When things have developed to this point, Li Yi knows that all he can do now is study hard and prepare for the upcoming prefectural and county examinations.

He and Sun Ce walked towards the courtyard together. In the courtyard there was a large room with windows on all sides and facing south and north.

The big house faces three bays in the south, with a lecture hall in the center, wing rooms on the left and right, and surrounding corridors on three sides. Students in the academy usually like to study here the most, but there have been too many things happening recently, and they also

I no longer had that kind of mood, so there weren't many people around.

The two walked into the study room, where there were more than thirty students from the academy. No one was talking to each other, they were all studying seriously. Seeing this scene, the two of them relaxed their hands and feet, and each walked to the empty table and sat down.

.

There were no chairs in the study room, and the disciples all sat on the floor. After sitting on the floor, Li Yi raised his head and looked at the beams, which made the hall appear to be high and spacious. There were no pillars to block the four sides. Not only could he see the lecture table, but also the shoulders and backs of the surrounding students.

Everybody can see it.

Since this bookstore is a single-family building, the light from all sides shines directly in, and the windows are bright and clean, which makes it feel very good.

Everyone was concentrating on reading and practicing calligraphy, and from time to time there was the sound of rustling books. Although it was calm, there was a solemn and nervous atmosphere.

This is not the first time Li Yi has come to the academy, but every time he has left in great trouble. How could he experience the atmosphere of studying hard? He took a long breath and took out the Commentary on Mencius to read it.

stand up.

There are many rivers in Baiyangdian, dividing the vast land into several pieces.

Just after the spring plowing, in the fields belonging to Anxin New City on the north bank of the Zhulong River, a group of people were busy building Dugongwu again.

Over the past few years, the world has become more and more chaotic. In the past, there were natural disasters, and later there were refugees and bandits. From time to time, there were plagues, and the villages were also dilapidated. If Li Yi hadn't been relocating the population to replenish the land, who knows what would have happened.

How many years will it take before the old vitality can be restored?

The population under Li Yi's rule is slowly approaching 30,000. The new land is used to share the population and the pressure on the fields, and it seems to be somewhat prosperous.

There were no more military disasters, and the new city had already taken shape. However, due to the threat of bandits from the Taihang Mountains and the pressing pressure of the government, the civilian settlements located in the north of the Zhulong River had to build Wubao again.

Residents have the ability to protect themselves.

Under the management of the old patriarch, the remote villages of Baiyangdian have recently invested a lot of labor. Many villages have been turned into governance centers, which are relatively safer because they are sometimes dangerous, so everyone is not in a hurry to build city walls and has no manpower.

If too much is allocated, the progress of this project will be greatly slowed down.

In various villages in Anxin, all the people who work in exchange for food are villagers. Some even finish plowing the land in advance. After the spring plowing, whole villages of civilians rush to seek work from each village, hoping to earn more merit.

The grains and fields distributed by Anxin before were not free. Only by making up for all the merits could they be exchanged for livestock with the villagers' home.

This small group of people on the north bank of the Zhulong River is different. Most of them are criminals with tattoos on their faces. They number nearly a hundred, including men, women, and children.

In order to prevent criminals from fleeing, they were arranged to serve in places like Gaoling instead of in border areas such as Yunyang.

Next to the building site, there was a small temporary shack where the criminals rested and lived. At this time, three or four women who had also been tattooed were cooking in front of the shack.

A middle-aged fat man stood nearby and kept chattering: "You are young and you have no children with him, why do you have to suffer the same pain as the sinners for twenty years?"

The fat man has been nagging for a long time. The person he is talking about is a delicate and beautiful woman, but it is a pity that a ferocious word "sin" on her forehead has ruined many of her appearance. Otherwise, she would be regarded as a rare beauty.

At this time, the beautiful woman was squatting on the ground washing shepherd's purse and ignored him.

"If you follow me to form a household, no matter how bad it is, it will still be a villager's home! I am already familiar with the strategies of Anxin, and maybe I can even get a job as a guarantor, or something even better!"

