The new town is still under construction, as is the dam, which will not be completed until at least the end of next year.
Yang Fan still lives in the big cowhide tent he captured. After living there for a winter and summer, Yang Fan has become more beautiful, and he feels like a traveler camping.
Yang Fan discovered that the nomadic life was not bad. He felt quite warm during the winter he spent in a large cowhide tent last year.
He never thought that he had a cast-iron stove with briquettes, and even photovoltaic power generation and an electric heater. Mongolian herdsmen could only carefully burn some cow dung when cooking. It was as warm as him there.
And can the winter in Hebei be compared with the winter on the grassland? The coldest time is more than 20 degrees different.
He said he lived in a large tent, but the facilities he used were the best, and there was no inconvenience at all. There were even solar water heaters and flush toilets. He also installed a cat-foot bathtub for his wives and a pine board for himself.
Sauna. Enjoyed it very much.
Yang Fan likes to live here. It is no longer a wilderness. It is surrounded by developed rice fields, and you can hear the sound of frogs at night.
Because he is here, there are six battalions of servants stationed around him. Currently, Yang Fan's servant team consists of these six battalions. Except for those on the grassland and the militia, although Yang Fan's armed forces are elite, they are not many.
.
As for the Qianhu Station in Hexi, it was the military force of the imperial court and was only managed by Yang Fan.
They have been living together in that huge earth building made of cement and stone blocks.
It has now developed into a small town. After all, there are more than 3,600 officers and soldiers, plus family members and service personnel, and the population has exceeded 20,000.
Some counties in the Ming Dynasty only had tens of thousands of people.
Yang Fan currently has an infantry regiment, a cavalry regiment, and a Mongolian cavalry regiment on the grassland. Officially, he has a guard station for thousands of households. He also has a retainer regiment. There is a port at Beitangkou, a fleet and merchant ships.
The team is still being formed, and there is a pirate group in Jeju Island.
This is all Yang Fan's power, which is scattered in Zunhua City, the grassland and the sea.
Yang Fan stood on the rammed earth platform, looking at the endless green rice fields around him, feeling very comfortable. A gust of wind blew by, because it was surrounded by water, which was very cool.
Yang Fan likes this pastoral scenery.
In his spare time, he also took his wife and concubines to fish in the creek, catch frogs, bake them, and shoot some wild animals. Tu Shanyue and the others liked it very much that the master took them out to play and have a picnic.
Now within his sphere of influence, most of the wasteland that can be developed is being developed.
The vast wasteland east of Jizhou and west of Zunhua has shown a prosperous scene under Yang Fan's management. There are not many refugees in Beizhili anymore. It has even affected the trackers on the canal.
A large amount of land was abandoned in the late Ming Dynasty, and climate was one of the reasons. However, these lands were not absolutely uncultivable, and more importantly, they were caused by various man-made disasters.
Because the legal system has been destroyed, farmers' interests are not protected, and farmers dare not manage the land properly, which has led to a sharp decline in output.
On Yang Fan's land, these disadvantages do not exist. Farmers can make money as long as they work hard to manage their land.
In theory, these lands were purchased by Yang Fan privately. Yang Fan naturally refused to pay taxes, and no one dared to come to him to collect taxes. If civil servants did not pay taxes, how could Jin Yiwei pay taxes?
Therefore, his tenants naturally don't have to pay taxes, and they don't even have to do corvee labor. Isn't this the case in the Ming Dynasty now? It's no different here.
Yang Fan's tenants have no land rent, but they have to buy high-yielding and salt-alkali-tolerant seeds and fertilizers from Yang Fan. They have to buy cattle and farm tools from Yang Fan.
After Yang Fan gained a foothold in the grassland, large livestock such as cattle and horses were very abundant. They could be provided in unlimited quantities. Both cattle farming and horse farming could be developed. If farmers are willing to raise horses and use horses to plow the land, they will be given some subsidies. This will help increase the number of livestock.
quantity.
These tenants came from poverty. They needed to build houses, daily necessities, clothes and shoes. They all needed loans to purchase. Xinghe Bank lent them money first and then repaid it in installments.
Banks can lend money to them on credit without collateral.
Ultimately, the purpose of a mortgage is to prevent the debtor from transferring the debt.
These farmers are at the bottom of society. They cannot transfer their debts to others. Their children and grandchildren will have to repay the debts they owe, so they cannot afford to let them go.
So there is no need to take out a mortgage loan, just direct credit is enough.
After they harvested, all their output could only be sold to Mr. Yang. The banknotes they obtained from selling grain could only be spent within Mr. Yang's system. After all, these banknotes were not recognized outside.
However, Yang Fan's store is filled with a dazzling array of supplies, many times richer than those outside.
Farmers are very satisfied, there is everything they need here, and naturally they will not go out to buy goods that are not as good as those in the store.
