In the evening, smoke rose from the cooking pots and dozens of large pots were used to cook meals, making many immigrants' stomachs growl.
"Come here with the rice bowl and eat, eat, eat -"
Wang Hu's family was no exception. They simply packed up their things and lined up in the open space.
The lesson had been learned on the ship, so everyone, men, women, old and young, lined up with their rice bowls in hand, and everything was in order.
Thick rice porridge, mixed with sweet potatoes, yellow and white, stirred with a spoon, full of aroma, whet your appetite.
On the other side, there are buckets of cooked pickles, exuding a salty smell, which looks very delicious at first sight.
At the same time, the lid of the pot was opened, and the pork was tender and attractive. Although the hair on it was visible to the naked eye, no one cared about it. The Adam's apple kept trembling and the saliva was almost flowing all over the floor.
"I'm telling you, this meat belongs to you. This is the grace of His Highness King Qi——"
"King Qi is a thousand years old -"
Everyone recited it skillfully, just like they had been on the boat for the past two months, repeating it over and over again. It has become a habit and blurted out.
Wang Hu's family was no exception. The couple held their children in hand, each had a bowl of thick porridge, and then poured two pieces of meat on it. The yellow-white porridge was instantly turned flesh-colored by the broth.
The couple each picked out the fattest meat for their two children, then started eating the porridge eagerly.
Almost licked the bowl clean.
According to the rules on the ship, everyone lined up again and continued to scoop out porridge, but why couldn't they get a piece of the meat.
The meal lasted for half an hour, and everyone patted their bellies, as if they were six months pregnant and extremely full.
After eating, Wang Hu and his family returned to the stilt wooden house and began to lie on the bed to rest.
"ah--"
In the middle of the night, a scream woke him up.
He was startled, thinking that a creditor had come to his door. When he opened his eyes, he saw that it was his own mother-in-law who turned pale with fright.
It turned out that there was a long, colorful insect on the ground. It was very fat and looked very scary.
"Hmph——" Wang Hu directly picked up the bench and smashed it to death.
"Go to sleep and eat snake meat tomorrow."
After packing the snake into the cabinet, Wang Hu fell asleep nervously.
The next day, Wang Hu found that his child at home had a high fever. He was so panicked that he picked him up and went out to find someone.
Unexpectedly, there are many families like his, and every child has a fever and convulsions.
"malaria."
At this time, the big man who arrived was not surprised and directly asked people to bring jars of medicine. When poured out, it turned out to be snow-white, like fine salt.
"This is Golden Rooster Nashuang." The man said directly without being verbose: "In the capital, this jar can be sold for at least ten yuan, but now the King of Qi is kind enough to treat you for free."
Then, one by one, the sick children ate cinchona cream and fell into a coma.
And every household also received a jar of cinchona as a precaution against unexpected events.
Sure enough, within five days, almost everyone was infected with malaria and ate cinchona, and about ten weak men and women died, as well as some emaciated children.
Only then were these men satisfied, and they took these people on a boat with thousands of materials, going around one island after another, and finally arrived at Mindanao, which is the territory of Qi.
"This is Linzi City——"
As soon as everyone got off the boat, they saw the port.
There were only three or five small boats worth 800 yuan anchored, and there were only three trestles. The pier was sparsely populated, and at first glance there were not many people there.
It looks very depressed at first glance.
The immigrants suddenly felt that they had been deceived, and their expressions changed drastically.
The same was true for Wang Hu, who was full of disappointment.
I thought Qi was as prosperous as Luzon, but I never thought it was in such a state of decline.
In comparison, it is very disappointing.
As if he knew what these people were thinking, suddenly, a young man in official uniform walked over and said calmly:
"In Luzon, you will be penniless and work as cattle and horses for others, but in Qi, you will have a hundred acres of cultivated land, a ready-made house, and you don't have to worry about food and drink, we will provide it -"
"True to your word, the meat you ate in Luzon was not fake, right?"
These words are touching.
Yes, no matter how good Luzon is, it does not belong to them and will not give them land.
Life without land is always difficult.
"His Royal Highness the King of Qi is the son of the current emperor. The second prince, you are still the common people of the Ming Dynasty, but you have just changed from being from Shandong or Hebei to being from Qi."
"It won't take a few years to return home in fine clothes."
In this way, everyone was completely heartbroken.
What greeted them was rice and braised venison.
Although it is not fat, as long as it is meat, it is delicious.
Zhang Chun smiled when he saw this.
The civil servants and officers on the side showed some signs of admiration.
As a cripple, he was not only clever in his methods, but also brave and careful. Whether he was pacifying the army or governing the people, he accomplished everything in an orderly manner, and he was very dignified in Linzi City.
