Chapter 784.3: Scam Me Once, Shame On Me! Scam Me Twice, Shame On Me! SCAM ME THRICE?

Downstream from the plantations came the textile mills and sugar refineries. Those relatively upstream large factories were still doing all right. They could pass part of their increased costs further down the chain to weaving, garment manufacturing, and food-processing industries.

But that only made life miserable for the downstream businesses.

The further down the chain one went, the more piercing the cold became. The pain would be especially prolonged for small shop owners who needed Silver to expand production and wanted to compete with the merchants of Port Gallon for foreign-trade orders.

After all, Nihark’s loan had only been the first cut of his self-castration. The advance payment for the warship was the truly vicious second cut. It directly wiped out half a year of hard work for the small business owners of Tiger State and Panther State who were still in the primitive accumulation stage.

Nihark’s act of generosity had directly drained the Royal Mint’s foreign-exchange reserves, with another 10,000,000 Silver in expenditures expected every month.

Unable to produce enough Silver, the Royal Mint had no choice but to both increase revenue and cut spending by tightening the faucet, reducing the quota of Silver that money houses and banks along the Everflowing River were allowed to exchange for Xilande coins.

White Tiger City’s banks couldn’t get Silver in exchange for their Xilande coins. They couldn’t even meet the currency-conversion needs of the warlords’ own factories, let alone those of Tiger State’s small workshops and shop owners.

Not only did they shut off the exchange channel for these little sparrows, they also confiscated the Silver already sitting in their pockets and forcibly converted them into Xilande coins.

Some small workshops with a bit of technical sophistication had been on the verge of evolving into proper factories. Yet before they even had the chance to compete with Port Gallon’s factories, or have the fruits of their labor plucked by the warlords, they simply exploded.

A small number of bankrupt business owners turned their attention toward distant Mammoth State. They had heard that, like Port Gallon, the region was now issuing its own currency and welcomed merchants from all over to invest. Those who arrived with equipment could use the equipment as collateral to obtain loans at extremely low interest rates. They could even borrow Silver!

Although the area was also ruled by warlords, it had advantages of its own. For one, it was closer to Silvermoon Bay. For another, there were parishes of the Silvermoon Church there. Those cat-loving fellows didn’t merely build churches in their parishes. They also opened banks.

Even though Mammoth State still faced uncertainties brought by the war, and had only recently suffered a flood, the fact that equipment could be used as collateral to borrow Silver was simply too tempting...

At the end of the day, the Xilande Empire’s foundations were still too thin.

The embargo had only been lifted a few months ago. If it had spent several decades accumulating wealth before trying something like this, it might not necessarily have blown up so quickly. Even if it were destined to blow up eventually, it should at least have taken 10 or 20 years to slowly explode.

What was happening to the industrial ecosystem was equally true of the food chain. When the big fish got hungry, they ate the small fish. When the small fish got hungry, they ate shrimp. In the end, it was the microorganisms and mayflies at the very bottom that suffered.

At least slaves could still follow their masters and get a sip of soup. The free citizens working in factories couldn’t even find land to farm if they wanted to go back to agriculture.

Red earth, which had once been on the verge of becoming unsellable, suddenly became popular again, and more people appeared out in the empty wilderness digging it up.

They were actually the lucky ones.

As for what conditions were like in the lands beyond Tiger and Panther States, even the residents of Port Gallon standing at the mouth of the Everflowing River might not necessarily know.

None of this, however, had the slightest impact on the sunny and pleasant Southern Seas New Alliance.

The generous Nihark had become the hottest celebrity on North Island! The newly established Survivor’s Daily on North Island even published an entire column dedicated to him, lavishly praising his 30,000,000,000 donation and describing his insistence on remaining on his ship rather than coming ashore as a shining example of thrift and frugality.

Li Minghui called him the Poro Province’s Ample Time, although after the actual owner of that ID protested, the newspaper changed it to Poro Province’s General McClennan.

Presumably, the Wislanders weren’t going to travel all the way to the distant East just to cause trouble for him over a bit of nonsense like that. Besides, the survivors of Poro Province were extremely obsessed with the Wislanders. This bit of flattery was even louder than the previous one.

