I was a god in the 18th century

Chapter 527 Paving the Way
"I, I, I..." The villager from Taohua Village who was stared at by Wen Renyi panicked instantly, stammering and unable to complete his sentences.

Wen Renyi was not in a hurry, so he held the sword and looked at him, saying calmly: "Don't panic, I won't kill the poor, talk slowly."

The villager avoided his gaze, knelt down on the ground with a plop, looked at the dusty road and stammered, "You, you, you are the Taoist priest of the Fairy Temple... I am just a little guy. I saw you from afar once when I went up the mountain to chop firewood..."

Wen Renyi said calmly, "We only met once, and you remember me?"

"The little one has a good memory since he was a child."

"What's your name?"

"Little People Rooney."

Wen Renyi stared at him for a moment, asked no more questions, and just waved his hand for him to stand up.

Originally, he went down the mountain to recruit people from the village to dig the mountain and build roads. The food on the donkey's back was intended to pay the villagers for their work. Now that he met them halfway, he could just take them back without having to walk a few more miles.

Moreover, he had just killed two policemen, so it was impossible for him to let the witness escape from his control. Not to mention that he was recruiting people in the first place, even if he didn't need them, he wouldn't let them leave.

"Ah Si, you two go to the village and find out the origins of these people, and distribute the rice to their families." Wen Renyi instructed his men, and pointed his sword at the two officials, "You two, go into the mountains and dig pits."

"Yes!" The two men responded and left.

"Yes, yes, yes!" The two officers agreed hastily, and then walked forward timidly under his gaze, occasionally glancing fearfully at their two colleagues lying in a pool of blood.

Wenren Yizhuo stood still, staring at everyone with a cold and frightening look. After a while, he pointed in the direction of the mountain path and said, "Please come in."

Everyone turned back to the mountain hesitantly, their hearts in a state of panic. Some of them had come to their senses and had actually recognized the identities of Wen Renyi's two younger brothers. After all, the two sides had dealt with each other many times, and the villagers had helped the mountain people sell mountain products and buy rice and salt.

But most people don’t know Wen Renyi, whose temperament is as cold and sharp as a knife, and they don’t dare to ask.

Finally, the young man Rooney, who had a good memory, mustered up the courage to ask, "Master, what do you mean by rice?"

When the other villagers heard the young man's question, they immediately pricked up their ears. Although they didn't dare to look over, their attention had already been focused on Wen Renyi.

Wen Renyi said calmly, "I am going down the mountain today. Killing people is just a side job. The main purpose is to invite everyone in Taohua Village to do some manual labor in the mountain. The daily labor is one catty of rice and three taels of salted pork. My people are preparing to enter the village now. I will deliver half a month's labor to your families in advance to show my sincerity. Is this clear enough?"

"Understand! Understand! Thank you, Taoist Priest! Thank you, Taoist Priest!" It was Rooney who first reacted and wanted to kowtow to Wen Renyi in gratitude.

Although Wen Renyi's tone was just a notification, and there was a hint of forced sale, the wages he offered were really generous. Everyone was just worried that they couldn't find such a good job, so why would they care about doing hard labor!

After all, if Wen Renyi hadn't jumped out and killed two of the servants, they would have to work for the red-haired foreigners. By then, let alone the wages, it would be hard to say whether they could come back safe and sound.

Wen Renyi held his sword to block Rooney's knees as he was about to kneel, and said, "No need to kowtow, just do your work well, let's go."

"Yes Yes Yes!"

At this moment, the originally lifeless people's steps became lighter. Although they had just seen the fierce side of Wen Renyi who killed people without blinking an eye, he was obviously more reasonable than the clerk, so they didn't have to worry about their lives. Moreover, although he didn't wear a Taoist robe, he didn't shave his head and combed it into a Taoist bun. As a Taoist priest, he shouldn't lie.

At this moment, no one can say no, so they can only think positively.

While Wen Renyi was leading his men into the mountains, two of his men also rode donkeys into the village.

Taohua Village was in the midst of a gloomy atmosphere. The old, the weak, women and children gathered on the village road, asking each other about the situations in their families and comforting each other.

As soon as the two strange Taoist priests without shaved heads appeared, they immediately attracted everyone's attention.

"Two Taoist priests, what business do you have in Taohua Village?" An elderly man in the village bowed and asked.

"Uncle, they are from the nearby mountains..." a young woman in the crowd whispered. This woman was Rooney's wife, who had done business with the people in the mountains before, so she remembered them.

When the old man heard what the young woman said, he immediately understood. Everyone knew that there were a group of refugees hiding in the nearby mountains, and both sides made a tacit agreement to make a deal.

But it was always the villagers who went into the mountains and conducted transactions secretly under the shade of the trees. This was the first time that they saw the other party swaggering into the village in broad daylight.

Two people got off the donkey, and one of them said, "Just now on the road, we met some people from your village who were out working. Here, these are their wages, and we were asked to distribute them to everyone. Each family should send someone out to claim them, and it will be calculated based on the number of people who went to work."

"Wow!"

Their words were like stones thrown into a lake, immediately causing ripples.

The sun rises from the west. This is the first time that someone in my family has just been captured by the government to perform forced labor, and right after that someone brings labor service to our home.

Is it because of the red-haired fan?

Everyone at the dock had vaguely heard that a Lord Changlin who came from the south of the Yangtze River could not bear to see the tattered clothes of the trackers and thought it affected the national prestige, so he sent someone to give each tracker a new piece of clothing the next day!
Thinking of this, everyone no longer looked so sad. Anyway, their family members had been arrested and they couldn't hide away, so it would be good to get some benefits.

So they came forward one after another to report the number of people who had gone out of their homes.

Wen Renyi's two younger brothers were not afraid that the villagers would falsely report that they had received more. They deliberately made it very vague, just to make everyone misunderstand that this was linked to the official.

As for waiting for the group of people who worked there to return to the village and tell their families the truth, that would be a matter for later.

Both of them were convinced that during this period of time, their village must have annexed Taohua Village.

While the people below were busy, Xia Qingdai was not idle either. She was lying on the glass tank, wielding a small hoe and shovel, repairing the road for the village.

Anyway, she bought plenty of blue bricks, and she was incredibly efficient in using them to pave the road underneath.

She didn't use mini bricks, which would take too much time, but used normal-sized blue bricks. One brick laid down was like a broad road for the Lilliputians, and soon the road below was paved in an orderly manner.