106: Chapter 101: The Situation in Lyuzhou 106: Chapter 101: The Situation in Lyuzhou No matter what divine system, they all need mortals with good aptitude, even a Gate Deity needs good Gate Generals and craftsmen, which greatly helps with their own promotion.

Unfortunately, good seedlings are a rare commodity, Chen Qing doesn’t even want to give up Wei Gongcheng, let alone the Old Wolf guarding the gate.

“Don’t bother with him, I have my own plans for that man; let’s talk in the hall first.”

In the hall, Chen Qing began to address pressing matters, “Fatty, how much food does Lyuzhou Prefecture have left?

How long can it sustain the new refugees in Lyuzhou City?”

“The food is still sufficient, thanks to Sir’s previous land purchases and the subsidies from Nanming Prefecture.

Even if we provide full meals of rice and steamed buns every time, we can last at least four to five months.

If we stretch it with rice porridge, we could even make it till winter!”

“Not enough…” Chen Qing shook his head.

“We’re not simply sheltering refugees here; all these people will need to be organized to work, whether joining the military or participating in land reclamation.

They will need to be well-fed for each meal, and we can’t just rely on grain.

We need sufficient meat and fruits and vegetables.”

“What…

what are you talking about?” Zhou Haitao’s eyelids twitched intensely upon hearing this.

“Sir, you’re not joking, right?

Meat?

Fruits and vegetables, for everyone?”

Even during Lyuzhou’s most prosperous times, it wasn’t like every household could afford meat.

The dock workers who toiled away could consider it a luxury to have two full bowls of noodles a day.

Most people just had a steamed bun and a bowl of watery porridge per meal, right?

And that was when Lyuzhou’s trade was booming enough to overflow wealth to the lower classes.

In places like Baishui County where he came from, ordinary farmers wouldn’t even dream of eating the fine grains they cultivated.

They had to trade them for coarse grains and cotton.

Tens of thousands of people eating meat – was the Sir not living in a dream?

Chen Qing knew what he was thinking but didn’t bother to explain.

With ancient productivity, it was indeed unrealistic for a city to feed tens of thousands of people meat.

But such living standards wouldn’t do in the Divine Path Sect.

The body and health of the people need to be strong in the Divine Path Sect!

Whether it’s the Gate Generals, Mountain Ghosts, or the War God fighters Chen Qing planned to cultivate later, they all needed a lot of meat for nourishment, so productivity would have to be quickly improved.

Chen Qing thought for a moment and then said, “You issue a recruitment notice for soldiers later.”

“Recruit…

recruit more soldiers?” Zhou Haitao was taken aback.

Currently, including the Gate Generals guarding the city, Lyuzhou nearly had two thousand soldiers, far exceeding the authority of a Magistrate.

Besides, even if he acted out of urgency, where would the resources come from to sustain more soldiers?

“How else do we save people without recruiting soldiers?” Chen Qing gave him a look of exasperation.

“There are five districts downstream along the river and even more along the mountain routes, with a population nearly approaching a million.

Are we just going to let them fend for themselves?”

“But Sir…” Zhou Haitao said with a worried face, “Training soldiers requires money and food…

And what kind of soldiers is Sir planning to train?

What will the terms be this time?”

For the previous recruitment, Chen Qing promised substantial rewards to encourage total commitment – ten silver taels a month and meat for every meal.

He felt that two thousand people were already at his limit.

More recruitment?

If it continued with the same terms as before, he’d be broke even if scraped clean.

“Don’t worry about the silver, promise first, deliver later.

As for food…”

Chen Qing knew he was putting the Fatty in a tough spot.

Grain was manageable, whether it was the stored grain or taking people to collect it from the towns, it could definitely be supplied for the short term.

But meat was nearly impossible.

Ma Erniang had already slaughtered all the pigs back home these past days.

This wasn’t like modern times where a single pig farm could produce thousands of piglets a year.

Rural feed is seasoned, and if a village raised a hundred pigs in a year, that was considered not too bad.

Zombies might not be interested in livestock, but even if they scoured the countryside, the meat supply wouldn’t be enough.

The original plan was to have the Mountain God of Nanshan’s spirit beasts slowly cultivated, spending half a year identifying high-quality livestock breeds for domestication to increase meat production.

But the current situation clearly couldn’t wait.

Even though there won’t be new zombies coming up now, and Nan Ming and Nanyang City were sharing the burden, Chen Qing knew this model wouldn’t last long.

Even with the Nine Heavens Mirror deliberately suppressing them, the stable situation could last at most six months.

After six months, even the scattered ordinary zombies would evolve to level two, and once the outer arrays of Nine Heavens Mirror failed, the place would be entirely open.

Even now, with the Provincial Government Offices occasionally culling the zombies, the numbers wouldn’t be reduced by much.

Moreover, considering their mutual consumption, even by Chen Qing’s most optimistic calculations, a quarter would remain.

Weichi Feihong mentioned that the West Sea’s seventeen countries had lost tens of millions of people.

Jiangnan would have to face at least a million level-two zombies!

To defend themselves, Lyuzhou would need at least fifty thousand elite soldiers from the Divine Path Sect.

And if they desired to protect all of Jiangnan, they would need no less than one hundred fifty thousand!

Time waits for no one…

“Make that promise for now, I will find a way later.”

“Sir means to draw pies in the sky first?”

Chen Qing: “…..”

“Sir…” Zhou Haitao said with a worried face, “please go easy.

How much more are we recruiting?

Five thousand?

Surely not ten thousand, right?

