Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 116
March 1590, 11 AD.

"This god's pool is really desolate."

There was snow in the sky, and the weather was getting colder and colder. After Huang Laifu and his party passed through Lijiaping in Wuzhai Fort and entered Shenchi Fort, Huang Laifu couldn't help saying with emotion.

Later generations described Shenchi as drought nine times in ten years, with strong wind and sand, and one wind a year, blowing from spring to winter.When the cold wind hit his face, Huang Laifu thought to himself that this was true.

Walking in the territory of Shenchi, you can only see mountains stretching, ravines, rivers and people sparsely populated. Compared with Wuzhaibao, which has a lot of water and mostly flat rivers, the boundaries are really clear.Although Shenchi Fort was opened in the seventh year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, it was not established as a county until the third year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty. It usually only exists as a military center, so there are not many villages and towns along the way, only when passing by some small rivers. When I went to some poor households and cultivated some barren land, when I saw Huang Laifu and others passing by, they all looked at this group of people with awe.

In addition to these local people, Huang Laifu and others also saw some refugees who left their homes, dragged their families, and carried the burden of broken furniture on their shoulders. Walled Fort.Walking outside in this cold weather has also suffered for these refugees, but seeing these people's eyes are full of hope, although they think that they can live well in Wuzhaibao.

The plan to jointly develop Shenchi and Bajiao with his two brothers-in-law was drawn up as early as September when Huang Laifu got married.After he got married, he sent a small team to investigate the local topography and resources around Shenchi.

However, after the official documents of the imperial court came down some time ago, it was determined that Huang Laifu was the governance ambassador of Wuzhai Fort, Shenchi Fort, and Bajiao Fort. The investigation team could no longer meet the needs of the future, so today, he personally led the team to Shenchi Fort to inspect.

At this time, Huang Laifu was accompanied by two guards from the small flag guards, led by Jiang Dazhong, all of them were on horseback. merchants.

Among these people are Qu Yuanrui, Qu Liangwan brothers, and several merchants from the Li family in Pingyao, the Hou family in Jiexiu, the Pan family in Wanrong, and the Yang family in Yangcheng who set up shop in Wuzhaibao. And some of their minions.They all followed Huang Laifu to Shenchi to check the terrain.A while ago, they had bleed a lot for the expansion of the city wall of Wuzhai Fort, naturally in order to win the right to cooperate with Huang Laifu in Shenchi Fort and other places.

Among these big merchants, there is also a shopkeeper surnamed Cao from the Cao family in Taigu. The commercial atmosphere in Taigu has always been very strong. The merchants in Taigu were the first merchants in Ming Dynasty to go to Macau to do business.This year, they learned about the changes in Wuzhai Fort through Daming's well-developed residence newspaper system, so naturally they would not have announced this new business opportunity.Therefore, when the walls of Wuzhai Fort were overhauled some time ago, the Cao family also paid several thousand taels of silver, which won Huang Laifu's favor and the right to develop Shenchi Fort.

After hearing Huang Laifu's words at this time, the shopkeeper surnamed Cao smiled and said, "This Shenchi Fort is indeed desolate, but after being managed by the garrison, it will definitely be as prosperous as Wuzhai Fort within two years at most."

All the merchants agreed one after another and flattered them.

Huang Laifu smiled slightly, saying so, but it is not so easy to develop Shenchi.According to the information I collected, and my own visit to the territory of Shenchi, the management of this Shenchi castle may not be so simple.

The climate of Shenchi is cold all year round, and the spring is dry and windy. There are only Zhujia River, Xianchuan River, Yezhukou River and Jiankou River in the territory.Although the total area of ​​arable land is larger than that of Wuzhaibao, it is fragmented, and with less water, it is not suitable for farming on large farms.

However, Huang Laifu does not intend to engage in large-scale agriculture here. The investment in agriculture here is large, but the harvest is small, and the gain outweighs the loss.Huang Laifu only plans to grow some oil-bearing cash crops here, and then focus on coal and iron ore mining.Huang Laifu came this time for the coal and iron in Shenchi.

When the group was approaching a local place called Taipingzhuang, they suddenly heard a few whistles from the opposite hillside, and then many heads appeared, all of them riding fast horses, there may be hundreds of people, with long knives in their hands. Waving, it seems that the expression is not good.

"Horse thief...protect your lord!"

Jiang Dazhong yelled, and immediately twenty servants got off their horses, surrounded Huang Laifu, each of them took out their bows, arrows and firecrackers.And those merchants dismounted hastily, and under the protection of their servants, all of them trembled.

Huang Laifu also dismounted, with a calm expression, thinking, the law and order in this Shenchi Fort is too bad, Wuzhai Fort is not far from here, and there are many officers and soldiers of his third sister-in-law Tian Dafu in Shenchi Fort, they also So arrogant?It seems that the matter of suppressing bandits is about to be put on the agenda.Just to let his recruits see the blood.

