118 Borrowing Grain and False Accounts

Inside the weapons workshop, Lü Shan, the veteran NPC hunter, spent a little less than half a day crafting a few bows of standard design: a level 10 short bow, a level 15 wooden bow, and a level 20 hardwood hunting bow. These were mere trifles to him, posing not the slightest technical difficulty.

Having warmed up his hands, he began crafting the level 25 reinforced hunting bow. This level 25 reinforced hunting bow was somewhat more complex. The medium-grade hardwood required for it was first prepared by the carpenter and then delivered to him.

The little beggar sneaked into the weapons workshop, full of curiosity about the bows and arrows, and pestered the old hunter for the level 10 short bow. Not paying much mind, the old hunter simply handed the little trinket to him. The little beggar then ran over to Huojia Xiaobao to cadge ten short arrows, and scurried off joyfully to play goodness knows where.

The old hunter then dedicated himself wholeheartedly to crafting the level 25 reinforced hunting bow—the materials currently possessed by White Water Village were only sufficient to make a single such level 25 reinforced hunting bow.

First came the crafting of the bow limb. He selected two highly resilient and pliable pieces of bendable material, [Hickory Wood], measuring about 120 centimeters in length. The middle of the bow limb was about 5 centimeters wide, tapering gradually towards both ends down to 1.5 centimeters. Grooves were carved at a distance of about 1.25 centimeters from the tips to secure the bowstring. After shaving and smoothing them flat, and shaping the bow limb, a layer of grease was applied to the exterior.

The belly of the bow limb was faced with horn, reinforced with tendons and high-quality fish glue, and covered on the outside with peach bark. The bow was double-curved in shape, equipped with horn string bridges at the tips, and embedded with a piece of warm wood in the middle for a comfortable grip.

The bowstring was made of ox sinew, wrapped with silk thread on the outside. When securing the bowstring, the bow limb was pulled slightly taut—only when drawing the bow would the bow limb bend and tighten further, providing considerable elastic force. First, a loop of the bowstring was hitched into the groove of the bow limb, and then wound two and a half times around.

After considerable effort and following the full set of craftsmanship, a level 25 reinforced hunting bow was completed.

[Reinforced Hunting Bow]—Level 25, intermediate ranged weapon, used in conjunction with arrows. Counter targets: light infantry, light cavalry. A fine bow, frequently used by experienced veteran hunters.
Performance: Range 100 meters, required strength 10 points.
Consumed materials: Hickory wood x2, ox sinew x1, high-quality fish glue x10, silk x5, horn material x5, grease x5.

After finishing this bow, lacking any further ox sinew material, the old hunter had no choice but to make level 20 hunting bows instead. He did not forget to instruct Huojia Xiaobao on crafting arrows. After all, having a fine bow alone was not enough; the arrows must be equally good as well.

Level 20 birch arrows could meet the usage requirements for level 20 to 25 hunting bows.

[Birch Arrow]—Level 20, intermediate ranged weapon, can be used in conjunction with intermediate bows. Counter targets: light infantry, light cavalry.
Performance: +2 attack, durability 30.
Consumed materials: Iron arrowhead x1, birch wood x1, pheasant feather x1.

Master and apprentice repeatedly studied a large pile of fine materials, pondering how to process them into superior bow and arrow weapons.

Firefly Snow possessed the [Tendon Extraction] skill, and was escorted into the wild by a group of experts from White Water Village to search for wild oxen, rhinoceroses, and deer. Treads-on-Grass possessed the hunter's [Trap] skill, and collaborated with Elder Jianba to set concealed traps around the wooden palisade walls of the village, increasing the defensive capability of the walls. The old hunter's other two apprentices each found their own tasks to attend to.

......

The little beggar took the little broken bow to play with, and when the mood struck him, suddenly regarded Gou Buli, the dog-headed strategist, as his imaginary enemy—he knew Gou Buli's background and origins. Shouting battle cries and swinging wildly, he chased him all over the village, "Dog-headed bandit, halt and surrender to this Great General immediately, and kowtow three times shouting for mercy, or else this General will take your little life."

While holding his head and scampering away in panic, Gou Buli cursed angrily, yet was utterly helpless against this little ancestor.

As luck would have it, he ran into Deputy Village Chief Li San. Li San promptly confiscated the little beggar's weapon, lectured him severely, and locked him up in a small shed for half a day. Furious, the little beggar had no choice but to cut and sew clothes inside the room.

......

Li San found Zhan Xiaobai in the courtyard and stepped forward to report: "Lord, our village's grain is on the verge of exhaustion. Do you have any arrangements in mind?"

Zhan Xiaobai was currently checking the various supplies within the village, his expression somewhat heavy. He nodded and said, "Hmm, in a few days it will be the grain harvest, but our surplus grain is only enough for one day; I am afraid we won't last until then. I have been pondering this matter over the last couple of days."

