The World Online

Chapter 529- Grabbing Food from the Tiger's Mouth

Translator: ryangohsf

Editor: Nora

Ever since the territory was built, Ouyang Shuo had strictly enforced the separation system of military and administrative entities.

Hence, he would not allow the generals and local officials to have any unneeded relationships and have any interest convections with one another.

Only Mulan Yue was different. This brat worshipped Ouyang Shuo and was truly dedicated to her work. As such, Ouyang Shuo trusted her and was not worried.

Raising her position was in truth to help pave a path for her future when the game ends.

Of course, her personal ability was something that Ouyang Shuo recognized. If not, he would not take a prefecture and hand it over to her to develop her and give her experience.

Compared to famous ministers like Pei Ju, Mulan Yue was naturally lacking. Hence, Ouyang Shuo specially mentioned in the letter that the officials and minor officials they sent to Zhen An Prefecture should be those with vast experiences.

Ouyang Shuo really spent a lot of effort on Mulan Yue.

The only problem was that when she accepted her role in Zhen An Prefecture, she would not be able to use the teleportation formation to find Ouyang Shuo.

However, there was nothing much he could do about this.

Besides, if one did not face a storm, how could one grow strong?

When the eagle grows old, it definitely needed to fly solo in the skies.

As his territory expanded and grew bigger and bigger, Ouyang Shuo's mentality also became older and more experienced. Just like how Song Jia put it, he was a kid in his twenties, but he acted like a middle-aged uncle.

Toward Mulan Yue, Ouyang Shuo had the feelings of being an elder.

However, the two of them were only several years apart.

One had to say that Ouyang Shuo had really gotten ‘old’.

Furthermore, in this past year, Ouyang Shuo had not spent a lot of time in Shanhai City. He had been running around outside, really a tough life.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also moved Cui Shousi, who he had high hopes for, to Zhen An Prefecture to be the administration director and help Mulan Yue.

Of course, based on the administration system of Shanhai City, the director in a prefecture was half a grade higher than that of a prefect.

If one talked about Cui Shousi, one had to mention the Cui Family.

Based on the letter from Song Jia, the Cui Family had moved over a month ago. As for the Bai Trading Company, they still had not given Song Jia a definite reply.

Who knew what Bai Gui was trying to do.

The operation of the Black Snake Guards in looking for Fan Li had some small leads. From their letter, in about a month, they would be able to pinpoint his location.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that perhaps Bai Gui was waiting for Fan Li?

All these merchants kept beating around the bush and were not direct people.

Although Ouyang Shuo had secured the three governors, to Administration Director Xiao He, the troubles had just begun.

The governor was chosen but to assign the various officials also posed a huge problem.

Since the commencement of the Battle of Zhaoqing, in less than four months, Shanhai City had taken over five prefectures.

Compared to before, their land area had expanded by close to two times.

In such a short amount of time, such an expansion was really too much and would bring with it numerous negative points. It would shake the foundations and weaken the core of the territory.

The core problem would be the lack of talents.

Lianzhou Prefecture was the prefecture in the territory with the strongest foundation. The next best was Qiongzhou Prefecture. Although it had started off bad, under the buff of Yashan City territorial specialty, it grew stronger by the day.

The Leizhou Prefecture they recently occupied was also decent as Lord players ruled it.

Even including Zhaoqing Prefecture, it had a certain foundation. After their occupation, under the territory specialty buffs, they could quickly catch up to Lianzhou Prefecture.

However, for the four prefectures that he had just occupied, Ouyang Shuo was not as optimistic.

One did not need to mention Wuzhou, which was left in a total mess under the brutal rule of Chiyou. Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to send out his important minister, Fan Zhongyan, to take control of the situation.

Xunzhou Prefecture, Zhen An Prefecture, and Guilin Prefecture, under Hong Xiuquan's rule, only focused on expanding, so its internal affairs were in chaos too.

If it was not for Su Zhe and the others helping, it would be even worse.

Taiping Country had messed up these three prefectures of land for close to a year, destroying any foundation they had. The essence of the three prefectures was probably gathered by Hong Xiuquan and used to develop Tianjing City.

Hence, to run these three prefectures, it was a long and hard journey.

If these three prefectures followed the system of Shanhai City and built various Houses and counties, the number of officials needed would reach quite a shocking number.

Furthermore, during this period of time, the Administration Department had followed Ouyang Shuo's instructions and performed a full-scale evaluation of all local officials, removing a large number of them.

