Zhu Youzhen's new palace is located in the center of Lijiazhuang, which is roughly a vertical rectangle, with a total of five courtyards, the main room and the wing room are added together, and there are more than 30 large and small rooms. Although it cannot be compared with the Xinwang Mansion in Jingshi and the Qin Wangfu in Xi'an, in such a small village, it is obviously also outstanding and extremely magnificent.

This mansion was originally the private residence of Li Hu, the largest landlord in Lijiazhuang. Li Hu was a very flexible-minded landlord, and over the years, when he saw that his income from farming alone was getting less and less, he turned his main energy to business, which is extremely rare among the more conservative Shaanxi people.

Over the years, Li Hu accumulated more and more wealth, so he was unwilling to continue to live in this shabby village, but moved to the city of Xi'an, and became a merchant generously. Due to the need for capital turnover, he even sold the old house. However, the Shaanxi merchant gang still followed the ancient tradition, and bought a house and land after making money in business, so they bought the mansion from Li Hu's hands.

Because it has been idle for a while, the various rooms of the house are covered with dust. Li Zicheng was very ashamed and said to Zhu Youzhen: "Because the business is too busy, I didn't send anyone to take care of the house before, but it turned out like this, please forgive the prince!" ”

Zhu Youzhen said with great interest: "This might as well be moved, it is also a great pleasure to move to a new house and clean a new house!" ”

Since Zhu Youzhen didn't let a eunuch accompany him at all, there was naturally no figure like the "chief manager" in this palace. At this time, including Zhu Youzhen, everyone unloaded the car together, moved the belongings of the palace into the courtyard, and kept tidying up the room, and was very busy.

Zhu Youzhen and Rui'er first made arrangements for the allocation of rooms. The first courtyard after entering the gate is the front yard, where Lin Youkun's subordinates are housed in the east and west wings, and Sun Chuanting also lives here temporarily. After that, there is the front hall, that is, the place where Zhu Youzhen meets guests, these rooms cannot be occupied, so they have to be empty.

At the back, there is the second courtyard, and the wings on both sides are arranged as kitchens, warehouses and accounts.

Then through a flower hall, you will enter the third courtyard, and from here it will be regarded as a back house. The people who lived in the courtyard were all palace maids.

The fourth courtyard is a back garden, and there is a pond in the garden, which is full of lotus roots. In the middle of the pond is a gazebo, connected on both sides by a verandah. If you want to come to the middle of summer, it must be full of cool and extremely pleasant.

The fifth courtyard is where the master bedroom is located, and there are many more rooms than other courtyards. Of course, Zhu Youzhen and Rui'er live in the East Warm Pavilion of the main house, and the West Warm Pavilion is Zhu Youzhen's study.

As for Bao Yulian, Catherine and Yiyi, the four sisters and others, they also have their own rooms. All the women cheered and carefully decorated their new homes.

Zhu Youzhen admired the beautiful women's busy posture, and secretly thought: This house is still too small, and it is full of only a few dozen people. Especially in the front yard, there are 30 people living in a few rooms, and the conditions are really not very good. And there are no guest rooms left, once a guest from afar visits, it will be blind.

Of course, this is only the first day of moving to a new house, and everything can only be simplified. Zhu Youzhen already had a plan in his heart, and he must rebuild and expand the palace in the future. Although this may not be your permanent residence, some projects are still necessary to live in peace for a few years.

For example, considering the safety of the palace, the current adobe low wall is obviously too rudimentary and must be replaced with a high brick wall. And at the back of the house, there was an extra piece to poke out, and some "fortifications" were arranged to prevent the Assassins from going straight to the bedroom from this direction.

As for Lin Youkun's subordinates, Zhu Youzhen planned to build another house outside the palace to separate their work and residence. When it was his turn to be on duty, he was in the palace, and he went back to his home after the shift change. Anyway, this village is not very big in total, and if something happens, it can still come in time.

As for the backyard, Zhu Youzhen wanted to make a big change and build a few more cross-courtyards, so that his bedroom was separated from Bao Yulian and others.

When he told Rui'er about this idea, Rui'er smiled and asked, "Isn't it good that everyone is in a courtyard, and it's lively?" Why divide it? ”

Zhu Youzhen's face turned red, so he had to whisper in Rui'er's ear: "I'm afraid that when we have sex together at night, the movement will be too loud and let them hear it, which will be bad!" ”

"Lord Wang!" Rui'er sneered in shame, gently smashed Zhu Youjian with a powder fist, and pretended to be angry, "You also said that you want to save money and do big things, but you just thought about this kind of thing!" ”

Zhu Youzhen hurriedly said flatteringly: "Don't worry! I have already thought about it for my husband, and I can do these things without spending a penny! ”

"Do you want to bother Li Zicheng again?" Rui'er said suspiciously.

"No, no! The secret of heaven must not be revealed, and you will see when the time comes! Zhu Youzhen said triumphantly.

From the next day, the villagers of Lijiazhuang often saw Zhu Youzhen walking around the village with Rui'er on his shoulder. No matter who he met, Zhu Youzhen took the initiative to come forward to say hello, and he didn't act like a prince at all.

Of course, these villagers were scared to death at the beginning, and they didn't even dare to breathe in front of Zhu Youzhen. But after a long time, I saw that the little prince and the princess were both amiable, and they were no different from ordinary neighbors, so they slowly adapted to Zhu Youzhen's existence.

