That night, Lord Yang in Wangcui Restaurant to the two of them to catch the wind, Wangcui Restaurant in the southwest corner of the city next to the lotus pond, Chen Xin is on the third floor of the window can see the famous Huancui Building on the northwest city wall of Weihai (still there), to the north can see Songding Mountain and Diaowo Mountain, Lord Yang told him, this is the best restaurant in Weihai, if it is summer, you can see the pine top mountain with lush trees from afar, you can also watch the lotus flowers blooming in the pond closely.

According to the rules of officialdom, Chen Xin still wrapped a twenty taels of silver to give to Lord Yang, and the two commanders knew ten taels together, in addition to Wang Yuanzheng, the other surnamed Jiang, and the four commanders gave five taels each. The meeting gift is an unspoken rule recognized by everyone, and several adults did not shirk it, and after taking the silver, they looked at Chen Xin a lot.

Chen Xin participated in this kind of officialdom banquet for the first time, because Song Wenxian has no official body, so the specifications should be relatively low, this time it is not a big table, each person has a small table, each dish is a separate portion, this meal of public money to eat and drink used up three taels of silver, although Chen Xin is now a rich man, but he has never eaten such an expensive meal, the house uses good charcoal to raise a charcoal fire, warm as spring, and invited two actors to sing the opera that Chen Xin does not understand, while drinking and eating, Chen Xin remembered the appearance of those military households who sheltered from the wind at the city gate, It's a world of difference.

Chen Xin and Song Wenxian rested in the city that night, early the next morning, Wang Yuanzheng boarded the boat with the two, and went north around Songding Mountain and Diaowo Mountain, until the afternoon, before coming to the Mazi Port where they would be placed, Chen Xin stood beside Wang Yuanzheng, looking at the surrounding shape seriously, the whole bay area is like an ear shape, the north is like a trumpet facing the Liaohai Sea, the other three sides are land, the coast is rocky except for the southeast is a beach, the rest of the place is rocky, there is a piece of land protruding into the sea in the east, and there is a hill on it, There is also a hill to the southwest. Generally, hurricanes come from the east or south, and this place is better sheltered than Weihaiwei anchorage, but the mouth of the bay is not blocked, and the wave protection is poor.

"Mr. Song, Chen Qianhu, this is Mazigang." Wang Yuanzheng pointed to the hill in the southwest, "That mountain is Mazi Mountain, and this port is also named after it, the river in the south is called Qincun River, and the bunker by the river is Mazidun." ”

Chen Xin looked at the past from afar, the Mazidun was about dozens of meters away from the Qincun River, and there was a pier wall outside, so he couldn't see the situation inside, and there were some turned fields along the river outside the pier, and he didn't know if he wanted to share it with himself.

Wang Yuanzheng continued: "Chen Qianhu, the commander has exempted you from taxes, grains and labor, and the land allocated to you is at the foot of the mountain in the east, and as for your residence, you can choose a suitable place in the Bay Area by yourself." ”

Chen Xin, Liu Minyou and others discussed for a while, and chose the foot of the hill in the east, which was very close to their fields, the coast was rocky, and they should be able to find a place to moor, there were more trees on the mountain, it was easier to cut wood to build a house, and they could also collect firewood there in the future.

At the moment, the two boats put down the three firewood boats, Scar and Wang Zugui and others are old sailors, rowing oars and holding pennies, rowing all the way to the east coast, all the way to the depth of the water with a long penny, running back and forth twice, found a few places for the Fu boat to moor the shore, boarded up to two slender men to guard the shore, three firewood boats returned to the side of the big boat, the Fu boat has lowered its sails, the firewood boat threw away the rope, tied to the mast, and so the Fu boat anchored, several small boats turned around, the people on the boat rowed together with the oars, dragging the Fu boat to the shore, When the boat untied the rope near the shore, the oarsman landed first, pulled the boat slowly approached the shore wall, and the people on the deck of the boat used a penny against the rock, adjusted for a while, and finally stopped the boat safely on the shore.

