The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 836 Danshui New County (Part 1)

Starting around October, the first batch of 40,000 Baekje prisoners of war arrived on Ryugu Island, where they cut down trees and thorns, drove away poisonous insects and wild beasts, leveled the land, and built roads.

They were located in the northern part of Ryuchiu Island, close to the north bank of the Tamsui River.

Following this, a second batch of 60,000 Silla laborers also arrived on the island. They were also responsible for developing the north bank of the Tamsui River. The Sui Dynasty concentrated manpower and resources and completed the initial development of the northern part of the Tamsui River in six months.

The banks of the Tamsui River are lined with endless primeval forests. The weather here is hot and rainy, and the plants grow lushly. Above are tall trees, in the middle are thick vines intertwined, and below are all kinds of thorns and weeds, some of which are even taller than a person. In the soil, there are all kinds of poisonous insects such as snakes, centipedes, and scorpions.

Such an environment is enough to make one's scalp tingle, but under the expulsion of the Sui army, the 40,000 prisoners of war had no choice but to grit their teeth and cut down the forest. They worked for a whole month and only advanced about five miles of land, but at the cost of nearly 700 deaths.

However, at the beginning, there were more deaths. As the project continued to move forward, the prisoners of war became more experienced. They learned how to deal with poisonous insects and snakes, and the number of deaths decreased, and the progress began to accelerate.

The same applies to the areas managed by the Silla people. At first, the Silla laborers lacked experience, and many people were bitten to death by venomous snakes. However, as time went on, the mortality rate dropped rapidly, and the development efficiency improved. Unlike at the beginning, when the appearance of a venomous snake would frighten hundreds of people into running away, later on, a single farmer could kill dozens of venomous snakes.

But the main reason was the discovery of a sulfur mine. People collected sulfur, ground it into powder, carried it with them, and scattered it in the grass, which was very effective in repelling poisonous insects.

That morning, hundreds of large boats sailed into the Tamsui River and docked. Countless short men disembarked, and two boats carried women who had put on makeup.

These are Japanese farmers recruited from Kyushu, a total of 50,000 people, paid 10 mon a day. This price is undoubtedly high for Japanese people who pay 2 or 3 mon a day, and they are eager to sign up.

He also recruited more than 600 former prostitutes in Nagasaki, sending them to Ryukyu to make the most of their remaining time and earn some money for their retirement.

Japanese farmers were responsible for firing bricks to build the city, constructing roads and wharves, and digging up tree roots. A total of 150,000 laborers worked on the north bank of the Tamsui River. Three large camps stretched for twenty miles and were guarded by 10,000 Sui soldiers.

The entire north bank of the Tamsui River has become a huge construction site, with hundreds of thousands of people working enthusiastically and vigorously, and large tracts of flat land are gradually taking shape.

At the same time, a campaign to speak one sentence of Chinese every day was quietly launched among the laborers. As long as they could speak more than a thousand sentences of Chinese in two years, communication would not be a problem.

When they return to China, they will be able to obtain the household registration of overseas subjects of the Sui Dynasty, and will receive huge benefits in terms of taxes and land.

Everyone understands these principles. Apart from a few individuals who are somewhat resistant, the rest of the people, whether from Silla, Baekje, or Japan, are actively learning to speak Chinese. The laborers communicate with each other every day to enhance their memory.

..........
Time flew by, and it was February of the following year. At the Minxian dock, 1,500 households of people from the Sui Dynasty, young and old, began to board the ship. This was the first group of people who voluntarily went to Liuqiu to live. They were mostly slaves who had just gained their freedom. They all wanted to start a new life in a foreign land. When they learned that the court was recruiting people to live on Liuqiu Island, the conditions offered made everyone's hearts flutter.

Each household will receive one mu of residential land, one hundred mu of permanent land, tax exemption for a hundred years, one cow and one donkey, and children can attend school for free. Each household is guaranteed an annual income of one hundred guan.

With such favorable conditions, it was undoubtedly the landlord's family's choice. The number of people signing up was very enthusiastic, and soon it exceeded five thousand households. Five thousand five hundred households would go in three batches over two months.

