Start with a red name

Chapter 243: Impractical, Like Iron and Ice

For such a large-scale project, after the preliminary design and specific plan are completed, the only question whether it can be truly implemented is whether there is enough manpower.

Originally, just to dredge the silted-up section of the ancient Zhushui River and add ancillary projects such as slope protection would require at least 100 million man hours of work.

——The workload of a strong adult man in the neighborhood doing heavy physical labor in one day is defined as a "great worker".

Let's do a simple calculation. If you can mobilize 10,000 laborers, you will need to work hard for 10,000 days.

If 100,000 people are mobilized, it will take 1,000 days of hard work, which is nearly three years.

This does not take into account the construction suspension caused by the continuous rainy season for several months and the repeated construction.

If these factors are taken into account, six years of hard work by 100,000 people might barely be enough.

The plan proposed by Guo Zian now has a project scale many times larger than the original dredging plan.

It not only includes dredging the original silted section, but also building a giant reservoir based on the natural mountains of Juhu Lake and Cenling Mountain, and transforming another river section of more than 200 miles.

All the main work needs to be completed before the next rainy season arrives.

According to Geng Xuan's understanding, the rainy season around Chiwu Mountain usually starts from mid-to-late May to early June.

After about half a month of "brewing", its terrifying power gradually emerged.

In other words, from now on, the construction period will be at most 150 days.

To complete a super project that is several times more terrifying than the original plan in such a short time.

When material and financial resources are sufficient, the only way is to pile up manpower.

There is no upper limit to the goal until the demand is fully met.

Geng Xuan also made a rough calculation in his mind if the residents of the neighborhood were used as the standard.

The number of "hundreds of thousands" is no longer able to meet such demand. The manpower must be increased to at least "millions".

Even with Geng Xuan's confidence, he didn't dare to make a promise directly, but thought it over carefully in his mind.

If it was really just a simple mindless act of piling up heads, then he would have the confidence to agree directly.

Because there are two large groups that can be used by him.

One is the vagrants around Yueluyuan.

As long as he promised to provide meals, with the endorsement of Liu Yueji and the large number of rangers from Yueluyuan who have now officially become members of the Giant Bear Gang, Geng Xuan believed that there would be no shortage of vagrants eager to join him.

The second was something Geng Xuan had foreseen long ago. Due to the cooperation between Dong Guan and the top forces in Yuanzhou, excessive grain collection occurred in various parts of Yuanzhou.

Now, signs of famine are gradually emerging throughout Yuanzhou.

Much of the excess grain collected was stored in the "Ochre-Eye" basin.

As long as he promises to provide food and work in exchange for relief, he can attract millions of hungry people.

But Geng Xuan thought of more questions.

He never treats these people as numbers.

Nor would he think that as long as he fulfilled his promises, everything would be fine, and these people would be driven like oxen and horses to work on an unprecedented mega project.

However, he had no innate discrimination or prejudice against vagrants and hungry people.

But when Geng Xuan thought about such groups gathering together in millions and working in unity, he could easily think of some extremely bad cases.

It would be quite entertaining if during the construction process some "hero" dug out a one-eyed stone man, or pulled out a strange fish with books in its belly, or a fox that could make strange noises from the lake.

Ultimately, it is management capabilities that are holding us back.

The pressure of management will increase exponentially as the number of people increases.

The world today is far from evolving to the stage where we can smoothly manage mega-projects with over a million direct participants and potentially over 10 million indirect participants.

In fact, most people cannot realize the real difficulty behind this.

Organization and coordination, resource allocation, information communication, technology integration, risk control, project management, logistics management... there is so much prerequisite knowledge involved.

The gap that exists between them cannot be filled by simply being "strict and serious".

To give the simplest example, the coordination, storage, distribution and recycling of tools.

Without a sufficient foundation in mathematics and operations research, it is very likely that tools will be piled up in warehouses and unable to be used, while tens of thousands of people will queue up for a whole day but still not receive any tools.

If every participant cannot truly and effectively "flow", the increase in the number of people will be meaningless.

Therefore, whenever possible, Geng Xuan would not choose the seemingly simple operation of "mindlessly piling up kills".

In order to control the number of people directly involved in this mega project as much as possible, Geng Xuan thought of two directions.

