Chapter 63: Worship always with benevolence and righteousness

Ten years of Jiading in the Great Song Dynasty, the first year of Xingding in Dajin, in the afternoon of the fifth day of the first month of spring, the island is hanging.

After nearly a year of construction, the hanging island is now different from the original, and the wounds caused by the pirate infestation have long been healed, because this is a transit point for the Liuqiu, and the island's resident craftsmen and guards, the coastal control envoys and sailors who come and go, and the righteous boys, all of whom add up to more than 1,000.

All the craftsmen sent to Liuqiu had to work on the hanging island for three months, and after observing that they were not good at gambling and fighting, they would be selected to be sent to fresh water. During these three months, they were mainly building houses, according to Zhao and Ju's requirements, the house did not need to be beautiful, as long as it was firm, not comfortable, as long as it was durable. As a result, this small hanging island is now a small town. There are also some traders who are greedy for huge profits and want to open their shops on the island, but all the land on the island is owned by a certain Zhao Yuanwai, and they can't find a place to build a shop, so they have to give up.

However, Zhao Youju did not ignore the needs of the people on the island, and he opened three shops on the island to supply the daily needs of the whole island, and did not seek to make money, as long as he could protect his capital.

In the dock of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, a huge sea ship has begun to emerge, this sea ship is 20 zhang long, built in full accordance with the new shipbuilding method, and the giant wood used is purchased from Hunan and Shu by Zhao and Ju at a great price. There were seven masts standing on the ship, three more than the current Sanyuan ship, and twice the length of the Sanyuan ship. The biggest feature of this ship is that a huge cabin is reserved, the cabin is located high in the bow, and the windows on both sides can be closed, which Zhao and Ju specially asked to stay, and no one knows its function.

In addition to this ship, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is also building another three-distance ship-class sea vessel, the progress of the giant sea ship is slower, and the three-yuan class sea ship is much faster, almost every two or three months, one can be launched.

Every time he counts the bill for shipbuilding, Zhao and Ju will be heartbroken, the quarter of an hour of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and the raw silk of Jichanglong, plus the weaving workshop now run on the hanging island, these three are all industries that make money every day, and the income brought to him every month is no less than 50,000 yuan, even so, Zhao and Ju's income and expenditure are only balanced, with a slight surplus.

Moreover, the construction of Tamsui City and the relocation of the Red Jacket Army will not be profitable in a short period of time, but they need to keep sticking money in. Just to buy the grain to support the early stage of the relocation, Zhao and Ju spent no less than 80,000 yuan, and now they are begging, and the grain is as high as 20,000 stone. (Note 1)

In order to send these grains, the three long-distance ships ran back and forth three times.

Naturally, these grains were purchased in batches from Liangzhejiang, Lianghu, Lizhou, Chengdu, and other places, and by virtue of the relationship between him and the grain merchants when he first opened "Baoxing," Hu Fulang spent a great deal of effort, and only said that he was collecting grain for the maritime merchants, and that the east family had 500 stone and the west family had 300 stone, so he could barely get it together. Zhao and Ju calculated that if the 20,000 stone grain is saved, it is enough for 20,000 people to eat for two months, but if the rest of the loss is deducted, it can support one and a half months is the limit.

Therefore, they have to send rice to the stream in a steady stream, and always buy grain from the Great Song Dynasty, which is obviously not enough to support, Zhao Youju has decided that the newly built Sanyuan-class sea ships will be loaded with Great Song Dynasty porcelain, silk and tea, and go to the address and occupy the city, where there is enough light and heat, and there should be more than enough food.

The key to solving the grain demand is self-sufficiency, which is why Zhao and Ju have sent three batches of farms to a total of 40 households in the past two months.

These villagers are all recruited from the two Huai refugees, who are stoic and able to endure hardships, and there are children in the family who are in the middle of Yixue, and they know very little about Yuzhang Villa, and Zhao and Ju are not afraid that they will leak anything to the craftsmen who worked in Tamsui in the early stage.

Fortunately, there has been no storm at sea in the past six months, so there have been no accidents in the three distant ships several times. However, as the weather warmed up, Zhao and Ju knew that the terrible typhoons in the North Pacific would gradually occur, and that by then, the number of trips to the three distant ships would be reduced if it was not necessary, so as to avoid typhoons as much as possible.

In this way, there are still about two months to go that is a relatively safe period, and it must be used to complete the task of transporting the Red Jacket Army.

"Da Lang, it's windy here, why don't you go back to the house?" Han Yu put a fur coat on him and persuaded him in a low voice.

"Counting the time, Zi said that they should have arrived." Zhao Youju said lightly.

