Shouguang County is located in the lower reaches of the Juyang River, facing Laizhou Bay. It is a city with a long history. The land is fertile, rich in resources, lush forests, and outstanding people. The Juyang River, which is dozens of feet wide, flows through the west of the city and directly injects into the Bohai Bay. The water is deep and gentle. In the past few hundred years, Shouguang County has been the largest shipbuilding county in Beihai County.▲∴▲∴,

Because Beihai County is close to the mouth of the Yellow River and Laizhou Bay, the shipbuilding industry has been very active since ancient times. When the shipbuilding industry was at its peak, at least 20% of the population in the county participated in the shipbuilding industry.

However, in the three Battles of Goguryeo, tens of thousands of shipbuilders in Beihai County were transferred to Beiping County to participate in shipbuilding. The labor was heavy and the losses were heavy. In the end, less than 20% of the craftsmen returned to their hometowns, which brought a heavy blow to Beihai County's shipbuilding industry.

In addition, the riots and bandits rampantly, people from all counties fled to Yidu and Linzi, and the rest of the counties became empty cities. In just a few years, the shipbuilding industry in Beihai County was almost completely abandoned.

Shouguang County is not big, with a circumference of about fifteen miles. It was once abandoned for three years. Like other counties in Beihai County, starting from the beginning of spring this year, people have moved back to Shouguang County one after another. Smoke and figures of cooking fires began to appear in the county town. There was even a grocery store and a small tavern next to the south gate.

The county magistrate of Shouguang County was surnamed Jiang. It turned out that he was the magistrate of Shouguang County. It turned out that the county magistrate fled back to his hometown due to war and had no news. The county magistrate Jiang was from Linzi County. After Zhang Xuan stationed in Beihai County, he was one of the first officials to come back to report and was temporarily appointed as the magistrate of Shouguang County by Zhang Xuan.

The magistrate of Jiang County was about forty years old and had a small beard. He was always serious in his work. He was not tall and slightly thin, but he was very energetic. When he heard that the general was coming, he rode a mule out of the city for ten miles to greet Zhang Xuan.

"General, that fertile land has just been reclaimed!"

Zhang Xuan looked along the large farmland he pointed at. He saw a group of farmers in groups of three or three in the field in the distance, and smiled and said, "It seems that there are not many people!"

"Report to the general, many people still rent land near Yidu County and Linzi County. They take time to come here to reclaim land. They have to fertilize and replant the land first, so that they can't replant the grain next year. This kind of thing cannot be rushed, and they have to take it slowly."

"It makes sense!"

Zhang Xuan asked again with a smile: "Who is the land?"

"Basically, they are all their own land. Now the land that has been reclaimed and cultivated has been clearly defined. But there are still a large number of unbordered lands, such as there!"

County Magistrate Jiang pointed to a large area of ​​land that was endless in the distance, with tens of thousands of hectares of land. It was close to the Juyang River and was very convenient to irrigate.

He smiled bitterly and said, "There are all lands there, and they are temporarily collected as official land. After the owner comes back, he will confirm the land deed. However, I estimate that at least half of them are homeless land. I plan to rent them to Qinghe County immigrants to reclaim them, and rent them out the land with the lowest rent. In recent years, all my thoughts have probably been restoring the fertile land."

Zhang Xuan nodded in praise, "This is the official who does practical things. Food is the most important thing for the people. Food is also the foundation of the army. Only when food is abundant can the people not rise up and rebel, and the army can be strong. If Shouguang County is well managed, the magistrate Jiang will have a bright future!"

"Thank you for your praise, General."

County Magistrate Jiang hesitated for a while and said, "In addition, the county government is really short of people. Can the general add some staff to the low-level position?"

Zhang Xuan laughed, "The shortage of people is not only a problem for you, but all counties are calling for shortage of people, but don't worry. There are so many scholars who can't find anything to do now. Wei Changshi and Wang Taishou are already working on this matter, and someone will come to you to report it soon."

As the two of them said, they walked into the south city gate. Shouguang County, like other counties in Beihai County, had two hundred militia troops. Leaded by a deputy lieutenant, and the army was stationed in the army, which gave ordinary people a great sense of security. The army was mainly responsible for guarding the city gate and maintaining local public security, and generally did not care about the matters in the county.

Although Zhang Xuan was in Shouguang County for the first time, he was very familiar with the situation in the county town. Almost every county was the same. It was a tragic phenomenon after being severely looted. There were dilapidated houses everywhere, and slightly decent houses were burned, and blackened broken walls could be seen everywhere.

But now there is a trace of vitality. You can hear ding dong dong everywhere in the city. People are looking for available building materials, bricks, tiles, wood, bluestone and other building materials piled up on the street, and a child is guarding them next to them.

A new small wine shop was opened next to the south city gate. The wine banner read the four big words "Juyang wine shop". The business was pretty good, and the wine shop was full of chattering wine shops.