Moreover, the farmers were all refugees who were recruited and dispersed from one family to another. There was no complicated network of relationships like those in other parts of the Ming Dynasty, and there was no problem of big households bullying small households.
Farmers only need to work hard to cultivate the land. There is no need to consider other things.
As soon as the farmers got the land, they immediately burst out with great enthusiasm for production. Looking at these thriving crops this year, it will definitely be a bumper year.
Farmers are basically allocated about ten acres of land to each person based on the adult population of their family.
Yang Fan provided low-interest loans through Xinghe Bank and equipped farmers with cattle and iron or even steel farm tools.
Farmers can get loans to drill water wells and drill a water press well for every acre of land. With water, there are two crops of wheat and rice a year, and the output of the land suddenly increases.
There is a shortage of money and loans, and there is a shortage of agricultural equipment. Yang Fan's factory is producing. Yang Fan's agricultural tools are all molded according to the shape of modern human-powered agricultural tools, which is very labor-saving and durable.
The pressurized well has solved a big problem. In the past, people had to carry water. The family worked day and night, and could not water much of the land in a day and night. During severe droughts, they could only watch the seedlings wither and die. The family squatted in the ground and cried.
Now, with the pressurized well, everything has changed.
Because it uses the lever principle, it is very labor-saving. An adult man can water fifty acres of land at home in one day and half a night.
Zhang Laoshi's family was allocated fifty acres of land, and the only strong working people in the family were his wife.
Because he was the eldest son, his parents lived with them, so when the land was divided, each person had ten acres of land, while the two children were underage and only had five acres of land each. In this way, the family had a total of fifty acres of land.
They were not locals, but refugees from Daming Prefecture, so they were only assigned to wasteland far away from water sources.
The land with waterwheels by the river and the good land with irrigation canals downstream of the reservoir were generally allocated in advance to the first few groups of people who followed Yang Fanzao. Those lands only needed to be drained, so they were far less tiring.
But Zhang Laoshi's family is very satisfied. They feel that Mr. Yang's place is like a fairyland on earth.
They chose Mr. Yang as a tenant, and all their burdens were gone. Mr. Yang actually did not collect land rent, but all output except his own rations had to be purchased compulsorily.
They can also understand that the best land should be given first to the family members of the servants and the army, and then to allocate wasteland to the later refugees. After all, not everyone there has close relatives.
Family members of military personnel, especially those whose children were killed in battle, must be treated well because they have sacrificed their lives for their master. How dare people like me, who are fleeing from famine, have the unreasonable desire to compare with other people's local families?
These fields can only be irrigated by manually driven wells.
In some places, farmers can spend more money to purchase wells driven by animal power in a circle.
However, Zhang Laoshi was unwilling to do that. It wasn't that he couldn't get the loan, but that he cherished the animals.
His family has been tenant farmers for generations, and they raise cattle there.
In this life, thanks to Master Yang, he was willing to lend money to them to buy a cow. He felt very sorry for this three-year-old calf and had to get up in the middle of the night to feed it. He was afraid that it would lose fat.
I use it once every day and it is always clean.
He was reluctant to let the cattle go to the well to draw water. He would rather do the work himself and use manpower to pump the water.
Zhang Laoshi was shirtless, his arms were bulging with muscles, and he was pressing down on the well desperately. Groundwater gushes out from the water outlet, and soon an acre of land was watered.
The family came here and took out a loan to build a simple adobe house, equipped with pots and pans, clothes and bedding, iron farm tools, and even bought an ox and a pair of plow sticks.
Fifty acres of land cannot be plowed without cattle.
They all owe Master Yang a terrifying debt.
Fortunately, the interest rate is very low, so low that they can't believe it.
After spring plowing began, even the seeds were purchased on credit from Hexinghe Seed Industry.
At first, they didn't dare to borrow money. They were frightened by the usury loans from the gentry in their hometown, and they were afraid that they would not be able to pay it back in a few lifetimes. Even if they sold their children or daughters, they would not be able to pay it back.
The money bankers settled accounts with them one by one, telling them that as long as they worked hard to farm, the debts could be repaid, and the term would be as long as ten years, and the principal and interest would be repaid year by year.
The interest is very low, no collateral is required, and the annual interest rate is only two percent (2.4%).
Zhang Laoshi's family was both happy and scared.
I was happy because my family suddenly had everything, and all that was left was to farm the land properly for Mr. Yang.
What is scary is that these debt algorithms, which they have never heard of before, make these honest and illiterate farmers deeply afraid.
However, they have no choice. If they don't work with Mr. Yang, will the whole family starve to death?
Or they can work as trackers, and they might be able to survive for a few years. However, if they are reduced to trackers, their final destination will be on both sides of the canal.
Forget it, leave everything to fate.
They just want to work hard and pay off their debts as soon as possible.
