114 Inspection (1/2)

At 2 PM, Ouyang Shuo didn't stay in the Lord's Manor but instead made a trip to Friendship Town under the company of the director and secretary of Military Affairs.

At the Shanhai Town ferry, the helm of the public ferry was still old man Zhang. Definitely, the small wooden raft that Ouyang Shuo had personally built had been retired and it was now using an advanced fishing boat, similar to an umbrella boat.

Sitting on it and looking at the reflecting water surface, Ouyang Shuo felt very blessed. At the start, he’d brought General Shi to Lianzhou Basin and built Shanhai Village. At that time, the village was torn, tattered and had 0 talents.

In less than 5 months, that small village that had nothing had become Shanhai Town, with close to a 30,000 population and spanned 1,000 square kilometres, becoming the unshakable leader in the Chinese server. But in order to grow larger and be a king in the future, one can not afford to stand still or otherwise he would be left out by time, the achievements of the Shanhai Town of today is only tiny and insignificant.

At Friendship harbor, Friendship Town head Zhou Haichen and the cavalry unit major Lin Yi had brought a group of civil servants, and was waiting to welcome Ouyang Shuo. This was the first time he was coming to Friendship Town, and they couldn't be too casual.

When the umbrella boat docked, Zhou Haichen and his group warmly welcomed, ”Welcome sire, to Friendship Town.”

Ouyang Shuo stepped ashore, and after waving goodbye to Old man Zhang, he turned around and said to Zhang Haichen, ”It's just a simple visit. Why did you have to bring so many people?”

Zhou Haichen was stunned, He didn't know that Ouyang Shuo didn't like such atmospheres, he only wanted to make it a warm welcoming.

Ouyang Shuo didn't want to make it too embarrassing for Zhou Haichen, and under the introductions by Lin Yi, he greeted each person one by one.

The organisational structure of Friendship Town was similar to the main town, but also had its differences. Out of the 4 main departments, they did not have the Military Affairs Department. The affiliated territories weren't going to be normal organisations. As such Friendship Town only had the secondary divisions such as the Combat Logistics Division. The other special divisions like the Saltpan Division were things that only the main camp had.

The deployment of civil servants in Friendship Village also obviously couldn't compare with the main camp. However, amongst the basic government workers, they were considered one of the best. If not, they wouldn't have had the chance to be posted here. Ouyang Shuo only hoped that this batch of people could quickly grow.

As for the military, they were all familiar faces. The 5 captains in the unit, including the leader of the town protection squad Hu Yibiao, were all personally assigned by him.

After a simple tour of the Harbour, they returned back to the town. From afar, one could see the tall city walls and the majestic south gate.

Luckily Zhou Haichen knew the limits and didn't arrange for the civilians to welcome him. Walking into the town, Zhou Haichen began to brief and introduce Ouyang Shuo to the situation in Friendship Town.

Friendship Town had around 2600 people, and was only a week from upgrading to a grade 2 town. Definitely, the cavalry unit that was housed outside the city wasn’t included in the numbers.

To defend against the nomadic tribes, the agriculture businesses were mostly facing south and next to the Qiushui and Friendship rivers. Other important industries that had to be built outside the city like the brick kiln and pottery factory were built in the west and east, under the protection of the city protection river.

As it was situated in a plains region, Friendship Town lacked wood and stones. It basically relied on the main town and Qiushui Town for such resources. The coordinator naturally was the Material Reserves Department.

Of course, Friendship Town wasn't without its strengths. Even without saying anything about the animal husbandry industry or the agriculture industry, it had its own strategic strengths.

The south side was where the Friendship and Qiushui rivers met, hence the water resources were plentiful, the ground fertile, and the farmlands that were reclaimed were much better than Shanhai Town’s. This region had already reclaimed 20,000 acres of fertile land.

All of which grew richly. The future Friendship Town would be the grain production base, only 2nd to Qiushui Town.

At the same time, to form Friendship Town's unique advantage and not be beaten by Beihai Town and Qiushui Town, Zhou Haichen thought hard and decided to expand and develop the forging and textile industries. These industries would be used in trading with the nomadic tribes and thus early preparation was needed. From this, one could see Zhou Haichen's deep thoughts and careful planning.

One could say that whether or not that could convince the nomadic tribes would in turn affect the status of Friendship Town. If they opened trade routes, then Friendship Town would become a trade city. If they couldn't, then Friendship Town would just become a military fortress.

Hence, towards Ouyang Shuo's visit, Zhou Haichen was holding high hopes.

Ever since the city protection river project, Zhou Haichen had sent men to get in touch with the nomadic tribes and had some progress. However, what strategies to take against them was something the lord himself had to decide.

Unfortunately, Zhou Haichen didn't know that the real reason of Ouyang Shuo's visit was the Qingfu horse in the plains. It has been two months since the Armory Division was formed. The first set of 50 Mingguang armors had already been completed. However, as they did not have suitable war horses, they couldn't equip the cavalry unit with it.