Chapter 490- Planning the Steel Industry

Translator: ryangohsf

Editor: Nora

10th month, 9th day, Shanhai City, Nanjiang Governor-General Manor.

Although the upgrade of Shanhai City was silent and did not start any uproar, to Shanhai City itself, it was an immense achievement.

Not because of other reasons, just the addition of a teleportation formation and the expansion of the river caused a massive impact on the future development of the city.

Who knew what surprises Gaia had prepared for the next upgrade.

Within the main hall, the territory stone steele had sunk into the ground once more. Ouyang Shuo took a look at the stats of the territory.

Territory: Nanjiang Governor-General House

Lord: Nanjiang Governor-General, Lianzhou Lord Qiyue Wuyi (1st Class Marquis )

Main Title: The World’s First Prefecture (Increase town fame by 50%)

Sub Title: Home of Martial Arts, Land of Philosophers, Blessed Land of Artisans

Governed Area: Shanhai City (Grade 2 Prefecture)

Population: 500 thousand/1 million

Refugee Spawn Rate: 500 * (1 + 50%) = 750 / day

True Refugee Spawn Rate: 750+700+700= 2150/day

Territory area: four prefectures, approximately 800 thousand square kilometres

Territory Specialty: -

Political: 80/100 (Affecting the administrative efficiency and morale)

Economic: 85/100 (Affecting the trading prosperity and tax)

Cultural: 88/100 (Affecting the education development and quality of residents)

Technology: 50/100 (Affects technology levels and technology tree)

Military: 78/100 (Affecting the military strength and stability)

Affiliate Counties: Lianzhou Prefecture, Leizhou Prefecture, Qiongzhou Prefecture, Zhaoqing Prefecture, Zhenhai City

Financial Institutions: Four Sea Bank

Education Institutions: Xinan University (Principal Jiang Shang), Army Military Academy (Principal Sun Wu)

Philosophers: Military Advisors, Legalism, School of Agriculture, School of Diplomacy, Mohism

Territory Chamber of Commerce : Cui Chamber of Commerce, Song Chamber of Commerce, Bai Trading Company

Territory Specialties: Lianzhou Three Flowers Wine, Colored silk, White Tea

Special Building: Book Collection House

Hidden Building: Mazu Temple, Recruitment Hall, Yellow Emperor Temple

Basic Buildings List:

Guqin Academy: An official department in charge of Guqin. Apart from researching tunes, it trains up teachers and students. Construction Requirements: Guqin Academy building blueprints, 20 thousand units of wood, 20 thousand units of green brick, 10 thousand units of stone. Construction Time: 20 days (note: already completed)

Wholesale Market: A market for sellers to sell wholesale government products or services. Construction Requirements: Mature wholesale item and channel, 30 thousand units of wood, 50 thousand units of green brick, 30 thousand units of stone. Construction Time: 20 days.

The interface of the grade 2 prefecture has a huge change.

The most notable change would be the addition of the technology index.

This indicated that as the game progressed, the technological standards would become more and more important. Shanhai City's technology index was only 50, far off from its other four indices.

For his next step, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to invest largely in technology research.

In the 9th month, although Ouyang Shuo was not in Shanhai City, the Financial Department still handed over the financial report for him to read. Compared to the previous month, the income had improved once more and crossed two hundred thousand.

Of course, they had not deducted the costs incurred from Zhaoqing Prefecture, as well as the military expenditure from the military expansion.

After deducting these two huge sums, there was probably around a hundred thousand gold in profit.

As for how to use this sum of money, Ouyang Shuo had a rough sketch. Shortly after, he would look for Cui Yingyu to discuss.

Apart from the territory indices, other areas also had some slight changes.

Compared to a grade 1 prefecture, the upper population limit had doubled. As for the affiliate territories of Friendship County and Qiushui County, they had upgraded to prefecture, so the average spawning rate of Shanhai City had reached 2150 people.

With this normal speed, he needed another two to three hundred days to reach the upper limit once more. If he considered the commoners from the imperial cities that moved over, this time would be shortened.

Ouyang Shuo predicted that in the 5th to 6th month of the 3rd year, Shanhai City could upgrade once more.

Initially, Ouyang Shuo was not so pumped up by this upgrade. After all, the 4400 merit point reward was not that attractive to him.

