Lord of the House

Vol 7 Chapter 20: Chongzhou in February

The fleet set off from Jinhai on the fourth day of the second lunar month, arrived at Hecheng on the seventeenth, and stopped at Danluo Island for two days.

The situation in the Central Plains is becoming more and more chaotic, and business routes are blocked. Not only the cotton silk, cane sugar, japonica rice, porcelain, tea and other commodities in Jiangdong County are unsalable, but also the raw materials such as wood, iron ore, and coal that Jiangdong needs may even be sold out. source.

In addition to the Jinhai Food Route, Lin Fu will also directly open up a route between Chongju and Jeju.

Lin Fu plans to use the Jeju Port in Danluo as a transit point to dump the bulk commodities of Jiangdong County to Kyushu, Honshu, Korea and other places, and also consider importing wood, iron ore, coal and other raw materials from Kyushu, Honshu, Korea and other places.

Sun, Zhou and other 19 maritime merchants brought their families and their families and depended on more than 3,000 people who migrated south, and there were more than 2,000 people who recruited craftsmen and their families to migrate south.

Except for the Sun Zhou and other clans that are relatively wealthy, the distant ones are not cared much, and there are many poor people.

Even though Dan Ra is far away in a foreign land, and with the addition of craftsmen, there are more than 30 households and more than 180 people willing to stay in Jeju to reclaim this wasteland obtained from the Dan Ra people.

In order to prevent the people in Danluo from being vigilant, Lin Fu did not directly set up an inspection department in Jeju Port. The general and civil affairs were handed over to Ge Changgen. He transported more than 100 excellent young horses from Danluo Island and returned to Chongzhou across the sea.

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The capacity of the Blackwater Ocean route is not only related to the total load of ships, but also the loading and unloading capacity of the port.

At present, the total shipping capacity of Heishuiyang Shipping Society has reached 80,000 shi, and there are 96 large and medium-sized ships with a double mast of more than 500 shi.

So many ships just use the berths of Guanyin Beach and Chongcheng Port (including Nanya Wharf) to load and unload rice grains. Even if there is no shortage of labor, even if there is no accident, it will take seven or eight days to load and unload once. ——This does not take into account the situation of water camp warships and other commercial civilian ships or ferries berthing and occupying dock berths.

The expansion of the port will take time. At this time, Lin Fu will naturally use the port resources of Hecheng and Jiangmen, and even build a river wharf in Jiuhua.

In the coastal areas between the Jianghuai and Huaihe Rivers, due to the effect of the tidal water, the sand and silt water near the sea is shallow, which is not conducive to the docking of large ships. However, due to the law of tidal movement, there are also a small number of deep water channels among the shallow sea silt, and large ships can directly dock and moor, becoming a rare natural seaport between the Jianghuai and Huaihe Rivers.

As early as a thousand years ago, the local people discovered the Hecheng Waterway from the silt near the sea, where fishing boats would gather and disperse. year.

When the Yunyan River dredging is over, Hecheng will connect with Chongcheng through the Yunyan River and the Xishan River waterway, which is nearly 100 miles away from Jiangmen, and will become another important port fortress besides Chongcheng.

Except for Xinchongcheng and Xisha Island, a considerable number of those who moved south will be scattered to Hecheng, Jiangmen, Jiuhua and other fortresses for resettlement.

Lin Fu, Sun Fengyi, Zhou Guangnan, and the more than 200 southern migrants who settled in Hecheng disembarked at Hecheng Harbor.

Lin Fu's return journey is undecided, and Chongzhou can't arrange a meeting in advance. Except for Wang Chengfu, only Lin Mengde, Li Shuyi, Sun Jingtang, Ge Siyu and others who organized the dredging of the salt river nearby came to hear the news. See you in Crane City.

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Compared with the severe cold in the north, Chongzhou in mid-February is not so cold.

Lin Fu, wearing a green shirt and jacket, stood on the seawall and introduced the people and scenery of Hecheng to Sun Fengyi, Zhou Guangnan and others.

