Battle Royale of the Sinners

Tong tilted his head to the side in puzzlement as it was rare for a minor official to question his credibility in the public. He knew that most officials here were the members of Zhang Jiao's secret cult who believed in supernatural phenomena, so they should have gotten used to his power. Moreover, he had never seen this person before.

Tong looked at Jia Xu's face and checked his name in his radar map to make sure that he was not a random spy of Yuan Shao or someone else.

Then he read his name.

'JIA MOTHERFUDGING XU!! WHAT THE HECK IS HE DOING HERE!?'

'Wait! He's my minor official!? Since when!?'

A shocked face of Tong turned into a smile. His luck was good lately that he felt like he had cheated his LUC stats.

"I haven't seen you before. Are you new?" Tong asked.

"Yes, I am new. But please answer my question, how do you know? What's the sign of the drought? Why will it happen next year? What will you do for the city if it's true? How will you procure provisions for the citizens? Will the lack of provision affect the city's tax income?"

Jia Xu fired consecutive questions as his curiosity was piqued. After he mentioned the tax income, Jia Xu came back to his sense.

'Holy shit damn! I forgot that I was supposed to hide myself!'

'Goddammit, brain! Shut your traps!'

It was too late to retract his words. Everybody had the attention on him now.

Tong coughed and answered Jia Xu's questions, one by one.

"For your first question, how did I know? I went to Ganling District and I found several issues on the northern plains. First, the land reclamation by the peasants and the nobles took down the majority of the rain forest. Because of the excess deforestation, it affects the moisture of the atmosphere and it ruins the nature. Without enough moisture, it won't rain in certain areas, so some parts of the plains do not get enough rainwater to sustain the groundwater level. The land dries and the crops will wither because of the lack of water. I simplified it a bit, I hope you can understand my point."

Jia Xu blinked in confusion. He had never learned about the science, thus, he had no idea what Tong was talking about.

"Meh, forget it. Let's say, I scouted the landscape of the northern plains, and there isn't much water left. We can't expect that the harvest this year will go well. Once drought happens for a year, there is a high chance that it will happen again in the next year. Do you understand me if I explain it like this?"

Jia Xu nodded, but he still doubted Tong. 'Dafuq is all that logic?'

"For the second question, we have already explained it in the meeting, in the case you haven't listened."

Everyone in the hall laughed at Jia Xu because Tong had explained it to them earlier already.

"But I don't mind repeating it again. Currently, in our granaries and warehouses, we have stored over eight hundred thousand tons of provision, and we have extras in our secret warehouses. They are enough for the townspeople for 2-3 years, so the food problem is never our city's issue."

The crowd laughed again. After the introduction of spice and the government shops, Julu had become known as "The City of Gourmet" because of the varieties of unique food, spice, and recipes. Food stalls and taverns in this city were numerous and prosperous from the benefits of the local products.

"As for the sources of our food, I can't tell you that since it's our city's top secret and also our secret distributor is a very handsome shy young man who is afraid of getting prosecuted as a heretic if he reveals himself to the public or shows off his true talents."

Zhang Jiao chuckled and the crowd who knew about Tong's [Create Food] ability covered their mouth to hold back their laughter.

"For your last question, I don't have to answer that, to be honest. But … how much gold upkeep do we have to pay each year, father?"

Zhang Jiao touched his beard and calculated within his mind. "720,000 gold a year or 60,000 gold a month, combined with all the worker salaries and military maintenance."

Jia Xu opened his eyes wide in shock. The expense of this city was too extravagant. Ordinary city annual taxes were roughly 20,000 gold to 30,000 gold. How could Julu afford to spend so much?

"And what's our income last month?" Tong asked his father.

"Without including taxes, our shop profits 125,000 gold from the food trade. But our average was 60,000 to 70,000 before the drought happens. We have an influx of provision merchants coming from other cities recently because of the drought. The merchant alliance that holds the current concession in our city also bought a lot of goods from us."

Jia Xu gulped down his saliva.

'Such high income! What kind of city is this? Is this the Capital City Luo Yang!?'

Suddenly, he recalled a fracture of his memories of this city. He remembered that everyone always went to work during the day and came home before dusk. He also remembered that the government hired many citizens and put them in various jobs. Even women and children could work for the government!

'The government pays to employees, but the government has the absolute control of the food supplies…'

'Then those shops! It's the gold circulation in the city!'

'Nobles and peasants get the wage, but they have to pay it back to the city for food!'

