On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Zhou Cheng, who lived in the barracks, did not sleep, he woke up early and prepared to go back to the valley living area to pay his respects to Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui. The army in the new year's eve of the annual vacation, in addition to the officers and soldiers on duty, there is no one else in the barracks, the soldiers are back to the valley living area to enjoy the holiday to go.
Zheng Yuming practiced a semi-huge pot system for the slaves in the valley, where houses, clothes, and meals were all distributed. Clothes were distributed according to sizes, and food tickets were issued for meals to be enjoyed in the cafeteria, while those who wanted to have a small meal could exchange the tickets for food and go back to make their own. Houses are allocated according to two categories: those with families and those who are single.
Chu Chao Hui used money to buy many strong soldiers from the surrounding vassal states as soldiers, these strong soldiers do not have families in the valley, they are the same as the single slaves, they are assigned to two people in a dormitory.
Others with small families were allocated houses according to the number of people, ranging from one to four. Zhou Cheng was originally a single person, divided into two people a dormitory, after the promotion of the officer, the treatment is improved, divided into a whole house.
The Zhou family members and relatives of the Zhou family who fled from Lu were rearranged after ten days in the refugee camp, and Zhou Cheng's parents, sister-in-law, and nephews were required to go to the valley according to the regulations, because as long as they served as soldiers in the valley, none of the soldier's family members were permitted to live outside of the valley; this was to prevent the soldiers from going outside of the valley to join their families that would divulge the military strength in the valley.
Chu Chaohui this Sima openly controlled Huben in the northeast of Nambu in the barracks, the valley of two thousand slave soldiers is his hidden power, Zheng Chu two people in addition to hiding the number of regular soldiers, the valley of the ironworks also have to be strictly confidential, the quality of the ironworks to fight out of the weapons is super era, the factory of each knife and sword, in the vassal state is a thousand gold treasure weapon.
In addition, the glass factory can not let the outside world know, if the Qin people know that the Minghui Valley can make glass, not to mention the King of Wu will be greedy, the other vassal states may start a war to fight for it, the two countries in order to a gold mine, fought for more than ten years of war, the glass manufacturing gold content than the gold mine is much higher.
In order to maximize secrecy, the valley was guarded around the iron and glass factories, in addition to controlling the entry and exit of people, and the workers in the factories were warned not to talk to other slaves about the affairs of the factories. Except for the slaves related to the two factories, no one else in the valley knew what the two factories produced, but only thought that the iron factory produced iron, and the glass factory crushed stone, because the raw material of glass was a kind of stone.
On the day Zhou Cheng's parents and relatives were resettled, Zhou Cheng took time off work to go and fetch his parents into the valley. Zhou Da finally realized on this day that his son had taken on a debt of five hundred gold.
The thirty-odd people who were picked up by the Hu traders, in the refugee camp, except for the hygiene rules that made them uncomfortable, the days were actually very pleasant, because there was one meal of corn rice and two meals of corn gruel supplied every day in the camp, the houses where they lived did not leak, two people were distributed with a bed of old quilts, and there was also a fire pit to warm up when it was cold, so life in the refugee camp was a lot better than in their hometowns. Mr. and Mrs. Zhou and their relatives were very glad to have come to Nambu.
The feeling of happiness disappeared on the day they left the refugee camp, when they knew that the cost of the thirty or so people from Lu to Nambu was as high as twenty gold per person, they were shocked and dumbfounded, and the Zhou couple even squatted on the ground and bawled their eyes out.
"Five hundred gold ah, this to pay back to which life ah!" Zhou Da holding his head, feeling again stood next to the abyss, in Zhou Da's memory, Zhou family only in his marriage when the most affluent, when the family saved to eight gold money, Zhou Da is with this eight gold to marry a wife, after this, Zhou family money no longer have a surplus, Zhou Cheng's brother married the silly girl, is with five chickens and two buckets of corn in exchange for back.
"Our family will have to pay it back for more than two years." Zhou Cheng sighed slightly with a bitter face, he didn't have the heart to open his mouth and ask his relatives to pay him back for the transportation fee, Zhou Cheng felt that this commission was entirely caused by his own lack of clarity, no wonder Wei Qing said that businessmen were the most treacherous and had to be dealt with carefully.
"What? It only takes more than two years to pay it off?" Zhou Da jumped up at once, and the relatives next to him had their mouths open, twenty gold was a heavenly amount in their eyes, when the relatives knew the number of money Zhou Cheng spent on each of them, they were too scared to open their mouths and promise to pay back the money, because the taxes they owed the feudal lord's nobles weren't even that much, and they wouldn't have dared to come to Nambu if they knew the number of pick-up and drop-off fees.
