Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

A new round of construction has begun in Shangyuan Manor. Looking at the villagers who were busy digging the foundation and building the framework, Li Tai suddenly discovered that the construction of the manor seemed to have never stopped since he entered the village last year.

The obsession with housing and shelter is really incomprehensible to people who have not experienced Li Tai's era.

Currently, Shang Yuan Manor has more than 300 brick and tile houses, covering a large area of ​​flat land and sloping hills. It can definitely be regarded as the largest manor in the nearby township.

The overall area of ​​other people's properties may be larger than that of Li Tai's manor, but when it comes to housing area, it's really hard to match.

The master's residence may still be under construction, but most of the servants are crowded into shacks, and some even live in tents for several years.

The previously married men and women in Li Taizhuang live in one house and have their own living space. If they work hard in the coming year, they will also be able to enjoy an independent house and have children.

The single tribes live in a four-person house. Speaking of the superior living environment, they are unique in the vicinity of Shangyuan and even in the entire Wuxiang County.

Many outsiders are amazed when they come here, and there are even some recruited day laborers who even want to give up their status as free citizens and join the village to become Li Tai's tribe.

The scale and layout of the manor also made Li Tai a recognized rich man in the village. In their minds, what kind of savings do they have in their households, so that they are willing to allocate such bright and big houses to their tribes?

It was also due to the awareness of the villagers that when Li Tai was preparing to build the canal last year, many wealthy villagers came here and saw the scale of the manor and agreed to join it. Apart from anything else, at least the financial resources are guaranteed!

Li Tai knew in his heart that although the manor had a slight surplus last year, it was still far from the level of wealth that the locals believed it to be, but he was happy to be misunderstood.

Ordinary people may still pay attention to not revealing their wealth, but Li Tai has no such concerns. Not to mention the strength of his own army, after the grand parade in autumn last year, he ordered people to build a row of military buildings on the south side of the manor and lent them to the county and township garrison troops.

At present, Shangyang garrison has been upgraded to Shangyang defense, and although military cities have been built, rural regiments are still stationed in these military buildings. After all, Li Tai had done so much for the formation of the township league and was entitled to enjoy some privileges.

After the canal work began, the storage and dispatch of materials in the village became more frequent, and security measures indeed needed to be strengthened. The power currently gathered by Shang Yuan Manor is more than enough to deal with the thieves roaming the countryside. As long as there is not an attack by an army of thousands of people, it will basically not affect the operation of the manor.

The construction of several warehouses was very fast. After laying the foundations, they began to ram the walls and build. The temporary workers recruited from the countryside were enough to use them, and they could be capped and put into use in just a few days.

People came and went frequently in Shangyuan Village and became more and more noisy, so Li Tai planned to build another villa in the valley on the east hillside to live by himself and entertain guests.

There are clear springs in the valley, there are pine and cypress trees in the valley, and there are fruit trees in the valley. The environment is elegant and quiet, which is completely different from the busy work in the village on the west slope.

After more than half a year of construction work, the village has already cultivated a mature construction team. When Li Tai selected the address and sketched it out, the villagers began to work quickly.

Dozens of thick timbers were driven into ground piles, filled with sand and gravel, and leveled. After the foundation was compacted, canal lines were dug and ceramic pipes that had been fired in advance were buried.

Some of these pipes are used for floor heating, and some are used to collect mountain springs and create a water circulation around the house. Because it was more meticulous than daily construction, Li Tai personally squatted on the construction site to supervise and give guidance.

The scale of this villa is not large, with a main hall of nearly a thousand square meters, and two rows of more than a dozen arc-shaped ear rooms serving as guest accommodation.

In addition to the main building, there are several pavilions and watchtowers built according to the mountain. It makes people feel comfortable just thinking about it.

While supervising the construction of the villa, Li Tai also went to inspect the canal construction site.

The construction of the channel in the northern section of Shangyuan is going very smoothly. Although it is still freezing cold, because the work only needs to be carried out in shallow soil layers, and most of the channel lines have the foundation of old channels and rivers, the overall project volume is very low. Not too onerous.

In particular, the county has dispatched nearly a thousand additional laborers. Even if the time limit is limited every day and the work is not rushed around the clock, this section of the pipeline is likely to be completed ahead of schedule.

Li Tai couldn't help but be a little surprised when he looked at the newly added laborers who were all in ragged clothes and disheveled. They were assigned the heaviest task of digging new canals, but the food and housing were the worst.

When more troops were sent to the county, he did not deduct rations. Seeing those laborers just drinking the thinnest soup, he couldn't help but wonder if someone was exploiting them.

When he brought this up to Zheng Man, Zheng Man said with a smile: "Lang Jun is kind and considerate, but he must also distinguish between races. These newly arrived soldiers are the Bu Luo Ji Thie Hu from the north. In winter, North Huazhou Several generals raided the bandit tribe and captured a lot of prisoners. The county magistrate was concerned about his affairs and went to the state capital every day to recruit more than a thousand prisoners, all of whom were sent here for use."

Li Tai was also overjoyed after hearing this. Although he could not regard human life as trivial, he would not give up his good intentions, knowing that Ji Hu in the north had been in trouble for a long time. Although they look pitiful now, they are not merciless when they cross the border to plunder and kill people, and they are not worthy of sympathy and cherishment.

