Following Pang Gang's order, Wang Zhi went to Lingshan Guards, Qiu Hongbao and Qianribao to recruit some masons and carpenters to discuss the renovation of the castle.
Things went smoothly unexpectedly. The next day, Wang Zhi brought a large group of craftsmen to Wanghai Castle. The large number of craftsmen surprised Pang Gang, who was originally worried that there were not enough craftsmen, so much that he almost dropped his jaw.
Looking at these dark and thin people in front of him, who were almost naked, Pang Gang was speechless again. Are they still a group of people? Even the originally down-and-out military households are ten times stronger than them!
Most of these people don't wear shoes, and they wear clothes whose color can no longer be seen. Their faces can no longer be said to be fair but dark, and their unkempt hair can be used as a bird's nest. Look.
When it comes to this situation, Pang Gang has only one sentence to describe it: "It's miserable, it's so fucking miserable!"
Pang Gang was so excited that he unconsciously called Wang Zhi by his nickname, "Gou... Gou Sheng... are these people really craftsmen? Are they not the beggars you invited?"
"
Wang Zhi looked at Pang Gang and smiled bitterly: "Sir, they are craftsmen and there is absolutely no fraud!"
"How could it be possible? Even beggars are much better than them!" Pang Gang shook his head in disbelief.
"Sir, it's true! They are the craftsmen I recruited from the guardhouse. Their craftsmen are different from us. We..."
Under Wang Zhi's explanation, Pang Gang finally learned that in the Ming Dynasty, there was actually a group of people who were even worse off than military households. They were craftsmen households. Generally speaking, military households were already a very miserable group of people in the Ming Dynasty. They
You are not allowed to leave your nationality for generations, and you cannot take the scientific examination. This means that as long as you become a military household, you will never be able to pursue an official career or do other careers in your life. Your sons and grandsons will never be able to do so.
If you can be a military householder, you can only be a soldier.
However, compared with the military households, the craftsmen households were even more miserable. The military households were stationed in Qianhu. Originally, the court would give them the land for farming. At least they could farm the land, pay taxes, and support themselves. However, the craftsmen households could not do it. The craftsmen households had no self.
They were treated as official slaves and had to serve in the court's craftsmen's workshops in shifts. Craftsmen who were posted to Qianhusuo in various places also had to become the top craftsmen of Qianhusuo, which is equivalent to the modern army.
The logistics department, of course, is the lowest in terms of status. They cannot farm, fish, or do other things. The only thing they can do is to do things prescribed by the court for others. For example, if you are a blacksmith, then you
You can only make iron, and if you are a carpenter, you can only do carpentry work, and so on. Therefore, their life can be said to be much more miserable than that of military households.
Looking at the group of people in front of him who could only see a little bit of white from their eyeballs, what else could Pang Gang say after listening to Wang Zhi's explanation? He had to wave his hand to kill these more than 300 big-bellied kings, but he
I still specially called the maid in charge of cooking. These people can only eat gruel within three days, and they cannot be too full, otherwise their long-empty stomachs will never be able to bear it!
With endless gratitude, the craftsmen followed Wang Zhi and a few servants to settle down.
Pang Gang sighed softly and said to himself: "I didn't expect that the life of a craftsman's household would be so miserable. It's really sad and deplorable!"
"Sir, there are so many deplorable people in the world, what can we do?" As he spoke, Hua Yan came to Pang Gang's side without knowing when.
At this time, Hua Yan still had a trace of pity on his face. He walked slowly to Pang Gang, put his hands behind his back, and said sadly: "This rule set by Emperor Taizu Gao in the past has blocked the lives of many capable people.
The road to promotion leaves many aspiring people with no way to serve the country!"
Out of excitement, Pang Gang unconsciously gritted his teeth and said: "So this unfair system must be completely changed!"
"Well... Sir, what do you mean by this?" Hua Yan asked in surprise, with a hint of confusion in his tone.
