There was a whooshing sound, and the water on the lake splashed. A crucian carp flew out of the water with the fishing line, and fell into the reeds with a snap. The ripples on the lake expanded layer by layer.
"Someone is stealing fish over there!"
A fishing boat approached on the lake. The two fishermen on top cursed, grabbed the pebbles prepared in the boat, and started beating them towards the place where the fishing line disappeared. The thin fishing boat kept swinging.
There is a thin figure among the reeds. His fishing line is wrapped around several reed poles. The shadow is busy trying to take the crucian carp off the hook. This famous Matang crucian carp is quite fat and violent.
After struggling, I couldn't get it off.
The fishing boat got closer and closer, and with a bang, a pebble hit his forehead. The figure screamed, pulled the fish's mouth away from the hook, stumbled and disappeared into the reeds, and appeared from the other side after a moment, in front of the fishermen.
He disappeared into a messy shack amid the scolding.
This is the shore of Matang Lake in the northwest of Shipaiji, Anqing. Not far from the right is the tributary of Wanshui River. An official road passes through dense ponds, lakes and rice fields. The place where this shack is located is slightly higher, which is rare in the vicinity.
In the settlement, ant-like crowds were moving in and out.
Yang Guangdi, who had just escaped into the slum area, touched his forehead and saw blood in front of his eyes. He wiped it on the shabby linen clothes without caring, stuffed the crucian carp into his arms, and put it against his stomach. It felt cold, and then
After touching it, I found that the one I caught before was also there. There were two fish in total today. I walked around the shed with my bare feet contentedly.
The camp was in a mess, with excrement and garbage everywhere on the ground, occasionally mixed with some straw and dry firewood. Yang Guangdi did not carefully avoid it, and stepped directly on those dead branches without any damage to the soles of his feet, which were covered with thick calluses.
When I came across larger firewood branches, I picked them up and took them away. After turning several corners, a shack made of reed poles appeared in front of me, and a woman was pulling dry straw from behind the shack.
"It's shameless to steal!"
Yang Guangdi raised a piece of dry firewood in his hand as if to strike. The woman remained silent, grabbed a handful of hay and ran away.
"Don't worry about Guangdi."
My mother's voice came from inside the shed.
Yang Guangdi put down the firewood and saw his mother coming out of the shed. Although her face was still pale, it was much better than on the road.
Now he carefully supported her and made her sit on the ground.
After being rescued by Mr. Hou outside the city of Chuzhou, he took his mother on a long journey and finally arrived in Anqing.
However, since he did not actually know how to ride a mule, he was naturally not selected when the cavalry battalion was selected from the list. Although he was not driven away, his life could not improve and he could only do manual labor in Shipai.
"Mom, look, I caught a fish."
Yang Guangdi took the fish out of his arms and looked at his mother with joy.
His mother moved a little and felt a little weak. She reached out and touched Yang Guangdi's forehead. After looking at it carefully for a moment, she said heartbrokenly, "Been beaten by those fishermen again?
Does it still hurt?"
"It won't hurt if you hit me with a stone."
Mom sighed in a low voice, "When you went out just now, that manager Tan came here again and told the surrounding families not to steal fish from the lake. He said that whoever goes again will pay for the porridge.
brand."
"The lake doesn't belong to those fishermen. I'm not stealing it."
"Then we have to listen to Manager Tan. He was sent by Pang Pang. If Pang Pang had rescued our mother and son in Chuzhou, how would we still be alive?"
Yang Guangdi buried his head in silence for a moment, "As long as my mother regains her strength, I won't go fishing."
After that, he walked to a nearby shack, poked his head in and saw the old man inside, and said cautiously, "Master Zeng, let me lend you the pot and give you half of it."
The old man was sleeping, but after looking up, he hummed, took out a small pot with a chip under his head, and handed it to Yang Guangdi.
Yang Guangdi took it with both hands. The iron pot is a rare item in this refugee camp. Originally, these items were thrown everywhere on the battlefield in Chuzhou, but most of them were collected by the officers and soldiers of various branches and sold to the people of Chuzhou. They were replaced for easier carrying.
The money of these refugees was changed hands many times, and all their belongings had been plundered. They picked up some junk goods when they left, and they were all damaged along the way from Jiangpu to Anqing. When they arrived in Anqing, they had no money to buy anything.
