Time flies like an arrow, and time flies like a shuttle. In the blink of an eye, a month and a half has passed.
Even though most people didn't understand it, Zhang Rui persisted in his own views.
As early as the beginning, Zhang Rui went to the two county offices that governed the wastelands around Zhilian Mountain to learn about the situation. Zhilian Mountain was originally a bandit's den, and naturally no one lived around it, so the land within thirty miles nearby was unclaimed wasteland.
Originally, the wasteland was owned by whoever opened it, but Zhang Rui still spent more than ten taels of silver to buy the thirty miles of wasteland and registered it with the government.
As the imperial court collected summer taxes, countless landless and poor people came with their families every day. From the original 30 households to 170 now, plus some families from the bandit suppression team who have moved in, the population of Zhilian Mountain now reaches nearly 2,000.
At this time, Zhilian Mountain has slowly formed a new town. Although the houses are all mud-brick houses with thatched roofs, they are all labeled with numbers and are uniform. Moreover, each house is an independent four-bedroom house covering an area of more than 100 square meters, and is built according to the plan and design around the mountain.
At present, the houses are rented to families who come with their families at a price of thirty cents per month. However, it was Zhang Rui who told them: If they can always abide by the rules of Zhilianshan in the future, then there will be no more charges after one year. And families who have lived there for three years will eventually own the house.
Such a new and good thing naturally made the poor and poor families who arrived very happy, as if they saw the expectations of the future.
At the same time, Zhang Rui also arranged for manpower to go to the surrounding areas to open up wasteland.
The enthusiasm of the poor people for land far exceeds the imagination of ordinary people. With the help of sufficient cattle in the village, 2,000 acres of land were opened up in just one month.
Although Guangxi is a mountainous land, Zhang Rui estimated that there are at least 40,000 acres of farmland suitable for farming within thirty miles of Zhilian Mountain.
According to Zhang Rui's intention, these fields will eventually be distributed to the people who open up wasteland for cultivation. Each family is allocated five acres. The land was not allocated very much, but the rent Zhang Rui charged was low! Only two bushels of millet are harvested from each mu of land, and the rent will never be increased, even if the yield is two dan per mu. The rent for these two dou still included taxes to the court.
If it's such a rent, that's a great thing. Even if it is a newly opened field, as long as the person is not terribly lazy, every acre of field can produce eight or nine bushels of millet! Two fights were handed in, at least six. Of those five acres, there were only three stones of millet left.
What is the concept of having three stones of millet left in a season? That is, the people in the family can have enough to eat every day. This was something that was unimaginable even in a good harvest year. After all, there were too many taxes to pay.
The yield of this newly opened field will continue to increase with cultivation. How much grain will be produced by then? There is no reason why those who want to open up wasteland are not enthusiastic. Therefore, the members of the land reclamation team worked hard to achieve the bright future described by Zhang Rui.
In the days that followed, Zhang Rui once again released exciting news. The anti-bandit team will recruit people again, this time the recruitment quota is 1,100.
This time, Anjia will no longer be given money to recruit anti-bandit members, but ten acres of land. At the same time, the monthly salary was reduced to five silver coins per month, but after five years, when he quit the bandit suppression team, he could still get another ten acres of land.
After five years of work, a team member will be able to obtain twenty acres of land. This land will be directly transferred to his property at that time, but at that time he will have to pay the court's taxes.
Of course, you can continue to use Zhang Rui's name here. The fields are still yours and can be sold or bought. Zhang Rui still only collected two bushels of millet per mu and helped with the court's taxation.
It seems that the An family has no money to recruit this time, and the monthly salary is also low. But it's a matter of profit, and even ordinary people who don't know how to count will know which one is more cost-effective.
Nowadays, every mu of farmland costs at least 78 to 80 taels of silver. Fertile farmland can even cost 11 to 20 taels of silver. Sometimes it is still expensive but not marketable. Therefore, the fields will only become more valuable, but the money will be gone once it is spent.
