On the old-fashioned street, there were two women sitting under the hanging tower, chatting, and when they saw Qin Hu coming, they all stopped talking and looked up and smiled at her.

Qin Hu said to them, "Are you men in the house, inform them to go to the village for a meeting." ”

"I know, and I have a meeting again, do you want to talk about road construction again?" A woman was talking, but the work in her hands did not stop, and she was still very skillful in weaving straw sandals.

Qin Hu nodded, everyone seemed to be busy, and it was rare to see idlers. But unlike the busy in the past, everyone used to be idle all day, but there was a feeling of lifelessness, but now everyone is busy with joy.

In the past, it was busy for the head people and landlords, but now it is busy for themselves.

Supply and marketing cooperatives, grain stations, postal offices, agricultural technology institutes, and credit cooperatives have also been built in the townships to issue interest-free loans to the poor people in the townships.

The cadres in the township also went to the countryside to the villages, and set up squatting sites to help the people get rid of poverty. They brought drought-tolerant and high-yield crops such as potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes, taught them how to plant these new crops, and helped them connect with advanced plough rakes.

They even bought piglets, sheep cubs, chickens and ducklings for them to engage in family farming. In many villages, some small village-run workshops have been set up, weaving straw mats and straw sandals, beating stones, collecting sand, making mules, and starting horse gangs to run transportation.

There are also those that grow a variety of fruit trees.

Now no one has time to go to the alley in broad daylight to gather and chat, and the children who used to play in the village entrance are no longer seen, and they are sent to the village primary school to study. The sound of reading at the head of the village is always the favorite sound of the villagers. Children do not need to pay a penny from their families to attend classes and study at school, do not need tuition, do not need to thank the teacher, and do not even need to pay for children's textbooks. It's all free of charge from the school, and the school even invited a person to cook for the children, and the children don't have to go home for lunch every day, and they eat at school for free, and the food is good.

Turn around the alley and head north.

He walked out into the street, and under a big tree in front of him, there was a pile of goods, and seven or eight men were gathering around it.

They are the horsemen of the village horse gang.

The caravan in the village is jointly owned by the village, and everyone jointly finances part of it. Then the cadres stationed in the village helped them get a low-interest loan from the township credit cooperative, and bought 40 mules through the township, and the horse team was built.

The caravan is a unique mode of transportation on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. There is a lack of good roads in Yunnan-Guizhou area, and the access roads between many places are quite difficult, except for some main road post roads, which can pass through cars and horses, and other places are mainly transported by horses and mules.

Many places are high and densely forested, and the climate is hot. There are cliffs and deep streams on the road, hungry tigers and beasts in the mountains, and poisonous snakes and scorpions in the river.

The roads are inconvenient and the transportation is difficult. Whether it is to transport things out or in, nine times out of ten it is necessary to rely on mules and horses, and the unique terrain makes it difficult to use water transportation in the river here.

Now the imperial court has changed its land in the southwest. The poor turned over and became the masters, and the Yunnan-Guizhou region also changed with each passing day. The imperial court also began to build roads, but for the time being, only the main traffic arteries could be repaired.

The demand for transportation has increased significantly. It also led to the rapid expansion of the horse gang, which was also the result of the guidance of the counties and townships in accordance with the instructions of the imperial court.

If you want to get rich, you must first build roads, and before the roads are opened, you can only rely on horse gangs.

The village caravan consisted of ten horsemen and forty mules, and only went to the townships of the county to do some short transportation. Their main task in ordinary times is to transport grain to the county for the grain station, and then transport salt and other merchants from the county to the township.

The horse racing gang is a very hard business, eating and living are on the road, and the food is rainy. However, the treatment of the horse is good, the horse team is jointly owned by the village, all the villagers share the dividends, and the horse driver is from the village, they also own a share, and the horse driver also gets a salary.

The agreement between the horsemen in the village was to give them a guaranteed salary, one dime for each day of work. Then at the end of the month, it will be calculated according to the team's earnings, and if the winnings reach the agreed figure, the excess profits will be divided.

This treatment is very good, but not everyone is suitable for driving a horse gang, you have to be a strong person who knows how to ride a horse and a mule.