"Compared to before the war, a rammed-earth city wall was built on the periphery of the Crane Fortress, and now it has become a big city with more than 400 steps vertically and more than 600 steps horizontally, with a built-in dock and an outer coastal port. As far as the city is concerned, Hecheng is much bigger than Xinchongcheng," Lin Fu said with a smile, "Wang Chengfu is the inspector of the Hecheng Division. It is up to him to introduce the situation here..."

Song Xiaobo is the real chief of Hecheng. Wang Chengfu's inspector of Hecheng is privately set up by Lin Fu, but he came to greet him very politely, and then left first.

Wang Chengfu bowed to Lin Fu and the princes, and said, "Although the regulations of Hecheng are large, it is far from being a majestic city and strong. Chongzhou has heavy rains in summer and autumn, and the soil is soft and soft. The city wall is only built with rammed earth, which is strong Insufficient, easy to collapse, and it needs to be covered with blue bricks. In addition, the coastal city of Hecheng is vulnerable to strong winds and tides. Next, the seawalls must be reinforced, and large areas of miscellaneous forests must be planted inside and outside the seawalls to prevent coastal winds. Land berms and berms - until the real new crane city is built, it will take a long time and continuous investment."

"In addition to protecting Hecheng from the typhoon, the seawall and sea-proof forest belt can continue to extend southward, and those tidal flats that are barren and vulnerable to flooding by tides can be transformed into fertile fields," Lin Fu told Zhou Guangnan, Sun Fengyi and others. He said, "I don't agree with you buying land in the Chongzhou circle, but you have to invest money to build seawalls and transform this large tidal flat into mulberry cotton fields. I support it with both hands..."

In addition to the grassland weeding field in Hecheng, nearly half of the land is coastal tidal flats and swamps.

It took half a year to reclaim Xisha Island, and nearly 160,000 mu of fertile fields such as mulberry, hemp, cotton, rice and wheat were reclaimed. However, Lin Fu invested more than 200,000 taels of silver before and after, and the amount of rice and grain alone was 240,000 stone. In addition, nearly 30,000 people worked hard for a year and a half. results.

During the war between the Central Plains and Shandong, there were a large number of refugees in Nanchong, and there was no shortage of labor, but at this time, Lin Fu had to concentrate the resources in his hand to build the Jiangdong Zuo Army and the Jinghai Camp. He did not have large-scale construction of seawalls and reclamation in Hecheng East deserted capital.

Lin Fu didn't want Sun, Zhou and other southern clans to compete with the locals in Chongzhou for land, but pushing them to build seawalls and reclaim wasteland in Hecheng would be beneficial and would not lead to conflicts between the southern clan and the local forces.

Lin Mengde said with a smile: "The two brothers Sun and Zhou really go to Xisha Island to see and fight with the heavens, and then it's a lot of fun. In two years, a deserted island on the riverside will cost us 160,000 to 70,000 yuan. When Liangtian came, many people who passed by Xisha Island again were stunned... Everyone in the world said that the master's plan was counted on the battlefield, but they didn't know that outside the battlefield is the place to see the real kung fu."

Sun Fengyi and Zhou Guangnan were both older than Lin Mengde, so they called each other as brothers; Sun and Tuesday knew that Lin Mengde was one of the core figures in Chongzhou, and humbly returned the salute: "My lord's plan, I have a deep understanding of it, and I have a deep understanding of it. experience."

Although they have never been to Chongzhou, they are deeply involved in many things that Lin Bie has done in Jinhai.

Not to mention anything else, Lin Fu broke the tradition and forcibly changed to wheat and rice on both sides of the Guoshui River, and the grain production nearly tripled, which made them feel deeply.

The next amount of silver transferred from Jinhai to Chongzhou will be considerable. Taking the Zhou family as an example, after the war they occupied nearly 80,000 mu of fertile land on both sides of the Guoshui River. Although the yield of grain per mu in the northern land is low, the price of grain is high, and the price of land is not slightly lower than that of Chongzhou. Even if the 80,000 mu of fertile land is disposed of at a low price, 300,000 to 400,000 taels of silver can be transferred.

Nineteen maritime clans have moved southward, and in addition to the previous phenomenon of 300,000 taels, almost one or two million taels of silver will be transferred to Chongzhou one after another.

