With the joint efforts of 20,000 high-spirited craftsmen and the close assistance of nearly 3,000 Japanese laborers, Dongsheng Castle was built very quickly, and in two months, the entire Dongsheng Castle was basically completed. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Outer city buildings such as moats, urns, gates, towers, corner towers, gun emplacements, female walls, and pheasant moats have all been built. In the inner city, the government offices, as well as military camps, warehouses, bluestone streets and alleys and other buildings, have been built.

Li Xiao was extremely happy when he saw this brand-new city built on Ezo Island. He immediately ordered that the craftsmen be rewarded separately, and even the Japanese laborers were given gifts in recognition of their hard work in building the castle.

When the construction of Dongsheng City was almost completed, various administrative institutions such as the Department of Civil Affairs, the Department of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Industry, the Department of Money and Grain, the Department of Security, and the Department of Supervision and Restoration were also established and began to operate.

At this time, the first batch of Han immigrants from Jeju Island, about 20,000 people, also arrived at Otaru Port, becoming the first group of pioneers on Ezo Island.

Among these immigrants are Liu Yizhu, an immigrant from Shanxi, and a family of six, including his wife, his wife Chen, and his two younger brothers, Erzhu and Sanzhu, as well as the youngest sister Ya'er.

Liu Yizhu's family, originally from Qinshui, Shanxi, these years, because of the ravages of the Liukou, Liu Dazhu's family, who originally farmed in the countryside for a living, could not survive, and then fled to Quwo County, and took refuge with relatives to live, although they were blinded and neglected, but they were finally able to survive, and the family was hopeless and suffering.

originally thought that the family hiding in the county town could save their lives in this troubled world, but what Liu Dazhu never expected was that Bai Guangen, who was an official army of the Ming Dynasty, forcibly broke into the county town on the grounds of suppressing bandits, plundered them, and did all kinds of evil, and took more than 30,000 people in the entire Qinshui County as prisoners, and then sold them all to another official army.

Liu Dazhu was extremely resentful of the shameless and brutal practice of the officials and soldiers who kidnapped the people as bandits and forcibly sold them into slavery. It's just that now their family's lives are in the hands of the officers and soldiers who bought them, although Liu Dazhu has always thought about escaping, but considering the safety of the whole family, he doesn't dare to act rashly.

It's just that the attitude of this official army towards them is not bad, although the people of this county were immediately escorted to Shandong, but they also took more care of them all the way, never ran out of food and clothing, and these people were captured, and if they were sick on the way, there were also medical officers to arrange treatment.

The people in the troubled times are the easiest to be grateful, Liu Dazhu's family, seeing that the officials and soldiers were so polite to the people in providing food and clothing, so along the way, the resentment in their hearts has dissipated a lot. And, in his heart, he quietly began to feel a kind of gratitude to Li Xiao, the commander of this army.

After coming to Dengzhou City, Shandong, Liu Dazhu was surprised to find that outside the entire Dengzhou City, there were already a large number of displaced people from all over the country. And these displaced people, after arriving in Dengzhou, began to disrupt the order, get along with each other, and rearrange them in groups of twenty households. After the arrangement, the displaced people were transported to Jeju Island, where each family was drawn to see whether they would go to Ezo or Taiwan.

Liu Dazhu learned that before the arrival of his own group of displaced people, basically all the displaced people were arranged to go to Taiwan, and starting from their group, because Master Li of the Tigers had newly acquired Ezo, and from this group of displaced people, they had to draw lots to decide who to go.

So, Liu Dazhu won the lottery to settle in Ezo, and then the whole family became one of the first immigrants to settle on Ezo Island.

To be honest, Liu Dazhu has no concept of this Ezo Island at all, and these people who originally lived in the Chinese mainland have a kind of resistance and fear in their hearts about crossing the sea to live on a desert island overseas.

It's just that in front of the military order, even though Liu Dazhu was full of reluctance, he had to bite the bullet and take his family to board the Tiger Army Sailor ship heading to Ezo Island.

In the middle of summer, the fleet sailed north on the southerly wind, and after 16 days, finally arrived at Otaru Port.

The family, who were dizzy on the boat, was very happy to finally see the land they had not seen for a long time. After the family carried simple luggage and stepped on the gangway to get ashore, they saw the coniferous forest and green meadows, and breathed the fresh air with the fragrance of pine leaves, and all the immigrants had an inexplicable sense of freshness and curiosity.

Then, after coming ashore in Otaru, all the people were led by the soldiers and turned all the way to the northeast to the initially completed Tosho Castle.

