It started to drizzle over Beixian County. Guo Song entered the county town surrounded by people. It was indeed a new county town. It was fresh and clean. The houses were neat and uniform. They were basically wooden structures. Most of the wood felled to open up the land.
All used to build houses.
One East-West Street and one North-South Street form two cross streets. East-West Street is a commercial street, but the shops along the street are basically empty. There are only a dozen or so sparse shops, two restaurants, one inn, and
There are a few grocery stores, and other shops buy furs, cotton, etc. The business is really deserted. I guess only two restaurants are doing good business.
"We should open more restaurants!"
Guo Song pointed at the restaurant with his riding crop and suggested: "This way everyone will have a place to relax at night."
County magistrate Liu Shixiu said quickly: "The biggest problem now is that we can't find bartenders and cooks. It's the same in other shops. It seems that no one is willing to be a waiter. They work so hard that they have no place to spend the money they make."
"Boss Zhang will help you solve this problem. You can communicate with him later and he will have a way to get some people over for you, such as maids and servants, to solve the problem together."
Liu Shixiu was overjoyed. The problem of servants had troubled him for too long, including the fact that he had no maids in his own house. His wife and mother did all the washing and cooking by themselves.
He looked back at Zhang Lei, whom he knew. He bought more than 10,000 kilograms of cotton wool last year.
The county government office is in the north. It is actually an official government office divided into two. The county government office is on the left and the Jinglue Dongfu is on the right.
Guo Song entered the lobby of the Ryukyu Strategy East Palace and sat down. He smiled at everyone and said, "Everyone, please sit down! Let's talk about it and see what difficulties you have."
All the officials found small chairs and sat down. Guo Song said with a smile: "Let's just chat casually today. Let's talk freely. Don't have any scruples. You can express any dissatisfaction you have. Who among you will speak first?"
Everyone was hesitant and silent. Guo Song glanced at the Prime Minister Li Su and said: "When I was inspecting Quanzhou, some people told me that the land allocated by Ryukyu Prefecture was insufficient, less than the three hectares promised by the imperial court. What's going on?
"
Li Su quickly said: "Your Highness, the matter is true, but it does not mean that we will not give the land. We have made it clear to everyone that the land will be given in batches!"
"Is it because there is insufficient land?" Guo Song asked.
"Exactly! The land needs to be opened up piece by piece and then distributed. We cannot allow some families to already have 300 acres of land, while others have no land at all. We have to consider fairness, so we cannot give it all at once. That way
I can't do it, but I'm not saying that I'm breaking my promise."
Guo Song actually knew the reason. Four thousand households, each with 300 acres, would need 1.2 million acres of land. How could there be so much land? But he needed officials to tell it in person.
"Tell me, are there any other difficulties? We need the imperial court to help you solve them."
"Wei Chen, please say a few words first!"
Li Su raised his hand and said: "First of all, the first thing is the lack of communication. We hope to establish an Eagle Signal Station or a Pigeon Signal Station between Ryukyu Prefecture and Quanzhou, but we do not have this capability ourselves. We sincerely ask the court for support."
Guo Song nodded and said: "Actually, you don't need to go to the court, the navy can do it. Later I will ask the navy to build an Yingxin Station for you."
"Thank you, Your Highness, I have the guts to make another request."
"you say!"
[Receive Red Envelopes] Cash or currency red envelopes have been sent to your account! Follow the public account [Book Friends Base Camp] on WeChat to get it!
"When we were building roads, we often encountered huge boulders blocking the road. It was unrealistic to move them away. Many times we had to use manpower to dig them out bit by bit, which was time-consuming and laborious. Weichen heard that there was a kind of firearm that was extremely powerful. When we were building Tianbao Canal,
If it is used in large quantities, can we also have the opportunity to use it?"
Guo Song pondered for a moment and said: "You are talking about the iron fire thunder. It is the most important firearm in the army and the top secret of the court. It can only be used by the firearms battalion. If you want to keep it in Ryukyu Mansion for a long time, it is definitely unrealistic. If you
If you plan to use it for a period of time, such as half a year or a year, then I can arrange for a team of firearms battalion soldiers to be temporarily stationed in Ryukyu Prefecture. If you want to use it in the future, you can continue to apply to the Ministry of War. After the Ministry of War approves, the navy will be permanently stationed.
The Firearms Battalion can come over to help you. In short, the Iron Fire Thunder can be used, but you must apply according to the rules."
"With His Highness's words, Wei Chen can rest assured. Of course we must act in accordance with the rules. Wei Chen will write a written application."
Guo Song nodded, then looked at County Magistrate Liu Shixiu and said, "Do you have any difficulties, Magistrate Liu?"
Liu Shixiu quickly leaned forward and said: "Wei Chen mainly wants to raise two points. One is the issue of retaining people. Just now, Boss Zhang said that His Highness is going to send the "Kingto Express" and Lingban to Beixian. This is a great thing. Wei Chen
One problem comes to mind, and that is school.
