No matter if you are a human or an immortal, you can still farm for me after traveling through time!

Shandan is a special city.

As mentioned before, Shandan was special not only in its geographical location, but also in its unusual population composition, which made the imperial court attach great importance to this city.

Because it is located at the starting point of a flat and narrow passage between two giant mountains in the north and south, Shandan is the first city on the long corridor heading west. From the long corridor westward, you can walk for thousands of miles until you reach the deep and wide North Courtyard. It is the land of Dali.

Although Beiting has been under the jurisdiction of Dali in the past few decades, after all, the distance of three to four thousand miles is still too far from the political center of Chang'an. If things were better during the period of Emperor Hui, Dali would still be a strong country. , but now that the country is getting weaker and weaker, it is no longer realistic to put all the heavy troops in the distant Beiting. The huge military expenditure has gradually become a burden. Dali has to tighten the army formation and change the focus of border defense.

To the north of Shandan is the long and narrow Lancang Mountains, which together with other mountains form a natural barrier to intercept the enemies from the north who want to invade on horseback.

But the evil will never die.

Mountains are not without breakthrough points. Those gaps or low points are the breakthrough points envisioned by the enemy.

Dali and previous dynasties spent hundreds of years building city walls and checkpoints in these gaps. There are several closely related to Shandan, but among them, there are three checkpoints that can be said to be worthy of death: Ghost Crying Gorge and Tupeng Pass. And Si'erkou.

Ghost Crying Gorge is famous for Yang Huang's execution of eighty-eight Uighur warriors. Tu Peng was attacked by Uighurs in the back seven years ago, triggering a series of tragic military rebellions. Many Dali people on the border suffered unforgettable disasters.

The remaining Si'erkou is a pass northwest of Li Erlang's village. It is the starting point of the western section of Lancang Mountain and the low point between the two mountains.

Si'erkou is one or two hundred miles away from Shandan. Compared with other passes, Si'erkou has a relatively flat and open terrain and requires more soldiers to guard it.

The war that took place at the end of the previous year was when Huihe pretended to attack Si'erkou. The purpose was to prepare the Eighty-Eight Warriors to ambush the Guiwei Gorge five to six hundred miles away and attract the attention of a large number of Dali troops.

Fortunately, Huihe's trick was seen through by Yang Huang.

Nearly half of Dali's troops are distributed on the borders to the west and north of Shandan, but even this is not enough.

Beiting is really too big.

Dali had to slowly withdraw his troops to guard important checkpoints.

As the starting point of the corridor, Shandan is naturally the last line of defense for the enemy to advance eastward, so we must pay attention to it.

Da Li deployed soldiers to guard not only the people at the border, but also to protect the important passage in the corridor.

The cloister is the only channel for exchanges between east and west countries. Goods and culture are constantly imported and exported, giving birth to and nurturing the cities on the corridor.

During Emperor Hui's reign, it took nearly ten years to open this road, and even more decades to maintain it, so the passage must not be disconnected.

Most of the cities on the passage relied on trade routes. With caravans, the people in the northwest would have a livelihood, so maintaining stability on the trade routes was particularly important.

Shandan County is no exception. From the seasonal changes, we can see how much influence the caravans have on Shandan. Once winter comes, Shandan changes its face. Not only does the temperature drop, but even the popularity disappears. Normally, Shandan County changes its face. The bustling city was as cold and silent as a deserted city.

Many people left with the departing caravan.

Shandan is known as a large city with a population of 140,000 to 50,000 people. Such a population size is very rare in the relatively sparsely populated northwest. But behind this scale, nearly half of the population is mobile. They follow the caravans and rely on the caravans to survive. They appear when the caravans arrive and disappear when the caravans leave.

Bodyguards, escorts, cargo merchants, herdsmen, cooks... countless professions have emerged around the caravans, and a large part of Shandan's financial income is brought by the caravans.

The caravan is here and Shandan is alive.

Leaving aside this group of people who inject vitality into Shandan, it is the farmers who work the land that support Shandan's vitality, but these farmers are also slowly disappearing.

The reason is self-evident.

The trade route cannot be interrupted. If this passage is lost, Shandan will not disappear forever, but it will certainly not be as glorious as it is today; the number of farmers cannot be reduced, as farming is the foundation.

In addition, the special geographical location made Shandan strict in military defense, and the border defense stabilized the trade routes. The trade routes made Shandan prosperous. The two formed a complementary relationship. In this way, the population structure of Shandan was more complicated than that of cities in the Central Plains.

The power of Hu merchants should not be underestimated. People only know that they represent wealth and novelty, and they feel that this group of foreign forces cannot make any trouble in Dali. After all, strong dragons cannot suppress local snakes, but hundreds of years have passed, and the relationship between strong dragons and local snakes has changed. The roles have long since changed, and it's hard to say who is the "local snake".

What people don't know is that Hu Shang, like the temple, has secretly gathered a lot of land and consolidated it in Shandan, affecting all aspects of Shandan. He can even influence the decision-making of the county government and compete with the government.

If we want to solve the Shandan problem, we cannot avoid the influence of Hu merchants.

A fierce whirlwind blew by, Hong Yu tightened his hood, and the three of them faced the increasingly strong wind and snow, and finally arrived at the next village before dark.

The cold wind was like fire, and even though they were wrapped in face towels, it made their faces burn and hurt, as if they were being cut by a knife.

