Chapter 411: The two-town dilemma, the Longyou model, the Gold-Order Prison Official

Population is the pillar and foundation of all camps.

The number of powerhouses in the Woodcutting Realm, Earth-Digging Realm, Cold-Resisting Realm, and even the higher Radiant Sun Realm is the core support for a camp to continue to develop and grow.

No matter what scale a camp develops to, this logic always applies.

Hunting and gathering, obtaining survival and cultivation resources, maintaining one's own safety and development, competing with other camps, resisting the invasion of cold beasts and strange monsters, etc. —all these things must eventually be completed by people.

These people are nothing more than having different divisions of labor: the Woodcutting Realm can gather; the Earth-Digging Realm can mine and hunt; the Cold-Resisting Realm can hunt medium and high-level cold beasts; and the top Radiant Sun Realm of the current nine towns can hunt high-level or even beast-king-level cold beasts, and can also go deep into more dangerous places to obtain higher-level resources. The ordinary people, who seem the most useless, are the cradle that continuously nurtures the first four.

If any of these five links has a problem, it will cause the camp to fall into a dilemma of development or even survival.

Unfortunately, Jiangxia and Muyin are now having problems in all aspects.

Of course, the survival problems of the two towns have long been solved by Great Xia.

With Great Xia's current status as the hegemon in the southern foothills of Mo'ao, coupled with the two towns' active support for Hong Sect this time, unless the two towns actively seek death, the six towns definitely do not have the courage to lay a hand on the two towns.

The survival problem is solved, but the development dilemma has always been there.

Jiangxia doesn't need to be mentioned. After half a year of fighting with the Great Awakening Temple, even the lord Jiang Yinglong died in battle. Not to mention the Cold-Resisting Realm and Earth-Digging Realm, the overall losses of people in these two cultivation stages were basically over 60%.

Great Xia has actually roughly calculated that Jiangxia's total Cold-Resisting Realm warriors are less than two thousand, and the Earth-Digging Realm is slightly better, with about 70,000.

As for Muyin's development dilemma, it should have started four years ago after the death of the former lord Murong Ding. Externally, there was aggression and bullying from the three northern towns, and internally, there was a struggle between the first and second houses. With internal and external troubles, the townspeople were in a panic. If Great Xia hadn't taken action at the end of April this year, Muyin would have become history in the southern foothills of Mo'ao.

Now Muyin Town is saved, but a town civil strife has made the town, which had been depleted for four consecutive years, even worse.

Not to mention the Radiant Sun Realm, which had been supported by Murong Chui alone since four years ago. The three northern towns didn't even treat Muyin as a town of the same level.

Murong Yan died, Murong Chui took power, and the first house of the Murong clan, along with those loyal to the first house, were either dead or fled. The town's Cold-Resisting Realm warriors plummeted to 1,500, and the Earth-Digging Realm was only 50,000, a situation even more severe than Jiangxia.

Actually, it's understandable if you think about it. Muyin had been internally depleted for four years, and the situation was already very bad. Plus, the three northern towns were right next to them. Even if they didn't do anything, a large number of people in Muyin would go to defect.

In short, given the current situation of the two towns, let alone maintaining the dignity of the town, it is difficult to even guarantee the normal supply of cultivation resources.

This point can actually be seen from the conflict between Jiangxia and Great Xia's hunting team in Heyin Village in July.

At the Hong Sect Banquet at the end of April, Xia Hong made an arbitrary decision to directly allocate the Baishong and Zouyang areas, which were originally divided between the Chuishan and Longgu towns, to Jiangxia, and then let Jiangxia cede the Fengshan and Long Zhou areas to Longgu as compensation.

The reason why Xia Hong's redistribution plan proposed at the Hong Sect Banquet could be passed smoothly was certainly due to strength, but if you look closely, there is actually a deep logic in it.

First of all, the biggest loser was Chuishan Town, as both Bashang and Baishong were gone; secondly, it was Beishuo, as the Jiuqu that was originally in hand was snatched by Great Xia; Yangqu still took Qinggu, which was considered no loss; and Longgu used Zouyang to exchange for Fengshan and Long Zhou, and even made a profit; not to mention Jiangxia.

As for the Jin Shan and Wu Chuan towns, they were too far from Bashang and were not interested in Bashang's territory themselves. Of course, the most important thing was that the two towns were happy to see Beishuo suffer a loss at the hands of Great Xia.

