When the peasants have money, they naturally have to make clothes and build houses to live. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info Li Tu's second batch of recruits is to meet these needs of farmers. In addition to the poor tenant farmers, Li Tu also chose ten who could be tailors, one hundred and fifty who could be masons, and fifty who could be carpenters.

In addition, the official salt of the Ming Dynasty is very expensive, and Li Tu didn't want the residents of Deyuan City to be exploited once, so he found five people who could dry salt to go to Deyuan City to open salt fields.

These craftsmen, Li Tu also demanded that they pay an annual rent of fifteen stone of grain, which was the right to pay a poll tax. The income of farmers in Deyuan City is high, and the products of craftsmen can naturally be sold at a good price, and they can naturally afford to pay the poll tax. If there is too much supply for craftsmen who earn less than the peasants, they can also change their careers to become farmers, and other craftsmen who do not change their careers can increase the price of their products until all the craftsmen have the same income as the peasants.

The invisible hand of the market will spontaneously adjust to ensure that the income of these craftsmen is sufficient to pay the poll tax.

However, it is a pity that the peasants of the Ming Dynasty were conservative, and the unmarried girls were restricted by the etiquette law, and did not sign up for the reclamation of Xiaoliuqiu, although Li Tu gave priority to recruiting families with unmarried daughters at home, but there were too many unmarried men in Deyuan City, and it was impossible to directly solve the problem of peasants marrying wives in Deyuan City through immigration.

Fortunately, it is a two-day boat ride between Zhangzhou and Deyuan City, and after the farmers who have been reclaimed have money, they can return to their hometowns to find someone to talk to, and it is not a big problem to think about it.

In addition, Li Tu also recruited 100 people as soldiers in Zhangpu County, named Dinghai Battalion, equipped with Mini rifles and stationed in Deyuan City, under the command of Wang Mazi.

In mid-May, Li Tu transported the second batch of 2,000 reclamation peasants to Deyuan City in five trips. A new dormitory had been built on the hill last year, and after the new peasants settled in, they began to cultivate new fields on the south bank of the river.

The dams are ready-made, and an extra irrigation outlet is needed on the south bank, and the only thing the new farmers have to do is burn the forest to build irrigation canals. Li Tu chose a place 6,000 meters long and 4,000 meters wide on the south bank, set fire to the forest, and obtained 30,000 acres of land. At this time, the first crop of rice has not yet matured, and it is the time of slack. The first farmers who farmed on the north bank also came to help build irrigation canals and earn some money with Litu.

This is the second construction, and Li Tu has command experience and is more efficiently arranged.

In terms of shipbuilding, under the threat of Li Tu, the five Manila craftsmen also abandoned the idea of hiding their own goods and took the initiative to exchange technology. By the end of May, the plans for the shipbuilding had been prepared by two craftsmen, who began to buy timber and lay the keel. Feng You assured Li Tu that the two new ships would be built in early August.

In mid-June, after the irrigation canal was built, Li Tu divided the fields among the farmers. A register was made at the Governor's Office, marking the boundaries of each family's land and clarifying the ownership.

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By mid-June, the first batch of reclamation farmers had another bumper harvest, harvesting one or two stones of grain per acre. Li Tu collected 14,000 stone in rent, and bought surplus grain from the peasants at the price of nine coins of silver and one stone, and sold it to Zhangzhou, making a total profit of 17,000 taels. In just one year, Li Tu earned more than 30,000 taels of silver from Deyuan City. After removing the interest on the money borrowed from Xiao Xiangui, and hiring the military salary of the Xuanfeng battalion, the income is still considerable.

Li Tu bought grain from the peasants, and the peasants had silver and began to have a demand for all kinds of goods. Li Tu's ship went to Zhangzhou full of grain, and on the way back, it carried all kinds of groceries. Including pots and pans, porcelain and chopsticks, cotton and silk for making clothes, farm tools and sundries, and even rice wine and tea, all of which were commonly used at home, were all transported by Li Tu one by one and sold in bulk to wealthy farmers in Deyuan City.

These materials have greatly alleviated the shortage of goods in Deyuan City.

The goods sold by Li Tu did not have a high price, but they were purchased at wholesale prices and sold at retail prices, and they still made a lot of money.

