Withered vines and old trees, no crows.

It was windy and snowy, and there was no one around.

After leaving the small town of Huangji, Li Chenan and his party walked on this official road for four days.

There was a dead silence between heaven and earth, as if we had entered a chaotic space.

Li Chenan felt a little weird in his heart.

This journey is not between high mountains and lofty mountains.

Although there are hills occasionally appearing, most of them are still flat.

Why is there no one else?

The large area covered by snow is not known to be fields or wasteland.

If it is a field, how many hectares is it?

If it is a wasteland, how much food can be produced in a year if it is reclaimed?

For the first time, he realized how sparsely populated Ningguo was.

In such an extremely backward era, people are the greatest productive force.

If a country wants its population to grow significantly, it must first be stable.

The second thing is to make sure that all the people are well fed, clothed and worry-free... There is no other nightlife this night, so they will naturally have babies.

But now...

Ningguo is now on the verge of war and chaos!

There are strong enemies on all sides, bandits everywhere, and even more vicious traitors inside.

Although the officials in Kyoto have been thoroughly purged, none of the officials in the five seventy-two prefectures and the counties below them have been touched.

This is like a person whose whole body is sick. Although he has changed his brain, his hands and feet are still full of abscesses.

This will inevitably require a major purge across the country.

The land south of the Yangtze River is the top priority of the entire Ning Kingdom.

This first blow must fall in Jiangnan.

Whether it’s Jiangnan’s arena or Jiangnan’s officialdom!

Li Chenan was perfecting the plan for the trip to the south of the Yangtze River on the bumpy horseback. Xiao Baozi seemed to have become accustomed to the hands tightly hugging her waist. She still squinted her eyes, which allowed her to see what was ahead more clearly.

She just felt the warmth of the man on her back. She gently waved the riding crop in her hand, and suddenly felt that riding a horse like this was more comfortable than riding a donkey.

Dusk falls.

There was a dim light ahead.

It was a city at the junction of Guangling Prefecture and Pingjiang Prefecture.

It's called Wangjiang City.

When we get here, we are still roughly five days away from Zhouzhuang.

Li Chenan and his party dutifully paid the city entry tax and entered the city.

Five people and five horses walked slowly and leisurely on the streets of Wangjiang City. Not long after, Li Chenan saw a rather grand inn, and he suddenly felt happy——

It’s also called Yuelai Inn!

"Stay here!"

The five people dismounted and were greeted warmly by the waiter.

"My guest, it's been a hard journey!"

"What a handsome horse!"

"Your Majesty, please give the horses to the little man, and I promise to take good care of them!"

Saying this, he took the reins from Xiao Baozi's hand and shouted toward the inside: "Mrs. Boss, pick up the customers!"

As soon as he finished speaking, an attractive woman in her thirties rushed out of the inn with a happy face.

"Ouch, rare visitor!"

"Oh, what a handsome young lady... Come on, please come inside, it's so cold outside, don't let this delicate young lady freeze to death!"

Look, big places are different.

This shouldn't be a black shop anymore.

As the group walked in, they immediately felt a warmth coming to their faces.

Li Chenan took a look at the lobby. The decoration was certainly not elegant, but it was still grand.

In addition to the counter on one side, there are six tables in the entire lobby.

There were not many people at the moment, there were only two tables with people sitting at them.

In one of them, six people were sitting drinking.

First, they all seem to be people in the world.

Because they carry swords on their backs or put knives on the table.

The innermost table is an exception.

There were two men sitting at that table, an old man and a young man.

The old man's back was facing Li Chenan, and he could not tell his age. The young man had a fair complexion, wore a blue cotton robe and a Confucian shirt, and a Confucian crown. He looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, and he was probably a scholar.

They did not carry swords on their backs or shoulder knives.

The old man was carrying a piano case on his back, presumably a servant of the young man.

Li Chenan withdrew his gaze. The landlady was already standing behind the counter and asked with a smile:

"Sir, we happen to have three upper rooms in our store. The five of you...how are you doing?"

"Okay, how much does one room cost?"

"Young Master, it's very cheap. A room only costs two taels of silver."

Seemingly noticing the surprise on Li Chenan's face, she quickly said: "Young Master, it's worth it!"

"You can see the Xiujiang River from the window in our upper room. The winter view of the Xiujiang River is amazing!"

"Besides, the charcoal fire in our upper room is constantly burning for twelve hours... The young master looks at it and it is extremely expensive. You don't know that the price of charcoal this year is not cheap."

"And our upper room provides hot water at any time. You only need to yell, and a servant will bring it to your room... If you still feel it is not warm enough, you can add more bedding."

"Don't worry, they are all brand new."

"Look at the way the young masters are coming... from Guangling, right? There are no people inhabiting that stretch of road for hundreds of miles. Not to mention gentle people like the young masters, those knights in the world come from there.

I’m quite exhausted when I get here.”

"Two taels of silver, take a comfortable hot bath, have a meal with good wine and food from our kitchen, and then lie down on that warm bed... This little lady is the young master's wife, right?"

Xiao Baozi did not deny it, and the landlady suddenly burst into tears:

"One is it!"

"They look so good as a couple!"

"The young couple rolled into bed...tsk, tsk, tsk, they really are gods!"

"No, I even beat the gods!"

With his eloquent tongue, Xiao Baozi was very excited.

As soon as she finished speaking, Xiao Baozi took out an ingot of ten taels of silver from his arms.

She put it on the counter.

Her slender eyebrows raised slightly, and she said very calmly: "Just three upper rooms!"

He added boldly: "No need to look for it!"

The female boss immediately took the ingot of silver with a smile on her face and said, "It turns out that the young lady is the master of the house. She is very good. She brings prosperity to her family and future generations!"

"From now on, the young master and his wife will definitely have a family full of children and a prosperous family!"

"Master, Madam, wait a moment..."

She turned to the people on the second floor and shouted: "There are three rooms in the sky, little one, come and take the guests up to have a rest!"

"Okay!"

The little girl, about twelve or thirteen years old, ran downstairs, but Li Chenan suddenly asked the landlady:

"That stretch of hundreds of miles has mountains, water, fields, and land, but why is there no human habitation?"

The boss lady Li Chenan looked around again, and then whispered:

"Ding!"
To be continued...