Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 75: Sun and Moon New Heaven
It was even more difficult to travel from Jinshagou to Xiemashan, so Xu Xin'an and his men went to the new camp of Lion Camel Ridge to spend the night before it got completely dark, taking some dried meat and other dry food. After having dinner at Jinshagou camp, the recruited bandits were exhausted, so they were arranged to sleep in three wooden houses first.
To prevent someone from escaping, the doors and windows of the wooden house were locked from the outside.
Old Man Han, Han Qi and Zhai Mazi were naturally treated differently. They were arranged to live in a separate wooden house in the simple village. This wooden house also separated the residence of the recruited bandits on the inner side of the valley, and it was clearly stated that they were responsible for monitoring the newly recruited bandits .
They were free to move around in the village, so now they were asked to help Madam Ge and Madam Kun clean up the village.
Everything is made to be done with what is available, and there is still a lot to do.
Xu Huai, Liu Qiong'er, Xu Wukun and Xu Wuliang were discussing the follow-up arrangements in front of the oil lamp.
The people sent by Xu Wujiang were much better than expected, so Xu Huai's previous plans needed to be adjusted.
Although there are only more than 20 people at present, they can be directly divided into two teams. Xu Wukun, Zhai Mazi and Han Qi will be one team, specializing in inspections, guarding, supervision and other matters; Xu Huai will be able to free up his hands.
Otherwise, Xu Wukun would not be able to take care of them all by himself in a short period of time. Except for Xu Xiaohuan, Liu Qiong'er and other female relatives were all weak and helpless. Xu Huai would definitely not dare to leave Jinshagou easily.
The remaining staff will be led by Xu Wuliang and Han Laodi, and the construction of the village, the iron furnace, and the chute method of mining gold can carried out at the same time.
In this way, the framework of Jinshagou Village has been established, and when new personnel are added later, everything can be carried out in an orderly manner.
Speaking of manpower, in addition to the 17 people from the Xu clan, many people in Tongbai Mountain were captured and incorporated into the Jingsheng Army. A total of hundreds of veterans returned to Tongbai Mountain.
Among these people, quite a number of them made a living by doing hard labor or renting land to farm after returning; they became bandits before, definitely not because they were pursuing a romantic life of drinking and eating meat, but because they really couldn't make it.
They are now managing the village alone, and Xu Wuliang and Xu Wukun are thinking about recruiting these people. Xu Huai does not refuse, but this matter cannot be rushed.
Everything has to be kept secret. How could they have the time to get away and contact and test others?
We cannot carry the flag of the Xu clan. Xiema Mountain and Jinshagou are still too weak. How can we recruit them?
If the so-called old friendship could withstand the test of life and death, people like Xu Wuqi and Zhou Jing would not have been so intent on licking Xu Wufu's grove.
At this point, Xu Wuliang and Xu Wukun were also very upset and said:
"Don't think that we are forced to do so now. Dazhai is close to us, but Xu Wufu and Xu Wuqi have long been corrupted. We still have to be on guard against them."
That being said, we have very limited manpower here. To carry in the large amount of supplies purchased from outside and to formally open a convenient trail between Lion Camel Ridge and Jinshagou, we need to rely on manpower sent from Dazhai.
Fortunately, under the huge crisis, Xu Wufu and others acted quickly.
The construction of a rolling dam between Yuhuang Ridge and Shituo Ridge and the clearing of rocks from the large open space at the bottom of the valley for reclamation were indeed impeccable excuses, allowing the Xu family to openly recruit back their clansmen who were making a living outside.
Now, several large families such as Xu Wufu and clansmen contribute grain and money. The clansmen can return to Yuhuangling to work and get paid and grain. They can rent and cultivate the reclaimed land first, or even buy the newly reclaimed land directly at a low price. In this world, how many people are willing to wander around?
With this excuse, Xu could purchase large amounts of food, ironware and other supplies from outside.
In the past, in addition to the private storage of each family, the clans in the Lutai villages would also store some grain for famine preparedness. But overall, due to the limitation of the scale of arable land, the annual grain output of the Lutai villages was much lower than the consumption.
Every year, the shortage of grain production in Yuhuangling is supplemented by the farmed mules, horses, chickens, sheep and other poultry, silkworm cocoons, collected tea and medicinal herbs, tung oil seeds, lacquer, timber, animal skins, bacon and other products, as well as hundreds of young and middle-aged people who go out to make a living.
There are also cellars built inside Yuhuangling to burn charcoal and lime, but there is no iron ore.
There are two blacksmith shops in Lutai Village, but they mainly purchase iron materials from outside to cast iron tools needed for farming and daily life.
There will be a storm in Tongbai Mountain. If the storm continues for a long time and business is cut off, food, ironware, cotton cloth, salt and other supplies will become increasingly scarce. At this time, a large number of tribesmen who are making a living outside must be attracted back. If preparations are not made early, the shortage of internal supplies will only be further aggravated.
By then, no matter how much gold, silver and jewelry you have hoarded, it will be far less reassuring than food; and the strengthening of internal armaments is even more dependent on the sufficient supply of raw and wrought iron.
Regardless of whether Xu Wufu was a vicious person or not, and regardless of the exploitation of the lower Xu clan members by the upper Xu clan, the motivation of the Xu clan members mobilized internally was still quite astonishing.
The main crops grown in Tongbai Mountain are wheat and beans. After the summer, the rainfall becomes more frequent and the busiest farming season has passed.
