New Shun 1730

Two months before the 40th birthday of Emperor Li Gan of Dashun, the wind direction finally changed, and the sea ice in the north once again reached the melting season.

Two modified expedition ships, two people-carrying ships for "long-term workers" and "contracted long-term workers", and a cargo ship full of cloth and ironware, a total of five ships formed a fleet and left Weihai Port.

Many people on the ship had taken this route more than once. They skillfully bypassed the Busan Strait and arrived at the first stop of the expedition, Vladivostok, when the wind direction was right.

A few years ago, this was still a village with less than 2,000 people, about half of them were Koreans who fled and half were Han people stationed here.

Now, this village has expanded into a small town, with a population of nearly 10,000 people around it. Drought-resistant rice from Korea; rye and buckwheat from Russia, and potatoes and sorghum from Dashun happily took root here.

As soon as the ship docked, dozens of vendors flocked to the beach.

The Koreans with cans on their heads shouted their goods in Chinese; the Han vendors carried some goods on their poles and shouted loudly.

There is little money here, and the purchasing station keeps the grain price very low, but there are many places to spend money. The cargo ships coming here from Weihai are fine, but the military ships flying blue and white flags are all sailors who are rich and willing to spend money.

As the first batch of immigrants here, Zhang Dabiao is already familiar with such scenes. On both sides of the pole on his shoulders, he carries the honey he dug out of the beehive last year, some privately brewed rye beer learned from the Luosha people, and even a few big radishes that have been stored in the vegetable cellar until this season. These are the favorite things of sailors.

The immigrants here call this kind of thing "going to the sea". Although as a Jiaodong person, I know that going to the sea is not what it means, the fish and shrimp here are not valuable at all. Instead, these crew members are the source of their wealth.

Zhang Dabiao, who was forced to immigrate here after the disaster, does not have to worry about filling his stomach for the first time.

At the mouth of Suifen River, salmon spawn every year in groups. The salmon, which are more than one person tall, have made this Jiaodong boy, who almost starved to death, tired of eating them.

The specially trained planting and storage techniques of rye and potatoes have prevented them from experiencing the tragedy of two-thirds of the Mayflower starving to death in one winter, and the tribe that is best at farming has firmly established its foothold here.

The daughter-in-law who was "distributed" at the beginning is already pregnant with her second child. Now, three or five families have formed a mutual aid group to divide the land. There is no shortage of food, but there is no money. The grain prices at the purchasing station are so low that people want to cry, but cotton cloth and the like are terribly expensive. He is smarter and has set his sights on the "sea catching" business early, looking forward to the arrival of the ship here every spring. The sailors have money and are willing to spend it, so he will sell everything.

"Look! Big radishes without chaff! The best thing of this season, radishes are better than pears!"

A Korean man next to him was carrying a large basket with some sorghum fruits, also known as wild strawberries, and some red raspberries picked from the nearby mountains, and he was also shouting in Jiaoliao Mandarin.

The sailors got off the boat, asked about the price of radishes and sorghum fruits, and turned to the tavern next to them. The officer student in woolen uniform got off the expedition ship, asked the price casually, and threw out copper coins to buy all the things of the old Korean next to Zhang Dabiao.

Rubbing the money in his hand, Zhang Dabiao thought it was strange today. There was only one ship in previous years, but why are there so many ships this year? Or those soldiers in woolen uniforms are rich, and the seamen in sailor shirts would rather buy wine.

Ask the people who went to the sea with him.

"What happened this year? Why are there so many ships coming?"

The people who went to the sea together shook their heads and said, "How would I know? Who knows what to do? If I had known there would be so many ships coming today, I should have prepared more. Those wearing woolen military uniforms are the most willing to spend money."

Zhang Dabiao also regretted it very much, thinking that there would be a lot of people selling things at the dock tomorrow. The purchase station has pushed the grain price too low. Thinking about the grain stored in the grain storage at home, he thought that if it was still in Renzhao, he would be a landlord, but it can't be sold for much money here.

Holding the money he just sold, he bypassed the dock, thinking that his wife was about to give birth to her second baby, and it was just right to sell the money to buy some cotton cloth.

But he couldn't go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy it, because it was expensive there. The sailors who came with the ship would carry some private goods, which were cheaper than those sold in the supply and marketing cooperative. Maybe there would be some left to buy two packs of cigarettes.

People who often go to the sea know where the black market is. They also know that there will only be a black market in the days when the cargo ship arrives. There are not many goods, and whoever buys first will get it.

Whether it is a purchasing station or a supply and marketing cooperative, they are all new things here. They did not exist in the place where they lived for generations.

