Deng Ming originally wanted to take a rest for a long time before leaving, but he stayed in Longquan for longer than he expected. After more than ten days of running around, Deng Ming and the guards were already very tired. He didn't feel that once he had a place to rest, his fatigue would surge up. The soldiers at the beacon tower burned water for them, and after taking a bath and resting for a while, no one wanted to leave immediately, and Deng Ming was the same.

In the end, Deng Ming decided to stay in Longquan for one day and wash his clothes by the way: he didn't have much time to clean the work along the way, and everyone's clothes smelled a pungent gutter. After finally washing them, Deng Ming didn't have the courage to get into his clothes anymore.

After sleeping in a rooftop area, Deng Ming felt his waist and legs began to hurt after getting up the next day. At this time, the beacon tower had already reported to Chengdu. Liu Yao, Yang Youcai and Liu Jinge had already received news that Deng Ming and his party had arrived. Chengdu sent a team of people to greet him. After seeing Deng Ming, the envoy led by him reported to him: "Admiral, Liu Shuai has sent someone to Jiange to inquire. Although Jiange dare not say it, there were still envoys from Jiangyou who came back to report their safety yesterday."

"Well, that's good." Deng Ming felt much more at ease when he heard the envoy say this. He and the guards put on their dry clothes and went to Chengdu with the envoys sent by Liu Yao.

When I came to Chengdu last time, there was no one in the suburbs, but the weather was very different this time. After arriving near Chengdu, Deng Ming saw a large area of ​​cultivated fields and could also see some simple farmhouses that were obviously just built.

"Have the capital has reclaimed a lot of fields?" Deng Ming found out that and asked the envoy.

"That's right!" The messenger praised with excitement: "It is precisely because of the admiral's good governance that everyone has diligently reclaimed the land. Now three or four hundred thousand acres of land have been opened around the capital."

"So many?" Deng Ming was surprised and happy when he heard this. The military camps in Fengjie, Wanxian and Yunyang were all combined, which were about 50,000 acres, and they could provide less than 80,000 shi of military rations each year. Unexpectedly, Chengdu had opened up so many fields in just one year.

"Yes, the Admiral saw thousands of miles." Those who came to welcome Deng Ming compliments each other. There was a large plain near Chengdu. Almost all the auxiliary soldiers Deng Ming wanted from Feng Shuangli chose to travel long distances to western Sichuan to reclaim. After arriving near Chengdu, they set fire to burn the weeds and vegetation on the land, borrowed seeds from Liu Yao and started sowing.

In addition to these auxiliary soldiers, some Yunnan people also followed them to Chengdu. These people were all the people brought from Xiying from Yunnan. Most of the people brought from Yunnan were organized by Xiying generals and officers to help them reclaim military camps, but there were always some wealthy people who took their savings to redeem themselves and waived their military household status. After hearing that there were large areas of unowned fertile land in Chengdu, these people took their families to cross the snow-capped mountains and came to the vicinity of Chengdu.

"Please look at the admiral," the messenger pointed to a larger farmhouse and said, "These must be homes of the Dian people. They have family members, so the houses built are better." After passing the farmhouse, he walked a while. The messenger pointed to an unusually simple thatched hut in the distance and said, "At a glance, you can tell that the owner must be the original auxiliary soldier of Jianchang, a bachelor. He is reluctant to spend his energy to build a house for himself. He can only have a place to shelter from wind and rain. All his strength is used to reclaim wasteland."

These new immigrants near Chengdu did not form villages. The large area of ​​land was scattered with their houses, and each farmhouse had a circle of fields. These new fields were like isolated islands in the ocean of wasteland, one piece here and another, and Deng Ming’s guards felt a little strange when they saw it.

"This is not surprising at all. At first, some people wanted to build a village, but later they all scattered themselves." The messenger explained with a smile. Those who arrived here from Jianchang were all thinking about Deng Ming's promise. Everyone was thinking about reclaiming dozens of acres of land. Some particularly ambitious people even thought about drawing hundreds of acres of land.

This was just the first year, and it was delayed some time at the beginning of the year. A male officer would definitely not be able to realize his wish in such a short time, and could only reclaim some limited fields. But in their hearts, the circle of wasteland outside the fields that had been reclaimed was also their territory and did not want to be occupied by others.