"Once the grain is exhausted, the villagers' morale will plummet instantly, affecting the village's operations and proving extremely detrimental to village development. ...... The Lord looks very composed; could it be you have found a brilliant solution to resolve this?"

"There are several ideas, I just don't know whether they will work out."

Four hundred villagers were extremely beneficial for accelerating the village's construction speed, but they also constituted a massive grain burden.

Zhan Xiaobai murmured in the courtyard, weighing the feasibility of several methods. There were only two paths to take: reducing personnel or increasing grain.

Reducing personnel meant converting NPC villagers into NPC militiamen and transferring them to players at a low price. (NPC villagers and the village shared a relationship of upkeep, while NPC militiamen and players also shared a relationship of upkeep. Such a transfer would not cause any change in the NPC villagers' morale; players only needed to guarantee the normal grain supply for the militiamen.)

Increasing grain meant nothing other than asking others for grain. However, at the end of the month, very few villages had any surplus grain.

Zhan Xiaobai cast his gaze upon Pei Yuanshao.

Over the past month, Pei Yuanshao had successively stored tens of catties of grain within the village. Deducting what had been withdrawn, there were still nearly 6,000 catties remaining.

That same night, when a dozen horse bandits led by Wang Laohu arrived at White Water Village to collect grain, Zhan Xiaobai asked him to pass a word along to Pei Yuanshao, expressing a desire to have a talk with him. Over the past month, he had grown quite familiar with this group of horse bandits, and discussing matters was much easier than before.

Wang Laohu smacked his lips, "My big brother is busy these past two days!"

Zhan Xiaobai hurriedly asked, "Oh, what happened? Pray tell me, Brother Wang."

Wang Laohu had no intention of keeping intelligence confidential whatsoever, and cursed angrily as he spilled everything, saying, "Damn it, recently several bands of Qiang and Hu horse bandits have been crossing the border to forage, and my big brother is currently leading Cheng Laoer and the brothers to fight them. Those Qiang and Hu horse bandits are tough as nails and hard to deal with; several of our brothers have died, and this matter won't be settled in two or three days."

Zhan Xiaobai said, "Then is there any way I can help?"

Wang Laohu stared wide-eyed and said, "You? What kind of help can you offer?" He looked up and roared with laughter, "If a kid like you can help, wouldn't that mean I, Wang Laohu, could strut around unhindered?"

Zhan Xiaobai smiled and said, "Field battles aren't my forte, but when it comes to dealing with cavalry, I do have a bit of experience. I have a batch of weapons here that I'd like to present to Chief Pei. I wonder if Brother Wang would like to take a look? I guarantee you'll be satisfied."

Wang Laohu said dismissively, "What good weapons could you possibly have? Bring them out and let me see."

Zhan Xiaobai had people carry out several bundles of iron lumps and toss them onto the ground—at least a hundred of them.

Iron Caltrop: Level 20 defensive weapon, can be crafted using advanced blacksmithing technology. Piercing attack, durability 5/5, 5 uses.

Seeing these pitch-black little objects, Wang Laohu's expression changed instantly, and he cried out in shock, "Motherfuckers, iron caltrops! This stuff is a vicious item for stabbing people in the back. How did you get so many of these?"

"Better safe than sorry, right? What does Brother Wang think of these weapons? Use them to ambush those Qiang and Hu horse bandits. When both sides are charging, suddenly scattering a large area of these behind will guarantee they fall into the trap, sending men and horses tumbling."

Zhan Xiaobai chuckled inwardly. Originally, he had wanted to let them taste this experience, but since they had already established a "mutually beneficial" relationship, these wouldn't come in handy for that. Using them to make a deal wasn't a bad idea either.

Wang Laohu laughed heartily, his eyebrows twitching with delight, "Good! I, Wang Laohu, love this kind of underhanded trickery; Brother Bai really suits my temperament! Brother Bai, however many of these things you have, bring them all out, and I'll deliver them to my big brother tonight."

Zhan Xiaobai remained unhurried, "There are several hundred pieces, so there's no rush. It's just that I'd like to borrow a bit of grain from you all to tide over an emergency. What does Brother Wang think?"

Wang Laohu patted his chest boldly and declared, "A minor matter, a minor matter! As long as those Qiang and Hu horse bandits can be butchered, what is a little grain? There's no need to ask my big brother for permission; I, Wang Laohu, can make the call on this. ..... However, you mustn't mention this to Cheng Laoer, that fellow is dead set stingy. If he finds out, he'll definitely nag my big brother endlessly. I, Wang Laohu, will take full responsibility for this."

