Shouguang County is located in the lower reaches of the Juyang River, facing Laizhou Bay, is a city with a long history, where the land is fertile, the products are rich, the forest is luxuriant, the people are outstanding, the Juyang River with a width of dozens of zhang flows from the west of the city, directly into the Bohai Bay, the water is deep and gentle, in the past hundreds of years, Shouguang County has been the largest shipbuilding county in Beihai County.

Because Beihai County is close to the mouth of the Yellow River and Laizhou Bay, the shipbuilding industry has been very active since ancient times, and at the peak of the shipbuilding industry, at least 20% of the county's population participated in the shipbuilding industry.

However, in the three Goguryeo battles, tens of thousands of shipbuilders from Beihai County were transferred to Beiping County to participate in shipbuilding, with heavy labor and heavy losses, and less than two or three percent of the craftsmen finally returned to their hometowns, which brought a heavy blow to the shipbuilding industry of Beihai County.

Coupled with the rampant bandits, the people of the counties fled to Yidu and Linzi, and the rest of the counties became empty cities, and in just a few years, the shipbuilding industry in Beihai County was almost completely abandoned.

Shouguang County is not big, the circumference of the city wall is about fifteen miles, it was abandoned for three years, and other counties in Beihai County, from the beginning of spring this year, people have moved back to Shouguang County one after another, the county began to appear cooking smoke and people walking, there is even a grocery store and a small wine store next to the south city gate reopened.

The county commander of Shouguang County is surnamed Jiang, it turned out to be Shouguang County Cheng, and there was no news after the county commander fled back to his hometown due to the war, and this Jiang county order was a native of Linzi County, after Zhang Xuan garrisoned Beihai County, he was the first batch of officials to come back to report, and was temporarily appointed by Zhang Xuan as the Shouguang County Commander.

Jiang Xianling is about forty years old, with a mustache, always serious in his work, he is not tall, slightly thin, but he is in good spirits. Hearing that the general was coming, he specially rode a mule and went ten miles out of the city to meet Zhang Xuan.

"General, that fertile land has just been reclaimed!"

Zhang Xuan looked at the large farmland under his finger, and saw that there were farmers in the fields in the distance, so he smiled and said, "There don't seem to be many people!" ”

"General Hui. Many people still rent land near Yidu County and Linzi County, and they take time to come here to reclaim the famine, and they have to fertilize the land first, and then they can replant grain next year. ”

"Makes sense!"

Zhang Xuan smiled again and asked, "Whose land does it belong to?" ”

"It's basically your own land, and now the land that has been cultivated and cultivated has a clear title deed, but there are still a lot of unclaimed land, such as over there!"

Jiang Xian Ling pointed to a large area of land in the distance. There are tens of thousands of hectares, close to the Juyang River, and irrigation is very convenient.

He smiled bitterly and said: "It's all Shangtian over there, and it is currently temporarily accepted as official land, and the owner will confirm the title deed after he comes back, but I estimate that at least more than half of it is terra nullius, and I am ready to lease it to the immigrants of Qinghe County for reclamation, and lease the land out at the lowest rent." In the past few years, I have probably put all my thoughts on restoring the fertile land. ”

Zhang Xuan nodded approvingly, "This is the official who does practical things." Only when food is abundant, the people will not rise up to rebel, and the army can be strong and run Shouguang County well. Jiang County's order will have a bright future! ”

"Thank you, General, for the compliment."

Jiang Xianling hesitated again, and squeaked: "In addition, the county government is really short of people, can the general add some manpower for the humble position?" ”

Zhang Xuan laughed, "The lack of people is not only a problem on your side, all counties are shouting about the lack of people." But don't worry, a lot of people can't find anything to do these days, Wei Changshi and Wang Taishou are already working on this matter, and someone will come to you to report soon. ”

Shouguang County, like other counties in Beihai County, has a garrison of two hundred militias, led by an adjutant, and the army garrison gives the ordinary people a great sense of security, and the army is mainly responsible for guarding the city gate and maintaining local law and order, and generally does not ask about the affairs of the county.

Although Zhang Xuan came to Shouguang County for the first time, he was very familiar with the scene of the county seat, almost every county was the same, it was a tragic scene after a serious looting, there were dilapidated houses everywhere, slightly decent houses were burned, and blackened broken walls could be seen everywhere.

But now there is a hint of life, and the sound of tinkling and knocking can be heard everywhere in the city, and people are looking for usable building materials in the ruins, bricks, wood, bluestone and other building materials are piled up on the street, and a child sits next to it.

A new small wine shop was opened next to the south city gate, and the four big characters 'Juyang Wine Shop' were written on the wine flag, and the business was not bad, and it was full of wine customers who were chatting.

