In a fit of rage, Zhang Long slaughtered the housekeeper who came to drive him away.

And now behind him stood those beggar-like accomplices, all of whom were his fellow villagers.

At this moment, the reason why Zhang Long wants to take refuge in himself is that he doesn't say it himself, Cai Ban can guess it.

One word 'grain'!

Two words 'food'!

Three words 'no food'!

In any country, food is the foundation of a political regime, and this is true throughout history. Especially in ancient feudal society, the security and sufficiency of food was particularly important, and food was the lifeblood of a government and a country. If the government or the state treasury runs out of food, then it is not far from collapse.

Sure enough, Zhang Long said that the reason was in Cai Dao's expectations: "Immortal Dao Chief, the little ones have taken refuge in you because they are desperate, and our cottage is about to run out of cooking." By the way, my brother Zhao Hu is similar to my cottage. ”

"Then why don't you want to rob the rich and help the poor? The bandit should have the appearance of a bandit, besides, although the location of your cottage is not the most important passage to enter the Jin, it is also the first pass of Taihang Bacheng closest to the Yellow River! It's not that your own strength is not good, and you don't dare to rob the passing merchants. Cai Dao asked a little strangely.

"This ......" For a while, Zhang Long didn't know how to answer Cai Dao's question.

However, one of his cousins was more daring and explained for him: "Immortal Daoist, Brother Zhang can't bear to rob those small traders, and the big traders either come in groups or bring enough guards themselves, so we are guarding this first level, but we are also doing nothing." Moreover, Second Brother Zhao's cottage is similar to ours here, and he and his eldest brother are both the same character. The same is true for the wealthy in the neighborhood. ”

"Alas!" Cai Dao couldn't help but sigh, looked at Zhang Long and shook his head, it was really hard for his parents to give him such a mighty name.

No matter in this era, or in later generations, wolves eat meat all over the world, and kennels eat rice at home. If you don't be cruel to others, you will only implicate the people who follow you, or even your relatives. From this point of view, neither Zhang Long nor Zhao Hu is a qualified candidate for the leader, let alone in charge of such a big village, but so many people can only starve.

However, from this point of view, although most of the ordinary people in later generations did not have the pressure to survive, because the whole society looked at money, all the emotions between people became commodities that could be measured by money.

In the past, he had no filial son in the hospital bed for a long time, but what about the future generations? It became that there was no filial son in front of the hospital bed.

Of course, these are just some of the very extreme examples that Cai Dao knows.

Looking at these yellow-skinned and thin-skinned bandits in front of him, who would rather endure the pain of hunger themselves than rob the 'kind' bandits of the weak group, Cai Dao felt a little crying and laughing in his heart.

Does Cai Dao have the ability to help these bandits?

Of course, Cai Dao has been paving the way for himself since he knew that Song Shenzong's fate was not long in coming.

As mentioned earlier, there are also some people in the conservative wing who have some ideas. The reason why he asked the Empress Dowager Gao Tao for the idea of placing Cai Dao in the Baiyun Temple of Zhongtiao Mountain. This is because they know that for Cai Dao, the entire world of the Great Song Dynasty, except for Hedong Road, can be mixed like a fish in water wherever he goes. The conservative minister thought of this, and Cai Dao himself knew it.

Why can't Hedong Road?

Hedong Road basically occupies the central part of the later Shishan and Western provinces. The topography here, the area of mountains and hills accounts for more than 80% of the total area of the whole road, and the remaining 20% also includes rivers, river valleys and flat rivers. There are a lot of basins, but the area is too small, and the land on Hedong Road itself is very barren, and there are few rivers.

This is the reason why the grain production of Hedong Road has not been high.

To rely on the secrets of farming taught by Cai Dao in the past to greatly increase the grain production of Hedong Road is simply a fool's dream. It's not that Cai Dao has no way to solve this problem, but his method can't be effective immediately.

