Beiyuan City was in the midst of reconstruction, swarmed by civilians seeking high-paying jobs from all over, along with the military, bringing a burst of vitality to the area.
But in reality, the city was still full of ruins, and bodies of all sorts could be seen or excavated everywhere.
People had grown accustomed to the sight of digging up an arm with a shovel in the debris, and some even found valuable items on these bodies, profiting from the dead.
Some bomb craters were being repurposed, dug out directly for laying pipes, improving the city’s sewage system.
In fact, other cities in Qi Country were hardly distinguishable from battlefields now, with trenches dug out everywhere, so much so that one might mistake them for still being at war.
The military was frenetically busy; they had to clear the ruins and, upon receiving reports from workers, inspect the site for hazardous materials.
Some places contained hidden ammunition from the Shen Country military, mostly bullets but also grenades and land mines, and even some large-caliber shells.
These items had to be disposed of quickly and properly—civilians lacked the experience, so the military had to send personnel for the task.
All the munitions had to be transported to a designated location and detonated, and the resulting large craters were also convenient for laying pipes, killing two birds with one stone.
As for the harbor area, the scene was even busier—workers there needed to repair at least one dock as quickly as possible so that transport ships heading north could dock.
In any era, shipping is the most formidable mode of transport—a transport ship loaded with cement pipes docking is comparable to the transportation power of hundreds of trucks.
Another priority was the repair of the train station and railroads, as rail transit would immediately elevate the pace of Beiyuan City’s reconstruction.
Construction sites were everywhere, workers pushing wheelbarrows and bicycles, refilling the dug-out pits with debris after laying pipes, then repeating the process over and over.
The work near the city wall was much simpler; workers had to clear all the trash near the collapsed walls.
Huge stones and green bricks were transported to the harbor area, cast into the sea to build bigger and more advanced docks.
In the city center, several towering cranes rose, tasked with constructing the first batch of skyscrapers in the city.
Cement was plentiful, Great Tang Group had set up cement factories in many places, employing highly advanced production techniques.
These cement and steel factories provided raw materials for the swift development of Tang Country, securing resources for infrastructure—when Tang Mo wanted to build skyscrapers, he always had access to cement and steel, which was quite an achievement.
It was hard to imagine this as a city that had ended its battles, when occasional explosions still occurred, black smoke spiraled up, causing the construction workers to be on tenterhooks.
Military trucks parked along the streets, with grenade-throwing soldiers carrying submachine guns, maintaining order while smoking cigarettes.
They had another mission—to collect various weapons, including pistols, rifles, bullets, shell casings…
Ten shell casings for a copper coin, a pistol for two silver coins, a rifle for three silver coins, with money paid for machine guns and gun parts depending on their condition.
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In any case, civilians were eager; children scavenged for bullets and shells in the ruins, found broken gun parts, and even intact rifles.
Of course, they also found adults to deal with the rotten corpses lying next to the weapons they discovered.
Besides light arms, the Tang Army had to allocate personnel to haul heavy weapons such as machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, and cannons.
Also, damaged Ice Cold branded cars, Gobur branded vehicles, and other automotive wrecks had to be removed for recycling.
Unfortunately, these cars were now stripped to the frame, with small parts and less sturdy components having been salvaged by civilians.
Truck after truck of rice, flour, and canned vegetables were delivered to Beiyuan City from the directions of Pingning and Anpu, the food coming by rail could be directly offloaded to nearby regions.
The Great Tang Kingdom never lacked food, especially when the whole world was prepared to pay for airplane technology, making the food embargo a complete joke.
Before the war, Tang Mo had stockpiled a large amount of food, intending to stabilize prices and calm the public upon taking over Qi Country.
In fact, the situation turned out much better than Tang Mo had expected: The Prince’s killing and plundering in the southern Qi Country for food had completely pushed the citizens toward Tang Country.
The disaster in Beiyuan City once again stimulated the civilians of Qi Country, turning the Tang Army from invaders to liberators overnight.
Together with the Tang Army’s rough redistribution of wealth within Qi Country, the civilians had already begun to accept the rule of Tang Country.
When the envoys from Shen Country arrived in Beiyuan City by boat, what they saw was such a busy and fulfilling scene.
As they rode in a car past the cleared main thoroughfare, they saw trucks carrying the rotting corpses of Shen Country soldiers to be burned outside the city.
