Endless Winter: My Camp Infinite Upgrades

Chapter 347 Mirror Valley Garrison Commander Luo Ming Beast Tide Great Xia Six Armies
The seventh year of the Great Xia Dynasty, the ninth day of the ninth month, in the middle of the night.

Leaving aside the commotion caused by Xia Hong's breakthrough in the inner city during the first half of the night, for everyone in the outer city and all the outposts within the Great Xia territory, the beginning of September was actually an extraordinary time.

Because early September is the second ripening period for the Bing Shu tree each year, at which time the tree is full of crystal fruits.

Foods like crystal fruits, which can only sustain basic needs and do not provide any benefits to cultivation, are naturally not considered precious resources in the Great Xia Dynasty. However, the logging department still categorizes them as key reserve resources.

The reason is quite simple. First, after the crystal fruit is mashed and mixed with water and then with meat powder, it can be made into complementary food for infants, which can significantly improve children's physique. Second, the crystal fruit can not only be used as a staple food, but also, after being ground into powder, it can be used as a spice, which can significantly increase the aroma of food.

Since crystal fruits are a key reserve resource, the Ice Giant Tree that bears crystal fruits naturally becomes a key focus of the logging department.

The most transplanted tree species along the main road of the outer city of Daxia is indeed the Bing Shu (ice tree). Some enthusiasts have counted that there are a total of 582 Bing Shu trees in the outer city, and the number is increasing rapidly as the Hunting Department makes new progress in exploring the three major resource areas.

Compared to the early days of the Great Xia Dynasty, when finding a few Icewood Trees required risking one's life, the 582 trees now in Xia City are an astonishing number. Many people believe that the Great Xia Dynasty transplanted all the Icewood Trees from the three resource areas of Redwood Ridge, Arrow Bamboo Forest, and Longshan to Xia City.

"They should all have been transplanted back. In the early years, our Rogue Encampment only found 21 Icewood Trees on the outskirts of Redwood Ridge. Including those from other camps, the total number is probably no more than 50. 582 is indeed too many."

"How can we transplant them all back to Xia City? The various outposts also need to make a living. If we don't leave a single Ice Tree, we can't use beast meat as our staple food. After all, it's a cultivation resource. Xia City has more than 800,000 people and we're still short of it!"

At the south entrance of the Jinggu outpost, about twenty people were gathered.

Upon hearing Xu Kang's words behind him, Li Baihe immediately refuted him, then smiled and said, "Back then, how much was the activity range of our Rogue Camp? It was only about one kilometer outside the eastern side of Redwood Ridge. It was perfectly normal to only find 21 trees. Now, let alone that one kilometer, the area of ​​more than ten kilometers outside the eastern side of Redwood Ridge is already part of Xia City. The activity range has expanded so much, and the total number of Ice Trees discovered is naturally far greater than what we could have done back then."

After saying this, he paused, then continued, "A total of 582 Ice Trees were transplanted in Xia City. It's not that the hunting team only found this many, but that's all they needed. Xia City didn't just transplant this type of tree. There were also Chenxiang, Green Water, Blue Jade, Green Saliva, Fragrant Cold, Angelica, Jade Bone, Cold Red... There are at least dozens of other precious trees that need to be transplanted. The Ice Trees benefited from being a staple food, otherwise the city wouldn't have reserved so much space for them."

Upon hearing this, Xu Kang finally understood and nodded gently.

"Alright, I brought you here tonight specifically to observe the army's combat strength. Why are you talking about the Ice Tree?"

At the head of the group, Luo Ming, the garrison commander of Jinggu, turned around and interrupted the two who wanted to continue their discussion.

Although Luo Ming was the garrison commander of Jinggu, Li Baihe and Xu Kang were his brothers who had risked their lives for him, so he was not intimidated.

Li Baihe smiled and nodded, "Isn't this a perfect opportunity to talk about the affairs within the outpost? Since my elder brother came here to serve as the garrison commander last July, Mirror Valley's monthly profit value has been between 30 and 35, always ranking in the top five. Last year, it wasn't a full year yet, so it's hard to say, but this year is different. In the first eight months, the data for six months was very impressive. If it weren't for the beast tides in January and May, how could our Mirror Valley's accumulated profit value only rank eighth?"

