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Chapter 81
Luo Zining sent two-thirds of the people in the brick factory to repair the city wall.
Because this job is more difficult than building houses, factories, and dormitories, and it is also dangerous, he also provides better benefits to the workers who build the city wall.
The population of the city is growing every month, and the positions of those who repaired the city wall were quickly filled, and a paper mill was opened, and the winery was doubled, as long as there are newcomers, no matter men, women, young or old, as long as they are able to work, they can find a job that suits them in the city.
In addition to those who work in the factory, there are also many small vendors who see the excitement here, set up stalls here to sell things or snacks, and the city is getting more and more prosperous.
For these migrants, Luo Zining specially assigned an area to build houses and rent them out to these foreigners who set up small stalls.
Of course, if you want to settle here, you can also buy the house, but it is still the same as before, only the house can be bought, but the land still belongs to the princess.
Everyone in the city is treated like this. Luo Zining, the bustling area of the city, released news that he plans to demolish it. Because of the good location, he plans to change it into a large square and a landmark building. His "temple" and "God Statue" should also be placed next to that square.
After the demolition, the people who originally lived there will be redistributed houses, and they will be given 1.5 times the original area, and some money will be compensated, but the price is that their future land will belong to the princes and concubines.They only have title to the house.
No one dared to object. After all, they had heard that the prince cut down several landlords in a row and confiscated all their property. Who dared to object. If they did not object, they would have a house and compensation. If they objected, it would be a dead end.
Later, both the people in the city and the newcomers from outside got used to the rules in this city, and no one objected. Many outsiders came to do business, buy houses and settle down.
The department in charge of recording the household registration in the mansion is in a hurry. The princess said that as long as the people who sign the household registration must agree, and they are enthusiastic to help these people, don't embarrass anyone.
Their workload has become very heavy, and they can't get any profit, and they still have to greet them with smiles. If they don't do well, they are easily chopped off by the prince.Dry scalp.
They thought very darkly in their hearts, within a year, there were more than 100,000 people in the city. Every year, the increase and decrease of the number of people in the city must be reported to the imperial court. This is linked to the achievements of local officials. Where the population increases, the emperorThere are rewards to be given. If the number of people is reduced too much, such as too many deaths due to natural disasters, or some other reasons make the life of the people in the city difficult to leave, the local officials will be punished by the emperor.
But the situation in their fief is different. Who doesn't know that the emperor is afraid of the prince. If the population in the city suddenly increases so fast, the emperor might suspect that the prince is raising soldiers, and the prince will be in trouble.
But they didn't know that at all, Luo Zining had already thought of this.
Luo Zining asked the magistrate before, why the emperor didn't punish him and demote his officials when the city's population decreased so quickly, the magistrate honestly explained the situation to Luo Zining, he had concealed the city's population reduction before, Did not tell the real number to the emperor at all.
It only said that it would decrease a little every year, and the range of reduction was within the point allowed by the court, so the emperor always thought that there were still 300,000 people in their fief, not the 10,000 when Luo Zining first came.
A population of 300,000 seemed a lot to Luo Zining, but to the emperor, such a large province only had a population of 300,000, which was a very small number.
After all, the emperor will not go to every city to check in person. All he sees are numbers. Compared with other regions, the number of 300,000 is pitifully small. Any small city should have this much population, and HuoLingzhi's fief is so large, but there are only 300,000 people, isn't that pitifully small.
Therefore, before the population increased to 300,000, Luo Zining was not afraid of the emperor at all, and when the population increased, he asked the magistrate to continue to produce fake data for the emperor to see.
By the time the emperor reacted, they had become stronger. Even if the emperor was angry, he would not dare to touch Huo Lingzhi easily.
If Huo Lingzhi had only a few thousand soldiers, the emperor might find a way to send someone to destroy Huo Lingzhi. If Huo Lingzhi had 100,000 to 200,000 soldiers, the emperor would be afraid to do anything.
During this period, Luo Zining recruited more than 300 people for the patrol team. This time, he did not recruit people with great fanfare, but quietly.
In the future, we will continue to recruit people, but we will not publicize it for the time being.
The more they come quietly like this, the more people want to join the patrol team. They think that those who enter the patrol team only through the back door and rely on connections to get in. It is so difficult to enter the patrol team, which means that the food in the patrol team is more delicious. Many peopleSqueeze your head and want to join the patrol.
By the fall, the number of patrols had exceeded 3,000.
Huo Lingzhi finally felt that the group of people he trained had passed the test, and he could safely let them go to suppress the bandits.
Before starting, he asked Huo Liulang and Huo Qilang to explore the terrain.
Although the two children are young, they can pretend to be collecting medicine on the mountain, and they will not arouse the suspicion of the bandits. He also asked the two children to wear patched clothes, so even if the bandits see them, they will notIf you want to kidnap them for ransom, you may not even bother to look at them.
In addition, Huo Liulang and Huo Qilang are not ordinary children, they are agile and good at disguising, so they will not let the bandits notice when they go to explore the terrain this time.
They went for ten days in a row before they came back. The task was completed very well. Not only did they find out which hilltop the bandits' dens were on, but they also recorded clearly where they usually stood guard, which road they took, and what exits and entrances they had.Chu.
After remembering these, Huo Lingzhi began to deploy the action plan. He commanded from behind, let Huo Dalang and Huo Erlang each take a pair of troops to set off, and outflank them.
Those bandits have not undergone professional training, they all rely on their courage and strong physique, plus they have a large number of people. They used to be a group of people who hijacked single people or caravans with little combat effectiveness. Now they are charging tolls.Those who can scare people over there will pay for it, and they are completely vulnerable.
