The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 223 Yinzhou people

"My father-in-law ordered that all the refined gold from the mine be taken out and escorted by me to Huaiyuan for great use."

At three o'clock in the afternoon on January 1730, 1, as soon as Gao Wanliangfu, the storekeeper of Huaiyuanda of Yizhou Trading Company, arrived at the Guangfeng Gold Mine owned by the trading company, he immediately summoned Zhan Kaifu, the director of the mine, and ordered him to prepare to collect and refine the gold from the mine. The gold made was delivered to him.

"All the gold? Big shopkeeper..., why did the Lord need to withdraw so much gold?" Zhan Kaifu was surprised when he heard this.

"What, you dare to question the father-in-law's decision?" Gao Wanliang glared at the other party and said in a rather unkind tone: "As for what the father-in-law wants to do, how can you and I have the qualifications to ask?"

Humph, don't think that just because you are the brother-in-law of the general manager of Prince Yi's Mansion, you can't figure out your identity and dare to question your master's decision.

As the direct brother of King Yi, Qi Siyi began to take charge of the palace's Xuanzhou industry more than ten years ago, including gold mining, fur trading, coal trading, grain trading, and the production of foreign goods (including local industrial products). He even stayed in Huaiyuan City for a long time, supervising and managing the operation and development of many businesses. He was regarded as the financial manager of the entire Yiwang Palace.

After some unsuccessful negotiations with the Xuanzhou Governor's Office on tax exemptions in Huaiyuan City, Qi Siyi was angry and was too lazy to argue with local colonial officials. He decided to go to Hanzhou to attend the coronation ceremony of the new emperor. Put more effort into your body.

As long as you have taken care of the local dignitaries and senior officials, how dare you, a small governor of an overseas territory, to show your teeth at Prince Yi's palace again?
However, it will cost money to carry out "public relations lobbying" with the royal family and many powerful people in the country. Originally, Qi Siyi was ordered by King Yi to go to Chang'an to meet the new emperor. He brought gold, precious furs, Yinzhou old ginseng (American ginseng) and other local specialties worth more than 100,000 yuan, which was enough to fill a large ship. In addition to some of these "gifts" being prepared to be presented to His Majesty the Emperor, some are also used to "make good friends" with cabinet ministers and officials of major departments.

Maybe he felt that he still had too little money, so he sent Gao Wanliang to Guangfeng Gold Mine to take all the refined gold to Hanzhou.

The managers of the mining area and hundreds of miners need to use horse-drawn carriages to carry water storage tanks to the Guangfeng River several kilometers away to draw water every day.

Rather than this, it would be better to keep the dwindling gold resources in the local area as much as possible. This will be of great benefit whether it is to enrich local merchants and people, or to increase the fiscal revenue of the governor-general.

By the way, in order to protect the safety of this river and ensure the water needs of tens of thousands of surrounding immigrants, the local government strictly ordered all mines not to discharge gold-refined wastewater into the river.

There are two gold mining areas in Yiwangfu, thousands of meters apart, covering a combined area of ​​about four to five square kilometers. There are deep mine pits everywhere in the mining area. If it rains, dozens of pumps must be used to drain water day and night so that workers can continue to mine gold.

"All miners will leave after their terms expire?" Gao Wanliang frowned upon hearing this.

I don’t believe it. If the golden gold is thrown at me, no one will speak up for me, Prince Yi!

The Xuanzhou Governor's Palace has reason to believe that the Yiwang Palace will use its own resources and strength to secretly transport gold out of Xuanzhou to avoid the collection of gold mineral taxes.

The gold mine owned by Yiwangfu is the second largest mine in the entire Guangfeng region. Although gold reserves are increasingly dwindling, about two tons of gold can still be mined and refined every year by digging deep pits, blasting gold-bearing rock formations and other methods. With a volume of more than 250,000 yuan, it has become one of the largest financial resources in Yizhou.