Fortunately, this old man who can raise horses has rich experience in escaping. He helped guard and nourish horses and mules on the way, and bought a lot of extra things. However, after arriving in Anqing, he did not follow the cavalry. He was still in this private camp. In view of the various supplies
They are all in short supply, so the old man has to sleep with the pot under his head.
There was a stone stove on the ground. Yang Guangdi squatted down and there was still a fire inside. He pulled some hay and put it on top. His mother took out some firewood from the shack and quickly started a fire.
Yang Guangdi carried the pot back to the lake and saw that the fishing boat had already sailed away. He quickly went to the place where he had just set the hook, untied the fishing line from the reeds, filled the pot with water and returned to the shack.
The fire was already burning brightly. Yang Guangdi borrowed a knife from the old man, cut open the fish and put it into the pot. The old man followed him out after a while and sat by the pot waiting. Two carps were tumbling in the pot, and the soup was boiling quickly.
A little white appeared, and gradually there were other refugees walking around, and some children squatted directly beside the pot, staring blankly at the fish in the pot.
The old man sighed sadly and stood up with a knife. Yang Guangdi also used a thick firewood branch as a stick to prevent anyone from snatching the fish.
Everyone was still a little afraid of knives and never dared to grab it, so the two children kept squatting by the pot, looking at the fish for a while and then looking up at Yang Guangdi.
He kept pushing the two children away, but as soon as he let go, he came back.
The old lady sighed from behind and said, "Give them some food. The children will not be hungry."
Yang Guangdi hummed obediently, and waited for about half a quarter of an hour. It was probably almost cooked. The old man used chopsticks to put one piece into his bowl, picked off half of the fish a few times, and gave the rest to Yang Guang.
Third, he took out an oil paper bag from his pocket, carefully poured out some salt and sprinkled it on the fish, and also gave a little to Yang Guangdi.
Everything was ready, and just when I was about to take my mouthful, there was a sudden shout from behind me.
"Everyone, get up! Is old man Zeng here?"
Everyone knew it was Manager Tan when they heard the voice, and those who were close quickly got out of the way.
Manager Tan, who had a leprosy on his head, came over, followed by two people from the garrison camp. No one knew whether he was a general or an officer.
"Old man Zeng, come out...you still eat fish, look at what you are doing, even though you said no fishing, you didn't even listen to what Mr. Tan said, right?"
Tan Laizi came over and snatched the bowl, pointed at the two battalion soldiers behind him and said, "This is the officer of the cavalry department of the garrison camp. Now you are going with the officer. That is a promotion for you. You will be with me in the future."
good days."
The old man didn't say anything. He bowed his body and saluted the two soldiers, "Let me clean up."
"Don't bring anything with you, we have it in the camp."
The leading soldier from the camp had a scar on his face that had recently healed, and it was still red. He turned his head and looked at the old man and then said to the soldier behind him, "When you get to the camp gate, take them to wash them and throw away all the old clothes."
, they are not allowed to be brought into the camp, and they will be carefully scratched inside the hair. Pang Pang is now asking the town guards to check for lice, and if they are caught, everyone will be deducted money."
After saying that, he came closer and stood in front of old man Zeng and said, "Zeng Zhimu, someone originally accused you of being a member of the management team of the Eight Thieves Camp, so you were not allowed to enter the camp. In the past few days, it has been verified that it is not true.
Our cavalry department has good food and housing. Even though you raise horses and mules, you still get one or two to five yuan in salary every month. I heard that you are good at raising horses. When you enter the camp, just focus on raising the horses well," the homeless people around said.
Everyone was talking, and they were all envious of this old man who was about to leave the refugee camp.
The old man bowed his head in agreement and followed the officer for a few steps. Suddenly he remembered something, stopped and said to Yang Guangdi in a hurry: "Son, I'll give you the rest of the house."
Yang Guangdi replied dumbly and watched Old Man Zeng and others disappear between the shacks.
At this time, a gong outside was beating loudly and urgently. Tan Laizi, who was eating fish from a bowl, shouted at the top of his voice, "Get to work, build the barracks for me!"
..."Besides this place, where else are we planning to start construction of Shidaotai?"
