"The imperial court will not interfere with the areas that the guilds are good at, such as medicine, equipment, inns, etc. They will only provide services to the players in basic industries such as food and iron ore, which the guilds are not willing to enter or are not good at."
Ouyang Shuo's stand had completely warmed the hearts of everyone present here.
Compared to the immediate benefits, Ouyang Shuo placed more importance on the players' recognition of Great Xia. He wanted the players to have a sense of belonging. After all, those who participated in the siege of the monster nests were all elite combat players.
Furthermore, although the imperial court would not fight with the guilds, the rental of shops and business taxes could generate stable income. It could cover the expenses of building the camp and even generate profits.
Since that was the case, why would Ouyang Shuo be calculative?
After settling the matter of the camp, the next step was to discuss the specific issues of defense.
Ouyang Shuo hoped to give each guild a rough battle zone, with the province as the boundary. He wanted to make sure that each province had a stable fighting force.
"No problem!"
Because of the sweet offer he had given, the guild leader naturally knew how to return the favor.
After settling a few important matters, Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting. The specific matters of defense would naturally be discussed by the Privy Council and the guilds. It was not something that could be discussed in a short period of time.
...
Gaia Year 6, 17th of January, Shanhai City.
There was less than a month left to the Spring Festival. Ouyang Shuo once again started to receive the officials intensively. He wanted to make arrangements for the Spring Festival before the government closed for the holidays.
In the imperial study, Ouyang Shuo summoned the head of the Department of Agriculture, Jia Sixie.
Food was the most important thing to the people.
The status of agriculture in the dynasty was naturally unquestionable. Great Xia's agricultural technology was the most advanced in the world. It was just that after the founding of the dynasty, Ouyang Shuo had never paid attention to it.
Now that he summoned Jia Sixie, there was naturally a change in the situation.
In the fourth system update, Gaia had activated Natural Disaster Mode. Even though Great Xia was protected by the gods and had good weather, its food production was still unavoidably affected.
In addition, in the past year, a large number of refugees had spawned, causing the population to increase rapidly. There were a few large-scale wars within the year, and the consumption of food was also very shocking.
Even with Great Xia's food production, it was still somewhat lacking.
As tens of millions of players migrated to Great Xia, it ushered in a very sudden surge in population. The crisis of food shortage was gradually revealed.
The attack of the beast tide was the last straw that crushed the granary of Great Xia.
Not to mention that a large number of farmlands had been destroyed, in order to provide disaster relief, the imperial court had to open the granaries to help the victims. The amount of food consumed every day was calculated in millions.
If it weren't for the fact that Great Xia's grain reserve strategy was in place, they might not have been able to hold on.
Jia Sixie was undoubtedly extremely sharp. He'd already caught onto the food crisis when it had just appeared and swiftly reported it to the higher-ups, thus drawing the attention of Ouyang Shuo.
The other territories didn't have to worry about the sudden increase in population, so they weren't aware of the approaching crisis.
Jia Sixie said, "In the last half a month, the Department of Agriculture has sent officials to all the provinces to check on the state of the local granaries. On the whole, it's good, but there are some granaries that don't have enough food for disaster relief as required."
Ouyang Shuo's face darkened. "Storing food for disaster relief is the basic duty of local officials. Someone actually dares to be perfunctory in this aspect. Their intentions are deserving of death."
Jia Sixie did not dare to refute, he knew that the King was angry.
"The Department of Agriculture has passed on the findings of the investigation to the Department of Internal Affairs to handle." Although Ouyang Shuo had brushed it off lightly, with the intervention of the Internal Affairs Council, it was likely to set off a huge storm in the court.
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
"Can the food reserves last until the next harvest?" Ouyang Shuo asked.
Jia Sixie did not dare to carelessly boast. He hesitantly said, "According to the current situation, there will definitely be some food shortages. I'm more worried that the merchants will smell the business opportunity and take the opportunity to hoard food. The farmers will also subconsciously be unwilling to sell their food reserves, which will further exacerbate the food shortage. "
Ouyang Shuo nodded. Jia Sixie's worries weren't without reason.
Great Xia had always maintained a relatively open and relaxed business environment. As long as the merchants didn't hoard food, the yamen wouldn't be able to do anything to them.
After thinking for a moment, Ouyang Shuo said, "After you come down, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce will work together to think of a way to eliminate this hidden danger in advance."
There were plenty of opportunities to make money in Great Xia. With the involvement of the Department of Commerce, the number of merchants who would take the risk would be greatly reduced. After all, if the merchants wanted to survive in Great Xia, it wasn't a good thing to offend the imperial court.
"Understood!"
Jia Sixie nodded. With the King's personal command, things would be much easier to handle. Otherwise, the Department of Commerce wouldn't take the request of the Department of Agriculture seriously, and that would be a huge problem.
In the case of a food shortage, internal control could only treat the symptoms, but not the root cause.
Ouyang Shuo was going to inform the Department of Finance to take advantage of the TUP's establishment and the opportunity to use the convenience of ocean trade to purchase a large amount of food in Southeast Asia.
