I traveled through time, starting with two acres of land and a dog

They climbed to the back of the base and found a small hill not far away. It was covered with dark brown stones and had sparse vegetation. "Fifth brother, how much does it cost to buy this barren hill?" Du Chenyu asked, pointing at the black hill.

"We spent more than 40 dollars on these two acres of land, and we were able to buy it with the full help of Section Chief Yang Chaoyi. This hilltop cannot be used to grow crops, so the land price should not be expensive, but the landlords are unwilling to sell it," said Hu Laowu.

"Sir, you want to buy it? There is no food growing on this hill, so it is of little use," Hu Laowu reminded.

"Our current industries are not very profitable. We need to burn red bricks here and sell them. These are the simple red bricks that Wuying burned in two kilns this year," Du Chenyu explained.

"Well, that's okay, but there's not enough firewood here, and the fuel is seriously insufficient," said Hu Laowu.

"You should solve it as soon as possible and try to get it done. If there is any obstruction, let He Chaowu step in to solve it. We can't be too cowardly. If we want to survive well here, we can only make others unable to survive. This is determined by the cannibalistic world," he said lightly.

"Also, you must gather talents for me, including blacksmiths, gun repairmen, doctors, people who can operate machines, and people who have studied outside. Don't care too much about their background. Once you find someone, you will do whatever it takes. Also, I plan to keep Shen Shiyu to assist you in a while. He is more talented. You must learn from him carefully. This will be our final base in the future. Do you understand?" he reminded again.

"Don't worry, sir. I will live up to your expectations, study hard, and do my job well!" Hu Laowu said affirmatively.

The temperature dropped in the afternoon, so they decided to put on makeup and take a look around the Baizhang County area.

Baizhang Pass is an important gateway in and out of Sichuan, and an important town on the Migang Road. It is where the Donghe River and the Hongjiang River meet, and a fertile basin is formed at the foot of Migang Mountain. It is said that during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods of the Qing Dynasty, eight families joined together to do business here, and the business and market prospered, gradually forming today's eight alleys with the Wenzu Temple and Wangye Temple in the middle of the city as the center and spreading outward.

They entered from the northwest gate. The main street was a four-meter-wide bluestone road, with two-story attics and blue-tiled houses on both sides. The lower floors were shops, and the second floors were mostly teahouses and inns. As the afternoon approached, the streets were already sparsely populated, and the owners of each shop sat together, smoking their pipes and water pipes, tasting each other's cigarettes with a peaceful smile on their faces.

They came to the Plague Ancestor Temple, which is the seat of the county government. There is a loft theater outside, and the courtyard inside is their office building. They looked at the entrance of the Plague Ancestor Temple: This Plague Ancestor Temple, which is said to have been built in the late Ming Dynasty and completed in the early Qing Dynasty, is magnificent, with a structure of cross-sections, carved beams and painted rafters, four corners and claws, ancient and majestic, and extraordinary style. There is also a two-meter-high Bodhisattva in the center hall, but he doesn't know who it is. Across the street is the theater. Looking at the door, there is a large patio when entering. The west side of the patio is closely connected to the theater building, with east and west wing rooms, three rooms in one. Beyond the patio is the main hall, and there are several courtyards in the main hall. There are flowers, plants, ancient cypresses and strange trees planted in the government office. They just stretched their heads to browse. There are two smoking militiamen standing guard at the door. If Hu Laowu hadn't given them a few handmade cigarettes in his hand, they probably wouldn't even let them stick their heads out. White paper cigarettes are currently sold very expensive on the street, and they have just started to grow them, and the quantity is very small.

After a walk around, I found that the streets are generally prosperous, similar to the larger towns in later generations. There are probably three to four thousand merchants living on the streets here. To be honest, this is an excellent development base. It is connected to Guangyuan County in the northeast via Baishui Pass, the northwest to the north via the Migang Ancient Road, the southeast to Bazhong, and the east river goes south directly to the Jialing River. It is surrounded by high mountains that are easy to defend but difficult to attack, the interior is flat, and there is sufficient water resources, which can support tens of thousands of soldiers. The key is that there is abundant coal here, and coal is burned for cooking everywhere in the city. It is the food for industrial development, and obtaining this place will benefit the world.

They waited on the street. Hu Laowu pawned some of his jewelry, this time for 500 yuan. He pawned the rest in a few days. He left 300 yuan for Hu Laowu to buy land and build a base.

Then, he lived here for 5 days. The weather was getting hotter day by day. One-third of the corn leaves in the field had curled up. Hu Laowu went to the head of the village several times to discuss the purchase of land, but the other party asked for an exorbitant price. Finally, there was no choice but more than a dozen team members fully armed to negotiate, using the name of Teacher Yang Chaoyi to buy the hill for 10 oceans. Neither party suffered a loss.

There was a barren hill next to the base. After buying it, he arranged for Hu Laowu to find someone to dig hard in the middle of the valley. If nothing unexpected happened, there would definitely be coal. Hu Laowu was skeptical. There was indeed a coal mine two kilometers away from Shanghe. Everything about the Baizhang base was arranged, and they were going to go back to the mountains to escape the summer heat. It was too hot here.