If a person who has settled his family sees someone who wants to reclaim the wasteland around their land, he will rush there as soon as possible and try his best to convince newcomers to change their places to live. The most common saying is: "There are wasteland everywhere here, don't you have to be next to my doorstep, right?"

This is indeed true. First, the newcomers are unwilling to have disputes, and second, they also have similar ambitions, so they all choose a place where no one is to settle down. While reclaiming the fields around their homes, they also look forward to adding more land to their names next year.

When Deng Ming arrived in Chengdu, Liu Yao, Yang Youcai and Liu Jinge were already greeted by the city gate. When he came to Chengdu, Liu Jinge was still alone, and now there was a small team of followers behind him, which looked quite powerful.

The scene in Chengdu was completely different from last time. Deng Ming did not see the soldiers who farmed, and the city gates were also opened. There were soldiers standing guard and patrolling on guard.

"Thanks to the 20,000 people sent by the Admiral." After seeing Deng Ming, Liu Yao praised him repeatedly. He told Deng Ming that due to the tax revenue of these 20,000 people, the defenders in Chengdu no longer need to engage in all production activities themselves.

"Is this a small amount of people enough?" Deng Ming was a little curious when he heard about it: "I just heard that I had reclaimed about 300,000 acres of land. Even if 300,000 acres are better, this is only 300,000 s of grain tax. Is this enough for the defenders of the Dufu?"

"Of course not enough, not enough." Yang Youcai quickly explained: "So we still have military camps. We also removed the military household status of more than 6,000 people and asked them to go out to open up the land by themselves. Now there are still 6,000 defenders, and 30,000 stones of grain. In addition, the military camp output is enough for the officers and soldiers to eat."

"Have you collected 30,000 shi of grain?" Deng Ming was a little worried about the livelihood of immigrants, and asked again: "They are new to us, and they have to open up land and plant them this year, which has delayed some farming time. How is the yield?"

"Admiral, our place is the country of Tianfu. Although it has been delayed for a while, the yield per mu is more than one stone." Yang Youcai said that each male has reclaimed at least twelve acres of land. Even if he loses the tax on one stone, he can still have more than ten stones left: "There is one stone of grain a month, and there is still some leftovers for every day to eat. Now everyone says that the food is too much to eat, so he has to find a wife to help him eat it."

"Haha," Li Xinghan laughed: "I can raise a grain of one stone a month, not to mention raising a woman, even two or three can afford it."

"Yes, this is the first year, and the output is relatively poor. If the fields opened this year, there will definitely be no problem if they double the output next year. You can open a few more pieces of land next year. Don't worry, the people around the capital will not be hungry."

"Yes." Deng Ming nodded repeatedly and reminded again: "But even if the output doubles, we still have to collect one stone of protection fee of ten acres. Don't be too much, so that we can encourage everyone to open up the land."

"What the admiral said is that we know what we know." Liu Yao and Liu Jinge agreed together.

When they arrived at the yamen in Chengdu, Deng Ming and others were surrounded by hundreds of people. These people cheered to Deng Ming: "Ten acres per stone, the admiral loves the people."

At first, Deng Ming was still smiling. After listening for a while, his brows frowned slightly. After entering the yamen, he said to Liu Yao and others: "Why are you shouting so neatly? Is it you taught?"

Liu Jinge was the youngest and turned into a blush when he heard this.

"The Admiral saw Wanli clearly." It was still Yang Youcai who jumped out to explain: "I heard that after the Admiral came to the capital, these people rushed into the capital to see the admiral and expressed their gratitude to the admiral in person. After thinking about it, they asked them to shout this so that they would not be able to hear anything in a mess."

"Is that true?" Deng Ming's face was still a little confused: "It wasn't you who forced me to come?"

"How could it be?" Liu Yao smiled and said, "Of course, good governance like the admiral came voluntarily."

Deng Ming looked at Liu Jinge again, and the latter nodded repeatedly: "It is indeed all of them came voluntarily."