A direction is easy to understand for people in this world, but difficult to achieve.

That is to increase the number of practitioners.

One day's work is equivalent to a day's work for an average adult resident.

The physical fitness of a cultivator, even if he is only at the lowest level of skin refining, his strength and endurance far exceed those of ordinary adult citizens. It is not difficult for him to complete five or six "master tasks" in a day.

If they have a higher level of cultivation and special abilities, like the more than a thousand "professionals" who have practiced earth-walking techniques that Geng Xuan promised to provide, when put together with ordinary folks, they are almost like a human excavator.

This can greatly reduce the number of project participants.

But there is another problem, which Geng Xuan had experienced before in the "Ochre Red Eye" basin.

That is, the self-esteem of practitioners does not allow them to engage in work that is too "menial".

Even if they are forced to work by force, it must be of great significance, rather than "menial labor" such as plowing the fields.

Therefore, he not only had to find a way to get more practitioners, but also a way to mobilize their enthusiasm.

The other direction is easy for Geng Xuan to think of, but it is easy for people in this world to ignore.

That is to improve or even reinvent the tools, and to design the processes more reasonably.

The purpose is to reduce the amount of work done, improve per capita efficiency, and ultimately achieve the goal of reducing the number of direct project participants.

……

"Boss Su, Boss Su?"

Geng Xuan, who was lost in thought, was awakened by a series of gentle calls.

He looked at Guo Zian and saw his nervousness and anxiety.

Geng Xuan did not give him a definite reply immediately. Instead, he stared at him and said in an inexplicable way:

"Tell me honestly, besides the rainy season, is there any other reason why you want to complete such a huge project in just over a hundred days?"

Under his gaze, Guo Zian subconsciously looked away.

Although his eyes were moved away, the invisible pressure was already lingering in his heart.

After an awkward silence, he whispered, "...Yes."

"What is it?" Geng Xuan asked.

After another period of silence, Guo Zian said softly:

“Boss Su, the Guo family’s inheritance is different from others. If it cannot be put into practice, everything is just a game on paper.

Over the years, apart from occasionally repairing Yuanjing's city walls and maintaining Yuanjing's underground waterways, there has been basically nothing to do.

Occasionally helping someone design an Acropolis or a gang base is not only too simple, but also doesn't give outsiders like us the opportunity to really get started.

Before the actual construction begins, major changes will basically be made, and the final product has nothing to do with me anymore.

Any skill is like rowing against the current, if you don’t move forward, you will fall behind.

This opportunity given by Boss Su may be the only one I will have in my life.

Therefore, I am a little anxious... If this causes trouble to you, Boss Su, you can naturally extend the construction period."

Geng Xuan nodded, agreeing with Guo Zian's explanation.

But he knew that this was not all.

Since the other party was reluctant to say it out loud, he took the initiative to make it clear.

"Do you still think that I'm just being impulsive right now, and you're worried that I'll change my mind over time and stop caring about this matter?
...Well, you are still a little concerned about my future prospects, worried that I don’t have a few years or even more than ten years to accompany you to do all these.

So, you want to "lock in the profits" as soon as possible, so as to avoid giving up halfway when things go wrong in the future? "

"I...I...this..."

Guo Zian was stunned when his secret was exposed, and he stammered, not knowing how to respond.

He looked at Geng Xuan with an expression as if he had seen a ghost.

After giving Guo Zian a little warning, Geng Xuan said:
“You don’t need to worry about the manpower issue, I can take care of it.

What I'm most worried about is not a shortage of manpower, but that even if I get you enough manpower, you won't be able to fully mobilize them."

Upon hearing this, Guo Zian immediately said:

"Don't worry, Boss Su, I will do my best..."

Seeing his answer like this, Geng Xuan shook his head and interrupted:

"It seems that you don't really realize the difficulty."

Guo Zian looked confused, not knowing what was wrong with his answer.

Is it because the attitude is not firm enough?

Geng Xuan did not discuss the specific management issues with Guo Zian at this moment, but said:
"If you have any other ideas, please tell me as well."

"Ah?...No...no more." Guo Zian hesitated for a moment and said so.

Geng Xuan frowned and said:

“I can see that what you just said is not all that you planned.

