I have been a county magistrate for ten years. My subordinates insist on giving me a yellow robe.

"Mr. Jiang, is this your territory?" Jiang Pingyang rubbed his hands and looked at Jiang Yuan.

Not only have we been trying to survive in the wilderness along the way, we have also been sleeping in the open air. Now that we have finally arrived at Jiang Yuan's territory, we must enjoy ourselves to the fullest.

"Yeah, we're finally here." Jiang Yuan exhaled a breath of hot air.

"Let's go to the city!"

Nearing Taiping County, Jiang Yuan took out a pass and entered the city smoothly. Due to the rapid development of Taiping County, the soldiers guarding the city gate were all unfamiliar faces.

Jiang Yuan couldn't help but nod slightly. The first layer of the outer city of Taiping County has been fully expanded.

Not only were the city walls and houses completed, but there were also many civilians, and the entire outer city was a thriving scene.

"It seems that Ma Zhi is not slacking off." Jiang Yuan sighed and continued to walk towards the inner city with a group of people.

Along the way, Jiang Pingyang would sigh from time to time. There were only a handful of cities in the entire Great Duan Dynasty that could develop into this state.

"Master! Master! You're back!"

A cry of surprise made everyone walking on the street stop, and a little boy immediately ran over with a smile.

"Erhu, you've grown taller!" Jiang Yuan smiled and reached out to touch the child's head, then took the candied haws from his hand.

"Children shouldn't eat too much candy. Go play."

Jiang Yuan said as he put the string of candied haws into his mouth. It tasted sour and sweet, so refreshing!

"Master, you stole my candied haws again!" Erhu looked at Jiang Yuan dissatisfiedly.

Jiang Pingyang, who was following next to him, looked at Jiang Yuan in confusion. You are a county magistrate, and you actually snatched food from a child. You have no shame at all!

Jiang Yuan ignored the child's dissatisfaction and continued to say with a smile: "How far have you learned in your studies? Have you assigned any homework?"

"No, I'll arrange something for you..."

"Goodbye, Master!"

Before Jiang Yuan could finish his words, Erhu turned around and ran away.

"Fight with me!" Jiang Yuan laughed proudly twice, turned around and continued walking inside.

Unlike the unfamiliar faces in the outer city, most of the people in the inner city were old acquaintances and basically knew Jiang Yuan.

"Master, you're back! Master, you're finally back. Come and have dinner tonight! I'll give you a free meal!"

"Your Excellency, please come drink with me. I have a jar of ten-year-old wine!"

Jiang Yuan was immediately happy. Damn, you were mad when I stole a jar of good wine from you when I was here, but now you are so enthusiastic when I come back after a while.

"Okay, okay! I've got it all in mind. If anyone dares not to give it to you in the future, it will be considered fraud!"

As soon as Jiang Yuan said this, many vendors smiled awkwardly and kept silent.

As expected, the county magistrate is still the same county magistrate, his face has not changed at all.

As the group approached the county government office, a ferocious figure suddenly jumped out.

"My lord! My lord! You are finally back!"

Jiang Yuan couldn't help but curl his lips. Ma Zhi was playing the same trick again. When Ma Zhi got closer, Jiang Yuan immediately dodged to the side.

"Sir." Ma Zhi looked at Jiang Yuan with an aggrieved look on his face, as if he was very dissatisfied with Jiang Yuan's previous actions.

"You're a grown man, don't you know that there's no room for physical contact between men?" Jiang Yuan said bluntly.

"It's been too long since I last saw you, adults, and I can't control my emotions." Ma Zhi licked his face and came closer.

Jiang Yuan took the opportunity to slap him: "Okay, first tell me how Taiping County has developed."

"I almost didn't recognize you when I came back. The first level of the outer city has been built. You did a great job."

"Thank you, sir, but my ability is limited. There are many things that I cannot handle, and they are all piling up waiting for you to take action." Ma Zhi said in a low voice.

"Let's go, let's talk after we go in."

As soon as the group walked into the county government office, Jiang Yuan immediately waved his hand and asked the others to go and rest. He then took Ma Zhi straight to the courtroom and sat on the familiar armchair. Jiang Yuan couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

Cool!

"I'm so exhausted from this journey." Jiang Yuan put his hands in his sleeves and looked at the heavy snow outside the door with cold eyes.

Since leaving Tianyang City, although most of the killers were retained by the battle of Chenliu, the city defense army naturally stopped.

But the assassinations by the Ning and Yang families never stopped. The team of nearly 20 people was now reduced to only a small half.

If Jiang Pingyang had not accompanied him all the way, Jiang Yuan would never have been able to return. Even so, many bandit leaders still died, and only Qin Tianzhu survived.

The faces of Ershazi, Datou, Suiyinzi flashed before Jiang Yuan one after another.

Fortunately, Wang Gang, Zhao Kai, Li Hu and others were only injured, which made Jiang Yuan feel better.

After sorting out his thoughts, Jiang Yuan took a deep breath and began to look at the bamboo slips, which recorded in detail the development process of Taiping County during this period.

[In the second year of Shuntian, Taiping County...]

After reading half of it, Jiang Yuan threw it aside and glared at Ma Zhi: "What kind of crap is this? You're burning newspaper at a grave, are you kidding me?"

Ma Zhi immediately picked up the bamboo slips, glanced at them, and slapped his head.

"Sir, you have seen it wrong. This is a trick. The things in the cabinet next to it are for you to see." Ma Zhi said, and diligently opened the cabinet door, revealing a cabinet full of bamboo slips.

"Sir, as you instructed before, statistics will be compiled every month, and the records must be absolutely true!"

Jiang Yuan reached out and poured two cups of tea. "Forget about looking at it. I'll just ask you."

"How many households, people, soldiers, constables, and farmland are there in Taiping County now?"

"Your Excellency! Taiping County currently has 13,151 registered households, and a total of over 52,600 official residents holding Taiping County ID cards."

"According to the previous plan, each adult will be allocated three mu of farmland, so the total farmland is still around 20,000 mu."

"As for the soldiers, we'll draft one out of every five men, excluding the elderly, children, and women. Currently, Taiping County has a total of over 3,000 soldiers."

Jiang Yuan's hand trembled as he picked up the teacup, and he looked at Ma Zhi in disbelief.

"How could there be so many? I remember there were only over 20,000 people when I left. How could the number double in such a short time?"

At this point, Ma Zhi scratched his head and said vaguely: "I don't know what's going on. Not long after the adults left, there have been people running to our Taiping County."

"They come from all over the world, and on their way here they tell the villagers they pass by that there's a plague in their hometown and they're afraid it won't be long before they get here."

"This led to the villagers from those villages also following suit."

Jiang Yuan looked at Ma Zhi with an expression of doubt about life. What the hell is going on?

Isn't this spreading terror?

"Who did it? There's no clue at all?" Jiang Yuan asked quickly.

Ma Zhigang was about to shake his head, but suddenly he seemed to remember something: "Yes! When the adults came, they said it took them two and a half days to get to our Taiping County."

At this point, Ma Zhi scratched his face in confusion: "But this isn't right. I calculated the distance, and it'll take at least two and a half months!"