Across the street is a small grocery store, also newly opened, with a sign that reads 'Wang Kee Grocery Store', in which a husband and wife are busy putting goods on the shelves, and several elderly people are crowded in front of the door to choose farm tools.

However, the county government made Zhang Xuan very disappointed, the original county government was burned down in half, only the gate and half of the main hall remained, and the slightly usable part was enclosed with mud walls around it, like a small land temple.

Zhang Xuan originally planned to go to the county office to rest and drink saliva, but seeing that the county government was small and broken, he didn't have any thoughts, so he said: "Just go directly to the boat yard!" ”

Everyone quickened their horses, went out of the north gate, and ran towards the shipyard ten miles north of Shouguang County.

Shouguang Shipyard was originally one of the three major shipyards in Qingzhou area, there were tens of thousands of shipbuilders at the peak, the shipyard stretched for more than ten miles, and could build dozens of dragon boats of 10,000 stones every year, which could sail in the sea, and also built hundreds of other miscellaneous ships every year.

But it was such a large-scale shipyard, which was burned down by Wang Bo's rebels and bandits at the beginning of the eighth year of the Great Cause, and is now an overgrown wasteland, with only some huge keels burned into charcoal indicating that it was once a busy shipyard.

The reason why Zhang Xuan came to Shouguang was to inspect this former shipyard, the shipyard in Zhu'a County, Qi County has been completely destroyed, and the shipyard in Jimo County, Gaomi County is small, of course, it was also destroyed by a fire, and only the shipbuilding workshop in Beiping County is still intact along the entire northern coast.

For the three counties of Beihai, Donglai and Gaomi, which are both coastal and close to the mouth of the Yellow River, the importance of shipping is self-evident, Zhang Xuan began to collect ships from the people last year, and so far only 300 small boats have been collected, and the maximum carrying capacity is only 500 stones, which can only sail in inland rivers and cannot enter the sea at all.

More importantly, Zhang Xuan hopes to restore the shipbuilding capacity of Beihai County, which will have a huge role in promoting the economic recovery of Beihai County and even the Qingzhou region, and there are still a large number of experienced shipbuilders in Beihai County, once the shipbuilding starts, the desire of large ships to enter the sea can be realized within two or three years.

As early as the beginning of last year, Zhang Xutuo began to consider shipbuilding and transporting grain in Beihai County, but for various reasons, this plan has been stranded until now.

Although Zhang Xutuo's Beihai shipbuilding plan was not implemented, it was not without effect.

At this time, Zhang Xuan saw a lonely wooden house covering several acres in the distance.

To be precise, the big wooden house is a warehouse, which is the only result of Zhangsutuo's shipbuilding program.

Dozens of cavalrymen turned over and dismounted, and Zhang Xuan found that there was a fence around the warehouse, which was piled up with various shipbuilding materials, covered with tarpaulins, and two big dogs in the yard were howling fiercely at them.

At this time, a fifty-year-old man walked out of the warehouse, of medium stature, but very strong, with skin like black charcoal, he recognized Jang Hyun and hurriedly greeted him.

"The villain Zhou Ling participates in General Zhang!" He bowed deeply to Jang Hyun.

At this time, Jiang Xianling rode out of breath and chased after him, he got down from the mule, stepped forward and introduced Zhang Xuan: "This is the original shipyard Zhou manager, who has been in charge of the shipyard affairs since the third year of the great cause, and is also a native of our Shouguang County. ”

Zhang Xuan had seen the plan for the restoration of the shipyard left by Zhang Xutuo, and the Zhou steward was mentioned above, Zhang Xuan smiled and said: "You are the person arranged by Zhang Dashuai!" ”

"It's the villain."

Zhou Ling sighed, "At the beginning of last year, Zhang Dashuai asked me to restore the shipyard, but then the money and food were tight, and there was no news about the restoration of the shipyard, and I waited here for more than a year." ”

"You're going to have to be busy in the future."

Zhang Xuan smiled and strode into the courtyard, two big dogs pounced, and Zhou Ling roared angrily, and retracted into the corner of the house in fright.

"No wonder general, someone has come to steal wood at night recently, thanks to these two dogs."

Zhang Xuan walked to the top pile of materials and lifted the tarpaulin covering the materials, and there were complete wooden planks underneath, most of them one or two zhang long, very dry, and it could be seen that they were well protected.

"General, this is all the planks of a three-thousand-stone five-tooth war ship, naturally dry, ready to use, but unfortunately there is no keel."

"I remember that the five-tooth warship was not built in Bashu?" Zhang Xuan asked with some puzzlement.

"In the early days, it was built in Bashu, but later it was also built in the north, mainly two in the Beiping County Shipbuilding Workshop and our Beihai County Shipbuilding Workshop."

"I see!" Zhang Xuan nodded, and asked curiously, "Then how can there be no keel?" (To be continued......)