"Is this going out?" Qin Hu asked.

Seeing that it was the deputy township chief, Chihei Mutu hurriedly stopped what he was doing, came over with a smile, and took out a cigarette pouch from his arms and handed it to Qin Hu.

"The bacon, pickled fish and some straw sandals in the village were transported to the county."

Just by hearing his name, he knew his identity. There are many surnames of the Yi people, it is said that there are no less than thousands, and the surname Chihei is more special, the original word Chihei is a general term for the people who were plundered and sold to the Yi people as slaves, because they are not Yi people who were born and raised in the Yi people, and they are collectively called Chihei without the surname of the Yi people.

The word originally meant dog meat, and over time, it became a surname.

Therefore, the surname Chihei is basically the slave of the Yi people, and most of them are Han people. The name of the red black wood soil means white horse, and Qin Hu has also been a slave in the past, so he is very polite to the earth.

Not long ago, Qin Hu was asked to talk from above. Because of the fame of osmanthus incense, officials in Guiyang have long heard of its name. The governor of Guizhou thought that Qin Hu was a good signboard, so he deliberately let him come out as an official. Qin Hu never thought that he could still be an official.

He refused, but the above insisted. Qin Hu is now worth a lot of money, Osmanthus Xiang has opened more than 30 branches, and has opened several large workshops, with hundreds of employees, and pays a lot of taxes every year, and is a big taxpayer. In particular, he has not forgotten to return when he has become rich, and has been donating money to build a village primary school, helping to repair bridges and paving roads, and taking care of the lonely and widowed elderly, etc., with an excellent reputation.

Pushing him out as an official will certainly help to enhance the prestige of the imperial court in the local area.

In the end, it was his wife who persuaded him to come out to be an official, and Osmanthus Xiang had already been on the right track, and now he has hired a special shopkeeper and steward, distributed shares to them, and looked at these dozens of shops very well.

As a result, Qin Hu, a former slave of the Yi people, became an official.

He started as the deputy head of the township, although he seems to be a petty official of the ninth grade, but now that the boundary between officials has been broken, everyone has to start from the township, so this starting point is not low.

Qin Hu returned to Shuixi to be the deputy head of the township, and the villages assigned to him to take care of the squatting points were also places he was familiar with in the past. Looking at Mu Tu, Qin Hu made up his mind and went back to the county for a meeting. It is necessary to react to the above, so that Han people such as Chihei, who were former slaves of the Yi nationality, can restore their Han surnames and names.

"I'll leave later, let's have a meeting first." Qin Hu rolled a paper cigarette for himself, lit it, took two puffs, and then said.

"It's fine." Mu Tu smiled, "Is there anything you want to bring from the county seat?" ”

Qin Hu shook his head, and by the way, he asked about the horse gang.

"Is it okay to walk on the road?"

"All villages and cities responded to the call to come to power and organized road construction during the slack season. The villages have repaired the road sections of each village, and strive for the passage of the villages, and now the roads are much easier to walk. But it's still too simple, basically most places can only walk mules and horses, and there is no way to drive. It would be nice if it could be opened to traffic, and it would be much easier to buy a few big wagons to transport goods. ”

Qin Hu smiled, it would be good to be able to do it like this right now, and it would be good to build roads in the villages first, and figure out the big carriage. It's hard for the time being.

"We will have a meeting to talk about this road construction. A big road should be built from Guiyang to Kunming, and then from Kunming to Myanmar. Thousands of miles away. Open the road in the mountains, build bridges in the water, and build a carriage that can be built. ”

"It can't be thousands of miles away, can this be cultivated?"

"It's man-made. As long as you are willing to cultivate, of course you can cultivate, but it is indeed more difficult. Now the head is calling us. Each village organizes road repair teams and horse teams to repair roads. Qin Hu said.

As soon as these words came out, the faces of the horsemen gathered around changed color slightly. Now everyone's life has indeed turned over, but the traffic here is blocked, and life is still relatively tight. Although the above mentioned the loan, it is to help with the export of some mountain goods, but

"I'm afraid that road will have to be repaired for a long time, right?"

