In the beginning, he was ranked alongside An Shigeng as a spoiled brat.

You have to understand that even they in the Mo family couldn't eat meat every day, let alone their status here, where they were just the 'lowest' laborers.

I never expected the Zhang family's meals to be so plentiful, even surpassing the legends.

"We do physical labor here, so we have meat in all three meals."

In the morning, there are meat buns, a large bowl of meat noodles, and a large meat pie... For lunch and dinner, the standard is two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes.

If there are overtime tasks in the evening, there is also a late-night snack, which is two meat dishes or one meat dish and one vegetable dish, making the meal more substantial.

Such as chicken legs, ribs, pork hock... and sometimes even beef offal and lamb offal.

Gulu...

Mohist disciples A, B, and C looked at the burly man in disbelief.

Do you know how many people are here?

There were already 100,000 artisans. If each person consumed one pound of meat per day, that would amount to 100,000 pounds of meat every day.

Due to the breed of pig, each domestic pig in the Central Plains of China produces about 100 catties of meat, so 100,000 catties would require 1,000 domestic pigs.

A year? The number is far greater than they can imagine.

"So much meat?"

If each person takes one jin (500 grams), that's 100,000 jin (50,000 grams) a day! Wouldn't the Zhang family suffer a huge loss?

"That's what I thought at first too, but later I learned from chatting with the regulators that the Zhang family has a large breeding farm on the grassland."

Every so often, (Zhao De Zhao) would send over 10,000 cattle and sheep, enough to feed us for more than half a year.

Moreover, there are many livestock breeding villages nearby where the Zhang family raises piglets. The Zhang family raises piglets in the homes of farmers, who help raise them. Once the piglets are ready for market, they are brought here and bought at a price of five coins per pound, allowing the Zhang family to profit from both sides.

I heard these piglets were all brought from the west by the Zhang family. Each pig weighs a full 300 jin (150 kg) at slaughter, yielding 200 jin (100 kg) of meat!

Hiss...

A piglet can grow to 300 jin (150 kg), three times the size of a domestic pig.

For a moment, the group exchanged glances and felt that being here wasn't so bad, at least the Zhang family provided food and lodging, and there was meat at every meal.

In comparison, where else can they find such treatment?

Moreover, they knew that after the project was completed, the Zhang family would select a large number of elites to fill the vacancies.

With the skills they learned from the Mohists, they could easily pass the test; the only difficulty was their identity.

Chapter 773 The 'Betrayal' of the Mohist Disciples

Two hundred thousand people—even at the peak of the Mohist school, the population of the Mechanical City was far less than that.

Moreover, with such a dense and bustling construction site, the original two-year construction period could now be completed in at most six months once it is fully underway.

Starting with 10,000 people, it expanded to 100,000 people in six months, and now it has grown to 200,000 people.

Apart from mega-projects like dams, the work of laying concrete can be shortened to within six months with overtime work.

This is still the vast area carved out over a thousand years by the winding and meandering Mo Family Mechanical City.

Otherwise, a well-organized place like the Forbidden City could be completed in a month at most.

Two hundred thousand craftsmen are not just wooden figures!

They are all the kind of workers who are willing to endure hardship and can become skilled in a short period of time.

Moreover, laying concrete is not a particularly high-tech job. With practice, one can become skilled. It only requires a lot of physical labor and can be done very quickly.

However, the Mo Family's mechanical city has another drawback: it needs to be reinforced against the mountain.

The construction of the Mo Family's Mechanical City hollowed out a lot of the mountain!

Although the Mohist school had not encountered any problems for a thousand years, in the eyes of true architectural masters, these were all extremely dangerous hidden dangers.

Therefore, in addition to the ground surface, a layer of concrete needs to be laid on top, along with supporting columns...

This is the real technical work; otherwise, it could be completed in three months at most.

