Chapter 65 Recruitment
"We thank the prince for saving our lives!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for letting bygones be bygones. From now on, if anyone dares not do his best, I will be the first one to beat him up!"

When the people of Baicheng who were checking in passengers over there saw this, they immediately followed suit and knelt down.

"We bow down to thank the prince for saving our lives!"

"Your Highness, just watch. The people of Baicheng definitely work harder than those in Crescent Mountain!"

"Hahaha!"

The people of Baicheng burst into laughter.

The returnees of Yueya Mountain were not to be outdone, and they all shouted that they would never let Yueya Mountain suffer shame.

They definitely work better and harder than the people in Baicheng.

Then a strange scene appeared. With Wang An as the dividing line, people were kneeling on both sides of the street. However, these people did not look sad, and no one had a deep hatred.

Instead, they were all laughing and joking, threatening each other and competing to see who worked harder.

However, there was a man dressed as a waiter in the crowd. He quietly crawled away from the ground with cold sweat on his forehead and slipped to a shop on the street.

"Boss..." As soon as the waiter opened his mouth, Lu Guancheng hurriedly kicked him on the butt and shouted angrily, "Get out of here now, are you trying to cause trouble for me?"

When the guy ran away in panic, Lu Guancheng stared at Wang An in the distance with a frown and said viciously: "Damn it, he can even get away with it. These peasants are really brainless idiots!"

"Sell it, sell it! I want to see how much affordable grain you have to sell!"

That night, in the lobby of the government office.

Chen He stood in the hall, flipping through the policies while reporting, "Your Highness, we recruited 1,328 new people today, including 578 strong laborers, and the rest are women, children, the elderly and the weak, who can only do odd jobs."

Wan An nodded and said nonchalantly: "Don't worry, take your time. We will be able to recruit enough people in a few days. Anyway, we don't need them in these few days."

Chen He nodded, and after a moment he hesitated and said, "We originally decided that as long as you work for the government, you will be eligible to not buy the low-priced grain, regardless of whether you are a strong laborer or women and children."

"These people just signed up today and immediately came to buy the affordable grain. Moreover, the people in the city are better off than the returnees from Crescent Moon Mountain. Basically everyone has bought out their quota."

"Do you think we should change the rules starting tomorrow, so that only able-bodied laborers can buy two dan, while women and children can buy one dan or..."

Chen He didn't continue speaking, but Wang An understood what he meant.

They were worried that too many women and children would sign up and buy out all the grain in the government office's stockpile. Not only would the government office be left with no pure grain, but those who signed up later would also be unable to buy affordable grain, thus causing the collapse of the credit that the government had worked so hard to establish.

However, Wang An was not panicked at all, and chuckled: "The rules that have been set can actually be easily changed?"

"Have you ever thought that if the government changes its policies every day, it will also cause the people to lose confidence in us?"

Chen He said with embarrassment: "But if this continues, the five thousand stones of grain you brought back will soon be sold out."

Wan An said confidently, "It's OK. I will try to raise the food."

After Jian Wangan said this, Chen He had nothing to say and could only obey the order and leave.

After Chen He left, Wan An immediately started thinking.

He estimated that the remaining 5,000 shi of grain from the old shopkeeper should have been collected almost completely, so he called Xu Huang over.

He was told to select 300 people from among the returned refugees to transport grain to Qingzhou the next morning. Xu Huang had been to Qingzhou once before, and it was only a few days later. He was familiar with the route and the people, so he agreed without hesitation.

However, fifty people from Jizhou Wei had already been sent by Xu Huang to the towns and villages to recruit soldiers, and now there are only more than thirty people available.

However, after what happened today, Wang An believed that the bandits in Crescent Mountain no longer needed strong force to intimidate them. In addition, their families were still in Baicheng, so they should not cause trouble on the road.

Therefore, these more than 30 people are more for guarding against small criminals on the road, but they are enough.

So the next morning, a huge grain transport team set out for Qingzhou.

However, this scene was seen by some people with ulterior motives, including the guy who was caught in public by Wang An last time.

The guy originally couldn't stand staying at home, so he ran out of the city early in the morning to relax, but he didn't expect to see this scene, and immediately ran back home as if he had found a treasure.

However, as soon as I pushed open the door to the yard, I heard a series of unbearable sounds coming from the room.

The guy's face was filled with resentment, and he cursed in a low voice: "Damn it, it's not enough to work all night, aren't you afraid of dying of a stroke soon?"

The waiter cursed under his breath and went into the kitchen to light a fire and boil water, ready for the people in the room to make tea after they finished their work.

However, before the water boiled, a man's weak groan was heard in the room, followed by a woman's curse.

"You are such a greedy guy, you always make me feel uncomfortable. I hate you so much."

A man's voice followed, "Hey, Master, I've asked someone to bring me some red pills from the capital. I'll make you die of starvation when the time comes!"

The voice turned out to be Lu Guancheng's.

The woman snorted softly and said charmingly, "Then I'll wait for you to stuff me to death..."

"Hey hey hey..."

After a burst of lewd laughter, Lu Guancheng suddenly shouted outside the courtyard: "Zhang Ergou, why don't you quickly make some tea for the master to rinse his mouth?"

Zhang Ergou hurried to the door and said with a smile, "Boss, please wait a moment. The water hasn't boiled yet."

"You damn useless guy, you can't even do such a simple thing." Lu Guancheng cursed, and then a woman's moan was heard from the room again.

"You're already wilting, but you're still not being honest!"

Zhang Ergou spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm while listening outside the door. Lu Guancheng in the room heard it and cursed, "Damn Zhang Ergou, are you spitting on me outside?"

Zhang Ergou was flustered when he heard this. He rolled his eyes and changed the subject, saying, "Boss, you heard wrong. By the way, I just saw the soldiers of Jizhou Guards leaving the city with hundreds of carts. They must be going to Qingzhou to buy grain again."

There was silence in the room for a while, followed by footsteps. The door creaked open, revealing Lu Guancheng's chest covered with black hair.

"Do you think this is true?" Lu Guancheng asked.

Zhang Ergou lowered his head and replied, "If you look closely, I'm afraid there are at least one or two hundred carts."

Lu Guancheng frowned and suddenly said angrily, "Damn it, I thought I could just use up all of Wang An's food, but I didn't expect he wanted to fight us to the death?"

Zhang Ergou asked, "Boss, what should we do?"

Lu Guancheng's eyes flashed with ruthlessness, and he said, "Good night, you bastard, if you want to play with me, I will play with you to the end!"

(End of this chapter)