Seeing Li Maochun standing in the middle, the first official walked briskly and arched his hand: "Zhang Fengqi, the commander of Funing County, I don't know why General Li came to Funing County?" ”

Li Maochun hugged his fists and said: "The county lord is polite, Li took the liberty to come because he wanted to ask the county lord for help." ”

Zhang Fengqi hesitated when he heard this: "I don't know what the lower officials can do to help General Li?" ”

Li Maochun said with a smile: "Don't hide it from the county lord, Li has taken a fancy to a piece of wasteland and wants to pay money to buy it." ”

"Buying land? Or a wasteland? Zhang Fengqi was even more puzzled when he heard this.

After a deep groan, Zhang Fengqi continued: "I don't know where General Li has taken a fancy to the wasteland?" ”

"The wasteland ten miles west of the Dashihe River." Li Maochun said.

Zhang Fengqi thought for a while when he heard this, and said: "To the west of the Dashihe River, there is indeed a wasteland, but it is not under the jurisdiction of the lower officials, and the lower officials cannot be the masters." ”

"Isn't it under the control of Funing County?" Li Maochun said strangely.

Zhang Fengqi smiled bitterly: "Originally, it was under the jurisdiction of Funing County, but Shanhaiguan is an important military town, where can the local officials in the surrounding area get involved?" ”

Hearing this, Li Maochun turned his head to look at Yang He.

Yang He hesitated for a moment and said, "Then I don't know where there is a large area of wasteland under the jurisdiction of Funing County?" ”

Zhang Fengqi looked at Yang He, and saw that this person was just an ordinary soldier, but he talked a lot, and couldn't help but be a little annoyed.

Li Maochun saw it and hurriedly said: "I haven't introduced it to the county lord yet, this is Yang He, the deputy chief soldier of Xiping, and it is Yang Qian, the general manager of the guard, who wants to buy land this time." ”

Zhang Fengqi couldn't help but be startled when he heard this. He naturally knew what the representative of the guard battalion meant, this person turned out to be a thousand presidents, and it was not as simple as the head of the family.

Hearing this, Zhang Fengqi hurriedly arched his hand and said: "Rude, rude." I don't know what Yang Qian is doing when he buys wasteland. ”

Yang He hugged his fists and said: "Open up the wasteland and farm." ”

Zhang Fengqi was puzzled: "Buy wasteland to cultivate? Why not buy good land? ”

Yang He said with a smile: "Don't hide it from your lord, Yang bought a lot of land this time, and the good land can't afford it." ”

"I wonder how much land Yang Qian always plans to buy?" Zhang Fengqi asked.

"Tens of thousands of acres, if the price is cheap, I will buy more." Yang He said with a smile.

"Tens of thousands of acres!" The officials gasped when they heard this.

However, Zhang Fengqi quickly came back to his senses and stretched out his hand: "This is not a place for narration, General Li, President Yang Qian followed his subordinates to the back hall." ”

"Lord Prefectural, please." Li Maochun and Yang He were busy.

After speaking, Yang He motioned for Li Wei to take a team of soldiers to carry the box and follow, while the rest of the people waited in the courtyard to standby.

Under the leadership of Zhang Fengqi, everyone entered the county office through the side door.

Entering the side door, there is a corridor with many rooms on each side.

Seeing so many rooms in the county office, Yang He felt strange in his heart, so he asked.

Zhang Fengqi said with a smile: "It seems that Mr. Yang Qian has never been to the county office, so the officials will introduce Mr. Yang Qian." ”

Pointing to the room on the left, Zhang Fengqi said: "This is the main hall of the county government, where the lower officials usually decide cases, and the reception of the upper officials is here." Do you want Yang Qian to go in and have a look? ”

Yang He hurriedly waved his hand, Zhang Fengqi was just polite to him, he couldn't really go to see what the county hall was like.

Then Zhang Fengqi introduced the rest of the rooms to Yang He.

