The World Online

Ouyang Shuo had no time to pay attention to the events within the country.

After they completed the relay, the Black Snake Guards arranged reports about the occurrences in China, handing it over for Ouyang Shuo to read. After he read it, he did not make any instructions.

Even the Yizhou Island dispute was something that he did not intend to participate in. Since Shanhai City had decided to consolidate their power, they would remain quiet all the way

”The matters of our allies, it’s a battle they have to deal with themselves!” Ouyang Shuo sighed.

On the contrary, Zhang Yi’s letter had perked Ouyang Shuo’s interest.

On the matter of alienating the four city states, apart from using monetary bribes, planting false evidence, and destroying relationships, they also made use of the Four Seas Bank.

The Four Seas Bank was already on the right path and the savings had broken the 50 million mark. Such a huge amount of funds naturally needed to be loaned out. Apart from internal usage by the alliance, the bank was officially opened to other Lords.

Even if guilds, Chambers of Commerce, or the like needed money, they could borrow from the Four Seas Bank if their reputation was good.

With input and output, the Four Seas Bank had obtained huge interests.

The main people borrowing were still Lords.

To any Lord with ambition, the territory funds were never enough. How would the lords of the four city-states be any different? They obviously needed to loan money too.

Zhang Yi made use of this point to display his skills.

As expected from the head of the school of diplomacy. His eyes and senses were sharp.

7th month 10th day, Somalia, Friendship City.

After half a month of construction, the desolate valley was now totally different. The stones bases of the city wall circled around the foot of the mountain.

The north side of Courage Port was brand new, with the east and west harbors both constructed. The merchant ships did not need to stop on the bay ocean surface and everything became really orderly.

Tent after tent stood in the valley.

Somalia in the 7th month was sweltering, and the coolies and artisans did not need houses. Using a few pieces of cloth to build a simple tent was enough for them.

At the center region of the tents were temporarily erected canteens. To ensure the quick progress of the construction, Ouyang Shuo specially instructed the officials in charge to give them the best food.

They did not just ensure that they were full but also that they were getting enough nutrition.

”Every meal has meat!” This was the greatest joy to the artisans.

With such great treatment, they would obvious out their hearts to it. The construction progress was a full five days faster than he had expected.

The construction on land was on the right path.

The officials sent to help from the territory as well as the talented individuals and migrants would arrive in around 10 days.

Ouyang Shuo was not prepared to wait for their arrival.

Seeing that more than half of the 3rd year of Gaia was over, Ouyang Shuo needed to complete his voyage as soon as possible.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo did three things.

First, he built a Friendship City city protection regiment. After the barracks were built, Ouyang Shuo chose some strong warriors from the coolies to change occupations to sword-shield soldiers.

Ouyang Shuo chose a bunch of officers from the navy sword-shield soldiers to act as majors of the regiment. As for the colonel, a lieutenant from the Divine Martial Guards would take the role.

With that, the defense of Friendship City could be said to be settled.

Even when including the recruited artisans and coolies, the merchants, and talented individuals who had rushed over, the population had not crossed 100 thousand.

At this point, a regiment was enough to instill law and order.

The second matter was to nail down on the exact planning of the city. Ouyang Shuo wrote down his thoughts toward Friendship City in a document and left it for the architectural team that was rushing over.

The position of Friendship City was rather obvious, it would be a pure Capital of Trading.

Courage Port was not the best port in Africa, not even in the Gulf of Aden. But it was the most open and best equipped in the region.

The Friendship City that Ouyang Shuo had planned only had east and west regions. In the middle, it would be separated by a massive street. The east would be the business district, where the docks, resource distribution center, coolie market, settlement center, and banks were located.

All in all, the business district was designed around ocean trading, and its goal was to make trading here efficient, fast, and safe.

The west was termed as the service district. Apart from a portion to be used to build houses, the rest were for buildings such as inns, hotels, brothels, gambling dens, restaurants, and auction houses.