The first batch of 1,500 households were selected, and they set off with their families, assets, and hopes for the future.

Two days later, more than a dozen large ships slowly sailed into the Tamsui River. The people standing on the deck saw the boundless fields and the towering county town, and they couldn't help but cheer.

150,000 laborers were transferred to the south bank of the Tamsui River for development, while the north bank of the Tamsui River had been initially developed. A piece of land, fifty li wide from north to south and thirty li deep from east to west, was opened up, and a county town with a circumference of twenty-five li was built. The army used the trees cleared to build thousands of wooden houses, and also enclosed courtyards for each household and dug wells.

Wang Xiu, the first magistrate of Danshui, along with Li Qiong, the county lieutenant, and Wei Chaoran, the chief clerk, were already standing at the city gate to welcome the first batch of county residents.

On the way, the people had already drawn lots. Each household took a lot and received a key from the county officials. Led by a soldier, they entered the county town to go to their new home.

More than a hundred households in this group of people came from Qinghe County, Wudu Prefecture, Hebei Province. They were slaves released by the Cui family of Qinghe, and many of their families had intermarriages.

Among them was a young man named Kang Youfu, who was very strong. He and his brother Kang Youwu signed up together and brought their wives and children to Liuqiu. They each had a son and a daughter, and the children were all under ten years old.

The two families drew the same lot and ended up in the third ward. There are twelve wards in the whole county, with three hundred households in each ward, for a total of three thousand six hundred households. This time, one thousand five hundred households were divided into five wards.

A dozen or so other shops also came along, mainly operating general stores, fabric shops, taverns, grain and oil shops, meat and vegetable shops, pharmacies, and so on.

The eight members of the Kang brothers' families quickly found their new homes. Kang Youfu's house was number 174, and Kang Youwu's house was number 161, which were right across from each other, less than fifty steps apart.

Kang Youfu opened the courtyard gate, and the two children rushed in cheering. Kang Youfu put his arm around his wife's shoulder, and the two of them couldn't help but cry tears of joy.

A year ago, they were still slaves of the Cui family, farming on the estate and living in low thatched huts. The whole family squeezed into a dark little house. Although they were later freed from slavery and became tenant farmers of the Cui family, renting eighty acres of land, little had changed.

The main problem is that they still live in slave quarters, crammed together with hundreds of other families in dark, dilapidated shacks. They still have to bow and scrape before their masters, and their children are still discriminated against.

Kang Youfu realized that he and his children had to leave the Cui family in order to stand up straight as human beings; otherwise, their descendants would never be able to escape the shadow of slavery.

It turned out he made the right choice. Although it was far from Hebei, they had their own house and a large courtyard, covering an acre! The Cui family, who had enslaved them for decades, would never be seen again.

The couple walked around the yard, considering raising a few chickens here, planting a vegetable patch there, and Kang Youfu also wanted to plant a persimmon tree, but they didn't know if it could grow there.

The couple only entered the room hand in hand when their child called them from inside.

In the afternoon, the two Kang brothers sat in the courtyard discussing something. Their stools were tree stumps. There are many large tree roots outside the city. After sawing off the roots, the remaining tree stumps become natural stools.

"In Ryukyu, we can only grow rice, two seasons a year, with a yield of about 500 catties per mu. But I heard that the imperial court has decided to let us grow sugarcane here, with a yield of 3,000 plants per mu. Even if each plant is worth one coin, we can earn 3 guan. 100 mu would be 300 guan. It is said that we can grow it twice a year, and we can be guaranteed to earn at least 500 guan."

Kang Youfu jumped up, "Are you sure you didn't miscalculate? Five hundred strings of cash a year?"

Kang Youwu laughed and said, "Even if it's only one harvest a year, we can still earn two hundred strings of cash a year. We just need to sell to the government. In the autumn, the government will organize everyone to pick kapok peaches. The whole family can go together, and each person can earn several dozen strings of cash in one autumn. This is what Magistrate Wang said. He came to my house for a discussion this afternoon. I sent Xiao Sanlang to find you and told him that you went outside the city to collect tree stumps."

Kang Youfu listened with longing, exclaiming, "This is just like a dream!"

(End of this chapter)