Wang Laohu muttered to himself: Damn it, the credit will belong to me, Wang Laohu alone; I can't let that cunning Cheng Laoer take a share of it.

Zhan Xiaobai chuckled, cupped his fists, and said, "Nothing could be better. Many thanks, Brother Wang."

Wang Laohu ordered the horse bandit underlings to pack the bundled iron lumps into the grain sacks, and then, taking along a small amount of grain, set off into the distant wilderness.

Just by looking at the amount of grain they had withdrawn, Zhan Xiaobai felt that their situation was somewhat ominous.

Those 240-odd catties of grain were only enough to feed over 80 people for one day. In other words, Pei Yuanshao and his gang of horse bandits had suffered nearly a 50% reduction in personnel recently. To suffer such heavy casualties under the leadership of a Three Kingdoms historical NPC like Pei Yuanshao meant those few factions of Qiang and Hu horse bandits were probably not to be trifled with; he wondered what their origins were.

Zhan Xiaobai didn't worry too much on their behalf. He had plenty of troublesome matters of his own to deal with. Now that their grain supply was guaranteed, he didn't need to lay off villagers, and everything could proceed normally. Once this batch of grain from over 300 mu of land was harvested, their grain crisis would be greatly alleviated, and next month should not see another severe grain shortage.

Li San said with boundless joy, "The Lord is truly a divine being! An impending grain crisis has vanished into thin air at the wave of your hand."

Zhan Xiaobai smiled and said, "Alright, when did you learn to suck up from Gou Buli?" He paused, and said solemnly, "Now, the end of the month is right upon us, and there is an important matter that you must handle immediately."

Not understanding, Li San thought: the grain crisis has been resolved, and all affairs are proceeding in an orderly fashion, what other important matter could there be? He couldn't help asking, "Please speak, Lord, this old man will go handle it immediately."

Zhan Xiaobai said, "Cook the books."

Li San was instantly dumbfounded, "This...... Cook the books? This old man truly cannot fathom how the Lord suddenly came up with this notion. Why would we cook the books?"

"As soon as the last day of the month arrives, our village has to hand over 20% of its income to the prefecture and commandery. Do you think we can just hand over the wealth we've worked so hard to earn for free?"

"This...... The imperial court and prefectures collecting taxes is only natural. Although the tax burden is a bit heavy, cooking the books isn't quite right, is it?" After all, Li San was a former village chief, and his ideological loyalty to the Eastern Han court was not insignificant.

Zhan Xiaobai persuaded him, "If our village doesn't do it, other medium-sized villages certainly will. By then, we'll hand over 20% of our income, while other villages only hand over 3 to 5%. Wouldn't that weaken our own strength? You won't see the effect in a month or two, but as time goes on, our village will fall behind other medium-sized villages. Think about it carefully."

Li San hesitated for a long time, let out a sigh, and said, "If it's like this...... Then I shall defer entirely to the Lord's instructions."

Having accepted the task, he began calculating how to reduce the recorded income of money, grain, and other assets on the village's ledger.

Of course, cooking the books like this wasn't easy to pull off. The system maintained extremely detailed records of all kinds, and if things didn't match up, it wouldn't work. The 20% would still be deducted and allocated to the financial ledger of the prefecture and commandery.

After busying himself for quite a while without much progress, Li San wiped the sweat from his brow and requested, "Lord, please ask Elder Jianba to come and help. This book-cooking business is truly beyond this old man's abilities."

Zhan Xiaobai smiled and summoned Jianba.

Following Zhan Xiaobai into the courtyard, Jianba chuckled and said, "Cook the books? Xiaobai, you really know how to pick your man. Does Elder Jianba look like the kind of expert who cooks books to you? I am a thoroughly upright merchant!"

......

Whether Jianba was an upright merchant or not, nobody knew. However, the falsified accounts he crafted left Li San sweating with shame and filled with boundless admiration.

Jianba adjusted various income flows, making Wutong Village's ledgers coordinate accordingly. The two villages mutually borrowed and lent assets—large expenditures, high-priced loans, low-priced borrowings—cycling back and forth several times before writing them off. The final ledger showed that the net grain income had actually become a negative number, with White Water Village owing Wutong Village a massive debt of grain. Even with next month's bumper harvest, they would have to prioritize repaying the loan and wouldn't have to hand over a single grain of tax.

Income from copper coins, wealth, raw materials, and weapons was likewise reduced to virtually nothing.

White Water Village symbolically handed over a single copper coin in tax revenue. The officials of the prefecture and commandery would likely vomit blood from anger upon seeing this ledger.

Not just White Water Village, but virtually all medium-sized villages within the game employed this trick. However, those who were skilled at it left no trace, while those whose bookkeeping was clumsy had a considerable amount of coin and goods confiscated.