xymnovel Chapter 85 Unfortunately, the population outside the pass is still too small.
Chapter 85 Unfortunately, the population outside the pass is still too small.
Chapter 85 Unfortunately, the population outside the pass is still too small.
"—Hahaha! That's great! I've finally broken through! Now I'm a genuine expert in internal energy!"
With a hearty laugh, Lu Xiong excitedly swung his fist, feeling the increased control and flowing energy within his body, as if his entire mental state had been elevated.
Thinking about the reason why he was able to break through so quickly, he couldn't help but bow gratefully in the direction of Locke. If it weren't for the fact that after joining Locke's ranks, he had enough monster meat to eat and various opponents to spar with, he would never have been able to break through so quickly.
Just then, hearing Lu Xiong's exaggerated laughter, Luo Ping quickly ran over to take a look, and then laughed, "Old Lu, congratulations! Congratulations on reaching a new level in your skills!"
Upon hearing this, Lu Xiong, who had been laughing heartily, suddenly stopped, and a resentful look appeared on his face.
He looked at Luo Ping, his lips twitching as if he wanted to say something, but in the end it just turned into a helpless sigh.
Alas, as the saying goes, comparing people is a recipe for disaster, and comparing goods is a recipe for disaster!
Lu Xiong once didn't believe that there were geniuses in the world.
In his view, as long as one's aptitude for martial arts is not too poor, with sufficient resources and a patient teacher to guide them, even a normal person can achieve something.
But it wasn't until he witnessed Luo Ping's speed of martial arts training that he realized there really were geniuses in this world!
Perhaps because Luo Ping had already practiced various combat techniques and had a solid foundation, the Imperial Captain quickly mastered the training method after seeing the series of martial arts manuals and listening to Lu Xiong's explanation.
Perhaps it was because Luo Ping's physical condition was already strong enough that his cultivation at the Ming Jin stage went extremely smoothly. He didn't need to toughen his muscles and skin at all. After learning a series of power generation methods, he successfully became a Ming Jin master.
In terms of internal strength, Luo Ping's progress was a little slower, but after he pondered it carefully, he still managed to enter the realm of internal strength, and even surpassed Lu Xiong, a veteran master of external strength, by a step!
As a result, Lu Xiong was deeply affected and worked hard to improve himself. He finally managed to get promoted so as not to embarrass himself too much, but he still couldn't help but call it a pervert in his heart.
Hearing the commotion, Rock also came over to take a look and offered Lu Xiong a few words of encouragement.
It has to be said that Lao Lu's Black Tiger Fist manual is indeed very effective. Although there is nothing particularly special about it, its advantage is that it is very easy to learn and quite fast to master.
Therefore, Luo Ping, who already had a certain foundation, quickly grasped the essence of the manual after coming into contact with it, and figured out what these forces were all about, thus greatly improving his combat power.
Although there is no suitable comparison, according to Luo Ping himself, with his current strength, if he were to fight his past self, he could at least fight two of them at the same time or take on more than five in a row!
[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name: 202ᴋᴋs.ᴄᴏᴍ]
By relying on those methods of exerting force, he can ensure that he consumes less energy in battle while also having stronger explosive power.
In other words, both Luo Ping's attack power and physical strength have been comprehensively improved due to his martial arts training.
Of course, as a price, Luo Ping, who was already a big eater, has become even bigger now. Even the other greatsword warriors who also trained with him have developed an increased appetite as a result.
If it weren't for the fact that the Guandong region is still considered to be rich in resources, so they hardly need to worry about a lack of meat and can occasionally hunt one or two monsters, Rock would really be unable to support these guys.
After finishing the battle at the gold mine, Rock followed up by leading his troops to raid the strongholds of both bandit groups, wiping out all their assets.
Unfortunately, just as I had predicted, despite the seemingly large size of the bandit groups at Erlong Mountain and Heiqi Ridge, they didn't actually possess much wealth.
Unless they were not the type to save money, let alone big bandits like them, who were quick to rob but also quick to spend it, Rock was still unable to steal five thousand taels of silver after he had swept through both bandit strongholds.
As for Ge's army, there's nothing that can be done about it.
They were a band of horse bandits, always on the move, with no fixed strongholds. They had a lot of outposts, but none of them had much silver stored up.
Furthermore, with almost all of Ge's men killed by Luo Te, he couldn't capture a few influential people to torture and extract information about the whereabouts of the valuables. As a result, he could only put all the pressure on the other two bandit groups.
Fortunately, after being subjected to severe torture, Rock successfully learned from Black Whirlwind, the leader of Erlong Mountain, the location of several hidden gold and silver treasures. As a result, he not only successfully emptied the leader's private treasury, but also obtained several land deeds.
But to be honest, these land deeds aren't worth much.