Adjacent to the lobby is the second hall, which is the place where the county pre-trial case or the trial in the lobby cannot be decided for a while, and the place to temporarily withdraw from the hall to think, also called the retreat hall.

After the second hall is the third hall, also called the back hall, which is the place where the county receives higher-level officials, discusses political affairs, and works and lives, and some cases involving confidentiality or inconvenience for public trial are sometimes concluded here.

The wing rooms on both sides are the six-room offices, the left side is the three rooms for officials, households, and ceremonies, and the right side is the three rooms for soldiers, criminals, and workers. There are also some chores, which are also worked in the wings on both sides.

The rooms on the east and west sides of the wing room are the officials' houses, which are the places where the officials in the yamen live.

Behind the three halls is the inner house of the county, and on both sides of the inner house of the county is the house where the county and the history of the county and the main book live.

In addition, there are warehouses, stables, county schools, prisons and other buildings in the county office.

The prison is generally in the southwest corner of the county office, so there are also those who manage the prison called the South Prison. Prisons are divided into internal and external prisons, as well as women's prisons, with the inner prison for felons and the outer prison for ordinary prisoners.

After listening to Zhang Fengqi's introduction, Yang He nodded again and again.

While speaking, everyone came to the back hall, Li Wei and the others put down the boxes and withdrew, and then Zhang Fengqi introduced Li Maochun and Yang He to the officials who accompanied him, respectively, the county governor of Funing County, the main book and the canonical history.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were four official positions in the county, namely the magistrate, the county, the main book, and the history, and these four positions belonged to the imperial court officials, and some large counties would set up one or two more counties. The heads of institutions such as the Sixth Chamber, the Horse Department, and the Grain Department are officials, and the officials refer to the public officials registered in the Ministry of Officials. There are also errand servants in the yamen, who are not paid and belong to voluntary work, and some are given subsidies.

After the re-ceremony, several people sat down as guests of honor, and then someone brought tea, and Zhang Fengqi waved his hand to signal Li Maochun and Yang He to drink tea.

After drinking tea, Zhang Fengqi said with a smile: "Mr. Yang Qian, General Li, and Mr. Yang Qian, the right talent, Mr. Yang Qian, where is there any wasteland in Funing County, it is not a secret, there are many wastelands in Funing County, as long as Yang Qian wants to buy it, he can have as much as he wants." ”

Yang He nodded, after coming to the Ming Dynasty, Yang He came all the way to Funing County from Xipingbao in Liaoxi, and a large area of land was barren where he passed, which showed that the Ming Dynasty was sparsely populated and far less than that of later generations.

Without waiting for Yang He to speak, Li Maochun suddenly smiled and said: "Lord County, Li Mou saw that your county government seems to have not been renovated for many years, right?" ”

Zhang Fengqi sighed: "Funing is a small county, all year round, you can't collect much grain, where is the money to renovate!" ”

Li Maochun smiled and continued: "The county government is so simple, it seems that the life of several adults is not very easy, right?" ”

Zhang Fengqi said: "Let General Li smile, life is indeed not easy." ”

Li Maochun nodded: "Lord Zhang, my lords, Li will not beat around the bush when he speaks, so I'll just say it." ”

Saying that, Li Maochun got up and opened a box and said: "This box of silver is one thousand taels, as long as the land is cheap, this thousand taels of silver belongs to your lords." ”

Seeing a box full of silver, Zhang Fengqi and the others suddenly looked straight at it.

Immediately, several people looked at the other dozen or so boxes, if each of these boxes was a thousand taels, wouldn't it say that there were a total of 10,000 taels of silver?

After a while, Zhang Fengqi came back to his senses, looked at Li Maochun and said, "General Li, are you bribing this official?" ”

Li Maochun shook his head: "It's not a bribe, I didn't ask the adults to sell the fertile land to us at the price of wasteland, we only buy the wasteland, as for the price of the wasteland, don't the adults have the right to call the shots?" ”

Zhang Fengqi glared at Li Maochun and said, "Do you know how much wasteland can be bought for a thousand taels of silver?" If you are willing to pay us a thousand taels of silver, you must hope that the price we will sell you is worthy of the thousand taels of silver you offered. ”

"Of course, otherwise why would I do it." Li Maochun said with a smile.