Now, you'd better be frank with me so that I can understand clearly. "

Guo Zian looked at Geng Xuan and thought, could this "Su Ruiliang" have the ability to see through people's hearts?
How come he can see clearly what I'm thinking?
Since the other party had said so, he no longer hid it and said softly:

"It can't be called a plan, it's just some unrealistic ideas."

"What idea?" Geng Xuan asked.

Guo Zian said:

"I wonder how much Gang Leader Su knows about Yueluyuan's situation?"

He did not wait for Geng Xuan to answer, and said:
“Before the Zhushui River changed its course, several small rivers originated in Cenling and passed through Yueluyuan, flowing southward to merge into the Mangjiang River.

After the Zhushui River was diverted, more water flows through Yueluyuan and into the Mangjiang River every year.

But Yueluyuan did not have a river wide enough to carry this several times more water.

Especially during the rainy season that lasts for several months around Chiwu Mountain and Cenling Mountain every year, large areas of wetlands and mudflats will form in Yueluyuan.

...Every family in Yueluyuan would build canals and dig fish ponds on their own farmland.

But the neighbors in the neighborhood are at odds with each other.

The entire Yueluyuan lacks a complete water conservancy project.

Although Yueluyuan today has millions of people and tens of millions of acres of land, its degree of development is still very low.

I haven't conducted an on-site survey, but I made a rough estimate based on some information I have learned.

If we can start from the peak and make an overall plan for the water conservancy of Yueluyuan, we can make full use of the water flowing through Yueluyuan.

Not only will it add more arable land, but it will also allow many currently impoverished neighborhoods and nomadic settlements to use abundant water resources.

It can also transform many marshlands and mudflats that are currently soaked in water all year round into fertile fields.

With this increase and decrease, the arable land in Yueluyuan can easily increase by one or two times on the existing basis.

Maybe even more.

However, to accomplish all this, the workload would be even greater than dredging the ancient Zhushui River channel, which is obviously unrealistic.

So, this is just an unrealistic fantasy in my mind."

After listening to Guo Zian's story about his "unrealistic" fantasy, Geng Xuan stared at him intently for a long time. He didn't offer any comments or promises, but simply nodded and said,
“You can tell me whatever you think in the future.

As to whether it is 'unrealistic', that is something I need to consider.

You just need to come up with reasonable and feasible ideas from a technical perspective.”

Guo Zian, feeling confused, said softly, "Yes."

"Okay, let's stop here for today." Geng Xuan said that the interview conversation was over.

Not only did Geng Xuan feel satisfied with this conversation, but Guo Zian also felt much more at ease than when he first arrived.

He responded first, and then asked impatiently:
"Boss Su, when are we going to the scene?

...What I said was calculated based on the information I learned from various families in Yuanjing, so it cannot be accurate.

The real plan can only be determined after an on-site inspection."

Geng Xuan thought for a moment and said:
"Maybe in a day. There are still some unfinished business here. I'll take you back tomorrow.

...You can also take this time to make some preparations and see if there is anything that needs to be arranged in Yuanjing.

If you need any help, please contact Xue Zhiheng and others directly.

If they can't do it, tell me and I'll ask Cheng Yaoyang and others to help.

I think they should give me this face."

Not to mention the issue of face, as long as they know that they will leave tomorrow, they will definitely show their utmost sincerity.

"Yes."

Guo Zian responded and stopped talking. He stood aside and fell into deep thought.

But I don’t know whether it is to improve the original idea or to develop new "unrealistic" imagination.

On the side, Fan Qi, who had listened to the entire conversation between the two "madmen", looked at Geng Xuan with a complicated expression and said:

"Boss Su, you're not really going to do something this big?"

Geng Xuan said, "We're going to have fun anyway, what's the point of just playing around?"

Fan Qi glanced at Guo Zian beside him and said:
"This guy is so stubborn that he doesn't realize that the most difficult part of this matter is not the engineering itself.

...He doesn't know, don't you know either?
If it really reaches this scale, not only Yuanzhou, but the entire Jiuzhou will be shaken!"

Geng Xuan smiled and said:

"Isn't there still more than a hundred days left?
Who could have predicted what would happen in these hundred days?
Not to mention more than a hundred days later, even the situation one month later may be completely new.

