Chapter 366- Touring Lianzhou
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Nora
The next day, the members of the alliance left Shanhai City one by one.
Before they left, Ouyang Shuo prepared a small gift for each of them.
Ouyang Shuo hoped that such an alliance gathering would become a yearly occurrence. Moreover, he wished for the gathering next year to take place in other territories, not just in Shanhai City.
The members would take turns to hold it.
After most of the members left, only Xie Siyun and Lin Jing stayed. Shanhai Alliance and War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group still had a big business deal to complete.
As the Dragon and Tiger Legions were formed, the military had eliminated another huge batch of equipment. Including the equipment that they cleared out from the battlefield of the Battle of Lianzhou, they pretty much had a mountain of equipment.
The Combat Logistics Department calculated that they had over a hundred thousand weapons and ninety thousand sets of armor.
If they sold these equipment for a gold a piece, they could pocket two hundred thousand gold. Needless to say, amongst all the items, there were still a few elite items.
A rough estimation would place the value of this batch of equipment at three hundred thousand gold.
As the main sales merchant of Shanhai City, the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group would naturally make a killing. As the sum was too enormous, they only took half of the profits.
With that, through selling this set of equipment alone, Ouyang Shuo could earn back three hundred thousand gold. In truth, this sum was similar to the profits the four military workshops earned.
They needed to replace the eliminated equipment with better ones, and the elite ones did not appear from thin air. The four workshops needed to make them.
The military industry started to shine and become one of the most profitable industries in the territory.
This base of cash was the sole reason he possessed the confidence of acquiring the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group.
For the financial income of the second month, Ouyang Shuo had instructed the Financial Department to not keep a single gold and transfer it all into the territory.
As the Lianzhou Prefecture was being built, many large-scale projects began at the same time.
The Construction Division considered the building of the outer city of Shanhai City, the construction of the Mulan Stronghold, the roadworks and the building of Shenjuan City the four big projects.
Each project cost no less that 230 thousand gold.
Amongst these projects, the construction of the outer city formed a bottomless pit. According to Wei Ran, this historical megacity would take an entire year just to form its structure.
According to estimations, the completed Shanhai City could hold more than five million people.
The Shanhai House would mainly spend their gold on basic public facilities like roads, ports, distribution centers, bridges, parks, temples, drum towers, schools and more.
Based on this alone, the construction costs would reach more than two hundred thousand gold.
Out of this sum, the Lord's Manor would subsidise a portion, while Shanhai House paid for the rest.
In order to raise funds, Wei Ran sold land!
Wei Ran inspired Shenjuan House prefect Shen Zhui to use a similar method to raise funds when building Shenjuan City. Shenjuan City was split into inner and outer city.
The House Office would build all of the inner city, while the outer city would be mostly sold.
The Lord’s Manor would pay for the Mulan Stronghold and the road networks.
Needless to say, the roads belonged to public facilities of the Lianzhou Prefecture. The Mulan Stronghold was purely a military stronghold, so it would not allow commoners to invest and involve themselves.
Based on the estimation, the road network needed half a year to be built, and it would cost a hundred thousand gold. The Mulan Stronghold would take three more months, and the cost of production would be seventy thousand gold.
Basically, the future half year or more of financial income from the Lianzhou Prefecture would be invested into construction projects.
If he added the other medium-scale protects, as well as the huge military expenditure, then Ouyang Shuo would not be able to keep a single cent from the income in the 2nd year of Gaia.
Who knows, Ouyang Shuo would probably need to think of a way to raise money to make up for financial deficits.
Gaia 2nd year would become the most crucial year in the construction of Lianzhou Prefecture.
Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to Lianzhou Prefecture's economy flourishing and becoming a stable and strong shield. At the same time, it would become a reliable backbone of the territory.
That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo was in the reading room. He personally met Du Ruhui, Cobra, and Viper, as well as the three heads of the Military Intelligence Division.
Songsan would be removed from his position and appointed as deputy secretary. At the same time, he would still be the leader of the special operations team.
Cobra would leave the special forces training camp and officially take up the role of secretary.
The reason Ouyang Shuo planned it this way was to control and restrict Cobra. The three team leaders in the division were all people he highly trusted.
For Cobra to do anything funny in the Military Intelligence Division was near impossible.
Even in the future, when rattlesnake members joined the division, their positions would still be lower than the three team leaders.
Ouyang Shuo personally oversaw the organization of the Military Intelligence Division. Temporarily, it would only have three teams; this would not change in the short term.
