Chapter 114 – Inspection
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
At 2 PM, Ouyang Shuo didn't stay in the Lord's Manor but instead made a trip to Friendship Town under the company of the director and secretary of Military Affairs.
At the Shanhai Town ferry, the helm of the public ferry was still old man Zhang. Definitely, the small wooden raft that Ouyang Shuo had personally built had been retired and it was now using an advanced fishing boat, similar to an umbrella boat.
Sitting on it and looking at the reflecting water surface, Ouyang Shuo felt very blessed. At the start, he’d brought General Shi to Lianzhou Basin and built Shanhai Village. At that time, the village was torn, tattered and had 0 talents.
In less than 5 months, that small village that had nothing had become Shanhai Town, with close to a 30,000 population and spanned 1,000 square kilometres, becoming the unshakable leader in the Chinese server. But in order to grow larger and be a king in the future, one can not afford to stand still or otherwise he would be left out by time, the achievements of the Shanhai Town of today is only tiny and insignificant.
At Friendship harbor, Friendship Town head Zhou Haichen and the cavalry unit major Lin Yi had brought a group of civil servants, and was waiting to welcome Ouyang Shuo. This was the first time he was coming to Friendship Town, and they couldn't be too casual.
When the umbrella boat docked, Zhou Haichen and his group warmly welcomed, "Welcome sire, to Friendship Town."
Ouyang Shuo stepped ashore, and after waving goodbye to Old man Zhang, he turned around and said to Zhang Haichen, "It's just a simple visit. Why did you have to bring so many people?"
Zhou Haichen was stunned, He didn't know that Ouyang Shuo didn't like such atmospheres, he only wanted to make it a warm welcoming.
Ouyang Shuo didn't want to make it too embarrassing for Zhou Haichen, and under the introductions by Lin Yi, he greeted each person one by one.
The organisational structure of Friendship Town was similar to the main town, but also had its differences. Out of the 4 main departments, they did not have the Military Affairs Department. The affiliated territories weren't going to be normal organisations. As such Friendship Town only had the secondary divisions such as the Combat Logistics Division. The other special divisions like the Saltpan Division were things that only the main camp had.
The deployment of civil servants in Friendship Village also obviously couldn't compare with the main camp. However, amongst the basic government workers, they were considered one of the best. If not, they wouldn't have had the chance to be posted here. Ouyang Shuo only hoped that this batch of people could quickly grow.
As for the military, they were all familiar faces. The 5 captains in the unit, including the leader of the town protection squad Hu Yibiao, were all personally assigned by him.
After a simple tour of the Harbour, they returned back to the town. From afar, one could see the tall city walls and the majestic south gate.
Luckily Zhou Haichen knew the limits and didn't arrange for the civilians to welcome him. Walking into the town, Zhou Haichen began to brief and introduce Ouyang Shuo to the situation in Friendship Town.
Friendship Town had around 2600 people, and was only a week from upgrading to a grade 2 town. Definitely, the cavalry unit that was housed outside the city wasn’t included in the numbers.
To defend against the nomadic tribes, the agriculture businesses were mostly facing south and next to the Qiushui and Friendship rivers. Other important industries that had to be built outside the city like the brick kiln and pottery factory were built in the west and east, under the protection of the city protection river.
As it was situated in a plains region, Friendship Town lacked wood and stones. It basically relied on the main town and Qiushui Town for such resources. The coordinator naturally was the Material Reserves Department.
Of course, Friendship Town wasn't without its strengths. Even without saying anything about the animal husbandry industry or the agriculture industry, it had its own strategic strengths.
The south side was where the Friendship and Qiushui rivers met, hence the water resources were plentiful, the ground fertile, and the farmlands that were reclaimed were much better than Shanhai Town’s. This region had already reclaimed 20,000 acres of fertile land.
All of which grew richly. The future Friendship Town would be the grain production base, only 2nd to Qiushui Town.
At the same time, to form Friendship Town's unique advantage and not be beaten by Beihai Town and Qiushui Town, Zhou Haichen thought hard and decided to expand and develop the forging and textile industries. These industries would be used in trading with the nomadic tribes and thus early preparation was needed. From this, one could see Zhou Haichen's deep thoughts and careful planning.
One could say that whether or not that could convince the nomadic tribes would in turn affect the status of Friendship Town. If they opened trade routes, then Friendship Town would become a trade city. If they couldn't, then Friendship Town would just become a military fortress.
Hence, towards Ouyang Shuo's visit, Zhou Haichen was holding high hopes.
