The entire "Sado Island Strategy" seems simple and easy, but without a year or two of reconnaissance and planning, it would be impossible to accomplish it so easily.

In fact, the agency used Tang spies and the spies developed by the Tang spies to thoroughly investigate the three families on the island, and even placed spies in the three families, so that they could see their every move clearly.

The General Staff Office also formulated several complete plans, and even designed three plans for possible reinforcements of the Echigo Navy: blocking, attacking reinforcements, and striking first.

Therefore, the garrison area had already met the conditions for combat, but they deliberately started in the winter in order to wait for the right time and eliminate the root causes.

After all three families were driven out of Sado Island, the Marines brought thousands of Joseon auxiliary police and swept the entire island like a dragnet, finding several thousand who had escaped the net, and then loaded them all onto ships and shipped them away.

At the same time, the construction team braved the severe cold to build docks and bastions in Liangjin Bay and repair roads through the plains in preparation for the formal move-in of the large army.

After the spring came, the personnel who had been recruited arrived in batches by boat and renamed it Lightning Island.

Among them, there were 3,000 farmers and 2,000 miners recruited from the Ming Dynasty, plus 2,000 people from the Marine Police who had arrived long ago, as well as 3,000 civilians and 2,000 Japanese laborers. The total number exceeded 20,000. It was even more lively than when the Japanese were there.

Of course, most of the Marine Police were Li Dynasty auxiliary police. Although Mr. Zhao always said "those who are not of my race must have different hearts", he was more aggressive than anyone else in using the second devils.

~~

After reviewing the coast guard force and delivering an enthusiastic speech to the welcoming crowd, Mr. Zhao was able to enter the city hall to rest for a while.

As soon as the outsiders disappeared, Sun Dawu, who had been anxious for a long time, knelt down and apologized. He said that the reason why he failed to welcome the guests was because he was very seasick. He was not afraid of being uncomfortable, but was worried that he would vomit and make the young master sick.

As the young master's servant, he knew that Zhao Hao was a mysophobe. How dare he stink the young master's nose or pollute his eyes?

"No problem, no problem." Zhao Hao looked at the fat white man, who had obviously lost two sizes of weight, and said with emotion: "If you had told me earlier, I would have asked Guo Da to come."

"I don't know how seasick I am until I go out to sea." Sun Dawu said with a wry smile, "It was okay in the canal, but as soon as I got on the boat at Dagukou, I started vomiting. They comforted me by saying that I would get used to it after vomiting for a while. But who would have thought that I would vomit all the way to Xingang, and vomited all over Old Tang again after getting off the boat."

“Hahaha.” Zhao Hao laughed and said, “Then just write a report and don’t come.”

"How can that be possible?" Sun Dawu patted his chest and said, "Master, I have to complete the order even if it costs me my life. Besides, it won't kill me. We have finally made it to the Champion Island, right?"

"Good job." Zhao Hao smiled and patted his shoulder, and Sun Dawu immediately felt half of his body soften. In fact, Master Zhao had long wanted to give these capable servants sent by their godmothers freedom, but they all refused to do so. It seemed that being the servants of the master made them superior to others, so Zhao Hao had no choice but to let them do as they pleased.

"How is it, Old Tang is doing a great job as mayor, right?" Zhao Hao asked with a smile as Sun Dawu wiped his face and hands, "How much have you learned?"

"Mayor Tang is definitely a capable man." Sun Dawu said with a smile, "During the month of my inspection in Xingang, I was greatly enlightened and learned a lot. Fortunately, he assigned me the 20 municipal staff members, so I was not at a loss when I arrived at Zhuangyuan Island."

"Everyone starts from not knowing how to do something, I believe you can do it well." Zhao Hao wiped his face and felt refreshed. He changed into shorts that were convenient for him to move around in and put on rubber-soled hiking shoes. He smiled and said, "Let's go and talk while we walk around."

"Okay, okay." Sun Dawu hurriedly followed.

~~

The bastion where the city hall is located is built at the foot of the Dazhuangyuan Mountains. Learning from the lessons of the Japanese in building fortresses, this bastion was built on a hillside two kilometers away from the lagoon.

In this way, no naval guns will be able to threaten its safety for at least one or two hundred years.

So when you leave the city hall, you will see the lush mountains. After sitting on the boat for a long time, Mr. Zhao finally got down to earth and decided to indulge in mountain climbing. He climbed several hills in one breath before standing on a rock with an excellent view, wiping his sweat while overlooking the vast Jiangnan Plain.

All the immigrants, young and old, men, women and children, were busy with spring sowing at the foot of the mountain.

In fact, they had only been here for less than two months, but they had already opened up thousands of fields of various sizes along the river bank, which was so pleasing and touching to see.

"The people of our Ming Dynasty are so hardworking." Zhao Hao said with great emotion: "I thought they were still adapting to the environment, but I didn't expect that so much land would be opened up."

"We have to be in a hurry. The land is all newly reclaimed wasteland. We have to hurry up and plant a crop of rice, otherwise there will be no harvest this year." Sun Dawu said with a smile: "Besides, they are planting their own land now, so of course they are very motivated!"

