Zhu Hongsan had nothing to do in the next few days, he had arranged all the major events, and he didn't care about the rest of the details, it was a matter for bureaucrats at all levels.

So in the past few days, Zhu Hongsan has been playing very crazy with the ladies in the house.

The first day of October is the day when the first batch of departures departed, and today Zhu Hongsan will go to the dock to see him off. The first batch to leave were Tong Yangjia and Ma Jiyuan.

Tong is the most numerous, after all, he is going to open a mine, so he brought more than 1,000 craftsmen of all kinds. Ma Jiyuan only went to Leizhou Mansion to plant sugarcane, so he brought less than 100 people, just some technicians.

As for the other personnel, Feng Ziyong and Xu Dali will have to wait for a few days, and there are too many things here in Dongguan, and it will take a few days to hand over. Peng said that they had to wait half a month before they could set off, because there were not enough boats.

After Li Zhi returned, he sent twenty large sea ships, and the other sea ships were in other water villages, and it would take some time to transfer them. So today there are only twenty boats and more than 2,000 people.

The troops sent to Qiongzhou Mansion were led by Zhou Yu, and they had to be divided into two batches before they could all be transported to Qiongzhou.

Qiongzhou is more than 1,000 miles away from the mouth of the Pearl River, and it is not a good thing to travel by boat in this era. Tong Yangjia: They had to drift at sea for about seven days in total.

Zhu Hongsan came to the Dongguan wharf early in the morning, and now there are ten trestle bridges built at the wharf in the development zone. There were three ships patrolling the sea this morning.

The wharf was full of people, and all kinds of people were endless.

Zhu Hongsan came to the dock, Tong Yangjia and Ma Jiyuan stood on the dock early and waited. Seeing Zhu Hongsan coming, the two stepped forward to salute: "Lord." ”

Zhu Hongsan stretched out his hand to pick up the two of them and said, "I've been going thousands of miles, and I've worked hard for the two gentlemen." ”

Ma Jiyuan said: "After Ji Yuan left, I hope that the lord will be strict with himself and not indulge himself. ”

Zhu Hongsan laughed dryly twice and said, "Mr. Ma, don't worry, this king will definitely be a virtuous king." ”

Tong Yangjia said: "Lord, please rest assured, Tong will definitely bring back the first batch of iron ore within two months." ”

Zhu Hongsan said: "The two gentlemen don't be soft when they go to the local area, it's best for the local natives to be obedient, don't let go of your hands, everything is up to the king." ”

Tong Yangjia said to Ma Mingyuan on the side: "I hope that Ma Changshi will do a good job in logistics support, and when the iron mine opens, he must trouble Mr. Ma Er." ”

Ma Mingyuan arched his hand and said: "Mr. Tong, rest assured, iron ore is the source of all industries, and Mingyuan still knows the severity." Dongguan must make every effort to supply Qiongzhou. ”

Tong Yangjia nodded, what he was most afraid of was that Ma Lao Er would embarrass himself by pretending to be a public servant, and now he would say it in front of the King of Chu, and he would be a certificate in the future.

Zhu Hongsan knew the filthiness of these strategists under him, so he didn't break it. said: "When the time comes, the two gentlemen get on the boat, and take care of the two of them." ”

Ma Tong and the others did not speak, and got on the boat and set off after arching their hands.

The first group of ships to depart was lightly loaded, and the heavy machinery could not be loaded until the second group of ships returned.

Watching the twenty sea ships set off in turn, Zhu Hongsan said to Ma Mingyuan beside him: "Sir, do you think they can go well?" ”

Ma Mingyuan smiled and said, "The lord is too worried, both of them are officially appointed officials by the imperial court, and my eldest brother has been a magistrate for more than ten years and has rich experience. Mr. Tong is full of wit, and there are elite soldiers around him to protect him, there should be no problem, just wait for the good news. ”

I hope so, Zhu Hongsan watched the fleet disappear, and then returned to Zhujiazhuang with Ma Mingyuan. In the following month, Zhu Hongsan sent away several waves of people, and the last ones to leave were Fu Wenlong and Peng Ershu, who had the largest number of people.

Fu Wenlong saw that Zhu Hongsan didn't say hello at all, and snorted with his nose to say hello. Peng Ershu didn't dare to treat the king of Chu like this, and saw the king of Chu step forward and hurriedly bowed.

Zhu Hongsan didn't take it to heart, he found out that the literati of the Ming Dynasty were all cheap bones. The more they were scolded by the emperor, the happier they became, and hitting them on the board was exactly what they wanted.

Zhu Hongsan called Ma Shaoguang and said, "Boyu, do you know that everything you have to do when you go to Shangsizhou is Mr. Fu?" If Mr. Fu is a little unhappy, you can come back. ”

Ma Shaoguang hurriedly promised to listen to Fu Wenlong's words when he went.

