In a chaotic and famine-stricken era, I picked up an empress to be my wife.

After speaking, Shen An stared at Liu Wenyuan.

He thought Liu Wenyuan was just making excuses, but he never expected this!

Liu Wenyuan picked up the knife, ripped open his pants, and slashed at his leg without hesitation. When he didn't have enough strength, he changed his approach!

After inserting the knife, he forcefully chopped off a chunk of flesh!

Even though his face was contorted in pain, Liu Wenyuan didn't stop and still wanted to cut off two more pieces of flesh.

Even Shen An, who had taken many lives and dealt with the dead every day, was stunned by this scene.

Liu Wenyuan was definitely the most insane person he had ever met; he was truly willing to die to achieve his goals.

"Stop!" Shen An called out.

"So you believe me now?"

Liu Wenyuan asked, "Then tell me how you plan to get rid of Zhu Shigui! After you tell me, if I think it's acceptable, I'll commit suicide on the spot to atone for your sins!"

"You don't have to die. I'll give you a chance to kill Zhu Shigui. You can kill him then, and the charge will be yours!" Shen An replied.

Liu Wenyuan hesitated.

"What? You're willing to die, and the blame falls on you, yet you're still not willing?" Shen An asked.

"It's not that I'm unwilling, but I'm wondering whether your words are truly trustworthy!"

"You have no other choice!"

"But I want more than just Zhu Shigui to die. I also want Zhu Shigui's cronies, the registrar Qian Guangzhi, most of the yamen runners in the three shifts, and many local gentry and wealthy families in Qingyang County to die!" Liu Wenyuan added another condition.

"no problem!"

"Alright, I'll take the gamble and trust you! As long as they die and the people of Qingyang County are freed from the suffering he brought, what do I have to fear about taking the blame!" Liu Wenyuan raised his head high.

"Then you can get lost!" Shen An waved his hand, and the crowd made way for him.

"Shen An, if you really do it, I will kowtow to you and apologize!" Liu Wenyuan left these words, tore his clothes, poured out some blood residue charcoal that he had bought at a high price, bandaged himself, and then rode away as if nothing had happened.

"Officer Shen, aren't you afraid he'll run away and join forces with the magistrate to deal with you?" Old Zhao asked.

"No way. The magistrate and he are mortal enemies. In the magistrate's eyes, I am just a scapegoat who can be used. How could he possibly join forces with his mortal enemy to deal with me? It's like if you want to step on an ant, would you believe that your mortal enemy would join forces with you?" Shen An asked rhetorically.

"No, but with your abilities, you wouldn't think so little of yourself."

"But in Zhu Shigui's eyes, I'm really no different from an ant, otherwise that old bastard wouldn't have made me a scapegoat!" Shen An saw things very clearly: "However, this is actually beneficial for us to accumulate strength. Who knows, by the time he realizes it, we'll already be a behemoth that he can't shake!"

Upon hearing this, Old Zhao and the others were invigorated; they could sense that Shen An intended to rebel.

Having previously followed Shen An in fighting Zhang Meng and others, they realized that as long as they followed Shen An, these officials were nothing special!

They had long heard that in many places within the territory of Daliang, the people were forced to rebel by the officials.

They now truly yearn for Shen An to rebel.

With this thought in mind, Old Zhao asked, "Officer Shen, are you planning to rebel in the future?"

Those who came with Shen An today are all people Shen An has decided to trust.

Even so, the time was not right, and Shen An did not admit it: "Rebellion? Of course I never thought of it. What I did was just to protect myself and let us all live longer."

Everyone was clearly disappointed.

"In this chaotic world, staying alive is the best thing you can do! Don't think about things that will lead you to your deaths!" Shen An admonished before riding back. "However, tomorrow, reduce the number of corpse-carrying workers you'll be doing. I need you to make some items for me!"

"What is it?"

"It's just some wooden products. I'll have someone deliver the wood tomorrow. You can cut and assemble them according to the blueprints I give you," Shen An instructed. "By the way, does anyone among you know carpentry? I need someone skilled to teach the others how to do it!"

"Officer Shen, I know carpentry." A thin, bony old man stepped forward.

Shen An recognized him: "So it's Brother Yang Dalu."

Hearing that Shen An actually remembered his name, Yang Dalu was extremely excited: "Officer Shen, before I became a corpse carrier, I was the most famous carpenter in our town. It's all because that slut committed adultery with someone else. In a fit of anger, I killed them and was then relegated to becoming a corpse carrier."

Shen An did not believe his words. He came here to become a corpse carrier. Some were oppressed, some were criminals who were demoted to slavery, and some were born into slavery because their parents were slaves.

"Let's see what you're capable of first!"

"yes!"

Shen An's next task is to manufacture large-scale repeating crossbows, ensuring that the technology belongs solely to him and will not be leaked.

He needs to break down the components and have different people do them.

In this way, even if others obtain his weapons, they will not be able to easily manufacture them, otherwise all the good technology will be learned, and his advantage in this chaotic world will be reduced.

After returning home, Shen An found some pieces of wood and asked Yang Dalu to make a few small figurines.