"The army has finally arrived! If we can defeat this beast tide that occurs every four months, then putting aside this year for now, next year Mirror Valley will definitely be able to break into the top three!"

Upon hearing Li Baihe's words, Xu Kang, Shang Ping, and more than twenty members of Luo Yang's team, including Captain Luo Ming, all showed expressions of agreement.

When Luo Ming heard Li Baihe's last sentence, "Jinggu will have no problem making it into the top three next year," he immediately nodded emphatically, his face full of confidence.

It has been five years since Luo Ming returned to Great Xia. He and Li Baihe, along with other former Rogge members, have long since recovered from their psychological imbalance and resentment.

The psychological imbalance stems from the huge gap in status. Now they have clearly realized that the core reason for the gap in status has never been their identity, nor their past behavior, but their strength.

Having clearly realized this, Luo Ming completely abandoned his identity as the vanguard leader of the Rogue Encampment and regarded himself as an ordinary member of the Great Xia.

With this understanding, his growth rate became astonishingly fast.

Five years ago, when Luo Ming returned to Xia City, he immediately gathered his old brothers, including Li Baihe, to create the Luo Yang Squad. Since his cultivation had already broken through to the limit of 30,000 jin when he was in the Hive, and Li Baihe and the others were not far behind, the squad was not weak as soon as it was created. It quickly became an intermediate hunting team in the second year.

In November of the fifth year of the Great Xia Dynasty, which was the year before last, Luo Ming successfully broke through and became the first expert of the Cold Resistance level in the team. Then, in the first half of last year, Li Baihe, Xu Kang, and Shang Ping also broke through one after another. With four Cold Resistance level experts in the Luo Yang team, it was only natural to move towards becoming a high-level team.

Last June, Luo Ming and his team successfully hunted a high-level white bear in the arrow bamboo forest. It was the third high-level cold beast they had hunted. After handing the white bear over to the supply department in the inner city main building, Luo Yang's team was promoted to the 508th high-level hunting team under the hunting department.

Upon hearing the number 508, Luo Ming wore a wry smile. He had thought that with Luo Yang's team advancing to the advanced level, he, as the team leader, would have secured a place in the Great Xia Dynasty. He believed that even if he didn't catch the eye of Lord Xia Hong, at least Si Cheng Xia Chuan and the Director of the Hunting Department would take notice.

Clearly, he was overthinking it.

Luo Ming harbored some resentment. In his early years, he was someone who could stand on equal footing with Xia Hong. Now, not only had the gap between his status and Xia Hong's become so large, but even Xia Chuan, Yuan Cheng, Qiu Peng, and his former subordinates Luo Yuan and Zhao Long were now in much higher positions than him. Naturally, he found it hard to accept.

Realizing that even if he broke through to the Cold Resistance level and led Luo Yang's team to become a high-level hunting team, he still couldn't bridge the gap in status, he started to have other ideas.

At the end of June last year, just as Luo Yang's team had been promoted to a high-level hunting team, the Great Xia established the Eighth District of the East City. Li Longkai, the former garrison commander of Jinggu, was promoted to deputy military commander of the Eighth District's Logistics Department, leaving the position of garrison commander of Jinggu vacant.

Upon learning this news, Luo Ming immediately went to the jurisdiction to register for the competition.

The current official positions in the Great Xia Dynasty are divided into six ranks: the first rank is the Assistant Director; the second rank is the Director of the Eight Ministries; the third rank is the Deputy Director; the fourth rank is the Director of the Eight Ministries in the outer city and the fifth rank is the Deputy Director of the Eight Ministries in the large garrison areas such as Longshan, Wuyuan and Dongling; and the sixth rank is the Garrison Commander of the small garrison areas such as Fengchao, Xiling, Zhaoyang and Baiyuan.

Of course, the Great Xia Dynasty currently has more than just these official positions; these positions are just used as representatives to distinguish them.

