On the sixth day of November in the second year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1629), Lingbei Governor Shi Kefa finally rushed to Chita, the capital of Lingbei, and he arrived at Chita with him. In addition to officials from the prefecture and county, there were also a group of talents. As a teacher of the Confucius School, I arrived with the officials.
Shi Kefa is not only the governor of Lingbei Province, but also the prefect of Chita Prefecture. In Lingbei Province, he is now an officer. There is no envoy or all commanders for the time being. It can be said that Shi Kefa alone has the final say in Lingbei Province. .
When he arrived in Chita, Hong Chengchou had already settled the captured Mongols, 8,000 herdsmen, 1,000 people living in the city, and two settlements outside the city, altogether 2,000 people, and 5,000 herdsmen. Ten villages live in a hundred miles around Chita.
Among them, there is a village in the direction of Hengjiu County and Beiwang County.
Although Hong Chengchou did not have the manpower and materials to build the concrete road, he has sent people to determine the roadbed and direction. These two villages are on both sides of the future road, while Hengjiu County and Beiwang County are hundreds of miles towards Chita. Locally, settlements have also been set up.
As a result, the distance between Chita and the two places was suddenly reduced by two hundred miles.
When Shi Kefa first arrived in Chita, it was already winter. In fact, there was nothing to do. Hong Chengchou specially assigned a battalion of soldiers as his escort. Under the escort of these soldiers, he ran to Beiwang County. , Re-selecting the route of the future cement road, from Chita to Heng Jiu, he has already taken a trip.
Zhu Youjian once said that once the roadbeds of these two roads are set, the construction of one government and two counties in Lingbei Province will revolve around these two avenues.
Hong Chengchou has built a large number of low huts in Chita City. The western half of Chita is now a military camp. Soldiers can monitor the Yashan Pass at any time. The southern part of the eastern half of the city is the government office and the future commercial area. To the north is a residential area.
Li Lun, who had already changed his name to Han, was good at killing Chechen Khan. When Zhu Youjian left Chita, he specifically asked Hong Chengchou to use him rewardingly. He was given a three-bedroom thatched house in the city.
Li Lun’s job is to be a liaison officer. If the herders have anything to help, they can use Li Lun to find Shi Kefa. What instructions Shi Kefa needs to give the herdsmen is also communicated through Li Lun.
In Chita House, Li Lun’s official official position is to join the army. That set of independent thatched huts is his army’s mansion. In addition, he has half a tael per month salary. He is among the herdsmen of Chechen Khan. The only person who got the Da Ming salary.
Li Lun has arable land and pasture outside the city. He usually lives outside the city and takes care of the livestock. He has five days a month. He and his wife Wang Meili must live in the military mansion inside the city. If the herdsmen have anything The appeal must be resolved within these five days.
At the end of November, the Ministry of Industry sent two foreigners to escort a large amount of seeds, agricultural tools and some military rations to Chita.
Shi Kefa worried that the herders ate the seeds and did not distribute them for the time being. He just distributed the farm tools to the herdsmen.
Chita has entered winter, and the weather is already very cold. If there is no hot kang during sleep at this time, it is almost impossible to get up in the morning, but the two members of the Ministry of Engineering and his entourage are dead. But there is no kang. sleep.
Shi Kefa had no choice but to assign them to herdsmen's homes in the city to live temporarily. The herdsmen's homes all have a kang, and the indoor temperature at night will not be too low.
The two foreigners, Mu Zhiyuan and Xu Wenxiu, happened to be assigned to Li Lun's house.
Li Lun’s family took charge of food and drink, and the silver taels needed for food and drink. After Mu Zhiyuan and Xu Wenxiu left, the Chita Mansion settled them together.
Because there were no idlers at home, Wang Meili served Mu and Xu personally, and also used half-Mongolian and half-Chinese language to let them eat and drink well.
Mu and Xu have been on the road for more than two months, and they haven’t even encountered a female rabbit along the way. Now that they see Wang Meili, a certain desire in their hearts has been awakened. Looking at Wang Meili’s eyes, they gradually became a little bit free.
Wang Meili is nearly 30 years old, but he looks good, but his waist is thicker, like the bucket as thick as the upper and lower sides, and then covered in Mongolian robe, he looks more sturdy. With such a strong body, he is good at work, but he is Not too eye-catching.
Mu Zhiyuan and Xu Wenxiu got their eyes right. They were in a hurry to seek medical attention. Just after dinner, they pestered Li Lun to ask questions, and Li Lun always answered their questions carefully. In front of the officials, Li Lun definitely did not dare to guess wildly.
Mu Zhiyuan was anxious: "I said Li Jianjun, are there any women here?"
"Woman?" Li Lun still didn't know it. He pointed his finger at Wang Meili who was cleaning up bowls of chopsticks. "Isn't this a woman? She cooks all your meals."
Xu Wenxiu cursed in his heart, he is not the wife of Li Lun, Li Lun can find other women, as long as they are not weaker than Wang Meili: "Li Canjun, we are asking, are there any women with Ondol?"
"The warm kang?" Li Lun was puzzled: "There is a wood brazier under the kang. The upper kang is always warm...beautiful. Has the wood brazier risen?"
