The Three Spirit Stones

Chapter 136 Layout

The son of the herdsman Haleru, Haler Akun, was studying at Yenching College.

When the news came out that Yenching College would recruit children of Liao people, he signed up immediately.

He fell in love with Xiongzhou since the first time he came to sell wool.

There are no endless grasslands, no herds of cattle and sheep, and no flower fragrance drifting in the wind.

There are too many people here, so we can't just ride our horses freely.

But, there is food, various commodities, and a chance for people to survive.

As long as you are willing to work hard, you can fill your stomach.

Not only can I have enough food for myself, but also for my wife and children at home.

Being hungry is so uncomfortable!

He once had seven children, but five of them starved to death in a previous white plague, leaving only the eldest, A Kun, and the youngest, a daughter.

He is now working in Cheng's Industrial Engineering Team to build a house, while his wife is at home herding sheep. He is strong and powerful, so mixing mortar and carrying sand is no problem for him.

Here we have three meals a day and our monthly salary is paid on time.

As soon as he got his wages, he would keep some money for buying food, salt and sugar for his family, and the rest would be deposited in the bank under Cheng's control.

He hopes to save enough for a down payment on a house one day. He really wants to have a house of his own here.

He builds houses every day and knows that the houses here are very solid.

No need to worry about snowstorms blowing you down, no need to worry about hailstones piercing you,

This kind of house can be left to my son to live in for the rest of his life.

He visited his son last month. His son has changed a lot in the past year. He is no longer as reckless and impulsive as a calf. He has become much more mature.

He said that he can eat enough every day now.

He could write more than 100 Chinese characters and chat with the teachers in Song dialect. The teachers told them many interesting stories and taught them a lot of knowledge. He was also awarded by the college. Then he took a small bag of potato vermicelli to his father.

A Kun said that he likes the college very much now. Life here is much better than herding sheep on the grassland.

Halleru could only smile innocently as he watched his son talking.

Life seems to be getting more and more promising!

There are many children as old as Akun in the academy.

Most of them were the children of tribal leaders or their relatives and subordinates. Ordinary Liao people like Haleru were relatively rare.

Because many ordinary Liao people were isolated from information, they had no idea that they could study at Yenching College for free.

Their children have to help the family herd cattle and sheep at a very young age.

There are few men as smart and educated as Halleru.

Even though Yenching College offers free tuition and provided food and accommodation, they would not send the labor force in their families to school.

In addition, there are many children of Khitan officers here.

Each of the Liao nobles who had shares had numerous complicated relationships in the army.

The Liao emperor once issued an order that no one in the army was allowed to enter supermarkets and shopping districts, in order to prevent the Khitan soldiers from being corrupted by such extravagant lifestyles.

However, every policy has its own countermeasures.

It is indeed not easy for ordinary soldiers to go, but it is not difficult for those with authority to go.

Especially those close associates of the powerful, who had long been yearning for this place after hearing their superiors describe how good it was.

Many of them secretly bought properties there and had their relatives move in.

Although I have to starve outside the Great Wall, my wife and children can have a safe and comfortable environment, which is worth it even if I have to bear a high mortgage loan.

In the Liao Dynasty, in order to consolidate his rule, Liao Taizu Yelu Abaoji actively promoted the "Sinicization" policy and focused on developing cultural and educational undertakings.

The local official schools in the Liao Dynasty included prefectural schools, state schools and county schools. Huanglong Prefecture and Xingzhong Prefecture both had prefectural schools, both of which had doctors and assistant teachers. Among the state schools, the Zhuozhou State School was established earlier.

Although the wise rulers of the Liao Dynasty all attached great importance to education, educational resources were still very scarce in ancient times, and very few people could attend official schools.

Moreover, going to school also costs money. When ordinary people find it difficult to have enough food to eat, not many people spend money to send their children to school.

But Yenching College is different.

It is completely free to study there, and even bedding and clothes are provided free of charge by the college.

Those Liao people who were able to get some official positions were not fools. How could they not get wind of such a good thing?

Therefore, they sent their children to Yenching College one after another.

Many of these people were generals in the Yanyun area.

Another important reason why Yenching College attracts so many people is that according to convention, the students there can be selected to work in Cheng's Industry after graduation.

Today in Yanyun area, Cheng's Industry's business scope covers all aspects of people's lives.

As long as you can find a job there, you can basically live a worry-free life.

For most people, passing imperial examinations and entering officialdom is too far away; being able to have enough food and clothing is the most important thing.

