Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
After dealing with Zhenhai City matters, Ouyang Shuo finally had some free time.
Organizing the military and calming down Zhaoqing Prefecture; these two jobs would take place at the same time. Even so, without a month, they could not reap any rewards.
Making use of this rare rest time, Ouyang Shuo was ready to set off and tour Zhaoqing Prefecture.
Although Zhaoqing Prefecture had calmed down, the hearts of the people had not. The government had posted announcements to try to soothe them, but they all remained frightened.
The death of their Lord, the loss of their army, and the surrender. Even after a month, they still remembered these events fervently.
Fear and uncertainty shrouded the entire Zhaoqing Prefecture.
Over the skies of Zhaoqing Prefecture, the gloomy clouds signaled death and despair.
Based on the reports of the Black Snake Guards, hundreds of people had move out of some of the cities.
In the wilderness, people formed their most significant strategic resource.
Ouyang Shuo’s heart pained from the loss of people in Zhaoqing Prefecture. He ordered the Internal Affairs Department to strengthen their control, and he was also ready to personally go down.
At such a moment, as the Lord, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to calm his people.
The 1st regiment of the Guards Division accompanied him. Although they had pacified Zhaoqing Prefecture, Ouyang Shuo still did not dare to set off alone.
With the Guards Division’s presence, he would face no danger.
Of course, the night before he set out, Ouyang Shuo booked the most prominent restaurant in Wulong City. He held a feast to thank the scholars, the officials, the merchants, and the old people of the city for their support of the Shanhai City Army.
Ouyang Shuo had promised this thanking feast when he had just moved in. Hence, before he left on his tour, he had to fulfill it.
Making use of this chance, he also sent Song Wen and the others off.
Tomorrow, Song Wen would move to Zhenhai County, while his family would move to Shanhai City, where Song Jia would receive them.
Ouyang Shuo had already instructed Shanhai City Mayor Zang Wenzhong to grant a piece of land to the Song Family in the west region.
Not long ago, when they perfected the basic structure and roads in Shanhai City, the Construction Division had helped to reorganize and plan the districts in the city.
Before this, Shanhai City was separated into Imperial City, Inner City, Qiushui City, Friendship City, and outer city. The sizes between the regions completely did not match.
Especially the outer city, which took up two-thirds of the land area. It stretched out to every corner of the territory, and one totally could not call it an outer city.
As Shanhai City prospered day by day, many people would swarm in endlessly, including merchants, scholars, and tourists that came over to play. The position of Shanhai City in China was growing more and more critical. As a result, they needed to logically plan out the regions and districts now. If not, they would become a laughing stock.
In the end, Shanhai City made use of the classic three by three grid to split up the city, dividing the city into nine regions.
The nine regions would have its central area located at the intersection between Friendship River and Qiushui River. East, west, north, and south; these four huge city regions, as well as northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast.
After the reorganization, the original Friendship City was at the current north region, the inner city at the current southwest region, and Qiushui City at the southeast region.
Apart from that, the imperial city and the inner city would combine into the imperial city. After the merge, the commoner region and business region would move from the inner city to the west region.
As the territory increased in size, the starting imperial city would become too small, not fitting of the position of the Nanjiang Governor-General House. As such, they needed to expand the imperial city.
Apart from planning the city regions, they had to make clear the functions and uses of each region.
The water roads met at the middle region. The traffic built up here was called the pier region. The east and west regions were called the business regions and connected to the pier through the water roads.
The south region was defined as the technology research region; the military workshops and the technology research bases were set here.
The original Friendship City Region was the current north region, while Qiushui City region was the southeast region; these two areas would be the residential regions.
Lastly, the military regions located at the northwest and northeast regions. They would house one of the two divisions of the city protection division in each of these two regions to protect Shanhai City.
As a result, Ouyang Shuo planned to let the Song Family live in the west region.
Song Wen received an appointment, and the Divine Martial Guards in Zhenhai City temporarily could not return. They had to wait for the Zhenhai City Garrison Division to become organized and fully equipped.
Hence, the Divine Martial Guards needed to spend a period of time there.
On the other hand, Ouyang Shuo instructed the Beihai Bay Squadron to return.
Beihai City was the door to defending Lianzhou, so they could not lose it. The Beihai Bay Squadron could not leave for extended periods of time. If not, and pirates attacked in their absence, the results would be catastrophic.
As for the 1st division of the Yashan Squadron, they would temporarily camp in Jiaozhou Harbor.
