The new town is still under construction, as is the dam, which will not be completed until at least the end of next year.
Yang Fan still lives in the big cowhide tent he captured. After staying there for a winter and summer, Yang Fanzhu was so beautiful, it felt like a camping trip.
Yang Fan discovered that the nomadic life was not bad. He felt quite warm during the winter he spent in a cowhide tent last year.
He never thought that he had a cast iron stove, briquettes, and even photovoltaic power generation and electric heaters. Mongolian herdsmen can only carefully burn some cow dung when cooking. He was so warm there.
And can the winter in Hebei be compared with the winter on the grassland? The coldest time is more than 20 degrees different.
He said he lived in a big tent, but the facilities he used were the best, and there was no inconvenience at all. There are even solar water heaters and flush toilets. I also installed a cat-legged bathtub for my wives. Get yourself a pine board sauna. Enjoyed it very much.
Yang Fan likes to live here, it is no longer a wilderness. Surrounded by developed rice fields, the sound of frogs can be heard at night.
Because he was here, six battalions of servants were camped and stationed around him. Yang Fan's servant team currently consists of these six battalions. Except for those on the grassland and the militia, although Yang Fan's armed forces are elite, they are not many.
As for the Qianhu Station in Hexi Province, it was the military force of the imperial court and was only managed by Yang Fan.
They have been living together in that huge earth building made of cement and stone blocks.
It has now developed into a small town. After all, there are more than 3,600 officers and soldiers, plus family members and service personnel, and the population has exceeded 20,000.
Some counties in the Ming Dynasty only had tens of thousands of people.
Yang Fan currently has an infantry regiment, a cavalry regiment, and a Mongolian cavalry regiment on the grassland. Officially, there is a guard station for thousands of households. He also has a team of servants of his own. There is a port at Beitangkou. The fleet and merchant fleet are still being formed, and there is a pirate group on Jeju Island.
This is all Yang Fan's power, which is scattered in Zunhua City, the grassland and the sea.
Yang Fan stood on the rammed earth platform and looked at the endless green rice fields around him, feeling very comfortable. A gust of wind blew, and it was very cool because there was water all around.
Yang Fan likes this pastoral scenery.
In his spare time, he took his wife and concubines to fish in the creek, catch frogs, and bake them. Shoot some wild animals. Tu Shanyue and the others like it very much that their master takes them out to play and have a picnic.
Now within his sphere of influence, most of the wasteland that can be developed is being developed.
The vast wasteland east of Jizhou and west of Zunhua presents a prosperous scene under Yang Fan's management. There are not many refugees left in Beizhili. It even affected canal trackers.
In the late Ming Dynasty, a large amount of land was abandoned, and climate was one reason. But these lands are not absolutely uncultivable. What's more, they are caused by various man-made disasters.
Because the legal system has been destroyed, the interests of farmers are not protected, and farmers dare not manage the land properly, which has led to a plummeting decline in output.
On Yang Fan's land, these disadvantages do not exist. Farmers can make money as long as they work hard to manage their land.
These lands were theoretically purchased by Yang Fan privately. Yang Fan naturally refused to pay taxes, and no one dared to come to him to collect taxes. If civil servants don’t pay taxes, how can Jinyiwei pay taxes?
Therefore, his tenants naturally did not have to pay taxes, and they did not even have to do corvee labor. Isn’t it like this in the Ming Dynasty now? It’s no different here.
Yang Fan's tenants have no land rent, but they have to buy high-yielding and salt-alkali-tolerant seeds and fertilizers from Yang Fan. You need to buy cattle and farm tools from Yang Fan.
After Yang Fan gained a foothold in the grassland, there was an abundance of large livestock such as cattle and horses. Can be provided in unlimited quantities. Both ox farming and horse farming can be developed. If farmers are willing to raise horses and use them to plow their fields, they will be given some subsidies. This helps increase livestock numbers.
These tenants all came from poverty. They needed to build houses, daily necessities, clothes and shoes. These all require loans to purchase. Xinghe Bank first lends them money and then repays them in installments.
Banks can lend money to them on credit without the need for collateral.
Ultimately, the purpose of a mortgage is to prevent the debtor from transferring the debt.
These farmers are at the bottom of society. They cannot transfer their debts to others. Their children and grandchildren will have to pay back the debts they owe, so they cannot rely on them.
So there is no need to take out a mortgage, just direct credit.
After they harvested, all their output could only be sold to Mr. Yang. The banknotes they got from selling grain could only be spent within Mr. Yang's system. After all, these banknotes were not recognized outside.
However, Yang Fan's store is full of various supplies, many times richer than those outside.
Farmers are very satisfied, there is everything they need here, and naturally they will not go out to buy goods that are not as good as those in stores.
