The World Online
chapter-968

Feng Qingyue left and appeared in the Shu Lands as the assistant to the Provincial Governor.

Pang Tong naturally remained in Shanhai City. He would work together with Jia Xu, Chen Gong, and the like to help Zhang Liang make a plan for the 5th year of Gaia.

This was the big task Ouyang Shuo gave the Administrative Mentor Court after he met Zhang Liang.

Based on the time, when Ouyang Shuo returned from his second voyage, it would already be the 5th year of Gaia. How would the Great Xia sail the new waves in the New Year? Ouyang Shuo needed this group of intelligent people to give their thoughts.

Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to what shocking ideas Zhang Liang could come up with.

After sending Feng Qingyue away, Ouyang Shuo tore the Emperor Rank talisman that Gaia gave him. A white light shone across, and a red-faced man with a white moustache appeared in the reading room.

“Greetings my king!” He bowed.

“System Notifications: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully recruiting Emperor Rank historical person Li Honggzhang.” Ouyang Shuo was stunned; he did not expect to recruit such a special talent.

Name: Li Hongzhang (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: Qing Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Civil Servant

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 80

Command: 85

Force: 50

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 88

Specialty: All rounded (raises dynasty industrialization efficiency by 15%, raise dynasty administration efficiency by 25%, raises dynasty navy combat strength by 20%)

Evaluation: Famous minister at the end of the Qing Dynasty, founder of the Beiyang Navy. He was one of the main proponents for the self-strengthening movement. He was named as one of the four famous ministers of Zhongxin along with Ceng Guofan, Zhang Zhi Dong, and Zuo Zongtang.

Japanese prime minister Ito Hirobumi called him the only person in the Great Xing Dynasty that could compete with the best in the world. The west listed him as one of the top three people of the 19th century.

However, in recent Chinese history, he was deemed as an infamous country traitor. The few unfair trade agreements that China signed in recent history all came out from his hand. There were many people who wanted to beat Li Hongzhang up. They wished to send him down to hell and curse him to be unable to reincarnate.

Empress Cixi termed him as the person who brought back the fame and prosperity of China. Li Hongzhang himself felt that he was the stumping craftsman of the straw house that was Great Qing. When there was a big storm, even a craftsman could not save it from crashing.

One small story could let one see his personality.

It was said that during a sporting event, all the countries had their flags raised with their songs. When it was China’s turn, only a yellow dragon flag rose up in silence.

The Great Qing Empire did not even have a national anthem, causing them to be mocked by the westerners.

At that moment, Li Hongzhang, who was over 70, stepped out. Although his steps were not stable, he was filled with energy. He walked under the yellow dragon flag, straightened his back as best as he could, opened up his throat, and started singing the song he sang since he was young – Anhui folk song Jasmine Flower.

The clamor instantly went silent, and only Li Hongzhang’s voice could be heard. Once he finished, a thunderous applause broke out from all around at this fellow who went all out to protect the pride and honor of his nation.

If Li Hongzhang was born a hundred years earlier, he could not be a famous minister like Zhang Tingyu.

After recruiting Zhang Tingyu and Tian Wenjing, these two Qing Dynasty officials, Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to the four famous ministers of late Qing. If he could gather up the four of them, it would undoubtedly be a great legacy.

After greeting Li Hongzhang, Ouyang Shuo was thinking about how to settle his appointment. He was an all rounded talent, military, administrative, diplomacy, and more. Furthermore, his ideals were far sighted, and his thinking was really modern.

Along with the dynasty industrialization getting on the right path and voyage trading becoming more and more prosperous, amongst the officials and generals in the dynasty, a new way of thinking was hitting at their old ideals.

Li Hongzhang’s arrival could help lead this new wave of ideas. Even Ouyang Shuo could not force it upon them. He could not change their traditional thinking in one go.

The thinking and ideals of the late Qing self-strengthening movement was the best transition.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo decided to appoint him as the navy minister. His main goal was to build a Great Xia Navy Academy in Beihai City.

Since the navy was formed, they did not have a proper academy to develop navy talents.

And to build a navy academy that was close to the modern ones, Li Hongzhang was undoubtedly a suitable choice. Ouyang Shuo directly used one million gold to build the academy.

Li Hongzhang happily accepted his appointment.

************

Just as Ouyang Shuo was meeting Li Hongzhang, a System Notification suddenly sounded out.

