Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 189 Finally Coming Back

The long winter has finally come to an end. The ice in the rivers of Nanyang Basin has melted, and the bare branches have spit out wisps of new green, and the earth has regained its vitality.

There is not much snow this winter, which means that the drought will continue for four years in Chongzhen. This terrible little glacier climate can really drive the farmers who depend on the sky to live crazy.However, the military households in the various guards in Nanyang didn't seem to have any troubles in this regard. As soon as the ice in the river melted, they chanted, carried water trucks into the river, and set them up at the mouth of the canal.In Wuyang County, large and small waterwheels began to turn again, carrying the icy river water to the canals, and flowing happily through bamboo canals to the smoldering wheat fields. Green shoots bring sweet water.The entire winter of last year, the military households were busy building water trucks, exhausting themselves, and finally drove out all the water trucks that thousands of households urgently needed.The military households in charge of grazing are busy driving cattle, sheep and horses up the mountain to relax their muscles and bones, and to eat some fresh plants.After a whole winter, these animals did not suffer from starvation like their brothers and sisters on the prairie due to the large amount of feed made of potato peels and alfalfa powder, but they also lost a lot of fat. The householders were so distressed that they couldn't wait to drive them out as soon as the weather got warmer, so they had to catch the spring fat.

Yang Menglong also woke up from hibernation—ahem, it may be a bit exaggerated to say this, but this guy can really sleep well.He stretched himself, came out of his cave, drank some spring water, found something to fill his stomach, and started another year's work.

One of the characteristics of this kid's quick work is domineering.

Snapped! ! !
Xiao Yang Shuai threw a stack of forms in front of a thousand households, and roared: "What kind of messy information did you fill in!? I asked you to report the number of people, names, and the number of acres in the guard, and I asked you to divide the forms. Is it difficult to ask the military households to fill in their names, ages and the number of fields they own? What a big deal, you have been doing it for a whole week, and it is still a mess for me, sir, how can I ask you to do something It’s harder than doing it myself!”

That Qianhu was originally a Baihu from the Dengzhou Qianhu Institute. Qianhu lost his head because of Liu Jintang's involvement. Yang Menglong promoted him when he saw that he was honest. People like Xue Siming are going to be this thousand households, right?The Qianhu was so scolded that he couldn't even raise his head, and he stammered after a long while, "My... my lord, I... I can't read..."

Yang Menglong was stunned for a moment, and almost kicked him: "I don't know how to read, how can you be an asshole? I will give you half a year, and I don't care what method you use. In short, you have to learn to write and count for me. You don't need to be rich. High level, at least you can’t even fill out a form! Meow meow, is it easy for me to make these forms? It’s just a mess for you!”

Dengzhou Qianhu was trained like a grandson and retreated dejectedly.

Then it was Xinye Qianhu's turn to be unlucky: "I said, Lao Chen, you have been with me for almost a year, and you have learned a little about how I do things, right? Why do you go to Xinye and bring a Qianhu Office to you? It’s a mess, you’ve been tossing around for so long, and you haven’t even done a good job of hygiene! What’s more, you actually let merchants do business in Qianhusuo without paying taxes!”

After following Yang Menglong for almost a year, Chen Baihu, who was forced by Yang Menglong to work as a thousand households in Xinye, said with a mournful face: "My lord, it's not that I allow them not to pay taxes, it's really... those merchants are too entangled. I have repeatedly emphasized to them that the tax collected is used to maintain law and order, clean the streets, and prevent fire and theft, but they just don't listen!"

Yang Menglong said: "Then find a few gangsters to smash some fucking shops, and then send some people to sneak in and order a few shops while they are not paying attention, and see if they pay taxes!"

Chen Baihu... No, Chen Qianhu Khan came out: "My lord, this...doing this is illegal!"

Yang Menglong's eyes showed a fierce look: "Are you sure?"

Chen Qianhu trembled, and said repeatedly: "I'm wrong, I'm wrong, how could the adults teach me to break the law? It's all their own bad luck. The shop was smashed down, or accidentally caught fire. We have nothing to do with each other!"

Yang Menglong snorted and said: "It's good to know! I say Lao Chen, you have to be more aggressive. Those grandsons, if you give them three points of color, they will open a dye shop. If you take a step back, they will advance a foot. In the end, The entire Qianhusuo has become their territory, so just drink the northwest wind! The tax that can be collected now is indeed very small, and it is not enough for everyone to have a drink, but when the grain harvest is harvested, more people will come to do business. Taxes are quite scary. If you don’t draw them down as soon as possible, then people won’t pay taxes, so just cry!”

Chen Qianhu said: "Understood, my lord, I'll go back and deal with them!"

Li Qianhu from the Tongbai Qianhu Office waited for a long time, a little sleepy, and secretly yawned. Yang Menglong immediately took care of him: "Old Li, your mouth is a little wide open!"

Li Qianhu shuddered and quickly closed his mouth.

Yang Menglong asked: "How are you doing with what you were asked to do?"

Li Qianhu slapped his chest fiercely: "My lord, after arriving in Tongbai County, I followed your instructions and hired a large number of mountain people and brought geologists who know how to search for mines into the mountains to search for mines. A prospecting team!"

Yang Menglong asked: "Have you gained anything?"

Li Qianhu said: "A geologist picked up some fragments of phosphate rock on the mountain. He estimated that there is a relatively large-scale phosphate rock in that area, and he is looking for it carefully. It is just the open-pit gold and open-pit silver mines that adults call , has disappeared until now!"

