Chapter 1020 - 861: Compensation
That wave of recruitment naturally also sent shockwaves through the Heavenly Domain.
Mo Hei, having gathered the general situation, immediately went before Domain Master Manxi to report.
Manxi was aware of Dingnan Prefecture training people to build houses; as for the specifics, he hadn't been clear before and hadn't asked much.
There was nothing he could do about it—bringing in population was no longer just a matter between superiors and subordinates. Now the Heavenly Court had forcibly turned superiors and subordinates into competitors, and even demanded "fair competition," for fuck's sake.
Besides, recruiting people by building houses didn't look reliable no matter how you saw it; it didn't look like something that could be carried through, so he hadn't taken it to heart.
In his eyes, his real opponent was only Dongguo Shou.
He just hadn't expected Shi Chun's move this time to explode with such ferocity. Looking back now at the mobilization of a hundred thousand men for training, it seemed like it had just been a premeditated setup.
After finishing his report on the relevant situation, Mo Hei said worriedly, "My lord, judging from this commotion, it seems they really are going to give away one hundred million houses for free."
Manxi, deep in thought, rejected it outright. "Impossible. Where would he get that much money? If he had that kind of financial strength, it'd be enough to buy himself an office; would he need to go to all this trouble?"
Mo Hei, his face full of doubt, reminded him, "My lord, have you forgotten what happened before? Those few suddenly came to bring up the three-year prospecting rights on Yanfu Continent, and the Heavenly Court issued an imperial decree to quash the rumors. Which means that the current situation is: whoever first recruits one hundred million people gets the Sandalwood Gold prospecting rights. Could it be that Shi Chun…"
Manxi understood what he meant and waved his hand. "You're overthinking it. If it really were because of that, Dongguo Shou isn't stupid—how could he have come along with Shi Chun and the others to raise that issue? Wouldn't that be lifting a rock only to smash his own foot?"
Mo Hei thought about it and nodded. "That's true."
Manxi paced the hall with his hands behind his back. "Most importantly, the three-year mining rights come with a headcount limit—only a hundred people can enter. After that reward was announced, I went to the Heavenly Capital to inquire about the actual mining situation. Those banks with mining experience say that when luck is good they have indeed picked up over a hundred billion, but when luck is bad, tens of billions is common—they take quite a loss. Generally, for those with experience, after three years the fluctuation is only in the range of a few hundred billion up or down. As a reward, it is indeed generous, but compared to the layout Shi Chun is rolling out right now, it's a drop in the bucket. Even if he manages to get over a hundred billion, it can't fill such a colossal hole. Anyone can brag; when the time comes and he can't wrap things up, he'll have to pay a price."
Mo Hei nodded slightly. "In that case, I really was overthinking it. But…" He hesitated again and said, "My lord, you saw Shi Chun's abilities during the Battle of Great Pardon. If he's doing this, he probably wouldn't be shooting in the dark, right? Think about it—if he just loses the competition, at worst he gets dismissed and loses his post. But if he digs such a huge hole and really can't fill it, then as you said, it won't just be a matter of dismissal; the price is something he can't possibly bear. He can't be unaware of that. So why is he still doing this?"
Manxi fell silent, his heart thudding at those words.
Mo Hei leaned closer and said in a low voice, "Should we secretly send people to grab a few of Shi Chun's confidants and interrogate them, see what's really going on?"
At this, Manxi shook his head without the slightest hesitation. "Absolutely don't mess around. We're watching Dongguo Shou over there, and the Carefree Sect is watching us. The Heavenly Court has declared fair competition; once someone catches us by the handle, there's no more need to contest anything—we'd be kicked out of the game on the spot. Especially at a time like this, with Shi Chun stirring up such a huge commotion—heaven knows how many pairs of eyes from big shots in the Heavenly Court are fixed on this place. We can't act recklessly."
Mo Hei said awkwardly, "Yes, sir."
Manxi wasn't the only one conflicted; Commander Dongguo Shou of Dingdong Mansion was as well.
