Chapter 300: Gradually Entering a Better State

Once the fire foxes confirmed the location, it was essentially a massacre. Although the range of the firearms was not far, it was not close either, and furthermore, the ammunition had been imbued with Tiangang Thunder Law. With one blast, whether man or ghost, demon or god, all would fall to the ground and be unable to rise.

In the end, not a single one of these samurai, ninjas, or Yin-Yang Masters remained alive. Their corpses were dragged together and directly cremated by Xiaopangdun, refined into ash.

Xiaopangdun had experienced much in the terrifying illusions constructed by the demon heads within the Three Sovereigns Ten Thousand People Umbrella. Having previously faced ten thousand demons and played mind games with demon heads, he held a significant advantage in dealing with these Wonu Country people who were still charging with samurai swords.

As for their so-called Shikigami, Xiaopangdun did not feel they were particularly powerful; perhaps they were about the same as the "Condolence Guest" evil spirit Xu Jia had encountered when he first started out.

Withdrawing the flames, the color in Hui Zhuo's eyes returned to normal. He said to Wizard Usachi: "I have just communicated with your deity. Although he is still in deep slumber, he still yearns to receive the orthodox imperial decree from the Heavenly Master, to become a True God, the orthodoxy of Luzon, and to obtain supreme status. This is the legal status that the first True God since the creation of Luzon would possess, just like our Central Plains' Mount Tai. In fact, we Heavenly Masters have obtained positions in the Tai Shan Five Sacred Mountains Prefecture, and if possible, we can act on behalf of Mount Tai to confer titles upon Mountain Gods."

Usachi believed this without a doubt, because he had indeed just discovered the power of his own Mountain God within Hui Zhuo. This was a method Xiaopangdun used by applying the Shamanic Inheritance Xu Jia had taught him.

In fact, these Southeast Asian deities were basically all propagated by wizards and shamans, only their wizards and shamans were single-god wizards and single-god shamans; it was the deities who chose the wizards and shamans. However, Xiaopangdun could actively choose, guide, or refuse communication.

Letting him handle the religious faith issues here and spread the Lingbao Daoist orthodoxy was extremely correct and appropriate.

When day came, Usachi returned to his tribe and took the initiative to send out troops, bringing one hundred tribal warriors with flame patterns on their foreheads, resembling followers of the Indian Brahminism. Together with Chen Gongming, they set out with one hundred Daoist child soldiers, and in less than half a day, they occupied the territory of this Wonu Daimyo.

The local commoners offered almost no resistance. They were already short, thin, and numb. Facing the advance, they simply hid inside their houses. These houses were basically all straw huts, very small, with a pot hanging inside and a mat spread out.

By comparison, the Daimyo's mansion was more presentable, with a surrounding wall and a two-story wooden Japanese-style courtyard shaped like the character 'Lu'.

That Wonu Daimyo and his retainers thought the assassination and decapitation operation had succeeded and were drinking and engaging in debauchery. However, it was male-on-male debauchery; the samurai and retainers were riding on the Daimyo and his sons, and the Daimyo was using his body to retain these samurai and retainers.

As a result, they were captured alive.

Seeing this scene of licentiousness, Chen Gongming directly gave the order: "Execute everyone taller than a wheel."

The shrine within the village territory was also directly destroyed, along with the evil god sacrifice. The one worshipped there was precisely one of the Demon Gods cultivated by the Longevity Sect, a spider demon with three hundred years of Daoist Practice, titled "Lady Luozhi." In reality, it was a monster with a human head and a spider body, said to be skilled at extracting souls into silk threads to weave invisible clothes.

In any case, it was also killed by Chen Gongming; Chen Gongming's murderous nature was indeed very heavy.

"The Master said it is best to focus on land reclamation first and not start a war, but these Wonu attacked us at night and colluded with the Longevity Sect, so killing them does not matter."

The two discussed it this way; one was the Outer Sect First Disciple, and the other was the Inner Sect First Disciple: "Moreover, this Wonu has ships and shipwrights. Although Wonu ships are generally small in design, they are perfectly sufficient for us to train in maritime transport of goods and supplies, or even troops, as long as we only operate around Luzon."

"Let Sun Bao and the others finish their trades and return to the Central Plains. We have occupied this village, and including our own people, the Wonu in the village, and the indigenous captives traded by Sun Bao and the others, we already have a population of over four thousand. We must start reclaiming wasteland and farming. Fortunately, this Daimyo had accumulated quite a bit of grain, and combined with the supplies and grain we brought, and trading with Usachi's tribe, it is enough to last until the summer harvest."

