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 relationship 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 asset.

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 participate 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 canals 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 passages.

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 class change for sailors, so they could only develop them step by step.

The Moon Island Naval Base was smoothly completed under the assistance 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 shifted 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 assessment.

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 passed the assessment, 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 shifted around, for the annually administrative assessment, Administration director Fan Zhongyan chose a calm method.

Apart from the immoral officials who were sacked, the rest were shifted 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 pushing 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 passed.

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 passed on the colored silkworm growing to the various Houses. As for the specific arrangements, the textile association 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.

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