"President, we have just been notified by the British that the fleet we purchased is ready and can be handed over at any time."
Dong Shuheng rushed back to his home in Dongtai from Shanghai and had a good sleep under Hui'er's care. Not long after he got up, Li Cunxun came over to report the latest situation of Huai Haijun.
"In addition, here is the latest briefing of the Taiping Army. The Northern Expeditionary Army withdrew from Huaiqing Prefecture and entered Shanxi via Jiyuan. They successively captured Yuanqu, Jiangxian, Quwo, Pingyang, and Hongdong, then turned eastward, passing through Tunliu, and Lu
City, Licheng, reentered Henan, occupied She County, and Wu'an entered Zhili territory."
"What about the Western Expeditionary Army?" Dong Shuheng asked.
"In August, the Western Expeditionary Army successively captured Fengcheng, Ruizhou, Raozhou, Leping, Jingdezhen, Fuliang, Duchang and other places. However, in late August, reinforcements from the Qing Army arrived outside Nanchang and began to attack the besieging Taiping Army.
Counterattack, the two armies are currently fighting around Nanchang."
After listening to Li Cunxun's report on the Taiping Army, Dong Shuheng pondered for a while and asked: "What is the Taihang Column doing now?"
"According to the information reported previously, the Taihang Column is still active in Yongcheng Yidai, Xiao County. Some time ago, it was mainly assisting in recruiting refugees. Now the refugee recruitment work has basically ended."
"Is there any report on the specific strength of the Taihang Column?"
Li Cunxun had a good memory and immediately replied: "According to the latest report, the Taihang Column has recruited 5,000 men and horses, and all of them have been transformed into mules and horses."
"Well, send someone to the General Staff Headquarters to draft a military order. The Taihang Column will temporarily stop its expansion in Huaibei, consolidate and digest the current territory, and gradually hand it over to the Agricultural Reclamation Company for management. The Taihang Column must reserve supplies and be ready to sneak into the Taihang Mountains at any time."
"Let the General Logistics Department send a batch of equipment there, and some more mortars can be allocated appropriately. Cannons are inconvenient for them to carry, but they can be equipped with some howitzers, which is more practical for their mountain operations."
"Yes, President."
"Oh, Cunxun, by the way, please ask someone to call Hu Guangyong to come see me."
"Ask Qingbei to notify the British to sail the ship to Haimen Port, where we will hand over the fleet. In addition, notify Commander Liu Dahai that the Nanyang Navy is ready to receive the warship."
"The handover ceremony of the fleet will be held tomorrow afternoon." Dong Shuheng continued to say to Li Cunxun. Li Cunxun took a small book and wrote down everything Dong Shuheng ordered one by one.
After Li Cunxun left, Dong Shuheng had nothing to do in the morning, so he simply accompanied Hui'er back to her parents' home.
Hui'er's hometown is a village called Zhangjiazao near Taipei. In the morning, people are busy working in the fields.
The weather outside is very hot, and the chirping of cicadas can be heard from the trees. Hui'er's father is Zhang Dazhu, who is the head of this village. Hui'er also has an older brother named Zhang Dazhuang and a younger brother named Zhang Xiaoqiang.
Da Zhuang is the captain of the militia team in the village. Xiao Qiang is still young and studies in the primary school in the town.
Hui'er and Dong Shuheng were riding in a four-wheeled carriage. This four-wheeled carriage equipped with shock absorbers and rubber tires was Dong Shuheng's special car. However, Dong Shuheng rarely used it. He usually had a tight schedule and was unable to travel normally.
Either by horseback or by boat.
After the Huaihai Navy took over Jiangbei, it has been building roads and improving the internal transportation network. Recently, the Huaihai Navy Department of Transportation has formulated a "Village to Village" project, preparing to connect every town to a cement road and every village to a gravel road.
Construction near Dongtai will definitely be given priority.
That's why Dong Shuheng dared to travel boldly in a four-wheeled carriage.
"Captain, a four-wheeled carriage has arrived at the entrance of the village, and there are many guards." A militiaman rushed to Zhang Dazhuang and reported.
"Let's go, call my dad, and let's go take a look together."
Dazhuang quickly led the militiamen and ran towards the entrance of the village. After a while, Dazhu also came from the rice field, his legs still covered with mud from the rice field.
This village used to be a Yanding village, but now it has become an ordinary agricultural village. Outside the village are contiguous rice fields and some small patches of dry land, with sweet potato vines climbing everywhere, lush and green.
Dong Shuheng took Hui'er out of the car and walked together along the path between the rice fields towards the village.
"Master, every time I come back I feel like I don't recognize my home anymore. The village is changing so fast now."
"Yeah, it's not that fast. If you can't find your home, do we still have to ask for directions?"
"Hehe, that's not necessary. Just wait, my father will come out to pick me up soon."
"Master, look at that ditch. It used to be a big reed swamp. When cutting the reeds, we would go in and look for bird eggs. But my mother said that girls can't eat bird eggs, otherwise they will have the same spots on their faces as those on the eggshells.
spot."
"Oh, right, let me see, one, two, three..." Dong Shuheng leaned close to Hui'er's little face and pretended to count seriously.
"It seems that Hui'er has eaten a lot of bird eggs, haha." Dong Shuheng said with a laugh.
"You are so bad, young master, I will ignore you!" Hui'er pushed Dong Shuheng away and said pretending to be angry.
"Alert!" Niu Jie, who had been following Dong Shuheng, ordered.
