After entering the wax moon, all parts of the capital began to gradually have a New Year's flavor.

Last year, during the Chinese New Year, it was a national funeral, and the city was full of vegetarian food, and it was deserted. This year is different, after the draft, the family who was left with a sign to marry has to prepare for marriage; People who are branded can also marry on their own.

How many families are ready to get married, not to mention the side, that is, the dumplings in Daoxiang Village, which are sold by 30% more than every year.

Tianhui and Niuniu's boot shop also sold out all the inventory, and several masters ate and lived in the factory, working overtime.

The Cao family's New Year's goods were also almost purchased, and the stewards of the village also sent local money and rice.

However, in the end, there is a fly in the ointment. Cao Hao couldn't go back to Beijing for the New Year, which made the whole Xifu very worried.

Cao Hao was in Ganzhou, but he began to get busy again.

He stayed in Ganzhou, not only to do logistics for Nian Qianyao, but also to resettle the famine.

The construction of a new city between Ganzhou and Xining has already been completed. The demarcated land is between Xincheng and Ganzhou.

In order not to delay next year's spring ploughing, it is necessary to prepare the seeds, equipment, cattle and horses needed for reclamation and spring ploughing before March.

The source of this immigration came from the displaced people from Shandong and Zhili.

Cao Hao has received the letter, and the immigrants have been escorted to Ganzhou in five batches. The first batch will arrive in Ganzhou at the end of the month.

Ganzhou Zhizhou surnamed Duan, born in a professional class, in his forties, originally an official in Sichuan, was transferred to Ganzhou last month. I thought it was a light provincial yamen, but I was just doing a decoration, but I didn't expect to catch up with the immigration reclamation.

It is a good thing to set up new counties under its jurisdiction and increase the population, if it is in the mainland. But in the northwest border, there are displaced people, but if there is a bad one, the top on his head will not be able to be kept.

3,000 households, more than 12,000 people, this is not a small number. Moreover, according to the meaning of the imperial court, these immigrants are only in the early stage, and if they are well resettled, the scale of reclamation will be expanded in the northwest.

If one of them is bad, he will not be good.

Ganzhou is a military location, and the local people are not rich. Not to mention, these 3,000 families of immigrants are temporarily living in Ganzhou, and Ganzhou is afraid that they will not be able to bear it.

Although the new city was built, most of the immigrants had to be resettled outside the city.

Now it is a cold winter, and it is cold in the northwest, so it is impossible for immigrants to sleep in the open. In that case, I don't know how many people will freeze to death.

Cao Hao is also worried about how to resettle immigrants for the winter, with Ganzhou's ability, it is okay to resettle hundreds of households, and it is easy to have problems if you talk too much.

It seems that it is still necessary to send it directly to the new city.

He still couldn't make up his mind whether he would just build a simple nest or use the tents that had been purchased and eliminated directly from the logistics of the Northwest Army.

The former is more troublesome, and the latter is much less troublesome.

In the end, he took Duan Zhizhou and several officials of the household department to an open place outside the city and did an experiment.

That is to ask people to dig a nest in the ground and set up a military tent. Then, put water basins in two places, pinch them with a pocket watch, and see how long the water is frozen in the two places without any heating.

In the former, for an hour, there is only a little ice ballast on the surface of the water; The latter was frozen solid in just an hour.

Then, an iron stove was placed in each of the two places, and the fire was lit to heat it, and the water in the two basins took to thaw.

Use this to determine which of the two types of simple dwelling is more drought-resistant and warm.

Needless to say, the ground nest is stronger than the tent.

It's just that when it's cold and moving, it's not easy to dig a nest in the ground. A family of four, to say the least, has to dig seven or eight feet square, and three feet deep, so that it can barely be settled.

It takes two strong laborers to dig such a nest for a day.

Cao Hao looked at Duan Zhizhou, Duan Zhizhou couldn't help but change his face, and said with a bitter face: "Lord Cao, this year's conscription has been used up, and it looks like the New Year is coming, and the people also have to rest." ”

He said this, not only sympathetic to the people, but because when he built the new city, he also recruited the people of Ganzhou to serve as servants. Now that the people have only been home for less than a month, they are afraid that transferring people at this time will cause resentment.

The people of Ganzhou are fierce, although there is a large army stationed, but it really wants to arouse the anger of the people, which is a big deal. Although he is a new official, he has lessons from the past.

Both his predecessors and his predecessors were dismissed due to civil unrest.

"Lord Duan, do you know what the salary of local short-term workers in Ganzhou is? How much is rice grain per stone? Cao Hao asked.

Duan Zhizhou obviously didn't expect Cao Hao to ask this, he was stunned, then lowered his head and thought about it, and said: "Rice is not produced in the northwest, white rice is expensive, the upper rice costs one or two or two dollars of silver, and the second rice also costs one, two or five cents." Wheat and sorghum are cheaper, wheat is eight cents, and sorghum is five cents. The mercenary is more or less different according to the market of each industry, ranging from five dollars to a few taels of silver per month.

For this Duan Zhizhou, Cao Haoyuan has no good feelings.

Nian Qianyao transferred him to Ganzhou at this time, to put it bluntly, he was still a villain.

Although Yongzheng is now the brother-in-law of Nian Qianyao, the personnel of the northwest are all in line with Nian Qianyao's meaning. But Cao Hao knows that such scenery will not last long.

