Shiluo Village is a small coastal fishing village under the jurisdiction of Wendeng County, Dengzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province, the whole village in recent years due to the ban on the sea and changed to agriculture for a living, the lack of arable land has become difficult, some villagers moved their families to settle in neighboring villages and towns closer to the inland, reclaiming wasteland to plant fruit trees.

The population of the village has plummeted by half, most of them are surnamed Liu, it is said that Shiluo Village has a long history, according to the elders surnamed Liu, far away in the late Qin and early Han Dynasty, the ancestors fled here in order to escape the war, and saw that there was no way out across the vast sea, so they had to settle down.

The origin of the name of Shiluo Village has long been unsophisticated, probably because of the citrus everywhere, the fruits fall one after another during the harvest every year, or because the Shiluo River at the mouth of the village is full of strange and large stones, which is said to have been done when Nezha was in trouble.

In fact, the area around Shiluo Village had ancestors living as early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, but later disappeared in the long river of history, and many Qi people migrated here during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

This year, there has been a great drought in the northwest for thousands of miles, and there has not been a heavy rain since the beginning of spring in Shandong, which has turned the Shiluo River, which used to flow endlessly, into a shallow small ditch, and the wells of the nearby people's homes have dried up and cannot get water.

coincided with the flood and drought in the area of Qingzhou and Dezhou the year before last, and the imperial court wanted to build a fortress in Shiluo Village to defend against the Japanese invaders, and thousands of displaced families were moved one after another, which made the situation worse.

At this time, the whole of Shandong was suffering from drought, and the attention of the imperial court was focused on the northwest direction, and the local officials were too busy to take care of Wendeng County, which had a small population, and the pressure to feed the people was very heavy.

Overnight, except for a few small officials who lived here such as Lord Yang, the county magistrate, who continued to stay behind, most of the officials rushed to the capital to find a way. At the same time, the county came to the new Weihaiwei hereditary Thousand Households Mu Hui Mu, together with hundreds of households and other officials' family members, there were as many as four or five hundred.

County official Yang hurried over to pay a visit. Following the guidance of the sergeants standing guard along the way, he ran out of breath to the top of Huancui Mountain, the highest terrain in Shiluo Village, and saw a group of lieutenants accompanying a young man in a scribe's shirt, pointing to the sea.

"The next official asks to see Mu Qianhu." County official Yang hurriedly wiped the sweat on his head and shouted at the top of his voice.

The young man turned around and looked at him deeply, and said, "Give the county master herbal tea to quench his thirst." ”

County Officer Yang took the teacup handed over by the lieutenant with both hands, first looked at Mu Hui, who was serving in a thousand households, suspiciously, and then asked the young man who was obviously the head of everyone: "Dare to ask which Shangguan you are?" ”

The young man smiled: "There are no officials and no positions, and there are grass people." ”

The county magistrate Yang immediately shouted: "Could it be that you are Xu Hao in white clothes in the capital?" Oops, Xia Guan has seen Mr. Xu. ”

"When did I become so famous? Became a gentleman? Xu Hao asked with some curiosity, causing Mu Hui and his brothers to laugh heartily.

The county official Yang said happily: "Mr. has helped countless victims in the northwest. Who knows about the feat of opening 32 baby care bureaus to save thousands of children? It is really a blessing for the people to have a gentleman come to Wendeng County. ”

Xu Hao put away his smiling face and frowned, staring at the calm sea level in the distance, and everyone sank their faces one by one, making the county magistrate Yang confused.