Liu Minyou saw that it was so laborious, and said to Chen Xin: "We have to repair a wharf quickly, otherwise there will be so many people every time the boat stops, and it will be difficult for the fishing boat to dock in the future." ”

"Indeed." After Chen Xin finished speaking, he shook off the boat from the lowered gangplank and stood on his territory.

Wang Yuanzheng helped Zhu Guobin across the springboard, confessed to the two of them, and rushed to Mazidun, he wanted to call the hundred households stationed here in Mazidun and the thousands of households in Zuo Qianhu, so that he could explain the situation clearly in person.

The five groups of soldiers disembarked one after another, and after they were lined up according to the squads, they were all looking at their new homes, the terrain on the shore was flat, and not far from the sea was the fields, and after the freeze, there was a depression. Lu Donkey ran over to look around, and came back to Chen Xin and said, "My lord, the land allocated to us is all abandoned land, and I am afraid that we will not be able to harvest much grain next year." ”

Chen Xin nodded noncommittally, no wonder Yang Yunnong gave himself a thousand acres so generously, and his feelings were all wasteland, but he didn't rely on this bit of land, the good military land was either swallowed by the officers, or it was occupied by the gentry, how could he have a share of a hundred households.

Liu Minyou was arranged by Chen Xin to take charge of civil affairs, and he couldn't help but be a little anxious when he heard it, and said to Lu Donkey and Dai Zhenggang: "You have all worked in agriculture, can you still hurry up now?"

The two shook their heads at the same time: "Mr. Liu, this year has passed the agricultural season early, and the fields are frozen, so we can only find a way to fertilize the land in the spring." ”

Liu Minyou was a little strange when he heard it, he had a classmate from Weihai, I heard that the winter is not too cold, and there is the ocean all around, why is it so cold in the Ming Dynasty, he shook his head and whispered to Chen Xin: "Comrade Qianhu, we can spend a lot more silver, at least there is no harvest for half a year, listen to his meaning, one or two years can only be low-yield." There are nearly 100 of us, men set two catties of grain a day, women and children one catty, and more than 40 stone of grain per month. ”

Chen Xin is not short of this money at the moment, but food is more important than money at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and it must be fought for in the future. Chen Xin changed the subject: "How many women and children do we have?" ”

"There are fifty slender men from Zhangjiawan, six women, seven children, twenty-one men, two women, three children, five craftsmen, five men, five women, nine children, plus our original and a few sailors from Dengzhou, a total of eighty-nine men, thirteen women, and nineteen children. Director Chen, there are a total of 121 people under your command. ”

Chen Xin smiled and said to Liu Minyou: "There are eleven men left in Yanggu, these people are not training for the time being, and there are twenty military households allocated, and the rest will be selected and arranged by you, mainly civilian, and the other five teams of soldiers will mainly train after repairing their residences." If you want to transfer people when the farm is busy, you can tell me again. ”

"What about the women and children?"

"Women are used by men, children are used by women, and you are also in charge."

Liu Min secretly wiped his sweat, he has never done civil work, only see the move, the most important thing at the moment is to repair the residence and hoard food, and farm the land after the spring, as long as he grasps these two main lines.

Chen Xin called Dai Zhenggang and asked him to take his two teams to get axes, go to the hill in the east, cut down some trees and come back, and build a few big shacks first.

Dai Zhenggang led the two teams of soldiers to leave, walked up the mountain, stopped at the edge of the woods, and began to cut down trees, Chen Xin retracted his gaze, and it happened that Wang Yuanzheng also returned, followed by two people.

"Chen Qianhu, this is Zuo Qianhu, Zeng Qianhu, this is Gong Pingkang, one hundred households in Mazidun." As soon as Wang Yuanzheng met, he introduced to Chen Xin, this Zeng Qianhu wore an old Qianhu official uniform, thin and thin, speaking of Chen Xin's serious top boss, but the more top bosses can't take Chen Xin now, let alone this broken thousand households.

Chen Xin met with Zeng Qianhu according to officialdom etiquette, and then looked at the hundred households, it was even more unseemly, not to mention that there was no official uniform, a tattered dress, the two shoes were different, and there were several big holes in the backs.