Thinking too much now is just asking for trouble."

"This……"

Fan Qi was speechless, not knowing how to respond. If anyone else had said this, Fan Qi would have simply thought that person was unreliable and was using such words to brush him off.

But the person who said this was "Su Ruiliang", and he was speechless.

Because this is a fact that has been repeatedly verified in the case of "Su Ruiliang".

Let alone a month ago, even a day ago, who could have imagined that the Wuyou Palace, which was at its peak and had a profound foundation, would fall so easily at the feet of "Su Ruiliang"?

From the time "Su Ruiliang" emerged in Kangle Village to now, in just a few months, it is no exaggeration to say that the situation in Yuanzhou changes every month.

This is actually true.

Thinking of this, Fan Qi suddenly had an idea. He stared at Geng Xuan and asked:

"Boss Su, have you resolved the problem with Xu Xiangfeng from the Jinsha Gang?"

Geng Xuan asked back, "What do you think?"

"I think you have solved it." Fan Qi said in a deep voice.

Hearing this, Geng Xuan stared at him and said with a half-smile, "Why do you think so?"

Fan Qi said: "As early as half a month ago, people from the Jinsha Gang broke into Kangle Village to investigate the truth behind the massacre at Lvyi Garden.

Now that so much time has passed, I don’t believe they still don’t know that it was you who did it!
There is also the matter of Xu Xiangfeng’s daughter’s death in Kangleji… Facing these circumstances, I don’t believe that Xu Xiangfeng would do nothing.”

"Besides, how dare you abandon everything in Qingyuanji and come all the way to Yuanjing alone before this problem is resolved?"

“Now, you can easily capture all the high-ranking officials of Wuyou Palace, including Zhang Zhengfeng.

Xu Xiangfeng can't be a big trouble to you!"

As Fan Qi thought and spoke, it seemed that his thoughts were gradually opening up.

He looked at "Su Ruiliang" with a look of horror, and said with a look of shock:

"He...he...you haven't killed him yet?"

Geng Xuan looked at him, leaned forward a little, and said softly:
"Oh, you guessed it... But it's still a secret, so don't tell anyone."

Fan Qi was shocked, then smiled bitterly and said:

"Boss Su, you... kept it a secret from me for so long, you should have told me earlier!"

Seeing that "Su Ruiliang" had a puzzled look on his face, he seemed to be puzzled as to why this matter should be told to him, an outsider.

Fan Qi felt even more bitter.

"Boss Su, ever since you destroyed Lvyi Garden and dragged me into it, in order to avoid Xu Xiangfeng's revenge, I spent a lot of money to hire someone to stay in Kangleji.

Every day, a lot of real money flows out.

If you had told me even one day earlier, you could have saved me a lot of money!

Now that I have left Kangleji and have lost my stable income, I am almost begging for food!"

As he said this, Fan Qi looked pitiful, feeling extremely aggrieved and miserable.

Hearing him say this, Geng Xuan couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

Weird.

He stared at Fan Qi, who had a bitter face, and suddenly said, "Don't you know that my eyes can really see through people's hearts?"

When Fan Qi heard this, he was stunned at first, and then he was shocked.

Suddenly, like a cat whose tail was stepped on, he immediately bowed to him and said:

"Boss Su, I've already introduced Guo Zi'an to you. I won't keep you any longer. Goodbye!"

Before he could finish his words, he turned around.

As he finished speaking, he had already hurried out of the city.

Staring at Fan Qi's receding back, Geng Xuan smiled lightly and ignored him.

……

"Boss, are you really leaving after just one day?" Xue Zhiheng asked hurriedly.

Tang Caizhu and the two elders of the Xu family beside them all looked concerned.

Just now, whether it was the communication between Geng Xuan and Guo Zian, or the conversation with Fan Qi, they were all eavesdropping on the side.

At first, listening to the conversation between Geng Xuan and Guo Zian, their first reaction was "nonsense".

I can't tell the primary from the secondary.

If they didn't know that "Su Ruiliang" was extremely stubborn and tough beneath his seemingly gentle surface, they would have wanted to make some suggestions.