"Then let's reclaim the wasteland vigorously and ripen this land. We also brought cattle this time, some of which have even awakened their intelligence and are cow demons who have received the Taiyin Daoist Citizen Register. We can directly set up a large canteen, distribute work to each person, and get everyone moving. At the same time, we must build schools to let the Wonu, the indigenous people, and their school-age children learn to read and learn the official language while doing manual labor, to civilize them."

Hui Zhuo's family was in business and also had quite a bit of farmland: "Our cattle are still too few, and there are few heavy plows, but the most important thing is still relying on people. I estimate that for every adult male laborer, without considering illness, it takes two to four months to level one mu of land. Let's assume an average of three months. Cattle cannot be used to level land, so they can only be used to plow the land the Wonu themselves have already reclaimed, but there are only less than two thousand mu of farmland here."

"However, we are engaged in collective labor, and the efficiency far exceeds that of individuals. Children can go pick up stones, men can turn the soil, and women can cook. At the same time, we can build water mills and waterwheels, dig ditches, clear river silt, and store manure. By the time of the summer harvest, we can probably obtain at least three thousand, and at most five thousand mu of raw land."

Chen Gongming said: "Then set the first quarter's reclamation target at six thousand mu. Use men as cattle and horses, women as men, and children as women. If we don't put a little pressure on them, they won't meet the target. If we set five thousand mu, we might only finish four thousand; if we set six thousand, we might be able to reach five thousand."

"We provide three meals a day, covering all their needs; they should be grateful to us. If they are tired, so be it. Some people can go fishing to change their diet, and some can go dry salt and boil salt. If they eat salty food, they will have strength. Then pass down the Old Farmer Technique; no matter what their aptitude is, at least they can grow some strength. Give them a bottle of Small Five Elements Pill every month. This stuff is good; take it as medicine when sick, and for health maintenance when not. Don't worry about them being exhausted; we brought plenty on this march, a full twenty jars, each jar weighing a full hundred catties."

Hui Zhuo nodded: "However, planting grain directly on raw land yields little. So I think it's better to plant beans and vegetables first as a supplement to the staple food. Especially since we also brought the Caipu Sanxian and the Radish Immortal. They don't have much combat power, but they are experts at growing vegetables. With their blessing, we can scale up the cultivation of these types of vegetables."

"Fresh vegetables can be supplied to merchants sailing the seas, which can be directly exchanged for grain."

Chen Gongming shook his head: "That's where you're wrong. I see that much of the soil here is black soil, said to be volcanic ash accumulated from repeated volcanic eruptions."

"This part of the land doesn't need to be ripened; it only needs to be deep-plowed, sprinkled with wood ash, and exposed to the sun for a period of time before it can be used directly."

"For relatively barren places, we will follow our previous habits, sprinkle fertilizer and wood ash to ripen the soil. But if it's not black soil, it won't be on our priority list for reclamation."

"Like when we presided over land reclamation in Poyang, where silt had accumulated, the land was very fertile and was black soil. After reclamation, it was also just exposed to the sun for a period of time and sprinkled with wood ash, and before long, rice was planted." Chen Gongming was still very attentive to these things; after all, he was the only one who had been an official and dealt with officials, while Hui Zhuo was just the son of a wealthy landlord.

Chen Gongming added: "The second point is to spread planting techniques, starting with Usachi's tribe. Their tribe is at the foot of a volcano, the land is fertile, and it is summer all year round, so crops grow very quickly. We need to transport large quantities of grain back to Poyang; it's impossible to rely on ourselves to grow it. We can only rely on them to grow it. The more they grow, the cheaper the grain."

"Next time we bring silk and porcelain, we can exchange for more grain. Even when we expand and conquer tribes next time, we can directly use the fields they have already reclaimed, and the farmers who are skilled at farming will become our farmers. Therefore, when we conquer tribes, we must be well-prepared: only kill the nobles and wizards, kill those who oppress them, and grant land to the ordinary indigenous people, and prevent others from annexing it. Only then will they listen to our civilization."

"Third, find suitable places, islands, to build our own ports, to facilitate the direct transport of disaster victims and weapons from the Central Plains next time."

"Fourth, look for mineral deposits. The Master once said that Luzon has many volcanoes, and where there are many volcanoes, there must be many mineral veins. The Jiangnan West Circuit Salt and Iron Commission is, after all, encroached upon from the imperial court and is not our own. It is best if we can smelt steel and make weapons here ourselves. And if firearms cannot be fully covered for the time being, traditional cold weapons must be in place, especially bows, crossbows, arrows, and armor."

