The World Online Chapter 301-302

Chapter 301- Western Region Development Operation

Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun

After the Battle of Changping, Ouyang Shuo was at the forefront of the news.

As the news that the War Saint Sun Wu had set up the Army Military Academy spread, many people who believed in the philosophy of war had travelled to the various offices of Shanhai City in the imperial cities and rushed to Shanhai City.

Those people were basically no names and the formed the base of the philosophy of war, filling up the positions of teachers and lecturers in the academy.

The other representative figures didn't appear.

On the forums, there was one guy who said that Wei Liao did in fact visit his territory, but he didn't choose to stay. Who knew if that claim was true or false?

As this news spread, Dali and Yongquan, the two system imperial cities that had a close relations.h.i.+p with Shanhai Territory, once again had a small influx of migrants.

A high number of generals who weren't satisfied with their positions all chose to come to Shanhai Territory.

Although this batch of generals were all basic ones, they were trained and came out of academies after all. They also had vast experience, so they were an invaluable a.s.set.

They were the real cornerstones of the army.

Baiqi sent them to the three divisions and the City Protection Division to once again increase the combat strength of the military. The negative effects from expansion had basically all been relieved.

Shanhai City's army had both strength and talent. Apart from Zhan Lang, no one could compare to them.

Because of the influx of troops from the east and west territories, the City Protection Division was completed six months earlier than expected.

Although the City Protection Division belonged under the city protection squad, because it had the responsibility of supporting the missions of the main camp, they were actually formed based on the premise that they were going to partic.i.p.ate in battles.

The only thing that made Ouyang Shuo feel regretful was that the City Protection Division lacked a major general who could support the whole group.

To make things easier, he could only allow Baiqi to temporarily be the major general; Zhao Sihu whom Ouyang Shuo felt had high potential was the deputy and would be in charge of the daily job of the City Protection Division.

Based on the new layout of Shanhai City, due to the intersections of the ca.n.a.ls within the city apart from the usual arrangements of the City Protection Division, there was also an individual navy unit which was in charge of monitoring the river pa.s.sages.

As the military development quickened, the field army, city protection and reserve forces were pretty much completed.

In regards to the future field army, apart from directly choosing from the prisoners of war, another way would be to directly choose from the various city protection squads before filling the gap up with reserve force troops.

After perfecting the three-tier army system and successfully preventing the territories from expanding their army, because of the rookies, the combat strength of the new army had dropped tremendously.

On the side of the navy, after taking over Moon Island, Ouyang Shuo instructed Pei Donglai to increase recruitment of the navy reserve force to make preparations for the expansion of the navy in the coming year.

Especially sailors, the barracks didn't have a cla.s.s change for sailors, so they could only develop them step by step.

The Moon Island Naval Base was smoothly completed under the a.s.sistance of Beihai City. Apart from a navy unit, there were also 5000 commoners from Beihai City.

These commoners were basically the family members of the sailors. As such they were highly trustworthy.

The role of the navy unit there was to map the surrounding area, making it easier for future exploration missions.

Apart from that, investigating the neighboring water bandits was one of their important missions.

From the Beihai Bay treasure map, one could deduce that the strong water bandit organizations numbered in the hundreds of thousands and couldn't be underestimated.

Sailing wasn't something Baiqi was familiar with, so temporarily, they could only rely on Pei Donglai.

All in all, the Shanhai military was growing at a fast pace.

When reorganizing the army, the territory administrative system didn't slack off and also made huge changes.

The sweeping operations in the east and west sides brought in 30 thousand in population for Shanhai City, not even 1/10 of the population upper limit.

With both Wei Ran and Cui Shousi taking up the positions in the two houses, the organization structures had basically been completed and had started working.

The splitting up of duties between Lianzhou Lord's Manor and Shanhai House had already been completed and hundreds of officials were s.h.i.+fted from Lianzhou Lord's Manor to Shanhai House.

At the same time, the 200 odd students who graduated from Xinan University were sent to the various counties to work to gain experience after undergoing the administrative a.s.sessment.

Some of the top ones were chosen by the various secretaries and departments and sent directly into the core area.

Making use of this chance, Bai Nanpu's secretary room was expanded as well. The clerks and secretaries apart from helping Ouyang Shuo deal with letters, the three directors all had a personal secretary.

