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On the 12th day of the tenth month of the first year of Gaia, Ouyang Shuo arrived at Beihai County with his personal guards. It had been more than half a year since Beihai County was established, but this was Ouyang Shuo's first time here.
The boat meandered along the canyon. Looking up, the cliff walls on both sides were steep. Apart from moss, there was nothing else. It was deathly silent and oppressive. Above the cliff, a skyline could be seen. The blue sky was faintly discernible.
The rapid river slammed against the rock walls, making splashing sounds and splashing water.
Suddenly, there was a sharp turn, and a skyline suddenly appeared in front of them. The boat passed through the skyline, and the view suddenly opened up. The sun was bright, and the sky was high and wide. The coastline in the distance was clearly visible, and the sound of crashing waves could be heard. A pair of seabirds flew across the sky, bringing with them a sense of vitality.
Narrow and wide, life and death, but it was so abrupt and harmonious. Ouyang Shuo couldn't help but sigh at the power of nature and its supernatural workmanship.
Beside the river, beside the sea, a majestic city stood between heaven and earth, suppressing all directions.
Beihai County Magistrate Gu Xiuwen and Beihai Fleet Commander Pei Donglai were waiting at the pier with a group of civil and military officials to welcome Ouyang Shuo.
The boat slowly came to a stop, and Ouyang Shuo disembarked with his personal guards.
"Greetings Marquis!" The group of officials bowed.
Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "All of you are my loyal subjects. Beihai County has grown to such a scale thanks to all of you. This Marquis didn't come here to show off his merits. Disperse! "
"Yes!" The officials didn't dare to be negligent and left, leaving only Gu Xiuwen and Pei Donglai behind.
Ouyang Shuo wasn't in a hurry to enter the city. He smiled and said to Gu Xiuwen and Pei Donglai, "What do you think? Accompany me for a walk! "
In fact, Gu Xiuwen and Pei Donglai didn't know why Ouyang Shuo was here.
Last night, they received an urgent letter from his secretary, Lang Bai Nanpu, saying that the Marquis would come to Beihai County the next morning, but the details weren't mentioned.
The two had no objections to Ouyang Shuo's suggestion, and said in unison, "Yes!"
The three walked along the river towards the sea, with the personal guards following far behind.
While walking, Ouyang Shuo looked at Gu Xiuwen and asked, "Xiuwen, what's the situation in Beihai County?"
Ever since capturing Tianfeng County and the other four territories, Ouyang Shuo had already canceled the arrangement of the subordinate territory's commanding officers coming to the headquarters every month to report on their work. Instead, it was changed to once every six months.
Thus, Ouyang Shuo hadn't seen this capable general of his for a period of time.
Gu Xiuwen was stunned. He bowed again and said, "Reporting to the Marquis!"
"Hey," Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. "This isn't the Imperial Court, Xiuwen doesn't need to be so restrained." The reason why Ouyang Shuo didn't rush to the county yamen was because he didn't want to be too formal.
Gu Xiuwen nodded and began to pick out the important matters and report them to Ouyang Shuo.
At the military conference last month, Ouyang Shuo proposed a major industrial development plan. After the meeting, the secretary office compiled Ouyang Shuo's speech into an official document and distributed it to all the subordinate territories.
The commanders of the subordinate territories understood tacitly and began to think about the unique industrial planning of their territories.
In this regard, Beihai County was at a disadvantage. As the saying goes, rely on the water to draw water from the water. Beihai County, apart from the fishing industry and salt industry, was almost unable to develop any other industries.
Needless to say, the salt industry had reached a bottleneck due to the limited size of the beach.
The fishing industry wasn't optimistic either. Not only were the fishermen afraid of encountering bad weather, but they were also afraid of encountering pirates. It wasn't safe and they could only fish in the waters where the North Sea Fleet was patrolling.
It was estimated that Beihai County would only be promoted to a third-class county in half a month. On the other hand, the Pool Water County caught up and successfully promoted to a third-class county last week.
Although the migration of the mountain barbarians was a factor, Gu Xiuwen was still unconvinced. As the first subordinate territory of the Shanhai Territory, Gu Xiuwen had always regarded Beihai County as the benchmark of the subordinate territories.
In order to surpass the Pool Water County, Gu Xiuwen had recently discussed with Pei Donglai to start the military operation to eliminate the pirates as soon as possible to increase the population of Beihai County. At the same time, it was also to clear the obstacles for the fishermen to go out to sea to fish.
Pei Donglai had this intention long ago and both of them hit it off immediately.
Unknowingly, the Black Shark Pirates retreated after running into a wall. Recently, they didn't send any scouting ships to monitor the movements of Beihai County for a long period of time.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, Gu Xiuwen and Pei Donglai sent an invitation to Ouyang Shuo, hoping to approve the military operation of the North Sea Fleet as soon as possible.
Ouyang Shuo laughed and shook his head when he heard that both of them were still talking about eliminating the pirates. "You guys don't have to put on a show in front of me. Due to the recent war on the mainland, the elimination of the pirates was indeed affected. As the Evil Lion Ridge and the Southern Guard Pass were taken down, the war on the mainland came to an end. I'm here today to discuss with you about the elimination of the Black Shark Pirates on the Moon Island. "
Both of them were overjoyed.
