Endless Winter: My Camp Infinite Upgrades

Chapter 548 Suhe in Qingtan Village: Corvée Labor and Reunion

On the second day of the first month of the 300th year of the Caiqiu calendar, at night...

South of Qinghua City in Baishui County, deep in Changqing Valley, lies Qingtan Village.
"My lord, all 13 Cold Resistance level warriors, including the village chief, and 629 Earth Digging level warriors have been mobilized. The village simply can't spare any able-bodied men. We don't even have hunters now, and we can't feed ourselves by gathering. The village doesn't have much food left. If this continues, I'm afraid people will starve to death!"

Su He, the forty-three-year-old son of Su Lie, the village chief of Qingtan Village, was hunched over and kneeling in front of five armored soldiers. He bowed and apologized with a bitter expression on his face. Even though the five soldiers did not look at him once, he could only smile obsequiously and be extremely humble.

Although Changqing Valley is Caiqiu's territory, Caiqiu has never paid much attention to this place. The entire Changqing Valley covers an area of ​​about 8000 square kilometers and has a population of more than 120 million, but only less than 6000 people have been registered as citizens.

After deducting the 70,000 to 80,000 slaves and those of low social status, the remaining more than one million people were all unregistered individuals without even a place of origin.

What is an unregistered person?
Without a proper identity, one is not even qualified to enter the major cities under Caiqiu's jurisdiction, nor can one move freely within the territory. Hunting and gathering can only be done in the surrounding areas, and one must do so secretly. If discovered by a registered person, they have the right to kill you directly.

It can be said that Changqing Valley is a piece of land abandoned by Caiqiu.

The reason for this is inseparable from the terrain of Evergreen Valley itself.

Changqing Valley is located on the north side of Mo'ao Mountain. Normally, given its proximity to such a resource-rich area as Mo'ao Mountain, Changqing Valley should be highly valued. However, unfortunately, both the east and west sides of Changqing Valley are fault zones.

What is a fault zone?
It was a sudden collapse of the mountain without any buffer. What a majestic mountain Mo'ao Mountain is! Its collapse was naturally earth-shattering.

The mountain walls on the east and west sides of Changqing Valley are at least 10,000 meters high, and some are 20,000 to 30,000 meters high. The highest point is unknown. Such a terrifying fractured terrain means that there is not a single entrance to the valley, which covers an area of ​​more than 8,000 square kilometers.

Changqing Valley certainly has mountains, water, cold beasts, and various plant resources, but compared to Mo'ao Mountain, it is far inferior.

Caiqiu covers an area of ​​120,000 square kilometers and has many resource-rich areas. Changqing Valley is just a small place. If it weren't for the fact that the Bone-Eating Path connects it to the southern foothills, it would probably never have been noticed.

The consequence of neglecting this is the lack of support from stronger figures.

The underlying logic of survival and development in the Ice Abyss human camp is actually that the strong lead the weak. Without strong people to guide the way and seize top-level resources for the camp, the ordinary people below, no matter how numerous or talented, can only reach the level of cold-resistant at best.

Evergreen Valley is probably like this.

Caiqiu did not pay attention to it. Of the more than one million people in the whole valley, only about 80,000 were registered as citizens. Among them, more than 90% were registered as slaves or as lowly people. As a result, there was no way to talk about development.

For many years, Caiqiu has basically left Changqing Valley to its own devices, handing it over to Qinghua City of Baishui County for management.

Qinghua City was basically left unmanaged. Apart from setting up slave villages in the largest areas of the valley, the rest of the city was completely ignored.

It's obvious that Caiqiu was a powerful military region with extremely high productivity and abundant resources. Why would they bother with Changqing Valley, a region with relatively scarce resources and a low-quality population?

To be honest, these unregistered residents of Changqing Valley weren't living too badly. After all, no one was in charge, which meant they had a relatively high degree of freedom. Although they couldn't enjoy the various precious resources of the vassal states, as long as they guarded their own little plot of land, even if there wasn't much prospect for development, at least they wouldn't go hungry.

However, in recent years, the situation has gradually changed.

Important figures from the vassal states often travel south via the Bone-Eroding Road, reportedly heading to some southern foothills region. Su He was initially quite pleased, as the continuous arrival of these important figures indicated that Evergreen Valley was likely to attract the attention of higher-ups.

But before the high-ranking officials of the regional military governorship could take it seriously, the bad news spread first.

Legend has it that there is a powerful and monstrous creature called General Black Wind in the Bone-Eating Path. Anyone who wants to pass through the Bone-Eating Path must pay him a toll, and this toll is a human life.