He could even instruct the merchants to purchase food from Java. As long as there was profit to be made, there would naturally be merchants who would take the risk and smuggle food behind the territory.
As long as it was done properly, this food crisis might turn into an opportunity.
Thinking of this, Ouyang Shuo said, "Come in!"
"Here!"
"Summon the Minister of Finance, Fan Li."
"Yes!"
Fan Li hurried over very quickly.
"Minister Jia, explain the situation to Sir Fan," Ouyang Shuo said.
"Yes!"
Jia Sixie didn't expect the King to act so swiftly and decisively. He directly summoned the Minister of Finance for a face-to-face discussion. He didn't dare to be negligent and explained the imperial court's food crisis in detail.
Fan Li was astute and immediately understood the King's intention. He said, "The King wants to borrow the Department of Commerce to conduct a large-scale purchase of food?"
"Smart!"
Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, "A crisis is an opportunity. We have no way to judge how the beast tide will wreak havoc in the first half of next year, whether it will intensify or slow down. We also have no way to judge whether there will be more natural disasters in the wilderness in the first half of next year. But since we smell an opportunity, we naturally don't mind taking a gamble. "
"How much funds can the imperial court use for the purchase of food?" Ouyang Shuo asked.
Fan Li's eyes narrowed. He realized that the King was going to do something big this time. He thought for a moment and replied, "It's almost the end of the year, and the various expenditures have already been accounted for. Excluding the emergency funds reserved for next year, we can use at least eight to ten million gold coins. "
Great Xia was indeed rich and overbearing.
The consecutive wars at the end of the year, coupled with the expansion of the army, consumed millions or even tens of millions of gold coins each time. Even so, the imperial court was still able to fork out tens of millions of gold coins.
According to the current price of food, the amount of food purchased with ten million gold coins was enough to support Great Xia's consumption for five months. If the amount of food was piled up together, it would probably be equivalent to the volume of Shanhai City.
Fan Li's boldness could not be said to be small.
Jia Sixie, who was at the side, heard this and his eyes lit up.
This time, Jia Sixie could finally swallow his worries. If the imperial court purchased such a batch of food, the crisis would be resolved, and the merchants would naturally not have the conditions to hoard food.
All the crises would no longer exist.
Unexpectedly, Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, "It's not enough!"
"Your Majesty, please enlighten us!" Fan Li was a little confused.
Ouyang Shuo said, "If it's just to resolve the crisis, then it's naturally enough. But what if the two predicted disasters occur in the first half of next year? What will the situation be like? "
"…"
Fan Li and Jia Sixie looked at each other and saw the seriousness in each other's eyes.
There was already an insufficient amount of food. The reason why no one had realized the impending crisis was because they had a stable expectation of the food production in the first half of next year, so they did not take it seriously.
If the expectation failed, the wilderness would definitely be in chaos.
It could even be said that if they were not careful, the people would be plunged into misery and suffering.
Fan Li thought for a moment and said, "Forgive me for being blunt, but the two disasters are very uncertain. Isn't it a little inappropriate to place our bets here?"
A proactive and stable policy was the right way to govern an empire.
Fan Li's words were from the bottom of his heart.
Ouyang Shuo gave a gratified smile. "Your Majesty is loyal to the country. This King is very pleased."
"I dare not accept Your Majesty's praise!"
"It's just that." Ouyang Shuo's smile vanished. His gaze seemed to penetrate the void and see the unknown. He said leisurely, "With This King's intuition and judgment, this is definitely not a gamble in the pure sense. If I'm not wrong, there's at least a fifty percent chance that the worst case scenario will happen. "
Ouyang Shuo could now figure out Gaia's thoughts.
In the past five years, Gaia was just testing its limits. It was not really ruthless to the players' tests. As long as they responded appropriately, the Overlord would still be able to handle the wilderness with ease.
Gaia's sixth year would definitely be a watershed.
The upcoming test would only become more and more cruel. There was no room for maneuver.
Be it the Silver Hand, the Azure Emblem, or the Great Xia Dynasty, it was impossible to say that they would be able to play their own little schemes and constantly attack cities and territories.
If that was the case, what was the point?!
What Gaia wanted were powerhouses that could survive in the extremely harsh environment of Planet Hope. They were definitely not oligarchs that relied on their size to constantly bully the weak.
Based on this, Ouyang Shuo made such a judgment.
In Gaia's sixth year, there would definitely be a wave of crisis that would cause great trouble for the territory.
When Fan Li heard this, he took a deep breath and nodded. "If there's a fifty percent chance, it's indeed worth the gamble."
In the face of such great benefits, Fan Li was willing to accompany His Majesty even if there was a forty or thirty percent chance of success, much less a fifty percent chance.
Fan Li did not doubt His Majesty's judgment at all. Most Kings had foresight that ordinary people did not have. The development of the Great Xia had already proved that His Majesty was a far-sighted person.
After successfully convincing Fan Li, Ouyang Shuo smiled. "In that case, let's borrow ten million from the Bank of the Four Seas and conduct a large grain purchase."
With the Bank of the Four Seas' current size, there was no risk in borrowing money.
"Yes!"
Fan Li was a little excited. This was a great deal.
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