The World Online
chapter-172

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

On the 5th day of the 6th month, Shanhai County had finally ended their raider operation.

The 10 day raider operation started by the mixed regiment had obtained great rewards. It earned a total of 2500 gold and 3000 prisoners, as well as large amounts of grain and equipment.

Territory specialty scroll (3): After use, agriculture production increases by 10%.

There were a total of 6 territory specialty scrolls. Shanhai County had already obtained the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ones, and only hadn't got the 1st, 5th, and 6th ones.

Out of which, the first raised the refugee attraction rate, the 5th raised the levelling speed, and the last one raised the chances of talents breaking the bottleneck, all of which were very important.

The gold earned was basically the cost of the military expansion. Of course, the large amounts of payments were due to the salaries from expanding the army.

In the current Shanhai County, the vanguard unit’s salary was born by Friendship Town, the Beihai naval fleet by Beihai Town, and Langshan protection unit didn't have any salary. Hence the city only needed to provide salaries to the mixed regiment, the city protection unit, and the god machine unit.

Even so, Shanhai County's monthly expenditure still reached 2000 gold.

The remaining prisoners, apart from a minority who were chosen by the Military Affairs Department and sent into the reserve troops, were sent to build the 2nd city wall. Once the project ended, they would be sent to either the brick kiln or the pottery workshop.

After the raider operation had ended, the selection for the lord manor Guards had officially started. Before it began, Ouyang Shuo had spread that the salary of the Guards would be twice that of any other.

Honor and money. These two temptations weren't things any good man could resist.

Ouyang Shuo specially arranged Wang Feng to pick some high rank elites who didn't want to change class to basic general. Based on his understanding, if the rank 9 elite soldier didn't choose to change class, then there was a chance they could upgrade to a war elite.

In the afternoon while Ouyang Shuo was reading, the director of Internal Affairs Tian Wenjing, who had got on the job not long ago, walked in.

"Sire, congratulations!" Tian Wenjing couldn't hide his happiness.

"Oh, what good news?" It wasn't often he saw this director happy, making Ouyang Shuo very curious.

"There was news from Xuanniao tribe that a small sized tribe was willing to come down the mountains and build a settlement in our territory." Tian Wenjing laughed.

Ever since the Jifeng tribe was destroyed, Tian Wenjing was appointed as the territory ambassador and put in charge of matters regarding the mountain barbarians.

The newly set up Internal Affairs Department and changing the director of the Material Reserves department. He didn't hand over this job regarding the mountain barbarians to the new Material Reserves Department. Instead, Tian Wenjing was still in charge.

Ouyang Shuo considered that firstly it wasn't easy for Tian Wenjing to get close to the mountain barbarians, and changing someone halfway would mean starting over. Secondly, this fell nicely in the role of the Internal Affairs Department, which was suppose to deal with population control.

After the 1st day of the 5th month’s holiday, Ouyang Shuo started to daringly change the mountain barbarian policy. He shifted the relatives of the mountain barbarian warriors to Shanhai Town, and also recommended mountain barbarians to come down the mountain to work or move to Shanhai Town.

Today, after nearly a month, that strategy had shown some results.

"Which tribe is it?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"It's one of the 8 tribes that agreed to work with us in the 3rd batch. This tribe was because the mountain barbarians and the grain payment were a one time off thing and wasn't like Xuanniao tribe and the 3 tribes in the second batch who could get remuneration from Langshan mines. Hence, after they used up the grain, they were once again back to the start." Tian Wenjing explained.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, expressing that he understood.

Xuanniao tribe was the first mountain barbarian tribe to work together with Shanhai County. As such, they’d gained the most. Their men not only took up the big positions in the mines, but also had an increase in influence on surrounding tribes, replacing the destroyed Jifeng tribe and becoming the leader of this small region.

The 2nd batch of tribes that worked with Shanhai County were 3 small tribes. It was also during that time when Jifeng tribe rejected the friendship of Shanhai City, and when the future animosity started. Men from these 3 tribes were sent to Langshan mines, and as such their living conditions had been improved.

The 3rd batch of tribes that worked with Shanhai County were tribes that had no choice after seeing Shanhai City destroy the Jifeng tribe. Of this batch, there were a total of 2 medium tribes and 6 small tribes.

