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Section 169 Officials and Squires

 Chapter 169: The Government and the Squire

In order to make up for the shortage of soldiers and artillery, Li Xijue suggested at the meeting that in addition to ordering Foshan and other places to "rush work day and night", other nearby blacksmiths could also start casting. In addition, the Portuguese could use artillery. In terms of soldiers, they could

Recruit Chaozhou Yong who are fierce and brave enough to fight. It is estimated that at least 10,000 people can be recruited in half a month.

But Li Fengjie was not interested in his proposal. Although hiring brave men was cheaper than recruiting soldiers, it would cost a lot to recruit 10,000 soldiers at once. Moreover, hiring brave men from Chaozhou and then driving to Guangzhou after the recruitment was complete would cost less.

A large amount of travel expenses. Li Fengjie did not intend to spend this money - Wang Zunde's crusade against Lingao cost a lot of money in the vassal treasury.

Li Fengjie is not opposed to hiring brave men - on the contrary, he is very enthusiastic about hiring brave men. Hiring brave men is a very profitable thing. The brave men are only temporary hires and will be disbanded after the work is completed. So what is the actual use of hiring brave men in the camp?

No matter how many people there are, how much salary and salt money each person is paid, there are many loopholes to exploit. I don’t know how many people have made a fortune by hiring a brave man at once.

He insisted on hiring local people, or to be precise, to hire Dan family boat people along the Pearl River. They are all residents of the water, and they rely on the water to drink. They are either boatmen or fishermen - they are very familiar with the Pearl River water system. Li Fengjie believes that hiring them as

Shui Yong has the advantage of having the right time and place.

Another of his high-sounding reasons is: "When the defense is tight, they are afraid that they will conspire with them to become traitors, or they will be used to transport goods, so they will inevitably fight for the benefits. They still collect and use them, and there will be more officials."

Shui Yong is one of the few gangsters in the ocean."

"This is a plan to draw fuel from under the cauldron!" Li Fengjie said proudly, "Traitors and thieves kill each other, using rape to fight rape, and using poison to fight poison."

Li Fengjie's words were both selfish and public-spirited. They were not entirely for profit. Because a few days ago, there was news in the pond newspaper that thieves were "recruiting traitors on the water" on the islands outside the Pearl River Estuary. They have no fixed abode and are familiar with water.

The Dan family, who knew the Pearl River water system very well, became his pet peeve.

The government has never had an exact number of boat people living on boats on the Pearl River, but there are probably tens of thousands of them. If these people were seduced by gangsters and "acted as traitors", the consequences would be very serious.

Li Xijue could not refute his reasoning. Saving money was always the most effective reason in any dynasty. However, he still muttered: "The thieves are extremely powerful, and it is difficult for a mob to defeat them."

At this time, He Chengzong came out and asked: Could it be that Chaozhou Yong, who was temporarily recruited, was not just a rabble?

Li Xijue was speechless. Not to mention that such a temporary hired warrior was the master of the government and army. What use was it in front of the thieves? Thinking of this, he sighed secretly and stopped talking.

Li Fengjie decided to hire 5,000 Yong men first, and another 5,000 men depending on the situation. In this way, there would be 10,000 Shui Yong at his disposal. Shui Yong is better at boats and is good at water. It may not be possible to fight the Kun thieves in water, but setting fire to them can be done.

, ship-cutting and other harassment matters are okay. Anyway, Shui Yong is a temporary worker without establishment, and the cost is very small. A few more casualties will not cause great financial pressure on the Guangdong vassal treasury.

According to the current market situation: each Shuiyong's monthly salary includes 2 taels of salt and vegetables, and a one-time payment of 2 taels of Anjia silver. He will be given another reward before going to war.

This amount of money is certainly not an expenditure from the Guangdong vassal treasury. According to the traditional thinking of the government, at this time it is up to the common people to "contribute money and efforts" if they have money. If the poor come to work as warriors, their salaries will fall on the powerless.

It's on the rich people - to be precise, it's on the businessmen's heads.

According to the idea of ​​​​the staff, the cost of hiring brave soldiers includes three months of military pay, salt and vegetable money, settlement expenses and various public expenses and miscellaneous items, totaling 120,000 taels, and is paid by the three major business groups in Guangzhou: foreign merchants, salt merchants

The cost of casting cannons was shared with Chaozhou merchants, and the smelting merchants in Foshan were asked to "repay" the total amount of 10,000 taels.

As for the ships needed by the water warriors and the warships that the navy urgently needed to supplement, Li Fengjie also followed this thinking and ordered the ships on the Pearl River to be nailed for use.

In this way, various policies for Guangzhou's defense were arranged and implemented in accordance with the policy of "spend less and do more". Everyone had no objections and went about their own affairs.

After everyone dispersed, Li Fengjie left He Chengzong behind and asked him to handle the "recruitment" matters.

The target of the solicitation is of course not the "three businessmen" - since they have to pay a large sum of money to hire Yong, enough is enough. The targets of the new solicitation are other industries and the landlords and wealthy people near Guangzhou. According to Li Fengjie's

Meaning, we have to show some meaning. To defend Guangzhou is to protect everyone's lives and property. Otherwise, when the thieves come, everyone will be destroyed and nothing will be left.

