Travel through ancient times and become a great hero

Chapter 203 Sima Zhao Raises Private Soldiers

"General Han, you are too polite. This is a drought-stricken area, and the people are relatively stable now. If the drought continues, the people will have nothing to eat. And without money, riots are inevitable."

"Then find them something to do. Earn food and money. I see they are brewing wine on that farm. Keep hiring workers and arrange as many as you can. All investments will be handled by the court. Leave this matter to my guards."

"That's great. But the farm can only accommodate about 3,000 people. And there are no wild grapes left. It will take time to investigate the possibility of opening a factory."

Ye Xiuxiu also surveyed the villagers and agreed with Zimo's decision to open a winery.

Zimo has no money and no connections. He just hired dozens of workers to make wine. If they were all assigned to the farm, there would be nothing for them to do.

"My wife used to run a spice factory when she was in the countryside. So let's open one. It can also meet the shortage of spices in restaurants in southern Xinjiang. We will slowly study and stabilize the people's hearts. The autumn harvest has not yet arrived. Whether there will be a total harvest or not requires further rescue."

"General Han's words have enlightened me. All right. I will go and arrange the next step of the plan step by step."

Charlotte asked four guards to take over the winery.

A grain shop was opened in the name of the government office.

Xia Luo put a lot of rice, flour and oil in the grain shop and sold them to the people at a fair price.

Then he dug out all the yams in the space and put them in the manor.

Prepare to store winter food after the autumn harvest.

There are endless wild grapes in the space. She puts the wild grapes in the underground ice cellar. When she takes them out, they look like freshly picked ones.

Although Zimo was not her child, her quick-witted mind was inherited from her.

If it weren't for his special status, Zimo would definitely be better at business than her.

Seeing the bottles and cans in the storage room, Charlotte was also optimistic about the canning project.

The fruit trees in her space have become a disaster.

It's still possible to make money to help the disaster victims with their temporary difficulties.

Ye Xiuzhi also knows what is going on.

He sent Mo Zicheng and nine other yamen runners to patrol the village every day.

The gambling house was converted into a tavern.

Whenever there were refugees from other places, he would send people to arrange for them to eat free noodles in the tavern.

Then place them in places that are suitable for what they do.

With Ye Xiuxiu's cooperation, the drought in southern Xinjiang has been alleviated.

Charlotte thought of her mother who was concerned about her people.

She and Situ Jin traveled a long distance to the mountains.

The lives of people in mountainous areas are much better now.

There is no need to be proud of how much land someone else owns.

The development of handicraft industry has changed the lives of many people.

Many people of the tribe left the mountains and became small traders.

Therefore, there have been improvements in terms of eating, dressing and daily necessities.

Charlotte saw that the drought here was not that serious because it was a mountainous area with mountains, trees and water.

The market is growing well.

She found the tribesman who was in charge.

Then he threw a thousand kilograms of rice, a thousand kilograms of flour, and a ton of cabbage to the tribe.

One hundred wild boars and one hundred sheep.

I also asked the tribesmen if they had any other difficulties.

These were all brought here by the leader.

The tribesmen praised the leader for his kindness and kept saying thank you. Charlotte saw that everything was normal here.

She and Situ Jin returned to the yamen that same day.

Now some people in Zhuangzi are making wine.

Some people are making seasoning.

There were still a dozen people busy in the grain shop.

Almost all the villagers and townspeople were busy.

There is food, drink, and money to be made. It is relatively peaceful.

Sima Zhao was the eldest son of Sima Huiyan, the Minister of Revenue.

Sima Zhao was previously the governor of Southern Xinjiang, where he committed all kinds of evil.

The common people are suffering terribly.

He has been here for more than ten years and has become accustomed to the living environment here.

When he learned that he was transferred back to Kyoto, he was happy for a while.

He thought it was his father who recommended him to the emperor.

