"You... are you a great master?" The middle-aged man's tone was rapid, his voice was filled with surprise, and there was a little uncertainty in the identification process.

This incident was beyond everyone's expectations. Wu Lin raised his hand to block the guard who was about to take action, looked at the middle-aged man who was kneeling in front of him, and smiled gently, "Do you know me?"

"I am Yonghao!" The middle-aged man knelt on the ground with his knees. Although his hands were tied up, he still kowtowed to Wu Lin three times. By the time he stood up, his face was covered with dust.

"Great National Master, I am Yonghao." He was so excited that he couldn't help himself: "Eight years ago, Pantuo River had flooded, and all the fields outside the city were flooded. Everyone had no food to eat. If it weren't for the Great National Master, you came to Tieja City and ordered the city lord to open the warehouse and release the grain, I would have starved to death."

"...Yonghao..." Looking at the rough-skinned face in front of him, Wu Lin turned up long-standing memories from the depths of his mind.

He still remembered the flood eight years ago. At that time, the two sides of the Pantuo River became a vast ocean. Because of the high terrain and the ingenious moat design, the city was not flooded because of its flood discharge and diversion. However, the grain harvest was a foregone conclusion that time, Wu Lin finally told the tiger king Yaoxian to take out a large amount of grain from the royal public warehouse to distribute it to the victims of disasters. However, during the implementation process, they were opposed by nobles from all over the country. They deliberately delayed or even refused to provide disaster relief for various reasons, and took the opportunity to annex the land from the victims, buy and sell the population at extremely low prices, and seek generous benefits from it.

At that time, the Lord of Iron Jade took over more than 4,000 victims in one breath and turned them all into slaves. Wu Lin rushed to Iron Jade City after hearing the news, and forced the other party to release people with the power of the national teacher. As a last resort, the Lord of Iron Jade City released 1,500 people and was extremely reluctant to open the warehouse to release grain. Therefore, Iron Jade City did not become his private city.

"I remember you, Yonghao... It was Yonghao who ate four big steamed buns in one breath and almost got carried away to death." Wu Lin smiled slowly on his face. He stood up, pulled out the dagger he wore, cut off the rope that bound Yonghao, and helped him up from the ground, and said with a smile: "I remember you, at that time, you had the greatest appetite. If I hadn't sent someone to stop him, you would have been born to death at that time."

"Thank you for helping Master Da's life." Yonghao's face was full of gratitude. He held Wu Lin's hand hard and kept trembling.

Looking at the tattered Dragon Clan uniform on him, Wu Lin's eyes became a little complicated: "You are obviously a member of the Tiger Clan, why should you join the Dragon Clan's army?"

Yonghao opened his mouth, and the expression on his face was reluctant to speak. It was obvious that he had something to say, but he was still silent in the end.

The tied young man struggled and squeezed forward, standing side by side with Yonghao. His eyes were full of enthusiasm, but his tone of speech was a little uncertain: "You... are you really a great national master? Our tiger clan's great national master?"

The guards next to him shouted: "Be arrogant and do not be rude in front of the great national magistrate. Kneel down!"

Wu Lin waved his hand to the guards: "Don't do this, I've stepped down now, just an ordinary person."

As he said that, he turned to face the young man and smiled gently: "I am Wulin."

"My name is Yongjian." The young man knelt down and said gratefully: "When my grandmother passed away the previous year, her last wish was to see you again. When she was dying, she kept holding my hand and let me kowtow to you if I had the chance to see you."

Wu Lin asked with a smile: "Your grandma?"

"She has received your favor." Yongjian's face was full of earnest expressions: "That year, Pantuo River was flooded. If it weren't for the great master, you opened the warehouse and released grain, our whole family would have starved to death. You... You are the benefactor of our people in the city!"

Wu Lin shook his head with a wry smile. He stared at Yongjian and asked the same question as before: "Why join the Dragon Clan's army?"

"Because they are all good people." Yongjian was young after all, and he did not have as many concerns as Yonghao, and spoke more frankly: "They gave us food, houses, clothes, and land..."

"Wait!" Wu Lin quickly interrupted him and asked in confusion: "Give you house and clothes? What's going on?"

