The new era of chaos begins in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 273 Changes in Xiangzhou

Ergou and his family no longer live in Chenjia Village. They have moved to Yuxia Town.

To put it bluntly, today’s Yuxia Town’s surname is Chen.

That's right, most of the industries in Yuxia Town today are basically controlled by Ergou. Of course, in the past, they were named Liu, Liu Xiucai's Liu.

Liu Xiucai is a good person!

He controls 60% of the shops and 70% of the fertile land in Yuxia Town. Don’t look at the fact that the business in Yuxia Town was quite prosperous in the past. In fact, those businesses all rented shops from Liu Xiucai’s family, so although Yuxia Town There is a shortage of tax collectors in the lower town, but Liu Xiucai has already made a profit from those merchants by relying on shop rent.

Of course, there is fertile farmland. This is what really matters. Where there is farmland, there is food.

How nourishing Liu Xiucai's life was in the past, how happy Ergou is now.

But this is thanks to Old Taoist Lingji. During the time when Ergou left his hometown, Old Taoist Lingji carried thunder and fire bombs and wiped out most of the monsters in Yecheng County.

The old Taoist was really decisive in killing. There was a big family in Ye City who worshiped the ghost-faced Maitreya. The old Taoist Lingji grabbed his tail, and then hit him with a blast of thunder and fire bombs, directly destroying the big family and their house. fragments.

Liu Xiucai felt very guilty when he heard about it, so he took his family and hid in Huanghua Temple.

When Ergou returned to his hometown, the first thing he did was to bring a group of friends to defeat the famous Huanghuaguan.

There were twenty or thirty nuns, almost all of them Bodhisattva nuns who had undergone some physical changes. The direction of the changes led to an enchanting and strange nest that looked like a goblin.

After Ergou and his group uncovered the bad foundation of Huanghuaguan, everyone couldn't help but break out in cold sweat.

There's no way, it's too scary.

A den of evil villains of this size is simply a terrifying landmine for the entire Xiangzhou. To be honest, it was no small miracle that Old Man Chen could maintain the stability of this area in the past.

Of course, it is also possible that Old Man Chen was specifically keeping an eye on Huanghua Temple, so he kept a declining demon-suppressing general in such a remote place to exert his last remaining energy.

Huanghuaguan is really strong, that is, the strength of Ergou and his group is too abnormal. Xue Daoguang is a top-level master. Li Shouzhen, Xue Daoyuan, Li Zhu, Di Wen, etc. are all masters at the great monk level or even close to the top. Jiao Dong He was once a master at the level of a great warrior monk, but he has not yet regained his former strength; Liu Bao may not be that good in terms of hard power, but his experience in dispelling evil spirits and demons is not bad.

Coupled with the fact that Ergou was a leader who could not be taken seriously by common sense, they smashed Huanghuaguan to pieces without even using a big weapon.

Of course, the Liu Xiucai family who hid in Huanghuaguan did not fare well either. Except for the missing Liu Nu Niang, the whole family was executed.

Ergou took over the Liu family's property in Yuxia Town. In fact, no one competed with him for this. After all, anyone who saw seven or eight murderous fierce men surrounding them would have to wake up no matter how greedy they were. all of a sudden.

That's right! It's about poor Butcher Fan. Except for Jiao Dong who didn't take action, Butcher Fan received six severe beatings. In the end, he beat Liu Bao to gain some face, but he lost a daughter.

You may not believe it, but Liu Bao's aesthetics is a bit different from the others. He saw that the Fan family's daughter's figure was much stronger than those firewood girls, with a thick waist and long legs. Able to work and have children, a wife of the highest quality.

For this, Ergou naturally wanted to be beautiful. He was like a matchmaker who worked hard to get through the ideological work of the Fan family father and daughter, and let the Fan family woman happily sit on the bed. The man wearing a red horse to see off the bride, and Liu Bao, who was stupid and stupid, happily went to the wedding hall to enter the bridal chamber.

Needless to say, the Fan family girl really lived up to Liu Bao's wishes. She gave birth to two children in three years, two boys and a girl. The first baby was a boy, and the second baby was a pair of dragon and phoenix. Liu Bao was really grinning from ear to ear.

The only person who had any objections to this matter was Ergou's mother, who kept complaining all day long that she was at a disadvantage because she had left a good and fertile daughter-in-law to someone else.

The two dogs could only respond with a cold sweaty giggle.

Of course, all of the above can only be regarded as trivial things. Ergou has actually done a few really big things in the past few years.

The first thing is his job as a demon suppressor, which is to treat the disabled.

After the former Huanghua Temple was bulldozed by Ergou and others, a new Taoist temple was built in its place. The Taoist temple has no name, but as long as the demon-suppressing people who have been here privately call it Siming Mansion.

Because the people who can come here are basically demon-suppressors who have suffered from incurable disabilities or even mutilated limbs. Some of them are old people who have long been treated as disabled people because of their disabilities, and there are also contemporary demon-suppressors who have been injured recently. Devil, no matter what mood and thoughts these people have when they come here, when they leave, there is no one who is not surprised and even weeps with joy.

