Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 65 Xinping Camp is open!

A beggar who was guilty of a crime couldn't even get food to eat if he didn't join the army. Joining the army at least gave him something to eat, and Xia Lin also promised that he would find a place for his wife to live and a job that would allow them to have enough food to eat.

In fact, the beggar didn't really believe it, but he heard that soldiers received two taels and five cents of military pay every month. This money couldn't allow them to live well, but if they saved some, they wouldn't starve.

So after a little thought, the man named Huazi decisively agreed to Xia Lin's request.

"Zhao Da! Beat the gongs and drums!"

The red silk cloth that had been prepared long ago was brought over, and the gong and drum band invited from the street also followed. The beggar was taken over to take a bath and changed into a military uniform, with a big red flower on his body, just like the top scholar. There were also two people behind him holding a big red cloth banner with the words "It is glorious to join the army, one person joins the army and the whole family is well fed" written on it.

They circled Dou Fu Lane three times, and finally stopped when they had almost made the beggar vomit. Then, under Xia Lin's personal escort, they took him into the military camp.

After entering the camp, the beggar was stunned for a moment. Before he was convicted, he was also a soldier in his hometown, and he was also an instructor, but he had never seen such a military camp.

Not to mention the size, there are actually several rows of barracks, and they are all two- or three-story buildings. They look very expensive. Next to the small buildings there are pig pens and chicken coops, and next to them is a brand new dry toilet.

Not only that, the most eye-catching thing here is the mess. As everyone knows, the conditions in the Wei army camp are extremely difficult. On weekdays, they just set up a big pot on the ground and set up a tent, with some steamed bread and brown rice porridge in it, and some salty pickles to keep up their strength. But no one has ever thought that there is a special mess in any army camp.

"This is the infirmary. If you catch a cold or have diarrhea, you can come here for treatment."

Xia Lin enthusiastically introduced the configuration of the military camp to the beggar, and then he walked to the neatly arranged small buildings: "This is the barracks, two floors in a building, each with four rooms, four people living in one room." Xia Lin patted the wall hard: "The wall is made of red clay bricks, warm in winter and cool in summer."

Then he took the people to the pig pen and said, "In your spare time, you can use the swill to raise chickens, ducks, and pigs here. The pork you raise will be distributed to you during the New Year."

The beggar was full of curiosity at the moment, until he saw that there was a special bathroom inside, the boy was really a little defeated: "Sir... what is this?"

"Well, there's a brick kiln next to the barracks. When the kiln is burning, water is also boiled. The hot water is then transferred to a large jar and used for bathing or other activities. It's used to maintain personal hygiene."

Xia Lin smiled and waved to the beggar: "Come, come, I'll take you to the kitchen."

I followed this strange man to the kitchen again. After pushing the door open, I found that this place was extremely spacious. It was the largest space in the entire barracks. There was not only a stove and kitchen, but also neatly arranged tables and chairs outside. The walls were plastered with lime, and the floor was paved with bluestone slabs, which was comfortable to look at.

No one in the world wants to eat in a mud pit. Soldiers are also human beings, but most of the military camps don’t even have walls, let alone plastering them with lime. They have to endure the scorching sun in the dog days of summer and the freezing wind in the coldest days of winter.

"There's a menu on the wall. Can you read it?" Xia Lin pointed at the wall and said, "The three meals a day change every seven days. Breakfast is steamed buns and porridge with pickles. If I buy oil, I'll fry some fried dough sticks for you, but there may not be much now. I'll find a way to get oil in a few days."

Speaking of edible oil, it is really a sad story. The current oil extraction technology is not mature, so oil crops are not planted on a large scale. Since last autumn, Xia Lin has contacted four counties upstream and downstream to plant rapeseed. But the first batch of harvests will have to wait until this autumn. Now most of the time, the equipment is waiting for people, just like the military camp, which was built a long time ago, but it took half a year for the first soldier to come.

The oil-pressing workshop had already been prepared, including the oil-pressing grates and everything else. The key was that the rapeseed had not yet been planted...

As for animal fats, there really isn't much that can be done. First of all, it is very difficult to raise cattle and sheep on a large scale in inland areas, and pork has always been regarded as cheap meat, with a smell that is disliked by everyone. The castration breeding method that was only promoted last year is only the second generation, and it will take at least a year to form a breeding scale in the surrounding areas.

So even though Xinping Township is rich, oil is still expensive as a strategic material like salt and iron. So at this stage, it is not difficult to eat meat, as there are plenty of fish in Poyang Lake, but it is really difficult to eat oil.

Xia Lin's idea now is to see if he can buy some beef, mutton and horse meat from the northerners, but the trade of salt and iron is prohibited, so he is now considering how to get some important supplies back from the enemy.