A man was always allowed a brief moment of glory before being buried. Naturally, a grand duke was no exception.

Nihark had been beside himself with happiness these past few days. His face was so rosy he looked as though he had been injected with stimulants. Even when he occasionally ran into those who had once arrested him, he was no longer afraid. Winter had only just begun to show the tip of its tail, yet he felt as though spring had arrived together with him, and with the Empire.

While the warlords of Tiger State and Panther State scratched their heads in utter confusion, unable to figure out where the hell all their precious money had flown off to, Alyang, who was far away on the Mammoth State front loyally serving the Xilande Empire, wore an equally enormous expression of bewilderment.

His confusion, however, had nothing to do with losing money. Instead, his troops had been beaten dizzy by guerrillas who appeared and vanished like ghosts, leaving them unable to tell north from south.

Their ferocious firepower had at one point made him think the New Alliance itself had personally entered the battle!

And it wasn’t only their firepower. The Resistance Army was also growing larger with every battle, more energetic with every battle, and more cunning with every battle.

At first, they had only conducted guerrilla warfare around the borders of Mammoth State. Later, guerrillas began appearing in Horse State and Bird State as well.

Those people specifically targeted the Gray Wolf Army’s supply lines. They had made the transport convoys escorting supplies so nervous that they no longer dared travel at night, much less fly the royal family’s crossed-blades banner.

Even worse, his spies discovered that the rebels had begun constructing a deep-water port at Mammoth City, along with a railway connecting directly to it.

When Alyang heard the news, he nearly vomited blood from rage.

Where the hell were these mutts getting all that steel and cement?! Had the New Alliance given them that too?!

Is that bastard the illegitimate son of the New Alliance’s administrator?!

Just as his fury was reaching its peak, one of his trusted subordinates handed him a secret letter, saying that patrol soldiers had picked it up on the front line.

[To General Alyang]

[With your talents, General, you are fully capable of carving out territory and making yourself a king. Why waste the best years of your life on an empire already on the verge of death?]

[The Empire has reached a dead end. Everything that has happened is Wutuo’s own doing.]

[If you come over to my side, not only will I spare your life, I’ll make you a Brigade Commander in the Resistance Army. If you do not trust me, you may choose any province you wish and rule it yourself. As long as you do not attack me, I guarantee that my men will never set foot in your territory.]

Alyang unfolded the letter and read it, his teeth grinding loudly. “That damned traitor!”

He had merely gotten lucky and won a few battles, yet he was already this arrogant!

Alyang crushed the letter into a ball and hurled it angrily at the candlestick. Unexpectedly, he knocked the candlestick over and nearly set the command tent on fire.

They managed to put out the flames, but panic had already spread throughout the Gray Wolf Army. More and more incomprehensible doubts plagued every person in the Empire, from the frontlines to the rear.

By contrast, the cries printed in Port Gallon’s Survivor’s Daily grew more impassioned by the day. An immense and unprecedented wave was brewing amid the roar of countless voices, a force greater and more powerful than nuclear weapons.

That was the power of progress!

Even Yadoo, who had once urged Laxi to stay behind, had to admit after reading the news in the newspaper that perhaps this time he really had misjudged him.

A man who could stand up while everyone else kept their heads lowered, not daring even to breathe too loudly... A man who dared reach for a gun while everyone else meekly endured exploitation... How could someone like that possibly be nothing more than a reckless brute with no other qualities?

It was just like what the New Alliance officers had said while mocking them.

“You gentlemen cry by day and cry by night. Do you really think you can curse Wutuo to death?”

In the end, Laxi really had been the one to stand up.

Perhaps he had expected too much of him.

Whenever the night grew quiet, Yadoo couldn’t help thinking this way, regretting that he hadn’t shared a drink with him when seeing him off.

A province spanning 4,000,000 square kilometers was already being battered by wind and rain, teetering on the verge of collapse.

However, before that storm could finally arrive, an even fiercer storm, one whose reach would be broader still, came first.

After two months of preparation, the horn for the southern offensive finally sounded once again!

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