The World Online

Chapter 06 - Village Properties

He would inspect the village properties later. Ouyang Shuo took Shi Wanshui with him out of the Lord’s Manor, ready to go to the gate of the village and receive his ten farmers.

At the entrance to the village waited ten thin farmers wearing yellow rags. They were looking up and around curiously at the mountain village. The rags wrapped around their feet were their only other possessions.

With Ouyang Shuo in front and Shi Wanshui following, the pair found them quickly.

The group of farmers, seeing a fierce officer like Shi Wanshui, had eyes that flashed with traces of fear. Seeing Ouyang Shuo leading Shi Wanshui, however, they became immediately more respectful and cautious.

Hesitantly, one of them stepped forwards, a middle-aged man who seemed to be the oldest of them. “Please, sir. I am Zhao Dexian, I have led villagers from my village to come to your village. We wonder if you are accepting residents.”

Ouyang Shuo first introduced himself in turn. “I am the Lord of Shanhai Village. Behind me is my General, Shi Wanshui.”

After his introduction was completed, Ouyang Shuo continued. “I am very happy that you came. Shanhai Village is ready to get started and is in urgent need of talent, naturally I do not wish you to leave. As long as you are willing to work hard, there will be clothing to wear, food to eat, room to live, and fields to be cultivated.”

This simple set of four commitments spoke right to the heart of these peasant folk, and their eyes all held that look of yearning for a better life. They started whispering to one another, talking about his offer.

“Quiet, please,” Ouyang Shuo said, waiting until everyone quieted down. “We are not going to stand out here. Let’s first go back to the main house and get you all settled down and fed.”

Hearing that they were going to be fed, there was a burst of cheers. Being so poor, they had not eaten for more than a week.

Before going, Ouyang Shuo turned to Shi Wanshu and said solemnly, “General Shi, I have a matter to ask of you.”

General Shi was surprised, but simply said, “As my lord commands, so shall it be done!”

“In order to secure the territory, I would like you to patrol the borders. If you encounter beasts, bandits, or the like, do not hesitate and clear them immediately, lest they come after us before our defenses are in place,” Ouyang Shuo told him.

“I will do so!” Shi Wanshui responded. He grabbed his horse and a day’s rations, and rode away with a cloud of dust trailing behind him.

Ouyang Shuo then settled the ten farmers in the east wing of the Lord’s Manor and left some rations for them. Going alone back to the office of the village head, he saw that there were two items placed upon the desk, a letter and a booklet. Atop the letter was the official lord’s seal, cast in brass and resembling a turtle. The book was the Lord’s Handbook, which recorded the basic information of the territory.

Territory: Shanhai Village (First Level Village)

Lord: Qiyue Wuyi (First Class Baron)

Title: none

People’s Thoughts: 70

Security: 65

Territory population: 12/200

Flow rate of immigrants: 10 * (1 + 50%) = 15 / day

Territory area: 20 square kilometers

Territorial characteristics: 50% increase attracting immigrants, 20% increase in attracting special talents, 50% increase in crop production, 20% increase in production capacity of residents, 20% increase in military promotion, 10% increase in talent breakthroughs.

Treasury: 100 gold coins

Territory Resources: 5000 units of food, 490 units of wood, 500 units of stone, 500 units of iron ore

Territorial army: None

Territory Industry: None

Political index: 5/100 (determines administrative efficiency and relationship with the people)

Economic index: 5/100 (determines trade prosperity and ability to pay taxes)

Cultural index: 0/100 (represents the degree of educational development and quality of life of residents)

Military: 10/100 (indicates military strength and morale)

Existing Buildings: Village level Lord’s Manor, Basic Market

List of basic construction buildings

Simple fence: Basic fortification, Weak defense, can stop wild animals. Construction conditions: wood: 100 units. Construction time: twenty four hours.

Village level dining hall: Dining area for residents. Construction conditions: dining hall construction drawings, wood: 30 units, stone: 20 units. Construction time: twelve hours.

Village level bathrooms: Enhances sanitation and health of the village. Construction conditions: toilet construction drawings, timber: 10 units, stone: 10 units. Construction time: six hours.

Wooden small residential courtyard: Provides living space for 20 residents. Construction conditions: Small residential courtyard construction drawings, timber: 40 units, stone: 20 units. Construction time: twelve hours.

Basic blacksmith shop: Builds a variety of farm tools, such as axes, chisels, and other iron tools. Construction conditions: junior blacksmith, blacksmith shop construction drawings, wood: 20 units, stone: 10 units. Construction time: twelve hours.

Basic grocery shop: Distributes various types of daily necessities. Construction conditions: grocer, grocery building drawings, wood 20 units, stone 10 units.

Basic logging field: Speeds up the collection of timber resources, the average production is 10 units of wood / person / day. Construction conditions: Wood: 30 units. Construction time: six hours.

Basic quarry: Speeds up the collection of stone resources, the average production is 5 units of stone / person / day. Construction conditions: timber: 20 units, stone: 10 units. Construction time: six hours.

Simple farmland: grows crops, the average is 200 units of food production per mu (1/6th acre). Description: grain is planted twice a year, the first quarter of planting is during the Ching Ming Festival, the second quarter of sowing is in early July. When the best seeding time is missed, the yield is reduced by 10% to 50%.

Basic barracks: farmers can be converted into militia. Construction conditions: officers, barracks construction drawings, timber: 100 units, stone: 40 units. Construction time: twenty four hours.