He was very skillful and finished it quickly.

Seeing that he was indeed skilled, Shen An immediately decided to form a carpentry team, appointing Yang Dalu as the team leader, and the others would need to learn carpentry from him.

After making the arrangements, Shen An headed to Heishan Village.

Hei Lao Liu hadn't returned yet. Shen An drank two pots of tea before Hei Lao Liu finally appeared.

Upon seeing Shen An arrive, Hei Lao Liu hurriedly ran over with a smile: "Brother Shen, Fire Phoenix has agreed!"

"Excellent!" Shen An was also delighted. This way, he could control the movements of Zhu Shigui and the others and complete his plan to obtain the grain!

"Then, gather all your people together. I have some tasks to assign you," Shen An said, standing up.

"Okay!"

Once the crew was assembled, Shen An divided the production of the repeating crossbow into five steps.

Part of it requires making the beef tendons and deer tendons more resilient, according to the method he gave.

Some of them took the bones and, according to the specifications he gave them, ground them into arrowheads.

One group was responsible for making the base plates for repeating crossbows.

The remaining internal parts and assembly.

Shen An would hand over the parts manufacturing to the people at the mass grave, while he would personally handle the assembly.

After arranging all this, Hei Laoliu's excitement was written all over his face. Although Shen An had not told him about the rebellion, once he controlled Qingyang County after fighting against the Western Barbarians, even if it wasn't a rebellion, he would still have to suppress Zhu Shigui and the others.

If Zhu Shigui and his men were to become their enemies, they would certainly kill them.

It's no different from rebellion!

This was exactly what Hei Lao Liu had hoped for, so he took great care in doing these things for Shen An.

Shen An did not leave immediately, but waited until the finished product was completed.

It was late at night when Shen An finally returned home.

Dugu Meng still hadn't gone to sleep, sitting in the courtyard waiting for Shen An to return.

The moment the courtyard gate was pushed open, it was Shen An who appeared.

Dugu Meng beamed with joy: "You're back! I'll go heat up your food!"

Shen An froze, and the image of his girlfriend from his past life, whom he would regret for the rest of his life, resurfaced in his mind.

She waited for him to return very late.

Unbeknownst to them, their figures overlapped.

This made Shen An's nose sting, and his eyes became complicated.

The moon was obscured by dark clouds tonight, so it wasn't very bright. Dugu Meng couldn't see Shen An's eyes, but she could see that Shen An was staring straight at her.

She felt a little embarrassed.

But ever since Shen Xiaoqi said that if the emperor were a woman, she would have to find a man to have children.

She had already made Shen An her only candidate.

Seeing Shen An looking at her, she felt secretly pleased, even though she was embarrassed.

There was even a faint hope that Shen An would take the initiative...

"Go heat up the food, I'm really hungry."

But what he got in return was what Shen An said after patting his stomach.

Dugu Meng was clearly disappointed. This man was really strange; he was staring straight at her, yet he didn't seem to know how to take things further...

Even if you go further, I won't blame you!

Thinking this to herself, Dugu Meng dared not say it aloud, for fear that Shen An would think she was not a good woman.

In the end, all he could do was stomp his feet and heat up the food for Shen An in the kitchen.

Shen An was completely unaware of her emotional change. After finishing all the food that Dugu Meng had heated up, he urged Dugu Meng to go and rest, and then he went to sleep as soon as he finished speaking.

Dugu Meng was angry again. After eating her meal, she urged her to go to sleep without talking to her much.

Little did she know, in Shen An's eyes, this straight-laced guy, telling Dugu Meng to go to bed early was the best thing for her, and that they absolutely shouldn't chat with her anymore, otherwise staying up late would be bad for her health...

The next morning.

Shen An summoned Yang Dalu and others, and they first went to Heishan Village to haul timber.

It took more than a dozen horse-drawn carriages and half an afternoon to bring over the sufficient amount of wood. He divided the two pieces into two groups.

The more complicated tasks were assigned to Yang Dalu's team, while another group was assigned to Lao Zhao's team.

Throughout the entire process, no one asked Shen An what the purpose of doing all this was.

Firstly, they wondered what use these parts could possibly have. They treated them as handicrafts, which might eventually be sold to merchants in Jiangcheng.

Secondly, they were all very clear that Shen An was their absolute leader, and as his subordinates, they did not dare to question Shen An's purpose.

Yang Dalu was indeed capable; he completed the project in half an hour, following the blueprints provided by Shen An.

Shen An was very satisfied and immediately said that he would improve Yang Dalu's treatment to two taels of silver per month, and the other participants would also be rewarded with one tael of silver per month!

Upon hearing this!

The entire audience erupted in cheers. Shen An had already made them a lot of money by having them collect dead people's hair, and now he was giving them extra money, something they never even dreamed of.

With the money, they were full of energy and immediately got to work with great enthusiasm.

As evening approached, Shen An was inspecting the samples they had produced.

"Hey, what are you making?" A rather familiar female voice suddenly rang out behind him.

Even with Shen An's alertness, he didn't notice!

He suddenly turned around to look!