Yang Menglong said: "Take out the ore and show me."

Li Qianhu took out a few small pieces of ore from his arms and offered them with both hands.

Yang Menglong took it over and looked at it, and nodded with satisfaction: "It is indeed phosphate rock, and the grade is much higher than that produced in Wuyang. Speed ​​up and mine it for me as soon as possible." Put the ore on the table and sighed , Said: "Lao Li, among so many thousands of households, you are the only one who has achieved results. I read you right."

Several Qianhus who had been scolded so bloody all cast envious glances. Li Qianhu was very proud and said loudly: "Please rest assured, my subordinates will definitely urge them to speed up the progress and get the mines that you need as soon as possible." Mined out!"

Yang Menglong hummed: "There are many mountains and little land in Tongbai, so it is impossible to develop agriculture. Fortunately, there are many mines. As long as you find these mines, you won't have to worry about eating and drinking for a few lifetimes."

Li Qianhu said: "We also found two lime mines and a peat mine..."

Yang Menglong said: "This kind of mine is not very useful to us, and it is not worth spending a lot of manpower and material resources to mine it."

Li Qianhu was very frustrated.

Yang Menglong added: "However, you can sell the mining rights of these limestone and peat mines. If the reserves are large enough, it will not be a problem to sell them for a few thousand taels of silver. You Tongbai Qianhusuo will also have a fortune."

I didn't spend much effort, just put in a little bit of effort to find mines, and I got a few thousand taels of silver in my account. This kind of income is quite considerable. Li Qianhu was overjoyed: "Thank you for your advice, my lord!"

Yang Menglong chuckled and told them to step back and go about their own affairs.He walked out of Qianhu House and wandered around. Well, there were a lot more people in Wuyang Qianhu House now. There were cars and horses on the road all day long, and they were all busy transporting carts of potato noodles to the surrounding provinces.Now is the season of shortage, and food is very scarce. Potato noodles, which are relatively cheaper, are naturally very popular, and the supply can be said to be in short supply.In Biyang, Wuyangwei has started planting potatoes again. Although there are still more than three months until harvest, there is already an endless stream of people coming to discuss business with Yang Menglong and Cheng Ji, all wanting to order potato noodles in advance.Last year's bumper potato harvest brought Yang Menglong an income of more than [-] taels of silver, but he wondered if he would have such good luck this year?

On the other side of the warehouse, there was a long queue of carts, and the workers were chanting and loading boxes of goods onto the carts.This sizable convoy consists of one hundred carts of potato noodles and forty crosses of various weapons. The potato noodles are transported to Yulin. When spring comes, those Mongols are probably starving and need food urgently. Change a batch of cows and horses back, forget about the sheep, he doesn't want to try the feeling of driving thousands of sheep across the state and province again.As for the weapons, they were sent to Lu Xiangsheng. He placed an order last year, and the payment for the goods was delivered one after another, so the goods should be delivered to him.

After leaving Qianhu Station, there is a large area of ​​thatched sheds and huts.More and more people came to Wuyang from other places to seek a living, and a refugee camp was formed outside Qianhusuo.These hungry people, with sallow faces and skinny muscles, were wrapping their bodies in tattered clothes and holding dirty bowls in their hands, lining up in a long queue to receive relief food.The so-called relief food is a paste cooked with potato noodles and some wild vegetables. If you are lucky, you can see a shredded pork in it. As for the taste of this thing, you can only imagine it yourself.They are eager to find a job, or even join the army. With a job, they can get rid of their huts and huts, and the family can have enough to eat.However, this seems a bit difficult. There are too many hungry people coming to Wuyang, and the competition is fierce!

Yang Menglong looked at the long dragons, squeezed his chin and muttered: "Come on, come on, come all of them, the more you come, the better! My steelmaking plant and sulfuric acid plant will be put into operation soon, and I am worried about the lack of manpower. Woolen cloth……"

While muttering, a fast horse came galloping, frightening the hungry people to retreat.Yang Menglong became angry, and shouted: "Who is that, you are a bastard, right? You are actually rampaging here? Come down for me!"

The kid was full of anger, and everyone's ears were buzzing with a roar, "that who" quickly reined in the horse, rolled off the saddle, fell to the ground, and shouted: "My lord, I'm back, I'm back!"

Yang Menglong thought the voice was very familiar, so he looked it up carefully, hey, isn't this kid Chen Lei?Last year he sent Chen Lei with several soldiers to escort a Feng Shui master to Zigong, Sichuan. There was no news for several months. He thought something was wrong, but he came back!He called: "Chen Lei, you bastard is back! How is it? Have you encountered any troubles along the way? How are you doing with the things I entrusted you to do?"

Chen Lei said excitedly: "It's done, it's done! My subordinates escorted the gentleman all the way across the mountains and ridges, eating and sleeping in the open air, and encountered several bandits and robberies. It can be said that he suffered a lot! After finally arriving in Zigong, the gentleman fell ill again. He collapsed and his life was in danger. We invited several doctors and it took us two full months to save his life. But at this time, there was not much money left. Fortunately, a group of salt workers trusted his character and not only agreed to follow Mr. came to Wuyang and gave us money, so we were able to come back, but it was delayed for a long time, please punish me!"

Yang Menglong helped him up and said: "You have suffered along the way, how can I punish you? It's too late to reward you! Where are the salt workers? Where are they?"

Chen Lei said: "In the back, they dragged their families and moved slowly..."

Yang Menglong called: "Take me there!"

(End of this chapter)