Ruins of the past

After Chu Qiguang left Shenjing City with Yi Siman, he directly used the talisman water of Huangtian Dao to control the strong wind.

They followed the direction of the official road on the ground, flew high in the sky, left a long track in the clouds, traveled through the entire Jingzhou, and finally arrived in Lingzhou.

Along the way, you can see that Jingzhou is no longer as prosperous as it used to be.

If you can still see some people and streets in the area close to Shenjing City.

After a hundred miles away from Shenjing City, it was already sparsely populated, remote and desolate, and the earth looked a barren gray.

Obviously, the entire Jingzhou has become more and more dilapidated due to successive years of major disasters, the court's inability to provide disaster relief, and various exorbitant taxes and levies that have become higher and higher year by year.

According to some imperial historians, the officials were corrupt, the people were in dire straits, and in times of severe drought, thieves flourished.

After leaving Jingzhou and coming to Lingzhou, the situation can be seen to be obviously different.

Even in this cold winter, there are still many people working like ants in the fields of Lingzhou.

Caravans were constantly coming and going on the official road, transporting goods in the wind and snow.

Obviously relying on Chu Qiguang's past management, the entire Lingzhou is more lively than Jingzhou.

But along the way, we can still see many abandoned fields, fleeing refugees, and rebellious bandits...

boom!

A group of bandits who were attacking the village were all turned into corpses under the bombardment of the Great Freedom.

Seeing this miraculous scene, the villagers who were still frightened just now knelt on the ground one by one and prayed to Taoist Xuanyuan.

An old man stood up tremblingly and said loudly: "This is the manifestation of the Taoist Master!"

"If you need to fulfill your wish, let's collect money together to send it to the Taoist temple. We must not neglect the Taoist master..."

Hearing these words, the other villagers nodded obediently. It was obvious that the other party was highly respected in the village.

But the next moment, bursts of thunderous shouts came from the sky.

"I am Taoist Master, and I now order you not to send money to Taoist temples in the future."

"If you have money, it is better to buy stocks. If you buy good stocks, you will get good rewards. Taoist Xuanyuan will bless you, do you understand?"

Among the clouds in the sky, looking at the villagers kowtowing together below, Yisiman said casually: "Does the demon-suppressing envoy still care about this kind of thing? If you let these people buy stocks, aren't you going to lose them to death? ."

With a flick of Chu Qiguang's fingertips, whirlwinds enveloped them and continued to fly forward.

Chu Qiguang said calmly: "After I come back from this trip to the grassland, Lingzhou's stock market will definitely rise, and I won't be able to lose money."

Yi Siman asked again: "What about Emperor Yong'an? Is he really worthy of your assistance?"

"Look what he has turned into the Lingzhou you run?"

"This person wastes the people's wealth, builds construction projects indiscriminately, and measures the world's material resources in order to achieve his own realm..."

Chu Qiguang turned to look at Yi Siman and said with a smile: "If you don't assist the big man, which company do you think you should seek refuge with?"

Yi Siman said: "I will work hard and work together. The emperor will be wise and powerful, work hard to govern, and have millions of elite troops. It will only be a matter of time before he goes south to unify the Central Plains."

Chu Qiguang looked at him deeply and asked, "You have been in the Central Plains for a long time. Do you really think Daqian is a good thing?"

"Or is it that you have been in the capital for too long and have forgotten what the grassland really looks like?"

Yisiman's eyes narrowed slightly when he heard this. He originally just wanted to test Chu Qiguang's attitude towards the big man, but he didn't expect that the other party actually said such words.

Feeling that Chu Qiguang seemed to look down on Daqian in his words, he said unwillingly: "In the past twenty years, our Daqian soldiers have gone south several times, and each time they have won great victories."

"The Han Dynasty occupies the rich land of the Central Plains. Your population is a hundred times ours, but you have never defeated us on the battlefield."

"Isn't this enough to show how powerful Daqian is?"

Chu Qiguang sneered: "Have you ever thought about why you still wanted peace talks seven years ago since you can always win?"

Yisiman was stunned for a moment and started thinking subconsciously.

Chu Qiguang continued: "War... is one of the most primitive national businesses, with high investment and high risk but also assets. If you win, you will rob people and food, but if you lose, you will be killed."

"A truly powerful country has more advanced, more cost-effective and lower-risk ways to make profits and expand. War is the last resort."

The two continued to fly north, crossing the territory of Jiubian Army Town, and finally followed the pass of Yunzhong Army Town and arrived on the grassland.

Not long after they crossed the pass, they saw a group of warriors riding giant wolves in the distance, chasing the Han team in front of them as if they were playful.

Daqian respected the wolf clan, and even had wolf cavalry in his army.

The so-called wolf riders are composed of giant wolves that cannot transform, and wolf demons that can transform, and they have a comrade-in-arms relationship with each other.

Chu Qiguang said: "I heard that Daqian's army often went south to plunder."

"In addition to food, cloth and other kinds of property."

"They often also plunder the population and capture the Han people as slaves."

"But after the peace talks, they have stopped looting in recent years."

Chu Qiguang looked at Yisiman aside and asked, "Do you know what is going on right now?"

Yisiman frowned, shook his head and said, "Perhaps this cavalry team acted privately."

"It's also possible that these Han people were caught sneaking across the border to herd animals."

He lowered his head and took a closer look, and saw that all the Han people were in ragged clothes and had frightened expressions on their faces. They looked back from time to time, and every time they heard the sound of wolves howling, the despair in their eyes deepened.

In the team, a weak woman was holding a thin girl of three or four years old.

The little girl's face turned red and her body was trembling. She looked like she had contracted typhoid fever.

While fleeing, the already extremely weak woman could no longer hold her daughter. When her hands went soft, she saw her daughter fall to the ground.

She moved her steps, trying to pull her daughter up, but she was dragged away by the people around her.

The little girl curled up on the ground, still holding tightly the amulet her mother had begged for her from the Taoist temple in her hand, muttering: "Mother..."

A moment later, the shadow of the cavalry fell over the little girl.

In the sky, Yisiman looked at this scene and said, "Aren't you going to save people?"

Chu Qiguang looked at him and said, "What do they usually do with this child?"

Yisiman said: "This child is too weak and it will be difficult to feed him if he is captured. It would be better for them to capture an older slave directly."

"Probably... it will be fed to wolves."

Chu Qiguang shook his head: "Slaves... Although the big man is bad enough, it is still a feudal system, and slaves have been eliminated in name."

"You guys are still in the semi-feudal and semi-slave stage."