The next morning, the Alliance Fleet set off.
In the Port of Berbera, the soldiers who returned with glory were warmly welcomed by the players.
"Welcome, our heroes!"
As the soldiers walked on the streets, wild cheers could be heard from both sides.
From time to time, childish children would rush up to give them flowers, beautiful girls would give them warm hugs, and rough men would give them thumbs up. The entire Port of Berbera was immersed in a festive atmosphere.
"When the country was betrayed, the brave stepped forward. They are the true heroes!" In the face of betrayal, creating heroes could quickly heal the trauma in the hearts of the people.
In the evening, the Port of Berbera was as lively as it was during the day with fireworks and bonfires.
In order to welcome the return of the heroes, all the taverns and restaurants in the port announced that all the soldiers who returned with glory could eat and drink for free. This pushed the festive atmosphere to a peak.
Of course, only the Somali players were truly cheered and worshiped by the people. The ocean-going fleet led by Ouyang Shuo did not even disembark, leaving all the glory to the Somalis.
June 17th, the headquarters of the Alliance Fleet.
The players who had been drunk for the whole night woke up one by one and began to deal with business. Since the elimination of the pirates had come to an end, they would also disperse, either returning to the royal city or returning to their territories.
Before that, they still had one more thing to do, and that was to ask for credit for the ocean-going fleet. "Marquis Lian Zhou, you are the true heroes of this battle. When we return to the royal city, we will definitely ask for credit for you."
"Thank you!" Ouyang Shuo cupped his fists and expressed his gratitude.
This was a reward that Shanhai City deserved, so Ouyang Shuo did not need to be polite. Besides, the foreign players were not used to China's "politeness". They preferred to deal with people directly.
"Marquis Lian Zhou, you are our friend!"
Before leaving, the players hugged Ouyang Shuo one by one.
Ouyang Shuo smiled and accepted all of them. If everything went smoothly, Shanhai City would have to deal with the Somali players in the future, so it was naturally best to gain their friendship.
After all, a powerful dragon could not suppress a local snake.
After everyone dispersed, Ouyang Shuo stayed at the port to wait for the good news.
In ancient times, in addition to actual military merits, the necessary operation and currying favor were also essential. Ouyang Shuo naturally did not think that he could get the reward he wanted by just waiting.
Long before the allied fleet set sail, the accompanying officials from the Office of the Chamberlain of Dependencies had already rushed to King City with chests of gold, silver, and jewels. His goal was to befriend the nobles of Royal City and pave the way for Shanhai City.
In this aspect, the Chamberlain of Dependencies was the true expert.
A few days' time, coupled with a large amount of money, was enough for the important figures of the kingdom to get to know a Lord Marquis called Not Wearing Clothes.
As the saying goes: Take someone's money and help them get rid of their troubles.
When the king organized a discussion on how to reward Ouyang Shuo, the officials who received the benefits naturally didn't mind putting in a few good words for him if it didn't cost them much effort.
Among them, those who took the "big cut" would even euphemistically mention Shanhai City's needs.
In this way, Ouyang Shuo would be able to attain his objective.
…
On the 18th day of the sixth month, King City's reward was announced.
The one who announced the decree was the chief clerk of the kingdom, an old man with white hair.
"The Lord of Shanhai City, the Supreme Commander of the ocean-going fleet, the eternal friend of Somalia, the Inhuman Marquis of Lian Zhou, has helped the kingdom's navy, defeated the three evil pirate groups in the Gulf of Aden, thwarted the plot of the traitor Farah, and saved the kingdom's navy from danger. His meritorious service is outstanding.
Helping out righteously is righteousness. Seeing through a conspiracy is wisdom. Defeating a strong enemy is courage. Showing mercy to the old and weak is benevolence. Whether it is benevolence, righteousness, courage, or wisdom, Marquis Lian Zhou is outstanding.
Such a virtuous person should be a role model for the kingdom.
Therefore, I hereby confer the title of honorary knight of Not Wearing Clothes Kingdom, conferred the title of first-class baron, and enjoy the same aristocratic treatment as the barons of the kingdom. A hundred square kilometers of land 1,000 miles north of Barbera Port will be designated as the permanent fief of Baron Yi Yong. "
When the reward was announced, even the Somali players were surprised.
An honorary knight and an exclusive fief. It had to be said that this reward was too generous.
"Thank you for the reward, Your Majesty!"
