If it hadn't been for what happened behind the hut in Qinchuan that night, Qin Liang might not have thought too much about Mrs. Lu, even though she was quite beautiful. But he had caught a glimpse of the leopard but didn't know the whole picture. Instead, he was a little curious and thought about it. Sometimes people just
There will be some such inexplicable obsessions.
This time Qin Liang finally got his wish and got a clear look at Mrs. Lu's whole face.
However, Mrs. Lu was very troubled. Qin Liang saw that she was not half-hearted, but actually had a huge psychological burden. He weighed the importance and finally did not force her. The behavior of the female Taoist priest was also really strange. She might as well have been in the beginning
Don't let me touch it.
Originally he said that he would not see off Mrs. Lu, but early the next morning Qin Liang asked Rao Dashan to drive the carriage and watched them off on the roadside near the north gate of the city.
Mrs. Lu looked back several times. She was wearing a curtain hat, and Qin Liang couldn't see her expression clearly, and he didn't know how she felt. But people's feelings are different. Anyway, in Qin Liang's heart, the main feeling was unrest.
.If it were stable, he would not have started preparing for Shu's retreat early.
...However, this sense of uneasiness soon faded away. Qin Liang was so busy that he didn't have much energy to take into account his own feelings.
Very simple things, mainly promoting composting and inspecting two iron mines abandoned due to war disasters in the northern part of the Dabie Mountains.
The difficulty lies in the urgency. If given time, if it lasts for ten or eight years, composting will increase food production, and the surrounding wealthy families and farmers will gradually follow suit, and it will spread without much effort. But Qin Liang could not wait a few years, and immediately started to implement it
, can only rely on administrative orders, and the officials and the people do not have much enthusiasm, just to deal with the errands of the county government.
Therefore, Qin Liang inspected various places countless times and pointed out specific problems on the spot. He often returned home dirty because he was too close to the dung pile and would be stained with mixed soil if he was not careful.
There are four counties in Lujiang County, including Lu'an County, the county seat, Yangquan County on the northwest bank of Shaopi, Bo'an County on the southwest bank of Lu'an, the west bank of Xian River, and Yao County on the south side of Lu'an.
There are more than 20,000 households in the military settlement, as well as tens of thousands of civilian settlements, as well as auxiliary farmers of wealthy families occupying the land. Qin Liang just went to the local area to summon the village chiefs who managed fifty households and asked them to learn how to pile manure, which would take a lot of time. However, it would take a lot of time.
Orally giving orders to county magistrates and subordinate officials is not very effective, as officials work too slowly.
Only then did Qin Liang understand the reason why Master Sima was always in a hurry and rarely talked nonsense. It is estimated that Master Sima also had a lot of things under his hands, and he had been doing it himself, constantly handling various specific matters, so he came and went in a hurry
.
...Before the end of the year, Ma Jun and Chen An also came to Lujiang County to take up their posts as promised. After Qin Liang received them, he didn't care much about them. He just allocated money and food to Chen An and told him to find someone by himself and find a way to open the iron mine first.
He got up and built the iron-making blast furnace of the Han Dynasty, let alone if it could produce smoke. Ma Jun gave the drawings of Quyuan Li.
Qin Liang himself has a lot of things to do. In addition to piling dung, he is also recruiting private soldiers. The soldiers are mainly selected from the civilian villages, and the selected households are subtracted from the village slips. Anyway, the wealthy families are also encroaching on the village households.
, it won’t be a big deal if there are two or three thousand households missing.
The big gentry in Lujiang County are all in Wu State, and have long lost their roots in their hometown. The remaining families are some small wealthy families, like Qin Liang's former manor in Pingyuan County, with some land attached to farmers; and most of them are in the county.
Working as an official in the county town, he colluded with the county governor and magistrate.
Qin Liang did not touch their property, otherwise the remaining people would be illiterate villagers and peasants, with no one to manage the place. However, they made some transactions and divided up the manors near Ancheng that had been robbed by the Wu army.
, Qin Liang monopolized nearly half of it.
And those villagers are almost equivalent to serfs, and those who use government cattle, the land tax is as high as an absurd nearly 70%. Everyone is in a state of semi-starvation, living quite miserably. Anyone who is dishonest, or has some connections
None of the people know how to be a farmer in a village, and life is really difficult.
The reason why those people did not go to Soochow was because it was said that the gentry manors over Soochow were squeezed even harder, and the world was as black as crows. In the past, the Wei court wanted to implement the system of separation of family members in Huainan, which resulted in continuous
The villagers fled to the State of Wu. Later, the imperial court abolished the wrong service system and no longer controlled the Huainan villages, so the people stopped running away.
But even among the half-starved villagers, there were always some young and strong men who were naturally taller. Qin Liang singled them out, and then divided the villages in the south of Lu'an City, and transported and supplied food. After they were full, they could be trained.
The newly recruited troops are not called private soldiers, but are called county guards. Although Qin Liang is not the only one to have such soldiers, he still found a good reason, which is to reclaim and guard the cultivated land in Shushui Basin.
Lujiang County used to have a large territory, but now almost all the villages are concentrated near Shaobi and Xianshui Rivers.
As for Chao Lake in the southeast and the Shu River Basin on the west side of Chao Lake, due to wars, raids and plunders that took place there from time to time, there is now no population on the large land. In the past, places including Shu County, Juchao and other places were all counties of Lujiang County, and they are no longer
Destroyed by war.
