On the third day of March, at the market in Dahu Town, Hong County, Fengyang Prefecture, Jianghuai Province, Feng Zishan, a grassroots civil servant from Hong County, stood on the "promotion stage" wearing a light-colored round collar.
Feng Zishan was a civil servant who passed the examination in the first month of this year. He was determined to be an official, so he was assigned to be a grassroots administrator in the magistrate's yamen.
However, Feng Zishan is also in his thirties. Although he has no qualifications to be an official, he has decades of life experience. In addition, he has read many books and has a wide range of knowledge, so after arriving at the Hongxian Magistrate’s Yamen, he
He was highly valued by the officials in the yamen, and important tasks were often assigned to him.
This time, Feng Zishan was sent to Dahu Town, Hong County to preside over the "immigration introduction" in Luzon Province.
The so-called Luzon Province is the Philippines in later generations, including Luzon Island, Mindanao Island and a series of surrounding small islands. After Li Zhi killed all the Spaniards and conquered this archipelago, he has now designated these islands as Luzon Province. As Li Zhizhi
The ninth province under the
The Philippines in later generations was actually quite large. The islands combined covered an area of 300,000 square kilometers, which was twice as big as Shandong. Now that it has been merged into the Tianjin system, it is also a very large province.
Moreover, this tropical province has abundant sunshine and abundant rainfall, and has great agricultural potential. If cultivating rice in Taiwan is twice the result with half the effort, growing food in Luzon Province is twice the result with half the effort.
Li Zhi was determined to immigrate five million people from the sparsely populated Jianghuai Province to Luzon Province.
Of course, it is impossible for Li Zhi to engage in forced immigration like he did in the Fujian and Guangdong areas during the Qing Dynasty. If he wants to launch a large-scale immigration wave, he still needs to start ideological work among the people of Jianghuai Province.
Feng Zishan came to Dahu Town just to do this ideological work.
The "Luzon Development Promotion Platform" was set up in the center of the market in Dahu Town, in the place with the highest concentration of people. Previously, "Jianghuai Daily" had been promoting the development of Luzon for a month. Private newspaper readers
All kinds of information have been spread to the countryside. The benefits of immigrating to Luzon are already widely known. What is missing is the final decision.
Jianghuai Province is narrow and densely populated, and farmers live in poverty. In fact, they are very interested in Luzon, which is mentioned in the newspapers. As soon as the "Luzon Development Promotion Platform" was advertised, farmers in Dahu Town surrounded the promotion platform.
.
With the sound of a gong, Feng Zishan shook his sleeves and walked onto the promotion stage.
As soon as Feng Zishan came on stage, before he could say anything, he heard someone below shouting loudly: "Young man from the county government! When we get to Luzon, will each person really be given twenty acres of paddy field?"
Feng Zishan laughed, pointed at the farmer who asked the question and asked: "Good question, good question! This man, how many acres of land do you cultivate now?"
The man looked at the crowd on the left and right and replied: "My family of five now cultivates sixteen acres of paddy fields."
Feng Zishan asked loudly: "Can five people cultivate sixteen acres of paddy fields and have enough food and clothing?"
Everyone looked at the man. The man's face turned red and he replied: "When there is no harvest, you will be hungry for months. In winter, there are not enough cotton-padded clothes and quilts, and life is not easy!"
Feng Zishan waved his hand and said: "It's hard! The lives of the people in Jianghuai Province are hard!"
Seeing that Feng Zishan from Tianjin expressed the same sentiment as the people in Jianghuai, the people suddenly felt a sense of identity with Feng Zishan and looked at him eagerly.
"Why do the people of Jianghuai Province live so hard?"
After hearing Feng Zishan's inquiry, the common people looked at me and I didn't understand why the people were so miserable.
Feng Zishan said loudly: "This mission office is telling you! The people in Jianghuai Province are so poor because there is less land and more people. To use a prince's words: 'Twenty million people in Jianghuai Province are crowded into 130,000 square kilometers of land.'
.For hundreds of years, the population has been increasing year by year, but the fields passed down from our ancestors are still the same. There are more and more mouths to eat, but the paddy fields for growing food are always the same. How can we not be poor? Is it possible?
Is it not bitter?”
Hearing Feng Zishan's words, the people below began to whisper. Some older farmers felt that Feng Zishan's words made sense and kept nodding.
"To get rid of this increasingly difficult situation, we must immigrate and colonize overseas!"
