Chapter 779: Laxi Enters the City

Chapter 779: Laxi Enters the City

Mammoth City is located on the east coast of Mammoth Prefecture, less than six hundred kilometers in a straight line from Silvermoon Bay, and the distance from Silvermoon Bay to Golden Ganga Port is three times that.

Though the Tasan River flows swiftly and its basin is not as vast as the Everflow River, it still nourishes two or three prefectures and covers twenty to thirty million people.

With its unique geographical advantages and proximity to a group of "cat lovers" skilled in trade, it is quite puzzling that this settlement has never developed.

Mammoth Prefecture has a population of at least ten million, yet Mammoth City, its only settlement, has only about eight hundred thousand people.

Golden Ganga Port’s former poverty was the Empire’s fault, but the poverty here hardly seems to be the Empire’s doing.

After all, the Empire’s control over the region has always been ambiguous. Though nominally Imperial territory inhabited by nobles and subjects, the lack of road networks and river transport meant that the Celestial Capital itself often forgot it even owned this land.

In other words, the degree of autonomy here has always been high, and only rarely did Wuto remember to govern it.

Regarding this phenomenon, Ms. Han Mingyue, a social science researcher from the Alliance scientific expedition, conducted an investigation and preliminarily concluded that serfdom kept part of the population confined to noble estates, hindering Mammoth City’s "urbanization" process.

Another factor was the poor "infrastructure access" in Mammoth Prefecture: farm produce could not be shipped out, and outside goods could not be brought in. Self-sufficient farmers only needed to grow enough to feed themselves, with no need for exchange, and thus no reason to gather in cities.

The second issue could not be resolved overnight, but the first problem was swiftly and decisively cleared out by Old Man Laxi.

The nobles’ estates were all along the Tasan River, and even the levees for flood control and irrigation were funded by the nobles themselves.

Blow up those levees, and the problem would be solved, wouldn’t it?

Now the nobles’ lands and the local troops they raised were all submerged in the deluge.

Even the serfs who did not want to flee their estates had no choice but to join the refugee tide…

Outside Mammoth City.

The sudden flood bursting from the river not only destroyed the outer palisade wall but also washed away the village near it.

After two days of clear weather, the flood finally receded. Villagers who had taken refuge in the forest shouldered their bundles and returned home.

When they saw the state of their homes, every one of them fell silent, staring blankly at the collapsed wooden houses, the broken fences, and the missing livestock, at a loss for what to do.

Gradually, people seemed to accept reality.

Some began to shuffle numbly toward their ruined houses, trying to salvage usable items—things that hadn’t yet been picked up by earlier arrivals—at least enough to get their families through the day.

Others wandered aimlessly, silently searching through the rubble, or asking anyone they met if they had seen their relatives.

Yet everyone knew it was futile.

"Mother! Father—! Where are you?"

Beside a collapsed wooden house stood a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old child, alone, staring blankly in one direction, shouting out from time to time.

His voice was weak, nearly hoarse from shouting, but no one paid him any attention—until a group of people with white bandages tied around their arms approached.

With an LD-47 rifle on his back and straps welded firmly to his shoulders, Akman stopped beside the child and looked him over.

The boy reminded him of himself a month ago—no parents, a look of cowardice… He should be the one Laxi was looking for.

Without any preamble, he asked directly.

"Your name?"

The boy stared blankly at this fierce-looking fellow, then at the armed men, and instinctively moved his lips.

"Udi."

Akman pressed on.

"What are you doing?"

"I’m looking for my mother… I think she was swept away."

Udi whispered, looking at them with hope that they might help him find his family.

But to his disappointment, and even despair, the boy his own age did not do so.

"She’s gone." Akman took a captured Ripsaw rifle and thrust it into the child’s hands, eyeing him. "Know how to use it?"

The boy looked at the gun in confusion, then back at him, utterly at a loss.

Akman patted his shoulder.

"Don’t know how? I’ll teach you. Now you’re my soldier."

"But… I have to wait for my mother to come back." Udi stepped back in fear, but his shoulder was grabbed.

"I told you, she’s gone. And your father, your siblings. If they were alive, would they leave you here alone?"

Seeing the silent child, Akman gripped his shoulder firmly, then let go.

"Everyone goes through this. I’ve been through what you’re going through—until a man grabbed me by the collar and said, as long as the Empire rules here, what happened to me will keep happening, and everyone around me will go through it again and again. Unless we put the nobles on the gallows and kill every last one who enslaved us."

