Zhang Chu hurried back to Fugu, and the construction of Fugu was inseparable from him.

Zhang Chu and Wang Jiayin traded a lot of money in exchange for a lot of money, and exchanged for grain from eastern Shanxi, which was continuously transported to Fugu.

Fugu is the northernmost state and county in Shaanxi, part of the northwest wall of the Ming Dynasty, and further north is the vast prairie outside the Great Wall. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Mongol power declined, and the military defense role of Fugu weakened.

In order to deal with the Later Jin, the Ming Dynasty adopted a policy of Huairou towards the Mongolian tribes, and opened mutual markets in the three towns of Xuanfu, Datong and Shanxi along the border of the Great Wall, and the trade between Mongolia and the Ming Dynasty prospered. Shanxi traded with the Mongolian and Houjin people very frequently, and many people went to the west to make a living, and most of them went out of Zhangjiakou. Another part of the people went out of the valley in Shaanxi to Baotou and then went deep into the hinterland of the grassland. Fugu has become an important channel and platform for border trade.

The drought during the Chongzhen period not only affected the Ming Dynasty, the Mongolian tribes on the steppe were also affected by the disaster, many Mongolians lived in great difficulty, and urgently needed to get food and other materials from the Ming Dynasty, and many Mongolians also joined the peasant uprising team at the end of the Ming Dynasty, when Wang Jiayin occupied Fugu, tens of thousands of Mongolians joined his team, and were later killed by the officers and soldiers led by Hong Chengchou.

Zhang Chu was stationed in Fugu, and the Mongols were also nervously watching the situation, and Zhang Chu's attitude towards the Mongols was related to their life and death. The grasslands were devastated and the Houjin people became more and more powerful, and if Zhang Chu had closed this trade route, many Mongols would have starved to death.

At the beginning, the situation was not optimistic, Zhang Chu built a lot of construction in Fugu to strengthen the city wall of Fugu County, although the city wall was built in a strange shape, it can also be seen that this is a posture to be held, after the completion of Zhang Chu to isolate the inside and outside of the pass is as easy as a hand.

After the security forces were stationed in Fugu Castle, the displaced people saw a completely different army, the security soldiers were disciplined and fair, and the mass killings and lootings that the residents feared did not take place. The security forces also set up sentry posts in the streets to maintain order in the city and prevent people from taking advantage of the opportunity to cause disorder.

The construction of Fugu also brought job opportunities to the displaced people stranded in the city, and the construction site of the security army became the most willing place for the young and strong people in Fugu City. The security forces never beat and scolded the workers, set the workload, and they could receive food when they were done. If you work fast, you can get more than others. There is no need to urge the workers to get up early and be busy on the construction site in the dark. The renovation of the city walls of Fugu County is proceeding smoothly.

Taking advantage of the fact that the aborigines of Fugu County were slaughtered by thieves and officials, Zhang Chu replanned the city and established two important areas, the trade zone in the north and the industrial zone in the south.

The industrial area is very mysterious to the inhabitants of the city, with high walls connected to the city walls, and a large area is separated from the city to the south. Heavy doors are often closed. It will only be opened when transporting supplies inward, and there is a guard box built next to the door, where the security army guards day and night, and idlers and others never dare to approach.

It's just a wool factory. Zhang Chu built a factory into a fortress, but there was no way, and he learned the power of the feudal thinking of the ancients in Jiangnan.

I don't know how many people have been killed by starvation, small things are lost, and big things are lost.

Textile factories need female workers, and it must be difficult for feudal consciousness to recruit workers.

Recruits from the hungry are also faced with the question of whether they can continue to work under the pressure of society when their lives are better in the future.

In order to speed up the speed of development, Zhang Chu's history has to be reversed, and the same method as Jiangnan is to sign a deed of sale.

In the context of Shaanxi's widespread famine, Zhang Chu did not have to pay much money to buy a large number of people. Many women don't care what they buy them for as long as they can take care of what they can eat.

