Insufficient balance
David was making waves in Europe, while Liu Fei was also gaining fame in Taiwan. His father was carefree, but his mother was not at peace, and every time he returned home, she would almost invite all the aunts and female officials to come and see Liu Fei, with only one thing on her mind: Liu Fei should find a wife. Liu Fei himself also knew that in this era, 25 or 26 years old was the golden age for marriage, and his mother's enthusiasm to arrange this matter for him was also normal human behavior. However, Liu Fei had no intention of following local customs, relying on his own brainlessness, his behavior and actions did not follow conventional rules, and he basically ignored his mother's various hints, neither responding nor refusing, pretending not to know.
As for the rumor about being an idiot, Liu Yi was grateful to the person who spread it. Since his narrow escape from death at sea, he had been known in the yamen as someone with brain damage. The news gradually spread outside and now probably everyone in Taiwan knew that the third son of the circuit intendant had hurt his head during the shipwreck. He couldn't even read books anymore, shaved his head like a monk, wore foreign clothes, lived on a big iron foreign ship, and kept many widows with children in his estate. At that time, this was considered a mental patient. No one wanted to be friends with him, let alone find a wife for him. Originally, Liu Yi was afraid that if he continued like this, his habits would expose him, but now it turned out that he had inadvertently helped himself. If he did anything else outrageous, people would just say: "Look, the circuit intendant's idiot son is causing trouble again."
As for the matter of making a fortune from opening pharmacies and medicine shops, Liu Yi and Liu Mingchuan both adopted an attitude of blocking the news. Apart from a few people involved, others only knew that the governor's relatives had a share in the pharmacy, but they didn't know how much. Anyway, it was impossible for ordinary people to guess the relationship between the governor's foolish son and this Western medicine. When Liu Yi heard the rumors about himself, he appeared calm on the surface but was overjoyed in his heart. In this era, being a fool who nobody paid attention to was truly a happy thing.
With the money in hand, the next step of the plan is to be implemented. Liu Yi plans to open a school first, with a small scale, 100 people are enough. The students are all orphans or children brought by widows, aged between 5 and 10 years old. If there aren't enough in Taiwan, they will buy some from the mainland. The school has only one teacher, Liu Yi himself, whose main subjects are recognizing characters, numbers, and telling brainwashing stories. Liu Dagui serves as the director of studies and physical education teacher, responsible for discipline and training, as well as reciting "Enqing Song" twice a day. Two widows from the pharmaceutical factory lead several new widows to take charge of daily life, and 10 children from the pharmaceutical factory also join the school for formal classes.
Apart from misleading a few dozen kids every morning, Liu Ye's remaining time was spent drawing maps. There were several tourist map books on the distant ocean fishing boat, which had simple introductions to Taiwan's history and scenic spots, including railways and mines. The railway was built by Liu Ye's father, Liu Mingchuan, but that's not important for now. The mines included iron, copper, manganese, gold, and coal. Iron, copper, and manganese needed to be refined after being mined, which Liu Ye wouldn't be able to do in the short term, so he put it aside for now. Gold and coal were both visible, and the tourist book marked Jinguashi and Jiufen areas near Keelung as rich gold, silver, and copper mines; there was also a place called Badouzi on the northeast coast of Keelung, which the map book said produced coal, so Liu Ye decided to tackle both places at once.
The approximate locations of these minerals are marked on the map, but this map cannot be shown to modern people. Liu Mo can only use a relatively transparent paper to cover the map and slowly draw it with a pen. The names of places that should exist in that era can be kept, while those that should not exist or are unclear will be cancelled. Although drawing according to the map is not a high-tech task, Liu Mo, who has no foundation in drawing at all, still spent several days of effort and wasted a lot of paper before finally getting a few simple maps with roughly appropriate proportions and clear lines.
Looking at the tourist map, the railway signs indicate that Badouzi Coal Mine and Jinguashi, Jiufen are all on the south side of the railway, not too far away. If mining is to be opened, a highway needs to be built to connect them, making it convenient for transportation to Keelung later. Now Liu has silver in hand, let's start building roads and exploring mines together.
Liu Mingzhuan heard that his son was going to repair the road and mine, so he raised both hands in support. He immediately sent 10 Green Camp soldiers and 5 yamen runners to serve under Liu Ye. As for silver, don't even think about it - not being forced to sell medicine was already a great kindness.
Want to repair the road, open a mine, the most convenient, cost-effective and solid is to use cement. In this era, cement has been mass-produced, but it seems that the Qing dynasty does not have this thing, so let's buy it from foreigners, it's too expensive, Liu Ye asked foreigners, transported from Europe, almost catching up with the price of rice, although there is money in hand, can't use rice to pave the road.
