On the sixth day of November in the second year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty (1629 AD), Shi Kefa, the governor of Lingbei Province, finally arrived at Chita, the capital of Lingbei, and arrived at Chita with him.

Shi Kefa is not only the governor of Lingbei Province, but also the prefect of Chita Province.

When he arrived in Chita, Hong Chengchou had already settled the captured Mongols, 8,000 herdsmen, 1,000 living in the city, 2,000 people in the two settlements outside the city, and 5,000 herdsmen, divided into ten villages, living in a hundred miles around Chita.

Among them, in the direction of Hengjiu County and Beiwang County, there is a village each.

Although Hong Chengchou did not have the manpower and materials to build the cement avenue, he had already sent people to determine the roadbed and direction, and the two villages were on both sides of the future avenue, and Hengjiu County and Beiwang County had also settled settlements in the direction of Chita.

In this way, the distance between Chita and the two places was reduced by 200 miles at once.

When Shi Kefa first arrived in Chita, it was already winter, in fact, there was nothing to do, Hong Chengchou specially allocated a battalion of soldiers as his escort, he ran to Beiwang County under the escort of these soldiers, and re-selected the route of the cement road in the future, and he had already taken a trip from Chita to Hengjiu.

Zhu Youzhen once said that once the roadbed of these two roads is settled, the construction of one government and two counties in Lingbei Province will revolve around these two avenues.

Hong Chengchou had already built a large number of low thatched huts in Chita City, the western half of Chita is now a military barracks, and soldiers can keep an eye on Yashan Pass at any time, while the southern part of the eastern half of the city is the government and future commercial area, and the northern part is a residential area.

Li Lun, who has been changed to the name of the Han Chinese, because of his meritorious work in killing the Chechen Khan, when Zhu Youzhen left Chita, he specially instructed Hong Chengchou to use him rewardingly, and he got a three-bedroom thatched house in the city.

Li Lun's duty is to be a liaison officer, if the herdsmen need any help, they can contact Li Lun to find Shi Kefa, and what instructions Shi Kefa needs to give to the herdsmen is also conveyed through Guò Li Lun.

In Chita Mansion, Li Lun's official position is to join the army, and that set of independent thatched huts is his military palace, in addition, he also has half a tael of silver every month, and he is the only one who has received the Ming Dynasty among the herdsmen of the original Chechen Khan.

Li Lun has arable land and pastures outside the city, he usually lives outside the city, takes care of the pasture livestock, has five days a month, he and his mother-in-law Wang Meili must live in the city's military mansion, if the herdsmen have any complaints, they must be resolved within these five days.

At the end of November, the Ministry of Industry sent two foreign men to Chita to escort a large number of seeds, agricultural tools, and some military rations.

Shi Kefa was worried that the herders would eat the seeds, so he did not distribute them for the time being, but only distributed the farm tools to the herders.

Chita has entered the winter, the weather has been very cold, at this time if you sleep at night without a kang, when you get up in the morning, you are already dead, and the two members of the Ministry of Engineering and their entourage have no kang to sleep on.

Shi Kefa had no choice but to assign them to the herdsmen's houses in the city to live temporarily, and the herdsmen's homes all had ondols, and the indoor temperature would not be too low at night.

The two outsiders, Mu Zhiyuan and Xu Wenxiu, happened to be assigned to Li Lun's house.

Li Lun's family was in charge of eating and drinking, and the silver taels needed for eating and drinking were settled by Chita Mansion after Mu Zhiyuan and Xu Wenxiu left.

Because there were no idlers at home, Wang Meili personally served food to Mu and Xu, and also used a half-Mongolian and half-Chinese language to let them eat and drink well.

Mu and Xu have been on the road for more than two months, and they haven't even met a female rabbit along the way, and now that they see Wang Meili, a certain desire # hope in their hearts has been awakened, looking at Wang Meimei's eyes, and gradually drifting away.

Wang Meili is nearly thirty years old, and her appearance is still Zhou Zheng, but her waist is thick, like the kind of bucket as thick as the top and bottom, and then covered with a Mongolian robe, it looks more and more stout.

Mu Zhiyuan and Xu Wenxiu looked at each other, they were already in a hurry to seek medical treatment, and just after dinner, they pestered Li Lun to ask questions, and Li Lun always answered their questions carefully, in front of the officials of the Ming Dynasty, Li Lun definitely did not dare to guess the degree.

Mu Zhiyuan was anxious: "I said that Li joined the army, is there a woman here?" ”

"Women?" Li Lun still didn't understand, he pointed to Wang Meili who was cleaning up the dishes, "Isn't this a woman?" She cooks all your meals. ”

Xu Wenxiu scolded in his heart, he didn't take a fancy to Li Lun's mother-in-law, Li Lun can find other women, as long as he is not weaker than Wang Meili: "Li joins the army, are we asking, is there a woman on the kang?" ”

"Ondol?" Li Lun was puzzled: "There is a firewood brazier under the kang, and the kang is originally warm - beautiful, has the firewood brazier risen?" ”

The two had to smile bitterly, and seeing that Li Lun really didn't understand the amorous feelings, they had to say bluntly: "Li joins the army, we want to find a woman to sleep with #, do you have it here?" ”

"Accompany the woman who sleeps with #?" Li Lun finally understood, it seemed that these two Ming officials were beating his mother-in-law's idea, and his eyes suddenly turned bloody: "What do you mean?" ”

Xu Wenxiu saw that the momentum was not right, and hurriedly added: "We pay the silver!" ”

"Silver?" Li Lun frowned: "What do you mean?" If you have something to say, just say it. ”

Mu Zhiyuan saw that Li Lun didn't know about this kind of thing, so he remembered that he was a Mongolian, "You find us a woman to sleep with#, we will pay you silver, fair deal." ”

"Silver? How much silver? Li Lun didn't care about any fair trade, when he heard about the silver, his eyes suddenly showed a greedy light, and it flashed away.

