Li Zhi's fleet carried the surrendered twelve Fu ships, laden with goods, through the East China Sea and into the port of Hsinchu. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Zheng Hui was very happy to see Li Zhi's fleet coming, and led all the officials of Hsinchu to the dock to meet Li Zhi. Li Zhi reported to Zheng Hui in the good news of the Jinzhou War. Zheng Hui is now the commander of the three products, serving as a "sea general", wearing a red official robe. There are also many people under him who also have official status, and a large number of Wei commanders, Qianhu, etc., are all wearing official robes, red or blue, and they look like they are all together.

Zheng Zhilong's merchant ship was loaded with brass, tatami and other Japanese specialties, and it took several days to unload all of them, and the abundance of the spoils opened the eyes of Zheng Hui and the people of Hsinchu. But what surprised Zheng Hui the most was, of course, the ten ironclad ships.

Zheng Hui has seen the steamer without paddle wheels, and Li Zhi has also transformed five pointed ships into propeller types in the past few months, and these merchant ships have made several trips to Hsinchu, so the officials in Hsinchu have seen propeller ships. But Zheng Hui has seen the ironclad battleship outside the hull, which is the first time Zheng Hui has seen it.

The ironclad ship painted with gray tree paint was loaded with thirty-two heavy guns, and it looked like a bunker on the sea, exuding a murderous aura, which made Zheng Hui's heart surge. In this era, a five-hundred-ton ironclad ship is already considered a giant ship. With such a steel giant, it is not a problem to defeat Zheng Zhilong.

In the past few months, Zheng Zhilong's detectives in Hsinchu have become more and more intensive day by day, and it is obvious that it will not be long before he will do something to Hsinchu. Zheng Zhilong claimed to have 100,000 sailors, which made Zheng Hui very worried. Hsinchu is Li Zhi's brainchild, but also Zheng Hui's brainchild. Zheng Hui has been engaged in construction in Hsinchu all these years, and it is not easy to build Hsinchu, how can he be willing to hand over Hsinchu to Zheng Zhilong?

Now that Grandpa Guo's army is here, he is not afraid of Zheng Zhilong.

As soon as Li Zhi saw Zheng Hui, he asked, "Zheng Hui, is Zheng Zhilong in Beigang or in Jinjiang?" ”

Zheng Zhilong's lair is in Jinjiang, Fujian. In addition, Zheng Zhilong has a port in Taiwan called Beigang, and sometimes Zheng Zhilong will also go to Beigang.

Zheng Hui was stunned and said, "Guogong, Zheng Hui doesn't know. The subordinates are only busy raising the walls of Hsinchu City these days, but they haven't thought about detective Zheng Zhilong. ”

Li Zhi smiled, the secret path is long and short, Zheng Hui is not good at military espionage activities.

Zheng Hui arched his hand at Li Zhi and said, "It's better to go to Hsinchu to rest for a few days first, I built a Guogong Mansion in Hsinchu City." Although Hsinchu is in ruins and poorly built, it can also allow Guogong to rest for a while. ”

Li Zhi nodded, then mounted his horse and led his entourage to Hsinchu City.

Out of the harbor of Hsinchu Port is a fertile field. At this time, the early rice had already grown, and only green rice fields were seen on both sides of the official road along the way. The rice stalks sway from side to side with the spring wind, and from a distance, they look like waves, which is very beautiful. There are a lot of scarecrows on the ridges of the rice fields to drive birds, and rice farmers are working in the fields with their trouser legs in twos and threes, creating a pleasant and intoxicating pastoral scenery.

In the distance of the road, you can see farmhouse villages with smoke curling from time to time. Those villages were often built on higher ground, with cement brick houses and tall chimneys. Because Taiwan is vast and sparsely populated, the peasants' houses are built very large, with spacious yards, and there are often five or six houses in the yards.

From a distance, the courtyards of those peasants did not look like the houses of small peasants, but rather the houses of small landlords in Tianjin.