When he returned to Kyoto, he found out that his father's position as Minister of Finance had been replaced by someone else. He also took up a small position as a prison warden.

The warden of the prison was a ninth-rank official. He managed some minor officials in the prison of the Ministry of Justice. These minor officials were not official staff of the court. Instead, they were appointed by the officials of the Ministry of Justice themselves and solved their own salary issues.

So Sima Zhao felt very aggrieved. He was demoted from a fourth-rank prefect to a ninth-rank official, and he was not satisfied.

Sima Zhao's wife, Yun, was named Yunmeng, and was the daughter of Yundingshan, the Junior Official of the Dali Temple.

Yundingshan itself is a very upright person.

He couldn't stand Sima Zhao's fickle behavior.

But the daughter insisted on marrying him.

After getting married, Yunmeng gave birth to a son and a daughter for Sima Zhao.

In ancient times, people had three wives and four concubines. Yunmeng just put up with it.

But as time went by, Sima Zhao began to spend his days drinking and partying outside and brought the singing girl Hong Mudan back home.

This Red Peony is the woman of the bandit leader.

Sima Zhao had a connection with this woman, and it was also the bandit leader who wanted to recruit her.

To put it bluntly, he just wants to get a job in the government.

But there were too many bandits. There were hundreds of them on one hill. It was not easy to make a living in the government.

After Red Peony's pillow talk.

Sima Zhao placed them in a deep mountain in southern Xinjiang, where they practiced martial arts and hunted every day, just like raising private soldiers.

Sima Zhao needed a lot of money to support these people. He only had the monthly salary, which was not enough for his own consumption. He himself did not know how to do business.

At the beginning, Yunmeng’s dowry was sold.

Later, he found that he had no money to pay for Hong Mudan's expenses.

So Yunmeng was asked to go back to her parents' home to get it.

Later, Yunmeng's parents found out and refused to give Yunmeng money.

Sima Zhao beat Yunmeng up, and Yunmeng could not stand it and returned to her parents' home.

After all, there are still two daughters. In ancient times, if the relationship between husband and wife was not good, there were only two options: divorce and divorce.

Yundingshan couldn't afford to lose that man, so they decided to let Yunmeng and Sima Zhao get a divorce. The two children also followed her.

After the divorce, Sima Zhao was scolded by his father Sima Weiyan.

He and the Shaoqing of Dali Temple often worked together.

I felt very embarrassed, but there was nothing I could do if my son didn't live up to expectations.

Sima Weiyan didn't find out why his son divorced.

But I think Yunmeng is not good at dealing with things. She is as stubborn as her father.

His son is handsome, eloquent, and has the rank of a fourth-rank official.

So Sima Zhao married Hong Mudan as his principal wife, and Sima Weiyan did not object.

Little did he know that this woman had bad intentions and destroyed all the good reputation of his family.

After Hong Mudan married Sima Zhao, she followed him to southern Xinjiang.

Sima Zhao was the prefect of the Southern Xinjiang Prefecture. He was second only to the emperor and above all others.

So he took some of the land tax, head tax, property tax, and other miscellaneous taxes for himself over the years.

Because his father, the Minister of Finance, backed him up, he became more and more aggressive.

All his property was controlled by Hong Mudan.

For more than ten years, he has become accustomed to this kind of life of getting something for nothing.

The bandits in the mountains have food and drink and are accustomed to a life of being supported by others.

When he learned that he was transferred from southern Xinjiang, he did not let the bandits act rashly. He thought he would come back.

Keep these people around in case there is any disturbance in the future.

So he has a way out.

Little did he know that even if he did not commit corruption or abuse the power, he had already violated the law by privately training and supporting private soldiers.

He had been in the Ministry of Justice prison for half a month and was beginning to feel a little irritable.

This is not the life he wants.

Besides, Hong Mudan repeatedly urged him to quickly deliver the silver to the bandits.

There is a severe drought in southern Xinjiang. People in the mountains are short of food and clothing.