Chapter 339

Quliu Town.

Yuan Qingyan was discussing matters as usual, and an official said: "Magistrate Yuan, three porridge sheds have been opened, and the results will be seen in a few days."

"Why three? Didn't we say we would only open one?" Yuan Qingyan frowned and asked.

The official said: "One is truly not enough. In fact, where are there any refugees near the county seat? The refugees can't reach here at all. It's only near Bianning County that we can recruit some, and they are all small groups of refugees, so we have to set up several more porridge sheds to recruit enough people. But don't worry, my lord, although three porridge sheds have been opened, the grain consumption is still the same as one, only one thousand catties per day."

Yuan Qingyan's expression softened, and he said: "Very good. This official holds the title of County Magistrate but has no people to govern; it is truly lamentable. If we recruit some refugees, we can open up wasteland and farm."

"Initially, we will recruit... ten thousand people?"

Yuan Qingyan nodded: "Ten thousand is not a small number; only strong men, no old, weak, women, or children."

The officials said in unison: "Don't worry, my lord!"

The four gates of Bianning County were wide open, and the soldiers guarding the city were huddled in the gate towers, watching groups of murderous refugees carrying large and small bags, filing out of the city.

A soldier on the city wall poked his head out to look and suddenly said: "Isn't that Captain Zhang?"

In an instant, several heads popped out from the city wall and looked down. Among the team leaving the city, there were groups of strong men, their clothes uniform, clearly different from ordinary refugees, and there were many people who had mastered Body Forging, and even Dao Foundation cultivators, such as the captain who had been recognized.

These people were all dejected, walking along with the refugees. Although they were only wearing inner linings, the soldiers on the city wall could see at a glance that they were military uniforms issued.

These soldiers were not bound, but unexpectedly no one ran away, honestly leaving the city. There were also many large carts in the refugee team, and a few curtains were opened to look out, filled with beautiful women.

The city guards found it strange, but no one dared to go down the city. The large group of refugees didn't seem to have any intention of attacking the city tower, so they left the city like that and headed west all the way.

Among the refugee team, people kept saying: "There is a porridge shed set up by Magistrate Yuan of Ningxi County ahead; everyone, work harder, and we can have something to eat when we get there before dark!"

A rough man suddenly said loudly: "I'm not pretending anymore; I'm a high-level Dao Foundation cultivator! Anyone willing to follow me, stand within ten zhang of me, limit of three hundred, and then follow my chant and step. First come, first served!"

With a whoosh, the man was surrounded by hundreds of people. The man immediately cast a Dao technique and began to chant, and everyone stepped together; at first it was just a small run, but later it became faster and faster, and in the blink of an eye, a group of people was running at full speed, not feeling tired at all, and they ran out of sight in a moment.

The remaining refugees were shocked and clamored one after another, so more than a dozen Dao Foundation cultivators stood out, but then there was no one left. The large group of refugees dared not delay any longer and quickened their pace, fearing that they would be late and the porridge would be gone again.

At nightfall, the large group of refugees finally rushed to the border, and from afar, they saw a huge porridge shed, bigger than all the porridge sheds in Bianning County city combined!

Above the porridge shed stood a large flag with a large "Yuan" character written on it, a zhang high!

There were hundreds of strong men maintaining order in the porridge shed, shouting: "Don't be chaotic, queue up! Magistrate Yuan's great kindness and virtue, today there is enough for everyone! A total of fifty porridge distribution points, everyone can eat!"

The refugees received the porridge, and many knelt down on the spot, kowtowing to Magistrate Yuan in the distance.

Several people in the refugee group left quietly, taking advantage of the night to go far away.

At the County Magistrate's office in Quliu Town, Yuan Qingyan was having dinner when he suddenly saw a rare orchid he had cultivated for a long time actually blooming!

He was happy and stood up to watch. With this movement, he felt his whole body transparent, refreshed, his magic power seemed to have improved, and even the hidden illnesses in his body were seven or eight-tenths better.

Yuan Qingyan was in a mood and looked at the maid serving him, and then his desire faded by three points.

