Qingyang City.
A mansion in the southern district.
A monk comes to visit another monk.
"Zhong Yan has been hiding in the city for more than a year and finally left the city!"
"Oh? Going to Fangshi?"
"Probably not. He went to the north, but he is also a timid person who is afraid of death! He brought a group of warriors with him. They are all strong and strong, and they are not weak in martial arts!"
"Haha~ Who is not afraid of death?"
"Harmful, I'm afraid it won't be easy to get his attention."
"What's the rush? Look for the right opportunity and you'll hit it with one strike. It's best when he's on his way to and from Fangshi. After such a long time, he must have accumulated a lot of talismans to sell in Fangshi."
"Hey, what do you think about tying up his concubine or heir?"
"Tsk~ It's useless! This guy has a bunch of wives and concubines, and he bought them all from the Marriage Pavilion. He doesn't care about their life or death. He just buys them, and the same goes for his children. What does it matter to a monk if one or two die? "
"That's right. I guess Yu Qingyao will value it more and use it to create heirs."
"But she is at a higher level, and it will be difficult to deal with her if she doesn't leave the city."
…
…
Outside Qingyang City, on the road to the north.
Zhong Yan, dressed in a green shirt, rode forward on horseback.
On the left is Yan Sandao, who is wearing a black outfit, and on the right is Li Liu, who is wearing a white outfit. Both of them wear curtains to cover their faces.
The breeze blows the ribbons, black and white!
There were eighteen warriors at the front and back.
Ten are from the Li Mansion, five are born from birth and five are acquired at a later stage.
The other eight are young but strong, and are disciples of the Zhongfu Martial Arts School. They have all entered the acquired realm.
He was fully armed with a sword and a powerful crossbow.
Even if someone attacks, it will be difficult to succeed without certain strength and numbers.
On both sides of the road, at the foot of the mountain, and in the fields, ragged refugees can still be seen everywhere, sitting, lying, or walking slowly, mostly old, weak, and sick women.
If the horses were not galloping, they would have rushed up to block them and force them to take them. This is a habit.
Fuyang Town is a small town under the jurisdiction of Qingyang City, more than 130 miles north, located at the foot of the mountain.
The group of people rushed to the town under the afterglow of the setting sun.
The tenants responsible for the fields here in Zhong Mansion have been waiting at the entrance of the town for a long time.
As soon as they saw Yan Sandao lifting his curtain, the leader, an old man about fifty years old, led a group of people and knelt down excitedly.
"Little Li Chungen comes to see Mr. Zhong, Madam and all the other gentlemen!"
The landlords are their parents for food and clothing, especially after the Zhong Mansion seized the fields here from the Xue Mansion, they reduced the rents of many tenant farmers below and gave them various preferential treatment policies.
The tenants of other landowners were envious.
Yan Sandao stood up and dismounted vigorously, "Everyone, please get up. Is everyone gathered?"
"All together, all together! At the other end of the barn!"
"Nothing happened, right?"
"It's risky!"
Li Chungen shook his head repeatedly and bared his teeth and said with a smile: "Madam, don't worry, it's fine! Thanks to my madam, I gave you enough money to buy bedding and firewood. Otherwise, it would have been so cold last year, I would have definitely frozen to death!"
Yan Sandao nodded and waved his hand to Li Liu next to him, "This is Mrs. Ying. She will check and manage the accounts of Zhong Mansion and Li Mansion."
"Yes, yes!" The old man bowed and nodded repeatedly, pointing at the two young men.
"You two, take the madam with you. Every household should report clearly all the field harvests, rents, and sowing this year. Take good care of it! Don't neglect the madam!"
"Yes, Uncle Gen! Madam, please come this way!"
"Then I will go first." Mrs. Li Liu bowed towards Zhong Yan and led the two warriors towards the town.
The old man looked at Zhong Yan and said with a smile: "Mr. Zhong, it's getting dark soon. I've prepared some food and drinks. But let's eat something first and rest for a night before working again tomorrow morning?"
"No, lead the way."
