Chapter 33

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation

Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

A trading contingent arrived in Xia Village, bringing with them large amounts of timber and forage.

This was the trading contingent of Xiaozhu Village, which had been consigned by Chu Tian to go and gather various essential goods and resources for Xia Village. 

Due to Chu Tian’s consignment, the size of the trading contingent of Xiaozhu Village became increasingly large, 30 horses now present. Horses used by merchants were different from those used by cavalrymen, and their price was cheaper too.

“Lord Village Chief, in order to gather the resources that you had requested, we had to make a few trips back and forth between Langya City and Xia Village.”

The traders dismounted from their carriages and went to visit Chu Tian at the feudal lord’s residence.

“Sorry for the trouble. Is your village chief doing well?”

Chu Tian met the chief of the trading contingent of Xiaozhu Village. This chief was also a special talent, a businessman.

“Our village chief is busy expanding the area where the mulberry trees will be planted, as well as building textile workshops. She even established a trading association with the silk stores of Langya City. In the future, Xiaozhu Village will provide a batch of raw silk, or even silk cloth, for the silk stores every year.”

The chief trader took a sip of tea, having brought him up to speed on the recent developmental situations of Xiaozhu Village.

Textile workshops? Silk cloths?

Very soon, Chu Tian got his head around Xiaozhu Village’s intention.

Silk cloth, tea leaves, and porcelain were famous specialties of the Eastern Han. If the border between civilizations was opened up in the future, traders from other civilizations would purchase higher quality merchandise from the feudal lords of the Eastern Han.

The chief of Xiaozhu Village was indeed a business prodigy.

All the players had various identities in reality and were proficient in knowledge of different fields. Thus, it wasn’t even strange for there to be feudal lords who were professionals in manufacturing atomic bombs. It was just that Feudal Lords had technological limitations, and items beyond the settings would be invalidated automatically.

Chu Tian’s thoughts had drifted a bit far, however. The chief trader retrieved two drawings from his pocket and said, “These are the two drawings that you asked me to purchase: a Level 2 shipyard drawing and a Level 2 wharf drawing. We’ll purchase timber and forage from nearby villages afterwards. Our contingent made a small sum of money for our hard work.”

Chu Tian accepted the two drawings. In order to purchase the two drawings, he had spent a great sum of bullion indeed. The Level 2 shipyard drawing cost 250 taels of silver and came along with two ship-building skill books in case the village lacked craftsmen who built ships. Ship-building craftsmen were not often seen among special talents, especially high-grade craftsmen who could build ancient war vessels and decked ships.

A Level 2 wharf drawing cost 150 taels of silver. It could accommodate quite a lot of small ships, but not medium and large-sized warships, cargo ships, and sea crafts.

Drawings like these were exclusively sold in Langya City.

“Thank you for your effort.”

Chu Tian’s ultimate reason for building these two premises was to build the Level 4 fish market.

The Level 4 fish market could bring in large sums of tax revenue. Having lots of aspects to spend money on, it was a construction with relatively high profits as far as Chu Tian was concerned. 

As the popular saying went, “feed on the mountain if you live near a mountain, feed on the water if you live near the water.” Xia Village was situated near the Yi River, which enabled it to capture the freshwater fish and utilize the advantage of water-transport.

“I only did that because I have a family to feed. In fact, I should be grateful that you, my lord, have a job for me. I will now leave to ship the timber here.”

The visit by the trading contingent lasted less than an hour, and then they went off in haste to gather more resources.

Upon receiving the two drawings, Chu Tian immediately had Li Kui mobilizing manpower to commence building the Level 2 shipyard and the Level 2 wharf.

Xia Village already had a Level 1 shipyard and a Level 1 wharf. With the Level 2 drawings, they could build extensions onto the basis of the original foundation, which would consume less materials than building it from scratch.

A Level 2 shipyard could build a wider variety of ships. Currently, the types of ships that could be built were small-sized wooden ships, reconnoiter’s ships, small-sized fishing ships, and small-sized cargo ships.

Small-sized wooden ships: Paddling ships for civil use, suitable for traveling on water, can also be used for fish-catching, cargo-transporting or battles. Carrying capacity is limited nonetheless, which has almost no impact in defense.

