In all fairness, Zhu Youzhen was willing to devote more energy to the establishment of industry. Seeing what was impossible in this era become a reality little by little with my own efforts, what a sense of accomplishment it should be!

But after all, a person's energy is limited, and there is still one urgent matter at the moment, and Zhu Youzhen has to spend time dealing with it, that is, dealing with the foreign population.

At present, the total number of foreigners in the two cities of Qinwangzhuang and Jingyang County has reached 50,000, which is a very astonishing number. You must know that the city of Xi'an, which is much larger, has a population of only more than 100,000. And Qinwangzhuang and Jingyang County are just a small place, and they are crowded with so many people, and the pressure of management can be imagined.

Of course, these immigrants do not come in free movement. About 20,000 of them were peasant households in Jingyang County, and Zhu Youzhen took the initiative to bring them into the city because of the attack of thieves the day before yesterday. There are also about 20,000 people, who were coerced by thieves to attack the city. In addition to this, there are thousands of thieves and their dependents. So in the final analysis, it was the war that led to the surge in foreign population.

Obviously, having so many people stranded in the city is not a long-term solution. Among other things, the most basic food supplies are very difficult. The thieves besieged the city for only two or three days, but the consumption of grain in the strategic reserve increased dramatically. In order to prevent the possibility of a long-term trapped situation, Zhu Youzhen even wanted to adopt the method of "wartime" to restrict the supply of rations for the residents of the city.

Fortunately, the thieves quickly escaped, traffic was restored, and the handling of the foreign population was put on the agenda.

The people of Jingyang County said that they had originally owned their own homes, but of course they were returning to the villages and towns outside the city at this time. Although the homes were destroyed by the thieves, the people's homes had nothing of value, at most the grain was looted, and the door panels were demolished by the thieves to attack the city.

Zhu Youzhen promised these people a subsidy of two taels of silver, and allocated some rations, which was enough for them to hold out until the autumn harvest. Of course, cotton is now planted in a large area in Jingyang County, and even if it is harvested in autumn, it will not be able to harvest much grain, and it will still have to purchase a large amount from outside at that time. If you can't buy food, then something will go wrong.

Zhu Youjian has nothing to do about this, after all, the local grain production is too low, even if all the grain is planted, the harvested grain is not enough for the farmers to eat. Although purchasing grain from abroad is not a long-term solution, it can at least solve the urgent need, so the policy of purchasing grain and rice from abroad must be adhered to for a long time.

As for the people who were coerced from Linxian County, the problem is much more complicated. First of all, no matter what, they came to attack Jingyang is a rebellion, according to the "Da Ming Law", not only will they be beheaded, but even the whole family will lose their heads.

If Zhu Youzhen is lazy and saves trouble and hands over all these people to the government in Xi'an to deal with, although the government can't deal with thieves, it still has a lot of confidence to kill the people, and if it doesn't work, it will really be a river of blood. Of course Zhu Youzhen can't do such a sinful thing, that's tens of thousands of lives!

But it seems very inappropriate to just let people go. There is a way that capital crimes can be avoided, but living crimes cannot be escaped, and it is still necessary to punish these people. Otherwise, there will be some people here who ignore the law and become thieves when they go back.

In addition, these people in Linxian County are not under the jurisdiction of Jingyang, and their homes have been ransacked, and their livelihood after being put back is also very problematic. If there is no food and clothing, so that he starves to death, that is what Zhu Youzhen will never bear to see.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen first classified these people, and first put the old, young, sick, disabled, women and children back. Because they didn't have much ability to work, Zhu Youzhen also gave each family a few taels of silver.

As for the young and middle-aged men who directly participated in the siege of the city, Zhu Youzhen asked Sun Chuanting to announce to them: You are guilty and should be executed, but the court has the virtue of a good life, so let's not kill them. But it is necessary to work instead of punishment to make up for the losses caused to Jingyang, and then it can be put home.

These people were originally afraid that their entire family would be killed. Now that the family has been released, half of their hearts have been relieved; Now I don't have to die, and I'm grateful. Isn't it just work for punishment, no one is afraid of this, and the people are the lives of work. Anyway, you have to serve as a conscriptor in your respective county, so you don't have to do it anywhere.

The people think it's appropriate, and Zhu Youzhen thinks it's cost-effective, this is free labor, so you don't have to use it in vain. Some time ago, thieves besieged the city, and all the construction projects in Qinwangzhuang were stopped. During the siege, some buildings were also damaged. Now it's time to step up construction, and it's all hard work.

Speaking of which, the Chinese people of this era are really the most hard-working people in the world. As long as they can survive, as long as they can eat, they will never back down no matter how hard and tiring they work. In addition, these people are grateful to Jingyang, and they are even more desperate to work.

When Zhu Youzhen saw this scene, he was also very emotional. I thought that after all, they were all simple people, as long as they pulled back a little, they were still peaceful and kind people. But if you push it forward again, you may really become a bandit. You must know that there is only one word difference between a peasant and a homeless person, and there is only one word difference between a homeless person and a homeless thief. If you handle it properly, you can save not only these 10,000 people, but more people's lives!

It's the height of summer, the sun is very hot, and the eggs are almost baked on the ground. Zhu Youzhen couldn't bear to let these people work under the scorching sun, so he changed his working hours to after dusk to early morning. Now it is lively, as long as it is dark, the city is full of clanging beatings and shouting of laborers, and it is almost impossible to rest.

However, none of the people in the city complained, because this is not a lack of virtue that harms others and benefits oneself like aunt dancing in the square, but a major project related to the safety of the people in the city!

Through this siege battle, Zhu Youzhen also fully realized that although the age of firearms has now begun, the defensive role of the city wall is still huge. Especially against thieves with poor equipment and combat effectiveness, if there are two strong and complete city walls, it is simply insurmountable, greatly reducing the occupation of Qin soldiers.

And by reducing the pressure of defending the city, the Qin soldiers could free up their hands to take the initiative to attack and cut off those small bandits who were not strong first.

Although it is said that if there is a great chaos today, bandits are swarming, and there are more and more thieves, it is impossible to change the entire situation with Zhu Youzhen's Qin soldiers alone; But the meal must be eaten one bite at a time, and the road must be taken step by step, the so-called "don't take the good as a small thing", as long as it helps to save the stormy Daming country, it is a small thing, and Zhu Youzhen is willing to do it!