Ji Li smiled when he saw the panic-stricken face of Shixuan. He wasn't sadistic or any of that sort, and the work both his younger brothers did were actually very helpful in their cultivation, as he designed them specific to their racial advantages, but he still had to laugh when he saw them laying on the ground nearly dead from exhaustion!
"Haha, no such thing will happen. But since you reminded me, maybe we should do something like that in the future, we have a fully year, don't we? I want you both to become so ready for Nature's Gift that even if you guys can't get it, you'd still be able to awaken your body naturally!"
Ji Li laughed when he saw the menacing look Qianyu send over to Shixuan. All of them laughed for a short time before Ji Li went back to being serious "Yeah, they are very strongly together and not one of them would leave and be recruited. We might have stood a chance if we wanted to recruit the lone smiths, but those aren't nearly as capable as the Rong clan, and even those experienced have some kind of relation with the Rong family that makes recruiting impossible…
But what if we recruit them all? We don't just recruit a single person, but the whole clan! I think that if we manage to get Rong Xi to our side, then his whole clan will follow and become vassals of the Eunuch Palace. You might not know, but there are differences between the servants of ours.
There are people we get in from outside and train them to become loyal servants, while others are born from our servants and become part of the Eunuch Palace's servant hall. But we have another kind of servant, ones that are regarded as the core figures of the Servant Hall. They are the Vassals."
Ji Li became excited while monkey and stone listened attentively to the lesson "The higher ranked eunuchs also need servants, and their servants naturally couldn't be too low. So, some stronger ranked people would swear their loyalty to the Eunuch Palace and specifically to the eunuchs they want to serve and become their vassals. They can be single people or whole families. The reason is that the Eunuch Palace has never treated their servants badly and the resources one can earn by being a dutiful servant were much higher than roaming the country and participating in dangerous missions.
While on the other side, some families or people would do it for the protection provided to them, to escape dangerous situations and such. Clan wars aren't too rare in our country and many families go down, so they would rather just join a stronger faction and give up a large portion of their resources to the enemy clan to reconcile, while the enemy would rather accept the resource and end the war than mess with a strong faction.
Our Eunuch Palace of course was never against competition and would even let vassals fight with those outside, as long as the foundation of their vassals wasn't hurt too badly. Still, no one really wants to fight us, so many fleeing people would want to join us. It is to the point that we only accept Vassals if they are truly strong, while the others become trained to be servants.
You have to know that the competition inside the servant hall isn't dead at all, everyone wants to fight for resources provided by us."
"So big brother, the town chief will definitely accept, right?" Monkey asked.
"Not instantly. They are neither suffering any wars nor lacking in resources? Sure, blacksmiths use a lot of resources, but their gain isn't low either. Why do you think they were able to build up their town so much? There is only one thing they are missing for them to become a city. But what if we provide them exactly that and even support them in advancing rapidly from small city to middle city? I will need to talk with elder brother Yu Bao now, so be quiet!"
Stone and Monkey did as they were told while Ji Li took out something from his sleeves. It was the same communication tool that Qianyu used previously, but this one had golden endings, making it of higher quality and level that he other.
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After a few seconds, Ji Li heard the voice of the person he linked with in his head "Little Jade! How I miss you! You left just yesterday and it's already so quiet in here! Ahh, I miss those days when you were younger and curiously explored every nook and crook of this damn hall! Look at me, I am here for the past 16 years, and they still refuse all requests I have regarding a playroom! You elder brother Yu Wei is also here, he's telling me to tell you that he misses you much more-" The voice was suddenly interrupted and another soon came "HEY! Stop it, little jade just called, so it must be important! So little jade, here is your elder brother Wei, come tell me, how can we help you? Is that stupid dwarf bullying you? Let me come and deal with him!"
"Elder brothers, what do you mean? I also miss you very much and I want to come back as soon as possible! Everything here is so interesting, but I have to keep such a cold face the whole time. If it wasn't because I have to keep up my image, I would have loved to jump around and look all around here! There are so many things… let me tell you about the workshops…." Ji Li spoke excitedly, as the high eunuchs were part of the few that knew his real personality… well they knew about his childish behaviour sometimes, of course not the whole mean swearing personality!
After some time, Ji Li went serious as he explained "Elder brother, I called you today because I want to make an important contribution to the Eunuch Palace and our Eunuch Ceremonial Hall. For that I need the support of both of you. As you know, my mission is to recruit some of the dwarfs here to come to our palace and teach our own blacksmiths their way of smithing, but I thought that that is something very unlikely to work.
Not only will it be difficult to recruit them at all, even if we did, they would not really teach our smiths much and only keep them at the basics. I originally planned to hold a competition and let them experience some of the benefits of our eunuch palace, and I will still follow that plan, but I have an even deeper idea now that I visited all the important people.
They are all very trusting of each other, and I doubt that I can recruit the truly talented and experienced smiths here."
Yu Wei on the other side nodded as he commented "Yes, clans are normally like that. Rarely are their black sheep that go out of their way to join another faction when they are part of a clan. Those are also often not ones we wish to recruit. So don't worry, you don't have to try and recruit these, just focus on the lower ones and you might get a few seedlings."
"You are right elder brother, that's also what I thought. But now, after some consideration, I think I could recruit… the whole clan!"
Yu Wei was shocked from the statement, and Yu Bao used the opportunity to snatch back the tool, when he heard Ji Li repeat himself, he was also left shock, and Yu Wei who calmed down took back the tool as he asked "Ji Li, are you sure? This is not something you can joke about. If you can recruit the whole clan, then the Eunuch Ceremonial Hall would accept vassals with very deep ancestry, this is an important thing, so tell me, what do you need to make that happen?"
"Elder brother, how can I joke with something like that? I want them to become our vassals so they can train the smiths of the whole Eunuch Palace. If they can do that, then I am sure it will count as a large contribution to the preparation! Brother, to be honest, there is something that I have to ask you for. It's not easy to recruit them, but if I offer them a Nature's Gift, then I am sure that it's possible!"
"Nature's Gift…? Little jade, when we gave it to you, it was because most of the higher eunuch in the inspection palace agreed when we told them about you, but this is something different. Even we would have to apply for such a resource at the Main Palace, and it might not be accepted."
"Elder brother, I think the Main Palace would accept if they knew that it could give us a brand-new batch of vassals. When has it been that a whole clan of non-humans joined the Eunuch Palace? Even single people are rare, and in the past there has barely any been small clans that joined. The dwarfs would instantly become one of the major factions in the Servant Hall and all their achievements will be the achievements of the Eunuch Ceremonial Hall. Elder brother, if this works, then I am sure that it will be possible for me to make a pre-mature promotion audit for the rank of Senior Eunuch! Even if that's not enough, it will at least be a huge step towards it!"
"Oh my little jade, you aren't even Intermediate Eunuch, yet you are already aiming to become a Senior Eunuch so soon! You are just as ambitious as your brother Bao. Okay, he and me will go and apply for that, but it might take a week. I will go now and discuss how we do it, you should also make sure that the deal is set before you get the fruit, if we even get it."
Like that, Ji Li half-secured Nature's Gift for his plans. He smiled as he put away the communication tool and looked at monkey and stone, who didn't really know of his plans just yet!