Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1793: Chapter 572: Unexpected Terms, Qiu Peng Overwhelmed, Unrest at Yanze Lake

“The ceasefire agreement drafted by Liang Hengzhang yesterday outlined five conditions:

First, return the prisoners of war from Cai Qiu and open the checkpoints on both sides of Guangning Mountain for three days to allow the scattered defeated troops from the south to pass;

Second, return all occupied territory of Evergreen Valley, with the Xia Army retreating to the Bone-Eroding Path area, from now on Great Xia and Cai Qiu will use the Bone-Eroding Path as a boundary, not infringing upon each other;

Third, set up Qinghua and Jinyang as port cities for both towns, and henceforth those with travel permits can freely enter and trade between the two places;

Fourth, the Lords of both towns swear with blood to sign a contract, forbidding warfare for the next thirty years; should it be violated, they will perish under the Five Elements Tribulation.”

Inside the main tent of Guangning Mountain, Qiu Peng quickly presented four of the five conditions put forward by Liang Hengzhang, but hesitated before the last one, looking at Xia Hong at the top, with a face showing unease, seemingly having a hidden concern.

Coincidentally, Xia Hong at the top was at this moment turned away, his mind fully focused on the full map of Moao River and the Southern Slope Territory, therefore he did not see the expression on Qiu Peng’s face, and after listening to the four conditions, he spoke with a faint smile: “Exchange of prisoners, return of territory, those were expected, actively proposing to set up trade ports and open market trade, is Cai Qianshan planning to use economic warfare as a form to deal with us?”

Upon hearing this, a heavy expression suddenly appeared on Qiu Peng’s face.

The concept of economic warfare was proposed by Xia Hong when Great Xia expanded into the Wuyuan Territories years ago, as the Director of the Camp Supply Department, Qiu Peng was, apart from Xia Chuan, the first to encounter this concept.

The so-called economic warfare, to put it simply, is to adopt trade methods on the basis of unequal production capabilities, massively plundering resources from other camps. These resources include not only materials but also the population.

The detailed explanation may be convoluted, but summed up it comes down to three sentences: exchanging finished products for basic materials and silver in others’ possession, forming dependency over time, and once dependency forms, the wealth relationship between both parties becomes severely unequal over time.

For two vast camps, once such wealth inequality fully takes shape, the result becomes apparent.

For a simple example, the Dan Medicine used for cultivation by Logging Realm and Earth-digging Realm, under the same effect, Cai Qiu charges 5 taels of silver while Great Xia only charges 1 tael, so the average cultivation level of the populations in the two towns quickly becomes disparate, and the subsequent population flow becomes even more evident.

Economic warfare is a war unseen by smoke, yet the effects it cumulatively causes over time are far more profound than war, and to a certain extent, it is enough to decide the future of a camp.

Six years ago, when Great Xia departed from the Xing River North Bank to the east, it was Qiu Peng himself who executed the economic warfare strategy, thus he is deeply familiar with this principle.

Why is it that Great Xia can place so many spies in the northern Eight Towns? Even manage to turn Li Yangtian, the Army Chief of Dragon Valley Town? And be well aware of the arrangements and high-level relationships in the northern Five Towns cities and so on…

All these rely on massive financial support!

Qiu Peng took a light breath, saluted and said: “Lord, rest assured, since last year Jiang Xinfan has reported the entire price situation of Chen Cang and the entire Moao River back to Great Xia. I have already had the Camp Supply Department staff check and study it, the production capacity of the Four Vassals is roughly equivalent to ours, hardly any higher, the core reason for the four vassals’ lower prices than ours is the territory.”

A vast territory means more areas for gathering, hunting, and exploring, leading to richer resources and naturally lower prices.

Once Xia Hong heard, he understood and continued to wait for Qiu Peng’s continuation.

After pondering for a moment, Qiu Peng continued: “I have roughly estimated that after Great Xia unified the Southern Slope, although the territorial area is less than the Four Vassals’, the internal resource sites do not fall behind them much, and maintaining commodity prices at the same level as the Four Vassals after trade is not difficult.

Our Artisan Department’s replication ability far surpasses the Four Vassals; once trade commences, the various materials obtained from Cai Qiu can quickly be replicated, but catching up with us won’t be easy for Cai Qiu.

Lastly, the Four Vassals has a fatal flaw, the Six-class System, in Moao River this system is already virtually uncontrollable, the fact that even Chen Cang, which is undergoing vigorous reform, faces joint resistance from the high-level of the other three vassals, shows clearly.”

After commercial exchange, once Great Xia’s current Household Registration System spreads, it will be an immense temptation to the grassroots populace of the Four Vassals, which is advantageous to us and disadvantageous to them; after careful consideration, I finally agreed to Liang Hengzhang.”

Xia Hong nodded upon hearing this, having a deeper understanding of systemic structures than Qiu Peng, so he understood immediately.

For Ice Abyss People, the most important is cultivation resources, and the most significant representation of cultivation resource production capability is of course Dan Medicine.

Not to mention, just the Alchemy Pavilion, a single building, can basically ensure that unless faced with States possessing a advantage of dimensional attack, Great Xia, in camps of the Feudal Town level, is fearless of any opponent solely based on production capability.

“What about the other three conditions? They weren’t accepted unchanged, were they?”

“Of course not!”

Qiu Peng smiled slightly, saluted and said: “For the four conditions, I directly agreed to the contract, the commerce was agreed upon after some consideration, and as for returning Evergreen Valley territory and exchanging prisoners, those two took a long time to discuss…”

Hou Bing and Yuwen Yong occupied Guangning Mountain on the night of the fifth; Liang Hengzhang came during the day on the sixth, and this moment is already the seventh day, so Qiu Peng’s negotiations with Liang Hengzhang took a full day’s time.