When Er Gouzi rode the goose back to Shekou Mountain, he first looked at Yushan, who was working steadily in the field. He habitually looked at the spiritual medicine in the field. "Huh?" "Why are there two less spiritual medicines!" Er Gouzi remembered that he had seen them when he left. When he went out and came back, the two spiritual medicines were gone. "Yu~shan..." "Master, I really didn't steal the spiritual medicine!" Before Er Gouzi could make a move, Yushan had already started to quibble. "If it wasn't you, who else could it be?" Now, no matter how nice Yushan said, he would not believe it.
Since the last escape, Er Gouzi has completely lost his trust in him. Once a person has a stain, it can never be washed away. Without saying anything, he caught Yushan and beat him up. This guy used to be quite cowardly. Every time he was beaten, he confessed everything. Now he has become stubborn and refuses to admit it. So he was beaten even harder this time. After the fight, Er Gouzi comforted Yushan with kind words. Beating him up was just a means, not the purpose. The real purpose was to make him realize his mistakes and not make them again. The beating really worked, and there was no loss of elixirs in the following days. Since returning from the county, Er Gouzi has been organizing spring farming these days. A year's plan depends on spring, and many crops will have to wait until next year if they miss spring. There are too many vacant lands in the entire Anchang County now, and the tenants are not enough to plant them. In addition to the real estate he bought from his former grandfather, Er Gouzi has also bought some land one after another. There are more than 1,000 hectares of land in his hands, and one hectare is equal to 100 mu, which is more than 100,000 mu. There are also countless uncultivated barren mountains. Ignoring the barren mountains for now, just these 100,000 mu of land require at least several thousand strong laborers, and with their families, they have to support 10,000 or 20,000 people. The population was seriously insufficient, but he unexpectedly solved this big problem. He was too soft-hearted the year before last, and spent a lot of food to feed more than 3,000 of his men. Several people died in the battle, and there were more than 2,600 left. Now, these more than 2,000 people who have practiced martial arts can charge into battle in wartime and are a powerful labor force in peacetime.
One person can do farm work for two or three people, and pull the plow faster than an ox. These people are all slaves bought by Er Gouzi. Most of them are one penny each, and the contract of sale is still in their hands, so they don’t even have to pay for their wages. The only disadvantage is that cultivators have a good appetite, a large appetite, and can work and eat. Just these two thousand people cultivated most of the land in Er Gouzi’s hands. Only a few remote and unconnected plots of land were left, which were rented out. He was not too worried about the tenants. When Er Gouzi rode a goose to pacify the rebels in Anchang County last year, a large number of rebel soldiers were scattered everywhere. Sima Yi was kind-hearted and settled these people in some villages and sent some food. These people have survived until now and are all the most sought-after strong laborers. Most of the people who were settled by Sima Yi at the beginning became Er Gouzi's tenants. So the problem of lack of people for spring plowing was solved. However, Er Gouzi still responded to the proposal of County Magistrate Ding and reduced the rent for the tenants. The rent was reduced to 20%. In this way, as long as there is a normal harvest, most tenants can have enough food and some surplus food can be saved. As for other landlords, they are not so lucky. They can't recruit tenants and their fields can only be abandoned. Fortunately, the court exempted taxes at this stage. But after three years, even abandoned land will have to pay taxes. People who have a lot of land and no reputation will still lose money. As a last resort, they can only sell their land at a low price. Er Gouzi now buys as long as someone sells. In the war period before, there was a shortage of food, and gold, silver and copper were far less valuable than food. He hoarded a lot of gold and silver. For a time, the caravans in Anchang County were really powerful under the call of County Magistrate Ding, and brought a large number of people from other places. When these people arrived in Anchang County, they were so rare that they were robbed by landlords from all sides. Gradually, the population of other prefectures heard the news, and some of them took the initiative to migrate to Anchang County with their families. When those outsiders came, they found that this place was indeed a happy place, with land rents of only 20% to 30%, and the landlords were very kind and easy to talk to. Especially the parent official of Anchang County, who was a great and honest man, not greedy for money, not making things difficult for the people, and treating people kindly. It was difficult to find a better place than this place in the entire Zhou Dynasty. After several months of recuperation, everyone in Anchang County lived and worked in peace and contentment, and slowly recovered some popularity.