On the bodies, it was clear to see Shen Country’s brown, shit-like military uniforms. These bodies, stacked together, looked like a small mountain of Jin’ou watches.
"The warriors of Shen Country should not be treated like this." Inside the car, an envoy from Shen Country, annoyed, glared at the truck transporting bodies outside the window and said through gritted teeth.
"Minister Shen Wenxin, now is not the time to think about these things..." The lead envoy from Shen Country bitterly spoke to soothe his deputy, "We should focus on the bigger picture."
"Minister Shen Wenyu... We, we really have failed the desperate struggle of so many brave warriors..." said the minister from Shen Country, who was named Shen Wenxin, painfully to his superior, Shen Wenyu.
As the foreign affairs minister of Shen Country, Shen Wenyu sighed and said, "The life and death of the kingdom is now in the hands of others. We must at all costs ensure the survival of Shen Country, this... is the best comfort for the fallen soldiers!"
"You... are right," Shen Wenxin nodded slightly, and when he looked up again, his gaze still reluctantly followed the truck carrying the corpses that was moving in the same direction as theirs.
The driver was also from Shen Country; otherwise, they wouldn’t dare to talk so openly and without restraint in the car. The car they were in had been bought from equipment captured by the Tang Army, these Dwarf-produced Ice Cold brand cars were better suited for the Goblins of Shen Country.
While members of other races felt that the cockpit of an Ice Cold brand car was somewhat cramped, the Goblins of Shen Country found the interior space decent, even a bit too large...
When they normally used cars, they needed to modify them, raising the brake and gas pedals before they could drive on the road, so every Goblin car purchased by Shen Country came with a set of small accessories to raise the brake and gas pedals.
These Ice Cold cars were Shen Country equipment seized by the Tang Army. Initially, Shen Country had also purchased them from the Ice Cold Empire. Now they had to pay again to buy them from the Tang Army, which was quite ironic— they were paying twice for the same car…
Because the envoys from Shen Country were coming to sue for peace, or in other words, to bring money, Tang Country did not deliberately make things difficult for them.
Soon the car stopped next to a small square in the city center, the flowerbed was filled with rubble and broken stones, barely resembling its original form.
As the envoys from Shen Country got out of the car, they were startled by the tall crane nearby, having never seen such construction machinery, they looked up at it for a long time.
When they came back to their senses and withdrew their gaze, they then noticed a corpse hanging near the city hall they were heading to.
The lower half of this corpse was burnt black, the upper half naked, covered in scars. More horrifying was the face of the corpse, contorted in agony; clearly, he had been alive when burned.
"Shen Wenxi!" Although the face was severely distorted and the body was roasted so that it was barely distinguishable from a mummy, Shen Wenxin recognized his former colleague at a glance.
"These Tang people are really too cruel!" He lowered his voice, fearful of being heard by Tang officials who were not far off, coming to greet them.
At that moment, he had only heard that Shenwu Sanlang was dead, not knowing yet of the sliced death Shenwu Sanlang had suffered.
"Welcome both of you to Tang Country," the leading official from Tang Country said in a harmless manner, making it impossible to associate him with the well-done corpse not far behind him.
"Legally, this is still a disputed area... Sir! We have come this time to discuss this very issue," Shen Wenyu spoke up, emphasizing the point.
"Oh?" The official from Tang Country was not annoyed but responded with an ’oh’ before saying, "Just because of what you just said, during the negotiations, Shen Country will have to put up an additional 50,000 gold coins."
"You!" Shen Wenxin wanted to step forward to argue but was held back by Shen Wenyu, "Beiyuan City is already in your hands, yet you continue to be so unrelenting. Don’t you think that’s a bit too greedy?" Stay updated via Freewebnovel
"Looking greedy is not a problem, the main thing is to eat enough to be full," the young official from Tang Country laughed heartily.
"You’ve already got it in your mouth, why the rush?" Shen Wenyu frowned in embarrassment and continued to ask.
"Haven’t swallowed it yet, right?" the Tang official raised an eyebrow.
"Sigh..." Looking at the confident Tang official, Shen Wenyu had a strong premonition that this time the peace talks would cost Shen Country dearly.
"Don’t be so tense, differences are differences, but friendship is friendship... The banquet will be lavish, and the guest of honor is a special envoy from the Ice Cold Empire. The cuisine will be plentiful; the special envoy must thoroughly enjoy himself," the Tang official gestured invitingly, with a beef jerky-like street lamp ornament hanging in the background, looking ever so eerie.