On the 15th day of the ninth month of the first year of Gaia, the North Sea Fleet's First Battalion arrived at Seila Lake.
Tianfeng County, County Government Conference Hall.
Ouyang Shuo gathered all the officials and generals of Tianfeng County together and appointed Zhao Dewang as the County Magistrate of Tianfeng County. He also appointed the Head of the Internal Affairs Department, the Head of the Finance Department, and the Head of the Logistics Department.
The First Battalion of the North Sea Fleet was separated from the North Sea Fleet and renamed the West La Lake Navy Battalion. It was placed under the jurisdiction of Tianfeng County. The original 1st Battalion Commander, Zhou Feng, was transferred to the West La Lake Navy Battalion Commander.
According to Pu Zhidao, the chief administrative officer of Tianfeng County, there were water bandits in Xila Lake.
Thus, the first mission of the Shila Lake Navy Battalion was to clear out the Shila Lake pirates. The waters of Shila Lake were vast, and the water bandits were the local bullies. It would not be easy to eliminate them.
After Zhao Dewang took office, the first task in front of him was the construction of the small military port and shipyard at Xila Lake. In addition, there was an even more arduous task, which was to build the official road between Tianfeng County and Shanhai County. Ouyang Shuo had already thought of a name for the official road. It would be called Sky Sea Road.
The total length of the Sky Sea Road was more than 300 kilometers. It was the most expensive and time-consuming infrastructure project in Shanhai County so far. In order to speed up the construction, Shanhai County and Tianfeng County would start the project at the same time. They would advance side by side and then merge in the middle.
Most of the time, the construction of the Heavenly Sea Road was done in the wilderness. The construction environment was harsh. Not only did they have to guard against wild beasts, they also had to guard against the attacks of bandits. Therefore, it was necessary to arrange for troops to protect them along the way.
Tianfeng County's City Defense Camp would prioritize the areas along the Tianhai Road to suppress the bandits.
The construction of the Skysea Road had strategic significance. As long as a courier station was built along the Tianhai Road and the flag of Shanhai County was planted there, the deterrence and dominance of Shanhai County over the western part of the Lianzhou Basin would be enhanced.
Tianfeng County, Evernight Town, and Guangshui Town formed an iron triangle, which was connected by the Skysea Road. It was enough to control the situation in the western region. Even if any territory asked for help, it would not be a threat to Shanhai County. Shanhai County had enough time to mobilize their troops, organize defenses, or annihilate the enemy.
After occupying the three most important player territories in the west, Ouyang Shuo would adopt a conciliatory policy towards the remaining player territories. Ouyang Shuo would have to wait until he returned to Shanhai County to formulate the specific policy.
Ouyang Shuo left Zhao Dewang alone and returned to Shanhai County in the afternoon. On the way, he also took his personal guard camp to inspect Eternal Night Town and Guangshui Town.
Shanhai County had already sent people to take over the four second-class towns, including Eternal Night Town. They had appointed the chief officials, reformed the administrative structure, set up the City Defense Battalion, and opened a branch of the Bank of the Four Seas.
The Evernight Town was located next to the Evernight Forest, and it was designated as a forest town. Guangshui Town and Yishui Town were next to the river, and the riverbank was convenient for reclaiming fertile farmland, so they were designated as agricultural towns. Gu Shan Town was backed by a huge mountain, so Ouyang Shuo was preparing to set it up as the second mountain barbarian settlement.
On the afternoon of September 18th, Ouyang Shuo and the rest returned to Shanhai County.
The first thing Ouyang Shuo did when he came back was to rush to the market to check the price of food.
In the market, the price of food continued to rise. Each unit of food had already risen to 20 copper coins, which was double the price. As the price of food continued to rise, the Lord players could no longer remain calm, and they began to use their territory's liquid funds to purchase food. The farsighted feudal lords even began to sell wood, iron ore, and other basic resources to obtain funds. They increased the purchase of food to ensure that their territory would have enough food before November.
The panic buying of grain further pushed up the price of grain. Nowadays, the price of food changed every day.
The main force in selling food were the merchant guilds of the various system capital cities. The food in their hands was also purchased from the farmers in the outskirts of the capital cities, and it wasn't an unlimited supply.
Every system capital city had tens of millions of players, and their existence was a huge pressure on the capital city's food supply. The merchants of the merchant guilds were all shrewd people. Seeing the market price of food rising, some large merchant guilds even began to hoard food in reverse, preparing to make a huge profit.
Because of this, the storm caused by the food became more and more intense, and all sorts of bad people participated in it.
Shanhai County was also affected by the storm. The various branches of the Bank of the Four Seas set up in the territories of its allies were constantly in a state of emergency. The amount of loans they received increased exponentially, and their coffers were about to reach the bottom.
Ouyang Shuo made a prompt decision, and he transferred 8,500 gold coins from the first half of September to all the major branches. Mulan Town, Black Lion Town, and Heavenly Frost Town each increased their reserves by 1,500 gold coins, while Xunlong County and Luofeng County each increased their reserves by 2,000 gold coins.
Unfortunately, this amount of money was only a drop in the bucket for the territories. The lords had to take the risk and began to ask for money from the roving bandits just like Shanhai County.