It is equivalent to five of the eight towns being able to benefit from this redistribution plan, and Yangqu neither benefited nor lost. Only Beishuo and Chuishan suffered losses. This is the confidence Xia Hong had when he dared to redistribute Bashang's territory at that time.

It's just a pity that not many people could see it. The vast majority of people in the southern foothills of Mo'ao thought that the eight towns were deterred by Great Xia's strength at the time and had to agree.

Everyone thinking this way naturally played right into his hands. Xia Hong himself was trying to find ways to boost Great Xia's momentum and intimidate the eight towns at that time.

However, the core reason why Xia Hong wanted to allocate Baishong to Jiangxia at the beginning was that the Baishong camp was right next to the Mo'ao Mountains, and the entrance to the mountains for more than 60 kilometers from north to south was all here. He had started planning to obtain the entrance to the Mo'ao Mountains from Jiangxia's hands from that time, so this led to the subsequent acquisition of Heyin Village in July.

Jiangxia originally had more than 70 kilometers of territory along the Mo'ao Mountains. After obtaining the Baishong camp, it surged by more than 60 kilometers. Even if the 20 kilometers along Heyin Village were allocated to Great Xia later, there were still 110 kilometers left. Just comparing the territory along the Mo'ao Mountains, they were considered the first among the nine towns.

Jiangxia now has more than 2,000 Cold-Resisting Realm warriors and more than 70,000 Earth-Digging Realm warriors. The number of hunting teams must be pitifully small compared to Great Xia. It stands to reason that with such a large territory of 110 kilometers and such rich hunting areas, they don't need to hunt in the area near Heyin Village in the south at all. Finally, it is even more inappropriate to have a conflict with Great Xia's hunting team.

The only explanation is that Jiangxia's current hunting pressure is very high, so high that almost all of their low, medium, and high-level hunting teams have been dispatched, using up the entire 110-kilometer area along the Mo'ao Mountains, and the frequency of hunting is extremely high. Otherwise, with Jiangxia's few hunting teams in Baishong, they wouldn't often run into Great Xia's hunting teams in the snow forest.

Many things in the world are interconnected.

A healthy, benign, and normally developing camp has its own fixed hunting frequency, just like Great Xia's Hunting Department, which has set fixed monthly hunting targets for all low, medium, and high-level hunting squads under its jurisdiction.

These targets are not set casually. Hunting has losses and is inevitably accompanied by casualties, which forces one to consider the pressure-bearing capacity of the hunting personnel.

After all, hunting teams are made up of living people. You can't let them go out hunting endlessly and without limit, right?

Therefore, any camp whose hunting and gathering pressure suddenly increases basically has only one reason, and that is that the camp's resource reserves are insufficient. In other words, there is a problem with the support system.

The daily and even monthly income of a person who goes out hunting and gathering normally is inevitably positively correlated with his personal strength. Therefore, in general, the number of people that an Earth-Digging Realm or a Cold-Resisting Realm warrior can support, and the cultivation resources that can be provided to the camp, also have a rough quantitative value.

This is the so-called support system.

Great Xia camp has been developing for nearly ten years, and because Xia Hong, the lord, pays more attention to the various macro data of the camp, he asked Zhu Yuan, the Chief Justice of the Civil Affairs Department, to be responsible for studying and verifying this data very early on.

There are many variables here, such as whether the surrounding environment is stable, the size of the risk in the hunting area, the quality of life, the camp's production and transformation capacity, the improvement of multi-person collaborative gathering and hunting capabilities, etc...

Zhu Yuan roughly considered these factors comprehensively. Taking Great Xia as an example, the average data obtained is that the number of people that an Earth-Digging Realm warrior can support according to the level of strength is between 5 and 20, and it is very difficult to exceed 30; the Cold-Resisting Realm is between 30 and 100.

This is an example of Great Xia's current stage, and the rough data obtained naturally cannot be copied to other camps, but at least it has a certain reference value.

According to the latest news obtained by Great Xia, in order to make up for the losses in the war last year, Jiangxia has been moving people from surrounding village-level camps to the town city since May this year, and the total population of the town city has already exceeded 900,000.

Less than 2,000 Cold-Resisting Realm warriors and more than 70,000 Earth-Digging Realm warriors, but they have to support a full 900,000 people. This is the core reason for the sharp increase in Jiangxia's hunting pressure.

