Chapter 643 Arrangements for the rear (seeking votes)

Luo Chong wrote down his final choice and ideas for the construction of the garrison, and then sent all these things to Shouya, asking him to adapt to the situation in the local area, and contact him immediately if there are any difficulties and needs, and then he began to busy himself with the construction of the rear area.

Now it is early June, and Luo Chong has just received news that the millet of the Youjiang tribe has been harvested in the first half of the year, and the whole tribe can be ready to move to the Han tribe at any time. After Luo Chong received the news, he also hurriedly asked Weishan County to organize a fleet to pick up people, and to prepare for the resettlement of new people in the counties along the way.

It is impossible to put all the Youjiang clan in one county, because the power of the clan will be too great, which is not conducive to his control. Therefore, Luo Chong's plan is to let them land in Weishan County, and then directly settle some of them in Weishan County, and then go to Liuyang County to settle another part, followed by Ruyang County, and finally let the rest of the people go to Hanyang County to rest, and then leave the senior members of the Youjiang clan including their direct family members in Hanyang City, and the rest of the clan members will be distributed to various county towns.

In this way, the direct high-level officials had Luo Chong himself to shock them, and their clans were scattered all over the place. The high-level officials who lost the clan power could not make any big waves under his nose.

However, Luo Chong did not plan to wait for them in Hanyang City, but went to Weishan County in advance to guide the work, and by the way, he took a look at the prisoner-of-war camp there, and Youye's recent work progress.

Yun Zhi, the county governor of Weishan County, has been working very hard recently. He promised Luo Chong that he would bring 50,000 people to the Han tribe in exchange for a county governor position. Luo Chong agreed to him, but Yun Zhi had been here for more than a year, but he still did not gather the population he promised. At the end of last year, Luo Chong gave him an ultimatum, asking him to gather people as soon as possible, and also recruited a large number of soldiers from Weishan County, and transferred more than half of the population of Weishan County to Xingang County to build a new city. Except for the technical workers who stayed behind in the entire Weishan County, everyone else was almost drawn out by Luo Chong.

Seeing that the big county he had worked so hard to build had become smaller than the county town, Yun Zhi could no longer sit still. He racked his brains again and tried every possible way to recruit indigenous immigrants from the lakeside area. Now half a year has passed, and the work of recruiting people has also achieved remarkable results.

This is also thanks to the previous family foundation. Although Luo Chong transferred a lot of people from Weishan County, the houses and land of those people remained. Yun Zhi used these newly built houses and land, as well as high-quality living guarantees, to induce the surrounding wild people to join the Han tribe.

In addition to having no opinion on this, as long as it can increase the population of the Han tribe, he would not mind such a thing. Although it seems a bit unfair to the old people for the newcomers to get housing for free, it doesn't matter. It won't be long before these newcomers will also build houses for the next wave of newcomers. Even if they take advantage now, they will have to pay it back in the future.

Walking with Yun Zhi in the city of Weishan County, Luo Chong suddenly asked Yun Zhi beside him, "What is the population of Weishan County now?"

Yun Zhi trembled all over when he heard this, and immediately begged with a sad face, "Chief, there are not many people left. You can't transfer more people. These are all recruited by me with great difficulty."

Luo Chong was very thick-skinned and didn't care at all. He pretended to be angry and said, "Who said you want to transfer people? I just want to know how many people there are now. As a leader, can't I know how many people I have under my rule? Why are you talking so much nonsense? Hurry up and speak."

"Ah? Oh." Yun Zhi glanced at Luo Chong half-believingly, and then hesitantly said, "Weishan County had a population of more than 20,000 at the end of last year. Many soldiers were recruited by the leader before the New Year, and more than half of them were transferred to Xingang County by the leader at the beginning of the year.

At the beginning of this year, the population was less than 5,000. In the past six months, I have only recruited more than 10,000 new people. The total population is now more than 17,000, not counting slaves. The slaves that were placed here before were also assigned by the leader to Xingang County and Huxin Island for construction.