In addition to the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled, Xu Wufu mobilized nearly two thousand strong laborers, including healthy women, as quickly as possible to first build three rolling dams in the middle of the valley between Yuhuangling and Shituoling.
The Rolling Water Dam is not an earth dam, but a dam built by quarrying stones. The loose soil and rocks in the valley are scraped away to create a solid dam foundation. Glutinous rice and kudzu grass are boiled into juice, stirred into lime and used to lay the stones.
Although this type of mortar-laid stone dam is expensive, the built rolling dam is sturdy and not afraid of flooding. It is only five or six feet high and makes full use of the dry ditch terrain washed out by mountain torrents inside the valley. Even if a single rolling dam costs one or two thousand strings of money and grain, it can be barely accepted under the current circumstances.
After the completion of these three rolling dams, the stone dams will be exposed above the water when the weather is clear and there is no rain, which is equivalent to adding three shortcuts for quick passage between the new village on Dongpo in Shituoling and the Xu’s village.
The construction of houses inside the new village was carried out rapidly; the two footpaths heading west and south from the new village inside Lion Camel Ridge were also progressing very quickly. Xu was planning to build a wooden bridge over the deep ravine that had once blocked the way of Xu Huai, Xu Xin'an, and Xu Sihu.
The consumption of these manpower and materials is still absorbed by the Xu clan. After all, the entire Lion Camel Ridge is considered the family property of the Xu family. For those families who contribute money and grain, the reclaimed land will be converted into their names first.
Going west from Lion Camel Ridge, one still has to cross another mountain to reach Jinshagou. The construction of this more than three-mile-long footpath was directly undertaken by personnel from the new village. At the same time, they also arranged for people to carry four to five hundred kilograms of food and corresponding tools into Jinshagou Village every day. However, the expenses of money and food were recorded in the accounts of Jinshagou Village.
The chute method of gold mining is not complicated from preparation to operation.
Taking into consideration that the wooden planks could be extended for a more complete separation, Xu Wuliang took his men and finally sawed up two cypress trees, leaning them diagonally beside the stream. He then ordered a dozen recruited thieves to dig mud from the stream and wash them with water every day. In just two or three days, they were able to collect one or two taels of gold sand.
After Xu Wujiang occupied Xiema Mountain, he burned tens of thousands of kilograms of grain and the bandit camp in the lower courtyard of Chonghuang Temple to cut off Pan Chenghu's retreat, but he also seized a lot of gold, silver, jewelry and other valuables that Pan Chenghu had hidden privately in Xiema Mountain.
According to the mountain stronghold rules that have been prevalent in Tongbai Mountain for many years, half of the spoils are deposited into the public account, and the other half is distributed among the leaders.
In addition to sending the twenty recruited bandits to Jinshagou, after counting the spoils, Xu Wujiang also promptly delivered the money and property he had previously borrowed and withdrawn from Liu Qiong'er and Xu Huai, as well as the reward he was due this time, totaling nearly two thousand strings of cash.
With this batch of money and materials, Jinshagou Village also started to reserve some necessary materials in the early stage, speeded up the construction of mountain paths and village houses, and also reinforced the previous simple fences...
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"Cheng Lunying has met Mr. Wang..."
Cheng Lunying passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi at the age of 40. He stayed in the Hanlin Academy for several years. In the first year of Tianxuan, he was assigned to work in Linzhou. At the end of last year, he was transferred to Biyang to serve as magistrate and military commander.
He was just 50 years old, with a little white on his temples. He walked into the courtyard and bowed to Wang Bing, but his skinny face showed no expression. When he came to Huaiyuan, he had to pay a visit to Wang Bing, but he seemed to be afraid of showing any unnecessary expression, which would be seen by someone with ulterior motives and become a huge handle.
In the officialdom of Dai Viet, a serious face has become the standard.
"I am a humble commoner and do not deserve such a courtesy from Mr. Cheng." Wang Bing held a chess piece in his hand and hovered it over the chessboard. He turned sideways and nodded slightly towards Cheng Lunying as a return of courtesy.
"Inspector Guo Caoling was assassinated just after arriving in Huaiyuan, and before he could take office, the prefectures and counties were shocked, and the matter was reported to the Lu Si. General Gu must have the power of thunder and lightning. In addition to reporting to the court urgently for 500 miles, he also strictly ordered the county officials to search for the assassin. Lunying was confused and waited until today to come to see Prime Minister Wang. Please forgive me." Cheng Lunying said this calmly, as if he had really been busy with the assassination of Guo Caoling in the three months .
It seems that Guo Caoling had really been assassinated more than three months ago, rather than being assassinated in the military posthouse of the Huaiyuan Inspection Office eleven days ago.
Wang Xuan's bright eyes stared over in surprise. Being naive by nature, she found it hard to imagine how a person like Cheng Lunying could tell lies without changing his expression at all.
"Okay, okay. Mr. Cheng is the chief official of Biyang County. He cares about the people and the emperor. There is no need for him to worry about an old and demoted official like me." Wang Bing also replied seriously.
As if completing a specific procedure, Cheng Lunying bowed slightly and left the courtyard. The county lieutenant Zhu Tong also said nothing, and followed the captains and clerks out of the courtyard. Deng Gui wanted to say something, but hesitated and finally walked away without saying a word.
"Guo Caoling has been dead for eleven days. Cheng Lunying had no choice but to make the trip to Huaiyuan. She is really busy!" Lu Xiong couldn't help but sneered.
