Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1613: Chapter 508: Xia Army Main Tent, the Father and Son Bringing News

The Ice Abyss is cold both day and night, but when compared, it is even colder during the day.

The low temperatures during the day are secondary; the key issue is the cold light emitted by the cold sun above, which is extremely invasive to skin membranes. Before the human skin membrane is formed, exposure to the cold sun means instant death.

During the war, the Northern Five Towns dare not declare a complete lockdown of their territories. However, key towns directly governed like Baimu City and important large strongholds are basically in a state of closure. Activities like gathering, hunting, and transportation have all ceased.

Intelligence is the key to determining the outcome of the war. This principle is understood not just by Great Xia but by the Northern Five Towns… no, it should now be the Northern Four Towns, and they of course understand this too.

Unfortunately, the Northern Four Towns lack the manpower that Great Xia has, and being on the defensive, they naturally don’t have much energy to interfere with the transmission of information in the wilderness.

Speaking of this, one must mention that the Northern Four Towns’ control over their territories is on a completely different scale compared to Great Xia.

Take Beishuo as an example. The control the town holds over its seven districts is actually extremely loose. This boils down to just two measures: one is setting up large military camps in the central areas of the seven districts; the other is collecting tributes from village-level camps in all districts every six months.

This model has long destined that the vast majority of camps have virtually no centripetal force towards Beishuo.

Of course, the idea of focusing on the big picture and neglecting the small details does have its reasoning.

Beishuo’s seven districts comprise at most 80 village-level camps, with a total population that’s quite large, definitely over a million.

The problem is that among this population of a million, those at the Cold Resistance Level might not even reach 500, even if this were doubled to 1,000, what significance would it have for Beishuo Town?

Great Xia had established the rule long ago that the higher one’s cultivation, the more hunting and gathering tasks they must undertake. Except for minors under fifteen, no one in Great Xia can reap rewards without working.

Not all camps operate like Great Xia. Humans are inherently lazy; once life gets comfortable and status goes up, it’s hard to convince someone to risk their life battling Cold Beasts as they once did.

The Moao Calendar marks a full 136 years. That is to say, besides Great Xia, the towns of the Southern Slope have existed for about a century. Why has no large town’s population surpassed a million yet?

To put it plainly, it is because the towns do not want to support such large populations.

It is unwillingness rather than inability!

A large population means consuming a large amount of resources, and in harsh environments like the Ice Abyss, resources don’t just fall from the sky.

Cold Beasts need to be hunted down, spiritual medicines need harvesting, minerals need mining… all kinds of resources require effort and sometimes risking lives to obtain.

When people are at a low point, their fighting spirit is undeniable, but once they’ve achieved their initial accumulation and their status climbs, convincing them to work as hard as before becomes increasingly difficult.

Instead of sheltering everyone within the town and wearing oneself out, it’s better to regularly collect resources from them in the form of tributes, thereby gaining benefits without doing much work, only needing to provide some level of protection and absorb any occasionally rising talents into the town. This way, it maintains the town’s superior status for the long term, effectively manages control over the territory, and allows the town to continue developing on a path focusing on elite development. This is seen as a triple win.

Not just Beishuo thinks this way. One could say that the fact that the Nine Towns in the Southern Slope Territory have coexisted for a hundred years is due to the mindset that almost all nine towns share.

Of course, this concept was first proposed by Yang Zhun. The specific measure taken was known as the Beishuo Inspection System, which the other eight towns later adopted.

Back when Xia Hong first set foot in the Beishuo territory, he analyzed the pros and cons of this system. When the town’s power is insufficient, resources relatively scarce, and yet the overall territory size is too large, it is definitely applicable.

But as soon as one of these three factors changes slightly, adjustments must be made immediately. Otherwise, it will severely hamper the town’s development. Once institutional inertia sets in, it can cause the entire town to become ossified, seemingly still growing in strength but already lifeless inside.

The current grand battle occurring in the Northern Land is probably the perfect illustration of what Xia Hong spoke of back then.

………

A mile north of Baimu City, thirty giant black military tents are arranged in a ring on the snowfield, surrounding a central wooden lookout tower.

The lookout tower stands fifty meters tall, and at its top, a golden square Kui-patterned grand banner flutters in the wind. During the day, the bold black “Xia” character in the middle of the flag is resplendent and eye-catching.

Like Mu Longhe’s army at the Central Yang camp, the lookout tower is also built atop a wooden main tent. However, this main tent is thirty meters long, twice the size of Mu Longhe’s.

On the south side of the main tent, nineteen-year-old Hong Yang, alongside his father Hong Fan, walks behind an armored soldier, heading towards the main tent.

Unlike his father’s slightly anxious and nervous demeanor, Hong Yang’s eyes are filled with curiosity as he walks, continually observing his surroundings. Upon seeing the main tent and especially the young soldiers outside clad in black and silver armor, his eyes reveal a clear look of envy.

“The Dongchuan Alliance Army’s main tent… the soldiers guarding it must be the elite of the elite, yet they seem to be about my age…”