So Qin Liang planned to build a military village and farmland on the north bank of Shushui River. The villagers were his new recruits. He also set up strongholds at Shukou and Juchaokou to give early warning to the Wu army to attack from the waterway.
...At the end of the year, the eldest brother Qin Sheng came, bringing with him dozens of bankers, and their family members will come one after another.
The eldest brother seems to have done a good job in Pingyuan County. Because of Qin Liang, the eldest brother is highly regarded by the Pingyuan County governor. Looking at the people he brought, it can be seen that the manor's population has obviously expanded.
Sure enough, Qin Liang met him at the gate of the city. After a few words of greeting, the eldest brother said directly: "Your sister-in-law is reluctant to leave Pingyuan County. Our family already has several pieces of land and has a lot of attached farmers."
My sister-in-law Zhang, who had just stepped off the carriage, immediately said: "It's not that I'm reluctant. Once we leave, will those villagers still take care of things? When we go back, I don't know how much stuff will be left."
Anyway, everyone was here, so Qin Liang nodded in agreement: "What my sister-in-law said makes sense."
Qin Sheng, who had a strong back and strong back, said seriously: "Wang Kang is right, a few pieces of land are nothing. Zhongming becomes the county governor, and our Qin family can also be a noble family in the future. If the eldest brother doesn't help you with your affairs, who will?"
When Qin Liang heard this, he turned his head and glanced at Wang Kang. Wang Kang led the horse and bowed down.
Not being able to say much at the moment, Qin Liang said: "Let's talk about it when we go back home. Your Majesty has probably prepared the food and wine by now."
After hearing this, the eldest brother sighed with emotion: "The Wang family treats us well."
The group of people entered the city and went straight to the county mansion in the north of the city. The bankers settled in the front hall to check in, while Qin Liang took his brother, sister-in-law and nephew to the inner house and prepared a family banquet to welcome them.
Qin Liang and Wang Lingjun Xuanji do not live in the inner house now, but in the small courtyard on the east side at the back. In the inner house courtyard in front, there are only three maids living now. In addition to Wang Xuanji's two maids before, there are also Jiang Li; Mo Xie
Then he would live in the east courtyard and serve nearby.
The small courtyard on the west side has the tallest watchtower in Lu'an City, but the layout is a bit weird. There is only one gate tower, opening in the direction facing the small courtyard on the east side.
To enter that courtyard, people had to first pass through the inner courtyard of the county government, then come to the east courtyard, and then enter the west courtyard. It was more troublesome to get in and out, so Wang Lingjun didn't choose that place.
As several people walked along the corridor towards the gatehouse of the inner house, Mrs. Zhang asked in a low voice: "My brother-in-law's stomach hasn't moved yet?"
Qin Liang was a little embarrassed and said: "Don't be too hasty."
The eldest brother turned around and said, "You have more control."
Zhang spoke quickly and immediately replied: "I didn't talk to you."
The eldest brother was still like that. He didn't say anything more to Mrs. Zhang and immediately stopped talking.
Mrs. Zhang still whispered to Qin Liang: "Before setting off, I asked for a prescription in the county. That doctor is very famous and specializes in treating women's stomach."
But soon, Ms. Zhang stopped talking about this topic, and her husband and her maid had already arrived inside the gatehouse. She was bowing to her brother and sister-in-law dignifiedly and steadily, "Brother and sister-in-law have come a long way, but I am not here to welcome you."
The eldest brother returned the greeting and said, "My brother-in-law doesn't need to be polite."
Mrs. Zhang bowed her head and smiled and said: "You ladies, if you don't take half a step out of the door, you will be welcomed here from a distance." After saying that, he stepped forward to hold your order. The two of them had already gone through many etiquettes in Luoyang, so it can be said that
Qin Liang and his eldest brother walked in front, and the two brothers talked about Pingyuan County.
Qin Liang found a break in the chat and said directly: "I have already transferred the Liu'an County Lieutenant to Bo'an County in advance. How about you, eldest brother, become the County Lieutenant?"
The eldest brother said: "It's good. I am also a county captain in Pingyuan County and I am familiar with everything. Besides, our family is looking after Erlang as the county governor. I am just here to help. You have the final say on what can be done."
Qin Liang nodded and said: "There is a house in the southeast of the county. It is the former eunuch's house. I have sent people to clean it out. The eldest brother and sister-in-law live there temporarily. It is also very close to the county temple."
The eldest brother said: "Zhong Ming arranged it very carefully."
Several adults and two children came to the hall to sit down, and the upper seats were empty. At this time, four maids came one after another with dishes.
Mrs. Zhang opposite didn't speak for a while, and was watching Wang Lingjun's behavior with great interest. Qin Liang glanced sideways, he was used to it, but Wang Lingjun's movements and posture were indeed very gentle and straight, and he spoke unhurriedly.
.
After a while, Mrs. Zhang turned around and said with a smile: "Girls from noble families are indeed different."
The eldest brother responded with a calm expression, as if he meant that the Qin family could also become a noble family in the future.
There was no Xuan Ji at the table. She had been in Lujiang County for two or three months. Since no outsiders came in or out of the courtyard of the inner house, she was almost always with Wang Lingjun. But when guests came, it was still inconvenient for her to see them.
Qin Liang originally thought that Wang Guang would be suspicious and sent someone over to take a look. Unexpectedly, Wang Guang didn't care about the matter at all. The retainer sent Xuan Ji's two maids and went back the next day.
What Xuan Ji said before seems to be right, the Wang family doesn't care about her that much.
There is no news from Bai, so I don’t know how she feels, but it seems that she should not dare to act rashly.