The World Online Chapter 114-115

Chapter 114 - Inspection

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

At 2 PM, Ouyang Shuo didn't stay in the Lord's Manor but instead made a trip to Friends.h.i.+p Town under the company of the director and secretary of Military Affairs.

At the Shanhai Town ferry, the helm of the public ferry was still old man Zhang. Definitely, the small wooden raft that Ouyang Shuo had personally built had been retired and it was now using an advanced fis.h.i.+ng boat, similar to an umbrella boat.

Sitting on it and looking at the reflecting water surface, Ouyang Shuo felt very blessed. At the start, he'd brought General s.h.i.+ to Lianzhou Basin and built Shanhai Village. At that time, the village was torn, tattered and had 0 talents.

In less than 5 months, that small village that had nothing had become Shanhai Town, with close to a 30,000 population and spanned 1,000 square kilometres, becoming the unshakable leader in the Chinese server. But in order to grow larger and be a king in the future, one can not afford to stand still or otherwise he would be left out by time, the achievements of the Shanhai Town of today is only tiny and insignificant.

At Friends.h.i.+p harbor, Friends.h.i.+p Town head Zhou Haichen and the cavalry unit major Lin Yi had brought a group of civil servants, and was waiting to welcome Ouyang Shuo. This was the first time he was coming to Friends.h.i.+p Town, and they couldn't be too casual.

When the umbrella boat docked, Zhou Haichen and his group warmly welcomed, "Welcome sire, to Friends.h.i.+p Town."

Ouyang Shuo stepped ash.o.r.e, and after waving goodbye to Old man Zhang, he turned around and said to Zhang Haichen, "It's just a simple visit. Why did you have to bring so many people?"

Zhou Haichen was stunned, He didn't know that Ouyang Shuo didn't like such atmospheres, he only wanted to make it a warm welcoming.

Ouyang Shuo didn't want to make it too embarra.s.sing for Zhou Haichen, and under the introductions by Lin Yi, he greeted each person one by one.

The organisational structure of Friends.h.i.+p Town was similar to the main town, but also had its differences. Out of the 4 main departments, they did not have the Military Affairs Department. The affiliated territories weren't going to be normal organisations. As such Friends.h.i.+p Town only had the secondary divisions such as the Combat Logistics Division. The other special divisions like the Saltpan Division were things that only the main camp had.

The deployment of civil servants in Friends.h.i.+p Village also obviously couldn't compare with the main camp. However, amongst the basic government workers, they were considered one of the best. If not, they wouldn't have had the chance to be posted here. Ouyang Shuo only hoped that this batch of people could quickly grow.

As for the military, they were all familiar faces. The 5 captains in the unit, including the leader of the town protection squad Hu Yibiao, were all personally a.s.signed by him.

After a simple tour of the Harbour, they returned back to the town. From afar, one could see the tall city walls and the majestic south gate.

Luckily Zhou Haichen knew the limits and didn't arrange for the civilians to welcome him. Walking into the town, Zhou Haichen began to brief and introduce Ouyang Shuo to the situation in Friends.h.i.+p Town.

Friends.h.i.+p Town had around 2600 people, and was only a week from upgrading to a grade 2 town. Definitely, the cavalry unit that was housed outside the city wasn't included in the numbers.

To defend against the nomadic tribes, the agriculture businesses were mostly facing south and next to the Qiushui and Friends.h.i.+p rivers. Other important industries that had to be built outside the city like the brick kiln and pottery factory were built in the west and east, under the protection of the city protection river.

As it was situated in a plains region, Friends.h.i.+p Town lacked wood and stones. It basically relied on the main town and Qiushui Town for such resources. The coordinator naturally was the Material Reserves Department.

Of course, Friends.h.i.+p Town wasn't without its strengths. Even without saying anything about the animal husbandry industry or the agriculture industry, it had its own strategic strengths.

The south side was where the Friends.h.i.+p and Qiushui rivers met, hence the water resources were plentiful, the ground fertile, and the farmlands that were reclaimed were much better than Shanhai Town's. This region had already reclaimed 20,000 acres of fertile land.

All of which grew richly. The future Friends.h.i.+p Town would be the grain production base, only 2nd to Qiushui Town.

At the same time, to form Friends.h.i.+p Town's unique advantage and not be beaten by Beihai Town and Qiushui Town, Zhou Haichen thought hard and decided to expand and develop the forging and textile industries. These industries would be used in trading with the nomadic tribes and thus early preparation was needed. From this, one could see Zhou Haichen's deep thoughts and careful planning.  

One could say that whether or not that could convince the nomadic tribes would in turn affect the status of Friends.h.i.+p Town. If they opened trade routes, then Friends.h.i.+p Town would become a trade city. If they couldn't, then Friends.h.i.+p Town would just become a military fortress.

