Scourge Messenger

Chapter 14 World Affairs
How many guards have to die before they know not to cause trouble at the city gate?

I have been to Pingcheng so many times, but I have never been able to enter safely.

How about breaking their bones next time but not killing them, maybe the warning will be stronger?
As Yan Qing watched Gailou approach, he wondered whether the game system allowed for a 'point-to-point' attack.

Facing the second-level messenger, the untransformed small account basically had no chance of resistance, but waiting for death was not Yan Qing's style, so "Ye Si" picked up the spear of the dead guard.

Seeing what Ye Si did, the knights behind Gai Louxian wanted to rush over, but the veteran raised his hand and the knights stopped moving.

Gai Louxian didn't seem to worry at all that Ye Si would attack him, and let the old horse carry him into the range of the spear's attack.

"Why do you have to kill him?" he asked with a hint of curiosity. "Charging a little more for the entrance fee isn't a capital crime, right?"

"He knows that lady." Yan Qing replied, "I caused this trouble, I can't cause trouble for others."

"That makes sense."

Gai Louxian nodded seriously, pulled the reins and turned towards the city: "Follow me, if you dare to run they will catch up and kill you."

Yan Qing always felt that this scene looked familiar.

Come on, you people from the North, do you all fall for this?
However, Gai Louxian didn't go to the barracks, but to a restaurant. He took one seat by himself, and the four knights took another. Yan Qing, naturally, sat across from him without a care in the world. Ye Si ate one of the dishes served and stored one in the public warehouse—tonight's dinner was settled!

"Are you Dingling? Or Kusaito?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I asked where you were from."

"I come from the village outside the city, the deserted village. I left home many years ago and only found out when I came back that the village was gone."

"So what do you want to do in the city?"

"Find a way to get into the barracks."

Yan Qing answered honestly, but what he thought was obviously different from what Gai Louxian thought.

"I can take you into Baibao."

"I have to clean up the secret realm every day."

Gailou wasn't surprised: "You want to change your job to courier?"

"Who wouldn't want to?"

"Then you'd better change your temper. Bullying is fine, but if you treat nobles the same way, you might as well be a private."

"If I don't change, you can kill me when I get into trouble." Yan Qing thought to himself that he would play the dungeon for as many days as he could.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you little brat! I've never seen anyone as cocky as you. How come you've lived this long without getting beaten to death?" Gai Louxian cursed with a smile, "You're really mad at me! Fine, if you get into any serious trouble, I'll be the first to kill you!"

"It's a deal."

"It's a deal!"

At that moment, several guards entered the restaurant, begging the owner for fine food and wine. They looked like scoundrels. Noticing Ye Si's gaze, Gai Louxian said, "These city gate guards don't have a good life. Without some extra income from their positions, they might not even be able to support their families. You should be more careful next time."

But Yan Qing wasn't convinced: "Why aren't they doing well?"

"Because their monthly salary isn't much." "Then why isn't their monthly salary that much? Baibao can easily provide the entire city with a comfortable life just by relying on the secret realm, right? Baibao is so rich, why wouldn't they even share a penny with Pingcheng?"

If the Baibao military camp was a large house, then Pingcheng was practically a toilet. Yan Qing had witnessed the Baibao's methods of "raiding" the secret realm. They raided the Zheng family once a day, 360 times a year—360 Zheng families were equivalent to several Pingchengs!
Even if the Baibao Army Camp had to contribute many resources, it couldn't possibly also provide wood, bricks, pigs, sheep, cattle, and grain. Even a little of these building materials and food would be enough to feed everyone in Pingcheng. High salaries don't necessarily lead to integrity, but only low salaries would encourage people to embezzle a few cents of the old lady's entrance fee.

Gai Louxian paused and said, "You seem to know a lot about the secret realm. Were your fathers Bai Bao? Or Qian Zhang?"

In fact, Yan Qing was just testing. If Qi State only had one or two secret realms, Gai Louxian would definitely say with confidence that there were some deficiencies. Gai Louxian's attitude showed that Qi State had many secret realms, and the output from them was enough to feed the entire country.

Seeing Ye Si remained silent, Gai Louxian pondered for a moment before sighing softly, "Few people in China think like you do. They're all eager to keep everything in the secret realm hidden... Do you know how big the gap is between messengers and ordinary people?"

Before Yan Qing could say "I know", Gai Louxian pulled out the dagger from his waist, and as he rubbed it with his palm, he actually squeezed the dagger into a small ball of iron.

"My token, the copper-skin coat." Gai Louxian showed him the copper-colored lining he was wearing. "With this token, I can single-handedly crush the bandits and suppress the rebellious army. Even if an ordinary person obtains my token, they won't be able to utilize the copper-skin's power."

"As long as the messenger is here, the people below won't cause any trouble, whether they rebel or protest against taxes."

"We will collect taxes, but even if they don't farm, we can still eat as much as we want."

"The government will conscript them for labor service, but that's something only officials need to consider. Many people with military honors don't care."

"Apart from serving us as servants, the common people have little value to us. They are like weeds, which we can have or not have."

Yan Qing was a little puzzled: "If you don't care about their output, why do you still want to tax them?"

Gai Louxian pointed to the meat, eggs and milk on the table.

"Because to be a messenger, you either need to be literate or have a healthy body," Gai Louxian said calmly. "We have to ensure that the people don't starve."

Hungry to death.

But you won’t starve to death, don’t even think about eating your fill.

Changing jobs requires honing skills, so ordinary people should not have the time and energy to hone their skills. Civilians should be exploited, low-level officials should be made to harm each other, and corvee labor should be frequently conscripted to keep them running around. This way, the birth of "wild messengers" can be minimized.

This world clearly has almost unlimited resources like copies, and there are also messengers that have powers beyond mortals, but ordinary people in this world may live even worse lives, because the superiors have more absolute violence but have no demand on ordinary people.

Yan Qing pointed at the boss who looked like a Central Plains man, "Just because they're from the Central Plains?"

Gai Louxian laughed. "What are you talking about? Weren't you poor before? Whether you're from the Central Plains or the Northern Territory, as long as you're poor, you have to pay taxes."

"Besides, our Qi State is already doing well. At least we still have many farmers. Look at Liang State in the south. If ordinary people don't become tenants or slaves of the nobles, they don't even have land to farm. In the south, there are almost no civilians, only slaves."

"If you want to change the world a little, then control your temper and work hard to climb the ladder. Be like the King of Pengcheng who ruled Cangzhou, where there were no thieves and officials did not deceive people."

……

...

Next came the boring time of practicing skills in the military camp, and Yan Qing simply handed it over to the system as he had more important things to do.

Gai Louxian mentioned the Liang Kingdom in the south, which made Yan Qing catch the fleeting inspiration just now -

Yes, he doesn't need to keep working on the Nevernight area. He can go to Jiangnan or Chang'an to open a new map.

More importantly, he could create a small account to go to Chang'an to gather intelligence, and even help him steal from the Bingzi pepper forest four days later!
Thanks to the leader of Xunmeng no Tun Miao!
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(End of this chapter)