However, I still have a group of new grassland prisoners of war, with a number of more than 3,000 people, but the proportion of women is very large. I was just about to ask the leader how to arrange these people."

Luo Chong nodded after listening. These data were similar to the information he had obtained through other channels. When he heard Yun Zhi asking how to arrange the prisoners of war, he looked at him expressionlessly.

"Why, do you have any ideas about this batch of prisoners of war?"

Yun Zhi scratched his head embarrassedly, and then asked tentatively.

"Chief, you know that most of the newcomers in Weishan County have just joined, and when these people registered their household registration, some of them did not have a formal spouse, and some of them were bachelors. It is difficult for me to make arrangements for such people, so, so..." Yun Zhi deliberately did not finish his words, but the meaning of that sentence was already very clear, and he believed that the chief could understand.

Luo Chong was curious at this time. Would those newly joined small tribes lack women? This shouldn't be the case. In his cognition, hunting for men is more dangerous, and the abnormal death rate is much higher than that of women. How could there be more men than women? So he asked his doubts.

"Chief, you don't know that many tribes along the shore of the lake are actually farming tribes. Most of them grow wild rice and sweet sorghum from the surrounding swamps. There are very few tribes that rely purely on hunting for a living, so the population structure of these tribes is relatively balanced. The death rate of men is not high, but the death rate of women due to the risk of childbirth is high." Hearing Luo Chong's question, Yun Zhi next to him immediately explained to him.

"Oh, so that's how it is." Luo Chong suddenly realized and said, "But there aren't many female captives. How many do you plan to keep? I can't leave them all to you anyway."

"This, at least half." Yun Zhi asked tentatively.

There were more than 3,000 grassland captives this time, but there were very few men, less than 500. The rest were women and children, and some underage boys and girls. Those who were about to become adults were also assigned by Luo Chong to the adult male captives to perform some auxiliary work.

In this way, the remaining captives became mainly adult women, plus many boys under five years old, and girls and young girls of all ages, with a total number of 1,500. If only adult women were counted, there would be only about 800 people. Yun Zhi proposed to take half, which was about 400 people.

This number was not large, but it could get rid of 400 bachelors and form 400 agricultural families that could pay taxes for the Han tribe. If calculated in this way, it was still quite cost-effective, so Luo Chong agreed at that time.

"Okay, I'll give you half of it, but when you accept those women, you have to let them take the responsibility of raising the children. You must tell the newcomers in advance. As for the rest, I have other arrangements. By the way, where is Youye? Hasn't he come back yet?" Luo Chong agreed to Yun Zhi's request and then asked about Youye.

"To the leader, Youye is still scouting the hydrological conditions of the lake with four boats. He hasn't come back for almost two months since he went out this time. But he sent back a message a few days ago, saying that a seasonal waterway was found in the northeast of the lake. There is a river there that can go directly to the north." Yun Zhi, Youye's partner, immediately reported the situation for him after hearing Luo Chong's question.

"What? A seasonal waterway to the north?! Why didn't you tell me earlier? Where is he now?" As the two were walking and chatting, Luo Chong suddenly heard this explosive news and almost jumped up on the spot, so he asked with a little excitement.

"Well, he just sent back the news a few days ago. He said in the letter that he didn't know when the waterway would be blocked, so he took two boats in first, and the remaining two boats were on their way back. As for when they will come back, I don't know, but Youye said that they have bows and arrows and fishing nets on the boat, and they can get food, so there is no need to worry about supplies. He said he would go and see first, and then report it when he comes back." Yun Zhi was also shocked by Luo Chong's reaction, and he quickly reported after he reacted.

Luo Chong realized his loss of composure and quickly adjusted his mood, and then continued to ask, "Can we contact him now? How many people did he bring?"

"Yes, we can contact him. We sent a letter with an eagle. He brought two two-masted sailboats with oars. According to his fleet organization, there should be 150 people on the two boats." Yun Zhi calculated and said.

"Oh, since this is a rare opportunity, let him go first and ignore him."

After Luo Chong calmed down, he put the matter aside for the time being. He had just discovered the waterway, and as for where it led to, even if he contacted Youye now, he couldn't tell him. It would be better to wait for him to come back.