But there wasn't even a commoner in Quliu Town, and this maid was already the best he could find nearby. Yuan Qingyan had no choice, scooped her up, and headed to the inner room.

The maid was shy and tapped Yuan Qingyan lightly, and that dark red round face almost caused the County Magistrate's hidden illness to recur.

At this time, Xu Xi had already found some clothes to change into and moved to the County Magistrate's office. Listening to the reports of several spies, he gritted his teeth, slapped the table hard, and said: "Good for you, Yuan Qingyan!"

In the Azure Void domain, Little Wei Yuan was leading people to mark out a new piece of land in the southeast of the domain, preparing to build a city here. Half of this place was actually already within the Ningxi County boundary, but Little Wei Yuan didn't care about that.

This city was named Xinan City, and all the refugees accepted would first be settled in this city, and then their abilities and potential would be identified, and different jobs would be assigned. Here, preliminary screening would also be carried out on the newly joined refugees to ensure that they were not people mixed in by the enemy. In fact, this kind of screening was quite loose, just to prevent large groups of organized enemies from sneaking in.

This time, taking advantage of the chaos of refugees in Bianning County, Little Wei Yuan absorbed a full one hundred and fifty thousand refugees in one breath, finally feeling a bit full, but it would only take two or three months to digest.

The domain now had nearly five hundred thousand people, consuming one million catties of grain every day, and thirty million catties of grain in a month. Fortunately, this season's grain was about to ripen again, and another forty million catties would be accounted for soon. And in another two months, the five hundred thousand mu of fields would all enter the harvest period, and at that time, one harvest would produce one hundred million catties.

With the grain as a foundation, Little Wei Yuan felt confident in his heart.

Among the refugees from Bianning County, there were also several thousand captured government troops. At first, they couldn't escape, but the two elite towns that Little Wei Yuan had just formed were mixed in the refugee group; how could ordinary government troops be their opponents? Later, when they heard it was to the Azure Void domain, they didn't intend to run anymore. Anyway, being a soldier is being a soldier, so it's better to be a soldier of the Military Governor. It was just that Little Wei Yuan didn't expect that his people would also grab Xu Xi's group of concubines along the way.

Actually, it was understandable; the situation was chaotic at the time, and after breaking through the County Magistrate's office, many refugees were red-eyed, seeing that Xu Xi's concubines were about to suffer. The people of Azure Void couldn't bear it, and brought these women out under the name of offering them to the leader, and as a result, they were brought back to Azure Void all the way.

Little Wei Yuan was also crying and laughing; as things stood, he couldn't return them, so he had to settle them in the city first.

With newcomers, naturally, he had to continue to expand the army and prepare for war. This batch of new refugees could be directly pulled onto the battlefield in an emergency, and after a few months of training, they would be regular troops, and those who forged their bodies for a year or two would become elites. Little Wei Yuan planned to transfer several thousand loyal veterans to command the newcomers at a ratio of one to fifty, and finally planned to form a civilian army of one hundred and fifty thousand, with only a few thousand craftsmen not needing to go to the battlefield.

This could no longer be described as militaristic; it was simply obsessed.

However, the limitation on the number of troops in the domain now was not guns, but bullets. First, the ammunition reserve for the ten thousand elites must not be less, second, the ammunition base for the twenty thousand standing troops must not be less, and third, the ammunition reserve for the Xu family youths must not be less; they had already proven that they were the best candidates for eliminating iron cavalry. As a result, the ammunition in Azure Void was far from enough, and now there were more guns than bullets.

The core of ammunition was still gunpowder; although the new gunpowder was much more expensive, the benefits were also comprehensive and obvious. The ammunition made with it was lighter, more powerful, and easier to preserve, and only the new ammunition could allow Body Forging cultivators to significantly increase their rate of fire.

Now Little Wei Yuan was most concerned about how to increase production capacity and reduce costs. Sun Yu had been racking his brains, and it should be difficult to have new results for a while.

Just as Little Wei Yuan was fully preparing for war, the shadow in the middle of the month suddenly moved, giving thirty portions of advanced fortune in one breath!

