Chapter 152: Unexpected News

Yancheng. Read М

There is a wide area east of the north gate, where straw huts are built.

The straw huts are full of people who are half-dressed and dirty.

These people are the people that Mo Yu rescued from the northern barbarians.

Since they came to Yancheng, the government has settled them here.

Every day, they are given porridge here to let them live.

During this period, some people have been allocated land, but most people are still waiting.

Just when everyone thought it was another boring day.

They suddenly saw a green-robed official walking towards them, followed by several yamen runners.

"Come here, come here." The yamen runners called all the people over.

Soon, the official was surrounded by people.

Seeing that almost everyone had arrived, Zou Rong said, "You have come at a good time. His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan is kind and cannot bear to force you to do corvée labor. He has decided to use work instead of relief to give you a chance to earn money. If you are willing, please sign and seal here and wait for the order to set off."

After the Prince of Yan decided to build the bastion, he discussed with his officials in the government office for several days and made a preliminary plan.

After finding all the people, five officials will lead 16,000 people to build a bastion respectively.

Today, they officially began to recruit young and strong people.

"Where are we going?" said a commoner.

"Wu'an County, three meals a day, and one or two taels of silver." Zou Rong said.

The term "use work instead of relief" was taught to him by the Prince of Yan.

It means that instead of letting these people eat the porridge provided every day, it is better to let them work to earn money.

"Provide meals and one or two taels of silver." The commoner in front of him was immediately warmed up when he heard it.

"Really? Fake? They won't trick us into doing hard labor, right?" said a middle-aged man.

He had been cheated by officials before, so he didn't dare to believe such a good thing.

Zou Rong glanced at him and said with a smile, "This is Yan County. The words of the King of Yan are as good as nails. If you don't believe it, don't regret it if you lose such a good thing."

"Yes, this is Yan County. People here say that the King of Yan keeps his word. Okay, I'll be the first one."

"What is this bastion for?" Someone else asked curiously.

"It's to defend against the Northern Di people." Zou Rong said.

This is a secret that cannot be kept. After all, such a large project can be known at a glance.

"As long as it's to fight the Northern Di people, I'll go even if I don't want money." Someone immediately got excited.

"That's right, I'll go."

"In Yanzhou, only the King of Yan is doing his best to guard against the Northern Di people. If we don't go, who will go?"

"..."

The people shouted one after another.

They didn't forget the frustration when they were captured by the Northern Di people.

They also didn't forget the sadness when their wives and children were killed by the Northern Di people.

Before Zou Rong could react, he was immediately overwhelmed by the people rushing over.

At the same time.

The yamen runners posted the notice at the city gate.

Some cavalrymen took the notice to other counties to recruit people who wanted to go.

Zhu County.

As soon as the notice was posted, it immediately attracted a large number of people to serve as officials.

After a scholar read out the content of the notice, the people were immediately excited.

"His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan is good. If it were in the past, a decree would have to serve as corvée, but His Royal Highness actually gave one or two taels of silver every month." One person said.

"It's really hard to catch such a wise king with a lantern." Someone else said.

"The seeds have been planted, and it's a pity not to make this money."

A few people chatted for a while, turned around and prepared to sign up, and saw other people running faster than rabbits.

The direction was exactly the registration office at the door.

They were very anxious and rushed into the crowd, and the door was in chaos.

Some people even wrestled for the first and last.

In less than five days, the people needed by Gongcao were gathered.

When the news was fed back to Gongcao of Yancheng, Zou Rong felt relieved.

It was different to give silver or not.

When he came to the government office, he reported the matter to King Yan.

"Your Highness, the people have been gathered and will be ready to set off in the next two days, but I am worried that the Beidi cavalry will come to make trouble." Zou Rong said, this was his last worry.

"I will give you a thousand soldiers to guard each bastion." Zhao Xu said.

Zou Rong was still very careful, this was a problem.

Although Beidi was defeated, Beidi would send scouts to investigate from time to time before the heavy snow closed the mountain.

The lives of the people who built the bastions need to be protected.

