After Zhang Yingniang arrived in Dengzhou, she was first arranged in an inn. She stood in the doorway, looking curiously left and right, and could tell that most of the people in the inn were sailors. was wondering whether to go out and take a turn, when suddenly a happy shout sounded from her right: "Sister Yingniang? ”

She turned her head to the right and saw a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy looking at her with wide eyes, and saw her turn her face and jump up excitedly: "Sister Yingniang, it's really you!" ”

Zhang Yingniang also recognized that this young man was a member of the rebel army, and happily greeted him: "Ah, it's a harrier!" Why are you here? ”

The boy named Harrier said, "Sister Yingniang, I am a sailor on the ship." I'm waiting to sail to Tamna. Are you going to Tamna too? Do you want to stay in Tamna in the future? We miss you so much. ”

Zhang Yingniang said: "How old are you to be a sailor?" In this wind and waves, how can Aunt Wu be reluctant? ”

The harrier said, "You have to go in and out of Tamna by boat." I'm so old, so naturally I have to learn how to operate a boat. Brother Luo said that in the future, the good men on the island will learn to operate boats and learn to sail. ”

"Oh, that's right." Zhang Yingniang suddenly remembered that Li Buqi had told her more than once not to look at the lives of people at sea from the eyes of mainlanders, each with its own way of living.

Harrier happily pulled Zhang Yingniang and said, "Sister Yingniang come with me, there are several people in the back yard." ”

On the morning of the third day, the wind was in the right direction, and before dawn everyone was told to get up and board the boat. Zhang Yingniang and the others got up early and followed the steward of the trading house to the dock, and the harrier was already waiting there, and shouted as soon as they met: "Sister Yingniang, follow me on the boat, and I will clean up the warehouse for you." ”

Zhang Yingniang and the others took a boat for the first time, and everything was fresh. The harrier followed by him and introduced them: "Sister Yingniang, you see that there are seven ships going to sea at once this time." Two ships were to send people to Tamna, and the other five ships were to trade with Liaodong and Japan. To go to Liaodong, you are walking around the Goryeo Sea, but it is difficult to have a place to stop, and you must go back and forth for a year, so it is really difficult to catch the trade winds. This year, I changed to Japan, went to Oshima in the north of Japan, and from there all the way to Kuno, all the way to Liaodong, and then returned to Oshima for the winter after completing the trade, and then came back when the trade winds were suitable, so as to avoid Goryeo. ”

Zhang Yingniang saw that a smaller boat was being towed behind a boat pointed by Harrier, so she asked, "Why is that boat dragging away?" ”

"Ah, that little boat is for mackerel. Last year, Mr. Zhou caught a small mackerel from near Kuye Island, and boiled out a lot of oil, and it was best to light the lamp. So this year, we will build a shark fishing boat and recruit people to catch sharks. It can also be used to catch seals. ”

The cargo had already been loaded onto the ship, and when the crew had been loaded with supplies, the ship pulled anchor and set sail, and the six large ships sailed out of the harbor in columns, and after a short walk, they again dropped anchor not far from the sea. Then he saw many small boats rowing out of the seashore to lean on the side of the big boat, and the big boat immediately threw down its rope nets, lowered its cages, and pulled the men, women, and children of the small boat onto the boat.

Zhang Yingniang asked, "What is this for?" ”

Harrier said: "They are all suffering people, they can't afford to live here, and they want to go overseas to live." Population was the performance of the magistrates, and they naturally did not allow the outflow of people, so in order to avoid trouble, they could not let these people on board at the docks, so they had to board the ships in this place. ”

He stretched out three fingers and said, "I heard that 300 people will be transported this time." The head of the program said that he would not be able to hide it if he was so blatantly transporting people abroad, and he would have to change to Mizhou in the future. The bay in Mizhou is big, and the government can't take care of it. ”

There were more than 300 women, old and young, but the strong ones accounted for the majority, and the sailors on board were well-trained, and worked closely with the operation of the pulley crane to lift the old and weak onto the ship, and it took less than an hour for all of them to get on board. The ship lifted anchor again and headed north, turning south from the vicinity of several islands. Soon a boat came out from behind the island to catch up with the flotilla. Seven seagoing vessels dragged a whaling ship to Tamna.

