Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1728: Chapter 548: Suppression and Appeasement (2)

“Twenty-three years old, 7 manes, this…”

“He grew up in Qinghua City, came to Tiger Tail Village three years ago. The year before last, at the Red Tiger Ridge tournament, none of his peers was a match for him. The leaders of several villages in the south were all defeated by his hand.”

…

The murmurs among the laborers brought a few traces of pride to Zhang Hai’s face, yet he still stared fixedly at the hundred-odd ringleaders at the front, long blade lifted and pointing across the air, radiating the clear intent that whoever dared step out, he would strike at once.

“Leader Zhang, you’ve birthed a good son!”

While Zhang Hai was locked in a standoff with the laborer, on the eastern side of the official road, atop the watchtower at Tiger Tail Village’s entrance, Zhang Yiqing was accompanying Huang Qingyuan from Qinghua City, quietly watching.

Hearing Huang Qingyuan praise his son, a few traces of a smile naturally surfaced on Zhang Yiqing’s face, but he still said modestly, “My lord flatters him. He’s just a youngster with nothing but brute courage. If we want these thirty-odd thousand people to help build the official road, relying on harshness alone won’t do!”

Huang Qingyuan himself possessed 37 manes of strength, and was also one of the five chief enforcers under Qinghua City’s jurisdiction. In both power and position, he was on the same tier as Zhang Yiqing’s grandfather, Zhang Kuang. Though Zhang Yiqing usually threw his weight around in Tiger Tail Village, in front of this man he could only bow and scrape, his posture humble to the extreme.

“Hahaha!”

Huang Qingyuan chuckled at the words, then asked with evident interest, “Looks like Leader Zhang already has a plan drafted in his belly. As far as I know, from your Tiger Tail Village to the Bone-Eroding Path, the whole stretch is over ninety kilometers. Even a rough estimate says this official road will cost at least two hundred thousand taels, yet the Finance Department only allocated you a hundred and fifty thousand. How do you plan to build it?”

Building an official road, of course, costs money.

The Evergreen Valley official road had provoked City Lord Cai Yunzhou into a thunderous rage; he dismissed three department chiefs in one go. The three new chiefs who took office afterwards naturally treated this matter as a top priority, and overnight allocated the budget for constructing the road.

The two hundred thousand taels was the rough estimate made by the three new chiefs of the departments. In reality, the leader of Tiger Tail Village, who was in charge of this round of road building—namely Zhang Yiqing—had submitted a budget of three hundred thousand taels upward.

They slashed half right off; it sounds outrageous, but in Cai Qiu’s officialdom, it actually counts as standard practice.

Cai Qiu’s territory is vast, with plenty of places embarking on grand construction. The people below, seeing this great opportunity to make a fortune, are naturally unwilling to let it pass; they habitually inflate the budget upward. In any case, once the task is completed, the shortfall is all on the books.

In truth, you can’t entirely blame the people below. The crookedness starts at the top. The various local Finance Departments hold the purse strings, and anything involving disbursement of funds will be peeled layer by layer. The budget may be set at a hundred thousand to begin with, but by the time it reaches the bottom, having fifty thousand left is already pretty good.

Policies from above, countermeasures from below. Since the upper beam is crooked, the lower beams naturally start leaning too. Everyone’s embezzling anyway, so the ones below simply jack the budget up; as long as it’s not too outrageous, they finish the job and still pocket some benefit for themselves. Why not?

The extreme budget figure Zhang Yiqing calculated for himself was actually a hundred thousand taels—of course, that presupposed docking the laborers’ pay and cutting their benefits. Reporting three hundred thousand upward, his nerve was relatively big.

Originally he thought, surely the higher-ups would at least send down two hundred thousand. That way, after he greased palms up and down, Tiger Tail Village could still be left with twenty to thirty thousand taels.

But what Zhang Yiqing never imagined was that the Finance Department would be this ruthless this time, only giving a hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver, and even having Huang Qingyuan deliver it overnight, along with a message: the official road must be fully completed within half a month.

Some things require time to work. The extreme budget of a hundred thousand taels he’d mentioned depended, first and foremost, on the timeline not being so tight. Only then could he bargain with these conscripted laborers—either dock, or placate—in short, take their wages and thus turn a profit.

Yet he never imagined the Finance Department’s chief would actually impose a deadline.

And the money came nothing like before; it was practically lightning speed. Tiger Tail Village had built official roads before, but the Finance Department’s disbursement speed was like a snail’s—you had to beg again and again, and in the end it took months to come down.

Still, considering City Lord Cai Yunzhou’s fury, it isn’t surprising the Finance Department is treating this matter so seriously.