At the same time, I wondered, why did I meet a horse thief when I arrived in Shenchi Fort?To be honest, for more than a year, Huang Laifu's life in Wuzhai Fort was stable, and he had already forgotten about the horse thieves in the Ming Dynasty.

Huang Laifu didn't know that the mountain range around Wuzhaibao was called Kelan Mountain, which is the later Luliang Mountain. This Luliang Mountain has undulating mountains and thousands of ravines. It is the people who are in dire straits.When they are hungry and cold and unable to sustain themselves, they often fall into the grass and become bandits.These people rob houses and do all sorts of evil.Even if the local government came to encircle and suppress them, as long as they fled into the Luliang Mountains, the officers and soldiers would have nothing to do.Moreover, most of these horse thieves have deep-rooted relationships with the local big families, so it can be said that they are invincible.

But at this time, most of the horse thieves in Luliang Mountain were only active in the area east of Luliang Mountain. From time to time, they harassed Jingle, Lan County and other prefectures, counties, towns, and towns. They had never been interested in the area west of Luliang Mountain. In the past, the mountains were high and the roads were deep, making it difficult to walk on the road.

The second is that there are not many civilian households in that area, not to mention that there is no oil and water, and there are many military forts, most of which live in military men, and there is little room for horse thieves to move around.At this time, the fighting strength of the frontier army was still two times. Compared with the horse thieves, they were well equipped, with guns and cannons, which angered the soldiers, and made these horse thieves who didn't even have bows and arrows unable to eat and walk around.

But I don't know why some horse thieves came to the territory of Shenchi at the northern end of Luliang Mountain today?

While on guard, he suddenly heard a whistle, and those horse thieves disappeared from the hillside again.

While everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Huang Laifu also thought to himself after going through this twists and turns: "It seems that it is not an easy task to develop this god pool."

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Soon, everyone arrived at Taiping Village, which is a private fort located at the entrance of the mountain. Several wealthy local families jointly built this private fort. Not far from here is Shenchi Fort.Since the vicinity of Taipingzhuang is where the mine veins of Shenchi Coal Mine are located, most of the people here are engaged in mining and coal mining. When passing by here, most of them are black coolies in ragged clothes.

There are also many young and strong refugees who fled here, pushing coal here and begging for food.Recently, because Wuzhai Fort is building the city wall, it seems that the business in Taipingzhuang is very good, and many merchants go in and out of Taipingzhuang to buy coal.

Seeing Huang Laifu and his party, who were either wearing armor or looking rich and noble, these coolies all stepped aside and looked at them in awe, but when they passed the intersection of Taipingzhuang, Huang Laifu noticed how many A sneaky person was looking at himself with unfriendly eyes.When Huang Laifu frowned, they disappeared again.Huang Laifu had a feeling that those horse thieves just now had an inextricable relationship with these people.

In the evening, Huang Laifu and his party arrived at Shenchi Castle.

This Shenchi Castle was built with earth in the 18th year of Jiajing, and built with bricks and stones in the 1000th year of Wanli.Since the fort is zero on Friday and there are more than [-] officers and soldiers in it, many merchants set up shops here to do business.In addition, some refugees entered the fort to find food, and as far as the eye could see, there were ragged crowds at the gate of the fort.

Even the soldiers guarding the fort at the entrance of the fort were all dressed in rags, shivering shyly and listlessly. These people were still battalion soldiers, but compared with the soldiers of Wuzhai Fort now, they were in heaven. One is underground.Even now, some servants brought by Huang Laifu are all strong and full of iron armor, which makes the faces of the battalion envious.

The third brother-in-law, Tian Dafu, greeted Huang Laifu and his party at the south gate of the castle with a pleasant smile. He patted Huang Laifu on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Laifu, your brother-in-law has been thinking about when you will come, and today is finally your turn." . " Glancing at Huang Laifu's servants, he couldn't hide his jealousy, and said with a smile, "You're rich now!"

Since that day in Wuzhai Fort, after Huang Laifu talked to him about the development of Shenchi Fort, Tian Dafu was very moved, and when he heard that Huang Laifu was promoted to garrison, was awarded by the emperor, and was appointed as the governor of Sanbao , even more envious.He waited day and night, waiting for when Huang Laifu would cooperate with him, and today finally came.

Huang Laifu smiled and said: "Brother-in-law, Laifu is here today and will be staying in Shenchi Castle for a few days."

Tian Dafu smiled and said, "Your brother-in-law is what you wish for."

The two exchanged a few words and entered the fort. As far as the eye could see, it was full of poor and thinly dressed soldiers, and the streets inside were full of potholes and garbage everywhere. Habit.The merchants who came with Huang Laifu also saw the difference between Shenchi Fort and Wuzhai Fort, and they all started talking in low voices.

The third brother-in-law Tian Dafu smiled and said: "Laifu, the journey is going well?"

Huang Laifu said: "Some things happened." He said that he and his party met the horse thief.

Tian Dafu stopped abruptly, and said with a gloomy face: "I'm afraid this matter is not that simple!"

(End of this chapter)