Moreover, the peasants were all refugees who were recruited and dispersed from family to family. There is no complicated network of relationships like other places in the Ming Dynasty, and there is no problem of big households bullying small households.
Farmers only need to work hard to cultivate the land. Don't think about other things.
As soon as farmers got their land, they immediately burst out with great enthusiasm for production. Looking at these thriving crops this year, it will definitely be a bumper year.
Farmers are basically allocated about ten acres of land to each person based on the adult population of their family.
Yang Fan provided low-interest loans through Xinghe Bank and equipped farmers with cattle and iron or even steel farm tools.
Farmers can get loans to drill water wells and drill one well for each acre of land. With water, wheat and rice can be harvested twice a year, and the output of the land suddenly increases.
There is a shortage of money and loans, and there is a shortage of agricultural equipment. Yang Fan's factory is producing. Yang Fan's agricultural tools are all molded according to the shape of modern human-powered agricultural tools, which is very labor-saving and durable.
The water press well has solved a big problem. In the past, people had to carry water, and the whole family had to work day and night, and they could not water much land in a day and night. During severe droughts, one can only watch the seedlings wither and die. The family squatted in the ground and cried.
Now, with pressurized wells, everything has changed.
Because it uses the lever principle, it is very labor-saving. A grown man's day plus half a night. I can water the fifty acres of land at home.
Zhang Laoshi's family was allocated 50 acres of land, and the only strong working people in the family were his wife.
Because he was the eldest son, his parents lived with them, so when the land was divided, each of them had ten acres of land. The two children, because they were underage, only had five acres of land each. This family has a total of fifty acres of land.
They were not locals, but refugees from Daming Prefecture, so they were only allocated wasteland far away from water sources.
The land with waterwheels by the river and the good land with irrigation canals downstream of the reservoir were generally allocated in advance to the first few groups of people who followed Yang Fanzao. Those fields only need to be watered, and it is far less tiring.
But Zhang Laoshi's family is very satisfied. They feel that Mr. Yang's place is like a fairyland on earth.
They chose Mr. Yang as a tenant, and all their burdens were gone. Mr. Yang actually did not collect land rent, but all output except his own rations had to be purchased compulsorily.
Priority was given to the families of servants and soldiers in allocating the best land, and then to allocating wasteland to subsequent refugees. this matter. They can also understand, after all, not everyone there is close or distant.
Military families, especially those whose children were killed in action, must be treated well as they have fought their lives for the master. How dare people like me, who are fleeing from famine, have the unreasonable desire to compare with other people's local households.
These lands can only be irrigated by manually driven wells.
In some places, farmers can spend more money to purchase wells driven by animal power in a circle.
However, Zhang Laoshi didn't want to do that. It wasn't that he couldn't get the loan, but that he cared about animals.
His family has been tenant farmers for generations. Cows are raised there.
In this life, thanks to Master Yang, he was willing to lend them money to buy cattle. He felt very sorry for the three-year-old calf and had to get up in the middle of the night to feed it. I'm afraid it will lose weight.
I use it once every time and it comes clean.
He was reluctant to let his cattle go to the well to draw water. I would rather do my own work and use human power to irrigate.
Zhang Laoshi was shirtless, his arms were bulging with muscles, and he was pressing the water well desperately. Groundwater gushes out from the outlet and soon irrigates an acre of land.
The family came here and took out a loan to build a simple adobe house, equipped with pots and pans, clothes and bedding, iron farm tools, and even bought an ox and a pair of plow sticks.
Fifty acres of land cannot be plowed without cattle.
They all owe Master Yang a terrifying debt.
Fortunately, the interest rate is very low, so low that they can hardly believe it.
After spring plowing began, even the seeds were purchased on credit from Hexinghe Seed Industry.
At first, they didn't dare to borrow money. They were frightened by the loan sharks from the gentry in their hometown, and they were afraid that they would not be able to pay it back in a few lifetimes. In the future, even if you sell your son or daughter, you won’t be able to pay back the debt.
The money bankers settled accounts with them one by one, telling them that as long as they worked hard to farm, the debts could be repaid, and the term would be as long as ten years, and the principal and interest would be repaid year by year.
The interest is very low, no collateral is required, and the annual interest rate is only 2% (2.4%).
Zhang Laoshi's family was both happy and scared.
I was happy because my family suddenly had everything, and all that was left was to farm the land properly for Mr. Yang.
What they are afraid of is these debt algorithms that they have never heard of before, which makes them, honest and illiterate farmers, deeply afraid.
However, they had no choice. If they didn't do it with Mr. Yang, would the whole family starve to death?
Or go for fiber-stretching, maybe you can survive for a few more years. However, after being reduced to trackers, the two sides of the canal are their final destination.
Forget it, leave everything to fate.
They just want to work hard and pay off their debts as soon as possible.
