Chapter 210: Earl of Loyalty and Bravery (1/2)

In the court of the Great Zhou Dynasty, some people were happy and some were worried because of the report that Er Gouzi had died in battle some time ago.

Most people in the court and the public were happy to hear the news and wanted to celebrate with fireworks.

They had no hatred between them and didn't even know each other.

But Sanyang County was already a big piece of fat meat under Er Gouzi's management. Who wouldn't want to get a piece of it?

In the past, when Er Gouzi was alive, and with the support of the King of Qi behind him, no one could move his position as the county governor even if they were jealous.

Now that he is dead, leaving behind a fat Sanyang County, it has become the focus of competition among all parties.

Everyone wants it, everyone wants to reach out.

The Xia family has always regarded Sanyang County as a thorn in their eyes and flesh, and of course they want to take this opportunity to take Sanyang County back and control it in their own hands.

The officials in the court coveted the fatness of Sanyang County.

So long after Er Gouzi died, the new county governor of Sanyang County has not been decided.

In the struggle for interests and revelry, only three and a half people in the whole capital were sad for Er Gouzi.

Ji Cang, Sima Yi, and Xiao Ezi.

As for the remaining half, it turned out to be the Longxing Sheng Emperor of the Great Zhou.

It was not that he had much affection for Er Gouzi, but he had finally put a nail in Qingzhou, and it was gone.

The Great Zhou had been established for more than 10,000 years, and many interest groups had been formed inside.

These interest groups hugged each other tightly, and water could not be poured in. They fooled the upper and squeezed the lower.

A large amount of wealth was extorted from the lower, and only a very small part would flow into the hands of him, the emperor.

The interest groups used the extorted wealth to cultivate their own people, so that in the past few thousand years, all officials came from various groups.

After these new officials grew up, they would only make profits for their groups.

Under the monopoly and oppression of these interest groups, ordinary people will never get ahead. In the officialdom of the Great Zhou, except for the people of these interest groups, there has been no fresh blood for a long time.

There are too many interest groups and they are too strong. As an emperor, he often has no way to deal with them.

After all, even his throne was supported by some interest groups.

Unless everything is overturned and rebuilt.

But after all this, it is hard to say whether the world still belongs to their Ji family.

With the strength of those interest groups, they may be able to support another emperor.

As an emperor, he can only constantly balance the power of various interest groups and let them restrain each other.

In the eyes of Emperor Longxing, the most unique thing about Er Gouzi is that his background is extremely clean and he does not belong to any interest group.

Moreover, as far as he knows, this person is still stubborn. He has been in Qingzhou for so long and has never surrendered to the Xia family.

Placing such a person in Qingzhou can more or less restrain the Xia family.

Unfortunately, the only drop of fresh blood died before it grew up.

Just when the court officials were arguing over the position of the governor of Sanyang County.

The border guards sent another memorial, saying that they had won a great victory on the border battlefield, and had captured eight camps of the Wan Yao Kingdom.

The credit for the victory of this battle first went to the Holy Emperor Longxing, who planned and appointed people based on their merits.

The second was the great general of the National Defense Army, who commanded well...

But among these many meritorious soldiers, there was an eight-legged beautiful girl who was extremely conspicuous.

According to the memorial, this eight-legged girl was actually Zhang Ergou's wife.

This woman admired the teachings of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and fought for the Great Zhou, breaking through five camps in a row.

When the Holy Emperor Longxing saw this memorial, he sighed in his heart that Zhang Ergou was really a lucky general.

Even marrying a wife was so loyal and brave.

It was a pity that God was jealous of talents.

The Holy Emperor Longxing could only sigh.

Although the position of Sanyang County Governor had not yet been decided, the reward for Ergou and his wife was quickly approved.

Everyone is fighting for practical interests. Who would compete with a dead person? As for Ergou's wife, she is just a demon.

After discussion, the court posthumously conferred Ergouzi the title of the first-class loyal and brave earl, and his name was engraved on the loyalty and bravery stone tablet of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and he was admired by future generations!

The title of loyal and brave earl is not an actual official position, but a noble.

The titles of the Great Zhou Dynasty are from top to bottom, including Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and Man, a total of five levels.

The title is a special honor. Only those who have made great contributions to the dynasty can be rewarded.

You must know that Xia Mingyuan of Qingzhou is in a high position and he is only an earl.

