Chapter 74: Pei Donglai

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: ryangohsff

After persuading Pei Donglai to join him, Ouyang Shuo took a look at his stats.

Name: Pei Donglai (Gold)

Identity: Shanhai Navy Commander

Occupation: Intermediate General

Loyalty: 80

Command: 65

Force: 45

Intelligence: 40

Politics: 35

Specialty: Wave-treading (troops movement speed on water increase by 10%), Shark Capture (when activated, raise combat power by 20% for 20 minutes.)

Cultivation Method: Canglang Sword Technique (18 stance)

Equipment: Ring Grip Blade

Evaluation: Originally a general, became a water bandit. Great in naval warfare, good at training troops.

From Pei Donglai's stats, his command stat was as high as 65 but his force was only 45. This meant that he gravitated towards being a command-type figure. As a naval commander, this was actually a good thing. After all, in naval warfare, the chances of close combat was very little, what was more important was the leading of troops.

In the time that Ouyang Shuo had received Pei Donglai, the post-war work had already started to progress. The non-combatants in the water stronghold had already rushed into the square in front of the hall of brotherhood, all of them shaking in fear. The rounding up of the prisoners had already been completed and handed to Ouyang Shuo.

The after-battle report included the prisoners of war who stayed to defend the hall of brotherhood. The water stronghold had a total of 308 water bandits, out of which 48 were elite and the rest were normal water bandits.

Ouyang Shuo laughed and said to Pei Donglai, "General Pei, what recommendations do you have towards the treatment of these prisoners?"

"Everything can be decided by sire." Pei Donglai was new here and was as such very careful, not wanting to express his views. Especially on something like dealing with the prisoners.

"Aiyo, general doesn't need to be too careful. How about this? I'll set a rule. For this batch of prisoners, we will split it into three methods. The evildoers will be executed. The people with bad morals will be sent to the quarry for a year, after which the people who behave well will be given the identity of Shanhai town citizens. As for the rest, they will be sent to the Shanhai town navy and trained by the general. Additionally, the General's descendants are all good people and can be directly enlisted into the Shanhai Town navy. The morals and behavior of this batch of prisoners, I think the general has a clearer idea than me. Hence the handling of them I give all the power to you."

Seeing Ouyang Shuo's trust, Pei Donglai was touched. "Thank you sire for your trust, I won't let you down!"

After passing the rights to handling the prisoners of war off to Pei Donglai, Ouyang Shuo started to handle the normal citizens that gathered in the square.

Based on the report, the water stronghold had 435 normal citizens, mostly fishermen, sailors, old or weak men, women or skilled talents.

With these people, Ouyang Shuo treated them magnanimously. Other than the family of Watersnake and the other leaders, regarding them as slaves, the rest were given the identity of Shanhai town citizens.

Ouyang Shuo arranged for Lin Yi to lead the cavalry squadron, bringing back the prisoners and normal citizens back to Shanhai Town. At the same time, he arranged for some fast horses to inform the Material Reserves Department and Finance Department to come and settle the stores and send them back to Shanhai Town.

After Pei Donglai told Ouyang Shuo the hiding places of all the treasures and items in the water stronghold, he left with the squadron. He had to return the Shanhai town to work with the Household Registration Division to complete the works on the prisoners of war.

At noon, the Material Reserves Department and Finance Department brought with them a large number of wooden walking horses to the water stronghold. With Pei Donglai's earlier advice, the transporting of the goods went really well. Ouyang Shuo showed his scroungy nature and picked the entire water stronghold clean.

Lastly, he entered the hall of brotherhood. Upon seeing the stone stele that had risen up, he placed his hand on it without hesitation, triggering a system notification.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for destroying an advanced water stronghold. Please choose method of disposal: occupy, transfer power, or destroy?"

"I choose to destroy!" Ouyang Shuo didn't want to leave any hope for the water bandits and immediately chose to destroy.

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi chose to destroy advanced water stronghold, obtaining 20% of its building blueprints and 20% of its building materials."

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining harbor blueprints, dojo blueprints, pharmacy blueprints and relay blueprints. Obtained 8000 units of wood and 2000 units of stone."

"System Notification: congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully destroying high-grade water stronghold, obtaining 500 merit points, and 1000 reputation points.

That wasn’t bad, out of the 4 blueprints, the pharmacy and relay were grade 2 town basic buildings and could be used, saving him 100 gold.

After destroying the water stronghold, Ouyang Shuo left Zhao Sihu to work with the Material Reserves Department and Finance Department to transport the materials and left first on his horse.

