The World Online

Merchants chased for profits, which made them one of the hardest bunch to control. While they made contributions to the development of the territory, they too earned a lot.

An unavoidable matter was that due to profits, merchants would join in the battles and fights in an area.

Towards this, Ouyang Shuo would naturally be wary and defensive.

Apart from the Financial Department Business Division managing everything, they needed to develop more Chamber of Commerces to prevent a monopoly.

Local Chamber of Commerces would knock heads with the big ones.

Of course, this only solved the problem in the short term; the root cause remained.

Ouyang Shuo was planning to build a Business Association to increase the monitoring levels on the various Chamber of Commerces.

This matter still needed much planning.

After all, the current territory was still in the basic development stages, and they needed to borrow the strength of the various Chamber of Commerce. Hence, they could not land a blow to their eagerness.

Out of the three prefectures, Lianzhou Prefecture naturally developed the quickest.

Although Shanhai City was cut out from the Lianzhou Prefecture, the Lianzhou Prefecture that had four Houses and one city remained the biggest of the bunch.

The newly established Shenjuan House had already survived the toughest time period, and the city building had reached its later stages. Its unique industries like animal husbandry and leather processing was growing everyday.

Tianfeng House and Broken Blade House focused on water products and pearl cultivation to bring in money. Apart from that, one could not underestimate the tea gardens and the mulberry gardens located around them.

Especially the mulberry gardens, which along with the colored silkworm production, was enough to make one’s eyes red with envy.

The colored silk that Shanhai City produced had long started selling in the nine imperial cities. The merchants and the rich men loved this silk, forming sort of a trend.

Out of the four Houses, Mulan House was formed from a territory merging over. Regretfully, as it had a special geographical position, their profits were a little awkward.

The most important aspect was Mulan House’s lack of advantageous industries.

Probably only after they occupied the Guangxi Province would Mulan House rise from the ashes.

Of course, however eye-catching the three prefectures were, they could not cover the glow of Shanhai City.

The outer city construction of Shanhai City was still spreading like wildfire. Everyday, no less than a thousand people would move over. These people were newly spawned refugees but commoners from the various imperial cities.

Shanhai City’s population had already broken through four hundred thousand. Ouyang Shuo predicted that by the 10th month at the latest, Shanhai City could upgrade to a grade 2 prefecture and break through the five hundred thousand population upper limit.

The current Shanhai City was a place where roads and paths intersected. If Ouyang Shuo did not bring a guide with him, even he would lose his way. His area of activity was basically limited to the imperial city.

On the other hand, Bing’er, who was on holiday, started to crazily run around the city like a released wild horse. Occasionally, she would even teleport to Yashan City to take a look at her ‘territory’.

In Yashan City, she was basically a princess.

Governor Tian Wenjing not only sent men to build the Lord’s Manor extravagantly, he even built a wild animal park for Bing’er to play around in outside of the city.

The construction of the zoo was all because Bing’er said, “There are so many animals here.”

When Ouyang Shuo learned of this matter, he shook his head speechless.

He did not expect the cold faced Governor Tian Wenjing to actually love Bing’er so much and pamper her.

As the main camp of the territory, Shanhai City was the most prosperous. Based on the calculations of the Business Division, till date, a total of 37 Chamber of Commerces had moved in.

The nine imperial cities all had Chamber of Commerces that moved in.

Apart from the Business Division, the military industry naturally supported the development of Shanhai City.

After more than a year of development, the military industry finally started to explode. Along with the building of the east region, the overall production capacity of the military industry increased by three folds.

Till date, the production of equipment in the city not only met the requirements of the army, it even met the orders of the Shanhai Alliance members.

The military industry that was firing on all cylinders could be called a real money maker.

The administrative meeting began.

Financial Director Cui Yingyu reported the financial situation of the 7th month.

”Shanhai City has earned 85,700 gold, Lianzhou Prefecture handed over 52,700 gold, Leizhou Prefecture currently has no money, while Qiongzhou Prefecture handed over 41,500 gold. Including the profits of 55,000 gold from the Business Division, the total profits of the 7th month is 234,900 gold.”

When he heard that the monthly Income had crossed two hundred thousand, Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

It was not easy.

However, what she reported next made Ouyang Shuo’s face turn black.

”7th month, 80,000 gold was spent, which mainly consisted of the 20,000 gold used on Shanhai City’s city building and 60,000 on Leizhou Prefecture. Apart from that, Nanjiang Governor-General House spent eight thousand gold and military expenditure was 135,000 gold.”

One legion would normally require around 35,000 gold.

In the army, the Dragon Legion and Tiger Legion were full. Including the 1st division of the Leopard Legion, the Guards division, and the palace Guards, its expenditure had reached 95,000 gold.

The Nanyang Navy included the 1st division of both the Yashan Squadron and the Beihai Bay Squadron, its expenditure was around twenty thousand gold.