"The above plan is to repair it for a year, first repair it and then repair it." Qin Hu replied.

One young man couldn't help but ask, "If you ask us to go and build roads, do you do hard labor?" ”

Qin Hu suddenly understood the reason for the change in everyone's expressions, and he laughed a few times.

"You guys think about it too much, you still can't see the policy of the imperial court? That is to help everyone get rid of poverty and become rich, so that everyone can live a life of food and clothing. The imperial court let everyone's children study for free, and lent money to everyone to help everyone with the economy, but you still can't trust the imperial court? ”

"Now everyone's fields have been divided, the houses have also been divided, there are cattle and pigs behind the houses, chickens and ducks are raised, and the grain tax is also low, which is all visible. Now the imperial court wants to build roads, and it needs manpower and material resources, but it will not ask you to build roads in vain, nor will it levy your mule team in vain and ask for your things in vain. ”

"This time, from Guiyang to Kunming, from Kunming to Burma, thousands of miles of road, the whole line is ready to mobilize one million people to build the road, and strive to build the road in the autumn so that it can cross the road. The road is built by people, but instead of free labor, they are paid according to the person, and the construction site is paid for food and lodging, and the wages are paid. ”

"Really get paid?"

"Of course, when does the yamen speak?"

"How much can you give that day?" Someone asked again.

"How much do you make a day driving horses?"

"One corner a day, if you run more in the month, the horse team earns more, you can also share dividends, and you can still get points for every run, as long as you don't stop in January, you have to add up to five dollars." One of the horsemen said that he was very proud of the money he had earned, and that in this mountain, five dollars a month was an excellent treatment. Even if it is a high salary in the eyes of the villagers, if you can be a horse driver, you can immediately get the favor of many young girls.

Qin Hu smiled, "When I get to the road construction site, I have to work part-time, and then I will calculate the money according to the work." The more you earn, the more money you make. For example, if you don't know anything, you will definitely get less work if you sell some dead energy. If you know more, for example, if you can drive horses and chariots, you will definitely be able to earn more by then. ”

"I can tell you right now that going to the construction site to build roads will not be less than what you are earning by driving horses now."

"Then it will take a year to come back? What about the crops at home, and what about our horses? ”

"You can rest assured, in the past, the road was built, and when it is time to plant rice and harvest rice, some people will definitely be released to come back, and then organize women and children to help each other, just do it. As for your horses, bring them to the other side, and then they will be counted according to your horses, and you will be given money. If you bring your own tools to go over, then I will also give you money, in short, the court will not calculate us, this road has been repaired, it is also convenient for everyone, and the transportation will be convenient in the future, and our grain and local products will also be convenient to transport out and sell. ”

"If it's so good, don't coax us."

"What did I, Qin Hu, coax you to do, did you say that the imperial court coaxed everyone? Let me tell you, the imperial court has set aside 100 million yuan to build this road. One hundred million, this road is to be paved with gold and silver, and the court will not lose a penny of your penny. ”

Everyone is a little suspicious, if the imperial court recruits them to build roads for free, they will still think it is normal, and now they ask everyone to build roads, pay back wages, and give a lot of money, which makes everyone feel unreal.

"100 million, that's how much. I'm afraid there won't be a mountain together! ”

The young horseman who was proud of earning five yuan a month just now suddenly couldn't count it. 100 million, how many five yuan does it cost?

"Now that the Son of Heaven is in power, it is extremely benevolent to the Holy Ming, otherwise how could he divide the land and house for everyone. The imperial court wants to build roads, that is, to benefit our Yunnan and Guizhou people, build a road, and drive one party out of poverty and become rich, not the other way around. ”

Qin Hu turned out to be just as confused as them. Later, I went to the county seat to participate in the preparatory work meeting for road construction, and there were people from Beijing who explained in detail the importance of building this road. The construction of this road is not just to recover the three declarations and six comforts. He also wanted to strengthen the imperial court's control over the southwest.

It is also for the benefit of the people of the southwest.

The imperial court should take the opportunity of this road construction to further let the people understand that the imperial court is for the good of the people. We should take this opportunity to let the people enjoy convenience and preferential treatment.

and by means of roads. Invigorate the backward economic outlook of Yunnan and Guizhou.

