Chapter 63: The Elixir Is Found Again (1/2)

As the sun sets, the battlefield is filled with locust corpses. This battle lasted a whole day.

At this time, the refugees were sweeping up the insect corpses with brooms. Among them, there were some larger mutant locusts, which had to be picked out separately.

After these days of experience, everyone knows that the corpses of mutant locusts are extremely valuable. In addition to tasting better, they can also strengthen the body and increase strength.

The locust-killing team harvested at least more than 100 mutant locusts this time.

After this battle, the locust disaster in Daqing Township has been completely eliminated.

While the harvest was huge, more than 100 people died in the locust-killing team, and more than 300 people escaped. Now there are only more than 700 people left, and everyone is injured.

Among the three martial arts scholars under his command, one died, and the other two were also injured. There were many cuts on their bodies, and blood and flesh turned outward.

At this moment, Er Gouzi was holding the body of the big locust king in his hand.

Two big goose heads were next to him, looking at the body of the insect king in his hand with salivation.

But as big geese, they have their own pride. They can never flatter Er Gouzi and beg for food, let alone wag their tails like dogs. They just watched helplessly.

This insect king is more than one foot long, and its pair of hind legs are like saw teeth, sharp and ferocious. It should be this thing that broke his 100-jin heavy sword.

His sword is made of refined copper essence, and its quality is far superior to ordinary swords. It was broken by the locust king.

The locust king's stomach was full of golden eggs, which looked delicious.

Er Gouzi's consciousness sensed a strong energy from its body, and it should have turned into the legendary locust monster.

"Do you want to eat?"

The two geese raised their noble heads and nodded when they heard their master's question.

"I'll give it to you in a few days. I'm doing this for your own good."

As Er Gouzi said this, he had already put away the locust corpse.

The two geese have made great contributions to him during this period of time. Today's battle has left them scarred and bald.

It's no problem to give them food, but such a good thing should at least be put into the gourd to improve its quality before eating.

The two geese didn't understand what their master meant. They raised their heads and chests and turned their heads to one side, which meant that we didn't want to eat them at all.

"Captain Zhang, this time we harvested a total of 156 mutant locusts. How should we divide them?"

Zhao Xiucai looked at the pile of locust corpses and asked Er Gouzi.

They had already tasted the taste. In addition to being delicious, this kind of locust also contains some special energy, which can increase strength and strengthen the true qi in the body, which is of great help to warriors.

"Still follow the old way. Divide the mutant locusts into seven parts, one for each person, and the rest for the locust killing team as rations."

In every previous battle, Er Gouzi divided the big locusts into seven parts, and the five of them and the two geese each took one part.

As for why the geese could also take two parts, they didn't have any complaints.

Because everyone saw that the two geese contributed more than anyone else.

"Sun Xiucai is dead, does he still want to share?"

"Of course he should share. No one who dies in battle should have his things withheld."

Er Gouzi said as a matter of course.

He only knew how to chop wood and feed pigs since he was a child. Before he met Li Banxian, no one had ever taught him how to behave.

Since he entered the library of Zhengwu Hall, he felt like he had discovered a new world. He could learn a lot of things from books that no one had ever taught him before.

He has read a lot of military books during this time. The books say that the most important thing in leading troops to fight is reward and punishment.

Those who have made contributions, even the most humble people, should be rewarded.

Those who have made mistakes, even those who are in high positions and have power, must be punished.

Only in this way can we maintain prestige and enforce discipline.

He didn't know anything before, and he had never had the experience of leading a large army in battle. Naturally, he could only honestly copy the contents of the book and execute them.

After a few days, he felt that what the book said was right, at least there was no big trouble.

Although Zhao Xiucai, Qian Xiucai and the constable coveted Sun Xiucai's share, they had nothing to say about Er Gouzi's division.

Although this did not take any extra advantage, it at least ensured that they would not suffer any loss.

That night, the locust-killing team celebrated their success on the spot, and everyone had a full meal.

After this battle, the mission of their locust-killing team had been completed.

These refugees fought with Er Gouzi for several days, and they went from being starving to being full every meal, and they all tasted the sweetness.

Everyone was still looking forward to continuing to kill locusts with the team.

Er Gouzi left rations and asked the locust-killing team to stay in Daqing Township and wait for orders, while several of them had to return to the county government to report.