Outside Jixian Gate in Anqing, Pang Yu was looking up at a high platform that was about to take shape. The inside of the base was rammed earth and the outside was covered with bricks. There were still a large number of people building wooden buildings on it. The overall shape was similar to a city gate. Facing the Jixian Gate,
The four characters "Yicheng Tianqi" are engraved on the forehead of the stone.
(Note: Anqing Tianqian Tower was built in the ninth year of Chongzhen and was destroyed by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom).
Jiang Fan next to him whispered, "There are the Wengcheng at the north gate of Tongcheng, the turret of Fucheng and here, Qianshan Tianning Village, Taihu City Wall, and Susong City Wall. Only Taihu Lake has not yet been decided."
Master Daotai not only built the city, but also urged the gentry in various places to provide money to build forts."
Pang Yu rubbed his forehead and walked around the Tianzhan Tower to the north. As he walked, he said to Jiang Fan, "The construction officials of Fucheng will think of ways to let the Caobang do the construction. There are fewer river boats recently, so we have to let the gang members eat."
"Thank you, sir. I just feel that no matter how much I build it, it is still not as strong as Hezhou City. It is still difficult to protect it without training soldiers and horses. How can I give this money to you..." Pang Yu waved his hand, "How to use the money that Shi Daotai raised himself?
It's his business. If he likes building, he will do it. This time we have three new camps in total. There are ready-made barracks in Leigang, Shipai and Songyang are both newly built. Master Daotai promised to help raise funds with the gentry in Songyang.
Qianliang, at the end of the month you will arrange for three to five hundred people to go to Songyang to build it, but the most important thing is Shipai, how is the progress there?"
"My subordinate just came back from Shipai yesterday. There were many conflicts between the refugees gathered in Chuzhou and the native people, mainly over fishing, firewood, theft, etc. The refugees went to catch fish in Matang Lake and were chased and beaten by nearby fishermen. They were seriously injured.
Few people."
Pang Yu hummed. When he went to Shipai for the second time, the local gentry treated him to the Matang crucian carp. It was indeed fatter than the crucian carp found in other places and was one of Shipai's specialties.
Because of the urgent threat of rogue bandits this year, the garrison camp received strong support from the local gentry when it proposed to garrison troops. Although the Anqing garrison camp had a good reputation, due to the long-term fear of the official army, the gentry still made many demands, in addition to the army
In addition to not disturbing the people, you also cannot fish in Matang Lake, because many wealthy families nearby make a living from Matang crucian carp.
The Chuzhou refugees were recruited to build a military camp, and they can barely have enough to eat at the moment. There is so much fish and meat to eat in the lake next to it, so naturally they won't just look at it stupidly. However, the refugees are still timid at the moment, and they either run away after being beaten by a few natives.
, or swallow your anger.
"These towns are all formed naturally, and the resources and population are roughly balanced. Suddenly there are more than a thousand people, and there will naturally be disputes due to insufficient resources. But this will not take long, and the camp will be transferred to other places after the construction is completed.
We have been selecting from various places and there are not many left. You had to strictly control them before and it was best not to conflict with Shipai gentry and people."
Pang Yu stopped and said, "I will station the cavalry at Shipai, and we should be able to support Wangjiang, Susong, Qianshan, and Taihu within one day.
But it was not possible to go to Qianshan, mainly because the road to Qianshan was blocked by the Wanhe River, and it would take a whole afternoon for five hundred cavalry to cross the river from Catfish.
I want Caobang to not only make a living by building a dock in Shipai, but also be able to build pontoons, so I must practice and become familiar with it."
"I have a doubt here, little man. Why not build a pontoon bridge on weekdays and let pedestrians pass by on weekdays. If something happens, you won't be in a hurry."
Pang Yu turned to look at Jiang Fan and said with a smile, "The Tang family who donated the land for our cavalry camp controls the passenger boats on Catfish Ferry. If you put the pontoon there on weekdays, wouldn't you be taking people's money and being at odds with the gentry?
It will not be so convenient to garrison troops in the future.
But you don’t have to be humble at Leigang and Songyang Wharf. If the porters and trackers want to eat at the wharf, they can only follow the rules of the Caobang."
"Young man understands."
Pang Yu paused for a moment and then said, "Send capable people to Jiujiang and Wuchang to investigate locally. If there is a big fluctuation in local grain prices and shipments, report them as soon as possible. Now the four most important docks in Anqing have been
We have our own navy on the river, and we must start using it."