“What do you want to do with us, sir?” Xu Jing said with a smile as he handed the money to the yamen servant who came over.

The yamen servant shook his head, “The magistrate didn’t tell us, but you were all the people who from the relief food. It should be a good thing!”

Xu Jing nodded understandingly. If he called them, it would be no big deal.

Several familiar people met at the yamen gate and smiled at each other.

Liao Tingyu even arranged good wine and food in the government office.

“I’ve seen the magistrate. We haven’t seen each other for a few days, but you still look handsome as usual.” Several people complimented him.

“Thank you, I’ve been eating well, sleeping well, and gaining a few pounds these days. I’m a little worried about whether I will become fat if I continue like this,” Liao Tingyu said with a smile.

But thinking about it, he had paid great attention to keeping in shape these years and often went to the military camp to train.

He didn’t want to become a pot-bellied man who looked like a corrupt official at first glance.

“How could it be? Your Excellency is in very good shape now, and no matter how much you eat, you will never gain weight.”

“Yes, yes, Your Excellency, you are just in shape now.”

Liao Tingyu did not want to dwell too much on this issue.

“I’m sure you are a little nervous and have some guesses when I invite you here today, right?” Liao Tingyu said.

“This…” Several people heard this and exactly thought the same. They didn’t think this stingy magistrate would give them much reward.

Liao Tingyu looked at their dazed expressions, gestured to them and took a sip of tea: “What are you all standing for? Sit down quickly. At least we have established initial trust, and we are working hard for the people.”

A few people sat down obediently. They sat down and took a sip of the tea handed over by the maid, and their mental calculation stopped.

“These are all based on the magistrate’s idea. We just put in a little effort; we don’t dare to accept it.” Zhuang Hou said with a smile.

“It is indeed my intelligence. It seems that you agree with me,” Liao Tingyu said without humility.

“Sir, what are you saying? If we don’t agree with you, who do we agree with? You are our county magistrate,” Yue Peng quickly expressed his loyalty, “As long as it is what you say, we will definitely follow your instructions.”

“Yes. Is this what you mean by yourself or all of you?” Liao Tingyu asked.

This was really a bad question. The hearts of several people were beating rapidly. They were afraid that things were not what they thought.

But people had to bow their heads under the eaves. No matter what, this man was the biggest official here.

“This must be the common thought of all of us. The future of Linxian County depends on His Excellency.”

Liao Tingyu got the answer he wanted, and his smile became more sincere.

“I am also the one who wants to build a better future with you. We need everyone to work together, especially you the prominent people in our county,” Liao Tingyu said slowly.

His tone hit the hearts of several people word by word, making their little hearts slowly fell into the soil.

.

Liao Tingyu changed the subject, “I don’t know who told me a few days ago that your friends are all over the world, even…”

Before he could finish his words, everyone was so frightened that they didn’t even drink tea and froze in their hands.

Liao Tingyu didn’t seem to know how lethal his words were, and he kindly reminded these people.

“Brother Zhuang, why don’t you two drink tea? Aren’t you tired of holding it in your hands like this?”

Only then did the people who were named reacted, stiffly pulling at the corners of his mouth, trying to make his faces look like a smiley face.

The more he thought about it, the stiffer his face became, and his whole person looked weird.

“Oh, yes, yes, let’s have tea.”

Then there was silence.

As the eldest, Xu Jing experienced a lot of ideological struggles and knew that he could no longer struggle. As expected, the county magistrate was not a vegetarian.

“Of course, now that we know it, let’s not talk secretly. I did all these things alone, and this is a business. We have not done anything to collude with the enemy and treason. The magistrate should still remember the scene when you first came here. How could a county like that support so many people? Everyone is trying to survive, and we are trying to live a better life.”

Liao Tingyu nodded, “To be honest, I don’t care as long as it didn’t hurt others. After all, businessmen only care about profits and not the country. As long as you have money, you can live anywhere. I can understand you very well. But my position is different from everyone else’s. Now that I am an official, the salary of an official is depended in the affairs of the imperial court.”

Liao Tingyu’s words gradually calmed down the minds of others. It would be good if he could understand. What they feared most was he couldn’t understand.

.