Li Zhi asked, "How many people are there in Hsinchu today?" ”

Zheng Hui replied: "There are now 150,000 landed peasants, and all of them have been divided into fields and houses. There are also 50,000 farmers who have just entered the island, arranged in the 'desert opening camp'. ”

Li Zhi nodded and continued to walk towards Hsinchu City. The official roads in Hsinchu are well repaired, smooth and solid. To Li Zhi's surprise, almost all the farmers on the road wore satin clothes, and it seemed that the farmers in Hsinchu had to wear satin clothes when they went out to look decent. From time to time, Li Zhi saw a carriage pulled by four horses, and there were more than a dozen people sitting behind the carriage, all of whom seemed to be going into the city.

Where did these carriages come from? Peasant's? Li Zhi was very curious. Zheng Kaicheng and the others had never seen such a carriage, and they were all full of suspicion. Halfway through, Li Zhi couldn't help but stop a carriage and asked.

Seeing that the official with many guards stopped the carriage, the people on the carriage knew that he had met a big official, and hurriedly got out of the car to answer.

Li Zhi casually picked a middle-aged man holding a dry tobacco stick and asked, "Man, whose carriage is this?" What are you doing in town? ”

The man put the cigarette stick into the cigarette pouch and replied, "If you go back to the official, this carriage is a traffic carriage between Dingwu Town and Hsinchu City, and it is operated by the Zhang family. Four times a day, ten copper plates can get on the bus and sit in the city. Now the people of Dingwu Town take this car when they enter the city. ”

It turned out to be a privately run public carriage with a toll of ten copper plates. Unexpectedly, the people of Hsinchu are already so rich, and they are willing to take a trip with ten copper plates. Ten copper plates are enough for a meal of white rice. If it were in Shandong, I am afraid that the peasants would not be willing to sit in this carriage with sticks.

When the man said this, he forgot about Li Zhi's second question and stood there with his hands down. Zheng Kaicheng said with a smile: "Man, what did Grandpa Guo ask you to do in the city?" ”

The other people around the man were startled when they heard the three words of Grandpa Guo, and immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed. The man didn't notice the meaning of these three words, and replied with a grin: "Official, I went into the city to buy goods for my daughter-in-law and sons, and I heard that the merchant fleet of the Duke of Jin Guogong has arrived on the shore, so I will go into the city to see if there are any fresh goods to buy, and by the way, I will watch the play." The big drama of "Jinzhou War" in Jade Pavilion has been performed for half a year, and I haven't seen it yet, so I must squeeze in to watch it this time. ”

Li Zhi asked curiously, "How much does it cost to watch a play?" ”

The man replied, "Twelve dollars for watching a play." But this is standing and watching, and there are only two hundred positions. If the standing ticket is sold out, you can only buy the tea seat in the front row, which costs 40 yuan per person. ”

The man thought for a while and said, "This time it's for forty dollars, and I want to see this big drama too, otherwise it's really a trip to the city for nothing?" ”

Li Zhi thought for a while and asked, "You spend money so lavishly, don't you need to raise children?" ”

The man smiled and said, "The official said that he was joking, what kind of money is this money?" I've had a son and a daughter in the past three years, haven't I been raised for nothing? I'm going to the city to buy a Trojan horse and a ball for my eldest son. Now my husband and wife share 40 acres of paddy fields owned by my grandfather, and their annual income is almost 100 taels of silver..."

As he spoke, the man suddenly remembered that Zheng Kaicheng had just said the word Grandpa Guo, reacted, and finally realized that the official in front of him was Grandpa Li Zhi, so he knelt on the ground with a frightened plop.

"Grandpa Guo is above, Xiaomin has seen Grandpa Guo."

The farmer didn't know whether he was excited or nervous, his voice changed when he knelt on the ground, and he shouted at the top of his voice: "Grandpa Guo is on top, and the small people can come to Hsinchu to live a good life thanks to Grandpa Guo." I think that in Baodi County, Tianjin, my daughter-in-law and I couldn't eat enough all year round, and the two of us only had a set of cotton jackets in winter, and we almost froze to death. At that time, I finally gave birth to a daughter, and I also died of hunger and illness..."