Fourteen-year-old Xianglan is a native of Shenmu County, Shaanxi, and her family has been impoverished by the government after years of famine and the exploitation of the government, and the whole family is starving to death, and there is no way to escape from the famine and become a homeless person, and they have encountered a melee between the official army and the thieves. She and her family were separated, and they didn't know whether they were dead or alive. I finally walked to Fugu, and Fugu was also ten rooms and nine empty, and it was even more difficult to find a bite to eat. You have to be on guard at all times, don't be killed and eaten.

The security army built the city wall, and many of the young and strong workers received food. Xianglan also went to the construction site to find a job, but the recruiter refused to see her thin figure.

When cornered, the woolen mill recruited, although it was necessary to sign a deed of sale, but this was also a way to live. If you just spin and weave pandan you prefer to do it. As one of the women who were bought, Xianglan became the first batch of female workers in the Fugu Woolen Factory, walked into the factory area surrounded by high walls, and also entered a new world.

The escort of the women workers was gone, and a forewoman received them with a few able-bodied women, and more than thirty new girls timidly huddled together, not knowing what fate awaited them.

The foreman did not seem to be in a good temper, and shouted loudly urging them to go to the precinct. Xianglan secretly raised her eyes to look at the surrounding environment, the huge factory area was cleaned very clean, the rows of tall factories were very neat, and she had never seen all kinds of machinery in the factory. Xianglan secretly thought that she would work here in the future, and she didn't know if her thin body could withstand it.

The foreman led everyone into a large house, and the women who followed brought several large baskets and placed them in front of them, and the foreman shouted impatiently: "Hurry up! Hurry up! Take off your clothes and throw them in the basket, and the clothes will be burned for a while, and what you want to leave there will be. Come back and get it later. After speaking, he pointed to the wooden cabinets with many small doors on the side of the wall.

Xianglan was a little hesitant, it was the first time she had stripped naked in front of so many people.

The foreman was very dissatisfied when he saw the female workers squirming and grinding one by one, and shouted again: "Hurry up! Hurry up! If it's late, you won't be able to catch lunch. ”

Hearing that undressing and eating were related, everyone's movements became faster. After a while, more than thirty girls stripped naked, and stood there not knowing what to do, because they didn't know what to do next, and some of them were trembling with fear. The foreman found that he didn't say what he should have said, so he softened his tone a little and said, "What are you afraid of, this is the bathroom, let you come to take a bath, go over there, and release the water in a while." ”

No one had ever seen such a large bathroom, so I looked up and down curiously, and my mood relaxed a lot.

The women stood along the wall, and the foreman opened the valve, and some hot water poured down from their heads, and many of them jumped away in fright. It caused the foreman to shout dissatisfiedly: "Hurry up and wash!" Don't waste water. ”

Xianglan let the hot water pour on her head, and then flowed through her body, watching the water turn black under her feet, Xianglan herself was a little embarrassed, she hadn't had a chance to wipe her body for many days, let alone take a bath with hot water.

After taking a shower, each person received a new set of clothes, pants and shoes. The clothes were the same as those worn by the foreman, with only short clothes and trousers, and no skirts. Xianglan put on her clothes, and she felt a little happy in her heart, the last time she wore new clothes was a distant thing.

Seeing that everyone was dressed, the foreman urged again, and left the bathroom foreman while walking to introduce the facilities in the factory area: "Remember, the east side is the toilet, all the convenience must go to the toilet, after use, rinse with water, keep the toilet tidy." To the west is the cafeteria, where meals are eaten every day. The middle rows are dormitories, and the first row you came to live in. The female workers looked around curiously as they listened.

The foreman took Xianglan and the others into the dormitory, which was filled with beds on the upper and lower floors, and each person was assigned a bed.

Xianglan looked at her bed surrounded by a cloth curtain and longed to lie down now, she believed that the master who bought them must be a good man.