"I don't need to spend in the army, I can save more than a hundred gold per year, and in two years I can have three hundred gold, father and mother..." Zhou Cheng glanced at the silly girl and thought to himself that this widowed sister-in-law wouldn't be so stupid that she wouldn't be able to do any work, right? As long as some no-brainer work can be done, there will be income. "If the three of us, father and mother and sister-in-law, go to work, we can have an income of sixty or seventy gold per year, and in two years, there will be more than a hundred gold, so in this way, in two and a half years at the most, we will be able to pay off our debts."
Zhou Cheng himself counted carefully, the lowest income slaves in the valley, to the end of the year can still be settled to twenty gold, the Zhou family has three people work, hard work, more than two years is certainly able to pay off the debt, but Zhou Cheng plans to say bye-bye to the building.
"Second nephew, cousin uncle's family of six, to the valley to earn the money and then return one hundred and twenty gold." Zhou Cheng's cousin uncle's eyes were thievingly bright, with this kind of income, what's twenty gold per person for transportation, and later on, all of them would return to his nephew.
Several other relatives of the Zhou family have also come forward to say that they want to enter the valley with Zhou Cheng, and will definitely pay back Zhou Cheng's expenses in the future, and will not let the person who saved them from the sea of misery to carry the debt.
"No, only craftsmen, family members can follow to the valley." In addition to the family who went to the valley as soldiers could enter the valley, there was also the family of craftsmen with craftsmen who could also enter, Zhou Cheng's family relatives were all farmers, there were no craftsmen.
"Nephew, if the cousin uncle's family doesn't follow you into the valley, they won't be able to pay you back." Cousin Uncle Zhou Cheng thought that he was only treated this well in the valley.
"Uncle, you can go to the recruiting office first, and if you don't get recruited, you can also save money by farming and doing labor here in Nambu." Reclaiming the wasteland in Nambu is tax-free for the first year, and the refugees can do odd jobs in addition to farming, and as long as the family is diligent, twenty gold a year will usually be saved.
Zhou's relatives all wanted to have a Huben like Zhou Cheng in their family, and the young men in their families went to join the soldier recruitment, but unfortunately Zhou's relatives were malnourished in Lu, and one by one, their bodies couldn't pass the test, and they were all weeded out by the healers at the soldier recruitment office. At the end of the day, these families were broken up and divided into various refugee groups on a family basis, an arrangement that was a precautionary measure taken by Zheng Yuming to prevent the refugees from clumping together. Before the separation, Zhou Cheng took out the last few gold on his body again and distributed it to his relatives so that they could buy some necessary necessities after they stayed.
Because by the end of the year, the south port and the valley housing construction have stopped, the population in the valley is increasing too fast, there is no spare spare room to be distributed to the Zhou family, Zhou Cheng's family, can only live in Zhou Cheng's lodging room first, after the Spring Festival, and so on, when the valley house is built to be distributed again.
Zhou Cheng's quarters in the living quarters were given to his family, and he himself had to live in the barracks in the western part of the valley. Fortunately, Zhou Cheng had a warhorse mount, and it only took twenty minutes to ride from the barracks to the living quarters, making it very convenient to go back and forth.
Zhou Cheng rode his horse to life when the people in the living area have begun to get up one after another, some children dressed like a ball have been scurrying around to pay tribute to the New Year, the people in the valley basically do not have any relatives with the same, the left and right neighbors and familiar with the people, is the object of their walk to pay tribute to the New Year.
Zhou Cheng tied the horse to the horse corridor before returning to their own lodging room, a good horse is rare, Zhou Cheng can not afford to tie the horse outside in the cold.
Zhou Da was already standing at the door waiting for his son, Zhou's wife was organizing things in her room, and Silly Girl was standing in front of the pit bed wrestling with Xiao Bao.
"Hurry up, all get organized and go with me to pay New Year's greetings to His Excellency." Zhou Cheng entered the door and realized that his nephew's clothes had not been put on yet, so he hurriedly urged.
"Right away." Zhou's wife pushed aside the clumsy and stupid girl and set her grandson's clothes with her hands and feet.
"Are we all going?" Zhou Da looked rushed, he tugged at the cotton shirt he was wearing, it was Zhou Cheng's old clothes, the Zhou family didn't make it in time for the distribution of clothing, they went into the valley at the end of the year, and they weren't eligible for the distribution except for half of the year's goods.
"Only officers and heads of departments can take their families to pay their respects to His Excellency; no one else can go if they want to."
