Chapter 907
Calling a Deer a Horse
On that day, Master Xie also expressed to the leader and everyone in the stronghold that he would definitely contribute his efforts to the stronghold in the future.
After the celebration banquet for Master Xie ended, in the past few days, Master Xie kept his word. Whenever there was an event in the village, Master Xie, along with the giant mosquitoes he had subdued, always took the lead and made the first contribution. Because of Master Xie's strength, in just a few days, the village not only gained a large amount of silver, but also a lot of surplus grain that had been plundered. For a time, the village was rolling in money.
In those chaotic days of war, most people couldn't even fill their stomachs, but the servants in the village were able to eat meat at every meal, which made the brothers in the village very satisfied, and as a result, many new faces came to the village.
In just half a month, the village regained its former vitality. A month later, more and more brothers came to join the village, and the village reached an unprecedented scale.
This made the leaders very happy, but the reality that followed was a blow to them. Because Master Xie was too powerful, seeing that he could make the village prosperous on his own, he began to have other ideas and his ambitions grew. He wanted to take over the entire village and manage it himself.
Most importantly, because the other brothers in the village benefited from Master Xie's generosity, they became completely siding with him, especially the new brothers who had joined the village. They were so obedient to Master Xie that they listened to his every word.
The former subordinates of the village chief still listened to him quite well, but sometimes they had no choice but to submit to Master Xie because of his power.
As a result, Master Xie's prestige in the village grew higher and higher, while the other leaders were sidelined. Even the most prestigious leader felt that he now only had a hollow reputation in the village and no longer had the prestige he once had.
The prosperity of the village is a good thing, but the gradual stripping away of their former rights is something no man can accept.
After sensing that Master Xie had ambitions to take over the village, the leaders secretly plotted to regain power. However, given Master Xie's current strength, even if they joined forces, they probably wouldn't be a match for him. So, they decided to share power equally with Master Xie.
That night, after they had made their arrangements, they called Master Xie over to sit down and discuss the matter. The leaders treated Master Xie with great respect. The eldest leader, representing the group, said to Master Xie, "Master Xie, you have made tremendous contributions to the village recently. In recognition of your great contributions, we brothers have discussed it and decided to divide the management of the village 50/50. To put it simply, the two of us will be the two leaders of the village from now on. What do you think?"
The leaders had their reasons for reaching this conclusion. They had seen Master Xie's growing prestige in the village in recent days, and even if they hadn't said anything, Master Xie would have gradually taken over the entire village, sidelining them and even turning them into his subordinates.
If it really comes to that point, there will be no way to turn back. While Master Xie has not yet expressed his opinion, they should take the initiative to share power with him. Perhaps Master Xie will be grateful to them.
If they didn't proactively express their willingness to share power in the village with Master Xie now, and Master Xie later seized power through his own strength, then the leaders would have even less of a place to stand in the village. Upon hearing the leader's words, Master Xie laughed and said, "Leader, I am quite grateful that you are so willing to share half the power with me, but do you think that with my current strength, I am only fit to receive half the power?"
After Master Xie said this, the leaders looked at each other, not knowing what to say. None of them expected Master Xie to respond in this way.
After Master Xie finished speaking, he left without looking back, regardless of the attitudes of the leaders.
Knowing that Master Xie was usually arrogant and domineering, the leaders guessed that he would eventually want to take control of the village. That's why they decided to give him half of the power so that he would give up his excessive ambitions as soon as possible. However, they never expected that Master Xie was already ambitious and not satisfied with just splitting the village's power in half with the leader. Moreover, he didn't take the leaders seriously at all.
Master Xie's attitude is enough to show that he wants to take over the entire village.
Now, the leaders were completely stumped. With Master Xie's current strength, even if they joined forces, they wouldn't be a match for him. So, they decided to gather the brothers first thing tomorrow morning to test their loyalty and see which side they were on.
The next morning, the leader summoned all the brothers, including Master Xie. The leader first greeted everyone warmly, and then looked at Master Xie's giant mosquito and said to everyone, "These giant mosquitoes beside Master Xie are quite remarkable. They have been trained by Master Xie to be completely obedient. I, the leader, truly admire them!"
Master Xie was not happy to hear what the chief said, because he felt that the powerful insects and beasts he had subdued were not mosquitoes, and calling them mosquitoes was a sign of contempt for his strength.
Mosquitoes are ubiquitous in daily life and do not pose a substantial threat to humans. While the insects and beasts he had subdued did indeed resemble mosquitoes in appearance, their strength was worlds apart from that of his magical beasts.
A mosquito bite might only leave a slightly itchy bump, but the magical beasts he had subdued were incredibly powerful. They could suck all of a person's life essence with just a few bites. Master Xie usually referred to them as "blood-sucking beasts."
Master Xie immediately retorted to the chief, "Chief, you're wrong. These aren't giant mosquitoes, they're 'vampire beasts'!"
After hearing Master Xie's words, the leader smiled and looked at everyone, saying, "I think it would be more appropriate to call these insect beasts that Master Xie has subdued giant mosquitoes. What do you all think?"
You've probably all heard the story of "calling a deer a horse," which tells of how Zhao Gao presented a deer to Qin Er Shi (the second emperor of Qin) but deliberately called it a horse in order to test the reactions of the officials and determine who had objections to him!
In fact, the strategy used by the leader is roughly the same as the tactic of "calling a deer a horse." (End of Chapter)