But after listening to the conversation between "Su Ruiliang" and Fan Qi, he knew that in addition to Wuyou Palace, Jinsha Gang leader Xu Xiangfeng had already been defeated by him.

What’s even more terrifying is that there hasn’t been any news so far.

Most of those disrespectful thoughts disappeared in an instant.

Perhaps, "Su Ruiliang's" vision has long surpassed their understanding of "primary and secondary importance".

It was for this reason that he could so casually hand over to them the Wuyou Palace Citadel and the huge industries in Yuanjing City that were accumulated over hundreds of years of Wuyou Palace.

Xue Zhiheng and others who had convinced themselves in this way, who had been a little confused by the excessively huge benefits, suddenly became much more sober.

Honestly position yourself as an "agent".

Although "Su Ruiliang" did not give any instructions or warnings on specific matters, some operations that would allow them to eat their fill easily disappeared from their minds.

More importantly, they seemed to remember again that this "Su Ruiliang" could really see through people's hearts!

Geng Xuan just glanced at the various thoughts in their minds, then ignored them and nodded:
"Yes, I'll leave tomorrow."

After receiving a definite response, none of them stayed with him for long and left in a hurry.

They must sort out everything in the Acropolis as much as possible before "Su Ruiliang" leaves.

It will be an extremely busy day for them.

For Geng Xuan, this day was relatively leisurely.

After two waves of visitors, no one came anymore and the Acropolis suddenly became quiet.

……

With a lot of free time, Geng Xuan spent all his time on cultivation.

After a night of actual combat, the master's level "Tempered Jade Sky-lifting Finger" has been fully memorized.

After spending eighty points of luck, Geng Xuan advanced from Master to Grandmaster level.

At the same time, Geng Xuan also upgraded his other three skills to the next level.

It really comes in handy.

These three skills are "Hongbo Swimming Technique", "Turtle Breathing Technique", and "Water-Separating Light Thorns".

Since he got started, Geng Xuan has never deliberately practiced these three skills.

Apart from improving the "Turtle Breathing Technique" to a small level of success, the other two skills have always been at the entry-level stage.

Although he did not practice deliberately, after a long period of subtle influence, Geng Xuan had already mastered the levels of these three skills.

This time, after consuming six points, twelve points, and four points of good luck respectively.

The "Hongbo Youshenfa" has reached a small level of success.

The "Turtle Breathing Technique" has reached perfection.

"Li Shui Li Guang Ci" has reached minor success.

……

Shortly after noon, Tang Caizhu, Xue Zhiheng, and the two elders of the Xu family came to pay their respects again.

Geng Xuan paused his training and went with them to a very spacious training ground near the battle hall, which was usually used for training and discussion among the warriors.

Here, there is a dense crowd of people.

At this moment, apart from the more than one hundred guards stationed at the city gate and the unconscious person lying on the bed in the Caizheyuan who had just undergone an organ transplant and reattachment of severed limbs, there was no one else.

All the living people in the Acropolis gathered here.

Around the periphery, there were more than a thousand guards, temporary gang members that Geng Xuan had recruited since he entered Yuanjing.

Including the "Red Heart Gang remnants" including Tang Caizhu, the Blood Fang Gang including Xue Zhiheng, and the Xu family including the two elders of the Xu family, these three temporary gangs have a total of 1347 people.

After breaking into the Wuyou Palace Acropolis, they successively absorbed a total of 1243 prisoners.

However, they were mainly servants, plus many official Wuyou Palace members who were full of hatred towards Wuyou Palace. They were not absorbed all at once, but were constantly consumed and died in battles with other Wuyou Palace members, and were constantly absorbed and replenished.

Now, the number of people who entered the Wuyou Palace Acropolis and were recruited is only 535, and 708 of them died in the killing and revenge against other Wuyou Palace people.

With this group of "meat shields", the casualties under the command of Tang Caizhu, Xue Zhiheng, and the two elders of the Xu family were much less, and Yue Sheng and others provided timely treatment to the wounded.

Of the 1347 people who entered the city, 854 remain, and 493 have been killed.

Now, Geng Xuan has 1389 "own people" in the Acropolis, which is only 1347 more than the before entering the city.

The overall strength, however, has declined.

Because after entering the city, the "own people" recruited have less combat power above the blood refining, bone refining, and marrow refining levels.

