Chapter 1074: Changes in Yiwu

The next morning, Yun Zheng left Lingzhou.

Thanks to the newly built stone bridge upstream of the Yudai River, their journey was shortened a lot and they arrived at Yiwu almost a day earlier.

"Your Highness! Your Highness..."

As soon as Yun Zheng saw the gate of Yiwu, he saw a man standing at the gate waving at him.

Just by looking at his body shape, you can tell it is undoubtedly Zhang Xu.

When they got closer, Zhang Xu had already run over impatiently.

Following Zhang Xu were Iya defender Zuo Ren and several other generals.

Yun Zheng jumped off the horse and looked at Zhang Xu who was running up with a smile on his face.

Zhang Xu ran up to Yun Zheng and gave him a bear hug, then asked with a smile: "Your Highness, did you find anything?"

"What did you find?"

Yun Zheng looked at Zhang Xu with an incomprehensible expression.

“I’ve lost weight!”

Zhang Xu patted the flesh on his face and said, "Your Highness, didn't you notice that I have lost a lot of weight?"

what?

Yun Zheng was stunned, then looked at Zhang Xu carefully.

“I’ve lost weight!”

Yun Zheng patted Zhang Xu's shoulder and said, "It seems that you have been very busy recently!"

Compared to when they parted in Shuofang, Zhang Xu had indeed lost a lot of weight.

It goes without saying that Zhang Xu has been busy here a lot.

"so far so good!"

Zhang Xu smiled carelessly and pinched his belly again: "I will try to lose another 50 pounds, so that Mingyue won't say I'm fat all day long!"

"Take it easy, you need to take care of your health."

Yun Zheng was concerned, and waved to Zuo Ren and the others who rushed forward to salute, "Okay, let's go into the city first!"

"Your Highness, please!"

Zuo Ren raised his hand and made a gesture.

Yun Zheng looked Zuo Ren up and down and found that Zuo Ren was a little thinner than before, but mostly darker.

"I heard that you built a lot of workshops in Yiwu?"

When entering the city, Yun Zheng asked Zhang Xu with a smile again.

"Yep."

Zhang Xu nodded repeatedly and chuckled, "Moreover, many of the workshops in Yiwu are the high-tech ones that Your Highness mentioned!"

"What kind of high-tech method is this?"

Yunzheng became interested.

Zhang Xu said proudly: "Many workshops in Yiwu use water wheels..."

Because Yiwu is close to the upper reaches of the Yudai River, water resources are relatively abundant even during the dry season.

After Zhang Xu arrived here, he specifically chose a location near the Yudai River to build a workshop.

Nowadays, their refined salt workshops, wine workshops, mills, etc. all use water wheels improved by Zhang Xu and his men, which has greatly improved their efficiency.

Listening to Zhang Xu's vivid description of the conditions in those workshops, Yun Zheng's face was not filled with a smile.

Zhang Xu’s biggest hobby is making money, otherwise he really wants Zhang Xu to be the dean of the Institute of Technology.

Just letting him make money is such a waste of his talent!

After I have a good rest, I must go and see the new workshop built by Zhang Xu and his team.

After entering Yiwu City and sitting down, Zuo Ren began to report the situation of Yiwu to Yun Zheng.

The 15,000 Guiyi troops in Yiwu also did all kinds of things.

At present, they have dug a canal of more than 200 miles, and used the water wheel improved by Zhang Xu to bring the water of the Yudai River into the surrounding areas.

Although much of the land around Yiwu is not suitable for farming, because of the canals that divert water there, some of the originally semi-desertified land has grown grass and can be used for grazing.

They now have people specializing in small-scale grazing and farming. Although they are still far from self-sufficiency, they can solve some food and fodder problems.

However, what surprised them most was that the sweet potatoes here were growing very well.

Especially those sweet potatoes planted on sandy soil grow much better than those planted in other places.

Zuo Ren felt that they could reclaim a large amount of sandy land to grow sweet potatoes next year.

Anyway, there are no major wars right now. If they can reclaim more sandy land and build more water wheels to divert water from the ground to higher places, it should not be too difficult for these 15,000 people to become self-sufficient.

“It’s good that you have this confidence!”

Yun Zheng nodded in satisfaction, and stared at Zuo Ren with a half-smile, "I heard from Dugu Ce that there are many brothels in Yiwu. You shouldn't force women of good character into prostitution, right?"

"No no!"

Zuo Ren waved his hands repeatedly, "Those women are basically those whose husbands have died and have been left with no way to survive due to famine..."

The famine was severe north of the Yudai River.

They can't change much.

Because they are now trading with Xiqu, there are relatively more merchants traveling to Yiwu, so many women from the Dayue tribe have come to Yiwu to work as prostitutes, relying on selling their bodies to make a living.

Some of them who are good-looking and lucky may be noticed by merchants and become their concubines.

With so many secret prostitutes, it was natural for these people in the army to patronize them.

They were all men, and Zuo Ren could understand, so he didn't forcibly prohibit this matter.

Later, because some people in the army were infected with syphilis, Zuo Ren felt that it was not a good idea to continue to tolerate prostitutes, so he opened a brothel in the name of the government and turned the prostitutes into official prostitutes.

He would order people to check the health of the official prostitutes every month to prevent anyone from being infected with venereal diseases.

Later, as more and more women came to Yiwu, some merchants invested money to open brothels in Yiwu, but Zuo Ren also required all prostitutes in the brothels to undergo physical examinations.

Nowadays, Yiwu's "service industry" is indeed quite developed.

"Then why not allow the soldiers in the camp to marry these women?"

Yun Zheng frowned and asked.

Zuo Ren: "There are also soldiers in the camp who marry women from the Otsuki clan. I even encouraged this, but the effect is not very good."

"Why?"

Yun Zheng was puzzled.

The 15,000 men led by Zuo Ren were the Guiyi Army.

The soldiers of the Guiyi Army were basically all foreigners, and these foreigners did not particularly care whether the women had had men before.

Now that there are women coming to their doorsteps, why don’t they marry them?

These women have all run out to make a living, so their demands shouldn’t be high, right?

Zuo Ren explained: "First, many women have children or even elderly people. If you marry one, you have to support several. Many soldiers are not afraid that they can't afford to support them."

"Secondly, our army is only stationed here and may be transferred at any time. The soldiers are afraid that once they are transferred, the women they marry will become someone else's women. In this case, it is better to spend the military pay on wine and women so that they will have nothing to worry about when they are transferred."

"Third, most of the women who managed to escape to Yi's house were not very pretty. Many pretty women were probably intercepted before they even reached Yi's house..."

As a result, not many soldiers chose to marry those women.

After listening to Zuo Ren's analysis, Yun Zheng couldn't help but think secretly.

It's not a bad thing that Yiwu's service industry is well developed.

But the issue of these soldiers' settlement had to be considered.

Only in this way can the process of national integration be accelerated.

After the current crisis is over, we still need to encourage intermarriage among people of all ethnic groups.

In addition, people need to be relocated from the interior and Shuobei.

Originally, this was something they had planned long ago.

However, due to food shortage, the action has not been taken.

The autumn harvest will be here soon.

After the autumn harvest, it’s time to put this matter on the agenda…