabled the weapons produced in Yan'an Prefecture to far surpass those of the Three Kingdoms of Song, Xia and Liao in quality. They were not only equipped with the Jingsai Army, but also became a hot commodity in the market.

With the booming industry, Yan'an Prefecture's tax revenue increased significantly.

Su Yun used these funds to further increase investment in industry.

As a result, Yan'an Prefecture built more factory buildings, improved the working environment for workers, and attracted more people to engage in industrial production. Even people from outside Yan'an Prefecture, such as Qingzhou, Huanzhou, and Fuzhou, secretly came to work in the factories here.

Therefore, starting from the summer of the fourth year of Yuanyou, the industry in Yan'an Prefecture began to prosper.

Various simple machines in the factory were roaring, and the workers were working busy and orderly.

On the streets, horse-drawn carriages loaded with industrial products came and went, transporting the wealth of Yan'an Prefecture to all directions.

He Zheng stood high up in the workshop, looking at the vibrant scene in front of him, his heart filled with pride.

He knew that under the leadership of Su Yun and with the joint efforts of the students of the Su Society, Yan'an Prefecture was moving step by step towards prosperity and strength, and the rise of industry had undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for the future of Yan'an Prefecture!

(End of this chapter)