The problem was that the number of roving bandits was limited. For example, Shanhai County was basically wiped out once after each territory was promoted, and it was considered a one-time profit.
During the time Ouyang Shuo was away, the eastern camp had completed the bandit suppression mission that was forced to stop due to the enemy attack, and they seized 4,200 gold coins. In total, they captured 15200 people, all of whom were transferred to Shanhai County, while Ouyang Shuo was away.
During this period, more and more life profession players were teleported to Shanhai County to settle down. The Falling Moon Society had reached the upper limit of 1,000 members, but unfortunately, there was still some time before it could be promoted.
In addition, Elder Sun and the others continued to contact scientists, inviting them to settle down in Shanhai County. Now, the size of the team of scientists had expanded to 45 people, and it was still growing.
The obsolete equipment that Ouyang Shuo entrusted the Snow Rose Mercenary Group to dump had been sold out. With the funds, the mercenary group began to set up offices for Shanhai County in the various capital cities.
After the offices began to operate, Shanhai County would usher in another small wave of population.
The First Brigade of the First Division had been rebuilt. The soldiers of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Battalions were directly replenished from the regular army captives. The soldiers of the First and Second Battalions were still replenished by the elite soldiers of the mountain barbarian tribes. The two large-scale conscription almost squeezed out the potential of the mountain barbarian tribes.
According to the plan, Shanhai County had been delayed by more than half a month.
In order to gain the understanding and support of the mountain barbarian tribes, Tian Wenjing, the director of the Internal Affairs Bureau, had to increase the food aid to the mountain barbarian tribes.
After Ouyang Shuo returned, he immediately launched the military operation to eliminate the bandit stronghold, codenamed "Mountain Cat".
Because it was a jungle operation, other than the personal guard battalion and the Divine Arms battalion, eight battalions of the First Brigade and the Third Brigade participated in the "Mountain Cat" operation.
Leng Qian, the deputy director of the Military Intelligence Division, had led the elite spies of the First Intelligence Division and obtained detailed information about the bandit stronghold. The situation was worse than expected.
The bandit stronghold was located in the Evil Lion Ridge, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack. The population of the stronghold was more than fourteen thousand people, and there were more than eight thousand combat-type bandits. There were many elite bandits among them. There was only a small path up the mountain, but the bandits had set up three checkpoints. Trying to force their way up was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
"Is there no other way up the mountain?" Ouyang Shuo was unwilling to give up.
Leng Qian shook his head and said, "There is a cliff behind the stronghold. The cliff is extremely steep, and there are strange rocks everywhere. It is almost impossible to launch a surprise attack from the back. Unless … "
"Unless what?"
"There is a mountain about a kilometer away from the cliff. It is easy to climb. However, how to cross this obstacle of a kilometer is a big problem. Even if we use a zipline, there is no way to fix the rope to the other side of the cliff. "Leng Qian clearly did not hold out much hope.
Ouyang Shuo thought of Bing'er's pet, Snow, and said, "I have a way to fix the rope." Ouyang Shuo thought of Bing'er's pet, Snow. Although she was pocket-sized, she was a top-notch artificial intelligence. After entering the game, she was only an ornamental pet, but she was extremely strong and could fly. There was no one more suitable for Snow to complete this mission.
"Ah?" Although he knew that the marquis would not lie, Leng Qian was still a little surprised.
Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and said, "The military intelligence department will carefully investigate the mountain on the other side and find a safe path up the mountain. The army will set off tomorrow."
"Yes!"
After Leng Qian left, Ouyang Shuo told the head of military affairs, Ge Hongliang, to urge the combat readiness department to prepare ziplines, fuel, and other resources to ensure that Operation Mountain Cat could be carried out smoothly.
At the same time, in order to reduce casualties, Ouyang Shuo ordered that two saber and shield battalions and one archer battalion be temporarily reorganized from the reserve troops to follow the army. In order to eliminate the bandits in the Evil Lion Ridge, Shanhai County mobilized more than six thousand five hundred regular soldiers, which was the largest military operation in history.
By the time they finished discussing the details of Operation Mountain Cat, it was already half past five in the afternoon. He had just returned to the marquis' mansion, and he had to set off to eliminate the bandits the next day.
During dinner, Ouyang Shuo looked at Snow, who was standing on Bing'er's shoulder, and said, "Good Snow, I'll take you out to play tomorrow, okay?"
Snow's eyes lit up, and she immediately flew over. She flew around Ouyang Shuo's head and said in a childish voice, "Go out to play, go out to play, lalala ~ ~ ~"
Bing'er's eyes also lit up. She giggled and said, "Brother, can Bing'er go out to play too?"
Ouyang Shuo shook his head firmly. "No, you have to go to school tomorrow!"
Bing'er's little face immediately fell. She angrily poked the rice in her bowl with her chopsticks and mumbled, "Biased, biased, bad brother ~ ~ ~"
Ouyang Shuo smiled bitterly and had to explain, "Tomorrow, I'll take Snow out for something important, not to really go out to play."
"Really?" Bing'er was a little skeptical.
Ouyang Shuo glared at her. "When did I ever lie to you?!"
"Alright, Bing'er forgives you." The little girl's emotions came and went quickly. (To be continued.)
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