However, Luo Chong still kept this new waterway in mind.

The so-called seasonal waterway is actually similar to the tide. For example, the hidden bridge connecting Takeshima and the mainland can only be exposed for people to pass through at the beginning and end of each month when the high tide recedes. The same is true for this seasonal waterway, but it has nothing to do with the tide, but with the seasonal rainfall.

For example, when there is sufficient rainfall in the rainy season and the water level rises sharply, some seasonal rivers will appear in the originally dry places, or the original swampy mudflats will become endless water. This is normal. In other words, the surface area of ​​lakes and rivers changes according to the seasons. It is possible that a swamp discovered last autumn is now suddenly navigable due to the rising water level. This is all possible, and what Youye encountered is probably the situation that Luo Chong guessed.

Of course, if it is just a seasonal waterway, there is nothing to be surprised about. The most important thing is that Youye himself judged that this is a waterway to the north, then this matter is more important. The Han tribe has only explored the north for a long distance once so far, and that time it was also led by Youye. After several months of long journey, they finally reached the cannibal settlement.

At that time, the tour was to go upstream along the Ruyang River. However, the Han tribe had not yet built a suitable sailboat. Secondly, the Ruyang River was not very large, only about ten meters wide, and it was impossible for a large ship to run. It was obviously not appropriate to get two small boats to go upstream to cause trouble, so Luo Chong has been focusing on the south for many years.

The first reason is that the grasslands in the south have real interests for the Han tribe. The second reason is that the Han tribe has won several consecutive wars with the cannibals, and captured all the invading enemies and turned them into slaves of the Han tribe.

These wars have caused huge losses to the cannibals. You must know that in this era when many places are still hunting and gathering or slash-and-burn farming, the population is not large. The cannibals have lost thousands of people in several battles with the Han tribe. In addition, the distance between the two sides is too far, so it is obviously not cost-effective to expedition to the Han tribe.

Luo Chong guessed that it might be because their population was not enough to launch a new war, or they felt that the loss of the expedition to the Han tribe was higher than the benefits, so they stopped going south.

Since then, the Han tribe has never set foot in the north again. The farthest they have traveled to the north is the iron mine in Xingang County. They have not been to the Sanchahekou area where the two tribal alliances were discovered for several years. The crystal mine cave discovered by Youye has not been mined because it has no great value for the time being.

This time, Youye, who had been to the north before, discovered a waterway that can be used for sailing to the north. This is definitely of great significance to the Han tribe. Perhaps he also understands this, so he took the initiative to go north without any preparation. Or maybe it was just because he had been there before, so he was very interested in the new waterway this time.

Luo Chong knew Youye's personality very well. He was not as steady as his brother Youfu, and always liked to run around. In the past two years, Luo Chong had kept him in the big lake and did not let him go south with Youfu. It was probably because he was suffocated. So when he left, he didn't even tell me, probably because he was afraid that I would not agree to his adventure.

However, Youye guessed wrong this time. If he really told Luo Chong about this, Luo Chong would definitely agree to let him go and take a look. He would also provide him with elite crew members and equipment, and he would not have to set sail in such a hurry.

At this point, Luo Chong thought of Youye's elder brother Youfu. The fleet led by Youfu went south along the Liuyang River, opened up many valuable waterways for the Han tribe, found coal mines and new copper mines, and opened up routes to the grassland.

At the beginning of this year, he cooperated with the army to go on an expedition and wiped out the barbarian tribe in one fell swoop. However, he has been separated from the main force since then. The Huben Guard and Qianniu Guard went to the grassland, while Youfu continued to go south to open up new routes. Now several months have passed, and no one knows where he is now. Has he found the end of the Liuyang River? Is it a barren continent with no people, or an estuary leading directly to the sea? Now everything is still unknown.

However, You Fu was standing on the boat at this moment, looking at the strange cities on both sides of the river, and he didn't know whether he should be happy or scared. He had never thought that in addition to the Han tribe, there were actually humans who built cities in this world.

(End of this chapter)