"Yes, the people in the country have not had their own land for generations." Wang Rulong, who was accompanying him, nodded in agreement and said, "Why did we become miners in the beginning? It was because our family had no land. If we didn't work for the landlords, we would have to go down to the mines. Why did we join the army later? Wasn't it because Marshal Qi gave us a lot? At that time, we thought that if we were lucky enough to survive, we could kill a few more Japanese pirates, and when we were discharged and returned home, we could buy a few acres of land to plant crops."

"Yeah." Even Jin Ke nodded and said, "We all think so, but all the land at home has been occupied by wealthy families. You can't buy even one acre without paying several times the price."

"There's no other way. There are too few ways to make money in the country. Besides, there are gains and losses in business. Land is still the most stable." Yan Wu also followed up.

Seeing them chatting animatedly, Master Zhao couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

As expected, the Chinese people’s strong attachment to their land transcends time and space and is deeply imprinted in their genes.

But it is precisely because of this that it is difficult to suppress the impulse of the powerful to merge. Therefore, often within a few decades of the founding of a country, the gap between the rich and the poor begins to appear, and then the rich begin to merge. A hundred years later, the mergers have become very serious, and the gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider and wider.

Two hundred years after the founding of the country, the rich had fields stretching for miles, the poor had no place to stand, and the country had no source of taxation. Once a natural disaster or man-made disaster occurred, the sky would fall and the earth would split, and dynasties would change and the situation would be reshuffled.

This is the two hundred year curse that no dynasty, no matter how great, could escape since the Qin and Han dynasties. If they were lucky, they could last a few more decades. But without exception, they were already terminally ill after two hundred years.

It has been exactly 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty...

Mr. Zhao doesn't think he can solve this historical cycle, but he can give the people of Ming Dynasty the land they desperately want. This is also his strongest weapon to lead this farming nation to the ocean!

This Lightning Island was his testing ground. Although the land of Jeju Island was vast, it was too barren, so he didn't dare to share it.

If the first person who eats crabs says that crabs are smelly, no one will ever eat crabs again.

The Kuninaka Plain on Sado Island was later known as the granary of Echigo. It was free of typhoons and hail, floods, droughts, and locust plagues. It was simply a god-given fertile land. It was definitely a fat crab, and the size was just right.

Young Master Zhao took it out and asked Jiangnan Group and Xishan Group to recruit people to come and cultivate the land. For those who came with their families, each adult was given 10 mu of land. They were also provided with housing and oxen for free. They also provided seeds, farm tools, pesticides and agricultural technical guidance for the first year.

Moreover, before the first harvest, the whole family’s food supply was loaned without interest.

After the harvest, except for paying 10% tax to the city hall, all the harvest belongs to the farmers, and there are no other taxes. In addition, Jiangnan Group will purchase grain at a protective price, and will never hurt farmers due to low rice prices.

The only restriction of Jiangnan Group is that the land cannot be freely bought and sold, because they clearly stated in the contract that they only gave the permanent right to use the land, not the ownership.

Jiangnan Group has permanently given up its interests in the land, so whether it holds the ownership or not is no different from the group itself. This is mainly to protect small farmers, so that those wealthy people who have accumulated huge wealth and have nowhere to release it will not rush up like sharks smelling blood, open their bloody mouths, and annex the land of small farmers.

Of course, land is not absolutely untradable... People always have various situations, such as returning to their hometown, changing jobs, and urgently needing money. Therefore, it is allowed to sell the land to the city hall after ten years of cultivation, and then the city hall will hold a public auction.

The city hall will certainly not offer too high a price, but the group has pre-event regulations, in-event supervision, and post-event audits, so it dares not act recklessly. Because once it is discovered, the price to pay will be too heavy.

~~

As a result, the first batch of 3,000 households were quickly recruited.

In fact, there were more than 100 million farmers who lost their land in the Ming Dynasty. With the golden signs of Jiangnan Group and Xishan Group as a guarantee, Zhao Hao wanted to recruit 30,000, 300,000, or even 3 million households. It was no problem. It was nothing more than expanding the scope of recruitment.

But Gao Huzi was in power, so Master Zhao didn't dare to go too far. Moreover, in accordance with the scientific spirit, of course, small-scale experiments should be carried out first, and then continuous revisions should be made based on the results before promotion.

Therefore, the most important purpose of Zhao Hao's trip to sea this time is to see the results of his experiments with his own eyes.

Seeing the thriving fields in front of him, he was completely relieved. He now absolutely believed that the Jiangnan Plain could become the granary of the garrison and mining areas. It was guaranteed that even if the domestic supply was cut off, the garrison and mining areas would be self-sufficient and would not be out of food!

This is very important! With money, food, ships and guns, you can be invincible!

"Long live the great Chinese nation, long live the great working people!" Young Master Zhao's heart surged, and he clenched his fists secretly and said:

'It is said that God rewards hard work, and the Chinese people deserve the best. If God doesn't reward us, I will!'

So, he turned around and said loudly to everyone: "I have decided. This city will be named People's City. All legal citizens will be called people!"

p.s. I will write one more update.