Ning Shuisheng is a fisherman belonging to a small mountain village on the outskirts of Xiamen near the sea, in fact, it is not quite correct to say that he is a fisherman, because since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it has set a rule that the board is not allowed to enter the sea, so the fisherman god horse does not exist.

However, under the pressure of survival, there are still many fishermen who will secretly go out to sea to fish. Unlike those maritime merchants who bribed the government to go to sea openly, those fishermen who wanted to survive and make a living could only choose to go out to sea at night to fish and return before dawn, which was the case with Ning Shuisheng's family.

However, this situation is already in the past, just a little more than a month ago, the official servants and the village officials came to the village, beating gongs and drums to inform the villagers that the emperor decreed that the sea ban was opened, and from then on everyone could go out to sea to fish and even do business openly.

To tell the truth, when Li Zheng came to inform, Ning Shuisheng's whole family even thought that this was Li Zheng's prank, how could the forbidden sea that had lasted for hundreds of years be lifted like this, wasn't it a joke?

However, the development of things was really beyond the expectations of Ning Shuisheng's family, and in the next half month, some brave fishermen in the village began to try to go out to sea during the day.

The people in the village soon found out that what Li Zheng said seemed to be true, and the people of the government no longer cared about them, and they even saw that many traders who only dared to go to sea at night on weekdays began to go to sea openly during the day, and there was more and more of a trend.

As more and more people began to go to the sea, Ning Shuisheng finally believed this fact, which he had originally scoffed at. After confirming that the news was true, Ning Shuisheng's family almost hugged their heads and cried.

Anyone who is familiar with the sea knows that the danger of going out to sea at night is much higher than during the day. The light at night is very poor, the dark sea is almost invisible, and it is all lit by the ship's dead wind lamp, and the vagaries of the climate and the storms that can occur at any time, and the danger of fishing in such conditions can be imagined.

Ning Shuisheng's father went out to sea to fish late one night five years ago, and then never came back, and Ning Shuisheng, her mother, and sister, who received the bad news, almost collapsed their family.

The result of losing the pillar of the family is naturally conceivable, and Ning Shuisheng's family fell into a state of unsustainability all of a sudden.

In order to prevent the family's mother and sister from starving to death, Ning Shuisheng, who was nearly thirteen years old at the time, had to follow his father's old path and follow another fisherman from the same village out to sea. This is five years, in these five years, Ning Shuisheng has experienced many risks, several times almost died in the belly of the fish, but he survived, and now the court actually said that he can fish in the sea during the day, which makes Ning Shuisheng, who has long been accustomed to night fishing, very unaccustomed.

But after the shock, it was ecstasy, seeing that the imperial court had really lifted the sea ban, the ecstatic Ning Shuisheng discussed with his family, planning to borrow money to buy a boat, so that he could catch more fish, and also let the family's mother and sister fill their stomachs, and save a dowry for their growing sister.

Just when Ning Shuisheng was about to make a big move, several young people came to the door.

These young people are all friends who grew up with Ning Shuisheng since childhood, and they have a very good relationship with Ning Shuisheng.

"Brother Shuisheng, let's join the army together!" The person who spoke was named Lu Dahai, a seventeen or eighteen years old, a young man with a small height and a dark complexion, typical of a fisherman who grew up by the sea.

"Joining the army? Aren't you crazy, how can you think of eating this bowl of severed head rice? Ning Shuisheng frowned, the imperial court had opened a sea ban, he was trying to take advantage of this time to make a big move, how could he be a soldier? Besides, now that the imperial court is at war with Zheng Zhilong, what if he has a bad wife and sister in the family?

Lu Dahai pouted at another lean-looking young man next to him: "Ah Xiao, you come and talk to Brother Shuisheng." ”

A smiled and said: "Brother Shuisheng, you don't know, the imperial court will not only open the sea ban this time, but also rebuild and form the Fujian Naval Division." This time, the imperial court sent that official named Jiang Ningbo to our Fujian to fight Zheng Zhilong and them. And Jiang Ningbo appointed Master Lu as the Admiral of the Fujian Naval Division, responsible for the rebuilding of the Admiral of the Naval Division, and notices have been posted outside the village, don't you know? ”

Ning Shuisheng glared: "You don't know that I'm illiterate, aren't you laughing at me?" ”

"Don't dare, don't dare!" Ah Xiao hurriedly waved his hand, Ning Shuisheng was recognized as the best water-based and the most resolute young man in the village. Not everyone can shoulder the burden of supporting their family at the age of thirteen, and there is no one in the village who does not give a thumbs up for this.