The peasants are conservative in their thinking and attach great importance to the succession of their ancestors. The first batch of reclamation peasants wanted to marry a daughter-in-law when they had money, and if they wanted to marry a daughter-in-law, they first had to have a house. After the early rice harvest in the fifth year of the Apocalypse, the first farmers in Deyuan City were in a hurry to build houses. When Li Tu designed the paddy fields, he considered the problem of private houses, and reserved a lot of vacant land for building houses. After planting the second crop, the first batch of farmers were busy building houses.

With a house, the peasants not only have the capital to marry wives and have children, but also raise pigs and chickens to develop the breeding industry and provide meat for local farmers. Li Tu was dedicated to improving the living standards of local farmers, and vigorously encouraged farmers to get out of the collective dormitory and build houses independently.

To build a house, you need wood, bricks, lime, and glutinous rice. Timber is available locally, and others need to be shipped from Zhangzhou. Li Tu's four fortune boats kept shuttling through the Taiwan Strait to transport the building materials to the city of Deyuan.

With so many commodities to buy and sell, Deyuan City needs a bazaar. At the foot of the hill, near the river, Li Tu built a 1,000-square-meter bazaar consisting of a hundred wooden houses. The twenty wooden houses to the north of the bazaar are official bazaars, selling all kinds of supplies that Li Tu bought from Zhangzhou. The other 80 were private stalls and rented out to farmers for the sale of their own vegetables, fish and fruits.

For a short period of time, this market was still dominated by official markets, and only vegetables were sold in private markets. But after all, there is a huge demand there, and it is estimated that it will not be long before there will be people fishing in the reservoir, growing fruits in the fields, and raising chickens, ducks and pigs at home. At that time, fish and fruit will gradually become available.

As long as there is fish on the market, farmers in Deyuan City can afford it. With the income conditions of the peasants in Deyuan City, as long as they are willing to spend, they can eat a meal with meat dishes every day. Such a standard of living kills the ordinary people of Daming in seconds.

In the colonial era, those who dared to go to sea and pioneer were the lucky ones of the times, and they were bound to have much better living conditions than others. This law holds true both in the distant New World and in the city of Deyuan in Litu.

On this day, Li Tu was wandering around the official market and met Gao Feng, a farmer who came to buy something.

Gao Feng's face was ruddy, and he was wearing a set of ninety percent new cotton shorts, which was much more decent than last year. Seeing Li Tu, Gao Feng hurriedly shouted: "Xiaomin has seen the Metropolitan Governor. ”

Li Tu nodded and asked with a smile, "What did you buy at the official market?" ”

Gao Feng smiled: "I'll buy some rice wine to drink, and buy an oil lamp." ”

"It's understandable to buy rice wine, what do you buy oil lamps for?"

"Read and write in the evening."

Li Tu asked curiously, "Where did you get the books to read?" ”

Na Gao Feng arched his hand and said: "When I was a child, I read ethnology for two years, and my husband gave me a copy of "Analects" and a copy of "Spring and Autumn", which I always have with me, and I will take it out and read it if I have nothing to do. ”

Li Tu smiled: "It turns out that you are still literate, not bad!" But he is a sensible reader! ”

"The Metropolitan Governor has won the award!"

Li Tu asked curiously: "Everyone else is busy building a house and marrying a daughter-in-law, aren't you in a hurry?" ”

Gao Feng said with a smile: "The eldest husband has no wife, and he is not in a hurry for one or two months." Now everyone is vying to build a house, and the commission of the carpenter and mason is rising. I'm still waiting for everyone to calm down in the winter before hiring people, I'm afraid I can save a lot of wages. ”

Li Tu smiled and praised: "The analysis is reasonable, and he is really a literate person." After a pause, Li Tu said: "Deyuan City has a group of forty people, but the team leaders are now all crew members, and as soon as the crew goes to sea, the farmers have no organization. How about I want to replace all the team leaders with reclamation peasants, and ask you to be the first peasant group leader, with an annual remuneration of five taels of silver, and to oversee the delivery of grain, persuasion to farmers, and defense matters for 40 team members. ”

When Gao Feng heard this, he thought about it and agreed.

Li Tu smiled and said, "Among your friends or acquaintances, if there are people who are loyal and sensible, they will also introduce them to me, and I will let them be the team leader." ”

Gao Feng arched his hand and said: "I am willing to contribute to the Metropolitan Governor!" ”