Damn it, if your limbs are broken, you can regenerate them as long as you don't die, and you can just train for a year or two and become a good man again. What does this mean?

This means that many of the seemingly uneconomical combat strategies used by the demon suppressors in the past, such as the tactic of exchanging life with disability, are tactics that many angry demon suppressors are unwilling to choose. They would rather trade their lives for their lives. I don't want to be a useless cripple for the rest of my life, but now it is used as a relatively expensive conventional tactic.

Over the years, there have been between a thousand and eight hundred demon-suppressing disabled people healed by Ergou.

Of course, this does not mean that the Demon Suppressor really had nearly a thousand disabled veterans in the past. In the first two years, Ergou only turned some 200 Demon Suppressor disabled veterans into treasures. Then Shi Laodao's logistics system was A huge burden was lifted.

After a period of restorative exercise, most of these veterans who were rescued returned to the Demon Suppressor's line of eliminating evil, but this gave the Demon Suppressor's overall business a severe blow.

After all, there are more than a hundred veterans with rich business experience. Even if the recovery of personal strength is not very optimistic, it has greatly alleviated the manpower gap of the Demon Suppressor.

There are also some recovered old town demons who chose to stay in Xiangzhou, or stay with Ergou. They stayed as Ergou's guards. These people all have a firm will and rich experience, and are willing to He was willing to sacrifice his life to protect Ergou.

This two-dog guard, composed of recovered veterans, has a total of twenty-nine people. Nine of them were once top-level masters, and the rest were all former top-notch warriors, who were equivalent to great monks in Buddhism.

Of course, the only two shortcomings of these people are that they are older and are no longer suitable for traveling around. The second is that their strength can no longer be restored to its peak. Although it can explode in a short period of time, it is basically difficult to last for a long time. .

Compared with returning to the front line of eliminating evil, acting as Ergou's guard is undoubtedly a more appropriate job.

Of course, not all of those who join the Ergou Guard are disposable consumables, there are still a few truly tough ones.

For example, Guo Bupo, whose hands and feet were restored by Ergou, this old guy is considered the most powerful among the entire Guards, and he has a tough style and has some general talents. He is not only the leader of Ergou Guards, but also Ergou's tactical instructor. He is responsible for instructing Ergou in battlefield martial arts and military tactics. Many of them are secret knowledge passed down by generals that Old Man Chen is not proficient in or even has no access to.

Of course, this old guy is not shy either. When Mrs. Yang came to Xiangzhou for a visit, he made her belly bigger. This only made Mrs. Yang become the "Mulan Ji" in the mouths of all the heroines. One of the two "old chicken ladies".

As for the other old lady, she is the Cao Xiangu from Cao Xiangu Nunnery who "adopted" a daughter.

The reputation of the Nameless Taoist Temple, or Siming Mansion, quickly spread with the return of the old demon town demons. after all

There is a proverb about confidentiality. As long as a secret is known to a third person, it is equivalent to being known to everyone.

Although this sentence is not completely absolute, too many people have been treated. Even though everyone who has been treated has been warned to keep it confidential, there are always some unexpected situations where this is not the case.

Especially in recent years, some new and disabled demon-suppressing people have been treated and returned to the front line, but the Siming Mansion, which can turn flesh and bones into bones, has become an almost open secret among the demon-suppressing people. It is precisely because of the existence of Siming Mansion that many demon-suppressing people have begun to be more liberal on the battlefield of eliminating evil.

The situation of exchanging injury for injury and exchanging disability for life has gradually become more common among demon suppressors. This has greatly improved the efficiency of demon suppressors in exorcising evil spirits. At the same time, the disability rate of personnel has also been correspondingly improved. has become more numerous.

This is why the treatment work for Ergou has become more arduous in the past two years.

More than 600 patients have been cured in two years, which is almost equivalent to an average of one per day. What stands out is that it is outrageous.

Of course, Ergou's current reserve of original psychic energy has become extremely terrifying. Now he can repair nearly twenty sets of limbs in one day (one set of limbs includes a pair of arms and a pair of legs) with ease.

Thanks to Xiaoshi's assistance, Ergou's original spiritual energy limit is now equivalent to more than 95% of his total spiritual energy limit, which is an extremely terrifying ratio.

To put it bluntly, Ergou is now only one step away from unlimited fire power with psychic power.

It's a pity that this one step is really just one step away. Now Xiao Shi's power can no longer push Ergou's original spiritual energy limit further, nor can his spiritual energy essence be completely perfected.

Of course, the problem is not with Xiao Shi, but with Ergou himself.

He spent four years to understand himself, but he was never able to truly awaken his mind. He always felt that he was just a little short of the path, but he could never find the path.

The awakening of Nian Zhi is the awakening of the human soul and the sublimation of will. It is not just how many secrets Ergou knows, how many great things he has done, and how many people he has saved.

Maybe he can deceive everyone with all kinds of words and actions, but he can't deceive his own heart.

In Ergou's heart, he still subconsciously believed that he was an outsider, and there was a gap between him and this extraordinary version of the Song Dynasty world that was difficult for others to detect.