"Okay, don't talk about it, there's no way I'm going to be a soldier." Ning Shuisheng said lightly, stood up and turned around to walk outside, "Okay, I have to go to the sixth uncle's house, and I'm going to borrow some money from him, and we'll talk about it when we have time." ”

"Brother Shuisheng, don't be in a hurry to leave!"

Seeing that Ning Shuisheng was leaving, Lu Dahai on the side was anxious and quickly pulled him down.

Ning Shuisheng turned around helplessly and looked at Lu Dahai: "Dahai, what are you pulling me to do, I still have something to do here." ”

"Brother Shuisheng, we really have a good thing this time." Lu Dahai looked around and lowered his voice and said, "Brother Shuisheng, you don't know yet." The court needs to recruit a large number of people to rebuild the water division this time, and the notice at the entrance of the village said that as long as the imperial court water division is selected, everyone will be given a settling-in allowance of five taels of silver, and in the future, each person will have a military salary of one or two or five silver dollars per month and five buckets of food. ”

"Really?"

Ning Shuisheng's body was shocked, and he looked at Lu Dahai with an unbelievable face.

Lu Dahai laughed proudly, "How about Brother Shuisheng, my good news is useful to you, right?" ”

Ning Shuisheng still said with some suspicion: "What kind of recruitment is this, this is recruiting sons-in-law, the court will be so generous?" ”

"Brother Shuisheng, you don't know, right?" Ah Xiao on the side smiled and said: "This recruitment was handled by the official named Jiang Ningbo, I heard that this Jiang Ningbo is the richest person in the whole Ming Dynasty, and he specially allocated three million taels of silver to rebuild the water division!" ”

"Three million taels of silver?"

Ning Shuisheng was already stunned, just now. He was still worried about how to raise seven or eight taels of silver to buy a small fishing boat, but as soon as people made a move, it was millions of taels of silver, so should the gap be so big!

Seeing Ning Shuisheng who was stunned on the spot, Lu Dahai and the others had a playful smile on their faces, because just now when they first heard the officials interpret the content of the notice for them, they had the same expression as Ning Shuisheng.

Seeing Ning Shuisheng's shocked appearance, Lu Dahai, who felt that there was a play, said again: "Brother Shuisheng, there are not many good opportunities like this. I heard from the official that this time the sailor only recruits 8,000 people, and if we go late, maybe they won't recruit them. Let's hurry into the city. ”

"This ......"

Ning Shuisheng was obviously a little moved, once he was hired, he had a settling-in allowance of five taels of silver, and a military salary of one or two and a half silver and five buckets of food every month. He's grown so big, he hasn't even heard of such a good thing, let alone seen it, and he's never even heard of it. If he can really be selected to be a soldier, it means that he can use this settling-in fee to renovate this dilapidated house, even if he does not go to sea to fish, his share of military salary alone is enough to support his wife and sister, which is much better than his hard work of going to sea to fish.

However, Ning Shuisheng was a filial person, and he thought for a while before saying, "This...... I still have to ask my mother. ”

"What else are you asking?" Lu Dahai was anxious, "You still don't know your mother's temper, does she know if she can let you eat that bowl of rice?" I can tell you, I have discussed with Ah Xiao and Gou Yu, and we will go to the army together, if you don't go, we won't care about you, and if we go home in the future, you will regret it! ”

"Okay!"

Ning Shuisheng gritted his teeth and finally agreed, although there is a danger of losing his head when he is a soldier, why is there no risk in these years? His father caught fish all his life, and didn't he die in the belly of the fish in the end?

Seeing that Ning Shuisheng agreed, Lu Dahai and his party cheered. The reason why they had to pull Ning Shuisheng was not only because they admired Ning Shuisheng's personality, but more importantly, Ning Shuisheng was the best among their group of people in terms of water nature and experience in going to sea, and it was also recognized by the village.

