During the month of road construction, Zhao Ran clearly felt the rapid growth of merit power in his body.
This growth comes from two aspects. One is the increase in the total daily absorption, which is equivalent to nearly 20% of the original amount. Zhao Ran believes that this should be the increase brought about by incorporating more than a thousand people along the road into the road network.
quantity.
Second, the originally absorbed merit power is more solid and mellow, and the growth of this part is very large, which is equivalent to nearly 50% more than before.
Through careful comparison, Zhao Ran gained a clear understanding of the cultivation of merit power. When this kind of practice cannot obtain merit power, it has no progress at all, no matter how good the spiritual spring is to put you in.
Next to the spiritual eye, it does not play any role in cultivation. But once a huge amount of merit is harvested, the refining speed is so fast that it cannot be measured by common sense.
There are two possible ways to harvest merit power. One is to expand the coverage and strive to let more people contribute merit power to themselves; the other is to dig deeper and let the people who have contributed merit power continue to contribute more merit power.
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The connection of the northwest line provided Zhao Ran with a total merit bonus of 60% to 70%, further accelerating his cultivation speed. This shows that building roads and bridges is indeed a good method of cultivation.
Since it was so effective, Zhao Ran would definitely not stop there, and he turned his attention to the Eastern Front Project.
Construction of the northwest line started in May and ended in early June, nearly two months ahead of the originally expected completion date. Moreover, the civilian team recruited by Junshan Temple was far from tired. If it were to be disbanded, wouldn't it be a waste of time and manpower?
So Zhao Ran took advantage of the completion ceremony of the northwest line project to propose his own plan to Kong County Magistrate - to open a road eastward from Junshan area and connect Qingkou Jiji.
Qingkouji is a market town in the easternmost part of Guyang County, adjacent to Jianzhou in Baoning Prefecture. There are two small rivers nearby, one is Zitong River and the other is Xiaotong River. Going south along Zitong River, you can reach Tongchuan
Baoning Prefecture, if you take a boat along Xiaotong River, you can reach Baoning Prefecture.
Although the two small rivers cannot carry large boats, in mountainous areas like northern Sichuan, it is quite difficult to find rivers that can carry small boats. Therefore, Qingkouji has become an important market town in the eastern part of Guyang County.
In the past, to get from Junshan to Qingkou Town, one had to walk on a mountain road of fifty or sixty miles, turn onto Guanyang Road and then arrive at Guyang County, and then go east along Guanyang Road from Guyang County to Qingkou. The whole journey took about three days.
If the route from Junshan Temple to Qingkou Town can be opened, the road distance will be about 70 miles, and Qingkou Town can be reached in one day.
The construction project of this road is called the east line project by Zhao Ran. The road can be built from the northeast or the southeast. The purpose is to bypass Mount Jundu and extend to Qingdao on the east side of Jundu Mountain.
Kou Town.
Zhao Ran chose the northeast direction. After crossing the Chongma River Bridge, he built a fifty-mile arc road to the northeast, bypassing Jundu Mountain and then turning eastward to Qingkou Town. The reason is simple: bypassing Jundu Mountain
After crossing the mountain, the terrain is slightly gentle, which is not only conducive to construction, but most importantly, there are villages in this area.
The closer you get to Qingkou Town, the more villages there are. There are nine villages on the entire route with a population of 2,000. For Zhao Ran, these people are his cultivation resources and his power of merit. How could he give them up?
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The biggest problem now is whether the road can be fully connected in more than two months. More than 20,000 acres of rice fields in Junshan area are planted with single late rice. The rice harvest will be around mid-September, but before the end of August, regardless of whether
How to bring the people back to prepare for the autumn harvest? This is the foundation of people's livelihood. We cannot shake our basic foundation for the sake of road construction.
The key factor affecting road construction is not manpower. Zhao Ran can also continue to conduct a second round of recruitment in the Junshan area by spreading money, expanding the team of civilians to more than 2,000 people. Anyway, the meat rots in the pot, and the money is spread.
In the Junshan area, Zhao Ran can also gain a lot of merit.
The problem is that the thirty miles of road near Qingkou Town involves occupying the land of five large households, which will take time to negotiate. If we wait until everything is settled there before starting construction, I'm afraid time will be delayed.
Zhao Ran weighed it for a long time, and finally gritted his teeth and made the decision, repair! First build the fifty miles in the direction of Junshan. This will take more than a month. Use this time to go door to door to negotiate in the direction of Qingkou Town. If you can't reach an agreement, you will throw money at it. If
If we still can't reach an agreement, don't blame Zhao Ran for using the "immortal master" method!