Following the news released by Zhang Rui, some families with many young men at home were extremely happy. If this boy goes in, it will be twenty acres, and if the five boys go in, it will be one hundred acres.
One hundred acres! Then he would become a small landowner. If it hadn't been for this opportunity, a sharecropper's family would never have been able to own so much land in their lifetime. In addition, Liu Ge's rent is so high, it's hard not to be enthusiastic. This is more tangible and tangible than winning a five million lottery ticket in future generations.
"No, we have to make sure the young man is well fed even if we don't eat in the past two days. We won't have to worry about it when he is admitted to Sixth Brother's bandit suppression team."
Many people thought about it
…
What is the hottest topic these days? At that time it was Zhang Rui, Zhang Liuge. Who in the entire county doesn't know who doesn't know?
Doesn’t the county magistrate care about recruiting people like Zhang Rui? Not reporting it?
The county magistrate also wanted to take care of it, but the magistrate's master Zhang came to see Zhang Rui a few days ago and told him that he had made great achievements in suppressing bandits before, and the magistrate was going to report to the court to grant him a position.
Now that the magistrate knows it, why should a small magistrate meddle in his own business? Moreover, Zhang Rui is pretty good to him as a magistrate and knows how to be filial. Therefore, it is better to do less than to do more for the county magistrate.
The recruitment went on as scheduled, and Zhang Rui finally recruited the team he had in mind. One hundred sword and shield soldiers, three hundred spearmen, one hundred archers, thirty scouts, and six hundred musketeers.
As for the Musketeers. The day before Zhang Ruifang announced that he was recruiting team members, he received a reply from Du Mu. Du Mu had already bought more than 1,300 new flintlock rifles in Macau. This gun was originally intended to be sold to the Macau garrison after the Dutch robbed the British ship and took it to Macau. However, the Macau garrison did not buy the gun.
Du Mu was very lucky to encounter this at that time, and finally purchased all the guns at the price of twelve taels each, and at the same time, the Dutch gave two Englishmen as a gift.
The guns will eventually be sent back to Zhilian Mountain in the name of tea and are expected to arrive in the next few days. This incident made Zhang Rui very satisfied with Du Mu's ability to do things.
When recruiting the anti-bandit team, Zhang Rui also innovatively recruited a hundred female soldiers as a medical team. According to Zhang Rui: Who says women are inferior to men? Women can also hold up the sky.
Female soldiers are unimaginable in this era. If it weren't for the extremely poor people here, it would be impossible for Zhang Rui to recruit even a single female soldier.
When poor people can even sell themselves into slavery, do they still care about their daughters becoming well-paid female soldiers?
As a result, the female medical team was full. These doctors will be asked to provide nursing training to them in the future, and they can be used to care for injured soldiers during battles in the future.
Liu Musiu has not yet reacted to the development of all events. What he didn't expect was that those old beggars could turn Zhang Rui into people who told various stories every day.
…
After Zhang Rui recruited his team members, he was in high spirits and preparing to fight with the surrounding bandits.
Aixinjueluo Hongli, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty's "prosperous age", was also in high spirits at this time.
Just as recorded in history books
In June, Dawaqi was captured, and the Junggar rebellion was put down. Luobuzang Danjin and others were taken to the capital, where they were presented as prisoners and captured at the Imperial Meridian Gate.
…
Emperor Qianlong was very happy tonight. The Junggar rebellion, which was not quelled by the sage ancestors Kangxi and Yongzheng, was put down by himself. Doesn't this further illustrate his emperor's spirit and extraordinary ability?
In order to show his sage and diligence, Hongli, who originally wanted to take a rest, decided to review the memorial again. He believed that he should set an example of hard work in the world and should not gain the reputation of lazy government.
So, he went to the south study room to deal with the local memorial, which had been delayed for a long time.
Tonight
at this moment
Hongli picked up the memorial from Yuan Meide, the prefect of Wuzhou, Guangxi.