Hence, towards Ouyang Shuo's visit, Zhou Haichen was holding high hopes.

Ever since the city protection river project, Zhou Haichen had sent men to get in touch with the nomadic tribes and had some progress. However, what strategies to take against them was something the lord himself had to decide.

Unfortunately, Zhou Haichen didn't know that the real reason of Ouyang Shuo's visit was the Qingfu horse in the plains. It has been two months since the Armory Division was formed. The first set of 50 Mingguang armors had already been completed. However, as they did not have suitable war horses, they couldn't equip the cavalry unit with it.

In the meeting hall of Friends.h.i.+p Town, Ouyang Shuo had only invited the various generals for a military affairs meeting.

"Director Ge, please tell me about the progress with the green horse." Ouyang Shuo asked.

The trip to Friends.h.i.+p Town was originally arranged by Ge Hongliang. With his personality, if there wasn't any progress he wouldn't have invited Ouyang Shuo here.

Ge Hongliang nodded. "Sire, the Military Intelligence Division has obtained important intel. 5 days ago, the nomadic tribe to the west of the town got about 100 Qingfu horse stallions and were ready to expand their breeding scale.

Ouyang Shuo calmed himself down and said calmly, "Your meaning is?"

"My meaning is simple. We can't miss this opportunity. Why don't we wipe out this small tribe? If we can, put the blame on the medium-sized tribe east of the town, further worsening the relations.h.i.+p between them and Tian Qi tribe." Zhu Hongliang said calmly, not nothing that his plan would definitely cause a bloodbath.

"How many people does that small tribe have, and how many warriors?" Ouyang Shuo asked carefully.

This intelligence was obviously answered by the Military Intelligence Division. As the one in charge of collecting intel on the nomadic tribes, the Military Intelligence team 2 leader Leixun stood up. "Sire, we have found out that their tribe covers less than 500 square kilometres and only has 800 people, including 300 soldiers."

Ouyang Shuo turned to Lin Yi and asked, "Do you have confidence?"

Lin Yi naturally knew what Ouyang Shuo was referring to. "To exterminate their main force is not hard. The hard part is how to not leave any survivors. These nomads all know how to ride horses and can easily slip away."

For the Qingfu horses, Ouyang Shuo was ready to slaughter.

"What is the view of the Military Affairs Department?" Ouyang Shuo looked to Ge Hongliang.

He was already prepared and said, "To do it cleanly, a sneak attack is best. Additionally, to prevent people from escaping, apart from attacking, we also need to lie and wait to kill the people that try to escape."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "This is a good plan. However, fighting 300 nomadic cavalry is already pus.h.i.+ng our forces. How will we have extra strength to box them in?"

"Sire is correct, with the only unit here it's hard to complete the mission. The only way is to expand the number of militants." Zhu Hongliang said.

Ouyang Shuo had a bit of a headache. "Without upgrading to a grade 1 city, it's not suitable to expand our army. Don't forget that the mountain barbarian tribes have 1000 elite warriors for us to accept."

Ge Hongliang seemed like he had an idea and said confidently, "Sire, we have a military reorganisation plan, please take a look!"

"Speak!"

"My idea is like this: These 1000 barbarians, our main camp will take 500 and make a second heavy armoured infantry unit. For the remaining 500, 300 will go to Qiushui Town, adding the 2 protection squadrons to form the Qiushui Town protection unit. The last 200 will be sent here and get another 100 soldiers to form the Friends.h.i.+p Village protection unit. This a.s.sault, we can use one of Qiushui town's cavalry squadrons and 2 of the main camp's to join in."

Ouyang Shuo was delighted. If it was like this, apart from the cavalry unit and the infantry unit, it basically didn't exceed the 10% military to population number that he had set.

"Good, let's do it like that. Everyone prepare quickly." Ouyang Shuo announced a change in personnel. "Military Affairs Department, spread my orders. Zhang Daniu will be the major of the Qiushui Town protection unit, Hu Yibiao will be the major of the Friends.h.i.+p Town protection unit, and s.h.i.+hu will be the major of the second infantry unit."

"Yes!" Ge Hongliang exclaimed.

Zhang Daniu, the sergeant who was competing with Zhao Sihu had finally became a major, climbing to the same spot as Zhao Sihu. Hu Yibiao was very fortunate, only being sent here for 1 month and already becoming a major, promoted faster than his seniors.

As for the second infantry unit, the reason why Ouyang Shuo had promoted the second squadron captain s.h.i.+hu and not the first squadron captain, he obviously had his own considerations.