A small grocery store opposite the street, which has just opened. The sign says 'Wang Ji Grocery Store'. In the shop, a couple are busy setting up goods on the shelves. Several old men squeezed in front of the door to select farm tools.

However, the county government disappointed Zhang Xuan. Half of the original county government was burned down, leaving only the gate and half of the main hall. The slightly usable parts were circled with mud walls around it, like a small land temple.

Zhang Xuan originally planned to go to the county government to rest and drink some water, but when he saw that the county government was small and broken, he had no intention of doing so, so he said, "Just go directly to the boat yard!"

Everyone accelerated their horses and left the north gate and rushed to the shipbuilding workshop ten miles north of Shouguang County.

Shouguang Shipbuilding Factory was originally one of the three major shipbuilding workshops in Qingzhou. At its peak, there were tens of thousands of shipbuilders. The shipyard stretched for more than ten miles. It could build hundreds of thousands of dragon boats every year, which could navigate the sea. It also built hundreds of other miscellaneous boats every year.

But such a huge shipyard was burned by Wang Bo's rebel bandits at the beginning of the eighth year of Daye. Now it has become a wasteland overgrown with weeds. Only some huge keels burned into charcoal also indicate that this place was once a busy shipyard.

The reason why Zhang Xuan came to Shouguang was to inspect this former shipbuilding factory. The shipyard in Zhua County, Qi County had been completely destroyed, while the shipyard in Jimo County, Gaomi County was relatively small, and of course it was also burned down by a fire. Only the shipyard in Beiping County was completely preserved along the northern coast.

For the Beihai, Donglai and Gaomi counties, which are both coastal and close to the mouth of the Yellow River, the importance of shipping is self-evident. Zhang Xuan started collecting ships from the public since last year. So far, he has only collected 300 small boats, with a maximum carrying capacity of only 500 stones. He can only navigate in the inland rivers and cannot enter the sea at all.

More importantly, Zhang Xuan hopes to restore the shipbuilding capabilities of Beihai County, which has a huge boost to the economic recovery of Beihai County and even the Qingzhou area. Moreover, there are still a large number of experienced shipbuilding craftsmen in Beihai County. Once the shipbuilding is started, the wish of a large ship entering the sea can be realized within two or three years.

However, the restart of shipbuilding in Beihai County did not start after Zhang Xuan intervened. As early as the beginning of last year, Zhang Xutuo began to consider building shipbuilding and transporting grain in Beihai County, but for various reasons, this plan has been stranded to this day.

Although Zhang Xutuo's Beihai shipbuilding plan has not been implemented, it has not been of no use at all.

At this time, Zhang Xuan saw a large lonely wooden house covering several acres in the distance.

To be precise, the big wooden house is a warehouse, which is the only result of Zhang Xutuo's shipbuilding plan.

Dozens of cavalrymen turned over and dismounted. Only then did Zhang Xuan find that there was a circle of walls around the warehouse, which were filled with various shipbuilding materials, covered with oil cloth, and two big dogs in the yard were howling fiercely at them.

At this time, a fifty-year-old man walked out of the warehouse. He had a medium-sized figure but very strong skin, and his skin was like black charcoal. He recognized Zhang Xuan and hurriedly came out.

"The villain Zhou Ling participated in General Zhang!" He bowed deeply to Zhang Xuan.

At this time, the magistrate Jiang chased after him with panting. He came down from the mule and walked up to Zhang Xuan and introduced him: "This is what Guan Shi, the former manager of the yard. He has been in charge of the yard affairs since the third year of Daye. He is also a local from Shouguang County."

Zhang Xuan had seen the plan to restore the shipyard left by Zhang Xutuo, and mentioned the Manager Zhou above. Zhang Xuan smiled and said, "You are the person arranged by Mr. Zhang!"

"It's the villain."

Zhou Ling sighed, "At the beginning of last year, Marshal Zhang asked me to restore the shipyard, but later the money and food were tight, and there was no news about the restoration of the shipyard. I have been waiting here for more than a year."

"You will be busy in the future."

Zhang Xuan smiled and strode into the yard. Two big dogs pounced on him. Zhou Ling roared, and he was so scared that he whimpered back to the corner of the house.

"General, don't blame me. Recently, someone came to steal wood at night, thanks to these two dogs."

Zhang Xuan walked to the highest pile of materials and lifted up the oil cloth covering the material. The bottom was full of complete wooden boards, mostly one or two meters long, very dry, and it was obvious that they were well protected.

"General, this is all the boards of a three thousand stone five-tooth warship. It is naturally dry and can be used at any time, but it's a pity that there is no keel."

"I remember the Five-Tooth Warship was not built in Bashu?" Zhang Xuan asked in confusion.

"It was built in Bashu in the early days, but later it was also built in the north, mainly the Beiping County Shipbuilding Factory and our Beihai County Shipbuilding Factory."
Chapter completed!