Surviving in the chaos of war begins in the wilderness.

Chapter 131 The Tough Zhang Qianshun

Six months later. Summer passed quickly, and autumn had arrived.

Under the cover of night, the city was filled with shouts of battle and commotion. Fufeng County was once again engulfed in war.

Meanwhile, at his home on the city wall, Zhou Ye and a group of girls were enjoying drinks and hot pot, living their happy little lives.

"Young Master, how many times has this happened recently?"

"This must be the third time, right? Anyway, it has nothing to do with our family."

"How can it be unrelated? We just finished cooking a batch of salted fish!"

"The salted fish won't spoil. We can store it and sell it slowly later. We should be able to sell it all before the holiday!"

Alright! Zhou Ye is now a master of the late stage of Ming Jin, and his level has even surpassed Du Juan's. Just these past few days, Du Juan has been preparing to break through to the late stage of Ming Jin.

Furthermore, Bafang Yeyu has already reached the maximum level and received the guaranteed reward of 1 natural attribute point.

The Elementary Blood Exchange Technique can also be maxed out to obtain the max level rewards: +10 Health, +1 Constitution, and 1 Natural Attribute Point.

However, upgrading skills like the Blood Exchange Technique doesn't require adding skill points. But upgrading Eight Directions Night Rain to a second-rate martial art requires...

2 Natural Attribute Points. Adding the entry reward from Eight Directions Night Rain (Second-rate), the total number of spare Natural Attribute Points increases to 3.

Besides, all 12 disciples have reached the mid-stage of the Qi Refining realm. Wenxiu, Li Wenwen, and Sister Hui have successfully broken through to the late-stage of the Qi Refining realm thanks to Zhou Ye's voluntary feeding (which involved secretly giving them extra low-grade Qi and Blood Pills and the heart meat of demonic beasts).

It should be said that the ability to perceive subtle details not only helps others break through barriers and enter the realm of internal strength, but also allows Zhou Ye to continuously correct the mistakes of those whose cultivation level is lower than his. This makes the disciples' cultivation twice as effective with half the effort!

That said, now that Zhou Ye possesses this strength, he can sit back and relax. Let things be chaotic outside! He'll definitely be able to protect himself.

As for the salted fish, Zhou Ye simply caught a few nets of them during the fishing season.

However, it has the following advantages:

First, they enriched the variety of goods in the general store, reinforcing the character of "Tian Zhong as a traveling mountain merchant." He basically just trades whatever the mountain people have. It's quite reasonable that they catch some fish, right?

Secondly, they integrated into the surrounding neighborhood. Since they were making salted fish, they would hire some neighbors to help them earn a little extra money.

It would also strengthen relations with the Grand Canal merchants. Through Xiao Wu's connections, this batch of 5000 jin of salt arrived, making them one of the Grand Canal merchants' major clients in the smuggling salt trade. Even just for this sales channel, the Grand Canal merchants would be willing to solve some minor problems for Tianxing Grocery Store, right?

Finally, there's the supply market.

As the rebellion continued, large areas of farmland suffered crop failure. The county seat once again faced a food shortage.

Although foreign trade in Fufeng County has gradually recovered, and many merchants have even brought in shiploads of grain, the grain supply is still insufficient. Salted fish, after all, can be a supplement, right?

So, how much money he earns isn't really important. It's all about fully integrating. To be honest, even if he could earn a few hundred taels, Zhou Ye would have long since looked down on that small amount of money.

"Young Master, when are you going to take us sisters in as your wives? Wenwen is getting impatient!" Wenxiu suddenly said with a coquettish smile.

"I didn't!" Li Wenwen's pretty face turned bright red. But like the other girls, they all glanced at Zhou Ye with darting eyes.

Zhou Ye was truly defeated. It felt like he'd stumbled into a spider's web, entangled by a bunch of little demons!

"Uh—isn't it not the end of the year yet?"

"It's already October. Young Master, if you keep dragging this out, do you intend to wait until the New Year?"

"Alright! Let's wait another month! After it snows, I plan to make another trip to the mountains. I've already made arrangements with the people there. I'll take you all when I get back."

"That's more like it. Hehehe————"

"

Like the previous wars, this chaos came quickly and went quickly.

However, the latest news broke shortly afterward—thank goodness! This battle royale tournament finally has a winner. In the end, a player with a thousand players emerged victorious. He was elected as the new prefect.

Furthermore, I had heard of this general who was Zhang Hu's father, Zhang Qianshun.