As they spoke, they arrived at the beach. The seawater was unusually clear and there was no trash on the beach.
In reality, it was rare to see such a clean beach. Ouyang Shuo even had the urge to jump into the sea. He was thinking that he could bring Bing'er to the beach to play when he had the time in the future.
"Xiuwen!" Ouyang Shuo called out.
"Yes!"
"Help me do one thing. Build a wooden hut near the beach. When I have time in the future, I'll bring Bing'er here for a vacation. It'll be nice to have a place to stay, "Ouyang Shuo instructed.
Although he was a lord, Ouyang Shuo didn't want to be tied down by military affairs. He had to rest when he needed to, and enjoy when he needed to.
"Yes!" Gu Xiuwen solemnly replied. He had already made up his mind to build the wooden house beautifully and ensure that the Marquis and the Third Young Miss would have a comfortable living environment.
"Let's go back to the government office." Ouyang Shuo was ready to go back home.
North Sea government office, meeting room.
Ouyang Shuo silently chanted the name of the stone tablet, and the white stone tablet slowly rose from the floor of the meeting room. On the front of the stone tablet, the words "North Sea County" shone brightly.
He placed his right hand on the front of the stone tablet and silently said "Subsidiary Village". A system notification immediately sounded.
"System notification: North Sea County is a Tier 2 County and has three subsidiary village slots. Do you want to use them?"
"Yes!"
"System notification: North Sea County's Village Creation Token is a Silver Grade Token. The subsidiary village's Village Creation Token will be lowered by one rank and will become an Iron Grade Token. Do you want to separate them?"
"Separate!"
Three rays of black light shot out from the stone tablet and slowly landed on Ouyang Shuo's hand, turning into three Iron Grade Village Creation Tokens. Ouyang Shuo took the opportunity to look at the properties of the Village Creation Tokens.
[Name]: Village Creation Token (Iron Grade)
[Properties]: Attraction rate of refugees increased by 25, attraction rate of special talents increased by 10, production rate increased by 25, skill proficiency increased by 10, soldier level increased by 10.
[Evaluation]: Unique item, cannot be dropped, cannot be traded.
A Black Iron grade Village Creation Token only had half of a Gold grade Village Creation Token's properties, which was much lower in grade. Ouyang Shuo didn't mind. He put the three Village Creation Tokens into his storage bag. It was better than nothing.
"Does the Marquis want to establish a subsidiary village?" Gu Xiuwen asked.
Only then did Ouyang Shuo remember that he hadn't explained the [Fusion Token] to Gu Xiuwen. He felt a little embarrassed. He still remembered that Gu Xiuwen had asked for permission to establish a subsidiary village in North Sea County twice, but Ouyang Shuo had rejected both times.
"Xiuwen, there's something I need to tell you." Ouyang Shuo paused for a moment, then continued, "North Sea County needs to focus on developing its headquarters. That way, there's no need to establish a subsidiary village. I have other uses for these three Village Creation Tokens. "
Gu Xiuwen's face instantly paled. He thought that Ouyang Shuo was dissatisfied with North Sea County's development.
"Your humble servant is afraid. I have failed the Marquis's trust. Please punish me!" Gu Xiuwen half-knelt on the ground in fear and trepidation.
Ouyang Shuo shook his head. This was the bad thing about being a scholar. He had too many thoughts and liked to blindly guess things. If it was Zhao Dexian or Zhao Dewang, they definitely wouldn't have done this. They would have directly asked for the reason.
"Stand up. Don't misunderstand. The Marquis's arrangement isn't because I'm dissatisfied with you, but because it's based on the overall planning of the territory. North Sea County is close to the sea, so it needs to be developed. This is the right way to go. "Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to explain. He didn't want to leave any grudges in his heart.
"Yes!" Gu Xiuwen's face softened as he heaved a sigh of relief.
Gu Xiuwen couldn't be blamed for being so nervous. Recently, seeing North Sea County being overtaken by Pool Water County, Gu Xiuwen, who had always been competitive, had a knot in his heart. He realized that even now, he was still jittery.
Ouyang Shuo also realized that Gu Xiuwen's mental state was a little out of balance. It was difficult for an outsider to console him. The more he consoled, the deeper the knot in his heart would become. He could only rely on himself to adjust.
As the leader, Ouyang Shuo naturally couldn't be biased towards any side. Whether it was Pool Water County, North Sea County, or even Friendship County, they were all meat. It would be a good thing if any of them developed well.
If the competition between subsidiary villages could be controlled, it would be a good thing. Ouyang Shuo wouldn't interfere. Of course, if any of the leaders of subsidiary villages were to overstep their boundaries and do something out of line, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't be lenient and would definitely punish them severely.
As the number of subsidiary villages increased, and the strength of the subsidiary villages continued to grow, balancing the allocation of resources and human resources between each village was a profound art.
The reason why Ouyang Shuo was in a hurry to build the Sky Sea Road was to strengthen the centralization of power and strengthen the control of the base camp over the subsidiary villages.
In this aspect, Ouyang Shuo was still young and inexperienced. He could only take it one step at a time.
In fact, Ouyang Shuo lacked a teacher to teach him the way of an emperor. Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing were lacking in this aspect and weren't good enough to be his teacher. (To be continued.)
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