The fat man mentioned it repeatedly, saying all good things except not daring to reach out to pull her. But the beautiful woman was just indifferent.

In response to the fat man's blatant behavior, the women washing vegetables only dared to express their anger but did not dare to say anything.

The middle-aged clerk who was in charge of recording the team's affairs was a handsome man in his thirties. He had been paying attention to the construction of the Wubao. He came to get some water when he was thirsty and discovered this scene. He glared angrily and did nothing but just watched the show.

The officer glanced at him and shouted again: "Xi Le! Although criminals are punished with hard labor for their crimes, the government prohibits killing, torture, and rape! Violators are also demoted to criminals! What do you want to do?"

Seeing that the old police officer next to him did not say anything, the fat man, who was a civil servant who was supposed to be aloof, showed no fear at all. He actually smiled and replied: "I didn't use force, I just persuaded him with good words!"

I don’t know the management. The place I settled in did not prohibit the husband and wife of criminals from marrying. If the guilty girl’s family is innocent and she is convicted because of her husband’s family, she can choose to remarry after abandoning her husband’s family, get rid of her criminal status, and re-register her household registration.

Become a citizen of Anxin!"

It can be seen that this person is very familiar with An Xin and knows that he has done nothing wrong. There is nothing the management can do.

He showed that he knew more about the local laws than the civil servant. The fat man looked at him sideways proudly.

The management frowned slightly, not understanding the system established by the little benefactor Li Yi. According to his rule, not only men can abandon their wives, but if their husbands break the law and do not support them, they will be deprived of the three virtues.

If someone commits a crime, his wife can abandon her husband and marry another. Women who have committed crimes are even encouraged to break up with their original husbands, which is simply against etiquette and morally unheard of.

However, considering that many criminals in Anxin were formerly bandits, when everyone settled down and many families started to form families, the middle-aged management reluctantly let go of the idea of ​​further investigation and denunciation, but refused to

He bowed his head in front of a little cunning villager and said with force: "That's it, as a villager, you are here to earn merit, why did you stop working?"

"I can only make a living here by cutting firewood and carrying water!" Xi Le was so cunning that he didn't say something: "There is enough firewood under the stove and enough water!"

The officers refused to cooperate. Faced with such a person, even the most talented civil servants were at a loss what to do.

The criminal women who were washing shepherd's purse on the ground couldn't stand listening anymore. One of them picked up all the shepherd's purse in the big wooden basin in twos and twos, picked up the wooden basin and threw out the sewage with a "swish" sound, and poured the water in the bucket into the wooden basin.

, rinsed it briefly, poured it out, then filled it with water, and shouted: "Manager Zhang, we have no water left!"

The fat man immediately stared, it was such a waste of water!

The guard next to him was a disabled warrior who had just retired. He had a saber in his waist and a spear standing at the corner of the wall. From the corner of his eyes, the fat man could see that just as he had boldly persuaded people to get out of marriage before, the old guard chose to do it again.

Turn a blind eye.

Guessing that he would be the one to suffer if he didn't carry the water, Xi Le didn't care about the woman. He greedily glanced at the beautiful woman who was immersed in her work, picked up two large wooden barrels, and carried the load.

He ran quickly to fetch water.

His own words were not as effective as the strategies of a criminal woman, so the middle-aged civil servant looked a little ugly. He did not drink water, nor did he say hello to the guards. He walked back depressed.

The guards were a little further away, and there were no men around. The women who were washing vegetables became more courageous. The woman who had previously been so quick and easy to get the fat man to carry water said in a low voice: "Rogue fat man, he is like a dog or a pig."

, you dare to take advantage of Hou Li!"

The delicate woman who had been the target of the fat man's nagging just raised her head and glanced at the crowd of people carrying mud and stones in the distance. When she found her husband's thin body, her eye circles suddenly turned red.

