Chapter 561: Peaceful Resolution, Jier, We All Listen to You!

"The second step!" Jier shouted loudly.

"The second step is that I want to gather all the people among us who can fight. Not to fight the soldiers outside prematurely, but to solve the most urgent problem: food!"

Many people were confused, not understanding why they needed to gather those who could fight just to solve the food problem. And if they were gathering these people but not fighting the soldiers outside the cave, then who were they going to fight?

Some quick-witted villagers had already guessed something.

"How do we solve the food issue? There are only two methods: expand mineral ore production, or take more Mineral Ore to trade with the stingy soldiers for food. Everyone understands this, but I suspect many don't know how to go about it, because everyone is already working very hard to mine, yet even so, many people are still going hungry, and some are even starving to death."

Jier shook his head: "So the solution to the problem is not here, but there!"

He raised his hand and pointed, pointing precisely to the upper level of the Mine where the alien Beast had entrenched itself, which had not been properly developed: "I just arrived today, and I happened to run into a few villagers in the alien Beast's territory who had taken the risk to mine there while the aliens were eating meat. With my help, everyone easily obtained more Mineral Ore and used that ore to trade for enough food to keep their whole families full."

"I asked them, and compared to the hard work of searching for and digging up Mineral Ore before, today's ore was obtained very easily. So, why don't we find a way to get the Mineral Ore in the alien Beast's territory? It is closer to the surface, the ore is more abundant, and the level of excavation is very low, making it the easiest to mine."

When Jier said this, the villagers suddenly realized; no wonder Jier wanted to gather all the villagers who could fight later—it turned out it was for this.

But at this moment, a stubborn old man spoke up to refute him: "Impossible! Even the soldiers outside cannot deal with those alien Beast and can only let them run wild. Just by you leading everyone, can you drive away those alien Beast? Don't throw away the lives of these young people—"

Jier was not angry; he even curled his lips and said with a smile on his face regarding his second method for getting food: "This is related to my second method for getting food."

Before talking about this method, Jier asked a seemingly unrelated question: "Let me ask first: for everyone, besides trading for necessary rations, does anyone here feel that mining in the Mine is interesting? Does anyone feel that these Mineral Ore are a tool necessary for their life? Does anyone feel that these Mineral Ore are a part of their wealth, right?"

The crowd burst into laughter. A villager with a fiery temperament even grabbed the Mineral Ore from the small box behind him, threw it on the ground, and said viciously: "Interesting? I hate these Mineral Ore to death! If I can get out alive, I will never step into any Mine or Shandong again in my life."

Many others felt the same way. If it weren't for being able to trade for rations from the soldiers, who would like to risk the stuffy, oxygen-deprived danger to go into the deep layers of the Mine to dig for metal ore in the dark!

Compared to farming, mining is more tiring and bitter. The environments of the two are worlds apart; the Mine is bad everywhere, while if you farm, although you have to rely on the weather, you can look at the blue sky, face the warm sunshine, feel the cool breeze, work hard in the vast world, and watch the tender crops grow day by day. This feeling is far, far better than mining in this damn Mine.

Jier laughed along with the crowd, then continued: "So, if Mineral Ore can be traded for food, no matter how it is traded, everyone only cares about this, right?"

"Yes, yes," everyone said in unison.

"So, why not make a deal with those alien Beast?"

Jier's words left everyone stunned, not understanding exactly what Jier meant.

"I mean, I have a little bit of understanding of those alien Beast. You might not know, but I'm actually not from Lanse-Qingting Village. I came from Yemei Town to seek refuge with relatives, but I was captured by soldiers who suddenly appeared outside Lanse-Qingting Village."

The crowd nodded. Most of them knew how the young villagers from Lanse-Qingting Village who had recently appeared in the Mine came to be; they were all captured sporadically. However, everyone didn't really care where Jier came from—whether he came from Lanse-Qingting Village, Yemei Town, Red Dragonfly Village, or Black Dragonfly Village, it didn't matter.

"I have a tiny bit of understanding of the alien Beast. They are actually called Long-Haired Lynx Beast. They are a primitive alien tribe living in the mountains and forests, living in poverty with backward civilization."

Everyone listened carefully to Jier's words.

"Therefore, they are in great need of metal tools to help them produce and live. They especially like everything made of metal, and our Human metal tools are therefore valued by them, right? Have you all encountered those Long-Haired Lynx Beast liking to steal some of your metal tools, and without limit to the type? This is the reason."

The crowd suddenly realized, and then many people understood Jier's meaning.

"Yes, many people have thought of it. For us, mining is to trade for the food in the soldiers' hands, and those Long-Haired Lynx Beast also need metal ore, so why can't we use them to trade metal ore for some of the food we need from them? You must know that those hateful soldiers are very stingy. In order to exploit more labor from us, they are only willing to trade a large amount of Mineral Ore for a small amount of rations."

"This is very unfair!" Jier shouted loudly.

The villagers behind him also followed suit at the right time: "Unfair!"

Jier continued to shout: "This is unfair!"

This time, in the mine tunnel, regardless of gender or age, everyone was shouting along with Jier: "This is unfair!!!"

Many people felt their hearts surge as they shouted, watching Jier with even more enthusiastic eyes.

"Those Long-Haired Lynx Beast seem to be treated favorably by the soldiers, and they can freely enter and exit the Jiedian every day to hunt outside. Just today, many of you probably saw that those Long-Haired Lynx Beast caught a Forest Deer that could fill many people's stomachs! How good is venison! That is a good thing that only Noble lords can afford to eat, and we might be able to use that despised Mineral Ore to trade directly with the Long-Haired Lynx Beast for the animals they have hunted."

"Wild Chicken, Poultry Bird, Squirrel, Jumping Mouse, long-eared rabbits, Forest Deer, wild boars, etc. —these fat animals in the mountains and forests can greatly alleviate our food shortage. Let everyone not only eat their fill but also eat meat!"

At this moment, many people were drooling. Although many had not eaten Forest Deer or other such animals, it did not prevent everyone from imagining the taste.

Jier snapped his fingers: "Let's change the method. For the part of the food we need, we can go to the soldiers and trade Mineral Ore for wheat. For the other part of the food we need, we will go to the Long-Haired Lynx Beast and trade Mineral Ore for the animals they hunt daily. As for the Mineral Ore lacking because of this, why not let the Long-Haired Lynx Beast, who are not good at mining anyway, move to a Mine that has already been exhausted, and we will mainly go to the territory they occupy to mine recently."

After going in a circle, the conversation came back to the beginning.

"So, to negotiate with those Long-Haired Lynx Beast, we must have the strength to negotiate with them on equal terms! Young people who can pick up weapons and fight, please join me, follow me to negotiate with those Long-Haired Beast, and use a new method to ensure everyone's food supply!"

"Let everyone be able to eat, let every family no longer go hungry! No longer let any child die, no longer let the terrible hunger entangle everyone's feelings. We must not only eat, but also eat meat! This is not daydreaming. Follow me, let us try. I cannot guarantee success, but I know that if we don't try, we will definitely not succeed."

The crowd cheered excitedly.

The crowd surrounded Jier. Many young people who were hostile to Jier before were now looking at him eagerly, and many were urging Jier to take action immediately; they couldn't wait to implement Jier's plan.

"Don't be anxious! Now is not the time!"

Jier shouted loudly. His voice alone was able to suppress the talking of dozens of people around him, and many did not even notice this.

Some were puzzled, not knowing that since a very good plan was already in place, what was Jier waiting for? Time waits for no one; the sooner this is done, the sooner everyone can eat hot food with meat. Many people couldn't wait.

"Do you remember the slogan I just proposed?" Jier asked the people around him.

Immediately, someone shouted: "Stop the chaos, unite as one! Expel the aliens, everyone eats their fill! Organize training, preserve life!"

Jier smiled: "So, our first step is to stop the chaos and unite as one! Let's gather all the Changmai Village villagers and Lanse-Qingting Village villagers in the Mine! Everyone, move out, go to the lower level of the Mine, call over the villagers who are still working hard at mining, tell them about my method, call back the villagers resting by the Furnace and bellows outside, and secretly tell them about my method! Call back the women outside who are sadly selling their bodies in exchange for food, and tell them about my method!"

"I want to stop the chaos and unite as one! Unite every innocent villager who is oppressed here, gather everyone's strength, whether they are young, old, children, or women, gather them all, and gather everyone's strength and wisdom."

"Go, in groups of three or five, go out and call everyone back!"

The young people had the strongest ability to act. Once they heard Jier's order, they called their familiar partners one after another, either running to the deep layers of the Mine, walking to the mine tunnels in other directions, or walking to the outside of the Mine above.

