In today's Qingzhou, Liusha County and Xiaoyi County were destroyed, and Luoxi County was in the midst of war. Only the neighboring Sanyang County was peaceful and calm. Attracted by such a good environment, a large number of people flowed into Sanyang County to make a living. The population of Sanyang County soon exceeded 800,000, and then exceeded 900,000. Now the total population has reached 1 million. With so many people crowded in the small Sanyang County, everyone wanted to be a tenant for Er Gouzi. First of all, there was a serious shortage of arable land. Although he had reclaimed some barren mountains in recent years, it was still far from enough. The population was too large. Er Gouzi still adopted the previous experience. He provided food and organized a large number of people to reclaim wasteland. As long as these outsiders could get two full meals for their work, they all rushed to work. What's more, they could get a salary after finishing the work, which was a complete surprise. It was unheard of in the entire Zhou Dynasty that helping officials not only provided meals but also money. Anyway, now that the population is large, Er Gouzi dares to do some big projects.
Recently, he is preparing to enclose several mountains in the newly reclaimed barren mountain area to turn it into a huge reservoir. Such a large reservoir can absorb more than 100,000 people to work at the same time. After it is built, even if there is no rain for three years, the surrounding areas will not be affected. Er Gouzi has been a farmer since he was a child. He knows very well that farmers depend on the weather for their livelihood, and the most feared thing is drought, especially the severe drought a few years ago, which eventually left nine out of ten households empty. So now that he has become the county governor, in addition to still liking to farm and store food, he also likes to repair various water conservancy facilities. Anyway, he can collect more than 2 million stones of land rent every year, and the stored food is enough, so he can't eat it all. Anyway, if more land is reclaimed, more rent can be collected in the future. In addition to reclaiming wasteland and repairing water conservancy, Er Gouzi also organized a large number of people to mine. Mining is originally a hard and tiring job, requiring a large number of strong laborers. There is a black iron mine in Sanyang County. The output of black iron is not high, but the output of ordinary iron ore is particularly high. In the past, due to insufficient manpower and material resources, only dozens of kilograms of black iron ore and some ordinary pig iron could be mined every year. Now he has invested a lot of manpower in this mine. According to the current production speed, the output of black iron ore and ordinary iron ingots can at least double. At the same time, the mined iron ore cannot be wasted and is smelted into iron ingots on the spot. Then these iron ingots are transported to various places and further processed into 100-refined iron essence. After 100 kilograms of iron is refined and processed, only one kilogram of 100-refined iron essence can be obtained. The application range of 100-refined iron essence is extremely wide, and some high-end ordinary weapons, auxiliary materials for refining magic tools, etc. can all be used. Nowadays, the arrows of the spirit crossbows on the walls of Sanyang County are made of 100-refined iron essence as the main material. Ordinary iron blocks can be turned into 100-refined iron essence by putting them into Ergouzi's gourd.
But if the 100-refined iron essence is put into the gourd, it can be turned into a higher quality 1,000-refined iron essence. Er Gouzi ordered that half of the iron in the mine be taken out to be refined into 100-refined iron essence. 100-refined iron essence and black iron naturally went into Er Gouzi's gourd. In addition to reclaiming wasteland, building water conservancy and mining in Sanyang County, Er Gouzi also did something different. That is, in order to prevent tenants from abandoning their babies, he set up a nursery. Over the years, the number of nurseries has not decreased, but has become larger and larger. The first babies adopted are already several years old. Originally, Er Gouzi thought that when these people grow up, he would let them farm and work. Now that there is not enough arable land in Sanyang County, he can only keep these babies in the nursery. Er Gouzi is not a generous person. He has to feed and drink so many people every day. Now that he can't farm, he has to let them do something and work. After thinking about it, he can only let them learn a few more words for the time being, and then send a few men to teach them martial arts. If they can't farm, let them learn martial arts and help me fight in the future. Er Gouzi has been a great official in Sanyang County for a while. On this day, he quietly left Sanyang County again and transformed into the image of Hu Lao Mo. At an agreed place, he met Ma Jing. "Hehehe..." "Hello, Master Hu!" Although Ma Jing is now a Jindan, he still feels a sense of fear when he meets the unfathomable Hu Lao Mo. "You're welcome. You are also a Jindan strongman now. When you return to Xie Xiu City, you will at least be the master of the hall." "In the future, when I meet you, I will call you Master Ma." "I dare not, even if I become the master of the hall in the future, I will definitely follow Master Hu's lead." In front of Hu Lao Mo, Ma Jing always feels that he is still too small. "Master Hu, there is news about the spiritual medicine you asked me to find out." "Oh? You mean the water spirit grass? Where is it?" Er Gouzi found the horse spirit again so that he could contact those undercovers and get all kinds of information for him. He has always wanted to refine the foundation-building pill himself, but he has not been able to gather all the spiritual medicines. Now he has gathered four of the five spiritual medicines for refining the foundation-building pill, and only one water spirit grass is missing.
"It's in the Jinyang Valley behind Luoxi County." "I drew a map, please take a look." Er Gouzi took the map and looked at it. Jinyang Valley was behind the battlefield between the Qingzhou Army and the monsters, not far from the Qingzhou Army. Once there is a commotion, it will definitely alert the Qingzhou army in front. It seems that in order to get the last spiritual medicine, we have to take some risks again. After receiving the detailed introduction from the horse spirit, on the third day, Er Gouzi transformed himself into the appearance of General Donkey again. "It's expensive..." "Sure enough, I have to pay the price." "I have to do what I promised Brother Diao at the beginning, so that we can meet again when I go back." It took three days for General Donkey to talk to himself and find his way to the vicinity of Jinyang Valley. This place is only 20 miles away from the front line where the two armies are fighting. Here, he can often feel the huge spiritual power fluctuations from the battle in front, which scares him. This is the hinterland of the demon Qingzhou army. If he is surrounded, he will almost die.