Wu Yue and Gongsun Jian, who had temporarily reached peaceful coexistence, spent a relatively stable period of time. Linshui County, on the other hand, is regaining its vitality and is more prosperous than before. There are so many merchants who come and go every day, and everyone wants to take advantage of this good opportunity not to fight to sell more goods or stock up on some goods. Naturally, this also brought a large amount of taxes to Gongsun Jian.

Soon the time entered the end of September, and the autumn harvest was almost complete. The people who have worked hard for a year all have joyful smiles on their faces. Although the war was devastated in the first half of the year, the crops in the field did not suffer much damage. The only thing that was a little unpleasant was that he was later extorted by Zhang Han, Qian Yan and others. Fortunately, the harvest of the autumn harvest was very good, and Gongsun Jian also asked people to post a notice that in order to make up for everyone's previous losses, the county only harvested one percent of the output of this year's autumn grain tax. This made the people who were already grateful to Gongsun Jian support him more and more.

Although most of these people are illiterate, but the most basic truth they still know in their hearts, since Gongsun Jian ruled Linshui County, everyone's life is getting better and better, not only to distribute the fields and cancel all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the annual income to be paid is only 20%, compared to the original more than half of the days to pay taxes and to the landlord is simply good to heaven. In addition, there are many workers in the county, and the money earned by working in the workshop during the slack time is equivalent to the income of farming throughout the year. Therefore, many young men and big girls in many families do not even farm anymore, but go directly to the county seat to work for a long time.

Of course, the most enviable are those who serve as soldiers, not only eat well and dress well, but also spend almost nothing on weekdays, and their monthly military salary is more than that of ordinary part-time workers. It is said that if you make meritorious service on the battlefield, not only can you be promoted, but the reward alone is more than the hard-earned money of ordinary people in a year. Therefore, there are often strong men around seventeen or eighteen years old who go to the military camp outside the county to inquire when they will still be recruited.

In addition, there has been another major event in Linshui County recently, that is, the expansion of the county seat has begun.

The original Linshui County was close to the shore of Fenshui, and the scale was not large, and the length of the four city walls together was only eight miles. Moreover, the city wall is quite low, less than two zhang high, which makes it a great disadvantage when defending. In addition, now Linshui County is not the 50,000 or 60,000 people in the past, more than 300,000 people, except for those people who are farming outside the city, the city of Linshui County is now overcrowded, and even many temporary houses have been built outside the city wall. Therefore, Gongsun Jian felt that for the sake of future development, it was necessary to consider the planned expansion of Linshui County and strengthen the solidity of the city defense.

In fact, Gongsun Jian also had another calculation, which was to get a sum of money in the shortest possible time, so that the number of troops could be expanded. You must know that Gongsun Jian's ideal is not to occupy only one acre of land in Linshui County and Dingxi County, and how can he expand his territory and develop without horses?

So after discussing with Feng Huaidao, it was decided to develop a batch of real estate for sale while expanding the scale of the county, so that the maximum source of funds could be obtained in the shortest and fastest time. Moreover, Dingxi County now produces a lot of bricks and tiles, but the market is not very good, one is that the consumer group is limited, the average people can not afford to buy bricks and tiles to build houses, and the other is that bricks and tiles are generally relatively heavy, which is not conducive to long-distance trafficking. Otherwise, the shipping cost alone may exceed the value of the bricks. Therefore, large-scale urban construction can effectively digest the bricks and tiles produced in Dingxi County.

There is also one of the most important reasons, is that Dingxi County has tried to refine and produce cement has begun to take effect, although it is not comparable to the strength level of Gongsun Jian's previous life, but as an adhesive building ordinary building does not have any problems. Therefore, Gongsun Jian thought of trying to use cement and large pieces of sintered bricks to build a large-scale city wall, one to be tall and the other to be thick. At the very least, this will be an effective defense against future wars.

Taking advantage of the slack farming after the autumn harvest, it has not yet entered winter. The plan to build a new city was officially launched. A large number of laborers were called up to participate in the construction project. Of course, under the rule of Linshui County, there was no free forced labor, and all workers were paid, only slightly lower, but two meals a day were provided.

But even though the wages are less, there are many people who come. Today's residents of Linshui County have all tasted the sweetness brought by Gongsun Jian's new policy, and who doesn't want to continue such a life in the future? Therefore, building a city wall to defend their homes has become the obligation and responsibility of every resident of Linshui County.

Of course, these are all propaganda carried out by Huang Wenyuan, but don't say it, the effect is surprisingly good. Even the Cao family took the lead in donating money to participate in the construction.

When entering the month of Layue, the city wall of the new city has begun to take shape, although it is only more than one person high, but from the foundation alone, this may exceed the scale of the city wall of the capital city of Zhou. The new city wall is 12 miles long on each side, and there are urn cities on the north and south sides. A waterway was dug to the west to lead to Fenshui, and a water city was built. The foundation is all made of strip stones, and bricks are used instead of strip stones for more than three feet. The outward side is five feet thick, the inward side is three feet thick, and the width reaches six feet, and the middle is filled with rammed earth and gravel blocks. According to the design, the completed city wall will be eight zhang high. Qi Shi, Ma Teng and the others all smashed their mouths and gasped after seeing the design drawings. With such a huge city wall, under the existing conditions, in the event of a war, the attacking side may not be able to conquer it without tens of thousands of deaths.

Even Sun Sheng was stunned after getting the secret agent's report. said in his heart that Gongsun Jian's house is not going to be the emperor in Linshui County in the future? Not to mention the Zhou Kingdom, even the capital of the Wu Kingdom was not built like this! And how much does it cost?

