"This ......" Zhao Yan was very hesitant, whether to build it or not!

Building a big house, according to others, with Zhao Yan's current status, there is indeed nothing wrong with living in a larger house, it is completely natural.

But Zhao Yan also has his own considerations.

As the head of a military group, you always have to lead by example, what if you build a big house and the people below follow suit!

Take the current situation as an example, Zhao Yan lives in a small courtyard, and none of the civil and military generals under his command dare to live in a better place than him.

"If this wind is opened, I am afraid it will be difficult to clean up in the future." Zhao Yan shook his head as he spoke, "But this residence is really inappropriate now, so let's take 100,000 taels out and build a bigger pavilion!" ”

Everyone didn't expect Zhao Yan to be so persistent, and they had no other ideas than to worship.

To this extent, he didn't even build the world's most luxurious palace, but only a pavilion worth 100,000 taels of silver...... Zhao Yan felt that it was still a bit extravagant to build a house for 100,000 taels of silver.

He wanted to build a house that was naturally modern, but not Western. That is, the kind of house he lives in now, and the small house he lives in now is built on the old house.

For this reason, this style of house is imitated by many people.

Inside and outside Zhaojiabao, there is this kind of house where Zhao Yan lives, which looks modern and very national. Compared to traditional houses, modern houses are better and brighter, and at the same time can be built with more floors.

Naturally, it is also more comfortable to live in.

After the budget meeting, the next step is the final stage of preparation for Zhao Yan's marriage.

The date is January 25, and there are only ten days left.

The weddings were all organized by Zhang and Zhao Quan, and other departments cooperated from time to time, and the preparations were almost now.

About 1,000 tables will be prepared for this wedding banquet, with 10 people per table.

Half of them are Zhao Yan's own people, officers in the army, and officials from all over the country.

In the first five days of Zhao Yan's marriage, some people came from all over the country one after another, and many of them set off in advance, for fear of delaying time on the road.

The commanders of the various battalions rushed back.

Liu Heng also rushed back to Liaodong with a group of staff officers from Liaodong, and the officers at and above the company level in the entire Liaodong returned to Shandong, although the officers ran back, but there was no problem in Liaodong.

The Manchus were beaten into the woods, and the imperial court had no intention of marching into Liaodong.

Although the officers have all returned, it does not mean that the troops have lost their combat effectiveness, and there are still people left behind in the headquarters, and at the same time, the military department has also sent a group of students to the new barracks that has been changed to the Denglai Military Academy for internships.

Wang Wenyue also returned with the slave carrier.

This is the third batch of slave carriers. The second batch was the slave ship composed of more than 1,000 return ships, which were stuffed with 300,000 people, and the number of Japanese slaves transported to Shandong had reached 500,000.

The slave ships that came back this time were composed of more than 170 large merchant ships, each of which carried 2,000 Japanese slaves, and directly brought back 350,000 yuan, and at the same time brought back more than 3 million taels of goods from Yueben.

At the same time, all the mixed brigades in Honshu were transported back.

The entire Kanto Plain has been made a mess by Wang Wenyue, almost no households, 700,000 Japanese slaves were captured back to Shandong, and only a group of old and weak people were left on the Kanto Plain.

Before Wang Wenyue retreated, the Tokugawa shogunate had reached an armistice with the Catholics, and the Catholics retreated to Amakusa Island.

These Catholics can also be regarded as acquaintances, and under the intimidation of Wang Wenyue, they had to obediently retreat to Amakusa Island.

And when Tokugawa Iemitsu returned to the Kanto Plain with a large army, he was stunned by the desolation in front of him.

In the entire Kanto Plain, whether it is in the towns or in the countryside, the young and strong have been arrested, the money has been robbed, and even the little girl who looks good has been taken away.

The densely populated and rich Kanto region is gone.

It has become a poor area where there is no labor, no gold, silver and no jewelry.

It's a robber! Tokugawa Iemitsu gritted his teeth with hatred, but he was helpless, the strength of the Shandong army was far from being able to resist the shogunate. The only thing that made Tokugawa Iemitsu feel a little comforted was that his wives and concubines were returned and were not wiped out.

The Shandong army fought on the Kwantung Plain, and there was never a matter of annihilating silver women, but it did a lot of abduction of women, and all of them were shipped to Shandong to wait for the military headquarters to deal with.

Beauty is also a resource, a very realistic phenomenon.

What made Tokugawa Iemitsu even more depressed was that all the gold, silver and jewelry he had hidden in the dry well were gone, and he was tragically found by the Shandong army.

This made Tokugawa Iemitsu completely lose his temper, put on a smiling face, and went to see off the evacuation of the Honshu Mixed Brigade.

Before the huge fleet departed, Tokugawa Iemitsu called his second son, Tokugawa Ietsuna, who had been on his way to Shandong to Zhao Yan's wedding banquet, and gave him some orders.

The most explained was to ask Tokugawa Ietsuna to go to Shandong to ask Zhao Yan to send more soldiers and horses to garrison Yueben.

Tokugawa Iemitsu knew that his finances were in trouble, and it was impossible to think about it.

After financial problems, turmoil was very easy to follow, so the shogunate had to rely on the strength of the Shandong army to suppress the reactionary forces.

Although the Shandong army was a little robber, they were not interested in the rule of the Shogunate, only in the market of the Lord, as long as they behaved obediently, the rule of their shogunate would last forever.

After Tokugawa Ietsuna heard this, he was very depressed.

This time, he went to Shandong, it can be said that he was going to be a proton, and he even asked the Shandong army to send more soldiers and horses to garrison Yueben.

Although Tokugawa Ietsuna was the second son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, when Tokugawa Iemitsu's eldest son died shortly after birth, he was the next shogun.

