As the Spring Festival approached and the wilderness changed, the whole world's attention was attracted by the beast tide. After the exposure of the Silver Hand and the Azure Badge, the subsequent impact was slowly fermenting.
The entire wilderness was surging with undercurrents.
Against this background, the Great Xia Dynasty secretly launched a large-scale purchase of food.
A huge amount of money was quietly transferred to hundreds of chambers of commerce through the commerce office. Then, through the chambers of commerce, they went to Johor, Java, Piao, and even the Peacock Dynasty and the Persian Empire to purchase large quantities of food.
Some chambers of commerce acted directly, while others went through middlemen.
Because the purchase price offered by the Great Xia merchants was slightly higher than the market price, the merchants of various countries acted upon the news and dumped their hoarded food without considering the domestic food storage situation.
Even the merchants of the Great Zhou Dynasty in the Huaxia region joined in this feast.
Twenty million gold coins might seem like a lot, but when it was divided among the Hundred Merchant Guilds and five or six countries, it wasn't a big deal for the ocean trade that made millions of gold coins every day.
Therefore, the Great Xia Dynasty's food purchase caused a small stir among the grain merchants and did not alert the entire market.
The Great Xia Dynasty was hidden behind the scenes throughout the entire process.
At the same time, the agriculture office formulated a farmland reclamation plan to reclaim another 200 million mu of arable land on the basis of the existing arable land to meet the growing demand for food.
What did 200 million mu mean?
During the Han and Tang Dynasties, the total area of arable land in the country was between 500 million mu and 600 million mu; during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the area of arable land increased to about 700 million mu.
After industrialization, the area of arable land reached 1.8 billion mu, which was basically a peak.
Therefore, with the conditions of the wilderness, it was not a problem for the Great Xia to reclaim another 200 million mu of arable land. The real problem was who would do the farming after the arable land was reclaimed.
In ancient times, the area of arable land was often linked to the population.
On average, a farmer could take care of 10 mu of arable land. Even if the farming standards of the Great Xia Dynasty were the world's leading farmers, and with the convenience of industrialization, it was at most 15 or 16 mu.
200 million mu of arable land required at least 12 million farmers to work.
The new population of the Great Xia Dynasty was dominated by players. Although casual and professional players accounted for the majority, few were willing to farm.
For this reason, the imperial court specially introduced the farm model.
The local government would provide a certain amount of financial subsidies and technical support to encourage players to build farms on the newly reclaimed arable land. They would also give preferential tax treatment.
Specifically, the agricultural tax would be exempted in the first year and reduced by half in the second year.
The Bank of the Four Seas was also willing to provide agricultural loans to players and support them in managing their farms.
With a complete set of policies in place, it was extremely attractive to players. This was especially true for casual players.
The constant updating of Achievement Value had the greatest impact on this group of people.
If they continued to play around in the game world, they might not even qualify for basic aid when they arrived on Hope Planet.
However, if they were to switch to a Lifestyle class and start from scratch, they wouldn't be able to keep up with the progress of Lifestyle players. They would have long since been squeezed dry.
Under such circumstances, running a farm was a good choice.
Farms were not as simple as farming. Corn, soybeans, cotton, potatoes, sugarcane, mulberry trees, etc., could be grown. Chickens, ducks, pigs, and even sheep could be raised. It was practically all-encompassing.
Even vegetables were in great demand in the market. Shanhai City, for example, consumed an astonishing amount of vegetables every day. The surrounding villages were simply unable to supply all of them. Most of the vegetables were transported to Shanhai City by sea.
If a farm was well managed, it could even be used to overtake others.
Therefore, as soon as the Imperial Court's Farm Farming Model in the County Level was released, it caused a wave of heated discussions and endless applications.
The earlier the players registered with the county government office, the more likely they would be able to pick a good location. They would also be able to complete the rental and loan procedures in advance and receive vocational training.
In fact, they would even be able to make early plans for the farm and build the houses in advance.
This winter was destined to be a hot one.
… …
January 20th, Summer Palace.
In the Everlasting Palace, Ouyang Shuo was chatting with Lin Jing.
As the Snow Rose Mercenary Group moved their headquarters to Shanhai City, the family moved frequently. When Lin Jing had nothing to do, she would "drop by" the Everlasting Palace to see Yu 'er and Luo' er.
Ouyang Shuo was naturally happy to see this happen.
When Lin Jing settled in Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo naturally received her grandly and gave her a Duke's mansion for her and Xie Siyun to live in. This made Lin Jing an important member of the royal family.
Even a straightforward man like Bloody Romance was envious of such treatment. She said half-jokingly and half-seriously, "This is great. The Baleful Blood Mercenary Group is going to lose their championship position."
Indeed, with Lin Jing's status, the future development of the Snow Rose Mercenary Group in Great Xia would definitely be better than the Baleful Blood Mercenary Group.
"This is called fate. There's no point in being envious!"
