It would take Zhou Yu three days to arrive at Youbeiping County from Bohai Port, but there is no port to dock in Youbeiping, so it may be delayed some more time.
There was no port, which meant that the navy had no place to stay, and there was no place to store the things that were moved off the ship, so the Qin army needed to build a port by itself.
Qin Hao naturally took this into consideration, so after issuing the order, he ordered Jiang Juan to lead five thousand troops to the seaport, choose a suitable docking place to build a port, and recruit 10,000 people in Xu Wu City as strong men.
To transport food and grass.
Although Xu Wu County was expanded by Liu Che into a medium-sized city that could accommodate a population of 70,000 to 80,000 people, the total population of the county was only over 30,000 people.
Qin Hao recruited 10,000 young men at once, and basically wiped out all the young men in the county. The remaining people were old and weak, women and children.
Qin Hao was not willing to recruit labor on the spot. After all, the local people had not yet surrendered. But if the hard work of transporting grain and grass was left to the army, it would really be a waste of time.
The 130,000 Qin troops in Youbeiping had to fight against a Qin army that was twice their own. It was impossible to assign people to carry grain and grass, so this kind of hard work could only be done by the local people.
"Military advisor, I think it is better to provide relief through work. Xuwu County has only belonged to our Qin army. The people have not yet surrendered, so if they are allowed to work in vain, the people will definitely not be happy," Qin Hao said.
Hearing this, Liu Bowen showed a helpless look and said with a wry smile: "My lord, Youzhou is different from other areas. There is a war. In order to protect the homeland, it is normal for all the people to join the army.
The lord did not let the people go to the battlefield, but only served as laborers. This is a normal thing for the people of Youzhou, so how can they not be happy?"
"That's true, but I still think it's better to use work instead of relief. Anyway, our army is not short of this kind of wages."
Qin Hao had already talked about this, what else could Liu Bowen say, after all, he didn't have to pay for the labor.
Even if the wages for 10,000 strong men were increased, ten qian per person per day, they would still only have 3 million yuan per month, which is only 3,000 guan.
In this era when an ordinary war horse can be sold for 100,000 yuan, three million yuan is only the price of thirty war horses, and the total number of Qin army's war horses is measured in millions.
Therefore, what Qin Hao said is not wrong. Although Qin Jun's current financial balance is somewhat unbalanced, it does not lack this amount of money.
Even if the wealth of Tiangong's treasure has been spent, as long as the millions of war horses in Hetao and Bingzhou are still there, it will not reach the stage of financial collapse.
After the ordnance sales reach saturation, the worst possible outcome is to sell war horses, and there will certainly be no shortage of sellers for war horses.
Of course, owning millions of war horses does not mean having comparable wealth. After all, the princes do not have that much purchasing power, and Qin Hao cannot make money by selling war horses without restrictions.
"My lord cares for the people and is considerate of their strength, which is really a blessing to all people." Liu Bowen said sincerely.
In terms of caring for the people, even Liu Bowen had to admit that no prince could compare to his own lord, who was a lavish spender.
Forget it, it has nothing to do with you anyway, let the people in charge of the finances have the headache.
After Xu Wu's people were recruited, they were not unhappy when they learned that the Qin army wanted them to work as laborers to build a new seaport.
Serving as laborers during wartime is something they take for granted. They have long been accustomed to it, so how could they not be happy with it.
But when they learned that by working for the Qin army, they would not only have food to eat, but also money, and they would get ten coins every day, all the strong men cheered for joy.
I have been recruited by the government so many times before, but I have never been given a penny. But now this is the first time. The Qin army is really a benevolent and righteous army.
After Qin Hao's work-for-relief program came out, Xu Wuxin quickly joined the program, and many old and weak people wanted to join the labor force to earn wages.
Qin Hao did not refuse this. After all, the Qin Army is in urgent need of labor. The old and the weak can also contribute, but they will definitely not be as good as the young and strong, so the wages will definitely be reduced accordingly.
After gathering 13,000 workers, Qin Hao asked all these strong men to go to Yanshan, thirty miles south of Xuwu County, and the seaport south of Yanshan was the place Qin Hao selected to build a port.
If it were just to build an ordinary port, it would naturally not require so many people, but Qin Hao had a big plan in mind. He wanted to build a brand new port city in the lower reaches of the Haihe River, south of Yanshan Mountain.
In Qin Hao's view, even if the Qin army destroyed the Northern Han Dynasty and unified Youzhou, the war with the Manchu Qing Dynasty would still be protracted and would not end in a short time.
Therefore, it is necessary to build a port city in the north to transport and store various strategic materials to facilitate transportation to the front line.
Qin Hao decided to name this new city built on the harbor: Tianjin.
Well, Qin Hao just wanted to build Tianjin at the location of the original Tianjin Wei.
After the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal was built in the Sui Dynasty, the intersection of the South Canal and the North Canal was known as Sanhui Haikou in history. This was the earliest birthplace of Tianjin.
There was no Tianjin at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but this did not prevent Qin Hao from building one.
Tianjin in Qin Hao's conception will be located on the original site. After completion, it will be located in the southeast of Xuwu County and the southwest of Tuyin County. It will form an angle support with the two counties. In addition, it is backed by Yanshan Mountain, so it is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
With Tianjin as a material transfer station, Qin Hao can easily transport Hebei's materials to Youzhou with his navy.
At that time, with Youbeiping County as the base, it will gradually encroach on other counties in the east of Youzhou, and drive the Qing army out of Youzhou bit by bit.
Of course, it is too early to talk about building a city now. A port must be built first.
When Liu Bowen learned that his lord was planning to build a city in Hong Kong, he felt helpless and surprised.
Unfortunately, my lord spent money like water, and even before he conquered Youzhou, he was thinking of building a city.
What is surprising is that once Tianjin City is built, it will be of great help to the Qin Army. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is strategic.
Although the cost of establishing Tianjin City was high, the benefits to the Qin Army were self-evident, so Liu Bowen naturally would not object. Instead, he went to Tianjin Port to explore the foundations, draw drawings, and prepare to design Tianjin City himself.
Fifteen thousand laborers, plus five thousand troops, under the command of Jiang Juan, opened up the crude Tianjin Port in just three days.
Three days later, when Zhou Yu's navy arrived at the port, they learned that their lord had created a new port in Youzhou from scratch.
There is nothing surprising about the opening of a port, but what surprised Zhou Yu was that although this port was very simple, with nothing except foundations and simple warehouses, it was actually larger than the Bohai Port.
Zhou Yu vaguely guessed that his lord planned to build a city here, but he didn't say much. He directly ordered the soldiers and laborers to carry grain and grass together. After unloading all the grain and grass on the ship, he led the navy back to Bohai Port to continue transporting grain.
grain.
One hundred and thirty thousand shi of grain was not enough for the Qin army to consume. Zhou Yu's navy still needed to continue traveling back and forth and transport it several times.
After Zhou Yu left, Jiang Juan personally led 3,000 soldiers and 5,000 laborers and began to transport grain and grass to Xu Wucheng.
Although Jiang Jiangjun left, Liu Bowen left behind 2,000 soldiers to guard the port and 10,000 workers to continue building the crude Tianjin Port.