Winter envelops the land, and this season is the most peaceful time of the year for the people in the north, south, east and west of China. Who let the vast majority of China's population live in the countryside, when formal farming is minimal in winter?

Diligent farmers will take advantage of this time to go out to do short-term work, which may be small, but it can also subsidize the family, and more importantly, solve the problem of their own personal food. For thousands of ordinary peasant families in China, the ration of a big man is a very heavy burden on the family.

But when the whole country was silent, the general's mansion in the war in northwest Henan was taking advantage of this rare gap to throw out a lot of money and grain to recruit migrant workers. The 300,000 or so people of Yunyang who had entered the territory from Nanyang had not been able to meet the shortage of manpower in the General's Mansion.

Two dry meals a day, ten copper wages (the general's palace implemented the silver dollar system, but copper was not abolished, and the financial relationship was too big and tricky), which is the standard of a healthy woman. The man's wages depend on the strength of his body, and he adds zero to ten to his basic salary of ten coppers. Of course, the braid tax is indispensable. For the most ordinary peasants, this wage is already satisfying for them. What if it was not the General's Mansion that issued the notice, but the original Government's Office?

Refugees from Yunyang are the easiest to teach, as long as they have their stomachs and clothes, these people work hard. They didn't know that they had become a big fat in the eyes of the heads of the various departments of the Construction Bureau under the General's Mansion. Engineering construction, transportation and water conservancy construction, as well as mineral development and the most important factory, the eyes of the people in charge of these four areas are red due to the lack of manpower.

Especially the latter, with the expansion and stabilization of the territory of the General's Mansion, the steel smelting has also gone out of Lushan, from a smelting base to Baofeng, Yexian, Wuyang four steel production points. At the same time, the cement manufacturing industry has expanded dramatically, and in order to ensure the safety of the general's nest, it is inevitable to build permanent defensive positions, and the demand for cement in the general's mansion is extremely high. These are big laborers. Not to mention the development of coal and iron ore, where the steel base expands, the development and mining of coal and iron ore will also go. In the current era, if you want to develop coal mines and iron mines, you don't have enough manpower to develop them.

The prisoners of war captured by the Fu Han Army alone were obviously not enough for the Construction Bureau. The large-scale introduction of migrant workers is imperative. However, many local people in Ruzhou and Nanyang still have little confidence in the General's Mansion, and the General's Mansion is also suspicious of their loyalty.

In the competition for this batch of manpower, the biggest enemy of the Construction Bureau is the army. It is estimated that 40,000 young and strong refugees from Yunyang will be conscripted into the army, and their participation in the army and fighting is a prerequisite for the general's government to support their families and provide them with fields, houses, farm tools, livestock, grain, and other preferential treatment. No one can guarantee that none of the families of the 40,000 recruits will want to go out to work instead of happily working on their land. The 300,000 Yunyang refugees seem to be a lot, but after deducting the four military regions, the population has been directly cut by half.

Now, the fortifications in Ruzhou, Nanyang and Xuzhou are rising one after another. The BCA is in dire need of manpower.

There are really many local people in Nanyang and Ruzhou who are tempted by the salary treatment, but compared with the needs of the Construction Bureau, this number is still too small.

The Construction Bureau should rush to complete the task entrusted to them by the General's Office before the beginning of next spring -- to build a large number of fortifications on the key terrain and transportation points of Ruzhou and Nanyang. Although none of them are permanent cement-reinforced buildings, the low-quality cement produced by the General's Mansion is completely unusable in winter, and the weather is too cold to greatly reduce the effect. At present, the construction bureau is busy with civil engineering and masonry structures. It would have been difficult for the fortifications to be lower than the heavy artillery bombardment, but at least they could hold back the advance of the Qing army's horse troops.

Things have to look forward, the Qing court's horse team is being mobilized from Mongolia and the northeast to Guannei, and now there are very few Qing soldiers and horses on the battlefield in southwest Henan, but what about the next year? When the grass grows and the warbler flies, the horse teams of Manchu Mongolia and Northeast China will inevitably go to the battlefield. They have no way to deal with the fortress city, but when they deal with the common people and the villages and towns, it is the autumn wind that sweeps the leaves.

The General's Mansion took precautions, in case the Qing soldiers repeatedly attacked the city, released a horse team, killed the generals, and killed the people in the hinterland of the General's Mansion.

Chen Hui is not a good person, but he can't be cold-blooded and ignore thousands of lives and be buried. Not to mention that the general's palace cannot be chaotic, and the people's morale is over, and the general's palace is in an absolute disadvantage in terms of 'public support'. Taking advantage of the gap in winter to build these civil works is a double win. In the coming year, if the Qing soldiers and horses dare to run fast on their own, they will rush in when they encounter Jian, they will be looking for death.

"Why is it so high again?" In the Food Bureau, Ren Meng slapped the table angrily. The person in charge of the project in Xiangxian County is too disagreeable, and the grain demand at the construction site has increased by more than 10% for thirty consecutive years [one month], is this treating himself, the director of the grain bureau, as a fool? Think you're fooling yourself with a list?

"Come on, send these to the fifth master." The person in charge of the construction site in Xiangxian County is Chen Quan's cousin, and Ren Meng endured it for the sake of Chen Laowu's face, but the other party did not accept it when he saw it, but repeatedly made inches of progress, which was unbearable.

But this is just a small episode in the daily operation of the General's Mansion, Ren Meng threw the account book to Chen Quan, but he didn't report it directly to his big boss, let alone poke the matter to the court between the two walls. This is China's national condition, no matter how big the law is, it is no bigger than the human relationship.

Confucianism has come up with a 'kiss and concealment', which really directly digs out the roots of Legalism in terms of inheritance. Although some people say that the principle of human rights in the Western system of tolerance and concealment is also 'close to each other'.

Chen Hui didn't know that his henchmen had already compromised Chen Quan once, and all his thoughts were now focused on recruit training. The inflow of more than 300,000 refugees from Yunyang has really had an impact on the work of the General's Mansion in an instant. However, before these refugees entered Nanyang, they already had a simple order, which brought great convenience to the resettlement measures of the General's Mansion.

The 'military district' is the most carefully placed part of the General's Palace. Eighty or ninety percent of the population of the four 'military regions' were resettled in the counties of Ruzhou, and only a small part of the population was resettled in the south near Ruzhou. From this point of view, it can be clearly seen the defensive strategy of the General's Palace. When necessary, it is better to lose the Nanyang Basin than to give up the steel production base of Ruzhou.

Chen Hui knows very well that whether the foundation of the Chen family can survive the onslaught of the Qing court after the beginning of spring next year depends on the ability of these 40,000 recruits this winter. Therefore, he fed these people with good food and drink, and gave them strict training.

In the future, ironclad swords and guns, the General's Mansion will not lose these 40,000 people. Muskets and artillery are also available! It's just that the nest is still short of gunpowder......