Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 601 already stated that the top strategist is not the main character.

"You don't want this anymore, right?"

Xia Lin gripped the thick, sweat-soaked, thread-bound notebook tightly in her hand, her eyes warily fixed on Old Wang in front of her.

"Hey, I..." Wang Tong reached out to snatch it, but his agility was two levels below Xia Lin's, and his Flying Dragon Cloud-Piercing Hand technique deflected, failing to obtain any supplies from the enemy.

“You said you were going to burn it, so give it to me.” Xia Lin said, starting to rummage through his clothes: “I’ll give you the money.”

As he spoke, he took out a few loose silver notes, totaling about twenty taels, and handed them over: "Is this enough?"

"I don't need the money, give me back my things." Wang Tong was getting impatient: "Why are you blatantly robbing me?"

"No, I just like this salty taste, since you don't want it anyway."

Then Wang reported it to the police...

Xia Lin should be executed according to the law.

But when the soldier in the white hat rushed over to arrest him, he saw Xia Lin holding the booklet in his hand and dared not go forward.

"Sir, sir... it's him! He tried to steal my things!" Wang Tong rushed up from behind, panting. "This is the man! Arrest him!"

The men in white hats were still standing there, their expressions frozen. They glanced back at Wang Tong, then at the Li River in front of them, thinking to themselves that there were hardly any people around, so maybe they should just throw him in the river...

"Sir, make your move! What are you waiting for!"

"Wait a minute!" Xia Lin raised his hand: "I paid him, but he still has my twenty taels of silver."

Wang Tong was furious: "You're talking nonsense..."

"Touch it! I saw you put it on your person."

"You're making baseless accusations!"

As Wang Tong spoke, he began to rummage through his clothes, and lo and behold... he actually pulled out a twenty-tael note. Xia Lin immediately exclaimed, "Sirs, look! Isn't that a silver note?"

"Huh...when did it get on me?"

At this moment, Wang Tong was speechless and disdained to lie. Holding the silver note, he explained to the white-hatted men with a bewildered expression, "Sir... this is a misunderstanding. I did not take his money."

The men in white hats visibly breathed a sigh of relief. The leader frowned and scolded, "The deal is done, how can this be considered robbery! If you continue like this, we'll have to take you away. Twenty taels of silver is a lot of money. Besides that booklet, what else did he take from you?"

"No...no more."

"Do you think that thing is worth twenty taels?" the white-hatted man questioned. "If you think it is, why are you causing trouble? If you don't think it's worth it, why did you go back on your word when someone bought it for twenty taels? Are you trying to extort money from them?"

Wang Tong immediately became anxious: "That's the culmination of my years of hard work, and he forced me to buy it... Sir, please help me get it back quickly!"

The white-hatted men's legs were trembling, but thankfully Xia Lin coughed and said, "Since both sides have their own version of events, let's go to the camp with the officer to explain!"

"Fine, I'll go!" Wang Tong said fearlessly, tilting his head back. "I don't believe there's no place in the world where reason prevails."

The two were taken to the military camp and interrogated separately. During this break, Xia Lin took photos of every page on the document with her phone.

Geological data is extremely valuable, and it can change dramatically for various reasons. An earthquake, a mudslide, or even a flash flood can alter local geological and hydrological data. Therefore, even if someone has the latest data, they simply cannot apply it to the current situation.

However, Wang Tong has spent nearly twenty years collecting this data in this place, recording the geological and hydrological changes and characteristics of Gui and Liu prefectures and the surrounding areas. This data is priceless.

But why didn't Xia Lin just register his name? Because he had no idea whether Wang Tong was a friend or foe of Xia Lin. What if Wang Tong was an anti-Xia Lin? Xia Lin couldn't very well destroy the rules he himself had set. Building public trust was incredibly difficult, but destroying it was a simple matter.

So he didn't hesitate to lower himself and use such despicable methods to obtain this data.

After the trial, it was natural to sentence Wang Tong to death. Xia Lin not only had to return the documents, but also let Wang Tong choose his punishment: whether Xia Lin should give him thirty strokes of the cane or he should be fined ten taels of silver.

After much hesitation, Wang Tong took ten taels of silver and left...

Watching him walk away, Xia Lin approached the entrance of the camp and spat on the ground: "Damn it, you stinking bookworm, you're both smelly and hard."

"General, what's going on?" The captain of the Discipline Camp next to him asked in confusion, "You've gotten into such a fuss with a poor, pedantic scholar..." "Sigh, I don't know if he even approves of me. If he doesn't, this scoundrel would rather destroy the documents than give them to me." Xia Lin said with his hands on his hips, "Alright, never mind, it's nothing."

He hurried back to his residence, leaving everything behind, and began to transfer the data from his phone to paper. These precious documents were meticulously reconstructed by Xia Lin, who was particularly careful this time. He even used satellite images from the future for comparison and then used AI to compile geological and hydrological data.

