Chapter 59 Live and Work in Peace and Contentment

Er Gouzi guarded his own piece of land every day, with food and drink, and really didn't want to leave.

But the county government's conscription order could not be disobeyed.

He could only make some hasty preparations overnight.

First, he planted a large number of seeds for the geese, mixed with some ginseng seeds, and watered them.

He also prepared a lot of food and put it next to the goose house for the geese to eat.

It still felt not enough, because the geese needed water.

He used a heavy sword to dig out a large stone trough overnight and filled it with clean water.

He didn't sleep all night, and used the heavy sword to cut the cliff of Shekou Mountain smoother.

The dangerous places on the mountain are now planted with iron thorns. Except for those who can fly, ordinary people can't cross it.

Of course, the main combat power to protect Shekou Mountain still depends on the big white geese.

Then he gave Qiuyue a death order, asking her to arrange at least 200 people to guard the foot of Shekou Mountain every day.

No one is allowed to go up the mountain.

Before leaving, he fed each goose two pills of Peiyuan Guben Pills and took two geese from the mountain.

Goose is more handy for dealing with locusts flying in the air, and at critical moments, geese can also carry him to fly.

The sun had just risen, and he had already rushed to the outside of the county town.

However, the two geese beside him were too conspicuous, and it was not convenient to bring them into the city.

After thinking for a while, he let the two geese go into the mountains outside the city, and then walked to the county town alone.

A large number of refugees had gathered outside the city gate.

They were all hungry people, and they would do anything for a bite of food.

So many refugees gathered together, and they might become thieves and break into the city at any time.

Moreover, these refugees usually caught a lot of locusts for food, and they all ate until their eyes were red, irritable and irritable, and their emotions were extremely unstable, and they might suddenly kill people at any time.

Fortunately, someone set up several large pots with porridge in them, and hundreds of refugees lined up in a long line waiting to get porridge.

As long as there is a bite of food, people's hearts can be stabilized.

Er Gouzi walked closer and found Sima Yi standing in front of the big pot distributing porridge, busy and sweating.

"Er Gou, give me a hand, I'm going to the bathroom."

Sima Yi probably held it in for a long time, threw the spoon into Er Gouzi's hand, and hurried away.

Er Gouzi had no choice but to take the rice spoon and serve porridge to the refugees in line.

The pot was more like rice soup than porridge, clear soup with some bran and a few grains of rice floating in it.

A bald refugee stood by the pot with a broken bowl, stretched his neck and looked at the rice soup in the pot and swallowed his saliva.

Er Gouzi was also a person who had been hungry, and he could understand the other party's thoughts at the moment. He immediately stirred the big pot with a long spoon, and then scooped up a full spoon from the bottom.

This spoonful of porridge has more rice and less water, which is the most filling.

The bald man hurriedly took the bowl with both hands, and thanked him desperately.

People who often go hungry know that in the same pot, there is more rice at the bottom and more water at the top.

Whether you can get rice or water depends on the mood of the cook.

The next refugee was a skinny kid, and Er Gouzi seemed to see his past in him.

He immediately poured him a bowl of thick porridge with more rice and less water from the bottom.

The refugees who followed looked miserable, so Er Gouzi poured several bowls of porridge from the bottom.

After a long while, Sima Yi came back with a relaxed look on his face. Seeing Er Gouzi pouring porridge like this, he quickly grabbed the spoon.

"If you divide it like this, there will be not enough to eat!"

"You were not such a stingy person before?"

Er Gouzi looked at Sima Yi and found that he had more white hair after not seeing him for a few months.

"I want to be generous, but there are too many refugees, so many mouths to feed, and now I can't buy food on the black market."

"I begged my uncle to help me get some relief grain from the court."

"Relief grain?"

Er Gouzi was a little curious. He had never heard of such a thing.

"Hush!"

Sima Yi looked around and lowered his voice.

"The court allocated a batch of relief grain, which has arrived a long time ago."

"It was held by several people in the county government, and they were reluctant to take it out. They only sold a little bit each time."

"They said they wanted to make a long-term profit, but in fact they wanted to raise the price higher."

"I spent 18 taels of silver per stone to buy these grains."

The two chatted briefly, and Er Gouzi said goodbye and went into the city. He dared not delay the county government's call for conscription.

Inside the county government, there was a large hall.

Everyone was a martial arts scholar, and they had some fame. Someone had already set up tables and chairs, tea, and asked everyone to sit down.

Today, all the young martial arts scholars of Anchang County gathered here.

Many familiar faces were seen in the crowd, including my cousin Zhang Youliang, several instructors of Zhengwu Hall, Deputy Hall Master Sima, Mu Feng and Wang Ying of Dingjiazhuang, etc.

It was a rare opportunity for so many martial arts scholars to gather together. Those who knew each other well or not all introduced each other, called friends, and talked about everything. The scene seemed extremely lively.

Only Er Gouzi sat there without saying a word. It was not that he was aloof. He was not good at socializing and was not familiar with everyone. He didn't know what to talk about.

It seemed that he could only chat and joke with Sima Yi casually, and he seemed to have no topic to talk about with others.

After everyone waited for a while, the county yamen Dianshi finally appeared, holding a list and counting the number of people one by one.

When the Dianshi appeared, the martial arts scholars chatted more lively.