Foreigners sell it at a high price, can't you make it yourself? Liu Ye's answer is: Really can't. Cement sounds simple, but the proportion of various substances and the fineness of grinding have very high requirements. Not to mention no machinery, even if there is, Liu Ye can't produce it. Can't just dig some soil somewhere and throw it in, right? Liu Ye doesn't have a cement formula either. Who carries around a cement formula for no reason? It's not like everyone has a cement formula memorized, only professionals do that.
Since the cement is hopeless, let's build a stone road first. After all, there are many mountains and stones on this side of Keelung. Using 1-meter-long, 30-centimeter-thick square stone pillars to tightly combine and bury them in the soil is also very high-end and solid. Liu Pei had heard the tour guide explain that the tunnels in the Qingxi Mausoleum were paved in this way, unchanged for a hundred years, and the load-bearing capacity was unparalleled. However, this design was also vetoed by Liu Fu. Not to mention the extremely high cost and slow construction period, this construction method can only be used by royalty, and anyone else who uses it will be guilty of a serious crime punishable by beheading and confiscation of property.
Since the imperial court does not allow this method, we will change to using large stone slabs laid out in a crisscross pattern. Beijing's Chang'an Street was paved with large stone slabs in the 80s. Of course, we don't require that all the stones be perfectly flat and have the same texture; as long as they are roughly even, it's fine. The main thing is that the thickness of the stones must be sufficient, so they won't break under heavy loads. After all, this road will be used to transport coal and minerals in the future.
Liu Fu couldn't find any other reason to stop Third Master from wasting money, aside from the high cost and slow construction period. He could only follow orders. The laborers were not conscripted, but hired, and the stonemasons were paid by the month. The unskilled laborers were local workers who were paid by the day. From the stonemasons to the unskilled laborers, everyone's wages were double their usual rate.
This further solidified Third Master's reputation as a spendthrift and a fool. It even got to the point where the common people near Taipei secretly worried about Liu Mingchuan.
Liu Fu is not mentioned for now, Liu Ye sent 15 new subordinates away, each giving 2000 taels of silver. According to the markings on Liu Ye's hand-drawn map, they went to the later generations' Daxiagu area to buy land. The unowned mountain lands near the markings were all bought, and the mountains, gullies, and rivers were also purchased. Flat lands were not wanted, and inhabited mountain lands were also bought. If the silver was insufficient, they would return to get more. After completing their mission and returning, each person would be rewarded with 100 taels of silver. If the land price was too high, they would think about how to die quickly when they returned.
Everyone asks, why don't you go with them? Many places are led by the protagonist to explore. What I want to say is that Liu Fei is just a small businessman from the city, who has not practiced extraordinary martial arts, nor been a special forces mercenary, nor an archaeology and geology professional player. With this lack of professional knowledge and physical strength, let alone going to the mountains to explore, even if he went to Zhangjiakou in his previous life to hunt wild chickens, he couldn't climb two small hills. So, it's better to let others do it, and just be responsible for making money at home, anyway, going himself would be a burden with no benefits.
As the saying goes, money can make ghosts grind mills. Within 10 days, all 15 Qing soldiers and officials returned with several land deeds in hand. The areas marked on the map, covering dozens of miles, had been completely bought up except for flat lands. As for the price, it was basically just a few dozen taels of silver to buy an entire mountain. The one who spent the most didn't even spend 1,000 taels, only because he encountered two small villages with dozens of households, so relocation costs were slightly higher. Before the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan's population was less than 3 million, and most mountainous areas had not been developed, with desolate mountains everywhere.
The land has been bought, and now it's time to explore the mine. Liu Ye doesn't have this professional skill, so he still uses the old method, letting his men take silver to find people to explore. Whoever finds it first gets the reward. As long as there is development value, gold, silver, and copper mines are all good. Exploring mines takes a lot of time and can't be done in just a few days.
The mining operation has been suspended for the time being, which is just in time to deal with the coal mine. According to the tourist manual, this coal mine called Badouzi was actually operated by Shen Baozhen, the former governor of Fujian Province, but it was blown up by Liu Mingchuan during the Sino-French War and resumed large-scale mining only after the Japanese occupation period.
Since there is already a coal mine, even exploration can be saved. After discussing with his father at home, this mine will be jointly developed by the government and merchants. The government does not invest funds but provides policy support. Every year, 5,000 tons of coal produced will be supplied to the water department at a flat price, and the rest can be burned or sold by Liu Mo himself as he pleases.
Liu Fu was busy repairing the road all day, and it seemed hopeless. Those 15 Qing dynasty soldiers and officials, along with professional miners, were also searching for minerals in the mountains, but that too seemed hopeless. Liu Fu still didn't know how to mine coal, and his father didn't have any ready-made talent at hand, so he could only ask the pharmacies in Guangzhou to scout around and hire professionals at a high price to come and help out.
