87: Chapter 87 Stealing Golden Rice?

"How many cannons have been built?"

"Replying to Your Majesty, fifty thousand."

"Why is it so slow?"

The Empress was dissatisfied. She had seen firsthand the speed at which Li Jiao manufactured cannons—one person, with no help, could build three cannons in a day.

Later, after Li Jiao built factories, the speed increased even more. With sufficient materials, he could build a hundred cannons a day.

That was just the output of one factory. During the New Year period, Li Jiao had built thirty-six factories specifically to keep up with war consumption. Logically, building thousands of cannons a day was possible, so why was it so slow?

Only fifty thousand cannons by now?

Could it be...

The Empress's gaze was cold. She could not tolerate treacherous, shifty people. If there were any, she wouldn't mind another massacre until there were none left!

"Your Majesty, we are wronged! In these days, all the able-bodied men have been building cannons day and night without a moment's rest, never daring to slack off!"

The official below explained hurriedly, "The reason for the slowness is simply limited raw materials. Most of the laborers are commoners without cultivation aptitude. They can manage transportation, but mining iron ore is extremely difficult!"

The Empress frowned, suddenly recalling a problem. The reason Li Jiao didn't lack raw materials back then was that martial artists also participated in mining.

When she followed Li Jiao, everyone went down to mine together. Martial artists dug, and those without martial arts were responsible for transportation.

Iron was hard for ordinary people to dig, but it was easy for any third-rate martial artist. Using their own weapons and a bit of force, they could easily excavate or loosen the iron ore.

Once the ore was loosened, the able-bodied men without martial arts could move it. With both sides cooperating, the efficiency was very high.

But now, the mining team consisted only of ordinary people. When digging for raw materials, they encountered large ore deposits and couldn't even move them, so efficiency was inevitably slow.

So, the low number of cannons really wasn't the officials' fault. When she persuaded the martial artists to betray Li Jiao, there were naturally conditions. She had promised that if she held power, the status of martial artists would be above ordinary people, they would enjoy court benefits, and they would have the privilege of not participating in manual labor.

She forcibly conscripted all able-bodied men to mine, but this group of martial artists was not included.

The Empress frowned. She wanted to make the martial artists go down and mine themselves, but she knew that was impossible.

If she unilaterally revoked the privileges possessed by the martial artists, a large number of them would rebel, especially those three grandmasters.

The Empress summoned her think tank and got straight to the point,

"Is there a simple and efficient way to increase mining output?"

"There is, Your Majesty!"

Strength in numbers; the think tank quickly came up with a solution for the Empress,

"The Cannon Kingdom and the Ash Kingdom forcibly occupied our Great Pi territory two hundred years ago. It is time to take it back!"

The neighboring countries had also taken advantage of the Pi Kingdom's weakness over two hundred years ago to seize a lot of Great Pi's territory.

Previously, the Pi Kingdom didn't have enough strength, but now they had cannons.

There weren't many grandmasters in the surrounding neighboring countries, so they could completely let the army practice in the neighboring countries and forcibly plunder martial artists as labor!

By the way, they could also replenish the national treasury!

"Approved!"

The Empress agreed quickly. This was a good method; not only could it replenish the labor force, but it could also train the troops to quickly develop an elite army for future conquests of major nations!

"Pass on my decree: dispatch troops to the Cannon Kingdom and the Ash Kingdom!"

"By the way, send someone to ask about the gun weight, and when that batch of golden rice in Tianduan Mountain will mature."

The Empress had not forgotten the news reported by the three grandmasters. In Tianduan Mountain, there was a large amount of top-quality golden rice about to mature. It was a material for making guns and bombs, and since they were short on equipment, they couldn't miss it.

...

"Aroo~"

Sleeping until the sun was high again, Lu Hu woke up yawning and groggily went to water the green lotus. After watering, he casually plucked a spirit herb and chewed it in his mouth.

Arriving at the sinkhole, Tiger Brother and Tiger Dad were fighting. Li Jiao was crawling on the ground, arching his back. Mo Yun and Lu Qing were watching from behind, discussing professional theories regarding rehabilitation training for paralysis.

Under the treatment of the two professional Medical Daoist Grandmasters, Li Jiao was recovering quickly and could already walk slowly. The reason he was crawling on the ground was that Li Jiao was performing rehabilitation training for his lower back.

"Hmph-snort~"

The Wild Boar King returned pulling a large cart of golden rice. The golden rice was ripe, and today he was leading the wild boar herd to harvest it. This was the second cart.

Lu Hu was gratified. The twelfth task, golden vine, had been completed half a month ago. Once this golden rice task was completed, he would receive another system gift package.

"Aroo~"

Lu Hu personally used magic to create a cellar and stored the golden rice brought back by the Wild Boar King. This was the ration for the future potential seeds of the wild boar tribe!

"Aroo~" (Back then, there were birds and beasts helping to clear the wasteland and plant crops. Don't forget to give them a share.)

