After Zhao Heng sent Zhang Hongsi and his siblings away, he saw that it was still early and decided to go home first. After all, he had not been home for half a month. He heard that the house at home had been rebuilt, and he had also prepared a wedding for himself.

Zhao Heng didn't know what the wedding room looked like, so he decided it would be better to go and see it for himself.

The new address of Baisha Village is five miles away from Zhao Heng's military camp. Zhao Zhikuan merged Shangbaisha Village and Lower Baisha Village and called them Baisha Village. However, even so, the entire Baisha Village only had less than 200 people, so the entire village was moved.

The job is very simple. Those military households don't have any extra property, and some don't even have a change of clothes. They just need to move some broken furniture that has been used for many years into the car and transport it away.

When Zhao Heng saw the new Baisha Village, he realized that he had not been back for half a month and that the entire Baisha Village had changed. Zhao Zhikuan divided Baisha Village into nine squares with four roads, two horizontal and two vertical.

Ten households live in each square, so the entire Baisha Village should be able to accommodate 90 households. However, the current Baisha Village only has a total of more than 30 households and more than 160 people, so it only occupies three squares.

Zhao Fuxiang promised to give each villager in Baisha Village a brick house, but due to limited cement production capacity, only five houses have been built. The other villagers have built straw shacks on their assigned home sites. Although they live in straw huts

sheds, but the five households of villagers who moved into their new homes provided an example for others. These villagers knew that Zhao Fuxiang was willing to fulfill his promise, so although they all lived in thatched sheds, they all had smiles on their faces.

Zhao Heng's new home is at the east end of the village, but when Zhao Heng saw Xinbaisha Village, he didn't want to go home in a hurry. He wanted to see how the villagers were living.

Walking into Baisha Village, the dogs raised by the villagers noticed that a stranger had arrived, and each one started barking. An old man walked out of a brick house, and it was Xu Tou, the elder of Baisha Village.

Old Xu Tou has been really proud of himself for the past month or so. In addition to finally getting a grandson, his son Xu Liu has also been promoted to workshop director by his employer. Naturally, his salary has also increased to eight silver dollars per month, which is already more than a small flag in the army.

More, and the owner had allocated a new house to his family a few days ago, so Old Xu Tou felt several years younger, and even thought about buying a new house.

When Old Xu Tou saw Zhao Heng coming, he quickly chased away his barking dog and greeted him with a smile: "Young Master, you are back!"

Zhao Heng saw Old Xu coming out and said with a smile: "Uncle Xu, has your family been divided into houses?"

When Old Xutou heard Zhao Heng call him Uncle Xu, he quickly declined and said: "The villain cannot bear this title. The eldest young master can just call the villain Old Xutou!"

Zhao Heng did not have as strong a class mentality as his father Zhao Fuxiang. Old Xu Tou said with a smile: "What are you afraid of? You are only a few years younger than my father. What are you afraid of if I call you uncle?"

Old Xu Tou thought of this beauty, and thought to himself: Look at the young master of the Zhao family, he is young and has no airs, he will definitely be the one who will be crowned a marquis and prime minister in the future!

Zhao Heng walked into the yard and looked around. The yard was not too big, only about half an acre of land. On the left was a chicken coop with several chickens. On the right was a vegetable patch where some seasonal crops were planted.

Vegetables, the most important thing is that there is a pigsty built with wooden boards on the right side. Zhao Heng walked in and saw a half-grown piglet inside, eating pig grass.

It is a rare sight to be able to raise pigs at home. Zhao Heng remembered that when he first came here, the whole Baisha Village was really poor.

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, let alone raising pigs, there are not even a few chickens. Now they have started raising pigs, which proves that the villagers have begun to have extra food in their hands, and their lives are slowly getting better.

"Uncle Xu, is this the pig you caught this year?"

"Young Master, we are so poor that we can't afford to raise pigs. These are the piglets given to the villagers by the wife. Each family in the village has been given one piglet and ten chickens. We can keep them at the end of the year.

The second half of the pig will be given to the owner, and the chickens will be ours! Thanks to the gift of the wife, my little grandson has an egg to eat every day, so that he can grow very healthy!"

Zhao Heng knew what was going on as soon as he heard it. His grandma Ma Guilan was born in agriculture, and these cooperatives were similar to the public-private cooperatives of later generations. The public was responsible for providing piglets and technical support, and the farmers were responsible for raising the piglets, so that both the public and private parties could get the benefits.

Benefits. In fact, this is the real business model of the United Cooperative. What Zhao Fuxiang did was just a name, and the actual business methods were similar to those of later generations of state-owned farms.

Zhao Heng nodded, turned around and entered the house. This large tile-roofed house was divided into two rooms on the left and right. It was similar to the tile-roofed houses between old and young people in the northeastern countryside in later generations. The smaller room on the left was old Xu Tou's room, and the large room on the right was Xu Tou's room.

A room for six couples and three children, with a dining room and stove in the middle.

Because there were no lights or glass windows, the light in the house was very dark. Zhao Heng did not go in to take a closer look. He just stood at the door and looked around. The house was made of bricks, but due to the lack of craftsmen, there was no ceiling installed.

, you can see the beams when you look up. There is no white ash on the surrounding walls, revealing the color of red bricks. In later generations, this kind of house with its true colors is definitely a house for poor households, but in the Ming Dynasty, some rural areas

Even rich peasants may not be able to live in brick houses.