Shanhai City also had no reason to be first and ascertain its position as best in the world. If there really was a need, that would be the future fight for the world's first capital city. And that would take place at least two years later.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that in his last life, even after five years had past, not a single Duke had appeared in the game. Who knows, maybe he could break that record.

Only after this upgrade did Ouyang Shuo realized that Gaia gave out such huge rewards. This immediately made him more eager and motivated for the next territory upgrade.

Apart from the upper population limit, the territory size changing, and other things like philosophers were all tweaked based on the happenings of the game.

Apart from the territory interface, there were the new basic buildings.

The basic buildings of a grade 2 prefecture were a pitiful two.

In regards to the Guqin Academy, needless to say, they had already captured the Master Musician Shi Wen when they took down Leizhou Prefecture. Less than half a month after the war, they had established the Guqin Academy in Xinan University.

The only tough part was the wholesale market.

The construction did not require a building blueprint, but he needed to satisfy a requirement. How to complete this criteria was something that Ouyang Shuo understood.

Firstly, since it was a wholesale market, there should naturally be suitable items.

Only widespread items needed to be sold like rice, salt, cloth, and leather.

Secondly, they needed to build a perfect channel.

The sale of normal item were done by merchants or Chambers of Commerce, who directly bought from the people or the farms.

If they built a wholesale market, that would mean the addition of another one or two ways of selling.

Merchants did not need to run down all the way to purchase, and they could just allow the local sellers to pick them up and sell on the wholesale market instead.

The middleman would earn a bit of profit, while the Chambers of Commerce would save manpower and time.

Both sides would end up happy.

The above two points ensured that after they built the wholesale market, a demand would exist. It would also not end up on the verge of closing just after it opened.

As for the second point, the territory had not perfected it yet.

Hence, there was still a period of time before they could build the wholesale market.

After checking the stats, Ouyang Shuo left the main hall and returned to his reading room. Since he still had some time, he decided to settle some matters before returning to Wulong City.

When Liu Mo walked into the Nanjiang Governor-General Manor, doubt filled his heart.

Toward his sworn brother Ouyang Shuo, Liu Mo only felt respect in his heart. He did not expect Ouyang Shuo, who looked so unassuming in real life, would actually be so amazing in the game.

Liu Mo had spent all his time on guns and cannon research, and he basically did not care about the events outside. However, the continuous system notifications would remind him that Shanhai City was still developing crazily.

As such, he did not want to fall behind.

In terms of gun research, as he cooperated with Magnus, they had already made some significant progress. Liu Mo was wondering whether he was called over because of that reason.

When Liu Mo stepped into the reading room, Ouyang Shuo was discussing some matters with Cui Yingyu.

As Ouyang Shuo spoke, Cui Yingyu listened on intently, as she earnestly jotted down notes.

"The Industry Division must plan the matters of shipbuilding well. The shipyards must build on this foundation and add another three more. Zhenhai City can build one large scale shipyard and Yanluo City can too. The last one can be built in Qiongzhou Prefecture. The shipbuilding industry will be one of the pillars of our territory. In the future, be it merchant ships or warships, the demand will only increase."

"Understood!"

"Although the military expansion used up a lot of funds, there's a way to make up for it. Contact Director Du and transport all the equipment eliminated from the army, as well as those collected from the battlefield. Then, send the items to Yashan City to sell. With that, we can save a bunch of sales tax. I predict that this batch of equipment can be sold for at least three hundred thousand gold. The current Yashan City is filled with adventure gamemode players, and they have a high demand for such equipment."

When Cui Yingyu heard his plan, her eyes lit up. It seemed like she was going to earn a huge sum this time.

"Of course, toward the military industry, we must increase our support. I'll let the various imperial city intel stations work together with the Financial Department to start a large-scale recruitment. Offer high pay and great welfare to attract blacksmiths and tailors to Shanhai City to work in the workshops. Apart from that, the various prefecture military workshops can do the same."

The military industry was the silent worker in this military expansion.

Without the work of numerous artisans, how could Shanhai City change out all their equipment? How could they take the eliminated equipment to sell and replenish military funds?

As a result, the treatment of the artisans of the military workshops were among the best.

During the restructuring of Shanhai City, they directly named the south region as the military region. Apart from meeting the expansion needs of the workshops, it was to obtain better treatment and benefits for the artisans.

The Shanhai City House that was in charge of the construction had built mansions for them. Any artisans that worked in the military workshops could enjoy free housing.

Just this benefit alone gained them the envy of everyone around them.

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