···

"Young master, besides the disciples of the Mohist and Agriculturalist schools, more and more spies have recently been revealing their identities, hoping to join the Zhang family."

If it might have been true at first, the increasing number of these people now suggests it's a scam!

After the first group of Mohist disciples voluntarily surrendered, more and more spies exposed their identities, hoping to join the Zhang family.

Especially the disciples of the Mohist and Agriculturalist schools, although their beliefs were firm, were more likely to 'betray' them compared to the Empire and other secret agents due to the generous conditions offered by the Zhang family.

Because they represent two prominent schools of thought, not true suicide squads.

Seeing something better, and with the Zhang family's generous terms, he hesitated only slightly before harboring thoughts of 'betrayal'.

Moreover, they also recruited more disciples from the Mohist and Agricultural schools.

If these Mohist and Agricultural School disciples stay here for a period of time, almost 90% of them will choose to join the Zhang family.

After all, who (bjca) doesn't want a better life and a stable and secure job?

Compared to the Mohists, who were wanted by the empire at the time, the 100,000 disciples of the Farmer's School were doing slightly better than the Beggars' Sect, but it was far less practical for them than to join the Zhang family's construction team.

Most importantly, they joined the Zhang family only to become craftsmen; they did not truly betray the Mohist and Agricultural schools.

Even if they wanted to join the Zhang family's upper echelons and become Zhang family loyalists or guest advisors, their strength and skills were insufficient.

Within the Zhang family, they could still identify themselves as disciples of the Agricultural School and the Mohist School.

In this respect, they cannot be considered to have betrayed the Mohists and the Agriculturalists.

After all, they also need to make a living outside, so why can't they make a living with the Zhang family?

Just like working as a shop assistant in the Zhang family's shop, with high wages, high benefits, and even the opportunity to learn better things, the higher-ups of the Mohist and Agriculturalist families wouldn't say anything.

This is also why the disciples of the Mohist and Agriculturalist schools voluntarily revealed their identities.

Their original intention was simply to join the Zhang family's construction team; they weren't part of the Zhang family's senior management or core members!

Therefore, those later disciples of the Mohist and Agriculturalist schools were also ordinary.

Aside from the high risks and low pay outside, working here is stable and safe, and offers high wages and benefits. Anyone would know which option to choose.

Moreover, the Zhang family welcomed skilled farmers and Mohist disciples with great enthusiasm, treating them with significantly higher pay than ordinary craftsmen.

This is one reason.

However, the ripple effects they brought about were enormous.

Seeing that the disciples of the Mohist school and the peasant school had 'betrayed' them, many spies from other forces also followed suit.

After all, they weren't the only ones who betrayed them. This might be a test from the Zhang family, a case of 'leniency for those who confess and severity for those who resist.' As a result, Jin Bu'er has already received the surrender of more than 300 spies.

These spies belong to various factions, and he believes many of them hope to join the Zhang family.

However, the spies who later surrendered were more of a test, or even another form of infiltration.

"They've all been collected and will be arranged together."

If there are no problems, they can be reused, as long as they do not cause any problems within three years.

If there are any problems, don't hold back!

"Yes!"

Jin Bu'er nodded, saying that some secret agents were not a threat at all.

It's important to know that while the conditions for joining the Zhang family weren't particularly harsh, they weren't simple either; one was forbidden from communicating with the outside world for three years.

Although these spies employed various methods, such as raising Gu worms, using secret codes (like the Mo family's knotted ropes), or employing telepathic techniques capable of transmitting sound over long distances...

However, they all joined the Zhang family at the bottom level and had no access to the core members.

Moreover, the Zhang family's tight defenses, with the Blood Droplets hidden in the shadows, are like the Grim Reaper.

Moreover, once it is discovered that the spy has indeed passed the message out, the Zhang family will take the opportunity to react.

Slaughtering entire families was commonplace for the Blood Droplets.

···

"Too deceiving!"

Bang!

