The constant warfare in the Northern region had created an intractable refugee problem.

The refugees were most numerous in Liaodong, the lands outside the pass.

Yandu, the capital of the previous dynasty, had also been known as the Great Capital.

Now, it was the seat of Prince Yan’s Mansion.

It had always been one of the largest cities in the North.

When war broke out in the Northern lands, the common people lost their homes and fields.

Naturally, they fled south.

And as a destination, Yandu was the natural first choice.

In Yandu alone, the refugee population had already swelled to over ten thousand.

It wasn’t that the Court wasn’t trying to solve the problem, nor was it that King Yan wasn’t pained by the daily sight of so many refugees in Yandu.

The truth was, the issue was simply too difficult to resolve.

Solving the refugee crisis seemed simple on the surface: just give them a way to eat and support themselves.

But in reality, this seemingly simple problem was immensely difficult.

There was only so much land. If you were to parcel out existing land to these refugees, what would happen to the common folk who originally owned it?

Most critically, the root of the problem was the ongoing war in the North.

You could find a place to settle a few thousand refugees today, but another three thousand would arrive in less than half a month.

Fortunately, the war in the North was now proceeding smoothly, and it was estimated the main army could return triumphant this autumn.

At that point, the refugees could be sent back to their homes.

But what month was it now?

It was only February.

How were they to cope for the better part of a year that remained?

The refugees depended entirely on wealthy merchants from the city distributing grain from their storehouses outside the walls each day.

Getting to eat a single bowl of thin gruel every three days was considered a blessing.

And with so many starving refugees, many other problems naturally arose.

Petty theft was rampant. Some, unable to bear the hunger, had even resorted to highway robbery.

’If someone could actually solve the refugee problem, that would be truly...’

At this thought, however, King Yan felt no joy.

If his eldest son had said it, King Yan would have been overjoyed.

His eldest son was reliable; if he said he could do something, it would be done.

But these were the words of his second son.

And as his father, how could he not know what a character Gu Gaoxu was?

The boy was utterly unreliable.

Still, he was willing to hear him out.

King Yan immediately raised an eyebrow.

"How do you propose to solve it?"

Gu Gaoxu waved his hand grandly.

"Build a factory!

Father, everything you just saw was made in a county town in Qilu called Taiping City.

There’s a man of immense talent there.

I’ve already made a deal with him! We find the land, and he’ll come and invest the money to build the factory!

A single factory will directly hire several thousand people!

And that’s just the direct hires! The most important part is that a factory like that can create tens of thousands of jobs!"

Gu Gaoxu had seen it all for himself back in Taiping City.

He’d seen it with his own two eyes.

Once Lu Yuan’s factory was built, it attracted countless people to work for him.

Take the shops in Taiping City that supplied the factory with materials, for example.

Their businesses had practically doubled in size!

And that wasn’t all.

Take the shops that seemed completely unrelated to the factory, like the clothing stores.

Gu Gaoxu had seen it clearly: when he first arrived, the clothing shop on the east side of town had a single employee.

By the time he was ready to leave, after spending days eating, drinking, and carousing in Taiping City...

...that same shop had six employees.

All of them new hires.

And why was that?

It was all because of that factory, wasn’t it?

There were countless other similar stories.

’This three-thousand-person factory... what you can see with your own eyes is a workforce of several thousand.’

’But the invisible impact is even greater!’

’Once a big factory is built in Yandu, it could absorb all ten thousand-plus refugees in a matter of days.’

’In fact...’ 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Gu Gaoxu felt that a factory in Yandu could be expanded to be even larger!

The one in Taiping City only had three thousand workers when he left.

But the one in Yandu could easily have ten thousand.

’As for why...’

’These are refugees, after all!!’

’Why would you pay refugees a wage?’

’Pay them shit!’

’Give them food and a place to live, and they’ll be eternally grateful.’

’There’s absolutely no labor cost.’

’The workers in Taiping City get paid three maces of silver a month.’

’So of course you have to control the headcount.’

’But is that necessary in Yandu?’

’Absolutely not! Come on!’

’All of you, come!’

’All you refugees, come work! We’ll provide food and shelter!’

’I bet if I went to the gates of Yandu and shouted this right now...’

’...these people would trample each other to get in!’

’And these people don’t even need to wait for the factory to be built to start working.’

’We can use them to build the factory itself!’

’Ten thousand refugees, all building it together.’

’How fast would that be?’

’And we could take care of the refugee problem right away.’

’As for whether that many people will be hard to manage...’

’Look at Taiping City—more than three thousand people were already hard to manage.’

’There were frequent quarrels.’

’Some of the hot-tempered ones even got into brawls.’

’But here in Yandu, we won’t have to worry about that at all.’

’The Stewards will just carry whips.’

’Anyone dares to cause trouble?’

’We’ll take a horsewhip to your ass!’

’Whip you half to death!’

’Let’s see who dares then!’

’What? Too cruel, you say?’

’If you think it’s cruel, then don’t cause trouble!’

’Or better yet, don’t work in the factory!’

’Go out and starve to death!’

Gu Gaoxu had thought through all of these details on his way back.

Now that he had told his father, Gu Gaoxu was itching to get started.

...

At this moment, Lu Yuan had no idea that the young man, Gu Gaoxu, had already evolved into Gu Bapi.

He was currently, and quite happily, out shopping with Song Meiqin.

The two of them didn’t plan to stay long in the Provincial City.

They would shop during the day and return to the Governor’s House at night.