Chapter 276

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

The cement road of the Xima Highway had been paved for 7 kilometers. Although the construction difficulty increased the further forward they went, the Water Fortress hired more and more workers. Yu Weichao called himself "the wealthy housekeeper," handing out copper coins as wages at will, so where could he fail to find workers?

Mount beasts were after all a product of the West Continent, and they were spirited walking on the hard cement road surface. Damas also sat up straight with chest out and head raised, thinking: a road surface without bumps really was not bad.

Muse came over and smiled: "Sir, this place is better than Raj City-State, isn't it?"

He was the knight most familiar with the Water Fortress, and intentionally or unintentionally wanted to elevate the Water Fortress—which was indirectly elevating himself.

Damas heard the title "Sir" and nodded. Now he indeed needed a bit of noble status to steady himself. Falling slightly behind by one position, he smiled: "It's supposed to be better than Raj City-State; their roads definitely aren't as flat as this new road."

It seemed he thought the flatness of the cement road was because it was newly built.

Muse had the same doubt, so he shouted: "Knight She Lei, if transport beasts or the like pass by, would they trample the road to pieces?"

"Transport beasts and other large beasts over 10 tons passing by the roadside." She Lei pointed to the reclamation areas on both sides.

Only then did everyone notice that, apart from some obviously sentry posts, or large trees used to cover tree posts, within 100 meters on both sides of the "highway," even the grass had been pulled out.

The roads on both sides were relatively much softer, but they had also been reinforced. The maximum weight of transport beasts was around 40 tons, plus 10 tons of cargo. Given the width of their hooves, although not enough to immediately crush the highway surface, they were at least equivalent to overloaded heavy vehicles, so naturally they couldn't easily take the road.

Damas frowned imperceptibly.

Muse hurriedly smiled: "You might not know, but every time during the Temple Wars, the army and equipment all passed through this road, so it definitely couldn't be left idle."

She Lei nodded imperceptibly and smiled: "It's not that it absolutely cannot be walked on."

"Oh?"

"In the future, the highway will be a first-class road section. Anyone or any mount using it needs to register and pay a toll. We will use the collected money to repair the road."

The Xima Highway was actually not long, only 40 kilometers in total. It was just that the previous road conditions were too poor; without a mount, one might not reach Yun Village in a day. However, by West Continent standards, its construction cost was truly not low, and must be higher than early railways.

In other words, the current Xima Highway was already being treated by the Water Fortress upper class as their own railway. Thinking of Tie Lao Da's charmingly strong and resolute bearing, who wouldn't yearn for it?

Damas disliked She Lei's way of speaking, but in the city-state era there was no saying like "all under heaven belongs to the king." The matter of those 3000 heavy infantrymen had not been cleaned up yet, and he didn't want to cause more trouble. So he said nothing all the way, only watching the nearby sentry posts and the inexplicable isolation nets, slowly entering West River Water Fortress.

With She Lei and others leading them, no one asked them to show Good Citizen Certificates, which made Muse breathe a sigh of relief.

The current Water Fortress should already be called a town.

Just the natives hired on the road now numbered over 2000, and their food and wine all needed to be purchased from outside.

West Continent people were all standard big-bellied men, and due to the vast land and sparse population and abundant food, even ordinary people were used to eating meat. Conversely, plant roots, stems, leaves, and grains were relatively rare things. But generally speaking, in this sunny local place, food prices were very low, while the Water Fortress's purchase prices were very high—apart from requiring quality and variety control, anyone doing business in the West Continent made money.

At the beginning, some natives took the money and happily went home, then on the second or third day brought their family's meat and vegetables over to earn some hardship money. And some clever ones started buying other people's grain and delivering it to the Water Fortress. By now, almost no native who wasn't stupid didn't know to buy good things at the Water Fortress and then sell them back home. Back and forth, the price difference was dozens of copper coins.

Thus, the entire Water Fortress was bustling and crowded. Locally speaking, it was actually much livelier than Ma La, making a group of knights surprised beyond measure.

How long had it been!

Especially when Muse saw the daggers hanging by the roadside from small vendors, and saw villagers handing over 10 strings of copper coins to the other party, his eyes went wide.

A knight attendant in front of Damas almost couldn't help but say: "They're all using copper coins?"

They themselves usually used thin coins; a string of 10 thin coins was worth one iron coin, usually enough for a day's expenses. Only when going out to treat guests would they use copper coins. Who would have thought that villagers who should never have touched copper coins in their entire lives were actually there trading with strings of copper coins?

A native soldier held his head high, suppressing excitement as he said: "Working outside the city for 7 days earns 2 copper coins. Not a few people come to our West River City to work, then earn money to buy gear and take it back."

A group of knights were startled, their eyes going wide.

Earning 2 copper coins in 7 days wasn't necessarily more than their income, but it was truly not a few. Especially since knights still had to care for their mounts and repair their equipment.

Seeing the proud knights stunned, the native soldier's nostrils almost shot up to the sky.

They of course knew the knights' contempt for them, contempt year after year. The villagers had long wanted to change, but simply lacked the opportunity.

