Under the deliberate arrangement of Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan, the distance between the ten thousand soldiers from Qianzhong Road and the local people was gradually narrowing. Although they were not willing to risk their lives for the local people, they no longer rejected the idea of being a soldier and doing construction work.
Then Zhang Xiaobao began to buy a lot of pottery from Changning County. After all, the Qianshi Chamber of Commerce did not cooperate with the people sent by Zhang Xiaobao. One reason was that they felt that Zhang Xiaobao was not a reliable person. Another reason was that as long as they signed the contract, the Qianshi Chamber of Commerce would not be allowed to sell their pottery to the north of Hebei Province in the future.
If they wanted to sell, they had to contact Zhang Family and Wang Family and let Zhang Family and Wang Family sell it. At the same time, they had to be responsible for the transportation. If they were not responsible for the transportation, they had to give up part of the profit.
The people from the Qianshi Chamber of Commerce were from Xinluo. In the north of Hebei Province, there were only Khitans and Xinluo people. How could they give up the right to sell their hometown?
The people sent by Zhang Xiaobao found other pottery makers to sign the contract. The content was the same as what the Qianshi Chamber of Commerce had mentioned. The people who were found later did not think so much. The north of Hebei Province was too far for them. They happily signed the contract and sent the first batch of goods to the river, waiting for the ships from Jili Province to transport them.
It did not take long for Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan to receive a batch of pottery. They took the water route and packed it. Even so, one-fifth of the pottery was damaged by the time they arrived.
Zhang Xiaobao did not distribute the first batch of pottery to the people of Jili State. There were not enough. There were too many people. The first batch of pottery was only 50,000 pieces that could be used. If he wanted to distribute them, he could not distribute one piece to each person. At the very least, he had to distribute a set.
Zhang Xiaobao gave the fifty thousand pieces of pottery to the powerful people around and further north as gifts. He gave a few sets to each family and used the remaining pottery to buy the coastal land next to Jili Province. He bought a seaside and did not restrict the local fishermen from going out to sea to fish.
The restriction was placed on trade ships from other places. Any cargo ship that wished to dock had to be approved by the State of Jili.
They were able to get such a place because there were very few trading ships. Even if they had a ship, they wouldn't want to come to a poor place like northern Hebei province. Usually, small trade was done by land. People who were willing to take risks came to trade with people here.
What Zhang Xiaobao needed to do now was to wait. After the people who received the pottery showed off to others, more people would be willing to buy it at Jili Province. He was also waiting for the people he sent to the north to report the specific situation at Mohe.
Although the distance from Mohe to Jiannan was shorter than the distance from Jili Province to Jiannan Province, the journey was very difficult. They had to find places to replenish their food and water supplies, fight with wild beasts, and climb over mountains. The further north they went, the more difficult it was. By the time they reached Mohe, it would be almost winter. They didn't know if the people they sent would be able to withstand it.
For a time, Zhang Xiaobao seemed to be very free. Other than exercising himself, he spent more energy on teaching his younger brothers and sisters. He let Wang Juan take care of all the military matters.
Wang Juan really asked people to build a big swimming pool at the seaside. She also filled it with saturated seawater from the salt field. She let the two battalions who took turns to train learn how to swim. In fact, many people knew how to swim, but it was not standard practice.
Wang Juan's purpose was to let people exercise through swimming. Different swimming postures could train different muscles and improve lung capacity. More importantly, they would have to travel from here to North America in the future.
She and Zhang Xiaobao discussed it and found that it was too difficult to travel from land to North America. Not only was Russia cold, but the road was also difficult to travel. It was better to walk along the coast and go around Xinluo. If they encountered ice, they would let Zhang Hu train more dogs and use them to pull the plow.
Dogs had to be found in cold places. The hotter the place, the more difficult it was to use the dogs. Who knew how much effort it would take to make the dogs work in the snow.
Thus, the swimming training program was decided. Not only would they have to swim now, they would have to swim in the future, even in winter. This way, they could increase the resistance of the ten thousand people coming from the south to prepare for the next year.
*****
As the supplier of pottery, Changning was also working hard. The next batch of goods required by the Jili Province was too much. If they did not prepare early, they would have to pay for the goods.
Li Yu's life had been very comfortable recently. The yamen collected a lot of taxes and all the welfare programs had started to be implemented.
The plan in front of Li Yu today was to find a place with no roads in Changning County to dig a hole. It would be best if it was a deep hole with clay. Then, he would prepare to draw a river and form an artificial lake in the big hole.
He was not sure why he had to do this, but since Zhang Xiaobao said so, he was ready to follow the arrangement. He called Xiao Chong over and thought about the deeper meaning of digging a hole and building a lake together.
"Sir, I don't know. Could it be that we are building an artificial lake and putting boats on it?" Xiao Chong was helpless every time he faced Zhang Xiaobao's plan. He did not expect to surpass him, he just wanted to learn more.
"Who cares? Just dig first." Li Yu thought that Xiao Chong, who was usually very smart, would be able to guess it. Seeing that Xiao Chong was not sure, he decided to do it first.
After choosing a good place on the map, he would send people to dig. He would give them a higher wage and good food. Nowadays, it was not easy to find labor in the county. The common people all had things to do, so it was impossible to expect a person to come over and work for a day with a few copper coins.
The people in the surrounding counties also moved to Changning County. The number of immigrants still could not meet the labor needs of Changning County.
While Li Yu was instructing people to dig the hole, many small boats came from the river. They transported the goods from the big boats to Changning County. The sacks were not big, but they were very heavy. Usually, people who could carry 200 kilograms of grain could only carry one sack.
"Young Master Li, the river here is too small. You have to find a way to expand it. Otherwise, it will be a waste of time." Xu Si, who came with the boat, greeted Li Yu as soon as he saw him.
Li Yu heard that something was sent from Jili Province, so he ran to the river to greet him. Hearing Xu Si's words, he nodded seriously and asked, "What is it?"
"Salt, the worst kind of salt." Xu Si signaled a porter to put down the sack. He took out a knife and cut open the sack. Pieces of black and yellow salt were sprinkled out.
Li Yu saw it and frowned. This salt was too bad. It was obvious that it was not handled properly. He bent down and picked up a grain, put it in his mouth and chewed hard. He spat it out. There was still sand in it. It was bitter and astringent.
He spat a few more mouthfuls of saliva. "Is this sent by Zhang Xiaobao for the people in the county?"
"No, it is to be poured into the lake. You will know when the time comes. One is Young Master Li buying the salt at a cheap price, and the other is my young master using the salt to buy shares." Xu Si explained.
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