The guards quickly cheered up and dispersed in a warning formation. A group of soldiers ran towards a group of people coming out of the village.
"Master, it seems to be my father and the others!"
Dong Shuheng nodded and said: "Niu Jie, don't be nervous. Let the guards point their guns downward so as not to scare the people."
"Yes, President." Niu Jie replied. Niu Jie is not as smart as Su Ting and is more straightforward, but he is very strict in leading troops. He gives people the feeling of a pure soldier.
At this time, the guards who came out also contacted the villagers.
In fact, there is no need to contact him, Da Zhuang has already seen his sister from a distance.
"Dad, you see Hui'er is back."
Dazhu also squinted his eyes and looked forward, really. He quickly called to the militiamen and people around him: "Go back to the village. My Hui'er came back to visit relatives. What do they look like here?
The roads are blocked."
After saying that, Dazhu and Dazhuang went forward to greet him under the leadership of the guards.
"Daddy, big brother!" Hui'er waved and shouted from a distance.
Dong Shuheng stood there nervous for a while. Although Hui'er was a concubine, the person opposite him was also his father-in-law. What should he do? He really had no experience in this area.
Just as he was distracted, Dazhu and Dazhuang had already arrived and were about to kneel down to salute.
The people in Jiangbei don't know who the president is, but they all know that there is a Huaihai Navy in Jiangbei. It was General Dong from the Huaihai Navy who made everyone's life better and better. Therefore, Dong Shuheng's name is very famous in Jiangbei, and the people basically know him.
.
Dazhu has always been very proud that his daughter is close to the general. However, his daughter is just a maid, so he cannot lose his etiquette.
Fortunately, Dong Shuheng reacted quickly and quickly supported the two of them.
"Father-in-law, please don't do this. I have accepted Hui'er as a disciple. You are my father-in-law."
Dazhu was just a banker and didn't know what to say there. After all, the general was there and there were so many guards around, so he felt a little nervous.
It was Huier who took the lead in breaking the embarrassment.
"Let's go home, daddy, brother."
"Hey, go home." The two of them turned back and led the way.
"Master, my father is still the mayor of our village." Hui'er said with a smile.
"Oh, you girl, you are talking nonsense. You are not a village chief. It's just that the folks in the village trust me and let me go to town to run errands and so on." Dazhu said embarrassedly.
"Hey, father-in-law, the village chief is very important. Our Huaihai navy is composed of villages and farms. You have to lead everyone to cultivate the land and collect grain taxes. All of these are very important. Our soldiers eat
All the food is grown by the people in the village."
Dazhu scratched his head and smiled: "Yes, the general said it is important, so I will do it well."
"General, life has changed so fast. Last year, every household didn't have enough to eat. This year, they can have enough to eat all of a sudden. It turns out that the fields around our village are so fertile. Why weren't we allowed to plant them before?
, Is it okay to pay more food tax?”
Dong Shuheng was silent for a while, not knowing how to explain it. The common people were living a miserable life, and there was no blame for them. Chinese people were all hardworking. What was abominable was the rulers of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. They only saw the rule of their own family, and there were no common people at all, no
The entire Chinese nation.
"Father-in-law, do the villagers still have any difficulties?"
"It's much better now than before. In addition to farming in the village, when there is nothing else, the young people will go to the river embankment to find work to earn some wages to supplement the family income."
"To talk about difficulties, it is that many things are difficult to buy now. For example, many people now have money and want to build brick houses, but bricks and tiles are difficult to buy. I also heard from the agricultural technicians of the county military government that guano fertilizer
It works well, and the yield in the fields has been greatly increased after using it, but we can’t buy it in the village. It says that we can only buy it if there is a quota, but where can I get the quota?”
This is due to the explosive development of the entire Jiangbei, especially after Dong Shuheng invested so much money, there has been a certain degree of inflation. Also, after the people have money, their consumption goals are too single, resulting in a shortage of some commodities.
As Zhang Dazhu said, what the common people are most concerned about is food and housing. Everyone wants to build a house all of a sudden, and all the money is used to buy building materials, which leads to a sudden shortage of building materials.
Everyone wants to increase production and buy fertilizers all at once, which leads to a shortage of fertilizers.
"I said, father-in-law, have you ever thought about building a brick and tile factory? You see there is a river next to the village, and you can get clay from the river. It is also easy to build a brick kiln, and then go to the industrial zone to buy some coal.
return."
"General, we have never thought about this. We have just had enough to eat, so who dares to build a workshop? Besides, we don't have that much money."
"Hui'er, don't you have money? How about you invest?"
"Okay, okay! I want to be the director of the field." Huier said happily.
"As a girl, if you want to be the director of a film, dad will naturally help you take care of it."
"General, in this way, the men in our village will no longer have to travel far away to carry work. They will be able to find something to do at their doorstep."
"Father-in-law, actually, even if Hui'er doesn't contribute the money, you can build it. The whole village can contribute the money together, and the built kiln will belong to the village, and everyone will share the profits according to the amount of money they contributed. That's it.
"
Dong Shuheng suddenly thought of the township and village enterprises that were popular in later generations. Such small businesses were very flexible and very suitable for Huaihai Navy's current situation.
…
Dong Shuheng accompanied Hui'er to have lunch at Zhang's house. The girl was very happy. The little girl also had a little vanity. She used to be just a Cinderella, but now she is with the general who is respected by everyone. Watching the villagers surrender
The look of envy came, the little girl was so full of vanity.