"It's windy these days, or they're sheltering from the harbour." Han Yu remembered the scene when they crossed the sea to Hanging Island, and said with palpitations: "Da Lang, the matter of crossing the sea is too dangerous, please be cautious in the future." ”

"I know it in my heart." Zhao and Ju smiled, they came to the hanging island on the fourth day of the first lunar month, because there was no big sea boat like the Sanyuan boat to pick them up, they took a small boat, and the sea water was almost pouring into the cabin, Han Yu was really frightened.

"Dalang, let's go into the house." Han Yu persuaded again.

Zhao Youju glanced to the north, but still hadn't seen his own three-distance ship, so he could only shake his head helplessly and follow Han Yu back to the house. But before he could sit down, a righteous boy immediately came panting and reported: "Da Lang, I see the Sanyuan ship!" ”

Because Zhao and Ju collectively called the three ships of Zhiyuan, Huaiyuan, and Jingyuan the three ships of the Three Far Ships, the Yixue boy now also learns to be called this way. Hearing his report, Zhao Heju nodded slightly, but he was not as excited as he was when he heard that the Zhiyuan had come back last time. He stood up and walked around the room, and then said to Han Yu: "I'm tired, I want to sleep, let him wait first." ”

"Yes." Han Yu responded, Zhao and Ju were obviously very concerned about the success of the trip of the Sanyuan ship, but now they want to go back to the house, Han Yu really doesn't understand why this is so.

"As for how to settle the people on the ship, it's up to you to decide." Zhao Youju looked at Han Yu and smiled: "Ayu, if you are careful, you will definitely be able to do it well." ”

In fact, as for how to settle the people transported this time, Zhao and Ju had already made arrangements, and Han Yu only had to supervise everyone according to the instructions. But hearing Zhao Heju say this, her face was still red, she was shy and weak, and she was the most loyal to Zhao and Ju, on the one hand, she was shy, and on the other hand, she was afraid of disappointing Zhao and Ju, and after a while, she answered.

After serving Zhao and Ju to sleep, Han Yu immediately rushed to the dock, and after more than half an hour, the Sanyuan boat docked. Six sea ships came at the same time, and although after expansion, the wharf of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was much larger, but it was also crowded.

Li Rui wiped his eyes, refused a craftsman to help him, and stepped up the steps from the ship's gunwale. Because he had been on the sea boat for a few days, when he first stepped on land, he felt a little uncomfortable, and he shook for a while before he stepped steadily.

Libre was sprinkled with lime everywhere under his feet, and Li Rui was stunned, looked forward, and found that the lime stretched into a road, leading to the fenced stockade in the middle of the island.

"That's strange, what does it mean to sprinkle lime?"

Li Rui was a ten-year-old boy after all, put aside his thoughts about his uncle, and began to look at the island.

The island is not very large, with a few low mountains and quite a few trees. Everywhere he looked, there were houses, mostly of masonry, only a few of them were wooden. What surprised him was that so many of them went to the island, but there were almost no onlookers around, even if two people came to this side sporadically, they were always driven away.

"Please come with me." A sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy beckoned to him, dressed in a royal blue bodysuit, without a tie in his head, and looked extremely energetic. Li Rui followed him as he said, and the young man led them to a clearing, which was also sprinkled with lime.

Li Rui noticed that a few people who looked like servants came over and called all the women out of them. There were very few women in the six boats, only one in eight, so soon all the women in the group left.

"Sister Yu, there are already fifty people in this team." The boy counted the number and immediately shouted to a seventeen or eighteen-year-old woman standing on the edge of the empty field.

"Lu Youping, take them away!" The woman blushed and shouted.

The young man known as Lu Youping beckoned to everyone again: "Come with me, come with me, you need to pause, you have to talk to your relatives and friends, and there will be a time later!" ”

Li Rui looked at the back, and the people who got off the boat gathered in this field, although the field was large, it was also crowded with people. The people followed Lu Youping into a fenced road, which was so narrow that it could only accommodate one person, so they unconsciously lined up in a queue. Li Rui was the first in this queue, and the two craftsmen behind him kept chattering about something, he didn't really hear it, and he couldn't find acquaintances in his sight, which made him even more panicked.

At this moment, he saw that the housekeeper Zhao who his uncle asked him to be careful ran to Sister Yu, and seemed to say something to Sister Yu, because of the noisy voice, he could vaguely hear the sentence "Where is Da Lang". The sister Yu responded with "asleep", and then the person behind her pushed him, and he had to step forward and walk through the corridor separated by the wooden fence.