Hence, even if he used such a strong talent producing machine like Xinan University, he still could not keep up with this expansion speed. Based on the numbers that Xiao He had churned out, the territory had a shortfall of 1500 officials.

As he had no other choice, Xiao He personally visited the various imperial cities and used the title of Land of Philosophers to recruit scholars.

Of course, Xiao He did not dare to go to Xianyang City. Even if he did, it would be useless.

Despite his efforts, he could only recruit the basic level officials. As for the real talents, they were doing well in the imperial city and would not bite the bait.

The huge lack of people was something that worried Xiao He, and the matter made it hard for him to eat and sleep.

As they had no choice, Xiao He could only discuss with Jiang Shang to graduate the winter season students of Xinan University early. Those who passed the exams would get jobs.

At the same time, Xiao He also asked economics dean Meng Zi to use the influence of the Confucianism school of thought to hire Confucians to work for Shanhai City.

Xiao He also implored the other philosophers.

With such numbers, they were barely able to gather one thousand men. As for the lacking numbers, one could only use the current local officials.

Xiao He joked that he was just making up the numbers with noobs.

After all, a shortfall of 1500 officials was the number Xiao He reached after including the officials from the three prefectures that could be used.

Hence, temporarily, those who were appointed included useless people.

All of a sudden, the standards of the officials in the territory had dropped by a grade.

Toward this matter, be it Xiao He or Ouyang Shuo, they were both helpless.

If it was not for Taiping Country getting stronger and stronger, Ouyang Shuo would not want to push it too quickly. Unfortunately, the situation had forced his hand.

Of course, there were pros and cons to everything.

The moment Shanhai City managed to digest these territories, a brand new huge territory would ascend in the southwest region.

At that time, the territory would rise from the ashes.

At that time, a dynasty would slowly take shape.

That's right a dynasty.

If one considered the current land area, it was similar in terms of land size with olden dynasties apart from the foundation and power.

Of course, as the foundation and power difference were too far away, one could only say that a foundation was forming.

After dealing with the post war military and administrative matters, Ouyang Shuo was ready to pack up and leave for Tianjing City. Although Taiping Country had surrendered, only by taking charge of Tianjing City could he really calm everything down.

Furthermore, the current Tianjing City had many things that needed him to personally decide on. Like how to deal with the one hundred thousand troops, the officials, the generals of the country, and the riches.

There were many things to deal with. As Yang Xiuqing was very careful and safe, he would want Ouyang Shuo to make those decisions.

11th month, 18th day, Ouyang Shuo led his troops out of Guiping Pass.

As he was officially appointed by Ouyang Shuo as the governor, Pei Ju naturally stayed when Ouyang Shuo left.

Pei Ju would meet up with Han Xin's Leopard Legion and move into Guilin Prefecture.

At the same time, Only two mountain barbarian independent divisions would follow Ouyang Shuo into Tianjing City. The remaining division would be settled at the Guiping and Xuanwu passes.

Five thousand men would guard Xuanwu Pass, while the rest would guard Guiping Pass.

Only after Han Xin led his forces there and accepted the two passes would this independent division go down south and meet up with Ouyang Shuo.

The huge army left for the pass and disappeared into the horizon.

Far away, there stood a huge city, this was Tianjing City.

Ouyang Shuo would spend a period of time at this city to plan and draw up his magnificent blueprint.

One could say that the surrender of Taiping Country was a huge milestone.

He had officially stepped onto the path to be a real king, solidifying his position in the wilderness. At this stage, normal failures would not be able to shake his rule.

This was foundation.

However, just as Ouyang Shuo was planning the blueprint of his territory, a sudden change forced him to alter his plans and dealt him a hefty blow.

Gaia 2nd year, 11th month, 19th day, north border of Guilin Prefecture.

The bright morning light shone on the vast and empty wilderness, warm and peaceful.

Just at this moment, a huge army suddenly appeared in the wilderness. Looking out at them, one would see flags carried upright, with spears and knives forming a huge and endless black wave.

The endless army was like a ghost, suddenly slaughtering their way into Guilin Prefecture.

The next day, when Ouyang Shuo led his troops to leave Guiping Pass, the ten odd Lords in Chuannan Province, together with the Wannan City-State's one hundred thousand alliance troops, suddenly invaded.

Two armies, a total of two hundred thousand troops, forcefully invaded Guilin Prefecture at a breakneck speed.

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