Empress: Your Majesty, please respect yourself, I don't want to be promoted

Lu Chen stayed in Ping County for a day, and early the next morning, he left Ping County with Fu Hua and Chai Hongyu, preparing to visit the surrounding villages.

Zhang Yi wanted to follow, but Lu Chen shook his head and refused.

Although Zhang Yi looks tall and thick, and looks like a martial artist whose brain is all about muscles, he is actually the current magistrate of Ping County. If there is nothing important, it is better to stay in the yamen and work.

After all, there are many things that only he, the leader, can handle.

He can go or not for inspections, it doesn't matter. What's more, when he was in charge of Yuzhou two years ago, he often went to villages in various places to observe the people's conditions. He was very familiar with the roads here, so there was no need for others to lead the way.

In the end Zhang Yi had to give up.

"You should properly handle the county affairs first."

Before leaving, Lu Chen told him: "After a while, I will summon all the officials from the two states and counties to Yuzhou to discuss important matters. You will all stay in Yuzhou for a few days, so try not to pile up official business. Not only that, but all matters during the meeting must be arranged in advance.”

"You have a heavy burden to bear, so don't slack off."

Hearing this, Zhang Yi nodded quickly: "Yes, sir, don't worry, I will definitely handle everything in the county properly."

"Um."

After explaining what needed to be explained, Lu Chen left Ping County.

Then three fast horses galloped on the official roads leading to various places, and soon passed through one village after another that had no appearance of a village at all.

Thanks to the rapid development of Ping County at an international level, coupled with the extremely developed water transportation of the Qingjiang and Ningjiang water systems after treatment and development, and the extremely favorable business environment, this land that was originally suffering from floods has become a A cornucopia of wealth coming from all directions.

As wealthy households and businessmen continue to move to Ping County to settle down, the land rental prices in Ping County have soared day by day, almost every inch of land has become a premium. If Lu Chen hadn't banned the purchase and sale of land, everyone would only have the right to use the land. Land prices may skyrocket.

But even if they can't buy land, businessmen would rather spend a lot of money to rent land in Ping County than give up. Ping County not only has excellent policies and does not have to worry about the threats of bandits and evil cultivators, but also has extremely convenient transportation and is still far away from the capital. A holy place for merchants not far away.

Because there are so many business opportunities here, there is gold everywhere. As long as you have a little bit of business skills, some wealth, and the courage to fight hard, you can make a lot of money if the goods produced in Ping County can be transported to the north and south of the country.

It can even be said that it is money in a sack.

With more businesses doing business, the demand for manpower will naturally increase. Moreover, Fang Yu has an extremely keen eye and is always paying attention to the movements of Tiangong Division. Every time Tiangong Division launches a product, he will immediately pay a sum of money. A lot of patent fees were paid, and then a factory was built and put into production in Ping County directly in the name of the government.

Cement, soap, distilled liquor, white salt, crystal lamps and other new products became very popular as soon as they were launched in the name of the government. Countless businessmen flocked to Pingxian County Government to seek cooperation with the government.

Fang Yu naturally would not refuse.

Gradually, the state-owned business of the Ping County government grew bigger and bigger, and many powerful businessmen followed suit. Countless factories sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain. The huge demand for manpower prompted Ping County and the counties of Yu and Sui to continue to absorb outsiders. of refugees.

It didn't take long to absorb all the refugees from several surrounding provinces who could not survive, causing the population of Yuzhou and Suizhou to expand rapidly.

The administrative region of a state directly under the central government has a population comparable to that of a province. Although it has been exempted from taxes for two years, the amount of money turned over to the national treasury is still the highest in the country, second only to the Gyeonggi area where Lu Chen is personally in charge.

Such a fertile area can radiate and influence a huge area, and in the villages closest to Ping County, basically every household has lived the life they once dreamed of, or even more.

Some businessmen who are not particularly wealthy cannot afford to rent houses in Ping County, so they can only settle in nearby villages. As these small businessmen continue to gather, the surrounding villages have become more prosperous and have now developed into small villages. town.

Brick houses have risen one after another. The original mud-walled farmhouses have basically disappeared. The muddy country roads have been paved with cement bricks. The drainage system is also perfect. The potholes that were everywhere before can no longer be seen.

Walking on these unfamiliar yet modern country roads, Lu Chen couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

The speed of Yuzhou's development is so fast that even his founder can't understand it.

But one thing is for sure.