"After the Dragons occupied the Iron Jaw City, they classified the city into the East and West Districts. They loaded the people from the East District on a boat and said they were moving to the north, where there was a new city. In this way, the Iron Jaw City became very empty, and according to the actual situation of each household, they more or less got new houses. The Dragons also sent us clothes, really good cotton clothes, tops and pants in a whole set."

Speaking of this, Yongjian smiled honestly: "This is the first time in my life that I have worn such good clothes."

Although it was a simple conversation, the information revealed made Wu Lin feel chill and extremely shocked.

When the conqueror occupied a city and wanted to maintain rule in the local area, he had to show kindness to the people under his rule while occupying it. It is common to distribute clothes to civilians, but the Dragon people were too much of a deal. You should know that there are more than 200,000 people in Tiejan City. According to Yongjian, each person distributed a set of cotton clothes, which is more than 200,000, which is an extremely terrifying and huge astronomical figure.

Where did they get so much cotton?

Wulin is a smart person. He knew that the Cow tribe had previously annexed the Deer tribe, and the Deer tribe was the tribe that was best at textile technology on the entire northern continent. With the inventory of the Deer tribe and the production of the Dragon tribe since last winter, it is not difficult to take out 200,000 sets of clothes to win people's hearts. But cotton cloth is not a weed in the field after all, and after being cut, it is the president. The Cow tribe has successively merged with multiple tribes, and after it is called the Dragon tribe, the population within the tribe has increased sharply. Wulin has been secretly collecting information on this. According to his calculations, the total population of the Dragon tribe has exceeded five million in recent years, and it has exceeded five million, or even more.

Put yourself in my shoes, if I had 200,000 sets of cotton clothes, I would definitely not give priority to the conquered foreign tribes, but to supply my own tribes. The reason is simple. No matter how good you are to foreign tribes, they are not their own relatives after all. It takes time to change thinking and recognize your power and accept rule. Instead of putting precious energy and resources on these people, it is better to give the tribes more benefits, unite within, and generate stronger cohesion.

Wu Lin has seen Tianhao, but he has only heard the name of this young regent on various occasions countless times.

Wulin was once the national teacher of the Tiger Clan. Speaking of which, this position is in a sense the same position as the Regent. Of course, in terms of power and government affairs, the national teacher has a far less influence than the Regent's subordinates. But this does not prevent Wulin from having a detailed understanding of the many aspects of the Tiger Clan's population, resources, production, economy, reserves, etc.

Ask yourself, if you were a replacement for yourself or the Tiger King Yaoxian, you would never have taken out hundreds of thousands of sets of cotton clothes to the local people for free after attacking the Dragon Clan and capturing large cities like Bailu City or Panshi City.

There are only three possibilities for the Dragon Regent to do this.

First: He is an extremely mentally retarded idiot who has no experience in national affairs.

Second: He completely gave up the nobles within the Dragon Clan, including the city lord, commander, and everyone at the level of ten thousand people, and instead focused all his energy on the newly conquered occupied areas, hoping to get the most extensive support from the people.

These two situations seem to be nothing to worry about in Wulin's opinion. Needless to say, the first one is very obvious. The second one is very flawed, especially giving up the support of powerful superiors within the clan, which is simply putting the cart before the horse. It's nothing to do it once occasionally, but if it becomes a long-term behavior, the dragon clan itself will become chaotic and even a civil war breaks out.

Finally, it is the third type——the dragon clan has reached an unprecedented peak in terms of productivity and material reserves, and the number is incredibly large. Taking cotton as an example, it is so numerous that there is no need to consider internal demand at all. It can be used as a large-scale method of giving grace to civilians. It is also fully recognized and unanimously agreed by the ruling class of the tribe.

Wu Lin couldn't help but twitch in silence, and he was creepy at the result of his thinking.

Could it be that the dragon clan has reached this point?

"That...the great national master...in fact, we did not join the Dragon Clan's army."

After several minutes of cold break, Yonghao, who had been thinking for a long time, hesitated and said: "We are just working together as reserves in the city to defend. We usually maintain public order in the city, form teams to patrol at night, and keep watch on towers and walls during the day... It's basically these jobs. Yongjian and I are the same, and we don't directly participate in the battle."