Ouyang Shuo's lips curled into a smile as he bowed.
"Congratulations, Baron Yi Yong!" The clerk said with a smile.
Ouyang Shuo was slightly embarrassed. Everything else was fine, but the title was a pain in the ass. The Royal Clerk must have racked his brains. Thinking that the Marquis of Lianzhou came from China, he must have found an old Analects of Confucius from somewhere and recited it according to the text. Only then did he come up with the description of benevolence and righteousness in the decree.
The title of Baron Yi Yong came from this.
"Thank you!"
Ouyang Shuo faintly smiled, and smoothly handed over a large agate stone.
When the clerk saw this, he took it without a trace, and the smile on his face became even wider. Even his wrinkles appeared.
After sending off the clerk, Ouyang Shuo immediately made a recruitment announcement in Barbera Port.
"For three days from now, Shanhai City is recruiting carpenters, masons, masons, painters, blacksmiths, and other craftsmen. Anyone related to the construction of the city will be on the recruitment list. There is no upper limit. Food and accommodation will be provided at the construction site. The minimum monthly salary is 2 gold coins. Middle-to-high-level craftsmen will be treated well. The details will be discussed in person. "
The announcement caused a huge uproar in the port.
In Somalia, a mid-level craftsman could only earn 1 gold coin a month at most, and they had to take care of their own food and accommodation. In comparison, the treatment offered by Shanhai City was more than doubled!
In just one morning, more than 500 people signed up.
Other than craftsmen, Ouyang Shuo was also recruiting ordinary laborers. Food and accommodation were also provided, and the minimum salary was 1 gold coin. There was no shortage of such laborers at the port. As soon as the recruitment announcement was made, many people responded.
In just one day, Shanhai City had recruited 2,000 laborers.
Other than that, it was a crazy purchase. Grain, vegetables, meat, cloth, and other resources were all on Shanhai City's shopping list. Everything related to food, clothing, housing, and transportation, including the materials needed to build the city, was on Shanhai City's shopping list.
Due to the huge number of orders, Ouyang Shuo almost cleared out all the materials in Barbera Port. Such a crazy act could no longer be described as simple heroism.
When the merchants saw this, they promised to transport the materials to their fief for free via merchant ships.
As such, everyone was naturally happy.
The next day, Shanhai City's recruitment announcement and purchase news spread like a virus to the surrounding cities. In response, Ouyang Shuo's attitude was to accept everything, as if he was not short of money.
Hundreds and thousands of craftsmen and carriages loaded with goods gathered like streams from the surrounding cities to Barbera Port. Eventually, they would converge into a torrent.
Marquis Lian Zhou's image in the kingdom was very trusted by the people, and they were not worried that he would go back on his word. Many merchants did not even ask questions and directly pulled the goods from the published purchase list.
Such a large movement even alarmed the royal city.
After receiving the news, the royal city was naturally in an uproar again. There were even craftsmen, mainly Advanced and Master craftsmen, who didn't hesitate to spend 1 gold coin to directly teleport to Barbera Port to apply for the job.
Even the big shots among the Somali players couldn't help but pay a visit to seek a possible cooperation.
Naturally, Ouyang Shuo welcomed this with open arms. Whether it was the Profession Players in the guild or the various materials produced by the territory, Shanhai City urgently needed them.
Both sides hit it off and began their first close cooperation.
Buy! Buy! Buy!
No matter how large the goods were, Marquis Lian Zhou did not hesitate at all and directly bought them.
The entire country of Somalia was stunned by Marquis Lian Zhou's invincible wealth. Those who didn't know better would think that Marquis Lian Zhou was going to buy the entire country of Somalia.
Three days. In just three days.
Ouyang Shuo spent more than 200,000 gold coins to purchase various materials for the construction of the city. At the same time, 10,000 craftsmen, 15,000 Profession Players, and 40,000 coolies were also recruited.
With such a large team, their monthly salary was more than 100,000 gold coins.
After the recruitment, they would be transported to the fief in batches by ship. At the same time, a large number of purchased materials would also be transported to the fief in batches by merchant ships.
Every day, merchant ships traveled between Barbera Port and the fief in an endless stream, day and night.
The small fief immediately became the focus of the entire kingdom.
The funny thing was that Ouyang Shuo, the owner of the fief, had not even set foot on the soil of the fief.
On June 21st, the ocean-going fleet set off for the fief.
