The World Online

Facing such a dangerous situation, Ouyang Shuo split the Shanhai City Army into three main groups.

Sun Bin was in charge of the Lingnan War Zone; he took charge of the east line. Baiqi would move to the Mulan Stronghold and command the north forces. Han Xin would lead a huge army to fight against Chiyou head on.

All the plans were underway. Next, they needed to move the troops and finish the last parts of the war preparations.

As for the combat logistics, it had already started a month ago. After all, be it Chiyou City or Lingnan City-State, Ouyang Shuo knew that a battle with them was only a matter of time.

Hence, they had planned and executed the movement of resources even before they had moved out.

After the meeting ended, the various generals went forth to perform their duties.

Sun Bin led his forces and moved into Tianshuang City, building the Lingnan War Zone command center. At the same time, he set up the east defence line. Even though Yuan Ping was causing a racket, Ouyang Shuo did not believe that he would dare to launch a frontal attack.

At most, he would try some sneak assaults when Shanhai City fought with Chiyou City.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo would not give him such a chance.

The Lingnan War Zone that Sun Bin led was not only going to defend passively. If needed, they could launch probing attacks on Jiaozhou Prefecture.

Baiqi brought his personal guards unit and directly teleported to Mulan City. Then, he proceeded toward Mulan Stronghold. As for the Dragon Legion, they would travel to Lianzhou Prefecture through the sea.

Ouyang Shuo could not bear to spend such vast amounts on teleportation costs.

The troops of Taiping Country were waiting for grain, so the real war would not start so soon.

Han Xin led his troops toward the Zhaoqing Prefecture border to set up a frontline command center. Based on Ouyang Shuo’s instructions, it was best to not let the war enter Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Each army had a god general leading them, so Ouyang Shuo was not worried. With the Military Affairs Department helping out, everything proceeded smoothly.

As for the war, such matters would not alarm Shanhai City since long ago.

Making use of this hard to obtain break time, Ouyang Shuo left Wulong City and teleported back to Shanhai City.

He returned to complete the upgrade quest.

Earlier in the 10th month, 1st day, Shanhai City had reached the five hundred thousand population upper limit.

However, because Ouyang Shuo was in Zhaoqing Prefecture at that time, the matter got delayed. Making use of this chance, he wanted to complete the territorial upgrade.

Ouyang Shuo’s return to Shanhai City did not alarm anyone. He had a short conversation with Song Jia before he entered the main hall alone. Ouyang Shuo had already completed the upgrade procedure nine times, so he was very clear about it.

He muttered ‘territory upgrade’ to himself and a white light shone across. In the middle of the hall, a golden stone steele slowly rose up once again from the ground.

Ouyang Shuo pressed his right hand on the stele, and a system notification sounded out.

”System Notification: Checking Shanhai Prefecture upgrade requirements….”

”Requirement 1: population reached five hundred thousand upper limit. Requirement met!”

Five hundred thousand people were far from the population that Shanhai City could handle. Based on the planning, if they opened up the entire city, they could at least hold above five million people.

As a result, the current population was only one-tenth of the population that Shanhai City could hold.

However, Shanhai City’s construction was far from completion.

”Requirement 2: All basic buildings completed. Requirement met!”

The constructions teams had built up the Wengcheng, the Painting Academy, and the Distribution Center. The Wengcheng was built and designed along with the city wall, and the painting academy was located in Xinan University.

The last to be built was the Distribution Center, currently located in the center city area near the pier.

”Requirement 3: Lord has reached at least rank 2 Marquis. Requirement met!”

In the entire China region, apart from Ouyang Shuo, who was a rank 1 Marquis, the two rank 2 marquises were Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang. Di Chen and the others were a step further behind them.

At this stage, Ouyang Shuo’s rank advantage was something that no one could catch up to.

However, Duke was a massive stage, needing a total of one million merit points, five times that of a rank 1 Marquis. This meant that at this bottleneck, anyone could catch up from behind him.

If nothing unusual happened, Ouyang Shuo would be unable to complete the upgrade in a short amount of time.

”System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Shanhai City meets all the requirements, will you upgrade?”

”Upgrade!”

From the stone steele, a golden light shot up into the sky and exploded outward in a golden luster that spread toward the boundaries of the territory.

”System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully upgrading the territory to Grade 2 Prefecture. Lord’s Manor automatically upgraded, please take a look!”

Ouyang Shuo did not care much about the upgrade to the Lord’s Manor.

