Basic Benefits

_Gaia 1st year 24th day. A sunny day in the game._

Ouyang Shuo was riding Black Tornado, galloping through the wilderness. Since he had gained his horse, he had ridden it every morning like a wind through his lands. Black Tornado clearly liked the vast expanse of the wilderness compared to the narrow confines of the stables. Dew sprinkling from his hooves, facing the morning sunshine, he was clearly enjoying his run.

At Friendship River, over 2000 mu of farmland had been reclaimed, neat and orderly, set in four squares. He couldn’t see the far edge from where he rode. The river ditches had been dug, forming a simple and practical irrigation system for the farmland. The farmers were planting the sweet potato seeds in the furrows and were looking forward to the harvest in the future.

Ouyang Shuo studied the farm from the side, watching the rolling furrows and the busy farmers. He also could see the hope of a harvest. He could rely on the potatoes to help with some of the people’s food needs for the first half of the year. Looking over everything, according to the reports given to him, they were expected to be done planting by tomorrow.

He was very pleased with the efficiency of the Reclamation Division. Zhao Dexian was a real talent at management, whether it be the construction team before, or the Reclamation Division now. He had managed everything well, and never let Ouyang Shuo be disappointed. Ouyang Shuo firmly believed that after these experiences, Zhao Dexian could later assume even more important positions, such as his personal assistant.

Ouyang Shuo returned from his run along the farmland, taking less than half an hour to return to the village. On both sides of the village, two arrow towers had been built. Now there were two crossbowmen stationed by them, firmly guarding the entrances to Shanhai.

Coming through the main entrance, he was greeted by the first buildings of the commercial street. A basic grocery shop, intermediate smithy, intermediate woodshop, advanced tailor, advanced dojo, and other buildings rose on both sides of the street, bringing an aura of vitality to the area.

Yes, an advanced tailor shop and dojo, not basic level! This was related to setting the building level in the game. In the game, all buildings could be divided into five categories.

The 1st category included simple fences, residential small homes, towers, the ferry, and stables; things that were mostly living space provided by the building. These types of buildings were not hierarchical, and once built they could not be upgraded again. Thus, the fence could not be upgraded. It would have to be removed to construct stronger walls of brick.

The 2nd category included the smithy, tailor shop, woodshop, dojo, or hospital; buildings that produced something based on skilled experts. The smithy, for instance, did not determine if it could only build farm tools or also weapons; it was dependent on the level of the smith.

So, the level of those buildings was directly tied to the level of the expert working there. So when basic smith Li Tiezhu was promoted to an intermediate blacksmith, his smithy was likewise improved from basic to intermediate grade.

The 3rd category was a shipyard building. This type of building also relied on skilled personnel to achieve its function but was also very dependent on the facility itself.

Even if his shipyard had an advanced shipbuilder, but because the grade of the yard and dock were still at the basic level, so was the entire yard. Thus, the building itself had to be upgraded, as well as the person inside had to be at the right level in order to improve.

The 4th category included the village temple, ancestral hall, the market, and the barracks. These buildings themselves needed to be upgraded and didn’t require skilled personnel to do what they needed to do. Thus, to improve them, you had to acquire higher level building blueprints.

The 5th category were resource acquisition buildings, like the logging site, quarries, and mines. The level of those buildings was related to the volume of resources stored there and the number of people working them. As long as the resources stored were rich enough and the workforce expanded to a high enough level, they could be directly promoted.

According to the game settings, the basic level was up to 100 people. 100 to 500 people was the intermediate level, 500 to 1000 was the advanced level, and more than 1000 people for the special level.

At the end of the business street, Ouyang Shuo returned to his Manor and office within. On the desk, some paperwork were waiting, detailing the defense plan against the incoming beastwave worked out by General Shi.

He was not in a hurry to examine the papers, having been struck by a thought. Passing through the commercial street, he had seen many villagers going to work in their old clothes and suddenly realized that something should be done about that. The villagers worked hard every day for the territory yet the only thing he had done for them was ensuring they were well-fed.

He could still remember that when the Zhao villagers came to him, he had made them a promise: To let the villagers have clothes to wear, food to eat, and room to live.

The villagers were still wandering about in their original ragged clothes, and even Cui Yingyu, the lady of his household, had no decent clothes. But now, they had Mu Qingsi, an advanced tailor! His treasury had funds once again, it was time to improve everyone’s living conditions!

“Er Wazi!” Ouyang Shuo shouted out the door.

“Lord!” Er Wazi was out playing in the courtyard and answered immediately when Ouyang Shuo called for him, scampering rapidly into the office.

“Go find sister Cui and sister Mu and bring them to my office, I have something to say to them.”

“I have it covered!” Er Wazi shouted back energetically and trotted eagerly out of the office.