After hearing the news, Dongguo Shou was also shocked by Shi Chun's grand gesture. You could play it like this?
Even the Carefree Sect backing him was made uneasy, and they turned around to ask him what was going on.
But think about it: even Wu Jinliang, Shi Chun's diehard supporter, wasn't very clear on the specifics. How could Dongguo Shou possibly know? Even if someone were to grab Wu Jinliang and Young Master Nan, who were involved, and drag them in for questioning right now, it'd still be hard to figure out Shi Chun's exact plan.
Because of this, Dongguo Shou kept running to Dingnan Prefecture and constantly went to "visit" Shi Chun.
Visiting Shi Chun was of course just a pretext; although going too often made it awkward to come empty-handed, what he really wanted was to personally inspect the construction in Dingnan Prefecture.
The more he saw, the more frightened he became. One hundred thousand Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals had literally rolled up their sleeves and were doing real hard labor. One hundred thousand Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals had truly "changed careers" into craftsmen at a single command—and for no pay at that. That bastard Shi Chun was actually playing for keeps—couldn't possibly be any more real.
Shi Chun naturally knew what this old fellow kept coming over for, but he didn't care and couldn't be bothered to cover anything up, nor did he need to. Things had come this far; let anyone look however they wanted, unless some higher authority came down with a wrecking-ball posture to forcibly twist the rules.
Ever since he'd learned from Mulan Jin's mouth what the Heavenly Court intended—since he knew they wanted this barren land of the Heavenly Domain to quickly become bustling and operational—he had known what he should do. As long as his actions stood on the side of the greater trend, a few shady little tricks wouldn't be enough to break the current situation.
That was why he dared to go all out!
But this time, the massive move to bring in people created a momentum far fiercer than Shi Chun and Young Master Nan had imagined. The tidal wave they personally kicked off almost drowned them to the point they couldn't breathe.
When Dongguo Shou once again came running to Dingnan Prefecture, strolling on the city wall and wandering around with Shi Chun, Young Master Nan arrived, descending from the sky with Feng Chi accompanying him, landing right in front of the two idlers.
This was Dongguo Shou's first time seeing Young Master Nan. Once he heard the title and greeted him, he couldn't help staring at Young Master Nan curiously, sizing him up.
He was curious how someone with that kind of identity and background could have been hanging out with someone of Shi Chun's origins from the very beginning, and even mobilized such a massive amount of resources to lend Shi Chun a hand. It was simply unbelievable.
It was also Young Master Nan's first time meeting Dongguo Shou, but he acted very warm, and with just a few words they were already familiar with each other, even setting up a future visit and such.
After greeting them warmly and making their acquaintance officially, he immediately invited Shi Chun to step aside to talk.
Once the two had moved away from others on the city wall, Shi Chun asked, "What's so important it needs you to come in person?"
Young Master Nan let out a long sigh. "It's not working. We've brought in too many people, it's totally blown up. We're swamped. Who knew a single Heavenly Capital had that many poor folk? I really had no idea before."
Shi Chun was surprised. "Didn't I transfer five thousand men for you to command? That's still not enough? How many more do you want? Just say it, I'll figure something out."
Young Master Nan waved his hand. "Even if you transfer fifty thousand more, it still won't be enough. It's a manpower issue, and not just a manpower issue. The key is this formal citizenship review and confirmation. Right now, Heavenly Capital's side is jammed beyond recognition. My idea is, the review can be delayed. First get everyone sent in, then pen them up in one place and run the procedures step by step. We can digest them slowly that way."
Shi Chun hesitated when he heard this. "That touches on the travel fee for passing through Xun Gate. Only once we've verified they're truly eligible to be naturalized can the introduced migrants enter for free; otherwise Heavenly Capital probably won't let them through. On this kind of matter, my word doesn't count."