Little Wei Yuan was immediately shocked, and only one sentence echoed in his mind: "No reason to be courteous, either treacherous or stealing!"

Then he saw that ten of the newly acquired fortune disappeared, making Little Wei Yuan wish he could slap himself; why did he always think of thoughts he shouldn't have!

Fortune would not appear out of thin air; suddenly getting so much fortune must mean something had happened. Little Wei Yuan immediately ordered the entire domain to enter a state of alert, the two elite towns and the standing army to enter a state of preparation for war, and the border to increase the intensity of patrols.

After arranging all this, Little Wei Yuan was still restless, staring at the sand table, thinking about where the danger might come from.

!.

Just then, a voice sounded behind him: "Are you guarding against me? Your spiritual sense is indeed sharp."

Little Wei Yuan turned around like the wind, and behind him, he didn't know when a scholarly cultivator had stood, dressed in silver, his bearing like jade. He looked to be just over thirty, but his eyes held the wisdom to understand the world.

He just stood there, but Little Wei Yuan felt nothing at all, and his spiritual sense swept over, empty. If he hadn't spoken, Little Wei Yuan would have thought it was an illusion created by some expert.

Little Wei Yuan bowed and asked: "May I ask which senior is visiting?"

The cultivator said: "Bao family, Bao Manshan."

Little Wei Yuan was shocked; this person was among the top of the True Lords of the current era, how could he suddenly appear here?

Bao Manshan said: "You have made this place very good; you are a talent. However, although the domain of fragmentation limits the entry and exit of True Lords, it is not that all True Lords cannot come. Besides me, if other True Lords are willing to pay some price, they can also enter and exit."

Little Wei Yuan felt a chill in his heart; Bao Manshan was clearly pointing at something, mostly likely the Xu family.

"I came this time just to see you. However, there is no reason to come empty-handed when meeting a junior; this is for you." Bao Manshan handed over a tender yellow fruit.

Little Wei Yuan felt a sense of familiarity when looking at it, but as soon as he received it in his hand, the fruit suddenly disappeared, and then the sapling on the Jade Mountain sprouted branches and leaves, generating a pale yellow branch, which was ethereal, appearing and disappearing from time to time.

Little Wei Yuan naturally understood its function; this was Bao Yun's ability to hide without a trace.

Bao Manshan raised his hand to stop Little Wei Yuan from speaking, took out another jade pendant, and said: "That was given to you by the Yun girl just now; this is my meeting gift. I originally wanted to give you another thing, but only after seeing it did I realize you didn't need it, so I used this Yin-Yang Reversal Pendant instead. This jade pendant can substitute for death once; it is for your teacher."

Little Wei Yuan knew how precious this kind of death-substituting treasure was, so he did not decline, respectfully accepted it, respectfully bowed, and kept this matter in mind, then asked: "Why does senior love me so much?"

Bao Manshan smiled lightly and said: "Xuanyue cannot do anything to me; only by keeping you alive can you come to me to avenge the Ancestor in the future! Haha, I'm leaving!"

He flicked his sleeves and disappeared into thin air, just like when he came; Little Wei Yuan didn't know how he left. Holding the jade pendant, Little Wei Yuan didn't dare to delay and went directly to find Zhang Sheng.

Bao Manshan suddenly sent such a jade pendant, fearing that he had calculated that Zhang Sheng had a death tribulation.

Zhang Sheng was not a pretentious person; knowing that his Dharma body was not powerful, he did not decline, wore the jade pendant close to his body, and then said that kindness is kindness, and hatred is hatred. The Ancestor's hatred must be avenged; after repaying this kindness, he would avenge the Ancestor's ambush.

Little Wei Yuan deeply agreed.

Just then, Little Wei Yuan received news that the Xu family had moved and the army had left the pass.

At the same time, the Five-Claw Dragon Blood Wood bore its first fruit, which fell to the ground and sprouted, and fortune spewed out!

But under the silent gaze of the three great immortal plants, it felt that it should stay for a while longer.

(End of chapter)