Zhao Long nodded, May 8th, May 15th, today is May 20th, he was responsible for receiving all three batches of supplies, so he naturally knew everything clearly.
However, he continued to sigh: "Three batches of supplies were sent in succession, with almost no gaps in between. This means that these supplies weren’t even accumulated over time by Long Mountain; they were taken directly from their reserves. This Long Mountain is indeed wealthy. I recall that our Great Xia’s beast meat inventory never exceeded 1.5 million jin at its peak, yet they casually brought out 3 million jin, not to mention the iron ore and coal stone."
Upon hearing this, Xia Chuan nodded, his expression suddenly becoming somewhat solemn.
Zhao Long’s words revealed more than just Long Mountain’s wealth.
The ability to casually bring out such large quantities of supplies also testifies to Long Mountain’s strength.
"No wonder, I’ve observed the war armor and weapons of the Longyou Army soldiers. Although the forging techniques aren’t as refined as ours in Great Xia, they’re all at the Hundred Forged Level. On average, forging a single set requires at least 50,000 jin of iron ore. Considering this, an army of a thousand soldiers would consume more than 50 million jin of iron ore just for their armor and weapons, assuming each has only one set. Yet, Long Mountain has three such thousand-man armies!"
The presence of three thousand Longyou Army in Great Xia is no longer a secret.
After listening to Zhao Long, Xia Chuan frowned slightly and said in a deep voice: "After all, they’ve been the dominant force in Longyou for nearly fifty years and control the largest entrance of Long Mountain. It’s normal for them to have substantial reserves."
Zhao Long nodded, thinking of something, and continued: "This Hou Hu is really annoying. It’s been almost a month, Long Mountain sent everything, yet he only delivered two batches of supplies, totaling 600,000 jin of beast meat, 3 million jin of iron ore, and 9 million jin of coal stone, not even a fifth of the total. I don’t know if he’s truly poor or has other plans?"
Seeing Zhao Long’s final question, Xia Chuan’s eyes flashed with a cold light. He shook his head and said, "As long as he doesn’t blatantly cheat, we don’t need to bother. As long as he wants to keep buying Solidified Fire Oil from us, he will eventually deliver the rest of the supplies."
With 200 jin of Jade Bone, 400 jin of silver, and eleven types of Spiritual Medicine, this trade is already profitable for Great Xia.
million jin of beast meat, 20 million jin of iron ore, 50 million jin of coal stone—this amount is indeed enormous. Xia Chuan wasn’t as optimistic as now at first; he just thought to make an outrageous demand, even if they delivered half, or even a third, Great Xia would still have profited greatly.
But now that Long Mountain has delivered everything, while Hou Hu has only sent so little, Xia Chuan naturally has more thoughts about Zhaoyang Camp.
As long as they have Solidified Fire Oil in hand, there’s always a way to deal with Hou Hu.
Moreover, whether that White Dew Gu is dead or not is still in question.
Who knows what might happen next?
Xia Chuan collected his thoughts and turned to look out the window, seeing that the sky was already showing a trace of light, and promptly asked, "It’s almost dawn, how will their more than two hundred people leave?"
The previous two times Long Mountain sent people, they arrived at the first half of the night, delivered the supplies, and left immediately. This time, they might not have timed it well.
It’s not that they can’t leave, it’s just that it’s troublesome at daybreak, and they won’t be able to go far before needing to find a place to hide.
Rather than that, it would be better to stay and rest for four hours, leaving after nightfall.
Zhao Long replied, "I left them, Zhou Yuan and Meng Ying didn’t want to stay, they left directly. The remaining more than two hundred Earth-digging Realm members, I’ve already arranged for them to have a room. They’ll leave after nightfall."
Xia Chuan nodded and asked, "The martial contest will start in ten days, and there aren’t many people on Wushuang’s side. I’ll leave it to you to handle, how about it?"
Upon hearing about the martial contest, Zhao Long’s expression immediately became excited.
On one hand, he was very eager for the reward of the Cold Resistance Level martial contest;
On the other hand, it’s also considered a major event in Great Xia, naturally stirring his enthusiasm.
"There are only a thousand garrison troops on Wushuang’s side, plus those who have recently broken through, totaling just over a thousand Earth-digging Realm; the Logging Realm has just over 3,000 people, so few people, according to Qiu Peng’s method of selection for the preliminary contest three days ago, the number who can advance smoothly will be even fewer, the workload isn’t too large."
Upon hearing this, Xia Chuan laughed lightly: "That’s true. I’ve paid some attention recently, and among Wushuang’s Earth-digging Realm, there are over seventy people who have surpassed the three million jin limit, ninety percent of whom have just broken through. Currently, only Liu Yuan can be confirmed to make it to the list, the others, even if some are lucky enough to win ten matches consecutively, but when it comes to comparing victory times, entering the top 128 is unlikely.
Hanqiong’s situation should be similar to ours, and Beehive has very few Earth-digging Realm, making hopes for advancement even slimmer.
As for the Logging Realm, let’s not even mention it. According to the preliminary standards set by Qiu Peng, I estimate that from the three Longyou outposts, among over 12,000 Logging Realm, there might not even be 10 groups able to advance to Xia City for the second round of the contest."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Long laughed heartily and said, "Minister, you’re overestimating them. The preliminary standards set by Qiu Peng are too difficult. At most, 5 groups, and I even doubt there will be that many."
Xia Chuan’s expression paused slightly. He pondered for a moment, then nodded.
Indeed, the preliminary selection method thought up by Qiu Peng is indeed too difficult for these Logging Realm members, and not many might make it through to Xia City.
"Minister, I’ll go prepare then."
Xia Chuan saw Zhao Long off, then returned to the main seat, picked up a wooden coal pen, took out a large pile of Beast Skin Rolls, and carefully referred to them while sketching the map of Longyou on the table.