When the golden rice was originally planted, the clans of the Owl and the Dragon Li also participated. If he didn't instruct the Wild Boar King, this greedy guy would swallow all the golden rice alone.

"Hmph-snort!"

The Wild Boar King nodded. Since the Great King had spoken, he would distribute some. Then, he pulled the empty cart and continued towards the rice fields.

Just after leaving the valley, the Wild Boar King stopped. He saw the Little Red Pig running back, howling, looking panicked, with dozens of wild boars following behind. Some of the wild boars were bleeding and had multiple bullet holes on their bodies.

"Hang!!"

The Wild Boar King was furious. Who did this?

"Hmph-snort, hmph-snort~"

The Little Red Pig hurriedly informed him that over at the rice fields, a group of hairless monkeys had arrived. Not only were they snatching their grain, but they were also killing their kin.

Bang!

The Wild Boar King immediately threw down the empty cart and gripped his rake. His eyes turned red.

You have to know, although he often ate his brother-in-law to reduce the population of the tribe, those brothers-in-law were all good-for-nothing stock.

But the wild boars guarding the golden rice fields were the elites among the wild boars. Once they grew up, they would all be the pillars of the wild boar tribe's future.

Now that there were casualties, how could he not be angry!

The Wild Boar King set off aggressively!

After taking two steps, the Wild Boar King's body paused. He turned around.

"Hang ah!" (Great King, you must uphold justice for me!)

The Wild Boar King wailed, dropped his rake, and ran crying towards Tiger King Valley. He cried as he ran, "Hang ah ah!" (There are hairless monkeys trying to snatch my rice!)

"Aroo!"

Lu Hu stood up. Seeing the injured wild boars behind the Wild Boar King, Lu Hu's tiger eyes narrowed.

He was just honestly farming, why were there so many issues?

Lu Hu headed to the rice fields. It was only a hundred miles away, a matter of a few breaths.

Lu Hu arrived at the golden rice fields and saw a large number of humans holding swords and blades, harvesting the golden rice. There were many people, over two thousand.

Among them, one hundred were martial artists, and the rest were in rags, looking like they had been forcibly coerced.

The grains, leaves, and stalks of the golden rice, except for the roots, were all taken away.

The system's judgment on the harvest was based on the same camp. If these golden rice were taken away in a situation where they were not in the same camp, it would not be counted within the system's scope.

Fortunately, the golden rice was comparable to refined iron and was not so easy to harvest. Until now, this group of people had only managed to harvest barely one percent.

"Aroo!!" (All of you, stop right there!)

Lu Hu roared, the Tiger Roar echoing throughout Tianduan Mountain. In particular, the two thousand people in the rice field each gave a miserable scream before fainting, their ears, noses, and eyes bleeding. Only those hundred-plus martial artists remained standing.

This was Lu Hu intentionally holding back, knowing that this group of people was forced, so he didn't want to cause such a great slaughter; otherwise, everyone would be dead!

"There is a spirit beast!"

The hundred-plus martial artists still standing shouted, "Quick, set up the cannons!"

Behind many of the martial artists, there were golden cannons set up—a full hundred of them. The martial artists rushed toward the cannons.

The martial artists touched the cannons and quickly aimed the muzzles at Lu Hu. Black cannonballs shot towards Lu Hu. Lu Hu raised his palm, and a trace of electric current flashed in the air.

Boom!

A hundred cannonballs exploded!

Fire and smoke bloomed, and dense golden blades flew out from within. These were all leaves of the golden rice, sharp as swords. Inserted into the bombs, as they spread with the explosion, they were a great weapon for reaping lives on the battlefield!

Lu Hu pressed his tiger palm forward, and an invisible giant palm covered the front, causing all the flying blades to clatter to the ground.

Whoosh~

A gust of wind blew up, scattering the smoke. Lu Hu flicked his claws forward gently, and a stream of spiritual energy flew out, dispersing into a hundred, landing on each martial artist.

Bang bang bang!

The martial artists also all fell to the ground to sleep.

Lu Hu stepped forward, looking at the cannons. They were gadgets Li Jiao had tinkered with. Li Jiao had been backstabbed, and these things were currently controlled by the Empress of the Pi Kingdom.

Bringing cannons and forcing laborers to come to Tianduan Mountain just to rob golden rice.

You all might as well be poor to death; you want to rob even this little bit of golden rice.

After a while, Mo Yun and Lu Qing arrived. Soon, the Wild Boar King, Tiger Dad, Mother Tiger, Tiger Brother, and Li Jiao also arrived.

"Aroo~" (Capture these martial artists.)

Lu Hu let the Wild Boar King capture these martial artists. He kept these martial artists alive, intending to let the animals of Tianduan Mountain that had opened their wisdom use Wu Wen's Heaven Swallowing Divine Art.

As early as last year, he had passed the Heaven Swallowing Divine Art to the animals, but they suffered from having no objects to absorb internal energy from, so the martial art had no place to be used.

