Chapter 269: Suppressing Bandits and Building Roads

Wang Ping

Qin Sheng took the lead and led the crowd to launch the final general attack.

After eliminating the main force of the Black Dragon Village, Qin Sheng handed over the remaining cleanup work to Qin Zhao.

Qin Sheng looked at the map for a while, and after putting it down, he became dazed. Well, he has been out for several days, and he misses his wife a little.

After working for a while, Zhou Da also took a break and sneaked to Qin Sheng's side.

"Sixth Master, this Black Dragon Village can't hold on for much longer. Where should we attack next?"

Qin Sheng glanced at him. They were thinking about the next one just after eating a pheasant. Very good, very much like him.

"Why don't we attack the Black Bear Village in Gaoxian County first?" I heard that the Black Bear Village is relatively wealthy. Thinking of this, Zhou Da was drooling.

However, these bandits are really uneducated. Look, what names they have? Black Wind Village, Black Dragon Village, Black Bear Village! The whole black, thinking they are domineering, but in fact, they are unlucky! Black represents bad luck. If you are extremely unlucky, aren't you destined to be eliminated?

Zhou Da thought with disdain.

"Don't attack Gao Xian." Qin Sheng looked down at the map.

Can he tell them about his wife's plan?

His wife wants to build a road that can quickly connect Houcheng to Liaoxi County. The route has been determined. It starts from Chencun, where Wuliu County and Liaoxi County meet, connects Liaoyang and Wangping, and ends at Houcheng. After connecting these official roads, they must be widened and leveled.

Therefore, he must first eliminate the bandits in Houcheng, Wangping, Liaoyang, and Wuliu counties.

Zhou Da asked again, "Is that the Qixingzhai in Liaoyang?"

Qin Sheng shook his head, "No, this time we will attack the Skullzhai in Wuliu County."

Bandits will also exchange what they have. They eliminated two mountain strongholds in succession. According to the scouts' report, the two nearby mountain strongholds, Black Bear Stronghold and Seven Star Stronghold, have strengthened their defenses.

Then they should make a feint to the east and attack the west. Anyway, the Skull Stronghold in Wuliu County will also be eliminated, it's just a matter of order.

Zhou Da: "The Skull Stronghold in Wuliu County is also OK." Anyway, no one can escape!

After the Black Dragon Stronghold was completely taken down, the cooks who came out with Qin Sheng and his men shouted that it was time to eat.

The rest of the work will be done after dinner.

All the surviving bandits were tied up, and Qin Zhao and his men also arranged people to guard them, and then the main force went to line up for food.

There were a lot of people lining up for food, and even the chef came down to scoop up vegetables for them.

Hu Guangcong arrived late, and seeing that there were few people lining up at the chef's place, he was about to go over.

The chef glanced at him, tall and strong, and scooped a spoonful of stew for him.

"Hey, Master, don't shake your hands!" Hu Guangcong saw that a piece of meat was shaken out!

The chef who served the dishes rolled his eyes at him. Everyone treated them equally, and all had a flat spoonful. The spoonful of dishes he served to him had all the dishes sticking out. Did he deserve it?

The chef looked up, "Next!"

A skinny soldier stepped forward and said shyly, "Master, give me a spoonful."

Hu Guangcong noticed that the dishes the chef served to this man had all the dishes sticking out. This is too much discrimination!

Noticing his gaze, the chef said confidently, "I like him. What's wrong with giving him more? What, you're still not convinced?"

He knew the soldier. He was thin, but he was very brave in battle.

Zhou Da and Ma Jin, who had watched the show for a while, came over and held Hu Guangcong, "Okay, don't feel wronged. Master Chen's dishes are delicious. Apart from being a little compassionate and pitying the weak, there is nothing else wrong with him. Be tolerant."

Hu Guangcong: What else can I do if I can't be tolerant? He couldn't afford to offend.

Several people found a seat and started eating.

Although each person had one spoonful of food, there was enough wild vegetable steamed bread and two-grain steamed bread, and this spoonful of food was half a bowl, so there was no situation of not being full.

The soldiers talked while eating.

"It's delicious, it's still good to work."

"This dish is greasy, it's comfortable to eat!"

If Master Chen heard it, he would definitely hum. This pot of stew, a fat pig was used for one meal, how could it not be greasy?

"Although this steamed bread is mixed with wild vegetables, it is also delicious."

"It's mainly because Master Chen's cooking skills are good."

Ma Jin ate with big mouthfuls, while complaining in his heart, of course you eat comfortably, don't you see who they came out with! Can the Sixth Madam starve their Sixth Master?

After they came out, there must be at least one fat pig for every meal! There is also a large supply of various grains and vegetables.

Even the master chef Chen who cooked was invited by their Sixth Madam in person.

The old man who cooked was very arrogant, and most people couldn't invite him.

The Sixth Madam invited him here because she was afraid that their Sixth Master would not eat well after fighting outside.

On the road construction side, the men who came to build the road were also preparing to eat.

April was the lean season, and although they brought their own dry food, they could bring very little food. During the month of corvée, they had two meals a day, and it was considered good if they could eat 50% to 60% full at each meal.

Ding Ding Ding!

A gong sounded.

Everyone looked towards the sound.

They saw that their new Houcheng Chief Clerk, Mr. Xue, was standing on a slightly higher place, with nearly ten wooden barrels in front of him.

He greeted everyone with a smile, "Our Houcheng started to build the road today. Mr. Lu appreciated everyone's hard work and allocated a sum of money from the county government to buy ingredients and provide everyone with two soups every day."

"Now, everyone can bring bowls to get soup! One bowl per person, free of charge from the government!"

Hearing this, the crowd started to talk.

"The government is so good to us?"

"Let's go and get a bowl to try."

On the first day, they provided kelp bone soup and seaweed egg drop soup.

"What is this?"

"I know this. I went to my aunt's house to eat it once before. It's called kelp. It's a bit fishy and not delicious."

"I heard from the superior that this is called seaweed."

"Don't mention it. The soup they make is quite delicious."

"Is this an egg?!"

"The people above are willing to give us eggs?"

"I'm eating meat!"

When Xue Xu, who was passing by, heard this, the smile in his eyes deepened. In fact, there were only two or three eggs in this bucket of seaweed egg drop soup. Bones are not worth much. But the effect of winning the hearts of the people is really good.

In the following service period, the soup provided by the government for each meal tasted very good. Eating it with dry food was what these men who served corvée labor looked forward to the most.

These people clearly felt that this service was more comfortable than before.

First, they ate better. With an extra bowl of soup at each meal, they could eat about 70% full.

And I don’t know if it’s an illusion, but I always feel that after drinking the soup, my body has endless energy.

In addition, there is herbal tea, which is made from herbs such as Prunella vulgaris or Centella asiatica, Isatis root, mulberry leaves, etc., and its main function is to quench thirst and prevent heatstroke.

In the past, the government officials would not care about anything except assigning tasks and supervising them to work.

Second, the government assigned the heaviest work of road construction to the captured bandits. For example, the roadsides on both sides of the official road are fixed with large stones, which are either dug from the river or collected from the mountains.

This work is also the hardest. Now this work is done by the bandits who were captured recently.

These bandits, except for those who have killed people, are extremely vicious, and refuse to repent, they will be beheaded directly. The rest will be sentenced according to the severity of the crimes they committed. But without exception, they all have to do heavy work to atone for their crimes.

In this way, everyone worked very hard, and the progress of road construction was very fast.

Lu Songli sometimes had to sigh that the people at that time were working hard and were so helpful that she couldn't bear to bully them.