At the beginning of April, with the successful sale of the second batch of nearly 3,000 pieces of soap, Liu Yan earned 900 taels of silver, and with money in his hands, Liu Yan was ready to open up the wasteland immediately.

At this time, Liu Yan's plan to recruit military households has also come to an end, and as of now, according to the final statistics, there are 53 households in Dapandun on paper, with a total of 241 men and women. Among them, there were 128 men, 85 adults, and 43 young men. One hundred and thirteen women, eighty-four women over thirteen years old, and twenty-nine young girls under thirteen years old.

Liu Yan instructed Zhao Min to register these people one by one, and issued two certificates, the first and the second, some of whom were originally refugees, and also issued military household posts for them, and recorded their names in the yellow book of military registration.

Dapandun now has a total of 53 military households, more than 200 mouths, all of which are real numbers, and in several tunbao in Wangjiazhuang, it is considered to be a large scale. For the time being, these people are building a nest on the west side of Dapandun to live, and for a time this side has formed a small village and town, which is very lively.

Now that Liu Yan has enough manpower in his hands, he discussed with Chen Xun and determined the scope of the first batch of wasteland.

After this period of exploration, Liu Yan decided to reclaim an unowned wasteland relatively close to the west of Dapandun. Not only was the wasteland close to each other, but there was also a section of abandoned aqueduct, which was only too far away from the contiguous fields to be seized by the officers and gentry.

From the west of Dapandun to the Nanhe area, there are actually several other silted up and abandoned canals, if they can be used, they can make the wasteland in this area become fertile land, but now Liu Yan is not financially sufficient, although he does not have a lot of income, but the expenses are also not small, and there is no savings, so he can only let his military households dredge a section of one of the canals first, and then repair it slightly, and temporarily use the water source.

As for the abandoned canals for the rest, Liu Yan plans to take out 100 taels of silver to dig five deep masonry wells in various places, so that all military households can use water together, and reclaim a batch of land before the summer of this year, and each household will be divided into dozens of acres.

During this time, Liu Yan had already sent Chen Xun to lead some military households to conduct a detailed investigation of this piece of land, and they had a careful understanding of where there was a lot of wasteland and where the land was fertile. In the end, Liu Yan decided to reclaim wasteland on both sides of a waste canal called Xitong Canal to the west of Dapandun, dredge this canal, and then dig several deep wells around each side of the canal to roughly solve the problem of water use in the fields.

At this time, in addition to Wang Yue leading more than a dozen women to stay in the pier to guard, there were also Chen Jiang's people who continued to stay in the soap workshop in the pier to produce. Liu Yan now has more than 100 men and more than 80 strong women, except for a few old people, and in this era, women also have to work in the fields with men. After these years of recuperation, everyone's mood has improved a lot, although most of these men and women are old and weak, but it is undeniable that they are very motivated.

Among these people, Liu Yan asked Chen Xun to lead some people to dredge the Xitong Canal, and the rest of them all followed him to open up wasteland and cultivate profits in the surrounding areas.

For many days, everyone came out of dawn and returned after dark, working hard every day.

Those military households were very moved when they saw that Liu Yan, who was the first captain, was taking the lead in working every day, sweating like rain all day long, and working very hard, and felt that a Shangguan like Liu Zongqi was really rare and even rarer. Under such circumstances, naturally no military household dares to be lazy in the back.

And every day, Chen Xun and Wang Yue also follow Liu Yan and work hard. Liu Yan also secretly observed Wang Yue, he took some military households to dredge the Xitong Canal, or stayed in the pier to garrison, or reclaimed wasteland together, and worked hard for a period of time. In particular, the sludge that has been sorted out is also known to be picked up in one place and used to fertilize the field in the future. Liu Yan nodded, this Wang Yue can still be used.

Early in the morning, all the military households quickly finished breakfast, under the leadership of Liu Yan, everyone went out of the fort again, each carrying a pickaxe, or carrying a hoe, and some women carrying dustpans, baskets and other things together, and some military households drove the dozen or so ploughing oxen, and also took them to open up the wasteland, which could double the speed. According to manpower, each man can only open up half an acre of wasteland a day, but with ploughing cattle, he can open up one acre a day, or even more.

Liu Yan saw that Zhao Min was also carrying a pickaxe and following him, today he wore a short fight, and his sparse beard was blown up by the breeze from time to time, but his tall and thin figure was still straight, and it could be seen that he had a literati temperament. These days, he also works in the fields with everyone every day, thinking that he can afford such hardships as a literati, which makes Liu Yan quite surprised.

Thinking of these days, Zhao Min was quite effective, and he was the only one who could write and calculate in the castle, Liu Yan didn't want to exhaust him, so he would have to find a scribe again.

So Liu Yan glanced at Zhao Min and said with a smile: "The weather is already hot now, sir, how can a scholar of Sven suffer such hardships with us coarse?" But don't get heat stroke, why don't you go back to the castle to rest. ”

Zhao Min stopped, he solemnly saluted Liu Yan and said: "The students are not talented, Mengjia Chang is loved, now that Tunbao is just starting, everyone is working hard every day, how can Zhao Min be lazy alone and make everyone embarrassed?" Zhao Min is determined to follow everyone. ”

Liu Yan praised: "Okay, he is prosperous in Ritunbao, and Liu Yan will not forget Mr. 's credit." ”

Zhao Min gave a deep salute: "Thank you, sir." ”

I saw Zhao Min straighten his waist, and went with Liu Yan without a word, although he came to Liu Yan for a short time, he already felt a vigorous momentum, this feeling made him intoxicated, coupled with Liu Yan's appreciation of him, the two small flag officers under him also respected him, compared to the past days in Wangjiazhuang, Zhao Min is inseparable from here.