Who would have thought that the saying "Don't underestimate a young man's potential" would actually happen? Zhang Hu has actually become the son of the magistrate of Fufeng County?

If that's the case, then Zhang Hu and Du Juan—?

It's actually quite possible, isn't it? After all, Du Juan is Zhang Hu's ideal woman. This is the return of the Dragon King; for Zhang Hu, it seems like a thrilling drama, right?

Okay! Let's put the story of the simp and the white moonlight aside for now.

However, after Zhang Qianshun became the new prefect, he immediately issued a series of prefectural decrees.

In fact, many of the thousand-man generals had disagreements within the previous joint government. They were basically divided into two factions.

One faction is the compromise faction. Their view is that to govern Fufeng County well, they still need to rely on those powerful and influential families. Therefore, they need to ease tensions, and many things can be done gradually.

This is why the harsh laws and punishments implemented at the beginning were gradually abolished. Past actions by powerful families were essentially forgiven. Consequently, the campaigns against these families ceased.

Another faction is the hardliners. Their view is that powerful and influential families are indeed very important for governing Fufeng County well.

But in this situation, how can we proceed slowly?

After these past few months of turmoil, the government's treasury is empty, and its granaries are empty too. With unrest rampant outside, tax collection is impossible. If this continues, even the soldiers' pay will soon be jeopardized. Are we, the military leaders, just going to sit around and have our families go to sleep?

So in the end, the two factions clashed several times. Many powerful and influential families even got involved.

In the end, the hardliners emerged victorious. Zhang Qianshun was the leader publicly chosen by the hardliners.

That is why Zhang Qianshun's prefectural magistrates were quite forceful.

First, there was the allocation of taxes to all the shops in the county town, as well as to all the prominent families and wealthy households.

To be honest, ordinary people really don't have much money left to squeeze out, so this time the people didn't actually have to pay much.

Take Zhou Ye's inconspicuous little grocery store, for example. They still managed to impose a tax of 80 taels of silver and 1500 catties of grain? They claimed it was a temporary loan from the government and left behind an IOU stamped with the government's official seal. As for whether they would repay it or when, only the devil knows.

Of course, the hardest hit areas were the wealthy and powerful families. They demanded tens of thousands of taels of silver and thousands of bushels of grain. They had no choice but to lend them money, otherwise the army would come knocking and forcibly seize it.

Secondly, we organized the displaced people to resume production.

The government will allocate a large amount of money and grain to recruit a large number of displaced people in the shantytowns of the prefecture, and let them reclaim abandoned villages and estates outside the city.

At least this winter, these refugees will be able to eat their fill and stay warm, barely surviving. Next year, they will be able to grow crops on these lands and be almost self-sufficient.

As for those abandoned manors and villages, did they originally belong to powerful families? Who the hell cares about that?

Finally, of course, the only option was to send troops to quell the rebellion. This was to completely resolve the chaos.

You know what, under Zhang Qianshun's strong hand, those powerful families actually had to swallow their pride and accept it.

Therefore, powerful and influential families are actually quite weak. As long as their family foundation isn't shaken, they'll eventually compromise, even if it means paying a price.

Therefore, in a short period of time, the government amassed a large amount of money and grain, many refugees received assistance, and many ordinary people enthusiastically supported Zhang Qianshun.

Alright! None of this concerned Zhou Ye. He simply and honestly "lent" the government 80 taels of silver and 1500 catties of grain. Then, when it snowed, he immediately set off for the mountains—

A day later, a long howl suddenly echoed from the gray swamp, and a figure burst forth from the miasma. A tiger's roar also came from the distant hills, and a demonic tiger galloped towards them.

However, when Mimi excitedly ran up to Zhou Ye, she suddenly froze. She saw Zhou Ye put down a leopard.

"Awooo—!"

Mimi flew into a rage: Two-legged beast! Who is this little thing? Tiger is going to eat it!

Suddenly faced with a giant demon tiger, Hua Hua was so frightened that her legs went weak and she collapsed in front of Mimi.

"Alright, alright." Zhou Ye patted Mimi's big tiger head. "Its name is Huahua, and it's our friend."

When Zhou Ye passed by Xiaojiayuan this time, he suddenly discovered that Huahua had grown into a demon beast in the early stage of the Enlightenment Realm.

Perhaps because Hua Hua was eating so well, Zhou Ye would often feed her some monster entrails. However, the outer mountainous area was no longer suitable for Hua Hua's survival. If she couldn't hunt high-quality monsters, Hua Hua would be unable to continue growing.