"Master, take a rest. You have watered fifteen acres of land this morning."
I heard it was my mother-in-law coming.
Zhang Laoshi's mother-in-law is very strong, with a dark red face and a strong body. She looks good at giving birth. This type is also the ideal type that farmers like most.
After all, a strong worker with big feet is what the family really needs.
"You hurry up and eat, I'll water the ground." As she said that, the mother-in-law pushed him aside, then rolled up her sleeves and started to press the water.
"Okay, I'll take a break too. I'm really tired. I just hate work. I want to finish it all in one go. I can't stop."
"Hurry up and eat. I've baked flatbread for you, as well as kelp and tofu soup."
"What, you prodigal bitch, white flour is so expensive, and tofu is not cheap either. Just bring me some whole grain rice and two pickles."
"You know how hard it is to work such a tiring job and not have enough food to bear on your body. Now that the good times are coming, if your body collapses, how can we pay off that terrifying debt?"
When it came to debt, Zhang Laoshi suddenly lost his temper.
He lowered his head, opened the cloth covering the basket, took out the flatbread inside and ate it in big gulps.
The flatbread is a yeast bread, very fluffy and delicious. It's thick and appetizing, and both sides are baked golden. Although there is no oil, it doesn't stop him from eating it at all.
"The master gave each family thirty kilograms of white flour. He said it was free of charge and that it was a subsidy for heavy physical labor in spring plowing. We really met a good owner. We have never met such a kind-hearted master in our lives."
Hearing that it was free of charge, Zhang Laoshi was moved to tears. Thirty pounds of white noodles is not a small sum of money. Mr. Yang is really a kind man.
"You baked a few cakes. Have your parents eaten them? Have the children eaten them?"
"I knew you would ask, and there are both. One for each of the parents, and half for each of the two dolls. Just feel free to eat."
Zhang Laoshi felt relieved and took out an earthen pot from the basket, which contained kelp and tofu soup, and a large gourd with boiling water in it. Kelp is the cheapest vegetable. These things used to be used to feed pigs at the seaside.
It was promoted to be eaten by people, saying that it contained some vitamins and supplemented iodine to treat thick neck disease.
This thing is really cheap. You can buy a big bundle for a few big copper coins. It can be stored for several years. Just soak it in water, and you can get a lot of it.
He drank a lot of water first. On this hot day, he was very thirsty. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve, burped with satisfaction, and said: "Oh, you, I know you feel sorry for me.
Me, but salt is so expensive, and you put salt in the water."
The mother-in-law said while working hard to press the water, "Mr. Yang has newly established the Department of Health, which seems to be a yamen. The ambassador is the famous doctor Chen Haichao in Zunhua City. Ambassador Chen brought some students who had just graduated from the academy to
Field inspection."
Zhang Laoshi felt a little scared when he heard the word "inspection".
He didn't understand the meaning of the word, but he had a vague feeling that it was not a good thing for the government to inspect him.
"Yes, no one is allowed to drink raw water. It must be boiled to drink. If you are caught, you will be fined. You will be fined three large copper coins at a time. My mother," the mother-in-law said with a clear heart.
"What, the government even controls drinking water."
"Didn't every town set up a medical clinic in the spring? They said that in the future, medical treatment would be free. The Department of Health said that drinking unboiled water would make you more likely to get sick. This would increase the financial burden. I didn't understand either. Anyway, it would be free of charge in the future.
When you deliver water, it must be cold water. By the way, we have also issued an order to each village office, saying that salt should be added to the water to prevent heat stroke and dehydration. Each household is given two taels of salt, which is enough."
Zhang Laoshi lived to be thirty years old, and this was the first time he heard about these twists and turns. He couldn't understand them, but he was honest and he didn't dare to disobey the government's orders.
"Dad, there is one more thing I want to discuss with you. A school has been set up in the town, and each student only receives ten pounds of wheat a year. The children want to go to school."
Zhang Laoshi was silent.
What the farmer's family lacks is labor force. His two sons are almost ten years old, one is eight and one is nine. They will be able to help with the work in two years.
Now that the family has been allocated so much land, he sincerely hopes that his children will grow up as soon as possible and share his burden.
However, he also knew that in the world of the Ming Dynasty, only by reading and literacy could one escape from suffering and become a master. Those who farmed the land would always be at the bottom.
He seemed to know what he was worried about.
The mother-in-law said: "People from the Education Department came to our village in the morning and said that the school opened at a time to avoid busy farming. It has holidays during busy farming and classes during slack farming. There is no work in winter, so we have to have classes for three months."
Zhang Laoshi was moved as soon as he heard this. How could people like them afford to go to private schools? Now schools are being set up in villages and towns. The fees are cheap and they don't affect farming. How great is this?
He gritted his teeth and said, "Let's do it. Let's send the two dolls so that they can read and write, so they don't have to suffer what we have suffered."