Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1548: Chapter 485: The Panic of the Five Towns, the Beginning of Withdrawal from the Alliance, Tan Rou’s Satisfaction (Part 2)

The Five Towns certainly benefited as well, but how could their individual three hundred plus advanced teams compare with the Great Xia?

Thanks to these continually issued Hunting Orders, the Great Xia’s new products have emerged in endless succession over the past two years. New types of cultivation resources have been constantly put on shelves in the Treasure Tower, demonstrating a development speed that could be described as a thousand miles a day.

The Five Towns have made some progress, but compared to the Great Xia, it’s like comparing night and day.

Speaking of the Ten Thousand Treasures Sub-building, the lords of the Five Towns initially thought that once each town established a sub-building, they could directly purchase Great Xia’s cultivation resources, saving them a trip to Hongmen City. This would reduce transportation costs for the business association and prevent population loss.

However, the result was that the sub-buildings in each town only conducted business with roamers.

In other words, the business transactions still had to be conducted in Hongmen City, while the sub-buildings in the towns only catered to individuals. Somewhat precious cultivation resources were still supplied in limited quantities.

The most cunning part was that the Great Xia set the prices for the supplies at the Hongmen City Treasure Tower headquarters two-tenths cheaper than in any town.

So, neither reducing costs nor preventing population loss worked out as planned for the Five Towns.

On the contrary, the Great Xia used the Ten Thousand Treasures Sub-building over the last two years to continually infiltrate or even instigate defection within the five town cities, causing no end of trouble for the Five Towns.

Of course, they made many countermeasures in between, but in the end, they all failed against the terrifying financial and material resources of the Great Xia.

In the end, having no other choice, they could only halt the operations of the Ten Thousand Treasures Sub-building once again.

Truth be told, the Great Xia truly complied with the demands of the Five Great Lords and directly closed the Treasure Towers in the five towns.

Yet, similar to the situation when the Alliance Hunting Orders were first issued, there was an immediate uproar of public discontent in the Five Towns, with some people moving to settle in Hongmen City, and others simply defecting directly to the Great Xia. The top levels of the Five Towns quickly became alarmed by the situation.

So, the Ten Thousand Treasures Sub-buildings, which had been closed for only ten days, were reopened at the request of the Five Towns lords.

Just adhering to the two covenant terms of submission to the Alliance Hierarch and the clauses promoting strength and military might have already caused the Five Towns great distress, and when all the other detailed terms of the initial covenant are added, they number in the dozens.

Given the Great Xia’s aggressive stance under the guise of the alliance, the situation of the Five Towns over the past two years needs no elaboration.

Yet, retrospectively, the most vicious clauses in the original covenant were the second clause, shared banner in the same boat, and the fourth clause, shared defense against foreign fiefs.

These two clauses were implemented together. The second clause specified that each town would contribute Cold Resistance Level forces to jointly form the allied army; the fourth clause stipulated that the Beishuo Dongchuan district and the area of Yinhe Valley in Jin Mountain would be designated as joint governance zones for the alliance and that the allied army would be stationed there. This is because these two areas serve as the entry points to the Southern Slope Territory for the Chen Cang and Cai Qiu fiefs.

At the beginning two years ago, the allied army totaled only thirty thousand; Great Xia contributed one-third, that is, ten thousand; each of the Northern Three Towns contributed over three thousand, amounting to ten thousand; and the remaining ten thousand were split among the Five Towns, with each providing two thousand.

Under this formation, although the soldiers of Great Xia formed the majority of the allied army, it wasn’t enough to form an overwhelming advantage, so the Five Towns didn’t concern themselves.

However, from April of last year, the situation changed!

The issue began with Cai Qiu and Chen Cang. After learning about the status of the Nine Towns Alliance last April, both fiefs each sent fifteen Xianyang Level experts southward, the intentions of which need no elaboration.

The problem was that the two major districts of Dongchuan and Yinhe Valley were already jointly governed areas of the alliance, so the sudden and ostentatious arrival of so many Xianyang Level experts was immediately detected by the allied forces from both sides.

The reason for the alliance’s establishment among the Nine Towns was to resist foreign fief invasions; how could they possibly allow so many Xianyang Levels from two fiefs to come in?

Alliance Grand Commander Xiang Fuhai of Jinyang City and Alliance Grand Commander Mu Longhe of East River City each led fifteen thousand allied troops to directly block the incoming forces from the two fiefs.

The two sides engaged directly. Although those from the two fiefs were all Xianyang Level experts, given that only fifteen of them came, they couldn’t possibly defeat an ordinary force of fifteen thousand Cold Resistance Level troops, especially since the Great Xia equipped the allied army with Divine Machine Crossbows and Golden Body Pills, these two lethal weapons.

The battle situations in both regions were startlingly similar, with over five Xianyang Level experts from the two fiefs heavily injured, at the cost of about twenty percent casualties.

As a matter of fact, if Yang Zhun and Shangguan Yang hadn’t received the news and rushed over to mediate, the Xianyang Levels of the two fiefs would have likely suffered fatalities.

Though the sides ceased at that moment, a deep-seated grudge was thus formed.

The Xianyang Levels of the two fiefs, each prideful and disdainful towards the inhabitants of the Nine Towns of the Southern Slope, could not possibly let go after suffering such a loss; Yang Zhun and Shangguan Yang came from afar, not to aid but to mediate, violating the terms of the alliance agreement. How the Great Xia reacted thereafter needs no further explanation.

It’s worth mentioning that after rescuing the Xianyang Levels from the two fiefs, Yang Zhun and Shangguan Yang spent a period of time feeling quite uneasy, fearing that Xia Hong would seize the opportunity to create trouble since they were the ones who breached the agreement first.

Yet, after waiting two or three days with no reaction from the Great Xia, the two of them thought Xia Hong might be afraid of Chen Cang and Cai Qiu, gradually feeling less apprehensive.

However, as the news of this incident quickly spread across the Southern Slope Territory and continued to ferment, the situation completely changed.

No need to mention the considerations of the high-level officials regarding the actions of Beishuo and Jin Mountain’s betrayal of the alliance principles. Among the populace, without exception, there was nothing but reproaches, criticizing the town lords for supporting outsiders.