After half a year of training, all of the administrative personnel had underwent training at the university, all around 1-3 months.

Starting from next year, the people that the university recruited were students from the various private schools or colleges as well as from society.

The officials and personnel in the administrative system would not be enrolled into the university.

The teaching program was also official split into two, either a year or half a year. The year-long program was for those from the private school or the school; the half a year one was for the students who were from society.

Whichever course was taken, as long as one reached the time limit and pa.s.sed the a.s.sessment, they could smoothly graduate.

At this point, Xinan University had walked onto the right path.

As there was a huge reorganization and many officials were s.h.i.+fted around, for the annually administrative a.s.sessment, Administration director Fan Zhongyan chose a calm method.

Apart from the immoral officials who were sacked, the rest were s.h.i.+fted over to the various Houses to deal with.

Near to the end of the month, the Tianhai Road was completed.

The completion of the Tianhai Road connected Tianfeng City and Shanhai City, representing that the west region had been officially merged with Shanhai Territory.

The raiders in the west have been practically all cleared out, giving the development of the region some safety.

Making use of this chance, Ouyang Shuo started to fully develop the west region.

The Lianzhou Lord's manor was in charge of the plan on a whole while Shanhai House and Tianfeng House were in charge of the specifics, building numerous agriculture settlements along Tianhai Road.

The newly added refugees would all be sent to these settlements.

The purpose of these settlements was also set to be used to reclaim land and plant crops.

The land to the west shouldn't be wasted. Apart from keeping the hills, forests and special areas intact, the rest of the land was reclaimed for farming.

Based on the geography of that area, it would either be planting crops like potatoes and corn, or fruits and tea gardens, or mulberry trees and cotton.

All in all, he was going all out in developing agriculture.

Although Ouyang Shuo had been pus.h.i.+ng for the commerce and handicraft industries to stimulate the economy since the start of the territory, he wasn't stupid and recognized that in olden society, agriculture was the basis of a country and would always be number one.

The unique land area and geography of the Lianzhou prefecture made it a perfect place for that.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's planning, the future Lianzhou Basin, apart from being the main base of the territory, would be the agricultural core to provide food and agricultural products to let the military expand, providing powerful logistical support.

Ouyang Shuo's idea made the Financial Department, Agricultural Division, and Household Registration Division all instantly busy.

Luckily, they had agricultural professionals in tow.

To really succeed in this western region development operation, it wasn't an easy matter.

The first would be the enormous costs. Be it for buying farming tools, seeds, cows or the irrigation facilities, each needed huge financial input.

Apart from that was the revolutionized agriculture techniques like plowing, the waterwheel, and nurseries to raise the quality of the product.

Of course, the most important aspect was agricultural planning, which area was suitable for what crops.

Such matters weren't things Ouyang Shuo could settle alone. No matter how good he was, these jobs could only be done with the help of many officials and professionals.

At most, he would only take on the role of a coordinator.

The time where Ouyang Shuo controlled everything and micromanaged all aspects had already pa.s.sed.

The western region development operation had brought with it the upgrade of certain industries. With this, the area of the mulberry gardens had an explosion in growth.

Ouyang Shuo pa.s.sed on the colored silkworm growing to the various Houses. As for the specific arrangements, the textile a.s.sociation would be in charge.

Not only that, but be in Chamber of Commerce or individuals, all of them could grow their own colored silkworms.

Hearing that the Lord's manor was going to make such changes, the managers of the Chamber of Commerce were delighted and immediately invested huge amounts to rent land to grow mulberry trees and silkworms.

As successful merchants, they could see the commercial value of the colored silk.

There wasn't any free lunch in the world.

If the Chamber of Commerce wanted to learn the technique of breeding the colored silkworms, they needed to pay for it. They also needed to promise not to reveal it to a third party.

After a few rounds of negotiations, the final fee was set at 5000 gold.

Hence, the gold which the Chamber of Commerce paid for the technique was enough for the early stage investments for the development of the west region, a win-win situation.

Do consider giving us a if you are enjoying TWO! Like last month, we will be releasing 8 bonus chapters if we come first!
Know how to map and want to earn some prize money and a chance to read more? click to find out how! Send submissions to !
Check out the other novel that Nora edits, ! Its a bit of a different novel with an early time skip to where MC is strong. It draws from Chinese beliefs of Daoism and features many references to folklore creatures and the Chinese belief of the afterlife.

