"Xiuqing, I have decided to convert all the lower-class land that has been newly reclaimed into cotton."

Li Xiao was determined and ordered Xu Xiuqing.

Seeing that his suggestion was adopted, Xu Xiuqing was very happy and replied quickly: "My wise. In this case, according to the students' estimates, the newly reclaimed lower-class land in Dengzhou Prefecture is about 600,000 mu. In the students' opinion, because these lower-class land is relatively barren, and cotton fields can only be planted once in a year, and the growth cycle is also long. It is better to use 30 mu of cotton fields per household as the basis to enable cotton households to have enough cotton output to ensure normal living needs."

Li Xiao thought about Xu Xiuqing's suggestion and nodded in agreement.

If each household is granted 30 acres of cotton fields, then about 20,000 households can be arranged, and a total of 80,000 refugees can become cotton farmers.

It is easy to calculate that, based on the yield of half a duct per mu of cotton, 600,000 mu of cotton fields can produce about 300,000 tons of cotton, a total of 36 million kilograms of cotton. Each piece of cotton that is 4 feet wide and 7 meters long requires 3 kilograms of cotton, so a total of 12 million kilograms of cotton can be produced.

Even if Li Xiao’s lower-class land is abandoned for too long and relatively barren, its yield per mu is low, and calculated by only 0.3 dan per mu, 600,000 mu of cotton can produce about 180,000 tons of cotton, a total of 21.6 million jin of cotton can produce 7.2 million pieces of cotton.

Because each piece of cotton is actually enough to make clothes for three adults. Now, with the newly recruited refugees Li Xiao wants to recruit, he has about 1.2 million people under his rule. It is standard for each person to buy three sets of clothes a year (in fact, for most poor people, two sets a year is enough), so a total of 3.6 million sets of clothes a year are needed, and about 1.2 million pieces of cotton are needed to supply them.

In this case, Li Xiao still has 6 million pieces of cotton cloth, which can be used for external sales. Even if he maintains the wholesale price of 3 cents of silver, it will still have a sales of 1.8 million taels. If the cost is eliminated, he will also have a net profit of nearly 1.2 million taels of silver.

Although this profit margin cannot be compared with raw silk and satin, it is actually quite considerable compared to growing grains.

If Li Xiao can expand overseas sales and sell his products abroad, the wholesale price of this cotton cloth can of course be further increased and the profit will also rise significantly.

In fact, the reason why Li Xiao planned to use so much land to develop cotton fields is mainly due to two considerations.

First, in order to cope with the future, if the population under the jurisdiction continues to rise, there will be sufficient cotton cloth to supply the needs of the military and civilians. Second, if the shipyard wants to build a large number of sail warships, it also needs a large amount of thick cotton cloth to make sails.

Li Xiao listened to the opinion of Lin Dazhuang, the director of the Shipyard. In order to pursue high speed and flexibility like Western ships, a larger sail area must be used. Therefore, traditional Chinese hard sails cannot be used, but soft sails commonly used in Western ships must be used.

The soft sail has much higher requirements for the quality of canvas. A pair of ordinary cotton cloth weighs 20 taels, while a pair of soft sails for marines of the same size weighs 12 kilograms, which is 192 taels, and the weight is 10 times that of ordinary cotton cloth. In Li Xiao's plan, various large new warships that imitate the Dutch first, second and third-class warships will be formed and launched in large quantities. The cotton cloth used to make sails is expanding rapidly.

After arranging the development work of the prefectures and counties in Dengzhou, Li Xiao naturally began to carry out the next step of rectification and arrangements for the four major guards in Dengzhou Prefecture.

Li Xiao believed that the four major guards, Weihaiwei, Chengshanwei, Jinghaiwei, and Dasongwei, were established to resist the invasion of Japanese pirates. Now, when the Japanese pirates have disappeared and the more elite Chifeng Camp is stationed in Dengzhou, these four major guards have no value.

However, since the commanders of these four major guards were third-rank officials of the court and could not be easily moved, Li Xiao planned to retain the guard system and arrange them as their original positions, including the commander-in-chief, commander-in-chief, and generals such as Thousands and Hundreds of Households, Li Xiao also planned to recognize the land and interests owned by them.

However, Li Xiao’s only requirement for them was that all the redundant personnel and soldiers in each garrison, as well as the empty soldiers and the empty pay, should be tried to abolish and completely eliminated to save military expenditure and achieve the goal of streamlining military affairs.