"Golden Toad also entrusted us to find a place suitable for large-scale spice cultivation to start plantations. Although spices are not as important as grain, they can also be exchanged for real gold and silver. Real gold and silver can be used to build sturdy ships and powerful cannons, so we must also pay attention to this."

"In order to build ships, the construction of Sanqing Palace has been suspended. We must also keep an eye out for suitable large timber here. Next time they bring people and weapons, we will take these large timbers back as our filial piety for building the Master's Daochang. Even if they aren't used to build the Daochang, using them to build large ships is good. We will build small and medium-sized ships here, which is perfectly enough."

………

Luzon has already started a crazy farming mode, earth buildings are being built, land is being leveled, and small boats are starting to go out to sea to fish... everything is on the right track.

Jiangnan West Circuit, however, has started to have continuous overcast and rainy weather. Xu Jia has not seen the sun for more than half a month. The Shunji Little Dragon King flew into the sky to disperse the Water Qi, but could not do so. Xu Jia's Nine Rivers Water Emperor Body God, commanding the Water Qi, could only store a portion of the water.

"Floods are still inevitable. We have controlled the water here, but other places haven't, and the water from upstream will still flow here," Xu Jia thought to himself.

There are more and more disaster victims. The Huai Region has already been flooded, and many people are running to the Jiangnan West Circuit, which has been depicted as a Blessed Land.

Xu Jia looked at the geographical map and determined to enter the Xiang-E region, heading to the sister lakes of Poyang, Dongting Lake and its surrounding governed areas, to realize the Xiang-Gan-E triangle zone and form a cycle.

In the era of the ancient Great Yu, it must have been like this too: heavy rain falling incessantly, floods coming continuously. Apart from diverting the floodwaters into the sea, there was no other way.

Heavy snow in winter, great floods in spring, and severe drought in summer and autumn.

However, although there are great floods, water flows to lower places after all, affecting output, but it is unlikely to result in a total crop failure. It just means there is a high probability of reduced production, because even if there is a severe drought in summer, the reservoirs Xu Jia dug, the ditches, and the water storage capacity of Poyang are enough to use, and the autumn harvest might even be a bumper crop.

If there is no snow in winter and no rain in spring and summer, and the water in Poyang Lake and the reservoirs is not enough, only then would there be a total crop failure.

In short, although the weather in Jiangnan West Circuit is bad, it is not yet to the point where people are actually starving to death, and commoners can even afford to cut a catty of pork to eat once a month.

Therefore, those who are fleeing disasters and famine are all rushing to the Jiangnan West Circuit.

But refugees and displaced people have always been a problem. Dexing and Yushan can absorb at most twenty thousand people per county, and they must have assets; these people can integrate.

Purely landless farmers and bankrupt small citizens entering the city will undoubtedly create big problems, so they can only be organized to reclaim wasteland, organized to live in tents and large dormitories, and carry out large-scale Work-for-Relief projects. Although the projects don't cost money now, they need to eat, and sitting and eating will quickly exhaust everything.

The commoners in Jiangnan West Circuit are fine; every household has enough stored grain and seeds for two years, but it is impossible to scrape their grain away, as letting them lose their ability to resist risks would only create more disaster victims.

Xu Jia's father's strategy of raising grain prices and then opening the granaries to release grain only solved the urgent need. Some merchants claimed they could bring grain from the sea from Wonu Country, Annan Country, and Siam Country, but the asking price was three times higher. Xu Jia agreed verbally, then dispatched Ao Jin to the South Sea, had Ao Jia cooperate to blow them to Luzon, detained them all, and then had Golden Toad incorporate them to continue purchasing grain from these countries, paying with silk and porcelain.

Xu Jia already has a textile factory here. The silk woven by the improved version of the loom is fine, dense, and smooth, uniformly without any flaws. After dyeing, it is exported, and the price is very high. If the sales channels were not restricted, it could at least bring Xu Jia an annual income of five hundred thousand taels of silver.

Xu Jia also offered a reward to merchants for the crop of cotton, which can be planted in large quantities overseas in the future to open cotton plantations, using large amounts of high-quality cotton cloth to further harvest wealth; after all, silk is a luxury item.

If one plants hemp to weave linen, the process is too complicated and consumes too much human resources, and linen is not very warm. But cotton can be made into cotton-padded jackets and trousers, which can ensure that a large number of people do not get sick or freeze to death. Even cotton armor is cheaper and lighter than leather armor.

If it weren't for the fact that paper armor is afraid of water, Xu Jia would have wanted to make paper armor on a large scale and then have Daoist citizens draw Talismans on them to just rebel. But this kind of rebellion is uncontrollable; one can only be a roving bandit and cannot sit and develop. What Xu Jia wants is a stable logistics base.

(End of chapter)