Lingnan, Zhenyang County, Guiyang County, Jingzhou, a brick and stone city that is enough for 100,000 people to live and settle down, rises from the ground, the wall is two zhang five zhang high, one zhang wide, the city head can be used for two war horses to gallop side by side, the corner tower, the arrow tower, the urn city and other facilities are complete, and there are also 500 bed crossbow "shooting" positions, and now it is equipped with 50 planes.

The original old city wall has been renovated and has become an inner city wall that is three feet high and slightly narrower than the outer wall, and has become the office, residence, and material warehouse of the government, and it is also the last refuge for the city residents under special circumstances.

A small county town, from a small county with only a few thousand people at the beginning, has become a city with both internal and external walls, each of which is stronger than the average big city.

Zhenyang is located in the south of the Lingnan Mountains, the Lingqu is in the territory, there is an official road to communicate between the north and the south, two years, the official road has been constantly widened and straightened, and it has become the widest and best road for Jiaozhou and Jingzhou in the north.

The waterway through the Ling Canal has been continuously dredged and widened, and the dhow can already be allowed to sail, let alone the less demanding flat-bottomed boats.

From there, a large number of dhow ships from the northern shipyards went south and merged into the South China Sea, increasing the water combat power of the South China Sea.

On the waterway from the great river to the South China Sea, fishing boats, cargo ships, passenger ships and other types of ships line up in a long line, and from time to time there is a fleet of southbound dhows.

The Mengchong Clipper under the banner of Cao Zi patrolled back and forth, maintaining public order at the same time, supervising and guiding civilian boats, and only on the shore could they stop boats, and the frequent number of ships coming and going had arrived, and if one stopped in the middle of the river, it would cause the phenomenon of blocking boats.

An ordinary passenger fishing boat docked at the Chi'erwan Port in Zhenyang, where dock porters can be heard from time to time, happily singing "Chi'erwan", a song written by Cao "sex" to pay tribute to Hu Chi'er.

A group of more than 10 people under the passenger fishing boat, from the point of view of dress, and the surrounding many caravans to this place is no different, a closer look, you will find that this group of people look exceptionally strong, any person, often stronger than the caravan guard leader next to it, so that some people can't help but want to look sideways.

A young gentleman with a sword in his waist dressed as a leader, listened to the song "Chi'er Bend" with an intoxicated face, shook his head and said: "Yes, although the tone is a little inaccurate, and the singing is like a military song, but the words are clear and the cheers are smooth, so it can be seen that the singing is very familiar." ”

Although the young man was dressed like a scholar, and his face and demeanor were similar, he was too "fat", and as soon as he finished speaking, the guard next to him, who had been putting his hand on the hilt of the sword, spoke:

"Lord...... Childe, why are these coolies so excited, and most of them are not locals when they hear the accent, I ...... Well, Cao Jun's soldiers won't work here, and they can't be busy cultivating wasteland, so they can't look down on these incomes at all, where do you say these outsiders come from? ”

Once you open your mouth like this, once you are heard by others, it is difficult not to "revea".

That's right, the young scholar is Cao 'sex', and the one who has been holding the hilt of the knife and is ready to fight at any time is Gong Du, and there are two extraordinary scribes next to him, namely Lai Gong, the county commander of Zhenyang, and Chen Yang, the county magistrate, who are themselves scholars, and they can be regarded as original travelers.

In addition, there are Shixie's two younger brothers, Shiyi and Shiwu, as well as his eldest son Shixiao and second son Shiyuan.

In order to avoid being conspicuous by too many scholars, Wang Kai, the master of Zhenyang, who was born in the side of the scholar clan, was dressed like a guard like a guard at this time, like Cao Feng, the only fake son who was traveling with him, and became a weak and small combination.

County Lieutenant Cai Yang, Jun Sima Lu Fan, and Menke Huang Zhong, these three masters are hidden in more than ten escort groups.

"Zhenyang has changed so much in the past two years! The big one makes me can't believe it's really at this time! Lai Gong said with a look of remembrance: "As Gong Zhuangshi said, these coolies are neither soldiers nor locals, and they all fled from the north on their own!" ”

"Oh! The north is thousands of miles away, and the mountains and rivers in the middle are high, how did they come by themselves? ”

Cao "sex" opened his mouth to ask, he left Zhenyang, and he went for two years, two years, and the war with the Zhan people was not stopped, for Zhenyang, which had invested a huge amount of money, he thought that it would become very prosperous, but he never thought that there would be such a degree, from this waterway, this Chi'er Bend Dock Fort, there are no less than tens of thousands of floating population.

When I returned to Zhenyang City in the army, I was just looking at the flowers, and the number of people I was greeted was beyond imagination.

"Childe, this is still the credit of Cao Huanglong."

Lai Gong glanced at Cao "sex" meaningfully, and then said:

Cao Huanglong invested a lot of money and manpower, combined with Jingzhou's in-laws Cai family, friends Liu, Jiang, Kou and other scholars, Haoqiang, and the cooperation of the government along the way, opened up a straight road to Wancheng in the north to Nanyang, to Zhenyang in the south, supplemented by a boat to cross the river.

At the same time, it has opened up a waterway from Nanyang Hanshui, crossing Jingbei, entering the Dajiang River, going to Jingnan Xiangjiang River, entering the Ling Canal, connecting the Zhujiang River in Jiaozhou, and directly reaching the South China Sea.

and the Haijiang waterway of Canghai-Donghai-Dajiang-Xiangjiang. ”

Speaking of this, Lai Gong didn't know what he remembered, he was a little reluctant to speak, his eyes looked at the northwest with some hollowness, and he said absentmindedly: "This Mr. Chen is more familiar, let Mr. Chen continue!" ”

The other party looked at him and had something on his mind, Cao "sex" glanced at him, and nodded at Chen Yang, there are some things that he wants you to know, he will say it himself, others don't want to say it, and there is no need to force it.

Chen Yang took over the topic: "As Mr. Lai said, with the opening of the three lines, the coastal people in the north who want to take the sea route only need to pay a fare ranging from 100 yuan to thousands if they want to go south on their own, and take a freight or luxury passenger sea boat, and in the autumn and winter when the north wind blows, it only takes one or two months to reach Zhenyang, which is still because of the delay in the river upstream."

The people who rushed to the inland waterways around the Hanshui River took the cheapest freight ship to Zhenyang, and it only cost 50 yuan.

Moreover, those who take these two waterways, if you don't have money, you can buy it with work, even if you are seasick and can't do the work, you can also hand it over to the government-run worker management office at Chi'er Bend Wharf, and the government will pay for it first, and then do a few days of road repair, bridge-building, cleaning and other work for the government.

And the most spectacular thing is that on the land road, a large number of people who fled from the north gathered to double the size of the road on both sides of the road, which was only enough for one car to walk, and many sections of the road were enough for three cars to run in parallel.

In addition, there are Cao Jun patrols along the way to maintain law and order, and there are Cao Jun's manors and dock forts on the side of the road to sell food and provide safe accommodation.

These places, food, clothing, housing and transportation, are all possible. It is extremely convenient to pay by work. ”