Gaia Year 7, 15th of January, the capital.
Under Jiang Shang's operation, the rumors about Zhili Province had been suppressed, leaving only the undercurrents. The first governor, Yitian Wenjing, had officially taken up his post yesterday.
To express his support for the governor, Ouyang Shuo personally inscribed the plaque of the governor's office, "Just and Honorable". This meant that the capital governor of Great Xia was different from the capital governor of Tang Dynasty.
At the same time, to prevent excessive discussion and speculation, the imperial court announced the positioning of the new district, which was "Industrial Revolution Frontier, Steam Civilization Pioneer City and Manufacturing Base".
The imperial court also said that the overall planning of the new district was being developed and would be completed by March. By then, the imperial court would also formulate a supporting access mechanism according to the new district plan.
Only then did the heated discussion about the new district in the capital slightly quell.
It should be noted that although the new district was an industrial zone, it did not mean that any factory could be built there. For example, the steel mill and coking coal factory were all moved out of the city.
…
After nearly three months, the largest reorganization of the army in Great Xia was finally completed. The five newly formed armies were already in place and were heading to their encampments.
With the establishment of the Yulin Royal Guards, the Privy Council made a major adjustment to the encampments of the Imperial Guards, City Guards, and the Yulin Royal Guards.
Needless to say, with the establishment of the capital governor's office, the entire capital area was under the control of the Imperial Guards. In this way, the city guards were able to free up their hands and expand their defensive area.
The first City Guards Corps was stationed at the satellite city, Beihai City, guarding the southern gate of the capital.
The second City Guards Corps was still stationed at Mulan Fortress, guarding the northern gate of the capital.
The third City Guards Corps was stationed at Yunnan Province, the fourth was stationed at Chuannan Province, and the fifth was stationed at Lingnan Province. Together, they formed the first perimeter of the capital.
The newly formed Yulin Royal Guards took over Chuanbei Province, Xiangnan Province, Jiangchuan Province, as well as Minnan Province, forming the second perimeter of the capital.
This allowed the Xiangjiang army to focus on preparing for the war of unification of Huaxia.
As the Hedong army headed to Hedong Province, the Fengxiang army headed to Liaojin Province, together with the Beijiang army and Soaring Eagle army stationed at Xihai Province, the 1.4 million soldiers formed the northern defense line of Great Xia.
The Mongolian Empire could no longer invade the borders of Great Xia.
The last one was the African Theater of Operations.
With the departure of the Ravenous Wolf Army and the North African Army to Africa, the North African Garrison had to support four army groups with just two provinces, a total of 1.4 million soldiers.
For this reason, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to instruct the Bureau of Military Affairs to send batch after batch of provisions to the African war zone.
Even so, it was only treating the symptoms and not the root cause.
Because of this, Ouyang Shuo issued an edict ordering the African Theater of Operations Command, which had already been established, to immediately mobilize and start the battle of the century to occupy East Africa.
The first batch of targets was South Sudan and Kenya.
South Sudan had a total of one million players, and Kenya had a total of four million players. The Imperial Guards of both countries added up were no more than 250,000. Even with the addition of the territorial army and combat players, they still weren't a match for Great Xia.
Moreover, the aftermath of the natural disaster in Africa had yet to subside and there was an extreme shortage of food. As long as Bai Qi, the commander of the African Warzone, played the food card well, it would be a piece of cake.
For this reason, Ouyang Shuo issued an order to directly take out half of last year's food reserves and transport them to the North Africa Guardian's Mansion. They had to take advantage of the natural disaster and quickly conquer the East Africa region before the European Empire could react.
With the edict, the million-strong army was immediately mobilized.
At the same time, on the route from the North Sea Bay to the Gulf of Aden, a thousand cargo ships belonging to the [Hua Xia Shipping Group] transported food and supplies back and forth under the protection of the Indian Ocean Fleet.
Great Xia, which had been asleep for three months, bared its fangs once again.
…
Imperial Palace, Imperial Study.
Although the war in East Africa was raging, Ouyang Shuo did not pay much attention to it. The matters of the battlefield were handed over to the Grand Council and the African Theater of Operations. He did not interfere.
Professional matters should be left to the professionals.
As the emperor, Ouyang Shuo's focus was still on the internal affairs of the dynasty.