After checking his documents and confirming that he was the newly appointed county magistrate, Muramasa politely led the three of them to a simple house to rest.

The farther west you go, the farther the distance between the villages becomes. Fortunately, there are only a dozen villages left as you go further west. After reaching the westernmost village, you can turn back and inspect other villages while returning to Shandan.

As he watched along the way, he understood more and more why His Majesty was so anxious.

The reality is always more real and cruel than what is written in the book. What you read on paper will always be shallow, and you will definitely know that you have to do it in detail. This is always true.

None of the letters and books he had received or the books he had read mentioned that the northwest was in such a miserable state, and there was no way to directly give it a striking visual effect.

"Sir, we Xuncunzheng brought some mutton soup. Sir, please have a bowl to warm your stomach!" The servant brought the soup over and interrupted Hong Yu's meditation.

Hong Yu took the bowl: "Le Fei, do you still remember what we heard in Shangli Village?"

The servant serving the soup was much older than Hong Yu. After taking off his scarf, his angular face was revealed. After taking off his cloak, he also saw the weapon on his waist.

He seems to be a warrior.

Le Fei replied: "Are you referring to Hu Lianzi or Bai Diezi?"

Hong Yu sipped the hot mutton soup in small sips. After the soup went down, he felt his stomach warmed up again, and then he had the strength to say more: "There are both. What is surprising is that people related to these two things It all involved Li Changxiang, the Erlang of the Li family who was successful in suppressing bandits. He seized the opportunity of the chaos in the south of the Yangtze River and cooperated with the grain bank to expand garlic cultivation. This was an attempt to break the situation where Hu merchants controlled Shandan and one family was the only one. In fact, remarkably brave."

"Thanks to Feng Suo Liang Store, Mr. Zuo Pushe is behind him, otherwise even the big grain store in the south of the Yangtze River would not be able to directly confront the Hu merchants in the northwest for so long. This man is also considered to be lucky, and now he has just taken office. ." Another servant made the bed in the inner room. He was younger and came out to join the conversation, "It's just garlic. Everyone knows that Bai Diazi is difficult to grow. How did he, a farmer who works in the fields all year round, know that Bai Diazi is difficult to grow? How to grow and make clothes?"

Le Fei: "Qu Ning is right. Your Majesty ordered us to inquire in secret. Li Changxiang's mother-in-law only told outsiders that the method of making clothes was taught to them by a man named 'Ji Qingyue'."

"Whether it is to compete with Hu merchants or to benefit the people, Bai Diazi's method of making clothes cannot be missed." Hong Yu's firm eyes were shining, as if he had found a way to change the situation in Shandan.

The purpose of the new tax is to allow some "big landowners" to return part of their farmland to the people, but this is not the best solution.

The real powerful people are not worried about the impact of the new tax at all, just because it has not completely hit their pain points. Whether it is money tax or food tax, the upright powerful people would rather take less, but still pay the full amount of taxes; and the more thoughtful people , naturally there are ways to avoid losing money.

The wool always comes from the sheep.

Regardless of this for the moment, it is imperative that the new tax is rolled out. Combined with the part of the land left by the temple, it can also allow a small number of people without land to settle down.

Then giving people a way to get rich is the key.

No, dozing off and hitting the pillow.

Here comes the solution.

When the new county magistrate was talking about Ji Qingyue, Ji Qingyue was also waiting for the new county magistrate.

In the evening, after the reunion dinner with the Li family, he had no choice but to return to the painting. Since it was rare for the Li family to come out together, they naturally wanted to have a good time, so he took advantage of the fact that the curfew had not yet come and he had new clothes. The whole family goes out for a walk.

The few children were naturally very excited. They took out their usual pocket money of three to five cents and went out with the adults happily.

Grandpa Li and Grandma Li stayed at the inn. When they came back, there were only Grandma Li and a few grandchildren.

Snow began to fall on the mountain at night, but it still didn't stop the children from playing. When they came back, they were still excited to jump and jump.

"Brother Ji, we saw the new county magistrate's wife at the gate of the county government office! She is so pretty!! Yulang, are you right?" Li Silang likes to eat sweets the most, and the first thing he did when he came back was to run In front of the painting, he did not forget to give the cake to Ji Qingyue.

Ever since Ji Qingyue lived in the county and stayed in the same room with the two children, the two children living in the bedroom would come to him for a night chat every night.

Li Yu held a piece of sweetmeat in her mouth and nodded: "Madam is as good-looking as the noble lady we met before, but she looks more kind than your noble lady."

At this time Grandma Li walked into the bedroom, where they and Jin Niang slept tonight. "You two know what looks good and what doesn't look good at such a young age?" However, she did not deny Li Yu's thoughts: "Mrs. Hong is indeed dignified and polite."

They walked to the gate of the county government office while shopping in the market, and happened to see the scene of seeing off guests outside the county government office. The beautiful woman seeing off guests as the host could only be the wife of the county magistrate who had just arrived.

"Yue Lang, we heard that tomorrow my wife will hold a snow banquet at the county government office, and the banquet will probably be the ladies of Shandan's powerful families." Grandma Li slowly told Ji Qingyue what she heard. It's useless, and I don't know if Ji Qingyue will use it or not, so I say it all at once.

Is the county magistrate's wife taking the backyard route, a new arrival to greet all the forces in Shandan?

Ji Qingyue said he understood and began to look forward to the day when the county magistrate returned to Shandan.