More than 30 stages were set up in the new city, and all the street lights were turned on. Although the smell of carbide lamps wafted in the air, it also heightened the festive atmosphere of the approaching Spring Festival.
On the streets of Xincheng, the developed blocks are lined with shops, and every house has hung up red lanterns and decorated with colorful lights. The Spring Festival has just entered, and the flavor of the New Year is already very strong.
From now on, the curfew in Yang Fan's territory has been lifted until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The new city is open and anyone can enter. Tenants and domestic slaves from the surrounding countryside came to the new city with their families to visit, shop and watch theater. Others visit relatives and friends.
Shops in the city are also open all night. Although the weather is very cold, it cannot stop the enthusiasm of the wealthy farmers for shopping. In the past two years, I have been able to eat enough. I just wanted to make new clothes for the whole family and buy some farm tools and daily necessities for the house. Buy some cotton and make some new quilts.
Because under Yang Fan's system, all large families were split up into families of five or six. Many of them are small families composed of young couples. Single tenants and domestic slaves also found wives from refugees. Basically they all have families.
These people divided the land and built mud houses. With a house and enough food to eat, naturally there will be women willing to marry. Now, Yang Fan's territory is surrounded by trenches and barbed wire, and the limited entrances and exits are blocked by countless people hoping to enter this area.
Many refugees from other places guarded the entrance and exit with their daughters.
As long as a bag of grain is used as a betrothal gift, he is willing to marry his daughter in. The steward of the Yang Mansion has a dedicated person responsible for handling people's marriage registration, and the buying and selling of people is strictly prohibited. In the Ming Dynasty, concubines must have status. The law has strict regulations. Ordinary people can only have one husband and one wife.
The disaster in the north has become more serious this year. Although these people are pitiful, there is nothing Yang Fan can do.
There is basically no need for farmers in the territory. If we continue to absorb refugees, the income of farmers under our rule will drop. What the Territory needs now is to consolidate existing gains.
A drop in income is not what Yang Fan wants to see. Yang Fan just hopes to cultivate a wealthy grassroots group of farmers so that they can have enough consumption power to support the production of industrial products. At the same time, they are physically strong, participate in military training regularly, and perform military duties as vassals of the Yang Mansion.
There is no free lunch in the world, and the free ones are actually the most expensive.
These people also understood that the master gave such good treatment to prepare for the war. They need to be ready to accept the call and go to the battlefield at any time. However, they don't care. As long as the family can survive and the happiness of their descendants is guaranteed, they don't care about going to the battlefield.
Only when the reservoir is repaired and Yang Fan takes advantage of the opportunity to annex and purchase land along the irrigation line to the east and southeast, and gradually develop more wilderness, can he continue to recruit refugees. We can only stop now.
The Guoguo family also took the intercity public carriage to the new city for fun and shopping. Guoguo is already eleven years old. When Brother Zhuzi rescued her, she has been thinking about Brother Zhuzi. Unfortunately, her family moved to the racecourse and she never saw him again.
Dad was a soldier in Baihu Station. After moving to the racecourse, Dad was responsible for herding the horses. Grandpa is a horse doctor. Both uncles were Yu Ding, that is, strong men from reserve military households who had not been drafted into military service. They both found work at the horse farm. They were responsible for cleaning the horse pens, feeding the horses, and brushing the horses.
When farming is busy, the horse farm will have a busy farming holiday. A family goes home to plant, topdress, or harvest.
Although their family left the Baihushao in the rocky beach, they were allotted land east of the river, which was still paddy fields.
What makes these military households most happy is that the master has exempted all the grain from the fields and all the corvee labor. In this case, military households will become farmers without taxes. They have no burden anymore. Because no government official dared to come to Ding Yuanbo's territory to collect money.
Although corvee labor is no longer required, the construction of water conservancy projects and public works are still essential. Nowadays, bidding is done by specially established construction companies.
The builder society recruits construction teams to build according to the contract issued by the Yang government. This is a business, just like the bricklayer who builds a house and receives money from the owner's family.
The biggest burden on the people of Ming Dynasty is not two taxes a year. Rather, it is a myriad of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes that are arbitrarily assessed by the local government. The most painful thing for the people was the heavy corvee. The father and son couple are not allowed to rest all year round.
Now, the Yang Mansion has directly abolished the corvee service of military households. Instead, it publishes engineering projects and private engineering and construction companies come to bid.
Guoguo held her brother's little hand and followed her grandparents on the streets of the new city.
Guoguo thought to herself, the roads here are really nice. Since entering the city, I have not stepped on the soil. It's all this gray-white hardened road surface.
Both sides of the street are beautiful three-story arcades, which are houses with colonnades. Even if it rains, the two-meter-wide corridors can provide shelter from the rain.
There are street lights on both sides of the road. Every once in a while, there are a pair of huge trash cans and iron bars on the ground. Dad told Guoguo and his brother that this is the sewer in the city, and the rainwater in summer flows underground from here.
Guoguo and his brother looked at the scene in the city curiously.
There are so many people here, and everyone has a happy smile on their face.
Guoguo thought to herself that in the past, everyone in her family and neighbors had a sad face. Now everyone's face is full of confidence and vitality, and they walk with their heads held high.
Because everyone knows that next year will be better. Only when people have hope and hope can they open their hearts and relax their brows.
"Fellow fellows, everyone, please pay attention." An old man used a loudspeaker made of rolled iron sheets and shouted loudly: "Everyone must not litter, throw the garbage into the trash can. Don't spit everywhere, wrap it with tissue paper Throw the phlegm into the trash can. Someone is handing out toilet paper near the trash can, free of charge."
"Don't urinate in public, and be sure to go to public toilets. Public toilets provide free toilet paper. Wash your hands after using the toilet." The old man took a sip of water, put down the water hyacinth, and continued to promote. "If you don't comply with the regulations, you will be fined. If you are caught, you will be fined. It's a copper coin, enough to buy a steamed bun. You guys should pay attention, and be sure to watch your children."
