Gao still didn't quite understand why Yun Zhe let the two go in the end. Whether it was to maintain his dignity or to bargain later, capturing them would have been a much better choice.
Gao voiced his doubts, and Yun Zhe looked at Gao before asking, "Gao, to be honest, I know far less about them than they know about me. I want to learn more about them before I make a move. After all, we can't fight a battle we can't win."
"But sir, judging from your actions just now..."
"You don't really believe I'm going to dominate the Western Continent, do you?"
Gao smiled awkwardly. He didn't quite believe what Yun Zhe had just said either. In his opinion, Yun Zhe's anger towards Gao Chaizeng was more like a performance, a performance to gain the upper hand in negotiations.
"Our current task is to settle these newly arrived refugees and try to turn them into our people. As for everything else, that is a secondary task."
Gao nodded, and was about to leave to deal with the things Yun Zhe had instructed him to do, when Yun Zhe called him back.
"Gao, tell me about Omar and Emil, the stories behind them, the legends, the anecdotes, anything."
Gao's eyes lit up. "My lord, although I know quite a lot, it's all just rumors, and it might not be true."
Yun Zhe patted Gao on the shoulder, "Just say it. Look, just now, didn't Omar say they were honored guests of the royal family? Wasn't that just a rumor before?"
Gao nodded. "That's true, but the rumors are far more outrageous than he said. It's said that this emperor actually became emperor because of those two families..."
After listening to Gao's gossip and rumors about casinos and underground auction houses, Yun Zhe fell silent. What Gao said was exactly the same gossip and entertainment news that was popular before he transmigrated. If there was any difference, it might be that the limitations of the era made the two vastly different in form. But in reality, they were both nothing more than money interfering in politics.
"The lives of the rich are indeed colorful in any era," Yun Zhe snorted, telling Gao to go about his business while he himself wandered over to the place where refugees lived and began to conduct on-site investigations.
While Gao had achieved considerable success in sheltering refugees, his planning and organization were utterly chaotic. Along his journey, Yun Zhe saw only disorganized clusters of refugee settlements. The suggested houses provided shelter from the wind and rain, but there was absolutely no coordination between the areas. Some places were so filthy and smelly that Yun Zhe felt nauseous. If it weren't for the freezing weather, a large-scale plague could very well have broken out.
What bothered Yun Zhe even more was that although it was said to be over ten thousand households, based on his day of visits, there were only three or four thousand households around the castle, and in the more distant areas, only in the places where they traded grain with the elves, there were about half the population. Overall, optimistically speaking, it was only about half the number Gao had mentioned.
Yun Zhe naturally believed that Gao wouldn't deceive him, but where had all these people gone...?
But there was good news: Yun Zhe discovered that most of the homeless people held a rather negative attitude towards casinos and underground auction houses. Of course, there were also those who envied and longed for them, but what they longed for was the carefree spending of money there; as for the other filth and darkness of those places, they avoided them like the plague.
Moreover, land reclamation has been very successful. Large tracts of land west of the castle have already been developed, and if all goes well, the first batch of crops will be harvested by May or June of next year. At that time, we can reduce our dependence on imported elven food.
Yun Zhe endured the foul stench as he walked through the refugee settlement. The setting sun, though accompanied by a howling north wind, offered Yun Zhe a slight warmth. Suddenly, a woman from a greyish-red tent grabbed his hand. Yun Zhe was startled; along his journey, the refugees hadn't exactly been overly enthusiastic, but they'd at least been indifferent. This was the first woman to be so proactive.
Yun Zhe saw a woman's anxious and tense face. He subconsciously walked into the tent. The tent was dark and suffocating, with only a faint ray of sunlight shining in through a hole on one side, making the inside seem even darker.
At the other end of the tent was a large pile of tattered blankets, and on the blankets were two children curled up. When they saw Yun Zhe come in, they just shrank back and didn't make a sound.
The woman looked around the tent entrance, then looked at Yun Zhe with hopeful eyes. "Sir, you look like a wealthy man." She then pointed to two girls huddled together behind her. "Does Sir need any servants to attend to him? My two girls are very obedient. If Sir is interested, I'll sell them to you."
Yun Zhe raised his eyebrows, his heart filled with disbelief. "Are these two children really your children?"
The woman was taken aback. "Of course, you can ask them if you don't believe me."
Yun Zhe was even more shocked after learning the truth that she was indeed the two girls' biological mother.
"How did you come up with the idea of selling them?"
“Life is tough these days. I want to find them a good home. Following me will only lead to suffering,” the woman replied fluently. But Yun Zhe knew that she was lying.
While saying these pre-arranged words, the woman was thinking that once she had money, she would find a man named Stanton and have him arrange for her to secretly sneak into the Elf Forest and live a happy life.
Yun Zhe nodded. This was the most important piece of information he had received today. He already knew without asking how these people had fooled the woman in front of him, and what kind of treatment she would receive after being swindled out of her money. As for the background of that man named Stanton, it was all too obvious.
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