"Well." Deng Ming no longer continued this topic. He had seen formalism on TV in his previous life. The mass performance was much more realistic than the ones in front of the yamen today. However, Deng Ming originally had the idea of ​​stopping the matter and did not intend to completely expose it. After all, it is not the busy farming time now, and even formalism will probably not affect the lives of the people. Deng Ming felt that it would be enough to let the generals of Chengdu know that he was not particularly easy to fool, and he would probably not do such tricks in the future.

The food for Deng Ming in Chengdu was very good, and there were tender and delicious pork. Yang Youcai pointed to the piglet and said, "We started raising pigs this year, but most of them have not grown up yet. When these pigs grow up next year, the soldiers will have enough meat to eat."

...

After arranging Deng Ming to rest, Liu Jinge invited Zhao Tianba, Zhou Kaihuang and several others to visit his house. After coming to Liu Ti’s residence, the master asked his personal soldiers to take out a jar of wine and personally put them in Zhou Kaihuang and others: "I know that the admiral doesn’t like drinking, so I didn’t take it out at night. Come on, let’s have a good time to have a drink tonight."

Following Zhao Tianba, Zhou Kaihuang also came with Ren Tang and Mu Tan. Both of them were also good at drinking. While Liu Jinge was urging him to drink, he took out his treasured fruit to entertain guests.

"The life here in the capital is good." Zhou Kaihuang praised. Although the wine that Liu Jinge used to entertain them was just brewed, he knew it was grain wine. When he came last time, he remembered that the land was planted in the city and chickens were raised in the yamen, but the food was very poor, and there was no alcohol. Now the yamen in the city is much cleaner, but there was wine and meat. Several people talked about their experiences since they parted, and they talked until midnight when Liu Jinge killed another chicken to make a midnight snack for everyone.

"The capital mansion has abundant rainfall, fertile land, and everything is planted. It's just cultivated. It can be harvested in the first year. It's really a good place. It's better than the Three Gorges. The appearance of the capital mansion in the past was mainly because there were too few people before, and Liu Shuai, Yang Shuai and others and their subordinates were already desperate and had no intention of producing." Liu Jinge sighed, hesitated for a moment, and suddenly said: "I'm going to hide it from the brothers, I actually have some secrets, but you have to keep it secret from the admiral for me."

"What's the matter? Have you married a wife?" Zhou Kaihuang asked with a big laugh.

Liu Jinge laughed twice and did not answer immediately.

"Even though we have agreed, we will keep it a secret for you." Several guests drank a lot and said loudly.

"This year, 380,000 acres of land were opened around the capital, but we actually collected more than 38,000 stones of grain." Liu Jinge said softly.

"Oh? How much did you collect?" Zhou Kaihuang asked casually.

"I probably collected 100,000 stones." Liu Jinge replied calmly.

"What?" Zhou Kaihuang shouted: "You have collected 100,000 stones? Didn't the admiral say that only ten acres can collect one stone?"

"The admiral asked me to collect protection fees, which was 38,000 stones, but most of these people came here, mostly from Liu Shuai, Yang Shuai and others to borrow seeds, and farm tools, these things must be considered profits, right?" Liu Jinge replied calmly: "It is natural to repay the debt, right?"

"But, then you can't collect more than 60,000 stone of grain, right?" Ren Tang couldn't help but interrupt and asked.

"The city defense of the capital also needs to be prepared. Liu Shuai planned to let these people perform labor service, but in order to take care of their new land, most of them were exempted. Liu Shuai discussed with me that since these people are exempted from labor service, it is okay to let them pay more food?" Liu Jinge spread his hands: "If the capital is not well prepared, what if the Tartars attack the people, where will they hide? Moreover, beacon towers are built in other places, providing sentries, and raising horses, they all need food. Look, aren't the Tartars coming?"

"Yeah, yeah." Zhou Kaihuang grunted twice, lowered his head and said nothing. He wanted to say: The capital mansion not only used food to do this, but also made wine. However, Zhou Kaihuang himself drank a lot today, and he didn't say the blame.

"This matter should be said to the admiral." Zhao Tianba also felt that Liu Jinge and the others were a little self-righteous, but they were short-speakable. Today, Liu Jinge was very entertaining, and Zhao Tianba couldn't speak harshly.