Sending him to be a proton shows how temperless the Tokugawa family was beaten.

…… Among the officers sent out from Shandong throughout Shandong, except for some officers of the American and Nanyang detachments in Palembang, the other officers had already returned to Liaodong.

At this stage of Zhao Yan's marriage, the whole of Shandong was under martial law, and there were checkpoints everywhere. Those who come to Huangxian and Zhaojiabao are not allowed to bring weapons.

All the ingredients used in the wedding banquet are prepared under strict supervision and are also reviewed.

On every street inside and outside Zhaojiabao, the shadow of the public security police can be seen.

Although it is martial law, there is no restriction on the movement of people, as long as you do not bring weapons, do not enter areas where idlers are not allowed to enter, and do not create public security incidents, there is a road guide to pass.

Zhao Yan gave invitations to businessmen all over the world, and naturally there were many people who came.

Those who received the invitation came out of ten, and the small businessmen who didn't receive the invitation also came.

The hall outside Zhaojiabao can be said to be full. And some identities were invited to the hall in Zhaojiabao.

The court officials invited by Zhao Yan, except for one Qin Liangyu and Sun Chuanting, all came early.

Why Qin Liangyu didn't come, Zhao Yan didn't know very well, maybe she didn't come because she was disgusted that she had knocked Chongzhen down, or maybe she was too far away and hadn't arrived.

However, Zhao Yan felt that the former might have a bigger surname.

Sun Chuanting, it may also be for this reason. But Zhao Yan didn't care too much about whether he came or not. After Lu Xiangsheng and Yan Jizu came to Shandong, Zhao Yan personally took them to live in the hall.

These are all powerful allies, so naturally they should be well received, and Zhu Dadian has not left Shandong since he last came to Shandong, but has visited everywhere in Shandong.

It has only been three years since he left Shandong, and Shandong has changed greatly, which makes Zhu Dadian really feel a little emotional, Zhao Yan's methods, and it is really not an ordinary rebellion.

At this time in Shandong, it is rare to see people with dishes on their faces, and when they walk into the tundi of Dongsanfu, there are rows of large tile houses everywhere, and some houses are still the kind of new-style pavilions in Zhaojiabao.

The construction industry in Dongsanfu was also led by Zhao Yan. Many people saw that the style of the house where Zhao Yan lived was good, so they invited the craftsmen who participated in the construction of the building to build one for them, and as a result, the business of those craftsmen became better and better, and the doorway was soon thoroughly studied by other plasterers, and for a time Shandong was full of the kind of houses where Zhao Yan lived.

Cement is not very expensive in the East Three Provinces, bricks are even cheaper, sand and gravel are also everywhere, and the financial resources of the farmers in some of the East Three Provinces are not huge, although not everyone can afford to build them, but there are also some of them, and the gap in the financial resources of the farmers in the East Three Provinces is not huge.

Some of those family members joined the army and received rewards for soldiers and officers, and many of them also followed suit, either in the tundi or outside Zhaojiabao, and began to build their own new buildings.

And those officials, because Zhao Yan adopts a high salary and incorruptible method, although the salary is not too high, but on the whole it is very passable, about half higher than the court's salary, plus there is no messy gift expenses, one by one they all follow Zhao Yan's example and build a new building.

The squires and merchants of the three western provinces also followed suit, and now the new buildings of Zhaojiabao can be seen everywhere in Shandong, and the wealth of Shandong can be seen only from the architecture.

In terms of normal diet, the people of Dongsanfu usually eat rice and bread, and almost no longer eat sweet potatoes, and often eat meat.

Everyone lived comfortably, and they hardly had to worry about livelihood and money.

As long as you are willing to work, you will not starve to death.

After paying the meager field endowment, the rest of the grain is their own, fifty acres of land, if you work hard, you can harvest at least seventy stone of grain a year, about fifty stone of wheat, and generally thirty or forty stone of autumn grain.

Just by selling grain, you can get thirty-four taels of silver a year.

You don't need money to see a doctor, and you don't need money for your children to study. If someone in the family joins the army, there will be at least 24 taels of military salary a year, and the army will also include food and lodging, which can be sent home almost all of the money, and if it is a meritorious promotion, the military salary will be more.

At present, Shandong's military pay is determined by rank, not by position.

The monthly salary for a third-class soldier is 2 taels, the monthly salary for a second-class soldier is 3 taels, the monthly salary for a first-class soldier is 4 taels, and the monthly salary for non-commissioned officers is 5 taels.

The monthly salary for warrant officers is 6 taels, the monthly salary for second lieutenants is 10 taels, the monthly salary for lieutenants is 15 taels, and the monthly salary for captains is 20 taels.

The major is paid 25 taels per month, the lieutenant colonel is paid 30 taels per month, and the colonel is paid 35 taels per month.

Major generals are paid 40 taels per month, lieutenant colonels are paid 45 taels per month, and colonels are paid 50 taels per month.

The highest is only 50 taels, and at present, the highest rank in the Shandong army only has the rank of captain, receiving 20 taels of military salaries every month, and making a fortune almost depends on fighting, and officers can get 1~5 times more war dividends than soldiers.

The people have money in their families, and they naturally eat well.

If you raise some chickens, ducks, pigs and cattle at home, you can eat them yourself, and you don't need to sell them, just the money from selling grain is enough for food and clothing.

A lot of people often behave like money.

Because the production is very sufficient, although the people have a lot of money in their hands, Zhao Yan also has a lot of money, and Shandong has more silver than other provinces, but the price is similar to that of other provinces, and there is no inflation caused by the increase of precious metals.

In just three years, there have been such big changes in Shandong, Zhu Dadian can't do it without emotion, thinking that it was really a wise decision to appease Zhao Yan at the beginning.

(To be continued)