Chapter 564

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

Chen Yi secretly went to survey resources.

The West Continent was truly vast and rich in resources, but just like pre-industrial China, its value lay almost entirely in the land.

Whether minerals, agricultural products, medicinal herbs, industrial raw materials, or building materials, all came from the land—either gathered and planted, or dug up.

Therefore, before news leaked that the Light Curtain had expanded to 1600 kilometers, the first thing Chen Yi needed to do was stake claims: open-pit iron mines, open-pit gold mines, open-pit copper mines, open-pit coal mines, open-pit rare earth mines and non-ferrous metal mines, plus spontaneously gushing oil and vast stretches of wild natural rubber...

The natives of the West Continent also knew the value of these minerals, so they had at least done some prospecting, saving everyone a great deal of time. Of course, land where minerals had already been prospected cost more, but Chen Yi didn't care; he paid with earth dragon hatchlings he had cloned.

Three to five earth dragons could buy a gold mine with reserves of tens of tons, or a copper mine with reserves of thousands of tons; iron mines and non-ferrous metal mines with reserves of over ten thousand tons had strange prices, often determined by the natives' own mining capacity.

However, no matter how outrageous the prices offered by the Water Dragon, Fire Dragon, and Wood Dragon Temples, as long as Chen Yi thought it was a good deal, he could buy them.

He relied not on knowing 5000 earth dragons—compared to 8 million square kilometers of land, the number of earth dragons was far too small—he relied on "advanced" financial lending methods.

Mortgage payments, equity purchases, down payments plus interest installments—these were worn-out tricks on Earth, but Chen Yi's credit as a Divine Art Knight was good enough, and representatives from three temples were willing to vouch for him; often one earth dragon as a down payment, then two or three earth dragons paid annually, and a ten-year pie-in-the-sky promise could secure a mining group of dozens of square kilometers.

Similarly, using one strong earth dragon as a down payment, then a 30-year mortgage with slightly increased interest, one could buy a forest of dozens of square kilometers.

The temples and noble class all liked this approach; it meant they had a steady supply of earth dragons, not only to survive this Temple War but to continue maintaining strong military power after the war—what were 30 years? How many noble families raised mounts for hundreds of years without ever seeing a Divine Art Knight, yet they still raised them generation after generation...

In a world of slow social development, people's concept of time was completely different. They almost never considered that a flood of earth dragons would eventually lead to devaluation.

5000 earth dragons bought nearly 100,000 square kilometers of land, including four quite good natural harbors, as well as iron and gold mines ready for immediate use.

In addition, scattering "earth dragons" had another benefit—it proved the wealth of West River City-State and Chen Yi. Many wealthy nobles, to obtain an earth dragon, were willing to sign contracts and mortgage property to Chen Yi.

On this continent full of principalities, even selling a city posed no psychological barrier for the nobles; Chen Yi ran to dozens of places a day, signing contract after contract.

The radius of 1600 kilometers was truly vast; later on, Chen Yi even grew too lazy to go to places with inconvenient transportation—in fact, the vast majority of his land was bought in coastal and riverside areas.

After accumulating a full hand of Space Storage Rings, ten days later Chen Yi returned to the West Continent.

At this time, West River City-State was already showing slight signs of instability.

Near the bustling market outside the city gate, pedestrians hurried along; the men from Earth rarely appeared with a leisurely pace. Numerous patrol teams composed of Inspection Team members and native soldiers had extremely solemn expressions.

At the city gate, Yu Weichao, eyes bloodshot, came out to meet Chen Yi, holding a document issued by the Channel Committee—"Notice on Reorganizing Channel Surplus"—and as he presented it to Chen Yi, he complained: "These bastards ran to the Stacking Area themselves and forced people to load cargo according to the channel ratio they determined; now the cargo is all loaded!"

Chen Yi quickly skimmed the document and smiled: "The wording is all bureaucratic; was it Zhou Zhao's order?"

"Yes."

"How much supplies did they load?"

"One cargo ship of 12,000 tons, plus over 30,000 tons of supplies distributed across several ships; I wanted to organize people to unload them, but they sent people to block us."

Chen Yi wondered: "Sent people to block you?"

"They organized several Worker Inspector Teams, all workers from their own enterprises, some from state-owned enterprises, with their families and such on Earth. Also, five Combat Knights who took bribes are guarding them, preventing students from rushing up."

"Combat Knights?" Chen Yi's face instantly turned cold.

Yu Weichao said affirmatively: "Combat Knights, because they were sure they couldn't obtain Shenjia, and liked the environment of West River City-State, so they settled down. It's said Zhou Zhao also sent an expedition team out, with West Continent native knights serving as guides and bodyguards."

Without heavy weapons, in close combat Combat Knights were not something the squad's firearms soldiers could resist. On the other hand, natives interfering in Earth's affairs did not show a spirit of friendly mutual aid.

"Go unload their cargo. Yin Senyong, go arrest all the Combat Knights who defected to the Zhou Family." Chen Yi's command was given, and Yin Senyong flew out.