The fact that he was strange and bloodthirsty was no secret in Caiqiu, so as soon as the news spread, everyone believed it to be 70-80% true.

Furthermore, considering that in the past few years, whenever an important person came, a group of young people would be conscripted from various villages, supposedly to be taken to the county town to work as long-term laborers, but none of those young people have returned to this day, this rumor can basically be confirmed.

Those powerful figures clearly lured away the able-bodied men from various villages and then used them as tolls to pay the monsters.

The news only spread completely at the end of last year. When Su He and his father Su Lie first heard it, they remained silent for a long time.

The reason is simple: four years ago, a similar situation occurred in their village. Several soldiers from the county guards came up and asked to recruit 500 people under the age of 25 to work as farm laborers in the county town. The villagers were overjoyed to hear this, and all 500 spots were immediately snapped up.

Of those 500 people, a small portion escaped and recounted everything that happened in the Bone-Eating Path that year. So, Su He and his father, Su Lie, actually knew about it four years ago.

But even if you know, it's useless!
Their spreading such news will only bring trouble to Qingtan Village. After all, a village like theirs, full of unregistered residents, can be wiped out with a wave of the hand in the eyes of those big shots in Qinghua City.

That's right!

In the entire Qingtan Village, there wasn't a single registered citizen, not even a slave or a person of low social status.

Of course, including the village chief, who is also Su Lie, there are 13 people in Qingtan Village who are of the Cold Resistance level. In theory, it would be easy to become a slave or a lowly person. However, Su Lie is ambitious and does not want to go to Qinghua City to become a slave or engage in lowly occupations. He is also too weak to become a civilian, so he simply stays in Qingtan Village and leads the more than 20,000 people in the village to make a living.

Qingtan Village has a fairly good sense of cohesion. Although some Yuhan-level members have left over the years, the village has generally maintained its strength and is among the top in the surrounding dozen or so villages.

Of course, even if Qingtan Village ranks first in strength, it is probably insignificant in the eyes of the big shots in the vassal states.

Even ordinary people have their own survival wisdom. Four years ago, after learning about the Black Wind General of the Bone-Eating Path and confirming that the summons from those powerful figures in the vassal states were all meant to send people to their deaths, Qingtan Village stopped trusting anyone. Even when the county guards came several times later, the village chief, Su Lie, would hide all the young men immediately and then cry and shout in front of the county guards that the camp had been destroyed. In this way, he managed to avoid several disasters.

But this year's draft is a little different.

The night before last, these five county guards suddenly came to the door, wanting to conscript young men from the village to serve in preparation for the southward march of Caiqiu's army.

Because the five arrived so quickly, Father Su Lie didn't have time to react. The five were also extremely forceful, ordering all the villagers at the Cold Resistance and Earth Digging levels to come out. Helpless, Father Su Lie had no choice but to lead everyone over.

Su He was initially a little worried, after all, there was that incident four years ago. But after personally going to the conscription site and seeing his father and others actually serving alongside the people conscripted from various villages, he was finally relieved.

And serving in the military meant clearing the snow tracks.

The cleared snow path was extremely large, and considering that the county garrison soldiers said it was in preparation for the southward-bound army, it was clearly intended for the soldiers' marching.

At this point, even if he stayed in the village, Su He could basically guess that Cai Qiu was going to launch a military campaign against the southern foothills.

"In the sixteen villages around Qingyugou alone, nearly 10,000 people have been conscripted. In the entire Changqing Valley, there are probably no less than 100,000 laborers. With 100,000 people working together, what snow path can't be cleared? And they still want to conscript more people..." Su He was smiling obsequiously at this moment, but in his heart he was cursing.

Having grown up under the influence of his father Su Lie, he developed an extreme aversion to the high-ranking officials of Caiqiu. He wished he could tear these five ruthless county guards to pieces, but lacking the strength to do so, he could only submit and act subserviently.

He didn't know how many troops Cai Qiu had sent south, but these five county guards had taken his father and 13 other soldiers of the Cold Protection rank, as well as all the villagers from the village, away the day before yesterday. Now they were coming to his door again, saying they wanted to continue to recruit able-bodied men.

Qingtan Village has a total population of over 20,000. Most of the Cold Resistance level Earth Digging Realm cultivators have left, and the remaining able-bodied men are all only at the Wood Cutting Realm.

Storing food is something only powerful camps have. Lower-level camps like Qingtan Village don't have enough food most of the time. They can only store some meat when the hunting team has a good harvest.

The night before last, my father left with the village's pillar of support. The village immediately activated its reserve supplies. Su He calculated that these supplies would only last for about ten days at most.

