"Hey, the newly promoted scholar is back!" Er Gouzi said jokingly when he saw Huang Laocai and his son carrying a pig. "Qiuyue, why don't you go and help? How can you let the scholar carry a pig!" Qiuyue heard Er Gouzi's call and hurried over to take the big black pig and held it in her arms, feeling very relaxed. "Master Zhang, please stop making fun of us. We have failed your high expectations and have given up the exam." Huang Laocai said with a wry smile. "Give up the exam?" Er Gouzi was stunned. He really didn't expect that Huang Laocai would be willing to give up the opportunity he had finally obtained. "Alas! This is so..." Huang Laocai told Er Gouzi everything that happened in the county city. Er Gouzi slapped his forehead and felt that he almost made a mistake in Huang Mancang's life.
I almost never deal with people in the officialdom, so naturally no one would reveal this information to me. Fortunately, Huang Laocai is an old man who knows how to make choices and make decisions at critical moments. "It's better to give up. I will recommend you to take the exam when I have nothing to do in the future." "Thank you, Mr. Zhang!" Huang Laocai pulled Huang Mancang to kneel, but Er Gouzi held him up with magic power and he would not kneel down no matter what. The father and son, who were originally worried about giving up the exam, finally felt relieved. "Mr. Zhang, we came here today to express our gratitude to you. We also want to sell the fields in our family to you and ask you to be a tenant for the master." "I hope Mr. Zhang can help!" Er Gouzi looked at the old Huang Laocai in front of him. "Are you sure you want to do this?" "Well, I've decided!" Recently, there are many small landlords who sell their land to Er Gouzi and make them tenants. I didn't expect Huang Laocai to take this step. "Then don't be a tenant, just be a housekeeper for me." Er Gouzi has been used to hearing all kinds of legends about Huang Laocai since he was a child. He is the idol of the tenants in Shexi Village. At the beginning, Er Gouzi had no one to teach him since he was a child. He could only feed pigs and chop wood, and he could imitate Huang Laocai in his behavior. Although there is Qiuyue, the housekeeper now, he is not very literate after all, and he can't manage too many things. Er Gouzi thinks that Huang Laocai is particularly suitable to be a housekeeper.
"Thank you for your promotion, sir!" Huang Laocai hurriedly bowed to thank him, and at the same time, his body inadvertently moved to the side, making Huang Mancang look a little more conspicuous. "Huang Mancang, you can read and have read the books of sages, so you can be the captain of the team temporarily and teach those rough guys to read and write." "When you want to take the military examination in the future, I will recommend you." Er Gouzi's people can write some crooked words now, but they are still far behind Huang Mancang, who has been reading and writing since childhood. If they can't read well, if they pick up a cultivation method on the ground, they can't figure it out with their current knowledge. Before, Huang Fugui was asked to teach everyone to read, but Huang Fugui has more things to do every day, and he is also responsible for ironwork. Now it's best to add another person who has read books. "Thank you, Mr. Zhang!" Er Gouzi made a simple arrangement for the two people, and the details behind were handed over by themselves. As for the fields of Huang Laocai's family, they are not as valuable as a pill of Peiyuan Pill. Er Gouzi directly gave a pill. As for the pills and other things that should be rewarded for the work we have done here, we will give them to you later. Since Huang Laocai joined Shekou, many things have been handled in an orderly manner. Qiuyue has been much freer. Now she is responsible for some logistics and sometimes helps Er Gouzi cook a few dishes. Her cooking skills have been instructed by Ji Cang, and they are better than Yu's. Er Gouzi saw Yu wipe her nose and rub pills at the same time last time, and later he was not used to eating Yu's cooking. Moreover, Yu was so busy every day, digging a lot of soil, weeding a lot, and watering a lot of land. It would take too much time for her to cook. Let's just concentrate on farming every day.
In the following period of time, the government really collected grain and civilians everywhere. In addition to the usual taxes, ordinary people had to pay 30% of their grain as military rations. The government then refined all the collected grain into marching pills and sent them to the front line. Every time a cultivator fights, he consumes a lot of true energy or mana, which needs to be replenished in time. Taking pills or using spirit stones is the best way to replenish mana. But pills and spirit stones are so expensive, and the battlefield consumption is so high, it is definitely not worth it, and the Great Zhou Dynasty can't afford it. The marching pills became the best substitute, with good quality, low price, high yield, and renewable. In addition to the slow refining, all have advantages.