The county magistrate had the final say on where to go.

On the way back, they passed through other villages and found that there were still many locust swarms and they had not been suppressed.

Those wandering villagers. After being sent back by the officers and soldiers, they stayed at home and no longer went out to farm.

There is no point in farming now. The crops that were barely able to survive after carrying water to irrigate the land at the beginning of the year have all been eaten by locusts.

Digging up some tree bark and grass roots, catching a few lone locusts, and having meat and vegetables every day, life can be managed.

When they passed a place called Xingwang Township, they happened to meet a locust extermination team fighting.

The battle scene was extremely fierce and had become one-sided.

The locust swarm vibrated its wings, making a rustling sound, and the locust extermination team was chased and fled in all directions, making bursts of miserable howls.

A martial arts scholar was quite powerful. He performed Qinggong and was agile and agile. He kept changing directions while running, which seemed very smooth and natural.

However, the large group of locusts chasing him closely was also very fast.

"Help!"

The martial arts scholar saw Er Gouzi and his group and shouted for help.

Er Gouzi had some impression of this man. He was one of the most active people in the county hall that day and was very talkative, so he had a deep impression of him.

When the two geese saw the locust swarm, they rushed into the swarm without Er Gouzi's order.

The wings flapped in the sky and swept the locusts down like raindrops.

These two geese have been able to eat more than ten mutant locusts every day recently, and their strength has increased very fast.

Now they are much stronger than those geese left on the mountain.

Before Er Gouzi had time to make a move, the group of locusts chasing Wu Xiucai had been killed by the two geese.

Then they continued to attack other locusts.

When Wu Xiucai, who had survived the disaster, came to his senses, he found that the locust swarm that had bitten them to tears had been wiped out by the two geese.

After the battle, the big goose picked up the mutant locusts on the ground with its mouth, but was not in a hurry to eat them, but sent them to Er Gouzi.

Er Gouzi took the mutant locusts, took out more than a dozen mutant locusts from his bag, and shared them with the two geese.

"Thank you very much!"

The rescued Wu Xiucai was still in shock, and bowed to Er Gouzi to thank him.

"May I ask your name, brother?"

He regretted a little that he had made so many friends, but why didn't he make this one earlier.

"My last name is Zhang, these are Zhao Xiucai and Qian Xiucai, I guess you have known each other for a long time."

Several people chatted briefly here for a while.

It turned out that the locust-clearing team they were assigned to Xingwang Township had bad luck. On the first day, the refugees they recruited died or escaped, leaving only dozens of people.

Later, they continued to recruit people, and continued to suffer casualties and escape.

A few days later, they encountered another particularly large swarm of locusts, and two of Wu Xiucai, who were in the same team, also died.

Because their locust-clearing team often lost people, it was difficult to recruit people now.

Those refugees just wanted to make a living, but they didn't think of helping him die.

When he heard that Er Gouzi and his team had completed the mission and were ready to report to the county government, he showed a look of surprise and envy, and could only sigh that he had a bad luck.

When Er Gouzi returned to the outside of the county, he found that a large number of refugees had gathered here again, more than last time.

Some were from Anchang County, and some were wandering from other places, and they could not be stopped at all.

The porridge stalls at the city gate had been removed, and guards with knives blocked the city gate to prohibit refugees from entering the city.

The four entered the county government. The county magistrate was very surprised to hear that they had eliminated the locusts in Daqing Township, and personally met with the four of them.

"I sent out 20 locust-killing teams, and only your team was the first to kill the locusts."

"You did a great job! I will reward you heavily. I hope you can keep up the good work and make more achievements. I will also recommend you for merit in the future."

The county magistrate was in a good mood and rewarded Er Gouzi with 10 Pei Yuan Gu Ben Wan, and Zhao Xiucai and others were rewarded with 5 pills each.

And the rations for their locust-killing team were also increased from two buckets per day to four buckets.

Then they were ordered to continue to lead the team from Daqing Township to help kill locusts in other towns and villages.

After Er Gouzi came out of the county government, he went to Sima Yi's Huichun Hall.

Today, Huichun Hall was very deserted. Sima Yi sat behind the counter, looking haggard.

At a young age, the number of white hairs on his head increased a lot.

"You also escaped back?"

Sima Yi was a little surprised to see Er Gouzi appear.