Compared with the number of casualties, the expenditure is somewhat insufficient.

However, the combat power at the skin and flesh refining levels has increased a lot compared to before entering the city.

Surrounded in the center of the training ground was a group of more than 4,000 prisoners.

Even though there were more of them, facing the gazes of more than a thousand pairs of eyes around them, each of them looked like a quail fished out of ice water.

Apart from trembling and looking terrified, he had no intention of resisting.

Those tough guys who dared to resist had long been killed by Zheng Qingyan and others.

Ever since the battle at Caizheyuan, the outcome of the battle has been completely clear.

Since then, Zheng Qingyan and others have not accepted any new "own people".

In the process of cleaning up the entire city, anyone who dared to resist was killed by their butcher knives.

Only those who threw away their weapons and surrendered without any resistance were not killed directly by them, but were gathered together and waited for centralized processing by "Su Ruiliang".

With the example of the pigeon training school in front of them, both the captives and "insiders" like Tang Caizhu and Xue Zhiheng knew that they still had a "life and death hurdle" to overcome.

Geng Xuan first took a quick look around, then looked at Qu Qingfeng who was at the front of the crowd, and said:

"Bring out all the people from your pigeon farm."

After hearing this, Qu Qingfeng felt as if he had been pardoned, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

He led the men and women from the pigeon training farm who were gathered around him away as quickly as possible.

Geng Xuan's gaze fell on the more than 400 women who were closest to Qu Qingfeng and the others.

The oldest woman in this group of women looked to be in her twenties at most, less than thirty.

And the number is relatively small, only twenty or thirty people.

The largest number of them are girls between the ages of 11 or 12 and 15 or 16.

There are also many girls under the age of ten.

These women have different ages and appearances, but they have one thing in common: they are all very beautiful.

Cool, graceful, light, charming, fresh, exquisite... not only beautiful, but also unique in their own way.

"Are they?"

Geng Xuan's eyes swept back and forth over them several times, then he looked at Zheng Qingyan beside him with a questioning look.

He knew that the positions of these people were arranged in advance by Zheng Qingyan and others.

These people were arranged behind the people in the pigeon training academy who had already been dealt with by him, so that he could see them first. This naturally could not be a random arrangement. It could even show a certain tendency in the hearts of Zheng Qingyan and others.

Zheng Qingyan said softly:

"Boss, they are all our captives after we broke into the Inner Courtyard and killed all the rebels."

Hearing her say this, Geng Xuan nodded slightly, indicating that he understood.

What is taught in the Neiweiyuan is very special, including how to please and control men.

And how to please and control women.

The purpose of the latter is not to "polish the mirror", but to light up the skill tree in advance for future "house fighting".

Because these women who "graduated" from the Inner Court had two destinations.

One is the brothel.

The second is the backyard of a wealthy family.

Geng Xuan's gaze swept over these women.

Then she looked at Zheng Qingyan and said, "Take your men to maintain order and have them line up and come out."

Soon, these people began to walk out in an orderly manner.

Except for the young ones who were still a little confused, the older ones already understood what was going on, and there was a look of surprise on their faces.

They thought they were being treated the same way as the people at the pigeon farm.

But this is not the case.

Especially when there were dozens of women over the age of eighteen who were the first to walk out of the crowd, only a few of them managed to pass by Geng Xuan.

The others were all forced out of the team by an invisible force and fell into the hands of Zheng Qingyan and others.

Such a change frightened some people so much that they turned pale and became speechless.

However, some people suppressed their fear and looked at Geng Xuan with charming, pleading and helpless eyes, as if they wanted to use this method to make him unable to bear it and soften his heart.

Geng Xuan's heart was as hard as iron and as cold as ice at this moment.

Because of their special circumstances, Geng Xuan has greatly relaxed the standards.

All of these selected women have a red name concentration of more than 25 points.

Geng Xuan understood their helplessness.

It is also conceivable that in such a deliberately created dangerous environment, even if one has no intention of killing anyone, if one wants to survive, one can only move forward by stepping on the corpses of others.

Otherwise, they will become corpses and become stepping stones for other women.

It's not their fault.

But after a little consideration, Geng Xuan still made his choice.

(End of this chapter)