After Lao Jiang finished his report, Lao Cao chimed in, "Now, the sentries outside the village are in groups of three, taking turns going from house to house. They will warn us if there are any problems. To prevent accidents, there are also some alarm traps at the intersection outside the village."

Sun Jian smiled slightly, "It seems that everything in the village has been in good order while I was away. Not bad, not bad, thanks to you all."

Old Jiang and Old Cao were overjoyed to receive Sun Jian's praise.

"Sun Jian, there's something else..."

At this moment, the village chief stepped forward to report on the situation on his side.

“The villages around Sunjiazhuang, such as Lijia Village, Hongqibao Village, and Tianjiacheng Village, have all wanted to join us after learning about our fight against bandits and planting new crops. These villages have a lot of displaced people and refugees. What do you think we should do?”

Approximately how many of them are there?

“Each village has about five or six hundred people, but most of them are elderly, weak, sick, disabled, and widows, with few young and middle-aged people,” the village chief replied.

“The village chiefs from several villages have come to me several times, saying that they all want to join the collective. Those who have land want to grow potatoes, and those who don’t have land want to join our reclamation team… Do you think we should agree?”

"I see..."

Sun Jian frowned in thought.

One village has five or six hundred people, so those three villages have about fifteen hundred people.

Adding in the people from Sunjiazhuang village itself, the number would definitely exceed two thousand.

Old Jiang snorted coldly, "Add what? During those years of famine, those villages bullied our village a lot, stealing our grain and destroying our fields! Now that we're doing well, they want a piece of the pie. They're just dreaming."

"Hey, Jiang, you can't say that. Which village around here doesn't have a few refugees and displaced people coming out to look for food? An isolated case doesn't represent the whole village," the village chief said, trying to smooth things over.

But their argument was completely useless; only Sun Jian made the decision.

“Sun Jian, what’s our plan next? Now everyone in the village listens to you; if you say east, we’ll never go west.”

The village chief stood to the side, earnestly inquiring about Sun Jian's next plan.

"Integration!"

After pondering for a moment, Sun Jian gave his answer.

"Integration? Does that mean taking them in?" the village chief pressed.

Sun Jian nodded and said to everyone, "Hongnong County has a vast territory, but a sparse population. What we lack most right now is manpower. Only with manpower can production capacity increase."

"In the current situation, there is no need for village disputes. Only when more people join our team can we develop better."

There were a few things Sun Jian didn't say.

He doesn't care about this bullshit village infighting.

Sun Jian only knew that the more people there were, the more free labor he would have to make money.

Not to mention the three surrounding villages, he would welcome anyone from even the most remote villages who wanted to join.

Sun Jian's plan included more than just agriculture as a way to make money.

"Village chief, you can send a message to the surrounding villages tonight, and tell them to gather at the east end of our village at noon tomorrow. Whether they are young and strong, widows, orphans, or the elderly, weak, sick and disabled, as long as they can walk, they should all come."

“After they come over, I will assign them tasks.”

"Alright, if there are no other instructions, I'll go and make the arrangements now?" the village chief asked.

"Go."

Sun Jian nodded, then asked Old Jiang, "Is the new courtyard I asked you to build at the east end of the village finished?"

"Everything is ready. As you requested, the courtyard wall is three meters high and covers five or six acres of land, including more than a dozen rooms and pavilions."

"good!"

Sun Jian nodded in satisfaction.

Unexpectedly, Old Jiang was indeed quite efficient, completing all his instructions in just a few days.

Now I can finally get started and get things done.

This new courtyard wasn't built for people to live in; it was Sun Jian's base for making money.

In the words of later generations, this place was the enterprise founded by Sun Jian!

In the future, Sun Jian will develop all sorts of products here that will sell well throughout the country.

Reaching the pinnacle of life and living a life of comfort and happiness with a wife and children will no longer be a dream.

"Old Jiang, Old Cao, Er Gou, the three of you don't need to leave today. Come and help me with the work."

"Is there a new crop?"

When Old Jiang heard that there was work to be done in the middle of the night, his eyes lit up.

"All you know is farming?"

Sun Jian rolled his eyes at him, annoyed.

This silly boy is usually quite meticulous when he gets things done, so why does he only know how to farm?

Farming is only a way to solve the immediate food shortage problem, but it's too difficult to get rich by farming!

What a blockhead!

Sun Jian first went into the inner room to greet the three women, telling them that he was going out for a while and would be back later.

"Husband, is there anything we can do to help you..."

Chu Qingcheng couldn't help but feel sorry for her husband, who had traveled for most of the day and had to start working again without even resting.

"Yes, my husband, we can't sleep without you. If you need help, we can lend a hand."

Sun Jian smiled and said, "If you can't sleep, then help me cultivate more potato seedlings."

Let's go!

After saying this, Sun Jian ordered Lao Jiang, Er Gou, and Lao Cao to take the four jars of wine and a lot of supplies and head towards the newly built courtyard at the east end of the village.

The four of them worked through the night and finally got everything ready before dawn.

Everyone was puzzled as to what Sun Jian was trying to do.

It involved wooden basins, wooden buckets, and a stove for cooking.

Sun Jian deliberately kept everyone in suspense and turned to ask Cao Cao.

"Old Cao, do you usually like to drink?"

"Hehe, I love to drink it, who doesn't?"

"Liquor is the essence of grain, and the more you drink, the younger you become, but these are rare items. To be honest, the last time I drank alcohol was two years ago."

Old Cao scratched the back of his head and grinned foolishly.

He thought Sun Jian wanted to invite them to drink, so as they talked, he picked up the wine jar, eager to drink to his heart's content.

"Damn it, what are you doing! Put it down!"

Sun Jian glared at Cao Cao.

Old Cao was so frightened that he quickly put down the wine jar he was holding, looking completely innocent.

"Who the hell said I was going to treat you guys to drinks? I'm going to brew some wine."

"Brewing?"

Upon hearing this, all three were stunned.

Isn't all winemaking done with grains?

Why would anyone still use alcohol to brew wine?

Sun Jian opened all the wine jars and poured them directly into the large pot on the stove.

"The alcohol you usually drink, is that considered alcohol?"

"It's sour and discolored, yellow and cloudy, and most importantly, the alcohol content is pitifully low."

"The liquor I'm going to brew next is a high-proof distilled spirit, with a rich color and extremely high alcohol content. It's completely different from these trash liquors."

"Strong liquor?"

The group looked at each other in bewilderment. They had never heard of these things before, let alone seen them.

This thing is beyond their comprehension.