These land deeds only corresponded to a few houses in Kaiyuan City, and in a godforsaken place like Kaiyuan City, real estate was really not worth much, not to mention that the real estate market at that time had not been developed.
All things considered, in the final stages of the operation, Rock managed to steal nearly 20,000 taels of silver from the bandits. This sum, pieced together, was enough to alleviate his immediate financial crisis.
In addition to the financial gains, eliminating the remaining forces of these bandits also gave Rock an extra battle settlement, earning him an additional two thousand taels of silver and a chance to randomly draw a two-star unit.
Unfortunately, for Rock now, he doesn't have many two-star units that are useful anymore, so this reward has become rather useless to him.
Fortunately, after some research, Rock discovered that his system store actually had a recycling function.
If he hadn't opened the reward for drawing a unit and instead sold it directly, a random two-star unit could have been exchanged for a thousand taels of silver. Therefore, Rock didn't hesitate to sell the silver.
Speaking of silver, although Rock hadn't been to the nearby cities much, and even when he did trade, it was always handled by his cavalry and hired villagers, he still managed to glean some not-so-wonderful information.
Judging from the current situation, Rock discovered that perhaps because he had recently recharged too much silver into the system, prices in Kaiyuan City and many surrounding areas seemed to have fallen.
He didn't know much about economics, but because the consumption of silver had been relatively high recently, the price of silver had started to rise accordingly, and it would take more copper coins to exchange for silver.
Many merchants, eager to quickly convert their goods into cash and then follow the trend of silver, offered discounts, causing prices throughout Kaiyuan City to drop significantly.
However, Rock knew that such a drop in prices was not a good thing, because it was caused by deflation, which was essentially an economic depression.
Unfortunately, in order to develop rapidly, he has no choice but to consume a large amount of gold and silver. Before he is able to establish his own monetary system, he seems to have no way to fundamentally reverse this problem.
"Forget it, let's think about this after we've taken Kaiyuan City. Right now, Kaiyuan City is barely a possibility, what's the point of thinking about this?"
Rock pursed his lips, then immediately shifted his attention to something else.
After eliminating the three bandit gangs, he not only seized their valuables but also brought their territories into his own domain.
The combined territory of these three bandit groups was much larger than the original territory of the Luo family army, which meant that a large number of villages had been added to Luo Ke's sphere of influence.
He is currently busy dispatching his troops to notify these villages one by one, informing them that the bandits have been wiped out by Luo's army, and also instructing these villages to pay security fees to Luo's army according to the old custom.
Only when they pay security fees to the Luo family army can they be considered to be included in Luo Ke's rule. After all, according to the system's judgment, paying security fees is equivalent to paying taxes to Luo Ke, which is equivalent to accepting Luo Ke's rule.
So even though Rock didn't care about the security fees paid by these villagers, he still had to collect them symbolically.
Security costs can be low, but they must be there; this is a matter of principle.
However, the attitude of most villages towards Luo's army, who suddenly visited their villages, was actually quite good, and in many villages, the attitude was even considered enthusiastic.
They had heard of the Luo family army's reputation and knew that this armed force never oppressed the people, but instead fought against bandits with guns. As long as they paid them money, no bandit could bypass the Luo family army to bully them.
Therefore, when Luo's army came to collect insurance fees from them, most villages actively paid their money.
When they heard that Luo's army was not in a hurry to collect the troops, but would wait until after the spring, they couldn't help but praise Luo's army for their benevolence and righteousness.
Of course, a few remote villages were not very enthusiastic about Luo's army's arrival.
Because those villages were located in very remote areas, bandits rarely harassed them. In fact, if bandits did harass them, the money they managed to steal might not even be enough to cover the damage they caused.
Even though they weren't particularly fond of the Luo family army, when their troops arrived in the village, they still wisely agreed to accept their protection.
After all, given the fully armed appearance of Luo's cavalry, how could they possibly have the courage to refuse?
These days, the area outside the Great Wall is purely a dog-eat-dog world, practically an Asian version of Red Dead Redemption. What if the Luo family army sees that they are unwilling to pay security fees and forcibly sends troops into the village to plunder?
So even though they might have been somewhat reluctant about the arrival of the Luo family army, they still obediently accepted their protection.
With the addition of this large number of villages, Rock's population continued to rise significantly.
In particular, many villages that used to be harassed by bandits are now extremely grateful to the Luo family army, which only charges security fees and is known for its strict military discipline. Their loyalty has instantly reached the level of popular support.
It has to be said that everything is afraid of comparison.
In Luo Ke's view, although his Luo Family Army did indeed protect the region, it was far from being a people's army of later generations. At best, it was just a classical army that did not commit any offenses.
Even so, he still gained a reputation for benevolence and righteousness in various places, and even the Luo family army became known as a benevolent army.