Gaia had stopped spawning refugees, which meant that the population growth had entered an extremely slow period. However, the imperial court's industrialization, collectivization, and corporate system were being accelerated, so there was an urgent shortage of talents.
If there was no large amount of fresh blood to replenish the population, it would definitely affect the speed of the imperial court's strategic advancement.
Under the situation where the population could not increase, the only way was to improve the quality of the population, or in other words, to make full use of the existing human resources.
And the group that wasted the most human resources was undoubtedly the huge group of players.
As the Great Zhou Dynasty continued to decline, out of the 100 million players in the Huaxia region, 90 million people lived under the rule of Great Xia. Most of them had been drifting away from the dynasty's system all along.
Roughly counting, how many players had Great Xia absorbed into its system until now?
Firstly, they absorbed the guild's elite players into the army.
Secondly, a group of players ran farms and shops in the imperial court. They were considered to have half a foot into the dynasty's system.
Thirdly, a few players like Meng Zhida who were deeply trusted by Ouyang Shuo were lucky enough to enter the Great Xia bureaucracy. This included professional talents recruited by a group of organizations such as schools and banks.
Apart from that, the rest did not seem to have anything to do with the imperial court. The utilization rate was less than 1%.
That was a great waste.
Revealing the players' external identities, these people were engaged in various industries in reality. Together, they weaved a complicated and tightly organized social network that was capable of handling all social production matters.
In other words, every player was considered a talent.
But why hadn't anyone noticed this before?
Firstly, after six years of change, the feudal lords aside, even the adventurer players themselves had completed a change of identity. As they got deeper into the game, they gradually forgot about their actual jobs in reality.
Six years was enough for a person to change their way of living.
Secondly, there were refugees coming into the territory continuously. Naturally, the feudal lords would make use of the refugees subconsciously and treated them as their people. They always felt that there was a layer of distance between them and the adventurer players. They could not get close to them.
It was just like how Ouyang Shuo kept his distance from the adventurer players in the beginning.
Naturally, the reason why they were not close to the adventurer players was not because of the feudal lords.
To the adventurer players, how could they change their minds so easily? They entered the game world together, so why did they have to live under the feudal lords' rule and obey their management?
The indignation only disappeared gradually in the sixth year of Gaia.
The disappearance of the indignation was not because the players had thought things through, but because the situation had changed. Firstly, the world was set in stone. The royal city was gone, and the glory was gone. The players had no choice but to seek refuge under the dynasty's rule.
It was no longer possible for the adventurer players to open up a new world outside of the territory.
Secondly, as the Achievement Points were updated in real time, the benefits in the game and the players' personal benefits in reality were closely linked. Hence, everyone dared not play the game with the mentality of a game anymore.
It was contradictory, but it was the reality.
Since the game was equivalent to reality, then for the sake of benefits, the players' surrender was understandable. Humans were social animals. They were extraordinarily adaptable and could quickly adjust their mentality.
Strictly speaking, there was no essential difference between living under the dynasty's rule and living under the royal city's rule. The only difference was the mentality.
Under the royal city's rule, although the players were bound by various laws and regulations, they still regarded the royal city NPCs as virtual existences in their hearts. At the end of the day, they still served the players.
To put it bluntly, there was a natural sense of superiority.
Under the feudal lords' rule, this sense of superiority disappeared and was replaced by a sense of frustration.
"The gap between people is too big."
Perhaps it was because the gap was too big that the players realized that no matter how much they struggled and how hard they worked, they could not make up for such a gap. Their hearts seemed to feel better all of a sudden.
It was easy to understand.
Just like in the real world, people had the heart to compare.
When a person faced a classmate who was only slightly better off than them, they might be envious and jealous and subconsciously compare; but when faced with the richest man in the country, they could not be jealous or compare.
Because the two sides were not on the same level.
When faced with the richest man, ordinary people might ridicule and worship him, but they would never have the heart to compare. Because there was no way to compare, there was naturally no so-called sense of frustration.
In the game world, the situation was the same. Compared to ordinary players, an existence like Ouyang Shuo was even more exaggerated than the richest man in the world.
Therefore, recently, the players living within the borders of Great Xia had gradually begun to recognize Great Xia. At least, there was no longer unnecessary frustration and indignation.
This created favorable conditions for the imperial court to recognize the value of the players.
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