Naturally, the nineteen maritime clans would not directly donate the money to Lin Fu to build the Jiangdong Zuo Army and the Jinghai Camp; Lin Fu also would not want the money to be deposited in the silver cellar of the Nanqian clan.

Only when the silver is used can it be counted as capital and value can be added. Only then can Lin Fu continuously draw tax silver from the value-added part as a resource to support the army.

The expansion of shipping clubs, shipyards and supporting workshops, workshops and docking ports immediately required an investment of 300,000 taels of cash capital. Other workshops and workshops in Chongzhou only had a foundation, and they could not undertake hundreds of them in a short period of time. The injection of 10,000 liang of cash capital, large-scale seawall construction and wasteland reclamation are undoubtedly a good area for cash capital inflow.

In this way, Chongzhou can produce more food, accommodate more displaced households, and have a broader base for recruiting soldiers.

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Lin Fu, Sun, Zhou and others only stopped in Hecheng for a while, and then went westward along the post road on the south bank of the Yunyan River.

The dredging project of the Yunyan River has been in progress for nearly four months. The construction sites on both sides of the strait are so busy that even the Jinhai grain route was urgently opened to solve the grain shortage in Gyeonggi last year, which made Sun, Zhou and others astonished.

The opening of the Jinhai grain route can be said to be an emergency mobilization of all the resources that the imperial court could mobilize at that time, while the dredging of the Yanyan River was promoted by Lin Fu in Chongzhou alone.

In addition to Xisha Island, Chongzhou resettled a total of more than 26,000 displaced households, Ding Zhuang more than 46,000, about 5,000 Zhuang Yong were incorporated into the Jiangdong Left Army, and the remaining Ding Zhuang were all transferred to the embankment to work. In addition, there are more than 10,000 refugees who poured into Chongzhou after the war, Ding Zhuang~www.wuxiaspot.com~, and more than 20,000 local residents of Chongzhou, Ding Zhuang. Ding Zhuang alone has more than 70,000 people, plus the old and weak women and children who cooperated on both sides of the strait, the labor force for transporting the two sides of the Salt River reached 120,000, and the mule, horse and animal power exceeded 6,000.

In addition to remuneration based on rice grains, it also adopts the method of deduction and remuneration.

Ding Zhuang pays two and a half catties of japonica rice for one job, but if Ding Zhuang performs one job in a way of reducing the pay, the amount of japonica rice collected will be reduced by three catties in this year’s summer and autumn grain rent collection; women and children will be paid by half; The mules and horses participate in the dredging work, giving 15 catties of grass and 2 catties of feed every day, for one job.

The purpose of adopting the reduction of bursary is to encourage workers with surplus grain to receive as little as possible to ease the financial pressure. In fact, the county only needs to pay 20% of the interest.

Not counting the input of mules, horses and animals and a large number of dredging tools, the amount of silver and rice that was distributed in April alone amounted to 200,000 shi.

Such a large-scale dredging of the Yunyan River will not only test the financial resources of Chongzhou, but also test the organization and mobilization ability of Chongzhou.

In two more months, Chongzhou will enter the rainy season, and the Yunyan River will also complete the dredging before that. At that time, the Jiyun-class warships will be able to go deep into the hinterland of Chongzhou through the Xishan River and Yunyan River to participate in combat and defense.

The Xishan River and Yunyan River have truly become the outer quarters of Chongzhou, and the warships of the Jinghai Sea Camp can also transport and penetrate quickly to the Lianghuai area through the Yunyan River, Xishan River, Beiguan River, Gaoyou Lake, Hongzepu, and Huaihe River— - The strategic terrain of Chongzhou will be greatly improved.

In the evening, Cao Zi'ang, Hu Zhiyong, Sun Jingxuan and others came to welcome him from Chongcheng with good news: "If the madam gave birth to a son last night, he was fat and he said that he weighed eight pounds. The crying was so loud that Dongya could hear it; we came here to greet the adults and elder brothers such as Sun and Zhou, and congratulate the adults by the way..." My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter

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