"well!"
The old man waved his hand and ordered others to take the prepared food to the barn. He and a few strong men opened the way and led the team ahead.
After walking for a while, after some hesitation, he glanced at Zhong Yan again, looked at Yan Sandao, and said with some embarrassment and caution:
"May I ask, madam, what will happen to those refugees in the future? There are too many people. Once the spring is over and there is no work to do, there is no way to deal with it. I can't take care of it."
Yan Sandao said: "When we finish selecting the people, we will give each of them five taels of silver to help them make a living. If you are willing, you can choose a few strong ones to stay and help with the farm work."
The old man was surprised that there were so many five taels, and he nodded repeatedly, "Okay, okay, Mr. and Mrs. Zhong are both living Bodhisattvas!"
Walk along the dirt path.
The spring breeze blows green and the sunset is infinite.
The scenery in the countryside is unique.
Zhong Yan looked around at the farmland. Many farmers were still working in the fields, and there were houses in the distance.
"Li Chungen, right? How many households are there in Fuyang Town?"
Hearing the question, the old man immediately ran to Zhong Yan's horse to follow him and said with a smile: "Back to Mr. Zhong, there are 162 households in the town, excluding those who go out to do business all year round, there are 1,225 people. …”
"There are twenty-seven villages down there, ranging from more than a hundred households to forty or fifty households. There are more than 13,000 people in the entire Fuyang Town..."
"Our town mainly relies on farmland to make a living. We mainly produce cotton. We also grow other wheat, corn, and vegetables, which are shipped to Qingyang City... In recent years, the weather has been good, and the harvests have been decent..."
He even told them one by one how many hunters, several landlords, and roughly how many thugs guarding the courtyard there were in the town.
Zhong Yan glanced at him. Being a leader has his own way of being tactful. To be so detailed, he obviously made sufficient preparations.
What makes Zhong Yan sigh is that this Fuyang Town has such a vast land area, but only has more than 10,000 people.
Much of the foothills are wasteland.
The Xianwu Continent has a population of trillions, but its relative area is even more vast.
This is true in almost all populated areas.
It’s not that they are unwilling to cultivate land, but that they are incapable of doing so.
The people at the bottom are squeezed and exploited, and they are extremely happy if they can ensure that they do not starve to death. If they don't have enough to eat and have no energy, they can cultivate fertile land.
Most of them rely on the old wealth of landlords to make a living.
Less than half an hour later.
It's getting dark.
Zhong Yan stopped his horse and looked into the distance. He pondered for a moment and raised his hand to point to one place.
"Have you seen those two mountains? Dig the valley in the middle to the bottom of the mountain and build a stronghold. After a while, I will select the people. If the remaining people are willing to work, let them work. They will take care of food and drink every day for three hundred copper coins."
Liu Chungen was stunned for a moment, then he felt happy and quickly responded: "Yes, yes, just follow Master Zhong's instructions!"
"I'll have someone tell you the specific requirements later."
"well!"
All the way to a nearby village's grain field, there were densely packed people squatting or standing on the flat ground, and not far away there was a row of tents.
The strong young man next to Li Chungen got the signal and ran forward and shouted: "Everyone line up! Ten in a row!"
"Your good luck has arrived. If you can be chosen by the adults, you will enjoy endless wealth and glory!"
"Hurry up! Don't wait! Come forward one by one, don't crowd, don't make noises and talk..."
Several warrior disciples from the Zhong Mansion dispersed to maintain order.
The martial artists from the Li Mansion started from the other side and kneaded the bones of each of the refugees to check their martial arts qualifications.
Zhong Yan walked to the simple high platform set up and sat down, "Come forward."
A thin young man with a dark face came forward and sat on the bench.
Zhong Yanchang put his hand on his head, circulated his vitality, and said after a moment: "Next one."
To detect whether there are spiritual roots, you can directly use your vitality to detect it. It only takes two or three breaths, which is very fast.
If you have spiritual roots, you can use special spiritual root detection beads to measure the specific spiritual root attributes.
