Zuo Baoliu slowly walked into the small courtyard of the rental inn with a gloomy mood.

It has become a de facto small courtyard of the village committee, where people come and go, and the thick voices of the farmers can be heard from afar.

From this point of view, Zuo Baoliu has no complaints about the new master's family - being able to speak in a loud voice full of neutrality is a sign of good nutrition.

After the reintegration of Zuojia Village, nearly one-third of the left-behind farmers have changed their identities and lived a life of wage earners.

The new owner's family was generous, and the monthly salary of each male laborer was given one or two or five cents, and the woman could also receive one or two silver. According to the account office, the salary is actually paid according to one or two or eight yuan, and the three yuan deducted is used to pay off the old accounts.

There is no need to worry about drought and flood disasters, and there is no need to worry about the officials who urge the tax and grain, this kind of day compares the previous days with the moment the villagers get the silver for nothing.

Later, considering the rising price of food, and finding that the villagers were only saving money and not spending money, and some people were still malnourished, the main family brought brown rice back from outside, set up a canteen, and converted part of the salary into meals.

In this way, it is equivalent to a mandatory increase in nutrition. The effect was immediate: the sumptuous meal made the villagers ruddy-faced, strong, and full of energy.

Zuo Baoliu is also a beneficiary. He, his wife, and three cubs are no longer together, and they go to the "public stove" every day to eat and get paid. So in terms of life and evaluation of the new owner, Zuo Baoliu can't say anything bad.

The reason why he was so depressed was because of the loss of the mulberry garden.

Walking into the house, Zuo Baoliu waited until the person in front of him went out, he silently stepped forward, lowered his head, and was so silently clubbed there.

The village accountant, who has a gray beard and wears a pair of tortoiseshell-rimmed reading glasses, is from this neighborhood, but he begs for a living under Hangzhou Station all year round. Recently, I heard that there was development here, so I applied for a transfer, which can be regarded as a return to the roots.

After burying his head in the account book and making a few notes, the old accountant looked up and saw that it was Zuo Baoliu, so he asked him kindly: "Are the mulberry trees cleared?" ”

Zuo Baoliu nodded.

"Well, that's it: there is a shortage of people on the construction site by the river, if you want to go, you will go to work tomorrow. The monthly money by the river can be high, two taels of silver per month, and it is also in charge of food. ”

After a pause, the old accountant continued: "If you want to stay in the village and farm, then you can do it. It happened that Zuodou was hit by a bull and broke his leg the day before yesterday, so you took his job. ”

...... After Zuo Baoliu listened to these two arrangements, half a day passed, and he still stood there silently.

The old accountant smiled: he had seen too many of these peasants who were not good at words. After feeling Zuo Baoliu's dissatisfaction, the old accountant cleared his throat and changed the topic: "Baoliu, do you know Zhoushan Island?" ”

Of course, Zhoushan Island Zuo Baoliu knew. Although he had never been to the sea, the people in the village knew that Zhoushan was just outside the Qiantang River, because people often went to the area to fish.

Seeing Zuo Baoliu nodding, the old accountant continued: "Baoliu, I won't tell you that those mulberry trees in the mulberry garden were transported to Zhoushan Island by the owner. There are now a large mulberry garden of 1,000 acres of land on that island, as well as a silkworm house. If you still want to manipulate your old business, you can simply go to the island and live. ”

Zuo Baoliu's head jerked up. He didn't expect it to be like this at all, those trees were all transported to Zhoushan?

Seeing Zuo Baoliu's reaction, the old accountant seemed to know what he was thinking, and added understandingly: "The monthly money over there is more, and it is also given to the house, and there is a public stove." With your ability, you can be a long-term foreman if you go, to say the least. Take your family with you, what kind of person the owner is, you must know that you will never be wronged. ”

After Zuo Baoliu went back in a daze, he only thought about it for one day and decided: the whole family went to Zhoushan.

yes, why not? If you go, you can not only work in the mulberry garden, but also receive silver every month and good food. Besides, Zhoushan is not far from Zuojia Village, so if it really doesn't work, it's not too late to go home.

After thinking about it clearly, Zuo Baoliu immediately went to the village committee and signed a rental agreement with the old tent: Zuo Baoliu rented his yard to the village committee for a long time.

After signing the agreement, he packed up his belongings, patiently waited for the notice, and then took the woman and three cubs, carrying two small burdens to the Zhangsutan Wharf - the tent told him that he didn't need to bring anything, the owner was rich, and he had everything on the ground, and the family of five only needed to go to the wharf and wait for the boat.

......

May 15, 1628 was a very monumental day: the first batch of visitors from the open sea were welcomed at Zhangsutan Wharf. Three oddly styled Chinese galleons have stopped near the newly repaired trestle and are taking turns to unload their cargo.

These are the 500-ton new lock ships that have been finalized. The new standard ship with shallow draft, passenger and cargo dual-use, sail gas auxiliary power is replacing the original other transport ship types.