At the end of the corridor, there is a one-acre square courtyard surrounded by a wall, and there are rows of brick and stone houses at one end of the courtyard, which looks very clumsy, and there are six rooms in total. There was also a room at the other end, which was uglier than the six. When they entered the courtyard, Lu Youping picked a paper bucket roll from behind and shouted: "Everyone, from today onwards, you will stay here, adults will help take care of the children, food and drink will be brought by someone, go to the toilet here, be careful not to pull in the yard!" ”

Everyone laughed, Li Rui followed what he pointed at, and sure enough, the single stone house turned out to be a thatched toilet.

"Using stones to build latrines, the people on this island are also very rich." Someone whispered behind Li Rui.

"Why is it like this, did you see those Diao Dou when you went ashore, I watched people who looked like officials and soldiers patrolling Diao Dou, and they had bows in their hands!"

"What is it to have a bow, when I came, I was at sea, I also saw the sailors of the Great Song Dynasty Forbidden Army, and when I saw that these ships did not stop and check, I let them go directly."

"Haven't you heard that the island owner is a very powerful person in the Great Song Dynasty......"

These whispers came into Li Rui's ears, Li Rui gritted his teeth and snorted, Li Quan never hid his dissatisfaction with Yang Miaozhen's decision in front of him, and called the Zhao family the "rich man", Li Rui admired this uncle the most, so he also believed that the owner of this hanging island was the "rich man".

The rich man of the land has won the trust of the four ladies, otherwise, the four ladies have become their own aunts, how good it would be!

Thinking of this, Li Rui was also dissatisfied with that Lu Youping. He worked for the owner of Tucai Island, and he was not a good person.

Because he was Li Quan's nephew, most of the forty-nine people who were with him knew him and were very respectful to him. Soon Lu Youping discovered this, and paid him more attention, but Li Rui always felt that this was an ulterior motive.

After everyone settled down, Lu Youping divided everyone into six groups, and each group of eight to nine people shared a room. Li Rui was placed in the first group and lived in the innermost room.

"There are a thousand or hundreds of people, and if there are fifty people living in each courtyard like this, there must be thirty courtyards!" After entering the house and putting down the luggage, someone began to mutter, "This island owner is really a rich man!" ”

"In such a yard, there is not much money, how can you see that you are a rich man, I think you are just a rich man." Li Rui was impatient when he heard this, and he didn't care that Lu Youping was by his side, and shouted roughly.

Lu Youping glanced at him, his mouth twitched, but as if he remembered something, he swallowed back what he was about to say. He paused, and took out a pencil and paper from himself: "Tell me your names, and I will write them down so that I can receive food and clothing for you." ”

"Little brother is literate?" I thought that the people who came to entertain everyone were just domestic servants and villagers, but I didn't expect this young man to be literate, and when he saw that he was kind, someone came up and asked.

"There is no one in my family who can't read and count, the master is benevolent and righteous, let us learn to read and count, but not the vulgar country rich man." Lu Youping smiled and said, it was a riposte to Li Rui.

When everyone first came here, they were not considered Li Quan's cronies, so naturally they would not offend Lu Youping for Li Rui, they reported their names one after another, and Lu Youping asked very carefully, even asking their ages and what kind of craftsman work they would do one by one. When it was Li Rui's turn, Li Rui just said "Li Rui" coldly and stopped talking, or others helped him make it clear which word "Rui" it was.

Lu Youping ignored him, smiled and went to another room, and after a while, he wrote down all the names of the fifty people.

Before he left the courtyard, he confessed: "The rules on the island are very strict, you must have known it first when you came, if there is no one to lead, you should rest in the room, and don't run around." ”

The rest of the people were honestly lying down and resting, and they had been tossing and turning on the ship these days, and where they had slept soundly, so that some even snored. Li Rui was more unhappy the more he thought about it, when he was in the righteous army, everyone respected his uncle as Li Tiegun, and even valued him very much, how could he ever encounter a soft nail like Lu Youping, and the people in the same room all came up to praise that Lu Youping, and threw him aside, which made him feel very apprehensive.

"The more I don't let me go out to see, the more I want to go out to see, I follow my uncle to learn a good fist and kick, do you still fear you?"

He was young and bold, so he got up, and the people in the room called out twice, but they did not stop him, and he went on the basis that more was better than less.

Note 1: According to the fifth volume of the "Baoqing Four Ming Zhi" and the "Narrative Fu", the glutinous rice in the third year of Baoqing is nine hundred and ninety wen per stone, and the qumai is three and six hundred wen per stone. At this time, according to the Baoqing period, there were still seven years, and there was no southern invasion by Jin Xuanzong, so the price of grain should be slightly cheaper. Even if calculated according to the price of grain in Baoqing for three years, 80,000 guan is enough to buy 20,000 stone grain. In addition, in the Song Dynasty, 1 stone was 92.5 Song jin, which is about 59.2 kilograms today.