Ninety percent of the people who immigrated here were illiterate. Wei Chen wanted to set up a school for adults to teach them how to read, but there were no teachers. There were also normal schools for children, but there were no teachers, so Wei Chen hoped that the court could support more than a hundred scholars.
Come here to teach, take turns to come here, and stay for a year."
"This request is not excessive. I will tell the court. What other requests are there?"
"The second request is actually related to retaining people. Wei Chen hopes that there will be a Buddhist temple and a Taoist temple in Beixian County so that the residents can have faith and they will no longer be so irritable."
Guo Song praised: "It's a good idea. I will make arrangements when I go back. Please ask Magistrate Liu to write a written report to me!"
...........
After the symposium, Guo Song left Beixian County to inspect the second county seat under construction fifty miles to the south.
Instead of taking a boat, he rode southward with three hundred cavalry following him.
The reason why he did not take the boat was because Guo Song wanted to see the farmland along the way. The farmland in Beixian County was basically opened to the south.
They walked south along a narrow official road. The official road was only one to five feet wide and was very solid. On both sides of the official road were endless rice fields. In the distance, there were large waterwheels that lifted water from the river for irrigation.
"These are private rice fields, aren't there official fields?" Guo Song asked, pointing at the rice fields with his riding crop.
Li Su, who accompanied him, explained: "There are private rice fields within ten miles of the city, and there is a military field to the south, about tens of thousands of acres. There is no official land for the time being."
Ryukyu Prefecture also has this army of 2,000 troops stationed, led by a Zhonglang general named Liang Tai. He also followed Guo Song. When he heard Juntian, he quickly added: "Your Highness Qi
, there are a total of 80,000 acres of military fields, 50,000 acres of rice fields and 30,000 acres of sugar cane fields, all planted by the soldiers themselves. We also raise thousands of pigs, tens of thousands of sheep and hundreds of cattle."
Guo Song knew that the labor force was insufficient, and the soldiers had turned into farmers and herdsmen, farming, raising sheep, and cutting sugar cane, which was very hard work.
"Brothers, you have worked hard. I know that there is a shortage of labor. I can hire tens of thousands of workers from the Japanese country to be responsible for road construction, logging, city construction, breeding, and sugar cane planting, which will reduce the labor of the brothers."
His Highness Prince Jin's words made everyone overjoyed. The lack of labor is their biggest shortcoming. With sufficient labor, they can speed up the development of Ryukyu, provide more benefits, and attract more immigrants.
At this time, Guo Song suddenly remembered something and asked Liang Tai and the officials: "How do you get along with the natives on the island? Have they attacked you?"
Liang Tai had the best say on this issue. He cleared his throat and reported to Guo Songhui: "Reporting to your highness, when we were looking for a site to build the city last year, we did have a conflict with a group of indigenous people. They thought we were going to occupy their access to the sea.
On the ground, a small-scale battle broke out between the two sides. They killed seven or eight people and injured dozens of others. We also injured a dozen brothers, but no one was killed. Later, we assisted another tribe to kill the tribe that was in conflict with us.
Went out."
"There are actually different tribes?" Guo Song asked curiously.
Li Su replied: "There are many indigenous tribes on the island, which are mainly divided into three parts, Gaoshan Fan, Lin Fan and Hai Fan. The one who conflicts with us is Hai Fan. Hai Fan makes a living by fishing and has the smallest number of people. Only
Among the four tribes, the one who joins hands with us to destroy the Haifan tribe is Lin Fan. They live in the forest. As long as we don’t go deep into the forest, there is no conflict of interest with them. As for the Gaoshan tribe, we have no intersection, but Lin Fan often interacts with Gaoshan.
If a war breaks out, we will never participate."
"How far is it without going deep into the forest?" Guo Song asked.
"About two hundred miles, the deepest we have developed is only thirty miles, which is still far away from their territory. Lin Fan knew that we wanted kapok, so he picked a large number of kapok and exchanged it with us for cloth, salt, sugar, pottery and other other items.
Daily necessities, the 10,000 kilograms of cotton wool purchased by Boss Zhang were basically sent by them."
"How many Haifan tribes are left now?" Guo Song asked again.
Everyone hesitated for a moment, and Liang Tai said: "Reporting to your highness, there is no more. The four Haifans have been wiped out by us and Lin Fan, and the population has been taken away by Lin Fan. The main reason is that Haifan's sneak attack has made us unable to guard against it. It has already happened."
There were many incidents of farmers being abducted, and a woman was abducted. They killed all the abductees and threw their heads back as a warning to us, which made us intolerable!"
Guo Song did not ask any further questions. He estimated that the garrison soldiers also killed a lot of people. Maybe all the Haifan men were killed by the army.
Everyone speeded up their horses and galloped towards the fortification site in the south...