Now it was different. With these hundred-plus martial artists acting as experience packs, they could quickly improve the strength of the animals.

Since they had come to rob the food he had painstakingly planted, they should have the awareness of being captured!

"Rebel Army."

Li Jiao looked at the two thousand people lying on the ground. These people were his Rebel Army, but after seeing that they were all in rags and sallow and thin, Li Jiao also guessed what kind of treatment the ordinary people who could not practice martial arts received after he left.

The prosperous age in Xiao Qing's eyes was vast territories and emerging experts. She didn't care about the lives of the people at the bottom.

After he left, the Rebel Army was basically composed of ordinary people who had not practiced martial arts and would not obey Xiao Qing's orders, so Li Jiao had already guessed the outcome.

But in Li Jiao's imagination, even if they were all ordinary people, they were veterans who had fought in wars. Being city guards or garrison soldiers to maintain order would be fine.

He didn't expect that they would be used as coolies by Xiao Qing.

"Xiao Qing..."

Li Jiao sighed. When the uprising first started, he handled all the big and small affairs, so he couldn't let Xiao Qing show her talent.

During the time he was hunted, for the first two days before he fell into a coma, Brother Tiger took him fleeing everywhere. Li Jiao also intentionally inquired about Xiao Qing's background. From the mouths of the common people, he learned more about this person, Xiao Qing.

How to describe it? She was simply a fool living in her own world!

Rumor had it that she was omniscient and had a pair of fiery eyes that could see every subtle detail clearly.

One month after Xiao Qing arrived in the territory, she solved a hundred major cases, averaging three major cases solved per day.

In situations where the local government couldn't find any evidence, Xiao Qing relied on her pair of fiery eyes to see through the truth behind the cases and find evidence, perfectly solving the cases.

Although those criminals shouted that they hadn't done it, in Xiao Qing's eyes, this was just resistance from not wanting to admit the crime. After two rounds of torture, the criminals would confess the process of the crime!

Whether it was accurate or not was another matter, but the efficiency was truly fast.

When he learned about this, Li Jiao nearly died of anger on the spot, because he could truly see that Xiao Qing was very satisfied with her title of "Xiao Qingtian" and was proud of the cases she had solved!

Praised as a genius by the people around her since childhood, with countless people flattering her for whatever she did, she had already lived in her own world. Even solving cases relied entirely on her own deductions.

This was why one had to be particular about solid evidence when facing criminals. Otherwise, encountering a "Qingtian" official like Xiao Qing who solved cases by intuition, real criminals would be grinning from ear to ear!

"She even wants to achieve an eternal hegemony."

Li Jiao's gaze fell on the hundred cannons and shells. He looked down at his own hands. Under Mr. Lu Qing's treatment, he could already act normally. Although his movements were a bit slow, Li Jiao discovered that his hands had gained new abilities.

The things he touched could appear in his mind in a three-dimensional form, allowing him to zoom in and out and quickly find flaws.

He could also release a kind of invisible energy shield to contain air from dispersing.

This meant that in the future, when manufacturing things, if there were flaws, he could discover them immediately.

Before, he didn't dare to manufacture more profound and dangerous weapons, not just because of radiation, but because those weapons required more exquisite parts. Once a mistake occurred, the explosion of that level of weapon would kill him too.

But now it was different. With this ability, he no longer worried about flaws.

Manufacturing weapons like missiles and nuclear bombs would have no potential dangers. Li Jiao's hands were itching; manually crafting a nuclear bomb was very fulfilling.

"Tiger Great King, can you hand these cannons over to me to handle?"

Li Jiao requested, "I can turn them into a weapon that you are satisfied with, Great King!"

Lu Hu agreed and also let Li Jiao deal with the two thousand Rebel Army soldiers. It was fine for Tianduan Mountain to accommodate a small number of humans, but with too many people, it would be very troublesome!

The matter was resolved, and the harvesting of golden rice continued. Lu Hu woke up one of the martial artists. After interrogation, it was indeed sent by Xiao Qing.

The three grandmasters last time saw the golden rice field here, and Xiao Qing learned about it, specifically calculating the maturation time and arranging for people to come and harvest it.

She even considered the prehistoric fierce beast that the three grandmasters encountered, which was Godzilla, and specifically brought a hundred cannons to deal with the ferocious Godzilla.

"Aroo~" (You go to the Pi Kingdom.)

Lu Hu arranged for Lu Qing to take a trip to the Pi Kingdom. The mastermind behind robbing the grain was the Empress, so of course, he couldn't let her live so comfortably!

"Yes!"

After receiving the order, Lu Qing immediately set off for the Pi Kingdom.

He went with killing intent. The Great King rarely killed. Lu Qing knew how much the Great King valued the medicine fields and fertile fields. The Pi Kingdom's move undoubtedly touched the Great King's bottom line. This trip was not only to deal with Xiao Qing but also to give a warning to the remaining nobles of the Pi Kingdom, so that they would not dare to enter the Tianduan Mountains again.