However, this change did not make people feel uncomfortable, but they quickly accepted it.

For example, the post office that can receive remittances and letters from relatives who are soldiers, in Weihai, you only need to pay the money and use the bill to withdraw the money here. Zhang Dabiao has received a remittance from his younger brother once, and a letter with a few words to report safety.

For example, the school that has just been built, but there is no teacher. It is said that in the future, children born here will be forced to go to school when they are six or seven years old. A certain amount of education fees must be paid every year, and the amount is not much. When the children grow up, they can become officers or go to sea, or they can go to the Jinghai Palace University in Weihai.

For example, there are no taxes here, at least not in name. The grain paid every year is the redemption money for the land; for example, cotton cloth is so expensive, that is a kind of freedom, you can not wear pants.

All these changes seem a little fresh at first, but this novelty has become a very common life after several years.

The only corvée to be performed is to kill tigers. All registered males will organize a roundup in the summer to kill man-eating tigers. Now even this corvée is gone. Some tribesmen who can hunt have settled down around the town and exchange tiger skins for food and daily necessities. In recent years, tigers have become a legend.

Squeezing through the crowded crowd on the dock, a few soldiers from the Fuyang River who drove cattle and horses over from Mudanjiang were selecting people on the transport ship.

They don't need money to buy, they just use cattle and horses to exchange. There are many bachelors on the Fuyang side, and most of them use cattle and horses to exchange wives here. The remaining ones were all contracted as long-term workers, and the price was very cheap. Human life was worthless, almost the same as cattle and horses.

Looking at these disaster victims who were bought and sold here, Zhang Dabiao swallowed his saliva.

Everyone here has such a dream: save money for a few years, and when the money is saved enough, pay money from the village and town to buy people to open up wasteland and become a landlord.

Becoming a landlord is still the dream of most people.

However, the purchasing station has kept the grain price very low, and almost no one else will buy grain here except the purchasing station.

But most people will do such arithmetic.

Save money and buy a person. The land reclaimed and the grain harvested within ten years will definitely be more expensive than this person. Then buy the second, third, fourth... Even if the purchasing station keeps the grain price so low, you can still be a landlord.

It has always been said that men farm and women weave, which is the best life.

But it is not here.

It is right for men to farm, but women have nothing to weave. Cotton is not produced here. Cotton is only bought to make cotton pants. If it is spun, it will lose money.

Women are either busy giving birth or doing farm work in the fields when they are free. There is a dream here that many people who almost starved to death in the past have endless daydreaming: 30 mu of land, a cow, a wife and children, and a warm bed.

As of now, this dream has basically been achieved.

The cattle and horses here are very cheap, and there is so much land that you can see dry grasslands in the river valley. If such dry grasslands have not been reclaimed in Jiaodong, people will think that the whole village is full of lazy people. But here, along the river valley, there are countless dry grasslands.

Dry grasslands are different from wet swamps. Those wet grasslands with grass roots more than one person high are very fertile, but they cannot be reclaimed. They will tire cattle and horses to death unless they are dug with hoes; and these dry grasslands have no tree roots, no mosquitoes and small biting insects that make people collapse, only horseflies that are larger than green-headed flies, which will make cattle collapse, but it is difficult to bite people.

After several years of collective reclamation, the policy here has changed. At first, everyone was just trying to make a living, and they reclaimed the land collectively, because one person was too insignificant compared to the power of nature.

Now, the first batch of immigrants who arrived here have redistributed the land.

Zhang Dabiao has to pay 2,000 kilograms of grain every year. After paying for five consecutive years, these lands will be his forever. The land here is very fertile, especially the newly reclaimed land after burning. The land may be a little cold in the first year, and the yield is not high, but starting from the second year, the land that has never been reclaimed releases the fertility accumulated by the decay of grass and trees for tens of millions of years, and it seems that every year is a bumper year.

There are many wastelands, and what is lacking is people.

Thinking of this dream, Zhang Dabiao squeezed the few copper coins in his hand, cursed the grain price of the purchasing station, and left the mule and horse market where people and cattle and horses were bought and sold.

After going around a few circles, he came to the black market. The merchant sailors put out the private goods they carried and quoted prices in the Jiaoliao dialect that Zhang Dabiao was familiar with.

"Cotton cloth, look at this cotton cloth."

"Cigarettes, matches! Definitely cheaper than the ones sold at the supply and marketing cooperatives. There are only so many. You'll make a profit if you buy them."

"Sugarcane sugar!"

Zhang Dabiao looked at the small bag of sugarcane sugar and heard the familiar Pingdu accent. He knew it was a fellow villager and smiled, "Brother, don't bring sugar here anymore. They've started growing beets here. Don't you know? There's a beet sugar workshop over there."

