Chapter 84: Opening the Commoners

() Chapter 91 Opening the Commoners

At dawn, since today is Sky City's opening day, Sky City, aware that the lords' shipments are limited and cannot bring a massive amount of food to Sky City all at once, dispatched grain officials with carts early to each Territory to inventory goods and aid transport.

After loading all the meat onto the cart, the grain tax collector came before Li Bucai: "Lord Li, there are 150,000 units of Hornless beef at 6 copper each, totaling 90 gold, and 5,000 units of Lulu Meat at 14 copper each, totaling 7 gold, for a combined 97 gold. All the money will be automatically transferred into your bank account, and when you later arrive at Sky City you can withdraw it directly from the bank. Are you sure you only want to sell these?"

Li Bucai nodded. He now has over 450 subordinates, consuming nearly 500 units of food daily, and today will recruit more, reserving 50,000 units of food for future contingencies.

After sending off the grain collector, Li Bucai gathered everyone. Since he had previously promised a few young women, Wan'er, Yan Qiu, Wu Zhuoyue, Xianghong, and Rui Tong followed him, while Yue Ji, being of the undead race and thus an outsider, though she got along with the locals, feared that the people of Sky City might become hostile toward her, and she herself was unwilling to go, so she was left behind to guard the stronghold.

After packing, the group set off immediately, stepping onto the Transport Cloud; in just under half an hour they arrived at Sky City's Tengyun Station.

It was the first month of the opening, livelier than the day they had just arrived, resembling a market, with lords and many guards everywhere, making it nearly impossible to find an empty corner.

When Li Bucai and his party left Tengyun Station, they saw a crowd gathered before a notice board at the entrance, evidently for something important; thousands of people packed the area so tightly that no one could push forward to see what was written.

At that moment, as the crowd surged, a familiar figure darted out from the masses.

Qian Feng.

Yo, boss, I've been looking everywhere for you, finally you're here.

About the Tan family brothers' Monthly tribute? So many people gathered here—what does the notice say?

Speaking of the notice, Qian Feng couldn't help but get excited: "Huge good news. Heh, it's probably the Luo Ping Hai Battle; that Emperor fellow wagered his whole fortune, and now it's finally our turn to take charge."

Oh? What do you mean?

Now, besides the original first‑ and second‑rank manpower, today they'll also give us the unskilled commoners, not even a half‑portion. They're all just‑grown youths with no particular skill, which means we don't have to pay them wages. If we teach them a bit about farming, that's all we have; the land is ample. As long as we give them a plot to sow so they don't starve, we can levy taxes on them. They are our true subjects, and now we can truly be a proper lord.

Li Bucai's eyes lit up; this was indeed good news. With this, the former Sky City Food Company could gradually transform into a real kingdom.

Sky City, once thriving, attempted several times to relocate its people to other floating islands, but repeatedly suffered defeats. The earlier expedition to Luo Ping Hai had even taken two months' worth of military rations, which comprised a large share of the treasury, yet within days the rebel forces annihilated the army and seized all the food.

Sky City already had many people unable to fill their bellies; normally food was allocated monthly to each household, and many commoners could barely manage one thin meal a day. When war broke out, even that was unavailable. Since the return from Luo Ping Hai, tens of thousands have starved to death. Although at the month's end they bought some food from the lords, Sky City's customs differ and there is no policy of planned births; the population swells to billions. Each lord can sell at most two or three hundred thousand units, averaging no more than 150,000 units. With ten thousand lords, that yields 1.5 billion units of food, still insufficient for a single day's consumption per person. Rather than let them starve and idle here, it is better to send some of them to the lords.

"Did they say how many people this time?" Li Bucai asked hastily.

"They didn't say; it will be announced at noon by the envoy," Qian Feng said, his face showing difficulty, "Alas, I don't have much food on hand now. In the past half‑month I only received 50,000 units of food, mostly fish, and I didn't expect it to turn out like this. So my household has only 5,000 units left. It's a pity—such a good opportunity, yet I can't muster many people."

Li Bucai replied cheerfully, "Do you want to take some from me to ease your immediate trouble?"

"Is that convenient?"

"I still have several tens of thousands of food units; I can give you ten thousand to tide you over."

Qian Feng's worried expression vanished, and he sighed, "Big brother, you're too generous; what am I to do…" He isn't one to chase cheap deals; in such matters there should be reciprocity. "Our food is hard‑won, and I can't just take yours for free. As it stands, my supplies are low, but once I have people, my city will be built at the mouth of Shalanjiang, and we'll develop food through fisheries, so future food won't be a big issue. For now, I've boiled some salt, originally intended for trade with inland lords, about two tons. If you need it, I can give you one ton now, and I'll replenish the rest next month, totaling five tons. How does that sound?"

Li Bucai's Territory has not yet discovered a Salt Lake; the small amount bought from Sky City was already exhausted, leaving him worried about salt. The value of five tons of salt is almost equal to that of 50,000 units of Hornless beef, so within a few months he won't have to fret over salt.

"That's perfect. I'm planning to build a pier on the Shalanjiang banks; my builders can already make small vessels. A few ships—three to five days should suffice. Once the boats are ready, I'll immediately ship the food over."

"Great, that way I can recruit more commoners. By the way, the Tan family brothers are waiting for us outside the bank; what do you plan to do about the Monthly tribute?"

"To hell with the Monthly tribute. If they're angry, let them come to me; I've been looking for a big battle with a worthy opponent. You and I are rulers of the same realm; we can't toss aside even basic dignity for a few days of peace, otherwise how would our people view us? I can't stand that."

Li Bucai, seeing his hesitation, said, "You should see the logic. They arrived only half a month before us; although they have a manpower advantage, we hold a vast rear territory that only we know well, so we're not necessarily at a disadvantage. At this early stage, they can't rashly commit their entire city's forces to attack; even if we lose, they'd suffer a severe blow and other opportunists would reap the benefits. Not deploying their whole army to clash with you on your ground is essentially giving us live targets."