"I know! I know! There are good things to eat when you go to your lord's place to pay your respects!" The silly girl suddenly clapped her hands, she and Zhou's wife had been assigned to help in the cafeteria, and the most they had heard was that the food eaten in the two lords' mansions was delicious.
Zhou Cheng forehead tattooed on the black line, his stupid sister-in-law, all day long to eat the most interested in food, eat up, never know what is called the stomach full, even if the food has been choked to the mouth of the throat, the eyes rolled over, she will still pick up things in the mouth, bluffing Zhou's wife as long as the meal, you have to keep an eye on the silly girl, so that the valley of the unknown people think that the silly girl's stomach is not satiated, and goodness of the stuffing of more than one food choked the silly girl to death.
Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui this year did not accept the slaves in the villa to pay their respects, not far from the villa last year, built a row of small two-story buildings, small buildings, the main function of the office, the population of the valley is more and more, the management of the head is also more and more, in order to improve the efficiency of the work, to facilitate the handling of affairs, it is necessary to build a comprehensive office thing, to find the person in charge of the discussion of things, as long as you look for in the office can be, do not need to full of the valley to seek. The Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui Hui in this office have their own office. Two people this year also in the office hall to accept the crowd to pay their respects.
In the last year, more than 4,000 people have been added to the valley, and with the original 1,000 or so, the valley now has a population of 6,000, of which more than 2,000 are soldiers, 7,800 artisans, 1,500 or so farmers, and 1,700 or 1,800 women, children, and the elderly. The population of the valley is dominated by prime-aged males. Nambu grew faster than the valley because of the spontaneous influx of refugees, and today there are more than 10,000 people, and the proportion of the population is also dominated by laborers. Zheng Yuming's plan was to increase the valley by 5,000 each year, aiming for a population of 30,000 in five years, with Nambu ideally having a permanent population of 50,000 people.
The population of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States in the original time period was between about 20 and 30 million, and Great Qin, with a background similar to that of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States, would have a population of no more than that. The large vassal states had a population in the millions, while the smaller ones only had a hundred thousand or so. Wu was the least populated of the six major vassal states, the population of Kang City, the capital of the King of Wu, was only around 80,000 to 90,000, Dacheng had an even smaller population of just over 30,000, and all the people on Gongziguang's fief combined would not be more than 70,000, and the valley and Nambu would have a population larger than the total population of Gongziguang's fief five years from now if they were to develop in accordance with the steps that Zheng Yuming had planned for them, although Dacheng was now absorbing the foreign population as well, and in five years' time , the population of Minghui Valley and Nanbu would not necessarily exceed the total population of the fiefdom.
Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui came from the twenty-first century, accustomed to the expansion-like development of the cities of the Heavenly Kingdom, the two years of the valley has six thousand population increase rate is only too slow, but the other people in the valley only feel that Zheng Chu two people such as in the change of sorcery, especially the first batch of slaves to the valley to come to the valley, the valley of the primitive they are aware of, they have witnessed the change of the valley, in addition to the incredible feeling, only the rest of the master's worship.
When Zhou Cheng arrived at the office with his family, he happened to meet Fan Jin, Dajiang old man and Guo carpenter's family out of the New Year's greetings, Zhou Cheng and these people are familiar with, and hurriedly went up to exchange pleasantries, and introduced his parents. Zhou's husband and wife have spent their entire lives in a small mountain village, seldom dealing with outsiders, so their behavior is rushed and rude, but Fan Jin and the others are from the lower class, do not care, see Zhou's wife's hands holding a small treasure, they have to go up to touch the head, pinch the face, and stuffed with a Wu coin for the New Year's Eve money.
Fanjin's wife Dainiao had just turned one month old, and it was too cold outside, so she and her daughter didn't go out. Ge Erniu, now more than five months pregnant, was close to Ge carpenter's wife, and was very happy to see the children, and stuffed two copies of the New Year's money.
After the harvest festival, Dr. Jiang is promoted to the rank of left doctor and is trying his best to develop his power in the royal capital. Dazhuang and Yu Kui have to pay attention to the changing situation in the royal capital of Wu, so neither of them went back to the valley to celebrate the Spring Festival. Because no one in her husband's family could take care of Ge Erniu, she moved back to her mother's house when she became pregnant.
Zheng Yuming saw Zhou Cheng come in and couldn't help but have the corners of his mouth pulled slightly. Zhou Cheng was drilled by the Hu traders to carry a huge debt is the valley's biggest news at the end of last year, so that the people in the valley talk for half a month before subsiding, there is no television and telephone and the Internet era, the speed of word of mouth news is very amazing, Zheng Yuming the next day heard about it.
