“City Lord, the confessions have all been compiled.”
Chen Yu, sitting by the pond and feeding the fish, sprinkled breadcrumbs into the water. Deputy City Lord Klein stood beside him, placing the confessions on the table in the pavilion.
Chen Yu casually tossed the bread into the pond and stretched lazily.
“It’s been nearly four days, and they’ve only just started giving their confessions. Their mouths are certainly hard,” Chen Yu said, walking slowly to the table and glancing at the documents. “Are these confessions confirmed to be true?”
“They should be genuine.”
Klein’s gaze was firm as he looked down at the confessions.
The confessions were obtained from Loma and his associates. Klein had spent the past few days cross-referencing these testimonies to verify their authenticity.
Only after being almost certain of their truthfulness did he present the confessions to Chen Yu.
“The number of people involved is quite substantial,” Chen Yu snorted, tossing the confessions back onto the table. “Luo Ka’s small faction alone managed to reach over a dozen main cities. It seems our Fengqi City is truly pitiful, unable to find even a few loyal to us.”
Klein remained silent, his head bowed.
As someone who had previously served as City Lord, he bore undeniable responsibility for this situation. He had been appointed City Lord in a time of crisis, and without any personal retinue or family influence, he was incapable of deterring the other nobles and branch city lords within Fengqi City’s territory.
During his tenure as City Lord, no one had held him in high regard.
In everyone’s eyes, he was an incompetent individual who could not preserve what he inherited. In hindsight, this was indeed the case; not only could he not govern the entire territory, but he couldn’t even ensure Fengqi City’s safety.
Noble unrest and city fragmentation were all issues that arose during his time in office.
Other branch city lords, in order to develop, could only rely on influential figures elsewhere.
“This entire city is filled with so many eyes,” Chen Yu whispered, gasping and murmuring, “Every move we make is known to the other branch city lords.”
“City Lord, should we… deal with these people?”
It was evident that Klein intended to remove these ‘eyes,’ as knowing all the development trends of Fengqi City was detrimental to it.
“Keep them well.”
Unexpectedly, Chen Yu rejected his suggestion again.
“The eyes in the branch cities are a double-edged sword. While they can relay information to the branch cities, they can also serve to warn others. With me in command of Fengqi City now, it doesn’t matter how many eyes there are. They can only witness our city’s development and become increasingly apprehensive.”
“You intend to use them?” Klein frowned.
“Keep a close watch on all of them, especially those serving within our City Lord’s mansion,” Chen Yu said, pointing to the confessed list. “Since they enjoy watching our city, let them watch more thoroughly. Have our internal people spread some false rumors, and we can scare them too. Besides, if these eyes are gone, won’t other eyes appear? Our city is not a sealed fortress.”
Hearing Chen Yu’s words, Klein’s understanding immediately dawned, and he comprehended his reasoning.
While the eyes within the city could be apprehended, Fengqi City saw a daily influx of refugees and displaced people. No one could ascertain the true identities of these individuals.
Rather than have other branch cities send in replacements, it was better to keep the current ones.
At least these existing eyes were already somewhat visible.
They could secretly monitor the movements of these individuals and, in turn, use these eyes to release various smoke screens to other branch cities.
Contemplating this, Klein couldn’t help but chuckle.
Such a simple logic, yet he couldn’t grasp it immediately. There was indeed a significant gap between Chen Yu and him.
“I will arrange it now.” Klein nodded slightly. Chen Yu suddenly spoke, “I noticed quite a few livestock and defensive siege weapons have appeared around our city.”
“Didn’t you order that as well?”
Klein nodded noncommittally and said softly.
“The relationships were introduced by Master Liya. Those livestock can transport supplies, and I found the siege weapons to be well-made, so we acquired a batch. They are now located at the gates and on the city walls.”
“I see the beasts transporting supplies are rather skinny horses,” Chen Yu frowned.
“City Lord, this is already quite good,” Klein sighed with a low voice. “Despite their thin appearance, they are all domesticated wild horses of Bronze-tier or above. For Master Liya’s sake, they charged us only 10 gold coins per horse. If we were to buy them elsewhere, it would cost at least 15 gold coins.”
“Not cheap. It seems these livestock merchants earn more than slave traders.”
“That’s not entirely true.”
Klein paused for a moment before explaining.
“These livestock merchants have to bear the risk of capturing them in the wild and also invest time in taming them. Slave traders are similar; they have to capture people and break their will. Moreover, Bronze-tier slaves are not much cheaper than livestock. They are pretty much on par.”
“They live such carefree lives.”
Stretching lazily, Chen Yu’s expression was filled with deep envy.
Although not entirely ethical!
“If the City Lord finds the appearance of these skinny horses subpar, the livestock merchant mentioned he will have a batch of Silver-tier trained beasts available soon and asked if our city is interested,” Klein suddenly said. “The price will be higher, 80 gold coins, and it should provide us with about ten thousand.”
“Why would I buy that?”
Chen Yu couldn’t help but chuckle wryly and shake his head.
“They’re treating us like fools. Our city’s population is small. What’s the use of buying so many livestock? To slaughter them for meat? That would be too wasteful. If they could procure some war beasts, we might consider acquiring a batch from them, and the price would be negotiable.”