Jinggu was also a small outpost, so the garrison commander of Jinggu was a sixth-rank official.

Although it was the lowest-ranking sixth-grade official position, the competition was extremely fierce, especially given the large number of Cold-resistant level officials in Great Xia and the limited number of positions available. Naturally, Luo Ming's appointment process was not smooth.

The selection criteria for the garrison commander are twofold: individual strength, the overall strength of the hunting team, and the ability to manage affairs. Fortunately, Luo Ming was strong in all three aspects, so he stood out among the competitors and successfully became the garrison commander of Jinggu.

Upon becoming a garrison commander and learning about the concept of Yingchuang Value, Luo Ming realized that strength alone was not enough. He understood that maintaining Yingchuang Value was the only way to continue climbing towards the top of the Great Xia Dynasty, so he naturally focused all his attention on this.

Mirror Valley is located north of Arrow Bamboo Forest, and there are no other outposts nearby. Its resource endowment is actually quite good. However, since the third year of the Great Xia Dynasty, when the northern city wall of Xia City was expanded to the south of Arrow Bamboo Forest, the situation has become somewhat strange.

With the northern city wall already bordering the arrow bamboo forest, Xia City naturally separated a portion of its hunting teams to enter the arrow bamboo forest for hunting and gathering. As a result, the situation where Mirror Valley monopolized the arrow bamboo forest was naturally broken.

After taking office, Luo Ming put in a lot of effort. He brought over a large number of low- to mid-level hunting teams from Xia City; he also invited a large number of professionals from the eight logging bureaus in the outer city to teach the people in the outposts to identify plants and teach them gathering skills; and finally, he spared no effort to urge everyone in the outposts to hunt, gather, and explore. As a result, in just two months since taking office, as Li Baihe just said, Mirror Valley's profit value has repeatedly broken new records, all between 30 and 35, ranking among the top three among the small outposts, and its performance is indeed quite good.

Until early September last year, when the beast tide that occurs every four months in the Arrow Bamboo Forest arrived, the entire month of September saw Mirror Valley's revenue drop to less than 5, leaving Luo Ming completely stunned.

He then remembered the beast tide that occurred in Arrow Bamboo Forest every four months, and at the same time, he suddenly realized why he was able to become the Mirror Valley Guardian so smoothly. Everyone knew about the beast tide and knew that being the Mirror Valley Guardian was a thankless job. It was difficult to put effort into improving one's earnings, and once you became the guardian, it was all about enduring hardship. Therefore, the people who competed with him for the position were actually not very strong.

After making some inquiries, he learned that after Yue Feng, the first garrison commander of Jinggu, was promoted to the garrison commander of Longshan, Li Pingkai, who succeeded him, spent four years in the position of garrison commander of Jinggu before being promoted to deputy military commander of the East Eighth District. This further confirmed his thoughts.

Subsequent developments were exactly as he had predicted. Although he could keep Mirror Valley's profit value among the top three of all small outposts in normal months, the data would suddenly drop every month when the beast tide arrived, and then the ranking would fall by a lot.

"The total profit creation value for the six normal months is 189 million, but the two months with the beast tide only add up to 70,000. That means the total profit creation value for the first eight months of this year is 196 million. September is also a disaster. Even if each of the last three months of the year can reach 350,000, the total profit creation value of Jinggu this year will only be 301 million. Let alone eighth place, it is estimated that it will not even be able to keep the top 20!"

After pondering for a while and arriving at his answer, Luo Ming's brows furrowed with gloom.

In the first five years, the overall territory of the Great Xia did not expand much, but through the survey and exploration of the Longyou region, many new outposts were added. Now, not counting the eight districts within Xia City, there are as many as 26 external outposts.

Excluding the three major outposts of Longshan, Dongling, and Wuyuan, the remaining twenty-three smaller outposts compete on profit creation value. Who wouldn't want to climb higher? The twenty-three garrisons racked their brains to improve their outposts' profit creation value. Normally, the data differences were not significant, and sometimes the difference between the next and next rank was less than a thousand.

