The head of the Deqin family was a very shrewd person. Through a series of fights, he had already seen that the head of the Angi family was a very smart person and a very difficult opponent. Perhaps he was really not his opponent. In this case, if they continued to fight, it would be very unfavorable for the Deqin family. He felt that he should make a good plan for the future of the family. The best plan was not to develop in the stone city of the Angi family, but to gradually abandon the interests here and focus on the development of the family a hundred miles away. Of course, it had to be a hundred miles away along the railway line. It would be best if there was a station somewhere to develop well.
As long as they could overwhelm these families financially, they could seek enough benefits for their own families. The head of the Deqin family was also scheming for the deputy position of the station. He also saw the importance of the station's deputy position. He originally planned to compete with the Angi family, but he did not expect that the Angi family would take out so much money. Therefore, he felt helpless. It was better to seek the station's deputy position elsewhere. After all, no matter how big the Angi family's appetite was, they could only seek the station in front of their own house at most. It was impossible for them to swallow all the neighboring stations in one breath. The Tang dynasty would not agree to it. However, it was not easy for the Deqin family to get the station's deputy position. However, it was not easy for the Deqin family to get the station's deputy position. It was not easy for them to get the station's deputy position. After all, no matter how big the Angi family's appetite was, they could only seek the station in front of their house at most. It was impossible for them to swallow all the neighboring stations in one breath. The Tang dynasty would not agree.
The Deqin family was the closest to the Angi family, and they could be regarded as the local tyrant here. However, it was not the case if they were a hundred miles away. If they went a hundred miles away, they would inevitably have a conflict with the local families. How to fight and cooperate with them needed to be prepared in advance. They needed to draw one family to their side and suppress the other. They might have a chance after a few years of deployment. In addition, by placing the focus of the family a hundred miles away, they could also avoid contact with the Angi family and slowly dilute their hatred. Perhaps after a few generations, the relationship between the two families would ease up. In short, they could no longer stay in the Angi family. All the shops and even residences of the Angi family in Stone City had to be sold at a low price. Not a single property could be left behind. It was inevitable that the property in the open would be obstructed. As for the secret properties, he suspected that these properties had been exposed. After all, the best spies of their family had gone missing. It was very likely that they had surrendered to the Angi family. Therefore, these secret properties could not be left behind. Selling them at a low price could recover some losses.
Since they could no longer compete with the Angi family, the head of the Deqin family was not in a hurry to express his stance. He wanted to see the performance of the other families and see how much they were willing to pay. Then, he would work with these families.
The Sayer family and the other four families did not have any long-term plans. They felt that their families were similar to the big merchants. Since the big merchants had chosen a twenty percent discount, they also chose a twenty percent discount. When the Deqin family learned of this, they also chose a twenty percent discount to show that they were advancing and retreating with these families. However, they secretly placed the focus of the family's development a hundred miles away to the south. That place was close to the Pyu imperial court's sphere of influence. The situation was more complicated, and at the same time, it was very convenient for the Deqin family to step in and fish in troubled waters to obtain the greatest benefits.
In less than half a month, all the large and small factions had taken out their money. The merchants were generous. The officials of the counties along the route were also busy organizing manpower, preparing the basic resources for the road construction. They allocated large amounts of food and tents, and set up arrow towers and military stations along the planned route to protect these important resources. They were fully prepared for the construction of the road.
Soon, a large number of road construction workers from the northeast of the Tang dynasty entered Central Sichuan, Nanzhao, and the northern part of the Pyu. They had already begun construction in several regions at the same time, and it looked like they would be finished within a few years.
Among them, there were more than thirty thousand road construction workers who had entered the northern part of the Pyu. Among them, five thousand were middle-level road construction talents. The rest were ordinary laborers who were also indispensable to the construction of the road.
