The largest number of cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks and geese are raised, and meat, eggs, milk, wool and leather are its pillar industries.
Years ago, it was favored by No. 1 Wall and received full support with resources. In addition, it was brought into the sphere of influence of the Forest Group and gradually became the central city of the Southwest region. However, there were also certain political factors involved.
Apart from the Salt Lake District, Zibao and Boiler City both have independent and autonomous government offices. The support of the old city by No. 1 Wall is certainly not without reason. It is intended to use this as a fulcrum to leverage the commercial and political forces in the southwest region to align with the Lingbi regime.
Take Zibao's military industry as an example. Most of its upstream raw material production lines rely on Lingbi City, with only a small portion of orders imported from Shabao and other major industrial cities in the north. Recently, a dark horse has emerged in the military market: Zibao's "Ziguang-18." It has excellent material science applications and firearm potential, and is supported by various violent organizations and gangs. However, unfortunately, local governments still hold a conservative attitude towards this type of firearm. The Golden Eagle, Rapid Fire, Sand Crocodile, and even new weapons such as the Incendiary Gun and Chainsaw Knife are better choices.
The coal from Boiler City was the cheapest mineral resource in the desert. The export of large quantities of coal was exchanged for grain, meat, eggs, and milk from Wall One, West Fort, and the Old City to feed their population.
Therefore, in terms of economic, military, immigrant population, and number of jobs, Zibao and Boiler City can only be considered small towns.
When the tiger is away, the monkeys reign supreme.
The Old Town is far inferior to Sand Castle, not to mention West Castle and Wall No. 1, which are the worst of the worst.
Upon entering the old city, Wu Ming and Zhou Sen's two groups temporarily found a hotel to stay and lie low. Fortunately, there weren't many forces in the old city, but the composition of the human population was extremely complex and difficult to understand. The Scorpion Gang had been unable to carry out their work here, and could only find out that Poison Scorpion had established a company here, selling some looted goods, fuel, cloth, some machinery and tools, and slaves, nothing more.
"The message from Master Wei has arrived. I called you all here to discuss the next steps in our plan."
Wu Ming slowly unfolded Wang Fang's 'paper puppet life'. The paper crane stretched lazily in his palm and flattened itself, revealing lines of handwritten characters.
Wang Fang's characteristics are well-suited for intelligence gathering. When the paper doll is active as a living being, if it is intercepted and torn by the enemy, the information inside will not be revealed. It can also be transmitted over long distances. However, the only secret is how the paper crane flew so far, avoiding natural disasters and various dangers in the desert, and accurately arrived in Wu Ming's hands.
Even the group leader, Wei Tuozhi, didn't know this, and Wang Fang wouldn't tell him either.
But their intelligence team's messages were always delivered without fail, never failing to arrive.
"Scorpion has operations in Boiler City and Purple Fortress. He has two men by his side, one named Archer and the other named Cherish. They are mainly responsible for the business plans and industrial layout of these two cities. Through bribery, assassination, and extortion of the government agencies, Scorpion has seized control of the lives and secrets of one-third of the officials in Boiler City. He forcibly obtained three coal mining lines and is making a fortune every day. It is estimated that Deng Xian's faction of the Forest Group, a large number of people, will get a share of the pie, on the condition that they help the Scorpion Party expand the profits of these three coal lines."
"Secondly, they met with the leader of Purple Fortress. Scorpion had promised to export their weapons for Purple Fortress. He was a veteran and knew many people in the desert. The roads were full of scattered violent organizations, mercenary groups, and gangs in the cities. Scorpion promised to export Purple Fortress weapons through 'smuggling,' and these organizations would take the lion's share. However, the government offices in various cities were still relatively conservative. Although Purple Light was also cheap, its cost-effectiveness was not as good as that of Sand Crocodile."
Zhou Sen said calmly, "The rich are using Golden Eagle and Rapid Fire, while the poor are using Black Gecko. That's how the market is. Those who are neither rich nor poor, but have a little ambition, will buy Sand Crocodile. Li Jiuyuan has been operating in the East for many years and has a better reputation. The high-ranking officials don't understand Zibao's methods, so they naturally take a conservative attitude and refuse to import Ziguang-18. Some of their competitors have even blocked their channels and bribed their customers. Some cabinets have also successively introduced policies for multiple reviews of foreign military products, which ultimately makes it difficult for Ziguang to expand its reach."
"So... they could only target the unaffiliated organizations, and the Poisonous Scorpion just happened to meet all the demands of the Purple Castle Pavilion, from its leaders to its officials."
"Yes, he's now a guest of honor at Purple Castle."
Hu Zhi, Tang Wu, and the others exchanged glances. Hu Zhi said, "Boss, does this mean the main force of the Scorpion Gang is all over Purple Fortress?"
"The main force is in the old city, where they started. Now that they've grown in size, Poison Scorpion hasn't had time to move their industrial organization there yet. But he sent several capable cadres and a group of bandits to Purple Fortress. It has now been found that Poison Scorpion's position in Purple Fortress is military supervisor, and he also serves as the deputy director of several military factories. Their new headquarters is located in the Purple Fortress military camp. They obtain looted goods, slaves, grain, property and other materials through the smuggling of military products."
Zhou Sen said, "Judging by the time, Consultant Qin should have finished his business by now."
Wu Ming pondered and said, "Yes, now is the time for us to make our move. Before Advisor Qin arrives in the old city, we must strike at the root of the problem and destroy their entire organization."
Zhou Sen frowned. "We still need the help of the Old City Pavilion."
"Yes, I have already met with several scholars from the Land of Sages. Scholar Han has already spoken to them. They have been stationed here for many years and know more about the inside story than we do."
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