For this batch of tribes, because the Langshan mine was already full, hence they only obtained a one-time payment and relied on picking herbs on the mountains in return for grain. Adding the fact that their best soldiers joined Shanhai County, it made hunting for food a lot more difficult.

Hence it was understandable if these tribes from the 3rd batch couldn't resist the temptation. After all, any person would want to be able to live without needing to worry about food and money.

If it was before when everyone was the same and was struggling, there would be nothing for people to envy. However, because of the Langshan minefields, it split the tribes into two. A rich and poor divide was formed.

Adding that these tribes had tasted the good stuff from the grain that Shanhai Town had given them, giving their tribe a period when they had sufficient food, and now having them go back to before was something no one would be willing to endure.

Furthermore, there was Tian Wenjing at the side who was constantly persuading them, finally causing a tribe to be unable to resist and throw aside their mountain barbarian custom and be willing to live in Shanhai County.

After thinking carefully about the whole process, Ouyang Shuo was more and more confident in his strategy. In it there were rewards, including carrots and sweets, unleashing the strategy to perfection.

"How many people does this tribe have?" Ouyang Shuo continued.

"Around 1800 people."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. This number of people was considered little even amongst small tribes. "House this tribe at Qiushui town. It’s closer to their old home and the difference isn't that huge so they can adapt. The future tribes that decide to come down will also be housed there. I'll tell Qiushui Town and order them to work with the Internal Affairs Department to choose a location for the building project."

"Understood!"

"In this mountain barbarian affair, you have done very well and I'm very pleased. However, we can't be content with the current situation and must continue to convince more and more of them to come down and join Shanhai County."

"Sire don't worry, I won't let you down!" Tian Wenjing promised solemnly.

After Tian Wenjing left, Ouyang Shuo started to write a letter to the head of Qiushui Town, Zhao Dexian.

In the letter he wrote that the settlement would follow the standard grade 1 town, and that it would be mainly for agriculture. He wrote that they must have sufficient farming lands, and even if reclamation needed to be done, that it must be rushed such that at the end of the 7th month the 2nd season of rice planting could begin.

Apart from that, Qiushui Town needed to provide sufficient farming tools. If they had farming cows they could also lend it to the settlement to reclaim land. They must also send experienced farmers to teach and advise the newcomers.

These mountain barbarians did not have any farming experience, and if Qiushui Town's agriculture industry wanted to rise, it needed their help. This settlement had to be of high quality such that it could be used as a standard to attract more tribes.

Qiushui Town would be in charge of all their food, and to lessen the burden on the town, the Finance Department would give them 1000 gold in subsidies.

It was nice that the town had the water irrigation system project and the city wall building going on so they could use these mountain barbarians, following the main camp's standard to give payment.

Lastly, Ouyang Shuo mentioned in the letter that Qiushui Town needed to plan out the settlement and make preparations for when more mountain barbarian tribes came down to live in the future.

In his letter, Ouyang Shuo was very specific and had considered all points. One could see how much importance he placed on this.

After writing, he called the clerk Bai Nanpu and asked him to send it immediately to Qiushui Town. Shanhai County had specific messengers who were in charge of sending and receiving letters between territories. There were a total of 4 of them who were under the charge of Bai Nanpu.

After this, Ouyang Zhuo stood up and went to the office of the Director of Finance, raising the issue about the subsidy. This sum of money was naturally form Ouyang Shuo's pocket.

Deducting this subsidy and the 500 gold for renewing the city, Ouyang Shuo only had 2000 gold left.

At 6PM in the afternoon, Bing'er appeared punctually in Ouyang Shuo's office to ask him to eat dinner. This had already become routine. In this period of time, Bing'er had completely adapted to life in Shanhai County.

In the lord's manor, be it officials or servants, they all loved and cared for her. Adding with the fact that she was pretty, cute, and also very well behaved, it made her well loved by everyone.

Especially Er Wazi, who after getting out of school, would follow Bing'er around.

Today, she was wearing a Tang Dynasty princess dress, a pink skirt with many flowers sewn into it. This dress was naturally done by Qing'er herself.