Even Wuxiang County was assigned Jihu prisoners to come forward. It can be seen that Shuo Hui's attack on Jihu from the north should have achieved fruitful results. Li Tai was also happy for Shuo Hui.

He originally thought that the matter would end here and had nothing to do with him, but he didn't want to wait until the next day, so he led an entourage to Shangyuan, accompanied by dozens of dejected Jihu Zhuangding.

"I know that you have a lot of work in the countryside and often suffer from work stress. I have returned from hunting thieves today, and these dozens of thieves, Hu Shiwu, have been sent to you for use!"

After Shuhui entered the village, he pointed at the Jihu Zhuangli and said to Li Tai, with a bright look on his face.

Li Tai was also overjoyed when he heard this. Now that his industry is gradually expanding, the demand for young and strong labor force is also increasing.

"I have made you travel far to attack thieves, and your hard work has paid off. I am a lazy countryman who was lucky enough to be cared for, so I accepted it shamelessly."

He raised his hand to signal Li Zhusheng to come forward, collect the records of those Jihu men, and arrange their respective workstations.

Shuhui smiled and waved his hands: "It's not a rare thing at all. You deserve it. If it weren't for Li Lang, who helped me with food production, I would have rarely won a big victory. This trip has traveled thousands of miles and wiped out more than a dozen thieves. Thinking of those When the thieves saw our troops, they were frightened and ran away. It was so refreshing..."

Thinking of the previous results, Hui Hui couldn't help but get excited.

There are many Jihu tribes scattered among the ravines of the northern plateau. Their whereabouts are unpredictable and they are prone to raiding, which greatly threatens the security of surrounding states and counties.

This time, several Huiqi soldiers came out suddenly, defeated most of the tens of thousands of people, and killed many Qu commanders and chiefs. It was also thanks to the portable military rations provided by Li Tai, which greatly enhanced the mobility of the troops, that they were able to achieve such fruitful results.

Several Hui deeply felt that these military rations improved the combat effectiveness of the troops. It was no exaggeration to say that they could even change and create some new combat methods. Therefore, when he came back to report his merits, he did not have time to return to Huazhou first. The first stop was to visit Li Tai.

Li Tai listened to Shuo Hui's account of the battle and asked questions about details from time to time, which made him feel itchy.

If he wanted to make great progress in the Western Wei Dynasty, military exploits were indispensable. If he remembered correctly, a large-scale battle between the two Wei Dynasties would not break out until the twelfth year of Datong, but it only happened in Yubi City in the east of Hedong.

At the moment, it seems that Jihu is a more suitable target for gaining military exploits. Neither too strong nor too weak, and the scale of the battle can be chosen flexibly.

But after all, he still needs an opportunity to obtain the qualification to directly command troops before a series of subsequent possibilities will arise.

Thinking about how his previous meeting with Yuwentai ended on bad terms, Yuwentai must have a bad impression of him now. Although he was given a gold seal later to show that the other party had not completely given up on him, Li Tai wanted to change his jobless life in the short term. The situation is also difficult.

"Li Lang, you actually have a school in your village. You are worthy of being a son of a famous family. Even in the countryside, you are so respectful and happy to learn!"

When walking to school in Jingzhuang, Shuhui was startled when he heard the sound of reading coming from the school building. He stood outside the courtyard wall and listened for a while before he spoke again: "I have a request. I hope you, Li Lang, will I can agree. You have seen my son Bodhidharma. He is not a stubborn and willful creature. I am away from home all year round and have no time to supervise and discipline him. I want to foster him in your village. "

"Now that your Majesty has spoken, of course I will not refuse. But the children in my village are taught only simple basic knowledge, and there is little profound academic knowledge..."

"It's okay, my son was born into this family. Although I have high expectations for him, I don't expect him to be academically sophisticated. I think academics are not as good as scholars. With you, Li Lang, as an example, he has a desire to make progress. You will never learn from it!”

When Shuhui heard that Li Tai did not refuse, he also smiled and said.

He was not a strict father like Cui Quan who was accustomed to using sticks. After deciding this matter, he ate briefly at Li Taizhuang and then left, agreeing to send his son back in a few days.

On the third day after Shuo Hui left, his confidant Shui Zhang sent the young master Shuo Feng to the village. The child had a good memory, recognized Li Tai, and was very curious about Shang Yuan Village. Li Tai took him around the village a few times, and the nervousness of entering a strange land for the first time was much reduced.

When Shuizhang said goodbye and left, Shuofeng didn't make any noise. He waved goodbye to his family and turned around before shedding tears. He looked at Li Tai pitifully and said, "Aye taught me that I must listen to my husband's discipline. If I do That’s not good, sir, please don’t hit me in anger..."

Li Tai was very happy when he heard this. He even admired Shu Hui's tutor. He patted the child on the shoulder and said: "I am not a strict bachelor. I will take care of him when he comes. I usually study or play at home. The same is true for the villagers.”

Not long after his nursery opened, some time later, when the first lunar month came and the snow thawed, He Basheng, who was recuperating in Chang'an, also came to Shangyuan.

Accompanying He Basheng, in addition to his nephew He Bajing, there were two people who were beyond Li Tai's expectations, namely Yu Wentai's nephew Yu Wenhu and his nephew He Lanxiang.