104 Busy Village Affairs

On the afternoon of March 1st, 180 AD, in the third year of the Guanghe era of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhan Xiaobai used the upgrade blueprint to officially elevate Xiaobai Village into a medium-sized village. A dazzling light erupted from the administrative courtyard, and once it faded, the entire structure had been transformed.

The original administrative courtyard had been a crude, earthen-walled quadrangle consisting of a main hall, five side rooms on each side, a small warehouse with a 1,000-unit capacity, and a dirt yard in the center containing a plain, human-height primary jade stone with 10,000 durability and a 2-point-per-second automatic recovery rate. It had now been transformed into a beautiful, spacious courtyard featuring brick-and-tile, red-wood construction in the style of a wealthy ancient family estate, with its total area increased at least fourfold.

Many players within Xiaobai Village gathered around the courtyard to watch the spectacle, buzzing with discussion.

Zhan Xiaobai led the elders into the courtyard with excitement. Flanked by galleries and side rooms, the innermost part of the complex featured an imposing, exquisitely carved wooden hall, while a lawn occupied the center of the courtyard. For security reasons, the administrative courtyard was no longer open to the public, so ordinary players could not enter to view it.

In the middle of the lawn sat an intermediate jade stone emitting a milky white glow, boasting 50,000 durability and an automatic recovery rate of 10 points per second.

Zhan Xiaobai walked forward quickly to examine the newly added functions:

1. Village Population Cap: 500. Building Level: Construction of all intermediate buildings is permitted. This includes designs for village defensive walls, which provide 30% better defensive effects than those of ordinary medium-sized villages. There is a 5% chance to recruit exceptional NPC villagers.

2. Player Organization System: Fully opened. Players are allowed to establish their own organizations to reside in the village in various forms, such as independent, wandering, or mercenary groups. Maximum number of organizations: 15.

Zhan Xiaobai nodded inwardly. Previously, the clans and guilds in the village were merely names used by the players themselves, with no official system recognition. Now that they were recognized by the system, they could access numerous system services, which was highly beneficial for the growth and expansion of these organizations.

3. Warehouse System: Fully opened.
The village warehouse capacity was significantly expanded: Grain Storehouse (10,000 catties), Mineral Storehouse (10,000 catties), Timber Storehouse (10,000 units), Weapon and Equipment Armory (10,000 pieces), and Sundries Storehouse (10,000 units). Additionally, there was a secret vault (1 cubic meter) for storing valuables, which only the village chief could open.
The various village warehouses were located in the basement of the administrative courtyard; as long as the courtyard remained unbreached, the items within could not be looted. If these warehouses were full, additional warehouses would have to be built elsewhere in the village, though these would be less secure and vulnerable to theft or fire.
Personal player warehouses (500 units) and player organization warehouses (5,000 units) were located at the village inn, allowing for the storage of personal items at any time, albeit with a certain level of security risk.

4. Special Building: Camp of the Displaced [Effect: ???. Please exercise caution in constructing this building, as it may cause damage to the village and decrease public order.]. Status: Not yet constructed.

Zhan Xiaobai did not understand why the Camp of the Displaced was labeled a special building. With time being tight, he decided to leave it for now and deal with it later when he had more leisure. After the village upgrade, the priority was the comprehensive renovation of the original structures.

The reed fences were already too low-grade and had to be replaced with sturdy wooden palisades. The area of the medium-sized village would also be significantly expanded from its original size to 100 hectares (1 hectare = 15 mu = 10,000 square meters).

Reed Fence: Defends against beasts below Level 5. 5-meter segments, 100 durability. Requires frequent maintenance, or it will easily break, allowing beasts to slip into the village.
Heavy Wooden Palisade: Defends against beasts below Level 15. 5-meter segments, +10 defense, 2,000 durability. Requires occasional maintenance. [Damage below +10 cannot cause structural deterioration.]

Although the defensive capability of the wooden palisade was vastly superior to that of the reed fence, the project was obviously time-consuming and wood-intensive; it would not be completed in three or five days. Furthermore, Xiaobai Village currently lacked the manpower.

Most importantly, it was the planting season, and the labor of the NPC farmers had to be directed toward the fields. The comprehensive renovation of the village would have to wait until after the busy farming season.

Zhan Xiaobai, remembering that it was already March 1st, inquired with Li Asan about the planting.

Li Asan quickly replied, "Do not worry, my lord. I have already arranged everything. Except for the craftsmen, all laborers have been sent to the fields to plant, seizing every moment to produce more grain."

Zhan Xiaobai thought for a moment. With the current shortage of hands, fewer than 200 farmers were far from enough. At least 400 farmers were needed to fully develop a medium-sized village; farming, logging, and construction all faced critical labor shortages.

"Asan," he said, "pull aside twenty or so farmers to build wooden residential houses overnight. We must strive to recruit more NPC villagers starting tomorrow morning to join the village construction."

Li Asan hesitated, "My lord, recruiting villagers is simple, but the grain consumption will increase sharply. By the end of the month, we will certainly not have enough to eat..."

"I have my own plans. Just do as I say," Zhan Xiaobai replied.

At present, there was no other medium-sized village in the entire Xiliang region. If he did not seize this opportunity to expand aggressively and become the preeminent power in Xiliang, all the effort he had spent accumulating strength during this time would be in vain once other villages caught on and upgraded.

Controlling territory and demanding grain from other villages to fuel his own development was a step he would have to take sooner or later. Sitting in the village waiting for one's own crops to ripen was the strategy of mediocre, defensive rulers like Zhang Lu or Liu Zhang, not the strategy of ambitious warlords like Cao Cao, Liu Bei, or Yuan Shao.

He only needed ten days or so of stability to focus on planting, building the wooden palisade, recruiting, and equipping all the village's players with lightweight Level 10 gear. Then, he would more than double his territory and influence... As for the targets for expansion, they were already waiting.

Li Asan went off to oversee the farming and the recruitment of new NPC laborers. Zhan Xiaobai dispatched Chunqiu Shaoxia and A Fei to strengthen the security around the village.

That evening, envoys from over a dozen nearby villages arrived, and several village chiefs even visited in person, all eager to ask how Zhan Xiaobai had obtained the village upgrade blueprint.

They were anxious and confused. Whoever upgraded first would seize the initiative and reap the benefits. Among all the player villages in the Three Kingdoms, only Xiaobai Village and Silence Village had completed the task, and only they knew the process. Such top-secret information could not be found on the forums. Setting aside their pride, they had come to humbly seek advice, full of expectation.

Zhan Xiaobai felt a headache coming on. This kind of situation... *sigh*. If he didn't tell them, they were all "friendly" old neighbors, and a blunt refusal would be awkward. But if he did tell them, he would be giving other villages a free ride, and he had no intention of being a foolishly generous benefactor.

He chose to avoid them, instead discussing the village's planning and construction with Jian Ba. He left it to Qiushui to handle the eager visitors and turn them away.