"...The Empire." The boy muttered, breathing rapidly, eyes reddening, his hand gripping the Ripsaw rifle tightly.

Seeing the young man holding back tears, Akman patted the back of his head approvingly and pulled him close.

"Yes. Follow me."

The villagers outside Mammoth City did not know what was happening, nor did the survivors inside.

Most were still yawning when they heard shouts of "The water’s coming!" and then the flood swept in.

The first to be swept away was the palisade wall outside the settlement.

It was only meant to keep out wild boars, wolves, and crocodiles—utterly useless against the Tasan River’s roar.

Next to suffer were the jumbled shacks in the city and the brick houses built directly on mud. The former were washed away in the first wave, while the latter collapsed after being soaked by the flooded streets.

Only the estates of well-off nobles, the Silvermoon Church, and the houses of some Silvermoon Bay merchants survived intact.

Due to habits formed in the Luoxia Province, they built foundations under their houses, ensuring a sound sleep.

But seeing the whole city flooded while their own places were untouched, the merchants from Silvermoon Bay dared not stay long. They packed their valuables, boarded ships, and fled. Only the fearless missionaries stubbornly remained in the church.

Upon entering the city, Laxi’s first act was to send a company to the church by the fishing dock to protect the clergy there.

It wasn’t that he believed in the nonsense about "the Moon Tribe’s moon god and the Silvermoon Church’s Silvermoon Goddess being from the same school," but simply because Mammoth Prefecture’s development needed those wealthy clergy.

Whether he believed or not, at least he had to put on a show of respecting their faith.

As for himself, he led his men straight to the city lord’s mansion, turning it into the resistance’s command center, while dispatching people to rescue survivors and sending trusted aides to "invite" the local gentry and nobles to come.

Sitting in the city lord’s chair, Laxi looked down with contempt at the trembling officials, his boot propped on his knee.

"I don’t give a damn what titles you used to have. From today, if anyone dares to pull rank on me, I’ll chop off that head along with its title!"

Everyone was silent, feeling as if standing at the gates of hell, with two-headed dogs on either side, not daring to speak, knees weak yet afraid to kneel.

Seeing no opposition, Laxi cleared his throat and continued.

"I’ve come here to do three things, but you only need to know one."

"From now on, slavery is banned in Mammoth Prefecture. Anyone caught keeping a slave will have his head relocated."

The voice was neither heavy nor light, but it thundered in the ears of every noble present.

In the dead silence of the city lord’s mansion, Laxi narrowed his eyes when no one responded, then suddenly raised his voice.

"Did you hear me?"

"Did you hear me? Speak!"

Startled by the voice, the nobles could no longer contain their fear, and with a thud, they all fell to their knees.

"Yes, yes! My lord!"

"I, I, I'll go back and free my household slaves at once!"

"We dare not do it again!"

"We... never wanted to trouble the Moonfolk... it was all His Majesty's—bah!—all that Wuto's orders, we had no choice..."

The Moonfolk, after all, were nobles of the former dynasty. Though not every one of them was an aristocrat, their overall standard of living far surpassed that of the Snakes, Rats, Birds, and Insects, and their rate of education was hardly low. Thus, there was no shortage of cultured and refined beauties among them.

By a single decree from His Majesty, all Moonfolk across the empire had been reduced to slaves, and the nobles had indeed seized the chance to plunder, gathering many a "pretty canary" to cage in their mansions as playthings.

These deeds could not be washed away; a simple inquiry in the city would bring them to light.

Rasi looked down at them, a cold sneer on his lips.

"I'm not talking about the Moonfolk, damn it. No slaves of any race are allowed. From today onward, Mammoth Prefecture will have equality!"

With that, he paid no heed to the bewildered faces of the kneeling nobles, but calmly added,

"Also, I said no kneeling."

Then he waved his hand.

"Drag them out. Ten lashes each, then let them go."

"Yes!"

The guards standing by received the order, their eyes gleaming with ferocity. They strode forward briskly, grabbing the nobles slumped on the ground like chickens, hauling and dragging them into the courtyard.

They had long wanted to act.

Had it not been for discipline, they would never have allowed these imperial lackeys to walk upright into this mansion.

One by one, they took up the whips and put their full strength into each stroke.

The nobles' screams and the crack of the whips rose and fell in the empty courtyard, the ground stained with blood.