"If you move trees to death, people will live! To use the words of the prince again: Now is the era of large-scale colonization. We, the Han people in Jianghuai Province, have a large internal population, and the prince's tiger troops lead the way outside. It can be said that we are uniquely endowed by nature. Naturally, we want to colonize overseas as Han people.
Vanguard!"
Feng Zishan pointed at the man and asked loudly: "Man, how many adults are there in your family of five?"
The man replied: "There are four people who can plow the fields!"
Feng Zishan waved his hand and said loudly: "When we arrived in Luzon, four people were divided into eighty acres of land and harvested more than one hundred taels of rice a year! Their income was two to three hundred taels of silver. I wonder if your family would still starve and freeze?
"
When Feng Zishan said that he earned two or three hundred taels of silver a year, the man opened his mouth and was speechless in surprise.
Two or three hundred taels of silver. That man had never seen so much money in his life.
The words "two, three hundred taels of silver" were like a stone hitting the lake, causing countless waves. When the people below heard Feng Zishan's instigation, they became excited one by one. The crowd below the promotion platform suddenly seemed to be cooked in boiling water and screamed.
Noisy discussion.
After all, "Jianghuai Daily" is a start-up, and it has not yet formed authority in the hearts of the people in Jianghuai Province. After all, listening to the articles in the newspaper is not as credible as the face-to-face communication with the Chai Ye. At this time, hearing the conclusive words from the Chai Ye in the Yamen, the farmers
They all became excited.
Someone asked again: "Good Lord! If we arrive in Luzon, will each of us really be given twenty acres of paddy field?"
Feng Zishan looked at the questioner and said seriously: "It's not twenty acres of paddy fields, but twenty acres of flat land that can easily be developed into paddy fields!"
Feng Zishan waved his sleeves and said loudly: "The Luzon Province is vast, two or three Jianghuai Provinces in size. But the natives on the island know nothing, are lazy and not good at cooperating, and can neither grow rice nor build buildings."
Houses, flat open spaces everywhere on the island!”
"After you arrive in Luzon, the Yamen will issue you land deeds, and the Chief A and the Li Chief will lead you to open up wasteland and build houses. There is plenty of rain and sunshine there. In just one year, twenty acres of coconut or banyan groves will turn into high-quality
Paddy fields.”
Someone else asked: "Master, how can we have money to build a house? And if we all go to open up wasteland this year and there is no income, what will we eat?"
Feng Zishan shouted again: "Good question! After new immigrants arrive in Luzon Province, they need to build houses, build roads, open up wasteland, and build water conservancy facilities. Everything requires a lot of materials. And new immigrants use a
To do this for a year requires a year’s worth of food support!”
Feng Zishan waved his hand and shouted: "There are many things needed, and you can't raise them on your own! But! The prince has prepared it for you! Now Tianjin and Shandong have a lot of money and no place to invest. The prince has called on the businessmen in Tianjin and Shandong
We have raised funds from the private sector and established a large number of 'Luzon Immigration Companies'! These immigration companies will provide you with all the materials you need to open up wasteland this year!"
"These materials are all valued in money. You only need to repay the immigration company's expenses in five years after the new fields are developed. The interest is not high, only one cent! According to my estimate, it takes two years after the new fields are harvested.
, you can repay all the expenses!”
Feng Zishan waved his hand, and two representatives of the immigration company came out. Both of them were private businessmen from Fanjiazhuang, and they had the superior temperament of Fanjiazhuang businessmen. They stood on the stage with smiles and no words, and they were able to hold down the stage.
The appearance of these two businessmen made the people believe Feng Zishan's words even more.
Finally, Feng Zishan said with a smile: "If the development of new fields fails, the prince will cover your travel expenses back to Jianghuai and send a ship to transport you back for free! If you give up the fields in Luzon, you don't have to pay back the materials and money you borrowed from the immigration company.
Your Majesty, let me help you find out!"
After hearing Feng Zishan's words, the people below immediately became excited.
It turns out that the Tianjin County Prince has arranged everything for the people.
Then why worry about it? Just go to Luzon to develop your own new fields! Good times are just around the corner! The people below are getting more and more excited, and some people have already shouted loudly: "Master, how do we sign up?"
“Where to sign up?”
Feng Zishan said loudly: "You can register on the spot today! The immigration company will only accept registrations from 1.2 million people in the first year. Everyone who wants to go, hurry up!"
"This is the colonial era! For those who are backward, don't blame the prince for not taking you with him on his ship!"