In particular, Zhu Youzhen resolutely forbade anyone to kneel to him, and if anyone knelt, Zhu Youzhen had to educate him, and he was "a man with gold under his knees" and "a teacher of heaven and earth", and he said that it was enough for five minutes. It was much more uncomfortable to let him count down than to kneel, so when they saw him again, the villagers just bowed deeply and shouted "Lord Wang", that is.

In fact, Zhu Youzhen is not wandering around with enough to eat, he wants to grasp the situation in the village as soon as possible. After a few days, he had become familiar with the villagers, and the villagers were not as afraid of him as they used to be, and they all answered questions, so Zhu Youzhen quickly obtained the information he needed.

Originally, there were 56 households in this Lijiazhuang, with a total population of about 300 people and a total of 3,000 acres of land.

If the average population is calculated, there are 10 acres of land per capita, which is really a lot. Zhu Youzhen knew that in his previous life, due to the gradual increase in population and the gradual decrease in cultivated land, some rural areas had an average of only a few or even a few centimeters of land per person, which was simply a fraction of what it could not reach compared with this time and space.

But after careful questioning, Zhu Youzhen learned that more than half of the 3,000 acres of land belonged to Li Hu. Li Hu himself and his family do not farm or live in the village, but only hire villagers to plant on their behalf, and at the end of the year, they give a few wages to pull them down.

The remaining more than 1,200 acres of land belong to the dozens of villagers, and one household only has more than 20 acres. If it is spread over people's heads, it will only be three or four acres.

Some villagers, due to extreme poverty, have sold their land to Li Hu and become landless hired farmers. Their life was more miserable, because they could not receive food, they could only work long hours for Li Hu. It's been a busy year, but it's a problem to make ends meet.

This year, however, the situation is even more special. Due to the frequent disasters last year, grain production was greatly reduced, and an average of only about 100 catties of millet could be harvested per acre of land. At the beginning of spring this year, there was another severe drought, and there was no rain for two consecutive months, and the crops were almost gone. As a result, not only hired peasants, but also ordinary peasants were in danger of being cut off.

Sun Chuanting has been visiting the people door to door in the past few days, and finally couldn't help but say to Zhu Youzhen: "Your Highness, this place has become a disaster area, if you don't think of some way, I'm afraid you will starve to death!" The court thought that it was still necessary to open a porridge factory for disaster relief, Your Highness, please hurry up and send the Yin and Jingyang County Orders of the Xi'an Ward and let them..."

Zhu Youzhen quickly interrupted him and said, "Sir, if you wait for them, the daylilies will be cold!" I'll open this porridge factory myself! ”

Sun Chuanting was moved when he heard this: "Your Highness, you care about the suffering of the people, you are really a generation of virtuous kings!" ”

"But this time we can't do it like last time." Zhu Youzhen smiled slyly, "As soon as the porridge factory opens, not only the villagers in this village, but also the hungry people around will hear the news, can we block it?" It is difficult to count the number of hungry people at the moment. Although this king also has some savings, he can't help but toss like this. ”

"Then according to His Highness's wishes, how should this porridge factory be opened?" Sun Chuanting asked in confusion.

Zhu Youjian said confidently: "Actually, it's very simple: it's okay to come to eat, but you can't eat in vain!" ”

"This..."Sun Chuanting was stunned for a moment, and then said with a wry smile: "Your Highness doesn't know, since ancient times, the porridge factory has been a merciful act of the rich to help the poor, and it has always been eaten for nothing. The hungry have no money to give, so what can they do if they don't eat for nothing? ”

"Who said they wanted money?" Zhu Youzhen smiled, "What can they do for this king!" I have a job here, but I'm worried that no one will do it! ”

Sun Chuanting still groaned and said: "If there is a place in the palace that needs to use manpower, as long as you notify the government, and the government will send you to serve in the army." Why use the name of this porridge factory? ”

Zhu Youzhen actually had an idea in his heart, but he asked knowingly: "I don't know what this 'conscription' is?" ”

"In addition to the land endowment, the peasant households also have to provide all kinds of labor services for the government free of charge, which is called forced labor." Sun Chuanting said slowly, "All dynasties and dynasties have had conscription. The law of conscription in our dynasty is that men are exempted from military service at the age of 16 until they are 60 years old, and during this period, they have to serve every year, including regular service, uniform service, miscellaneous service, post service, river service, imperial service, and other titles. If His Royal Highness wants to employ workers, it is the 'Imperial Service'. ”

While the two were talking, Lin Youkun came to report: "Your Highness, Jingyang County ordered Tian Zheng to come to meet His Highness, and now he is still two miles away from the village." ”

It turned out that Zhu Youzhen had already ordered Lin Youkun to select a capable person from Qin Wangwei, take Lijiazhuang as the center, and lay secret sentinels in all directions, and the coverage of the sentinels even exceeded Jingyang County. Within this range, as long as there is any wind and grass, Zhu Youzhen can get the news in advance.

Zhu Youzhen's move was also forced by Wei Zhongxian. Once he was bitten by a snake, he was afraid of the well rope for ten years, and he had to be more careful in order to prevent possible assassins. After all, now he is not in the Jingshi, let alone in the army, no one will be kind enough to protect him, he can only rely on himself to be careful.

"It just so happens that this king still wants to find him!" After listening to the report, Zhu Youzhen said excitedly: "Mr. Sun, let's go to meet this county magistrate together, I think the time has come for you to show your talents!" ”