Back to Daming to be a genius

Chapter 149 Recruitment Location
(PS: The first update was delivered, and today’s two updates——the second is to work harder to correct the text, and if it is too late, it will be updated. Please ask for a monthly ticket at the end of the month.)
"Tanhualang, I'm not going, I'm not going anyway." Lu Wanling knelt on the ground with a plop, hugged Young Master Zhang's thigh, and said with snot and tears: "Tanhualang, I don't want to leave You, you better take me to Jimen, you can make me a cow or a horse, as long as you don’t let me leave you! If it’s not possible, you can let me be a poor official in the capital, I would rather Lumi, who is holding seven stones of grain for a month, is living a miserable life—I don’t want to go to Liaodong again in this life!”

"Brother Lu Nian, it's not too late to cry after listening to me, right?" Young Master Zhang was so angry and funny, he bent down to help Lu Wanling up.But Lu Wanling struggled desperately, didn't get up to say anything, and cried loudly: "Tan Hua Lang, if you must let me go to Liaodong, I will kneel down in front of you and die without saying anything! I would rather kneel down and die in the Your family also refuses to go to Liaodong anymore, if Jiannu catches me on the battlefield, what will I do—?!"

"I'll tell you to listen to me." Young Master Zhang had no choice but to pat the top of Lu Wanling's head and said, "Don't worry, I'm not asking you to go to the front line this time, I'm planning to let you go to Shanhaiguan to assist my father-in-law Xiong Tingbi Mr. Xiong, advise him, resist those open and hidden arrows, and solve the troubles he can't solve. I just let you use your brain, not let you work hard, understand?"

"Really?" Lu Wanling finally stopped crying.Young Master Zhang nodded and said with a smile: "Brother Lu Nian, you are sorry for this. When have I lied to you? Why do you still not believe me? Don't worry, I will never lie to you, as long as you take my father-in-law Good assistant, when I finish training the new army and return to Liaodong, I will ask you to come back. When I have a chance, I will recommend you to be the head of the Military Selection Department of the Ministry of War, how about it?"

"The Military Selection Department of the Ministry of War? Is it the Military Selection Department of the Ministry of Military Affairs, one of the four big fat officials in Beijing?" Lu Wanling's eyes brightened.Young Master Zhang smiled and nodded, indicating that there was nothing wrong. Lu Wanling jumped up, bowed his hands and said: "Thank you Tanhualang for promoting, thank you Tanhualang, I will go back to make arrangements, pack my luggage, and set off with Mr. Xiong tomorrow." Shanhaiguan!"

"Go, pack up your things and come to me at night, I still have something to explain to you." Young Master Zhang waved away with a smile.Lu Wanling left with a thousand thanks, but Xiong Hu, who had already formally married Young Master Zhang the day before, pouted and complained to Young Master Zhang: "Master, you are so imaginative, sending such a useless person to waste What's the use of assisting my father? As far as his virtue is concerned, it's better not to go if he goes."

"Miss, you don't understand this truth. Trash is actually a treasure that has been put in the wrong place." Young Master Zhang hugged his beloved wife, kissed her face lightly, and explained with a smile: "Yes, Lu Wanling's character He is a bit rotten. He is greedy for money, afraid of death, and likes to flatter. He has almost no backbone and courage. He can pee in the crotch as long as others are frightened. Stumbling—these are what your father and my father-in-law lack the most. I asked him to assist your father, not only to make up for your father's shortcoming of being too irritable and upright, but also to send me the news in time if necessary, so that I Solving difficult problems for my father-in-law personally, among the more reliable people under me, he is the most suitable for this job."

"Since he is timid and spineless, what if he betrays you and my father?" Xiong Hu asked worriedly.Young Master Zhang smiled and replied: "Don't worry, this kid's biggest wish is to get promoted and make money. I can give him all these, but your father's enemies in Liaodong can't do it. He is a smart man and knows how to choose." .”

"Hmph, it's no wonder you hit it off with him, and they're really the same breed." Xiong Hu felt relieved, slapped him twice coquettishly, then snuggled into Young Master Zhang's arms, closed his eyes and let Young Master Zhang kiss.After a long time, Xiong Hu asked softly again: "Master, my father will leave for Liaodong tomorrow to take up the post. When will you go to take up the post?"