After several months of professional training, the patrol team also held well-crafted weapons and armor in their hands. They easily broke through the bandits' dens, killed all of them, and when they came back, they took the bandit leader's house.The heads were brought back, and according to Huo Lingzhi's order, they hung up their heads for public display, announcing to the people in the city and the foreign merchants who came to buy that they would no longer have to be afraid of the harassment of bandits.
The magistrate only got the news when the heads of the bandit leaders were hung up, and he almost passed out with black eyes.
Another way to make money is gone, the prince is trying to force him to death.
He was very dissatisfied and desperate, but when he came out and saw the bloody heads hung up, he was glad that he was not the one who died, and he was still useful to the prince.
He just lost a way to make money, at least he is still alive, he can still get the salary given to him by the court every month, he should be satisfied.
After the successful suppression of the bandits this time, Huo Dalang and Erlang took the patrol team to transport all the money from the bandits' lair.
At first, Luo Zining thought how much money could such a small mountain have?At most a few hundred thousand taels, last time the sum of the money of several landlords was only a few hundred thousand taels, but there was more food and more land.
He thought that these bandits couldn't have more money than the landlords. Who knew that this time they brought back more than a dozen carts of gold, silver and jewelry, and it took several days just to count them.This is not counting jewelry and food and a lot of weapons.
This made Luo Zining very happy. He bought wine and opened a restaurant this year, which added up to one million taels, but it was not as much as the money he earned from suppressing bandits.
Sure enough, being a businessman is not as good as being a ruler. Although businessmen also oppress workers, they still have to be afraid of bandits and officials, but they can suppress bandits when they are rulers, and they can confiscate their property if they are dissatisfied.
Now that Huo Lingzhi is just a prince, their rights are so great. If Huo Lingzhi becomes the emperor in the future, he can't imagine what life will be like after he has the right to turn clouds and rain.
Thinking of this, his blood seemed to start to boil.
After the successful suppression of the bandits, he held a celebration banquet, and gave a large amount of bonuses to all those who made contributions, and also awarded them medals. The other newcomers did not participate in the suppression of the bandits.Everyone in the village is very envious, and eagerly hopes that another group of bandits will come and let them wipe out, so that they can also make a contribution.
This time the bandit suppression is over, and itβs almost winter again. The potatoes and sweet potatoes in his village are abundant, not only in his village, but also in the countryside. The sorghum is much more productive than last year, and some people have listened to LuoziNing's suggestion to specialize in rice cultivation has also yielded a lot.
Luo Zining plans to expand the winery next year to produce more wine.
This year, he sent all the harvested sweet potatoes to his vermicelli factory to make vermicelli. When they are ready, they can be sold to foreign businessmen in the future.
Fang Ziye came here to buy wine for the last time this year. He brought the New Year's gifts in advance and loaded a cart.
Seeing him coming, Luo Zining pulled him to ask about his sister's condition, "I heard that your sister is going to enter the palace as a concubine, she is older than you, why did she enter the palace so late?"
"It's a long story. The Holy Majesty had a marriage contract with my eldest sister when he was still the second prince. Later, he was delayed by many things. At first, the second prince's biological mother passed away. Later, the second prince's filial piety period just passed. IThe grandmother passed away, and the children in the family had to keep their filial piety, and the second prince was getting older, so I changed the girl from another family to be the princess. My eldest sister was already old at that time, and was divorced by the second princeIt's even more difficult to get married. Now that the second prince is enthroned, he feels that he owes our Fang family, so he said that he will take my eldest sister into the palace as a concubine when he is out of filial piety."
Luo Zining nodded, thinking that this girl is also pitiful, with a rough fate, and now that she is pierced by a transmigrator, it is even worse, "How is your elder sister doing now? Will she blame the emperor for breaking the contract before, don't want tomarry into the palace?"
"It didn't happen before. Eldest sister always obeyed her parents' arrangements and would not put her own emotions before the interests of the family. But recently, her emotional personality has become very strange, as if she had completely changed from before." Fang ZiyeSighing: "I don't know if it has something to do with knowing my life experience some time ago."
"What's the change?" Luo Zining asked nervously.
"Elder Sister used to be proficient in all kinds of piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and she was a famous talented woman in the capital. Now not only can she not read many characters, but she has also forgotten how to play the piano and chess, and her personality has become very timid.Entering the palace as the emperor's concubine, she escaped twice, but was caught and locked up by her family, and after being watched by the nuns every day to learn the rules, she became honest and never dared to run away again." Fang Ziye said.
Luo Zining thought that this was not like him. When he first crossed, he was afraid of this strange world, especially when Huo Lingzhi asked him to compose poems, he was so scared to death.
It's normal to not be able to play the piano and compose poems, but isn't it too exaggerated to not recognize many characters?
He asked Fang Ziye some more details, and Fang Ziye said that he didn't meet the elder sister often, and he didn't know the specific situation.
It's not good for Luo Zining to ask too many questions, after all, this is Fang Ziye's sister, it would be bad if she asked too many questions and made Fang Ziye unhappy.
At first, he was afraid that the other party was a very powerful character, and he would join hands with the emperor to deal with him and Huo Lingzhi.
However, the other party seems to be an ordinary person just like him. An ordinary person should not easily reveal his identity after time travelling.Jing will not easily tell the emperor about the future development, which is hard to explain.
It seems that the current situation is still favorable to them, and it is estimated that the time will be more than expected.
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