Chapter 132 Manipulating Ganling Citizens

Chapter 132 – Manipulating Ganling Citizens

8 PM.

All bandits were terminated, and the fire was extinguished. It took a while to douse the fire as Tong had to personally use his [Create Food] to suppress the fire.

As a consequence of his command, the majority of the houses and buildings were burnt down, which was a reason why Tong ordered Zhang Xiu to build a refugee camp outside of the wall beforehand.

Li Feihong could not help but scold Tong in the clan chat. "You could have told the soldiers to douse the fire after the slaughter."

However, Tong disagreed. "What if the ninja is still hiding in the town? I need to make sure that he's really not here or I won't get a good night sleep."

"But I can't see anyone else in the city. You also double checked the areas!"

"We can't rely too much on our skills. Since our abilities can be considered cheating, his skills can be overpowered like us as well. That guy has ninja-based skills, so I can't help but assume that he should have a stealth skill or some sort that can hide his presence from our detection."

"So the reason that you burned half of the city..."

"Yes, I want to fish out the ninja. I'm sorry."

Li Feihong put a palm on his forehead. He muttered. "You'd better be ready for the backlash."

Tong had a bitter smile as he gazed at the refugees. "I know."

...

The town civilians evacuated outside of the city and were given supplies which they cried the tears of joy. They had not eaten properly after the bandits took over the city as most of their food was robbed.

They were skeptical at first when they saw the raging flame inside the city and heard that the army commander intentionally burned the town to kill the hiding bandits. But after they heard that the commander would give them one gold per person as compensation and would help them rebuild the city later, their sour mood was appeased.

A new refugee camp was built. After the rough counting, there were only 50,000 civilians remaining.

The soldiers asked around for the information about the city before it was taken. This city used to have 120,000 in population, but the bandits killed all the men, so they were the only remaining survivors as the bandits kept them for labors.

All survivors were elders, children, and middle-aged or older women. All young girls were kidnapped during the takeover and their locations were unknown at the moment.

Hearing that they were still missing citizens, Tong and Li Feihong were depressed. They did their best to look for a hint in their map but they could not find anything.

'The number of all otherworlder hasn't reduced. So the ninja isn't in the city. From the looks of it, he shouldn't be in these areas. If he is, he should have used that illusion skill long ago.'

'Since Zhang Yan isn't here, maybe they have escaped together?'

Tong, who stayed behind on the outside of the wall, looked at his radar skill description while he was gritting his teeth.

************************

[Radar Map] Upgradable

- Range 10 kilometers.

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Upgrade Price

Range 100km – 100,000 Lifespans

Range 1,000km – 1,000,000 Lifespans

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He had a bit over 146,000 lifespans at the moment. If he were to upgrade his radar skill, he had confidence that he would be able to locate the hidden kidnapped victims. However, the cost of this upgrade was huge. A hundred thousand lifespans was not a little amount.

Tong stood still. His breath became rough, quick, and short as he hesitated if this investment was worth it.

'Idiot! What are you hesitating for!?'

No longer hesitated, Tong pressed the upgrade button in the system menu.

<your hud="" map="" has="" been="" upgraded="">>

<your map="" range="" is="" now="" 100km="">>

The system robotic voice did not stop. It said something weird inside Tong's mind.

<your [greed]="" was="" greatly="" weakened="" by="" your="" recent="" action="">>

<your [corruption]="" was="" slightly="" weakened="" by="" your="" recent="" action="">>

<if you="" go="" against="" your="" [greed]="" two="" more="" times,="" your="" [demonic="" seal]="" level="" will="" reduce="" by="" 1="">>

Tong's vision blurred as more information rushed into his brain. He lost his body balance and staggered for a few seconds before he came back to his sense.

The HUD map on the system screen expanded. He could zoom out and view the map from above as if he was looking at Google Map from the satellite view. However, Tong had to zoom in if he wanted to locate the people in the map.

'It's getting complicated to use. But it's still useful nonetheless.'

'And WTF with the [Greed] and [Corruption]?'

'Wait, if I go against [Greed], my seal level will drop?'

'Hah, so I have to behave and not divulge myself into the 7 sins?'

'No, it's not the time to think about this stupid skill. I have an urgent job to do.'

Tong abandoned his thought about his complicated [Demonic Curse] and [Demonic Seal]. Watching his huge map on the screen, Tong sat down on the ground and grabbed a nearby rock. He started drawing a map on the ground based on his system map.

From a scribble shaped squares, it turned into a massive map of the surrounding areas. All commanding officers gather around to watch what Tong was doing.

"Bring me a local. No, bring me twenty of them. I want to ask them about the map."

Once the locals arrived, Tong questioned each of them about a few specific locations.

"What's this place on the map?"

"I think that's Ah Xiao's lumber mill."

"Then what's this?"

"Eh… That should be a farm warehouse."

"And this?"

"That's an old village."

"Are there still people residing in this village?"

"No, that village was abandoned years ago. Why did you ask?"

"Ho? That's interesting… Then what about…"

Thirty minutes after the marathon questioning, Tong let the locals leave and allowed the soldier to rest. However, his job had not finished yet.

In Tong's system map, the locations that Tong marked were densely populated which Tong suspected that they could be other potential bandits in hiding or they could be the kidnapped victims.