She Lei could only shrug his nose and say nothing. As a simple street thug, he was quite dissatisfied with Yu Weichao's exploitation policy. Because the so-called work of the natives on the road was working 20 hours a day and resting only 5 hours—doing this was partly because the labor force was small, and partly to improve work efficiency. Compared to workers who rested 16 hours a day, working 20 hours obviously had better results. And West Continent people seemed able to adapt to such a life; their physical condition was very good. Even with heavy physical labor, as long as they supplemented enough food and appropriate salt, the next day they would still be full of spirit. And the decent 2 copper coins weighed only 2 taels, just 7 RMB, equivalent to paying only 1 RMB per day.

Compared to She Lei, some students had even greater complaints. The way West Continent people were used to was not necessarily reasonable or moral in the eyes of Earthlings. Especially the Jiangbei people, who were mostly simple and cunning state-owned enterprise workers. They had a natural tendency toward enjoying benefits and feared all reforms that increased workload. In those days of eating from the big pot, equal pay for equal work without raises, state-owned enterprise workers relied on factory benefits and slacking off to increase their pay ratio. Obviously, they worried that the West Continent people's enthusiastic work spirit would change their lives. Some people had already been changed, for example, the gentlemen of the Basic Construction Group had to participate in night shifts with three-shift or two-shift rotations, which was a very unhappy time.

The knights didn't know about the twists and turns inside; they only saw copper coins circulating all over the street and gaped with wide eyes.

Actually, this was already a manifestation of currency inflation.

Yu Weichao had tried his best to control prices and reduce the extent of inflation, for example by selling more textiles and weapon swords, but with little effect. 2000 native workers, around 500 native soldiers, around 200 foreign mercenaries—they each received 1 to 10 copper coins in wages every week, which was half a year's income for an ordinary villager. So much money basically had to be spent within the Water Fortress; how could prices not rise? On the other hand, the heavy machine gun bullets fired that day all had to be recovered, equivalent to at least 100,000 copper coins circulating outside.

Helplessly, Yu Weichao even wanted to change the method of paying wages in currency to paying in kind, but Chen Yi vetoed it.

He didn't care at all about such local financial problems. Even if the West River Water Fortress's currency system collapsed, it didn't matter; they could rebuild next time. In his view, local copper being cheap meant that income from working in West River Water Fortress was indirectly increased, just like people were willing to go to expensive New York for high salaries. This had no effect on the Water Fortress upper class. Instead, changing to an in-kind system would increase the Water Fortress's workload and raise costs.

Damas and Muse and the others didn't understand finance at all. They only saw commoners with rosy faces on both sides of the road trading with copper coins—a sight not easily seen even in Ma La.

Damas couldn't help but say to Muse: "They must know we're coming and are putting on an act."

"Must be." Muse said it decisively, but inwardly disagreed. Sir was a noble; he was merely a fallen knight and couldn't offend people.

By the time they reached the Water Fortress Gong Suo, Yu Weichao barely came out to welcome them, smiling: "Greetings, my lords. Welcome to West River Water Fortress."

"Greetings, Lord Yu." Muse had a natural fake-noble air; his humble movements and smiling tone made Damas shake his head repeatedly.

"You came this time to retrieve the corpses?" Yu Weichao was very busy with work and had no time to dilly-dally with them.

Muse was a bit unaccustomed. He coughed twice and smiled awkwardly: "You really are anxious. We wanted to look around the Water Fortress properly first, then talk."

"Mr. Chen has already delegated authority to me." Yu Weichao said lightly.

Muse's attitude immediately changed. He tossed the mount beast's reins to another "knight" and said: "Then can we see the captured personnel first?"

Yu Weichao said with a laugh and tears: "None survived. 3000 corpses. Go east; they're all in the pits. Remember to pay."

Damas's face changed immediately. He was a man who had fought in wars; how could he not know the attrition rate on the battlefield? If 10,000 soldiers were surrounded, losing 3000 without surrendering was already good. There were armies that fought to the last man, but they were mostly honorary units of pure knights. The Third Heavy Infantry Battalion was not qualified.

He wanted to say "massacre," but gritted his teeth and didn't say it. His whole face was black.

Muse knew this mission could not be completed. West Continent people cared a lot about affairs after death. Warriors before going to the battlefield often combed their beards to show their resolve to die—because when entering a tomb, one must certainly comb one's beard well. However, the Elder Council cared about the living. They hoped the Heavy Infantry Battalion could still have about 70% prisoners, plus the 1000 soldiers Kaman left behind. As long as they supplemented another 1000 people, it would be enough.

"Paitu, Fulaosi, you go east and clean up the corpses." Muse said listlessly, then added: "My lord, if there are no prisoners, we cannot pay you so many corpse fees as you requested. How about a total of 200 conch shells?"

Yu Weichao was shaking his head when suddenly cheers came from outside.

"The City Lord is back, the City Lord is back." The Natives had long regarded West River Water Fortress as a city.

Damas mounted his horse, stepping into the stirrup to gaze into the distance, only to see merely two squads of Light Armor Soldiers escorting at least four hundred great beasts and nearly a thousand captives.

"Lu Fu!" Damas recognized a captive wearing Half-body Leather Armor, Lu Fu Jue Shi, a member of the Ma La Council of Elders! He had a head of striking red hair, and was exceptionally tall.

Could Ma La have fallen?

Damas's face, which had just turned black, instantly turned deathly pale.

... (Unfinished, if you want to know what happens next, please log in to www. qidian. com, more chapters, support author, support genuine reading!)