Village Review

The sky was just beginning to lighten, and the entire world of “Rise of Cities in the Three Kingdoms” was about to witness its first great wave of plowing and cultivation.

The previous month, due to players’ unfamiliarity with the game’s rules and having missed the optimal season for farming, they were unable to reclaim as much farmland as possible. As a result, by month’s end, food became scarce and the economy teetered on the brink. This time, all the village chiefs had learned their lesson and wished they could personally leap into the fields to dig up the earth and reclaim more land.

The forums were flooded with posts such as “Top Secret Tips—Reclaiming Farmland is the Ultimate Path to Three Kingdoms Dominance,” “How the Top Ten Villages Were Forged—A Comparison of Farmers and Farmland in the Ten Greatest Villages,” “Grain—A Comparison of Rice, Wheat, and Millet,” “How to Maximize Your Agricultural Advantages Under Different Northern and Southern Climates,” “Locust Plague, Rat Infestation, Disease, Flood, Drought, Grain Thieves, and War—The Six Deadliest Foes on the Road to Agricultural Supremacy,” and so on.

If any village chief still didn’t know how to farm, they would be ridiculed as a total game noob.

Bored players quarreled endlessly in the forums, waging heated debates across more than a dozen threads over tiny statistical differences. The village chiefs in-game, however, had no time for such bickering; they were already busy, running about the fields to personally test and study the best farming methods.

At Xiaobai Village, Zhan Xiaobai, Li Asan, and the four elders had assembled a team of 168 NPC farmers before dawn. This was the combined total of farmers recruited by Xiaobai Village and Wutong Village after days of relentless effort. In the following five days, new recruits would continue to bolster the ranks of Xiaobai Village’s great land-reclaiming army.

As sunlight broke over the eastern horizon, Zhan Xiaobai shouted excitedly, “Time to start farming—everyone, get to work!”

Under Li Asan’s direction, the NPC farmers hefted their hoes and began their labors with great vigor, fighting for the future of the little village.

As for the players, none of them were interested in level grinding that day. They all took the day off, content to watch the spectacle of the farming rush.

Zhan Xiaobai and Li Asan had carefully calculated in the fields: one farmer could cultivate and sow 0.4 acres per day, totaling 2 acres over the five-day busy period. Although the land in Xiliang was poor and yielded 30% less than the south, the addition of river silt and other improvements could boost yields by about 4 extra jin. Using a crude iron plow increased cultivation speed by 5%. Thus, after five days, the total reclaimed farmland would reach precisely 375 acres (taking the median between 353 and 395), and the monthly grain harvest would be an impressive 14,625 jin.

The mere thought of such a bountiful yield made even the usually calm Zhan Xiaobai giddy with excitement. With so much grain, how many NPC soldiers could be supported? This wasn’t just grain—it was troops. Xiaobai Village was poised to become the first village in the game to possess its own cadre of NPC warriors.

Li Asan, however, muttered gloomily by his side, “With this many farmers to feed, who knows if we’ll even make it to harvest. We’re burning through copper coins faster than water. These farmers aren’t eating fish—they’re devouring our copper coins...”

Zhan Xiaobai just smiled and ignored his complaints.

There was indeed considerable pressure in the coming month, but if things ever got truly desperate, he had ways to handle it. In fact, he wouldn’t even need to intervene personally—Jianba’s ruthless and cunning strategies could easily resolve any crisis.

Jianba even chuckled darkly and said to the perpetually fretful Li Asan, “Old Li, why worry so much? Just focus on supporting the village chief. If you want to become a top-tier village, you have to take some risks. If we ever run out of food or money, I’ll just ‘snap’ and take care of the surplus farmers. Such a trivial matter isn’t even worth worrying about.”

Li Asan shuddered at that, not daring to look Jianba in the eye, and for several days he avoided him altogether. He didn’t dare ask Zhan Xiaobai outright if the village would really cull its farmers should things go awry. For now, all he could do was worry about how to stretch the food supply to last till the end of the month.

When the total number of farmers in Xiaobai and Wutong Villages reached 188, Zhan Xiaobai ordered a halt to recruitment, leaving three villager slots open for special uses. (Only Wutong himself counted as a villager for Wutong Village; the core players of Wutong Village temporarily withdrew from the population count and became honorary senior villagers of both Xiaobai and Wutong Villages. Once Wutong Village had enough population capacity, they would be the first to rejoin.)

The five-day busy season passed in a flurry of activity, and in the end, Xiaobai managed to reclaim 380 acres of farmland—an astonishing figure that placed the village at the very forefront among tens of thousands of player settlements.

With its reputation as “the Greatest Village Under Heaven,” Xiaobai Village’s farming achievements naturally attracted intense scrutiny on the forums. Players compared data from all the famous villages, carefully analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Xiaobai Village: Xiliang, Longyou. (Xiaobai) 188 farmers, 380 acres reclaimed. Poor land, -30% yield per acre.
Classic player comment: Boss Xiaobai is just incredible—his sheer number of farmers puts all others to shame. Who knows how he managed it? To take root in a barren land like Xiliang with a -30% yield is gutsy—there’s not a soul who isn’t impressed.

Silent Village: Central Plains, Xuchang. (Silent Sword) 97 farmers, 194 acres reclaimed. Fertile, +30% yield per acre.
Classic comment: Boss Silent, sigh, why’d you have to take Cao Cao’s territory? Better watch out or Old Cao might come knocking...

Little Night Village: Shu, Chengdu. (Little Night) 99 farmers, 208 acres reclaimed. Fertile, +30% yield.
Classic comment: Boss Little Night, the top female hero. Born in the land of plenty, surrounded by talent and fortune—a cause for celebration. Her farmer count is close to Silent’s, but why does she have 16 more acres? Does she have a secret benefactor?

Starry Sky Village: Shu, Fallen Phoenix Slope. (Starry Sky) 98 farmers, 196 acres reclaimed. Fertile, +10% yield.
Classic comment: Boss Starry Sky settling at Fallen Phoenix Slope makes us all anxious for him. Is it truly a place where phoenixes descend from the heavens, or where they fall from grace? We shall see.

Season Village: Jingzhou, Jiangling. (Season) 99 farmers, 198 acres reclaimed. Fertile, +30% yield.
Classic comment: Boss Season, a top-tier pro gamer—truly formidable. Don’t believe it? Just look at his feats in other games. To set up in the heart of Jingzhou, the strategic core of the land, shows real ambition.

Cross-Moon Village: Yangzhou, Jianye. (I Walk Sideways, Ling Yue) 98 farmers, 196 acres reclaimed. Fertile, +30% yield.
Classic comment: Boss Cross, Boss Ling Yue—the classic couple duo. When husband and wife are of one mind, they can cut through iron.

...

Zhan Xiaobai told Wutong that in a month, he would gift him some of the farmers and grain to support the development of Wutong Village. Wutong gladly accepted; he wasn’t too concerned, for as long as Xiaobai Village was backing him, his own village would soon rise to become a moderately powerful settlement. The exact number of farmers didn’t matter much to him.