The various entertainment places would be split into different tiers to fit the different needs of different groups of people. Without a doubt, this would be a paradise for merchants and sailors.

As long as you had money and were willing to spend, you would be a king in the west district.

Apart from that, the west district would also have many shops and warehouses, mainly selling resources like freshwater, meat, and grain.

Ouyang Shuo’s words were for everything a squadron needed, the Friendship City could solve.

”Only things you never thought you could buy, never something you couldn’t manage to buy!”

One could say that the entire city was designed around long-distance trading. If it was fully constructed, it would be a Capital of Trading.

With this, Ouyang Shuo left a total of 500 thousand gold to help the finances of Friendship City.

Rough estimations placed his investment into this place at around a million. Now, they just had to look forward to whether it could create a business miracle.

The third thing he did was to ask the voyage squadron to take out 100 cannons and leave them in the city. These 100 would be placed on the north city wall and aimed at the bay.

Friendship City was surrounded on three sides by mountains and the only way in was Courage Port. With a navy unit and the threat of 100 cannons, it was enough to scare away most enemies.

With that, he could finally leave at ease.

7th month, 11th day, the voyage squadron set off once more.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo did not inform anyone, just sneakily leaving. Who knows what challenges awaited this squadron that was destined to be recorded in history.

The squadron went past the Mendeb Straits and entered the Red Sea.

The Red Sea was located on the east of Africa, in the middle of Arab. The west and north sides were connected with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, and the east was linked with the Gulf of Aden through the Mendeb Straits.

At the same time, the Red Sea was also the saltiest sea in the world, the most important crude oil transportation pathway.

The Persian Gulf was known as the world oil warehouse in reality, making up for two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves. Similarly, in the game, this region had a plentiful amount of crude oil.

This oil was known as alchemical fire oil in China and was only a support war resource.

Even England, where the industrial revolution started, was only at the sprouting phase of the first revolution. The steam engine, such a significant invention, was just born.

The first industrial revolution gave birth to the steelwork industry and the textile industry.

Crude oil really came into play during the second industry revolution. With the invention of the internal combustion engine, industrial mechanizing, cars, airplanes, and the like.

At that time, every country would have a massive need for resources.

Ouyang Shuo even doubted whether the game would even reach the second industrial revolution by the 10th year. In his last life, at the 5th year, the steam engine was not even common across the world.

Hence, the need for oil was minimal. To the Arab States, this was not a good thing.

Of course, they did not only have oil. They similarly had a long history, out of the four ancient civilizations, Babylon and Egypt were located around there.

Furthermore, Rome, Macedonia, the Persian Empire, and the Arabian Empire all had relations with the Arab States.

Egypt’s Cairo City, Greece’s Athens City, and Italy’s Rome City were all imperial cities with long history; an ancient king lived in each of these places.

Alexander the Great, Augustus, all of them had massive empires comparable to Qin Shihuang and Emperor Hanwu.

In Earth Online, a long history meant a deep foundation. Making use of this, the Lords of the country would all try to replicate the glory of the empires.

They were all active people in the world stage.

Hence, towards these Arab States, Ouyang Shuo did not intend to go against them. He just wanted to engage in trade.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo had chosen to set down his roots in Somalia so early on.

……

The Red Sea was not red, but it was sky blue.

The squadron went past the Red Sea and passed the Gulf of Suez before they reached the Suez Canal.

The Suez Canal river was already present in ancient times. Of course, the true construction was only done in 1869. It was a water passage that linked the Mediterranean Ocean to the Red Sea and provided the nearest route to get from Europe to the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. This was one of the busiest routes in real life.

At the same time, the Suez Canal was also the intersection between Africa and Asia, and it was an important passage that linked Asia to Europe. In the north was Port Said, and in the south was Suez City. The entire length of the canal was 190 thousand meters, from the north side of the port connecting to the Mediterranean to the south side of Suez City.

The construction of the Suez Canal made the Africa peninsula become the Africa Continent. It increased the trading between Asia and Africa, Southwest Asia, Northeast Africa, and South Europe.