_28th of February, the 9th day of the year, Shanhai meeting hall._

Ouyang Shuo chaired the meeting and it was attended by Fan Zhongyan, Tian Wenjing and Cui Yingyu, the three directors. Gu Xiuwen and Zhou Feng from Beihai Village and the military was represented by General Shi, Lin Yi, Pei Donglai and Zhao Sihu.y

Tian Wenjing spoke first. "The battle at the water stronghold, we obtained large amounts of resources. As sire instructed, I'm going to do a report. Gold: 728 gold, 57 silver, and 49 copper, 12 blueprints, special item territory specialty scroll, 4 civil servant change class tokens and a <Mingguang Armor Manufacturing Technology Manual>. The rest of the materials and equipment aren't in the scope of the report."

Regarding this set of material, Ouyang Shuo already had his plans. He took 700 Gold and gave the rest to the Finance Department to relieve their financial burden. The 12 blueprints other than the relay, pharmacy and alchemy workshop, which could be used on a grade 2 town, were sold to the Intermediate Market. Deducting 20% of fees, he gained 40 gold.

As for the special items, he directly used the territory specialty scroll and passed the manual to the weapon smith.

Territory Specialty Scroll (4): After use, production-based citizens’ skill familiarity training speed raised by 5%

<Mingguang Armor Manufacturing Technology Manual>: After use, gain knowledge of crafting the mingguang armor.

What was left was the civil servant job change token. Ouyang Shuo looked at the 3 directors. "4 civil servant class change tokens, the 3 of you directors will recommend one secretary each, the last token we will decide later."

Fan Zhongyan had it easy as out of the 5 secretaries only the Construction Division Secretary Zhao Dewang wasn’t a civil servant, hence he could only recommend him. Between Cui Yingyu's Taxation Division Secretary Qian Lifei and Four Seas Bank Manager Yang Yun, she chose Qian Lifei as he was an actual secretary.

The one with the hardest decision was Tian Wenjing, Material Reserves Department had 3 secretaries, Du Xiaolan, Zheng Shanpao and Zhao Youfang. This together with Salt Pan Division Vice Secretary Shen Zhui, all of whom hadn’t had class changes yet. At last, Tian Wenjing chose Zheng Shanpao, the simple reason being that it the last test, only he didn’t make a mistake.

Ouyang Shuo didn’t comment on their decision. "Ok, Zhao Dewang, Qian Lifei, Zheng Shanpao, the last token I think I will give it to Salt Pan Division's Shen Zhui.”

Just now he found out that compared to the high-level arrangement of the Administration Department, the Material Reserves Department was somewhat lacking. Hence, he gave the last class change slot to the Material Reserves Department. As for why he chose the vice secretary and not Du Xiaolan or Zhao Youfang, his reason was the same as that of Tian Wenjing.

Zhao Youfang, who was the talent that Ouyang Shuo had high hopes for, missed out once again. If he did not have any exceptional performances then he might fade out of Ouyang Shuo's view.

After dealing with the class change tokens, Ouyang Shuo looked at Pei Dong Lai and laughed. "General Pei, you can report the situation with the prisoners."

Pei Donglai got up, bowed, and said, "Under orders from sire, I was in charge of the prisoners. Out of 308 prisoners, there were 8 evildoers and 120 morally bad people."

"That’s good. Based on our arrangement, the 8 evildoers will be beheaded, and the 120 will be sent to the quarry. As for the remaining 180 prisoners and the 20 recruited before at Beihai Village, they can form two squadrons." Ouyang Shuo casually said.

With regards to the setting up of the two squadrons, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to give them freedom. "The 20 sergeant choices will be decided by General Pei and reported to me. General can also recommend a captain.”

To have so much trust in the general, General Pei was touched. "General will not let you down and train an elite navy for the town."

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and said, "Zhou Feng!"

"Present!"

"You will be the vice captain of the squadron under General Pei. Learn from him well and continue to learn the arts of training navy soldiers. When you level up from rank 9 to general, I will promote you to captain." Although he was confident in General Pei, but he still needed to arrange a man to keep him in check. Someone like Zhou Feng whom he held high hopes for was a good choice.

"Thank you sire, I won’t let you down."

After arranging the navy, Ouyang Shuo looked at Gu Xiuwen. "How many people does Beihai Village now have?"

"Last night, Beihai Village had already leveled to a grade 3 village and has 512 people." Gu Xiuwen said proudly.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head. "The destruction of the water stronghold gave us a large population. Those 435 normal civilians have given us enough to upgrade to a grade 2 town. Beihai Village is also going to reach the max population of one thousand, so you need to make arrangements to upgrade to a grade 1 town."

"Yes!" Gu Xiuwen said.

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap

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