In this time, Ouyang Shuo hoped that Songsan, Lengqian, and Lei Xun could quickly grow under Cobra's leadership.
With that, the Military Intelligence Division still remained under his control.
Furthermore, the four divisions under the Military Affairs Department, apart from the Military Law Division, were pretty much completed.
Temporarily, the position of secretary could only be given to Du Ruhui.
Be it Zhao Kuo, who led the War Division, Zhu Hongliang, who led the Combat Logistics Department, or Cobra who the led Military Intelligence Division, they had all earned Ouyang Shuo's trust through their ability.
Ever since Du Ruhui’s appointment, the scale of the Military Affairs Department had expanded four times. Now, it had become the most important department.
Apart from Cobra, Viper would officially become the main teacher at the special forces training base. He held a position similar to a colonel. There would be five deputies under him, their positions similar to that of an army major.
The special forces training base would become a normal organization in the military. They would be placed under the control of the Military Affairs Department, helping to produce scouts and special forces members.
27th day, 7th day of the Lunar New Year.
Black Mamba led the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group and all their family members to move to Shanhai City.
On that day, all 550 of them chose where they wanted to go.
The final tabulated results was that 113 entered the Military Intelligence Division as spies, while forty-five entered the special forces training camp as teachers.
Seven entered the division and became the captains of the scouting squadron, fifteen entered the military and became majors. Amongst the five core members, Ouyang Shuo appointed one known as Collar Snake as colonel, he entered the Dragon Legion.
The remaining 370 odd people all entered the Black Snake Guards to form its backbone.
In two days, Black Mamba had formed the basic structure of the Black Snake Guards and reported back to Ouyang Shuo.
The headquarters of the Black Snake Guards would be built in a small courtyard in the official residence area. It would mainly be in charge of consolidating intel, intel analysis, and target selection.
Black Mamba would personally remain in the headquarters and help coordinate with the various intel stations.
The intel stations in all nine imperial cities would all have one conductor who would be in charge of that area.
The Black Snake Guards would all use Code Names, apart from the leader Black Mamba, the Nine Conductors would be called Red Snake, Orange Snake, Yellow Snake, Green snake, Blue Snake, Purple Snake, White Snake, Ink Snake, and Jade Snake.
The other members would be split into black guards and snake guards.
The black guards would mainly use force to capture and interrogate, similar to the special operations team in the Military Intelligence Division. The snake guards would infiltrate and obtain intel in secret, similar to the first and second teams of the Military Intelligence Division.
Both teams would have a leader and he would be called Black Guard One and Snake Guard One, the rest would all follow this naming system and be numbered downward.
The two choices for leader were the remaining two from the five core members.
The Black Guards leader was called Bai Meifu, the Snake Guards leader was called Zhu Yeqing.
To Ouyang Shuo’s surprise, Zhu Yeqing was actually a girl. Moreover, she was a girl that looked really delicate and pretty. However, the eyes of all the other members only contained fear when they looked at her.
One could see how skilled she was. Weak and delicate was just her appearance.
The two leader positions were below Black Mamba, but higher than the Nine Conductors.
Ouyang Shuo was very pleased with Black Mamba’s efficiency.
That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo handed over all the funds set aside for the Black Snake Guards.
The Black Snake Guards started to officially kick into gear.
In the territory, apart from Ouyang Shuo, only the four directors knew of the existence of the Black Snake Guards.
This mysterious organization did not receive any unveiling ceremony, and even their headquarters did not have a sign. There was only an Ash Tree in their front yard.
In the future, this small courtyard would terrify the world with its name—Ash Courtyard.
2nd month 28th day, 8th day of the New Year.
The handling of the eliminated equipment had temporarily come to an end. Next, the members of the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group would need to use their storage bags to transport all these items back to Jianye to sell.
Just like that, Xie Siyun and Lin Jing left Shanhai City.
After sending them off, Ouyang Shuo started to tour Lianzhou Prefecture.
He brought a Guards squad. Going out from the west, he passed by Yongye County and Guangshui County. Then, he headed to Tianfeng City, turning toward the north to Mulan House and Mulan Stronghold. After his departure, he went down south to Broken Blade City, Yishui County, and Gushan County before he returned to Shanhai City.
The whole tour needed a full twenty five days. As a result, when the elite groups of the three guilds arrived in Yazhou, he would still be on his tour.
Ouyang Shuo had sent Sun Xiaoyue a letter, asking her to represent him to welcome them.
Apart from returning on New Year's Eve for the dinner, she spent the rest of her time in Yazhou to lead the construction works.