Wu Lin swept over Yonghao and Yongjian with sharp eyes and asked lightly: "Then why are you captured by our army as prisoners?"

"That's because we helped the Dragon tribe clean the battlefield." Yongjian quickly inserted his words and explained seriously: "There was a war a few days ago, and there were corpses everywhere outside the city. Some people, horses, armor and weapons. The part near the edge of the Iron Jaw City has basically been cleaned up. Brother Yonghao and I discussed going away while we were attending, getting some valuable things, or one or two dead horses to go back, and just like that... we were caught."

Wu Lin's eyes became complicated again.

He really wanted to point at Yonghao and Yongjian and scold him hard. As a member of the Tiger tribe, how could he not have a position that belongs to his own tribe? What a shameful act that he is willing to work for the invaders?

Ideals are not reality after all, Wulin knows that it is difficult... and cannot even scold them for these reasons. The loss of Iron Jaw City is a problem for the local city lord and army. Generally speaking, it can even be held accountable to Hu Zesheng, the general guard of Hulao Pass who had already died in battle. What is the fault of the people? They are not soldiers, and they work hard to work hard only to pay grain taxes to the Tiger King and the nobles during the harvest season every year. In the end, they were punished and even sentenced in public for the "surrender"... Is this really fair?

Wu Lin no longer knew how many times he was sighing in his heart. He took a breath, clarified his thinking, and asked seriously: "How many people in Tiejan City are like you? I mean helping the Dragon Clan, which is the reserve team you just mentioned."

In addition to self-blame, anger and loss, Wu Lin also developed a strong curiosity. He wanted to know more about the current situation of the Dragon Conqueror and Iron Jaw City. If possible, maybe some loopholes that can be exploited can be found.

The first sentence from Yonghao's mouth completely shattered the last glimmer of hope in Wu Lin's heart.

"Everyone has joined the reserve team." Yonghao's honest and honest face was not seen at all forgery: "Women are no exception, there are also elderly people and children."

Wu Lin felt unbelievable and suddenly raised the volume: "Old man and child? What can they do?"

"There are so many things that can be done." Yongjian inserted again: "The broken city wall needs to be repaired, but there are no stones near the Iron Jaw City. The Dragon tribe used their large ship to transport peat. We built some brick kilns outside the city to the north, and from digging soil to burning bricks, all these things require people."

"The Dragons are building a road leading to Gangwei City and Hulao Pass." Yonghao added: "They widened the original road surface, re-stuffed it, and covered the surface with stones... It is said that in a few days the fleet will transport something called "asphalt" from Bailu City, which is specially used for road construction. No one has seen or heard of it."

"Some houses in the city have been demolished, and old materials are used to strengthen the city defense. The vacant land has been vacant and some new houses are built, which are very large and empty. It is said that they are new warehouses, specially used to store gunpowder."

Yonghao and Yongjian's words sound ordinary on the surface, but Wu Lin discovered many problems from them. Thinking of the advantages of firearms that the Dragon Clan had already mastered, a terrible idea emerged in his mind - the transformation of a city fortress.

No wonder the Dragon clan members wanted to move half of the residents in the city. There were too many 200,000 people, which was not conducive to control. According to the information obtained before, the Dragon clan members placed tens of thousands of people in the Iron Jaw City. In this way, a fusion can be formed in a short period of time and the situation can be stabilized.

Even the elderly and children use them all, which means that the operation of Iron Jaw City has reached an unimaginable level. For civilians, having a job is a good thing. But in the eyes of the rulers, giving a large number of jobs means spending on large quantities of rations.

Thinking of this, Wu Lin couldn't help but ask, "Can you usually eat enough?"

The supply of food rations for tigers is divided into multiple standards, and "eating" is the highest level for civilians.

"Of course." Yonghao's face showed a satisfied smile. He raised his hands and gestured: "There are pancakes and meat. Such a large piece, about two fingers thick, with vegetables in it, two for each person, and this is the case every meal."

Yongjian is the kind of young man who is unwilling to be lonely: "There is also rice balls. When I first got them, I thought it would be great to have a meal of white rice. Unexpectedly, there was a salted fish and minced meat in the rice balls, and a very delicious soup with cooked vegetables and something called "sea vegetarian" by the dragon tribe."
Chapter completed!