The problem is that after these county guards conscripted people, they didn't say when the corvée would end. What will happen to the villagers if my father and the others don't return after ten days?
So Suhe started thinking of a solution yesterday. After nightfall, he took the village's experienced lumberjacks out to collect fruit, hoping to store up more food to last until his father and the others returned.

But only a day later, the county guards came again demanding his return.

While Su He's mind was racing, the five county guards still didn't even glance at him, no matter how much he smiled obsequiously.

The leading soldier turned to look at him one last time, his eyes filled with disdain and contempt.

"Bold..."

His voice wasn't very loud, but as he spoke, he subtly mobilized his qi and blood, pressing down on Su He.

This soldier has the cultivation level of the Cold Resistance Realm and the strength of the 12th level, while Su He only has the cultivation level of the Earth Digging Realm and his strength is only a little over 5 jin. How can he withstand this pressure of blood and qi?

Caught off guard by the sudden pressure on his blood and qi, Su He stumbled and almost fell to his knees. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and managed to steady himself by slightly pushing his knees up.

"Our army is going to fight a war, and speed is of the essence. If the march is delayed because the snow is not clear and we fail to seize the initiative, can you bear the responsibility?"
This conscription isn't to send you to the battlefield; it's just to clear snow tracks. If you can't even handle such a small task, what are you people the warlords are keeping around for?

Did the regional military governors support us?
Su He was cursing inwardly, but he dared not show it on his face. He simply put on a humble and fearful posture and apologized repeatedly.

The other four soldiers, however, seemed to have taken a liking to it and continued to chatter on and on.

“We risked our lives to protect you, and you keep making excuses when we ask you to do such a small thing. No wonder so many people in Evergreen Valley can’t get registered. With such limited vision, you can only stay at the bottom of the valley and live this kind of dark and hopeless life.”

"It's just conscripting people to clear the snow path. Are you too stupid or deaf to understand us? Clearing the snow path can be done at night in the logging area. The army will arrive in Qingyugou tonight. If they come and the road connecting to the Bone-Eroding Path is not cleared, not only your small village, but all the villages in Qingyugou will suffer!"

"Go and gather all the able-bodied men in the village right away. Lord He has already said that each village needs to send at least 1000 people. I don't want to repeat myself. Go and get them now."

………………

Even Su Lie, Su He's father, had to bow and scrape when facing the soldiers of the county guards, let alone Su He, who only had the cultivation of the Earth Digging Realm.
Furthermore, his father, Su Lie, was also an unregistered resident, and his so-called village chief position was not officially recognized by Caiqiu. Naturally, these county guards and soldiers would not take him seriously.

Su He's lips trembled slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but the five county guards turned their heads and glared at him. The leader even had his hand on the hilt of his sword, and the threat in his eyes was very obvious.

At this point, Su He shut his mouth and turned to walk into the village.

Now that things have come to this, there's nothing he can do.

These county guards are truly capable of killing!

If he doesn't follow orders, losing his own life is one thing, but he might also implicate other people in the village.

"1000, I'll have to figure out a way to make it up..."

After instructing his subordinates to gather all the able-bodied men in the village, Su He turned and walked to the corridor. After a moment of contemplation, his eyes were filled with sorrow.

Clearing snow tracks is indeed not a difficult task, but to say that there is no risk at all is absolutely impossible.

Changqing Valley has been neglected for many years, and the region's development is extremely backward, especially Qingyugou, which is located deep in the valley, so it is even more so.

Although there is a road connecting the various camps, it has been in disrepair for many years and no one maintains it. Frost beasts often roam around it, and even strange creatures occasionally appear.

In the icy wilderness, the thing humans fear most is crowding together.

With its own strength and powerful leaders, the army naturally has nothing to fear.

But what about these laborers who were temporarily conscripted?

"Uncle He, don't worry!"

While Su He was lost in thought, a soft female voice suddenly came from behind him.

He turned his head sharply, looking behind him with a surprised and suspicious expression, clearly unfamiliar with the soft female voice.

A woman in white had quietly appeared inside the room without anyone noticing.

Su He was taken aback at first, but when he saw the white-clad woman's face clearly, his surprise slowly turned into astonishment. Then, he subconsciously took a few steps closer, and his pupils suddenly dilated.

"You...you are...Xing'er?"

"Uncle He, it's been a long time!"

The woman in white did not speak, but at that moment, dozens of figures quietly emerged from the depths of the house. The three leading figures were young men, and they all smiled as they approached Su He.

Upon seeing the three young men, Su He was visibly shaken.

(End of this chapter)