Fu Wenlong's face softened a little when he heard Zhu Hongsan say this. said to Zhu Hongsan: "King Chu, the old man will help you for three years, and don't forget your promise after three years." ”

Zhu Hongsan said with a smile: "Mr. Fu, rest assured, this king will definitely return Mr. to freedom after three years." If the gentleman does not leave, the political envoy of a province can also be discussed. ”

On the side, Peng Ershu raised his eyebrows when he heard it, and he would give a political envoy in three years, this King of Chu really dared to say big things. However, he didn't dare to compare with Fu Wenlong, no matter what his identity, official position, and status were stronger, he Peng said several times.

Zhu Hongsan turned his head and said to Peng Ershu: "Master Peng also has to work hard, and what he said to the adults is also useful to Master Peng." ”

Of course, Peng Ershu didn't dare to pretend to be like Fu Wenlong, and hurriedly said modestly: "Doing things for the King of Chu is the glory of the lower officials. ”

This sentence made Fu Wenlong very disgusted with Peng Ershu.

After Zhu Hongsan said goodbye to the last group of personnel, everyone got on the ship and set off. But now all the expatriates have left. The factories outside Zhujiazhuang and Zhuangzi suddenly lost half of the people, and they felt a lot cleaner.

Zhu Hongsan came back and said to Ma Mingyuan: "Mr. Ma, the next step is to continue to recruit displaced people, because many workers in the factory have gone to Qiongzhou and Leizhou Lianzhou, several workshops have been suspended. ”

Ma Mingyuan nodded and said, "The weather is extremely cold this year, and it snowed yesterday. It seems that the displaced people from the north are going south in large numbers. Fortunately, the lord allowed the large-scale cultivation of sweet potatoes and corn, otherwise I don't know how many people would die this winter. ”

Zhu Hongsan said: "While giving food to the homeless, we must let them work, and Mr. Ma should make a charter and make a cash-for-work scheme." We don't support idlers, and it's better for the homeless to have work to do than to make trouble when they are full. Now that Xu Dali has arrived in Zhaoqing, Mr. Ma has taken a look at all the displaced people who are not suitable to be workers and go to Zhaoqing to farm. ”

Ma Mingyuan said: "This is not enough, a few days ago, Second Brother Feng sent a letter, there are more than 200,000 displaced people outside Guangzhou. Let's find a way to solve it, what about these? Please make a public announcement. ”

Zhu Hongsan thought for a while and said, "It's really not possible to hire a ship to send them all to Qiongzhou to open mines." Tong Yangjia has been in Qiongzhou for a month, and the situation should be opened, and they should also be short of people. ”

Ma Mingyuan thought for a while and said, "This is also a way. ”

Zhu Hongsan continued: "There are less than 20,000 people in the barracks now, and 10,000 people from three regiments have been sent to various prefectures. Mr. Ma looked at the 20,000 people who were being selected among the displaced people and sent to the barracks. ”

So there will be 50,000 new troops, which should be about the same.

Because of the cold in the north this year, coupled with Zuo Liangyu's disaster in Huguang, a large number of displaced people went south. At present, there are 1 million displaced people gathered in the counties of Guangzhou Prefecture, and together with other provinces in Guangdong, there are almost 5 million displaced people in Guangdong.

Feng Zhitai, the governor of Liangguang and the governor of Guangdong, has already sent down the border defense, and all the displaced people from various prefectures have gathered in Zhaoqing. For a time after the order was issued, the official road was full of people who went south to Zhaoqing.

Ma Mingyuan's silver was spent like flowing water. Fortunately, there was a lot of potatoes harvested this year, and although this thing is not delicious, it is really hungry. Thanks to the relief of potatoes, there was no large-scale starvation death in Guangdong.

So now Zhu Hongsan has enough manpower, but the raw materials are not enough. Under Feng Ruoshu's order, the pig iron of all Guangdong was concentrated in Dongguan. The former iron-making bases in Guangdong, Shunde and Foshan, were all seized, and the craftsmen were escorted to Dongguan by the black-hearted Feng Ruoshu to continue to work for Zhu Hongsan, the new owner.

In this way, Zhu Hongsan's factory had to shut down for ten days a month, just because there were not enough raw materials. Zhu Hongsan has already sent two letters to Tong Yangjia and Fu Wenlong.

Fu Wenlong said that he could deal with it without coal and charcoal. But you can't do anything without iron ore. Zhu Hongsan knew that the road to Nanzhili was still quite smooth, and now it was almost December, and the Hongguang small court would be finished in May next year. If you wait until that time when the north-south traffic is cut off, and there is no iron ore at all, then it will be useless to jump into the sea.

Now there are nearly 200,000 people who follow Zhu Hongsan to eat, and Zhu Hongsan can't afford to die. There was no way, Zhu Hongsan gritted his teeth and said: "Mr. will send a letter to Tong Yangjia again and ask him why there is no news about the iron mine." ”

Ma Mingyuan was also anxious, but there was no way, hearing Zhu Hongsan say this, he hurried down to write a letter.