CH 56

Carter and Fez were on a ship. They had come here to reminisce about their old territory as they will soon be leaving the western lands.

“Ha ha ha…” Carter and Fez couldn’t help but laugh when they saw all the wheat on the banks, attracting strange looks from other people on the ship.

“Lord father, these will all be our spoils of war 10 days later,” Fez said, pointing to the wheat.

“Consider it as compensation for taking care of this territory for years. They won’t blame us.” Carter said with a cold smile. He knew that horse thieves were going to rob this place 10 days later. He had only come here today to reminisce about the place and then leave for a better life elsewhere. After all, people would always want to see the place they had grown up in when they grew old as it brings back some of their memories. At least, that was the reason he had given to other people.¹

“Lord Father, is the information we got correct? Is that Liu Feng really rebuilding Xi Yang City? He isn’t just trying to make things worse, is he?” Fez asked in a small voice.

“Although I don’t understand why he’s making a big move before the cold Winter, the killing of the food merchants and the commerce with Bei Feng City shows that Liu Feng isn’t stupid- rather, he’s a smart and ruthless person.” The real reason he had come here was that he had felt that he could make a profit. There was no way he had actually come here to reminisce about the place as he was sick of Xi Yang City.

“Do you think that Bei Feng City caught wind of something?” Fez asked in a small voice as he looked around warily.

“It’s possible,” Carter said, nodding and looking at the dock of Xi Yang City. “If Bei Feng City gets news about the horse thieves, there’s a high chance they will smuggle their supplies over to Xi Yang City, and then…”

Fez understood. If Bei Feng City really cooperated with Xi Yang City, then Xi Yang City would become a lot more valuable and they would be able to earn as much wealth as the horse thieves do when they rob Xi Yang City, especially since they didn’t have to share the spoils with Omar. Of course, the premise was that their speculations were true. Only then would the riches be at their disposal after they took back Xi Yang City.

“Will Baron Omar notice anything? He might make a move against us if he doesn’t get enough profit,” Fez said worriedly.

“Don’t worry, I have a solution,” Carter said with a cold smile. But he first had to confirm the truth of the matter before he made a decision.

The You Shui River was a river that flowed out from the Forbidden Mountain Range. It was a few dozen meters wide and many smaller rivers flowed out from it. Xi Yang City was right next to one of these rivers, so it had a small port where many ships could dock.

Carter and Fez got off the ship with their guards and walked right into Xi Yang City. Their disguise was simple- they just put on some mustaches made from their head and wrapped their head in cloth. That was pretty much the disguise of this era, and it was quite effective as many of the citizens didn’t recognize them.

Carter and Fez were stunned when they went inside the city. What the heck is happening? Are these untouchables crazy? Not only did they demolish their houses, they even used wood and mud to create new houses. Can people even live in these houses? Won’t they just collapse from a simple rain?

They got more and more surprised as they walked through the roads. There were striking noises from all over the inside of the two-story houses. The former narrow, dirty, and smelly road had turned into a wider and cleaner one, and the ground was much harder and sturdier than before. There were also trees planted on both sides of the road. Although the trees didn’t have any leaves, it was easy to imagine how beautiful the trees would be when spring came and the trees grew back their leaves.

What caught Carter’s and Fez’s eyes the most were the commoners. Not only were they working diligently and quickly, but they were also laughing and chatting while doing so. They had never seen such a thing. When Carter had conscripted people to work in the past, the people worked so slow that it was as if they were old men. Not only that, they had depressed expressions on their faces as if one of their relatives or loved ones had died.

“Did Liu Feng cast some kind of sorcery? How could they be so happy while working?” Fez said in disbelief.

Carter had an ugly expression on his face. He thought he had treated them pretty well before as he had given them a bowl of wheat to eat every day to work for him. He didn’t believe that Liu Feng would have enough wheat to pay them a salary. He had seen thousands of people working and estimated that Liu Feng would be bankrupt within three or four days if he gave everyone a bowl of wheat every day.

“You, get over here,” Carter said, pointing to one of the passing commoners.

The commoner looked at the clothes of the people in Carter’s group and immediately realized they were of a higher status than him, so he obediently went over. “You called me?”

“Are you guys working for the city lord?” Carter asked with a dark expression.

“Yes, everyone is working for Lord City Lord,” the commoner said with a smile, pointing to the people around him.

“Why are you so happy to be working? Does the city lord give you a salary?” Fez asked.

“Of course he does, Lord City Lord is a good noble,” the commoner said, looking at Carter strangely. He didn’t know why, but he felt that these people were familiar.

“Impossible! There’s no way the city lord can afford to pay everyone to work!” Carter said angrily. He did not believe the commoner. “Are you lying to us? Or has the city lord tricked you?”

“It’s true! Lord City Lord pay us with wheat! The Lord wouldn’t cheat on us!” the commoner shouted. “You’re not allowed to speak ill of Lord City Lord! He’s the best noble in the world! Let me tell you, there used to be a noble called Carter. The only thing he did was exploit us! Not only did he only give us one bowl of wheat every day to work for him, but the bowl was also only half full! Many people fainted from hunger! And he would just pour cold water on everyone!”

“Lord City Lord is much better than Carter! He’s a dozen times better than Carter! Not only did he give us food to eat, but he also killed the food merchants for us….” Then the commoner kept saying good things about Liu Feng, making Fez and Carter so pissed their faces changed color.

They were angry because not only did people speak badly about them, it was done right in front of them! However, they didn’t dare to refute anything as there were a lot of civilians glaring at them with eyes saying that they will beat them up if they spoke badly about Liu Feng.

Translator’s Notes:

¹ Author didn’t write that, I added that sentence to make things less confusing.

I should mention that I’ve been adding and removing and omitting some sentences to make the novel a bit less confusing and more readable.