Imagine if these villages could live peacefully and prosperously on their own, without the harassment of bandits, then it would certainly not have been so easy for Rock to win people's hearts.
But Rock didn't feel embarrassed about it, after all, it was a fact that he had protected one side.
Without his protection, these villagers would only live in misery, with no chance of ever having a peaceful and prosperous life.
To better win over the people, Rock had his soldiers patrol around the villages from time to time, while also helping the villagers with whatever they could to demonstrate their presence and give the villagers a sense of security.
On the other hand, Rock arranged for his experienced Cossack cavalry to organize caravans and begin trading throughout these villages.
In this era, many villages had peddlers.
They carried a variety of odds and ends, walking around the villages and selling everyday items. Although the impact was not significant, it did bring considerable convenience to the villagers.
However, because these villages outside the pass were too scattered and the transportation conditions were not good, and there were bandits everywhere in the vicinity, there were basically no peddlers among these villages outside the pass.
But it didn't matter; Rock had his team fill the gap.
In any case, his cavalry also patrolled these villages daily, and they also contacted other caravans to purchase all sorts of miscellaneous daily necessities.
Since that's the case, why not let them buy more supplies, and then take a group of people with them to sell the goods during their patrols? That would make up for the shortage.
Although it's not a big deal, and Rock is unlikely to make much money from this deal, it will certainly make life much easier for the villagers.
As the villagers' daily lives improve, they will naturally remember the good deeds of Luo Ke and the Luo family army. At that time, not only will the system be able to give Luo Ke more popular ratings, but he will also be able to raise more troops when the rebellion truly begins.
"—Sigh, it's a pity that the time period we traveled to wasn't that good after all."
Rock suddenly sighed, feeling a pang of regret for the current situation outside the Great Wall.
Although the migration to Northeast China has never stopped, compared to the period when the Qing Dynasty was about to collapse or the migration to Northeast China during the Republic of China era, the current scale of the migration to Northeast China is nothing.
Despite the fact that the Qing dynasty was forcing people to change their lives, and that foreigners were causing a major impact on the market, leading to widespread suffering among the lower classes, most of them were now joining the Taiping Rebellion.
In comparison, the number of people who ventured to Northeast China was still relatively small, and the Manchu Qing dynasty also intercepted them at Shanhaiguan, which further increased the difficulty of venturing to Northeast China, making most people who ventured to Northeast China more inclined to travel by water.
At this point, Rock himself suddenly and inexplicably arrived on the land outside the pass, but he had inquired with Lu Xiong and his group beforehand and learned that they had come by waterway.
Compared to the bitter cold on the road, it was not so cold by boat, and there were not many Qing soldiers controlling the waterways, so it was easy to sneak across.
As for taking the land route?
Traveling by land in winter is extremely dangerous, with freezing temperatures. In spring, autumn, and summer, the roads become muddy, plagues are frequent, and there are also numerous wild animal attacks. There are even soldiers from Shanhaiguan who try to intercept travelers along the way.
Although in Rock's view, these soldiers were ultimately just turning a blind eye to the interception, their very existence caused a lot of trouble for those who ventured to Northeast China.
"Sigh, when I get back to this, I'll have to figure out a way to get even more people to flee to the area outside the Great Wall!"
Rock closed his eyes and slowly pondered how to attract more people to the border region. After all, only when he ruled a large enough number of people could he build a larger army.
After much thought, he felt he really wanted to bring a large number of people to the area outside the Great Wall. On the one hand, he needed to spread the word so that people inside the Great Wall would know that they could live a good life outside the Great Wall.
Most farmers are very attached to their homes, and they would find it difficult to leave their land unless they lost it to the point where they could no longer survive.
Moreover, because they were usually in a relatively isolated state, they did not know much about the outside world. People have a fear of the unknown, which further increased the difficulty for them to join the migration to Northeast China.
On the other hand, putting aside these soft issues, Rock felt that a major hard problem in bringing people to the border was that he had to find a reliable immigration route.
Going through Shanhaiguan was impractical. After all, if he had already captured Shanhaiguan, why wouldn't he just march straight towards the capital?
Compared to the heavily guarded Shanhaiguan Pass, Luo Ke felt that the sea was an important transportation route, especially since Shandong was suffering from both severe drought and floods, as well as large-scale peasant uprisings, making it an excellent source of manpower!
If he can secure the sea routes, he can guide immigrants from Shandong, or even from other coastal areas, to the area beyond the Great Wall.
"However, that's contingent on me capturing a port first, which is out of the question in the short term. I don't even have a single ship right now!"
Thinking about it, Rock shook his head and put the idea aside for the time being.
Rather than considering immigration, Rock is now more concerned about his system shop, because he saw a strange thing in it today.