When we arrived at Tamna, it was already three days later. Because there is no good port in Tamna, it is difficult for large ships to dock, so it is still necessary to use small boats to connect them. Zhang Yingniang was given preferential treatment, and was hoisted to a small boat with a cage and went ashore on a small boat. And the harrier had already gone ashore in a small boat to report the news. So when Zhang Yingniang, who was shaken by the waves, was helped ashore, she was greeted by a large group of people led by Luo Tong and Shi Feng.

After complaining about parting thoughts, Zhang Yingniang was most concerned about the righteous army, how the old people lived. In order to reassure her, after Zhang Yingniang rested for two days, Luo Tong and Shi Feng prepared a few horses and took Zhang Yingniang to enjoy the scenery on the island.

Zhang Yingniang couldn't help frowning when she saw the horses. Is this also called a horse? I'm afraid it's smaller than the donkeys in the Central Plains. But Luo Tong said that the local horses are so big that the Khitan horses transported by ship are reluctant to ride them, and they want to be used for breeding.

Luo Tong took Zhang Yingniang to visit their newly cultivated fields, the water canals they were building, and the neatly planned villages and towns. He told Zhang Yingniang that although food is tight now, the good thing is that fish and shrimp are abundant. In the past, the Tamna people used small boats not much bigger than bathtubs to catch some small fish and shrimp on the seaside, and they couldn't eat with a golden rice bowl, but now the Han people row big boats to fish a little farther away, and they return with a full load every time. Now the people on the island eat fish and pick up big ones, and small fish and shrimp are not eye-catching, and they throw them into the compost heap to accumulate fertilizer. Therefore, the Han people still have surplus fish, shrimp, spices and cloth, and hire locals to dig canals.

It is precisely because of the sufficient supply of fertilizer and sufficient irrigation that the yield per mu of the Han people's fields on the island is higher than that of the Central Plains. The natives of Tamna learned advanced farming methods from the Han Chinese, digging ditches for irrigation, and obtaining high-quality agricultural tools, which greatly increased grain production. So in fact, the island is now close to self-sufficiency in food, and the pressure mainly comes from the new immigration every year. However, as the number of Han Chinese on the island grows, more and more land is cultivated, and the ability to accept immigrants will become stronger and stronger.

Zhang Yingniang also saw a large flock of chickens and ducks patrolling near the wharf, waiting for the fishing boats to come back and throw small fish and shrimp to them, cattle and sheep grazing leisurely on the grass, pigs humming and arching in search of food, and Khitan horses chasing and neighing in the mountains. In the Central Plains, this is a rare and rich scene.

However, few Han Chinese on the island are leisurely, and the laborers either work in the fields, repair ditches, or bring fish and shrimp from the sea every day to process them into dried fish, and some leisure also has to carry out military training. The old people take their children and herd their livestock. Every night in the council hall in the center of the town, Big Brother Luo and Big Brother Shi would sit there like county officials and assign tasks, something that had only existed in the imagination before.

The little ones are not idle. In addition to helping adults do what they can, they also have to go to school. Full-time! Learning literacy and arithmetic in the morning, practicing martial arts and shooting in the afternoon, Luo Tong said that when the weather is warm, the children still need to learn to swim and sail, which are all requirements put forward by Li Buqi. Zhang Yingniang looked at the textbooks used by the children, and it was actually the same as that used by Li Jiayi in Bianliang. It seems that Li Buqi is really attentive.

What made Zhang Yingniang feel that Li Buqi was on Tamluo Island with some new saplings planted on the mountain. In addition to common fruit trees such as peaches and pears, there is also a kind that Zhang Yingniang has not seen, Luo Tong said that this is a citrus grown in the south, and Li Buqi specially asked people to transport the seedlings to Dengzhou and then transported them.

Judging from Zhang Yingniang's simple thoughts, although the life on Tamna Island is still a little hard, there is no looting by the government and no oppression by the powerful, and it can be regarded as a paradise life. And Zhang Yingniang has been by Li Buqi's side for so long, so she naturally knows that the happy life on the island actually comes from Li Buqi's careful planning. At this moment, I have a deeper understanding of Li Buqi. When Luo Tong and Shi Feng asked her what to do about the marriage, she just hinted that they didn't have to worry about it, and said that she would go back to Bianliang if she stayed for a few more days.

When the boat returned, Zhang Yingniang embarked on the voyage with a heart full of longing. This trip to Tamna Island opened her eyes to a prospect that she had never imagined before, and she wanted to return to Bianliang to see if that different man could realize his dream.