Chapter 192: Operation Wildfire (1 / 3)
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Nova
Lin Yi’s proposed plan was officially given the code name Operation ‘Wildfire’. This was because the operation would lead to the destruction of the savanna. It would lighten the flames of war and burn the grassland into ashes.
The operation’s success was directly linked to Shanhai City’s future governing policy toward the nomadic tribes as well as the future of Shanhai’s cavalries. Therefore, its importance did not need to be repeated twice.
Military Affairs Department and Lin Yi would discuss the plan. They would forge it into a perfect plan in order to be as foolproof as possible.
Right after Ouyang Shuo returned from Friendship City, he once again dived into the sea of governing affairs.
……
July 20th, they completed the establishment of Qiushui City’s cavalry unit. Lai Kai was officially promoted to the rank of major, and he led the cavalry unit. The class change fees were of course taken from the profits made in the first half month of July.
Three days ago, Ouyang Shuo and the Chui Chamber of Commerce from Dali signed off their first deal on the trading platform.
Northern Saltworks had produced 2.5 million units of consumable salts in the first half month of July. According to the market price of 20 copper per unit of salts, Chui Chamber of Commerce would have to pay 5,000 gold. After the 10% system tax deduction, Ouyang Shuo was left with 4,500 gold. After the further reducing the cost of salt production, the amount that handed to Shuo was actually 4,100 gold.
After the system update, the taxes were halved, so the Northern Saltworks could save a thousand gold every month from the taxes alone.
As for Langshan mining field, they turned over 4,000 gold without fail.
Since he stationed the mineral expert from the professional group in the mining field, they were taught to further enhance the production line and mine with more logical and scientific techniques. In the preliminary estimates for August, the production efficiency would increase by 10%. A mineral expert’s technical advice could help generate at least an additional 800 gold for Shanhai City. This was exactly where the value of an expert laid. Their contribution to the territory was an overall enhancement.
The initial 8,100 gold from first the half month, after the deduction of the cavalry unit class change fees of 750 gold and Four Sea Bank’s payment for teleportation formation fees of 4,400 gold, there was only 2,950 gold leftover.
Through the teleportation formation, the cost to recruit a player was immensely high. Including the player and the family, it would cost an average of 5 gold for teleportation fees.
This didn’t include the cost of the basic accommodations for the players.
For the likes of Di Chen and others, they had previously recruited new players from the real-world and arranged for them to directly spawn in the territory. Only those from the rich and powerful family or clans could have the resources to do so.
However, after the interplanetary immigration, they would have lost their resources and could only pay the teleportation fees like Ouyang Shuo. This would in turn be a large expense and a burden to them.
According to Feng Qiuhuang, before the immigration, they had already recruited a large batch of new players in their territories. As for the precise amount of players, only they knew themselves.
The 2,950 golds didn’t last long in Ouyang Shuo’s hands. Through the Chui Chamber of Commerce, he bought 2.95 million units of food.
Hence, for the next half of the year, Shanhai would be free from the risk of food shortage. The price was nearly a total of 9,000 gold spent solely on food.
Ouyang Shuo couldn’t imagine the price that the other lords would have to pay when the food prices soared high in the future. After all, the other territories weren’t like Shanhai. They didn’t have 40,000 acres of fertile farmland to provide grains, so they would have to purchase more food.
Probably the only thing worthy of rejoice was that the other territories didn’t have such a big population like Shanhai City or Shanhai’s high refugee spawn rate.
If Ouyang Shuo had enough funds, he would even consider purchasing more food and profit by reselling it when the price went up.
As for his assumptions about the prices of food, Ouyang Shuo had informed his allies, including Song Wen. However, it was up to them whether they had sufficient funds to hoard enough food. It was not something Ouyang Shuo could help.
Shanhai City was strong, but it was not strong enough to provide financial aid to five or six lord territories.
Moreover, they were allies and only allies. Ouyang Shuo was not a philanthropist. Any territory that required Shanhai’s financial aid would have to allow Four Seas Bank to establish a branch in their territory with no exceptions.
Whereas for Mulan Town, Ouyang Shuo was waiting for the end of the month. When the profits for the next half month came, he would add more funds to the Four Seas Bank branch in Mulan Town.
As for the acquisition of grains from the farmers, Yingyu’s idea was to utilize the funds from Four Seas Bank and acquire the grains. The acquisition would not be a one-off deal. Instead, they would be traded in batches. They would sell them off before acquiring another batch of grains. Otherwise, to complete the deal in one blow would require tens of thousands of gold, which was literally a waste of funds.
On average, a farmer could plow and manage 10 mu of land. A mu can grow 350 units of grains. Hence, it would produce 3,500 units of grains. They had to turn over 117 units to the lord. After they stored half a year of grains, there would still be 3,200 units of grains available for sale, which would be three gold 20 silver. After the tax deduction, it would still be three gold and 10 silver. A year had two farming seasons, minus the cost, the final annual income for a farmer would be around five golds.
