Lord of the House

Looking at the north shore of Jiangmen Island or the river, except for the miscellaneous reeds and shrubs and a path leading to the river beach, there is nothing else to see. Passing through here by boat, it is only a deserted beach that is often found in Hecheng Caocheng.

Lin Bing climbed up the sand embankment that had been collapsed by the rain, only to see that there were more than a dozen thatched huts behind the bushes, which were the residences of the grassland households here. Most of the households in the grassland are destitute, and their families have nothing to spare. Even if the pirate ships pass by here, they have no interest in going ashore to wash and plunder. Lin Fu saw that behind the dozen thatched shacks there was a patch of woods, which was quite large and looked like several hundred acres.

There are many shrubs in the Hecheng pasture, and there are scattered miscellaneous trees, but there are few elm and poplar miscellaneous forests, and this miscellaneous forest does not seem to be naturally generated.

Lin Fu stood on the sand embankment and waited for the flag leader Wang Chengfu to climb up. He asked with a smile, "The Duting Courtyard is hidden behind the woods, why can't I see the road?"

Wang Chengfu couldn't figure out the purpose of Lin Bing's visit. He saw that some cavalrymen had gone around to the back of the forest and wiped the sweat from his forehead. At this time, he was awake from the wine, and he led the way in front of him, saying: " There are only a few dozen salt cubes in Doting, and they manage five or six hundred grassland households around them. Pirates come and go frequently, but I don’t dare to be too public… Several paths are in the woods, just through the woods.”

Passing through the miscellaneous woods, through the miscellaneous woods, it is suddenly much more spacious. Not far from the north is a large yard covering an area of ​​more than 30 acres. There is a circle of paths along the outer wall of the yard. The dirt road extends to the southeast sides. Just after the rainy season, the main official road in Chongzhou County was severely damaged during the rainy season and needed to be refilled and compacted, but this dirt road looked very neat.

It is not appropriate to say that the yard is 30 acres of land. The yard area of ​​30 acres is already very large, and the large enclosed house on Xisha Island can accommodate 80 to 100 households. The courtyard is square, with a width of 100 paces on one side. The walls of the courtyard are made of blue bricks. It is not inappropriate to say that it is Wuzhai.

I saw the report of the sentry before saying that Jiangmen Duting is not simple. After seeing it with my own eyes, I realized that it is really not simple. The tattered grass-carrying boats and the ragged men I saw on the beach just now were probably just an illusion used to confuse the pirates. In fact, if the pirates landed from there, even if the roads did not cross, they would still have to pass through a forest more than two miles deep before they could see the Jiangmen Duting Courtyard.

"This Duting is well managed for you. I went to the Hecheng Division to see it. The Yantie Division has four or five hundred troops stationed there. The Hecheng Division is only so large, and it is not necessarily strict here," Lin said. Tie followed Wang Chengfu who was walking in front and said, "This Duting, how many salt cubes are there, how many pasture households are under their control, and how big is the area of ​​the pastures under their jurisdiction..."

"Yan Ding has 60 people under Wang Tianyi, the chief of the capital. There are no officials. These days, except for a small group of people who went to the Hecheng Division with the chief of the capital, everyone else is here. The grassland households are relatively scattered. There are five hundred and twenty-six households, and every year, they collect 300,000 hay hay from the land 28 li long and 22 li horizontally and transport it to the salt field in the north..." Wang Chengfu took the grassland under the jurisdiction of Jiangmen Duting. The situation of Caochanghu and Yanding was reported to Lin Fu truthfully. The data was recorded by Tsurucheng Division, and there was no need to conceal it.

Lin Bie frowned, making it impossible to see whether he was satisfied or dissatisfied with Wang Chengfu's answer.

The area of ​​the grassland in Hecheng is not necessarily less than that in Chongzhou County, but the number of grassland households registered in the Hecheng Division is less than 11,000 square meters of salt in Chongzhou County. There are more than 20,000 Yanding people under the jurisdiction of the entire Yantie Division. Of course, how many of them are empty, it is unknown to outsiders.

The grassland land under the jurisdiction of Duting in Jiangmen is 28 miles long and 22 miles wide. Such a large piece of land is not much less than Xisha Island. In Chongzhou County, almost 112,000 mu of grain fields can be reclaimed and five Six thousand households. In order to ensure that the salt field needs to burn grass, such a large area of ​​land has been abandoned. Only grass can be planted, and it is strictly forbidden to reclaim it into grain fields. Every year, the five or six hundred grassland households under its jurisdiction are driven to provide 300,000 to 400,000 hay hay to the salt field in the north.

Don't say anything else about this land, every year, as long as the reeds growing on the river beaches, river beaches and sandbars are harvested, three or four million hay can be obtained. For the pasture farmers who have lived here for generations, it is not difficult to harvest enough hay every year. The most difficult thing is to transport the hay to the salt field four or five hundred miles away. The journey is difficult, the storm is dangerous, and if there is a slight error, the end of the family will be ruined.

However, on the Jiangmen Duting side, I can't see how hard it is.

Zhao Hu had already sent military soldiers to take over the defense here and strengthened the guard. Lin Fu walked into Duting Courtyard and passed through the gate of the courtyard. When he saw that the courtyard wall made of green bricks was about eight or nine feet thick, he wanted to block the courtyard. On, ordinary pirates really can't get in.

