Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 372 Good News
In the blink of an eye, the first month of the year is over and most of the second month has passed.

The farmhands who had returned to their hometown to visit their relatives a few years ago, brought their newly married wives and fellow villagers, and returned to Maoer Mountain in groups.

Ever since Qu Shaoyang took office as inspector, he has vigorously promoted the policy of immigration to the border, recruiting those who cannot make a living in their hometown and want to try their luck in Guandong Mountain.

It’s no wonder that the results are obvious. In the past two years, the population along the upper reaches of the Yalu River has doubled.

Some of these people came here to work for the landowners, some reclaimed wasteland on their own, and some went to the Jinchangshan farm to work hard and earn money.

Of course, the majority of them are engaged in land reclamation and farming.

The arrival of these people made everywhere lively and boosted the local economy.

At the same time, some advanced farming methods and better seeds were also brought.

The large influx of refugees will cause public security problems if they are not settled in time.

Therefore, every spring, the inspection office would set up resettlement sites for refugees in various places along the river to arrange suitable places for those refugees.

For those who have nowhere to go for the time being, simple meals can also be provided.

The inspection office is busy, and Qu Shaoyang is even busier.

Li Daishi sent a letter saying that he had found a place in Dianzi Street and the construction of a branch office of the Wood Tax Office was also put on the agenda.

Qu Shaoyang was unable to get away for the time being, so he arranged for Zheng Tiezhu and others to accompany Li Zhengwen back to Dianzi Street first.

Li Zhengwen arrived at Maoer Mountain on the 18th day of the first lunar month. Over the past month, he has been following Qu Shaoyang, Gao Jiangcheng and others, learning how to handle matters related to the Wood Tax Office.

Li Zhengwen is literate and smart. He knows what to do as long as everyone gives him some pointers.

Although he is a little young, with Li Daishi supporting him from behind, he has no problem handling some simple matters.

At the beginning, Yuliang said that he would give the wood tax office in Shuangdianzi an assistant and a few runners.

Li Zhengwen was chosen as the assistant, and as for the candidates for the yamen's work, in addition to the two experienced people transferred from Maoer Mountain, Qu Shaoyang did some ideological work on Zheng Tiezhu and others, convincing them to work in the yamen.

Zheng Tiezhu and others are good at fighting and are familiar with the areas around Shuangdianzi, making them perfect candidates for the job.

Originally they were thinking of returning to Sandaimiaoling to rebuild the village, but rebuilding a village is a huge project and it would be difficult to complete it with just Zheng Tieniu and a few others.

So a few people were persuaded by Qu Shaoyang to work in the Wood Tax Office first and wait until they earned some money.

Anyway, Dianzi Street is not far from Sandaimiaoling, so you can go back and visit anytime.

Qu Shaoyang allocated a large sum of money and arranged for patrol team members to escort him. Li Zhengwen then took his men back to Dianzi Street to prepare for the establishment of the Wood Tax Office.

"Sir, the second master of the Chen family is back, and he brought back a lot of things. He said they were all what you wanted."

On this day, Qu Shaoyang was handling official business in the government office when Xing Jia hurried over to report.

Qu Shaoyang was stunned. His second brother came back at this time? And brought something he wanted? "What is it?"

"Neither old nor young, I can't really explain it, but there is the heavy machine gun that the adults mentioned.

There are also some other big ones, but I don’t know what they are.”

Xingjia gestured for a long time but couldn't explain clearly what it was.

"Oh, by the way, the second master of the Chen family also brought a few foreign devils."

Qu Shaoyang became even more confused when he heard this, so he simply stopped asking questions, said goodbye to the people in the yamen, and went home first.

"Hey, Shaoyang, you're back just in time.

Hurry up, this is the gold mining machine you wanted. The foreign company shipped it to us by ship some time ago.

And these are the heavy machine guns that my elder brother gave to Taodeng. You decide how to arrange them. "Chen Yunhan was directing a long line of carriages into the courtyard. When he saw Qu Shaoyang coming, he quickly handed the whole thing over to Qu Shaoyang.

When Qu Shaoyang took a look, he was surprised to see that Chen Yunhan had brought two more heavy machine guns.

In addition, there were many large carts pulled by four horses, with a lot of iron frame-like things installed on them. I think those were gold-mining machines.

This place is remote and transportation is inconvenient, so I think the machines were disassembled and loaded onto horse-drawn carriages before being transported here.

Qu Shaoyang immediately ordered his men to carry the heavy machine gun to the top of the blockhouse.

After returning from Shuangdianzi last winter, four heavy machine guns were installed on the four corner towers of the compound.

With the addition of these two machine guns, the defense of the Qu family’s compound is almost as strong as that of a county town.

As for the machines, Qu Shaoyang said not to unload them and just drove the carriage to the open space in the courtyard and parked it.

I will lead people to the gold field tomorrow, choose a reasonable location, and install all the machines.

It just so happened that the gold mine started to operate after some time. With these machines, the workers in the gold mine only needed to be responsible for mining ore from now on.

The rest of the screening process is all done by machines, which not only saves manpower but also greatly increases output.

"Shaoyang, these are engineers hired by the foreign company. They are responsible for installing the machines and providing technical guidance. This one is the translator."

Chen Yunhan introduced several people next to him to Qu Shaoyang.

Qu Shaoyang politely shook hands and greeted the foreign engineers. When they saw that Qu Shaoyang was wearing official uniform, their attitude was quite good and they talked to him in a lot of gibberish.

"You are all guests from afar. Please stay in my humble abode for the time being. If you have any needs, please let me know. I will instruct the servants to do their best to arrange it."

They are engineers who come to install the machines. Without them, the gold mining machines would be just a pile of scrap metal, and a huge amount of money would be wasted.

So Qu Shaoyang was very polite to those foreign engineers, and quickly instructed Xingjia to clean up the guest rooms and prepare all necessary items.

There is also a kitchen, so ask them to prepare some delicious food quickly.

After the foreigners and translators were settled, Qu Shaoyang finally had time to sit down and have a good chat with Chen Yunhan.

"Second brother, how are our parents? How is our eldest brother? Didn't he say he would take part in the college entrance examination this year? How is his preparation going?"

Kuandian is far away, and Qu Shaoyang didn't have time to accompany Chen Xiuyun back to her parents' home after the New Year. Both of them missed the Chen family very much.

"My parents are doing well. They keep talking about missing Xiuyun and the child.

Originally they wanted to come back with me, but my eldest sister-in-law was pregnant and my eldest brother was busy preparing for the exam, so my mother stayed to take care of my eldest sister-in-law.

Our mother said that they would wait until our eldest brother finished his exam and got the result before returning to Maoer Mountain. "

While drinking tea, Chen Yunhan told Qu Shaoyang everything that happened in Kuandian.

Chen Yunzhe and his wife returned to Kuandian on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month. They had planned to return to Andong before the 15th day of the first lunar month after the New Year. However, on the first few days of the new year, Shen Lizhen suddenly felt unwell.

When Doctor Chen took his daughter-in-law's pulse, he found that it was a pregnancy pulse, and then he knew that she was pregnant.

Shen Lizhen was in her twenties and this was her first child. Doctor Chen and Mrs. Li were worried, so they simply left their eldest daughter-in-law at home to recuperate.

Chen Yunzhe returned to Anton to study and prepare for the exam.

"My eldest sister-in-law is pregnant. Oh, my parents must be so happy. They have been looking forward to this day for so many years."

When Qu Shaoyang heard this, he was also happy for his father-in-law and mother-in-law.

(End of this chapter)