If one decided to be more hardworking and raise some poultry or even a pig, he could earn tens of silver more for that year. This hard work would contribute a little more to the family livelihood.
Therefore, in actual fact, a farmer’s income was considerably high. Their income was almost the same as a rank 5 veteran soldier. The only difference was that the military took care of a soldier’s livelihood, and their pay could be increased further.
These only happened because of three reasons. Firstly, the farmers had enough farmland to plow, and those lands were fertile farmlands. Secondly, Shanhai had the lowest tax rates in the history. Lastly, Ouyang Shuo did not intentionally oppress and exploit their hard work, and he did not purchase grains from them for a low price and sell it high.
All these factors added up to create Shanhai farmers’ high annual income.
……
For the past half a month, Mulan Town was developing rapidly under the help of Four Seas Bank.
Utilizing the loans from Four Seas Bank, Mu Guiying successfully established Mulan Town’s city defense unit. The brave general led this city defense unit to cleanse the territory and destroyed every single raider in sight.
Exterminating the raiders were not only meant to train the soldiers, but also to ensure the territory’s safety. Furthermore, the rewards they plundered could contribute populations, materials, and funds to the territory, which would further develop their hometown.
Other than that, Mulan Town had also finished the construction of stone walls, which enhanced their defense. Territory privatization was also fully completed, so it was not the usual same semi-finished product anymore. The territory’s economy began to sprout. It slowly accumulated, as it waited for the day to explode and bloom gracefully.
Mulan Town’s rapid development now was exactly like the former Shanhai Town.
Just a week ago, Mulan Town was successfully upgraded to grade 3 township. After the upgrade, the miners of Mulan Town found a silver mine within the territory. Hence, another source of wealth. Although a silver mine couldn’t be compared to a gold mine, if it was excavated with maximum effort, there would still be at least 200 gold monthly.
Now, the only thing that stopped Mulan Town from its next upgrade was Mulan Yue’s rank title.
During the Battle of Zhoulu, Mulan Yue was rewarded with 2,500 merit points. With these points, she leveled her title to the rank of ‘First-class Viscount’. In addition, the extermination of raiders had rewarded her some merit points, and she now had 5,000 merit points. Currently, she was 1,400 merit points away from Third-class Earl.
Fortunately, Mulan Town was just upgraded into a grade 3 township. Time was still needed to reach the total population of 1,000. Perhaps, during the following Battle of Zhennan Pass, she could earn the merit points needed.
In any case, she might have to participate in another battlefield warfare during this period of time. If she earned the merit points needed, the problem would be solved.
Gong Chengshi was envious of Mulan Town’s rapid development. Within the Shanhai Alliance, only he remained as the lord of a grade 2 township. Lack of funds restrained his move of recruiting more players, and he couldn’t afford the high price of teleportation fees.
Left with no other choice, he stopped persisting and invited Ouyang Shuo over to establish a branch of the Four Seas Bank in his territory.
Naturally, Ouyang Shuo had no reason to decline, as the financial situation in Shanhai was getting better. Langshan mining field and Northern Saltworks alone could provide him with a fund of nearly 2,000 golds monthly. These additional funds emboldened Ouyang Shuo to establish a Four Seas Bank branch in Black Lion Town.
Ouyang Shuo replied to Gong Chengshi’s call. He told Gong Chengshi to wait until the end of the month. When the funds of Shanhai came together, he would send his men to Black Lion Town for the establishment of the Four Seas Bank branch. He urged Gong Chengshi to prepare for it.
Ouyang Shuo’s wild hope was to establish a branch in every territory. Even if the Four Seas Bank wouldn’t be the only bank in the territories, it needed to be at least one of the main bank.
In order to do so, the first step was to open the branches in his allies’ territories. Now, Mulan Town and Black Lion Town had both accepted, and it was only time before the Xunlong Town submitted.
As for Consonance City and Fallen Phoenix City, it wouldn’t be that easy. Only with luck and fate could he manage to infiltrate their territories. Especially Fallen Phoenix City, there stood a powerful family behind Feng Qiuhuang. Even if she agreed to it, they wouldn’t allow it to happen.
As for Consonance City, it could sustain with the help of only Dali Qingfeng Pavilion. Qingfeng Pavilion’s gold farmers were quietly supporting them from behind.
Consonance City had now achieved a symbiotic relationship with Qingfeng Pavilion, much like the cooperative relationship between Shanhai City and Snow-War Rose mercenary group.
The only difference was that Consonance didn’t have such a well-developed military industry.
It wasn’t Ouyang Shuo acting mean or contemptible, taking advantage of his allies' difficulties. The deal was mutually-beneficial in the first place. It even could further pull the alliance together.
After all, what kind of alliance is better and stronger than an economically integrated alliance?