Chapter 302- Mountain Rain is Coming

Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun

Gaia first year 12th month 25th day

A system notification sounded throughout the Chinese region.

"System notification: to celebrate the game's first anniversary, the system will hold the 2nd system auction on Gaia 2nd year 1st month 1st day at 10 AM. There will be many rare items on auction, so please look forward to it! Friendly reminder: please prepare enough funds, or else you will go home empty handed."

When the notification went out, the lords started to rub their palms in glee.

During the first system auction, Ouyang Shuo had stolen the spotlight and single handedly bought five of the ten items.

The effect of the auction had showed itself through the three battles.

Only because of the weapon and armor creation manuals was Shanhai County's army able to be so strong and achieve so many battle contribution points through killing.

As time pa.s.sed, although there was a grain crises, those territories with a foundation of support and strength had already walked out of that and had acc.u.mulated thousands or maybe tens of thousands of gold.

Hence, the 2nd system auction would be a more intense battle.

Ouyang Shuo similarly did not want to miss out!

Just yesterday, the Financial Department had calculated the financial situation of the 12th month.

After the prefecture changes were pushed out, the financial tax plans, after being altered by professionals and checked by Ouyang Shuo, were pushed out.

Based on the new plan, the county grade taxes would be given to the House; the House ( including independent cities) would give a portion to the prefecture, directly to the Lord's Manor.

The types of taxes were different, and the percentages for them to hand over was different too.

Similarly, the income tax was pushed up to 1/15, double from the previous tax.

In the 12th month, Shanhai House handed over 15,500 gold, Tianfeng House 7500 gold, Beihai City 14,500 gold (including profits from Beimu Saltpans), Yishui County 3500 gold, and Gushan County 1000 gold for a total of 42,000 gold.

The Industry Division handed over 8,500 gold from the Langshan Minefields, Three Flower Wine Factory 7,500 gold, the mulberry gardens and other industries handed over 4000 gold, a total of 20,000.

In total, it added up to 62,000 gold.

The expenditure of the Lianzhou Lords manor mainly included the military expenditure, the administrative expenditure, as well as financial transfer payments. The military expenditure was the highest amount, including the salaries of the 3 divisions, the Guards protection regiment, Beihai Naval fleet, as well as other fees for a total of 27,500 gold.

The administrative expenditure mainly included the divisions and departments, the four military workshop, the cave military factory, Xinan University, and the Army Military Academy that was currently being built, for a total of 4,500 gold.

The military workshop and military factory held the highest amounts. Of course, once these equipment was sold to the outside, it wouldn't be a financial burden but a place of profit.

As for financial transfers, it included 40,000 for the official roads, 3,500 for the Tianfeng City city wall, 5000 for Shanhai City city wall, 2000 for the Army Military Academy, 1,500 for the migration of Gushan County for a total of 16,000 gold.

Once he totaled the expenditures, it cost him 48,000 gold.

Everything considered, the territory had a 15,000 gold profit in the 12th month.

Be it tax handed over or financial transfer payments, all was done through the various branches of the Four Seas bank, with the Auditing Division in charge of monitoring everything.

With Yingyu coordinating everything, the Four Seas bank banknote printing bureau was set up. The paper workshop and the printing workshop were built directly opposite to the main branch and managed personally by Meng Zhida.

Of course, they were still a period of time away from pus.h.i.+ng out banknotes.

As he had to pay the costs for the division trial, Ouyang Shuo now had 105,000 coin in his bag. Hence, he stored away all the remaining profits for the 12th month.

He had a total of 120,000 gold, which he would bring in for the auction.

At the border of the hundred thousand mountains, a young male used a branch as a walking stick and climbed up the mountain path.

He hobbled a long distance. His hair was messy, there was even some bird sh*t on his face; his face was a little tan, and his eyes were sunken.

He was like a traveler who was tired and hungry.

Looking closely, his s.h.i.+rt was broken and through the holes in it, one could see his injuries, the blood seeping onto the s.h.i.+rt. Some wounds had already closed up while others formed pus after being infected.

Those scars weren't only wounds from falling; some were clearly left by sharp daggers.

All this showed that this man wasn't a simple traveler.

His mental strength was strong, and the hunger and pain couldn't waver him as he pushed on.