It should be said that Li Xiao's plan was still very cautious and made great concessions. He also took into account the actual interests of people such as the commander and the thousands of households and hundreds of households below. Li Xiao thought that although the generals and officials in the garrison below might be dissatisfied, they should still accept it silently.

So Li Xiao first sent people to the four garrisons and handed over his acceptance plan to the commander of the four garrisons. Then he asked them to report various data on land, population, military and other matters for statistics.

However, what Li Xiao did not expect was that his self-confidence and generous plan was being hated by the four commanders of the garrison below.

Weihaiwei.

The official residence of the commander of the guard Xu Chengrong.

In a secret room in the official residence, four people, including Weihai Guard Commander Xu Chengrong, Chengshan Guard Commander Liu Zhiqian, Jinghai Guard Commander Zhao Shunming, and Dasong Guard Commander Wang Xingdao, were sitting around a square table under a dim oil lamp, gathering people to discuss secretly.

These people all received Li Xiao's acceptance arrangement, and were all very dissatisfied and hated Li Xiao. Therefore, under the secret invitation of the commander Xu Chengrong of Weihai Guard, they all came to Weihai Guard to discuss matters.

"Commander Xu, a certain family heard that Li Xiao started his business as a destitute hunter from Liaodong. He was extremely humble. Now he has been named Bo and has become the general officer of the Dengzhou regiment. He is a slut, but he is a slut. He is so lucky! Now, this guy wants to take action against a commander like ours. It's so fucking hateful!"

The commander of Dasongwei Wang Xingdao, the most fierce and irritable person, stared at Xu Chengrong with a pair of vicious triangular eyes, shouted loudly at him. After saying that, he punched him hard on the square table.

"That's right! In the Ming Dynasty, the commander of the garrison did not eat the false salary and did not report the troops. Li Xiao, who was entering the country, was actually unable to get along with us. It was really hateful to use our great source of wealth first!" Zhao Shunming, commander of the Jinghai Guard, also looked angry.

"Hmph, do you think that Li Xiao, who was entering the dog, would he stop after abolishing the empty soldiers and pay? Bah, a certain family would not be so easily deceived. You have also seen that Li Xiao has now declared land to the landlords and gentry in Dengzhou, like the Chifeng Guard, and then implemented the integrated grain tax system for gentry paying. A certain family was thinking that Li Xiao's next step was to ask the military fields of our garrisons, such as ours, to pay grain according to the land. "The eyes of Liu Zhiqian, commander of Chengshan Guard, were full of hatred.

"Yes, damn it, I'll put the knife around our necks step by step so that we can't move gradually. This guy's tricks are so cruel!" Wang Xingdao, commander of the Great Songwei, continued to curse again.

Hearing the three commanders talked in front of him, they all scolded Li Xiao for being vicious. As the master, Xu Chengrong, the commander of Weihai Guard, was in a mess.

Damn, since I became the commander, I have never felt so bullied and slaughtered!

Now, Li Xiao has come to the front, and he seems to have no way to deal with it.

Thinking of this, Xu Chengrong filled his chest with anger. He shouted loudly and interrupted the conversation between the three commanders.

"Stop talking! This commander has never thought about what you said. But what do you think of now?! Now people are the slaughter and I am the fish. Li Xiao is deeply favored by the emperor and wants to violate the ancestral system and let him be in charge of the entire Dengzhou territory. Even if we are not convinced by such a disciple who is deeply trusted by the emperor, what can we do?!"

Xu Chengrong sighed hatefully, his face anxious and ugly.

"Commander Xu, in my opinion, why don't we jointly appeal to the Ministry of War, saying that Li Xiao violated the system of the garrison, oppressed the subordinates, and asked the Ministry of War to come forward for us to impeach Li Xiao?" said Zhao Shunming, commander of the Jinghai Guard, and hesitated.

After Zhao Shunming finished speaking, the three commanders all shook their heads.

"No, then Li Xiao, now he has just told us that he should cancel the empty soldiers and pay, so as to achieve the policy of simplifying the military and simplifying the government. If he acts like this, the Ministry of War is afraid that it will be too late to commend him. How can it be used as a reason to oppress us?" Xu Chengrong immediately rejected Zhao Shunming's opinion.

"If this plan fails, can we only take one step at a time and see if Li Xiao will stop there?" Liu Zhiqian, commander of Chengshan Guard, said with a look of reluctance.

"Hmph, do you really think Li Xiao will spare me just now? I think it's so beautiful! Let me tell you, since Li Xiao can attack the landlord and gentry, we will naturally be killed sooner or later. The only difference is just the speed of time. "The commander of Dasongwei, who has the most irritable temper, roared: "If you can only be humiliated and ask for survival, let Li Xiao slaughter like a knife, Wang Mou would rather die than follow it!"

