Chapter 229: The farming and hanging curtains

In the last letter, the eunuch Liu Fu of the garrison said it very clearly. Li Meng could not rush to urge him in the next letter. After all, he was his elder and he was a dependant in the officialdom. He should pay attention to his sense of duty. However, in Shandong, Li Meng always felt that he was too close to Liaodong, and there were many places in the north of Zhili. What he could do now should continue to make himself stronger and stronger.

All the newly recruited soldiers were put in Dengzhou. Zhao Neng was meticulous in his work and was the most suitable for training new recruits. These new recruits were still organized as armed salt dings, and they sorted out the Yan Road in Dengzhou Prefecture. This time, the recruitment began in late February and recruited more than 3,000 people intermittently. By mid-March, they could only stop helplessly.

The more than 3,000 people recruited, the bandits and horses were born, and the cavalry came to pick them up once, Huang Ping came to pick them up once, and the defeated soldiers were mostly assigned to assist in logistics after the second round of screening, while the children of landlords and gentry were all assigned to armed salt lie. Speaking of which, these rich families were even more likely to become regular soldiers of Jiaozhou camp.

Although Li Meng led the horse and infantry soldiers to fight to death in Dengzhou Prefecture, the military farming policy led by the new Jiaozhou Tongzhi Zhou Yang was already vigorously carried out in Jiaozhou.

Locals cannot be local officials. When Zhou Yang was a Tongzhi, his clerk's background changed a little, but this violation of the rules itself was already a sensation in Jiaozhou. The juren Zhou Yang had a close relationship with the general Li Meng, and was criticized and despised by many scholars who studied, thinking that he had no character as a scholar. At present, a juren actually became a real Tongzhi of a state or a local official.

On the one hand, everyone was jealous and immediately knew that they should stand there. The ancients had farmed because of natural disasters and man-made disasters, and there were a large number of unowned wastelands. Although farming in Shandong was frequent, there were not many wastelands, and most of them were bought by big landlords. The so-called mergers were also called.

In the past, there were several gentry landlords in each county and town, but due to the great disasters and military chaos in recent years, the number of gentry landlords in the northern part of Dengzhou Prefecture and Laizhou Prefecture has greatly decreased. Except for those gentry landlords around the city, the rest of the land was concentrated.

Li Meng’s military farming is to obtain land from these people. There are two ways to obtain land, one is called purchase and the other is called joint venture.

The big landlords obtained a large amount of land, but they did not have enough manpower to cultivate so much land. Moreover, if they recruit refugees and disaster victims to farm, they would have to pay a lot of materials and money in advance, and they were unwilling to do such a loss-making business. Therefore, a large number of abandoned and abandoned people were waiting for the land prices to soar and make money.

Since there is not much benefit, Li Meng is here to buy it, and these landlords do not have much objection, nor are they not selling it. However, Zhou Tongzhi made it clear that we would go to discuss the deal with each other in a angrily voice, and the other party would definitely agree.

Just imagine, if you come to buy your land with a smile, you are very polite, but behind the buyer is a bunch of fierce men with swords, guns and sticks, do you sell it or not?

Sure enough, Zhou Juren bought a large number of fields at a "very fair" price. The fields in Dengzhou Prefecture, Laizhou Prefecture and Qingzhou Prefecture were all collected, and these fields could almost be connected into pieces. Of course, the land separated in the middle could be discussed with joy.

Under the operation of Shi Ye Ning and Hou Shan, the Zheng family's Bamin business bank was transiting on behalf of the company, and a large amount of grain, grain and tools were transported to Jiaozhou by sea. This project not only threw all the money sold by the salt farm, but also paid a portion of it. Some time ago, the camp borrowed 50,000 taels. Shandong was in a major disaster and the local private salt trading income also decreased sharply.

Cultivating farms, recruiting soldiers, and training are all extremely expensive things. Li Meng was so nervous that he had already started to use his old foundation in the silver treasury.

After last year's severe drought, many people could not survive this winter, and there were still many people who survived it, but they were facing a situation of eating food and not having any successors. They were just waiting for death.

On the one hand, the Scent of Incense and the Maitreya Sect took the opportunity to encourage each other locally. On the other hand, many Datianzhuang villages in these three prefectures recruit tenant farmers. The government also strongly supported this matter. The grain that was often closed has long been bottoming out. Most of the grain in the south is used to supply the capital and various troops to suppress the thieves. Shandong can be divided into very few, and this very small part is given priority over the military town and the official system.