Small-sized fishing ships: Ships used by civilians for capturing fish, suitable for use on territorial rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. Able to enhance fishing efficiency.

Small-sized cargo ships: Transport ships for visil use, cargo ships with carrying capacities of less than 10 tons. Can be used to transport resources such as food.

The first three ships mentioned were only ships for civil use. The so-called civil use meant that villagers could place orders to the shipyard and have them produce small-sized wooden ships or small-sized fishing and cargo ships. As long as the shipyard wasn’t in the process of building battleships, they would usually accept orders from the villagers in order to earn an income.

As for the reconnoiter’s ships, which occurred in Level 2 shipyards, they belonged to the category of ships for military usage.

The so-called reconnoiter’s ship was a name derived from historical records, which were small ships used for reconnaissance and patrolling. They were also known as picket ships.

[Name]: Reconnoiter’s ship (picket ship)

[Grade]: Level 2 ship

[Length]: 11.4 meters

[Width]: 2.43 meters

[Building cost]: 10 taels of silver

[Configuration]: Single mast, 1 scull and 8 oars, no parapets

[Comments]: Agile, speedy little ships. Lack defensive and attacking tactics, suitable for reconnaissance, patrolling, challenging, allocating misleading troops, and laying ambush.

“Once the Level 2 shipyard is built, we’ll build a picket ship.”

Chu Tian didn’t have the capacity to support a powerful navy yet, considering a reconnoiter’s ship alone required eight sailors.

However, the battling abilities of the reconnoiter’s ship were better than nothing. As far as paddling ships were concerned, the number of sailors would usually be greater than soldiers in order to ensure speed, which meant that apart from sailors, a reconnoiter’s ship couldn’t accommodate more than a few soldiers.

The reason for building a reconnoiter’s ship was because Xia Village was located near the Yi River, and they needed a picket ship to scavenge the nearby waters. In Feudal Lords, the Yi River, with a catchment area of 170 thousand square meters, was a big river. 

Some free players discovered water villages on certain big rivers and streams while exploring the world. Thus, Chu Tian had to be vigilant and look out for threats that might appear on the Yi River.

Besides, battles on water and oceans were also a significant setting of Feudal Lords. As far as the feudal lords of the Eastern Han were concerned, despite the importance of battles on the rivers, most feudal lords would still place their focus more on the land.

However, for the feudal lords in some civilizations, the focus should be placed on battles on water, such as the regions of the Viking pirates, the Venitian merchants, and the Vatican.

Chu Tian had already thought of training sailors.

If the border between civilizations was opened, he would need a navy to conquer other civilizations.

Completing the Level 2 shipyard took time. Chu Tian found two carpenters and handed the ship-building skill books to them to be studied, intending for them to become ship crafters.

In the meantime, he dispatched the order to recruit eight villagers who were good with the waters and transfer them to the sailor’s profession.

With that, Xia Village had its first navy, which consisted of eight sailors with a mere strength value of 5.

“Xu Prefecture and Qing Prefecture are both situated by the sea, and there are quite a number of great deepwater harbors, especially at the Qing Island of the Bay of Jiao Prefecture.”

Chu Tian had calculated the actual distance between Langya City and the Bay of Jiao Prefecture before, which was about 250 kilometers. The area of Feudal Lords was expanded by 10 times. 

If the curved surfaces of the three-dimensional space were to be ignored, it was equivalent to a 3.16-time extension of the perimeter and a 4.47-time extension of the linear distance between the two points. In Feudal Lords, the distance between Langya City and the Bay of Jiao Prefecture was approximately 1,100 kilometers.

“It’s way too far,” Chu Tian shook his head. He did not want to think of things that were too far away right now. At the moment, Xia Village did not even have the ability to build warships. Real warships were nothing like the reconnoiter’s ships, but ships such as speed battleships, ancient warships, battleships, and decked ships.

Speed battleships could only be built by Level 3 shipyards and they required md-grade ship crafters. As for ancient warships, battleships, and deckships, they would require shipyards and ship crafters of even higher grades.