By mid-March, when the list of applicants for reclamation was handed over to the ship, Li Tu selected 200 men with the best physical fitness, all men, and boarded the ship with newly purchased tools for land reclamation, tents, pots and pans, a dozen horses, and 500 stone of rice. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Under the drizzle, the fleet headed for Xiaoliuqiu.

Unlike long-distance freight to Japan, the journey from Zhangzhou to Xiaoliuqiu was a short-distance transportation that did not require so much fresh water and supplies, so the Zaixing and Xinyue could transport these two hundred people and supplies. However, there is no place to lay on the floor in the cabin, and everyone only has a place to sit, which is crowded like the Spring Festival train in later generations.

Li Tu walked through the watertight cabins and saw the poor peasants in ragged clothes curled up and endured, and no one complained. Although these people have been selected for the best physical fitness, these destitute peasants are still all yellow-skinned and thin-skinned, as if they are malnourished.

Walking to the sixth cabin, Li Tu saw a young man sitting upright on the ground, staring at him with big eyes. The young man was fair-skinned and long-slender, and at first glance he was not a man of farm work.

Li Tu was furious by his eyes, and asked, "What are you staring at me?" ”

The young man raised his eyebrows and said loudly, "I see that you are about the same age as me, how can you control so many sailors and be the owner of this pirate ship?" ”

Li Tu blinked and asked, "What is your name and what do you do?" ”

When the young man heard Li Tu's inquiry, his eyes flashed, and he said proudly: "My name is Lu Dingzhou, and I am a scholar. ”

Li Tu asked, "Have you been admitted to the Tongsheng Examination?" ”

The young man's face shrank, and he said, "I haven't taken the exam yet!" ”

Li Tu asked again: "Since you are a scholar, why do you come with me to open up the wasteland?" ”

Lu Dingzhou said: "My sister-in-law gave birth to one, and there is one more person, so there is no money for me to study." ”

Li Tu nodded and said lightly: "It's good to do it yourself." ”

Listening to Li Tu's words, Lu Dingzhou pouted his mouth and glanced at Li Tu with disdain.

The ship departed from Meiwan and set sail for Xiaoliuqiu. A hundred miles north from Beigang, Li Tu sailed his fleet to the north-central part of the west coast of Xiaoliuqiu. After arriving at the shore, Li Tu sent a small sampan to patrol the coast, found the mouth of a small river, and parked the boat on a shore near the river where boats could be parked.

After going ashore, Li Tu led people to patrol around the river on horseback, and found that the river valley was flat and fertile, densely overgrown with broad-leaved forests, which was a good place for reclamation.

The first thing you do when you go ashore is not to reclaim the fields, but to choose where to stay.

Li Tu took the men around the landing site for a day, drawing a topographical map of the neighborhood on paper with a brush, and then selected the site of the residential area for construction - 200 meters away from the river valley, on a small hill 200 meters high. This small hill is only two miles from the coast, close to the river valley, and high enough to facilitate drainage and defense, making it a good place to build a base.

With a wave of his hand, Li Tu named this place Deyuan City. As the saying goes, small things rely on skills, and big things rely on morality. Xiaoliuqiu is the starting point of Li Tu's great things, and it is the source of virtue as the cause, so it is called Deyuan City. With the name of the city, it is different from the prefecture and county of the Ming Dynasty, indicating that this place is not the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

Although it was not understood what the meaning of "city" meant, the peasants and the crew obeyed the order and accepted the name.

Once the place was decided, the peasants began to set up camp. They swung their axes and cut down all the trees on the hill and set up their tents. These tents were purchased by Li Tu in Yuegang, and one tent is a full ten square meters, which can accommodate four people and shelter from the wind and rain.

The Zaixing and Xinyue shuttled through the Taiwan Strait, bringing the reclamation peasants in batches, and after 20 days, all 2,000 people arrived in Deyuan City. More than 400 tents covered the top of the hill.

The first batch of 2,000 peasants were all men. First, the farmers in Zhangpu County didn't know the details of Li Tu after all, and the women were timid and didn't dare to sign up for reclamation, so most of the farmers who signed up were men. Second, when I came to this deserted Xiaoliuqiu to pioneer, I did heavy physical work at the beginning, and it was difficult for women to adapt. So Li Tu brought all men.

When it stabilizes next year and increases publicity, women will be recruited.

From among the two thousand peasants, Li Tu selected one hundred of the most loyal and honest ones, and hired them as soldiers with a remuneration of fifteen taels of silver a year. He then drew ten of the most loyal crew members from the ship to be the squad leaders of these soldiers, and the honorarium was five taels more than the original. This team of 110 people is all under the jurisdiction of Xu San, and the name of the team is called Xuanfeng Battalion.

These 110 people do not engage in labor, but only train in martial arts every day, patrolling everywhere to deter individual people with bad intentions.

The remaining 1,900 peasants, Li Tu formed a group of forty people, a total of forty-eight groups, and selected forty-eight nimble crews from the Zaixing and Crescent as team leaders. As a team leader, there is also a reward of five taels a year.

Although the crew members are not talents, they are at least trained, have seen the world, and know how to obey commands, which is still much better than these farmers who have faced the loess with their backs to the sky for decades.

Li Tu was always uneasy about the Hong Ba and the others who had made trouble at the beginning, and did not let them be the team leader.

On the first night of the arrival of all 2,000 people, Li Tu killed six pigs and two sheep, opened a hundred jars of rice wine, and invited the peasants to a meal in the small square in the middle of the row houses.

And they sat down on the floor, and sat on the floor, and ate their food. The crew of the fleet, of course, had a lot of mutton to eat and enough rice wine to drink. The farmers who opened up the wasteland also had half a catty of pork to eat, and each person also had a big bowl of rice wine to drink. Although they were treated differently and distinctly, for the poor peasants, there was wine and meat, which was already the general treatment of the New Year, and they were elated.

Li Tu held the wine glass and walked over to toast in a circle. When the peasants saw Li Tu coming, they all stood up straight, and they kept shouting "big leader" and "big leader" in their mouths.

They are not the crew members of the Rito ship, and it is not good to call them the owners of the Rito ship. Li Tu is not an official, so they call Li Tu a big leader, but like a bandit leader.

Li Tu toasted to the twentieth lap, and saw the young man named Lu Dingzhou again. Lu Dingzhou didn't see Li Tu coming over, and was talking to other peasants:

"The big boss has a good plan. He hired us to come here to open up the wasteland, collect our land rent, and the cost will be recovered in one year, and the profit will be 10% in two years! ”

Those peasants respected Lu Dingzhou as a literate person, and when they heard his words, they all said: "There is such a high profit!" ”

"This wasteland is really profitable!"

"Is the big boss so profitable?"

Lu Dingzhou said loudly: "That's how you make money!" We have worked hard year after year, and we have become the cash cow of the big boss! ”