Currents Stirred Beneath the Surface

Just as Luo Chong was hopelessly losing himself in machinery in the Han Tribe, the Emissary Group's currency promotion on Bamboo Island was also proceeding in full swing.

Ship after ship delivered currency and iron ingots to the Emissary Group's base, after which they were quickly transported to branches throughout the island. Of course, calling them branches was not quite accurate. Since the Xin Tribe had yet to permit the Han Tribe to freely establish camps and build houses outside the Emissary Group's base, those so-called branches—or currency exchange points—were more like temporary currency markets.

After Beast Tooth submitted a request, he contacted Dashu of Tohai Commandery and negotiated for Dashu to organize manpower from Tohai Commandery to establish small merchant caravans. These would then be stationed throughout Bamboo Island by the Emissary Group to conduct commercial activities, primarily trading metal—in other words, promoting the currency.

From the time Beast Tooth's Emissary Group first landed on the island to the later reinforcements, it had only numbered three or four hundred people. If they were merely responsible for matters within the base, they could just about manage, but if they wanted to promote currency throughout Bamboo Island, they obviously had to transfer more people from the Han Tribe.

But that was only the situation on the surface. In reality, the currency-promotion campaign had long since become a joint operation involving multiple departments.

Carrying the map of Bamboo Island's population and power distribution that Niu Wei had provided, the Emissary Group took the lead under the banner of currency promotion. Spies from the Golden Crow Guard under You Zhi acted as the caravan leaders, Big Mouse's fleet handled waterway transport, Blood Butcher's Huben Guard soldiers served as the caravans' backbone, and the captured nomad warriors worked as laborers and assistants.

With such