Seeing this, Mu Hui smiled bitterly and said, "Lord Yang, don't mention the northwest again, the province reminds my brother of that kind of tragedy." ”

So that's the case, the county magistrate Yang nodded considerately, but said: "It's not that the lower officials deliberately annoy people, it's really that the people in Wendeng County today are just as hungry as they are, and they will run out of food in a few days, and I hope that Mr. Xu and Lord Mu can help." ”

Xu Hao heard this and said softly: "Yang Shiqi." I recommended you to fight Jiangxia and come to Shandong to be an official, not so that you can come here and beg for help, and rely on begging to support the people under your rule. ”

The county magistrate Yang suddenly trembled, and exclaimed: "It turned out that Mr. Yang recommended Yang to become an officer." Please accept Yang's bows. ”

Xu Hao said unhappily: "I don't need you to make a big salute, I just ask you, can you keep the people of Wendeng County safe?" ”

Yang Shiqi said excitedly: "Sir, don't worry, I, Yang Shiqi, will do my best to think of all means." Let not one of the people starve to death. ”

Xu Hao smiled: "You have few ambitions and talents, and you should be able to lead the people out of the famine." In the past, you were affected by your stepfather and couldn't take the imperial examination, so I specially recommended talents to the imperial court. Since you are not from the right path. I only hope that in the future, when I am an official, I will think more about the people of the world, and I will treat everyone equally, and I will not consciously read people and only care about the interests of civil servants. ”

Yang Shiqi said: "Mr. teachings, Yang must keep it in mind." ”

Xu Hao arched his hand and said: "The matter of the people's meal will be handed over to Lord Yang, I am here to be ordered by the Holy Lord's military department to build a city, fortress, dock, barracks, etc. to resist the Japanese invaders, this Huancui Mountain is the highest, to build a tower to guide the course, but also to survey the waterway ocean current wind direction and other hydrological conditions, there are many things, but also need your county government to help vigorously. ”

"Yes." Yang Shiqi nodded heavily, "Xia Guan should do his best, by the way, Lord Mu, there are often bandits ashore to plunder here, and occasionally there will be one or two widows inside." ”

Mu Hui snorted coldly: "I know, Lao Tzu will definitely send them to see the king of Hades with his own hands." ”

Xu Hao said casually: "As the saying goes, relying on the mountains to eat the mountains and relying on the water to draft the water, at this time of crisis, you can't care about the ban of the imperial court, you have to allow fishermen to go out to sea to fish, do you dare to bear it?" ”

Yang Shiqi smiled indifferently: "Why don't you dare?" It's a big deal to resign for the people, in order for the people to survive, what is the personal future? ”

Xu Hao said with satisfaction: "Sure enough, I didn't see the wrong person, it is estimated that you will lose your official position in the coming year, so you have to be mentally prepared first." ”

Yang Shiqi's smile froze suddenly, and he secretly said that he wouldn't just want someone to carry the black pot, so Mr. Xu recommended himself to be an official, right? When I think about it, it's not a big deal.

At that moment, Yang Shiqi left with a heartfelt farewell, and Mu Hui asked, "Why are you embarrassed?" Yang Shiqi was thirty years old before he became a leader, which was not easy. ”

Xu Hao smiled without explaining, pointed to the looming island in the distance and said: "While the news of our first arrival has not yet spread, tonight we must catch all the pirates on Liugong Island and the surrounding islands, and capture as many as possible alive, and I will interrogate the whereabouts of the widows." ”

Mu Hui looked at it from afar and said confidently: "Don't worry, the forty warships of the Shandong Navy Division are nearby, even if the bandits want to escape by boat now, it is too late." ”

"Well, the war will be handed over to you, and I will accompany Ning Xue Hongye." Xu Hao smiled after speaking. Lift your feet and head down the mountain.

Shiluo Village at the foot of the mountain suddenly became lively, the people in the village were stunned to see that the family of nobles came to the chief's house, and there were many nobles who lived in the village, fortunately, there were many empty houses, and the girls who came out of the carriage were as beautiful as fairies, just like the lamp man in the painting.

The chief family collected 200 yuan of treasure money and happily moved out. The village was in chaos, and outside the village were surrounded by sergeants busy building guard towers and arrow towers, blocking roads, and patrolling back and forth with swords and guns.