"In that case, can you coax them to go to Yizhou to buy land?" Gao Wanliang shook his head helplessly, and then asked: "The land in Yizhou is cheaper, less than two yuan. If we can get them all back, , which is equivalent to the money they earned, after being transferred around, it comes back to us in Yizhou. "

After the expiration of their labor contracts, the vast majority of miners will choose to leave the mines. With the rewards they have accumulated over the years, they can’t wait to apply for land from the local governor-general and live a free life as small farmers.

"That's not true." Zhan Kaifu sighed: "Except for three or five who want to return to North Korea and Qin State, most of the others want to use the money on hand to sell a piece of land in Xuanzhou and prepare to settle down and start a business. You can't imagine that they What a deep obsession with owning a piece of land of their own. Alas, Yinzhou's land is worthless! You can buy a small farm for just a few hundred yuan. This must drive those people crazy. It’s like buying land and property.”

What, your Yizhou is also selling land to attract immigrants to settle down?
Are you sure you won't trick us into going there, and then when we get to your Yizhou territory, close the door and beat the dogs, deprive us of our money, and then continue to "enslave" us?
"You can try to persuade them a few more times, and it would be best to get them back to Yizhou." Gao Wanliang said: "You can tell them that as long as they settle down in Yizhou, Prince Yi's Mansion can help them find wives. … …And she is a decent Han Chinese wife.”
-
January 1, Fort Chaoan (now Roseville, California, 16 kilometers northeast of Sacramento).

From the time the civil affairs officer of Chao'an Fort handed her over to this man, her future fate was already determined. She would settle down in this place, a hundred and eighty thousand miles away from her hometown, and become a woman she had never seen before, and who had never seen her before. The wife of an unknown man.

Liu Azhu was sitting on the bumpy flat-bed oxcart, looking around at the surroundings and peeking at the man driving the cart in front of him from time to time. His heart was filled with fear and confusion.

A stream drawn from the Guangfeng River was doped with countless toxic substances that exceeded the standard, especially mercury, which is used to extract gold from quartz and stones. The content was so high that there was almost no grass growing on both sides of the stream. After some miners ate fish caught in the stream, they also fell ill one after another. Even the doctors in the city could not cure them, and they eventually died in pain in the mines.

It’s not like, in pursuit of wealth, everyone is deprived of water, right?
"In March this year, the contracts of more than 60 miners will be full." After Zhan Kaifu arranged for people to extract gold, he began to complain to Gao Wanliang, "By then, the manpower of the two mines will be insufficient again. So. , we have to continue to recruit more people to complete the amount of gold mining set by the prince, otherwise, there will be no good results if the task is not completed by the end of the year!"

Will this man be her husband from now on?

As we all know, working in a mine is not an easy job. Not only is the labor intensity high, but the environment is also harsh. After five years, it will take a toll on both the body and the mind.

"I'm afraid they don't believe it! Two yuan per acre of land is less than one-fifth of the land price in Qin, which is enough to drive them crazy. Oh, tell them, our land in Yizhou costs less than two yuan. They will probably suspect that we are using deception to lure them to Yizhou and embezzle their money. "

Perhaps out of local protectionism, or perhaps out of envy of the huge gold mining profits earned by the Yi Palace every year, the Xuanzhou Governor-General rejected several requests from trading companies affiliated to the Yi Palace to increase and expand the gold mining area. Instead, the mining area was Sold to local trading companies and powerful gold mining consortiums, which made Prince Yi's house itch with hatred.

In addition, in order to complete the mining tasks, mines often use various rough methods to treat miners during the management process, such as scolding, beating, corporal punishment, and even withholding wages, which makes both "labor and management" accumulate endless conflicts and resentments. .

Fear is more of a natural fear of a strange environment.

Confusion means uncertainty about future life.

She didn't have much objection to marrying a strange man. Even in my hometown, isn’t it the orders of my parents and the words of my matchmaker? To a large extent, she also doesn’t know what kind of man she will marry in the future.

