These Liao refugees had just settled down on the south side of the lake Juyanhai, and the highest-level administrative authority in Blackwater City, Montenegro, had sent people to count the population.
More than one hundred people came here to permanently live and multiply, they would become a very important source of tax and military resources for the Xia kingdom. Of course, the government should not ignore it. The governor sent a paper in advance for asking for the name, age and family relationship of these refugees.
It was a sunny day after the snow, and people from the new settlements braved the cold and continued to build their village. According to the plan of Hou Ye, Stone and Chunlan, a fence wall should be installed around the village. The main function was to prevent wolves. There were many wolves in this area. Although the wolves did not seem to attack humans and their domestic animals, the wolves were likely to be hard to find food in winter, they would come to find something to eat, and there might be unhappy accidents.
The main village structure planning was drafted by Chunlan. On the drawings, she placed two symmetrical lookout buildings in the northeast and southwest, ready to build slowly after the spring. In the middle of the village, there was a large open space, and people were not allowed to build a shack to live Herr. Chunlan said that this would be the market of cattle and sheep in the future. In addition, Chunlan also took a name for this village: Hou Jiaji. which means "the market of the family Hou".
Hou Ye liked this name very much. Many of the refugees still did not have surnames. Many people wanted to take the surnames of these two big families of Liao Kingdoms: Yelu and Xiao. Chunlan said that people were fleeing here, if there were so many people with surnames of Yelu and Xiao, it might cause trouble. She suggested everyone simply to take the title of Hou Ye as the surname: Hou (means Duke). As Stone often said, it was better to be modest.
Hou Ye said: "In the Liao Kingdom, the Yelu and Xiao families and really had their own glory, but this is Xia kingdom, people needed to forget the Yelu and Xiao. Hou Ye was very happy, " I am also surnamed Hou! Later, all my new old and new people immigrated here should be surnamed Hou, and my new name is Hou Xiyu."
Solving the problem of residents' surnames, Chunlan said that in the next two months, when the ice on Yellow River was able to support the carriage. She would return to the capital of Liao kingdom, Nanjing, to join her mother and stepfather, Xiao Fugui.
Stone felt a little strange. Since the beginning of the village construction in Juyanhai, Chunlan often went out alone. Although the village plan was completed by her, the concrete construction, she did not care, it was Hou Ye and the Stone who was commanding the realization of her plan little by little. Fortunately, these new residents were highly motivated, worked hard, and often made some suggestions for improvement.
A Blackwater city registered master named Ma Bajin came to Houjiaji with a few servants. They were welcomed to the biggest house in the village, and the work was started. They asked each of the refugees to come closer, to ask questions, to register the information they thought important. After that, they declared the rights and responsibilities of the newcomers in Xia kingdom, took some gifts, set up a carriage, said thanks a lot, and returned to Blackwater City.
Hou Ye wanted to visit the governor of Blackwater, so he took some valuables bought from Liao Kingdom as a gift to go there. The governor's name was Li Fushun.
Governor Li Fushun met Hou Ye and Stone very politely but did not receive the gift. He said that the emperor and the Queen had repeatedly confessed that the Xia officials should be kind to the Liao businessmen and refugees. Stone didn't like Governor Li Fushun so much. He and Hou Ye went to the downtown of this city to take a look.
Blackwater City was very large. Although the population was almost the same as that of Yinzhou, there were many Westerners living and doing business here, and the commercial atmosphere was stronger than that of Yinzhou.
