March 24, 8th year of Chongzhen.

More than a month has passed since Liu Ximing knocked Mu Jingnan and others again, and during this time, many major events have happened in Liujia Village.

The most important thing is, of course, the upgrading of the Longxiang Regiment to the Longxiang Battalion, which now has a total of 2,117 people in the battalion, divided into four combat regiments and a personal guard regiment.

Each regiment has 400 men, including three regimental and regimental headquarters, and each regiment is equipped with 300 flintlock pistols and six three-inch cannons.

The Guards Regiment consisted of three Torchmen and a Gunner, as well as an Artillery Regiment with six four-inch Hawk guns.

The earliest two-inch caliber crow cannon has been abandoned by Liu Ximing because of its low power.

With the use of hydraulic drilling machines, the output of the Longxiang II type has finally made leaps and bounds, and the Liujiacun Ordnance Bureau can produce 300 pieces per month, and the first regiment and the second regiment have completed the redress.

At present, the commander of the Longxiang battalion is still Liu Ximing as the battalion commander, Yu Yongkai as the battalion ideological and political officer, Mu Jingnan as the deputy battalion commander, and Li Jingsi as the battalion judge.

Because it expanded fivefold all at once, the members of the original Longxiang Regiment basically served as officers at all levels, and the third generation of Baozi generation and the fourth generation of Minzi generation such as Yuan Baosong, Qu Baoan, Song Minxuan, Wu Minhai and others began to emerge.

Another major event is the re-growth of the number of people in Liujia Village, Tang Xiuyuan was unable to come to Sichuan because of Huguang's affairs, but Changheng still transported 809 people, including 89 scholars, and the rest were craftsmen and family members.

Because of this incident, the recruitment of displaced people in Liujia Village was also able to continue to advance, and the 3,000 people who had been reviewed in advance began to enter the village one after another, but fortunately, the police house has been expanded to 300 people, and the security and defense of the entire village have not fallen into a collapsed situation.

This time, Liu Ximing's space area has increased even less, and the faith of nearly 4,000 people has only increased by 40 acres of land, and due to unknown factors, the space cotton field has always remained at the upper limit of 200 acres, which does not contribute much to the financial income of Liujia Village.

However, now the land in the space has also increased to 380 acres, and the output value of cotton fields is 17,000 taels, but at present, Changheng and Xie family are saturated, and another 5,000 pieces of cloth have not yet found a home, so the actual monthly income is only 15,000 taels.

There are 120 acres of grain fields in the space, with an output value of about 2,000 taels, and 20 acres of tea fields, 20 acres of bamboo forests, 10 acres of mulberry fields, and 10 acres of other cash crops such as sugarcane and citrus.

After more than half a month of hard work and busyness in the whole village, Liujiacun finally settled down all these people, and all the work was on track again.

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At the same time, in the upper reaches of the Jialing River, not far from Hexi Town, three three-masted merchant ships loaded with goods were sailing down the river.

"Steward Zhou, it's almost time to Hexi Town."

On the ship that was at the head, the guy in charge of the lookout shouted behind him, and the two middle-aged men on the deck who were dressed in the same way as the guys on the ship looked at each other when they heard this, and sneaked into the second cabin while others were not paying attention.

"You're all set, aren't you?"

"Hehe, don't worry, boss, I've already made several cuts, I just need to pull the plug off."

The red-faced man who was obviously the leader immediately said in a deep voice: "Then do it." ”

"The cabin is leaking!"

After a while, the red-faced man ran out of the cabin with a panicked expression, scurried up to the top cabin in a few steps, and shouted at the steward of the merchant who was holding the dancing girl and laughing.

"Steward Zhou, the cabin is leaking, what can I do?"

"What", the steward of the week was fat-headed and big-eared, and when he heard the news, he was so shocked that he immediately pulled out the groping pig hand that reached into the front of the dancing girl.

