Chapter 1 Something of a Mystery

For many on the grasslands, especially those from the northern tribes who came here from Benlang Yuan (Running Wolf Plains) with trepidation, Ye Tao's section in the middle of the camp was quite mysterious. Unlike the rest of the camp, this area had six huge windmills with three long, narrow blades. Looking at the slender supports of the windmills, made of three not-too-thick but sturdy and stable struts, everyone knew that these windmills were clearly not for grinding flour. Since they would be staying on the grasslands for quite some time, although Ye Tao and his party were not many, they had transported this not-so-portable wind power generation unit in advance. Every night, when the rest of the camp could only rely on dim firelight for insufficient lighting, only Ye Tao's camp maintained considerable illumination. The tent that Ye Tao used as an office was always as bright as day.

Here, Ye Tao didn't actually make too many decisions, but he always maintained an understanding and follow-up of various affairs in Yunzhou. The current governance system of Yunzhou had completely gotten on track, and his job as the Beijiang Jinglue Shi (Northern Border Pacification Commissioner) was actually becoming easier. The Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Bureau, headed by Golan, had completed the transformation of the entire Yunzhou and most of Zhenzhou from being mainly animal husbandry-based to a combination of animal husbandry and planting in the past few years. Although Golan came from a tribal leader background and had never touched planting before taking over the Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Bureau, he paid more attention to agriculture and was willing to convert those pastures with limited production into large farms. The Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Bureau had a large group of various experts: old farmers who could grow anything, tea farmers, fruit farmers, forest rangers, travelers who had traveled all over the Middle Earth Continent, elderly people from various places who were very knowledgeable about climate change, and even Yin Yang masters, Feng Shui masters, landscapers, horticulturalists, and so on. With a huge team of experts, coupled with Ye Tao's frequent guidance and help, the decision-making ability and execution ability of the Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Bureau were surprisingly strong. The most obvious manifestation was that in the past three years, they combined a series of projects such as water diversion, land preparation, and farmer relocation, and built twenty-two large farms in Zhenzhou at once, utilizing the land that had been abandoned due to war. In these three years, one-tenth of the area of ​​the entire Zhenzhou had become farmland. Although most of the fields still needed further nourishment and cultivation, the large sums of money that the Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Bureau had invested in these three years would probably be fully recovered by next year. After the Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Bureau's large investment in these three years, Zhenzhou began to be completely self-sufficient in grain from the second year, and even began to store some war-prepared food, which shocked the imperial court. And three years later, Zhenzhou had become an important grain supply base in the north due to its large-scale and orderly scientific development, and had also formed a complementary pattern with Yunzhou, which was mainly agriculture and animal husbandry. More importantly, after these three years of large investment and large output, Zhenzhou was completely incorporated into Dongping, and no more waves could be stirred up. Even if Xiling wanted to fight back, it was likely that the first to resist would be the ordinary people who had already acquired land and benefited from the Dongping and Yunzhou governance system. Moreover, it was not so easy for Xiling to fight back. Not to mention the Lei Yin Demon Sect's (Thunder Sound Demon Sect) forces in the local area, even if the Lei Yin Demon Sect, which was now on the surface getting along well with the Xiling imperial court, did not take action at all, the ordinary people in Zhenzhou who were undergoing quite high-quality military training during the agricultural off-season would be enough for the Xiling army to deal with. Zhenzhou was, after all, a military prefecture. When carrying out construction, the Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Bureau spent a lot of money, and each village had independent simple defense measures and a centralized weapons room. In a series of villages in the southernmost and northernmost areas, there were even simple catapults and other military equipment. Although these were all things that the Dongping army had eliminated, as long as these things could still be used, the threat to the enemy was real.