Although the marching pills are made from ordinary grains, eating one pill is equivalent to a bushel of rice. Someone once compared that if you take 1,000 march pills, the energy you get after refining is roughly equivalent to a spiritual stone. I heard that because of the fierce fighting on the front line, a large number of march pills are consumed every day. So the grain price, which has just recovered, has started to rise again, and the grain price is getting more expensive day by day. This time the grain price rose, Er Gouzi was not panicked at all. A large amount of grain and a large number of march pills were stored in the warehouse. He also organized manpower to cultivate with all his strength, and now the fertile fields around Shekou are all fertile. However, this rise in grain prices has caused great suffering to ordinary people who have no surplus grain at home. Many people who are so poor that they have no food to eat, for the sake of a few buckets of rice, take risks and join cults. "Boss, I found another cult." On this day, Er Gouzi was fighting with Xiao Hei for meat, and Sun Wangcai excitedly reported to Er Gouzi. Since the last time, he secretly investigated for more than a year, and only today did he find clues again. "Oh? Where?" "It's still more than ten miles away from us. We have found a few small fish and shrimps, but we haven't found the den yet." "Okay, continue the investigation, don't alarm the snake, this time we have to catch them all." In the past few years, Er Gouzi has been obsessed with this hidden cult and vowed to eradicate it. After reporting, Sun Wangcai left excitedly again. Er Gouzi then looked down and saw that all the meat on the table was gone. But Qiuyue roasted half a lamb, and before he could take a few bites, the black dog had eaten it all. After the dog finished eating the meat, he licked his nose with relish. At this time, Qiuyue brought another half of the freshly roasted lamb. This time, Er Gouzi stood up, stepped on the black dog, and took the big bowl to eat it. The black dog was a greedy man who didn't care about his life. He slowly stretched his body and stretched his waist into a long rope. The dog's head finally got close to the lamb and swallowed a large piece in one bite. Er Gouzi was furious, grabbed the black dog's body, and threw it far away. This throw was thrown dozens of feet away. As soon as Xiao Hei landed, his four short legs spread out, and he quickly rolled back to Er Gouzi like a small black meat ball. However, Er Gouzi was not a vegetarian. When Xiao Hei came back, there were some sheep bones left on the ground.
"You still want to snatch food from me!" "Woof woof woof..." The little black dog whined a few times in dissatisfaction, and then picked up bones from the ground to eat. There was not a trace of meat left on these bones, which were cleaner than those gnawed by dogs. In fact, this was already a mercy from Er Gouzi, otherwise, with his teeth, he would not even spit out bones. Since this dog taught me some magic last time, he has been eating and sleeping every day, sleeping and eating, and he does not do any work. He is also picky about food, and does not eat anything without spiritual energy. For this dog, Er Gouzi has no way. It is very resistant to beatings, no matter how you hit it, it will be useless. You patiently talk to it for a few words and teach it some great principles of being a dog, and it will fall asleep directly. Even if the little black dog resists, Er Gouzi can't put it in the gourd. The only advantage is that the fur is soft and feels good, so you can knead it however you want. Er Gouzi is full and returned to the stone house on the top to continue practicing. He took out a pill bottle, poured out a Qi Gathering Pill, and swallowed it into his mouth. This kind of pill taken during the Qi Refining Period has little effect on you, so you can take more at a time. At present, Xuanyuan Pill has the best effect, but it requires 200 years of Xuanyuan grass, which you have not cultivated yet. The land in the gourd has been expanded to one acre by you, and a large area of Xuanyuan grass has been planted. The oldest one is still several decades old. The first spiritual herb that was planted alone has fully matured and has bred dozens of seedlings. Spiritual herbs are one of the main ingredients for refining foundation-building pills. You need to collect wood, water, earth, gold, water, and other spiritual herbs to refine foundation-building pills. I have the complete recipe of the pill passed down by Baihe Zhenren. But if I don’t collect these spiritual herbs, even if I refine the foundation-building pill, I dare not give it to my friends. Foundation-building cultivators who are not registered by the government will be treated as cults and can be killed by anyone. So although I have some of the conditions for refining foundation-building pills, I don’t have much desire in my heart. After Er Gouzi swallowed the Qi-gathering Pill, he held another spiritual stone in his hand and began to practice "Hongmeng Refining God". Since there is no suitable elixir to take recently, the progress of cultivation has slowed down a lot. So far, the width of the sea of Dantian is only two feet. It is only a little stronger than two or three grass foundations. The spiritual consciousness cultivation has improved a little, and now it can reach about 35 feet.
Whether it is the sea of Dantian or the strength of spiritual consciousness, every little bit of improvement will increase the difficulty. It has been more than three months since Sun Wangcai came back to report. "Boss, we finally found a cult den." "In addition to some messengers and undercovers deployed in various villages and towns, there are at least more than ten people." "Should we arrest them immediately?" Er Gouzi pondered for a while and shook his head. This time he planned to find all the dens first. "Don't arrest them for now." "Keep an eye on their den, it must be connected to other dens." "Okay!" Sun Wangcai left excitedly, and then he led people to guard outside the den every day, and quietly followed anyone who came out. In this way, he watched for another two months. On this day, Sun Wangcai saw a team of county government officers and soldiers suddenly appear and surround the cult den. These officers and soldiers were like wolves and tigers. After a short battle, they quickly captured all the cult monks in the den, including some leaders. Those cult members who were hiding in villages and towns and related to this den were all captured by county government officers and soldiers on the same day. Er Gouzi got the news and nodded. He didn't go to the county government to get involved with the county magistrate. He didn't expect this to be successful. It's enough for the anti-cultists to be caught. No matter who catches them, they will ruin their own good deeds and almost cut off all the clues. Fortunately, Sun Wangcai still has a few clues in his hand, which have not been found by the officers and soldiers of the county government. It can still be traced.