These hundred households are called Gong Pingkang, people in their forties look sixty years old, Chen Xin is a thousand households, he only bowed to Chen Xin, looking at the three teams of slender men who were neatly lined up with weapons behind Chen Xin, without the slightest bit of the strength of the head snake, but worried that this new neighbor would bully his pockmarked dun.

Not only him, but Wang Yuanzheng and Zeng Qianhu also felt shocked when they saw Chen Xin's people, most of them were adult men, the queue was neat, very imposing, and they seemed to be stronger than the twenty family members who commanded the envoy, and there was the governor as the backstage, and they didn't know if they would get along well after meeting such a subordinate.

Chen Xin put on a professional smile and said to Gong Baihu without putting on a show: "Gong Baihu is hard, we will be neighbors in the future, and we will move around each other more." ”

"It should be, it should be." Gong Baihu looked at Chen Xin's calm face and put his mind at ease.

"Thousands of households, Gong Baihu, I came to Weihai to be ordered by the governor to patrol the sea frontier, strictly investigate the construction of slaves, it is necessary to stay for a long time, and the most urgent thing is to repair a residence first, but there is still a lot of materials."

When Zeng Qianhu and Gong Baihu heard this, they thought that they were going to fight the autumn wind, but with Lord Tongzhi beside them, neither of them dared to refuse directly, and their faces immediately darkened.

Chen Xin continued: "I plan to buy some wood, thatch, wheat straw, and firewood from the two of you, but I don't know if there are any. If there is a helper, I provide two meals a day. ”

"Ah, of course, there are wheat straws and firewood." As soon as the two of them heard that it was for silver, their faces immediately turned cloudy and clear, these military households have some thatch and wheat straw in their homes, which are used to keep out the cold or burn fires in winter, and they are usually worthless, as long as they can sell for money, there is nothing to do in the military households, and who does not want to come out to eat a full meal.

Chen Xin doesn't care about this bit of silver, the most important thing now is to build the shack on the land as soon as possible, otherwise everyone lives on the boat, it is crowded, and some people who have not been on the boat are already very weak and prone to disease after a long time.

"Then you can ask them to pick and sell now, and give five cents of silver for every ten catties of wheat stalk firewood, and then price the wood after seeing how good it is."

Gong Baihu turned around and ran, there was no fatigue just now, the pockmarked dun was more than a mile away from here, he ran back as soon as he slipped away, and after a while, a group of people rushed out of the pier wall, old and young, men and women, carrying wheat stalks higher than people, and carrying wood and firewood, rushing to this side in general, one walked faster than the other, for fear that people would not buy it when they had enough, just like participating in the Olympic race walking competition.

Liu Minyou gave Chen Xinyi a thumbs up, so that the illegal building could be erected quickly, and everyone could get off the boat first. However, it seemed that the price was too low, and he whispered to Chen Xin: "Isn't the exploitation too strict?" ”

Chen Xin smiled: "Look at their eagerness, they are definitely not strict." ”

A few teenage children ran the fastest, all barefoot, and two of them didn't even have pants, and they didn't know who to look for when they ran to them, standing stupidly between twenty or thirty steps, that Gong Baihu was old after all, and he also carried wheat stalks, and now he was still panting on the tail of the team.

Liu Minyou took the remaining eleven people from Yanggu and beckoned those children to come over, and Chen Xin asked a few of his own soldiers to maintain order and line up those military households.

The aunts and aunts who walked slowly in the back arrived one after another, and when they saw that the one in front handed over the wheat stalks, they immediately received the silver, and chattered about it.

Liu Minyou is also looking at these military households, full of Huazi, not to mention dirty, the clothes are tattered, the patches cover the patches, most of them are barefoot, some children don't have pants, they are fine when they run, but now when they stop, they are trembling.

The eleven people from Yanggu, Liu Minyou organized them into a logistics team, and they were collecting wheat straw and firewood at this time, and they didn't weigh it, but they all had to pay grain every year, and they were experienced, and they could roughly estimate the weight by carrying it directly by hand, Liu Minyou only paid more than two taels of silver in total, and put away a large pile of nearly 5,000 catties of wheat straw firewood, he looked at the happy expressions of those military households, and suddenly felt that the silver was more valuable.