On April 23, the expeditionary army escorted nearly 5,000 prisoners and returned to Shanhai Town.
When evacuating from the Gale Tribe Valley, a small episode happened. After learning that the tribe was captured, the great wizard of the Haifeng tribe did not want to be captured, so he committed suicide by taking poison in the ancestral temple.
Upon hearing the news of the great wizard's suicide, there was another commotion in the Galewind Tribe, and it seemed that those mountain savages were about to rise up to resist again. In order to appease these savages, and at the same time considering the impact on the surrounding savage tribes, Ouyang Shuo deliberately stayed in the valley for an extra day to hold a funeral for the great wizard. This move largely dispelled the hatred of the ordinary mountain barbarians of the Galewind Tribe towards Shanhai Town.
As Ge Hongliang expected, after learning that the Haifeng tribe was captured by the army from Shanhai Town within a day, the surrounding two medium-sized tribes and six small tribes immediately sent people to contact the great wizard of the Xuanniao tribe, hoping to He coordinated in the middle and expressed their respective goodwill.
Invisibly, the Xuanniao tribe replaced the Galewind tribe and became the talker in this area. This made the tribal leader Shi Xiong extremely proud, and admired the decision made by the great wizard at that time. Seeing that Shi Xiong was getting carried away, the great wizard had no choice but to remind him. The reason why the Xuanniao tribe has its current status is all because of the support of Shanhai Town behind it. You must not get complacent, neglect all tribes, and affect Shanhai Town plan of.
After being reminded by the great wizard, Shi Xiong just woke up. In order to express gratitude to Shanhai Town, two pairs of hummingbirds were sent to show respect. Ouyang Shuo was extremely satisfied with Shi Xiong's way. These hummingbirds were given to the Military Intelligence Department by Ouyang Shuo. He also confessed to Song San that if possible, it is best to learn the secret method of hummingbird breeding from the Xuanniao tribe to further expand the number of hummingbirds. These small things are secret weapons for collecting and transmitting information. When used properly, they are worth the fighting power of a battalion.
After returning to Shanhai Town, the 600 surviving members of the hunting team were all disarmed and sent to serve in the iron mine for two years. After the service is over, restore the status of free people in Shanhai Town. In this way, the number of miners in the iron ore farm reached 1,000, and it was upgraded to a high-level iron ore farm. As the Jiafang Division and the Bow and Crossbow Division gradually got on the right track, the demand for iron ore became greater and greater. This batch of captured personnel just came in handy.
These members of the hunting team had the blood of Shanhai Town soldiers on their hands, so Ouyang Shuo naturally would not forgive them easily. Sending them to the iron mines for mining is precisely to wear off their hostility and physical strength. He specifically confessed to the director of the iron mine that for this group of servicemen, they only need to eat three meals a day to maintain enough food and clothing. Of course, the most basic human rights are still required, and they cannot be beaten and scolded at will, otherwise they will not be forgiven.
Earlier Ge Hongliang suggested that some of the 600 people be selected to be added to the infantry battalion and city defense battalion, but Ouyang Shuo rejected it. Anyway, there are those new tribes showing their favor, and there is no need to worry about not having high-quality infantry soldiers, so there is no need to use these restless elements.
The remaining 4,000 people were all sent to Beihai Town by Ouyang Shuo. Among them, 2,500 people were assigned to the Beimu Saltworks to start the final phase of construction of the saltworks. After completion, the Beimu Salt Field will reach a saturated 10,000 mu. The sudden influx of 4,000 people directly pushed Beihai Town to the size of a third-tier township. After the construction of the basic buildings was completed, they could be promoted immediately.
Ouyang Shuo also considered whether to keep these 4,000 people in the base camp of Shanhai Town, so as to reach the full population of 10,000 people. It's not an easy thing to be promoted to a first-level county seat. First of all, the four indicators of politics, economy, culture, and military are required to reach at least 45 points, and Shanhai Town has already met the requirements.
More importantly, the lord needs to apply to the system in advance to be promoted to a first-level county seat. After the basic conditions are met, the system will arrange for large-scale bandits or bandits to attack the player's territory three days later. Only those territories that are successfully defended can be promoted smoothly.
This kind of application is not unlimited. Once it fails, it will take half a month to apply again. If you fail three times in a row, the territory will be permanently ineligible for promotion. Therefore, before making full preparations, Ouyang Shuo would not act rashly.
After returning to the territory, Ouyang Shuo immediately summoned the Construction Department and the Chariot and Horse Department to arrange the construction of the horse farm in the valley. In addition to repairing the road from the Xuanniao tribe to the Gale Valley, the Construction Department also had to renovate the existing buildings in the valley according to the requirements of the Chariot and Horse Department. Some unused buildings should be demolished resolutely. In addition, the level has to redesign a suspension bridge to enhance its defense capabilities.
Ouyang Shuo confessed to Zhao Dewang that he wanted him to use as much labor as possible from the various mountain tribes, as long as they were paid with food, those mountain tribes would be absolutely happy. Ouyang Shuo believed that after tasting the sweetness, those tribes would gradually eliminate their resistance to Shanhai Town and cooperate with Shanhai Town sincerely.
