Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 771: Chapter 589 Government, Business, Navy_2

Compared to that, the lives of the people in Da Rong were truly arduous. Not to mention the tenants, even the self-employed farmers and small landowners were harassed considerably by corrupt officials.

Yang Zhenshan had no intention of relying on these people to support the Yang family, for they could not consume that much grain. The main fiscal revenue of Star Moon Island was not agricultural taxes, but rather marine trade.

In the following days, Yang Zhenshan made some plans for Star Moon Island, mainly focusing on the planning of docks and city defenses, as well as organizing the management structure of the island.

The main hall of the original Star Moon Sect was transformed by Yang Zhenshan into the government office of Star Moon Island.

Yang Zhenshan planned to manage Star Moon Island as if it were a county, setting up a county government like those in Da Rong.

However, calling it a county government seemed too modest, so he decided to simply refer to it as the government office.

At this moment, everyone was seated in the main hall of the government office.

The hall included Luo Jingsong, Wu Zhan, Luo Shang, Zhen Yang, Lv Xinghe, Jiang He, Wang Jing, Yang Chengche, Yang Qinwu, Wang Lei, Li Chang, and more than ten others.

”We’ll be settling down here from now on. Today, as everyone is present, let’s first arrange the future tasks!”

”We need to establish a government office and a trading company. The government office will be set up like a county government, with a principal official titled Island Master—haha, I shall be the Island Master. There will be two assistant officials, one civil and one military, named Assistant Governor and Assistant Military Governor respectively. Jiang He will be the Assistant Governor, in charge of managing the six departments of personnel, household registration, justice, public works, education, and commerce.”

Yang Zhenshan looked at Jiang He and said, ”There’s no need to elaborate on the four departments of personnel, household registration, justice, and public works, just follow the setup of the county government in Da Rong. Education is essentially about academies. We will establish ten schools on the island, roughly one school for every four or five villages. We’ll hire one scholarly and one martial teacher to teach the children from the village literacy and martial arts. All children aged eight to twelve must attend school. This is mandatory, regardless of whether they are boys or girls, they all must attend!”

”Besides the elementary schools, we will also establish a middle school to select talented youths and train martial artists!”

”As for the commerce department, it mainly handles the management of shops and docks on the island. As for the specifics, you can manage that yourself.”

Yang Zhenshan didn’t need to be too particular about this rudimentary setup; with Jiang He’s capabilities, everything could be handled perfectly. Yang Zhenshan was only setting the rules.

”Chengche will be the Assistant Military Governor, and Qinwu will be the Deputy Assistant Military Governor. You two will form three patrolling squads of soldiers to maintain the island’s public order, similar to the government officials of the county government. Discuss the specifics with Jiang He!” Yang Zhenshan instructed.

”Yes!” Chengche and Qinwu replied.

These were minor matters and neither of them cared much about having specific duties; the importance lay not in their tasks. However, since Yang Zhenshan had tasked them to form three patrolling squads, that’s what they’d do.

”Next is about the trading company and the navy. Luo Shang will be the chief shopkeeper of Yang Family Trading Company, Zhen Yang the second shopkeeper, and Lv Xinghe the third shopkeeper. Your next task is to first open up trade routes to Liaodong, Jiangnan, and Fuhai and connect them with Star Moon Island. After these routes are opened, you can then expand to the trade routes of the East South Sea Domain.”

”Additionally, choose a suitable place to establish a glass workshop and salt fields. Sell the glass products and refined salt to the East South Sea Domain and the southern dynasties.”

”As for the specifics, you can discuss that amongst yourselves!”

Yang Zhenshan was only responsible for assigning tasks and wouldn’t manage the details. He had plenty of experience as a hands-off manager.

”Lastly, the navy. The navy will escort the merchant ships of the trading company. Luo Jingsong will be the Navy Commander, and Wu Zhan the Deputy Commander. Each year, three tenths of the trading company’s profits will be allocated to the navy for military expenses.”

”The navy’s current strength is still very weak; you must train a lot more!”

The five hundred sailors trained by Luo Jingsong were nothing more than a rabble in Yang Zhenshan’s eyes.

But Yang Zhenshan planned to invest a significant amount of Spiritual Spring Water into Star Moon Island, which would undoubtedly enhance the strength of the navy.

Yang Zhenshan did not intend to establish an overly large navy; the current five hundred men were indeed a bit few, but even in future expansions, the number would not exceed one thousand at most.

Yang Zhenshan aspired to take the route of elite forces and nurture a number of formidable martial artists, rather than a large number of ordinary soldiers.

Mainly because he could not support too many people.