It's just that the conversation topic naturally transitioned from Chunlou fans to the county magistrate and various officials in the county government.

for example:

"The county magistrate loves the people like his sons..."

"Your Excellency, the County Lord, is really worried about the victims of Anchang County every day..."

"You and I should do our best to share the worries of the county magistrate..."

"..."

Ergouzi was not good at words to begin with, but now that the topic has escalated and the content has become more high-end, he is even less able to integrate into everyone's circle, and he looks out of place sitting among the crowd.

He was a farmer, and he couldn't think of so many words that would make people feel comfortable listening to them.

I was bored, so I could only secretly use the qi-watching technique to look at the group of Wu Xiucai, and found that there were 86 Wu Xiucai here, but only 7 of them had successfully broken through to the realm of Qi training.

These seven people also include myself, Deputy Hall Master Sima, Zhang Youliang.

Judging from the cultivation level of Deputy Hall Master Sima, it seems that he is even worse than himself, having only reached the third level of Qi training.

Among the remaining four people, one is at the first level of Qi training and two are at the second level of Qi training.

There is another one who is slightly stronger than me and should be at the fifth level of Qi training.

In the past, Ergouzi always felt that he was not good enough, that his cultivation was too weak, and that he was just a beginner in the path of cultivating immortals.

I didn't expect that when I used the Qi Watching Technique today, I found that the other martial arts scholars were so weak, and most of them had not even entered the path of cultivating immortals.

However, Zhang Youliang also reached the first level of Qi training, which surprised him.

He had taken a look not long ago. At that time, Zhang Youliang was still an ordinary warrior and had no breakthrough sense of energy.

Suddenly I gained a level of Qi training.

I have no background, I am only in my 20s, and I have already reached this level of cultivation.

Just because the uncle's several hundred acres of land has made all the money for the tenants, he doesn't necessarily have such great financial resources.

At this moment, he even doubted whether the Qi-gazing technique he had just learned was accurate?

It happened that Master Dianshi was not far from him, so he looked at Master Dianshi's back by mistake.

I saw the aura in Lord Dianshi's body surging, exuding a powerful power, which was at least the power only available at the eighth or ninth level of Qi training.

The Qi-Watching Technique had just been used, and before he could take a closer look, the powerful aura in Dianshi's body had already bounced his consciousness back.

Ergouzi let out a muffled groan, his consciousness was overturned, as if someone had hit his head hard with a sledgehammer.

Dianshi turned around and gave Er Gouzi a cold look. The warning was obvious. His actions just now offended him.

Ergouzi lowered his head and no longer dared to look around with his qi-gazing technique.

Probably it's unlucky to kill an enemy in battle.

Dianshi did not continue to argue with Ergouzi. He walked back to the steps of the county government office and began to assign tasks.

There were 86 Wu scholars at the scene, plus 20 county police officers, a total of 106 people.

Our current task is very simple, which is to divide everyone into 20 groups and go to various refugee gathering points outside the city to recruit civilians to exterminate the locusts.

As long as anyone participates in locust extermination, the county government will take care of the food. Each team can receive two buckets of food from the county government every day.

These seven martial arts scholars with Qi training skills were all divided into different groups.

Er Gouzi temporarily serves as the captain of a small team, with three martial arts scholars and one policeman under his command.

The agents may not be as powerful as Wu Xiucai, but they are local snakes and know their way around the country.

Their team is responsible for the task of exterminating locusts in Daqing Township.

As for the civilian husband, how many people he can recruit depends entirely on his own ability.

Cousin Zhang Youliang was lucky enough to be assigned to the team in charge of Sanchazi Town.

After being assigned a task, I first received five days' rations from the county government. One stone in total was packed into two large bags, which contained grain, wheat, beans, and grass seeds mixed together.

Ergouzi picked up the two bags in his hands. Based on his experience in dealing with grain since childhood, at least two buckets were deducted.

That is to say, the rations for these five days are actually only about eight buckets.

With food in hand, it will be easy to recruit people.

A large number of refugees gathered outside the city. I heard that they would participate in the locust extermination and that the government would take care of the food. Anyone who could walk would enthusiastically sign up.

However, each team only had less than two buckets of food rations a day, mixed with some locusts, and could only feed a maximum of 200 people.

Naturally, everyone starts with the strong men.

20 teams took away more than 4,000 people at once, leaving only about a thousand old, weak, sick and disabled refugees who were still gathering outside the city.

The remaining people were walking staggeringly and could no longer pose any danger.

The county government only paid 20 loads of grain to remove all the refugees, successfully eliminating a potential crisis.

Not long after the locust extermination team left, another group of officers and soldiers came outside the city and read aloud to the refugees.

All refugees are required to return to their place of origin immediately and are not allowed to wander around at will. Violators will be treated as bandits and will be killed without mercy!

How dare the remaining old, weak, sick and disabled to resist, they can only leave obediently...

…………

"It's all the county master's ingenious plan that determines the situation. With a few moves, he not only eliminates the locust plague, but also resolves the troubles of the refugees!"

In a hall of the county government office, the county chief registrar, county captain, Dian Shi and others were full of praise at this moment.

"Refugees? The people of Anchang County live and work in peace and contentment. There have never been any refugees!"

"Everything is just a rumor."

The county magistrate stroked his beard and said proudly.