Online Game: Three Kingdoms Era

  I suddenly remembered that it's already evening, the first day of public testing. Those who got off work should have arrived by now. After being stirred up by the forum, I reckon Tai'an Village and Xiahou Village must be bustling with activity now.

  Switch to Gu Hao Zhang's side and take a look, indeed, Tai'an Village can be described as rubbing shoulders and treading on each other's heels. Especially for female players, knowing that there are clothes to be obtained, they desperately spawned in these two new villages. A long queue formed in front of the newly built Battle Clothes Pavilion. Many female players knew that the newbie village was too crowded, so they directly followed the forum introduction and found a player named Wang Zhu to teleport themselves to Beihai City.

  Switch to Zhang Haogu's side, bring Sima Hui over for a discussion. After carefully calculating the number of female players who have not yet received their clothes, I decided to set up ten more garment workshops in Tai'an Village and Xiahou Village to speed up the distribution of garments to players.

  Because it was a small building, it was built in just a few minutes. Through the system announcement, all new players were very excited and flocked to the newly built armor shop.

  But the hateful male voice unexpectedly brought me a very unexpected message:

  "System Announcement: Due to Qingzhou Mu Zhang Haogu's new buildings in Taian Village reaching six, Taian Village has been upgraded from Newbie Village to Newbie City."

  "System Message: As player Zhang Haogu was the first to upgrade Zhixia Village to a city, the system rewards this player with the ability to upgrade ten villages under their actual control to cities."

  "System message: Player Zhang Haogu's reward has been doubled. The system also rewards this player to upgrade ten villages under their actual control to cities."

  "System Message: As player Zhang Haogu was the first to upgrade the village of Zhixia to a city, the imperial court has appointed Zhang Haogu as the Inspector of the Sea. The original official position and jurisdiction remain unchanged."

  "System Message: Player Zhang Haogu's reward has been doubled. The imperial court has appointed Zhang Haogu as the Touring Inspector, with his original official position and jurisdiction remaining unchanged."

  "System Announcement: Due to Xu Zhou Mu Zhang Hao Gu's new buildings in Xia Hou Village reaching six, Xia Hou Village has been upgraded from Newbie Village to Newbie City."

  My god, the right to upgrade 20 villages into cities, what a concept? Upon receiving this reward, I immediately thought of going south to upgrade my city. However, this plan was immediately vetoed by me. After Wolong City is built, I don't even dare to develop it, why bother looking for trouble? Let's just leave it for now. Let's see what the Coastal Inspector and the Touring Inspector are doing.

  Inspector of the Coast: equivalent to a sea shepherd, in charge of islands within China's jurisdiction, with the power to establish ten cities on the islands.

  Xunyishi: equivalent to ethnic pastor, in charge of the regions controlled by ethnic minorities within China, with the power to establish ten cities within the controlled region.

  My heart is filled with joy when I see this. In other words, in order to do a good deed, the system actually gave me twenty cities.

  My mood is really good. Now that I've made so much money, I should at least give some benefits out. I immediately discussed with Sima Hui, the original novice clothing store was renamed Novice Equipment Store, and all male and female players can receive a full set of novice whiteboard equipment from the Novice Equipment Store.

  After the system announcement, the entire game was boiling again. I believe that my moral and prestige values have already become more than just numbers, in the hearts of players, they are a kind of substantial thing.

  The system actually gave me a bunch of rewards at this time. I won't mention those trashy rewards, what made me the happiest was that I got another "War Nourishing War" tenth-level skill.

  War Sustains War: 10-level domestic policy skill. If war occurs within the jurisdiction, the income of officials and civilians not only does not decrease but also increases compared to peacetime. Civilian satisfaction +10%.

  I shouted "developed" dozens of times in a row.

  At this time, Sima Hui said to me: "Your Excellency, you now have many rewards. If you can't use them temporarily, you can distribute tasks to players as task rewards."

  A military advisor is just a military advisor. If Sima Hui hadn't reminded me, I wouldn't have thought of this either.

  I now think I should give those olive branch-throwing consortiums a little sweetness. After some thought, the south is my turf and can't let them take it for now. The ocean and ethnic minority areas are also my turf, but they haven't been developed yet, just in time to give those consortiums an opportunity.

