Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1547: Chapter 485: The Panic of Five Towns, The Alliance Withdrawal Begins, Tan Rou’s Satisfaction

[Inviting the Deity is Easy, Sending it Away is Hard]

Shangguan Yang and Yang Fa’s expressions turned extremely grim at these words.

Because Qin Feng’s seven words perfectly summarized the biggest pain point for Jin Mountain and Beishuo right now.

The year before last, in the Moao Calendar year 134, in May, during the Chui Mountain upheaval, Great Xia emerged as the final victor, using the might of four towns to forcibly form an alliance of the Nine Towns, officially finalizing the treaty on June 3rd of the same year in Chui Mountain Town.

The five most important articles in the alliance treaty were: jointly serving the Alliance Hierarch, uniting under one banner, strengthening the strong people and the strong military, resisting Foreign Fiefs together, and pledging eternal solidarity.

At that time, the Five Towns agreed to sign the treaty because they feared the power of Great Xia at that time, and also because the treaty’s terms weren’t excessively demanding, even potentially beneficial to the Five Towns in the long run.

But looking back now, it’s all pits!

For example, the first article about jointly serving the Alliance Hierarch contains a clause stating that for matters concerning the Outer Domain, all Eight Towns must comply with the Hierarch’s orders. This appears reasonable, but no specific standards for what constitutes Outer Domain affairs were ever set. Over the past two years, Great Xia frequently used this pretext to meddle in the Five Towns’ affairs;

Another example is the third article about strengthening the strong people and the strong military. To enhance the overall strength of the Nine Towns, Great Xia proposed two specific measures: one being the sharing of resource territories, allowing any Advanced Hunting Team with an Alliance Token to freely access the resource territories of each town; the other being the establishment of Ten Thousand Treasures Sub-buildings in all Towns to share high-quality cultivation resources produced by Great Xia with all the populace of the Southern Slope.

These two measures seemed reasonable initially, but the fault lay in the lack of clear limitations on the number of Advanced Hunting Teams in each town.

In the first month, Great Xia was not too excessive, issuing only a total of 900 Alliance Hunting Orders, with each of the Nine Towns receiving 100 orders respectively, meaning each town had only 100 Advanced Hunting Teams able to freely gather and hunt without regional restrictions.

But by the second month, Great Xia suddenly imposed two specific standards for Advanced Hunting Teams under the name of the Alliance Hierarch: one being that the team must have over 20 members, the other being that members must at least be at the Cold Resistance Level in cultivation.

These two standards weren’t excessively demanding and did help increase output and reduce casualties, and most of the Five Towns could meet them, so despite some dissatisfaction, they eventually accepted them.

No one expected that setting standards was merely Great Xia’s initial maneuver.

Once the third month arrived, the next move came into play.

Great Xia suddenly began massively increasing the issuance of Alliance Hunting Orders, also announcing that any Hunting Team meeting these two standards could freely apply.

Each town’s Advanced Hunting Teams obviously weren’t limited to just 100, and the initial 100 Hunting Orders per town were already in high demand. Thus, when Great Xia announced this news, the Advanced Hunting Teams below quickly began reassembling according to the standards to apply for the Alliance Hunting Orders.

Such phenomena were not surprising at all.

Teams holding an Alliance Hunting Order and able to freely enter and exit all resource territories on the Southern Slope had significantly higher daily hunting, gathering, and exploration revenue compared to those restricted to a fixed area.

The initial issuance of 100 Alliance Hunting Orders in each Town already saw fierce competition, with the first batch mostly going to those with connections and powerful Hunting Teams, leaving those who didn’t get them already feeling aggrieved.

Therefore, when the news of Great Xia increasing the issuance of Alliance Hunting Orders spread, one could imagine the mood below.

The upper echelons of each town had already sensed something was wrong by then. It had been over four years since Great Xia’s eastward expansion, particularly since Hongmen opened its port, and each town had come to understand Great Xia’s strength fairly well.

They all knew that without limits on the issuance of Alliance Hunting Orders, the Five Towns would inevitably suffer great losses, prompting them to unite in opposition, demanding restrictions on the number of additional Alliance Hunting Orders issued, and equitable distribution of any further orders.

It was here that the trap appeared!

“It was made clear at the time of signing the treaty that opening the Southern Slope Resource Territories was to strengthen the people and the military, enhancing the overall strength of the Nine Towns. Now, the Hierarch’s issuance of more Hunting Orders is to achieve this goal. The standards for applying for the Orders are uniformly applied to all nine towns, including Great Xia. What’s the issue? Are you saying that because Great Xia is too strong, we must accommodate you?

I, as Minister, state clearly, we can either not increase even a single Hunting Order and maintain the status quo or fully open up. You choose!”

This was Xia Chuan’s original statement, and within three days, these words had spread throughout the Southern Slope Territory.

Instantly, the Five Towns were in an uproar, public sentiment was high, and facing overwhelming public opinion, how could the Lords and leaders of the Five Towns dare to continue opposing?

Thus, the unrestricted issuance of Alliance Hunting Orders began.

Since then, the nightmare for the Five Towns truly began.

By the end of the year before last, the total number of Alliance Hunting Orders had increased to 3,000, with each of the Northern Three Towns plus Yangqu and Dragon Valley having just over 200; Chui Mountain, Jiangxia, and Muyin each had over 300; and the remaining over 1,000 Orders were all in the hands of Great Xia alone.

By this month, the total number of Alliance Hunting Orders had surpassed 6,000, with Great Xia directly holding over half, combined with the latest information obtained by the Five Towns, indicating the Muyin Three Towns had long been secretly annexed by Great Xia, including their Orders. This means Great Xia effectively controls more than two-thirds of the teams holding Orders.

The Orders are merely a means; the key is that those teams holding the Orders can freely enter and exit all resource territories under each town’s authority for gathering and hunting, so a vast amount of Cold Beast Spirit Plants and various precious resources continuously flowed into Great Xia through this method.