A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 927 Fellow Countryman

Spring passes and summer comes.

Anping Port is becoming more and more lively. Ships come and go every day, and shiploads of goods, people, pigs, sheep, cattle and horses are brought in.

"Our Liuqiu Island now likes to mention the name of the Evil Island, and Company Commander An Na knows about it."

The governor, Wang Da, stood at the pier, looking at the 'evil ones' that had just arrived in several large ships. However, there was no dissatisfaction in his tone, but a bit of happiness,

Liuqiu is short of people, extremely short of people, so even if evil people come, he welcomes them, the more the merrier.

Wu Huaiyu looked at the arrival of another batch of fat pigs and piglets.

The population on the island continues to increase, and the demand for meat is also huge. Although there are rich fishery resources here, there is no shortage of fish to eat on the beach. Fishermen go out to sea and cast nets, and they can catch a lot of fish every day, but...

Eating fish every day is boring, and fish cannot be used as a staple food. Just like eating rabbit meat every day will cause malnutrition, eating fish also lacks fat.

There is a huge demand for pork on the island now, and it is extremely popular. The price is much more expensive than fish. Most fish here are sold very cheap now.

This also means that although there are many fish, it is not easy to preserve them. They must be eaten immediately, or they can only be made into salted fish, but making salted fish also depends on the weather.

When many people first came to the island, they were quite happy to have fish to eat every day, but soon they got tired of it. Firstly, they would get tired after eating it for a long time, and secondly, they lacked oil and seasonings. Just one cooking method, of course. greasy.

Moreover, fish cannot bring the fat from pork, and when people are hungry, fat is consumed first, followed by muscles.

Years later, Wu Huaiyu started to solve this problem while starting spring plowing and farming.

Pig farms, chicken farms, duck farms, etc. have been built on the island one after another. Various manors have also started breeding side businesses, and even encourage family breeding.

I still feel a little nervous and uneasy.

"Registered here at the pier,"

Everyone lined up to get off the boat and saw that the dock was very lively. It was not like the barbaric exile on a deserted island that they imagined.

The seafood is very fresh, but the pork is more fragrant.

pier.

Just as the official who picked them up on the boat said, they lined up to get off the boat, and then there were dedicated people there to receive and register them.

After registering a series of information such as name, place of origin, age, and so on, a wooden ID badge will be issued immediately.

Although what the officials said before coming here was good and they believed it, they were still hesitant along the way.

At the same time, we also purchased the deer, wild boars, pheasants, etc. that they hunted from the Yi tribes.

However, raising pigs also requires cycles.

The only option is to transport piglets to raise and fatten pigs to slaughter. In the past few months, pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks have been shipped by sea for slaughter and supply.

Being methodical, I have already become proficient at it.

"Why are you in a hurry? Register first and someone will pick you up."

Someone on the boat shouted, they were the Liuzhou officials who received them at Hangzhou Port. On the way from Hangzhou to Liuzhou, these officials had introduced many matters related to Liuzhou to them, and also told them how to settle down in the future and how to divide and grant land. , how to borrow interest-free green crop loans, how to rent cattle seeds and other matters related to land reclamation,

I also talked a lot about the weather here, etc.

It sounds like a very good place. When I come here, all the crimes I committed not long ago will be exempted from punishment, and I can also get my own land, etc.

Because it is shipped by sea, and with transportation costs, the price of pork is not cheap, but it is still very popular.

For many evildoers, especially those who were taken out of prison and sent here directly, they chose to immigrate to Liuzhou and received amnesty to let go of the past.

After a long journey by boat, I came to this strange place and it was about to make a new start.

wonderful.

The Wu family also opened up salt fields and built a salt drying field dozens of miles north of Anping Fort. In the future, there was a demand for local salt, and this salt field alone could supply it.

"Disembarked,"

In addition to pork, chicken and duck, which are now supplied by sea, oil and salt are basically supplied from outside.

“When can we divide the fields?”

Here in Anping, except for the plum rain season, there is little rain throughout the year, and the coast is an excellent area for salt drying.

The goods carried on the ship are handled by merchants.

As soon as the ship arrives at the port, there will be relevant people to pick it up, including from the yamen and from various trading houses. The yamen is responsible for receiving new immigrants such as evildoers, as well as employees recruited by various shops. Each trading house has the assistance of the trading village to accept the immigrants it recruits. workers,

"Hang this sign around your neck. You must carry it with you. It may be checked at any time on the island. This is your identity certificate. Without this certificate, you may be thrown into jail if you are found by the patrol."

Li Zhuer got the sign and hung it around his neck.

A Zaoyi yamen officer took him to another place.

"Li Zhu'er,"

"To!"

"You have been assigned to Xin'antun,"

Xin'an Tun is located in the north of Anping, next to Zeng Wenxi, the fourth largest river in Qiu. The people in this village are basically from Jiangdong. It is convenient for people from the same area to live together and manage them. After all, there are many people in these days. Except for the dialect of his hometown, he can neither speak nor understand other languages.

Wu Huaiyu also vigorously promoted Mandarin in Liuqiu, but different places not only have different languages, but also have very different customs and habits. It is much more convenient to divide them into the same place as much as possible.

Carrying his own bedroll, he followed the people who were resettled to Xin'antun and waited there for a while.

The village chief of Xin'an Village and the joint defense captain of Xin'an Village came with a small team of village joint defense members to take them back.

On the pier, people from various villages came to pick up the newcomers who had been arranged to their villages.