What was originally a hundred-plus pages became over four hundred pages after he tinkered with it. He sat in that room for ten days straight, and during those ten days, apart from eating, sleeping, defecating, and bathing, he didn't step out of the door and paid attention to anything else. Wei Changsheng tried to see him several times during that time, but to no avail.

After he finished organizing the materials, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, leaned back in his chair, and flipped through them, smiling broadly.

Just then, someone outside announced again: "General, General Wei requests an audience."

"Oh……"

Xia Lin then realized that he had rejected Wei Changsheng several times. He stood up and said, "Quickly invite the general in."

A while later, Wei Changsheng walked in. He was startled by Xia Lin as soon as he entered the room. In the past ten days, Xia Lin had become almost unrecognizable. His eyes were sunken, and his dark circles looked like smoky makeup. His hair was messy, and his face was covered with bluish stubble. The once handsome young man from the Central Plains now looked like he had been smoking opium.

"This..." Wei Changsheng was startled: "Lord Xia, what is this...?"

"Stop talking nonsense." Xia Lin dragged Wei Changsheng to the table and took out a thick stack of documents she had compiled: "Take a look at this, can you understand it?"

Wei Changsheng didn't know what he was talking about, but he just lay on the table and started reading. After reading only a few pages, he was already staring wide-eyed in astonishment. This was almost a description of the water network, mountain roads, and geological features of the entire southwestern region, from Zhuti County to Qinzhou.

As a regional governor, how could Wei Changsheng not know the immense value of this information? It could be used by the people to plan roads, bridges, and trade routes, and by the military to plan passes and ferries. With hydrological data, dams and reservoirs could be planned, and even water conservancy projects like the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, which have benefited the region for millennia, could be created.

"This...was compiled by Xia Gong?"

“It’s plagiarized. A few days ago I met a guy named Wang Tong. He spent twenty years, consulted thousands of county annals, and traveled ten thousand miles to write this.” Xia Lin pointed to the signature at the bottom of the document: “Look, I also wrote Wang Tong’s name in the signature.”

In the author section at the bottom of the document, Wang Tong is indeed listed first and Xia Lin second. After all, Wang Tong's work was the main one, while Xia Lin only did some supplementary and overall coordination work. Relatively speaking, Wang Tong deserves the most credit here.

"Xia Gong's righteousness is truly admirable. I heard a few days ago that Xia Gong was very busy, and I thought he was avoiding me. But now that I see these things, I know that Xia Gong is working tirelessly."

Xia Lin sat on the stool next to him and yawned: "Wang Tong said that there are 10,000 taels of silver for every mile in these 100,000 mountains. What do you think?"

"Yes, we need it, but the hardest thing in the vast mountain road is not money, but... the technique. The technique of construction. The current techniques of building roads and bridges are not applicable in the mountains. The road you took when you entered Guizhou was built by your predecessors over hundreds of years."

Wei Changsheng dipped his finger in water and gestured on the table: "In the southwest, the mountains are high and steep, one after another, with a huge difference in height. The highest one is seven hundred zhang. A straight road of thirty li can be turned into a detour of four hundred and fifty to seven hundred li. Therefore, the difficulty of travel has been a problem in this area for thousands of years."

How could Xia Lin not know? Guangxi was a little better, but Guizhou, which was located above, was really a mountainous region with rugged roads. Even a thousand years later, it took many years to complete the connection, and it wasn't until the new century that the blockade of the mountains was finally broken.

"General Wei, let me ask you a question: are you willing to dedicate your life to cultivating the land beneath your feet?" Xia Lin patted the geography book: "Building a road directly through the mountains at this moment is probably impossible; that would require a century-long plan. But if someone is willing to start from now and gradually make their way into the mountains, sooner or later they will be able to split the mountains open. Would you be willing to do that, General Wei? I will not force you, General Wei. This is indeed a very difficult task, because it would take a lifetime or even several lifetimes."

Wei Changsheng lowered his eyelids. He did not agree immediately. Xia Lin naturally understood that it would be wrong to agree so readily, because this meant heading into the mountains, into the vast, uninhabited mountains, to fight against the heavens, the earth, and the mountains for the rest of his life.

After a long while, Wei Changsheng remained silent. He slowly turned the pages of the geography book in his hand, looking at the towering mountains that seemed so real. This thin page might just be a record of a person's entire life.

"Lord Xia".

Suddenly, Wei Changsheng stood up and turned to Xia Lin: "I also have a question."

"Please, Lord Wei," Xia Lin said, bowing.

Will the world remember me? Will my descendants remember me?

"Forget about your descendants." Xia Lin pointed outside: "The first geological university will have to put up a statue of you. Li Bing and his son will be remembered forever. If you really do it, you will be even more remembered than them."

Wei Changsheng pursed his lips: "Is it really possible to live for a thousand years?"

"A thousand years? That's settled then. From now on, anyone who goes to school will have to memorize your deeds whenever the Southwest is mentioned. Remember, memorize them. They will be on the test."

"Even if it doesn't succeed?"

"How many pioneers succeeded? But without pioneers, where would the successors come from?"

(End of this chapter)