After the army rested for three days, Ouyang Shuo began to adjust the camps. The city defense battalion monopolizes the high-level military battalion in the city and officially takes over the city defense duties. The Construction Department built another high-level military camp twenty miles west of the city and handed it over to the infantry battalion, referred to as the West Camp. The city west camp is located in the middle of the edge of the territory and the base camp, and is responsible for the security of the territory in the western area. The western area concentrated the most important industries outside the city of the base camp, and most of the mines, factories, and settlements were concentrated in the western area.
As for the cavalry battalion, it was officially transferred to Friendship Town. Friendship Town built a high-level military camp for the cavalry battalion ten miles north of the city, referred to as the North Camp for short. The camp in the north of the city is like a nail, deeply pierced into the grassland in the center of the basin, responsible for monitoring every move of the nomadic tribes.
The day before the cavalry battalion set off, Ouyang Shuo called Lin Yi to the office, and the two talked secretly for an entire afternoon. As for the specific content of the conversation, apart from Ge Hongliang who was also present at the time, no fourth person knew.
On the eve of May Day, several happy events happened one after another in Shanhai Town.
Through the recruiting hall, Ouyang Shuo recruited a high-level Taoist priest named Ge Yan, who was forty-two years old and looked like an immortal. It is said that he was a descendant of Ge Hong in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. This person is not only proficient in Taoist classics, but also an alchemist, proficient in medicine, and indeed has a bit of the demeanor of Immortal Master Ge Hong back then.
Daoist Ge did not choose to build a Taoist temple in the city, but used three or four days to travel all over the territory. In the end, the site for the construction of the Taoist temple was chosen on a hill ten miles west of the city. The scenery there is beautiful and it is indeed a rare and good place. The theory of feng shui is inherently mysterious. Daoist Ge himself is a brilliant feng shui master, so the places he chooses naturally have deep meanings, and Ouyang Shuo doesn't care about them.
The Taoist temple is a cultural building, which is conducive to improving the cultural index of the territory, so Ouyang Shuo didn't take any money, and ordered the construction department to complete the construction according to Daoist Ge's requirements. After the Taoist temple was built, coupled with Daoist Ge's own blessing, the cultural index of the territory was directly increased by five points.
After the Taoist temple was built, it was named Qingyang Temple by Ge Daochang. He recruited two handymen in the city, picked four orphans as Taoist boys, and left like this leisurely.
The other two buildings in the third-level township, the pawn shop and the inn, have already been completed. With the current situation in Shanhai Town, the Four Seas Bank provides low-interest loans, and the pawnshop is basically a decoration now. Furthermore, the residents of Shanhai Town are basically refugees, and where there are any valuables, they can be pawned at pawnshops. In desperation, the Finance Department had no choice but to personally arrange a shopkeeper to temporarily take over the pawnshop.
The same goes for the inn. Shanhai Town is still a closed territory, and there are no outsiders at all, so naturally there are no top-notch guests. To say that it is empty is to overestimate it. Therefore, no one is willing to take over the current inn. In desperation, it can only be temporarily managed by the Finance Department.
To Ouyang Shuo's surprise, the jewelry shop did not open after it was built. After learning about the situation, Ouyang Shuo deliberately went to find out the reason. After the truth was revealed, he was dumbfounded.
It turns out that there is no shortage of goldsmiths and silversmiths in the territory. The problem is that these craftsmen have all the skills, but they don't have such strong capital. Ancient metal jewelry is generally divided into three materials: gold, silver, and copper, all of which require relatively high-purity gold, silver, and copper. Given that Shanhai Town has just solved the food and clothing situation, who has the strength.
After learning about the situation, Ouyang Shuo immediately made a decision that the Lord's Mansion will take over the jewelry shop, and the profits will be used for the daily expenses of the Lord's Mansion. Ouyang Shuo immediately invested 100 gold coins, and through the magical function of the storage pouch, it was turned into pieces of high-purity gold, silver and copper ingots.
Because the jewelry shop is owned by the lord's mansion, Ouyang Shuo specially selected a shopkeeper in the mansion to be in charge of the jewelry shop's business. Recommended by Yingyou, he chose Yingyou's maid, Siqin, to be in charge of this matter. Si Qin has been with Yingyou for a while, and she has learned a lot of business skills under her influence. Ouyang Shuo was relieved to leave the jewelry store to her.
Another happy event is about the colorful silkworm. After nearly two months of cultivation, the breeding of colored silkworms has finally started to get on the right track. The first silk woven from colored silk, as expected by Ouyang Shuo, has been certified by the system as a special product of the territory and can be sold through grocery stores. In this way, Shanhai Town has three specialties of the territory: Sanhua wine, pekoe tea and colored silk.
As the saying goes, what is rare is the most expensive, and the price of a piece of colored silk reached an astonishing ten gold coins, making it the third golden rooster in Shanhai Town that can only lay eggs. After Ouyang Shuo got the news, he immediately decided to expand the scale of colored silkworm breeding. The Ministry of Finance directly provides a low-interest loan of two hundred gold coins to upgrade the entire textile industry chain. In this process, the Textile Association gradually began to play a role.