The summer sun is very hot,

Everyone left on foot,

Li Zhuer was a death row prisoner awaiting execution. He was originally going to be taken to Chang'an for execution in Qiuhou. Now that Liu Qiu was lucky, he cherished this opportunity.

He is not actually a bad person, he just committed a manslaughter in a fight before. Leaving the noisy dock and slowly moving away from Liuzhou City, walking in the countryside and fields became much quieter.

On both sides of the rural road, there are fields, including rice fields, and many fields growing sweet potatoes and sugar cane. There is a lot of life in the fields this season, and you can see many people busy in the fields.

There are some villages scattered among the green fields.

"These villages are all newly arrived this year. Some are immigrant villages like you, some are manors of powerful nobles, and some are merchant villages of big business houses,"

After walking for dozens of miles, I was sweating under the sun. A big river appeared in front of me, and there was a village near the south bank of the river.

Surrounded by a fence,

There are buildings with stilts inside, with herringbone thatched roofs and chassis raised above the ground. People live on the second floor, the first floor can be used to raise livestock or store debris, and the first floor is elevated to effectively prevent moisture.

At the entrance of the village, someone is on duty to guard the gate.

The village chief said hello from a distance, and the gatekeeper smiled and said, "There are new people here again. Where did they come from?"

"The ones over there in Quzhou, Muzhou, and Shezhou,"

"They are from western Zhejiang. There are many fellow villagers from western Zhejiang in our village. Are there any from Wuzhou, my hometown? Are there any from Yiwu?"

"There really is one, Li Zhu'er, are you from Yiwu?" the village chief said.

Li Zhuer nodded and replied loudly, "Village chief, my hometown is Yiwu, just outside the county town by the Dongyang River."

"Oh, fellow Yiwu fellow, my family is from Dakeng Village, Nanjiangbian, on the south bank of Dongyang River. How about you?" The man on duty, about thirty years old, was very enthusiastic about fellow fellow Li Zhu'er and talked about it. native dialect.

"My home is on the north bank of Dongyang River, in Shantang Village under Shangyan Temple."

"I know about Shangyan Temple. I have been there before, but I have never been to Shantang Village. I didn't expect to meet people from my hometown here. Most of our villages are from Zhejiang, and there are a few from Wuzhou, but Jinhua The one from Lanxi, I’m the only one from Yiwu, and now there’s finally another one.”

As he said that, he looked at Li Zhuer, looking at him only a little bit, "Meeting an old friend in a foreign country is fate. Let's get closer in the future."

"By the way, my surname is Wang. I used to be called Wang Da. After I came here, I took the nickname Wang Liangyu."

"Hello, Brother Wang, my name is Li Zhuer,"

The village chief smiled and said, "Let's go to the village first. Once we are settled in, we will have plenty of time in the future."

The yamen had already made arrangements, and the village had been notified a long time ago that a group of new people would be placed.

Once these people arrive, they will have a place to live.

Although it is a relatively simple hut with a thatched roof and stilts, it at least has ready accommodation.

"These huts belong to the village. You can live in them first. After you are settled, you can hire someone to build a house when you have free time."

Divide fields and houses and gardens,

The ten people assigned to the village by Li Zhuer were each assigned one hundred acres of land, plus one acres of garden and homestead land. The land was wasteland, and all of it had been measured and boundary stakes had been laid.

Seeing his piece of land, Li Zhuer measured and looked at it step by step with his feet. The more he looked at it, the more he liked it. Although it was overgrown with weeds, the land was very neat and not fragmented. He even grabbed a few handfuls of soil and could see it. The unearthed quality is good.

"You are new here and have nothing, so according to our usual practice, we suggest that the ten new people form a cooperative to open up wasteland and build canals together. The village will also apply for an interest-free young crop loan from the Yamen on your behalf and pay back I will rent you some oxen and corresponding rakes and other agricultural tools,"

Li Zhuer was originally worried about how he would cultivate the hundred acres of land as a single man, but he never expected that the village chief would have such a good arrangement.

After hearing this, the ten newcomers were very moved and very happy.

"Before the autumn harvest, the government will also lend you rations. No interest is charged. You can borrow as much as you want and you will pay back after the autumn harvest."

"But there is one thing I want to remind you. Some of you are guilty in your hometown, and some of you are not brought from prison, but you are not good people either."

"But no matter whether you were murderers, robbers, thieves or ruffians before, now you have to thank Prime Minister Wu and Governor Wang for giving you a chance to start over.

No one here cared about what you were like in the past, but from now on, you must abide by the law and be a good person. "

"I won't hide it from you. I used to be a horse thief. I robbed goods and killed people. Even earlier, in the last years of the previous dynasty, I also served as a hungry citizen and a homeless thief. But the past is in the past. Let's cherish the present. A rare opportunity,

Work hard to cultivate the land, and those who have parents, wives and children in their hometown can be reunited with them. If we are single, we will find a way to get a wife and have children here and live a solid life. "

"If anyone dares to play those bastards here, I will report it directly to the Yamen, and I will not give you a second chance to be reborn."

Li Zhuer listened quietly,

I also listened carefully,

Looking at the one hundred acres of land in front of him, he was already thinking about how to build his own house this year and maybe bring his parents and family here next year. His hometown has many mountains and little land, and his family has no land of its own. They are just tenants of the landlord's family, farming, mining, and picking tea. They work hard but are still very poor.

But now he has a hundred acres of land and is full of hope.

(End of this chapter)