”Wang Lei, Li Chang, select a hundred people from the previous guards. From now on, these hundred people will serve as the Yang Family Guards.”

”In the future on Star Moon Island, there is no need for the Yang family to keep that many guards. The original twenty personal followers are retained, and with the addition of a hundred people selected, a guard force of one hundred and twenty people is sufficient.”

”These guards don’t actually need to do much on a daily basis, they just need to train, and if someone from the Yang family goes out, they will follow and protect them.”

”Although the island seems to have few people now, the power in Yang Zhenshan’s hands is not small at all.”

”There are two Innate Martial Artists on the island, namely Yang Zhenshan and Yu Qingyi, as well as two Half-step Innate Martial Artists, Wu Zhan and Luo Jingsong. There are eighteen Postnatal Ninth Layer Martial Artists, with Wang Lei, Li Chang, Wang Jing and others having reached the Postnatal Ninth Layer. There are forty-two Postnatal Eighth Layer Martial Artists, and nearly two hundred Postnatal Seventh Layer Martial Artists.”

”Most of these people are the personal followers of Yang Zhenshan and guards of the Yang family.”

”However, there are considerably fewer other martial artists. There are about five hundred Postnatal Martial Artists below the Postnatal Seventh Layer, and about three hundred ordinary martial artists. These were previously servants of the Yang family, all of whom received training in the Guard Camp, but with only three years of training, their cultivation is present but not very strong, mostly below the Postnatal Fifth Layer.”

”These were originally the powers of the Yang family; now they have just all moved to Star Moon Island. Star Moon Island itself had no power to speak of, and the three thousand islanders recruited by Luo Jingsong were ordinary people who previously lived in hardship and struggled to have enough to eat, let alone cultivate.”

”As for the navy that Luo Jingsong formed, it’s much the same, except for the guards that Yang Zhenshan had left on the island, the rest were just ordinary young and strong adults.”

”However, this is not a problem. Yang Zhenshan believes that with his own ability, it will not be long before the island will see a surge of martial artists.”

”After arranging these matters, Yang Zhenshan began to act as a hands-off shopkeeper.”

”Of course, he isn’t truly hands-off.”

”While Jiang He and Yang Chengche were busy setting up the government, Yang Zhenshan also chose a residence in the city to serve as the Book Collection Pavilion of Star Moon Island.”

”Cultivation Techniques of Martial Arts are one of the cornerstones of a Martial Arts Force, and Yang Zhenshan certainly owns no shortage of techniques.”

”When he destroyed Star Moon Sect, Yang Zhenshan took away all the Martial Arts Cultivation Techniques of the sect.”

”When he conquered Yemi City, he also collected all the Martial Arts Cultivation Techniques gathered by the Wuliang Royal Court into the Spiritual Spring Space.”

”In addition, over the years, the Yang family has acquired many Martial Arts Cultivation Techniques, especially the Innate Cultivation Techniques and insights from the Great Rong Dynasty’s Book Collection Building, of which he had many copies made.”

”It can be said that Star Moon Island is now in no shortage of Martial Arts Cultivation Methods, from the Body Refining Realm to the Postnatal and then to the Innate, all kinds of techniques are available.”

”In the Book Collection Pavilion, after Yang Zhenshan piled various techniques in the rooms, he summoned Jiang He and instructed: ’The front yard stores the Body Refining Realm and Postnatal Realm Cultivation Methods, while the back yard stores the Innate Cultivation Techniques and Innate cultivation insights!’”

”’Select a few civil servants to take care of this place, classify and store these techniques, and if time permits, find some more people to make copies of these techniques as backups!’”

”Looking at the techniques in his hand, Jiang He asked, ’Can these techniques be shown to others?’”

”’Yes, but it’s better not to read too much if the cultivation level is not there. It’d be a waste of time. Those who have reached the Refining Power Level can view the Postnatal Techniques here, and those who have reached the Postnatal Eighth Layer can view the Innate Techniques here,’ said Yang Zhenshan.”

”These techniques do not need to be hidden. They are relatively common techniques; even in the Great Rong Dynasty, they could be freely perused, so naturally it’s the same here on Star Moon Island.”

”’Oh, then I understand!’ replied Jiang He.”

”In the following days, Jiang He became immersed in busyness.”

”At this time, perhaps the busiest person on Star Moon Island was Jiang He. He needed to establish the government offices. There was no shortage of manpower; many of the Yang family’s servants were literate and numerate, capable of serving as clerks in the government office.”

”The main issue was the sheer amount of work needed to be done, with various departments in the government office requiring establishment, as well as the construction of primary and secondary schools.”

”For now, there’s no effort spared to mobilize the strong adults to demolish the city walls; they must make do with what they have.”