Watching the nobles being lashed, the elders of the resistance felt a vague unease, but out of deference to Rasi's authority, they ultimately said nothing.

Though Rasi spoke of equality, this forced equality was somehow different from the equality they had imagined.

They felt there might be a better way, like what the Alliance had done in Golden Harbor, promoting change in Mammoth City through gentler means.

But now, thinking was useless.

The resistance's numbers were no longer the two thousand of earlier; they were fast approaching ten thousand.

That man's prestige in the army was soaring; nearly every young lad saw him as a spiritual leader and role model.

Even if they wanted to replace him, the chance was gone...

...

"Splash—"

The unconscious Governor Bamt was jolted awake by a basin of cold water.

As he lifted his dripping head, he found General Dasina and the other officers gone, replaced by a ruffianly officer and a few youths with eyes like wolves.

That gaze, as if it could kill, sent cold sweat beading on his forehead, and he snapped fully awake with a start.

Fragments of memory, like paste, trickled back into his mind. He vaguely recalled that when the flood came, he had clung to a crooked tree, kicked the guard clutching his leg into unconsciousness, wrapped his sleeve around a branch, and soaked in the muddy river until he passed out.

Later, a raft approached, and a few men with white bandages on their arms grabbed him, pulling and dragging him aboard.

Then he lost consciousness.

As for the present situation, there was no need to ask; from the surroundings, it was clearly a cell in Mammoth City.

Obviously, he had been captured.

"Cough, I'll pay a ransom..." Without pausing to reflect on how he had lost, Bamt coughed and spoke rapidly. "According to the sacred contract, you must guarantee my three meals a day and my personal safety. Of course, I'll cooperate as much as I can..."

The youths chuckled at that, clearly amused and unimpressed by his words.

A flicker of anger passed through Bamt's eyes, but his clenched fists dared not act; he only glared at the officer with bluster, trying to intimidate him with aristocratic dignity, only to receive a slap across the face.

The slap stunned him, his eyes widening further.

"You! How dare you hit me—"

"Speak!" the officer suddenly roared, cutting off his words mid-sentence.

Startled by the voice, Bamt's tone involuntarily softened, his aristocratic air vanishing as he cowered like a rat.

"Sp-speak what?"

But the officer did not ask. He merely stared at him for a moment, then gave a cold, deliberate smile.

"Still got a hard mouth, eh? Beat him!"

Bamt: "???"

Before he could grasp what was happening, he heard a sharp "whist" in the air, and a whip lashed across his face.

The whip was likely soaked in salt water; the pain made him scream, and his barely regained consciousness nearly slipped away again. He tried to shield his head with his arms, but found his hands tied behind the chair back; he struggled in vain.

Having been a lord all his life, he had only ever whipped others, never been whipped himself. The sudden agony brought tears and snot streaming down his face as he begged for mercy, utterly pathetic.

But the soldiers cared nothing for his titles; they simply laid into him with their instruments.

"I... I'll talk..."

At that faint voice, the officer raised his hand, and the youth holding the whip stopped, glaring at Bamt with fierce eyes.

The dying Governor Bamt hung his head, gasping for a long while, then squeezed out a feeble sentence.

"Wait a moment... do you know who I am?"

The others exchanged glances, smirking in derision.

What time was this?

The man was still dreaming.

The officer, too, was amused by this senseless remark. He walked over, grabbed Bamt's chin, lifted it, and smiled at him amiably.

But to Bamt, that smile was anything but amiable; it was like a demon's, terrifying him into swallowing his words and daring not to utter a sound.

"Who are you? Hah, never mind if you're just a duke—even if Wuto himself came here, I'd make him grovel like a dog, unable to live or die."

Hearing this blasphemy, Bamt's eyes bulged, bloodshot whites showing not anger but only deep fear.

At that moment, he finally truly understood the situation and his plight.

These Moonfolk wanted no ransom; they cared nothing for it. They only wanted to exact the suffering they had endured from him, an imperial noble.

Now he only regretted not having been more ruthless before.

So that these Moonfolk could escape to the banks of the Tasan River and blow up the dam there.

Now, not only had he suffered, but so had the estates along the river.

Mammoth Prefecture had always been poor; now it was so destitute it had no grain left...

The officer did not waste words with him and began speaking as soon as he saw him awake.

“I ask you, you only need to say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’”

“Yes…” Not daring to show any defiance, Bamt replied feebly.

The officer continued.