Tong combined the testimonies of the locals and his map information. Several buildings, which should not have that many people residing inside, contained hundreds of people.

The number in each location varied from fifty to two hundred.

He drew a new map and put it on the strategic table. After that, Tong summoned Zhang Liao, Gao Shun, Zhang Xiu, Bo Cai, and Zhang Ji to his tent.

"Tomorrow at dawn. Zhang Liao, take all of your men and investigate this village. You are authorized to act upon your judgment if something is amiss. Zhang Ji and Zhang Xiu, you two take 10,000 infantries and your cavalries. Like what we did today, surround this village and assist Zhang Liao!"

Tong pointed at a village in the new map. It was the village that one of the town local told him that it should have been deserted. Yet in Tong's map, there were over two thousand people residing in it. In addition, in one of the buildings in this village, Tong found Zhang Yan!

"Young master? We are raiding a village?" The generals were perplexed by Tong's order. First, Tong burned half of the city. Then he wanted to ransack a village?

"You're right. We're raiding this village. But you don't have to take it too hard. I've information that this village should be the bandits' hideout. This village is supposed to be an abandoned village, but my intel said that there are over 2,000 people living in here. That's the reason behind this operation."

Everyone gazed at Tong in astonishment. Each of them had scout teams of their own, but none of them had this information. They did not know that Tong had this cheating map, so they thought that Tong's secret scouts were much more extraordinary than theirs.

"Remember, lock down the village before you start the raid. As for Gao Shun and Bo Cai, each of you takes your men and scout these marked targets. Report to me if you find out anything."

…

Next morning, all cavalries and half of the infantries were dispatched to the surrounding area around Ganling District. Tong, Li Feihong, and Zhao Yun were the only commanding personals in the remaining army.

Because of the food shortage issues among the citizens, Tong distributed more food and water to the townsfolks. He also did not forget to advertise his army.

Tong visited the refugee camp outside of the wall. He stood on the high ground and spoke in a loud voice, so everyone could hear him.

"I'm Zhang Tong, son of the governor Zhang Jiao from Julu City. We came here to assist you after we heard that bandits had been occupying this city. I hope that you'll forgive me for the late rescue."

"This morning, my spies have reported that they managed to locate the bandits' hideouts. We have sent our troops to deal with them at the moment. We hope that we can find the kidnapped people from this city in this operation as well."

"I'll give you more reports again in the evening! Remember, we are here to help!"

"Also, I'm sorry that we have to burn the city. We want to make sure that all bandits are completely terminated for good. As I have told you before, I will compensate each of you one tael of gold and we will help you rebuild the city!"

In the ancient era where there was no communication device or social media, the government public announcement was the main source of the commoners' information.

In this difficult time, a simple encouragement by the government was enough to boost their morale. With the combination of the humane aid and the army, Ganling citizens were moved into tears.

The crowd bowed down and groveled to the ground as they were grateful for the rescue.

Tong whispered to Zhao Yun who was standing by Tong's side.

"Tell the soldiers, if you see anyone that looks sad, give that person a hug."

"Sir?"

"Just do what I told you. See that old man over there? That old man that keeps looking down and cries? Go and give him a hug. Don't forget to whisper him that 'It's ok now. You're safe. We're here'."

"Is it the same with the FBI script?"

"Yup! Go ahead and do it."

"Yes, sir!"

Zhao Yun looked at the weeping elder in hesitation. His parents taught him to be respectful to the elders, but Tong ordered him to forget it and hug him. Hugging a senior without his permission was a disrespectful action no matter how he saw it.

Zhao Yun gulped and walked toward the elder, and gave him a hug.

"It's ok now. You're safe. We're here."

The elder was surprised, but he did not resist. The encouragement lifted his mood a little, but he was still crying.

"My daughter. My daughter has been kidnapped by the thieves. Please help her."

Zhao Yun was shocked for a moment. He glanced at Tong to look for a hint, which Tong just gave him a smile without saying anything.

Realized that he was scammed by Tong, the face of Zhao Yun paled. Since he could not rely on his master, he improvised by repeating the script.

"It's ok now. We're here. We'll help your daughter."

The elder stopped crying, but he still clung on the teenager's clothes.

"Thank you! Thank you!"

Noticed that the elder was grateful to the army and his mood improved, Zhao Yun glanced back and forth between the elder and Tong. He was impressed that this disrespectful behavior could actually alleviate the sadness of someone.

Seeing that he did what Tong had told him to, he gave Zhao Yun a thumb up.

"Good job. Now tell every soldier to do what you did. But don't let the soldiers hug a widow or a grown woman. I don't want my army to be known as a pervert army."

The corner of Zhao Yun lips twitched. Though he had a good impression on Tong, Zhao Yun could not help but felt that he was tricked. Still, he followed Tong's command and passed on the "script" to other soldiers.

Within thirty minutes, a new phenomenon happened in the refugee camp. The soldiers hugged the refugees to calm them down, which caused the sad citizens to release their pending emotions through tears.

A few ugly women and unmarried senior women saw that the soldiers hugged the refugees to soothe the people. They pretended to cry to entice the soldiers into hugging them too.

Fortunately, Tong had warned the soldiers beforehand, so they ignored the crying women. Or else, soldiers would have fallen for their tricks and would have been forced to marry them.</if></your></your></your></your>