Chapter 140: Border Town is Home
In the next two days, Jin Sui deliberately avoided Yan Jiu. When he saw him from afar, he would turn around and walk around him. When he heard that he was going to that area, he would never go there.
Gu Changxiao soon discovered this, but he didn't ask anything. What he was most happy to see was that Taoist Ji was not happy to see Yan Jiu.
Yan Jiu went to Grandpa Ling's stall to eat more frequently. Jin Sui didn't believe that the pampered young man would like to eat stew.
I whispered to Grandpa Ling, beware of Yan Jiu trying to get information from him. Grandpa Ling sneered, "Who can get information from me?"
Jin Sui was busy flattering him: "That's right, my grandfather has seen all kinds of big waves and met all kinds of people. He is the most strict with his words."
Grandpa Ling stroked his beard and smiled, then reached out and flicked Jin Sui's forehead: "Naughty."
The grandfather and grandson smiled at each other, and Grandpa Ling then asked seriously: "What is the Yan family head trying to do?"
Jin Sui shook his head: "He is not a bad person. I don't know what he is going to do, but he is suspicious of our identities and will definitely come to get information."
Jin Sui found Jin An again and gave him some advice. Jin An patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, sister. I'm the best at playing dumb in front of smart people. I guarantee he won't be able to get anything out of me."
Jin Sui looked at Hei Hu who was smiling in the distance. Hei Hu and he played together every day. Hei Hu didn't need to act stupid at all. Hei Hu saw that the prince was looking at him and hurried over. Jin Sui teased him, "How much money did you win? Is it enough to marry a wife?"
Hei Hu's face immediately turned red, and he twisted his fingers and said, "Don't make fun of me, my lord. I didn't win much. It's just enough to make a golden hairpin for Miss Bai."
"If we win a few more games, we'll have enough to make new clothes for both of us."
Jin Sui smiled and nodded: "Not bad, not bad, we need to buy better wedding clothes."
Hei Hu actually covered his face in shyness.
Jinsui: ...
What the hell! Yan Jiu, why don't you observe for a while longer? The reason why I acted very smart in the border town is that the IQ of the people around me is not high!
If I really started working for you, I would immediately become ordinary.
At this time, Han Xing waved in the distance and called Heihu and other soldiers of the Black Feather Team to go for training.
Black Tiger spat and said, "Brother Han is just too worried. It doesn't matter if the Yanyun team has a new instructor. We can still beat them to a pulp."
Jin Sui asked hurriedly: "New instructor? Who is it?"
"Master Yan, Yan Shiyilang is like a piece of melted maltose, and he insisted on sticking his brother here to be his instructor.
When the head of the Yan family was young, he was very good at playing polo. Brother Han asked us to train more. If we lose to them, it would be a disgrace to the prince."
Jin Sui wanted to say that Yan Jiu was still very young. But the young that Hei Hu mentioned should be fifteen or sixteen years old, a young man full of vigor and vitality! She originally wanted to go to the training ground to see how Yan Jiu acted like a noble young man even though he lived in a small wooden house. How did he play such a wild sport as polo?
But when she thought about the charades they would have to have when they met, she felt exhausted. Turning around and meeting Gu Changxiao, she told him about Yan Jiu being the instructor for the Yanyun team.
Unexpectedly, Gu Changxiao was very interested. He was not interested in Yan Jiu, but he had the same concern as Han Xing. The Black Feather Team must not lose to the Yanyun Team!
"I'm also good at polo. I'll go watch Han Xing and the others train."
I'm the only one who doesn't know how to do it! Jin Sui waved his hand: "Then go ahead! I'll go talk to Cheng Yu."
Polo matches are meant to attract outsiders, but you all get more addicted than each other.
Cheng Yu has been very busy recently. It should be said that both he and his wife are very busy. Wei, the chief clerk, has left, and the new chief clerk has not yet taken office.
Han Xing was busy with the football game, Captain Liu was busy with the infrastructure construction in the East China Sea, and all the odd jobs in the border town were left to Cheng Yu.
Jin Sui said with a smile: "You spent those years drinking, singing, and slacking off every day. Being so busy now is a punishment for those years."
Cheng Yu didn't complain. He was very open-minded. He thought that marrying Chen Yunniang would be enough to repay the prince's kindness even if he died of exhaustion.
The two of them negotiated a set of rules regarding the settlement of refugees. Recently, there have been a lot of refugees applying for settlement, but Jinsui insisted that they must complete the basic work points before they can get settlement.
"I have been thinking about a question. Why is there such a serious loss of people in the border town? Is it because of excessive taxes and levies?"
"But the people in the Central Plains are taxed just as heavily. Is it because of frequent foreign invasions? Bandits? The government is inactive?"
"It has been like this for hundreds of years. The people are like rapeseed. When the land is fertile, they come and take root. When there is a problem with the land, they hide away."
