The World Online

10th month, 30th day, Chiyou City.

After numerous days of travelling by foot, Fan Zhongyan and his men finally arrived at Chiyou City under the protection of a military force.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he personally welcomed them at the city gate.

Only Fan Zhongyan could receive such special treatment.

The officials and minor officials that followed along numbered around three hundred, a huge lineup. Amongst which, there were some officials from the Nanjiang Governor-General House and also officials that the various Houses and counties recommended.

Other than that, there would be the fifty students from Xinan University who graduated early.

Three hundred people, their greatest similarity and strength was their young age.

Based on the information from the Administration Department, the average age of the officials in Shanhai City was less than thirty. Meanwhile, those that followed Fan Zhongyan here were even younger, with an average age of twenty-seven.

Leading such a young team to run an entire prefecture, Fan Zhongyan had heavy responsibility and foresight.

At noon, Ouyang Shuo held a feast in the Lord’s Manor to welcome the group.

The officials that came along felt incredibly emotional and touched when they saw how much importance the Lord placed on them. In fact, they even teared up. Obviously, they would give it their all to help Fan Zhongyan run Wuzhou Prefecture well.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo met Fan Zhongyan in the reading room alone.

After spending a week in Chiyou City, Ouyang Shuo had obviously been doing things; he had not slacked. He currently had a rough understanding of the situation in Wuzhou Prefecture.

Hence, before Fan Zhongyan took over, Ouyang Shuo was going to personally introduce and explain the matters to Fan Zhongyan.

Wuzhou Prefecture had a lot of land but very little people. As a result, they would only create four Houses here. As for the specific personnel arrangements, Fan Zhongyan and the newly appointed administration director Xiao He would discuss it.

As the territory continued to expand, the job of prefect appointment was slowly shifted under the jurisdiction of the Administration Department.

Unless it was some special talent that needed Ouyang Shuo to personally arrange them, he would not interfere.

Fan Zhongyan suggested that to reduce and remove the influence of Chiyou in the prefecture, they should change the name of Chiyou City.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it but decided to reject the proposal.

After they buried Chiyou in Devil’s Slope, they had also buried all past grievances. Chiyou City held a special place in the hearts of the mountain barbarians.

As the Barbarian King, Ouyang Shuo had to care about their feelings and thoughts.

He needed to possess such magnanimity.

Since Ouyang Shuo did not mind, Fan Zhongyan naturally would not say anything more.

Rushing over, Ouyang Shuo had gained a rough gauge of the situation in Wuzhou Prefecture. Although things were much worse than he had expected, he had confidence in developing the prefecture.

This Lord and minister spent an entire afternoon in the reading room.

During their conversation, they settled future development structure of Wuzhou.

As they talked, Ouyang Shuo realized that choosing Fan Zhongyan as governor was truly a smart choice. The many development plans that Fan Zhongyan had thought of for Wuzhou Prefecture made his eyes brighten.

For example, to break the ice between the Han people and the mountain barbarians, Fan Zhongyan suggested they moved some of the mountain barbarians to Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Similarly, he would move some of the people from Zhaoqing Prefecture over.

With that, not only did they largely improve the population structure of Wuzhou Prefecture, the new Han race people could help remove the divide between the two races, killing two birds with one stone.

Ouyang Shuo was highly supportive of this suggestion.

After sending Fan Zhongyan away, he let out a long and comfortable sigh.

The next morning, Fan Zhongyan would officially be appointed. Him and his three hundred odd officials would be sent to the various Houses and counties to become the backbone of Wuzhou Prefecture.

His arrival had finally freed Ouyang Shuo from the heavy administrative workload.

Next, Ouyang Shuo would have to consider the problem of building the Wuzhou Prefecture Garrison Division.

Be it the Guards Division or the four mountain barbarian independent divisions, they could not stay here for long. They urgently needed to create the Garrison Division to maintain the peace in Wuzhou.

Within a week, Lin Yi had led the Guards Division to sweep up the entire Wuzhou Prefecture, removing all the other local powers.

The entire Wuzhou Prefecture was finally unified under one power.

Taking the chance, he captured another batch of mountain barbarian warriors.

Being inspired by Fan Zhongyan’s idea, Ouyang Shuo decided that the Wuzhou Garrison Division would also be formed from a mix of both races, allowing them to keep each other in check.

Almost immediately, Ouyang Shuo wrote letters to both the Military Affairs Department and the Lingnan War Zone.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s plans, they would take two regiments from the Zhaoqing Garrison Division and put them into the Wuzhou Garrison Division. The prisons of the Taping Country in the Mulan Stronghold would fill in the lack of manpower.

Apart from that, he would form another regiment from the Taiping Country army prisoners and place it into the Wuzhou Garrison Division. The remaining two regiments would be formed from the mountain barbarian prisoners.