"Actually, it's just this year. When they have seeds next year, they don't have to borrow seeds from the Dufu." When they learned that Deng Ming suddenly came yesterday, Liu Jinge, Liu Yao and Yang Youcai were shocked: After Deng Ming's good news came from Huguang and Nanjing, the Dufu also drank a hot drink here to celebrate Deng Ming's victory. At that time, they all thought that Deng Ming would go straight to Jiangnan and then make a northern expedition, and they probably wouldn't have time to come to Chengdu again to take a look.

"We did make our own decisions, but it was also for the sake of the admiral's great cause," Liu Jinge sighed and filled the wine glasses of several guests: "No matter how much food is planted, if our army cannot benefit from it, what are the benefits for our army? If we cannot defend Chengdu, then is this field for the Tartars?"

No one can refute Liu Jinge's words. Zhou Kaihuang and others here in Chengdu are obvious to all. He has told Zhao Tianba and others who have never been to Chengdu more than once about the ruined image here.

Regardless of whether Liu Jinge and others violated Deng Ming's intentions, Chengdu began to rebuild the beacon and post station system, began to raise horses, produce weapons, and soldiers were patrolling the city gates.

"Okay, we won't mention this to the admiral." Zhou Kaihuang and the others agreed.

"If the admiral heard something?" Liu Jinge said again: "The four brothers also want to cover up their feelings. This will never happen in the future."

In addition to drinking, Liu Jinge also prepared some gifts for several guests. Before leaving, he said that they must accept them. Although not much, each of them also had two taels of gold: "Brothers, this is a little bit of my brother's wish."

Except for Zhou Kaihuang, the other three people met for the first time, but Liu Jinge said that they both hit it off at first sight, so this gift must be given: "Several brothers followed the admiral to fight south and north, and there must be many places to spend money."

...

When Zhao Tianba went to Liu Jinge's mansion to be a guest, a large number of guards from Sichuan Army were also taken to gamble by Liu Yao. Liu Yao and Yang Youcai came to play mahjong with Li Xinghan. Another accompanied by a general with guerrilla rank.

Tonight, Li Xinghan felt that he was very lucky. Li Xinghan, who always lost every gambling, won ten taels of silver in one night. Although Deng Ming had millions of silver flowing through his hands, he did not give the guards much pocket money. It only increased from one tael a month to two taels. The guards who were used to being poor were quite satisfied.

Seeing that he had won pocket money for several months in one night, Li Xinghan couldn't even close his mouth. He was happy and a little embarrassed. When he went there halfway, he saw Wu Baoping and others with a smile on his face. They also said that they were very lucky tonight. Whether playing dice or Pai Jiu, they won consecutively. The more they won more than ten taels of silver, and the less they were seven or eight taels.

After talking about his deeds in Huguang, Nanjing and other places, Li Xinghan casually asked about the situation in Chengdu. After hearing Liu Yao reveal that he had collected more food, Li Xinghan was also a little surprised at first.

"Although there are no ten stones, each male student has at least five stones of food left." Liu Yao said casually while playing cards: "The capital is in trouble and we have to collect a little more. As long as the capital is safe, the people are willing."

"Oh." Although Li Xinghan felt something was wrong, he looked at the silver in front of him and won so much money, so he didn't seem to be able to speak sternly: "It's hard to reclaim new fields, and it would be too hard if he couldn't eat enough."

"It's okay to eat dry food for two months. Admiral is kind, how can we not remember this? Besides, it's just this year. The beacon tower is more expensive when it is built, and it won't cost too much when we have repaired it." Yang Youcai said: "Now there are more than 40,000 stones of food in the treasury of the capital. When the admiral packs up Gao Mingzhan, this batch of food comes in handy."

"That's the same." There is so much food in the warehouse, so it will certainly be more confident in dealing with Gao Mingzhan. Thinking of this, Li Xinghan also felt that it is necessary to collect more.

"When the high thief comes, of course, these foods must be taken out for the soldiers and used to offer rewards to recruit heroes. However, if the Admiral is surprised that there is so much, he will have to trouble President Li Qian to help cover up. After the thief is defeated, we will go to apologize to the Admiral." Yang Youcai said.

"Well, don't worry, Yang Shuai, you know the severity of the matter."
Chapter completed!