Soon everyone arrived at a place in Xitongqu, where a large piece of land had been reclaimed, Liu Yan took a pickaxe, and smiled at Chen Xun, Wang Yue, and Zhao Min next to him: "Let's all have a chance today, do you dare to compete with me?" ”

Wang Yue said with a smile: "A chief is brave, naturally he is stronger than us. ”

Chen Xun glanced at Wang Yue, and then said: "Compare and compare, today I must win the first chief!" ”

Zhao Min also said: "Students are willing to compete. ”

The four of them stood in a row with pickaxes or hoes in their hands, all with serious expressions. Liu Yan's eyes were deep, he just looked ahead, and then with an order, he raised his pickaxe and rushed out first.

Then Chen Xun, Wang Yue, and Zhao Min also blushed, shouting and rushing out behind Liu Yan. At this time, an old man who was in charge of beating the gong to boost morale on the ground also sounded the gong in his hand at the same time, and the gong sound was rapid, which was quite like a general's order.

The old man struck the gong vigorously and shouted in a hissing voice: "Work, everyone work hard!" ”

Rows of men and women behind him rushed out with Liu Yan and a few others, all holding hoes high.

Swinging a hoe like rain, Liu Yan's pickaxe fell to the ground, and he never got up straight, Zhao Min also did it silently, Wang Yue kept waving his hands while looking at the results of the three people, Chen Xun was immersed in hard work for a while, and when he saw that his results were ahead, he burst his mouth and laughed, and when he saw that he was lagging behind, after scolding a few times, he hurriedly caught up again.

In this way, everyone worked until noon, until Chen Jiang's loud voice came from afar: "Eat, everyone is resting and eating!" ”

In order to improve efficiency, everyone ate on the ground, and after Chen Jiang's soap workshop was cooked, he led a few women to deliver the food in the fort.

Seeing that it was time to eat, Liu Yan stood up, looked at the people who were also sweating like rain, and said with a smile: "It's time to eat, everyone should rest!" ”

Zhao Min, Chen Xun, and Wang Yue also straightened their waists, Zhao Min suddenly stumbled, and Chen Xun next to him hurriedly supported him and said, "Mr. Zhao, are you okay?" ”

At this time, Zhao Min's short body was completely soaked with sweat, and he lacked confidence to speak, and he was panting for a while before he waved his hand with difficulty and said, "It's okay, I'm fine!" ”

Then Zhao Min knocked on his back again and sighed: "I haven't done farm work for a long time, and my bones are loose." ”

Seeing this, Liu Yan also came over and asked Zhao Min a few words with concern, asking him to pay attention to rest, and Zhao Min thanked him again and again.

Then Liu Yan smiled at everyone: "How about it, how do you see winning or losing?" ”

Sure enough, today is Liu Yan's first, Wang Yue sighed solemnly: "The ability of the first chief, I really have to bow to the wind." Then Wang Yue bowed for a long time, which made everyone around laugh.

Zhao Min was also smiling beside him, but Chen Xun said unconvinced: "Today, let Captain A get the first place, and I will compete again tomorrow." ”

Liu Yan smiled slightly, what he wanted was this progressive atmosphere, and then said, "Okay, let's rest, let's eat." ”

Everyone is putting down the farm tools one after another, gathered together to eat, see that today is a big bucket of rice, there are a large bucket of clear soup, there are a few plates of vegetarian dishes, and a plate of meat dishes, everyone is smiling, after hard work, the most enjoyable is to eat beautifully.

Now the rations of everyone in the dun are all supplied by Liu Yan, and the standard of meals is naturally formulated by Liu Yan. In Liu Yan's regulations, it has always been a day of meat, five days of vegetarian, early morning porridge, and a ladle of wine for every ten people on seven days.

Here in Dapandun, as long as you are willing to work, you can eat your stomach, and Shangguan will not beat or scold, nor will he deduct anything, and even share the joys and sorrows with these military households every day, this kind of life makes many people laugh in their dreams, and they have followed Liu Yan with all their hearts since then.

Although the Tuntian matter of Dapandun was still established for a short time, and these military households also came from all over the country, they have quickly become a cohesive collective. Seeing this, Liu Yan is still very proud in his heart, this is the result of his own efforts.

Liu Yan and the others were also looking for a place to sit down and eat, and at this time, Wang Yue appeared in time, no matter where this guy was when he was eating, he would definitely come to eat with Liu Yan and the others, in order to show that he was also an insider in this circle.

Liu Yan understood Wang Yue's thoughts, smiled and beckoned him to sit down, Wang Yue happily sat next to Liu Yan and squeezed Chen Xun aside, Chen Xun glared at him angrily, and muttered a few times in his mouth very dissatisfied.

According to Zhao Min's statistical records, a total of 1,473 acres of land have been reclaimed, more than three miles of canals have been dredged, and five irrigation wells have been excavated.

Of course, this is also due to Liu Yan's spending, in just ten days, most of the nine hundred taels of silver were spent, and more than five hundred and forty taels of silver were scattered, which ensured everyone's food and physical strength, as well as paid for dredging the canal and digging irrigation wells.

Afterwards, after Liu Yan's Dapandun Tun was handed over for the record, not to mention that Wang Weizhen was very surprised when he heard the news, even Zhang Hailin, the defense officer of the Qianqian Household Office of Xiahe Village, who received the report book, was very happy when he learned about it.