Su Ziheng was betting with Zhao Chengming on this side, and on the other hand, a few stewards brought by Zhong Qinghan had already counted several other things in the county office, except for some grain and dried seafood, the things in the warehouse could starve the rats to death, and there was nothing to count.

Su Ziheng didn't care about this, he didn't think about relying on the things left by the imperial court to develop and build Donghai County, what he could really rely on was the base space.

If you want to build a building on more than fifty acres of land, the first thing you need is money and people. Su Ziheng plans to get something out of the base space to sell, first change a start-up capital, and then find a profitable commodity for Donghai County, so that Donghai County can have its own funds to enter the project and reach the point of self-sufficiency.

Su Ziheng told Zhong Qinghan his thoughts, and Zhong Qinghan called the old housekeeper Zhong Heyu and asked, "Grandpa Heyu, how many silver taels are there in the house?" ”

Zhong Heyu took out a pamphlet from his bosom, which recorded all the things brought out from Zhongfu, as well as the expenses along the way, nearly 5,000 people could only go in and out, and people spent a lot of money eating and chewing.

"If you go back to the eldest lady, there are still 230,000 taels of silver left in the house, and if there is no new income, it is estimated that it will not last long."

Zhong Qinghan nodded and said to him: "Grandpa Heyu, I know, don't worry, I will find a way to let the mansion start to increase income as soon as possible, and I won't sit on the mountain like this." In addition to keeping some of these silver taels, I will invest the rest in the construction of Donghai County. ”

Now Emperor Xia has given all of Donghai County to Zhong Qinghan as a fief, theoretically all the income in the fiefdom belongs to Zhong Qinghan personally, so there is nothing wrong with her investing the money of Zhongfu in the construction of Donghai County.

Zhong Qinghan asked Zhao Chengming and said, "Lord Zhao, dare to ask what specialties Donghai County has?" Marine fish don't count. ”

Zhao Chengming smiled bitterly: "At present, all the people in Donghai County rely on going to sea to fish for a living, and this place is not very special, if it is not so, it will not be dilapidated." ”

Su Ziheng asked suspiciously: "Uncle, my little nephew has heard that the pearls produced in the East China Sea are called [Dongzhu], which is the best grade among pearls and is listed as a royal tribute. Donghai County is also on the coast of the East China Sea, why haven't you heard that there is news of mining Dongzhu? ”

Zhao Chengming's eyes showed a look of reminiscence, "When the old man was in the Ministry of Industry, he had seen the Empress Dowager's crown decorated with Dongzhu. It is large, full, round and shiny, and can exude a multicolored luster, which is indeed a rare treasure. Just ......"

He paused and continued: "Dongzhu is difficult to mine, and it can only be mined below thirty zhang in the deep sea of the East China Sea. The beads in other places are not very qualified, and every year because of the mining of East Pearl, I don't know how many pearl divers give their lives. Since the death of the last pearl diver ten years ago, it has been several years since a pearl diver was born in Tokai Prefecture. ”

As long as an East Pearl is mined, it can ensure that the pearl diver's family has no worries about food and clothing for a year, and no one is engaged in such a high-return thing now, which shows how difficult and dangerous it is.

Su Ziheng shook his head helplessly and said: "In this way, it is not reliable to obtain start-up capital by mining Dongzhu?" Forget it, it's better to wait for it to stabilize and study pearl farming technology, anyway, this is not something that can be done in a while. ”

"Pearl farming?" Everyone was shocked, "Can pearls still be farmed?" ”

Su Ziheng said with a smile: "Of course it can be farmed, just like fish and shrimp, just establish a farm, but this is a long-term plan, and you can't count on it in the short term." ”

Zhao Chengming was overjoyed and said: "If you can really cultivate pearls, the rise of Donghai County is just around the corner." ”

Everyone nodded their heads, pearls are precious treasures, not only in Great Xia, but also in the entire Eastern Continent, they are also extremely popular treasures. As long as it can be mined, there is no need to worry about no market.

Soon, the housekeeper of the Zhong Mansion and the servants of the Zhao family came to report that the transaction was over, and now Donghai County was officially handed over to Zhong Qinghan from the imperial court. In the future, everything will be handed over to Zhong Qinghan herself, as long as she does not know that she will be independent from Great Xia, basically the imperial court will no longer interfere in anything in Donghai County.

……

……

Sixty nautical miles away from Donghai County, there is a huge island with an area of more than 8,000 square kilometers - Zhenbao Island, on which there is a Xuelong Mountain as high as more than 1,300 zhang, and at the foot of the mountain there is a simple castle built of huge stones, which is inhabited by the largest pirates in the East China Sea.

The coastal provinces and counties of the East China Sea are not unaware of the real hiding islands of the pirates, but because Zhenbao Island is too huge to accurately find the location of the pirates' lair, it has led to several unsuccessful encirclements and suppressions by sailors, and over time, no one is willing to go on another expedition.

Although Zhenbao Island is very large, the natural environment is very harsh, affected by typhoons, tsunamis, torrential rains, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, etc., which is not suitable for human immigrants to live, but has become a place for pirates to hide dirt and dirt.

On an island, there are more than a dozen bands of pirates entrenched on it at the same time, and it has become a veritable pirate home. Because the area of Treasure Island is too large, the pirates occupy a territory, and they rarely have contact with each other except for trade exchanges, and even the location of the nest will not be easily revealed, the most important thing is that the situation of black eating black is too common.

The Xuelongshan Pirate Regiment is a pirate team with the Japanese as the main body, and more than 30% of the leaders in the middle of the period are Japanese people, and the other 70% are the common people and prisoners of the Great Xia, the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Southern Zhou Dynasty.

In the Juyi Hall inside the stone castle, a Japanese leader who wields an Oriental katana and is dressed as a ronin is gently wiping his beloved katana with a rag dipped in oil.

From time to time, he looked up at the middle-aged man standing below him, bent over his waist, and asked lightly, "Wu Jiu, are you sure the news is true?" You must know that if there are so many people as you said, it is not for our family to eat, so we must contact several other families to go out together. If the looted goods are not enough to distribute, we have to take things from our own warehouse to make up for them. ”

Wu Jiu nodded hurriedly and said: "My lord, please rest assured, the small ones can see it clearly, they have a total of hundreds of carriages and donkey carts, and there are countless items on the carts, not only food, but also all kinds of treasures and playthings. Even if we join forces with several other leaders to send troops together, we can still take the lion's share and make sure we don't lose money. ”

"And I heard that the leader is a princess of Great Xia, who is not only young and beautiful, but also rich and rivals the country. I heard that she is doing the work of handing over with the magistrate of Donghai County, but once the handover is over, Donghai County will be decided by the princess, and Emperor Xia will no longer manage Donghai County. If we can say that the princess is in control, won't we have the final say in Donghai County in the future, it is better than living on Zhenbao Island all the time. ”

Wu Jiuhua said with clever words: "If you really want to take Donghai County, presumably the eldest lady will be very satisfied!" ”

Wei Ge Chengerlang nodded thoughtfully and said: "What you said is right, you go back and inquire about the news, and I will contact several other masters to discuss the matter of sending troops together." ”