Speaking of which, the place Lin Hai chose is definitely not a bad one.
According to official records from the Tran Dynasty, this area, originally named Shangba County, was located at the southernmost tip of the southwestern Shu Territory, over 1,200 li north of the Shu capital, Jinguan City. However, about 500 li south lay the important town of northern Cambodia, Chuncheng. The area boasted mountainous valleys and hilly terrain, with long summers and an indistinct season, divided into rainy and dry seasons. Grain was harvested three times a year, and the area was rich in various fruits. Therefore, it was not only one of the Tran Dynasty's gateways to Cambodia, but also a land rich in both flood and drought.
Of course, Lin Hai also compared it with another map in his mind at that time. If his guess was correct, the local mineral resources were also quite rich and had not been discovered yet, which would be of great help to him in the future.
As for Lin Hai's discovery, the history of various countries on the mainland can be traced back thousands of years, but records only exist for the past thousand years. Therefore, the Chen Dynasty couldn't clearly identify the original founder of Shangba County. They only mentioned the collapse of the powerful but short-lived Qin Dynasty, which nearly unified the country. When the Chen Dynasty rose and expanded into the southwest, it took over Shangba County, which was previously administered by the Qin people. While Shangba County of the Qin Dynasty originated from the ancient Shu border state, it's unclear who established it before that.
Regardless, in the latter stages of the last war, the Chen Dynasty, the Liang Empire, and the Xia Kingdom were locked in a chaotic struggle across the central mainland. To gain an advantage in the central region, the Chen Dynasty emptied its garrisons in the southwest and launched at least five large-scale conscriptions, leaving it unable to suppress the southwest. The Khmer, a vassal state of the Chen Dynasty, broke the peace treaty and suddenly launched a rebellion. One hundred thousand elite Khmer warriors, chanting, "Where the cotton blossoms, it is Khmer territory," invaded the Chen Dynasty's southwestern territory. Shangba County, barely the size of a stockade and lacking even a proper wall, resisted for less than a day before it was captured by the Khmer.
The Tran Dynasty, having reacted, rejected the Khmer's peace offer of "ceding the southwest and becoming brothers." It then launched a massive mobilization across the southwestern territories it still controlled, even withdrawing most of the troops defending Tianmen Pass. Then, it proceeded to pound the Khmer. In the words of Tran Crown Prince Chen Yu (who was in charge of the southwestern campaign at the time), "Before, those monkeys were hiding behind the mountains, and I couldn't do anything about them. Now that they've come out, I'll take this opportunity to finish them off."
To put it simply, the Khmer attacked the Chen Dynasty without declaring war and was then beaten badly by the Chen Dynasty, but the Liang and Xia Kingdoms seized this opportunity and raided the Chen Dynasty's rear in the southwest. After repeated tug-of-war, amid the painful wails of the Khmer, two of the three southwestern provinces of the Chen Dynasty finally went to the Liang Kingdom and one went to the Xia Kingdom.
However, even the Liang Kingdom, which took over the southwest, had no good feelings towards Cambodia, but was unable to station a large army on the southwestern border (the only garrison was used to guard against the Chen Dynasty). So it simply included the border areas including Shangba County in the scope of military merit rewards and land reclamation. Who would have thought that the northerners were unfamiliar with the natural environment of the southwest. The land around Jinguan City was fine, but places like Shangba County, after all the trouble, finally benefited Lin Hai.
Lin Hai, who had just settled in the former site of Shangba County, hung a wooden board with the three big characters "Qinghetun" written in charcoal on the south-facing city wall (it was actually just a wooden fence with holes in it, but Lin Hai felt that it should be imposing from the beginning, so he forcibly named the fence a city wall). He then made a plaque out of a piece of wood without even the bark cleaned off, wrote the four big characters "Qinghe County Yamen" in charcoal, and hung it on the dilapidated gate of the former Shangba County Yamen. He then announced that Qinghetun was officially established and would be managed by the Qinghe County Yamen, and everyone could officially start work under the leadership of the county lieutenant.
Of course, it was completely unrealistic to rely on the current few dozen people to clear out the entire Qinghe Village. Therefore, Lin Hai assigned everyone to the third squad of the county town, which was under the jurisdiction of the Qinghe County Lieutenant. He ordered the local chief to lead most of the people to quickly clear out a place for living and working. Lin Hai insisted on this office, saying that it was necessary to highlight their legitimacy. Then, Shi Ming, the twenty-sixth brother who had been a stonemason, found a piece of stone that looked good in the ruins and began to carve the county lieutenant's seal.
Later, anyone in the group who had made great contributions and was promoted to guard a certain area could receive a seal made by the 26th brother himself. Therefore, the seal made by the 26th brother also became a symbol of merit and recognition, known in history as: Shi Mingzhi.
When everyone was busy, Lin Hai took nine sworn brothers with him, calling himself the leader of the Qinghetun Zhuangban militia, and went out of the city to recruit the people who had hidden in the mountains.
This is the scene at the beginning of the book.
Jianshanying, the first stop in the forest.
In the world known to Linhai, it would be a waste not to develop a scenic spot like Jianshanying. As the saying goes, towering and steep cliffs, majestic and magnificent, steep mountains, overlapping peaks, magnificent and spectacular. The mountaintops, alpine meadows and hills undulate for thousands of miles, the sky is blue and low, the air is rich in oxygen and fresh, the forests are lush and green all year round, and the landscape is ever-changing, creating an ethereal alpine meadow beauty.
But now, Lin Hai hated this scenery. Although he had a good idea of the local natural environment, he hadn't imagined it could be this bad. Simply put, all the words used to describe the beauty of the mountains became derogatory when faced with unfinished winding roads and fully fueled off-road vehicles. The more beautiful the mountain, the more difficult the road. Lin Hai set out from Qinghetun early in the morning and hadn't even reached the foot of the mountain by dusk.
Simply put, the mountain will still be as far away from you as it was when you set out in the morning.
The only thing that such transportation conditions can give Lin Hai confidence is that he is now more convinced that there are more people stranded in the mountains. Given the administrative efficiency and governance methods of the Chen Dynasty, he does not believe that all the people in the mountains can be captured with just a few mobilizations.
Well, even in his sleep, Lin Hai hugged his boss's thigh and cried earnestly, promising that as long as he wasn't laid off, and preferably not to have his salary cut, he would work overtime and work whenever he was asked to. All the work was his, and all the credit went to his boss. After that, he went to the company cafeteria for a big meal, replenishing his stomach with the long-awaited oil and water.
However, dreaming is one thing, and what to do after waking up is another.
The next morning, Lin Hai threw away the grass stick that he had chewed into pieces in his dream, composed himself, and called his brothers to continue their journey in the morning mist.
Lin Hai deduced that there were at least 100,000 people hiding in the mountains across the border region. Bringing them down from the mountains and relocating them to Qinghetun and nearby areas to cultivate the land was his primary responsibility as the leader of the Zhuang Squad. Of course, absorbing 100,000 people in one go was unrealistic. Lin Hai felt that with the number of his sworn brothers, he could easily handle at least 500 people in the first batch. Once food supplies were replenished and the first group settled, he could continue to replenish the population.
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