After all, the current Nanjiang Governor-General Manor had already exceeded the scale the system had planned.

”System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, upgrading the territory to Grade 2 Prefecture. After upgrading, one teleportation formation can be added; please choose the location to construct it!”

Who knew that upgrading your prefecture would come with such benefits?

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo had little knowledge of prefectures, so he was not clear of such occurrences.

To a giant city like Shanhai City, the addition of a teleportation formation had a deep meaning.

The current teleportation formation was located within the imperial city.

Hence, for the people to use it, after considering safety problems, it was also highly inconvenient. When something happened, and the imperial city entered a lock down state, the teleportation formation would also enter the same state.

However, Shanhai City’s influence on the China region was too great. Be it scholars, merchants, or talents, everyone came.

The Guards Division were having a tough time guarding the imperial city.

Now, he was presented with a great chance. With an additional teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo could make some differences. Only officials, military personnel, and the people he invited could use the formation in the imperial city.

The additional teleportation formation would be for the common people.

With that, he could remove potential problems, and the Guards Division could be more at ease.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and decided to place the second teleportation formation in the north city region.

Firstly, the northern region was the door to the city, and it was also the commoner district. As such, it was a highly convenient location. Secondly, the central region was located down from the northern region, which would make it easy to travel to other regions.

Lastly, the city protection divisions stayed at the sides of the north city region.

Hence, if there were really people that dared to do something funny, the nearby troops could rush over and lock up the entire region.

Without a doubt, after this new formation was set up, the Black Snake Guards and the Shanhai Guards would play close attention to it. They would arrange members to monitor it.

After choosing the location, another system notification sounded out in his head.

”System Notification: Teleportation formation location selected. Formation automatically created; please take a look.”

……

”System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully upgrading territory to Grade 2 Prefecture. After the upgrade, the Lord can make a slight change to the geography of the area. The system will decide the degree of change. Friendly Reminder: The adjustment of the geography is just changing what is originally present. Player cannot choose to change the type of the land. Player can choose changes such as expanding rivers and raising mountains.”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes brightened up; this was getting more and more interesting.

This action by Gaia should be sort of a compensation to the players. After all, when they chose the village creation location, they would only consider two points. In terms of geography, there would definitely be regrets.

For example, Ouyang Shuo. His biggest regret was that Lianzhou Basin was locked off from the outside world, with only two canyon passages.

It used to be a pro, but now it was a con.

Ouyang Shuo could not change the Zhennan Pass or the Mulan Stronghold Canyon. The moment he took such action, the stronghold would be rent useless, and Taiping Country could just walk in.

Ouyang Shuo would not shoot himself in the foot. Hence, he directly chose to change the canyon river on the south. He hoped that after this change, large-sized ships could directly enter the Shanhai City Pier.

”Expanding Friendship River, Qiushui River, as well as the canyon river path where the two rivers intersect.”

”System Notification: Confirming the change, widening the river and digging deeper is underway.”

……

”System Notification: Changes completed. One hundred meter expansion of both rivers, two hundred meter expansion of the canyon river path. The depth of the rivers has also been relatively changed.”

……

In such an instance, both rivers were expanded to twice their original size.

The commoners on both sides did not have any particular feelings. It was like time had just stopped and the river had suddenly widened. Seeing such a scene, the people knelt on the ground and prayed to the heavens.

In their view, it was naturally the river god exerting its power.

At this point, Qiushui River and Friendship River had river gods that the people worshipped.

The people built river god temples at the sides of the rivers and prayed to them regularly.

After the river widened and deepened, even large-sized turreted ships could enter. With that, large-scale merchant ships did not need to offload their products at Beihai Harbor.

Just like that, it made freight transport and sea trading much more convenient for Shanhai City.

Of course, the defense of the city would also face challenges. After all, if turreted ships could enter the city, pirate ships could too.

Beihai Bay Squadron seemed more and more important.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo was willing to take such a risk. For Shanhai City to become a presence comparable to the imperial cities, it could not lock itself up.

The future capital city must look like one, and it should not have the attitude of a little kid.

At this point, the upgrade of the territory was completed.

A system notification sounded out by his ear.

”System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first Lord in the China region to upgrade to Grade 2 Prefecture, awarded 4400 merit points!”

……

The upgrade of Shanhai City did not cause any uproar this time, as the entire China Region was ensnared in a frenzy. All the Lords had focused their minds on the battlefields.