Accompanying them were more than 3,000 old, weak, women, and children captured from Heavenly Wolf Island. The other players were not interested in accepting these pirate orphans.
Apart from a few people with unique tastes, who chose a few beautiful young girls to be servants or slaves, the rest were handed over to Shanhai City to deal with. Ouyang Shuo thought about it and simply brought all of them to the fief.
In this way, they could be considered the first group of subjects of the fief.
After a few days together, these orphans had already learned from others that it was Marquis Lian Zhou's benevolence that allowed them to crawl out of the mouth of the Grim Reaper and live.
Therefore, they were grateful to Marquis Lian Zhou.
Because of this, Ouyang Shuo was at ease to accept them. He did not want to raise a group of ungrateful people. Moreover, with the supervision of the Black Snake Guards and the Shanhai Guards, even if some of them were hostile, they would not be able to escape misfortune.
...
In the Port of Barbera, Ouyang Shuo left a few officials and a naval battalion in charge of supervising the transportation of craftsmen and materials, as well as the subsequent sporadic procurement and recruitment.
Somalia had the longest coastline in the whole of Africa. After the game map was expanded ten times, apart from the Port of Barbera, there were some other harbors in northern Somalia that were suitable for the construction of ports.
Ouyang Shuo's fief was one of them.
It covered an area of 100 square kilometers, which was equivalent to the area of a level-3 village. It was completely compatible with the title of a Baron.
At the very least, the kingdom did not skimp on the size of the fief.
The geographical location of the fief was also excellent.
It was a plain valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, and to the north of the valley was a natural harbor.
The terrain of the fief was exactly the same as the Lian Zhou Basin, except that it was a few thousand times smaller. Yes, a few thousand times smaller, because the Lian Zhou Basin covered an area of 240,000 square kilometers.
Such a basin was too common in the game. Any small valley in the real world could be formed into such a "narrow" basin after the game map was expanded ten times.
According to normal territorial construction, such a fief could only build a level-3 village at most, and it was far away from the big cities, so there was no prospect of development.
The kingdom bestowed this land to Ouyang Shuo, which was more symbolic than practical.
The problem was that Ouyang Shuo's strategic vision and strategic layout were different from ordinary people. The ocean-going fleet had sacrificed a lot, and Ouyang Shuo had tried his best to plan, so how could he allow a small village?!
It was Ouyang Shuo's unswerving goal to establish an important node on the Grand Line in Somalia.
Therefore, Ouyang Shuo could only break the convention.
In a general territory, the area of the city occupied was less than 1% of the entire territory, or even less. Most of the land was used to grow crops and develop the five major industries of agriculture, forestry, livestock, animal husbandry, and fishing.
Such an arrangement was normal.
First, the city could not be built infinitely large. Not to mention that it would cost a lot of money, the management of the city was a major problem. Even a colossus like Shanhai City was only a tiny grain of rice in the Lianzhou Basin.
Second, the first two items of clothing, food, housing, and transportation needed the support of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishing. Otherwise, the people in the territory could only starve to death. How could they talk about territorial construction?!
Ouyang Shuo's way of doing things was different. He planned to build a huge city covering an area of 100 square kilometers in the entire fief. In other words, a city wall was erected along the periphery of the fief.
Outside the city, no land was left for agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, and other basic industries.
Such a plan was indeed crazy, but after thinking about it carefully, it was reasonable.
First, the fief did not occupy a large area, so the first problem did not exist at all. As for the food and clothing of the people in the territory, Ouyang Shuo planned to solve it through external purchases.
The entire fief would be a commercial capital.
Commerce and ocean trade were the soul of the city. As long as there was money, other living supplies could be purchased from Somalia. Even after the ocean trade was launched, they could also purchase from neighboring countries. There was no need to worry about not being able to buy supplies.
The premise was that there must be money. In other words, the commercial capital must be able to earn enough money and receive enough business taxes. Otherwise, relying on Ouyang Shuo's unilateral subsidies could not be maintained for a long time.
In this regard, Ouyang Shuo was full of confidence.
The rich profits of ocean trade were enough to make all merchants crazy.
The first thing Ouyang Shuo did when he arrived at the fief was to give a name to the city that was about to start construction. In the end, Ouyang Shuo chose Friendship City.
Friendship City symbolized the friendship between Shanhai City and Somalia, and also conveyed Shanhai City's intention of peace to African and European countries.
The port outside the city was named Brave Port.
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