Taking advantage of the time, Ouyang Shuo began to look at General Shi’s defense plan for the beastwave. In the plan, General Shi gave a detailed description of the strategy that Shanhai needed to set up. Its core content, summed up nicely, was ‘active defense, active attack’.

Active defense meant to expand the scope of the village out into the surrounding area. Specifically, to do a good job of defending the village, there should be layers of defenses located outside the village itself.

After all, an animal was an animal, unlike a human army with intelligent commanders. When animals came in a wave, they must be in a violent and irrational state. Taking advantage of this point, pits should be dug out and scattered randomly through the area, with sharpened stakes in the bottom. This would both hurt and trap many of the crazed wild animals, and encourage them to flee.

They should also take the initiative to attack, taking full advantage of the potential of their mounted crossbowmen. Retreating defensively into the village was not appropriate, they should use the cavalry flexibly, taking advantage of their speed to seize the initiative with guerrilla warfare tactics.

After reading the plan, Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, accepting the expertise of General Shi’s strategy.

10 minutes later, Yingyu and Mu Qingsi walked in together. After these last few days, the two girls had become very close, almost like sisters.

“Big Brother, you looked for me and my sister, you must have a big deal to discuss,” Mu Qingsi said at the door, laughing at Ouyang Shuo. After a few days to get used to her new home, she now felt her new lord and big brother was quite approachable, and as a result, her shyness had gone away, becoming much more gracious and open.

“Naturally I have something important to discuss with you, else I would not dare to disturb our young ladies,” Ouyang Shuo replied, not to be outdone in the teasing. This little lady, since reaching an understanding with him, had become more daring. Although it was a deliberate teasing, he couldn’t let her be too naughty!

“Ah!” Seeing Ouyang Shuo returning such a joke, Mu Qingsi was finally a bit embarrassed. True to her nature, she whispered, “Big brother is bad, teasing a child like this!”

Mu Qingsi still had such a temperament. Ouyang Shuo couldn’t help but think of his real sister, Bing’er. Although there was a definite age gap, the same air of innocence and carefree beauty was still touching. When Bing’er finally joined the game, the two of them would definitely be playing together.

Ouyang Shuo ignored her whisper loftily, turning to look at Cui Yingyu. “Yingyu, having the two of you come here is going to be the start of a major event for the territory. This matter requires both you and little sister to see to completion.”

Yingyu had a softly puzzled look on her face as she asked, “I do not know what big brother intends?”

“When we raided the bandit camp, we reaped a bounty of 32 gold coins. I took out 10 coins for building blueprints, leaving more than 20 coins behind. Plus, Mu Qingsi’s tailor shop has already opened. I want to see if you can buy linen from the Basic Market and make a new set of clothes for every villager in the territory, it will be a special reward for the hard work everyone has done.”

Yingyu smiled all the way to her eyebrows, sincerely saying, “Big brother, this is a great move! Does this move apply specifically only to the existing villagers, or also newcomers who arrive at the village?”

“This plan is ready to be put forward as part of the basic welfare of Shanhai, so it is a long-term policy. On the day of Shanhai’s founding, I promised the villagers this as their lord. I was unable to do so in the past, but now I am capable and naturally, am not going to go back on my words.”

Mu Qingsi’s big eyes started fluttering energetically as she heard this, her gaze flashing as she looked at Ouyang Shuo, her face full of hero worship. “Wow, big brother, I am worshipping you more and more, how do you do this?”

Ouyang Shuo coughed, lightly saying, “No need to worship me, I am just a legend!”

“Foo, big brother is such a narcissist, shame, shame!” This little girl was getting more and more unscrupulous.

Regardless, Ouyang Shuo asked her, “Little sister, about these clothes, you are the advanced tailor and thus the most qualified to talk about them. Tell your big brother what you need to accomplish this, how much cloth, time, and so forth.”

Mu Qingsi pondered a moment. “According to what this I know, a roll of cloth is around 30 meters long, using an average of 2.5 meters per person, it can clothe 12 people. Based on the maximum population of 500 in a grade 2 village, we will probably need at least 42 rolls of cloth. With 4 apprentices, we can sew 20 sets of clothing per day.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, looking at the pair of them. “It seems this will be a long-term project. So I am going to set up a division of labor. I am responsible for the purchasing of cloth rolls to be tailored for the villagers. Qing’er you will be responsible for the sizing and sewing of clothes. Yu’er, you will be in charge of the distributions in an orderly manner of first come first serve. In addition, I will be buying another roll of fine silk, we will make a fine dress for both of you. Don’t decline, take it as a gift from the big brother.”

Girls were naturally more concerned about their images, even they had refused to at first, but they eventually accepted this gift from him.

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap