Chapter 562: Persuasion, Warning, and Leading the Team to Depart for Negotiations with the Mao Mao

It did not take long for the team sent out to find people to return with the remaining villagers.

The bustling crowd of over three hundred people packed the originally spacious mine tunnel so tightly that not even water could pass through. Jier kept raising his voice to repeat the previous points to the newly arrived villagers.

In fact, when the young people sent out by Jier found these villagers, they had already learned most of Jier's plans through the mouths of these young people. Many people were actually harboring a sense of resentment, but previously, the villagers were not united, and every family had to fend for themselves under the heavy pressure of trying to fill their stomachs.

It was not that no one had wanted to unite the villagers' strength before, but firstly, the previous young people did not have Jier's martial prowess to take on dozens of people alone. Just as they thought about starting something, they were defeated in brawls with other villager groups due to disputes, and thus they lost heart and retreated.

But Jier did such a big thing as soon as he arrived, and he displayed a martial prowess that seemed quite reliable, which crossed a very large hurdle.

And those who intended to unite the villagers before were inferior to Jier in another point: they had basically not received any education; they had neither Jier's eloquence nor Jier's management talent from managing a refugee team of hundreds, so as soon as they had a few more subordinates, handling matters became a complete mess.

Moreover, because they had no upbringing, many people thought of satisfying their own private interests the first moment after starting their movement. Occupying other people's rations and feeding their own families until they were full—this method quickly caused the human mind to scatter, and the team fell into internal strife. Either the villagers with grudges secretly reported to the soldiers outside the mine, leading to the soldiers coming down to make arrests, or they just caused a huge scene and then disbanded, leaving a mess behind.

But Jier was different; he was not only alone, without any relatives or friends located inside the mine, but from noon until now, he had not eaten a single bite of food, nor had he even drunk a single sip of water.

Furthermore, he kept running around, directing the elderly among the villagers to assemble and take special responsibility for looking after the young children.

He gathered the peasant women among the villagers, letting the sturdy ones help with mining, while the others continuously boiled wheat porridge, supplying it without limit to the male villagers who were going to work. There were also some who carried needles and thread with them, so they were responsible for mending the clothing of everyone that had been damaged due to labor these past few days.

Because the miscellaneous tools each family carried with them were different, some families might have a set of sewing needles, but no thread for mending. Some might have a few pieces of cloth, but no needles or thread.

At this moment, with all the tools and means of production of everyone gathered together, they could mend clothing for everyone.

Of course, it was only a temporary fix; too many things were missing, and each family basically still had a large amount of their belongings left behind in the abandoned Changmai Village.

Some female villagers were directed by Jier to manage and maintain the mining tools in everyone's hands. He had all the mining tools of varying ages and conditions collected, and redistributed them according to the respective strength of the mining villagers.

This was to ensure the maximization of efficiency for the time being.

Moreover, after Jier concentrated the female villagers, the biggest change was that it cut off their means of leaving the mine to sell their bodies in exchange for food. Jier did not like this, because it was a naked act of oppression. Although it looked like the defeated soldiers outside were exchanging food with the female villagers, and the women in the village were also willing.

But in reality, this was an act of oppression that artificially created a scarcity of life-sustaining resources and monopolized this food resource.

It looked like it was voluntary, but in reality, it was not.

The defeated soldiers gave these villagers two choices: either starve to death, or accept the humiliation of selling their bodies. The villagers could only obtain a small, unreasonable amount of food through mining; the soldiers wanted to use this method to maximize the importance of the food in their hands, thereby forcing the women in the village to 'voluntarily' engage in *transactions with them without using direct violence.

Jier even told the villagers the content mentioned above, and everyone was furious, especially those peasant men who had tacitly allowed their own wives and daughters to sell their bodies in exchange for rations. Only then did they realize that the previously seemingly humiliating choice was actually a dead end with no choice at all.

The peasant women and girls also gritted their teeth and silently clenched their fists, wanting to tear those soldiers who bullied them to pieces alive. Those soldiers were rude and violent, and had beaten them more than once before, but in order to get the food to fill their families' stomachs, they had silently endured it.

Now that it was revealed by Jier that the whole thing was a set of oppression and exploitation schemes intentionally designed by those soldiers, everyone wished they could rush out right now and fight those soldiers to the death!