A cloud of dust rose, followed by heavy, angry breathing.

On the Dragon Emperor's eastern tour, the high-ranking members of the Mohist and Agriculturalist schools who had gathered there nearly vomited blood after receiving news from their own side.

The peasant family now has over a thousand members who have joined the Zhang family, and the Mo family has several hundred.

However, compared to the general number of 100,000 disciples of the Farmer's Clan, and considering that these disciples were not even considered inner disciples but rather cannon fodder who had to fend for themselves, the Farmer's Clan's higher-ups, aside from being shocked and angry, did not erupt in any major outburst.

The Mohist school is different. Under the suppression of the empire, the number of Mohist disciples has now dropped to less than a thousand.

At this time, hundreds of Mohist disciples joined the Zhang family, and the consequences were predictable.

The five leaders of the Mohist school almost stormed the Mechanized City, which was a move to wipe out the Mohist school and undermine its foundation.

However, he was stopped by the Taoist Xiaoyaozi, the strategist Gai Nie, and the Confucian Zhang Liang.

Given the Mohist school's current strength, going there would only lead to their own destruction.

Moreover, these were all volunteers from the Mohist school. Originally, they sent Mohist disciples there to test the waters, but who knew that the Zhang family would directly turn the Mohist disciples against them.

It can only be said that the Mo family tried to steal a chicken but lost the rice instead. They went to test the Zhang family, and they didn't even allow the Zhang family to retaliate?

Moreover, judging from the reaction of the peasant disciples, the Zhang family did not even make a move, and the Mo family disciples surrendered. Who can they blame?

Is it because the Zhang family is too well-off? Can they be given a stable environment where they are not pursued by the empire?

The two are not comparable at all.

Chapter 774 A Shocking Plan Ten Years in the Making

"Alright, big iron hammer."

Even ants cherish life, let alone humans? Those disciples merely joined the Zhang family's construction team; strictly speaking, they did not betray the Mohist school.

Ultimately, we dragged those brothers down, leaving them unable to return home, adrift in the world, their fate uncertain.

The physician Duanmu Rong possesses a compassionate heart and is a doctor.

In her attitude towards the Mohist disciples who joined the Zhang family, she was not as extreme as others. Moreover, she herself was a physician who joined the Mohist school, so she could best understand the feeling of being dependent on others.

Unless absolutely necessary, who would willingly live under someone else's roof?

Moreover, the messages relayed by these Mohist disciples did not indicate any intention to betray the Mohist school.

They simply wanted to remain among the artisans recruited by the Zhang family, where they could enjoy stable and extremely high salaries, and without having to worry about being wanted by the empire.

Therefore, Gai Nie, Xiaoyaozi, Zhang Liang, and others felt that although this was cruel to the Mohists, their choice was not wrong.

The Mohist school was not lacking in loyal and righteous individuals, but the majority of them were also ordinary people.

Many people were dragged down by the Mohist high-ranking members, turning from one of the five major schools of thought into underground rats that everyone now hates.

This dramatic shift is also the reason why these Mohist disciples switched their allegiance to the Zhang family.

The five commanders are all top-notch experts!

But what about the Mohist disciples? Most of them were cannon fodder at the second or third level; not everyone is willing to be cannon fodder.

Moreover, when they realized that the Mo family wasn't all that wonderful, while the Zhang family was treated like paradise.

"That's right, everyone has their own choices."

Since they have chosen stability, and the Zhang family has the ability to provide them with a stable environment, this is a good thing for them.

We have no right or standing to criticize them.

Ultimately, it was our reckless behavior that dragged them down. Their joining the Zhang family might not necessarily be a bad thing.

"If we die, they might be able to preserve the Mohist tradition."

It should be noted that these Mohist disciples still identified themselves as Mohist disciples and were able to form their own faction within the Zhang family's construction team.

However, this Mohist school will no longer be their Mohist school, but a completely new Mohist school.