"Greetings to the two adults, may the two adults ...." Zhou Cheng raised his eyes to look down at the two men sitting side by side and continued, "May the two lords be accompanied by each other year after year."
Chu Zhaohui heard, not bad, this subordinate of his own is the most mellow, and what he said is also the most favorable. "Zhou Cheng, lead the troops well, the officer who leads well will be rewarded with buildings in the future."
"As you command! My subordinate will definitely do his best." Zhou Cheng heard, his own officer is good ah, reward goods are award subordinates the most wanted, at that moment a excited, stand straight body, 'snap', to Chu Chao Hui and Zheng Yuming each line of a military salute, Zhou Cheng quaint behavior, the Zhou big couple startled, the two people with a stupid daughter-in-law and grandson stood there do not know what to do.
"This is your nephew, isn't it, quite cute." Zheng Yuming crossed Chu Chao Hui's eyes, Chu Chao Hui used the valley house as a reward, that was taking something other than military expenses.
"This is the New Year's money, take it." Huo Sihua is specialized in distributing New Year's money to children, seeing Xiao Bao's pair of dark single eyelids staring curiously at Zheng Yuming without moving, she quickly stuffs a red envelope into Xiao Bao's arms and leads Zhou Cheng's family to the side to drink morning tea, waiting behind Zhou's family to pay tribute to the New Year's Eve are many, Zheng Chu and his two men in the valley after accepting the New Year's Eve of all people, they still have to go to the Nambu Councilor's House to receive the Nambu's crowd of people's congratulations on New Year's Eve.
"Da Niu Huang Zhong pays his respects to His Excellency!" Da Niu's loud voice overpowered Huang Zhong, now Da Niu has been chosen as Zheng Yuming's personal bodyguard, from today onwards, Da Niu will be following Zheng Yuming's side. Huang Zhong, on the other hand, passed Chu Chao Hui's personal examination, and was treated by Chu Chao Hui as the head of intelligence in training.
"Both of you please rise!" Zheng Yuming looked at the two kneeling in front of the two people a little crying and laughing, Da Niu in the royal palace used to kneeling, in the valley of not practicing kneeling and Nambu always forget to bow, causing Huang Zhong who came with him to pay tribute to the New Year to change the bow to kneeling.
"Huang Zhong, wait you also follow to the governor's residence." Chu Chao Hui instructed Huang Zhong, he had to let Huang Zhong familiarize himself with the environment of Nambu as soon as possible, and be able to establish an intelligence network as early as possible.
"Aye! My lord!" Huang Zhong heart excited, he is only familiar with the local conditions and customs, no talent to rule the country, traveled around more than twenty vassal states, no nobles think he has talent, was denied over and over again, Huang Zhong himself think he is mediocre, do not want to be Chu Chao Hui appreciation, which makes Huang Zhong rose a spirit of a soldier for a friend to die of the figure of reward.
Huang Zhong and Da Niu were led to breakfast by Huo Si Zhong, and now in came Jiang Gui and the two healers that Chu Chao Hui had taken by the way of the bandits.
"Greetings to the two lords!" Jiang Gui was the one in the valley who had the most diffident attitude towards Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui; all of Jiang Gui's energies were focused on his medical research.
"The three healers have worked hard." Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui appreciated Jiang Gui, this witch doctor has a spirit of research, Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui only have medical concepts and some general formulas, practice has to rely on Jiang Gui to find out by himself, Jiang Gui's medical skills are now improving by leaps and bounds, in addition to malaria medicine, some of the medicines for fighting parasites, and the use of cowpox to cure smallpox have all yielded results.
"No hard work, no hard work." The two healers who followed Jiang Gui in waved their hands repeatedly, before the end of the year, these two healers had already taken their families and children into the valley, and they were very satisfied with the valley life, except for the fact that bringing in too many disciples made it very strenuous for them.
After all the stewards in the valley came to pay their respects, Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui went to the Nambu councilor's residence, and just as they arrived at the councilor's residence, the father and son of the Eagle Tribe's Tuo Xiong came.
Eagle Tribe and South Port cooperation, the days are more and more prosperous, Tuosu with tribal warriors, with food and weapons to subdue the surrounding small tribes, many small tribes were annexed by the Eagle Tribe, a little larger tribes submit, the Eagle Tribe has become the largest tribe in the south of the Yangtze River, but the chief of the largest tribe, the first day of the first month of the first year to pay a visit to the Zheng Chu two people, but the face of a grim, heavy hearted.