What's more, in a poor hometown, if you marry a local, the betrothal gift your parents will receive is very meager.

Half a fan of pork, or a few bags of grain, can buy a healthy girl.

But when her parents "sold" her to Yaren, they got a full five Great Qin silver dollars!
This is enough food to sustain the family for more than half a year.

When boarding the ship bound for Yinzhou, she once had the urge to jump into the water and swim back to shore.

Yinzhou is a remote and wild place tens of thousands of miles away from home. It can be regarded as the end of the world.

Although some people say that there is endless gold and wealth there, as well as fertile fields and pastures everywhere, and they can live a life where they will never go hungry.

But Liu Azhu was still scared to death. With such a long distance, I will never be able to return to Qin again, I will never be able to see my parents, brothers and sisters again, and I will never be able to appreciate the mountains and rivers of my hometown.

Even if she died silently in Yinzhou, no one would bring the news to her family.

People who leave their hometown are like duckweeds, let alone a weak woman like her who was "sold" to Yinzhou.

What a tragic fate it would be if her "man" harshly abused her and even treated her as a slave!

"Are you cold?" The man driving the car suddenly turned his head and asked in a muffled voice.

"I...I...not...not cold." Liu Azhu lowered his head and replied in a low voice.

"Isn't it cold?... It's better to wear more clothes." The man saw Liu Azhu's delicate body trembling, and couldn't help but smile, and threw the mink fur he was wearing next to her, "Although we It rarely snows here in winter, but the weather is still a little cold. If you get sick from the cold, it’s hard to find a doctor.”

Damn it, the wife I bought for thirty yuan can't freeze to death!
Xu Guangtian thought of this, and immediately shook the reins with both hands to make the cow run a little faster. When I returned to the farm, I lit a fire to keep my woman warm.

Hey, my own woman!
Although the entire Yinzhou region, including Xuanzhou, has been colonized and developed for almost forty years and has a population of hundreds of thousands, the ratio of men to women is extremely unbalanced. The towns and settlements built in each place are all green at a glance. Strong men, rarely women.

After all, coming to the wild land of Yinzhou brought about development. Men have natural advantages. Whether it is government organizations, private trading companies and mines, most of the immigrants in the process are young and middle-aged men.

Not to mention, the noisy gold rush more than 20 years ago made Yinzhou an adventure paradise for men.

Of course, once immigrants get a foothold and have enough to eat and drink, they will also feel that there are shortcomings in their lives to fill their empty and lonely inner world.

Many first-generation immigrants began to set their sights on local indigenous women. They might take iron tools, salt, spices, and spices as betrothal gifts to marry a good-looking woman from the indigenous tribe, or they might go into groups, holding muskets and knives. , in the process of fighting and killing with the indigenous tribes for land and minerals, he directly robbed a woman to warm her bed.

I originally thought that the indigenous people in these places were uncivilized and were still in the primitive clan society. With similar races, I wondered if they could be assimilated and absorbed. But they never thought that because these natives lived in a harsh environment and fought with wild beasts all year round, they all developed a martial (unruly) character. This makes it impossible for immigrants who come to Yinzhou to capture them as "helpers" like those in the Nanyang region, let alone capture women as wives.

Some indigenous women with fierce temperaments, after being forcibly captured, would not only attack and murder their "husbands", but would even strangle their own children to death, which deeply frightened the immigrants.

A rough estimate shows that in the past few decades, the number of immigrants in the entire Yinzhou area who married local indigenous women was only over 10,000. However, considering the small indigenous population on the west coast, this number is also quite astonishing. Among intermarrying families, there are very few who can live happily together.

Differences in language, culture, customs, lifestyles, and many other aspects, as well as competition for land and resources, and ethnic vendettas, have resulted in deep gaps and antagonisms between immigrants and indigenous peoples.

Under this situation, buying and selling women from countries in the traditional Chinese civilization circle such as Qin, Korea, Japan, and even Annan has become a large-scale business in the Yinzhou area.

