Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1548: Chapter 485: The Panic of the Five Towns, the Beginning of Withdrawal from the Alliance, Tan Rou’s Satisfaction (Part 2)

The Five Towns certainly benefited as well, but how could their individual three hundred plus advanced teams compare with the Great Xia?

Thanks to these continually issued Hunting Orders, the Great Xia’s new products have emerged in endless succession over the past two years. New types of cultivation resources have been constantly put on shelves in the Treasure Tower, demonstrating a development speed that could be described as a thousand miles a day.

The Five Towns have made some progress, but compared to the Great Xia, it’s like comparing night and day.

Speaking of the Ten Thousand Treasures Sub-building, the lords of the Five Towns initially thought that once each town established a sub-building, they could directly purchase Great Xia’s cultivation resources, saving them a trip to Hongmen City. This would reduce transportation costs for the business association and prevent population loss.

However, the result was that the sub-buildings in each town only conducted business with roamers.

In other words, the business transactions still had to be conducted in Hongmen City, while the sub-buildings in the towns only catered to individuals. Somewhat precious cultivation resources were still supplied in limited quantities.

The most cunning part was that the Great Xia set the prices for the supplies at the Hongmen City Treasure Tower headquarters two-tenths cheaper than in any town.

So, neither reducing costs nor preventing population loss worked out as planned for the Five Towns.

On the contrary, the Great Xia used the Ten Thousand Treasures Sub-building over the last two years to continually infiltrate or even instigate defection within the five town cities, causing no end of trouble for the Five Towns.

Of course, they made many countermeasures in between, but in the end, they all failed against the terrifying financial and material resources of the Great Xia.

In the end, having no other choice, they could only halt the operations of the Ten Thousand Treasures Sub-building once again.

Truth be told, the Great Xia truly complied with the demands of the Five Great Lords and directly closed the Treasure Towers in the five towns.

Yet, similar to the situation when the Alliance Hunting Orders were first issued, there was an immediate uproar of public discontent in the Five Towns, with some people moving to settle in Hongmen City, and others simply defecting directly to the Great Xia. The top levels of the Five Towns quickly became alarmed by the situation.

So, the Ten Thousand Treasures Sub-buildings, which had been closed for only ten days, were reopened at the request of the Five Towns lords.

Just adhering to the two covenant terms of submission to the Alliance Hierarch and the clauses promoting strength and military might have already caused the Five Towns great distress, and when all the other detailed terms of the initial covenant are added, they number in the dozens.

Given the Great Xia’s aggressive stance under the guise of the alliance, the situation of the Five Towns over the past two years needs no elaboration.

Yet, retrospectively, the most vicious clauses in the original covenant were the second clause, shared banner in the same boat, and the fourth clause, shared defense against foreign fiefs.

These two clauses were implemented together. The second clause specified that each town would contribute Cold Resistance Level forces to jointly form the allied army; the fourth clause stipulated that the Beishuo Dongchuan district and the area of Yinhe Valley in Jin Mountain would be designated as joint governance zones for the alliance and that the allied army would be stationed there. This is because these two areas serve as the entry points to the Southern Slope Territory for the Chen Cang and Cai Qiu fiefs.

At the beginning two years ago, the allied army totaled only thirty thousand; Great Xia contributed one-third, that is, ten thousand; each of the Northern Three Towns contributed over three thousand, amounting to ten thousand; and the remaining ten thousand were split among the Five Towns, with each providing two thousand.

Under this formation, although the soldiers of Great Xia formed the majority of the allied army, it wasn’t enough to form an overwhelming advantage, so the Five Towns didn’t concern themselves.

However, from April of last year, the situation changed!