  The plan has been set, so I asked Sima Hui to help me release an announcement, the Ocean District and Minority Areas are open for investment, welcome to develop together.

  As expected, various financial groups have been paying attention to my movements. Upon hearing the announcement of "attracting investment", I already understood what was going on.

  Ten minutes later, the player representatives sent by various financial groups have arrived in Beihai City for negotiations with me.

  I gave them a simple task, each consortium helped me take down one city occupied by the Yellow Turbans within my jurisdiction, and after taking it down, I would give away one city.

  When I gave out the task, these representatives were all stunned. Because throughout the process, although I also had some benefits, such as regaining control of the city and collecting taxes in new cities. But the greater benefits still belonged to them.

  Firstly, in the process of attacking cities, players from these consortia can earn experience points and have NPCs help them charge forward. They only need to participate and the greatest benefit is to speed up the pace of city occupation. Because now that Zhuge Liang is here as a military advisor to eliminate bandits, the imperial court's army has arrived, and my army's strength is even stronger.

  And unexpectedly getting a city, made them overjoyed. With their current strength, they were not strong enough to own a city yet. What is a city? Having a city means being able to operate and having money.

  For my big handwriting, all these consortium representatives gave a thumbs up and praised me as a real person.

  I actually understand that I myself am not losing out. To make money and not provoke jealousy, you have to share the benefits equally. Now if I were to develop the ocean and minority areas myself, I would definitely die a terrible death. If I just leave those places empty, I would feel unfulfilled in my heart. If capital is not circulated, it's just a pile of worthless paper. So I can only let these financial groups help me develop, and I collect taxes from them. Anyway, the system helps me collect taxes, so I'm not afraid they'll cheat me. Moreover, the actual control rights of these cities are still in my hands. In the future, if these people plan to use the city to my disadvantage, I can simply take back the city.

  Profit drives progress. An hour later, thanks to the efforts of various financial groups, the bandit army quickly recovered most of the lost land in Yanzhou and Yuzhou, and I became the governor of four states again. With the "War Nourishes War" skill at level 10, my little treasury is growing rapidly.

  As a court official, I have three treasuries. One is the official treasury, where I can also withdraw money, but unless there is a surplus, withdrawing money will affect local finances. One is my small treasury, which is the system's commission based on local income. This part of the money belongs to me and I can withdraw it at any time. There is also my personal treasury, which is my own treasury that follows me wherever I go.

  I calculated my current assets in the game. The portable treasury has already reached a ten-digit number. Adding up the small treasuries of the four states and Sun Jian's side, the total is a twelve-digit number. Of course, the official treasury is even more massive, already reaching a fourteen-digit number.

  As for the newly built cities of various financial groups, the profits I get from there will go directly into Qingzhou's little treasury.

  At this time, Zhuge Zhan told me that he can already create new characters. I sent his newly created character to build a city and made him extremely happy. In other words, from now on, my sworn brother in the game also has the same strength as the major consortiums.

  All major financial groups continue to send people to receive the task. Although I was worried that after the city of Hebei Province was taken down, it would not be under my jurisdiction, I still gave them the task.

  Another hour passed and the Yellow Turban Rebellion was completely pacified. The major financial groups got a second city, some even got three cities.

  As expected, the several cities of Jizhou were not given to me. According to the imperial court's intention, since I lost Yan and Yu states, although I later conquered them back, I still had to return one state. It was only because I was the General-in-Chief for Suppressing Bandits that my achievements offset my crimes, so they were returned to me.

  But there is good news. As a result of Cao Cao and Liu Bei's meritorious service in battle, Cao Cao obtained Nanpi and Liu Bei obtained Pingyuan. In other words, although I didn't get these two cities, they still belong to me.

  The current situation is that the seas and the barbarian lands are all in my hands. The Central Plains are also in my hands. As for the south, it's not necessary to mention, as long as the public test doesn't end early, it will also be in my hands. The plains of Ji Province and Nanpi are also in my hands. In this situation, I dare not make any further advances. The rich lands of Ji Province, You Province, Bing Province, and Si Lì are right in front of me, but I am unable to take them, this feeling is unbearable for anyone.

  At this time, Sima Hui seemed to see through my thoughts: "Your Excellency, why not use the old trick again?"