Chapter 276: My Eldest Brother is Kind-Hearted |
Yang Long laughed upon hearing this. "What a 'few dozen more' indeed."
He paid no mind to the latter half of Chen Jingsi's statement.
Judging from the previous display, this man had already exceeded ordinary people. It was highly likely he had reached this level by using an Enhancement Card.
In their Jianghu Society, aside from him, no one else had used an Enhancement Card.
No matter how formidable that residential complex across the way was, it couldn't possibly be so far ahead.
"If President Yang doesn't believe me, why not come aboard and see for yourself?" Chen Jingsi wore a faint smile on his face.
The other members of the Jianghu Society exchanged glances. Some wanted to stop him, while others had more active minds. Wasn't this the perfect opportunity to gauge the other side's true strength?
"President, perhaps we should go in your stead."
"Indeed. The other side only sent someone ranked outside the top few dozen to invite people. For you to go personally would be a loss of face." Someone seized on the flaw in Chen Jingsi's earlier words.
"That is naturally acceptable." Chen Jingsi was somewhat surprised. He had thought Yang Long wouldn't dare to go, but it seemed this man truly had some courage, actually agreeing.
On the deck, everyone looked towards the urban village. Chen Jingsi had entered the urban village but had not returned for a long time.
"What if the people in the urban village take action and he can't come back?" Yuan Ming expressed some worry.
Qin Ziwu answered coldly, "Then there's no need to keep such troublesome people. My elder brother is kind-hearted and can't bear to see slaughter. When we take action later, we'll have my elder brother avoid the scene first."
Cao Biansheng's expression turned strange. "So Master Qin can't stand seeing people die, is that it?"
After some time, Chen Jingsi's figure appeared from the main road of the urban village. Beside him was Yang Long wearing a hat, and following closely behind were two burly men.
"Interesting. It seems the urban village has made the correct choice." Zhao Pu's face revealed a smile. If the other side had no intention of negotiating, they wouldn't have sent people over.
Zhao Pu turned to Qin Ziwen, lowering his voice. "Captain, how do you plan to deal with these people from the urban village?"
Qin Ziwen remained silent for a moment, then shook his head. "I haven't decided yet."
Just before departure, Jia Liangcai had given him a suggestion: draw lots to kill one in three, then break up the teams, organize them into groups of ten, implement a system of collective responsibility, and employ the technique of exhausting the people with heavy oppression, leaving them no time for other concerns.
After a month or so, when they left, there would naturally be no need for further worry.
But Qin Ziwen felt it was too extreme and not easy to accomplish.
Perhaps there was a better way to handle it.
"Captain, I think the key is to grasp the principal and secondary contradictions," Zhao Pu said. "Once the principal contradiction is resolved, the secondary ones will naturally dissipate."
"Go on."
"Guild Leader, we must first distinguish clearly who are enemies and who can potentially be won over to our side." Zhao Pu continued unhurriedly.
"Those who have already activated their Home cannot leave this place. Their interests are highly tied to their Home, making it difficult for them to unite wholeheartedly with us."
"On the contrary, those ordinary people at the bottom who haven't activated a Home—if they knew they had an opportunity to leave together with our residential complex, then for them, besides the urban village and the Red Cauldron Tower, there would be a third path to choose. Would they continue to stay on a ship destined to run aground?"
"How do you know they can follow our residential complex and leave?"
"I guessed," Zhao Pu said frankly. "But I think it should be possible. After all, the trees we planted and the animals we gathered before all crossed over along with our residential complex."
Qin Ziwen pondered, looking at Zhao Pu. "Did you think of this yourself, or did someone tell you?"
Zhao Pu said, "I've had some free time recently, reading some books, and I've pondered a few ideas myself."
Qin Ziwen thought of the mare that had crossed over along with the complex. After these wild horses were brought back, they were simply released to graze on the grassland of the Home, not locked in the Beast Cage.
They still crossed over to this map along with the complex.
Looking at it this way... perhaps there really was a chance.
From the Home's assessment, it seemed to only consider those who had activated a Home as "people."
Those who hadn't activated a Home were disregarded.
So these people who hadn't activated a Home might really have a chance to leave along with the Home.
However, he also thought of one more thing.
Only those who had activated and bound a Home were the true stakeholders of the residential complex. Other non-activated people were, in fact, a "neutral" faction.
Perhaps they didn't know about this now, but once the complex could really bring outsiders across, the remaining people would eventually find out.
So this matter had both advantages and disadvantages.
The advantage was being able to absorb more population and obtain more labor.
The disadvantage was that if they encountered a powerful enemy in the future, the ordinary residents of the complex would have an extra way out. They might not necessarily be of one heart with the complex.
No, that's not right.
Qin Ziwen suddenly realized.
Even if he didn't say it, wouldn't others find out?
He wasn't the only clever person in the world. If their complex didn't try it, wouldn't other complexes try?
So this kind of information simply couldn't be kept secret.
This was an unstoppable trend.
The only thing to do was to improve their "internal strength."
To develop and strengthen their own Home and forces.
The strong remain strong. Keep themselves in the lead, running ahead of others.
That way, when encountering enemies in the future, it would be the enemies who should fear.
Thinking of this, Qin Ziwen felt his shoulders grow heavy.
He could already foresee that his future opponents would not just be people from other complexes.
His vision had expanded to include all competitors from the same batch who crossed over, and even those seniors who had crossed over earlier than them.
"Guild Leader."
Chen Jingsi brought Yang Long and his two companions climbing onto the deck.
At this moment, Yang Long was staring in horror at the cable that had been pulled away from his waist. He looked up, gazing at the rope that flew over his head like a swimming snake, operated by no one.
Yang Long's voice tightened. He asked with difficulty, "What is this?"
Qin Ziwen approached and patted Yang Long's shoulder gently. "Don't be afraid. What just pulled you up was one of our crew members."
A special crew member was still a crew member.
Yang Long just felt a bit stifled in his chest.
From the giant ship, to the ballistae, to one thing after another.
He had thought he had seen through the other side, only for them to suddenly pull out something he couldn't comprehend.
Was this crew member... legitimate?
As for the other two who had come aboard with Yang Long, they exchanged a glance, then fell silent.
Just pulled up from the icy seawater, they hadn't reacted before several cables descended from the sky, binding them securely and hauling them onto the deck. Now they were not only physically cold, but their hearts were cold too.
No wonder Chen Jingsi said he could only rank in the dozens on this ship. Now Yang Long and the other two were starting to believe it.
Having prepared a bellyful of arguments, suddenly encountering this, Yang Long gave a bitter laugh. "Guild Leader Qin, you tell me."
"I plan to absorb you into our ranks," Qin Ziwen said bluntly. "Are you willing?"
"YES or NO," Qin Ziwu added seriously.
"Shut up when I'm talking." Qin Ziwen kicked his younger brother in the backside.
If this had been before boarding the ship, Yang Long would have either flatly refused or found other reasons to politely decline. But now, he was seriously considering this question. Because after boarding, the oppressive feeling from the people around him was too strong. Before crossing over, he had been an underground boxer, and his senses had always been sharp.
He could feel that there were many strong individuals around. He even felt he might not necessarily be able to beat the horse behind Qin Ziwen...
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