You can’t possibly put all the able-bodied to military service.”

“It’s not that…” Chen Qing shook his head, “while recruiting soldiers, we must also recruit farmers.

Announce that the government office will reallocate farmland and also provide protection….”

“Recruit farmers?” The fat man was taken aback, “Where will they farm?”

He was not unaware of the rural situation; everywhere were man-eating zombies.

Who would dare go back to farming now?

“I will arrange a place…” Chen Qing said directly, “You just take care of the publicity, saying that the place is safe enough, and that land will be distributed based on the population.”

Curiosity rose in the fat man’s heart.

With the current situation, where could there possibly be safe farmland?

Could it be within the city?

It was possible to reclaim some farmland near the south mountain inside the city, but how much could that really be?

“Go and arrange it now…” Chen Qing took out a large stack of silver notes from his sleeve, “All the accountants, clerks, penal officers, and advisors you need can be recruited now.

Among those we saved, there are many literate people.

For example, in Luling County, we saved people from the six offices of the county government; you can recruit them directly.

But be careful, those people used to follow Gu Beiquan of Luling County, so watch out for their tricks.”

“Got it!” Zhou Haitao grabbed the stack of silver notes eagerly, his eyes shining like pearls.

He had been an accountant since he was young and he knew the value of silver notes instantly, his face breaking into a smile.

Each note was worth hundreds of taels, and this thick stack was at least worth a million taels.

It’s such a rare treat, after toiling as hard as an ox and horse for so many days, he was finally willing to pay.

First thing’s first, I’m going to claim my salary!

Watching the fat man’s coveted expression, Chen Qing shook his head, amused.

Never mind these silver notes; even worldly gold and silver would quickly depreciate in Lyuzhou soon.

In the Divine Path Sect system, Spirit Stones containing the power of faith would become the main currency.

Of course, now was not the time to let the fat man know these things, and even if told, he wouldn’t believe it.

“Boss,” after taking the money, Zhou Haitao immediately reverted to the previous intimate address, “You don’t need to worry about those scholars from Luling County.

I’ve inquired.

Gu Beiquan and the others were not popular in Luling County, they were harsh to their subordinates, and the academy scholars looked upon them unfavorably.

You don’t need to worry about them causing any mischief.”

Chen Qing nodded, without soldiers or power and unable to leave Lyuzhou, these guys without guts indeed couldn’t stir up much trouble.

“It’s that Lyu Yiqi…”

“Hmm?

What about him?” Chen Qing asked curiously.

Zhou Haitao hesitated for a bit but then said, “I know you and Cui Yan were once graced by his help, but, fat guy that I am, I feel that he’s not a good person.

It’s best if you don’t use him.”

Chen Qing rolled his eyes immediately.

Did he really need this reminder?

The two resentful female ghosts that constantly followed behind Lyu Yiqi, inseparable, made it clear that this guy must have committed some act defying the heavens.

Under the Divine Path Sect system, he was destined to face retribution sooner or later.

It was just that Chen Qing hadn’t had the time to deal with him yet.

——————————

“This Chen Qing is becoming more and more unreasonable.

Even if we are at fault, we are still respectable members of the literati.

Even though he’s taken our official seals, shouldn’t he at least provide decent food and accommodation?

What is this now?

Treating us the same as these refugees, eating these things every day?”

The speaker was the Magistrate Assistant of Luling County, named Li Chong, who stood arrogantly at a teahouse table, sounding indignant.

The teahouse owner, seeing their scholarly attire, knew they had been drinking tea without paying for the past couple of days but didn’t want to offend them and so stayed away.

“Has Magistrate Assistant Li lost his mind?” Lyu Yiqi said coldly, “What do you mean we are at fault?

What did we do wrong?

It was Chen Qing who failed to take precautions and issue warnings.

We in Luling County struggled to protect the people.

Despite being without soldiers or generals, we organized the citizens to resist for a whole day and night before the city was tragically breached.

Not to mention that Chen Qing privately recruited thousands of soldiers but delayed coming to our rescue.

How did it become our fault?”

The others were stunned and then quickly nodded in agreement, “Educator Lyu is right, absolutely right!”

Gu Beiquan’s brow furrowed, though he was also not willing to let Chen Qing just dismiss them from their offices so easily, it was their mistake.

Even if they united together, presenting a united front, could they really turn the tables?

So he frowned and asked, “So many people from Luling County were saved by Chen Qing.

Not to mention, those academy scholars clearly stand on Chen Qing’s side.

Will the Imperial Court believe us?”

“Magistrate Gu really is confused!” Lyu Yiqi said harshly, “Those lower-class ants, what do they understand of righteousness?

Can their words be taken as evidence?

As for those ungrateful scholars…” He lowered his voice and said, “Don’t worry, I will take care of them.”

Though his voice was lowered, everyone felt a chill in broad daylight, including Gu Beiquan, who also felt a jolt of fear from Lyu Yiqi’s sinister gaze.

Gu Beiquan couldn’t help but wonder if it was just his imagination, but ever since that night, Lyu Yiqi seemed to have completely changed.

There was a bone-chilling malice in him, and just one glance was enough to make someone’s skin crawl.

Remembering that night when Lyu Yiqi didn’t hesitate to sacrifice those two women, Gu Beiquan felt uncertain for the first time.

Should he really ally himself with this man?

At that moment, what none of them could see was that behind Lyu Yiqi, two women, their flesh gruesomely torn from having been bitten, were smiling ominously at the crowd.

The malice in their eyes was identical to Lyu Yiqi’s!