“Was it you who blew up the embankment of the Tasan River?”

The word “yes” was about to leave his lips when Bamt suddenly broke into a cold sweat and came to his senses, hastily saying.

“No, it wasn’t me, sir… How could it possibly be me—”

The officer raised his hand to cut him off, merely staring at him coldly.

“What did I just say?”

That gaze made Bamt feel as if he had fallen into an icy abyss, forgetting to breathe for a moment.

“It seems you still haven’t learned your lesson. I’ll come back to ask you later.”

The officer let out a laugh, rose from his chair, waved at a few sharp-eyed young soldiers nearby, and left only a crisp command.

“Don’t kill him.”

The soldiers’ eyes gleamed with a fierce light, and they replied with a resounding.

“Yes!”

…

The heavy door of the cell slammed shut, yet that inch-thick wooden panel could not contain the miserable wails.

The officer paid no heed, walking out expressionlessly, and saluted Rasi, who stood at the prison entrance.

Seeing his trusted subordinate approaching, Rasi returned the salute and casually inquired.

“How’s the situation?”

This man, named Sawa, was the captain of the assault squad he had appointed.

The so-called assault squad was another unit directly under his command, aside from the personal guard.

Moreover, it was a combat unit, primarily tasked with special operations.

Such as infiltration, sabotage, assassination of enemy key figures, and purging enemies within their own ranks.

Most members of this unit were young men aged fifteen to nineteen, especially from the Moon tribe.

They were mostly former slaves, orphaned, and utterly loyal to Rasi himself.

And Rasi did not treat them poorly; they were equipped with LD-47 assault rifles from the Alliance, along with a few bulletproof vests and even exoskeletons, and he trained them as reserve junior officers.

The reason for forming such a unit was partly due to the Moon tribe resistance’s actual needs, and partly as an imitation of the Alliance’s administrators.

Most people in Golden Port were learning from the Alliance, whether consciously or unconsciously, including himself.

When he was still the head of the militia, he had heard that the Alliance’s administrator had a Praetorian Guard. From then on, he had been pondering forming such a unit.

Now that he had resigned and joined the guerrillas, with room to stretch his limbs, he finally had the chance to put all his ideas into action.

A unit like a ghost could form a powerful deterrent, whether against enemies or internal dissenters.

Though this assault squad was only the size of a battalion, its firepower was no less than an Imperial thousand-man unit; the earlier destruction of the Tasan River embankment was their handiwork.

However, they certainly wouldn’t take the blame for such dirty work.

From the start, he had planned to force the Imperial nobles to swallow that bucket of filth.

“…Not yet confessed, but it should be soon.” Hearing his boss’s inquiry, Sawa grinned, his face full of disdain. “Imperial nobles are all cowards, the bigger the noble, the more so. I just touched his face, and he wet his pants.”

What a disgrace.

He himself had once been hung at the entrance of Lowell Camp for three days and three nights, baked until he had only a breath left, yet never begged for mercy.

Back then, he had followed Rasi to take Lowell Camp, and he personally hanged the warden on Tower Road, avenging the man who had destroyed his family.

He still remembered Rasi pointing at the warden dangling from the tower and saying that one day he would hang all the Imperial nobles.

From that moment, Sawa had decided to follow this man.

Whether they were Sun tribe nobles or Mammoth tribe nobles, they were all Imperial nobles.

Their persecution of the Moon tribe was the same; their estates were never short of Moon tribe slaves.

In their eyes, the Moon tribe were like livestock in a pen, so naturally, he had no courtesy for these nobles.

Moreover, compared to the suffering he had endured at Lowell Camp, a few beatings were far too merciful for Imperial nobles.

Rasi nodded expressionlessly and then asked.

“Has Dacina been found?”

That man was the overall commander of the Mammoth Province local forces.

Originally, they had planned to pin the blame on him, but he slipped away too quickly—whether swept away by the flood or just vanished, they hadn’t caught him.

Making Bamt the scapegoat was a bit forced, since he himself was a great noble with plenty of land along the Tasan River.

In contrast, having Dacina take the fall would be far more reasonable—

[An incompetent general misjudged the Tasan River’s torrent, blew up the embankment to drown the Moon tribe cornered at the riverbank, but outsmarted himself and perished.]

At least the story was logically coherent.

Sawa shook his head.

“Not yet, but he can’t have gone far; his unit has been scattered.”

