For Yang Yun, the most important thing now is to strengthen the county's defense capability. The new county magistrate Long Ge and the county magistrate Zhong Wenrui also know this.

Therefore, they quickly used all the available manpower they had brought to strengthen the city walls. The two of them walked along the city wall first, and found that the current city wall in Wu County was low and dilapidated, and most places were useless, and several people could tear down the city wall.

If you are good at equestrianism, you can directly ride a horse to the city wall, and such a city wall will not be able to stop the attack of bandits no matter what.

The two found a few craftsmen who were good at construction, and they agreed that the current city wall seems to be no longer easy to reinforce, most places. It had to be demolished and rebuilt.

This is not a small project, and these craftsmen brought from Xijing alone are tired to death, and they can't complete this matter quickly.

"From this day on, the county government will recruit the people who will build the city wall. Those who participated in the construction of the walls were provided with enough food every day. He was also given a salary of 10 copper coins, and if he was a craftsman who was good at building houses, he could receive a salary of 20 copper coins per day. Interested parties should quickly register at the county office. A notice appeared all over the streets of Wu County.

Recruitment office at the entrance of the county government. Several soldiers yawned. It's been two days since this notice was issued. But very few people came to apply.

"That's not right! The people of Wu County are so poor. Why don't they want to come even if they build a city wall, even if they can ensure their own interests, they can still have a full meal, and they have copper plates to receive? Zhong Wenrui, who was standing in the yamen, said to Longo.

"yes, I think that's a little wrong, too. We sent a few people dressed up as ordinary people and went to ask them. Longo thought for a moment and said.

Who are you responsible? We are from Cow Back Mountain, and we are here to collect this month's "Assistance in Policing-related Expenses." A few Chinese characters with arrogant faces appeared in the county office, and said to Ju Yuanguang, who was dressed as a master.

"It's easy to say, a few people please!" Ju Yuanguang smiled all over his face. welcomed these arrogant men in.

"What are you doing standing? Don't hurry up and serve tea. "Bring these men into a hut. Ju Yuanguang shouted to several soldiers standing nearby.

In the past few days, there have been several bandits who have openly sent people to ask Yang Yun to pay the relevant expenses for "assisting in maintaining law and order", and the people who received these bandits were Ju Yuanguang.

In order to gain time, the defense of the county was strengthened. Ju Yuanguang had to turn into a profiteer. For these bandits' request for money and medicine, they were full of promises.

But when he really wanted to take out the money and goods, Ju Yuanguang deliberately found various reasons, such as not knowing how much money he had given to each family before, or saying that the person in charge of the official treasury was not there today, so he deliberately bargained.

At the same time, he also gave these representatives a little favor from time to time, and tried every means to delay time, but he himself knew that it would not last long.

Longge and Zhong Wenrui finally figured out the reason why the people of the county were unwilling to help the county build the city wall.

Previous prefectural commanders have done this. promised to give the people who worked for the government, in addition to food, but also to pay the people who worked hard.

However, many people did not see a single copper plate for many days, and when they asked for it, they always delayed it again and again, and finally it was not done. In addition, even the food provided is like pig food.

Over time, the people of Wuxian no longer have a sense of trust in the government, so they are not willing to do anything for the government.

In view of this situation, Longo discussed it with Zhong Wenrui. It was decided that these people would be able to see the benefits immediately, and for the few people who had already arrived, they would be well fed every day. After the completion of the work, the salary will be settled on the same day.

Zhang Laosan is a bachelor, because his family is poor, he has never married a daughter-in-law. Although it is said that one person feeds the whole family and does not go hungry, only he knows the hardships.

There was no food left at home, and the government issued an announcement to recruit miscellaneous servants to repair the city wall. He thought that as long as he could eat enough, it didn't matter if he put in some effort, so he went to the recruiting office to sign up.

Soon he was involved in the construction of the city walls, and on this day his task was to take the adobe that had been removed from the old city walls and send them to a hollow outside the city.

This work is indeed a bit hard. But Zhang Laosan was quite satisfied with the lunch at noon, and he ate all the white rice and dry rice, and he was still full. What surprised him even more was that there was still meat, which made Zhang Laosan very happy.

At the end of the day's task in the afternoon, the county government actually settled his salary on the same day. Holding the ten copper coins he obtained, Zhang Laosan's face smiled like a flower. There seemed to be a scene in front of him: he had earned a lot of money, and finally married the widow Liu next door.

"Zhang Laosan! Did you kid pick up the gold ingot, or did you pick up your daughter-in-law! Why are you so happy? Neighbor Chen Bazi. said to Zhang Laosan, who was laughing while walking.

"Scar! You don't know, this time the city wall is being repaired. Not only can you eat meat, but you can also get paid on the same day. Zhang Laosan said as he took out the copper coin in his pocket and showed it to Chen Scar.

"There is such a good thing! Don't lie to me, you kid. Chen Scar said suspiciously.

"Why am I lying to you? See for yourself. Zhang Laosan said as he walked away proudly.

"If it's true, I'll see it tomorrow. Get some copper plates and buy a hairpin for your daughter-in-law, she has been greedy for a long time! Thinking like this, Chen Scar went back happily.

In this way, this thing spread ten, ten to hundred. After a while, many people in Wu County knew that this time the county government was going to move seriously!

As a result, many people participated in the construction of the city wall and returned home happily with ten copper plates. Tell your relatives and friends that most of the people in Wu County are very poor. Of course, they were very happy to see the copper plate so quickly.

Therefore, more and more people participated in the construction of the city wall. Of course, in this way, the consumption of money and grain and grass is very fast, but there is no way to do it in extraordinary times.

Looking at the grain and silver that is spent like flowing water every day, and the giant Yuanguang who is responsible for these accounts, his heart hurts. He widened his eyes and carefully examined every account, for fear of spending an extra penny.

It is much easier for someone to do it, and there are many stones around Wu County. Longo and Zhong Wenrui arranged for everyone to move the stones back, under the guidance of some craftsmen. The construction of the city walls soon began.

It is obviously unrealistic to repair such a long section of the city wall quickly, but the bandits will definitely not give everyone enough time.

Therefore, Longgo and Zhong Wenrui adopted the method of starting from the most dangerous place, building section by section, and repairing while demolishing. This not only strengthened the city walls, but also allowed the old walls to be temporarily preserved. Respond to a surprise attack by bandits.

The permanent population of Wu County is only more than 100,000 people. Only 23 out of 10 people live in the city, so despite the enthusiasm, there are still relatively few people who can actually devote themselves to the work of strengthening the wall, so the progress of the project is relatively slow.

In response to this situation, Longgo discussed with Zhong Wenrui and hit the idea on some merchants or landlords' servants in the city.

When they went to tell the landlords and merchants of the city, they shook their heads like rattles, and tried every means to prevaricate.

This made Longgo and Zhong Wenrui feel very puzzled. Don't they want the walls to be stronger, so that they can easily protect their possessions?

But no matter how good they said, they also invited these big landlords and big businessmen in the city to the county government together. Yang Yun personally stepped forward to mobilize them to donate money and materials, and sent domestic servants to build the city wall.

But these people always say very good things, but when it comes to specific actions, they complain bitterly and find many ways to prevaricate. is unwilling to take concrete actions, so Longgo and Zhong Wenrui have no choice but to give up.