"The day after tomorrow, the first day of June." Young Master Zhang replied in a low voice.Xiong Hu's delicate body trembled, and she asked depressedly: "Can't we wait a few more days? We just got married on May 28, and you will be on the first day of June..."

"Miss, I am also reluctant to leave you at this time, but time is too tight." Young Master Zhang apologized and kissed his beloved wife's red lips lightly, and said in a low voice: "I have already asked the imperial court for an order. Shandong is going to recruit [-] new recruits before going to Jimen to take up the post. It must be completed before the end of June. The time is too tight. Waiting for me to check the sweet potato harvest, if the effect is good, we still have to discuss how to expand and promote planting in the north, and also discuss how to try to plant corn and potatoes, these are all important matters related to the fate of the country... "

"Stop talking." Xiong Hu covered Young Master Zhang's mouth with his small hand, forced a smile and said, "My husband is a real hero who does great things, a real hero, my wife, the biggest support for you should be your husband." Godson, I'm not holding you back, you go, don't worry about me." Speaking of this, Xiong Hu smiled, and added: "Besides, I should be content now. Under the red cloth, I can clearly see that Mei Qingyun, the niece of the British Duke outside the hall, shed tears on the spot. Compared with her, I am already very happy."

When it comes to Mei Qingyun who is infatuated with him, Young Master Zhang can't help but feel a little sad. Originally, Young Master Zhang would not refuse to marry Xiong Hu and Mei Qingyun at the same time. These days the law also allows three wives and four concubines, but the problem is that three wives and four concubines Only one concubine is allowed to have one regular wife, and the other two wives are ordinary wives of lower status. With Zhang Weixian's status, of course he will not allow the niece of the first-line relatives raised by him to be someone else's ordinary wives—even if Zhang Weixian agrees, The British government will not agree to pay attention to face.And if Xiong Hu is asked to take a step back and give up the position of wife, not only Xiong Tingbi's family will not agree, but also the little conscience of Young Master Zhang who owes Xiong Hu a lot will not agree.So it is a pity that Young Master Zhang and Mei Qingyun can only be destined to have nothing to do with each other. In addition, Qin Liangyu's daughter has no choice but to bow his head and withdraw.

"Miss her? If you miss her, then please ask Zhang Guogong to give her to you." Seeing that Young Master Zhang remained silent for a long time, Xiong Hu inevitably became jealous.Young master Zhang withdrew his thoughts, smiled, hugged his wife tightly and said, "Who said I missed her? I was thinking, how can I make up for my newlywed wife in these two days, so that she won't feel empty after parting with me?" lonely……."

"I hate it, it's in broad daylight."

…………

On May [-]th, Young Master Zhang's father-in-law Xiong Tingbi left the capital first, and went to Shanhaiguan with Gaodi to take office and hand over the seal, accompanied by Lu Wanling, Ji Yong and others.On the first day of June, Young Master Zhang, who had just been married for three days, and Zhang Shitou, who was also married for just three days, bid farewell to their beloved wives and parents, and took Song Xiance, Wu Liuqi, Zhang Dapao and other cronies on the road to Shandong to recruit soldiers and prepare for the new army. ——The bravery of Shandong soldiers is not inferior to that of Yiwu soldiers. It has been an important source of soldiers for all dynasties since ancient times.Accompanying them were Lu Xiangsheng who had just been recommended by Young Master Zhang as the envoy of Tunwei Township in Yingzhou, and Zhao Shulun and Wu Sangui. Of course, he is willing to let his brother and son climb high branches beside Young Master Zhang, hoping to reap rich rewards in the future.

Time was urgent, and there was no room for Young Master Zhang and his party to travel around the mountains and rivers. After traveling day and night at high speed, it took more than three days for Young Master Zhang to return to his hometown Linqing, Shandong.As I said before, out of the ten acres of fertile farmland outside Linqing City and in several neighboring prefectures and counties, eight and a half acres of land belong to Young Master Zhang's family. Before he took office in Liaodong last year, Young Master Zhang had already persuaded his father to give half of it. Give it to Song Yingxing to try planting spring sweet potatoes, and now is the harvest time, and Song Yingxing is also waiting for Young Master Zhang to come back to check the results in Linqing.As soon as Young Master Zhang and his party stepped into the territory of Linqing, they saw the fields on both sides of the road, full of their own tenants who were harvesting sweet potatoes.