Xia Hong even received news from secret agents that Xia Houzhang, the lord, has to carry a big knife to the depths of the Mo'ao Mountains every night to hunt high-level cold beasts. This alone is enough to prove how bad Jiangxia's current situation is;

Of course, Muyin is not far behind.

Like Jiangxia, in order to restore the population, Murong Chui also began to move people from village-level camps in the territory to the town city in May this year. At present, the total population of Muyin Town has exceeded 750,000.

More than 1,500 Cold-Resisting Realm warriors and more than 40,000 Earth-Digging Realm warriors support 750,000 people in the town city. Muyin's situation is even worse than Jiangxia's.

The support here does not mean feeding. If it were really just giving a mouthful of food to let these people survive, it wouldn't be a difficult thing for the town city.

The support here refers to giving everyone the opportunity to cultivate and become stronger, to live a decent life, and to allow the town city to develop benignly and sustainably. The natural growth rate of the population does not need to rise, but at least it must be maintained and not fall.

Even if it falls into a negative number, the town city is equivalent to dying slowly!

Under such circumstances, are Jiangxia and Muyin anxious?

Of course they are anxious, as anxious as ants on a hot pot.

It is precisely because he knows this pain point of the two towns that Xia Hong dares to propose the integration of the three towns and the sharing of resource lands at this time node.

If no conditions are added and integration is directly proposed, it is clearly Great Xia bullying the two towns. After all, given the current situation of Jiangxia and Muyin, it is impossible to send people to Great Xia's resource lands to gather and hunt.

But adding the condition of taking a commission from the hunting team makes it completely different.

From the perspective of the two towns, they don't have to do anything. They only need to open the resource lands at the entrance of the mountains to extract income from Great Xia's hunting teams. This is a business with huge profits.

As for what Xia Hong proposed at the beginning, that people from the two towns could freely exchange and purchase materials at Great Xia's Logistics Department, from the attitude of refusal shown by the two at the first time, it can be seen that they are very clear about Xia Hong's intention.

This is considered Great Xia openly winning over the people of the two towns. If there are no accidents, even if Xia Houzhang and Murong Chui dare not refuse Xia Hong, they will inevitably make restrictions on the people below after returning. It's just that whether this restriction can work in the end depends on the loyalty of the Cold-Resisting Realm and Earth-Digging Realm warriors of the two towns.

Murong Chui and Xia Houzhang are very clear about how important this commission income is to the two towns, so they fought with Xia Chuan and Qiu Peng for a long time, and finally managed to raise the 10% set by Xia Hong to 20%.

The two originally wanted to continue to raise it to 25%, but Qiu Peng was so angry that he said he would go to Xia Hong and ask him to withdraw the resolution of the integration of the three towns. Although Xia Houzhang and Murong Chui could see that Qiu Peng was acting, based on the fact that the two towns were more anxious than Great Xia for this cooperation, the two finally agreed.

"I thought it would be 30%, but I didn't expect to save some, hahahaha!"

Sending Xia Houzhang and Murong Chui away, the anger on Qiu Peng's face disappeared instantly. He turned and walked back into the hall, looking at Xia Chuan above, his face full of smiles.

Of the more than six hundred people in the main hall, only thirty or so were left at this time.

Hearing Qiu Peng's words, everyone realized that he was acting just now, and they couldn't help but show smiles.

"A business with huge profits, even if it's 5%, they are making money. If it weren't for the smooth annexation of these two towns later, how could the Lord give them such great benefits? I hope these two can figure it out after they go back!"

Hearing Xia Chuan's words, Qiu Peng nodded immediately, his expression slightly excited: "According to the Lord's plan, as long as these two towns agree to integrate, it will only be a matter of time before they are annexed by our Great Xia!"

Hearing this, the people in the hall felt their expressions become excited.

Yuan Cheng, who had a more impatient temperament, thought of something after being excited for a while. He looked at Xia Chuan and asked, "Annexing Muyin and Jiangxia is no longer a problem, but what about the other six towns? Chief Justice, the Lord should have a plan for the six towns, right?"

Of course!

Hearing Yuan Cheng's question, Xia Chuan remembered his previous conversation with Xia Hong. He turned to look at everyone in the hall and replied in a low voice: "The Longyou model."

The Longyou model...

Yuwentao, Qiu Peng, Yuan Cheng, Li Tiancheng, and more than thirty others in the hall fell into deep thought after hearing these four words.