So much so that those who made a living by trafficking in human beings were almost unemployed and had to move to other places. However, Er Gouzi had just returned from the field today, but he met a group of little beggars who blocked his way. Er Gouzi thought they were begging for food, so he didn't care. He took out some red dates from his arms and distributed them to these little beggars. "Boss, we don't want red dates, we want to sell ourselves to you as slaves." At this time, a little beggar came over and pulled Er Gouzi's trouser legs and said. Er Gouzi found the kid familiar. He used his sleeve to wipe the dirt off the kid's face, revealing a dark, mature face. Uh! Isn't this Ah Hu's son who is good at farm work? "Why are you here? Where are your parents? And your uncles?" Since Agui left, Ahu and his family have been homeless, but there are more than a dozen people. "My father and uncles left one day and never came back." "My mother married with my sister and exchanged a lot of delicious food for me, but I ate it all..." Ahu's son simply told the story of his family. It's a pity that Ahu's family is still very hardworking. Agui sold 20 shi of grain and bought an acre of land. Ahu wanted to take a bigger chance, but unfortunately he failed and his family was ruined. "We want to sell ourselves to the boss as slaves." This kid is smart. He knows that he is too young to be a tenant, so he thought of the old boss. "By the way, what's your name?" "I don't know. My parents call me Goushengzi. They say that such a name is auspicious and easy to raise." Goushengzi shook his head in confusion. He didn't know if he had a real name. Even if he had one, he couldn't write it anyway. "Then how much do you want to sell for?" "Are all of you the same?" Several children nodded together, indicating that they would sell themselves to Ergouzi. "I heard that Dingjiazhuang also accepts children and gives one stone of grain per person." "We don't want to go to Dingjiazhuang. The owner can just give us a little."
Several children are orphans near Shexi Village. They are familiar with this place and are a little homesick, so they chose Ergouzi's place. "Okay, just follow me. I'll give you one stone of grain per person." "Just go over there and report to Qiuyue." Ergouzi pointed to the house where Qiuyue was. Goushengzi knew Qiuyue, and he led the group of children to go there by himself... For a moment, the top of Shekou Mountain. Yushan was digging the ground. Because he often watered the gourd with water, the weeds in the ground grew very fast. He had to dig the ground and weed every three or five days, which made Yushan's life very fulfilling every day. He was never bored and had no worries. He got up early every day to work. When he was hungry, he ate something and then continued to work. At night, he went to bed and then went to bed again... In this fulfilling life, people are the purest, without distractions and without thinking about things. Yushan's hoe just dug next to a spiritual medicine, and suddenly, the spiritual medicine floated up by itself. "Huh?" How can the spiritual medicine fly? Then he saw that the spiritual medicine flew higher and higher, and then floated to the foot of the mountain. Yushan hurriedly used both hands to catch it. But he was too short and his arms and legs were short. He jumped several times in a row and didn't catch it. Just like that, he watched the spiritual medicine fly away. At this moment, another spiritual medicine flew up from the ground and floated into the air. Yushan hurried to chase it, he was annoyed and even angry. Finally found the thief who stole the spiritual medicine, causing him to be beaten up for nothing. But this spiritual medicine was flying in the sky, and Yushan's little arms and legs jumped several times, but he still couldn't catch it. Watching the spiritual medicine fly down Shekou Mountain again and escape again. Yushan was not willing to do that. If he didn't catch this thief, he would be beaten again when his master came back. He jumped forward with all his strength... "Puff..." He was winged back by the big goose. The big goose received the order from Ergouzi to guard Yushan well and never let him escape, and he was still very dedicated. "You stupid goose, didn't you see that the spiritual medicine flew away?"
Yushan roared, lost the spiritual medicine, and was beaten again. The goose raised its head to the sky, ignoring Yushan's questioning. The master only asked him to watch Yushan and prevent him from escaping. He did not say that the spiritual medicine should not fly by itself. Although the goose has some intelligence and can understand human words. But it took only one or two years for the mutant goose to be promoted to a spiritual goose, so its understanding ability is limited. Being able to follow Er Gouzi's instructions and keep an eye on Yushan and prevent him from escaping is already the limit of the goose's understanding ability. Maybe the thief who stole the spiritual medicine today wanted to provoke Yushan, and at this moment another spiritual medicine flew into the air. Yushan hurried to chase, but he failed to catch up. When he reached the edge of the mountain top, he was slapped back by the goose's wings. "You stupid goose, why are you stopping me all the time?" "Didn't you see that spiritual medicine flew away?" The goose raised its head proudly, ignoring Yushan's anger. His mission is to watch Yushan, and no sweet talk can shake him. "Stupid goose, damn goose, braised goose, bald goose..." Yushan was so angry that he could only curse at the goose. "Quack...quack..." With the goose's pride and limited vocabulary, it was naturally no match for Yushan. "Bang!" It slapped Yushan to the ground with its wings, pecked him several times with its mouth, and then held Yushan's big ear tightly.