"Sir!" He Chengzong said in confusion, "Although there is not much money in the vassal treasury, the cost of hiring brave men to cast cannons has already been raised by various merchants. If we want to raise money again..." The implication is that boss, don't be too greedy.

.

"Old sir, this money is for the last resort." Li Fengjie said softly, "Now we are preparing for war, but what if we are defeated..."

The words were spoken softly, but the meaning was already understood. He Chengzong suddenly realized. If they were defeated, the bandit troops would come to Guangzhou City. At that time, they would have to retreat quickly and only have bank funds - how could they do it without a large amount of money?

He Chengzong bowed: "Students understand."

Li Fengjie nodded slightly: "You go ahead and do it. The whole story is not enough for outsiders to understand."

"Yes Yes."

A sloop, with a patched sail, slowly sailed into a river bend. On the bow of the sailboat stood a middle-aged man who looked like a gentleman. Although he pretended to be calm on the face, there was an expression on his face.

But he expressed anxiety from time to time.

The river bend is covered with reeds, but there are many orange trees growing along the bank, with many green oranges hanging on them. Between the orange trees, there are dense bamboo fences, as tall as a person, with sharp tops.

The boat continued to go inward and turned into a narrow river. Among the lush green orange groves, a tall watchtower emerged from the top of the trees. The watchtower was made of bricks and was as high as three stories high, with strange features on the top.

The decoration - it is a suspended balcony that is not found in traditional Chinese architecture.

On the balcony, there were several local warriors holding wooden guns, horns, and gongs.

The middle-aged man did not watch this rare sight, but paid attention to the landforms on both sides of the river. There were orange trees everywhere along the river. When the boat reached the end of the river, a stone bridge spanned the two banks. Under the bridge, there were wooden

The sluice gate is now open, but a thick iron chain hangs on the river, blocking ships crossing the bridge.

The bridge is made of stone and is very solid. There is a bridge building on the bridge. It was originally open on all sides, but now the side facing the river has been blocked by bricks and wooden boards, with small windows for observation and shooting.

The sailboat lowered its sails, and several boatmen worked together to lower the mast and prepare to cross the bridge hole.

Several village warriors stood or squatted at the head of the bridge to watch. Seeing the arrival of the sailboat, some stood up and patted the dust and grass blades from their clothes.

When they saw the two white gauze lanterns hanging on the bow of the boat with the words "Wanli Jiwei Guangdong Provincial Examination Juren" and "Luo Zhai" written in Song script, everyone stood up and stood up respectfully.

This is the return of Mr. Luo from this town.

A village leader looked around and wanted to ask a question. When he saw Mr. Luo standing at the bow of the boat, he quickly shouted to the people on the other side to loosen the rope and sink the chain to let the boat pass.

The boatman took a few poles down, and the boat passed quietly through the bridge hole and entered a pond with stone banks. There were stacks of houses and streets along the bank, only the north was already a dense orange grove. A faint bamboo fence could be seen.

The river flows through the streets and flows into the pond. There is a rice pounding workshop at the river mouth, making a roaring sound.

This is Sanliang City, an ordinary town in Dongguan County in the Pearl River Delta. There are more than 600 households, most of which grow rice. However, like most villages and towns in the Pearl River Delta, this place has also been affected by the wave of the new commodity economy.

In addition to growing rice, Sanliang City also uses more and more land to grow indigo and tobacco. The large orange groves surrounding the town also bring considerable income to the villagers. Every harvest season, go to the county seat

Every day, ships loaded with agricultural products are shipped out to the market, bringing back rice, salt and various daily necessities.

Although the water surface has not been very peaceful recently, it is not far from the provincial capital. Pirates rarely go as far as the Pearl River to plunder. There are only small groups of water bandits. The people of Sanliang City are

Under the organization of the gentry in the town, regiment training was organized, artillery was built, and bamboo fences were built. Although there were several intrusions by water bandits, there was no damage.

The pond is full of boats of all sizes. Like most villages and towns, there are almost no land routes here. People and freight mostly rely on waterway transportation. Surrounded by water, there are river branches, harbors and paddy fields everywhere, just like a small

An isolated island. The houses in the market town are irregularly adjacent to each other, and the streets are also somewhat winding. There are three east-west streets and four north-south streets, and there are many small alleys connecting the streets. To the south of the street is a threshing floor.

It is also used as a market. Next to the threshing floor is a large pond, which is equivalent to the port of Sanliang City.

There are two rice shops, three banquet shops, a pawn shop, a fishing pen, a wine shop and a tooth shop on the street. In addition, there are large and small pubs, restaurants, inns, teahouses, butcher shops, and tofu shops.

There are drug stores, grocery stores, blacksmith shops, as well as silk and satin shops, tailor shops, washing and dyeing shops, wood shops and ship repair shops next to the threshing floor...

There are drummers, singers, opera singers, and jugglers. Although there are no brothels, there are about a dozen "private households"... Every market day, there are cries, songs, and noises like

A large hive, gathering into a humming noise.


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