The courtyard where my father-in-law lived was originally the house of an official in Sitang Town, and after my father-in-law drew a circle with a large pen and asked for the establishment of a special maritime zone, Sitang Town and the people within a radius of dozens of miles were converted into the people of the special zone, and the total population was not large, only more than 4,000 people.

In addition to these former local residents who officially had a yellow book in the maritime yamen, there are also the families of the officers and soldiers of the former Wusongshui Battalion and the craftsmen brought by Wei Gonggong from Beijing, with a total number of about 3,000 people.

In other words, before the return of Gonggong Wei from Liaodong, the permanent population of the special maritime zone was about 7,000 people. However, the permanent population of the Special Administrative Region has now exceeded 10,000 people, and the newly replenished population is the captured residents of Kwandian who have been brought in by the navy from Phi Island and Uiju. Most of these inhabitants are Han Chinese, and only 30% of the Jurchens, Mongols, and Koreans are Chinese.

If you want a place to prosper, business is the main reason, but population is the foundation.

Therefore, Wei Gonggong has always hoped to attract immigrants from other places to come to the Special Administrative Region through various preferential policies, so he focused on explaining the matter to Zhang Hua, the sub-guard of the town guarding the Yamen, Zheng Duo and Cheng Qing, the generals left behind in the imperial army, and Zhao Xinquan, who was in charge of civil affairs of the maritime Yamen.

However, until my father-in-law returned from another trip to Ningbo, there was no substantial progress in the resettlement work, and the total number of newly relocated people was only about 240. These 240 people are also "technicians" hired by the SAR Yamen from various places, such as blacksmiths, bricklayers, carpenters, and so on.

The reason why the immigration work has not progressed is not that Zheng Duo and Cheng Qing did not do their best, but that the outside world has "stigmatized" the SAR.

My father-in-law devoted himself to the construction of the SEZ with great enthusiasm and innumerable energy, and he also regarded the SEZ as his own child, so whenever he had time in the SEZ, he would go to various places to meet with the people, hoping to tell them face-to-face about the various benefits of the SEZ and how bright and brilliant the future of the SEZ would be. After becoming a citizen of the Special Administrative Region, not only will you benefit yourself, but your children and grandchildren will benefit even more.

In addition, the father-in-law often convened his subordinates to hold forums and formulate various policies for internal and external publicity, hoping to publicize the Special Administrative Region as the southeast pearl of the Ming Dynasty, so as to attract more talents to invest.

However, these efforts are no match for the "stigmatizing" propaganda of the outside world.

The government of Suzhou, Songjiang and other places declared to the people that the so-called maritime special zones were nothing more than Huangzhuang, and that the people of the so-called special zones were the tenants of Huangzhuang. Once the people become tenants of the Huangzhuang, they will have to endure all kinds of exploitation by the Huangzhuang, and they will also lose their freedom, and their children and grandchildren will be enslaved by the Huangzhuang.

This propaganda is very targeted, as we all know, the current emperor issued an edict last year to order King Fu Yao to lead the maritime special zone, so the special zone is the past that the emperor also said in legal theory.

What's more, some people with bad intentions even claimed that the people of the SAR would be the domestic slaves of Father-in-law Wei in the future, and that they would be enslaved as cattle and horses for the unnived generation.

This argument is very vicious and too bad, and it has had a very bad effect and made it difficult for the SAR to deal with it. After all, the person in charge of this maritime special zone is indeed the admiral eunuch Wei Gonggong.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with becoming a tenant of Huangzhuang, and my father-in-law's hometown was enclosed by King Fu. But it is a poor area, but this special zone is in the rich Jiangnan. No matter how poor the people of Jiangnan are, it is better than that of the north.

It's a good life at home, but going to Huangzhuang to be a tenant, or even a house slave to a eunuch who has no birds, isn't this full of food!

Therefore, no matter how hard the SAR side tries, this immigration will always be missing, that is, those artisans are willing to come because they are greedy for high wages.

If you want to solve this problem, there is no way to solve it in Jiangnan, unless the Duke of Wei openly orders the imperial army to plunder the good people of various provinces.

It has always been the transition of wealth and poverty.

Therefore, my father-in-law did not want to engage in a war of words with the gang of officials in Jiangnan who were hostile to him, and he wrote something to speak for himself and correct the name of the Special Administrative Region, which had no substantive meaning at all.

The solution chosen by the father-in-law was to write to Chen Mo and Li Yongzhen, asking them to try to send people to the western area to set up a "resettlement station" and relocate the poor people in the west to the special zone through various means.

This method is workable, with the support of the East Factory behind it, the local government in the northwest will not be troublesome. What's more, removing the poor people in the territory is also a moral policy for the local government, at least it can reduce their pressure.

If you are poor now, you may not be a displaced person in the future.

In the past decade, there have been repeated disasters in the northwest, and small groups of victims have begun to appear in some prefectures and counties. Although the number is small, as the weather gets worse and the crops are getting less and less, some people of insight are already worried about whether there will be a year of catastrophe and famine in the future. When it does, the consequences are severe.

Therefore, when the wealthy areas in the southeast come to attract immigrants, it is impossible for the local government to make it difficult to oppose it. Even if there are opponents and Dongchang participates, they also have to weigh the consequences of opposition.

Gonggong Wei hoped that Chen Mo and Li Yongzhen could help him attract 100,000 immigrants to the SAR within three years, and for this, he needed to prepare hundreds of thousands of taels of silver for immigration fees.

It's really asking for money everywhere.

The stall is spread wide, and it is easy to pull the eggs.

The father-in-law invited Wang Yue'e to come to make money.

Running maritime affairs is to make foreign money, and making foreign money is to save the Ming Dynasty. And getting rich needs people, but people need money, and all kinds of difficult and fruitful relationships can be said to be very complicated.

When the two met this time, it was not a reunion.

It has been a year and a half since the ecstasy night in Yangzhou, and when I saw Wang Yue'e again, the other party was not the daughter-in-law of the Zhao family with a big belly, but a young woman with a familiar taste inside and out.

When her father-in-law arrived in the back garden, Wang Yue'e was sitting on a stone bench holding her one-year-old son and coaxing her to sleep, when she heard footsteps, raised her eyes and saw that it was Father-in-law Wei, and immediately got up and saluted Father-in-law Wei.

"Is this what I'm doing?"

The father-in-law liked it very much, and stepped forward to carefully look at the child in Wang Yue's arms. At the beginning, his old man recognized this baby as a godparent. It is precisely because of this that Wang Yue'e is very open in the business community in Taizhou. After all, no one wants to offend a eunuch who has just made a fierce move in the north and south of the river.

"What's your name?"

Xu thought of his son, and his father-in-law was sad for no reason.

"It's called Xingye."

Wang Yue's voice is not loud, and she is neither humble nor arrogant when she listens.

"Xingye?"

The father-in-law nodded slightly, this name is good and wealthy.

Wang Yue'e glanced at the maid on the side, and the other party hurriedly stepped forward to take the little young master and retreat. The father-in-law didn't say much, and motioned for Wang Yue'e to sit down and talk, but found that the other party's chest was very full, and he hadn't seen it deflated for more than a year. ... After all, you and I haven't seen each other for more than a year, it's... Hey... It's really a big deal for our family. ”

Hearing this, Wang Yue'e was taken aback, she actually took a step back, looked solemn, shook her head very firmly, and said, "Father-in-law, please respect yourself!" ”

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