Most of West River City-State's Combat Knights belonged to the Yin Sen Family; he stepping forward was most appropriate.

With Chen Yi's support, Yu Weichao was in high spirits and smiled: "We'll just treat this document as nonexistent; I'll ask Sir Chen Heng to step forward now."

Port area Stacking Area.

More and more people began to face off.

Zhou Zhao's method was simple: imitate the old ancestors' tricks, use Worker Inspector Teams to protect the Union, use the Union to organize workers to "struggle."

He promised workers the right to freely carry supplies to the West Continent, promised 100 tons of channel supplies as funds for the Worker Inspector Teams, and called on everyone to crack down on "scabs."

Now only a strike had not been used.

Yu Weichao sat in an armored vehicle, and at the moment Chen Heng's native battalion entered the port area, the workers organized by Zhou Zhao immediately fell into chaos. According to Zhou Zhao's plan, they shouted slogans like "Guard against tear gas grenades," "Not one can be caught," "Strict defense," "Protect the factory area," and desperately blocked the Infantry Battalion just outside.

Liu Xinyu changed into a tight-fitting military jumpsuit, her beautiful long legs crossed as she sat on top of an armored vehicle watching. Seeing Yu Weichao's worried expression, she couldn't help but smile: "What are you afraid of?"

"A mass incident." Yu Weichao said, and laughed himself.

"Let Yin Senyong deal with the Combat Knights, and the rest will be easy."

"He's confirming exactly which Combat Knights are involved; in my opinion, why be so careful?" Yu Weichao complained, also feeling too much pressure from the crowd before him.

Liu Xinyu chuckled twice and replied: "The punishment the natives receive is different."

Yu Weichao was stunned and said nothing.

Ahead, seeing the soldiers hesitating, Zhou Zhao suddenly became spirited, not wiping the oily sweat on his forehead, his eyes fixed on the boundary between the two sides, he said: "As long as we hold out for one day, we'll be famous."

"If we can really transport these 40,000 tons of supplies back to Jiangning, Young Master Zhou will become Duke Zhou." Four others who made decisions with him were all representatives of small families exiled to the West Continent. To them, personal honor and disgrace were most important; family and country didn't matter at all.

Zhou Zhao laughed heartily and twisted his lips: "As long as we can transport back 10,000 tons, we'll have the Sima Family's support."

"When the armored vehicles came, my heart was thumping." A slick-haired, powder-faced kid saw this and joked: "I thought then, what if they just opened fire with a hail of bullets?"

"It would be fine even if they opened fire."

Zhou Zhao's words had just fallen when a Divine Art Knight flew into the air, and as if calling names, swept several Combat Knights into his hand.

Amid the surge of Shenjia, no one spoke at the noisy scene.

"Among you, is there anyone who hasn't signed a contract?" Yin Senyong's voice was deep, with a tone of majesty.

The captured Combat Knights struggled unwillingly, but none succeeded; finally two Combat Knights answered: "I haven't."

Yin Senyong's eyes turned to the remaining six, and he said: "You signed contracts, so why serve Zhou Zhao?"

Hearing his own name, Zhou Zhao, who was observing the situation at the window, went weak in the knees and nearly fell from upstairs. This was not what he had designed. In his view, whether Yin Senyong used the Channel Committee, the Zhou Family, or "other families" as a pretext was normal; what did it matter to specifically mention his own name?

"Not afraid, afraid of what!" Zhou Zhao looked at his associates nearby and encouraged them back: "Once we get past this, we'll hire a few Divine Art Knights too."

"True." The oily-haired, powder-faced kid seemed to want to say something more, opening his mouth and reaching his hand forward.

Only to see those six Combat Knights, not knowing what they said, were all picked up into the air by Yin Senyong, twisting inexplicably.

A crisp "crack" sound drifted from afar.

That was the sound of neck bones shattering.

Almost in an instant, all six Combat Knights had their necks tilted and were dead.

Countless people secretly reached to touch their own necks.

The whole port had only low breathing sounds; Yin Senyong's voice was clear as if in a recording studio, asking the two Combat Knights who had not signed contracts: "Which family are you from?"

"I am not a Family Knight."

"I am Jaza of the Fire Dragon Temple."

The two answered in turn.

Yin Senyong grunted, saying: "Knights without contracts are not allowed to serve Earthlings; this is a prerequisite for entering the West River City-State, we know that, right?"

"We know."

"You can judge yourselves; I will notify the Fire Dragon Temple."

The two Combat Knights were stunned for a moment, drew their personal weapons, and committed suicide on the spot.

The whole process happened at a height of over ten meters in midair; the Earthling workers watching stared dumbfounded, and those native workers who had been forced to cooperate backed away even more, refusing to continue no matter what was said.

Yu Weichao came forward at this time, standing above the armored vehicle, leading the Infantry Battalion into the port district; even Zhou Zhao's trusted aides no longer dared to act rashly.

A squad of fully armed soldiers went up to the port district building and knocked on the room where Zhou Zhao and the others were.

... (Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to come to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast recommendation tickets and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)