Now that Ergouzi is dead, his wife has made great contributions, and everyone has few opinions.

If a living person, no matter how many great contributions he has made, Xia Mingyuan will never agree.

This is equivalent to having a person under his command who can be on par with himself in terms of title. How can this be tolerated? Forget about the dead.

The imperial edict from the court to reward Zhang Ergou was sent out smoothly.

It was only a few days after the edict was sent out that General Chen from the border sent another report.

Zhang Ergou had made another great contribution, bringing back a large amount of supplies for the front line, enough for one or two years.

What shocked the court and the public was that Zhang Ergou came back alive.

He was not dead, so everyone was happy for nothing.

More people were upset that they did not decide on the candidate for the governor of Sanyang County earlier, and the meat that was delivered to their mouths flew away.

The most annoyed person was Xia Mingyuan, the general of Qingzhou.

That feeling was worse than eating a fly.

The happiest people were Sima Yi and the King of Qi.

The Holy Emperor Longxing was in a good mood, and even exaggerated that Er Gou was a lucky general.

The previous reward for Er Gou's meritorious service had been issued and could not be changed.

But now that he had brought back enough supplies for the front line for two years, the Holy Emperor Longxing was in a good mood, and waved his hand to reward Er Gou with a foundation-building pill.

Er Gou had cried poor to him last time and asked for more than a dozen foundation-building pills, so this time he was rewarded with one.

………………

……

Er Gou, since he brought back a large amount of supplies, has not had many tasks to escort food and grass for the time being.

General Chen left him on the front line to participate in the war, and Er Gou had no choice but to obey.

The 200 men he brought from Sanyang County followed him to garrison outside a camp most of the time, and occasionally escorted.

During this period, he communicated with Huang Laocai, who was stationed in Sanyang County, several times.

According to Huang Laocai, when the people of Sanyang County heard that Er Gou had died in the battle, hundreds of thousands of people in the county were like bereaved parents, and many people cried bitterly.

Er Gouzi was not sure whether the news was true or not.

He guessed that someone might have cried.

After all, when a great official like him died, who knows what kind of officials he would be in the future.

But one thing was 100% certain, during his absence, Sanyang County had another bumper harvest.

Huang Laocai collected 2 million shi of grain for him and built several large warehouses to store grain.

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Er Gouzi's food was increasing, and he could not eat so much.

Every year, if the old grain is not consumed, new grain can be harvested. If it continues to pile up like this, the old grain in the warehouse will soon go bad.

It will not go bad if it is stored in the gourd, but it can't eat so much, there are still more than 10 million stones in the gourd.

Xiao Hei from the bottomless pit has been sleeping recently and rarely takes the initiative to eat.

According to Huang Laocai, the population of Sanyang County has increased by more than 100,000 in the past year.

People who can't survive in many places have flocked to Sanyang County to make a living.

If this continues, the land in Sanyang County may not be enough.

Er Gouzi looked at Huang Laocai's letter, thinking that there was a lot of grain in his warehouse, which would go bad if he didn't eat it.

On the other hand, he was thinking about the large population pouring into Sanyang County.

He was reluctant to give all his grain to these people for free.

It was all earned by his hard work, and it would be painful for him to give it to strangers for free.

But if it is kept in the warehouse like this, it will go bad easily.

At this moment, he finally understood why the county magistrates had stored the grain in the warehouse to rot.

It was really hard to give away the things that had gone into your own pocket.

After thinking hard for a long time, he finally came up with a way to have the best of both worlds.

In his reply, Er Gouzi told Huang Laocai this method, that the new population should not be rented land to them for the time being.

Instead, they should extract grain from Er Gouzi's warehouse and arrange for these people to open up wasteland, build reservoirs, and repair canals.

In fact, there are still many barren mountains that have not been reclaimed and utilized within the scope of Sanyang County.

Doing these things requires a large amount of labor and population, but it is impossible to produce grain in a short time.

It requires a large amount of manpower and grain to develop them.

In this way, the surplus grain can be consumed and not rot in the warehouse, and a large amount of arable land can be increased.

As for the increased arable land, of course it belongs to Er Gouzi, and it can be rented to these people for cultivation, and then rented to him.

In this way, a cycle will be formed, and his fields will become more and more, and the rent will also increase.

Er Gouzi came up with such a wonderful idea, and he was happy for several days.

He felt that he was indeed a very talented person in farming.

