The World Online

After Tian Wenjing finished his report, the Construction Division secretary Zhao Dewang stood up and bowed, “My lord, the thing about investigating the rock caves, the Construction Division has already completed it.”

”Oh? Tell me!”

”Yes, lord!” Zhao Dewang reported, “On the south side, from Shanhai City all the way to the borders of the Yongye Forest totals at 25 kilometers. The Construction Division did an investigation, and we found eight dry caves. Out of these dry caves, the wine workshop, the military workshop, and the alchemical fire oil storage has taken up three. Of the remaining five, there are three small dry holes shorter than 10 meters and are only 2 meters deep. The remaining two are large scale dry holes.”

After he heard Zhao Dewang’s report, Ouyang Shuo finally realized one thing—not even a year had passed, but they had cut down a large portion of Yongye Forest. Based on this rate, they would cut down the whole forest in a few years.

If they really cut all of Yongye Forest down, it would definitely cause a large loss of soil and water, possibly igniting a huge flood from Friendship River. This was a huge threat to Shanhai City. Apart from that, if the territory didn’t have the protection of the forest, other natural disasters like sandstorms would cause problems.

Earth online’s weather was very realistic. If nothing unexpected happened, Ouyang Shuo’s conjecture would come true.

After Zhao Dewang backed down, Ouyang Shuo called for the Material Reserves Department director, ”Director Shen Zhui, the Material Reserves Department needs to have a plan and can’t start cutting all the trees down. You should try to only cut down the large trees and leave all the small trees. Also, don’t destroy the roots of this forest. Apart from that, we must prohibit commoners from logging themselves. At the same time, when adjusting wood supplies, use more from Qiushui City as the wood resources there are more vast.”

Although Shen Zhui was flexible, he was a person from ancient times after all. How could he understand Ouyang Shuo’s modern ideas of environmental conservation and sustainable development? He could only agree and follow the plan.

After this, Ouyang Shuo looked at Yingyu, “Director Cui, the Financial Department needs to work with the Auditing Division to strengthen the inspection of all branches and their transactions. It would be best if you could send someone to take a look at the books every month. At the same time, work with the Meritorious Service Division to assess the various managers and workers at the branches.”

The Four Seas Bank was the core tool for Ouyang Shuo’s ambition. Naturally, he would be more than careful with it. The branch at Mulan Town was still okay as manager Yang Yun was an old citizen of Shanhai City, so he had gained Ouyang Shuo’s trust. The Financial Department had directly assigned the ones sent to Black Tiger Town, Xunlong Town, and Fallen Phoenix City, so Ouyang Shuo didn’t know them well. Hence, he wanted to use this meeting to remind Yingyu of the level of importance he placed on it.

”Yes, lord!” Yingyu cared even more about the branches than Ouyang Shuo. If something happens to the Four Seas Bank, she would be the first one responsible as the director of the Financial Department.

After they all finished reporting, Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting.

……

In the afternoon, little aunt Lin Jing helped Ouyang Shuo buy building blueprints and came to Shanhai City once again. This time, she didn’t come alone. She had brought a small group of 30, which were the core members of the Snow-War Rose Mercenary group.

The blueprints were the secondary reason for Lin Jing’s trip here. Her main reason was to see her nephew and niece, and also discuss the cooperation between the group and Shanhai City.

As the Bow and Crossbow Division and the Armory Division slowly got onto the right path, Shanhai City’s army had changed their equipment, and the armory had accumulated a lot of silver-ranked and below weapons such as bows, spears, knives, leather armor, and more. These items filled the armory to the brim, but the Material Affairs Department still arranged some people to maintain this equipment.

This batch of equipment was obtained from the raiders, some from when they attacked the city, some from when the soldiers changed class, so they had a huge quantity of equipment.

Ouyang Shuo was contemplating something. Rather than letting this batch of equipment gather dust, why not ask the mercenary group to sell them to rookie players? This batch of players had entered the game for three months and had earned some money to buy such equipment. To the Shanhai City military, this equipment were backward and useless, but to these new players, they were high-class and advanced.

Ouyang Shuo sent his plans for cooperation over to little aunt, and both of them agreed instantly, which was why little aunt had made her way to Shanhai City. As the number of weapons were really too many, little aunt had to bring the 30 core members with the largest storage bags to help smuggle the equipment.