Bloody Romance could only accept this cruel reality.
In fact, when the guilds retreated from the Royal City, the transcendent status that they had maintained all this time no longer existed. They were no longer on equal footing with the lords.
Crimson Romance had a clear understanding of this.
"The farm construction plan that you guys have recently formulated has caused a sensation!" As the two chatted, the topic shifted to the nearest farm. Lin Jing smiled and said, "It makes me want to become a farm owner."
For city people, becoming a farm owner was actually the deepest wish of many people.
Because of this, as soon as the plan was released, it set off a wave of enthusiasm among the players. Not only casual players, but even Life Profession players had their eyes on this field.
In particular, Life Profession players related to agriculture were the most enthusiastic.
Now, even the guilds were restless. Although they did not expect to rely on the farm to make a profit, it was not bad to build a super farm as the guild's logistics base.
It could also provide a place for the guild members to relax. It could be said to be the best of both worlds.
In just three days, more than three million players had signed up for the construction of the farm, and the number was still increasing at an alarming rate. Ouyang Shuo was somewhat surprised.
Such a grand occasion reminded Ouyang Shuo of the ancient times, when high officials and nobles fought to buy farms. How similar were the two?!
"Could it be that Great Xia is going to nurture a new generation of landlords?" Ouyang Shuo said self-deprecatingly.
Of course, this was a joke. There was a fundamental difference between the two.
In the prosperous Great Xia Dynasty, agriculture was only a basic industry. It could not become a pillar or even the only industry like in ancient times.
Coupled with the increasingly mature industry, there was naturally no way to talk about the landlords.
Hearing Lin Jing say that he wanted to be a farm owner, Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, "Aunty, why do you have to give up what is close at hand and seek what is far away? There is a royal farm in the western suburbs of Shanhai City called Xilin Farm. It has everything you need. Whenever you want to experience life on the farm, you can go there anytime. "
"There is such a good place?" Lin Jing's eyes lit up.
Seeing this, Ouyang Shuo briefly introduced Xilin Farm.
Speaking of which, the origin of this farm was too deep. It could be traced back to the time when the territory was still a town. It was the territory's first farm. In the beginning, other than growing vegetables, it was mainly used to rear wild goats and horses.
When the territory developed, the farm naturally became the royal farm.
Because Bing'er liked it, Ouyang Shuo spent a lot of effort on Xilin Farm. Other than the regular goats, wild cows, and horses, the farm even had tigers, leopards, rhinoceroses, and other ferocious beasts.
Other than growing vegetables, there were also various facilities such as fish ponds and flower beds.
Basically, Xilin Farm could be seen as a royal courtyard. Regardless of whether it was for leisure, hunting, or spring excursions, one could obtain the greatest degree of satisfaction here.
When Lin Jing heard this, she was instantly attracted and no longer had the intention to open up a new farm.
Ouyang Shuo lightly moved the topic of conversation to something else when he saw this.
In fact, the imperial court's farm plan this time was only to solve the problem of arable land and food. Only a few people would be able to understand Ouyang Shuo's real intention.
No matter what Ouyang Shuo did, his ultimate intention was actually to link up with Planet of Hope. The real purpose of attracting the players to join the construction of the farm was to increase the players' sense of identity with Great Xia.
Even though the players had settled in Great Xia, their thinking had never changed. They had never regarded themselves as a part of Great Xia. They settled in Great Xia as a way of survival.
Between the two, it was more like a cooperation or a parasitic relationship.
Even his aunt, Lin Jing, when she was chatting with Ouyang Shuo just now, didn't she also say "you guys, you guys"?!
The players who were deeply influenced by modern democracy and freedom couldn't possibly have any sense of belonging to a feudal dynasty like Great Xia.
Perhaps, some of them would even feel very disgusted.
Precisely because of this, when Ouyang Shuo defined the Great Xia Dynasty from the start, he didn't want to define it as a feudal dynasty. There was absolutely no market in Planet of Hope and it was impossible to obtain the recognition of the players.
The more this was the case, the more Ouyang Shuo wanted to obtain the support of the players.
Not to mention pledging allegiance, he had to at least make them acknowledge the ideals of Great Xia and acknowledge that they were a part of Great Xia. Only then, he could twist these forces into a rope.
The construction of the farm was Ouyang Shuo's first attempt.
In order to increase the players' sense of identity with Great Xia, Ouyang Shuo had many other plans in his mind. However, the players had just settled down and he couldn't be too hasty. He had to take things step by step.
The farm was undoubtedly the best breakthrough point. He aimed at the most easily infected group of casual players. Using this as a radiation, he could gradually use the players' social network to gradually infiltrate the entire group of players.
In the future, Ouyang Shuo had a whole set of plans to deal with the most difficult and core group of combat players. However, after chatting with Lin Jing, Ouyang Shuo realized that the time was far from ripe.
"Take it slow!"
Ouyang Shuo smiled in his heart.
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