The first issue is resource issue. Wangcheng covers a huge area, equivalent to one-fifth of Jiangmeng City. Because this is a mountainous area, it is extremely rich in animal and plant resources. The soil here is very fertile and the microbiome is very active, so there should be good mineral veins produced. As a result, there were no mining sites in Wangcheng, only a few large quarries. The only medium-sized mining field had very few workers and mined very little ore. There were no red ores, only some blue ores.
The second problem is the arsenal problem. In a city as big as Wangcheng, there are not many weapons manufacturing factories, but more grain processing plants, food manufacturing plants, etc.
The third problem is that of soldiers. There don't seem to be many troops in Wangcheng, and construction workers can be seen everywhere. It is estimated that there are tens of thousands of construction workers and porters, and there are dozens of construction buildings, including hospitals, schools, residential buildings, office buildings and other buildings. Every day, dozens of transport trucks bring sofas, tables, beds, pots and pans, clothing and other supplies from the city. There are tens of thousands of people, but only a few thousand troops. Wangcheng's senior officials actually put all their focus on people's livelihood instead of the military.
The envoy also doubted whether it had been tampered with, but it didn't look like it had been tampered with. You know, Wangcheng was holding a large banquet yesterday, and I started investigating early the next morning. I felt that the other party didn't have time to do anything. After all, Wangcheng is so big, it is impossible for them to be so efficient and able to do things in such a short period of time.
Could they dismantle the mining site or arsenal in a short time? Can all soldiers become construction workers in a short period of time? It's impossible no matter how you think about it.
The envoy even randomly asked a few construction workers whether there were so many construction workers in the first place. The answers from the other parties were consistent, that is, there were a lot of workers, and the ones with the most Wangcheng were the workers.
The envoy never imagined that several of the quarries in Wangcheng were originally mining sites, but some temporary adjustments and transformations were made. The messenger was not a professional miner, so he couldn't see the difference at all.
As for the small arsenals and weapons factories in Wangcheng, Su Kouye selected a few factories that were easier to transform and had people manipulate them to temporarily turn them into food processing factories.
In fact, there are many large arsenals and mining sites built deep in the giant forest, which cannot be seen even from the air by helicopter. As long as no one tells it, no one knows the exact location. The envoy could only get a rough idea of the location of the factory by taking a helicopter, and had no time to go directly into the giant forest to check it out.
There are also workers. There are indeed many workers in Wangcheng. Su Kouye did not let the soldiers disguise themselves as workers, because it would be easier to reveal their flaws. He just asked 90% of the soldiers to stay in their dormitories and not go out for the time being, so there didn't seem to be many soldiers in Wangcheng.
In Cai Huadao's office, the envoy and his entourage were sitting on the sofa, looking sad. Cai Huadao, Jiang Feng, and Su Kouye were sitting opposite the envoys. Cai Huadao was talking and laughing while introducing the local specialties of Wangcheng to the envoys.
"That's enough, stop talking about specialties. Is your Wangcheng a farmer's market?"
"No, no, no, the commercial market sounds better." Cai Huadao laughed.
"Okay, no more nonsense, let's get straight to the point." The messenger's expression became extremely serious.
Cai Huadao also stopped smiling after hearing this and sat quietly opposite.
"Since ancient times, local governments have to pay taxes to the central government. You should understand this, right?" the envoy asked.
"I understand, but it doesn't matter."
"Now is the end of the world, and money has no effect. Therefore, the way of paying taxes must also be changed, that is, using blue ore and red ore to replace money. Blue ore is also called Xuanbinghan iron ore, and red ore is also called red basalt ore. This The two minerals are very precious, just like gold. We have made an assessment of Wangcheng's general situation. Your monthly tax is: 1 ton of Xuanbinghan iron ore, 50 soldiers with a combat strength of 20 or above."
"What? 1 ton?" Cai Huadao showed a troubled expression.
"That's right. Based on the scale of Wangcheng, you would have needed 2 tons anyway, but seeing that your ore output is relatively low, it was reduced to 1 ton."
"However, our current inventory is only 0.5 tons."
"It doesn't matter. Let's take this 0.5 tons first and make up for it next month."
"Isn't it bad to take away all our inventory at once?" Cai Huadao said.
"There's nothing you can do about it. Your Wangcheng is so big, it would be ridiculous if you can't even take out this."
"It's not that we won't take it out, but we have to keep some for our own use."
"Stop talking, 0.5 tons must be brought out." The messenger's attitude was very tough.
At this time, Su Kouye took out a small official document box and put it on the table. The briefcase emitted a golden light after it was opened, and the gold inside was dazzling.
"Emissary, there are 15 kilograms of pure gold in this. I wonder if the amount of blue ore can be reduced to 0.4 tons?"
The messenger seemed to be attracted by the bright gold. He touched the shiny gold and smiled. However, he said in a pretentious manner: "This is not good, I am not easy to deal with."