Yelu Ruan was very wary of Yenching College.

Such a large academy, with so many students, would be a very bad thing if they were indoctrinated with ideas that were detrimental to the Liao Kingdom when their sense of right and wrong had not yet been formed.

So when the academy was first established, he suggested to Cheng Yu that the Liao Imperial Academy would also send assistant teachers to teach at the academy.

They say they are teaching assistants, but they are actually monitoring.

In addition to teaching, these teaching assistants would immediately report everything that happened at Yenching College to the Liao Emperor.

Yelu Ruan originally thought that Cheng Yu would not agree easily, and he was preparing a lot of countermeasures in his mind, but he didn't expect that he agreed immediately, which made Yelu Ruan feel like hitting cotton.

He never believed that Cheng Yu would really do good for the Liao Kingdom if he married a Liao woman.

Those who are not my kind must have different hearts.

Who doesn’t understand this sentence?

He firmly believed that the Song people would not change their mind in seizing the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

To this end, he had to conduct strict political reviews and screening of the military personnel stationed in the Yanyun area to ensure that these people were of good family background and were Khitan warriors who were 100% loyal to the Liao Dynasty.

How could Cheng Yu not understand Yelu Ruan’s thoughts?

But he could never imagine Cheng Yu's plan.

He wanted to turn the Yanyun area into a super city, and use the siphoning power of the big city to absorb all the population of Liao.

To settle here, you definitely need a house.

The houses here are not cheap. Only rich people can buy houses here. How can poor people who can’t even afford food and clothing afford them?

This is equivalent to concentrating most of the Liao Kingdom's wealth here.

In fact, if you simply buy a piece of land and build an old-fashioned house, it doesn't cost a lot of money.

But Cheng's house is not just a few bricks and tiles.

First of all, the newly developed land needs to have a lot of infrastructure, such as laying underground drainage and sewage pipes, water pipes, reasonable heating facilities for each house, and cement roads, etc., and the houses for sale will be decorated.

Give you a five-star home!

This is the main advertising slogan of Cheng's real estate.

Not to mention the felt tent, even the big mansions in several capital cities of Liao Kingdom cannot compare to this kind of house and comfort!

So now in Liao Kingdom, if someone asks you where you live?

If you say which state or community in Yanyun you are in, people will look at you with respect.

Yelu Ruan and his men had always been worried that the Song Kingdom would seize Yanyun by force.

But they just couldn't understand why Cheng Yu had invested so much manpower and resources to build Yanyun into such a prosperous place, but wouldn't it all be lost in this war?

But if it wasn't for the purpose of seizing Yanyun, why would he make wedding dresses for others?

Is he a fool?

Of course Cheng Yu is not a fool!

When the Yanyun region concentrated a large number of Liao people and wealth, his plan was already half successful.

The Liao people's settlement here was equivalent to their transformation from a nomadic people to an agricultural people or urban residents.

The characteristic of nomadic people is that they move around.

After being burned, killed, and looted by the enemy, the survivors would find another place to live. It would just be a matter of setting up a new tent and as long as they had cattle and sheep, they could survive.

But it’s different when they buy a house. These expensive houses cost them their life savings.

Houses can kidnap the lives of modern people, and they can also kidnap the lives of Liao people in this era.

History always repeats itself in a surprising way!

In order to ensure that more and more people can afford to buy houses, Cheng Yu also launched a low-interest loan for descendants.

Because people in ancient times had short lives, if the loan was not paid within ten years, the son could pay it back, and if the son could not pay it back, the grandson could pay it back.

It’s no wonder that this way of repaying loans is also popular among many people.

Imagine that when the Jin Dynasty rose a few decades later, they would definitely enter the pass after defeating the Liao people outside the pass. How could they let go of Yanyun, which is so rich?

But how could the Liao people living here agree to hand over the property they had worked so hard to earn all their lives to the Jin people?

When the country is in crisis, who wouldn't risk their lives to defend their homeland?

What if the Liao army outside the Great Wall is retreating step by step?

As long as the army of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun remains undefeated,

Yanyun is like a buffer zone. As long as Yanyun’s army is not defeated, the Song Dynasty will be safe!

There are many people here, so there is no need to worry about the source of soldiers. Backed by the Song Dynasty, there are abundant logistical material resources, plus the excellent geographical advantage.

What if this can fail?

All I can say is that God will do whatever he wants and no human power can stop it!