Without caring to say another word, he kindly advised and squeezed into the group of sailors selling cotton cloth. He paid money, bought a few feet of cloth, bought two red hairbands, and exchanged the remaining money for a few packs of the cheapest cigarettes.

Carrying the cloth, he ran to the post office. Every year at this time, a group of people would gather here, and the days when the ship came were almost the same every year.

The post office will not deliver it to your home, but you go and ask if there is a letter for yourself.

There was already a long queue of people at the entrance of the post office.

The people here had few relatives alive. The relatives who survived the disaster like them were either soldiers on land or on ships, and the mail for these soldiers was free.

A group of big men from the sawmill lined up in front. These people were very arrogant, with big arms and waists, and ordinary people didn't dare to compete with them.

These people squatted in the forest all winter, cutting the best oaks and dumping them here along the river. In summer, they had to dry these large oaks that were more than one person thick and use them as raw materials for shipbuilding.

When they had enough money, they saved it and exchanged it for boat tickets for their wives and children to come here.

Food here is very cheap, and those who don't farm live a very prosperous life. If you want to eat rice, you can eat rice, if you want to eat noodles, you can eat noodles. When the fish is in season, you can even eat it. Pork is not expensive. Life is much better than the life in Weihai.

Zhang Dabiao waited for a long time, and finally it was his turn. He took out a wooden sign from his pocket with his national registration number on it. After giving his name, he asked, "Do you have a letter from me?"

The people inside, just like the people in the supply and marketing cooperatives and purchasing stations, all had a dead look on their faces. They muttered twice and asked, "Do you have faith?"

Zhang Dabiao nodded and handed over a copper coin. He understood the rules.

"Brother, I made a great contribution in the Western Regions and killed Xiao Ce Lingdun Dobu, a Mongolian general. Your Majesty rewarded me with some silver, and I sent you fifteen taels. Er Biao and Fourth Sister are very supportive. Okay. Brother, you can use the money to buy a long-term job and work hard on the land."

I finished reading the letter with no expression. Even if it mentioned the merits of the award, it had nothing to do with the people in the post office. In recent years, I have read more about the award of honors, and I have no respect for the emperor. Emperor Tiangao Far, far less useful than earning a few pennies by reading the letter.

Handing out a piece of paper, Zhang Dabiao learned to recognize numbers. When he saw the number 15 written under the red seal, he dipped his wooden sign with some ink pad and stuck it on it. Here he reached out and took the fifteen taels of silver. Only when the heavy silver came into hand did he wake up.

"When you're done, hurry up and leave. Didn't you see that there's still a queue behind you? Next one!"

There was another shout from inside. Zhang Dabiao didn't know who this little Ce Lingdun Duobu was, but he knew that his brother was actually rich!

He screamed a few times with excitement, ran home and took out the little money he had saved by selling grain. The pregnant wife was cooking there, and she didn’t know what he was cooking there. She just scolded: “Why are you going out to play after eating?”

Zhang Dabiao shouted without looking back: "Buy people!"

He had never run so fast in his life, not only because of excitement, but also because he was late, and the good guys must have been picked away by others.

Went to the Mule and Horse Market. Fortunately, there were a lot of people coming here this time. Some of them were for official farming. They were all young and strong, and the prices were clearly marked.

I picked one who looked stronger, and after asking, I knew it was from Lacey's side.

The person who bought and sold people took out a contract and read the rules.

"The "Da Shun Law" abolished the status of humble, and hired workers must not be treated like slaves. Work for seven years, and the period will expire after seven years. After the period expires, four acres of cultivated land, four hundred catties of potatoes, and two hundred catties of grain will be collected here. A set of farm tools.”

"Escaped midway, extended the term by two years."

"If he dies, his family will report it and he will conduct an autopsy."

"These people were not slaves, just laborers with debts that had to be paid off in seven years."

"If there is no objection from both sides, please press your fingerprints and ID badges."

The contract was placed in front of the two of them. After their fingerprints were pressed, the seller took the money and asked, "Did your family serve as a soldier in Weihai and have made meritorious service?"

Zhang Dabiao asked curiously: "How did you know?"

"Hey... How can anyone in the local area save enough money so quickly? Either they are lucky enough to pick up a piece of gold, or someone in their family has served as a soldier and made meritorious service. Most of them were bought by those government soldiers. , they can exchange cattle and horses, how many years have you been here? "

The speaker Xin Xin said: With the price of grain at the purchasing station, it would be strange if you could save the money to buy long-term workers so quickly. Apart from the purchasing station, you have nowhere to sell your food.