Chapter 118 Cost Control
When Wagner saw the town hall courtyard filled with about two hundred undead, his face turned a little ugly.
Having personally fought against this group of undead, he was of course very clear about their fighting power - slightly stronger than a middle-aged farmer with a pitchfork, which was about the same level as those thieves in the gang.
But if you add to that the qualities that even top-tier soldiers may not have, such as not being afraid of pain, not caring about death, and never collapsing no matter how many of their companions are killed, then it's terrifying...
As they were all prisoners at the moment, there was no room for refusal. Wagner took a deep breath and led his brothers into the yard.
The clothes they wore seemed to work. Not only were the undead not hostile to them, they even made way for them.
Wagner heard the soldiers behind him sighing softly. Apparently, even though several days had passed, they were still traumatized by these undead spirits...
Wagner sighed inwardly, forced himself to be strong, and strode towards the main entrance of the town hall.
In the town hall, Yang was asking a female clerk something. Wagner led the soldiers in and heard Yang say to the female clerk, "...Let Hal arrest the people and put them in the militia first."
"Okay, Mr. Lord." The female clerk with a large blue birthmark on her face hesitated, as if she had something difficult to say, "And... that..."
"No need to announce the charges." Yang Qiu said calmly, "Just tell the public that someone reported that guy's past crimes."
"Okay, Mr. Lord, I'll go and inform Mr. Maxwell right away." Mia bowed gratefully.
Wagner slightly turned sideways to make way for Mia who was leaving in a hurry, and couldn't help but look at her curiously.
There was a particularly ugly female clerk in the city hall. Wagner had heard of this a few times when he was running errands, but this was the first time he had seen her in person.
This lady was certainly not beautiful, but to say she was ugly was also an exaggeration. If she came from a better family, the birthmark on her face could be washed away with alchemical potions.
"Wagner, come here." Yang waved his hand and motioned Wagner to follow him into the room.
Wagner nodded, turned around and motioned for the soldiers to stay in the hall first, and followed Yang into the conference room on the first floor alone.
Yang put a map of Westram's territory on the table and pointed to the lake in the southeast. "Lakeside Village is a village next to Horseshoe Lake. There are 56 households and 321 villagers in total. A day ago, a caravan from the Sorenson Mountains passed by here. They attacked Lakeside Village and detained all the villagers. I ask you and our undead friends to rescue the villagers and capture the caravan members alive. Can you do it?"
When Wagner heard that the caravan from the Sorenson Mountains would be interested in such a remote village, he instinctively felt that Yang was playing a trick on him... Then he thought of the undead cloth that was better than Kenyan cloth, and then he changed his mind and said, "...I will do my best."
Yang raised his eyelids and looked at him, then said, "Capture three mercenaries alive, and I will let one of your soldiers go."
Wagner was shocked: "?!"
"According to the spies, this group of mercenaries from the southern border has more than a hundred people. You can at least fight for the freedom of most of your soldiers." Yang said slowly, "Our undead friends will be your powerful arms, and you can control them to a certain extent. They are indeed far less obedient than your soldiers, but I think you should understand their advantages best."
The city defense army is Innadeli's security line. The Bartles family knows very well what kind of soldiers this army needs, and they only hire local boys from good families. Yang Qiu has thought about these soldiers before, but after some observation, he couldn't bring himself to do it, so he let these soldiers be model prisoners in the militia... If he changed them to mercenaries, Yang Qiu would not have so many concerns.
Wagner struggled briefly inwardly... and then nodded.
The soldiers had no idea why they came to Westram. Before the action, they didn't even know whether Wagner's order came from the Captain or Adela III.
Others may not understand, but Wagner understands it best...Neither the Third nor the Captain can pay the ransom for any soldier.
After all, these soldiers are nothing more than consumables. Even if all of them were killed, the captain would probably only be heartbroken over the loss of their equipment and horses, while Adela III would probably only care about whether he would lose face as a result.
The only person who can be rescued is probably the attendant who is related to the captain...
Yang smiled and took out a contract written on parchment for Wagner to sign. He then asked Wagner to take the document out and have the soldiers who were following him put their fingerprints on it. These soldiers all had semi-professional strength, and in order to prevent someone from escaping during the operation, they had to be restrained by the laws of language.
"If you want to command our undead friends, you need to wear this." After completing the contract, Yang took out a badge in the shape of a rhododendron and handed it to Wagner. "Before that, please listen to my advice. If you don't want to lose your mind, it's best not to delve into the thoughts, words, and actions of the undead."
Wagner nodded seriously. He certainly would not try to understand the thoughts of the dark creatures.
"Finally... it was the assistance provided by me." When Yang said this, the space next to him suddenly twisted, and another Yang suddenly appeared.
The two Yangs looked at the surprised Wagner with the same calm attitude. One of the Yangs spoke up, "I will be hidden by your side. When you need my assistance, just hold the badge and call my name."
The other Yang continued, "My phantom will only respond to my call once, so please consider carefully."