"The real core is that they don't consider Border Town their home! Their ancestors have never been buried in this land, and no descendants were born or raised here. This place will always be just a place to stay, and they may plan to run away at any time."
"When I was out on patrol, I found that the farming methods of the people in the border towns were very different from those in the Central Plains. It cannot be said that they did not cherish the land, but they spent very little time on the land and were more willing to do other things to earn money."
"Unlike the people in the Central Plains, who stay in the fields for several hours a day throughout the year, there is absolutely no weed in the fields, the stalks are trimmed firmly, and the ditches are dug smoothly."
"Why? Because the people of the Central Plains have never thought of abandoning their fields and fleeing. The fields are their lives! After natural disasters or man-made disasters, they hide for a while, but they will return home afterwards."
"The people in the border town are different. They just borrow the fields here to plant crops. After planting this year, they don't know if they can plant crops next year. So they don't need to spend too much energy on the fields. They just need to focus on this year's harvest."
"Master Cheng, if your ancestral home encounters an external enemy, what would you do? If your temporary residence encounters an external enemy, what would you do?"
Cheng Yu's face became solemn. The prince's ideas have always been different from those of ordinary people. This question is indeed something they have never thought about.
He answered honestly: "It's my own home, my own land, I will defend it at all costs! If I live in a place that I borrowed from others, I will naturally stay away from it."
Jin Sui looked him straight in the eye: "Then will you fight to the death to defend the border town?"
Cheng Yu's face turned pale, but Jin Sui didn't force him to answer: "I know that the current Border Town is not worth anyone's life!"
"Haha, the city wall hasn't even been built yet. I, a prince, live in a straw hut, and most people live in tents. You tell everyone to treat the border town as our home and to defend it with our lives, but people will only think it's a joke!"
"Home? You have to have a home first, right? Even we think so, let alone the common people.
These refugees applied for household registration, perhaps because they were jealous of the generous treatment we offered them, or because they were afraid they couldn't survive the cold winter in the mountains, or because they wanted to take advantage of the busy border town and have a formal identity to make money."
"But if the border town is attacked by the Tartars again, they will definitely hide back in the mountains without hesitation and will never sacrifice their lives for the border town."
"I don't blame them, but I hope to use my power to make the people who have settled in the border town truly regard the border town as their home. Maybe it can't be done in ten or eight years, so we can work hard for twenty or thirty years."
"One day, we, the people of the border town, will regard this land as our home. When we encounter an enemy, our first thought will not be to escape, but to protect our home and our families with our lives.
There are border towns in our army, and there are border town officials among our officials. There are no nobles, no rich and powerful, no hierarchy, just farmers, craftsmen, and menial workers...
Everyone can get fair and just treatment in the border town, can obtain civilian household registration, their children can go to the same school, they can eat in the same restaurant and live in the same neighborhood.
Only then can our border town be considered a truly magnificent city."
"This is also the reason why I strongly require them to accumulate enough basic work points before they can apply for household registration. In the process of accumulating work points, they will participate in the construction of the border town and exchange their work points for food. After their own hard work, they will cherish the fields and homesteads allocated to them by the government."
"People have this mentality that they don't cherish things that are easily obtained. The work-point system for household registration must not be simplified, but must be strict from beginning to end. In this way, all the people who obtain household registration will know how hard it is to get it."
Cheng Yu bowed and saluted: "Your Highness has a far-sighted vision and great talent. I admire you! I understand. Your Highness, rest assured that the household registration system will be one of the most fair and just systems in Border Town."
Jin Sui thought that he would soon no longer be the King of Li. Maybe at the beginning Gu Changxiao would follow the rules she set, but there was no guarantee that one day in the future Gu Changxiao would focus on the affairs of Chang'an and would not be able to take care of these trivial matters at the bottom, so the system would change.
She patted Cheng Yu's shoulder with a serious look and said, "The superior only issues orders, and the officials below carry them out. If the prince forgets this matter one day, Lord Cheng must remind him."
There are not many smart people in Border Town, and Cheng Yu is definitely one of them. Yan Jiu can guess who is the real Li King, and Cheng Yu, who participated in the Zheng Yun case throughout the whole process, can also guess something.
But Jin Sui felt that there was no need to tell him the truth now. She and King Zhenli were not enemies. Once the imperial edict came from the court, the truth would be revealed, and Cheng Yu would not have to work hard now.
After all, it is one thing to understand in your heart, but after making it clear, there are two violent kings in Border Town, who do you want them to listen to? Jin Sui felt like he was doing a job handover. After talking with Cheng Yu about the future development of Border Town, he talked with Captain Liu about the infrastructure of the East China Sea.
Needless to say, everyone understands the importance of salt fields. Her emphasis is on building a seaport. Although it is nowhere to be seen now, we have to prepare in advance.