Wherever the road is built, the people on which side will be driven. Therefore, this time the road was built, and the top was pulled out of the gold and silver mountains. All localities should actively mobilize local people to participate in road construction, and they should also let the people earn money and gain convenience, and they should not be dissatisfied with the imperial court because the road construction will increase the burden on the people.

In some ways, building this road is also a large-scale cash-for-work exercise. For the people of Yungui, it is not as simple as giving money, but it is necessary to be active. It's useless to just give money, the money will run out.

But if you give money to the people to build the road, and the people repair the road, they will get the money. The people have surplus money in their hands, and when the local roads are opened, they will have the capital in the future, and with the help and help of the local government, they will be able to make the economy better and live a better life.

When he heard these words for the first time, Qin Hu was indeed shocked, but he believed in the imperial court. What happened to me is the best proof of this.

Hearing that there is money to build roads, and food and shelter are included, everyone changed their mood again, and if there is an opportunity to go out to build roads to earn money, this is of course a good thing.

"Township chief, how much labor does our village produce, can my baby go together to earn work and get money?"

Qin Hu smiled, "The above requires us to send 8,000 laborers from Dading Mansion to build roads, and we have eight counties in Dading Mansion, so one county has 1,000 workers." There are three towns and seventeen townships in our county, and each township produces 100 workers. ”

Hearing that only a hundred jobs were produced in a township, everyone couldn't help but feel a little lost. There are several villages in a township, and only a dozen or so people can come out of a village. In this way, the opportunity to let the baby earn money is gone.

Qin Hu said, "One hundred out of one town is the basic requirement of the top, in fact, as long as everyone is willing to build roads, the imperial court also welcomes it." ”

"Volunteer to build roads, do you have the money?"

"It's all the same. Of course, the young man must earn more than the baby woman. ”

"Mother-in-law can also go?"

"Whether it's a baby or a mother-in-law, or even a fifty or sixty-year-old old man or a teenage baby, you can go, anyway, there is a lot of power. This time the road was repaired by the nearby prefectures and counties, so the past is not far away. Everyone of all ages goes into battle, and if there are many people, they can finish it early, and finish it early. ”

The imperial court was very eager to build this road, so the road construction plan was to start construction at the same time, and the most basic part near the local government and county, the imperial court also had a special engineering battalion to open the mountain and build bridges.

Building roads is a big project, but even the elderly and children are just as useful.

Eight thousand laborers per prefecture are only the most basic number required above. But if you can make up 80,000, of course the imperial court welcomes it.

The sooner the road was built, the sooner the imperial court could support the Burmese battlefield.

Although the elderly, children, and women go into battle to build roads, they are certainly not as efficient as the young men. But anyway, this road is not a road that disturbs the people, but it has a bit of a taste of work-for-relief, so let these people who voluntarily go to work on the road can also go on the road to get a share of the money, of course the court will not object.

As soon as Qin Hu spoke, the horse gang drivers had already made up their minds to build roads. As for their horses and mules, there is no need to worry, there will be a need for vigorous livestock on the construction site, and they can also earn a share of the work for the village by driving the horses over.

Several horsemen couldn't sit still, so they said to Qin Hu one after another, so they rushed home and took the initiative to help Qin Hu call someone for a meeting.

The village is not small, and there is even a small market every few days, which attracts several nearby villages to come and set up stalls here.

Soon, everyone in the village came to the meeting. Everyone is now accustomed to frequent meetings, and every time they meet, they either convey some imperial edict or official document of the government, but most of the time, they also convey some good news.

Qin Hu and the others were almost there, so they informed everyone about the road construction.

Many people had already heard about this from several horse drivers, so Qin Hu didn't bother to say anything, and everyone was already very active in signing up.

"You can bring your own tools, whether it is mules and horses, pickaxes and hoes, and you can also bring grain, bacon and pickles, etc., which can also be sold to the road at a price." (To be continued.) )

PS: Thank you for the support of my Fat Xiaoyao, Shan Qingying, and Fat Rabbit, thank you!