Jia Xu caught up Tong's secret of his gold management of this city. He threw out high salaries to his subordinates and his people, but he took control of the lifeline of every life, the food supplies.

It was as if Tong was holding everyone in the city hostages. They had to work for him or they would starve. This was a nasty dictatorship system!

But the problem with the food supplier could not be answered. Who and how could someone or an organization provide this city so much food to the point that Julu could turn it into a money-making-machine?

Seeing the grinning face of Tong and the unusual depth within his eyes, Jia Xu had a bad feeling swelling in his heart.

'This brat is also a fudging fox! I freaking knew it!'

'That's it! I'm bailing out of this city! I don't want to be enslaved by this brat!'

Jia Xu stepped back and bowed to Tong.

"Please forgive me for my impudence. I'm new, so I'm still inexperience about the way of this city."

"I don't mind. I can see that you are standing in the back, so you might not be able to hear what we're announcing."

"Ah, yes. That's right. I'm getting older and my ears are getting worse. Please forgive me."

"It's fine. How about this, there is a position in the city that no one has taken it yet. If you take it, I'll let you stand on the front rows the next time you attend the assembly. We're actually looking for a military strategist or a city lord adviser. The monthly wage is 1,000 gold, an exclusive mansion in the official areas, and the noble status. Would you be interested?"

Tong winked at Jia Xu who was staring at him in shock. There was never a government job that could earn 1,000 gold a month from his knowledge, records, or the past memories of Jia Xu.

Zhang Jiao, Sima Fang, and all officials were shocked as well. Why would Tong suddenly promote a new minor official into the important position within the city?

Sima Fang could not tolerate it. He stepped forward to object.

"My lord, this minor official has just been instated for just a few months. He has not contributed or proven his abilities yet. I'm afraid that this promotion is a bit too fast for him."

Everyone in the hall nodded and voiced out their objection. It was too impropriate for a newbie to suddenly leap from the lowest rank in the city to one of the top ranks.

"Ah!?"

A line of vein showed up under the skin of Jia Xu, he was indirectly insulted as an incompetence official. Jia Xu wanted to refute, yet he swallowed his pride and kept quiet.

'Humph! Having someone helping me declining this position is good. I can have a reason to bail out of this city…'

'But a thousand gold a month and the luxurious life…'

'But I have to board this pirate rebel ship…'

'But I can have all the food for myself…'

'But this brat will enslave me…'

'But this slavery will net me a thousand gold a month…'

Jia Xu stared at empty air in a daze as he was contemplating if he should accept this position or not.

Seeing that Jia Xu could not decide while his own officials objected his idea, Tong gave them another proposal.

"It's my bad for suddenly ask a new worker to take such an important position from the start. How about this? I will hold a try-out for anyone who is interested to take the position. Each of the participants will work in the military as a trainee strategist for three months. After the three months trial period ends, we will decide again if the persons are worthy of this position or not. Of course, everyone in this hall can join the trail run."

The entire hall was thrown into an uproar as all of them was interested in this trainee position. However, Tong clapped to make them quiet.

"I'm not finished. There will be a prize as well as a punishment for the greedy ones."

The crowd gulped as they knew how vicious Tong was when he wanted to punish a noble or an official.

"Those who are suited for the position will be promoted into the rank for real, and the 1,000 gold a month wage is your prize."

The crowd smiled and cheered.

"BUT… There will be a standard which I will evaluate you myself. If anyone can't meet my standard, you will be penalized for being greedy without knowing your own limit! The penalty is a 2-rank demotion! All failed participants' rank will drop 2 ranks from the original position before they take the trainee test. If you happen to be at the bottom two ranks, then you're fired!"

The crowd stopped cheering.

Like being poured by cold water, their face lost color when they heard that Tong could fire them if they were to fail. Majority of the officials in the hall were public servants at the bottom two ranks.

Also, the senior officials were not feeling confident after hearing that they could get the 2-ranks demotion. It took them decades to climb up from the bottom feeders to their current positions, so they did not want to risk it.

If they failed, their career in this city would be over.

On the other hand, Jia Xu tilted his head to the side and pondered.

'I have nothing to lose, am I?'

'I want that 1,000 gold a month and my luxury life!'

'But if I fail, it's fine too. I can just excuse myself from this city.'

With such thought, Jia Xu looked at Tong and smiled.

"I wish to take part of that trainee thing you mentioned."