165 Explosion (1/2)

Ouyang Shuo didn't let everyone wait for long, and after announcing the structure of the Internal Affairs Department, he said, ”I appoint Shen Zhui as the new Material Reserves Department director, and at the same time remove him from being the secretary of the Saltpans Division.”

Everyone was in an uproar as this was unexpected news. Everyone looked towards Shen Zhui, some with jealousy, some with curiosity. It was just that no one looked to congratulate him.

Although he had prepared himself to withstand pressure, to face such a situation, it was still tough to breathe. Thinking about Ouyang Shuo's words, Shen Zhui slowly calmed down, walking into the middle of the hall and bowing. ”Thank you sire, I won't let you down.”

From today onwards, Shanhai County had given birth to another dragon head. Although this one was a bit duller than the others, one had to admit that his rise was motivation to everyone.

Following which, the meeting officially started. The various secretaries and directors gave their reports. Everything went as expected and there weren't many surprises.

After the administrative meeting had ended, it was already noon, and everyone went back home. Only the 3 heads of the affiliate territories were left at Ouyang Shuo’s request to have their meals at the lord's manor.

Two days ago, the choosing of maidservants had come to an end.

Under the supervision of Yingyu, the two maidservants were invited in. The older one was called Zisu, and the younger was called Banxia, and both would be in charge of his living. Zisu was also in charge of managing all the other servants.

Based on Yingyu's introduction, both of them were orphans and had no relatives in Shanhai County. Zisu was still okay as her age was similar to Yingyu. She was a calm person, and her ability was not bad. Banxia was a bit younger, similar in age to Qing'er.

In truth, to be Ouyang Shuo's maidservant was exceptionally easy. Because he went offline at night, and he wasn't around in the day, the time he was served was very little.

In the afternoon, Gu Xiuwen, Zhao Dexian, and Zhou Haichen walked into the office and started to describe the situations in their various territories.

Qiushui Town’s head Zhao Dexian mentioned that Qiushui Town needed to do 2 things, which were firstly to upgrade the water irrigation system and secondly to build the city walls.

Ouyang Shuo supported and agreed for the Four Seas bank to loan Qiushui Town a sum of money to use for these two projects. On the scale of the city wall, Ouyang Shuo raised specific requirements. As an affiliate territory, in the future, they would have at most 2 city walls.

Hence, the first wall had to be 5 kilometers long, in the middle in scale of the 2 walls in Shanhai County.

As for the upgrade of the water irrigation system, that needed more support. The purpose of Qiushui Town was as a grain base. Apart from reclaiming more land, perfecting the water irrigation system and raising production of grain per acre was the best way to solve the problem. After all, if one had a lot of land but not enough farmers, then it'd be useless.

Zhao Dexian was worthy to be called an ex-village chief, having a sharp eye for agricultural matters and vast experience. At least at the current grade 1 town, he could still be of great use.

The Friendship Town head Zhou Haichen reported the trade situation with the Tianfeng tribe. Friendship Town had smoothly completed their second trade with Tianfeng tribe, obtaining 200 Qingfu horses.

Both sides had agreed after discussions to build a fixed market. With this, Friendship Town could trade with the nomads and wasn't restricted to trading only with particular tribes. The key was that as the fame or the reputation increased, other tribes might come and trade with them.

Hence, the setting up the market meant that it opened up the window to trading with the nomadic tribes. The goods were no longer restricted to Qingfu horses, sheep, and fur. Everything was tradeable. If it went smoothly, then this would stimulate the economy and the lives of people in Friendship Town.

Lastly was the report from Beihai Town’s head Gu Xiuwen.

It had been a month since Beihai Town upgraded to a grade 3 town, and adding the 4000 Jifeng tribe prisoners, the population had received a considerable boost.

Even so, Beihai Town was still half a month away from reaching the 10 thousand max population.

As for Harbour Town, Gu Xiuwen raised that the fishermen had already set up a fishermen association and started to work together when fishing. The men went out to fish while the women stayed at home to dry the fish to make fish jerky before sending it to the market to sell.

In Beihai Town, apart from the fishermen, the biggest group were the salt workers at the Beimu saltpans. Based on his plan, they wanted to copy the main territory and build living quarters near the saltpans, slowly shifting them out of the town.

Beihai Town wanted to turn into a harbor town, so it needed to throw off the burden of salt workers. Now in the town, the ratio in the population wasn’t typical, as half of the population were salt workers.

Furthermore, the salt workers had said that they were willing to shift out. Firstly, it was more convenient and secondly, there was more freedom.

It was only on how to build the living quarters that the town and the Saltpans Division couldn't agree on.

Beihai Town wanted to separately build 5 living quarters near the saltpans, and each would accommodate 1000 workers, the same as a full population grade 3 village.

The Saltpan Division was thinking from a management point of view that they could at most build 2 quarters. In the end, Ouyang Shuo decided to let the salt workers decide for themselves.