"Useless dog!" , Steward Zhou pushed away the dancing girl who was riding across the body, and shouted with an angry face: "Go to a few people and plug the leak!" ”

The red-faced man ignored the other guys who were running in a panic, and after dodging the two people who ran towards the stairs behind her, he went straight to the panicked Steward Zhou and suggested: "Steward Zhou, even if the loophole is plugged, there is still some danger in this river, or let's go to Hexi Town in front of us to stop for a while, and then go on the road after the repair is completed, so as not to have any forks." ”

"Yes, yes, yes", this week, the steward nodded again and again as if he had just woken up from a big dream, and hurriedly commanded the sailors on the ship to steer the ship in the direction of Hexi Town, and the two merchant ships that followed also turned the direction and headed in the same direction.

No one noticed the strange smile on the face of the red-faced man, and the boat was full of people, and no one noticed that there were few people missing from the shore.

"Brother Kai, have you noticed that a lot of ships suddenly stopped in the town today?"

In the residence of the Hexi Inspection Division, in a brick compound, Zhang Jingliang lightly pushed open the door of the main hall and reported to Yu Yongkai, who was inside, and the warm environment in the house made him can't help but unbutton the collar twice.

"This year is really evil, it's almost April, and the weather hasn't warmed yet."

As the head of the newly established first regiment, Zhang Jingliang should have stayed in Liujia Village to clean up the team, but because of the replacement of his old partner, he felt a little irritable in his heart these days, so he took advantage of the stall of the Hexi Inspection Division to run out to relax.

After all, Liujiacun is relatively closed, and now everyone jokingly calls it out to come out for wheel defense, just like what the second brother said.

"Bring the door shut."

Yu Yongkai was sitting in the room at this time, and after checking the income and expenditure report of the inspection department in the past month, this thing was to be submitted to the account office and the second brother for review, but it was not allowed to be sloppy.

Hearing what Zhang Jingliang said when he broke in, he replied somewhat casually, "We are here to ask for Jin, and it is normal for there to be more merchant ships, don't make a fuss about it, you kid." ”

"Oh, it's really not, you can come out and take a look, there are several problems with the stopped ships, saying that the cabin is leaking, so I have to dock here, I think there is a problem, we don't have any reefs here, where there will be several ships leaking at the same time."

Yu Yongkai chuckled in his heart, since he served as an inspector, he has kept in mind the teachings of his second brother, everything is possible when he goes out, and he must maintain the highest vigilance.

He stood up suddenly, rubbing his chin a few times with his right hand, "According to what you say, there seems to be something wrong with these people." ”

Thinking of this, he didn't care about the account book, put on his coat, and pulled Zhang Jingliang out of the big tent, "Let's go, let's take a look." ”

The original Hexi Town was very small, because of the high terrain here, so the whole town was built along the riverside, but now the town of Hexi has not only more than doubled in size compared to the past, but also has become more prosperous and tidy.

In addition to the various passes, the establishment of the inspection department in other places is generally set up for events, Hexi Town has not set up an inspection department before, Yu Yongkai first arrived here with a song of soldiers and horses, everything can only rely on their own arrangements.

Yu Yongkai clearly remembered the situation when he and the others first arrived in Hexi Town, and that time with him was also Zhang Jingliang's first song, and the group took a boat from Fucheng to the wharf of Hexi Town along the Jialing River.

At that time, although there were thousands of people in Hexi Town, it was just a small town gathered with the convenience of river transportation, and there were a few wealthy families in the town, but the urban management of the whole town was a mess.

Not only is the wooden pier in disrepair, but the sanitary situation in the town is also a concern.

After Yu Yongkai and others arrived, they quickly set up a camp in the open space along the river in the southeast of the town, and at the same time, in order to facilitate the inventory of passing merchants, a medium-sized port was built on this side of the camp.

This work was strongly supported by Liu Ximing, who personally led people to inspect Hexi Town and found that the bay here is narrow and rapid, and it is indeed an excellent location to control the Jialing River.

Although Liujia Village itself is still in the expansion period and cannot send too many people to build Hexi Town, since the Longxiang Group has taken root here, of course it should be built as the second base of Liujia Village.

Since then, the town has grown at a faster pace, with Yu Yongkai trying to recruit Hexi townspeople to work on the model of Liujia Village, while using the tax card to improve the town's sanitation and roads.

After two or three months of hard work, all the townspeople changed from panic to licking dogs of the inspection department, and Yu Yongkai took this opportunity to reappoint several highly respected people to serve as security chiefs and other positions.