Because the northern part of the Pyu was the furthest from the Tang dynasty, the number of people assigned there was the least. However, the Pyu had a lot of local manpower. In order to complete the construction of the road, they naturally had to mobilize the manpower of the northern part of the Pyu. Ang Lee had already been doing this for a long time. Currently, all the families within a hundred miles of the route had basically agreed to mobilize their forces to fully support the Tang dynasty in the construction of the railway. With the support of these families, the lack of manpower for the construction of the road in the Tang dynasty would be greatly alleviated. With the support of enough materials, it would not be too difficult to complete the construction in a few years.
"Assistant Minister Li, each family has already mobilized eighty percent of their manpower. This is already the limit of each family. They have basically done their best."
A subordinate looked at Ang Lee and said.
Ang Lee nodded with satisfaction and said, "Good, very good. I am very satisfied that these families are so cooperative. This shows that you have done a good job in helping them better understand the policies of the Tang dynasty. You have worked hard."
"We don't dare, we don't dare."
"Well, the construction of the road has officially begun. Let's do a good job."
Ang Lee said and sent his subordinate away.
Although the families along the way had mobilized most of their manpower to help the Tang dynasty build the railway, the extent of their contribution was different. After all, no family had much idle manpower. If they wanted to provide more support to the Tang dynasty in building the railway, many of their own affairs could only be delayed, which would inevitably cause them to lose a lot of benefits. However, in order to please the Tang dynasty, they had to do so. For example, some families could also gain a lot of benefits by mining stones in the mountains, but building the railway was almost a voluntary labor, so they naturally did not benefit from it.
In addition, although the Angi family did their best to support the Tang dynasty in building the railway, the best gem mine of the Angi family was still being mined, and the mining intensity did not decrease at all. They did not transfer manpower from the gem mine to support the Tang dynasty in building the railway. This was also the intention of the Tang dynasty. The profit of the gem mine was very high. For the benefit of the gem mine, the Tang dynasty asked the Angi family not to transfer manpower from the gem mine. In addition, the garrison of the Tang dynasty in the gem mine did not decrease, but the garrison of the Angi family was reduced a lot. Only 50 guards were left, almost only capable of guarding. Without the function of guarding, the responsibility of protecting the gem mine had fallen on the hundreds of soldiers of the Tang dynasty.
The other families also had gem mines, but because the quality was not high, they temporarily stopped mining and transferred manpower to support the Tang dynasty in building the railway. Seeing the Angi family's gem mine continue to be mined, they naturally complained in their hearts.
"Patriarch, on what basis?! Doesn't the Angi family have the best relationship with the Tang dynasty? Why can they continue to mine the gem mine, but we have to stop and transfer manpower to build the road? "
In the main hall of the Sayer family, an elder was unconvinced.
This elder was not the only one who had such thoughts. They were all quite unconvinced. Of course, they were also very clear about the reason for all this. Half of the Angi family's gem mine belonged to the Tang dynasty, and their share of the gem mine was their own. If they were willing to give half of the gem mine to the Tang dynasty, perhaps the Tang dynasty would be happy for them to continue mining.
Of course, even if they continued to mine and did not stop the Tang dynasty's proposal, the Tang dynasty would not force them too much. But all of them knew the importance of the railway. If they made the Tang dynasty unhappy because they transferred too little manpower, the Tang dynasty would have countless ways to punish them in the future and make them lose more benefits. Not to mention not allowing them to use the railway, even if they found an excuse to delay the railway for one or two days, the loss would be enough to make them suffer. Besides the Tang dynasty, the local forces who had obtained the deputy position at the railway station could also do this. However, the local deputy position could be replaced at any time, and the local forces who controlled the railway station could not be obtained by the local forces. Therefore, the people who were the most afraid to offend the Tang Empire. Therefore, when they saw the Angi family continue to mine the gem mine, they could only complain in their hearts. They did not dare to do anything, nor could they do anything. They did not have the strength to go against the Tang dynasty.