If not, he might really have to make a trip to the prairie himself.

Risk? Oh, there is no risk. He is neither an envoy nor a spy. Who would make things difficult for a businessman? People in the grasslands are not stupid. If they get rid of the businessman, their lives will be even more difficult.

But now is not the time to think about this. The right thing to do first is to build up the team and then start normal training. The rest of the business matters can be discussed after Miss Tang returns with her tribute.

While Xia Lin was absorbed in thinking about how to get the grease, the beggar was looking up at the menu. Three meals a day?
Are there fish and eggs?

Have rice and noodles?

What does this mean? The royal family has a special army of assassins?

But Xia Lin didn't understand any of that. He just searched for "ancient military camp configuration" on the Internet, but somehow jumped to the modern military camp configuration. He didn't look at it carefully and just copied it.

He didn't even suspect that there was anything wrong here. He just thought that giving soldiers better food could ensure their combat effectiveness. However, he had never been to a military camp to investigate, and he had never had much contact with soldiers. He just thought this was very normal.

But in fact, even the royal guards did not have such a food standard, and they also had rice, flour, grain, oil, meat, eggs and milk. This is like asking "Can we guarantee the success of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition if we give him unlimited pork trotter rice?"

No normal person would think this is a normal thing.

The beggar didn't dare to ask, he felt that this was probably a trick, but as long as he could have a full meal a day, it was enough, which was already a great blessing.

Xia Lin then strolled around the military camp in reckless ignorance. In his opinion, the only drawback of this place was that it was a little small. If it were bigger and he could grow some greenhouse vegetables, it would be perfect.

Well, he is the kind of person who will do what he has an idea for. If he says greenhouse vegetables, then he will do greenhouse vegetables. However, the oil industry is too far away, so let's make glass... Wooden frames with glass and straw for insulation, then you have a greenhouse.

While he was showing the beggar around the military camp, Zhao Da had already been ordered to find a livelihood for the beggar's wife and children. It was easy to find a place to live. Xia Lin had prepared dormitories for these military households a long time ago. A small courtyard could accommodate six households. The conditions were not good, but at least it was a two-bedroom apartment of 30 square meters. In that era, this configuration was quite good. For example, the beggar's wife and children lived in a dilapidated temple before they came, otherwise they would not have caught a cold and were almost dying.

As for their livelihood, it was said that the beggar's wife had good cooking skills and had worked in a wealthy family's kitchen for ten years. Zhao Da thought it would be better to arrange this woman to cook in the military camp. Since they were recruiting people anyway, he could just use a ready-made one.

He told Xia Lin about this idea. Xia Lin was too lazy to deal with such trivial matters so he let Zhao Da make the decision himself. The son called Huazi was already seven or eight years old. According to the rules of Xinping Township, children of seven or eight years old should be sent to an academy to learn to read and write, so Zhao Da made arrangements for his son as well.

Now all the problems were settled, and Zhao Da was very high-profile when he was working. He wanted to greet everyone he met. Now that he had a model room, people passing by could see it and remember it.

What's more, in the next few days, people really came to sign up. They were all from decent families and young and middle-aged. Most of them were the second or third sons in the family. However, most of them were from other places. It was estimated that they were craftsmen or hunters who wanted to use this method to immigrate to Xinping Township.

Xia Lin didn't waste any words. He arranged everything he had promised even if he had to kneel down. As a result, Zhao Da was almost suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage due to exhaustion in the past few days, but the effect was indeed obvious.

When the villagers found out that Xia Lin would really provide for the families of soldiers, what would happen? Suddenly, people from all over the place started to come and sign up, and the number of people exceeded the limit in a short time.

Xia Lin looked at the dense crowd of applicants outside the yamen. There must be more than 500 people, but he really wanted to keep all of them, so he discussed this with Zhao Da, the yamen runner and legal advisor...

"Let's do a selection and keep the young and strong ones, and the ones who are not so strong as those who are weak, but we can send them to work as apprentices in the workshops in the village, or let them learn skills in the new craft classes we have opened. What do you think?"

"What about their families?"

Xia Lin stroked his chin and was silent for a moment before saying, "We certainly can't directly assign accommodation to those who are willing to come, but we can have a policy to exempt the Ding tax for three years. But after you learn the skills, you can't be exempted anymore."

"Hmm?" Zhao Da raised his eyebrows. "That's great... Sir, that's great. In this way, not only will these young people stay, I guess their families will also stay."

"You go and arrange this matter. Also, have you opened the kilns I mentioned before? Three cement kilns, three coke kilns, two brick kilns and two glass kilns. These are all workshops run by the township. You should try your best to arrange these younger ones to our own workshops."

"Yes, sir. I'll arrange it right away!"

(End of this chapter)