One was that s.h.i.+hu's promotion would help to increase the sense of belonging of the mountain barbarians and show them that Shanhai Town would use anyone that is capable. Secondly was that Ouyang Shuo had another plan for w.a.n.g Feng.

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Chapter 115 - Mingguang Armor 

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

After reorganising the military, the meeting held in Friends.h.i.+p Town came to an end.

After the meeting, Ouyang Shuo did not return back to Shanhai Town, but instead officially began his tour around Friends.h.i.+p Town under the company of Zhou Haichen.

Walking around the big streets of Friends.h.i.+p Town, Ouyang Shuo started to calculate the costs of expanding the military. Up first was the one-time payment to the mountain barbarians. The 3 batches of warriors cost 1700 gold, adding the one-time off care package of 500 thousand units of food, which was 500 gold and the cla.s.s change cost of 500 gold for 1000 infantrymen and 150 gold for 100 cavalrymen, the total costs ran up to 2850 gold. The 3000 gold that he had left was nearly used up.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo went to the office of the town head to obtain the report from Zhou Haichen about cooperation with the nomadic tribes.

Zhou Haichen invited Ouyang Shuo to the lord's seat while he sat at a lower seat and said, "Sire, the medium-sized tribe to the north of Friends.h.i.+p Town is known as the Tian Feng tribe. It has 3500 people and 1500 square miles of pasture, even bigger than our territory. Tian Feng tribe's leader is called Dariachi, 35 years old, a descendent of the mongols. The name Dariachi  in Mongolian means to crush and suppress, so one can see his ambition and goal."

He continued. "After completing the city protection river protect, we sent out the Administration Director of Friends.h.i.+p Town as an amba.s.sador to bring gifts to see Dariachi. Although he was shocked by the visit, his actions weren't anything out of the ordinary. After accepting the gifts, he treated us very warmly. What was baffling was when the amba.s.sador was about to return, a squad of Tian Feng tribe cavalry tried to attack. Only after they saw the river and the high city walls were they shocked and retreated."

"Interestingly after that squad of cavalry left, the Tian Feng tribe sent over a messenger who said that he want to trade with us. As it was so sudden, I didn't have a clue what Dariachi was up to. I wanted to report to you but the lord's mansion said that you had something to do and thus went into seclusion. Hence I used a delay tactic. Now that you are back, I need your advice on what to do."

Ouyang Shuo frowned. "From your description, this Dariachi is a two-faced character. The way I see it, it's best not to reveal the existence of the main camp. How about this, you will be in charge of trading with them. We only want Qingfu horses, and as for what to trade for them, regardless of grain, salt, iron ore, tea, or even three flower wine, we can trade it with them. As long as we can get the Qingfu horses, giving them some benefits is acceptable."

Zhou Haichen was surprised and said emotionally, "Understood! Sire, don't worry!"

"Additionally, the trading location must be carefully chosen. You can build a trading post beside the city protection river. For the first trade it's best if it's within this week." Ouyang Shuo ordered. As for why one week, it was naturally to coordinate with the military and prepare for military action.

"Yes!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and said, "Haichen, seems like choosing you to come to Friends.h.i.+p Town was the right decision. After these two days I found that the town was orderly built. Even when facing the threat of the nomadic tribes, the people were still peaceful. To think of trading under these circ.u.mstances  is incredible!"

Receiving such a high evaluation, Zhou Haichen was emotional and said, "All I have today is all because of your help and the chances you've given me. I don't dare to waste this opportunity, and will continue to work hard to repay sire!"

"Seeing this, I'm delighted!" Ouyang Shuo replied.
   ……

On the 8th of May, Friends.h.i.+p Town did its first trade with Tian Feng tribe.

Based on the price set by the Tian Feng tribe, a good quality Qingfu horse was worth 5 gold. In goods, that would be either 5000 units of grain, or 2500 units of salt, or 1000 units of iron ore or 500 units of three flower wine. Hence, the trading power of the Qingfu horse was terrifying.

As it was the first trade, both parties were very careful. Tian Feng tribe was willing to trade 100 good quality Qingfu horses for 100 thousand units of grain, 2500 units of salt, 60000 units of iron ore and 10000 units of three flower wine, which was the same as asking for an additional batch of salt.

Zhou Haichen remembered Ouyang Shuo's orders in his heart which was to rather take a loss and get the Qingfu horses. Hence this trade could be considered a merry affair. Friends.h.i.+p Town managed to get 100 green horses, and with just 100 horses, Tianfeng tribe managed to get an unimaginable amount of resources.

To express their thanks, the Tian Feng tribe gave an additional 3 elite green horses, their stats higher than the good quality ones by 40%.    

