The World Online
chapter-801

Gaia 4th year, 1st month, 26th day, Shanhai City.

It was three days before Chinese New Year's Eve and Shanhai City was already filled with the festive spirit. The victory in the Battle of Yunnan had added an extra bit of splendor and excitement to this giant city, brining pride and honor to the faces of the people.

Along with the Civil Affairs Department migration plan coming to an end, Shanhai City's population was getting closer to the two million mark. Especially after Shanhai City claimed complete victory in the Yunnan Battlefield, more and more players applied to move in.

Any player with foresight would know that the imperial cities would not remain safe forever. Once the Lords in the wilderness reached a certain level of strength, the two would definitely have conflicts and war would be totally unavoidable.

Who would have higher chances of winning?

Different people had different thoughts.

However, one thing was for certain - territories in the wilderness had unlimited growth potential. With Shanhai City as an example, they started with nothing. Now, in a short 3 years, they had gathered a million troops.

And due to the system restrictions, the imperial cities were stuck at the same place since the start.

When the wilderness territories fought against the imperial cities, the players who were stuck in between them would need to make a choice. If they chose wrong, they might become a sacrifice.

They had to make this decision early on.

The only new factor was the opening of the underground world, which had locked up all their attention.

There were rumors spreading that after the Chinese New Year, the nine imperial cities would all push out storyline quests relating to the satellite cities.

Just as the Battle of Yunnan broke out, large-scaled PKs between guilds numbered no less than 100 while small-scaled ones were countless. The guild circle in the nine imperial cities were undergoing a refresher.

To the small and medium-sized guilds, they only had three choices ahead of them. They could move their members to a wilderness territory and give up on the underground world.

Otherwise, they could choose a camp and join a large guild, or totally disappear, the guild broken up, the members taken in.

Apart from that, they had no other choices.

Even if anyone tried to be smart and contact the other small and mid-sized guilds to copy the City-State model to build a guild alliance, the large-sized guilds would immediately crush their attempts.

On this point, the large guilds had a common consensus.

The times of the fishes grouping up in the guild circle had passed and would never return.

This whole matter was thorough and deep, and the number of people killed reached an unprecedented number.

Even the publishing of the information piece Wulin arrives could not draw the players' attention away. The nine imperial cities all opened up sects and dojos but very few people went to learn.

Since they were on the verge of a war, players sought for a quick raise to their skills to prepare for the battle. To learn basic sect martial arts now was just too late and would not help much.

There might even be cases where their skills dropped due to conflicting martial arts.

During this period of time, equipment, medicine, substitute dolls, and similar items saw their prices on the market climb; this was especially so with high grade products. The prices of these products doubled, becoming a market where there was a lack of supply.

To survive in the huge war, players did not mind spending all their gold.

Meng Zhida reported that the savings amount of the 1st month was lower than the amount taken out, a historical negative growth for the bank.

To counter this, the Four Seas Bank had to reduce its loans.

When merging with Consonance City, the shares of Constance City and the relevant duties were transferred to Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo even paid a one-time payment of 500 thousand to Bai Hua for this matter.

Gaia was undoubtedly an intelligent chess master. When they pushed out the achievement value event, they did not want players to save in banks to gain interests but to spend it all.

The release of the underground world and the Satellite City dispute was one of the moves Gaia had come up with.

The upcoming guild war was a massive money making opportunity for Lord gamemode players, who were not affected by these fights. Especially military giants like Shanhai City, just the sales to Snow-War Rose, Qingfeng Pavillion, Tingyu Floor, and other allies had broken four million.

Luckily, the recently ended Yunnan battle had provided them with 200 thousand odd sets of equipment.

Along with the scattered equipment that they obtained from the battlefield, the numbers were even greater.

Just this alone helped Shanhai City earn more than four million gold, changing the fates of the struggling territory finances.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate, spending 1.5 million on the new round of military organization as well as the extra rewards for the soldiers that joined in both the Battle of Lingnan and Yunnan.

The moment the news was released, the soldiers felt their blood boil.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo did not forget the civil servants and used 500 thousand gold to reward the local civil servants. Especially those who had performed exceptionally well, those individuals were given much higher rewards.

Without the contributions of the tens of thousands of civil servants throughout the year, how would the territory become so prosperous?

Two million gold could be said to be the year-end bonus that Ouyang Shuo had given out. Such generosity was something that other territories had no way of matching.

...

Afternoon, Ouyang Shuo's reading room.

In the silent reading room, Ouyang Shuo gathering Industrialization Director Chen Bingguang, Industry and Development Planning Director Cui Yingyu, and Finance Division Secretary Gong Jian.

