The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 434
The servants quickly ran back and told Yang Zhen that it was the military households of Wang Xuqianzhai who hoarded land and built castles here to protect the gold mines.

"..." Yang Zhen was speechless for a long time.

The thousand households of Wang Xuqianzhai are actually in Laizhou, but it is very close to Zhaoyuan, probably less than ten miles from here.

But you people from Wang Xuqianzhai can build the fort so far?

Still protecting the gold mine?

The corner of Yang Zhen's mouth twitched a few times. There was no way, he was a military household, so he, the general of Dengzhou, would not be in charge. Let's go.

He reluctantly led the army to the front of the fort.

When they approached, Yang Zhen found that the fort was indeed a bit big. The outside was surrounded by a three-meter-high wall, which completely surrounded the two sides of the road and the fort in the middle. There were forests on both sides of the official road, so after the fort was built, the two sides It's all woods.

Yang Zhen rode on a horse and looked around. The trees in the woods were not densely packed before, but the military households built walls with mud and rocks inside, connecting the trees into one piece. What, I don't know how long these trees can live.

In this case, if there is a large army passing by here again, they must either set fire to the woods on both sides first, or attack the fort directly.

Anyway, it is impossible for ordinary people to pass this way, they must go through the fort.

The perimeter of the fort wall was about one mile, and the main entrance of the fort was in the middle of the road. It was built like a city gate, and there were archery towers on both sides. Sergeants stood on it with bows in their hands, watching them vigilantly.

Their entire army had to go through the gate of the fort in order to pass through this official road.

"Who is the thousand households in Wang Xu's Qiansai?" Yang Zhen asked the people around him.

"It seems to be called Lu Chao." Someone replied.

Lu Chao is a thousand households appointed by the imperial court, and he still is, but in fact Yan Xiong is in charge here, and most of the military households have also been trained into the 32nd battalion (now counted as the Dengzhou battalion).

"This road is over-determined to make money for Ding Yi." Yang Zhen shook his head and said, "This Ding Yi is really greedy, he wants to make any money."

He knew that Ding Yi had taken over all the salt profits in Denglai and many prefectures and counties in Qingzhou and Shandong.

"This guy can really make money." The subordinate said with red eyes.

"Look at his soldiers and horses." Yang Zhen looked up.

All the soldiers will look up with envy.

The two on the watchtower at the entrance are both well-dressed and brand-new military household robes, just like their group of battalion soldiers.

Yang Zhen looked back and saw that among the two battalion soldiers of his, the cavalry was a little better and could dress more neatly, while the infantry were confused, and many of them were not much better than refugees.

There is nothing I can do about it. Yang Zhen is a pretty good guy, he doesn't take money from his soldiers very much, so when Kong Youde attacked Laizhou, his subordinates were willing to use their lives.

But he didn't withhold money, some people in the court withhold money, and his subordinates couldn't get angry with him because they were not satisfied with their salary, so everyone looked like a refugee.

"Let's go." Yang Zhen smiled suddenly: "Maybe Ding Yi will support us."

Of course the generals didn't believe it, why are they raising so many soldiers and horses?
If Ding Yi knows, he must spit it out, you think it's beautiful.

He raised Wang Weizhong and Yan Xiong in Dengzhou with 6000 people in two battalions, and the annual expenditure was close to 20, so it was affordable.

All the soldiers went forward to the gate of the fort, and there were already people waiting inside, because Yang Zhen's servant had been here before and knew that they were transferred from the battalion.

The leader is a hundred households named Duan Chongshan, all of them are old brothers who came out of Xu Dabao back then.

"Duan Chongshan, Duan Chongshan, a hundred households in the thousand households of Xu Qianzhai, the humble king, pays homage to General Yang."

Behind Duan Zhongshan stood a row of people, including the fort chief and two deputy fort chiefs, basically composed of former soldiers.

Everyone pays respects to Yang Zhen.

"Duan Baihu is being polite." Yang Zhen motioned for the troops to pass, he took a few servants and said a few words to Duan Chongshan, and suddenly said: "Can I have a look in the fort?"

Seeing that he was more polite, Duan Zhongshan immediately said: "Yes, of course, I will take the general around."