"What do you mean by escaping back? I came back to report to the county magistrate."

This was a confusing remark, which confused Er Gouzi.

"Report?"

Sima Yi was also confused.

The two of them were talking at cross purposes, and it took them a long time to understand what the other wanted to express.

From Sima Yi's mouth, it was learned that several of the 20 locust-killing teams sent out some time ago had dispersed.

The rest were also struggling to hold on, fighting very hard.

Or they hid and lived a lazy life, and did not dare to provoke those large-scale insect swarms.

Among them, some Wu Xiucai, who had a good family background, simply fled back to the county town and quit.

So when Sima Yi saw Er Gouzi coming back, he subconsciously thought that he had also escaped back.

Er Gouzi remembered the situation in his last battle, and most of the teams were indeed unable to resist.

"But besides you, there are several other teams that performed very well."

"But these teams are all supported by several big families in the county."

"This includes the team led by my cousin Sima Hong. The family fully supports it. They provide people and food, and focus on training family disciples."

Er Gouzi asked Sima Yi about the situation in the county again.

It turned out that last time they recruited a large number of refugees into the locust-killing team and took them away, the officers and soldiers sent all the refugees outside the city back to their hometowns.

But the locust-killing team was not doing well in the battle, and a large number of refugees fled back in a few days.

In order to force these refugees to join the locust-killing team, the county government even stopped Sima Yi from setting up his porridge stall.

The refugees were hungry, so they were naturally willing to catch and kill locusts.

By the way, they also enriched themselves. The major families took advantage of the relief grain allocated by the court and divided up 70% to 80%.

Sima Yi blushed a little when he said this, because their Sima family was also involved.

He had to persuade his uncle to get some grain for porridge last time, but was banned by the county government.

Now the whole county seems to have no food to eat, but in fact, many big families have hoarded grain that they can't finish eating for several years.

Everyone tacitly sold only a little grain each time and drove up the price of grain to make more profits.

Hearing these inside stories, Er Gouzi didn't feel strange. The rich businessmen in Sanchazi Town have always done this, and he is no longer surprised.

After saying goodbye to Sima Yi, he went to the black market again.

The detoxification pill he ordered finally arrived.

However, because the price of blood soul pills has fallen sharply now, the five blood soul pills he originally prepared can no longer be exchanged for one detoxification pill.

He could only make up the difference of 100 taels of refined silver essence to get the detoxification pill.

The detoxification pill was emerald green, and looked like jade, round and shiny.

He smelled it, and it had a scent of grass and wood.

He didn't know what it smelled like, but the corpse poison in his body had been eliminated, so he didn't need it for the time being.

It would be best if he never had to use it in his lifetime.

He put the detoxification pill in his arms.

He looked at the rows of medicine cabinets in Hongfu Hall.

"Are there any other pills here?"

"You are lucky, Hongfu Hall did get another pill."

The shopkeeper smiled slightly and said proudly when he heard it.

"You may have heard that the county government rewarded a pill some time ago, but it was lost by the county magistrate's concubine.

The unlucky guy who lost the pill could only use this pill to exchange for two barren mountains from the county magistrate."

Ergou listened to the shopkeeper telling this familiar story, and wanted to tell him that the unlucky guy was himself.

"Has this pill been found again?"

"Yes, I found it at home when I was sweeping the floor two days ago. Isn't that a coincidence?"

"Hehehe..."

The shopkeeper seemed very proud of this story.

Er Gouzi was just honest, not stupid, so he naturally knew what was going on.

"What is the price of this pill?"

If the price is not too high, he still wants to buy it back.

"Such a precious pill has been eyed by many people, so it must not be sold directly."

"It will be auctioned in our Hongfulou in five days, and the highest bidder will win."

"If you are interested, you can come to participate in the auction in five days."

"Okay."

Er Gouzi walked out of Hongfulou with his head down, not knowing whether he should be happy or distressed.

Finally, he had another chance to buy back his pill.

In order to be able to afford the price in five days, he sold a sack of red dates on the black market and got 2,600 taels of silver.

He sold five dou of Crescent Moon Spirit Rice, which was faked by Cat's Tooth Rice, and got 5,000 taels of silver.

I sold a batch of Peiyuan Guben Pills and got 1,000 taels of silver.

I also sold some mutant locust corpses and got 2,000 taels of silver...