Mrs. Xu Wang, who was coaxing her children in the room on the right, heard something moving outside. She came out and saw Zhao Heng coming. She quickly knelt down and said, "Ms. Xu Wang pays homage to the eldest young master!"

Xu Wang is kowtowing to Zhao Heng sincerely. If it weren't for Zhao Heng's mother Sun Jing, Xu Wang would definitely die in childbirth. Therefore, Xu Wang has now become a die-hard loyalist of the Zhao family, even if Sun Jing wants to

Prince Xu would never hesitate to sacrifice her life.

Seeing a woman kowtow to him, Zhao Heng quickly said: "You are Xu Liu's wife, get up! I heard from my mother that your mother and son are safe. Can you take your son out and see if you can!"

Mrs. Xu was now in confinement. After hearing what Zhao Heng said, she quickly went back to the house and took her son out. Zhao Heng saw such a little child sleeping with his eyes closed. He couldn't believe that all babies in the Ming Dynasty were like this.

Small.

In later generations, due to adequate nutrition, it was normal to give birth to a baby weighing six or seven kilograms, and some mothers could even give birth to giant babies weighing ten kilograms. However, in the Ming Dynasty, due to long-term malnutrition among the people, babies generally weighed only three or four kilograms at birth, and some even weighed less than a month old.

There were babies weighing about two kilograms, so the infant mortality rate was very high in ancient times, and nutritional problems were also a major reason.

Mrs. Xu held her son in her arms and thanked her: "Master, my wife not only saved the lives of my mother and son, but also provided my son with an egg every day, so my son can grow so big. This is all my grace!"

Zhao Heng looked at the child, who weighed only four or five pounds and didn't open his eyes. Why did he seem to be well-developed in the eyes of these people? But since he thanked his mother, Zhao Heng could only smile and said:

"Nothing, everything is for the children, children are the future!"

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Zhao Heng came out of the old Xutou's house and visited several more houses. They were basically the same as the Xu family, except that some families had larger populations, bigger houses, and more chickens. However, all the villagers who were assigned houses had a negative impression of the Zhao family.

They are all grateful and will kowtow to Zhao Heng when they see him.

Baisha Village is not big to begin with. Zhao Heng walked around and basically saw everything. When Zhao Heng saw other villagers who did not have new houses, he asked: "Uncle Xu, when will other people's houses be built?"

"I heard from my old boss that building a house requires a material called cement. Now there are not enough manpower in the kiln, so the old boss needs to develop a new machine. Because the eldest young master will get married next month, all the craftsmen and cement are concentrated in the eldest young master.

We are building a wedding house, but I heard from my old employer that the new machine will be put into production next month, and by then there will be cement to build a house for everyone!"

After hearing this, Zhao Heng knew what the problem was. Because cement needs to grind all the raw clinker into powder before firing, the production limit is the production speed of the raw material. His grandfather Zhao Zhikuan said that it takes a worker one day to grind the raw material manually.

To make ten kilograms of raw material, if you use a millstone and livestock, you can only grind about fifty kilograms a day. This amount of cement will be enough to build one or two houses, but it will not be enough for large-scale infrastructure construction.

.

According to the plan of grandfather Zhao Zhikuan, all factories, roads, and employee dormitories in the future will need cement. This cannot be done manually and can only be done with a ball mill.

Now his father Zhao Fuxiang has gone to purchase pig iron. As soon as the pig iron arrives, the ball mill can be put into development immediately. By then, the island's production and construction can reach a new climax.

Zhao Heng sighed when he thought of this. Even cement cannot be mass-produced now. He really doesn't know when his muskets will be equipped. Zhao Heng feels like crying when he thinks that his men can only be equipped with some cold weapons such as swords and spears.

Tears!

Zhao Heng left Baisha Village and walked along the smooth road to the seaside. One mile away from the seaside is Zhao Heng's new home. Although it is a new home, Zhao Heng's home looks a bit like a Japanese turret on TV from a distance.

The new home occupies an area of ​​about twenty acres and is surrounded by a rectangular shape. It is protected by two-meter-high brick walls. There are three-meter-high enemy towers built at the four corners of the brick walls for observing the surrounding situation. However, this enemy tower was built into a cylindrical shape.

From a distance, it looks like a Japanese gun tower.

Because Zhao Heng's wedding was approaching, Zhao Fuxiang asked Zheng Song to hire more than a hundred masons for the construction, so the construction progressed quickly. Now the main building has been roughly formed, with only the interior decoration and the outer wall remaining.

Different from the architectural specifications of waterside pavilions and courtyards in southern China, the new home built by Zhao Fuxiang is of the type of courtyard house in the north. More than 20 acres of land are divided into four parts. The main body is the living area in the north, with three independent courtyards.

Each courtyard has nine rooms, and three generations of the Zhao family live here.

In addition to the living area, which is where the servants live, the servants' living area is built on the west side and consists of three rows of inverted rooms, with a total of twelve rooms. All future servants of the Zhao family will live here.

There are two houses in the south that have been built as warehouses. According to Zhao Fuxiang's plan, some self-defense weapons should be placed here. After all, the Ming Dynasty was not peaceful. It is close to the sea, so it is better to be more prepared.

The east side is the largest area, covering seven acres. This is the experimental field of grandma Ma Guilan, and Sun Jing's laboratory is located here.
Chapter completed!