Ouyang Shuo was going to give the Snow-War Rose mercenary group 20% of the profit from selling the equipment. Which meant that the higher the price they sold the equipment for, the higher the profits, which was the same as retailers in society. Also, this wasn’t a one-off deal, as the Snow-War Rose mercenary group would sell the other backward items and equipment from Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo also allowed them to manage the remaining profits, and he asked them to set up a small courtyard in the nine imperial cities to be the offices of Shanhai City. Thes offices would help them to recruit talents. Apart from work occupation players, they would also be in charge of recruiting NPC talents that weren’t doing too well in the capital city.

As Shanhai City’s fame and reputation rose, it gained some fame amongst NPC groups, and it wouldn’t be too far off to call that name widespread. Hence, there was a chance for them to hire such NPCs.

Apart from that, as the number of battles increased, more and more historical figures would enter the game. Moreover, these historical figures would most probably enter through the various system imperial cities. Hence to recruit them, he must reveal his sign. If not, even if they wanted to join, they wouldn’t have a way to do so.

The Yanhuang Alliance had held a strong animosity toward the Shanhai Alliance since their inception. As such, Ouyang Shuo had decided to change his low profile methods and started to use the fame of Shanhai City to recruit talents.

The Chinese had always focused on balance. Shanhai City had acted conservatively, like a locked up nation. Although Ouyang Shuo had succeeded in building up a secretive image that helped him avoid problems in real life, he also had lost the chance of gaining many talents.

During the current galactic migration, everyone was online. Not only was everyone safe from dangers, but everyone was experiencing a life refresh. Since Ouyang Shuo wanted to fulfill his ambitions and rule planet Hope, he could only continue in such a manner. He had to expose himself and confidently make contact with other players to gain their support.

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo was betrayed by another. However, he couldn’t grow fearful and wary of all players and not trust anyone because of that incident.

Imagine a chess player that didn’t even dare to touch a chess piece. Wouldn’t that be amusing?

If it were like that, even if Ouyang Shuo made use of the advantages of his reincarnation and made Shanhai City prosperous, he would still have the viewpoint of a small commoner. He wouldn’t gain enough training. When he returned to the real world, he would definitely still face walls and troubles.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to learn the lessons from his past life. He would not trust anyone easily, would not reveal all his cards to someone, and would never forget that people were greedy.

Players were chess pieces that moved in accordance to Ouyang Shuo’s will.

As long as Ouyang Shuo raised his awareness, he wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. Greed wasn’t fearful, what was fearful was uncontrollable greed.

In the game, there were many elite players that wished to move over to Shanhai City. As for territories like Handan City, the core members were already set in stone, so normal players would lose the chance to gain trust and be greatly utilized. On the other hand, Shanhai City was a clean slate and was a better place for them to show their abilities.

The dangerous part about recruiting talents was the chances of spies infiltrating.

Ouyang Shuo wasn’t afraid of them joining and revealing things about the city. Be it the east region military workshops, the military factory in the mountains, the mines, or the saltpans, they were all considered prohibited regions and were carefully monitored, so normal players couldn’t even enter it.

Shanhai City’s higher ups would remain NPCs, even Wuchi and Jiu Duanxian were only doing specific jobs. They weren’t considered part of the management level of the territory.

Hence, Shanhai City had already built a perfect system that wasn’t easily infiltrated.

Ouyang Shuo brought little aunt to see the Shanhai City Armory. When the guards opened the gate, they revealed an armory filled with neatly placed bows, swords, and armors, which made the members of the Snow-War Rose mercenary group feel a little dizzy.

”Oh my god, little Shuo. You are simply wasting such good things, so many weapons and equipment gathering dust. If players knew this, they would definitely scold you.”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head; he couldn’t rebut her because she was his little aunt.

Little aunt ordered the members to store all the equipment and make a list to check with the Military Affairs Department officials. After they ensured that everything was in order, they would place it in their storage bags. As for herself, she went into the elite area to pick equipment. Ouyang Shuo told little aunt that he would give her a set for free, so she obviously wouldn’t let this chance go to waste.

Lin Jing only spent a day in Shanhai City. After, a casual conversation with Song Jia, she left with almost half of the armory to Jianye.