With the fortified city and the development of logistics and commerce, all the extra places in the city have been divided, and various communities with different functions have been built in a planned and step-by-step manner. The garrison of the north city and the county office and warehouse area, close to the west city are naturally the business area, and the east city and the south city are mainly residential areas, and the residential areas are also divided into ordinary residential areas and high-end residential areas.

Because of the use of cement and the development of steel production capacity in Linshui County, three-story buildings are no longer uncommon. Ordinary houses are all three-storey buildings, with four houses on each floor, and each household is about 60 to 100 square meters in size. It is mainly aimed at those with low incomes in the city. The high-end residential area is a two- or three-storey villa with a private garden covering half an acre. These are sold to those who have money, and of course they are the main consumer objects. The money for the construction and expansion of Gongsun Jian basically had to be taken back from these people

The house has not yet been built, but the demonstration model house is open to everyone early in the morning. If a family registered in Linshui County cannot afford to pay so much money at one time, they can apply for a loan from the county government, and the interest is only 5% per year, and it can be paid in ten years at most. The high-end villa is 20 taels of silver per square meter, and the starting price is 3,000 taels or more according to the minimum area of the suite. But even that can't stop the enthusiasm of those who buy homes.

These people are local wealthy families, but most of them are businessmen who often come to Linshui County to do business. First of all, they saw the changes and business opportunities in Linshui County, as well as the prospects for the future. Secondly, don't look at the place where war seems to break out at any time. But you only have to look at the tall and majestic walls to know that this place is definitely safer than anywhere else. Moreover, Gongsun Jian played a bad game, people who are not registered in the county can only obtain the qualification to buy shops in Xicheng Commercial Street after investing in buying a house, and can obtain the permanent residence right of Linshui County, so that they can not only be safeguarded in the future business process, but also have a lower tax rate.

Soon, before the house was completed, the advance payment was already as high as one million taels of silver, which was enough to support Gongsun Jian to complete the construction of the new city. And the remaining large sum of money will be used by Gongsun Jian to expand the strength of two or three more regiments.

Gongsun Jian built a new city here, and Qian Yan also transmitted the news back to Shangjing. However, Qian Zhuo didn't have time to care about Gongsun Jian's affairs at this time. After learning that the Southern Han State attacked the Zhou State, the Northern Qi also took the opportunity to launch a fierce offensive, and the Zhou army resisted desperately and stubbornly before it was supported under the command of the Grand Governor Xu Hu. But even so, I'm afraid that it will inevitably be lost if it takes a long time. In the battle in the south, the army led by Qian Tuan, the king of Chu, won several battles at the beginning, but then suffered several defeats.

Fighting a war requires spending money and grain and grass, and besides, there are still more than 100,000 troops fighting on two fronts. This is also Qian Zhuo's biggest headache. When there was really no way, Qian Zhuo thought of Gongsun Jian's ability. So through his sister-in-law, Princess Ningguo, he sent a letter to Gongsun Jian, saying that he would send his sister to Linshui County to marry at some time, and he was also willing to let the Gong's family out. However, I hope that Gongsun Jian will help him sell some salt to Wu to alleviate the economic crisis of the imperial court.

In this regard, Gongsun Jian's reply is naturally no problem, who will have trouble with money. However, Gongsun Jian mentioned in his reply that the weapons and armor produced by him were of high quality, and Qian Zhuo wanted to purchase a batch. There is also a tight front line, whether to consider transferring part of Qian Yan's men and horses to defend the Northern Qi. On his own side to ensure the safety of the northwest of the Zhou Kingdom, after all, everyone is a family, and he will not help the emperor's uncle.

Qian Zhuo thought about it for a while, Qian Yan's 50,000 army was indeed of no use in the northwest except for spending more, but he still didn't worry about Gongsun Jian. But now Gongsun Jian is stuck in his neck, and if he doesn't agree to the other party's request, he probably won't help him sell salt. In the end, he had to bow his head and let Qian Yan take 30,000 men to the north to help Xu Hu resist the attack of Northern Qi, leaving 20,000 horses to continue to defend against Gongsun Jian and Wu Guo. In addition, half of the income from salt is paid for silver, and half is exchanged for weapons and armor produced in Linshui County.

Such a decision made Gongsun Jian very happy, not only did someone continue to help him prevent Wu Guo, but he could also relieve some of his own pressure. After all, having an army of 50,000 at the door of his house still made Gongsun Jian a little uneasy. In addition, there is money on both sides of the salt and iron business. It also brought a large amount of income to Gongsun Jian. After the next expansion is completed, Gongsun Jian will no longer shrink and move. It's time to take advantage of this opportunity to expand your territory.

The development of Linshui County and Dingxi County has been carried out in an orderly manner, and all aspects are very good. But when you're well, some people look red and sad.

This person is none other than Sun Sheng, the king of Wu Guokui in Zhenyuanguan.

Seeing that Gongsun Jian's newly built city in Linshui County was so grand and majestic, Sun Sheng also thought about expanding the Zhenyuan Pass. Although Zhenyuan Pass is the territory of the Zhou State, after all, it is in the hands of the Wu army, and looking at the current situation, the Wu State is likely to occupy it for a long time.

However, it costs money to build a fortified city and expand the city. Wu Guo and Sun Sheng didn't have no money, but they didn't want to pay for it themselves, so they hit Gongsun Jian's head with their ideas. sent someone to meet Gongsun Jian, hoping that Gongsun Jian could support some city bricks for free, so that he could strengthen the defense of Zhenyuan Pass.