After returning to Wuying, he arranged the first assessment of the special service team, eliminated 3 people, 1 stayed in Wuying base as a team leader, and the remaining 2 went to Baizhang base to establish a guard team.

On July 7, they came to Banqiao again. This time, his father came with him, and he also brought Zhou Kui's mother and elder sister. Of course, everyone knew what they were going to do: to propose marriage to the Tang family.

In the rural areas of northern Sichuan, the traditional custom of proposing marriage is as follows: the first visit by the matchmaker to the woman's door with gifts is called "meeting", and the man's parents usually do not go. After both parties are satisfied, they prepare for the parents to meet, which is called "zou ren hu". "Zou ren hu" means going three times, and each time the man brings gifts to the woman's house. The gifts are in an even number, covered with red paper, and the value depends on the family. Then, "luo bai" means engagement. This time the man and woman will call their aunts and uncles, put out gifts and gift money, and hold a ceremony to formally change their names to address each other's parents as father and mother. Then the man will send the prepared gifts to the woman's uncle, change the name, and set the wedding time, and finally hold the wedding ceremony.

Of course, they certainly didn't have so much time to go through the complicated ceremonies, but the people of Jianghu were simple and quick. In Banqiao, Zhou Kui heard that everyone was coming for a big marriage event, and his mother didn't even have time to take care of them. She changed new clothes, looked through the gifts, and asked Huang Kunyang if he had anything else to do. She never stopped.

Huang Kunyang said: "Brother Zhou, I am only 19 years old. I have only seen other people get married. How would I know what you need to prepare? You should ask your teacher about this."

Then Zhou Kui left quietly and continued to study the pimples and scars on his face repeatedly in front of the only mirror he brought from Wuying.

Around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, my father, Zhou Kui's elder sister, Huang Kunyang, Zhou Kui and four guards carried four wicker baskets covered with red paper and set out to Tangjia Bay to propose marriage.

While others were waiting at home, Shen Shiyu was still preparing documents for the Second People's Protection Congress, preparing to secretly change the People's Protection Association into a political party, spreading information in secret and recruiting party members.

Zhou Kui was very familiar with Tang Chunlai and had even secretly decided to spend his life with Tang Weiwei, so everything went smoothly. They planned to hold an engagement ceremony six days later and publicize it widely.

They settled down in the Banqiao base, and my father even walked around the surrounding areas. The corn in the mountains was only 60-70 centimeters tall, which was the peak growth season. Hundreds of acres of poppy flowers were already in bloom and would be harvested in September.

Taking advantage of Zhou Kui's wedding, they arranged work with local leaders and squad leaders, and on the first day of the engagement, they secretly gathered at the Baihuabao training base to hold the Second Congress of the People's Protection Association. This conference was chaired by my father and was held in a thatched hut with more than a dozen people. The meeting was kept highly confidential.

Phase One: Report on the achievements of the People's Protection Association in the past year. After one year of development, they currently control 4 baos in Banqiao Township, 3 baos in Wuying Township, with a total population of about 2800 people. They have 11 detachments of the People's Protection Team with a total of 134 people. In addition, there is a security team with about 100 people, 128 rifles, 8 pistols, and 1 light machine gun. They can be regarded as the largest force in the Beishan area, but their foundation is still seriously unstable and their firepower is insufficient, so they need to develop in a low-key manner.

The second phase: The Protection of the People Association was reorganized into the National Assembly, with Sun Yat-sen's "Three Principles of the People" as its guiding ideology, but the specific content was subject to their own interpretation:

Nationality: Committed to national independence and autonomy.

Civil Rights: Struggle for freedom, equality, and fairness for all people.

People's livelihood: We are committed to ensuring that all people have food to eat, clothes to wear, land to farm, classes to attend, access to education, and medical care, and to guaranteeing the minimum living standards.

Finally, my father was elected as the president of the National Association, Huang Kunyang and Hu Haisheng as vice presidents, and Shen Shiyu as secretary-general, responsible for the theoretical and organizational work of the association.

Secondly, local leaders and team leaders became members, marking the formal establishment of the National Revolutionary Association, which led the military and political affairs of the jurisdiction.

The third stage: work arrangements, the formal establishment of the 4th team, with Xue Chen as the team leader, leading the 10th, 11th and 12th squads, and forming a guard team composed of 5 military academy students and 5 outstanding team members, with Lei Jianqin as the team leader.

Zhou Kui temporarily stayed in Banqiao Township, Xue Chen led the team to develop the area of ​​Juhua, Dadao and Lijiahe at the junction of Chongqingbao in Jizhou County; Hu Laosi led the team to develop in the direction of Lianghui and Lizibabao, and the rest of the station remained unchanged. Shen Shiyu transferred to Baizhang Base to assist Hu Laowu in developing the industrial base. All localities coordinated planning and developed independently to ensure that the jurisdiction would be expanded by more than half by the end of the year.

Finally, detailed arrangements were made for the defense plans of each village. This was the third function of this engagement ceremony, "luring the snake out of its hole." Du Chenyu had already made a big plan, loose on the outside and tight on the inside, to lure out the poisonous snakes hiding in the dark.