Chapter 264: This Thing is Awesome

East of Chengcheng County, beside the official road, a new cement road stretched toward Gaojia Village. A large number of laborers, using all kinds of primitive tools, dug and dug…This was extremely hard work, but the laborers were happy.

Because the job paid daily… and they really did get paid.

Every morning, each person would collect a work token from the “foreman.” Holding the token, they could then get their meal. After eating, they went to the construction site to work. If anyone was caught slacking off, the foreman would confiscate their token and drive them out of the workforce.

If someone worked the whole day and still had their token by the end, it meant they hadn’t slacked off… or that they hadn’t gotten caught slacking. That was acceptable too.

At the end of the workday in the evening, they’d present the work token to get another meal for dinner. Then they’d return the token to the foreman and receive three jin of flour to take home.

This was the “Casual Worker Management Scheme” that had been implemented in Gaojia Village for over a year, invented by Thirty-Two. It worked quite well—managing workers simply and effectively.

A total of over eighty-two hundred people in the county participated in this grand project. Almost every refugee who had fled to the county seat begging for food had joined the workforce.

Most were responsible for road construction, a smaller portion went to the cement factory to make cement, and an even smaller group was tasked with cooking for the over eighty-two hundred workers… As for the “old workers” who came from Gaojia Village, they naturally became the “foremen.”

A massive procession of several thousand people stretched from the east gate of the county town toward Gaojia Village, extending for several miles… The sight of thousands simultaneously swinging hoes and shovels, working with feverish energy, was quite spectacular when viewed from the sky.

Li Daoxuan aimed a pile of cameras at the workforce. Lightly pressing the “East” and “North” buttons outside the box, he directed the cameras to perform an “aerial shoot,” capturing the enormous construction crew from start to finish in one fluid, continuous take.

Man, that was a satisfying shoot. He’d find the right time to edit and upload it; it would definitely give the audience lords on TikTok a good show.

Just then, the phone rang. Answering it, he found it was Director Gao—the same guy who’d called before to get authorization to use the hand-pulled noodle video for Chengcheng’s promotion.

Director Gao sounded thrilled, “Mr. Li, thank you! That video you made was fantastic. A lot of people saw it and became really interested in our Chengcheng hand-pulled noodles. Tourist numbers have even increased recently!”

Hearing this, Li Daoxuan was pleased too. “Very glad to be of help.”

Director Gao: “It just feels a bit bad that we haven’t paid you anything for it.”

Li Daoxuan: “Haha, no big deal, no big deal. I said at the start I’d provide it for free. I just hope tourism in your county keeps growing and helps the locals get rich. Oh, by the way, I finished a video about the Chengcheng County Chenghuang Temple a few days ago. It’s on my TikTok account. Feel free to download it and use it if it helps. Should give Chengcheng tourism another boost.”

Director Gao was overjoyed: “That’s really too kind! I’ll go take a look right away… Wow… the special effects are incredible… The antique imitation is so authentic… This video must have cost quite a bit to make?”

Li Daoxuan: “Not too much. Just glad to help Chengcheng County.”

Director Gao thanked him profusely, then downloaded the video to transfer to their county tourism website…

Li Daoxuan refocused his attention on the box. The moment he looked back in, he saw this:

A fast horse galloped desperately toward the county seat. “Urgent military report! URGENT military report!”

Li Daoxuan frowned and immediately shifted his “Attention” over.

The rider was one of County Magistrate Liang Shixian’s retainers. He practically tumbled off his horse upon entering the Yamen courtyard and shouted frantically, “Master! Bad news! The Guyuan rebels are truly coming this time! They are passing through Bai Shui County and heading straight for our Chengcheng County!”

Liang Shixian was greatly alarmed, “It’s not the group we negotiated with, is it?”

“No!” the retainer urgently replied, “The one we negotiated with is Captain Ghost. They’re currently encamped in Huanglong Mountain. The one coming now is some guy called ‘North Water Wolf.’ The rebels call him ‘Captain Wolf.’ This guy defeated General Li Ying’s unit and captured Guerrilla General Li Ying. He’s everywhere looting grain. Bai Shui County suffered badly at his hands. Now that he’s done wrecking Bai Shui County, he’s here for our Chengcheng County!”

Liang Shixian: “Damn! Go notify Patrol Commander Fang Wushang immediately, and all the militia gentry forces in the towns and villages! Tell them all to prepare for battle!”

The retainer nodded vigorously, scrambled back onto his horse, and galloped off toward Fang Wushang’s camp.

Liang Shixian turned to another retainer: “Go immediately to Bai Family Fortress and ring the bell! Summon Captain Ghost to help us! The magistrate made a deal with him!”

The retainer nodded and dashed out, mounting a fast horse and charging toward Bai Family Fortress.

Liang Shixian’s heart pounded with fear. Border troops… Border troops were really coming.

Don’t panic! We still have Captain Ghost. He’s also border troops. Border troops vs. border troops, plus our militia gentry to assist. This fight is winnable.

Li Daoxuan watched this scene. “Tsk,” he muttered softly. After half a second’s thought, he decided, No need to send Gao Yiye back to the village to notify anyone this time. Cheng Xu shouldn’t need my orders to know what to do.

He tapped the characters for “Gaojia Village.” His view jumped back. He glanced around the village but couldn’t find Cheng Xu or the militia at all. Hitting the buttons for north, south, east, and west frantically, he finally found them.

Cheng Xu and the militia were actually all near a desolate mountain beside the firearms bureau. Standing before them was Xu Dafu, chief of the firearms bureau.

Xu Dafu was handing a fist-sized sphere to Gao Chuwu. He pointed at the fuse on the ball. “See this thing? Light it. Then use all your strength to hurl this ball forward.”

Gao Chuwu’s big mouth cracked into a grin: “All my strength is big-league! I can throw it super far!”

Xu Dafu warned seriously: “I suggest you throw it as far as possible. If it lands too close, it might blow you up.”

This scared the hell out of Gao Chuwu. He hurriedly yanked his helmet down, shrinking his entire huge frame inside his iron armor, turning into a giant metal suit.

“How’s this?”

“Fine. Now light the fuse.”

Zheng Daniu scrambled over from the side and helped Gao Chuwu ignite the fuse on the black sphere. Then he immediately clapped his hands over his ears and scurried back frantically.

The fuse sizzled as it burned downward.

At the halfway point, Xu Dafu yelled, “THROW IT!”

Gao Chuwu let out a “HEY!” yell, swung his long arm high, and flung it forward with his entire might.

The black sphere flew. It flew incredibly far, far away. Soaring dozens of yards, farther than the effective range of the Three-Eyed Divine Firearm.

It landed…

“BOOM!!!”

A colossal blast shook the valley. The tremendous explosion sound made everyone cower and flinch involuntarily.

Several seconds later, the thick smoke cleared. Cheng Xu was the first to burst into massive laughter: “Hahaha! This thing is awesome! This thing is SO AWESOME! Hahaha! Paired with the brute strength of idiots like Gao Chuwu and Zheng Daniu, it’s practically god-block-god-kill-god, Buddha-block-Buddha-kill-Buddha!”