Walking into the morning sun, he finally walked out of the mountain, his face finally breaking into a smile. His tightened muscles finally relaxed. He wanted to continue forward but his body didn't listen and he fell into the ground.

The hunger and fatigue hit him as he instantly fainted.

"Hey, wake up! Wake up!" The soldiers who was patrolling found the fainted man.

"He has fainted!"

"Check him, maybe he has a insignia or something. He came from the mountains, that's unusual."

"Hai!" The soldier searched his body, finding an iron tablet.

"There really is one!"

"Let me see." The leader took over the tablet, he froze, "This is the Military Intelligence Division tablet."

"Military Intelligence Division?"

"Quick, he must be a spy sent to investigate the mountains. Send him to the hospital, I'll go inform the lord."

"Hai!"

When Leng Qian woke up, it was already night time.

Due to his job habit, he looked around and found that he was in a hospital. Not only was he wearing clean clothing but his wounds were tended to.

"Seems like I was saved!" Leng Qian heaved a sigh of relief.

At this moment, a doctor walked in and seeing him awake, smiled. "You're awake? Great, I'll bring you some food."

Hearing him say that, Leng Qian was indeed really hungry; his stomach was growling as he hadn't eaten in three days. "Thank you."

"There's no need to. You were sent here by the city protection unit, and the county magistrate even came to visit you." The doctor walked out of the room and went to prepare supper.

Ouyang Shuo heaved a sigh of relief once again. He remembered he had fainted at the border of the mountain. It seemed like the patrolling soldiers of Gushan County had saved him.

The hundred thousand mountain was a treacherous place; it wasn't a place for outsiders to enter.

A month ago, he brought 10 elite spies in to investigate. Only he alone survived, and even the Feng Bird with him had died.

Just as Leng Qian was thinking, the door opened again.

This time, apart from the doctor, there was also the county magistrate, Lei Fan.

The doctor placed down the food box and left the room, closing it shut. As for what Lei Fan wanted to say, he didn't care, nor did he dare to care.

Lei Fan had seen Leng Qian, and before he entered the mountain, they also talked to one another. He was the first to find out about the unusual mountain barbarians and had been waiting for news for the Military Intelligence Division.

What made him feel weird was that there was no news from them after they entered, like they had vanished, making him feel panicked and anxious.

What the two talked about wasn't as confidential as the doctor had thought.

Ever since the territory was built, the military and administration were separated. Hence, even though Lei Fan was the county magistrate, he didn't have the authority to ask.

Lei Fan was just here to care for him. He knew that Leng Qian was not only one of the three heavyweights of the Military Intelligence Division, but also an individual the marquis had high hopes for him. His future was very bright.

After Lei Fan left, Leng Qian ate his food, and after regaining his strength, he left the hospital.

Gushan County was close to the hundred thousand mountains, and was at the border of the territory; to make it easier to collect information, the Military Intelligence Division had a contact point in the county.

The place was very secret and even Gushan County didn't know about it.

After Leng Qian left, the first thing he did was rush there.

"Leader!" Upon seeing Leng Qian, the spy was pleasantly surprised.

Leng Qian waved him off and said, "Don't say or ask anything. Just prepare two of the fastest horses. I need to rush back to the main camp in the morning to see the marquis."

"Yes!" The spy had undergone good training and immediately turned around to prepare.

Leng Qian nodded. He found the Feng Bird in the contact point and reported to the Military Intelligence Division.

If nothing went wrong, they would receive the news at latest tomorrow morning.

Ever since they had gotten the Feng Birds from Xuanniao Tribe, the Military Intelligence Division had started to breed them on a large scale, forming a perfect information network.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the Feng Bird that they brought had been killed by the enemy, there wouldn't be no news from them for a month.

After arranging everything, Leng Qian went to his room to rest.

The next morning, he left sneakily and returned to Shanhai City.

Just as he set out, the Military Intelligence Division received the news he sent. When the secretary Song San heard it, he immediately rushed to the Lord's Manor to report.

Do consider giving us a if you are enjoying TWO! Like last month, we will be releasing 8 bonus chapters if we come first!
Know how to map and want to earn some prize money and a chance to read more? click to find out how! Send submissions to !
Check out the other novel that Nora edits, ! Its a bit of a different novel with an early time skip to where MC is strong. It draws from Chinese beliefs of Daoism and features many references to folklore creatures and the Chinese belief of the afterlife.