Wagner looked left at Yang on his right, then right at Yang on his left, and swallowed, "I understand."
Wagner was aware of the illusionist's projection, but... perhaps because Yang was too close to his projection, Wagner couldn't tell the difference in aura between the two.
The two Yangs smiled slightly, and one of them disappeared as suddenly as he appeared.
Wagner left the room. Yang Qiu looked at the number of players who had rushed to the town hall compound in the brand matrix and sent out the task:
"Lakeside Village Crisis"
"An illegal armed group from the south has kidnapped the villagers of Lakeside Village. Please assist Captain Wagner Pitt in repelling and capturing the enemy and rescuing the villagers."
“This mission will be rewarded in a campaign system. The reputation gained will be uniformly distributed to participating players according to their individual contributions after the mission. Players are requested to work together and forge ahead bravely!”
"One: For every mercenary group member you successfully capture, you will receive 200 points of territory reputation."
"Two: For every caravan member you successfully capture, you will gain 50 points of territory reputation."
"Three: Every time you successfully kill an enemy, you will gain 10 points of territory reputation."
"Four: Each time you successfully rescue a villager, you will gain 100 points of territory reputation."
"Five: If you accidentally injure friendly forces or hinder or contain friendly forces' actions, the corresponding reputation will be deducted depending on the size of the loss."
"The death penalty will be cancelled during the territory defense war. All players who die in the defense war can be resurrected immediately."
The enemy this time is not necessarily stronger than the fully armed city defense cavalry, but they have more people, they have hostages, and there are nearly 200 caravan members causing trouble. In order to ensure the success rate of the natural disasters, Yang Qiu has to continue to be a resurrection power bank... Anyway, he has abundant magic power now, so the players can do whatever they want.
"Once this group of tools are in place, the road can be built."
After issuing the task, Yang Qiu calmly took out the account book and began to calculate the materials to be prepared...
Due to the principle of "what is unknowable cannot be seen", the contract formed by the "laws of language" cannot restrict ordinary people.
If professional warriors issue a curse, they must pay the corresponding price, either their life or their soul.
It is completely ineffective for ordinary people to curse someone, and they don't have to pay any price... This is what is called the pros and cons.
If the more than one thousand reserve laborers detained in the militia are to be released to build roads, they must be supervised by someone. The best "supervisors" are, of course, tools that are bound by the "laws of language" - they have to sleep in the open air, work hard on the project, and endure harassment from players. Mercenaries are just the right people to do this job.
With the help of modern engineering equipment, it is not a big problem to build a railway from Westham to Exile Town.
To lay the steel rails needed for the railway, we used wood to exchange for abandoned old green railway rails from the Earth (there are more abandoned railway tracks in the country than one can imagine. There are several in Province G, but due to local financial problems, they have to be shelved. After all, demolition requires manpower).
The stone for paving the road could be obtained locally, and there was enough mountainous land in Westham and Tarantyn to open quarries.
The equipment needed for the stations at both ends, the dispatching center, the electrical components of the related signal lights, cables, etc. were paid for with the material costs of the helmets and the gold seized when Westram was captured before.
As for hiring townspeople, Rex would have to worry about paying their wages; the criminals would be paid for free, with just meals provided.
If it were on Earth, building a two or three hundred kilometer railway would cost at least several hundred million. In Yang Qiu's case, he was planning to get it done within a few million anyway...
“We need cheaper and larger fast food options.”
After calculating the budget required for each place for more than half an hour, Yang Qiu closed his notebook, stroked his chin and pondered for a while, then opened a time and space rift on the spot, returned to the Earth plane, and called the meat processing factory that he had contacted to supply low-priced frozen dumplings.
In the past half month, the salesman from the meat processing factory happily sold a lot of unsold private label dumplings to Yang Qiu. He was very happy to receive Yang Qiu's call. He called him brother affectionately and wanted to invite Yang Qiu to have a drink to deepen their relationship. When he heard that Yang Qiu wanted to place an order for more frozen dumplings, his face almost cracked with smiles - until he heard Yang Qiu's offer.
"This won't do, brother. You know our meat processing plant already has low profits. Who can bear it if you cut it in half?" On the other end of the line, the meat processing plant's salesperson's voice began to tremble.
"What's wrong? Just control the cost!" Yang Qiu said calmly to the phone, "We don't need pork all the time. You can use whatever meat is cheap, chicken, duck, or fish will do. The flour doesn't need to be so fine. Add more cornmeal. Feed corn is so cheap. Wouldn't the cost be reduced?"
"This is really not okay. It needs to comply with national standards—"
"Just be flexible! We're not buying it from the market, just bring it directly to me after it's off the production line!"
"But……"
"No need for packaging or labeling, I will return the foam boxes to you for reuse!"
"but……"
"Save the packaging, transportation and marketing expenses, and control the costs. If you still can't make it, then you are not sincere!"
"Can……"
“Pay in cash!”
"……All right."