"What do you think of? Could it be that you want us to rebel like Kong Youde back then?" Seeing his opinion, Wang Xingdao's words were pushed back, and the commander of Chengshan Guard Liu Zhiqian also looked anxious.

"Commander Liu, there is no need to rebel. However, in the opinion of a certain family, we might as well join forces. As a result, the dog thief Li Xiao, as long as this guy is finished, no one will come to plan for my four guards." Wang Xingdao said gritted his teeth, and a cold light flashed across his face.

After hearing Wang Xingdao's rebellious words, the other three people shuddered unconsciously.

No, Wang Xingdao actually wants us to join forces to murder Li Xiao?!

This is the most traitorous crime committed by the following!

When everyone was panicked, the words of the commander Wang Xingdao, Dasongwei, sounded coldly again: "Everyone, instead of waiting for him to come and kill us one day, it is better for us to attack first and defeat this guy first. In this way, everything will be done. Isn't that the best strategy?"

There was silence in the sound of the room.

The heavy breathing of the four people could be clearly heard.

Hearing this, Xu Chengrong, the oldest commander of Weihai Guard, had actually calmed down on the surface, but he had silently agreed with the statement of the commander of Dasong Guard Wang Xingdao.

Yes, while Li Xiao was not prepared and immediately fell out of this person, he would no longer live in fear in the future. It would be a one-time and foremost solution.

Although there are certain risks in murdering Li Xiao, it is much better than worrying about being punished by Li Xiao day and night. The property and power he obtained after finally searching for can't be preserved and turned into a cloud.

"The strategy of Commander Wang should be the only feasible solution nowadays." Xu Chengrong coughed lightly and said loudly: "It is a woman's opinion to hold his hopes on Li Xiao's future mercy and ruthlessness. If Li Xiao wants to turn his face at that time, I am afraid that I will not find a place to cry. We still need to design and eliminate Li Xiao before we can fundamentally solve the problem."

"Okay! Since everyone has said this, I'll be one of the people in a certain family and have done it with everyone!" Chengshan Guard Commander Liu Heqian gritted his teeth and agreed.

"I am also a certain family, I swear to get rid of this evil thief!" Jinghaiwei Zhao Shunming also followed.

"Okay, since everyone has reached an agreement, then I will discuss how to lure Li Xiao to come and then cut this guy with one knife!" Xu Chengrong's face was so vicious that he stretched out his right hand and made a sudden slash.

Afterwards, after careful discussion, everyone decided to use the following strategy.

First, the four commanders submitted memorials, saying that they fully agreed with Li Xiao's arrangements, eliminated the empty soldiers and paid, and eliminated the redundant soldiers and redundant personnel. Li Xiao was welcome to send someone to the garrison to count them.

After gaining Li Xiao's trust, Xu Chengrong, the oldest commander of Weihai Guard, sent an invitation to Li Xiao, and four commanders were accompanying him, asking Li Xiao to take his guards to the Weihai Guard, closest to Dengzhou City, to attend the banquet.

If Li Xiao leads his people to come, he will first design to isolate him from the guards, and then four commanders will accompany Li Xiao to have a banquet.

At the banquet, poison was poisoned in advance in the wine pot that Li Xiao drank. If Li Xiao could drink, he poisoned him at the banquet. If Li Xiao found that he was not drinking, he would all come out with fifty knives and axemen who were ambushing outside the room and chopped him up randomly, slashing him on the spot.

If Li Xiao had a great life and fought with a group of guards to escape from the restaurant, thousands of soldiers who were ambushing outside the restaurant attacked and killed Li Xiao and his guards, and cut them all into meat sauce.

If Li Xiao died, four commanders immediately announced to the outside world that Li Xiao was attacked by robbers on his way to the banquet, but unfortunately they all died. Because the deceased could not speak, the court and the Ministry of War discovered something strange, but they could not say anything because there was no evidence to investigate.

After the plan was agreed, four thick right hands were tied together layer by layer.

Subsequently, the commanders left Weihai Guard and returned to their garrisons. They presented the number of troops and land to the counting personnel stationed by Li Xiao, and expressed their determination to resolutely eliminate the complicated personnel.

Li Xiao was very happy to see these commanders obeying his own arrangements in a very cooperative manner.

He thought things would go very well, so he sent personnel to comfort the four commanders to express his appreciation.
Chapter completed!