"Gaga gaga..." The goose has been eating well, playing well, and in a good mood recently, and its size has grown a lot. At this moment, it is flying high in the sky, with a wide and flat back. Er Gouzi is sitting on the goose's back with Xiao Hei in his arms, feeling relaxed and happy in the oncoming wind. Looking down at the earth, Sanyang County is now densely populated, and those originally small towns are crowded with people. According to Huang Laocai's statistics, the current population of Sanyang County has reached 2 million. The surrounding population has been attracted here, and now the fields in several counties in Qingzhou are uncultivated and barren. I heard that the living standards of several county magistrates and wealthy families in the neighboring counties have dropped a lot. In the past, when these people went out, they had to ride in a sedan chair with eight people, surrounded by people, and clean water was poured on the streets. Their lives were extremely luxurious. Just throw a few copper coins out, and there will be people willing to lie on the ground to step on their feet. With just one or two stone of rice, you can buy a beautiful girl and bring her back to your house to be a maid, a concubine, to lick hemorrhoids, or to be a spittoon...
The happiness of these nobles is based on a large number of cheap poor people. There are these poor people who have no food to eat. As long as the masters throw out a little money, there will be a large number of poor people scrambling to be enslaved by them. Now, everyone has run away. The entire county is left with only the county magistrate and those officials, as well as some wealthy families. The streets are empty, there are no servants in the restaurant, and only some old and ugly people are left in the brothel. The landlords have large tracts of land but no one is planting it. They have several warehouses of money at home, but they can't hire servants to serve them. Without anyone to enslave, even if they have accumulated a fortune and supreme power, they can't enjoy any happiness. Everything is just an empty frame. What's worse is that as time goes by, these officials eat, drink, defecate, urinate, and sleep every day, and they can't even buy vegetables. They could only organize the few remaining confidants to walk for ten days or half a month to buy vegetables in Qingzhou Prefecture. The unruly people who were scolded by them before could not be kept now. The officials of the surrounding counties and prefectures had long hated Er Gouzi and wanted to kill him in their dreams. They also tried to unite and implement the most severe blockade on Sanyang County. However, even the soldiers sent out to be responsible for the blockade fled to Sanyang County. There were only a few officials left in the county government and the county government. Could it be that the county magistrate personally stood at the border to stop it? Even if all the officials of the county government were dispatched, they could not defend a few miles. Therefore, all blockades could not be implemented, and those people and caravans could only be allowed to cross the state and county.
In fact, it was not Er Gouzi's intention to attract all the surrounding population. He never thought of using such a vicious trick. Except at the beginning, all the people in Sanyang County died, and he could only use the name of the Qingtian Da Lao Ye to attract some people. Later, he never claimed that he was a great judge. But as time went by, his reputation as a great judge became more and more famous. He continued to attract people from the surrounding areas to Sanyang County. Because the population increased too quickly, the burden was actually quite heavy. He had to settle these people, and let them have work to do and food to eat. Without food, they would become refugees who would cause trouble. At this time, Er Gouzi was riding on the back of a big goose, looking at the bustling crowd outside the city, and he landed directly at the county government office. "Master!" Huang Laocai saw his big goose flying over, so he waited in the courtyard early. After taking the elixir for several years in a row, Huang Laocai actually had a tendency to rejuvenate. His originally sparse white hair grew a lot of black hair, and his waist and back became straight. "Yes, you have already cultivated to the sixth level of Qi Refining. Keep working hard and you will have a chance to build your foundation!" Er Gouzi looked at Huang Laocai's current state. As long as he could cultivate to the foundation building stage before his lifespan ran out, he would have a lifespan of 200 years. "Everything is thanks to you. If it weren't for you, my old bones would have been buried in the loess long ago." "We have been friends for so many years. You're welcome." "Master, the rent for this year has been collected. A total of million stones have been collected." Huang Laocai knew that Er Gouzi liked the harvest from the land the most. As soon as the rent income for this year was calculated, he reported it to Er Gouzi. "So much?" Er Gouzi was a little surprised. He really didn't expect that it would increase so much this year. "The mountains we reclaimed a few years ago have started to yield a good harvest last year and this year." "And the spiritual medicines and spiritual grains we planted before have also begun to mature and be harvested this year." "This year, we harvested 40 stones of spiritual grains, and thousands of spiritual gathering grasses, and..." "There are also 200 kilograms of black iron, iron ingots and hundred-refined iron. The output has doubled this year." "And..." For Er Gouzi, this year is another year of great harvest. "Master, do we still have to pay taxes to the court this year? As far as I know, the surrounding counties have not paid."
It is almost time to pay taxes now, and Huang Laocai reminded him in a low voice. "We will pay what we should pay, but we should also cry poor to the emperor and ask for benefits." Although he can pay a lot of grain taxes, he is still in short supply of materials such as spiritual stones and elixirs. "So should we pay grain or march pills this year?" "The journey is long, march pills are more convenient." Er Gouzi stayed in the county town for a day, and then he set off again, heading for Qingzhou City. I haven't been to Qingzhou City for many years, and I found that the population here is much sparser. It's not even as prosperous and lively as his Sanyang County. Er Gouzi glanced casually and found that there were still portraits of the Butterfly Fairy on the street. He walked over to take a look and found that Qingzhou City is still looking for the Butterfly Fairy. The Butterfly Fairy has committed countless major crimes in Qingzhou over the years. Just last month, she stole a batch of supplies from the government warehouse. It seems that the legend of the Butterfly Fairy will continue to be passed down in Qingzhou City and will not die for hundreds of years. Er Gouzi came to Qingzhou this time just to exchange for a batch of medium-grade spirit stones. He also has a batch of materials in his hand and plans to refine some puppets. But puppets consume spirit stones too quickly. Ordinary spirit stones will soon turn into ash when put in, and they can't be consumed. But the spiritual power of medium-grade spirit stones is 100 times that of ordinary spirit stones. They can be put into puppets and taken out when the spiritual energy is almost exhausted. Putting them in the gourd can restore the spiritual energy again.