Mu Hui led fifty elites to capture the pirates. There are enough people to help with the sailors. The staff clerks hired in the northwest set up military tents in the open space in the center of the village, and sent officers and lieutenants to take over thirty or forty nearby villages, large and small. From now on, all the people in Wendeng County belonged to Weihaiwei, half army and half civilian.

It's September now, and for more than three months, Xu Hao has been traveling around the northwestern provinces to help the government help the people. Mu Ningxue has been living in Fengyang's hometown with her female dependents, and has opened a porridge factory to accommodate orphans and widows.

Finally, through the concerted efforts of the government and the opposition, they severely cracked down on the big wealthy households and businessmen who hoarded grain, and uprooted thousands of landlords and old fortunes into Beijing. ushered in the harvest season in August, and more or less some grain came out, and because the White Lotus Sect uprising was quelled first, the disaster in the northwest was greatly alleviated, despite the efforts. Tens of thousands of people died of starvation.

In order to raise food, Xu Hao also offended the palaces of various families, snatched out tens of thousands of stone grains, and made the King of Qin and King Jin sue one after another. Anyway, if he doesn't bite a lot of lice, what can you do with a grass farmer?

Some of the orphans remained in the local area to be cared for and raised by the government, and their relatives were visited. About 300 baby girls were sent to the female doctor in the capital. Nearly 600 children over the age of four are moving to Wendeng County, along with nearly 1,000 homeless men and widows.

Five thousand stone of grain was also on the way to be delivered, and Xu Hao was not going to send it to ordinary people to eat, but for three meals on the construction site.

Running Weihaiwei is equivalent to starting from scratch, all aspects can be described as a thousand things, Xu Hao tried his best for this, Weihaiwei is just the beginning, his ultimate goal is to connect Liaodong by sea, and continue to stage in advance to break through the Guandong.

At this moment, Li Qiu came back first to inform his family, and Zhiqing and Pearl hurriedly came out to pick him up.

Xu Hao took the hands of a few village children, said goodbye to the door of the house, said goodbye with a smile, and entered the yard and asked, "What is delicious at night?" After a day's journey, I didn't eat a bite of food all day. ”

Pearl was still dressed like a newlywed young woman, and said, "The chief has sent some pheasant cubs and stewed them in the pot, and it will take half an hour for them to be cooked." ”

Xu Hao said: "You will be able to eat seafood in a few days, but I am afraid that you will not adapt to the water and soil, so you have to boil it in water and enjoy it." The pickled taste is the most delicious, anyway, Li Qiu and I are blessed. ”

Zhiqing stretched out her hand to take her coat, frowned, and said, "Look at you are dirty, the bath water is ready, it's not too late to chat after washing." ”

Pearl grinned, stopped and watched the young master and Zhiqing enter the main room, she turned to her husband who slipped into the stove room and scolded, "Take your dirty hands away." ”

The room changed into a coarse cloth dress, Mu Ningxue, who did not apply powder, was busy cleaning up the room with Zhiyan, Hongye frowned and looked at it here and there dissatisfied, there were words in his mouth, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

Xu Hao couldn't help but feel very distressed when he saw this scene, since he grabbed Ning Xue to his side, he followed him all the way and suffered a lot, in the past, as the eldest lady of the Mu family, where did he go? Rice comes to open the mouth and stretch out the hand, now there are a total of seven people, and everything has to be taken care of by themselves, but Ning Xue is willing to do this without a word of complaint, what more can a wife ask for such a husband?

I hope to live in Weihai with beautiful mountains and rivers for a long time, and I can accompany the snow to tour the mountains and waters, and try all kinds of interesting things in the sea and the seaside.

Xu Hao is not worried about safety, more than 100 people under Mu Hui are all from Jinyiwei, and they know that their relatives are all in the capital, and then there will be more than 50 people from two families with a total of ten houses.

When Mu Ningxue saw him come in, she put down the rag in her hand, walked over and said, "There is a shortage of water in the village, so you can save some use when you bathe." ”

Xu Haoyi stretched out his hand and took the beautiful woman in his arms and said, "I will find a way to solve the water shortage." (To be continued......)