According to a full population calculation of 200 residents, the village needed to build 10 residential small homes. Building all the buildings to completion would require a total of 730 units of wood, and 300 units of stone.

Currently his most scarce resource was food. The villagers needed to consume one unit of food per day, and military personnel required 2 units of food/day. With a population of 200, that meant the territory had to generate at least 210 units of food per day to meet consumption.

Game time and real time were synchronized at 1:1, but day and night were inverted. The main map of the game used the Gaia calendar. It was now the first year of Gaia, January 1, not yet rice planting time.

Therefore, for the next six months, Lords could not receive grain from their farmland.

This time period was the darkest for the Lords. To gain food, resources like wood, ore, and other resources had be sold to the system, leading to stagnant territory development. Countless territories went bankrupt because of this.

However, in danger, there was also opportunity. During this time, some Lords took the chance to develop their speciality industries in their territory early, and got rid of the food predicament. Most of these excellent lords later upgraded their territory to the state level admirably.

This was the essence of Earth Online, not letting the Lords easily upgrade their territories. All kinds of obstacles were going to start emerging, a variety of traps in the system that were not easy to detect.

Only those that could best these obstacles, and avoid the trap choices, would stand out and take the leading positions. Casual players who did not do so were destined to be eliminated early.

Back at his desk, Ouyang Shuo was most lacking in all the different architectural drawings as well as talent such as blacksmiths and grocers. His most urgent task was get the fence, dining hall, and public bathrooms built.

He wasn’t in any hurry to reclaim the farmland, since he didn’t have access to grains and it was the wrong season. The logging yard, residential courtyards, and quarry were now the second priorities to get done. As for the barracks, he didn’t have enough people, so he was in no rush to build it.

Finishing his plan for the village, Ouyang Shuo headed back to the east wing. Zhao Dexian, the elder, had finished his lunch, and was chatting with the other men. Seeing that the village head had arrived, all of the men immediately rose and greeted him.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and asked, “Are you settling in well?”

“Of course, it is better here than where we used to live!” Zhao Dexian replied respectfully.

“That’s great. Ah, we were rushed earlier and I didn’t take the proper time to meet you all. How about you introduce yourselves? Zhao Dexian, you start.” Ouyang Shuo pointed at the man.

“Sir, our former village, called Zhao Jiagou, was quite isolated. Half a month ago, a wounded bandit inadvertently broke into our village. We didn’t know he was a bandit. We kindly dressed his wounds. We let him stay in the village to recover, but after doing so, he immediately left. The very next day, his associates came and looted our village. Out of more than three hundred people, only ten of us escaped. These past days we have been in the wilderness, and suffered greatly. Fortunately, sire has not only let us enter his village, but given us shelter.” Speaking of this sad past, the elder could not help but have tears come to his eyes.

“It’s okay, the deceased are gone. We need to look forward. Zhao Dexian, what did you do previously?” Ouyang Shuo, not really knowing how to comfort a group of people who had suffered through so much, immediately changed the topic.

“Sir, during our time in Zhao Jiagou, thanks to everyone else, I was proud to serve as the village chief.”

This was an unexpected joy, as Ouyang Shuo did not expect to get someone skilled in administration. He took an immediate look at the attributes of Zhao Dexian.

Name: Zhao Dexian (Bronze)

Identity: Mountain Sea villager

Occupation: Civil servant

Loyalty: 75 points

Command: 15

Force: 20

Intelligence: 20

Politics: 30

Evaluation: Chief of the original Zhao Jiagou village, reserved and dignified, cares for his people, good at agricultural water management.

A round of introductions followed. Of the remaining nine people, there were two fruit farmers, named Zhao Youde and Zhao Youcai, who were brothers. There was a village carpenter, Zhao Youfang. There was also a mason, Zhao Dewang. The remaining five men were pure farmers.

Half of the group were special talents! This wasn’t part of Ouyang Shuo’s prize, but a hidden reward of the system. The system couldn’t really give you ten pure farmers, or you would never be able to put up a house.

After coming to a mutual understanding, Ouyang Shuo immediately appointed Zhao Dexian as leader of the construction squad, arranging for him to lead five people in building a wooden fence. At the same time, he arranged for Zhao Youfang to take the other three remaining people to build a basic logging field as soon as possible to aid in collecting wood.

Ouyang Shuo was ready to directly start his fence following the standard of a third-level village, and it required 600 units of wood. If he had been stuck with the starting original supplies, he would have fallen 170 units short, and if he didn’t start harvesting, he might not have been able to keep up with the speed of construction.

In accordance with the game design, only the Lord’s Manor would upgrade with the village. The rest of the buildings would stay as they were and not be upgraded.

In order to facilitate replanning of the territory, the game built in a recycling function. Buildings could be recycled and moved, placing them in a more appropriate location. But the replacement was not free, every adjustment of a building required an additional charge.

Therefore, visionary Lords had to carefully plan the general village layout before making changes to the territory. Of course, other players didn’t know what kind of buildings were coming, and had to do a much rougher plan.

As for now, Ouyang Shuo was planning his village directly towards the protection of the level-three fences. He would be able to also match the layout of the buildings in accordance with the contents of a grade-three village.

This was Ouyang Shuo’s advantage as a reincarnator. To be able to undertake this kind of extremely foresightful planning, others would certainly envy him greatly.