He was not happy for a few days, and something happier came to his door.

It was still the white-faced and beardless man who sent the emperor's imperial edict of reward.

When he rushed to the border of Qingzhou, he had already learned that Er Gouzi was not dead.

But in order to maintain its authority, the imperial edict could not be changed once it was issued.

He handed the imperial edict originally sent to the dead directly to the living Er Gouzi.

By the way, he got more than a dozen spiritual stones from Er Gouzi.

First-class Loyal and Brave Earl!

Although there is no actual job benefit, it is still quite intimidating to have such a title in the officialdom.

Moreover, his name was engraved on the Loyal and Brave Stone Stele. He was probably the only living person who enjoyed such treatment.

He was just immersed in the joy of being named an earl, and had not yet completely pulled himself out of it.

Another reward came.

This time it was a real good thing, a foundation-building pill.

Since the emperor rewarded him, it meant that he could give one quota to his subordinates.

This was a formally registered foundation-building pill, and he planned to give it to Huang Mancang.

At present, he is the only one who is capable of both civil and military affairs and has the talent to lead the army.

His father Huang Laocai is also good, but unfortunately he has not passed the imperial examination yet, and his cultivation is not good.

As for Yushan and Daye, let alone not having any official title, they are not even human beings.

The Great Zhou Dynasty will definitely not give Daye the title of Goose Scholar or Goose Juren, let alone let Daye take up an official position.

If Daye wants to build a foundation in the future, he still has to rely on Er Gouzi to refine the foundation-building pill himself.

He received a lot of rewards this time, but his official position remained unchanged. He still has to escort food and grass for the front battlefield, and garrison at the front when there is no mission.

After the front line received a large amount of food and grass from Er Gouzi, its confidence increased greatly, and it has been launching a counterattack against the Wan Yao Kingdom recently.

Finally, they won a game on the battlefield, took the advantage, and chased the Wan Yao Kingdom army.

Fatty Chen led the Zhenguo Army to charge in front, and this team has been chasing forward for hundreds of miles.

Er Gouzi and Yang Tie's team have been following the army, responsible for some logistical escort.

"Brother Yang, we are both foundation-building cultivators, why is the combat effectiveness of the Zhenguo Army so much stronger?"

Er Gouzi was impressed by the powerful strength of the Zhenguo Army when he first saw it.

Although he also practiced the skills given by Brother Ji, which expanded the Dantian Sea and greatly increased his combat effectiveness.

But he knew very well that this effect was achieved only after consuming a large amount of supplies.

Looking at the Zhenguo Army, it seems that they did not consume too many resources.

Often they may not even be able to eat enough, so where can they get so many supplies to consume.

And he learned from Yang Tie that the skills that can expand the Dantian Sea are also very rare.

It is impossible that the Zhenguo Army has a copy.

"I just happen to know this."

Yang Tie nodded and continued.

"The selection and training of the National Defense Army are extremely strict. After the foundation is established, the Dantian Sea must be two feet wide."

"Do you know what a two-foot-wide Dantian Sea means?"

Yang Tie did not wait for Er Gouzi to answer and continued.

"My brother's Dantian Sea is one foot and eight inches. In my family, I have been recognized as a genius and the most outstanding rookie of the entire young generation."

Yang Tie said this with a smug look on his face. The Dantian of one foot and eight inches has always been his pride.

Even though he is very cultured now, he still can't help but want to show it off.

"One foot and eight inches is considered a genius, and those whose Dantian Sea can reach two feet are rare geniuses."

"So the entire Zhenguo Army is composed of geniuses. Any one of them, in the ancient sect era, would be a genius that all the major sects would fight for."

"The combat effectiveness of such a genius is naturally several times stronger than that of an ordinary foundation-building person."

"I heard that this General Chen, when he was in the foundation-building period, his Dantian Sea reached a terrifying three feet wide."

"This is just the Renzi Division of the Zhenguo Army, and there are even more powerful Tianzi Division and Dizi Division..."

"Then if a person's Dantian Sea reaches six feet, what level is it?"

Er Gouzi asked a little curiously.

Because after practicing for the past year, he took a lot of Xuanyuan Dan, and his Dantian Sea finally reached six feet wide.

"Six feet? That's a legendary existence..."

The two escorted some supplies and moved forward slowly, talking casually.

But they didn't notice that at this moment, an invisible figure was approaching them cautiously.