"The young master is back! The young master of Mr. Zhang's family is back!" An old tenant was the first to recognize the young master Zhang and shouted.Soon, countless tenant farmers put down their hoes, rushed to the road with bunches of plump sweet potatoes with leaves and stems, greeted Mr. Zhang kindly, and many people shouted excitedly: "Master Zhang!" Young master, we have long been looking forward to your return, this time you brought us good things, this year we don’t have to worry about going hungry!” “It’s better to be young master, not only send Mr. Song to teach us how to grow this kind of plant It’s a good thing, it will also waive our farm rent for this year, and we will have enough to eat all year round.” ——Everyone knows how conservative Chinese farmers are. I can announce that all the tenants who plant sweet potatoes will be exempted from rent for one year, so I can barely plant half of my land with sweet potatoes. Now there are still many tenants who are very reluctant, but fortunately, the tenants of the Zhang family now understand that Young Master Zhang Thanks to his painstaking efforts and kindness, when Young Master Zhang returned to Linqing, he was naturally welcomed by the tenants.

Facing the enthusiastic tenants of his family, Young Master Zhang did not speak, jumped off his horse, snatched a bunch of sweet potatoes from a tenant and observed carefully, and found that the roots of the sweet potatoes were covered with muddy sweet potatoes as thick as the upper arm, and the big ones were more than a foot long. The smallest one is as big as a fist, and the growth is very gratifying.Young Master Zhang tore off another sweet potato, pulled out a knife and peeled off the skin, revealing the white and red flesh of the potato, and bit it down again, the cool and sweet feeling immediately permeated the entire mouth.Only then did Young Master Zhang smile happily, and asked the enthusiastic tenant farmers: "My fellow villagers, how much can you harvest per mu of sweet potatoes you planted? By the way, how about the winter wheat harvest?"

"This year is still too dry, and the winter wheat is barely harvested at 800 catties per acre. Those who grow wheat are almost regretting it." An old tenant farmer said with a smile: "But the harvest of dog potatoes is too scary. The worst one in an acre can harvest more than 500 catties, and the best one can harvest more than [-] catties! The average land is more than [-] catties! Young master, this is all thanks to you!"

"Dog Potato? Why do you call sweet potato Dog Potato?" Young Master Zhang was a little dumbfounded. He couldn't figure out why sweet potato had such an alias?The old tenant farmer replied casually: "Master, isn't your nickname called Young Master Gou? To thank you, we call this thing a dog..." At this point, the old tenant farmer who was a little dizzy with excitement remembered I made a slip of the tongue, so I quickly shut up. The tenant farmers of the Zhang family next to me wanted to laugh, but they didn't dare to laugh.Young Master Zhang was even more embarrassed, and said with a wry smile: "Forget it, if you like it, call it dog potato." So, Young Master Zhang, this big moth flapped down again, and there was one more sweet potato planted in northern China. Big name - dog potato!This is something for later, let's not mention it for now.

"Since you can get enough food this year by growing sweet potatoes alone, what are you planning to grow for the remaining six months? Are you still interested in continuing to grow the things I brought from the West?" Young Master Zhang asked again.The tenant farmers replied one after another: "Young master, don't worry, we will plant whatever you tell us to plant. We believe that the young master will not harm us." Some people shouted: "Mr. Song sent by the young master has already said that in the second half of the year he will let us We grow peanuts, yams, and corn. When we harvested sweet potatoes, we were already sorting corn. In order to teach us how to grow corn, Mr. Song invited two foreign gentlemen from Luzon to teach us bit by bit. "

"Song Yingxing is indeed a man of action." Young Master Zhang nodded in satisfaction and asked, "Where is Mr. Song now? Do you know?"

"Mr. Song is at the old Zhaozhuang." A tenant farmer who knew the information replied, "I heard that all the high officials from Shandong have come, and Mr. Song took them to see the dog potatoes we planted in Linqing. The potatoes were brought to other places in Shandong for planting. I heard that they planned to exchange one stone of grain for a hundred catties of dog potato seed potatoes and bring them to other places in Shandong for planting. Mr. Song told us not to rush to change them, saying that the price was OK Go up."

"Very good, right now, old Zhaozhuang, I hope the governor of Denglai, Sun Yuanhua, will also come." Young master Zhang nodded, first gave instructions to Zhang Shitou and others, then turned to the tenant farmers and said with a smile: "Fellow villagers, you all go back to work, remember Hold on, your dog potatoes must have enough seeds for the coming year. Listen to Mr. Song, he taught you how to keep seeds, and you can keep them as you like! Also, leave me tens of thousands of catties of seeds, young master, I will also give you grain In exchange—two catties of grain, for one catty of dog potato seeds!" Amidst the cheers of the tenant farmers, Young Master Zhang and his party all got on their horses, each holding a sweet potato and gnawing on it, and hurried to the old Zhao village.