"Why is it so difficult to communicate? As long as you report to the central government that the output of blue ore in Wangcheng is very low, you can communicate well. After all, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and they will not come to see it in person. Isn't this all what you said? Is it the final word?" Su Kouye's rhetoric was very distinctive, and Cai Huadao admired it very much.
The envoy was persuaded and couldn't help but make a calculation in his mind: Although the value of gold is not much higher than that of blue ore, it is certainly not worth exchanging 15 kilograms for 100 kilograms of blue ore. However, in the Imperial Capital, gold can be held by individuals, while blue mines can only be owned by the state and cannot be held by any individual. So for an individual, the value of these 15 kilograms of gold will be better.
"Then, let's reduce the blue ore to 0.4 tons. But you must hand over those 50 soldiers."
"It's okay, but I just don't know how to identify a soldier's combat prowess?"
"This is simple. I brought a specially made dynamometer. Just hold it with your hand. If the grip strength exceeds 20, it means the combat strength exceeds 20."
"Okay, this is easy to handle. It's a pleasure to cooperate." Su Kouye stretched out his hand.
"Haha, it seems that the deputy city lord is good at chatting." The messenger and Su Kou talked and laughed all night and reached an agreement.
That night, Jiang Feng and Su Kouye had an urgent discussion in the office. Now all the performances of the messenger can fully prove that all the previous guesses of the two people were accurate.
"The envoy will return to the Imperial Capital tomorrow. We should take this opportunity to return to the Imperial Capital with the envoy to check the truth." Jiang Feng said to Su Kouye.
"Then who do you think it would be better for us to send? This person must have a certain level of strength and be worthy of our trust."
Just as Su Kouye asked his question, the phone in the office rang.
Jiang Feng stood up and picked up the phone. It was Xiao Jiang Wei.
"Little girl, please forgive me, you have already made several phone calls in one night."
"It's boring, just chat for a few words." Xiao Jiang Wei called on the other end of the phone.
"How about you come to the office and ask Li Ming to come too."
"May I?"
"Well, come on."
"good."
Jiang Wei's "good" was so clear and sweet that Jiang Feng's heart almost melted.
"What do you want the two of them to do?" Su Kouye asked curiously.
"If you don't come, Jiang Wei's calls will be endless."
"She just thinks it's very interesting. In the past two days, Wangcheng's landline phone has just been connected, and Jiang Wei has been calling all kinds of things."
"Yeah, she always does some cute things." Jiang Feng smiled.
"Cute? Is this causing trouble?"
"Nonsense, this is obviously cute."
"Well, well, it's useless to argue with Lolicon over this."
Ten minutes later, Li Ming and Jiang Wei came to the office.
Jiang Wei threw herself on Jiang Feng and sat in his arms. Li Ming walked to the sofa and sat next to Jiang Feng.
"Hey, hey, you're not going to show off your affection in front of me, are you?" Su Kouye felt a little uncomfortable.
"I have something important to tell you."
"What?"
"We are going to the imperial capital, and I want to leave Wangcheng to you."
"What did you say?" Su Kouye was very shocked and couldn't help shouting.
"Didn't you ask who we should send as a representative to the imperial capital to meet the king? It's the three of us. We are going to the imperial capital and leave Wangcheng to you."
"No, no, no, I'm not asking you to repeat this. I don't understand. You want to hand over Wangcheng to me? Aren't you afraid that I will take Wangcheng to myself?"
"You can swallow it if you want." Jiang Feng smiled.
"No way. Hey, Liming, do you trust me?" Su Kouye turned to Liming.
"I listen to Jiang Feng. Besides, I'm not interested in glory and wealth." Li Ming's face was filled with an obvious smile.
Su Kouye suddenly understood that Li Ming and Jiang Wei might have been waiting for this day, because this way Jiang Feng would not have to be busy with Wangcheng's official duties every day, and could have a lot of time to be a good husband and a good father.
"What are you going to do in the imperial capital? Why do I feel like you are going to the imperial capital for some personal matters?"
"Meet the king and investigate the situation in the imperial capital. I think he will be back soon." Jiang Feng said with a smile.
Su Kouye watched Jiang Wei happily rub her head against Jiang Feng's chin and said, "I think we should take Jiang Wei to visit the palace in the imperial capital, and then go find Cui Wei. Look at Jiang Wei, how happy she is. That’s it.”
Jiang Feng smiled, touched Jiang Wei's head, and said softly: "Little Jiang Wei, please control yourself and don't get too excited."
"Would you like to bring a few more people with you?" Su Kouye was a little worried.
"I feel like no one can be better than Li Ming except people from the future."
"That's what I said, but I'm afraid of an accident. Under normal circumstances, no leader would personally enter the tiger's den. I suggest that Tianpeng and Xinhun go together to provide support."
Jiang Feng didn't expect that Su Kouye would care about him, and he couldn't help but be a little surprised.
"Okay, then let's take Tianpeng and Xinhun with us."
