Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1782: Chapter 568: Loss, Ecstasy, and Emotion (Part 2)

At this moment, it was nighttime, and unexpectedly, the villagers gathered in droves at the entrance of the village. They were huddled together, layers upon layers, encircling something. Because it was so far away, he couldn’t see clearly at first.

Su Lie was guarding the outside with a few people from Qingtan Village, and waved to greet him upon seeing him return.

Fan Kong immediately left the team and went forward. He keenly noticed that the villagers’ faces were glowing with excitement, and their pupils were full of enthusiasm, as if they had encountered something joyful. He felt puzzled.

The outskirts were full of villagers from River Valley Village, and upon seeing the village chief coming, they quickly made way for a passage.

“Brother Su, what’s going on…”

Following the path inside, Fan Kong asked Su Lie about his intention. However, before he could finish his sentence, as he saw clearly what the crowd was gathered around, he was immediately stunned, with a face full of disbelief.

It turned out that what the crowd was encircling were ten giant iron wheel carts.

The size was termed giant because each iron wheel cart was twenty meters long, five meters wide, and from the wheels to the body, it was obviously made of pure iron, and seemingly Ten Forged Iron, with an extremely high load capacity.

Such large pure iron cargo carts, though quite shocking, what truly made him dumbfounded were the materials loaded on the iron wheel carts.

The first eight carts were packed with bundles of lustrous blue meat strips, which were clearly Cold Beast Meat. It’s known that the surface area of these iron wheel carts is large, and the meat strips not only covered the cart body but were piled up to a height of five or six meters. By his rough estimate, each cart loaded with beast meat weighed at least two hundred thousand pounds.

Eight carts, totaling over one million six hundred thousand pounds!

The ninth cart was loaded with twenty wooden barrels, and one barrel had already been placed on the ground with its lid open. Fan Kong could distinctly smell the scent of Beast Blood inside.

Therefore, these twenty wooden barrels were all filled with Beast Blood!

The tenth cart carried mostly decorative vessels, although it wasn’t clear what they contained, but judging from the contents of the first nine carts, it could be guessed.

Crucially, one box wasn’t tightly closed, and through the gap, Fan Kong could see exquisite small porcelain bottles of different colors inside.

These exquisite small porcelain bottles were visibly meant to contain valuable Cultivation Elixirs.

“Hmm…”

If the massive amount of beast meat and Beast Blood on the first nine carts was enough to leave Fan Kong breathless, the rare materials on the tenth cart would be enough to drive him to frenzy.

Only now did he realize why the village people were all gathered here, with each one of them looking so excited.

Sometimes, ignorance is bliss!

The villagers’ attention was entirely focused on the beast meat and Beast Blood because they simply didn’t know that the tenth cart held the real treasure, likely more valuable than the contents of the first nine carts put together.

“Brother Su, what are these things…”

Fan Kong, although extremely excited, still tried to bring himself back to consciousness. Several Xia Army soldiers were stationed beside the ten large carts, clearly indicating these materials were transported by the Xia Army.

It’s impossible for Great Xia to give them so many things for no reason, so he directly asked Su Lie.

“Brother Fan, I’m just responsible for escorting them. For details, wait until Lord Bai comes out of the main building and he’ll explain everything to you.”

“Lord Bai?”

Su Lie hurriedly nodded, was about to introduce, when at this moment, a middle-aged man wearing brown summer clothes, led by a dozen soldiers, came over from within the village.

“Bai Wuting, Lord Bai, is one of the five chiefs of the Camp Supply Department within the Eight Divisions of Great Xia. I’ve heard that the city construction in Guangning is under his charge, and he’s escorted these materials here with three thousand troops.”

Su Lie led Fan Kong to meet up, while quietly introducing the identity of the newcomer.

Upon hearing this, Fan Kong’s expression immediately became solemn. These past days, he had gone to great lengths to gather many useful pieces of information. The highest rank in Great Xia, of course, was Lord Xia Hong, under the lord, the minister of state governs, with the Eight Departments performing their duties. The Eight Departments Director and Deputy Director are considered the highest-ranking officials under the minister, and Bai Wuting is one of the five chiefs of the Camp Supply Department, thus his status is only next to the Deputy Director.

In his view, Bai Wuting was already an extraordinary figure.

“Humble individuals pay respects to the chief!”

Before Bai Wuting got close, Su Lie, along with Fan Kong, both respectfully knelt down, directly paying homage.

“Stand up, stand up, Great Xia does not encourage kneeling, except towards the lord and birth parents, no kneeling is required towards anyone. If you didn’t know, it’d be forgivable, but Su Lie, didn’t I explain it to you already?”

Seeing the two kneeling down to greet him, Bai Wuting’s face instantly showed helplessness. Dodging aside, he immediately helped them up.

The helplessness was because, such scenes, he had encountered almost every time passing through the fifteen villages south of Green Jade Valley. Initially, perhaps there was a sense of cultural superiority among civilized men seeing foreign barbarians, but after repeated encounters it was just like this. Moreover, having been reminded by Qiu Sizheng earlier at the main building, his mindset was already calm, and he no longer viewed people in Green Jade Valley as some kind of foreign barbarians.

After Su Lie stood up he felt a bit embarrassed, as Qingtan Village is at the southernmost end of Green Jade Valley, so he was the first to receive Bai Wuting’s convoy. Upon first meeting, he naturally followed Cai Qiu’s customs and knelt down, though Bai Wuting did remind him back then.

“Alright, I won’t say too much useless talk. These ten cartloads of materials are only the first batch. We at Great Xia are to station troops and build a city here. Subsequently, there will be a continuous supply of materials escorted over. These materials are mainly to provide for the army, but part will also be allocated for recruiting city construction labor. You are considered Xia people now, and must follow Great Xia’s rules for labor service…”