"Master, take a rest. You have watered fifteen acres of land this morning."
It sounded like the mother-in-law was coming.
Zhang Laoshi's mother-in-law is very strong, with a dark red face and a strong body. She looks good at giving birth. This type is also the ideal type preferred by farmers.
After all, a strong worker with big feet is what the family really needs.
"Hurry up and eat, I'll water the ground." After saying that, the mother-in-law pushed him aside, then rolled up her sleeves and started to press the water.
"Okay, I'll take a break too. I'm really tired. I just hate work. I want to finish it all in one go. I can't stop."
"Hurry up and eat. I've baked flatbread for you, as well as kelp and tofu soup."
"What, you prodigal bitch, white flour is so expensive, and tofu is not cheap either. Just bring me some whole grain rice and two pickles."
"You know how hard it is to work such a tiring job and not eat enough, how can your body bear it? Now that the good times are coming, if your body collapses, how can we pay off that terrifying debt?"
When it came to debt, Zhang Laoshi suddenly lost his temper.
He lowered his head, uncovered the cloth covering the basket, took out the flatbread inside and ate it in big gulps.
The flatbread is a yeast bread, very fluffy and delicious. It's thick and appetizing, and both sides are baked golden. Although there is no oil, it does not prevent him from eating it at all.
"The master gave each family thirty kilograms of white flour. He said it was free of charge and that it was a subsidy for heavy physical labor in spring plowing. We really met a good owner. We have never met such a kind-hearted master in our lives."
Hearing that no money was required, Zhang Laoshi was moved to tears. Thirty pounds of white noodles is not a small sum of money. Mr. Yang is really a kind man.
"You baked a few cakes. Have your parents eaten them? Have the children eaten them?"
"I knew you would ask, and there are both. One for each of the parents, and half for each of the two dolls. Just feel free to eat."
Zhang Laoshi felt relieved and took out an earthen pot from the basket with kelp and tofu soup inside, and a big gourd with boiling water inside. Kelp is the cheapest dish. This thing used to be used to feed pigs at the beach, but now it is promoted to people for consumption. It is said that it contains some vitamins and supplements iodine to treat thick neck disease.
This thing is really cheap, a few big copper coins can buy a big bundle. It can be stored for several years, soaked in water, a lot.
He drank a lot of water first. On this hot day, he was very thirsty. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve, burped with satisfaction, and said, "Oh, you, I know you feel sorry for me, but salt is so expensive, and you put salt in the water."
The mother-in-law said while working hard to press the water, "Mr. Yang has newly established the Department of Health, which seems to be a yamen. The ambassador is Dr. Chen Haichao, a famous doctor in Zunhua City. Ambassador Chen brought some students who had just graduated from the academy to Field inspection.”
Zhang Laoshi was a little scared when he heard the word "inspection".
He didn't understand the meaning of the word, but he had a vague feeling that it was not a good thing for the government to inspect him.
"Yes, no one is allowed to drink raw water. It must be boiled to drink. If you are caught, you will be fined. A fine of three large copper coins at a time. My mother." The mother-in-law said with lingering fear.
"What, the government doesn't even care about drinking water."
"Didn't every town set up a medical clinic in the spring? They said that medical treatment would be free in the future. The Department of Health said that drinking unboiled water would make you more likely to get sick. This would increase the financial burden. I didn't understand either. Anyway, it would be free of charge in the future. When you deliver water, it must be cold water. By the way, we have also issued an order to each village office, saying that salt should be added to the water to prevent heat stroke and dehydration. Each household is given two taels of salt, which is enough."
Zhang Laoshi lived to be thirty years old, and this was the first time he heard these twists and turns. He couldn't understand them, but he was honest and he didn't dare to disobey the government's orders.
"The father of the child, there is one more thing I want to discuss with you. A school has been set up in the town, and each student only receives ten pounds of wheat a year. The children want to go to school."
Zhang Laoshi was silent.
What the farmer's family lacks is labor force. His two sons are almost ten years old, one is eight and the other is nine. In two years, I can help with the work.
Now that the family has so much land, he sincerely hopes that his children will grow up as soon as possible and share his burden.
However, he also knew that in the Ming Dynasty, only by reading and literacy could one escape from suffering and become a master. Those who farm will always be at the bottom.
He seemed to know what he was worried about.
The mother-in-law said: "People from the Education Department came to our village in the morning. They said that the school opened at a time to avoid the busy farming season. We have holidays during the busy farming season and classes during the slack season. There is no work in winter, so we have to attend classes for three months."
Zhang Laoshi was moved when he heard this. How could people like them afford to go to private schools? Now villages and towns have schools, which charge cheap fees and do not affect farming. How great is this?
He gritted his teeth and said, "Let's do it. Let's send the two dolls so that they can read and write, so they don't have to suffer what we have suffered."