Though he couldn’t earn as much, at least they still gave a hundred and fifty thousand taels, which was within a tolerable range. Taking into account that City Lord Cai Yunzhou might pay attention to this round of road building, Zhang Yiqing naturally had to apply himself to the task.

As for how to suppress and appease the laborers, he’d long since arranged it.

“Who dares step out, hmm?”

As Zhang Yiqing pondered, his son Zhang Hai’s furious shout from the end of the official road carried over again. He and Huang Qingyuan both turned their heads to look.

At this moment Zhang Hai was a bit carried away by his own triumph. True, he’d always lorded it over people in Tiger Tail Village, but when had he ever enjoyed a grand scene like this—one man subduing tens of thousands—so exhilarating?

Among the hundred-plus people leading the laborer, there were indeed a few whose strength was fairly high, ones he couldn’t see through. But the hundred-odd Tiger Tail Village Managers standing behind him were no pushovers either.

His father had instructed him: first suppress, then appease with food. Only by combining favor and awe could they make these thirty-odd thousand laborers obediently cooperate in building the official road.

Right now, he was carrying out the “suppression.”

A bunch of barefoot mud-legs without even household registration, and they think they can overturn the heavens?

Seeing the fear on the faces of the hundred-plus in front of him, Zhang Hai let out a slight cold snort. Guessing they were unlikely to make any further moves, he was just about to slowly lower his long blade and continue speaking.

However, he had apparently miscalculated somewhat.

At the front of the, a middle-aged man suddenly lurched a step forward.

…

The already congealed scene instantly grew even more silent.

Zhang Hai’s expression froze at once, a surge of fury flaring up from the bottom of his heart.

He’d been questioning all along, asking who dared step out. This middle-aged man’s action was, without question, a slap to his face.

And in front of tens of thousands of laborers, no less.

After that middle-aged man stepped forward, his expression clearly went blank. Seeing Zhang Hai’s murderous gaze, terror crawled across his face at once. He hurriedly twisted his head back and said to the people behind him, “Someone pushed me, someone pushed me, I…”

“Die!”

To Zhang Hai, the man’s shout was nothing but the panicked babble of someone at death’s door. The situation was already locked in; there was no way he wouldn’t make a move.

He sprang forward, long blade falling from midair, chopping straight toward the middle-aged man’s forehead.

That middle-aged man also had Cold Resistance Level cultivation, but only at three manes, with no weapons in his hands. Caught off guard, he could only raise his arms to block.

Pshhh…

How can skin membrane and flesh hope to contend against weapons?

Zhang Hai’s long blade chopped clean through the middle-aged man’s arms, then with a crack came down on his head, splitting his skull open on the spot.

Yellow-white matter spilled all over the ground, instantly frozen by the cold air. In the pitch-black night it was strikingly visible, and the hundred-plus Cold Resistance Level leaders closest to the middle-aged man all shuddered in unison.

If even they were like this, there was no need to mention the Earth Digging Realm and even Logging Realm laborers at the rear.

“He killed someone!”

“Young Master Zhang killed someone.”

“Who was killed?”

“It’s the leader of Baishui Village, Zhu Hang.”

“He just killed him, just like that!”

……

As hushed whispers spread through the crowd, the mass of laborers at the back soon all learned what had happened up front. At once they fell silent as cicadas in winter, not daring to make a sound.

The scene fell into stillness once more!

“I already said, being able to work for the Feudal Town is a blessing your ancestors from eight generations back couldn’t pray for. If anyone keeps whining, this Zhu Hang is the example of what happens…”

Having killed, this suppression had reached its highest point. Seizing the moment, Zhang Hai issued his final threat. Seeing that among the Cold Resistance Level men up front, quite a few had started panting heavily, the killing intent in his pupils grew stronger, yet he still forcibly tamped it down. Then his tone shifted abruptly, becoming much gentler:

“Since we’ve brought you here to build the road, of course Tiger Tail Village will feed you. The village has already been simmering Beast Meat stew…”

At this, he paused slightly, then turned and gestured toward the rear.

Ka-ka-ka-ka…

Responding to his signal, dozens of men by the village entrance immediately began pushing a blazing cart forward at a slow roll.

The bottom of the cart was hollowed out, leaving space for a stove mouth. The coal fire inside was blazing hot, and ten cauldrons two meters in diameter were set on top, lids clamped down, with the clear sound of boiling coming from within.

Beast Meat stew!

Tiger Tail Village was actually this “kind,” having prepared Beast Meat stew for them.

All the laborers, including the hundred-plus Cold Resistance Level men who had been leading the disturbance up front, stared at those ten cauldrons, their eyes lighting up at once.