"How much do you need?" It was the first time for Xu Wenxiu to come to such a distant place in Lingbei, and he was afraid that he would suffer a loss, so he asked the other party to say a price first, and he had a good bargain.

"How much can you afford?" It was the first time Li Lun had encountered such a thing, and he couldn't say how much silver he needed.

"Thirty Wen!" Xu Wenxiu stretched out three fingers.

"Thirty Wen?" Li Lun calculated, his own Yulu is only half a tael per month, that is, 500 Wen, an average of only 17 Wen a day, this night's sleep, is 30 Wen, about to catch up with two days of Yulu, is the silver so easy?

Seeing that Li Lun was silent, Xu Wenxiu thought that he was too little, so he added a little more: "Fifty Wen!" ”

"Fifty wen?" Li Lun was even more surprised, this is worth three days of his own money, is it a pie falling from the sky, or are the Han people too rich?

Mu Zhiyuan estimated that Li Lun was a little loose, "Each of us is fifty wen, and the two of us are one hundred, if you don't want to, you can pull it down." ”

"Okay, okay, 100 wen, say okay, just one night." Li Lun was afraid that the pie would become a stone smashed on his head, so he hurriedly agreed: "Let Wang Meili accompany you at night, and I will go and talk to her." ”

Not long after Li Lun went out, he turned around and came back, and the matter was settled, but Li Lun insisted that Mu Zhiyuan and Xu Wenxiu pay the money first.

"We usually go to bed first, and then pay the silver when we get up in the morning, how can there be a woman who doesn't touch the side and pays the silver first?" Mu Zhiyuan's voice is not much worse than Li Lun.

"No, you have to pay the silver first," Li Lun flatly refused, "I only have one kang at home, I have to sleep elsewhere at night, in case you run away in the morning, where can I go to find you?" ”

"We are from the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty, and now we are here to work in Chita Mansion, if we run away, you can go to the government to find us." Xu Wenxiu also did not give in, he was also worried that Li Lun would collect the money and release his pigeons.

"Looking for you at the Chita Mansion? Do I dare? Li Lun still refuses to give in, only when he sees the silver, his heart will be steady.

"Okay, let's pay the silver first." Mu Zhiyuan patted Xu Wenxiu's shoulder and signaled him to stop bargaining, "Li Senjun, just now you said that you went to sleep elsewhere at night?" ”

"yes, am I watching from the sidelines?" Li Lun saw that Mu Zhiyuan agreed to pay the silver, and temporarily had a good impression of him.

"Alright, you have received the money, and you can leave, and this place will be handed over to us." Mu Zhiyuan took out a string of copper coins from his sleeve, counted out a hundred wen, and handed it to Li Lun.

Li Lun's eyes suddenly lit up, he put on copper coins, took a pair of children, and went out of the city overnight while it was still dark.

"Dad, it's getting dark, where are we going?" Li Lun's twelve-year-old daughter, Li Juan, was so cold that she shrunk her neck, she didn't understand why her father drove him out of the hot kang when it was dark.

"Juan'er, let's go back to our home outside the city, and there are guests in the city today." Li Lun's Chinese dialect is good, his family has been fully sinicized, and even the title is a learned Han person, which won the trust of Shi Kefa and Hong Chengchou.

"Dad, then why don't you let the guests stay outside the city?" Li Lun's eight-year-old son Li Yong shuddered, and he was also very dissatisfied with being kicked out of the hot bed by his father.

"Yong'er, the guest doesn't know the road outside the city, besides, the guest paid the silver." Li Lun took Li Yong's little hand, felt that his little hand was cold, and put it in his palm and rubbed it.

"Can you live in the city if you pay the money? Then we don't want his money. "Li Yong is still young, and he doesn't know what the function of silver is.

"Children, don't talk nonsense, silver can buy a lot of cattle and sheep." Li Lun originally wanted to say that the silver could buy you a mother-in-law, but thinking that Li Yong was still young, he replaced it with a cow and sheep that could be seen and touched.

"Dad, what about my mother?" Just stopped Li Yong, Li Juan came to ask again.

Li Lun was embarrassed, but fortunately he couldn't see his face clearly in the night, "Your mother has to cook for the guests." ”

"Cooking for guests? So what do we do? Li Juan pursed her lips and twisted her body twice.

"Juan'er, don't worry, Dad will cook for you."

The three of them stopped talking, and Li Lun led one in one hand and walked along the path outside the city towards his yurt.

When he was about to arrive at his own yurt, Li Lun saw a yurt on the side of the road with lights on inside.

"Isn't this my brother's yurt? It's so late, and it's still lit? ”