At the beginning, the Prince of Qi sent dozens of civil servants to Linzi, but now Zhang Chun ranks among the top three in power.
"Come with me-"
Zhang Chun said casually, and a group of people followed him and came to a village.
There are hundreds of wooden houses, with front yards and back fields, and even chicken coops built. Although the styles are the same, and some houses have fresh branches on them, who doesn't like ready-made wooden houses?
Similarly, they are all wooden houses on stilts, two feet above the ground, with wooden steps.
The roof is made of straw. Although it is simple, it can provide shelter from wind and rain.
"These are your houses, one for each family. Choose yours. They are all the same."
"As for the land, it's just outside the village. I've already had the fields set up. I'll let you choose the land tomorrow and put in the boundary markers."
"Master, can you take us to see Tian Tian first?" Tian Hu asked cautiously under the push of everyone:
"We are all farmers, and we have to see the fields to know how to serve them."
"I heard that you are all from the north?" Zhang Chun chuckled and said, "I will send someone to teach you how to grow rice, but you are eager to see the land, so I will take you there!"
Soon, more than a thousand people didn't mind the trouble, lined up and left together.
Sure enough, outside the window is an endless paddy field.
The rows of field ridges are like the Chu River and Han boundary on chess, dividing the paddy fields into one piece after another. They are neat and beautiful, making people want to cry.
Wang Hu couldn't help but walked up and looked at the soil that had been dug up in the paddy field. Although it was a bit messy, the path the cattle had traveled could still be seen.
Sure enough, many people looked into the distance. There were many natives there, driving oxen to plow the fields, and many were busy reclaiming wasteland, picking up gravel, building ridges, and cutting down trees.
Everyone was puzzled.
Zhang Chun pointed at the group of people and said: "They are all captured natives. They are unruly and lazy. Now they are doing land reclamation work, but in the future they will be released as people if they are diligent."
"Your house and land were acquired by them."
Houses and land satisfy everyone. Although serving wheat and rice are different, they are similar, and everyone is even more willing to grow rice.
Rice can be harvested twice or even three times a year, while wheat can only be harvested three times in two years, and its yield is not as high as that of rice.
Getting on the bullock cart, Zhang Chun slowly walked into Linzi City.
At this time, Linzi's city was four feet high and twenty miles in circumference. Even in the Ming Dynasty, it was the first level of a prefectural city. The city was high and the pond was deep, so it could be said to be strong.
All the buildings in the city were designed by Gu Yuan, the head of the family, and the civil servants, following the style of Beijing City, to create what is now Linzi.
Eight horizontal and eight vertical streets, up to seven feet wide, divided the entire Linzi into dozens of areas, and a royal palace was built on the north side near the mountain.
The standards of the Qi Palace were strictly stipulated as early as the Taizu period. The center of the outer dynasty was Chengyun Hall, Wan Hall, and Cunxin Hall, where major ceremonies were held.
The center of the inner court is Changchun Palace, Jiaotai Palace, and Kunning Palace.
The main gates of the four walls of the palace are called Duanli in the south, Guangzhi in the north, Tiren in the east, and Zunyi in the west.
Its construction can be said to be nothing sloppy, just like the three main halls of Fengtian, Huagai and Jinshen in the Forbidden City.
Covering an area of more than 500 acres, it can be described as huge.
Therefore, to this day, less than 30% of the Qi Palace has been built, forcing the Luzon Governor's Mansion to take the initiative to provide support.
At this time, the prosperous Linzi had tens of thousands of people living in it, either naturalized natives, people who moved from the interior, or family records of military and officials, all of whom belonged to their own category.
Zhang Chun sniffed the smoke of the fireworks and couldn't help but sigh. After more than two years, Qi State finally looked like something.
"Go to the butler's office."
At the command, the cart turned.
Soon, we arrived in front of the busy Jiazai Gate.
Naturally, he didn't need the name card and entered directly.
"Yunong, have all the immigrants settled?"
As he was busy soothing, Gu Yuan's hunchback became more and more obvious, and he asked without raising his head.
"It's settled." Zhang Chun chuckled and said, "Once this route is launched, it will cost only two yuan from Guangzhou to Luzon, which will be much more convenient."
"This is not enough." Gu Yuan lowered his head and said: "At least there must be routes in Songjiang Prefecture and Shandong. Then many immigrants will come here."
"It's not like there's a disaster this time, and it's not our turn."
"Yes, immigrants are coming too slowly."
Zhang Chun sighed: "We have also done this to build the army, but within two or three years it was not effective at all."
"Seeing that the Qin State is about to unify Annan, and our Qi State still has 40,000 to 50,000 people, I feel aggrieved!"
