"I am the deputy general of the Qingzhou Army. How can I be stationed in another place?"

Yang Nantian has good reasons.

Zhao Lin said calmly, "If you know you are the deputy general, you should obey orders. Otherwise, you will be punished by military law."

"You? Aren't you afraid that Manager Zhu will be angry?" Yang Nantian asked angrily.

"I've already given you the 3,000 soldiers we agreed on. What else do you want?" Zhao Lin's face darkened. "Am I trying to appear easy to talk to?"

Yang Nantian thought about how Zhu Zhongyan seemed to like Zhao Lin more than him. Furthermore, Zhao Lin had Li Xingye and Fu Chengwang backing him up, so he couldn't compete with him. He could only grit his teeth and agree, "Okay! But the food and fodder can't be lacking."

"Don't worry, I won't let you down."

Zhao Lin waved his hand and said, "You can choose any soldier you want."

Yang Nantian had a gloomy face. He picked out the three thousand people who performed best, took a lot of weapons and armor, and then left with his men.

"It's fine to give him the person, but it would be a waste to give him weapons and armor." Sudi said.

Zhao Lin smiled and said, "Zhu Zhongyan helped us raise the number of troops to 30,000, and also gave us some organizational units. Giving us some weapons and armor is considered a courtesy in return."

Sudi asked, "What should we do with the remaining soldiers?"

Zhao Lin said: "Pick out 10,000 people and send the rest to open up wasteland."

There were a total of 30,000 soldiers. Chen Qifeng and Yang Nantian each took away 3,000, leaving 24,000. They picked up another 10,000 and then sent the remaining 14,000 to open up new land.

Although Qingzhou is poor, there are still many places where crops can be grown. However, because the farmers' fields have been occupied by wealthy tycoons and businessmen, or the taxes they pay are more than the harvest, more and more people would rather starve to death than farm.

This resulted in a lot of wasteland.

These 10,000 people took advantage of the winter to cultivate the land so that they could start farming next spring.

With more than 10,000 strong laborers, how motivated can they be if they are well fed?

In addition, Zhao Lin collected oxen and farm tools from various places, so that on average each person could cultivate one and a half acres of land.

Fourteen thousand people multiplied by one and a half acres equals twenty-one thousand acres.

This is a terrifying number.

Even if the area is reduced by half, it is still 10,000 acres.

Ten thousand acres a day, one hundred thousand acres in ten days.

There are still a few days left until the Chinese New Year. It will take about a hundred days until next March when spring comes and flowers bloom and we can start farming.

In other words, one million acres of land can be reclaimed.

It was still freezing cold and the ground was hard.

If it is spring next year when flowers bloom.

The pace of reclamation will only increase faster.

Assuming 500 kilograms of rice per acre, that would be 500 million kilograms!

Of course, this algorithm is not accurate, and there are definitely fluctuations caused by various factors, but the output will definitely be more or less.

This is a terrifying number.

In other words, as long as everything goes according to plan, Zhao Lin's soldiers will not lack food.

It was pure rice, not the low-quality bread with bran added like other armies.

Otherwise, why would so many people come to join the Qingzhou Army?

Isn’t it just about being able to eat your fill and eat well?

hiss……

When they heard the result calculated by Zhao Lin, Fu Liqing and the others took a deep breath.

Sudi said in disbelief, "They've always said there's a food shortage, but how come the production is so high? If that's the case, how can there be famine?"

Zhao Lin smiled and said, "If the people didn't have to pay taxes, there would indeed be no famine."

Fu Liqing said thoughtfully, "It's not that the output is low, nor that the people are unwilling to work or are afraid of hardship, but no matter how high the output is, it can't be higher than those exorbitant taxes and fees."

"right!"

Yun Zhiyi said, "I once heard Dad say that the old ministers calculated a number, saying that the common people couldn't earn more than 33 taels of silver a year. If they did, they would be rich and difficult to control. So they would increase taxes and use various methods to suppress the common people, so that they would always struggle on the poverty line."

Fu Liqing was surprised and asked, "Really?"

Yun Zhiyi said, "I don't know if it's true or not, but this is the result of my father's personal investigation, so it should be correct."

"Damn it!"

Sudi said angrily, "These people talk about morality and justice, but they are just thieves and prostitutes!"

Zhao Lin nodded and said, "So, if we want to live a good life, we must either join them or be strong enough to resist them. But unfortunately, although I am not a good person, I can't do such a despicable thing. So..."

"So we have no choice but to resist them." Fu Liqing said.

Sudi suddenly said: "Why not just rebel and become the emperor yourself."

“Ahem…”

Zhao Lin almost choked and said to Sudi angrily, "30,000 troops rebelling? Do you think the imperial army is just there to do nothing? Believe it or not, if you dare to say you're rebelling today, the army will come to suppress the rebellion tomorrow."

Sudi said confidently, "If you're not rebelling, why are you raising so many soldiers?"

Fu Liqing and Yun Zhiyi were also curious.

As soon as Zhao Lin arrived in Qingzhou, in addition to handling Qingzhou's affairs, he focused all his energy on increasing his military strength.

In less than a year, 30,000 elite troops were gathered.

If he were given a few more years, wouldn't he be able to defeat the entire nation's military?

Zhao Lin sighed, "As for me, I have a phobia."

"What phobia?" Fu Liqing became nervous.

"Fear of insufficient troops." Zhao Lin said: "When I think about the fact that I don't have many soldiers and horses under my command and that they might be beheaded at any time, I can't sleep. Only when I see that my troops are increasing can I sleep peacefully."

Fu Liqing and the other two were speechless.

What kind of phobia is this?

It would be better to say that their ambitions were too great and their military strength was not enough.

Sudi said enthusiastically, "Then let's continue to recruit troops. After all, there are plenty of people in Zhiqingzhou. As long as we are willing, we can easily mobilize 100,000 people."

Zhao Lin nodded and said, "We will definitely continue to recruit people, but we have to find a way to cover it up. We can't let the imperial court spot us right now."

Such blatant rebellious words, and you still say you have no ideas?

Fu Liqing pondered and said, "We can recruit him as a farmhand. He can farm when he's busy and train when he's not."

"This is one way." Zhao Lin said.

Yun Zhiyi also quickly said: "We can recruit people under the pretext of recruiting logistics troops, and then train together."

Zhao Lin nodded and said, "That's one way."

Sudi was unwilling to lag behind: "Go out and suppress more bandits, then report the sacrifices, and then recruit people to fill the vacancies."

Zhao Lin nodded: "Not bad."

Everyone discussed with each other, racking their brains to think of a way to recruit soldiers legally and reasonably without attracting attention.

If others knew about this, they would definitely be shocked.

Everyone wished that all their soldiers would leave so that they could collect the salary without doing anything.

Zhao Lin was so good that he actually recruited more soldiers than the full quota.

What does this guy want to do?

…

"Ma Dada and Ma Changshan both died at the hands of the Kulongshan rebels, yet Zhao Lin wiped out the rebels in just one afternoon?"

Zhenbei Pass is three thousand miles away from Qingzhou.

Zhao Jingzhou held the letter, deep in thought.