"Old Ren," Lei Er winked, "do you want to pay a visit to the newly appointed Misty County Sheriff?"
Ren Ning glanced at him lightly, "Do we have a lot of time?"
"Yes!" Lei Er touched his nose.
It's mid-May now, and we have to get to Yingshan Camp before July 15th at the latest. Time is already quite tight.
Moreover, Ren Ning had already decided to leave the Grand Master's Mansion, so he never wanted to contact them again.
After eating and drinking enough, we left Wuliang City.
Not long after walking, their eyes lit up.
There is a new north-south road in the swamp ahead.
The road is wide and full of wood and stones.
"one two three!"
Amid the shouts of the squad leader, countless laborers were working hard to move heavy stones and sand southward.
"I don't know when this post road to Qingshi County will be opened?" Lei Er said.
There are wars going on everywhere now, and it is a time when iron is urgently needed.
If the post road is not opened, the empire's pig iron reserves will soon be exhausted.
Without sharp iron tools and strong armor, when fighting with the surrounding wolves, tigers and leopards, I don’t know how much more blood of the good man Yun Chui will be shed.
"Looking at the stones all over the ground, it should take quite a while."
Ren Ning said, holding up the black bow behind his back.
He has lost a lot of his special black arrows, and it is time to replenish them when he returns.
There were many people at the intersection and materials were everywhere, so the two had to dismount and walk slowly.
After walking around a pile of stones, Ren Ning and Lei Er looked at each other.
In front of them were a dozen corvees with miserable expressions. They formed a circle, and in the circle lay a skinny commoner. Next to them, there were several monks who were reciting the Purana Sutra.
It turned out that some people were doing corvee labor, and while doing so, they fell to the ground and died.
Ren Ning was a little distracted.
Meng Jiangnu cried at the Great Wall, the ancients sincerely did not deceive me.
The Great Wall coiled among the high mountains in northern Xinjiang was also built in this way. And there were no cranes at that time, so no one knew how many people would fall...
"Old Ren, that's Master Hongguang from Longshou Temple." Lei Er reminded softly.
When they were heading west, this old monk had helped, otherwise it would have been a lot of trouble to pass through the messy Laigu County.
Ren Ning had already seen it and couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief.
Master Hongguang is no longer young. He could have been his abbot safely at Longshou Temple, but instead he has been working tirelessly on the road.
In the past, he could be seen in both the epidemic in Yunzhong County and the civil unrest in Laigu County.
At this time, the monk was a little older and his back was hunched a lot. Fortunately, his spirit was still strong.
The two of them did not disturb him, put a few coins into a disciple's bowl, and continued walking eastward.
After that, the journey was smooth, and a month and a half later, the two finally returned to Guangxin County.
"Old Ren," Lei Er muttered, "it's only July now, why don't we go to Nanshu City first."
After being in the west for so long, he was a little craving for the garlic-flavored chestnuts on Yuqian Street in Nanshu City.
Ren Ning didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Then go."
He also wanted to go to Li Hebai's general's mansion and ask Li Hezhu to send a message back to Xingji City to report to Yingpan that he was safe.
Entered the general's mansion.
The old housekeeper was surprised and happy, "General Ren, long time no see."
"It's been a while since I've been here." Ren Ning smiled and handed over the gift, "I'm busy with official duties, so there's nothing I can do about it."
"Is your girl at home now?"
The old housekeeper's face froze, and he sighed after a long while.
The eldest girl in their family is now not just a "big" girl, she has become an old girl.
In the past few years, all the aunts and wives in Nanshu City had come to marry Li Hezhu, but they never got married.
I don't know what she is thinking.
"The eldest lady went to inspect Zhuangzi some time ago and just came back yesterday. I will send someone to report it right now."
Not long after, Li Hezhu brought the maid Feng Fenghuo to the front hall.
Yo.
She looked Ren Ning up and down, her voice full of yin and yang.
"It turns out it's General Ren. You're a rare visitor. Look at your travel-worn appearance. Have you traveled tens of thousands of miles?"
Ren Ning wiped the dust off his face.
"We have indeed traveled a long way, and now I am tired and hungry."
"No, I happened to pass by Nanshu City. I thought I had old friends here, so I came in to bother the girl."
The old butler next to him was very smart, "Old servant, go prepare meals for the general right now."
"Really went to a very far place?" Li Hezhu looked at Ren Ning suspiciously, "If you can, say it, if you can't, don't say it."
She is also a general, so she naturally knows what military secrets are.
Ren Ning smiled and said nothing.
Li Hezhu understood, and his tone became much gentler.
The two slowly chatted about the changes in Guangxin County in the past two years.
"Guangxin is much more active now, but it's still not enough. We have a lot of mountain forest fields, but we lack people to cultivate them. The rubber trees in the mountains also lack people to manage and harvest them."
Ren Ning nodded and gave Li Hezhu a list of names.
"The people on the list will come to Guangxin Land to settle down in a while. They are all the family members of the fortress soldiers. You are the master. If you are free, please help them more. Let them live and work here as soon as possible."
"This is natural." Li Hezhu took the list, a hint of worry rising on his beautiful eyebrows, "I am also a family member of Yanchuo Fortress."
Her grandfather Tieguai Li still guards the tomb near the fortress.
There was war and epidemic there, and Li Hezhu had not received a letter from his grandfather for a long time.
"Don't worry." Ren Ning understood her worry, "General Li is fine now."
Li Hezhu was thoughtful.
She looked at the gray-covered man opposite her, and her eyes brightened.
cough!
Ren Ning coughed and chatted with Li Hezhu about the rent Yingpan had set.
"Miss Li, ask Yingpan to lower the rent later, just say it was my wish. We have run out of money, there is no need to charge such a high rent."
"Return?" Li Hezhu was stunned, "Panpan... the rent set by your honorable lady is the same as that of our General's Mansion. But our rent is already the lowest in the world."
Ren Ning shook his head, "It's not that you set the price low, it's that the other landowners and gentry set the price too high. It's almost too high for the common people to survive."
"You don't want the situation in Guangxin in front of you like the people in the four western counties to be in dire straits, right?"
Li Hezhu couldn't help but remain silent.
Ren Ning added: "Nowadays, many people in many places cannot afford to pay rent, so they have to sell their children and daughters to survive."
"You lower the rent and ask Gu Shengnan to help promote it when he is doing business. They will come to the south. Wouldn't this solve the problem of Guangxin's lack of people?"
Li Hezhu had thought about this problem before, "But when refugees move, road guidance is a big problem."
Ren Ning didn't take it seriously and laughed.
"What is a road lead? If the officers and soldiers can block the road, they can also block the entire mountain?"
As long as the people know that they can live a stable life here, they can find a way to come here even across thousands of mountains and rivers, let alone a simple road guide.
Li Hezhu suddenly burst into laughter.
She also heard the story of Gu Shengnan's husband.
At first, Tieshu had no road guide and had two bare legs. He followed the caravan through several counties. Lei Er, who was making money for the first time, almost lost all his money.
Say Lei Er, Lei Er arrives.
He walked in with a bag full of garlic-roasted chestnuts.
Huh!
"Miss Li, did you find a treasure or did it fall from the sky? What makes you so happy?"
whee.
Li Hezhu looked at Lei Er's face and smiled even more happily.