They rushed to Laozhao Village in the suburbs of Linqing without stopping. As expected, Song Yingxing and Mr. Zhang, the two housekeeper uncles, were leading a large group of officials to inspect the tenant farmers harvesting sweet potatoes in the field.Young Master Zhang rushed forward and immediately recognized many acquaintances among these officials, such as Guo Shangyou, governor of water transport, Zhao Yan, governor of Shandong, Xiong Wencan, deputy envoy of the inspectorate, Hua Dunfu, prefect of Dongchang, and Sun Chaosu, prefect of Yanzhou. And Dongchang pushes officials to explain Xuelong...there are so many officials that they can't name them.In addition, Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, is also on the list-obviously, he is here to solve the problem of the reduction of grain production in military colonies caused by the Little Ice Age.

"Tanhualang?!" Chen Xianji, the magistrate of Linqing County, was the first to discover the return of a court official who ran away under his rule.Amidst the screams, almost all the officials greeted them, scrambling to congratulate Young Master Zhang, congratulating Young Master Zhang on his promotion to governor, and stepping half a foot into the ranks of border closures.Young Master Zhang jumped off his horse to return the gifts one by one. After finally finishing the courtesies, Young Master Zhang grabbed Denglai Governor Sun Yuanhua without saying a word, and begged Sun Yuanhua: "Governor Sun, I have something to discuss with you. This time, the imperial court ordered me to To recruit soldiers in Shandong to form a new army, I plan to go to a county under your rule to recruit, I hope you can make it convenient."

"Recruiting soldiers under the command of the lower officials?" Sun Yuanhua looked embarrassed, and replied: "Master Zhang, it's not that I'm not easy to talk about, but the Denglai Navy under my command also needs a large number of soldiers and civilians. If you plan to come from Dengzhou, The recruitment of soldiers in places like Laizhou and Weihai... has a little impact on the Denglai army."

"Don't worry, I don't want any soldiers from places like Dengzhou, Laizhou and Weihai!" Young Master Zhang replied decisively.Sun Yuanhua was taken aback, and asked again: "Master Zhang, where do you plan to recruit soldiers from in Denglai? Under my rule, the population of these counties is slightly larger."

"Jiaozhou!" Young Master Zhang replied in a deep voice, "I don't want any soldiers from other prefectures, counties and towns in Shandong this time - all of them are from Jiaozhou!"

"Jiaozhou?" Sun Yuanhua was confused, thinking that Zhang Gou Shao in Linqing didn't want the soldiers from his hometown, so why did he focus on the soldiers from Jiaozhou?That place is poor and remote, it hasn't fought a war for hundreds of years, and there are no veterans who have been trained in the guards, and there are not even civilians who have been on the battlefield. No matter how many soldiers are recruited, they are still a group of recruits. What's the use?But that is also the case, Sun Yuanhua quickly said with a smile: "If it is Jiaozhou, then there is no problem, that place is too far away from Denglai, even if you recruit civilian husbands, you can't recruit there. My name is Fang Shihua, the magistrate of Jiaozhou. to you."

"In that case, thank you, Mr. Sun." Young Master Zhang heaved a sigh of relief, and hurriedly saluted to thank him.Song Xiance, who accompanied Young Master Zhang back to Shandong, was at a loss and looked for an opportunity to ask Young Master Zhang: "Master, you don't want the soldiers from Linqing's hometown, so why go to Jiaozhou to recruit soldiers? Haven't you thought about it? Linqing conscription, most of the recruited soldiers must be the children of your family’s tenant farmers, it is more convenient to command, and more assured to use?”

"Master Song, you don't understand, but you will understand in the future." Young Master Zhang shook his head, thinking that I can't tell you?Hundreds of years later, there was a big man who was great before and ruined later. He used Jiaodong soldiers to sweep the Northeast and win the Liaoshen Campaign. There was also a group of Jiaozhou soldiers who first fought desperately in Tashan, and then fought in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea? ——As for my hometown soldiers, it’s not too bad to be a personal soldier.

(End of this chapter)