The two had to smile bitterly. Seeing that Li Lun was really puzzled, they had to confess: "Li Junjun, we want to find a woman to sleep with. Do you have one here?"
"The sleeping woman?" Li Lun finally understood. It seems that these two Ming officials were beating his wife's idea. His eyes instantly turned red: "What do you mean?"
Seeing that the momentum was wrong, Xu Wenxiu quickly added: "We pay the money!"
"Silver?" Li Lun frowned: "What the hell do you mean? Just say it if you have anything."
Mu Zhiyuan saw that Li Lun didn't know anything about this kind of thing, and then he remembered that he was a Mongolian, "You find us a woman to accompany you to sleep with, and we will pay you the money, fair trade."
"Silver? How much silver?" Li Lun, no matter what fair trade, heard about the silver, his eyes suddenly showed a greedy light, and it flashed away.
"How much do you need?" It was the first time for Xu Wenxiu to come to a place as far away as Lingbei. He was afraid that he would suffer a loss, so he asked the other party to say a price first.
"How much can you afford?" It was the first time Li Lun encountered such a thing, and he was not sure how much money he needed.
"Thirty articles!" Xu Wenxiu stretched out three fingers.
"Thirty wen?" Li Lun calculated that his salary is only half a tael per month, which is five hundred wen, and an average of only seventeen wen a day. This is 30 wen if you sleep for one night, which is about to catch up to two days. Salary, is it so easy to get money
When Xu Wenxiu saw that Li Lun was silent, he thought he was too young, so he added a little more: "Fifty essays!"
"Fifty articles?" Li Lun was even more surprised. This was worth his three-day salary. Did the pie fall from the sky, or was the Han too rich
Mu Zhiyuan guessed that Li Lun was a little loose. "We each have fifty essays, and two of us are 100 essays. If you don't want to, you can pull it down.
"Okay, okay, one hundred essays, it's OK, just one night." Li Lun was afraid that the pie would become a rock to his head, he hurriedly agreed: "Just let Wang Meili be with you at night, and I will tell her ."
Not long after Li Lun left, he returned and came back. The matter was settled, but Li Lun must pay Mu Zhiyuan and Xu Wenxiu first.
"We usually go to bed first, and then pay the money when we get up in the morning. How can we pay the money first if a woman hasn't touched it?" Mu Zhiyuan's voice was not much worse than Li Lun's.
"No, you have to pay the money first," Li Lun flatly refused, "I only have one hot kang in my house. I have to go to sleep elsewhere at night. If you run away in the morning, where can I find you?"
"We are from the Daming Ministry of Industry. Now we are here to work in Chita Mansion. If we run away, you can go to the mansion to find us." Xu Wenxiu also refused to give in. He was also worried that Li Lun would take the money and release his pigeons. .
"Go to Chita Mansion to find you? Do I dare?" Li Lun still refused to give in. Only when he saw Yinzi, his heart would be at ease.
"Okay, let's pay the money first." Mu Zhiyuan patted Xu Wenxiu on the shoulder and signaled him to stop bargaining. "Li Canjun, you said just now, would you go to sleep elsewhere at night?"
"Yes, am I watching from the side?" Li Lun saw Mu Zhiyuan agree to pay the silver, and temporarily liked him.
"Well, if you get the silver, leave it, and leave it to us." Mu Zhiyuan took out a string of copper coins from his sleeves, counted a hundred wen, and gave it to Li Lun.
Li Lun's eyes flashed suddenly, he put on the copper coin, took a pair of children, and went out of the city overnight while it was still dark.
"Father, it's getting dark, where are we going?" Li Lun's 12-year-old daughter, Li Juan, shrank her neck from the cold. She didn't understand. It was dark, why did her father drive him out of the hot kang. .
"Juan'er, we are returning to our home outside the city. Today there are guests from the city." Li Lun speaks well in Chinese. His family has been fully Sinicized, and even the names are all Han Chinese. This is why Shi Kefa Trust with Hong Chengchou.
"Father, why don't you let the guests live outside the city?" Li Lun's eight-year-old son Li Yong shivered. He was also very dissatisfied with the fact that his father was driven out of the hot bed.
"Yong'er, the guest doesn't know the road outside the city, besides, the guest paid the money." Li Lun took Li Yong's little hand, feeling that his little hand was cold, and rubbed it in his palm.
"Can I live in the city after paying the money? Then we don't need his money." Li Yong was still young and didn't know what the money was.
"Children's house, don't talk nonsense. Money can buy a lot of cattle and sheep." Li Lun originally wanted to say that money could buy you a woman-in-law. Thinking about Li Yong's young age, he replaced it with a tangible cow. sheep.
"Father, what about my mother?" Li Yong just stopped, and Li Juan asked again.
Li Lun was embarrassed, but fortunately he couldn't see his face clearly in the night, "Your mother wants to cook for the guests."
"Cooking for the guests? What shall we do?" Li Juan pursed her small mouth and twisted her body twice.
"Juan'er, don't worry, Dad will cook for you."
The three of them stopped talking, and Li Lun held one in one hand and walked towards his yurt along the path outside the city.
When he approached his yurt, Li Lun saw that there was a yurt on the side of the road with lights on.
"Isn't this a yurt at my brother's price? It's so late, so the lights are still on?"