Thinking of what Yan Jiu said about cooperating with Biancheng on sea salt, she talked about it with Captain Liu again, mainly telling him that the technology of drying sea salt was actually very simple.
Don't focus on hiding this technology. Instead, it's better to open up more salt fields. When we have more refugees registered, we will definitely send a group of them to the base to work as salt farmers.
We are cooperating with the Yan family, so it is only a matter of time before this technology is learned by the Yan family. However, we have an absolute advantage over the Yan family, which is that we can do business overseas. Rather than preventing the Yan family from stealing our technology, we should open up new trade routes.
Captain Liu seemed to understand, and he suddenly felt that he was useless, but he was indeed a captain in charge of the farming camp.
Compared with later generations, he was at most the village chief of a large village, but suddenly his status changed and the village became a town or even a county.
As the "village chief", he has to manage farming, the new salt fields, and business matters. He is under a lot of pressure!
Jinsui felt that the only person who could comfort Captain Liu was the village chief of Shijiazhuang. As the village suddenly became a provincial capital, the village chief must be under greater pressure than Captain Liu was now.
She patted Captain Liu on the shoulder and said, "Don't be afraid! Think about why you dared to bring your brothers with me to besiege the city to ask for money. The difficulties we face now are definitely not as great as they were then!"
Captain Liu wanted to cry but had no tears. The difficulties were different! At that time, the worst that could happen was death, but now it was like a knife hanging over his head, and he didn't know when it would fall.
"If you have any trouble, go to the organization, go to Chief Cheng, and go to me. Let go and train your subordinates, train them hard, read all the Thirty-Six Stratagems, and learn how to deal with merchants. Don't worry, we are not short of money now, and things will be easier with money!"
Captain Liu originally wanted to stay in the border town to watch the polo match, but after being encouraged by the prince, he returned to the base overnight to participate in the construction.
The last person I met was Captain Huang of the scout camp. Once the imperial edict came, he would be Lieutenant Huang.
The symbol of our Captain Huang is a black cloth bag hanging around his neck, inside the bag is the telescope that he carefully protects.
At the football match, a young man from a noble family offered him ten taels of silver to lend him a telescope so that he could watch, but he refused.
When Jin Sui found out about this, he called him an idiot and quickly took out ten telescopes from the space for rent during the football games. Ten taels of silver for each football game was like picking it up for free.
Captain Huang had no regrets at all. Could the one he rented be the same as the one the prince gave him as a reward?
Uh, they are exactly the same! "Your Highness, the matter has been settled. The bandit dens have been completely cleared out. The young and strong men have been sent to do hard labor, and the women and children have been sent to the refugee camp. The bandit den is being repaired, and it will be the hiding place for our Black Feather Camp in the future."
Jin Sui nodded: "You did a good job! How is the matter that the king asked you to find the rancher in Northern Xinjiang to buy horses?"
Captain Huang seemed to have suddenly thought of something, and hurriedly leaned forward and whispered, "Your Majesty, speaking of this, I have heard something extraordinary."
"I asked the herders who had come to the trading zone to secretly broker the deal. As a result, several ranchers said that someone from our side was trading with them, and asked them not to trade with other Han people."
The first person Jin Sui thought of was Yan Jiu, and asked hurriedly, "Is he from Yanzhou?"
Captain Huang shook his head: "No, he is from Chang'an."
Jin Sui felt a little ashamed. Why did I think of Yan Jiu? The Yan family didn't raise cavalry and didn't plan to rebel, so how could they buy horses from the people of Northern Xinjiang?
Really, Yan Jiu just wants to poach my girlfriend, and you think he’s a bad guy?
Jinsui felt that this matter had to be told to Gu Changxiao. Although it had nothing to do with the border town, someone in Chang'an was secretly buying a large number of war horses from the Northern Frontier, and it was obvious that they were going to do something bad!
"There's no rush to buy horses. Anyway, we won't be attacking far away for the time being. What about the ranch?"
Captain Huang smiled and said, "The herders are all willing! They give us food, salt and sugar, and they are all willing to help us herd."
There is a large pasture outside the border town. The herdsmen living there in seclusion are neither from the northern border nor from Daxia. They are a bit like the refugees here.
They were a small tribe of foreigners expelled from the northern border, and could only live in the border area between the two countries. Anyway, the grassland was huge, so they would run away if the northern border attacked.
Jin Sui asked Captain Huang to find such small tribes to do business with, and let them herd war horses, cattle and sheep, and then purchase them from the border town.
During dinner, Gu Changxiao came back angrily. Jinsui had never seen such an expression on his face. He was obviously not very old, but he seemed to be wearing a thick adult mask.
He rarely makes lively expressions typical of a young man, and today he looks more like a young man who lost a competition with his peers.
"What's wrong? Team Yanyun is very powerful?"
Gu Changxiao shook his head: "Yan Jiu is too arrogant! Let's not talk about him anymore. Brother Ji, can we start the polo match?"
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