Before, Cai Dao had already considered this possibility, so he secretly sent the brother of Hua Xianqi to Hedong Road.

This brother is actually Cai Dao's belly cut by the enemy when he was assassinated, and finally used Cai Dao's method to stitch up his wounds, which was the Zhang San who picked up a life. He first took some farmers to Zhongtiao Mountain, and secretly bought some useless wasteland and barren mountains.

In the past few years, Zhang San has been leading people to plant trees on these wastelands and barren mountains.

That's right! It is to plant trees, but what Cai Dao asked them to plant was not an ordinary tree, but what later generations called wood food, that is, chestnut trees, jujube trees and persimmon trees.

Both herbaceous and woody food plants can be disturbed by environmental factors that affect the year's yield. However, woody plants are more resistant to disturbances. The only drawback is that the trees that have just been planted have a very poor taste of the fruits they bear, and if you want to produce delicious chestnuts, sweet dates and sweet persimmons, today's scientific and technological means can only be grafted.

In the past few years, it has really been difficult for Zhang San, a man who could only fight.

Cai Dao was able to provide him with only money, and for the rest of the things, he himself was completely the shopkeeper who threw back his hands. For example, he recruited craftsmen to plant trees, plucked the grafted branches from the origin of the delicious woody food plants, carefully recorded the experiences and lessons learned in the process of planting these trees, and more importantly, he had to deal with the local cows, ghosts, snakes, and gods.

Fortunately, the original incident made this guy an official, and in the local area, no matter how he tossed those wastelands and barren mountains that no one cared about, the literati and high-ranking families would not be reconciled, and those little ghosts could naturally be sent away with his official body.

Every time he thought of eating, Cai Dao felt that he was too embarrassed for Zhang San.

Fortunately, although Zhang San is a little sloppy, he is much more capable than Hua Xianyi, and at the beginning, it was inevitable that he would be in a hurry, but it only took him three months to deal with everything in an orderly manner.

This is why Cai Dao chose Zhang San for this important position.

Zhang San went to Zhongtiao Mountain in the sixth year of Yuanfeng, that is, the same time that Cai Dao collected grain on Shuibo Liang Mountain.

So far, it's been less than three years. After all, the time for Zhang San to go is still too short, not to mention the fruit trees that have been grafted, or the fruit trees that have been planted, from the seeds planted in the ground, and now they have just grown into small saplings. If you want to bear fruit, you will have to wait until two or three years later.

It is precisely because of various possibilities that since the seventh year of Yuanfeng, Cai Dao has been secretly sending people to use the Cai family's merchant ships to transport a lot of grain to Zhongtiao Mountain-Zhang San in small batches and without interruption.

After more than a year of preparation, according to Cai Dao's statistics, more than three million stone of grain has now been accumulated. Even if other factors are not considered, this grain alone is enough for tens of thousands of people to eat for a year.

Cai Dao was exiled by conservatives to the Baiyun Temple of Lotus Peak in Zhongtiao Mountain, but it is a coincidence, and it can also be said to be inevitable. If you talk about the conditions for grain cultivation on the entire Hedong Road, this place is the worst, because under the mountain is the Yuncheng Salt Lake, which is known as the Dead Sea in China. It is indeed one of the few places in the north where there is no shortage of salt, but with salt, there is no extra water to irrigate the fields.

In the follow-up Shuo Rat Plan, the grain purchased by Cai Dao's subordinates was not only used to make spirits, but also continued to be transported to the place where Cai Dao settled.

"Yes." Cai Dao thought carefully for a while and gave an affirmative answer.

However, then, Cai Dao said his request: "Zhang Long, I can accept you, but you also have to promise me one condition." By the way, don't call me any immortal Dao Chang anymore, just call me Cai Dao Chang. ”

"Bang bang! Daochang Cai, you say, no matter what the conditions, we will definitely agree. Zhang Long patted his chest vigorously and said loudly.