All things considered, daily expenses alone would cost 115,000 gold.

The 7th month military expenses also needed to consider the payments to families during the Battle of Leizhou and the Battle of Julu.

Hence, military expenditure used up more than half of the overall income.

This was just the game. If he really ran a country like this in real life, his people would definitely revolt.

As Cui Yingyu reported the military expenses, she had unconsciously eyed Du Ruhui.

Du Ruhui knew the reason and did not say anything.

At this point, before the armies fully formed up, they could earn extra income through raiders.

At the moment, the military expenses were not a huge burden to the territory finances.

Building a legion, especially after building the divisions, resulted in the Shanhai City Army becoming more commercial and orthodox. The raider jobs would be left for other units.

Hence, on the surface, the army would have a negative effect on finances.

The army itself would never be able to create any extra riches.

Attacking strategic land as they were occupying it, they could not pillage and burn it.

Of course, one could not just look at the surface.

With the Battle of Leizhou as an example, it seemed stupid in the short run. But in the long run, it would provide financial income that far exceed the current input.

Expanding the territory was always the way to becoming stronger.

These matters were something both Du Ruhui and Cui Yingyu understood.

Cui Yingyu was silently asking the Military Affairs Department to not expand the military stupidly. If not, the territory finances could not keep up.

In truth, Du Ruhui also had it cut out for him.

The organization of the military all followed the instructions of the lord.

The Military Affairs Department was in truth just the scapegoat.

Ouyang Shuo, who sat at the lord position, naturally noticed this. He knew that Cui Yingyu was silently making matters clear to him.

This little sister really was not someone easy to handle.

Along with the rise of Ouyang Shuo’s position, Cui Yingyu would not directly scold him. Instead, she would use such silent methods to remind him.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo had also paid attention and controlled the scale of the military.

Not mentioning other matters, just take the Battle of Qiongzhou as an example.

Sun Bin’s Tiger Legion had captured a total of seventy thousand warriors, yet Ouyang Shuo had only asked them to form a Garrison Division.

In addition to the various protection squads of the Houses, only one third of the soldiers were enlisted.

However, no matter how he tried, the military would need to expand daily. Without such an elite army, how would Ouyang Shuo have the confidence to challenge the world?

At this stage, Ouyang Shuo needed to choose between military and administration.

A strong military was the core goal.

After establishing the Nanjiang Governor-General House, Ouyang Shuo did not keep any of the territory’s gold from himself. In his storage bag, he only had ten to twenty thousand gold as pocket money.

The income of the territory was basically invested back in.

A strong territory would result in his own strength.

Based on Cui Yingyu’s report, the territory had only earned 11,900 gold in the 7th month.

The next month, the profits would probably increase.

At the very least, Leizhou Prefecture did not need any more funds channeled in; they could even provide some income.

Toward this matter, Cui Yingyu was not as optimistic as Ouyang Shuo.

Not for other reasons, but only because the Battle of Zhaoqing was about to occur.

One could foresee that the future Zhaoqing Prefecture would result in another mess that was waiting to be cleared up.

After Cui Yingyu made her report, she sat down.

Following which, the discussion of the Animal Husbandry Department came up.

After setting up the Nanjiang Governor-General House, in terms of organization, they became more and more ordered.

Ouyang Shuo made the rule that the officials could suggest the establishment of organizations. After the Administration Department analyzed the suggestion, it could be brought up in the administrative meetings for discussion. Ouyang Shuo would make the final decision.

Such an arrangement was to prevent Ouyang Shuo from losing foresight.

A person holding a high position for a long time and got used to making all the decisions could easily have their foresight blinded. If this developed further, they might not listen to his fellow officials.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to become such a person.

However, without a logical system, in the current situation, he would definitely become such a person. Hence, Ouyang Shuo would take the opportunity while he was still clear headed to restrict himself.

All the officials were delighted about this.

With such a smart lord, they would definitely succeed.

With the suggestion of Xiao He, after gaining the approval of the Administration Department, they all agreed to set up the Animal Husbandry Department under the Military Affairs Department.

Establishing the animal husbandry department had two roles.

Firstly, to take charge of the carriages of the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

When Ouyang Shuo went out, he usually rode horses and would not sit in carriages. As Shanhai City’s construction was slowly perfected, under the suggestion of Fan Zhongyan, he would have no choice but to usually sit in a carriage when he went out.

Based on their thinking, this had to do with the law, and they could not act casually about it. Only then could they show the prestige and power of the Nanjiang Governor-General. Toward these suggestions, Ouyang Shuo could only comply.

Luckily, he only had few chances of going out.

With his character, he really could not grow used to carriages.

Secondly, to take charge of the horse policies in the territory.

The various army horse breeding grounds would all be under their charge.

The director of the Animal Husbandry Department would obviously be Xia Houying.

With that, the four talents from the Battle of Julu all had positions.