"Yes, we have to find a way to make the people willing to come." Gu Yuan raised his head and fell into thinking.
"Our country of Qi is not even as good as Luzon. As long as the people in the country have some way to survive, who would want these hundred acres of land?"
Zhang Chun curled his lips and said.
Needless to say, people who leave their hometowns are mean. Even if they are the first choice for immigrants, they are considering mature Liaodong, Taiwan, and Qi, which is full of births, but really no one wants to come.
"Not long ago, we caught a cannibal tribe, and somehow it spread to the mainland. Good guy, it was published in various newspapers, and his reputation was very bad."
"Who still wants to come?"
Thinking of this, Zhang Chun sat down and was very angry.
"Look at this-"
Gu Yuan handed over a report.
This is submitted by the expedition team, and it talks about the situation in the northeastern part of the island.
In the emperor's imperial edict, the entire Luzon Islands was divided into two, not only Mindanao, but also several nearby islands, large and small.
Even in Mindanao, Qi State had its first glimpse of the island, occupying only the coastal plain, so it sent a large number of expedition teams into the inland borders to conduct exploration.
In fact, these expedition teams are slave-catching groups in a sense, with about a hundred people, exploring everywhere and creating maps.
When you encounter certain tribes, if you can defeat them, fight them. If you cannot defeat them, report them back and let the army fight.
"Iron mine? Gold mine?"
(The Surigao area of Mindanao has a lot of gold, iron ore, and even copper mines)
Seeing this report, Zhang Chun was shocked: "Is this true?"
"Of course it is true." Gu Yuan said with a smile: "As long as we mine it, even if we give 30% to His Majesty, our Qi country will be very rich."
"And if the news about the gold mine is leaked, are you afraid that no one will come?"
There is nothing more tempting than gold in this world. Businessmen will definitely flock here, but ordinary people will only know that Qi is the country of gold. They are extremely rich, so they are naturally happy to come.
This is a one-win deal.
"I'm afraid His Highness won't be able to stay in the capital any longer."
Zhang Chun laughed.
"It's time for Your Highness to come and see his country of Qi." Gu Yuan said proudly: "Come and witness your and my achievements."
"Besides, it's time for the state of Qi to be established."
Zhang Chun was stunned.
Obviously, Gu Yuan was afraid that the King of Qi would be too happy to miss Shu in the capital, so he just wanted to take advantage of the gold mine to have him come to Qi to formally declare vassal status.
…
When Qi was advancing, the Taiwan government also embarked on a large-scale development stage again.
Unlike the plight of Qi, thanks to the spillover effect of Fujian's population, the number of immigrants in Taiwan continues to increase.
At the same time, a large number of Westerners entered the country, which led to the rapid development of Taiwan's shipbuilding industry, financial industry, and ports and terminals, and promoted the prosperity of the commodity economy.
The Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, etc. all regard Taiwan as a transit point for imports and exports from the East. Countless merchant ships come in and out, causing tariffs to skyrocket.
But for Taiwan's sugar industry, the crisis has arrived.
"Hainan Prefecture has expanded its sugarcane fields by 30,000 to 400,000 acres in the past two years. Luzon is even more disgusting. It already has sugarcane fields. Now that it has been expanded, Westerners are happy to go here and save some travel."
In the sugar guild, a group of sugar merchants gathered together and sighed.
Originally, there was only one monopoly in Taiwan, but now there is competition among the three places. There are even rumors that Qi and Qin will also grow sugar cane, which will have a great impact on their financial resources.
"Maritime merchants are the key." A certain merchant stood up and said: "Xiyi gives money very easily and the price is high, which is much better than in China."
"We can't let them go."
Although the domestic market is large, the price is low, making it unpopular with sugar merchants.
Therefore, Taiwan used to produce one million tons of sugar annually, with 70% exported and 30% sold domestically.
"We still have to expand the sugarcane fields."
"Try to attract people from Fujian to come over, we have to open up fields."
You say something, I say something, and we each make suggestions.
Everyone cares about money.
The expansion and development of Taiwan was actually driven by businessmen seeking only profit, which was very different from that in the mainland.
“Why not make wine?”
A businessman said softly: "I heard from those Western barbarians that sugar cane can be used to make wine and can be sold at a high price. It is more profitable than making sugar from sugar cane."
"Brewing wine? Don't try to fool me."
"Why don't you just ask someone from Xiyi?"
The merchant was not shy and said frankly: "We will get the moon first from the tower near the water. We will sell the wine to the Western barbarians first, then to the sea ships, and then transfer it to the inland."
"When the time comes, let them make sugar. We still have ways to make money."
Thus, the first batch of rum in the East was born in Taiwan.