Luting County became more prosperous than ever.
On the one hand, the imperial court exempted Luting County from most taxes and abolished the local government office. Taking advantage of its proximity to the capital, the county’s location benefits were magnified, attracting merchants from all over to converging winds.
On the other hand, various martial arts sects, in order to curry favor with Yang Ge, who was sitting more and more stably on the "Middle Divine Sovereign" throne of the best under the heavens, surreptitiously sent their disciples to open martial arts schools in Luting County, to give their support to Yang Ge.
Additionally, it was widely rumored among the people that "Manifested True Monarch" Yang Erlang himself was stationed in Luting County. With the honest and simple customs of the county where lost items on the road were not picked up and without the corrupt officials’ extortion… this also drew countless wealthy households to move in and settle in Luting County.
With the concerted efforts of all parties, the economic development within Luting County could be said to have changed with each passing day.
Every day outside the city gates, there were wealthy households offering free porridge to please Yang Ge, and every day on the streets, there were new shops opening, with lion dance troupes parading.
Countless dilapidated old houses were demolished, and magnificent new buildings rose up from the ground. This was the first time that phrases like "inch of land, inch of gold" began to appear in the streets and alleys of Luting...
In early August, sixteen major merchants jointly submitted a city expansion application to the Embroidered Uniform Guard’s office overseeing Lu Ting’s military and civil security, stating that they would bear the full cost of the city expansion, only asking the government to allocate land for them to conduct business.
When Fang Ke came to seek Yang Ge’s opinion, Yang Ge pondered seriously for a long time and then agreed to the merchants’ application to expand the city. However, he also put forward two conditions:
First, the labor for the city expansion project must be recruited primarily from the locals of Luting.
Second, after these merchants settle in Luting, they must provide a certain number of job opportunities for the locals.
When Fang Ke conveyed these conditions to the sixteen merchants, they were... overjoyed to madness!
Are these conditions harsh?
In a sense... they are harsh!
But compared to those officials from other regions who might as well pick up knives to carve them into pieces for their own dishes...
They had never seen such amiable, kind... and could even be said, lenient local governance!
And so, the city expansion project was quietly started.
There were no stirring speeches, no magnificent ribbon-cutting, and not even a proper groundbreaking ceremony.
It was on an ordinary morning that people entering and leaving the East City Gate found countless workers knocking and hammering on the city wall.
It was on an average afternoon that the people of Luting suddenly found countless job postings in the streets and alleys, offering terms so generous that they seemed like a scam!
By the Mid-Autumn Festival, once Fang Ke had finally cleared all checkpoints and lifted the long-pondered night curfew by Yang Ge…
Luting simply took off on the spot!
All kinds of night markets sprung up in the streets; the night market clusters designated by the office were as bustling as temple fairs every night.
All sorts of colorful entertainments and flavorful foods attracted countless travelers to linger and forget to leave...
Security?
Renowned big-time bandits all knew to steer clear of Luting County.
And the common petty thieves and pickpockets, how could they possibly be a match for the Embroidered Uniform Guard?
In today’s Luting County,
no matter what time, no matter where, as long as someone shouts for help, someone will arrive within thirty seconds!
If the ones coming are the constables led by Hu Qiang, then that’s just the bad luck of the clumsy thief. How they will be punished is uncertain, but they won’t lose their lives.
If those who come are the Embroidered Uniform Guard warriors, clad in embroidered clothes and hanging ox-tail sabers at their waists, then those clumsy thieves will surely face dire misfortune, at the very least receiving the punishment of exile to Lingnan.
By early September, the wind in Luting started blowing into the capital.
Before, only the wealthy in Luting would go to play in the capital during the holidays.
Afterwards, it became the wealthy from the capital who came to Luting to play during the holidays.
...
Early September, Cold Dew Festival.
After the inn closed for the night, Yang Ge led the insistently following Zhao Cha, who was hustling to catch up, to visit the southern city night market.
Even before entering the night market, the complex aroma of food already hit them in the face...
Zhao Cha with a "Wow" abandoned Yang Ge and darted into the night market, looking here, sniffing there.
Before long, her hands were filled with various snacks, biting into them left and right, her cheeks puffed up like a squirrel eating hazelnuts.
"This is delicious, Er ge, you try it."
"This is also delicious, Er ge, you try this too."
She kept pushing various snacks into Yang Ge’s hands, as stingy as her miserly father on usual days, except when it came to sharing good food, she was always generous.
Yang Ge followed behind her, handling the snacks she pushed into his hands, his gaze sweeping over strings of bright, colorful lanterns. In a trance, he felt as if he had walked into a dazzling array of neon lights.
Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, vehemently sniffing the air with "sniff sniff sniff," tracking down that familiar scent.
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"Gulp."
He swallowed hard and turned, following the direction of that familiar scent.
Ahead of him, Zhao Cha, who was nibbling on a spring roll, hurried to follow his steps: "Er ge, where are you going?"
Without turning back, Yang Ge waved his hand: "Don’t bother me..."
His eyes quickly swept from one stall to another, finally stopping at a rice noodle stall, fixated on the small bowl of coarse, red-flecked black granules atop the seasoning bench.
The stall was run by a middle-aged couple, the husband cooking rice noodles, the wife greeting customers and arranging seats. Seeing Yang Ge stop in front of their stall, the landlady enthusiastically said with a thick Southwestern accent in Mandarin: "Young brother, would you like a bowl of rice noodles? Authentic Yunnan rice noodles, plain rice noodles two wen for small and three wen for large bowls, rice noodles with meat toppings four wen for small, five wen for large bowls."