This Duan Zhizhou, from Qipinzhi County to Wupinzhizhou, can be regarded as lucky. However, if there is no accident, the career will stop there.

Unexpectedly, he is a good and down-to-earth official.

Cao Hao has seen the resume of this Duan Zhizhou, a Jinshi in the forty-eighth year of Kangxi, and he was first awarded the county magistrate, and he did not wait to go to Ding Wei. Kangxi made a comeback in the fifty-second year and made up for the magistrate of Xinjin County, Sichuan, and then served three consecutive terms.

Cao Hao saw that he hadn't changed places for three terms, and thought he was a mediocre official.

In today's terms, this conclusion seems premature.

"Since the conscription is exhausted, then recruit workers. Pay according to the number of nests completed. He calculated the wages and the price of rice, and said, "A qualified nest of land, three coins of silver." ”

In this way, a strong laborer can dig 15 nests in a month, earn four taels and five dollars of silver, and buy enough sorghum for half a year's ration. This is a very attractive salary, even if it is a big festival, there is no worry about not being able to recruit people.

Even if it is a poor laborer, only half of the amount, there are more than two taels of silver to take.

Duan Zhizhou heard this, but he was not happy, and frowned: "Lord Cao, this is three thousand households, if they are all placed outside the city, at least three thousand nests." The plumber's salary is nearly 1,000 taels. In the accounts of the Zhizhou Yamen, there are only more than 300 taels of silver, and they cannot bear this expense. ”

A Zhizhou yamen only has more than 300 taels of silver, Cao Hao couldn't help but be surprised.

When I thought about it, I was relieved.

Although this is a military important place, the people's livelihood is really withered, and there is no excess tax, but there is not a lot of yamen that should be there. It is not easy to have less income and more expenditure, and to have surplus silver on the books.

"The money comes directly from the households, and the wood is ready-made, and when the time comes, it will be good to send it directly to the immigrants. The old tent is also needed, and it is directly made into a nest roof, which is warmer than thatch. Cao Hao said: "It's just fast, how to select a site, measure, plan, and you have to send a few proper people over." It is best to take the village as a unit, on the edge of the cultivated fields, so as to save the people from having to spend a second time after they are settled. ”

Although Cao Hao has a high grade, because he is too young, Duan Zhizhou is not convinced.

Today, I got along with him for a long time, and saw that what he did and said surrounded the people's livelihood, and unconsciously put away his contempt, and said: "Around the new city, there have been 20 circles, each of which can reclaim 30,000 to 40,000 acres of fertile land. At that time, it is only necessary to resettle 100 to 200 households according to the household register. It's just that Xia Guan has seen it in the past, and there is only a river five miles to the south of the new city, and there is no water source on the other three sides. The terrain is too high, and if you don't dig a well, the harvest will be limited. ”

Hearing this, Cao Hao couldn't help but look sideways at this Zhizhou.

It's himself, who has been there many times after the construction of the new city, and he hasn't thought about the water source.

He just looked at the endless wilderness, thinking about how many acres of land could be reclaimed and how many displaced people could be resettled.

Duan Zhizhou can be familiar with the people's livelihood and can also attach importance to water conservancy, and having such a local official is really a blessing for the people.

In Cao Hao's heart, he couldn't help but feel a heart of love, glanced at him, and said, "Since this is the case, you can write a note and show it." ”

When Duan Zhizhou heard this, his spirits perked up, and he said, "What do you mean? ”

"Since the people have come all the way to come here, we must not let them guard a large area of land and not have food. The buds and sweet potato seeds transported from Henan are drought-tolerant. But in order to be safe, it is better to dig two more wells in each village. Cao Hao said.

It can be said that the two of them are unexpectedly today, but they also know that the other party is the same as themselves, and they can think about the livelihood of the people.

With the support of Cao Hao, a household official, Duan Zhizhou still didn't dare to do it.

It is too early to dig a well, but the construction of a nest is imminent.

As a result, the Zhizhou Yamen began to get busy.

On the third day of the lunar month, on the stone wall in front of the yamen, a recruitment notice covered with the seal of Zhizhou was posted.

Within three days, more than 600 laborers had signed up.

Kicked out the old and young, leaving 400 people to listen to it, and the Zhizhou Yamen prepared shovels and hammers, which were distributed to everyone.

As for the overseers, they used the subordinate officials of the Zhizhou Yamen, each of whom paid two dollars of silver per day, and signed up on a voluntary basis.

By the eighteenth day of the lunar month, all 3,000 ground nests had been dug up, and it was several days earlier than Cao Hao expected.

Just because this recruitment is a "piece" salary, everyone has worked hard, for fear that they will work slowly and dig a few less nests.

Resting aside, such a tiring work, I'm afraid I can't stand it for a long time.

On the Xincheng side, Cao Hao and Duan Zhizhou are both careful people, and they will never make such mistakes.

Although the recruitment is poor, although they bring their own dry food, but the yamen also prepares hot porridge and spirits and other things to warm the body and ward off the cold.

When these people received their wages from the Yamen, they had to add some things, which made this originally deserted Ganzhou shop much more lively.

In this case, the first batch of immigrants has already arrived in the new city and lived in a built nest. Each household, according to its population, also received rice and other things.

For a time, everyone was happy...... * Beijing, the palace, and the palace of nourishing hearts.

Yongzheng looked at the secret fold handed over by Cao Hao, which also included the new city agricultural article proposed by Duan Qinglin, the governor of Ganzhou......

(To be continued)