“But don’t feel happy. What you did seems to me to be extremely stupid. You gave them cassava in exchange for cattle and sheep. Maybe you thought you could poison a few people by eating the cassava. It was also for the sake of the country’s contribution.”

Several people’s faces turned red after hearing these words. They had to say they did have such an idea. In exchange for the least valuable thing, it was a good deal no matter how you looked at it, and that thing was a little poisonous.

Liao Tingyu snorted coldly.

“It’s simply stupid. Didn’t you investigate clearly before you exchanged it? Why is cassava poisonous? Why everyone didn’t die when they ate a lot of cassava that were just dug out? But someone will die after eating it for a long time.”

This sentence made everyone’s eyes widened.

Yes, during the harvest season, everyone ate that food, and no one had any problems. But after a long time, everyone really had nothing to eat, only cassava was left, and they only ate a little bit, so little. Instead, people would die.

Xu Jing said in an incredulous tone: “What you mean is that the cassava is not poisonous but cannot be eaten after it has been left for a long time.”

“After being left for a long time, it will sprout and naturally cannot be eaten. It is not like that when it is freshly dug out. The ones that not sprouted are sweet. After being kept for a long time, they sprouted, but the ones that sprouted were bitter. With such an obvious difference, none of you noticed.”

“So instead we provided food to the people over there.” Zhuang Hou lowered his head, feeling bitter, and spoke.

“And it’s more suitable for them than rice.” Liao Tingyu stabbed the knife into their hearts.

Several people didn’t dare to sit down anymore, and they all knelt in front of Liao Tingyu: “It’s all our ignorance that caused the trouble. Please forgive us.”

“Forget it, it has happened. It’s too late to say anything. I don’t want to pursue it any further, but it’s impossible for me not to take this matter seriously. Now I am planning to do a thing of exchanging teeth for teeth. Are you willing to follow my footsteps?”

“Everything is up to the magistrate. As long as there is something we can do, we will never hesitate and will do our best.”

“Okay, since you know your mistakes and want to correct them, I don’t ask too much. You continue to get acquainted with those people and continue to do transactions. But this time you have to exchange what I stipulated,” Liao Tingyu said.

Although he knew that this was his final goal, it would be the best outcome not to hold them responsible. No matter what the change was, it would just be a loss of some food that they would not eat.

“Everything is at your command.”

“I’m won’t be polite. I’ve also discovered these days that among the few of you, Xu Jing has the best relationship and can negotiate best with them. You can go over there in person and follow what I wrote in this book.”

Xu Jing respectfully took the thick book and flipped through it briefly. What was written on it were all the things that need to be paid attention to when breeding and the seasons.

For this book, it seemed that the magistrate had put a lot of effort into it, and he had left a few blank pages for Xu Jing at the end, presumably for Xu Jing to add it himself.

If the magistrate entrusted this matter to him, he must handle it properly.

Others also got their own corresponding tasks.

.

All the people were quite happy when they came in but felt very heavy when they walked out.

Only then did they notice that the entire county government office was guarded by government officials, and none of the government officials were on vacation today.

Several people came back, and all were paralyzed.

“Damn, I really walked around the Palace of Hell today.”

“The key is we can come back with all our hair and bones intact. We are really lucky.” Xu Jing didn’t even want to drink tea now. He felt depressed when he saw the tea.

“But it’s okay, it’s better than us being on tenterhooks all the time. With the magistrate’s words, we can finally do it openly.”

“It’s still the same as before. If no one knows about it, that would be good, but when something happens, the magistrate will not protect us.” Yue Peng said very warily.

“I think we won’t be able to continue doing business for much longer. Now that the magistrate knows it, he still wants us to find those animals that could give birth to cubs. I’m afraid the magistrate has other plans.” Zhuang Hou touched his chin and speculated.

“That’s true. In the book, the magistrate gave me a detailed list of things I need to pay attention when breeding. I guess he want to raise them,” Xu Jing said.

“Forget it, it’s useless for us to think about this. In the future, everyone’s fate is in the magistrate’s hands, so just follow the magistrate. He is also capable, and he will not let us suffer.”

“Indeed, I envy him the most. When he opens up land, he directly uses those scum to work on the land. It doesn’t cost any money, and it is done well. It’s said that the county magistrate now has several hills on his hands.” Xu Jing thought about those people who opened up the land. The method was simply amazing.