Since that's the case, Zhou Ye simply brought Hua Hua here.

However, upon discovering that Zhou Ye actually had Hua Hua? How dare he not play with Hu Hu? Mimi sulked with a stern face.

"Don't be petty. You'll have to take good care of Huahua from now on. By the way, Huahua, say hello to your Brother Tiger."

Hua Hua stood up unsteadily. It tucked its tail between its legs, crawled in front of Mimi, and made a gesture of submission.

Mimi gave a stern, authoritative look. She sniffed Hua Hua's scent and reluctantly accepted the little one.

"You two-legged beast, you've changed your mind. Tiger's going to beat the shit out of you!"

"Come on! I'm also at the late stage of the Ming Jin realm. Today I'm going to play you like a kitten."

"Awooo! Take this!"

Like a thunderbolt from the blue, a fierce battle quickly erupted between the man and the tiger.

Flower had already hidden behind a large rock. It trembled with fear: "Leopard, you're terrifying! Are they all monsters?"

That's absolutely right. Zhou Ye didn't make an appointment with any mountain people, but with this silly, lovable tiger demon.

Because of the group of mischievous kids at home, this year's winter intensive training could only be shortened. So, Zhou Ye used this time to hone his skills in battle, aiming to fully master the strength of the late-stage Ming Jin realm.

More than half a month later, Zhou Ye and Mimi were fighting almost every day. He was pleasantly surprised to find that he could now hold his own against Mimi. Without using those poison gas bombs, they could even go toe-to-toe in a head-on confrontation.

Furthermore, his Ming Jin skill is nearing completion in its later stages. In about four months, he will be able to attempt to break through to An Jin.

At this point, Zhou Ye felt the importance of innate talent even more. The feeling of being a genius is fucking wonderful!

That day, Zhou Ye brought Mimi and Huahua to the shore of Gem Lake.

With several heavy snowfalls, temperatures have plummeted. As a result, a thick layer of ice has formed on the lake surface along the shore.

Pointing to several small islands in the distance, Zhou Ye asked with a smile, "Mimi, do you dare to go play on the islands?"

"Awooo! You two-legged beast, how dare you mock Tiger?"

"Hehe. Just tell me if you're going or not!"

"Fine, let's go. Tiger's got the most courage!"

"hehe."

Leaving Hua Hua on the shore, the man and the tiger flew towards the nearest small island.

But when Zhou Ye and Mimi arrived on the island, he almost burst out laughing.

This big, silly cat probably has a severe case of hydrophobia. It's probably because it was electrocuted by a unicorn sturgeon when it was a kitten, so it still remembers it vividly.

Although the ice was thick, and given Zhou Ye and Mimi's speed, they were already capable of walking on water, so there was no way they could...

It fell into the water. But Mimi was terrified; it almost peed itself from fright halfway there!

Hearing Zhou Ye's pig-like laughter, Mimi hissed angrily, "You two-legged beast, Tiger's going to fight you! Roar!"

"Alright, alright!" He ruffled the tiger's head. "Let's go! Let's have some fun on the island."

"Awoo! Tiger loves to play the most!"

The island isn't very big. Interestingly, it's a volcanic island, with geysers erupting from time to time, and the heat it emits has even melted the ice along the island's coastline.

Zhou Ye smiled slightly. This is indeed a good place for a vacation and hot springs.

Mimi had already run off to play somewhere. Zhou Ye strolled along the beach.

In the small pond in front of us, several stranded eels are swimming; on the beach, rows of large crabs are scrambling about. Perhaps because this place is sparsely populated and is a rare warm place in winter, various natural resources have become particularly abundant.

However, Zhou Ye has lost interest in these ordinary wild beasts—wait a minute?

Zhou Ye suddenly noticed that just a few steps away, two large crabs were stacked high. The male crab weighed 7 or 8 pounds and was a demon beast in the early stage of the cultivation realm.

Then there's no need to be polite. Although this kind of monster meat is—better than nothing, the big crab is just so delicious!

Before long, Zhou Ye had three large crabs and a small bag of white krill in his hands. He thought for a moment, then realized that Mimi, the big eater, was also there; these wouldn't be enough for her to eat in one bite.

So Zhou Ye picked and chose, and he picked up several more large crabs that were of monster-beast level. He even caught two large lobsters and a carp that was more than two feet long.

We'll have a feast of river delicacies soon, so let's cook a big pot of them.

But just then, a furious roar suddenly came from afar: "Awoo!"