Though not finding him was a problem, Rasi wasn’t too concerned and simply gave a brief order.

“Keep looking.”

After a pause, he continued.

“Also, send letters to the Assassin Brotherhood and the Federation respectively. First, inform them of the establishment of the new Mammoth Province authority and the news of our victory. Then mention the disaster, adopt a humble tone, and ask if they have surplus grain. If they can help us, the residents of Mammoth Province will be deeply grateful.”

They would surely help.

He was certain.

“Yes!” Sawa’s expression turned serious; he stood at attention, saluted, and then turned to leave.

Watching his trusted subordinate depart, Rasi headed in another direction, accompanied by his personal guards, and walked out of Mammoth City’s prison.

Bamt was merely an account to be settled with the local survivors; it could be done anytime, no rush.

The urgent task now was to establish the new authority.

Otherwise, as the Tiger Army officers sneered openly and covertly, bandits would always remain bandits, never amounting to anything.

This flood, whose scale had caught everyone off guard, provided him with a perfect opportunity.

When he entered the city under the pretext of disaster relief, he took over Mammoth City with almost no effort.

From local gentry and ruffians to wealthy merchants, and even the nobles who had been whipped, none failed to cooperate. They all answered the resistance’s call, disbanded their household slaves, and firmly supported all decisions of the new authority.

On one hand, the disaster was so severe that they truly could no longer afford to keep those slaves.

Another reason was that they all knew a massive swarm of refugees, like a plague of locusts, was surging toward them.

Among them were serfs who had fled from noble estates and freemen who had lost their homes.

No matter what these wretches had been before, hungry bellies made them all the same—these people were far more terrifying than a band of ragtag resistance fighters.

The few household guards they had at home could not stop these hordes; without a powerful army to protect Mammoth City, they would be devoured, bones and all, by those refugees in no time.

Bamut and his local forces were finished; they had no choice but to pledge loyalty to their new master, and they had to cling tightly to that new master's coattails.

Raxi was certain that even if he looted the entire city, no one would dare utter a word of dissent.

However, he would never do such a thankless and foolish thing.

Though Mammoth City bore the word "city," it was as poor as a big village; even the homes of the great nobles had little to offer, nothing compared to Golden Gallon Port, which at least had the Kraba Market.

Even if he plundered, he would gain little, and it would only tarnish his reputation with the Federation—besides, this was now his territory; why would he rob himself?

He had three things to do here next.

The first was to abolish slavery!

Only by abolishing slavery could compulsory education be promoted and the productivity of Mammoth Prefecture be liberated!

The second was to seize the land that the local nobles loyal to the empire had hoarded, taking advantage of their unprecedented decline after Bamut's defeat!

Thanks to that flood, these two tasks would not require much effort.

The nobles' estates were mostly along the riverbanks, where the most fertile land had long been enclosed.

Now these estates were also the hardest hit; the serfs who could not escape had mostly drowned inside, and the land's value had plummeted to nothing. The new authorities only needed to apply slight pressure to easily take the land into their hands, without even much bloodshed.

Part of this land could be used to build large farms run by the authorities themselves, and the rest could be distributed to peasants and soldiers.

As for the last thing, it was the most important of the three he had to do.

Mammoth Prefecture was an agricultural province; bullets and rifles could not be grown from the ground. To escape poverty, industry must be developed, and to develop industry, foreign exchange was needed first.

He had read every issue of the *Survivor Daily* carefully; though he had no systematic understanding of how to develop industry, he at least had a vague concept.

The industrial takeoff of Golden Gallon Port was largely due to taking over the obsolete capacity eliminated by the Alliance, and using its own advantages in population and raw material costs to give that obsolete capacity a second spring on the soil of Boro Province. Later, it caught the great tide of the Adhesive Commonwealth establishing a new order on the wasteland.

Though Mammoth Prefecture started a bit late, it was not entirely without opportunity.

It happened that the civil war in the southern seas had ended, and the northern islands were in ruins waiting to be rebuilt—a stark contrast between a massive infrastructure market and a huge labor shortage.

It was said that local engineering units were even paying in silver coins!

Mammoth City had eight hundred thousand people, and the entire Mammoth Prefecture had over ten million; what he lacked least right now was people, especially the poor who could barely survive.

Though the slave trade was banned, some unsavory gangster had already given him a good example through his actions.

There were plenty of ways to make money off people.

Besides "labor agencies," there was also the method of "labor dispatch"...