With that, the Wuzhou Prefecture Garrison Division would have three sides that constantly monitored and competed with one another. Be it the Han people or the mountain barbarians, they could not abuse their power.

For major general of the Garrison Division, Ouyang Shuo ordered Er’Lai to choose from the mountain barbarian infantry regiment. The deputy major general would be one of the colonels from the Zhaoqing Garrison Division.

With that, they had a firm grasp on the Wuzhou Prefecture Garrison Division.

When they completed the division, Ouyang Shuo could lead his troops east into Xunzhou and take out Taiping Country once and for all.

Based on his estimations, these moves would not have any conflicts with the plans he made for the Dragon and Leopard Legions.

10th month, 1st day, Fan Zhongyan was officially in office.

The huge administrative machine had started working at high speeds.

This was when the people of Wuzhou clearly realized that Wuzhou was changing.

The mountain barbarians that had controlled the important departments were mercilessly swept out. Only those who were recognized and approved by the two intelligence organizations could obtain a job in the system.

Seeing Shanhai City officials move into Chiyou City and fill up all the important roles, the various mountain barbarian tribes panicked.

In just one morning, they had come several times to the Lord’s Manor to seek an audience with Ouyang Shuo.

Seeing that the time was right, Ouyang Shuo agreed to meet them in the hall.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo would not fully suppress the various mountain barbarian tribes.

Shanhai City’s policy toward other races also applied to Wuzhou. As such, Ouyang Shuo needed to remove the special privileges that the mountain barbarian tribe had enjoyed.

From today onward, any race would be treated equally.

Those mountain barbarians that were removed from their roles could apply once more. As long as they passed the test of the Wuzhou Prefecture Administration Department, they could be appointed.

Of course, the Han people in the prefecture could do the same.

Wuzhou Prefecture was incredibly big. If they just relied on the three hundred officials that Fan Zhongyan had brought, they would not even manage to keep Chiyou City running.

Hence, to rebuild the administrative system using a set structure, they needed a large number of officials.

Regretfully, the Han people living here were all normal people; there were no scholars around.

Such a situation surprised Ouyang Shuo, and he found it really weird. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it.

Seeing that the Lord was not planning to wipe them out, the various tribe leaders felt a slight sense of relief amidst their feelings of loss.

”Greetings, my king!”

Within the hall, the various tribe leaders knelt down and officially recognized his position as Barbarian King.

Seeing all of them behave in such a manner, Ouyang Shuo did not know what to feel. He had used a series of plans and acts to finally make them yield and completely submit.

Within the territory, only Ouyang Shuo could have special rights.

The other people needed to obey his rule before they could survive within the territory.

This was the bottom line that Ouyang Shuo had drawn, and it could not be crossed.

From today onward, the special treatment of the mountain barbarians in Wuzhou would truly disappear. Of course, due to the existence of Chiyou City, Wuzhou Prefecture would still be the place where most of the mountain barbarians would gather.

In truth, the mountain barbarians in the China region were not solely limited to Chuannan Province and Lingnan Province. Other regions had mountain barbarians too.

At the very least, the Shu Area had a large number of them.

Who knows whether in the future his title of Barbarian King would work on those unknown mountain barbarian tribes.

They were simply born warriors.

No matter which tribe, Ouyang Shuo yearned for more of them.

”Please rise!”

Ouyang Shuo stood at the helm. His voice contained a threatening and mighty air without him even doing anything.

”Thank you, my king!”

The various tribe leaders got up one by one, and the way that they looked at him was now totally different.

Amidst the respect, there was a slight closeness.

Their gazes were highly similar to how the mountain barbarian soldiers looked at him.

No matter what, the mountain barbarian race had a new leader, so they would not really collapse.

”Within the Wuzhou Prefecture, why isn’t there a single Han official? Do you know the reason?”

Looking down at these mountain barbarians, Ouyang Shuo suddenly recalled this problem.

Before Chiyou lost, these tribe leaders were his high level personnel. As such, they should have a rough idea of the situation.

As expected, Ouyang Shuo had asked the right people.

The various tribe leaders looked at one another, communicating through their expressions. In the end, the tribe leader with the highest standing stepped out and said respectively, ”My king, I know the reason.”

”Speak!”

”Because Chiyou doesn’t like Han people, all the officials were kept within a secret prison.”

”What?” When Ouyang Shuo heard this, he did not know what expression he was suppose to have, so he smacked his desk and asked, ”Are these officials still alive?”

”Yes.” The old tribe leader thought about it and decided to tell the truth, ”However, their situation isn’t good. Based on what I heard, some of them have died because they couldn’t hold on anymore.”

”....”

The actions of Chiyou truly left Ouyang Shuo speechless.