Someone opened a Datianzhuang to recruit victims. Although it was a little late, it was better than not. It was also in early March, and after specialized personnel

After the preaching of various places, a large number of landless refugees began to move towards Deng, Lai and Qing governments. The local governments were all facing great enemies, fearing that refugees would gather and someone would take the opportunity to cause trouble.

However, these three prefectures and counties are guarded by the Jiaozhou camp. They are strong and have close monitoring, so they are not worried about anyone making trouble.

In mid-March, including those who were rushing over, there were almost 50,000 people, most of them had been placed in simple shacks in the farm, and various spring plowing work were being carried out. These refugees are now consuming food purely, but Li Meng did not care about consumption at all and bought it through various channels. This is why Li Meng has a sea route, otherwise, it would be really difficult for the source of food.

Most of the joint venture method was carried out in the Yanzhou Prefecture area. Kong Sande, a wealthy merchant from the Confucius Prefecture, purchased a large number of land in Yanzhou Prefecture and Dongchang Prefecture, and recruited refugees from all over the country to cultivate. The land was 70% Kong Sande and 30% Li Meng, but the population was completely controlled by Li Meng.

For refugees and hungry people who have been struggling for a year, farming gives them hope for life. As long as they are willing to go to the farm to plow the fields, they will get food for their lives, and there will be farm tools and livestock from arable land. They don’t have to worry about eating before harvesting.

It seems that this is really a charitable act, comparing all kind people, temples, etc., but such "good deeds" also have cruel conditions. Those who do not have oxen plows will get 50% of the harvest, and those who provide oxen plows will get 60% of the harvest. The remaining food is to ensure the most basic survival needs.

Moreover, all those who farm in the farmland farm must sign a contract under the notarization of the official sent by the government, and must sign a death contract and be slaves to the owner of the farm for life. Moreover, for generations, their descendants are also slaves to the owner of the farmland.

Many people who were originally self-cultivated farmers or even small landlords suddenly lost their identity as free people and became slaves without dignity. The conditions are very strict, but in the face of life and death, these things don’t matter. At least they can survive by farming in this farm, and can avoid the exploitation and harassment of bandits and government runners. It is better to live without death.

There are more than 50,000 people, not many, and more people are still waiting, thinking that this year's year will be better than last year, and that will be awaited in a few years.

Zhou Yang, the Jiaozhou Tongmaster, was quite dissatisfied with his military farming policy, and expressed his apology several times in front of Li Meng. However, Li Meng told him that it was okay, saying that our military farming was not only done for one year, and we must continue to do it. There were more than 50,000 people in just one month, and I believe that more and more people will definitely be added in the future.

However, Li Meng was actually quite satisfied with these 50,000 people. After the disaster year, those who could survive this winter were strong men and women. As for the elderly and weak, they were ruthlessly eliminated by the cold winter and hunger. There were more than 20,000 households in total, and in normal times, the population of 20,000 households was nearly 100,000.

Those dead and those tragedies on earth, when they came to the center of Jiaozhou Camp, they were just cold numbers.

Even though the money was tense, there was no shortage of money spent. The capital, Jinan Prefecture and Nanjing were spent like money. Although the five military generals who had the ability and had no signs were defeated, they did not obtain official permission to enter these prefectures and counties, and what they got was nothing more than a default.

In short, it is better to obtain a name from it. Only in Shandong Province, the general town has the territory of Jinan Prefecture. The generals who are divided into certain places control the five prefectures are really weird, giving people the feeling of putting the cart before the horse.

But in the Ming Dynasty, there are too many strange things, not many of them in Shandong. Li Meng made the established facts below and then wrote them clearly above, everything would be fine.

There is a strange situation in Li Meng's inner house. Gu Hengbo and Liu Rushi no longer stay in the house to entertain themselves, but instead actively help Mu Yunyao organize his residence and report the pond, as well as various literary and astronomy networks brought back by Hou Shan and Huang Ping, one by one, and one by one.

These private salt dealers and people in the world naturally don’t mention their cultural level, but they must be beyond recognition through oral statements. Such a system is gradually being formed. Generally, conventional things are copied into letters and brought back to Jiaozhou by characters such as accounting documents. If there is a major situation, these people will go to a store in Jiaozhou to buy something, and the shopkeeper will be invited into the inner room.

A curtain is hanging in the inner room, and there is a bell on the curtain. The reporter sits with his back to the curtain. When the bell rings, he starts to state what he wants to report. After the report, the bell rings and goes out.

The people sitting behind the curtain were Mu Yunyao, Gu Hengbo and Liu Rushi. The content recorded was transmitted to Li Meng at night, and after reading it, it was signed and archived.
Chapter completed!