There have never been so many vehicles on the road leading from Chengdu to the north, and since a few days ago, an endless stream of baggage trucks has been driving in the direction of Mianzhu under the protection of the army.

The veterans were accompanied by a road repair team carrying tools. Recently, lists of workers to build bridges and roads have been plastered all over the streets and alleys of Chengdu, all of which are conscription orders issued by the government, and the conditions of recruitment have made many immigrants who have just arrived in Chengdu excited.

In addition to paying the wages of the workers in the same way as ordinary proprietors, the more important thing is the points - according to the decree of the Imperial Diet, any immigrant to the territory is like a talent, and must accumulate twenty-four points before he has the right to apply for full citizenship: he can become a soldier, he can become a pavilion, he and his children can enjoy educational resources, and he can also own his own land and industry - and in any large trading house, he can get one point for every month he works in a key trade, such as blacksmiths and carpenters; If you do some simple work, work as a clerk in a small shop, or help in a farmhouse, you only get one point every two months.

The Imperial Diet also stipulates many rules for adding points, the simplest of which is that if there are sisters and daughters who marry Tongxiu, they can add points; The most effective is to let the wife participate in the work - having a wife does not add points, but letting the wife go out to work can earn another point, which will then accumulate to the husband's head; Even the female immigrants who married Tong Xiucai could accumulate half of the points for their brothers if they went out to work - Deng Ming had always wanted to improve the status of women, but until now, the proposal for lesbian Xiucai was like making private banks pay interest, and everyone hummed and slurred in front of Deng Ming, but afterwards they fell on deaf ears, and women were still regarded as the property of their fathers, brothers, and husbands.

There are additions and subtractions, and marrying during immigration status is worth a lot of points, and in the case of concubines, it is even more deductible - but it is difficult for new immigrants to find a match, because newcomers with sisters generally choose to marry them to imperial citizens to speed up their citizenship, and as for concubines, they don't have to think about it. In addition to this, any violation of the law will result in varying degrees of deprecation. Obviously, the Imperial Council felt that since it had spent such a great price to relocate these people from the southeast to the west of Sichuan, it was necessary to let them work for the empire with all their might for a while.

When recruiting workers to repair bridges and roads, the government said that all workers who applied for the job would receive one point per month, which meant that even if they did not have the skills, they could accumulate points at the same rate as those who were in dire need of them, and after two years they could obtain the status of a fellow showman if they could continue to work in the repair team for two years. Thinking of this, many new immigrants don't care about the relatively low wages given by the government, and they have flocked to the registration office to sign up. In the past two days, new road repair teams have been organized and embarked on the road to Mianzhu under the leadership of the standing army.

Kuang Taiping and his comrade-in-arms An Yichen walked side by side on Chunxi Road. As soon as the shopkeeper saw the two of them, he knew that they were soldiers who had just been discharged from the army, and looking around at the door of the blacksmith shop, it was not difficult to guess that they were all veterans who had chosen to go to the north to open up the wasteland, and they must have had full of compensation in their pockets, so they shouted at the two of them.

The issue of bonds has spread throughout Chengdu. All the shopkeepers knew that the Imperial Government had borrowed 50 million yuan to arrange their post-military life for the thousands of soldiers who had served for two years up to this year.

At the beginning, the Imperial Diet and the government still wanted to allocate as many bonds as they sold for the use of veterans, but Baoguo Gong thought that this would be too delayed, so he mortgaged all 50 million bonds to the Bank of Sichuan; Let the Sichuan Bank print an IOU of 50 million yuan, and the proceeds from the sale of bonds will be returned to the Sichuan Bank in the future, so that all the compensation will be obtained at once.

The government and seowon began a series of propaganda, calling on Tong Xiucai to buy treasury bonds, support the building of the empire, and help the veterans, the defenders of the empire, to achieve a better life.

"Discounted, all discounted!" The boss shouted to Kuang Taiping and An Yichen: "I'm just going to get my book back." ”

Although it is known that this year's veterans will receive a lot of one-time retirement benefits as long as they choose to open up the wasteland, most of the merchants sell them goods cheaper than those sold to ordinary people.

An Yichen carefully selected the sickle in this blacksmith shop, and Kuang Taiping reminded him when he saw this: "Didn't you say that the sickle has been shipped to us?" When you arrive at the place, you can collect it with your retirement certificate. ”

"Who knows if there really is? Besides, is it a good knife transported by the government? If you buy such an important thing, it won't sink if you take it with you. While An Yichen answered, he was still carefully looking at the knife in his hand.

"That's right, we're all first-class swords." The boss, who looked to be in his early twenties, smiled and praised his goods for a moment, then ran back and took two pieces of paper out: "Look! I subscribed to a thousand dollars in Treasury bonds. ”

Kuang Taiping and An Yichen raised their heads at the same time and looked at the bond.

"Thank you, 1,000 of the settling-in allowance I received today was lent to me by my boss. You lend me money to buy your stuff. After An Yichen finished speaking, he thanked him again. Now the propaganda of the bonds is overwhelming, and the veterans are grateful to the people who bought the bonds, which made Deng Ming privately resentful, because the enthusiasm for subscribing for bonds in China was far greater than he could have imagined, and he had intended to transfer most of the risk to Chongqing, Wuchang, Nanchang, and Nanjing.