Li Tiancheng was the first of everyone to react. He looked up at Xia Chuan and asked, "Does the Lord mean to imitate the Longyou period, form an alliance with the six towns in the name of jointly resisting foreign enemies, and let Great Xia become the co-lord of the southern foothills of Mo'ao, just like Longshan back then?"

He was indeed from Longshan, and Li Tiancheng himself was the executor of the Longyou model, so he instantly understood the meaning of these four words from Xia Hong.

He started it, and the others suddenly became enlightened and reacted one after another.

Yuwentao nodded heavily and continued: "The banner of jointly resisting foreign enemies is never outdated, especially in the current southern foothills of Mo'ao, which should be even more applicable than the Longyou of the past."

"Cough, cough..."

Hearing this, Li Tiancheng felt a bit embarrassed and coughed twice immediately.

He could naturally understand the meaning of Yuwentao's words. When Longshan pulled up the banner of jointly resisting foreign enemies back then, there were no strong enemies in Longyou at all, but even so, the eleven giant camps still obeyed orders obediently;

Now, in the southern foothills of Mo'ao, there are indeed strong enemies from outside the territory coveting it. As long as the six towns are made to understand this point, Great Xia will pull out this banner again, and I think the problem will not be too big.

Moreover, the six towns may not be unaware of the Cai Qiu Fanzhen matter.

Great Xia has only truly set foot in the nine towns for five years, and it can touch the fox tail of the Cai Qiu Fanzhen through clues. The six towns have been here for decades, how could they not know anything about Cai Qiu?

"The Cai Qiu Fanzhen is still hiding in the dark and has not surfaced. If our Great Xia starts a big war directly now to annex the six towns, it is easy to arouse the other party's vigilance. Even if it can be successful, it is easy to have the peaches picked by them in the end. The Lord using the Longyou model to plan slowly is correct!"

Xu Ning thought deeper. As soon as he spoke, everyone fell silent, and then a look of shock appeared on their faces.

"That's right, we have only touched one Cai Qiu so far. Who knows if there are other stronger ones in the dark? We really can't be too impatient. Moreover, rashly starting a big war is also easy to force the six towns to unite again. If they really fight internally, it is easy to benefit others in the end."

"Didn't the Lord say that the Hong Sect City matter today was framed by someone? It's clear that they want our nine towns in the southern foothills to fight internally. I'm actually a bit suspicious now that it was the Cai Qiu Fanzhen who did it!"

Hearing Lin Kai's speculation, a strange look flashed in Xia Chuan's eyes.

"This round of Bashang population migration will end at the end of the month. By then, the total population of Xia City will surge to over 2.5 million. Just digesting this batch of population will take a long time, not to mention the subsequent Jiangxia and Muyin towns. Don't worry about the six towns for now.

The Cai Qiu Fanzhen is in the north. Keeping the three northern towns in front to block it is good for us. The next step is to find a way to promote the alliance of the nine towns and put a tight hoop on the six towns to prevent them from turning to Cai Qiu or other foreign forces!"

"That's right!"

"This is the true intention of the Lord proposing the Longyou model."

"So that's how it is, I understand."

………………

Hearing Xia Chuan's final words, everyone suddenly realized and understood the true meaning of Xia Hong's proposal of the Longyou model.

"So next, we have to make the Cai Qiu Fanzhen matter completely public, arouse the vigilance of everyone in the southern foothills of the Mo'ao Mountains, and it is best to arouse disgust. Only then can we legitimately propose to jointly resist foreign enemies. Whether it is promoted or forced, in short, we must conclude the nine-town covenant first and not allow any family to turn to foreign forces!"

Yuwentao directly stated the next step.

Everyone's expressions became excited upon hearing this.

"Isn't there just a matter that happened?"

Xu Ning suddenly spoke. The others were still a bit puzzled, but when they saw him cast his gaze on Yuan Cheng, Yuwentao, and Qiu Peng, they immediately reacted, their faces full of joy.

"That's right!"

"The death of the people from the three-town chamber of commerce, we can just frame it on Cai Qiu!"

"Yang Zun said personally during the day that he also suspected that someone was secretly inciting the relationship between the nine towns. It is most appropriate for Cai Qiu to take the blame."

"What do you mean take the blame? It was clearly done by the Cai Qiu people!"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Hearing Xu Ning's final words, everyone nodded repeatedly, their faces full of smiles. ===== CHAPTER 412 =====