89 Refugee Camp (1/2)
_March 13_
After five days of preparation, Lin Yi led the cavalry 1st squadron and Zhao Sihu led the infantry 1st squadron, joining hands to wipe out the territory of an Intermediate Raider’s Camp, seized a large number of materials as well as 216 gold coins.
Ouyang Shuo immediately spent 150 gold coins for the class change of the newly established cavalry 2nd squadron and officially appointed Li Mingliang as the lieutenant of cavalry 2nd squadron. After leaving the barracks, he rushed to the Intermediate Market, spent 20 gold coins to buy a gold ore refining workshop building blueprint, ready to hand it to the Construction Division as soon as possible to start construction.
The negotiation between the Materials Reserve Department and the Xuanniao Tribe were carried out very smoothly. Tian Wenjing had successfully persuaded Shi Xiong to give up the tribal hunting tradition. The tribe of the 1500 young adults, will become full-time miners in Langshan mine. In return, Shanhai town will provide 10,000 units of grains to the tribe, and guide them in plantation skills.
What Ouyang Shuo didn't know was that the reason why the negotiations would be carried out so smoothly was that in silent acquiescence, the tribe’s shaman had agreed to the terms. Otherwise, with Shi Xiong's conservative personality, he would not be easily persuaded.
Langshan garrison team had finished its establishment, it consists of 2 squadrons, led by the tribe’s two best hunters, Shi Bao and Shi Lang respectively. Ouyang Shuo claimed a batch of equipment from the arsenal, and fully equipped the 2 squadrons, effectively increasing their battle capabilities.
That was not the only good news, just as Ouyang Shuo had expected, the Three Flower Wine made by Du Dun using the spring water from Lianzhou basin had been classified as Shanhai’s special local product by the system. The system had named it ‘Lianzhou Three Flower Wine’ and can be sold through grocery shops with half the trading tax as compared to the markets.
In average, every 3 units of grain can be brewed into 1 unit of Three Flower Wine, which had the selling price of 1 silver. Lessing off the cost of grains and manpower, and also the 10% taxes, it had a pure profit of 40 coppers. Such a high profit earning, it surely was enough to make Ouyang Shuo happily crazy.
Without a second thought, Ouyang Shuo shamelessly listed the wine workshop as non-privatized property, putting it under the control of the Finance Department. At the same time, in order to maximize the profit, he had upgraded the wine workshop into a 1000 men large workshop.
The large wine workshop had an average monthly production of up to 50,000 units of Three Flower Wine, providing Ouyang Shuo an additional 200 golds of income every month. Other than its profit, the wine had brought another surprise to Ouyang Shuo, an additional territory buff.
_Lianzhou Three Flower Wine: Shanhai specialty wine, +15% chance of territory to attract wine lovers._
Given such a big surprise, Du Dun- the man who made it all happened, would surely be heavily rewarded by Ouyang Shuo. Ouyang Shuo had offered him a monthly salary of 1 gold, making him right away as one of Shanhai’s high salaried members. And most importantly, with the help of the Three Flower Wine brewing technology, Du Dun was now a Master Winemaker, second to reach the Master rank after Master tailor Little Sister Mu.
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_March 14_
While scouting for intelligence on the raiders camp, the Military Intelligence Division had found a refugee camp, 15km away from the center of Shanhai Town. San Gouzi didn’t dare to delay the news any longer and had reported it immediately to Ouyang Shuo.
“Refugee Camp? That’s rare, how big is it?” Ouyang Shuo was clearly surprised by the news.
“My lord, there are around 1500 refugees.”
“So many of them, how could they survive the wilderness? Were there any leaders of sorts?”
Ouyang Shuo knew only little about refugee camps. They are rare products of the wilderness, extremely hard for one to come across. In order to survive in the wilderness, one would have to be a displaced person, wandering around until they come to a lord player’s territory; Or live in a secluded village, like Zhao Dexian’s village Zhao Jiagou, a paradise far of reach from the outside world; And lastly live as raiders or bandits, wolves of the wilderness.
But refugee camps were nowhere close to the three. It wasn't like the displaced people, it had a constant shelter; nothing like a secluded paradise, it was fully exposed to the wilderness; it too wasn't raiders nor bandits, as they weren’t strong enough to protect themselves. A refugee camp was neither fish nor fowl.
Every refugee camp was formed by chance. Either they had found a place with enough food resources to feed themselves; or they would have a leader, strong enough to lead the refugees and self-protect from the danger of raiders and bandits.
“You are right my lord, there is a leader in the camp that goes by the name of Ge Hongliang, aged 35, ex-military, but had somehow been living in the wilderness. He had quite a strong ability, being able to gather the hopeless refugees together, trained them and had found their place in the wilderness, even though they were just barely living.” San Gouzi’s report was filled with details of Ge Hongliang.
“Even if they were able to fend off the raiders and bandits, but I guess they were still living a poor life?” Ouyang Shuo, even if he was asking, but he was confident about it. Even the lord players that were given special treatments were finding it hard to survive in the wilderness, don’t even talk about the system aborigines, how could they survive without the market’s long-range trading.
San Gouzi looked at Ouyang Shuo with a pair of worshipping eyes, nodded his head and said: “You have guessed it right again sire. Because there weren’t any grain seeds, nor farm tools, they couldn’t grow their own crops. The camp could only rely on the mother nature of foods from huntings and fishings. Therefore, their food sources were not truly promising, they often had to consume wild vegetables and grasses.
“Moreover, ever since the lord players had established their territories in the wilderness, the number of wild beasts had plummeted, which indirectly made their life harder. As of now, they are reaching the limit, almost turning themselves into raiders in order to live on.”