Chapter 992 - 842: Willing to Take a Military Pledge

Rushing to hand out money to the troops, and even needing to give them time to spend it—no matter how rich you are, you don't blow money like this. Anyone can hear that something's off.

Wu Jinliang asked suspiciously, "Chun Tian, what's going on here?"

With Feng Chi and Tong Mingshan right there, Shi Chun couldn't very well say what Mulan Jin had leaked, but he still laid things out clearly: "On one hand they say Heavenly Domain personnel are over quota, say it's over by half again. On the other hand they've been shorting the monthly pay. Now they're setting us up. You still don't see it? The money to open the prefecture and build the city is being skimmed straight out of everyone's monthly stipends. First they build the prefecture city with our money, then they kick us out. And it's not just us they're going to kick—once they slap on a charge of dereliction, they can use it to boot others as well. I'm afraid nearly half the troops are going to be thrown out under this pretext."

At these words, they were all shocked.

Feng Chi's face sank, and she snapped sharply, "What a nice little scheme. Let us use our own money to build the prefecture city all shiny and pretty, then swap in their people to pick the fruit. Then they toss out a huge chunk of the troops and don't even have to make up the back pay they owe."

"Dog bastards!" Wu Jinliang ground his teeth. "We risked our lives for the Heavenly Court to seize this territory. Now we're eating wind and sleeping under the open sky every day, haven't had a single good day, and this is how they treat us in the end?"

Tong Mingshan said in a deep voice, "Master, you mean we hand the money out so the city can't get built?"

Shi Chun: "Not to stop the city from being built. It's that the brothers' injuries matter more! They've been wounded, and we don't let the brothers get treatment—does that make any sense? Everyone's been stuck here this long, supplies are short, and we don't let them go buy what they need—does that make any sense?"

"All right, all right." Wu Jinliang quickly raised a hand to stop him. "Chun Tian, you don't have to sound so righteous in front of us. Just speak straight and give us the real bottom line. This is no small matter—what exactly are we going to do?"

Shi Chun: "I'm not trying to sound righteous. I'm telling you how to explain it when you're questioned. Once the prefecture city is built, if we're not going to be the ones enjoying it, what's the point of building it so well? Is it supposed to feel good to make wedding clothes for someone else and then get laughed at as fools? Hand the money out, let everyone go out and spend it—that's just giving the brothers an excuse. If the higher-ups order the money recovered, the brothers can say the money's already spent, or almost spent. Even if they know it's a lie, so what? Over a hundred thousand people—are they going to search each and every one? I'm not going to do the searching, and even if they force me I won't be able to find anything. If Manxi's got the guts, let him personally search every single body and snatch that money back."

Tong Mingshan hesitated. "Doing it this way, wouldn't that be going head‑to‑head against the Domain Master? Is that appropriate?"

Wu Jinliang glared at him. "It's not us going against him—it's him screwing us, forcing us into a corner. If we don't protect ourselves, are we just supposed to sit on our hands and let them do whatever they want to us?"

"Sigh." Tong Mingshan let out a heavy sigh. He couldn't see any way out, and he didn't feel very confident.

Feng Chi, though, was someone whose blood ran hot. As soon as she heard this, she perked right up, eyes shining. "Exactly, we can't sit here waiting to die. Hit back!"

She liked that about the Master—no matter who you were, if you dared make the first move, he'd dare hit back twice as hard.

Shi Chun: "What do you mean 'going head‑to‑head'? It's not like we're randomly blowing the money. We're issuing pay to the brothers. That money isn't going anywhere. It's a pre‑issued stipend because of real difficulties, and we can dock it back month by month later."

Feng Chi rolled her pretty eyes. "Exactly. These are all people who earned merit. The reason we're pre‑issuing is to reward that merit too."

Shi Chun: "No matter how nice the prefecture city is, if we don't get to sit in it, it's useless. If they want to swap in their own people, and they don't like the place, they can raise money themselves and build another. This dump doesn't even have anyone paying taxes—I'd like to see where he plans to get the funds. If they can build it on credit, fine. Once they swap in new people we don't have to carry the debt. I'd like to see how they plan to dock pay month by month to settle the bill after they kick out half the troops."

Wu Jinliang nodded repeatedly, grunting, "We'll do it like this."

Their gazes all turned to Tong Mingshan again. Tong Mingshan nodded and said gravely, "Understood."

So the two Commanders immediately took their attendants and rushed back to carry out the plan. As for the Southern Region, this sort of thing was naturally handed over to Feng Chi to handle.

When Feng Chi finished arranging everything and returned to the Commander's cave residence to report in, she happened to see Shi Chun looking at himself in the Mirror.

He was already dressed in the Battle Armor the Heavenly Court had just issued, almost identical to what he'd worn in the Battle of Great Pardon—only the cloud patterns on his belt had increased.

Back when he fought, there had been a single cloud embroidered on his belt. A proper Centurion‑Level belt carried two clouds. But at that time he'd been in a fake Centurion status, just like the Domain Master Manxi back then had only held a Commander's rank.

Now the troop ranks on the Heavenly Domain side were generally one level higher than outside. Rewarding merit was part of it, and besides, the Heavenly Domain was directly under the Heavenly Court, so its standards were indeed a bit higher than the other domains. Normally the lowest‑rank belt used to be a plain white plate with no pattern. Now even the lowest has at least one cloud.

By that logic, Squad Leader rank has two clouds, Centurion has three, unit commander four, Captain five, City Lord six, Commander seven.

But it's not fixed. People in the same position can have more or fewer clouds, because it's tied to accumulated military merit. Positions are limited; for those who can't move up in rank, they add grade, increase benefits, and let them draw more pay and the like.

For example, Wu Jinliang's belt bears seven clouds, Tong Mingshan has eight, and at this moment Shi Chun's belt is full, with nine.

Nine clouds is already the highest grade within silver armor. Any higher and you have to change armor—switch to golden armor.

Feng Chi walked around him in a circle, took a look, and said with a smile, "On this point at least, the Heavenly Court didn't brush us off. Fits you pretty well."

Shi Chun loosened his belt. Once he took off the armor, he picked up a standard green robe and put it on, then donned a proper official's hat, while Feng Chi stood beside him, helping with the dressing.