Qin Ergou returned to the headquarters of the Linqing garrison area, Hu Cheng was having dinner with a few people from the headquarters, he saw Qin Ergou, and said with a smile: "Old Qin, I'm waiting for you, come and eat......"

Now that the lunch of the garrison headquarters is also ordered from a restaurant in the city, Qin Ergou sat at the table and said with a solemn face: "I just learned that there are thousands of people begging for a living at the dock of Linqing City. But now that we've sealed the docks and cut off the Grand Canal, these people have lost their livelihood.

They are all ordinary people from all over the world who come to Cheongju to make a living, and they can only earn some meager silver every day. But now they have no livelihood. Originally, life was hard enough, and I had to feed a large family, if I boiled it for a few more days, I am afraid that there should be someone who could not open the pot. ”

Hu Cheng frowned and thought for a while, then sighed and said, "Alas...... We really have to take care of this matter, and we just use them as a breakthrough for us to return to Linqing City, and strive to change our image in the hearts of the people of Linqing City. ”

Qin Ergou smiled and said, "Lao Hu, you really want to go with me, then let the instructors take over this work." How to implement it, we will have a meeting to study it. ”

Not far from the south of Linqing City, the east bank of the canal is an endless shantytown, and the low-level people who came to Linqing Prefecture from Shandong, Henan, Beizhili and other places to make a living basically live here.

Qin Ergou led Wang Xiao and Hao Yun to this shantytown with a platoon of soldiers, who were the instructors of the field camp and the cavalry camp respectively.

They stood next to the shantytown, stunned by what they saw. Shacks were built in tatters on the banks of the canal, and the heavy rain of the previous few days had made it muddy everywhere. There was a smell of rotting earth all around, and it was disgusting.

Qin Ergou turned to a small official in Linqingzhou behind him and said, "Do the people here usually eat on the dock?" ”

A black and thin man trotted all the way to Qin Ergou's side, nodded and said: "Master Jun, this area is all from Shandong, and there is a place in the north of the city, where people from Henan and North Zhili live." These two groups of people are quite grouped, and they don't get along with each other on weekdays. On the dock, there are many bumps in order to fight for some life, and ten or eight of them have to die every year. ”

Qin Ergou nodded, of course he knew in his heart that people who went out to beg for a living, if they didn't hold a group, they would have to be bullied to death. So people from all over the world spontaneously came together, in order to fight for more work, it is normal to be brave and ruthless.

"Are there many foreign laborers who are begging for a living in Linqingzhou?"

The little official thought for a moment, then sighed and said, "There are three or five thousand people in Linqing Prefecture now, not counting their families, they are all refugees from all over the country. A few years ago, there were more than 100,000 people, most of them starved to death, and it was miserable at that time, the river was full of dead people during the day, and it was eaten up by other homeless people before night.

Later, they were picked up by a trading house, and it seemed that they went to the beach. Some families were reluctant to leave, so they stayed in Linqingzhou and ate on the dock every day. Most of them are porters, and they earn some hard-earned money with their strength. On weekdays, they do some rough work at the dock, and there is not much silver in their hands throughout the year, so they let their families be half full. ”

Qin Ergou then asked, "I heard that there are still a lot of coachmen and boatmen on the dock, where do those people live?" ”

"Master Jun, most of the coachmen are locals, or they are from several nearby counties. There are many boatmen, who come and go from the north to the south, and they usually spend a few nights in the shops of the big car shops next to the docks, or live on the boats. ”

After listening to the words of the little official, Qin Ergou turned his head and said to the two instructors behind him: "Lao Wang, you and Lao Hao are afraid that it will be a little harder in the future. The top priority is to find a way to change the state of affairs here and make them live a good life as soon as possible. This is also a breakthrough point in our local work in the Linqing garrison area. Efforts should be made to lay a good mass foundation for the working groups of the Nationalities Affairs Committee before they arrive. ”

Wang Xiao and Hao Yun listened to Qin Ergou's words, and they both nodded solemnly.

At present, there are only more than 1,000 people in the Linqing garrison area, and there are dozens of political work cadres in the three battalions, but they have to face so many low-level people, and the work pressure can be imagined.

Fortunately, the resources of the Linqing garrison area are quite abundant, and as long as the vast number of low-level people in Linqing Prefecture are won over, there is still a lot to be done. After all, the grassroots cadres of the company's people's committee will not be able to come for a while, and they still have enough time to complete this task.

Qin Ergou walked around the shantytowns along the canal, and the situation inside was even more desperate, the people living here were all dressed with vegetables on their faces, their eyes were blank, like walking corpses.

There was a rancid smell in my face, and the shacks made of wood, reed mats, and rags swayed when the wind blew, and even the least shelter from the wind and rain was very reluctant. The shanty towns were littered with tattered laundry, and ragged bear children were running like mud monkeys between the shacks.

Qin Ergou turned around and beckoned, calling the little official from Linqingzhou over.

"Go and put up notices all over this shantytown and try to let them know what we're here for. Remember, the attitude should be enthusiastic, no fox and tiger are not allowed, if you are found to be deceived and deceitful, Lao Tzu will kill you. ”

The little official in Linqingzhou listened to Qin Ergou's words and was so frightened that he almost knelt down. He trembled and said: "Master Jun, you just give a few more dares to the little ones, and the little ones don't dare to deceive the military master." ”

Qin Ergou waved his hand impatiently and sent him away. He also sent a few soldiers to follow him and help him put up notices in conspicuous places in the shantytowns.

The method of the Linqing garrison area is very simple, that is, to mobilize the low-level people who make a living on these docks, organize them, and then hire them to carry out various tasks in Linqing Prefecture City, such as cleaning the city, counting the grain and other materials in each grain depot, etc.

The garrison area also had to carry out infrastructure construction on a large scale, such as the construction of a number of public toilets and garbage dumping sites in the city, the repair of the granaries in the city, and the repair of roads around Cheongju. Anyway, it is to find a livelihood for these people who are suffering from the bottom, and do our best to change their living conditions.

Linqingzhou is the official warehouse of the Ming Dynasty, because it is located along the canal, it also brings a lot of business opportunities here, making Linqingzhou City the most prosperous commercial town in the north.

However, with the Far Eastern Company's entry into the Central Plains and the occupation of the area south of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty, the Cao Yun, which had lasted for more than a hundred years, became insignificant. Because the canal economy brought by Cao Yun will no longer exist, and the prosperous Linqing Prefecture will gradually become depressed. The people gathered in Linqing Prefecture from all over the Ming Dynasty will inevitably be relocated to other regions by the company in the future, even overseas. (To be continued.) )