"Aren't you going to pay taxes and pay me back in the future?" The young blacksmith waved his hand generously, and the soldier's thanks made him even happier: "Anyway, where is it not saved?" Hide in the ground, and I'm afraid of being bitten by rats. Besides......" The boss's eyes crooked with a smile: "It is said that I should thank you, you come back from Zhejiang, and I will marry a daughter-in-law, a Zhejiang girl." So when you buy something from me, I only charge a carbon money and material money. ”

Compared with the propaganda of the government, the dividends of the war in the past few years have made the status of soldiers higher and higher in the minds of the people of western Sichuan. The common people know that it is the struggle of the imperial army that makes life better and better. And the continued discharge of soldiers has led to the return of soldiers to society, and few people still think that being a soldier is a shameful thing. On the contrary, more and more people saw service as a tax paid to the imperial government: a two-year blood tax.

After leaving the blacksmith shop, the two soldiers continued to walk along Chunxi Road. There were also groups of veterans at the door of the horse shop, most of whom were discussing whether they should buy mules and donkeys, or buy a good horse to take away. As he walked in front of the horse shop, Kuang Taiping heard two veterans discussing enthusiastically: "Let's buy a horse together, and when we get to Mianzhu, one day will be for you and one day for me......

The things that should be bought are basically the same, Kuang Taiping and An Yichen each dragged their big baggage to the end of Chunxi Road, where a large number of people gathered, almost all of them were newly retired soldiers and their families.

"Three people in a big car, ten cars in a team." A soldier in a black uniform stood on a high spot and shouted. These vehicles and the animals pulling them were supplied to the veterans in Chengdu, but when they arrived at the locality, they had to return the vehicles to the officials and receive the seeds, farm tools, tents and other items that had been delivered in advance from the officials.

"Your military clearance certificate." After seeing An Yichen and Kuang Taiping approaching, a black-clothed soldier who maintained order walked up and said to the two.

Both soldiers took out the certification documents from their arms, and the black-clothed soldier took An Yichen's copy first and glanced at it hurriedly.

"Go to Mianzhu," the man in black pulled An Yichen into the cordon and stuffed the discharge card back into his hand: "Take it, you have to use this card to get your family money when you go to Mianzhu." ”

When the black-clothed soldier turned around, Kuang Taiping also handed over his discharge card. The uniforms of these black-clad soldiers are very similar to those of the Baoguo Guards, but the badges are different, they are the first gendarmerie units that have just finished their training, and they have been working since two days ago, and the resettlement of immigrants is the first task carried out by this unit.

"Going to Jiangyou." The gendarmes dragged Kuang Taiping into the circle, then pointed them out and shouted, "Go forward, the Mianzhu people will go to find your convoy in the pavilion." If you go to Jiangyou, go to the cars in the far north, and there are special arrangements. ”

"Mianzhu Seven Pavilions, are you going to Mianzhu Seven Pavilions? Did you go to Mianzhu Seven Pavilions? An Yichen asked as he walked, he encountered more or less a group of people, every time An Yichen asked, those unfamiliar faces looked at him together, but when they heard it, they shook their heads:

"It's not."

"We are the Five Pavilions."

"We're waiting for the people of Santing."

After walking forward for a while, An Yichen had already reduced his question to two words: "Seven Pavilions? Seven pavilions? ”

"Seven Pavilions?!" A thunderous sound suddenly exploded in front of the side, and a burly man jumped out of the group of people and stretched out his hand to stop An Yichen: "You said you went to the Seven Pavilions?" ”

"Yes."

"Great!" Dahan grabbed An Yichen's arm, turned around and shouted at the group of people behind him, all of whom were his partners he had just met: "Another one is going to the Seven Pavilions!" ”

"We're all together. Gendarme! Gendarme! After the cheers, the large group of future neighbors shouted in unison. An Yichen hurriedly looked around, most of them were strong men like An Yichen, but there were also a few women, and one woman was still holding a child.

"Are you all together?" Not far away, a black-clothed soldier heard the shout and ran over, quickly counted the heads, and nodded: "That's right." ”

"They all went to the Seven Pavilions?" Before the convoy departed, the military police made a final confirmation: "The pavilion in Mianzhu is much larger than here in the capital, it is far away, and there is no road in the middle, don't be mistaken." After reading his discharge letter, he did go to Qiting, right? ”

The gendarme's gaze swept over everyone's faces, and after seeing everyone nodding their heads one by one, he waved his hand vigorously and ordered the convoy to set off: "Let's go!" ”

"Goodbye, brother!" An Yichen waved desperately at Kuang Taiping.

"There will be a date later!" Kuang Taiping also shouted goodbye, watching the figure of his comrade-in-arms disappear until he disappeared.

After leaving Chengdu, An Yichen sat on the bumpy donkey cart and kept looking back at Chengdu. The other companion also crossed his arms and looked back with An Yichen. After a long time, the companion asked An Yichen softly: "Your brother is three hundred and fifty acres?" ”

"Hmm." An Yichen nodded.

Kuang Taiping was one of the few people who came forward to Jiangyou, and they all received the nickname "Three Hundred and Fifty Mu".