The Finance Division was a division under the Finance Bureau; they dealt with the territory Financial Budget and funds allocation, so it was a rather important division in the bureau.

Gong Jian was a financial officer of the federation in real life and was extremely experienced. Meng Zhida and the financial expert Old Xie had recommended him. After the Black Snake Guards evaluated him, he was appointed as the financial secretary.

Compared to the ancient people, Gong Jian had more than enough skill to run the Financial Division.

Ouyang Shuo gathered these three to discuss the matter regarding the Shu Mountain Steel Corporation.

The planned corporation would be under the Industrialization Department, financially supported and monitored by the Finance Division. The Industry and Development Planning Department would also give it some benefits in terms of industrialization policies.

Just yesterday, Shanhai City and Swordsman City had come to a ceasefire, ending the southwest battle.

Feng Qingyue agreed to Ouyang Shuo's term of occupying Black Iron City but on its base she raised a proposal: Swordsman City would sign a trade agreement with Shanhai City.

As for the specifics, Feng Qingyue pointed out that she hoped that the iron corporation set up in Black Iron City could provide iron to Swordsman City at a discounted price.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he was really surprised.

Compared to her brother, Feng Qingyue's skills were much higher, and she was able to make a win-win situation.

Ouyang Shuo had no reason to reject but also made a restriction. The Shu Mountain Steel Corporation had to first fulfil the territory needs before exporting to Swordsman City.

Feng Qingyue was worried that Ouyang Shuo would play some numbers game and purposely added a lowest amount.

On this matter, both sides went back and forth.

After four rounds of discussions, the two of them finally came to an agreement. The specific terms and details would be discussed by the officials on both sides.

That day, Feng Qingyue ordered the 2nd legion to move out of Protruding Dragon Pass and out of the vicinity of Black Iron City.

The Guards Legion Corps smoothly took over the defenses around Black Iron City. Only after Shu Wanshui's legion arrived would the Guards Legion Corps return to Shanhai City.

Black Iron City was located at the southwest point of Jiangyang Prefecture and had a pass separating it from the prefecture. As long as Shi Wanshui's legion guarded that pass, the northern defense would be solved.

On the west would be the Qiang Prefecture, where the Qing Tribe lived. There was a huge sea level difference between the two. Probably only locals could find paths to walk on the mountains, so it was impossible for a huge army.

The south was connected to Dongchuan Prefecture and Luo Shixin's legion would camp there so that they could reinforce the north at any moment.

On the east of Black Iron City was Chuanbei Province. Similarly, there were many tall mountains and also a pass. As a result, they needed to arrange troops to defend there. If needed, they would also strengthen and solidify the pass.

All in all, the pressure on Black Iron City was not huge, with Shi Wanshui there, it was temporarily safe. Even if Swordsman City joined up with the Shu Han regime to attack, they would not be able to break through so quickly.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo would have no worries setting up the Shu Mountain Steel Corporation in Black Iron City. He also renamed the city to Steel City.

The Shu Mountain Iron Corporation would become one of the core pillars of the territory industrialization, so Ouyang Shuo naturally had to treat it really seriously.

"The starting funds of the steel corporation will be set at 500 thousand." With the unexpected funds, Ouyang Shuo now had the ability to settle this matter before the Chinese New Year.

Without the extra funds, Gong Jian would probably be the first one to oppose.

This time, the Finance Division gave the green light to everything. Gong Jian even joked, "500 thousand is only the estimate. If we need more funds, the Finance Division will provide strong support. We can take out 350 thousand more."

Ouyang Shuo looked at Chen Bingguang and said half-jokingly, half seriously, "Old Chen, the funds to build the factories the Finance Division has been given you enough, but you all cannot spend too recklessly. The good steel must be used on blades and sabers, the money must also be carefully spent."

Every bit of money in the territory was earned through blood, sweat, and tears. As such, Ouyang Shuo, this 'boss', obviously needed to manage it well.

Chen Bingguang replied gently, "Do not worry Monarch. The Industrialization Department will set up an auditing group to monitor the steel corporation. We will not recklessly spend a single copper."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "The Industrialization Department must also pay attention to the No.7 Research Institute. The territory steelmaking technique is not mature yet, and we still need to make technological breakthroughs before we can make steel on a large scale."

"Understood!"

With all these matters handled, Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting.

To let the Shu Mountain Steel Corporation rise up, the Industrialization Department and the other departments in the Governor-General House needed to do a lot of ground work.

Such matters would not be completed in a day or two.

Just the early monitoring, evaluation, drilling, research and overall designs, including organizational structure and personnel appointments would take one to two months.

It was better to be slow starting out then mess up.

The Industrialization Department had already established a small group to be put in charge of constructing the steel corporation.