“War beasts, hiss…” Klein gasped. “That’s difficult to obtain. I can inquire.”
“Ask around. If they can truly procure war beasts, we will purchase them,” Chen Yu said with a slight smile. “The purchases these past few days have likely depleted our funds. Those skinny horses and siege weapons were significant expenditures.”
Klein remained silent, merely smiling with a slight grin.
It was evident that money was indeed running short.
Before meeting Chen Yu, he had no idea how quickly money could be spent. Millions of gold coins seemed to vanish without leaving a ripple.
That’s not to say it was entirely wasted. The city’s construction had indeed progressed.
And it was quite luxurious.
The residential buildings within the city were primarily constructed with obsidian, and the bricks paving the roads were also obsidian. Even at its peak, Hurricane City had never boasted such features.
Klein didn't understand why Chen Yu was doing this, but he simply followed Chen Yu’s instructions.
“City Lord, we’ve received news from the people we sent out.”
“What news?”
“Hailos and Mi Ye have officially engaged in battle,” Klein said. The moment Klein finished speaking, Chen Yu involuntarily straightened up. “What is the status of the battle?”
“Crushing!”
Klein’s expression was filled with deep apprehension.
“Three of Hailos’s subordinate cities were captured within half a day. The last message we received indicated Hailos was making a last stand in his main city. It’s estimated that Hailos will be erased from Fengqi City within two days.”
Chen Yu was not surprised by this news.
Hailos was merely a minor baron. From Loma’s confessions, it was clear that Hailos’s influence was weak, and he was not on the same level as Count Mi Ye.
Mi Ye attacking him should not require much effort.
“Has there been any movement from Luo Ka’s side?” Chen Yu frowned. “His son hasn’t had any news for a long time after our trade. Can he just sit idly by?”
“He truly is sitting idly by.”
Klein licked his lips and whispered.
“Luo Ka has sealed his city gates recently, and the resource cities have ceased extraction. Towns and cities are adopting a restrained posture. It feels like he’s wary of something. I suspect he’s wary of Mi Ye. Hailos’s position borders Luo Ka, and after Hailos is gone, he will be next.”
“This suggests their father-son relationship isn’t that strong; he values his city more,” Chen Yu shrugged.
“Indeed.”
“Let them fight. Mi Ye asked me not to interfere in her battles, so I won’t,” Chen Yu said, stretching lazily. “As for funding, our city’s finances will be replenished soon.”
“City Lord, you’re not planning to rob them, are you?”
“Oh?”
Hearing Klein voice his inner thoughts, Chen Yu smiled with some surprise.
“Lao Lun has been leading people outside our city these past few days. I was curious about what he was doing. When asked, he said he was investigating the precise locations of our Fengqi City’s outer encampments,” Klein blinked. “Are you planning to start with these encampments? I heard your first pot of gold in your free town came about the same way.”
“You know quite a lot,” Chen Yu said with a smile and a nod.
“City Lord, some of the encampments within Fengqi City are legal. Their territory land was purchased from Fengqi City, and they pay us taxes.”
“Purchased from whom?”
“This…”
“They didn’t give me the money for buying the land, so what does it have to do with me?” Chen Yu shrugged, looking confused. “Previous administrations’ approvals are still valid. If I now approve the entire Fengqi City for my subordinates and then directly resign as City Lord, can I then demand money from the next City Lord, as this city is mine, and they are leasing my land?”
Klein gave a dry chuckle, unsure how to respond. Chen Yu spread his hands and said,
“When dynasties change, certain issues need to be re-evaluated. It’s legal that those encampments bought the land, I know that, but now I control the political situation of Fengqi City, and they must obey me. Moreover, I don’t like having encampments around my city that detract from its appearance. We are the central city, the future leader of the underground. Why should the populace live outside in encampments instead of within the city, making it look like a semi-urban area?”
“I won’t let them suffer losses for the territory they bought. I will offer them preferential policies.”
“For the people in the encampments to settle in Fengqi City, I will offer them a reduction in fees for purchasing land. As for later, they can continue to live as they did in the encampments. The only difference is that their leader has become our citizen, and they must abide by the laws within our city.”
“Isn’t this a good thing?”
“Otherwise, if the encampments are located outside, and they occasionally pose as bandits to rob merchants trading with Fengqi City, it would also be detrimental to our city’s development.”
It had to be said, when it came to brainwashing, Chen Yu was absolutely exceptional.
After listening to Chen Yu’s discourse, Klein found himself believing that what he was doing was indeed correct.
“The City Lord’s thinking is more comprehensive; I was oversimplifying the issue,” Klein nodded with a solemn expression. Chen Yu smiled and said, “How is Lao Lun’s investigation coming along?”
“He said he’s almost finished investigating and will likely give you the list tonight.”
“Good, good, good.”
Chen Yu hadn’t had any income for a while, and his living conditions were rather poor. As soon as Lao Lun handed him the list, he would be able to…
The problem was this old black donkey; had it died on the road? Why hadn’t it arrived yet?
Just as Chen Yu was gnashing his teeth in annoyance, a figure in a hurry rushed into the City Lord’s mansion. The newcomer was clad in heavy armor and had a look of panic in his eyes.
“City Lord, bad news! Someone is leading troops to attack the city!”