For companies like Jinggu, whose earnings value drops to 10% for three months each year, even if they don't rank at the bottom by the end of the year, they're probably among the bottom five.

In this way, not only will he not be able to climb the ranks, but he might also be ridiculed and punished by the director when he returns to his jurisdiction at the end of the year to report on his work.

Fortunately, things took a turn for the better this month!

Si Cheng Xia Chuan has suddenly taken the beast tide in Arrow Bamboo Forest seriously. At the beginning of this month, he even summoned the six elite armies of the Great Xia Dynasty to garrison in Mirror Valley. It seems that he intends to completely resolve the beast tide in Arrow Bamboo Forest that occurs every four months.

As long as there are no more beast tides in the Arrow Bamboo Forest in the future, Luo Ming is absolutely confident that he can raise Mirror Valley's annual profit creation value to the top three.

"Brother, do you think it's because Mirror Valley's profit value is too low that even the Minister of Justice couldn't stand it anymore, which is why he brought a large army to deal with this matter?"

Upon hearing Li Baihe's question, Luo Ming lowered his head and pondered for a moment before immediately shaking his head. "The mere creation value of the Realm Valley is not enough to warrant such attention from the Minister of Justice. I estimate that the beast tide is too large, and it's almost affecting Xia City. If it's not resolved sooner or later, cold beasts will start attacking the city walls, and it won't be good if something bad happens then."

Upon hearing this, Li Baihe and the others immediately nodded in agreement.

Having been a leader before, Luo Ming immediately figured out the real reason why Xia Chuan had summoned the six armies here.

In the third year of the Great Xia Dynasty, after the major expansion of Xia City, the northern city wall had already extended to the southern perimeter of the Arrow Bamboo Forest. At that time, the northern city wall was already affected by the beast tide that occurred every four months in the Arrow Bamboo Forest. However, at that time, almost no one went to the northern city. Moreover, the entire Xia City was busy planning the eighteen districts of the eastern city. Only the open space in the north had been cleared, and even the roads and building areas had not yet been planned.

But things are different now. Although the 800,000 people in Xia City are still concentrated in the East City, five years have passed, and the planning has been put on the agenda. Roads have also begun to be laid in the North City, and other supporting infrastructure has also started construction. Not only have a large number of precious trees been transplanted, but people also come and go at the North City Gate on weekdays, and people from the Craftsmen Department work there for a long time. It is obviously not feasible to ignore the beast tide any longer.

"Fire arrows!"

"It was the Chief Clerk; he gave the order."

"The army has begun!"

"Look, it's starting."

…………

Luo Ming's thoughts were interrupted by a voice. He quickly looked up with the more than twenty people next to him, looking towards the outer edge of the arrow bamboo forest to the south.

Swoosh... Swoosh...

About a mile south of Luo Yang's squad, on the northern edge of the arrow bamboo forest, stood a large army.

The army was divided into six square formations. Since all the soldiers were wearing light gold armor, the only way to distinguish the six formations was by their weapons.

"In the first row, in the center formation, are six Hengdao battalions, three Modao battalions, and an elite scout battalion of one hundred Yuhan-level soldiers. That is the Yunjiao Army, personally commanded by the Minister of Justice, and is known as the strongest in the Great Xia Dynasty!"

"The first row, on the left, consists of six spear battalions and three sword battalions. Also, there is an elite scout battalion composed of a hundred Cold-resistant soldiers. That is the Dragon Martial Army, commanded by Lord Yuwen Tao, the Director of the Ministry of War. I heard that the Dragon Martial Army has more than four hundred Cold-resistant soldiers, more than the Cloud Dragon Army. Their strength may not be weaker than the former."

"The right flank formation consists of six halberd battalions, three giant axe battalions, and an equally elite scout battalion; that is Yuan Sizheng's Dragon-Slaying Army from the Garrison Command."

"The two square formations on the left and right of the back row are the Divine Martial Army and the Xuanwu Army of Lords Hong Guang and Hong Tian. Compared with the other four, these two armies were formed later, but even so, the total number of Yuhan-level soldiers is over two hundred. That's terrifying."

"The one in the middle of the back row is..."