"Next."
"Next."
In the blink of an eye, an hour passed.
Seven hundred people have been checked.
None.
Zhong Yan exhaled slightly, slightly disappointed.
Yan Sandao, who was holding a torch, leaned over and whispered softly: "Husband, why don't you take a rest?"
Zhong Yan shook his head slightly and reached out to press the head of another young man who came forward.
Another stick of incense.
There were only five people left.
Zhong Yan smiled bitterly in his heart, it seemed that he was not lucky this time.
Before coming, he still had some hope.
Many of these refugees are under the age of fifteen and come from all over the Wei State. If their spiritual roots have not been tested, there is a certain probability of encountering one or two.
Although there are few people with spiritual roots, it is relatively speaking.
Those sects looked for young children from various towns and villages to recruit as disciples. Most of the parents were mortals and were born by chance.
For example, Qingyang City can select spiritual root disciples for the Fire Cloud Sect every year. Sometimes there are five or six disciples a year, and sometimes there are more than ten.
Zhong Yan raised his hand again and pressed it casually.
Just about to let go.
His eyes narrowed.
After activating his vitality to confirm, a smile appeared on Zhong Yan's lips. He had spiritual roots, although his sensitivity to vitality was relatively weak, "You stand back."
Here comes one.
The contrast between before and after became a surprise.
Yan Sandao, who was holding the torch, blinked and his eyes were bright. It was okay, otherwise she would have been upset if she had gathered so many people privately and bothered her husband to go all the way in vain.
She couldn't help but look around. It was a nice place with beautiful mountains and rivers. It was suitable for love. Her husband would definitely reward her...
The picture appeared in his mind, and as he was imagining it, Yan Sandao heard Zhong Yan shout in joy again, "Not bad, not bad!"
Yan Sandao was surprised, then delighted, "Husband, is this child too?"
Zhong Yan nodded, two of the last five people appeared at once, it was a worthwhile trip!
Moreover, the spiritual root in his body has a stronger ability to sense his vitality.
"What's your name? How old are you?
The half-grown boy looked at Zhong Yan timidly.
The last girl standing behind him quickly stepped forward and knelt down, and also pulled the young man to kneel down.
"Meet the eldest master! This is my younger brother, called Dunzi, and his real name is Huang Dun. He is almost nine years old. My slave Huang E is fourteen years old. Please take me under your care. I can endure hardships and can do anything like washing and cooking!"
Zhong extended his hand and pressed her head to examine her for a moment. There was no spiritual root, and he nodded towards Yan Sandao.
Yan Sandao then went up and pinched her for a while, shook his head and said: "The bones are very ordinary, it is difficult to cultivate the inner Qi."
Zhong Yan looked at the girl and asked, "Who else is at home?"
"Back to the eldest master, there are no more. The six members of the slave family fled all the way to the Yan Kingdom. The eldest brother was beaten to death by the villain, the second sister died of illness, and my parents gave all the food they found to Dunzi and me, and they also starved to death..."
Yan Sandao said: "It just so happens that the mansion is looking for a maid."
Zhong Yan stood up and said, "Take them back together."
"Yes, husband."
"Thank you, thank you sir, thank you madam..."
Zhong Yan looked to the other side, beckoned, and was a little slower to check the martial arts qualifications by pinching the bones. There were still one or two hundred people to check, but he had already selected more than ten seedlings.
A martial artist from the Li Mansion stepped forward and said, "Mr. Zhong, I have some pretty good bones, but they are a bit older. They are over twenty years old."
Zhong Yan said calmly: "No."
Martial arts training should start at an early age. Fifteen to twenty is the most suitable age for promotion. If you waste this good opportunity, it will not be suitable no matter how good you are.
Moreover, they are easy to train at a young age and can be used as confidants in the future.
At this time.
There was a shout in the distance.
"Uncle Gen!"
"Master Zhong!"
A figure rushed towards this side and knelt down in front of him.
"Master Zhong! Bandits are coming to the town! Madam was captured by them!"
…