Entering the Yuanmen is a large drying field with two or three acres of land. In addition to the public affairs hall in the middle, there are fifty or sixty courtyards around the ring, which means that there are fifty or sixty single courtyards in the large courtyard.

Usually there is no official business at all, and I see three or five children playing on the drying field in front of the public affairs hall, and some chickens, ducks and geese are running away on the drying field.

Lin Fu went to the wooden trough for raising chickens in the east of the drying farm and grabbed a handful of chicken food, which was mixed with nearly half of the grain. It seemed that the grain fields were cultivated privately. Not only was it extravagant to use grain to make wine, but also the surplus grain to feed the poultry. He glanced at Wang Chengfu, said nothing, and put the chicken food in his hand back into the trough.

There are also twenty-two doting pavilions under the Hecheng Grassland Department under the jurisdiction of Weiyang Salt and Iron Division. In mid-August, when Lin Fu inspected the Yunyan River, he went to see the three doting courtyards on both sides of the Yunyan River. It is said that the river transportation on both sides of the Yunyan River in the north is more convenient, but the three doting courtyards are all dilapidated. Not to mention the brick walls, the adobe walls have not been repaired for many years, the five or six barracks are rudimentary, the public affairs hall is still thatched, very shabby, except for the officers such as Dutou and Qitou, who have fat heads and big ears. Caochanghu and Yanding live very poor, far less prosperous than Jiangmen.

Wang Chengfu stood by and watched Lin Fu's actions, thinking that he raised his son's background, abandoned his pen to join the army, went north to King Qin and Yannan to fight, became famous in one fell swoop, awarded officials and titles, and stationed in Chongzhou. He is already a hero. There is still the mind to observe the details of the feed in the chicken feeding trough. It is difficult to think of anything to hide from his eyes.

"It seems that you have managed this place really well!" Lin Fu clapped his hands, and did not rush into the public affairs hall. He stood on the drying field that could also be used as a school ground, and said with emotion as he looked at the dock where the military and civilians lived together. "I've heard of Wang Tianyi. I heard that he beat his boss when he was a military attache in the Hecheng Division in his early years, so he came here. He is an illiterate warrior. I think he doesn't have much business intentions. The pavilion is well managed, with grain and wine, as well as grain for raising chickens, I don’t know who is responsible for most of it?”

Lin Fu frowned slightly, thinking in his heart, even if the grain fields are reclaimed privately, and only five or six hundred grassland households govern the people, there is no way to achieve such a large scale here, and the dirt road in the north of Yuanmen is quite neatly rammed It must have cost a lot of manpower and material resources. He knew that there were displaced households here to cultivate grain fields privately, but it was difficult for outsiders to figure out how many people there were. He stared at Wang Chengfu and asked, wanting to ask him Get the truth out of your mouth.

"It is indeed the credit of Wangdutou," Wang Chengfu said. "Apart from Wangdutou, who else can be the lord of Jiangmen?"

Wang Chengfu knew about the construction of a prison city at Jiangkou in Chongzhou, and the imperial court officially announced it at the end of July, but there has been no action on the Chongzhou side until now.

However, Jiangkou Shazhou and Shadao belong to Chongzhou, and the shore is the jurisdiction of the Hecheng Grassland Division, which belongs to the Weiyang Salt and Iron Division. Thinking of this, Wang Chengfu suddenly felt a headache, his arms could not twist his thighs, Lin Fu wanted to invade this land, ordinarily stabbed the matter up and let the imperial censors of the courthouse know, then Lin Fu's plan would be beaten with eggs. , but his small stabbing of a prisoner could not stop Lin Fu's revenge after the incident.

Lin Fu didn't say anything else. Zhao Hu came over and said with his ears: "There are two horses in the yard of the public affairs hall. They seem to have come from a long way. There should be outsiders. Do you want to search?"

The Jinghai Metropolitan Envoy Division has no control over the matter of the Hecheng Grassland, but if he really wants to send someone to search, he doesn't dare to stop it.

Lin Fu walked to the gate of the yard of the public service hall, saw two thin horses in the stable, and asked Wang Chengfu, "Is there a guest in Jiangmen?"

"There were two masters and servants who traveled through Jianghuai and passed through Jiangmen. The villain dared to let them down to drink a few glasses of water and wine." Wang Chengfu said.

"Oh?" Lin Bie stared suspiciously at Wang Chengfu. At this time, the army was in chaos. Although Liu Aner's department was expelled from Haozhou, there were still many small bandits. Who would be interested in traveling to Jianghuai and to Hecheng Grassland? Come for a walk?

"Master Lin, don't come to Wuxian?"

Hearing the familiar voice, Lin Fu looked back, but he never imagined that Song Bo, a son of the Song family who had met several times in Jinan, walked out of the lobby of the public affairs hall and stood in the corridor to greet him.

"It turns out that Brother Song Bo is here. I thought that Brother Song went back to Yongtai, Jin'an. Why are you interested in wandering around in the wilderness of Hecheng Grassland?" Lin Bie was talking, but he looked at Wang Chengfu. At a glance, it was not difficult for him to guess that Song Bo had the intention to spy on Jianghuai for the eight surnames in Dongmin, but Song Bo was stranded in Jiangmen, and he was drinking and chatting with this Wang Chengfu in the room in the afternoon. It's not easy to serve. My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter