For three consecutive days, Lin Bai spent his daytime at the Hekou Caotang handling official business and taking a big nap. After dusk, he would take a light boat to the training camp on the east beach of Yu Island to discuss with others the countermeasures for occupying the Xisha Islands. Apart from many other things, it was also decided to secretly relocate some "non-leaking" Changshan islanders to the Xisha Islands.

  What is meant by "not leaking secrets" here refers to two types of people: one type is reliable and trustworthy, but this group is very small in number. The other type, which is relatively larger in number, consists of people who fled from the mainland to Changshan Island due to famine or disaster, but they are not familiar with the situation on Changshan Island, so there is no secret that can be leaked from their mouths.

  Changshan Island has an area comparable to that of Alcatraz, but in order to ensure sufficient jungle density for concealment and combat, it cannot be over-developed. To accommodate over a thousand people, large quantities of survival supplies must be imported from the outside world.

  Lin and his men planned to reduce the population of Changshan Island, including its elite forces, to less than 800 people, mainly due to the real threat posed by the Donghai pirates who occupied the surrounding islands.

  Reduced to eight hundred men or less, it would be possible to hold out for several days against a large invading force by utilizing the terrain of Changshan Island; in case of emergency withdrawal, two ships like the Tungyang could take all on board.

  Of course, as the saying goes, "a wily rabbit has three burrows", Lin Xie would make the worst-case scenario preparations. As an important secret base, Changshan Island would not be abandoned and supplies would continue to be invested in and stored.

  In addition, some people from the estuary area will also be relocated to Xiasha Island.

  When Lin's family was in a state of turmoil, Lin Xian incorporated all the turbulent village braves into the Ji Yun Wu Wei, which also became the main force of the Ji Yun Wu Wei at that time. The vast majority of these people were poor and landless tenants.

  Lin Jie decided to relocate the families of Ji Yun Wu Wei's household to Xi Sha Island in batches, and apart from providing housing and living materials, they were also directly allocated land.

  Although it is said that one's hometown is hard to leave, and although the Xisha Islands are still facing threats from the Donghai bandits, the longing for land among the homeless people of this generation is unimaginable. The vast majority of Wu Wei and his family members not only did not have any resistance to moving to the Xisha Islands but also welcomed it, even seeing it as Lin's reward for their bravery in battle.

  Lin Xue entered Taihu in July, followed by several battles, and the cumulative casualties of Weiwuwei were nearly 90 people. Thirty-nine people died in battle, Lin Xue directly spent silver to buy nearly four hundred mu of good land in Jiangning to comfort their families; forty-eight people who were injured on Xiasha Island were recuperating, with about one hundred and forty-seven family members, who followed Qin Chengzu, Fu Qinghe, Lin Mengde, Hu Chengzhong, Ge Cunxin and others on the fourth day. They took the Dongyang No. to settle on Xiasha Island, and the first batch of households moved to Chongzhou.

  They were Lin Huaigeng's most loyal supporters and would also become an important foundation for Lin Huaigeng to take root on Xi Sha Island. These wounded guards who had recovered from their injuries would also be directly incorporated into the county garrison or undertake tasks such as training militia.

  From the beginning of the year, the tide of refugees to Liu An's gathering in Hongze Pu has caused a sharp increase in the mobility of the people in the western part of Jiangdong Prefecture, and the strict household registration control has also been disrupted. Those who have relatives to rely on or have surplus wealth can buy land and settle down, but more are wandering the streets and countryside, begging for food to survive. Even in the small town of Hekou, there were over 6,000 refugees.

  In this context, Lin Xie moved hundreds of people to the Xi Sha Island to settle down, which is not surprising at all; Moreover, Lin Xie's efforts to disperse the refugees who stayed in the river mouth and alleviate the pressure on the river mouth are normal.

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  Five days later, Lin Mengde sent someone to deliver a message. Chongzhou County Magistrate Chen Kun hesitated for several days before sending an offer to the Hu family through his subordinates.

  Chen Kun agreed to support the Hu family as the first clan in the Xisha Island township, and in a relatively common form of taxation at that time, the Hu family would pay 15,000 taels of silver to the county each year. The county would not ask the Hu family how they cultivated Xisha Island, and could even restrain Li Shuyi from interfering with Xisha Island affairs again.

  Chongzhou County, a county with a regular tax quota of less than this amount, is actually asking for the sky and paying on the ground. Lin Xie doesn't mind Chen Kun's big mouth, as long as Lin Mengde and Hu Zhiyong can negotiate with Chen Kun to remove the package tax rent of 1,500 taels of silver per year, except for ten.

  When the situation is in their favor, delaying for a while will not be detrimental. If they respond too hastily or agree to the terms of Chongzhou too readily, it may also arouse suspicion.

  Lin Mou and Li Shuyi got along quite happily, there is no need to exclude Li Shuyi. If we really kick Li Shuyi out of Xisha Island, it will only intensify the suspicion of Chongzhou local authorities.

  It's rare to find someone born evil, and even rarer to find those who can stick to their principles. As long as there's a benefit, almost nothing is impossible to negotiate, so why would Chen Kun personally have such a big grudge against Lin Xiancheng this time?

  The Li Shuyi family is also a prominent clan in Chongzhou. When the Donghai bandits attacked Chongzhou, Lin Xie had a great favor to the Li family. Not only could he not take advantage of the situation to squeeze out Li Shuyi, but he also instructed Lin Mengde and Hu Zhiyong that although they couldn't let the Li family directly participate in the development of the Xisha Islands, they should entrust the Li family with purchasing raw materials from Chongzhou as much as possible, so that the Li family could benefit from the development of the Xisha Islands. Naturally, Li Shuyi and the Li family would not become an obstacle.

  The matter of commercial colonization can be delayed for the time being; even if it is truly implemented, it will not be fully accomplished in one or two years.

  At present, the focus should be on building a surrounding tower that can control the situation around Guanyintan, forming a defensive building group, so that the Wuwei and Xiangying can work together to defend against three to four times the enemy's invasion from Guanyintan with relatively minor casualties.

  In addition, it is necessary to build a defensive enclosure in the central part of the Xisha Islands, starting from Guanyintan. With a population of 4,000 to 5,000 households on the Xisha Islands, 50 large-scale enclosures need to be built.

  A courtyard house with a population of about 10-20 people is roughly equivalent to that of a natural village.

  For the convenience of large-scale commercial reclamation in the future, and to avoid suspicion from local authorities, the construction of enclosures cannot be as concentrated as they are on this side of the river mouth. They need to be dispersed to the hinterland of Xiasha Island, but the roads connecting the various enclosures should all converge at Guanyintan.

  In addition to forming a controlling situation with Guanyin Reef as its core, it is also for preventing pirates from invading the Xisha Islands on a large scale from other aspects.

  To facilitate the berthing of large ships and the rapid loading and unloading of a large amount of materials, Lin Xiangru and Hu Zhiyong built a floating dock at Guanyintan by setting up a pontoon bridge. The dozens of pirate ships captured in the previous fishing-style campaign were all put to use.

  Although the floating dock can be fixed with a large number of iron anchors, it is only suitable for the calm river flow and weak wind in autumn and winter, which is a temporary measure. Building a horizontal dike dock is the only way to achieve lasting stability.

  Lin tied up the topographic map of Xi Sha Island and its surrounding waters, and later had the power to connect Guanyin Beach with Junshan Island and Zilan Mountain in the north, making the horizontal dike directly a passage connecting Xi Sha Island and the northern mainland. By utilizing the tidal sedimentation to accelerate the connection between Xi Sha Island and the northern mainland, it will become part of the northern mainland, thus completely making up for the deficiency of Xi Sha Island's terrain.

  Lin tied up his hands and measured the distance from Guanyin Beach to Junshan Island, and then measured the distance from Junshan Island to Zilong Mountain, both of which were about 2,000 steps away.

  Later generations have mechanical assistance, building a 4-kilometer-long dam in the river is not a difficult task; of course, building a stone dam on the west beach can also stabilize the terrain of Xisha Island. Lin Mou's impression was that the geological shape of Chongming Island was stabilized in this way, but these engineering quantities are abnormally huge and cannot be considered at present.

  At present, most of Lin's financial resources are still mainly used for resettling and organizing refugees, building defensive facilities at Guanyintan, and the initial resettlement costs for more than 20,000 refugees are expected to consume more than one million taels of silver; The Hugang horizontal dike is only planned to be built two hundred steps into the river.

  Looking at the map of Xisha Island, Lin Mou worried that the accumulated 200,000 taels of silver could not support the initial investment, which was also the largest.

  If the first two years can be endured, especially when the refugees on the island temporarily settle down, even if a balance between income and expenditure cannot be achieved, investment can still be controlled. At that time, as long as the world is not in chaos, the benefits obtained from Dongji Island and the estuary can also provide long-term support for the construction of Xisha Island.

  Lin Mou's biggest shortage is still manpower. After Gu Wu Chen's position became stable, the threat to He Kou's side was greatly reduced. Now he only left Xiao Jia Ye Ge Cun Xin, Lin Jing Zhong and Ao Cang Hai, Zhao Hu and others in He Kou. Lin Meng De, Fu Qing He, Zhou Pu, Wu Qi, as well as Hu Zhi Yong, Hu Zhi Cheng and most of the Wu Wei are on Xi Sha Island.

  He can now only rely mainly on the limited manpower available to support the island, and must concentrate the limited manpower on the island, after all, the Donghai pirates are a long-term and real threat. The large-scale procurement and importation of raw materials to Xisha Island can only rely on Lin's warehouse and Xihehui.

  If there is spare energy, more trees should be planted on the east and south sides of Xisha Island. Lin also asked Qin Chengzu to find suitable tree species for saline-alkaline sandy soil from outside the sea along the coastal islands. Large-scale cultivation of coastal shelterbelts in areas prone to wind and tide attacks on Xisha Island is currently the only effective way to significantly reduce wind disasters and tidal flooding.

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  The Donghai bandits launched a large-scale invasion in July, turning the provinces and counties along Taihu Lake upside down, and withdrew completely after the bloody battle of Jiuyang.

  Whether it was a discussion of merits and rewards or a decoration of peace, the reward for Lin Xie and Yang Pu and others who had fought bravely in the Battle of Yangcang entered October and was transmitted from Yanjing to Jiangning. Yang Pu was promoted to the sixth rank of Wu Dang's deputy, with various internal storehouses making more than ten gold and silver coins, and Lin Xie was promoted again to the seventh rank of Xuan Yi Lang.

  Lin Xian was born into a family of officials and entered officialdom, rising four ranks in just one year, which was considered a rare phenomenon in the official circles; even someone like Dong Yuan had to spend nine years as a Confucian scholar and county clerk before getting the opportunity to make great achievements and quickly advance.

  The only thing that was not pleasant was that this year's new jinshi Chen Mingyue was granted a leave by the emperor to return to his hometown and get married, and he returned to Jiangning almost at the same time.

  Lin Xie and Yang Pu jointly invited Dongyang Township Party members, relatives, friends and colleagues to a banquet at the river mouth on October 6th.

  After Yang Yi left Dongyang, the local militia in Dongyang repeatedly used troops to the northeast, with the idea of training and preserving their forces. They did not engage in a large-scale battle with Liu Anren's forces stationed in Shiliang County, so naturally there were no significant results.

  The situation in other directions of Hongze Lake was also deadlocked, and Dongyang was always under the severe threat of Liu An's troops.

  Most of the guests who came to drink were from Dongyang, and their minds for drinking and having fun were also dull. They dispersed early before it was late at night. Lin Tie held onto Sun Jingxuan, wanting to follow Xihai to hire 50 boats and 500 boat workers for use on Xi Sha Island.

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  PS: Chapter 3, seeking red tickets.