Looking at the Dongsheng City in front of him, which has a circumference of eight miles, with moats circulating in all directions, and looks like a large county town in the mainland, Liu Dazhu suddenly has the illusion that he has returned to the interior of China.

Under the arrangement of Wu Liang, the governor of Ezo, all the displaced people temporarily lived in simple wooden houses in Dongsheng Castle, and then distributed household registration cards, and each family was given 40 acres of wasteland near the Shikachi Plain by lottery.

Liu Dazhu's family, in this lottery to divide the land, was very lucky, the granted land is close to the tributaries of the Sapporo River, a flat area, extremely easy to cultivate. Moreover, the soil is black and shiny, extremely fertile, which makes Liu Dazhu's family even more happy.

Of course, in order to settle these new immigrants, Li Xiao, Wu Liang and other officials have made a lot of preparations in advance. For example, all kinds of production materials, such as wheat seeds and farm tools, were transported from Shandong, and the cattle were purchased from the nearby Matsumae Domain, and a total of about 500 heads were purchased, and one head was distributed to every five households.

These ploughing cattle were worth 4 taels of silver each, and Li Xiao exchanged them with the Matsumae Domain for iron tools or woolen wool of the same value, and the result was very happy.

Because the price of ironware and woolen wool and other items in Japan is extremely high, Li Xiao can use much fewer items to exchange for these 500 ploughing cattle. As for Matsumae Yoshihiro, the lord of the Matsumae Domain, after obtaining a large number of iron tools and woolen wool, he could sell them to his subordinates at a higher price, which was a very good deal.

Living in a bitter cold place like Ezo Island is not easy. Basically, spring wheat can only be planted once a year during a short frost-free period, and it is harvested around the middle of August of the lunar calendar, and the rest of the time, because the weather is too cold, it is difficult to grow crops. Therefore, this group of immigrants should hurry up to reclaim the wasteland, build dwellings, and strive to complete these preparations when the snow begins to fall at the end of the eighth lunar month, and then sow spring wheat after the beginning of spring next year.

Considering the living conditions of these immigrants, it will be much more difficult than in Taiwan. Li Xiao specially stipulated that the wheat seeds, farm tools, and cattle needed by the immigrants were all distributed free of charge. And from now to this time next year, for a whole year, Li Xiao will distribute the money according to the supply, with 1 tael of silver per household as the standard, to ensure that the first batch of immigrants will be fed, clothed, and have no worries about life.

And these immigrants, their newly formed villages, also like the rural areas of Shandong, have a lieutenant chief for every ten households, who is an elderly and virtuous person, and the lieutenant chief is usually responsible for keeping the ploughing cattle, distributing farm tools and seeds, and coordinating the daily conflicts between these ten households, conveying the orders of the officials, and supervising the payment of taxes. At the same time, a village chief is elected from among these chiefs according to the location of different villages. And these village chiefs and lieutenants are all semi-official managers of the Dongsheng City Civil Affairs Department. At present, it is directly under the jurisdiction of the Department of Civil Affairs, and in the future, after the entire Ezo Island is divided into townships, it will be supervised by the civil affairs office of the local township.

Then, Wu Liang, the governor of Ezo, issued regulations to these immigrants, telling them that starting next year, for a total of three years, all grain taxes would be exempted, and until the expiration of the three-year period, one bucket of wheat per mu of land would be levied as the benchmark, and the harvest would be once a year, and it would always be a law and would not be changed.

Wu Liang's edict made the immigrants extremely happy.

These people, who had not received any education, immediately calculated clearly in their hearts that although they could only plant wheat once a year on this Ezo, the soil was fertile, and the yield of wheat would definitely be very high, and one acre of land could produce at least one stone of wheat. In this way, you can harvest 40 stone of wheat a year, but you only need to pay 4 stone of wheat every year, and the remaining 36 stone of wheat can be eaten or resold by yourself, and there is a full three years of tax exemption, such conditions are really too favorable.

The immigrants, who were afraid to settle on Ezo Island, are now full of expectations for their future lives.

Liu Dazhu's family was full of enthusiasm at this time, they worked hard to pioneer in the 40 acres of wasteland granted to themselves, cleared and cultivated the land, and at the same time began to seize the time to use the building materials provided by Li Xiao for free to build their own houses, so that the family could officially settle down in this distant and strange land.

At the end of August, two days before the first heavy snowfall, Liu Dazhu's family's new home was officially completed, and at this time, 40 acres of land had already been developed.