The members of Luo Yang's squad called out the army numbers and commanders' names of five of the square formations, but they suddenly stopped when they got to the square formation in the middle of the back row.

Li Baihe, Xu Kang, and Shang Ping all had very complicated expressions.

Luo Ming, needless to say, looked at the person standing at the very front of that army with a face full of desolation.

That was the Tiger and Leopard Army, and its commander was Luo Yuan.

Swish swish swish…………

The complex emotions in the hearts of Luo Ming and the members of Luo Yang's team will not be discussed for now.

At Xia Chuan's command, six armies, totaling six thousand men, were rapidly drawing their bows and firing wildly at the surging beast tide rushing eastward through the arrow bamboo forest.

It is obvious that the iron arrows shot by the six thousand men are different. The faster-flying iron arrows have thousands of forging patterns on their surface, making them almost silver in color, while the slower-flying ones show some black light. They are clearly all hundred-forged iron arrows.

"The Divine Arm Bow equipped with the Cold-Resistant Grade has a minimum draw weight of one inch. Ordinary hundred-forged iron arrows simply cannot exert their maximum impact force, so it is necessary to equip it with thousand-forged iron arrows."

“Look at the Chief Justice and Chief Justice, as well as Luo Yuan and the other four officials, the divine crossbows they are holding are all silver.”

"It's not the Divine Arm Bow, it's called the Silver Wing Bow. It's not a standard design; it's custom-made by the Craftsmen Department based on the user's strength. Putting aside the materials, I heard that the cost of custom-making alone is as high as 30,000 contribution points."

"If the customization fee is this high, the materials must be terrifying."

………………

Roar!
After the army of six thousand men had unleashed more than a dozen volleys of arrows, the snow mist brought up by the beast tide in the arrow bamboo forest had already dissipated considerably, and there were still quite a few roars of beasts coming from within.

But when Xia Chuan and Yuwen Tao fired their iron arrows, the roars that came from them almost instantly drowned out all the other beast roars in front of them.

Clearly, the targets that Xia Chuan and Yuwen Tao hit were far stronger than the cold beasts that the six armies had shot at.

"Hurry up! Empty the quiver within ten breaths! These beasts are coming!"

As Xia Chuan issued the command, he did not forget to continue shooting arrows. His hands kept drawing the bow and nocking the arrows. Later, feeling that the speed was not fast enough, he directly nocked three silver arrows and shot them at the same time.

Yuwen Tao, Yuan Cheng, Luo Yuan, Hong Guang, Hong Tian, ​​and the six thousand soldiers below them were clearly able to obey orders without question. Upon hearing his command, they also increased their shooting speed, and indeed, it only took less than ten breaths to empty all the iron arrows in the quiver.

boom…………

At the same time, the beast tide in the arrow bamboo forest finally changed course and charged towards the army!

Thousands upon thousands of cold beasts charged in at the same time. The earth was not just trembling, it was clearly collapsing, with the ground sinking directly. The cold beasts were almost one on top of another as they charged forward.

roar…………

Their roars and howls filled the entire world, not only dispersing the snowflakes in the sky, but also stirring up the air currents within a radius of several miles, which swept directly towards the army.

"This... has directly attracted the entire beast tide?"

"Can they even win? Isn't Si Cheng being a bit too overconfident!"

"Six thousand troops, can they deal with so many cold beasts?"

"There must be seven or eight thousand of them, right? How is that possible!"

"Look behind us, look behind us! There are hundreds of high-level cold beasts!"

…………

At the southern exit of the Mirror Valley camp, Luo Ming and the rest of Luo Yang's team stared at the massive beast tide rushing in from the south. Their faces were all deathly pale, and their pupils were filled with fear and panic.

They clearly hadn't expected the beast tide in the arrow bamboo forest to be so large!
He couldn't help but feel worried and doubtful about Xia Chuan and the Sixth Army.

"Discard your bows and meet the enemy!"

In response, Xia Chuan gave them four unusually calm and indifferent words.

"kill!"

　I'll start adding extra chapters tomorrow and continue until the end of the month.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)