Cai Mao guided Yanhuo Yaonie to undergo the preparatory work to build the Jiaozhou Squadron; this included choosing soldiers, modifying the harbor, and other similar tasks.
The shipyard had already received the news, and they would arrange to send a batch of warships over.
Before they completed the 1st division of Jiaozhou Squadron, Cai Mao’s Yashan Squadron would not leave. Zhenhai City still needed to depend on them for now.
Apart from the Song Family, Xiao He would also to return to Shanhai City.
He did not dare to handle the matters Ouyang Shuo had left to him too slowly. He shifted the duties of the Zhaoqing Prefecture to the four directors, as he needed to return to start planning and organizing his new department.
After he drafted his proposal, he needed Ouyang Shuo to approve it.
The next morning, Ouyang Shuo did not nag anyone. He just led his troops and set off. His touring plan and route remained highly confidential. Apart from the Shanhai Guards and the Black Snake Guards, no one else knew.
Ouyang Shuo toured the entire Zhaoqing Prefecture with the speed of a city a day. When he reached the cities, he would meet all the people, both to announce that he was in power and also to calm them down.
Apart from that, he wanted to test the local officials.
After a long time of training, Ouyang Shuo's judgment had improved. When he saw a person, especially an official, he could evaluate them thoroughly with just a few simple words.
Ouyang Shuo would even meet some of the officials that the locals had received well alone.
Every day, Ouyang Shuo would write down all that he had seen and felt into a letter and send it to Fan Zhongyan. Undoubtedly, any official that Ouyang Shuo praised would be placed into high positions.
Even so, Ouyang Shuo did not make the final decision. Instead, he left it to the Administration Department. For the people that he mentioned, the Administration Department would pay more attention to during their evaluation.
To ensure the prestige of the Administration Department in the area of evaluating officials, Ouyang Shuo was setting an example.
The titles of Lianzhou Lord and Nanjiang Governor-General were a considerable deterrence to the ordinary people.
Every place that he visited, all the people would come out to welcome him. Gentry would gather up, and all the merchants would swarm out like mice that had smelled cheese.
Ouyang Shuo treated all of them equally. He showed his might and position at times, while he also made conversations with them and described the ideals of the territory.
In their conversations, Ouyang Shuo also vaguely announced the revolution in the education and medical regions.
With that, the people would have a general idea, and they would not resist as much when the changes occurred.
At the same time, Ouyang Shuo wanted to use the chance to show the people his true feelings. He wanted to let them clearly see that their future lives would be much better.
The people all cared about benefits, so whoever treated them well, they would support that person.
Hearing about how in the future, their children could go to school for free, and how when they were sick, the government would settle it, cheers broke out.
Hence, Ouyang Shuo's personal visit was more useful than any people calming notifications or announcements.
Apart from ensuring that they did not worry and evaluating the local officials, Ouyang Shyo gave himself another mission - to assess the local produce and finances.
Workers of the Financial Department were not as sharp at identifying new industries and unknown resources.
For example, when he went passed the Yingshan Mountain Range, he found a magical stone the locals knew as the Ying Stone.
After thousands of years, the Ying Stone had slowly formed. Exquisitely carved, textured patchwork, having a specialty of being thin, creased, and transparent.
However, no one paid attention to such a particular stone.
The same day, Ouyang Shuo sent a letter to Cui Yingyu to ask her to let the Industry Division collect these stones on a large-scale. Be it acting as a decoration or putting it in forests, the Ying Stone was suitable.
One time, Ouyang Shuo went passed a city and heard people saying that someone had dug out an unusual item, but he did not know what it was.
When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he immediately ordered someone to take the item.
When he saw it, he realized that it was a type of ginger.
Although ginger had some uses in olden China, people did not commonly use it in food. So it was not surprising that the people did not recognize this kind of wild ginger.
Undoubtedly, Ouyang Shuo had found another local product for the territory.
For the development of the territory, Ouyang Shuo had been doing all he could.
This tour was also a chance for Ouyang Shuo to expand his horizons.
As they said, reading a thousand books was not as effective as walking a thousand miles.
In his journey, he crossed rivers and mountains and passed the wilderness.
In the wilderness, although there were not many people, there was another feeling.
Wild and rough, these words were the best description of the wilderness.
At this point, Ouyang Shuo recalled his past life and his many adventures in the wilderness.
Thinking up to this point, those memories were exceedingly precious.
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