“World Notification: Congratulations America Region Lord Jack Dawson for establishing the Dawson Dynasty, becoming the second player in the world to become a king, awarded 120 thousand merit points, 250 thousand reputation points, hidden building Statue of Liberty, and one special reward!”

…

The moment the notification was announced, the world was in an uproar.

After the Great Xia Dynasty, the second dynasty in the world was born. The establishment of the Dawson Empire undoubtedly opened up the global fight for supremacy. In the following period of time, more and more dynasties would be born.

One overlord after another would bare theirs fangs in the world.

Even Ouyang Shuo felt a little pressure. It seemed like Great Xia needed to speed up their global plans.

…

Russia Region, Saint Petersburg.

While Great Xia Dynasty shone across the ocean and Free City shone in America, Russia, which was located at the north of Asia, was totally silent. It had not appeared in the field of vision of all the players in the world.

As the country in the world with the largest land area, Russia spanned across two continents. North of it was Antarctica, east was the Atlantic Ocean, west was the pacific, and its northwest was the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Finland.

Pretty much every day, huge changes were happening in this quiet country.

A Lord known as Pushkin was like the blistering sun, rising up from the east plains and sweeping across the lands, expanding the territory of St Petersburg.

On this day, the entire east Europe plains belonged to St Petersburg.

This was an amazing achievement, as Russia’s population was unequal, and the west had around 52 to 77 people per square kilometer, and this number even reached 261 at some places. On the other hand, the northeast portion had less than one person per square kilometer.

Taking down the east European plains basically meant having 90% of Russia.

St Petersburg was really close to establishing a dynasty, and Pushkin went all out to try to become the world’s first. He wanted to step onto the world stage and stun everyone.

Who knew that the China region would give birth to a freak like Ouyang Shuo?

If it was just Great Xia, Pushin could accept it. Pushkin had upgraded to duke, and St Petersburg had become a Capital City. However, who knew that while he was doing the country establishment mission, the Dawson Dynasty would be established?

This made Pushkin really depressed.

“Third place, I cannot possibly miss out on it.” Pushkin set his mind to it.

…

England Region, Avic Fort.

In reality, William and Jack Dawson were good friends. In the game, Avic Ford was the first territory to trade with Free City, and the two territories had a close relationship.

When Jack Dawson held his ascension ceremony, William was one of the VIPs.

It was not that the two of them had differences like their attitudes toward Great Xia. William and Ouyang Shuo had dealings, and they followed the law of the market.

In terms of strategy, Avic Fort followed Silver Hand’s arrangements, but this did not stop them from working together with Great Xia.

Jack was different. He was a firm believer and activist of the organization, and he would rather work with the Yanhuang Alliance that was slightly weaker than Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo was the only person that Jack deemed as his opponent.

Since they were opponents, the main goal was naturally to defeat the other.

The moment the Dawson Dynasty was established, it had already taken down 80% of America.

In terms of land area, the Dawson Dynasty was not that far behind Great Xia. Jack was really ambitious and started to look over America at Canada in the north and Mexico in the south.

In his words, “Let’s first set a small target like unifying North America.”

This was obviously him being boastful. Not to mention other regions, but just one Canada was bigger than America. It was the second biggest region in the world, and it was only behind Russia in terms of size.

Luckily, its population was sparse, and it had less than half of the density of Russia. It had a total of three million players. If its population density was placed in China, it would have less than 1/30th of the Chinese population.

Hence, although his words were boastful, it was really viable.

Population in the game was a huge benefit. Not only did it decide the number of imperial city troops, but it also decided the NPC number. As such, to an extent, it decided the overall strength of a country.

This was really ironic, but it was the truth.

On this aspect, Asia had the absolute advantage. With over 600 million people, just the China region players alone exceeded the entirety of Europe, America, and Africa.

Of course, there were pros and cons to this, as Asia was also the biggest and most intense region.

The only one that could compete with Asia was probably Europe. Europe had small land space, but it was the region with the highest population density. There were many countries, and to unify Europe was just a dream.

On the contrary, as their population was lesser, it was easier for them to have regional overlords in America. As a result, Jack’s dream of unifying North America was not totally impossible.

Although Africa had similar conditions to America, it was destined to not become the main focus of the world.

On this point alone, William was really envious of Jack. The current Avic Fort was unable to unify the United Kingdom region, much less unify Europe.

Using all his effort, he was able to unify England. However, establishing a dynasty was still far away.