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

"Master Liu is right, let's do it this way!" Chen Fa immediately agreed.

Wang Luotian nodded in agreement.

Jiang Cheng was the only one who didn't speak; he kept his eyes closed the whole time.

"Hey, old man Jiang, why aren't you saying anything? Don't you think we should give Shen An a hard time?" Liu Mohan asked.

Jiang Cheng opened his eyes, and a calculating look could be seen in them.

"Why give him a hard time? Why not just kill him?" Jiang Cheng smiled slightly and said, "That would solve everything once and for all!"

The other three exchanged glances, and Liu Mohan asked, "Kill him? How? Shen An is in the county town, while our forces are mostly in areas outside the county town. Killing him won't be that easy."

Even assassination isn't easy. Are you really planning to wait for him to come out? Who knows how long that would take?

"Foolish! Why wait for him to come out? Can't we just trick him into coming out?" Jiang Cheng stood up as he spoke: "We can pretend to be friendly and send someone to tell Shen An that we are willing to give up the land, but we need to discuss some details with him and invite him to meet at my Jiang Family Village."

Judging from the fact that Shen Angang dared to do this as soon as he took control of the county, it shows that he is a person who is eager for quick success.

He would be absolutely willing to come in order to achieve his goal as quickly as possible!

"What if Shen An doesn't want to come and instead sends us?" Liu Mohan asked again.

"Women have long hair but short wits and not very bright. I've said it before, given Shen An's eagerness to succeed, he will definitely come in person to complete that matter as soon as possible. There's no way he'll send us!" Jiang Cheng said confidently.

"You seem quite confident, but reality may not always unfold as you imagine!"

Liu Mohan was equally confident in herself: "I still think it's better to give that kid Shen An a taste of his own medicine first, let him know how powerful we are, and he naturally won't dare to be our enemy!"

"How utterly foolish!" Jiang Cheng shook his head.

"Say one more word?!" Liu Mohan slammed his hand on the table.

"You two, stop arguing. We should work together to fight the enemy, not let internal strife break out before we've even dealt with them!" Wang Luotian stood up and acted as a peacemaker. "In my opinion, you should try both of your methods. Give Shen An a taste of our strength and let him feel our power."

Then, pretend to want to talk to him. Having experienced our strength, he will surely be happy to go!

how?!"

"I agree," Chen Fa nodded first.

"That's settled then!" Liu Mohan nodded.

"I'll give you face, but how do I give him a show of force?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Isn't it easy to give them a warning? From this day forward, no commoner is allowed to enter the city to buy or sell. Without the people's support, the county town will be a dead city!" Liu Mohan chuckled. "When Shen An sees that more than half the people in the city are gone, won't he be crying in despair?"

The three nodded in agreement. They believed that they were deeply rooted in Qingyang County and that with just a word from them, the people would not dare to enter the city!

And that is indeed the case!

Even though Shen An won the battle, the people outside the city did not feel a sense of belonging.

They were even more afraid of the four major families that had always been looming over them.

Even though Shen An said he would allocate land to them, they didn't dare go to the county town to draw lots for the land.

The next day, apart from a few original residents of the county town, almost no one entered the town.

Upon learning of this situation, Liu Wenyuan immediately reported it to Shen An.

"My lord," Liu Wenyuan said, frowning, "this must be the work of the four great families. Judging from the current situation, the people are still wary of them deep down, but not of us. If they don't come for a long time, the people of the county will suffer from lack of supplies and will eventually die!"

Shen An remained calm: "Don't panic. They have oppressed the people for many years, and the people are naturally afraid of them. As for what you are worried about, it will not happen at all!"

Since the people are afraid of them, then kill them all.

Liu Wenyuan had already been proven wrong, and he knew that his false sense of composure was useless.

He suppressed the urge to persuade Shen An to stop the land redistribution campaign and asked, "My lord, when shall we make our move?"

"Since we've given them three days, let's wait until then. If they don't cooperate, kill them all! Leave no one alive!" Shen An then changed the subject: "Come on, I'll take you to study some excrement!"

"My lord, do we still need to study this manure? You said before that manure can be used as fertilizer, so why not just spread it on?" Liu Wenyuan asked.

"Manure needs to be fermented before it can be used, otherwise the grain will be burned quickly," Shen An explained. "Also, send people to the nearby mountains and forests, and the cliffs, to see where there is bird droppings. If there are any, they have definitely accumulated over many years and have already fermented. Take them, break them up, and you can use them directly. The grain yield can at least double!"

"Double the effect?" Liu Wenyuan could hardly believe that bird droppings could have such a miraculous effect.

"Besides, using bird droppings will improve the taste of fruits and vegetables. If we have bird droppings, we can use them to grow some high-value crops, which can then be sold at high prices to the rich!" Shen An planned. "However, even if we find bird droppings, the quantity won't be much. We still need to focus on human excrement, which can at least increase production by half!"

Liu Wenyuan found it hard to connect manure with planting, but he also believed that Shen An was a descendant of the dragon, and that these things must have been told to Shen An by the Dragon God in a dream.

There should be no mistake!

They immediately followed Shen An, found a cesspool, and began to study it together.

As for farming, Shen An grew up in the countryside and knows how to ferment and store crops.

This time, he didn't hold back at all; he taught Liu Wenyuan how to ferment the seeds so that he could learn it and then pass it on to others in the future.

Liu Wenyuan felt that this was something that would benefit the people, so he naturally studied it diligently.

In the blink of an eye.

The three-day deadline given by Shen An had passed, and apart from the soldiers of the city garrison, the corpse carriers who followed Shen An, and the people from inside the city, not a single person from outside the city dared to come to register for the lottery.

It must be said that, in the eyes of ordinary people, those so-called four major families were nothing more than local tyrants in Qingyang County.

Since he's a local tyrant, he'll wipe them all out.

Shen An was about to have someone investigate the movements of the four major families and pinpoint their locations when...

Liu Wenyuan then jogged over to inform Shen An: "The four major families have invited us to Jiang Family Village to discuss the division of land. They have shown great sincerity this time and said they are willing, but we only need to agree to a few small conditions."

But I think they definitely didn't have good intentions!

My lord, please don't go!

Shen An became excited: "Go, why wouldn't we go?"

I was just figuring out how to pinpoint their location, and now that they've gathered together, it's the perfect opportunity for me to make my move!