The head of the Saye family had a bad temper. Seeing the elder asking the obvious, he got angry and said, "What are you complaining about? Who asked our Saye family to not have the best gem mine? The Angi family is really ruthless. They gave half of it to the Tang dynasty. Humph. "
Thinking back to the time when he and the head of the Deqin family went to the Angi family to ask for a share of the gem mine and were fooled by the Angi family, he was very unhappy. At that time, the head of the Angi family looked at him with ridicule, which made him very angry. But after thinking about it carefully, maybe he was not fooled, but he asked too much of the Deqin family. After all, the two families asked for 80% of the share and the bottom line was only 30% for the Angi family. But now, even the Tang dynasty was willing to give half of the share to the Angi family. If he were the head of the Angi family, he would also choose to cooperate with the Tang dynasty. After all, the Tang dynasty's demands were more reasonable than the two families'.
But it was too late to regret. At that time, he only felt that the Angi family was too weak and it was good enough to give them 30%. After all, the distribution of benefits depended on strength. The strength of the two families was far stronger than the Angi family, so naturally, they should get a bigger share. The two families would get 35% and the Angi family would get 30%. This was almost equal, and he did not think it was too much. As for the gem mine, the Angi family originally owned it, so he did not consider it that way. In his opinion, without the help of the other two families, the Angi family would not be able to hold on to the gem mine.
Of course, the head of the Sayer family was too arrogant. Even if the three families joined forces, they would not be able to hold on to the gem mine. If the Tang dynasty did not interfere, just the Pyu imperial court alone was not something the three families could resist. The surrounding families were also not easy to deal with. Obviously, the head of the Sayer family did not consider this, or he was too confident in the strength of the three families.
Of course, the thing that the head of the Sayer family did not expect was that the Tang dynasty would share the benefits of the gem mine equally with the Angi family. In his opinion, the Tang dynasty was a giant. Once they got involved in the gem mine, they should have at least 80% of the share, or even 90% of the share. But in the end, they only got half of the share. How could he not be surprised?
He seemed to think that if the head of the Angi family had left more of the share, they might not have cooperated with the Tang dynasty. But when the three families joined forces, the Angi family had always been the underling, a small force sandwiched between the arms of the two families. If the underling got more than half of the share, they would definitely feel uncomfortable. Moreover, once the underling had enough money, his strength would become stronger and stronger, slowly surpassing their two elder brothers. This was naturally not what they wanted to see, and they could not accept it in their hearts.
But now, all his efforts were in vain. His Sayer family didn't get anything, while the Angi family was steadily rising. Perhaps in a few years, the Angi family's strength would surpass his family. And because of this, he had offended the Angi family. Facing the rising Angi family, his heart was filled with panic, anger, and helplessness. He couldn't think of any way to stop the development of the Angi family. The rise of the Angi family seemed to be unstoppable. Because of this, he felt very painful and helpless.
In order to cooperate with the Great Tang in the construction of the railway, the Sayer Clan had mobilized more than eighty percent of the clan's manpower, almost all of the clan's available manpower. For this reason, the clan had lost quite a bit of profit, but there was nothing they could do about it. The low-level officials of the Great Tang had personally come to explain the Great Tang's policies, and if the manpower mobilized was not satisfactory to the Great Tang, the transportation of goods would be restricted in the future. The Sayer Clan naturally needed to transport goods as well. Although this was a threat from the Great Tang, a small clan like them did not dare to say a single word. With the railway in the hands of the Great Tang, the Great Tang had grasped the lifeline of all the clans. These clans had no choice but to obediently submit to the Great Tang's interests without the slightest ability to resist. Moreover, this was a long-term process, a long-term threat. From the moment the Great Tang began to build the railway, all the clans had been firmly restricted by the Great Tang. Their rise and fall were inextricably linked to the Great Tang. If they had a good relationship with the Great Tang, they might have a chance to rise, but if they offended the Great Tang, their decline would be right before their eyes. Moreover, this was not a threat of force, but a blunt knife cutting flesh. As long as a clan was prohibited from transporting goods and personnel through the railway, it would be very difficult for that clan to develop a business. At most, they could only develop the most basic of low-level industries, and low-level industries were naturally not very profitable and could not support a large clan. Even a large clan would eventually be reduced to a small clan.
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