Young Master Nan waved again. "This is easy, I'll handle it. For those coming in, we can declare to them beforehand that they have to guarantee there's nothing wrong with themselves. If they dare hide anything, once it's found out, they'll have to make up the travel fee to the Heavenly Court. It's a reasonable, flexible workaround—shouldn't be a big problem to resolve. I'll go find our partners over in Heavenly Capital to follow up. If there's an issue, they need to step up too; they can't take their cut for nothing. And for the reviews, they ought to follow up and speed things up. Another thing is, you need to cooperate on your end, send troops to Xun Gate. Once the large crowds pour in, you're responsible for escorting them over, then finding a place to temporarily pen them in. Otherwise if the people scatter, it'll be hard to clean up."
Shi Chun immediately promised, "That's easy. I'll have Wu Jinliang personally lead the troops to take charge there."
Young Master Nan was amused when he heard that. He glanced back at Dongguo Shou and said, "All the other Commanders follow your orders. Who's the Domain Master here, exactly? No wonder Manxi wanted to mess with you."
Shi Chun didn't want to get into that and asked, "Is that all?"
Young Master Nan instantly put away the joking, shook his folding fan and leaned closer. "There's a bit more I need your help with. Thing is, a whole bunch of poor people are pouring in, and I see you haven't prepared any work for them. Why not let me have the bargain?"
Shi Chun said, "Just say directly what you want to do."
Young Master Nan said, "My subordinates reminded me: this place is great for planting. My trading company already has some related business—large-scale grain planting, Spirit Rice, Spiritual Medicine, Spirit Plants and so on. They can't find anything else to do in the short term; for a while they're solid cheap labor. Instead of letting someone else benefit, better let me benefit. And I can help you settle part of the livelihood problem for the population at the same time."
Isn't that exactly what Zhu Xiangxin mentioned? Shi Chun laughed and said simply, "Sure. Send someone to connect with Feng Chi, that's all."
Young Master Nan added, "I also need land. Large areas of land. Make the rent cheaper."
Shi Chun said, "Pick any place you like. Southern Region, Western Region, Northern—any of them are fine, as long as it's within my territory. Take as much as you want, whichever pieces you want, I'll give. Rent for as many years as you see fit. Land rent will definitely be discounted; you name the price. And for the first ten years the rent is completely waived. Brother Nan, does that satisfy you?"
Young Master Nan's eyes lit up slightly. "Good, good, good. It's just… doing it like this, directly waiving rent—there won't be any trouble, right?"
Shi Chun said, "It's a small matter. Just add it into the reward clauses for introduced population. Say it's to solve their livelihood problems. Relax, I can still make that call. I'll put Feng Chi in the loop; you just arrange for someone to negotiate with Feng Chi."
"Then I won't be polite." Young Master Nan burst out laughing, turned to face the vast world beyond the city wall, spreading his arms and stretching his chest, then planted his hands on his hips and sighed with endless emotion. "Southern Region, Western Region, Northern, all workable—then almost half this Heavenly Domain might as well become my trading company's plantation… If a Spirit Vein pops up under some patch of land, anyone who comes late and wants that land will have to pay a high price to sublet from me, or compensate me heavily."
Shi Chun said, "As long as I can keep my seat, all that's trivial. As long as you don't go crazy, play however you like. I stand by my word."
This was the reward for him being willing to take huge risks to help!
Young Master Nan laughed again, fanning himself with the folding fan. "You mustn't fall. You absolutely mustn't collapse! Brother, I trust you—you have to hold the line. Whatever you want to eat later, I'll grow it for you. Once the Spiritual Energy here gets rich enough, tsk tsk, it'll be something else! No, I can't keep chatting—I need to hurry back and arrange people to survey the terrain, before anyone catches on and gets ahead of us."
Watching the figure urgently fly off, Shi Chun was caught off guard. His raised hand to wave him back paused for a moment and then dropped. He shook his head repeatedly, baffled by what Young Master Nan was rushing for. This was his turf; he could rewrite the rules on the spot to give land to whoever he wanted. As long as Young Master Nan took a fancy to a plot, who could possibly get ahead of him?