Yang Zhen saw the fort built at the intersection from the outside, but when he entered, he found that there was something wrong with it.

On the left side of the official road is a military fort. When I approached it, I found that there were faint artillery pieces on it, but not many, and they were tiger squatting guns. There were probably three or four such as Franz.

Opposite is a small river, all the way along the official road, all surrounded by the fort wall.

Behind is the housing, a lot of houses built of wood and mud, one after another connected together, it looks very regular.

His soldiers and horses passed the official road and walked between the houses on both sides.

Because the houses are built on both sides of the official road, and one of them is built next to the river, you can still see women washing clothes by the river.

This is an authentic military household. There will be no women in the camp, only military households.

Duan Chongshan is surrounded by trained people. Fortunately, Yan Xiong recently recruited 3000 people from various institutes to set up a new camp, so some of them are new refugees.

Yang Zhen looked over, there were probably dozens of people in the fort, not many elite.

He asked Duan Zhongshan, how many people are there in total.

Duan Chongshan said one hundred.

He asked again?
Farming outside, renovating the land, Duanzhong Mountain Road, this side is close to the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine, and the mountains are more hard and difficult to cultivate. They are re-renovating the fields and trying to get more fields.

Yang Zhen thought for a while, and said, "I'm afraid that the fields here are not good for growing grain. It's so close to the gold mine?"

Duan Chongshan was very surprised. He probably didn't expect that generals like Yang Zhen would understand this. He thought for a while: "Someone of us has seen it, and it can be planted. If we go about two miles ahead, we can't plant it."

Very professional, Duan Zhongshan thought to himself, but Duan Zhongshan didn't tell him that if they can't grow rice, they can grow soybeans.

"How many fields do you want to hoard?" He asked again.

"Lu Qianhu will give us [-] mu, and we can complete [-] mu this year, and we will have to wait next year." Duan Zhongshan smiled wryly: "There are not enough manpower, and there is not much land that can be cultivated."

Yang Zhendao: "I just came here, there are good fields on both sides of the official road, many fields are left uncultivated?"

"That belongs to your Laizhou. There are owned fields. The unowned ones here have been plowed. Now there are not many unowned ones."

Yang Zhen stared in disbelief, but he was actually thinking, aren't you Zongbing Ding the best at grabbing fertile land and annexing other people's fields?Still don't touch the owner?
Of course he didn't believe it, and Duan Zhongshan was lazy to explain it to him.

Ding Yi has already snatched and swallowed the ones that can be snatched and swallowed, and it is inconvenient to start with the ones that cannot be moved now.

They can only plow new fields by themselves.

Yang Zhen looked at it for a while, and felt that the fort was a bit big, but there were few people. If he really needed soldiers to attack, he could almost capture it with 500 people, and it had no defensive effect.

But Ding Yi asked people to build this fort, which at least has the effect of sealing off the road, and ordinary people can't get through unless they take a detour through the mountain trails.

In the end, he cupped his fists towards Duan Zhongshan, and politely led people past.

After passing this fort, their whole army is still walking on the official road.

The subordinate laughed and said, "Why is Ding Yi planting so many fields? One fort can hoard [-] mu? Be good."

"Maybe it's too much to say." Yang Zhen sneered: "It's not honest to look at the mountains, and there must be more than 100 people in the castle."

The subordinates nodded one after another. There are many houses in the wall of the fort, and there are people living in the fort, there must be more than 100 people.

"If he can really hoard [-] mu, think about it, will he still have it?" Yang Zhen said in a deep voice.

Even if there are 200 people in the fort, 150 mu of land, a maximum of [-] mu, if more, [-] mu can support them.

Let's use another five hundred acres for payment, and then calculate the cost, even if he uses one thousand acres to feed the people in this fort, he will have nine thousand acres more grain.

How much silver is this?

The generals gasped, this Ding Yi really knows how to make money?Using military households to help him make a lot of money?

Everyone was discussing Ding Yi's matter, the whole army had left for less than half an hour, damn it, Yang Zhen was yelling, and the official road ahead was full of fort walls and fortresses.

(End of this chapter)