But Jier still stood out, stopping their reckless actions at this moment by shouting a stern command: "Do you all want to die so badly? Do you really think that relying on your current state, numbers, and weapons and equipment, you can defeat those dozens of fully armed professional soldiers?"

Jier explained: "Every one of them wears soldier armor protected by metal armor plates, holds a steel soldier long sword, a steel two-handed axe, a sturdy and lightweight soldier shield, and has an iron helmet. These fully armed guys have also undergone long-term combat training; one person can easily defeat five or six untrained villagers."

"And how many such soldiers are there in the stronghold?" Jier shouted loudly.

Someone replied: "I know, in the camp, counting the ones on guard outside, there are seventy-six of those damn dog soldiers."

Jier nodded: "Yes, more than seventy, gathered together, a single charge would be enough to crush everyone. So now is not the time for everyone to fight them!"

"Then you tell us! When should we fight them? Everyone knows those people won't let us go in the end. And they have been bullying us all along, are we just going to endure it like this?"

A young man with agitated emotions shouted.

But compared to Jier's volume, it was too small, because many people around were whispering, and this person's shouting could only be heard by the dozen or so people around him—of course, Jier could hear it too. But Jier's shouting could be heard clearly by everyone up and down the mine tunnel.

"I have a complete plan! And the first step is to unite all the villagers; looking at it now, it seems that has already been mostly accomplished."

"As for the bullying suffered before, believe me, I will find a way to take revenge for you."

Jier said firmly, his face full of confidence. This confidence was felt by many villagers looking at his expression; it seemed that Jier really had a way to defeat those hateful soldiers who, in the eyes of the villagers, were completely invincible.

Jier continued with the previous arrangements, saying to the female villagers: "Therefore, everyone should not go up to do that kind of thing anymore. Before, there was no other way, and we didn't see their malice, but now there is a way, and we have seen their malice, so don't go out; stay in the mine, and doing some work is also fine."

"Moreover, I will arrange for people to blockade the entrance and exit of the mine. Unless you receive my order, no villager is allowed to go out privately."

Jier said loudly: "I know that some people in our team are actually afraid of those soldiers, so they have defected to those people's side, acting as eyes and ears for them, reporting the news and situation of the villagers in the mine to them. Perhaps you are doing it for the tiny bit of rations they give, or perhaps you were promised by those soldiers that they would release you individually in the future, or take you with them."

"But I want to say, selling everyone out for that tiny bit of rations is completely unnecessary; this is an act that harms the interests of all villagers. One or two pieces of possible news might make the villagers in the mine live even harder; it is really not worth it. But I can still understand you doing this for food; in the future, don't do this again. I will find a way to satisfy everyone with food."

"And if you are selling everyone's intelligence and news for the verbal promises of those soldiers, humph, I can only say that you are truly muddled to believe such words that even a child would not be fooled by. These soldiers who have no morality, no conscience, and only their own private interests in their hearts—are their words really credible? Think about it carefully!"

"And there is another type of person; they defect to the soldiers outside, not for any rations, not for any empty promises, they simply feel that those bad seeds who can control your life and death, those soldiers who abuse violence, are a kind of strong person that cannot be resisted, so they follow their instincts to obey and defect to the orders of those strong people. Humph, think carefully, are these soldiers really strong?"

Jier's face was full of disdain; he reached out and gestured, bringing his index finger and thumb close together: "Their skills are only this much, no more than that. You must know, they are soldiers with organization, weapons, equipment, and training! They speak the dialect of our Southern Province, but why would they end up in this remote place of Changmai Village?"

An old man pointed out the truth incisively: "They are people who fled here after being defeated."

This old man explained: "When I was young, I served in the Empire's army. Armies that were scattered and defeated were just like this. They had no military discipline, wandered around, and harmed villages everywhere regardless of whether they were friend or foe. Until some superior Knight found them, either ignoring the bad things they had done, forgiving them, and then reorganizing and taking them away to fight again, or punishing them severely, beheading or cutting off the hands of more than half of the soldiers, and sending the rest to quarry and mine."

The old man sighed: "Compared to the rules of the Empire's army, the Kingdom's army is really not good."

Jier shrugged: "Everyone understands now, right? These soldiers, who look powerful, are actually just losers on the real battlefield. They couldn't beat the enemy, suffered a defeat, and fled for their lives, eventually arriving here. As a result, those who couldn't beat the enemy army dare to commit violence against us innocent villagers. I have heard that true strong people only draw their blades to face stronger enemies, while the weak only draw their blades against those weaker than them."

"Those who think the soldiers are strong, go down and think about it carefully."

Jier shook his head; he had said enough in his persuasion, and he only said it once. He had already sent people to blockade the entrance and exit, and if anyone still wanted to go out privately to tip off the soldiers, he would not persuade them anymore, but would deal with them directly.

After arranging work for each of the villagers, Jier took over a hundred young and strong villagers, both men and women, all carrying mining picks, and after eating their fill, they walked together toward the territory of the alien Beast.

The Mao Mao had basically occupied all the best mining tunnels in the upper level of the mine, and with such good conditions, they had not mined much Mineral Ore at all because they were not suited to using mining tools.

They basically stole or robbed them from the villagers through various means.

The loss of food converted from these Mineral Ore was also an important reason why the villagers could not get enough to eat.

Therefore, if a deal could be reached directly with the Mao Mao, then this would have several benefits.

First of all, for the Mao Mao, they could save a lot of time spent on cheating and robbing, and invest a large amount of time into the mountain forest hunting they were good at, taking the hunted prey to the mine to exchange with the Human villagers for Mineral Ore.

They should give more play to their strengths, rather than using abilities they were not good at to forcibly imitate Humans to mine.

Secondly, occupying these mining tunnels with a lot of Mineral Ore had no meaning at all; they themselves could not mine much, but instead, it affected the efficiency of the Human villagers in mining. If a deal was made, it would improve the efficiency of the Human villagers, who could use more Mineral Ore to exchange for the prey they hunted. This was a great situation for both sides.

Humans were good at mining, but because the mining tunnels with a lot of Mineral Ore were occupied by the Mao Mao, the efficiency was not high. And the Mao Mao were good at hunting in the mountain forests; although they saw the Human villagers taking the mined Mineral Ore to the soldiers to exchange for food, because the Mao Mao did not eat much wheat, they did not realize at all: trading directly with the Human villagers in the mine was a means to maximize the efficiency of obtaining Mineral Ore.

Jier's action this time was to 'remind' them, letting those Mao Mao understand that changing to another way was an extremely good thing for them and for the Human villagers.

Of course, Jier had just dealt with the Mao Mao of this tribe before, and he knew very well what kind of character these Mao Mao had. Unlike Yongqi Maomao and the others, these long-haired lynx Beast, perhaps because they were more numerous and had the power to resist in front of Human villagers and Human soldiers, acted more casually.

They would not choose to honestly find Humans to trade with to obtain Mineral Ore, but instead obtained Mineral Ore through aggressive theft and robbery of the Human villagers.

To deal with such a group of aliens, Jier understood that the first thing was to show that you had the strength to stand on equal footing with the other side.

He could certainly kill these Mao Mao all by himself, but that was meaningless. Because not only was the result important, but for Jier, the process was also important. He wanted to organize the villagers, not only to save the lives of the villagers but also to obtain the leadership of these Changmai Village villagers, letting them be completely controlled by his orders in this series of actions.

This is not only to ensure orders are followed and prohibitions observed in future battles, but also to facilitate the smooth transfer of people later, and to provide a choice for where these Villagers should go after they are completely rescued.

He does not mind selecting another dozen or twenty daring and combative young people from these Villagers to join his Warrior squad and become Warriors under his command.

After all, having come out on this trip, if he does not bring some manpower back, how can he establish merit in the battles to come?

Should he rely entirely on himself alone to participate in the war? Can Jier capture a village or town by himself? Can he pursue a troop by himself? Can he defend a Jiedian by himself? Can he transport grain by himself? Can he seize a large amount of supplies by himself? Can he escort a large number of enemy captives by himself?

None of these are things one person can accomplish; he must have a squad under his command to do so.

Of course, Knight Kela might assign a portion of the Kendall Militia for him to lead, but these are Kendall Baron's men, not his own. To establish merit and have a presence, he must have his own men.

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