Prices vary depending on where the woman comes from. Han Chinese, who were the main immigrants to Yinzhou, naturally wanted their wives to be Han Chinese, which accordingly pushed up the price of Qin women.

Under normal circumstances, immigrants will first submit their purchase requirements to local colonial officials and then pay half of the deposit. Then, the local government will entrust trading companies or merchants who trade in the Pacific to go to specific countries and regions according to specific needs to "recruit" young women. After gathering the number (taking into account the losses along the way, the actual number will generally be slightly excess required quantity) will be shipped back to Yinzhou Continent.

After arriving at the port, the colonial government would pay the fee based on the number of people arriving, and then distribute it to various settlements and deliver it to the immigrants who requested it, while collecting the other half of the fee.

Xu Guangtian is one of the many immigrants who bought wives. He came to Yinzhou more than ten years ago. Although he did not catch up with the lively gold rush, he worked in the settlement farm built by the government for three years and settled in Chao'an. Fort received fifty acres of land for free and became an official overseas territory citizen of a great power.

After another ten years of hard work, he not only paid off the local government's loan (mainly livestock and agricultural machinery), but also successively purchased more than 50 acres of land, raised more than 30 cattle and sheep, and bought a small farm.

Now that my life is getting better, I am thinking about whether I should marry a wife and have a few children. Otherwise, to whom will the property that I have worked so hard to manage be passed on in the end?
So, he took out his savings accumulated over the years, borrowed some money from the villagers in Baozhai, and "applied" to the local government for a daughter-in-law.

A total of fourteen women were sent to Chao'an Fort, and there were nine people like him who asked for Han women. Moreover, they had different looks and heights. Some were plain-looking, while others were gentle and beautiful. For the sake of fairness, the civil affairs officials numbered the women and asked them to draw lots to determine their respective belongings.

It seems that he was lucky. Before the lot was drawn, he fell in love with the thin and beautiful woman at a glance. After making a wish to the gods and Buddhas all over the sky, his wish came true. God made this woman his dream wife.

"I will be good to you in the future." Xu Guangtian drove the flatbed oxcart and looked back at the woman behind him. He felt relieved when he saw that the fur she had thrown him over was already on her body.

"Hmm..." Liu Azhu responded, looked up at his man, and then lowered his head.

"The fields on both sides belong to our family." Xu Guangtian pointed to the land on both sides of the oxcart and said proudly: "After spring, we will plow the land on the right together and take a year off. I think the soil has been fully stocked, and there will definitely be a good harvest at the end of the year. Oh, look over there, it's our livestock shed. It will be planted in spring and autumn, and there will be a few more cattle and sheep. It’s all neat and tidy, but it’s all money.”

"Oh……"

"You don't need to take care of the heavy work in the fields. On weekdays, you just drive the animals to the grassland near the forest to graze. Well, all year round, we can only have a good rest in winter. By the way, follow me , you don’t need to worry about being hungry anymore. You can eat wheat noodles and rice as much as you want. If you want something meaty, just kill a chicken or... don’t worry, it will definitely make you fat. ...In the house, I have bought some good fabrics for you in advance. You can make yourself some new clothes by then...Look, it's coming to the house soon!"

Liu Azhu stared blankly at his man, listening to him talking to himself, and felt a little lost for a moment.

He seemed to care about himself quite a bit.

"Wang Wang Wang..."

Suddenly there was a burst of rapid dog barking from the wooden house in front, and occasionally the neighing of cattle and sheep. The man driving the cart in front immediately tightened the rope of the cattle, then jumped out of the cart, turned around and took out a musket from the car behind. .

"You are sitting in the car and don't get off. ...I'll go over and take a look first." Xu Guangtian solemnly instructed.

"You...be careful." Liu Azhu said subconsciously.

"Hehe..." Xu Guangtian grinned, "Don't worry, your man won't die!"

(End of this chapter)