On the day of the completion of the new house, the whole family celebrated with joy and wine, and the warm fire reflected every smiling face, and everyone's eyes were full of expectation and joy. Liu Dazhu's family all felt in their hearts that it seemed that at this moment, this Ezo Island, which they had never even heard of before, was connected with their own real blood.

After all the immigrants settled down, when Liu Dazhu was shopping for goods in Dongsheng City one day, he couldn't help but be very curious when he saw officials recruiting workers.

It turned out that after the initial construction of Dongsheng City, Li Xiao planned to start development immediately, located in the east of Dongsheng City, there is a huge coal mine in the area of Shichuan 300 miles away, because winter is coming, Li Xiao needs to mine enough coal to ensure the heating of military and civilian life.

With the establishment of the coal yard, basic industries such as brick factories, timber processing plants, quarries, cement factories, lime factories and other basic industries were also established on a flat land near the coal yard.

After the establishment of these factories, it was natural that they began to recruit workers in large numbers and prepare for production. In addition to ensuring the production and livelihood of the military and civilian people, the function of building these factories is also a reason that Li Xiao attaches great importance to.

Because, he knows, in such a long and cold winter on Ezo Island, if those adult laborers have nothing to do for a long time, it is actually a huge waste of manpower to retreat at home every day. If the surplus labor can be arranged to work in the factory, it will allow these labor to generate greater value and create benefits for the LTTE. Second, they can get more income, so as to subsidize the family and make the family life more comfortable.

According to Li Xiao's opinion, Wu Liang referred to the standards of Taiwan factories, and arranged very generous salary standards for each factory, and the general person in charge of the factory director, Li Xiao generously gave them a salary of 8 taels per month, and the head of the craftsmen in charge of the following branches was 4 taels per person, and all ordinary workers were 1.5 taels of silver per person per month, even the lowest level of apprentices had an income of 0.5 taels of silver per month, and they were covered with food and accommodation.

After Liu Dazhu returned home, he immediately told his family the news, and after the family discussed, they decided to let the two brothers of Dazhu and Erzhu go to the factory tomorrow to apply for jobs and earn more money to subsidize the family.

The next day, Liu Dazhu entered the coal mine as a coal washer, and the reason why he came to the coal mine was because Liu Dazhu considered that he would have to go home to farm after the beginning of spring next year, and the coal mine recruited a large number of temporary workers, so he chose to work in the coal mine to facilitate his resignation at any time.

His younger brother Liu Erzhu entered the cement factory, started as an apprentice, and signed a long-term contract with the factory. Unlike his eldest brother, who is bent on farming at home, Erzhu thinks more in his heart that he must learn the technique well, and he can become a craftsman leader in the future, and his life ideal of getting ahead can be regarded as a reality.

As the days passed, this ordinary Liu family, like other Han immigrants, was like a seed from China, taking root, germinating, pulling branches, and growing leaves in the desolate and remote land of Ezo, and perhaps one day, it would flourish and bear fruit.

When the Han immigrants finally settled in Ezo, the Ezo natives located in the deep forests of Ezo Island, under the conditions of Li Xiao's series of coercion and temptation, became more and more closely connected with the Tiger Army.

According to Li Xiao's strategy, the Tiger Army implemented a strategy of soothing and soothing these Ezo natives. Most of the Ezo tribes accepted Li Xiao's terms of trade and sent people to Li Xiao's open field outside Dongsheng City to sell animal skins, game, horns, jade and other things, and then exchange them for sea salt, woollen wool, ironware, cloth and other necessary daily necessities produced by Li Xiaojun.

Of course, there were also a very small number of Ezo tribes who were hostile to the LTTE, and they stole property, plundered livestock, and even injured people in groups, causing a lot of trouble to the LTTE.

For these vicious Ezo tribes, Li Xiao's policy was that since they chose to be enemies of the Tiger Army, they would all be killed, and all the captured Ezo people would be cut off and their heads would be cut off, and at the edge of the mountains and forests, a Jingguan would be built to intimidate those who dared to come and follow suit.

Li Xiao's policy quickly paid off, and only two months later, the Ezo people who came to the territory of the Tiger Army to sneak attack were no longer visible, but the number of Ezo people who came to do business with Li Xiaojun was increasing. What made Li Xiao even more happy was that at the end of September this year, there was actually a Ezo tribe, because of the defeat in the tribal war, in order to avoid being killed by the hostile tribes, he actually led all the remaining more than 300 people and asked for attachment.

Hearing that this tribe had come to join him, Li Xiao stroked his palms and laughed.

"Okay, naturalize the Ezo people on the island, start with this tribe." Li Xiao said with blazing eyes.