According to Zhao Ran's arrangement, Jin Jiu launched the second round of recruitment in the entire Junshan area: each strong man will be provided with two meals a day, and an additional ten cents will be paid. Women, children, teenagers, etc. Anyone who can help can also apply, and the same package will be provided every day.
Two meals, three extra bucks.
As soon as this policy was announced, the entire Junshan area was in a sensation. After all, idleness is idle. There is food to eat, not to mention wages, so why not?
Even the Wang family in the village had just finished their wedding banquet, and the groom rushed over to sign up, and by the way, he also dragged his new daughter-in-law over.
"Isn't this Simu? If you don't enjoy your bride and live a new life for a few days, why are you here to join in the fun?" Zhao Ran asked with a smile.
Wang Simu rolled up his sleeves and said in a rough voice: "The Immortal Master wants to build a road, and I have nothing to do with you. I only have this strength, and it's fine if the Immortal Master doesn't dislike it. My woman is also very capable. I can help with the washing and doing the work."
Rice is an expert!"
Zhao Ran nodded and asked the bride: "Where is the little lady from?"
The bride hurriedly lowered her head and said, "My little wife is gathering at Qingkou."
Zhao Ran said: "If you marry us in Junshan, your life will become more and more prosperous in the future, and you will live in harmony in the future. You must answer the call from the temple and have more children!"
Wang Simu agreed with a naive smile, but the bride blushed with embarrassment.
Zhao Ran turned around and said to Qu Fenghe: "Young newlyweds are worthy of commendation. Write them down and your wages will be doubled!"
In just three days, Jin Jiu and others recruited more than 2,000 people, bringing the total number of civilians for the entire project to more than 4,000 - half of the people in the Junshan area came.
It was almost evening, Qu Fenghe was sitting on the table in front of the temple, holding an abacus in his left hand and collecting bamboo chips handed by the villagers in his right hand. There was a long queue of people in front of his table. Shopkeeper Jin from Jinji Shop
Standing behind him, he would correct his fingering of the beads from time to time.
After a crackling sound of abacus rolling, Qu Fenghe's lazy voice sounded: "Aunt Niu, your family has one long chip, two short chips, sixteen cents, put it away, and you won't acknowledge it when you leave the counter."
A waiter from Jinji Shop ordered sixteen cents and stuffed it into Aunt Niu's hand at the table. There was a hint of joy in the woman's tired eyes, and she carefully held the money and left.
"Uncle Zhang, your family has three long chips and nine short chips...Huh? Why are there so many? I remember that there are only three people in your family...Oh, I saved up for three days and collected them together. That's a total of thirty-seven coins.
!”
"...Hey? Liu Dazhuang, are you bullying me because I am young? What kind of magic symbols are on these two short chips? Can you please draw something similar next time when you draw by yourself? I'll teach you to be a good boy.
This is the Gen Fire Talisman, and the two strokes in the middle are bent to the left... Okay, I’ll spare you today, but next time I come back, I’ll forfeit three days of your wages! Do you understand?”
The project progressed very quickly. In seven days, the road was built for ten miles. It was expected that in another month, it would enter the direction of Qingkou Town. However, Zhao Ran only negotiated with one family in these seven days and spent 200 yuan on it.
For two taels of silver, I simply bought that barren mountain directly to solve the problem.
As for the other four households, although they greeted them with smiles and were polite, when it came to opening the road, they refused to agree.
Although County Magistrate Kong also issued an official document, it was only a persuasive admonishment and not mandatory - he had neither the power nor the strength.
So Zhao Ran was very worried in the past two days. Just as he was scribbling on paper to see if he could change the route, Zhong Sanlang trotted in and panted: "Temple blessing! Immortal Master! There is a Taoist priest outside the door.
See the temple and pray..."
Zhao Ran was dissatisfied and scolded: "I told you before, we in the Taoist sect should be indifferent and natural in everything, and we should not be impetuous. Look at your hurried look, how can you have the Taoist character? Take care of your breath.
Let’s talk about it later! Remember from now on, try not to talk when walking, it will hurt your vitality... Okay, let’s talk, who wants to see me? "
"Hey...the Taoist priest said he was a Taoist walking sect, and he also said he was a senior fellow of Miao Zhu..."
"Ouch! Why didn't you tell me earlier!" Zhao Ran threw down his pen and ran out in a hurry, shouting as he ran, "Brother! You miss me so much!"