The newly developed Shanghai Port has greatly improved the freight environment on the Ming side and saved the precarious Tangzhuang Wharf in Hangzhou.

If the Qiantang River was turbulent, the water level was shallow, and there was a lot of sediment, then with the increasing trade volume between Hangzhou, Taiwan and Fujian, the small Tangzhuang wharf has long been overwhelmed.

Now, as soon as the port of Shanghai opens, the pressure on Hangzhou will be greatly reduced. In fact, there were a total of four cargo ships in the northbound fleet, three of which were new locks carrying building materials, and only one general cargo ship with a shallow draft turned into the mouth of the Qiantang River.

Due to the abundant water and depth of the Yangtze River estuary, the fleet of ships without considering the tide conditions easily stopped outside Zhangsu Beach.

The Zhangsutan Wharf, which took thousands of workers nearly two months to build, came in handy as soon as it was completed. The wide, wooden high-pile pier is as deep as 60 meters into the water and can mooring more than three cargo ships at the same time.

Today is a bit special, though. This is the first official operation of the port area, so for the time being, only one ship has been moored to run in with the port team.

The run-in effect is still good. The commander who blew the whistle kept waving the small red flag in his hand, and the team pushing the trolley was divided into left and right on the trestle, neatly up and down, without interfering with each other.

Even without powered machinery, the loading and unloading speeds on the docks are far higher than those of the natives. The use of chain hoists and small hand booms made it possible for the cargo to be transported out of the ship quickly.

There is no need for the kind of contractors that were common in ancient times. After the vat of cement was lifted out of the cabin, it fell directly onto the trolley waiting under the ship. Workers pushed carts and easily deposited the goods in the dock's newly built warehouse.

When Zuo Baoliu's family came to the dock, they were already unloading the second cargo. Zuo Baoliu, who was holding the "letter of introduction", was quickly placed in a temporary shed at the dock. In the next few days, another ship from Hangzhou brought in a lot of migrants with bald heads.

When the number of people was enough, nearly 900 people waiting for the ship were loaded into the cabin along with some iron, saltpeter, raw silk and other miscellaneous goods. Zuo Baoliu's family was no exception, because they had three children, they were able to reunite as a family and were arranged in a separate cabin.

"Forbearance is here, and Zhoushan is not far away." After living in the dark and cramped cabin, Zuo Baoliu fed the children some cakes, and then said comfortingly.

As a result, this forbearance endured for ten whole days.

In fact, on the third day, Zuo Baoliu, who kept vomiting in the shaking cabin, knew that he had been deceived.

Although he has never been to sea, he still has the experience of rocking a small boat to sell raw silk in Suzhou and Hangzhou in previous years. So when the boat left for three days, Zuo Baoliu was very sure: the ship had already passed Zhoushan...... What Zuo Baoliu didn't know was that when he went to the deck in shifts two days ago to let off steam, he saw that the big island passing by the side of the ship was actually Zhoushan Island.

I knew that I couldn't help it, and I got on someone else's thief ship, but I couldn't help him - although the ship was provided with fresh water on time, and the sick number could still be taken care of by Lang Zhong, the fierce stewards and sailors were not joking, and those who didn't take the boat honestly were all helped to "whiten their skin" on the mast.

Therefore, even if Zuo Baoliu was full of questions, he only dared to hide in the cabin and silently pray for the Buddha's blessing.

Fortunately, prayer still works. After more than ten days of wandering on the ship, the fleet finally returned to Dayuan Port on a scorching afternoon. It was only at this time that Zuo Baoliu's family realized that they had been dragged thousands of miles away to the island of Taiwan.

And after arriving at the bizarre base camp of thieves, the Zuo family has no time to think about whether they have been deceived - the bustling and noisy Taijiang, beautiful and bizarre buildings, strange machines, red-haired and blue-eyed Yiren, all of which make them dizzy.

Before the Western scenery could be read, the Zuo family was dragged to take a bath, cut hair, break chrysanthemums, and check their bodies in fear.

When it was all over, the bare-headed Zuo Bao Liumu sat at the head of the bed in the quarantine camp, looking at the three bald cubs who were stupidly playing in front of the door, and his thoughts actually drifted to a very strange place: he now finally understood why the foremen in Zhang Sutan were bald.

The instructors in the quarantine camp were very enthusiastic, so after the Zuo family spent time "learning the rules" in the quarantine camp, Zuo Baoliu finally figured everything out.

The next step is to assign work and divide rooms. Zuo Baoliu and his wife can plant trees and raise silkworms, both of which are the kind of skilled workers that the Ministry of Agriculture prefers, so the two of them were directly assigned to the mulberry garden and the adjacent silkworm house.

Standing in the endless mulberry garden, Zuo Baoliu was full of joy. On the first day of work, after looking around, he quickly found the batch of tree species he had carried in the newly planted mulberry trees—he recognized every scar and every node on these trees.

Zuo Baoliu crossed his hands on his hips and laughed.