"Oh, it's nothing, I'm just talking to myself." As soon as Hua Yan's words came out, Pang Gang couldn't help but broke into a cold sweat when he came back to his senses. If what he just said was heard by interested people, it would cause an uproar. It seems that
In the future, you should pay attention to the appropriateness of the situation when you speak. This saying, trouble comes from your mouth, is a wise saying now and in the future!
Pang Gang, who intentionally changed the subject, pointed to the city wall of Xianghai Castle and said, "Hua Zandian, didn't you recommend a few friends to me a few days ago? When will they arrive! Our city wall is about to start building.
According to the regulations of the imperial court, our Wanghai Fort should be equipped with one clerk and two officials. It is not possible to rely on you to support everything now. If this continues, your body will not be able to sustain it."
Hua Yan did not doubt that he was there. He lowered his head and said with some emotion: "Thank you for your concern, sir. I have sent letters to my friends a few days ago. It is estimated that they will arrive in a few days. I promise not to delay your business."
"That's good, let's go back first." Pang Gang said as he walked towards the castle...
The next day, Pang Gang negotiated terms with the craftsmen who brought their families to Wanghai Fort, and gave them not only daily food and lodging, but also one cent of silver per day to build a city wall for themselves.
, and also promised to let their family members join in building canals or help with some logistical tasks in the fort.
This move has been greatly welcomed by the craftsmen, who will have enough food and clothing this year.
These people are craftsmen for generations. They or their ancestors have participated in the construction of many castles. The construction and planning of Wanghai Castle is actually something they are familiar with. After walking around Wanghai Castle for a few days, they quickly got the
The reconstruction plan of the castle, the design floor plan and the division of streets, the location of wells, the location of temples and the locations of various houses, as well as the future fort walls, fort gates and crenels, nozzles and other defense facilities on the fort walls are all
It is very thoughtful and much better than Pang Gang's two swords.
After the design drawings are drawn, the remaining key issue is the cost and money required to build the city walls and some buildings.
According to the practice of the Ming Dynasty at this time, the amount of silver required to build a city wall with a circumference of one mile like Wanghai Fort was about nine hundred taels.
As a result, the money in Pang Gang's wallet became even thinner, and this incident also made Pang Gang feel more and more depressed.
It was depressing, but things still had to be done. Under Pang Gang's order, all the residents of Wanghai Castle, except the children, all men and women, went into battle together. Everyone must work hard to build their own homes.
All of a sudden, the men, women, and children of Wanghai Fort all took hoes, dustpans, and baskets and went to the perimeter of the fort to dig and pick up soil. This was necessary to build the soil layer needed to build the city wall. Build the soil inside the city wall.
After that, the outside was wrapped with blue bricks or boulders. This was also the common practice for city walls in this era. Of course, it was not impossible to build all the city walls with boulders or boulders, but the money needed would be wasted.
Even tens of thousands of taels of silver may not be able to stop it.
In order to build the city wall, Pang Gang made a special trip to Lingshan Guard to ask for help, but the result was very disappointing. Lingshan Guard now lacked not only huge stones and blue bricks, but also wood.
Under desperation, Pang Gang sent Li Xian to Qingzhou Prefecture and shamelessly asked Wei Tongnian, the prefect of Qingzhou, to sell him some bricks, boulders and wood at a cheap price. Even so, it still cost him more than two hundred taels of silver.
June 12, the eighth year of Chongzhen reign
The inner wall of Wanghai Fort has been built, and all that is left is the construction of the outer wall. At the same time, the first well in Wanghai Fort has been successfully dug. The well is about twenty-two feet deep, and the water in the well is
The shallower water is of better quality. The bottom of the well is paved with fine sand, the walls of the well are built with bluestone, and the outside is surrounded by gravel. When the first bucket of water was pulled up, the surrounding military households cheered for a while and tasted it again.
The water in the well is clear and sweet, making it a rare sweet water well.
In this way, as the days passed, Wanghai Fort's work slowly got on track, and everything was moving forward steadily according to Pang Gang's blueprint...