"In this case, I am relieved and will set off in the next two days." Zou Rong was happy.

Zhao Xu nodded and said seriously: "This matter is of great importance and must not be sloppy."

"Yes, Your Highness." Zou Rong's heart tightened, and he secretly made up his mind to do this matter well at all costs.

Otherwise, the King of Yan would not forgive him.

Zou Rong left.

Zhao Xu looked at the paper in front of him. It was a picture drawn with goose feathers dipped in ink.

The picture showed a huge warship with three masts and sails.

The warship was seventy meters long and twenty-four meters wide.

There were three floors in total, and each floor had a small window on the outside.

These small windows would be used to place cannons in the future.

For him.

Now is the time to build his own warship.

After all, cannons will be mass-produced soon, so it is not a problem to build his own sailing warship.

But although there was no problem with the technology, what bothered him was the problem with the talent.

Since ancient times, the North has not been good at water warfare, so its shipbuilding technology has not been very good.

The same is true for Yanjun. He asked Liu Fu.

Liu Fu could not find any craftsmen who built large ships.

This incident made him quite distressed.

He was worried when suddenly Feng'er knocked on the door and came in.

"Your Highness, General Chang and General Mo are here."

Zhao Xu was about to tell them about dispatching troops to Zou Rong, so he said: "Let them come in."

"Your Highness." After entering the study, Chang Wei and Mo Yu bowed and saluted.

Before Zhao Xu could speak, Chang Wei complained: "Your Highness, General Mo and Vice General Mo are planning to recruit new soldiers these past two days. Why did Gongcao's people take away all of them? Isn't this competing with Mo General for the source of troops?"

Mo Yu smiled bitterly, he didn't want to come, after all, he was new here.

But Chang Wei insisted on dragging him along to complain, saying it was too heavy.

Because these people were saved by Mo Yu.

Zhao Xu glanced at Chang Wei and wondered what the two of them were doing together.

So he said: "These people are not for you. Go to Shanggu County to recruit people. You can't recruit all the people from Yan County. How can you restore people's livelihood and collect wool? I've seen a sheep caught. Did you pull it hard?"

Chang Wei scratched his head. He thought that the government officials were deliberately trying to steal people from him.

After all, civil and military forces dislike each other.

If Liu Fu were here, he would go directly to trouble Liu Fu.

Unexpectedly, this was what King Yan meant.

He chuckled twice and said, "Why does Your Highness, the engineer, need so many people?"

So Zhao Xu told him about the construction of the bastion and asked him to send soldiers to protect the people involved in the construction.

"Your Highness is so daring." Mo Yu looked at the five points on the Yanjun blueprint with admiration in his eyes, "If the imperial court had such courage, why would it do this?"

Then he asked doubtfully: "Your Highness, what is an artillery piece?"

"You will know this soon." Zhao Xu deliberately remained mysterious.

Looking at Mo Yu, he suddenly remembered that Mo Yu was from the capital and was often in the army. He might know someone who had experience in building huge ships, so he said, "General Mo, does he know anyone in Dasong who can build huge ships?"

"Giant ship? Your Highness wants to build a navy?" Mo Yu asked.

Zhao Xu nodded, "I have this idea, but I suffer from the lack of such capable people."

Mo Yu smiled, "Actually, there is such a capable person in Yan County, but..."

"But what?" Zhao Xu was surprised.

"This man once supervised the construction of warships for the navy of Ningjin Army in Ningjin Dusi. Later, Ningjin Dusi was occupied by the Beidi people, and the imperial court retreated to Yanguan. There was no intention to recapture Ningjin, so he became disheartened. Yunhai County of Yan County lived in seclusion. His father visited him several times and recommended him to go to the south to supervise the construction of warships, but he always refused, implying that he would never serve the imperial court again," Mo Yu said.

"It's really a bright future." After hearing this, Zhao Xu was overjoyed and said, "Take me to see him."

"Ah?" Mo Yu was dumbfounded and secretly thought that King Yan didn't understand what he meant?