So, Ning Shuisheng, who was nearly eighteen years old, was pulled on the road to the city by his friends.

The next thing is simple, since it is to recruit sailors, Xiangning Aquatic and Lu Dahai, fishermen who grew up by the sea are naturally the first choice. Ning Shuisheng and his party of more than ten people, except for a young man who was too weak to meet the conditions, all the others passed the recruitment, when Ning Shuisheng and his party returned to the village wearing a newly issued green military uniform, staring at a pair of green military boots (liberation shoes) that many people had never seen before, the whole village was a sensation.

Looking at Ning Shuisheng, who was completely rejuvenated, Shui Sheng's mother and sister had no choice, the money of the An family had already arrived, and the people had also pressed their handprints in the government, so they couldn't go back.

In this way, Ning Shuisheng became a member of a glorious Fujian sailor.

Of course, this is just a small episode, let's refocus our attention on Xiamen City.

Since Yang Feng came to Xiamen with Jiang Ningjun, Xiamen, which was originally slightly deserted, has become lively.

At the beginning, the people of Xiamen were still a little afraid of the arrival of the Jiang Ning army.

There is an old folk saying that a soldier is like a comb. It means that the place where the army passes through it is as if it had been combed through with a comb.

The local army is better, but they are all villagers, and they don't look up and see each other, and they are embarrassed to go too far.

But the guest army is different, those big soldiers from other places will not have so many scruples, once they make a mistake, they are the most ruthless.

Therefore, when the local people first saw the Jiang Ning Army, many people thought about how far they could run.

However, as time went on, people's minds slowly changed.

Many ordinary people were surprised to find that these Jiangning troops were completely different from the officers and soldiers they had seen before.

Not only does this army not rob things, but they actually pay according to the price when they buy things, which is too unusual, you must know when those unreasonable big-headed soldiers are so polite, isn't this the sun hitting the west and coming out?

That's not all, as time goes by, the people are surprised to find that this is Jiang Ningjun's mother's money, just buy things and pay for them, they don't bargain, what is the situation?

Later, a well-informed person revealed the reason, feeling that the people with the lowest number of soldiers in these big heads had a military salary of one or two pieces of silver every month, and if it was wartime, the military salary would be doubled.

This soldier is too rich, right?

Some people who have been soldiers secretly calculated in their hearts that the guards of the Ming Dynasty have no military salaries to receive. The teams that can lead the army are all those recruits, but even the recruits only have one or two taels of silver per month.

On the surface, it seems to be a lot, even higher than the military salary of the Jiangning Army.

But don't forget, this is only a superficial number, and only half of them are actually received, and they are even in arrears for several months from time to time.

The Jiang Ning army is different, they receive real salaries, that's all, and they also distribute food, which is the most shocking.

In the era of low productivity, everyone understands the meaning of food, which means that as long as you enter the Jiangning Army, at least a family of five will not have to worry about their lives.

With such a generous treatment, many people's eyes are red. Equipment, military uniforms, and military salaries are still so high, and sons-in-law are not treated so well.

Some people with active minds have quietly inquired, is Jiang Ningjun still recruiting?

The final result was discouraging, the Jiang Ningjun did not recruit people, at least not for the time being.

However, just a few days ago, the situation changed, and the Fujian Navy Division was going to be rebuilt, and it was the very rich Jiang Ningbo who ordered the reconstruction, not only that, but the recruitment notice also said that fishermen who are familiar with the water are preferred.

Well, none of this is important, the important thing is that the notice said that the military salary of the Fujian Navy Division is the same as that of those Jiangning Army, or even slightly higher, this news is too amazing, for a time not only the people of the nearby ten miles and eight towns, but even the fishermen in Putian, Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and other places are flocking to Xiamen.

Originally, Yang Feng only gave Lu Guangbiao a quota of 8,000, and it stands to reason that the quota of 8,000 people is already a lot, but then Lu Guangbiao was surprised to find that half of the quota of 8,000 was recruited in less than seven days. The role of silver is simply too great.