After a pause, Li Maochun continued: "Of course, a few adults can not charge this thousand taels of silver, or they can sell it to us at the normal price, but we can not buy it, I think there are still many places in Yongping Mansion that have large wastelands, and if it can't be done here, we can go elsewhere." ”

Zhang Fengqi was speechless when he heard this.

After a while, Zhang Fengqi looked at Yang He and asked, "Xia Guan wants to know that Yang Qian has bought so much land and so many people have opened up the wasteland?" ”

Yang He said: "These lands were bought for our soldiers and the families of the fallen soldiers, and Funing County has recently housed a lot of soldiers' families, right?" They are all the families of our brothers. ”

Zhang Fengqi was stunned when he heard this: "Didn't you come out of Xiping Fort?" ”

Yang He sighed: "We returned to Guangning City after coming out of Xiping Fort, we didn't want Sun Degong to rebel, the whole city of Guangning City and the army and people fled, we entered the city under the leadership of General Luo to quell the rebellion, after the rebellion, many soldiers in Guangning City who did not have time to run out were collected by us, and then we fought with Jianyu in Guangning City. Unfortunately, our troops were too small to resist the attack of the captives, so we had no choice but to retreat. ”

When Zhang Fengqi heard this, Huo Ran got up and bowed to Li Maochun and Yang He: "The lower officials don't know that the two generals are so righteous and rude, so it's no wonder." ”

Yang He shook his head and smiled: "The county lord is honest and honest, and Yang admires it." ”

Zhang Fengqi said with a smile: "In this way, the desolate underground official sold it to you at the price of one tael of silver and ten acres, what do you think?" ”

Li Maochun groaned: "One tael of silver and ten acres, it's not impossible, but we have to pick the location, first of all, there must be a river nearby, there is no river, watering is a troublesome thing." It is better to have a mountain nearby, and the county lord knows that after we buy the land, we will definitely build houses for those people, and we don't want to go far to buy timber and stones. ”

Zhang Fengqi said with a smile: "Xiaguan has nothing else in Funing County, but there are a few rivers, not to mention the mountains, the north of Funing County is full of mountains." ”

Yang He suddenly asked, "Is there any wasteland near the sea?" ”

"Yes, Qinhuangdao is all wasteland." Zhang Fengqi said.

(The place name of Qinhuangdao first appeared in the Jiajing period, and it was recorded in the "Shanhaiguan Chronicles" in the 14th year of Jiajing: Qinhuangdao, twenty-five miles southwest of the city, and one mile into the sea.) The city here refers to Shanhaiguan City. During the Ming Dynasty, a salt bureau was set up in Qinhuangdao. ）

After a pause, Zhang Fengqi continued: "But you have to rely on the mountains and the sea, I'm afraid it won't work in Qinhuangdao." ”

Yang He said with a smile: "It doesn't matter, some people are arranged in a place near the mountain, and some people are arranged in a place near the sea." Lord of the county, it is not a year and a half to have a harvest in the wasteland, you can live by the mountains, you can live by the sea, you can live by the sea. ”

Zhang Fengqi nodded, turned around and whispered to the county and the others for a while, and the county and the others nodded again and again.

After the discussion, Zhang Fengqi turned around and said: "Since this is the case, then the lower official will choose two places for Yang Qian, one is in the area of the mouth of the Yanghe River more than forty miles east of Funing County, and the other is in the area of Xiangshan in the north, about twenty miles away from Funing County, there is a Yu River (Daihe) in the south of Xiangshan, with abundant water sources and irrigation can be guaranteed. ”

Yang He said: "Do you have a map?" ”

Zhang Fengqi smiled bitterly: "Xia Guan is a magistrate, how can there be a map?" (Note: In ancient times, maps were mostly military.) )