Name: Good Quality Qingfu Horse (Drak-gold)
Max Capacity: 120 kilograms
Speed: 60 kilometers/day
Consumption: 4 units of food/day
Evaluation: the Qingfu horse was the offspring of the ancient green beetle G.o.d and a wild horse. 

Hence it inherited the G.o.d intent of the green beetle, and the speed like the wind, so it is thus a war horse of the highest quality.

Undoubtedly the highest quality war horse, its max capacity was twice that of a normal war horse, and it was even faster. Only this kind of war horse could handle the Mingguang armor.

Name: Elite Qinfu Horse (Platinum)
Capacity: 168 kilograms
Speed: 84 kilometers/day
Consumption: 5 units of food/day
Evaluation: An elite of the Qingfu horse, highly suitable for being a general's horse.

These 100 Qingfu horses, Ouyang Shuo sent to he 1st squadron of the cavalry unit. As for the 3 elite Qingfu horses, he kept one for himself and gave one each to Lin Yi and the first squadron captain Li Mingliang.

With the Qingfu horses, the Mingguang armor made by the Armory Division could finally be used. The Mingguang armor followed a complicated crafting process, and it was separated into soldier Mingguang armor, sergeant Mingguang armor, general Mingguang armor, and commander Mingguang armor. The highest level, which the Armory Division, could craft was the general Mingguang armor.

Name: Soldier Mingguang armor (Gold)
Type: Heavy Armor
Weight: 36 kilograms
Defence: 55
Toughness: 50
Evaluation: At each of the front and back of the armor, there is  oval metal piece known as the round guard. Under the light, it will glisten, giving the Mingguang armor its name.
  ……

Name: Sergeant Mingguang armor (Drak-gold)
Type: Heavy armor
Weight: 40 kilograms
Defence: 70
Toughness: 55
Evaluation: Compared to the soldier Mingguang armor, the sergeant Mingguang armor's crafting process is slightly more complicated.
   ……

Name: General Mingguang armor (Platinum)
Type: Heavy armor
Weight: 45 kilograms
Defence: 85
Toughness: 60
Evaluation: Compared to the sergeant Mingguang armor, the general Mingguang armor's crafting process is slightly more complicated and more expensive.

Till date, the Armory Division only made one set of general Mingguang armor, and it was naturally made for Ouyang Shuo. The Armory Division secretary w.a.n.g Tao had worked together with master tailor Mu Qingsi, and after 1 month and 5 failures, only then they had successfully completed it. This success was partly luck and was secondly because of the added effect of Qing'er's skill. If not, there would have had no chance of success.

w.a.n.g Tao had made use of this encounter to become a master blacksmith. As for the highest grade, commander Mingguang armor, Ouyang Shuo guessed that it would need both of them to reach the grandmaster level to have the possibility of success.

With this set of Mingguang armor, Ouyang Shuo's leather armor wasn't of any use, and he gave it to Zhao Sihu. Ouyang Shuo checked out his stats.   

【Name】: Qiyue Wuyi
【t.i.tle】: Patriot ( increases NPCs' relations.h.i.+p by 25%)
【Territory】: Shanhai Town
【Occupation】: General (part time)
【Level】: 45
【Merit】: 15400 / 25600
【Rank】: 2nd cla.s.s Earl
【Prestige】: 12850/100000
【Body Structure】: 18
【Comprehension】: 21
【Luck】: 5
【Charm】: 8
【Command】: 59 + 10
【Force】: 22+5
【Intelligence】: 14
【Political】: 51
【Talent】: Locked
【Technique】: Ba Ji Fist Art (stepped through the door), Yang family spear technique (caught a glimpse of the door)
【Art of War】: "Liu Tao" (Wu Tao Volume)
【Skills】: Advanced Collection, Basic s.h.i.+pbuilding, Intermediate Diplomacy, Advanced Scouting, Advanced Weapon Proficiency, Basic Riding, Basic Spearsmans.h.i.+p, Basic archery
【Mount】: Elite Qingfu horse (Platinum)
【Equipment】: Exquisite Composite Bow (Gold), Exquisite Iron Sword (Gold), Exquisite Iron Spear (Gold), General Mingguang armor (Platinum)
【Unique Items】: Talisman of Blood Thirsting, Talisman of Vitality, Talisman of Rapid Marching, subst.i.tution doll

During the battles during this period of time, Ouyang Shuo leveled 5 times to level 45. At the same time, his merit and rank had increased.
As for the brutal force, it was a necklace with a thumb-sized wild pig tooth, naturally it was made by the alchemist Magnus. It stats were:

Name: Brutal Force (Silver)
Speciality: Raise combat power by 5
Evaluation: Advanced alchemist Magnus made it with a wild pig tooth.

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