He indeed has the power to change this dark era, lift the haze that has shrouded the land of Zhongzhou for thousands of years, and let the people living here see the sunshine.

In the next half month, the three of them visited various counties in the two states and experienced all the development conditions and customs of each place before finally returning home.

After seeing with their own eyes the bustling downtowns, factories, busy workers, and farms full of laughter, Fu Hua and Chai Hongyu's admiration for Lu Chen reached the point where they could no longer restrain themselves. Praise Lu Chen from the bottom of his heart for his great achievements.

Chai Hongyu was extremely lucky. Fortunately, she came to Yuzhou in the first place. Otherwise, if she had missed Lu Chen, she would have been confused for how long in her life.

Lu Chen's ears almost grew numb after hearing these compliments, and he didn't even bother to respond later.

When he returned to Lingyun Mansion, he rushed the two girls who were about to become little fans outside the door, then asked Jiang Chengyue to bring over the information on the seven provinces and two directly-controlled states, and quietly looked through the information in the public room.

As he watched, he gradually frowned.

Since the magistrates of other counties were not as proficient in business as Fang Yu, the commercial atmosphere of the county was boosted by Ping County, but the development level was still slightly worse.

But it was only slightly worse, and he could still look down on his colleagues in other provinces, prefectures, and counties without any pressure.

Nowadays, there is almost no unrest in the provinces surrounding Sui and Yu states, and even bandits are rare. To a large extent, the population who lost their land and became refugees were absorbed by the two states.

Even some people who originally had land could not resist the persuasion of their relatives and friends who had already made a living in the two states and lived a more prosperous life. During the slack season, they set off to the two states to fight.

Some people even did not want to go back.

Officials in the surrounding provinces and local aristocratic families naturally noticed that the people in their jurisdiction were constantly leaving. At first, they were quite happy. Throwing these troublesome untouchables to Yuzhou and Suizhou could just solve a lot of troubles.

But later, they felt more and more that something was wrong. More and more aristocratic families complained to them, saying that the untouchables were unwilling to rent their land, so that their vast land was left uncultivated and gradually became barren.

With fewer people, the demand for land became less, and with less demand, the land was naturally less valuable, so the tribes could only find ways to retain people, but they were unwilling to spit out the benefits they had taken in.

So they had to ask the local parents for help.

But those so-called parents were helpless.

Behind the two states was the great god Lu Chen. The restrictions on the flow of people were ineffective for the two states. As long as the people flowed to the two states, no one had the right to interfere, so the provinces began to fall into a serious vicious cycle of population loss.

Of course, these were the results reported to Lu Chen by the Xuanji Guards in the seven provinces.

When Lu Chen saw this report, he just smiled coldly.

"Tsk tsk. It seems that no matter which world it is, the impact of industry on the small peasant economy is devastating."

Now he can certainly see that Yuzhou and Suizhou, which are full of factories, actually have the prototype of industrial society.

Due to the existence of the royal family and the ancestral laws in the capital area, as well as the restrictions of various forces, even if you hold power and really want to do something drastic, you will find it difficult to do it because of various restrictions and concerns.

But Sui and Yuzhou are different.

The local forces here have basically been swept away by the empress in anger, making this place like a blank sheet of paper for the rulers to paint as they want.

The people of Sui and Yuzhou are extremely supportive of Lu Chen and his disciples.

Although Lu Chen has never planned to form a party, it is undeniable that Yuzhou and Suizhou, the economic center of Central and South China, are the base camps he has built.

The people here have almost worshipped him as a god. Every household hangs his longevity tablet. Even the new Sui and Yuzhou people who come here to work and settle down are no exception. I don’t know how many people kowtow to him every day.

Thanks to this, many of his ideas for Yuzhou and Suizhou have been realized very smoothly.

The industrialization process is much faster than expected, and the effect it brings has been fully exerted.

Now he has more than 100,000 elite troops. Even if we ignore the seven provinces that he has not yet fully controlled, just looking at Sui and Yu, the population under his rule is more than 20 million, and the resources are countless.

He has the right time and place, so what he needs to do is very simple.

Just push forward.

Thinking of this, Lu Chen took a piece of white paper, then picked up a pen and drew a few circles on it, and finally wrote a few words in the circles.

They are: official administration, powerful, clan, Jianghu, half-demon, demon clan, evil spirit, spiritual disaster, and clan.

Putting down the pen, Lu Chen looked at these nine nouns that are extremely heavy for the people, and his eyes gradually revealed a thoughtful look.

"So, where should I start first?" (End of this chapter)