Under the heavy workload, her husband had no energy to pay attention to anything else and knew nothing about what happened here before. At this time, he was carrying a load of soil on his shoulders, staggering forward, and pouring it into the pit with difficulty.

Tamp it down.

As the son of the Hou family from Hedong, she had never suffered such hardship since she was a child. Even though she was far away, she knew her husband's suffering.

However, when it comes to the cunning and lazy among the criminals, the guards do not have a good temper towards the fat man. If they dare to stop, they will usually receive a big whip.

The guards had heavy hands, and when the whip went down, there was immediately a blood mark on the previously pampered body. Her husband already had dozens of whip marks on his back, so he didn't dare to stop or look around.

At first, all their husbands and sons joined the bandits or soldiers to attack Anxin. Later, they were defeated by Li Yi. Li Yi demoted them all as sinners, and the sinners were even less likely to gather together to work. The Hou family had no choice but to

Her husband and wife.

After the previous woman's words, the voice of another sinner's wife came to Hou Li's ear, and she turned her eyes back to her husband: "It is true that Hou Li is such a talented person that she quits marriage and remarries.

You have to find someone like Zhang to manage it!"

Someone else answered: "Mo Hu Yu! Manager Zhang is married and has a child!"

The woman before was dissatisfied and said: "Being my concubine is a hundred times better than being the wife of that fat dog!"

Even as a sinner, when he was having fun in his misery, he would say bitterly: "I also said that you refused to break off the marriage, not because you are nostalgic for old things, but because your family looks ugly and it will be difficult to find anyone to want it!"

Who knew that he was so arrogant that he still cares about Manager Zhang?"

Even the beautiful Hou Li, the women all temporarily forgot their worries and laughed softly together.

When he realized that the old police officer was staring at him, Fang Qi stopped laughing. One of the women whispered again: "Don't prostitute yourself here! Although Manager Zhang is not an official, he also looks like an official in Anxin.

Like that fat dog or pig, it's just a temporary move to get enough food, so why would you want to settle down in this small village?"

In the boring and tiring life of the criminals, Zhang Guanli, who has a dignified appearance and unique identity, has become the object of their gossip. The other two women asked: "Is this really true? How did you know?"

"Yesterday I was picking up Shu under the old tree, and I heard two officers talking about it! Official Zhang is a member of the Mo clan, and he is famous even for Mr. Zhao, Mr. Zhang, and the old patriarch. He has sent people to conquer the land several times, and he has recommended them all.

Refuse! It’s just that the thieves looted Baiyangdian, and the manager’s family lost all their money and food. He only wanted to work for Anxin, so he stayed in the small village as a civil servant for the time being. When he has achieved enough achievements, he will leave for the new city!"

"I can't blame the fat dog for not being afraid of him, and the guards don't want to talk to him!"

"How can a person like Manager Zhang be willing to be used by a small benefactor?"

"What is Momen?!"

As criminals, women have to be busy working, and they also hate Li Yi a little in their hearts. They are somewhat unhappy to hear that such a man is willing to work for Li Yi. However, Mrs. Hou Li inadvertently raised her head and saw the fat man carrying two buckets.

The water turned around again and exclaimed: "The fat guy is back!"

A woman consoled him: "Don't be afraid of him! Today I will make the food more clean and tidy, and Zhang will manage it. The officers and criminals will also be happy to eat! There should be enough water, and the vegetables should be washed back and forth. The fat guy should be able to walk more

Twice!"

Hou Li lowered his head, hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "It would be better if we let him go ten more times!"

So, the fat man saw several women washing two onions and garlic plants and filling a large wooden basin with water. They all seemed to be infected with mysophobia. After using it once, they would never stay to wash other things. They would do it immediately.

Just dump it.

He understood that several women were working together to punish him, but the old police officer was actually tired of his tightness, so he went to complain, but it had no effect.

If you walk slower, you will be scolded by the old guard.

What did I do that made people angry? The fat man could only burst into tears and hurried back and forth to fetch water.
To be continued...