Jier also let the strong laborers from the few families who followed him first guard the entrance and exit of the Mine, guarding it carefully, striving not to let what happened in the Mine leak out before he united all the villagers.

If the soldiers outside found out, Jier would have to start fighting tonight. After guarding the entrance and exit of the Mine, he would kill his way out and slaughter those Defeated Soldier. Although doing this would definitely result in many Changmai Village villagers being killed—after all, he didn't have eight hands and definitely couldn't look after all the villagers—he would also lose the opportunity to train his subordinate Warrior.

Jier was working hard to balance everything he controlled, letting things move toward the optimal plan he envisioned.

His subordinate Warrior would receive combat training, the Changmai Village villagers would receive the best protection, and he would see if he could recruit another batch of people from these villagers to follow him. At the same time, he would kill all the Defeated Soldier, capture or kill the Knight Hartna who was near death, and see if he could catch that 【Messenger of Fire】.

Among these, that 【Messenger of Fire】 was the most difficult to deal with. He had the ultimate trump card and ability for everything else, but for this alone, he didn't know how to handle it.

He strongly suspected that the Magic Creation in the wooden house before was the ultimate violent means that this 【Messenger of Fire】 relied on, but Jier himself did not have full confidence that he could defeat that Magic Creation.

Because the opponent's firepower was too strong; even if Jier wore the thickest armor, he basically couldn't block a few attacks from the Magic Creation.

'Perhaps, I can only find an opportunity to confront the person himself? Separate the person from the Magic Creation and defeat them one by one? Or just defeat the 【Messenger of Fire】 himself? Perhaps that's the only way.'

Jier thought so, and then he secretly gave instructions to the big nose who had been invisible on the side, letting it patrol the Jiedian constantly, guarding against the woman who could also turn invisible sneaking into the Jiedian.

If the opponent came in again, he needed to know the situation immediately. Even if he disregarded everything else, he had to defeat the opponent immediately.

This was the highest priority matter.

Jier directed the young people who listened to his orders to contact everyone, while gathering all the elderly and children from the surroundings, having everyone sit in a spacious area within the Mine passage.

The air here is sufficient and also circulates, so a campfire can be lit.

Among the Villagers' meager luggage, there were actually small iron pots, and there was also wood to use as fuel; because the Soldiers had felled the surrounding Forest when building the Jiedian, there was simply an abundance of wood.

"From now on, Wheat Porridge must be boiled in these two iron pots without interruption. Do not worry about the consumption of grain; making sure everyone is full first is what matters most."

Jier understood very well that if you want people to work with you, you must first satisfy some of the group's short-term interests, and eating their fill was a very important short-term interest.

Although carefully calculating the use of grain could allow the Villagers in the Mine to live for a longer time, Jier did not care about this at all; within these two days, he would lead men to crush the enemy Soldiers here. Once these Villagers were rescued, they would have more than enough grain to eat.

He had previously already had the carriage drivers transport nearly ten tons of grain to the Forward Yingdi via horse-drawn carriages.

Now, he needed to let the recently suffering Villagers eat their fill, ensure their health, and strive to have them recover their physical strength and energy so they could walk out of here on their own.

After all, it was impossible to rely entirely on the drivers' carriages to haul the Villagers from the Temporary Yingdi to Changmai Village. From this enemy Jiedian to his nearby Forward Yingdi, and from the Forward Yingdi to the Temporary Yingdi, this stretch of difficult forest terrain would all have to be traversed by the Villagers on foot.

Moreover, after everyone arrived at Changmai Village, because Changmai Village would likely be abandoned by Bata'er Jiaoshi, the Villagers following the Priest would still have to walk on their own from Changmai Village to New Hope Town behind Huitou Forest near Shichui Village.

This was also not a short distance, nor a short amount of time. For a long journey, one could not do without a healthy body.

Therefore, from now on, Jier let the Villagers eat their fill to recover their physical condition as quickly as possible. Many young people were lean and thin, looking full of vigor, but in reality, they were already very unhealthy.

The large amount of fat they originally had on their bodies had already been exhausted by the arduous mining work and the scarce food supplies; now, it was estimated that many were already consuming their own muscle.

This was a very dangerous signal; if everyone did not eat well and rest, the overly lean Villagers would die suddenly due to malnutrition.

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