And this is the truth why Ergou cannot awaken Nian Zhi. Although he sympathizes with the people and civilization of the Song Dynasty, he always regards himself as an outsider.

After Ergou consulted many demon-suppressing masters who had awakened Nian Zhi, he realized his own problem.

However, sometimes even if a person knows what his problem is, it does not mean that he can solve the problem immediately.

Of course, Ergou also knows that such things cannot be forced and require real long-term planning.

Many times, he sat at the top of Yuxia Town, watching the bustling comings and goings of ordinary people, feeling their joys and sorrows, as well as their passion and desire for life.

Today's Yuxia Town can no longer be regarded as a small town. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a state-level city.

After Ergou took over Liu Xiucai's property, he began to carry out a series of "rent reductions - interest reductions" for the entire Yuxia Town, reducing the rents of local shops and the land rents of tenants, and gradually increased the rents for Yuxia Town. Businesses in the lower towns opened supporting service institutions, such as exchanges, carriage shops, merchant shops, etc.

Among them, the exchange is an institution that Ergou personally guided to establish and even managed for a period of time.

The exchange provides paid information release and consultation, third-party notarization and guarantee of commercial transactions, etc. However, without financial lending services, Ergou does not want to play this.

Of course, it is not easy for this exchange to be recognized by many merchants. In this regard, Ergou relies on his control over the heroes in Xiangzhou.

Today, Ergou can be regarded as the leader of the underworld in the four counties and one prefecture of Xiangzhou - Anyang, Tangyin, Linli, Linzhang, and Wei County (officially it belongs to Daming Prefecture in the Song Dynasty). emperor.

All mountain bandits, road bandits, and water bandits in these areas are under the jurisdiction of Ergou, but if there is anyone who refuses to obey, he can definitely be beaten. Elimination, the main thing is that those who follow it will prosper, and those who go against it will perish.

Ergou manages bandits everywhere in an almost militarized manner. Of course, they are now called regional agents, responsible for maintaining the safety of trade routes everywhere. Any caravan endorsed by the Yuxia Town Exchange will receive Protection and some convenience services from these regional agents.

As for those caravans that are not endorsed by the exchange, regional agents will not rob them, but they will not provide them with various conveniences.

However, trade road maintenance was not the main business of the former heroes. Their biggest business was to supervise the rent reduction and interest reduction of large local households.

If a large family with extensive land exploits its tenants and employees to an excessive extent, once discovered by the regional agents, this large family will soon be patronized by "thieves".

The most interesting part is that unless those unscrupulous wealthy households have a reason to die, the "thieves and bandits" do not kill anyone. They only plunder all their property and food, and then hand over part of it according to the proportion, and divide part among themselves, as well as part of the property and food. It will be distributed to the poor people who have been exploited by big families.

The big families just want to report it to the officials, but cases like this that only cost money but don't kill people are a bit difficult to handle. The county magistrate and county lieutenant won't take it too seriously unless they want to be greedy for money. Moreover, since ancient times, the imperial power did not go to the countryside. Even if those officials wanted to investigate the case, they would hardly be able to compete with the regional agents who are local snakes.

What's more, Ergou had already sent people to investigate the officials in each of the four counties and one government and made corresponding arrangements.

In fact, the real difficulty in reducing rents and interest in Xiangzhou lies in Anyang. As the saying goes, half of the Han family in Xiangzhou controls nearly half of the land in Xiangzhou. This ratio is astonishing in Anyang Mansion. degree.

It can be said that without Han's cooperation, Ergou's idea would not be realized.

In response, Ergou carried out an almost inhumane blockade of the Han family in Anyang.

As long as the Han family and the Han family's goods are walking outside Anyang City, they will definitely be kidnapped and robbed. The kidnapped Han family will definitely be released as long as the Han family is willing to pay the ransom. As for the goods, they will definitely not return.

As for the Han family's estates outside Anyang City, they will also encounter various dramas such as bandit robbery. The servants and stewards who look after the Han family's property and collect taxes will be beaten almost every once in a while, and then He was stripped of all his clothes and left in the wilderness.

At the beginning, the Han family also launched a fierce counterattack, including official raids and bounty pursuits in the arena.

Regarding official attacks, Ergou generally adheres to the purpose of guerrilla avoidance. When officials come, the invaders hide, when officials stop, the invaders harass (noisy disturbances, pretending to be gods and ghosts to intimidate, etc.), and when officials retreat, the invaders advance (continue to bully the Han family).

At first, the officials in Xiangzhou were still actively looking for the murderer of the Han family. However, Ergou's careful arrangements and strong enough support made the officials unbearable.

Including the local army, or rather the Han family's private army, could not stand Ergou's endless targeting.

The Han family organized the villagers under their control to conduct several gatherings of people, but gathering the people required food and property. There is a saying that one can only be a thief for a thousand days, but there is no principle of guarding against thieves for a thousand days.

Even though the Han family is wealthy, it cannot sustain the consumption of supporting a large number of people and not producing for a whole year.

However, Ergou's subordinates were targeting him all the time.

　Dear book friends, I'm sorry. I have something to do at home today. I've finished the corrections. I'm sorry. I'll add 500 more words and read it for free.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)