Fang Qingqing and Su Qingge were both stunned for a moment upon hearing this, but then nodded as if a sudden thought had occurred to them.
In reality, this was all Su Ming's sudden inspiration. With Ye Feng, a military officer, here, he figured he could try something.
Soon, all the maids followed Fang Qingqing over. Seeing the military helicopter from afar, they flashed with surprise. Su Ming, with his sharp eyes, took in the women's expressions and shook his head.
At Su Qingge's instruction, hundreds of maids stopped. Su Ming walked past Ye Feng and approached the maids.
"As you can see, the person next to me, is Lieutenant Colonel Ye Feng from the Jiangcheng Military Region. He's here on a mission."
"You should have guessed it by now. Is anyone willing to leave with Major Ye Feng?" Su Ming's voice was soft, but it reached all the maids clearly. The excitement on their faces intensified at Su Ming's words, but none dared to move.
He sneered inwardly, but his expression remained calm, his emotions unrecognizable.
"You only have one chance. Those who wish to leave with Lieutenant Colonel Ye Feng can follow him now and become free men. Those who wish to leave can proceed to the open space on the right."
Su Ming pointed to the open space to the right. After a brief hesitation, the maids finally took the first step, lowering their heads and walking to the right.
People tend to go to higher places, just as water flows to lower places. This is human nature. How can being a slave be better than being a free man?
Not to mention the dirty, tiring work these women had to do. These women were completely uninitiated, having barely touched a woman before.
Faced with a better life, some of the maids were naturally tempted. Su Ming smiled at the scene before him.
Women kept running from the left crowd toward the right, their faces filled with eagerness, even joy. It was as if the right side was paradise, and the left side was becoming increasingly rare. Few people in this society understood gratitude, and no one was willing to be a slave.
Even if the quality of life wasn't bad, the mere title of maid or slave was enough to make many people unacceptable.
Su Ming's expression remained impassive, taking in the expressions of all the women. Three minutes later, looking at the roughly half of the remaining maids on the left, Su Ming asked, "Aren't you planning to go? This is your only chance. I won't give you many more options. If no one goes, I'll call a halt." It was clear that the majority of those who chose to stay had experienced the Liu Bao incident and had witnessed Su Ming's actions several times before. They knew their master's power and naturally made wise choices. Many of those who chose to leave were the new women who had joined the base during the expansion, numbering around three or four hundred. The remaining women numbered nearly a thousand.
Of course, some of the maids who had previously joined the base did not go to the right. After all, the army looked stronger than the average survivor base, and some were tempted. As for the female warriors, none of them had yet made the move.
Su Ming's words, like a demonic whisper, kept beckoning the women on the left. They bit their lips or clutched the corners of their clothes, but ultimately, they did not go.
"Alright, you don't stand a chance." Hearing Su Ming's somewhat bored voice, the maids on the left breathed a sigh of relief, as if they no longer had to endure the torment of an impossible choice.
The hundreds of maids on the right also breathed a sigh of relief, their faces filled with joy, their eyes even filled with longing for their future lives. Seeing the maids' expressions, seeing the joy on their faces and the longing in their eyes, Ye Feng's throat moved.
He wanted to say that this was all a trap, but the words stayed on his lips. He had agreed to help Su Ming, and it certainly didn't violate military discipline. He had no reason to ask, not to mention that he had a responsibility to his soldiers!
Su Ming had made it clear before that he could let them go, but wouldn't that come without a price?
As Su Ming had said, he wasn't afraid of the military district. If Ye Feng was killed, would the Jiangcheng Military District still bombard them with intercontinental missiles?
Or would bombers come to clean up the mess?
Stop it!
If the situation hadn't reached an irreversible point, the military district wouldn't have completely ripped off relations with Su Ming over a lieutenant colonel. Although the district's leaders were clamoring that Su Ming couldn't stop the missiles, they wouldn't act rashly until negotiations collapsed. These people weren't fools.
He could die, but these soldiers were innocent. Moreover, he still tried, even though he knew he couldn't change the higher-ups' minds. He simply wanted to save more soldiers' lives. However, the military's rules were like a cage, trapping him tightly, leaving him with no way to resist.
Su Ming's gaze swept over the female soldiers to his right, then turned to look at the women behind Fang Qingqing and Mu Ling. He also wanted to test these women.
"If you want to leave with us, you can stand over there. This is your chance." As Su Ming finished speaking, a strange scene appeared before him, causing his face to darken...
The female warriors behind Fang Qingqing froze for a moment, then gripped their weapons tightly and took two steps back in unison. Their expressions seemed to say, "Master, don't try to chase us away. We're not stupid..."
Looking at the women's wary gazes, Su Ming felt a little embarrassed. It seemed he had asked the wrong person. However, he was still happy about the women's choice. It seemed these women were very loyal and could be cultivated.
A smile appeared on his face, a smile he himself hadn't noticed. Turning his gaze to the right, he saw the women who wanted to leave with him, and his smile turned into a sneer.
Seeing this, Ye Feng couldn't help but close his eyes. He knew that the man beside him was not a good man. Perhaps these women would face hell next.
"Honestly, your choice surprised me. It was just a test, and yet so many of you are dissatisfied with the status quo. You've all forgotten who rescued you from this hellish situation and restored your lives to a stable and well-fed state."
"It seems I'm still too kind..."
These two simple words exploded like thunder in the ears of the women on the right, shattering their hopes for the future, shattering the joy in their hearts, and leaving them with a chill that pierced their bones.
"Sister..."
"I understand..."
Su Ming turned his gaze to the maids on his left, a smile reappearing on his face. "I don't know why you chose to stay, but it doesn't matter. I can tell you, your choice was not wrong." He then turned to his right and said, "Sister, write down the names of these women. When you establish the base's class system, these women must be at least in the second-to-last class. Starting today, their daily food intake will be halved, and their working hours will be increased by one-third." Su Qingge nodded, her eyes sweeping over the hundreds of women on her left, taking in the faces of all the maids who wanted to leave.
"I'll see. I'll get to it later." Turning around, without even glancing at the women to his right, whose faces were ashen and mournful as those of their parents, Su Ming patted Ye Feng's shoulder and said with a smile, "Thank you, Major Ye, for your cooperation. It's getting late. You should return home. We're busy here, so I won't keep you here much longer." Ye Feng remained silent and quickly boarded a military helicopter with several soldiers behind him. Under the pilot's control, all the helicopter's functions were reactivated, and soon the helicopter ascended into the sky, flying off into the distance...
"Master, are you just letting them go? Do you want me to follow and kill them?"
Fang Qingqing and Mu Ling approached Su Ming, their gazes fixed on the receding helicopter, cold murderous intent in their eyes.