Ever since the city protection river project, Zhou Haichen had sent men to get in touch with the nomadic tribes and had some progress. However, what strategies to take against them was something the lord himself had to decide.
Unfortunately, Zhou Haichen didn't know that the real reason of Ouyang Shuo's visit was the Qingfu horse in the plains. It has been two months since the Armory Division was formed. The first set of 50 Mingguang armors had already been completed. However, as they did not have suitable war horses, they couldn't equip the cavalry unit with it.
In the meeting hall of Friendship Town, Ouyang Shuo had only invited the various generals for a military affairs meeting.
"Director Ge, please tell me about the progress with the green horse." Ouyang Shuo asked.
The trip to Friendship Town was originally arranged by Ge Hongliang. With his personality, if there wasn’t any progress he wouldn't have invited Ouyang Shuo here.
Ge Hongliang nodded. "Sire, the Military Intelligence Division has obtained important intel. 5 days ago, the nomadic tribe to the west of the town got about 100 Qingfu horse stallions and were ready to expand their breeding scale.
Ouyang Shuo calmed himself down and said calmly, "Your meaning is?"
"My meaning is simple. We can't miss this opportunity. Why don’t we wipe out this small tribe? If we can, put the blame on the medium-sized tribe east of the town, further worsening the relationship between them and Tian Qi tribe." Zhu Hongliang said calmly, not nothing that his plan would definitely cause a bloodbath.
"How many people does that small tribe have, and how many warriors?" Ouyang Shuo asked carefully.
This intelligence was obviously answered by the Military Intelligence Division. As the one in charge of collecting intel on the nomadic tribes, the Military Intelligence team 2 leader Leixun stood up. "Sire, we have found out that their tribe covers less than 500 square kilometres and only has 800 people, including 300 soldiers."
Ouyang Shuo turned to Lin Yi and asked, "Do you have confidence?"
Lin Yi naturally knew what Ouyang Shuo was referring to. "To exterminate their main force is not hard. The hard part is how to not leave any survivors. These nomads all know how to ride horses and can easily slip away."
For the Qingfu horses, Ouyang Shuo was ready to slaughter.
"What is the view of the Military Affairs Department?" Ouyang Shuo looked to Ge Hongliang.
He was already prepared and said, "To do it cleanly, a sneak attack is best. Additionally, to prevent people from escaping, apart from attacking, we also need to lie and wait to kill the people that try to escape."
Ouyang Shuo nodded. "This is a good plan. However, fighting 300 nomadic cavalry is already pushing our forces. How will we have extra strength to box them in?"
"Sire is correct, with the only unit here it's hard to complete the mission. The only way is to expand the number of militants." Zhu Hongliang said.
Ouyang Shuo had a bit of a headache. "Without upgrading to a grade 1 city, it’s not suitable to expand our army. Don't forget that the mountain barbarian tribes have 1000 elite warriors for us to accept."
Ge Hongliang seemed like he had an idea and said confidently, "Sire, we have a military reorganisation plan, please take a look!"
"Speak!"
"My idea is like this: These 1000 barbarians, our main camp will take 500 and make a second heavy armoured infantry unit. For the remaining 500, 300 will go to Qiushui Town, adding the 2 protection squadrons to form the Qiushui Town protection unit. The last 200 will be sent here and get another 100 soldiers to form the Friendship Village protection unit. This assault, we can use one of Qiushui town's cavalry squadrons and 2 of the main camp's to join in."
Ouyang Shuo was delighted. If it was like this, apart from the cavalry unit and the infantry unit, it basically didn't exceed the 10% military to population number that he had set.
"Good, let's do it like that. Everyone prepare quickly." Ouyang Shuo announced a change in personnel. "Military Affairs Department, spread my orders. Zhang Daniu will be the major of the Qiushui Town protection unit, Hu Yibiao will be the major of the Friendship Town protection unit, and Shihu will be the major of the second infantry unit."
"Yes!" Ge Hongliang exclaimed.
Zhang Daniu, the sergeant who was competing with Zhao Sihu had finally became a major, climbing to the same spot as Zhao Sihu. Hu Yibiao was very fortunate, only being sent here for 1 month and already becoming a major, promoted faster than his seniors.
As for the second infantry unit, the reason why Ouyang Shuo had promoted the second squadron captain Shihu and not the first squadron captain, he obviously had his own considerations.
One was that Shihu's promotion would help to increase the sense of belonging of the mountain barbarians and show them that Shanhai Town would use anyone that is capable. Secondly was that Ouyang Shuo had another plan for Wang Feng.
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