The development of the Commerce Bureau was forced out by the joint departure of Ye Tao and Tan Weixin. Shi Wei, who had always relied on Tan Weixin's wise decisions, had to take on the responsibility of making decisions himself. After all, Tan Weiran, who was temporarily in charge of the Jinglue Mansion (Pacification Commissioner's Office) when Ye Tao was away, and the big shots sent by the imperial court before and after, did not have professional economic and financial knowledge. Since the decisions of the Commerce Bureau were relatively more professional, their team of experts was relatively small. The most core members were Guan Yinhang, the president of Yunzhou Bank, Wei Zhi, the chief accountant of Ye Mansion, and Lu Dan, the governor of Zhenzhou. They formulated a series of measures and regulations from the perspectives of economy, management, and financial security to regulate market operations. Cooperating with Chen Kai's drastic measures in the Third Division of the Civil Affairs Bureau, they did a good job. A series of measures they formulated were all marked as pilot projects before Ye Tao and Tan Weixin returned. After Tan Weixin returned, she discussed with Ye Tao and approved most of them except for a few regulations. The development of the Commerce Bureau, and the understanding of the economy by people of this era, had allowed Tan Weixin to breathe a sigh of relief and put more time and energy into longer-term planning.

The first and second divisions of the Civil Affairs Bureau had not been idle in recent years. Most of the towns did not have the opportunity to be rebuilt into something like Gondor, but the basic ideas for facilitating daily life and improving the appearance of the city could be applied elsewhere. In the past three years, the first division of the Civil Affairs Bureau had rebuilt Ningyuan, Suiyuan, Thunder Cliff, Dongjiaji, and several small towns. Although the complex underground drainage system was expensive, a combination of open ditches and channels could still be used. Not to mention anything else, the waterlogging situation in the towns in Yunzhou was much better during the rainy season. And due to the vigorous construction of public health facilities, the incidence of epidemics had also decreased a lot.

In the past few years, no serious disasters or epidemics had occurred in Yunzhou. Throughout Yunzhou, and even deep into Benlang Yuan (Running Wolf Plains), warehouses for storing large amounts of emergency supplies had been built. Unlike other departments, the Second Division of the Civil Affairs Bureau needed to take into account too many aspects. Although the budget given to them could not be said to be insufficient, everyone knew that if a major disaster really happened, no amount of money would be enough. On the one hand, they constantly formulated and revised various emergency plans and coordinated exercises with local garrisons and major families. On the other hand, they were still constantly studying how to reduce the loss of storage and transportation. The achievements of the Second Division of the Civil Affairs Bureau's own transportation team and warehouse management team in terms of efficiency and loss control shocked other departments. This was the benefit of specialization. Most of the officials at all levels of the Second Division of the Civil Affairs Bureau came from poor backgrounds. Many of them were not even scholars, but descendants of free farmers hired by landlords, shop assistants who ran errands in shops, and apprentices in workshops and carriage shops... When these people, because they were concerned about their poor origins, thought of their families encountering major disasters and wanted to do something, they came to the Second Division of the Civil Affairs Bureau through various selections. After round after round of on-the-job training, they were instilled with a lot of basic knowledge by experts and technicians from Ye's Workshop, Federal Express, and other institutions. This, combined with their original knowledge and background, immediately produced a wonderful chemical effect.

As for the Command, even this department was now deeply integrated with the lives of the people of Yunzhou. The salary standards of the various armies of Yunzhou were quite good. Most of the garrison battalions selected local people, or soldiers who were willing to relocate to the garrison. One person's military pay was enough to support a family. The soldiers of the main battle battalions, due to their long-term deployment outside, coupled with intense and arduous training, also received an overseas service allowance. When conducting exercises, feints, or deterrence operations, they also received a combat allowance. The soldiers of the garrison battalions actually didn't care whether they had to leave their homes to serve in foreign lands, or even risk greater danger to carry out various military operations. However, Yunzhou did not want to expand the size of the main battle battalions at all. If you wanted to enter the main battle battalions, you had to show real skills. The Command was not just issuing military pay and organizing the army, but also preparing a set of contingency plans for various situations. Whether it was to deal with Beiliao, Xiling, whether it was to respond to enemy attacks or to organize large-scale advances, or even to rush to Danyang in the shortest possible time, the confidential information room of the Command had neat stacks of plans. Once the situation required it, these plans would be delivered to all battalion-level officers in Yunzhou in the shortest possible time, usually two days, and put into effect. Yunzhou's current requirement for all main battle battalions was to be able to complete the transition from garrison state to marching state within one day of receiving an order. This speed of reaction had been constantly trained since the capture of Zhenzhou, and now, it had reached the point where everyone was accustomed to it. Yunzhou's heavy army group was always a secret trump card in Tan Xiaopei's hands and eyes. It was precisely because Ye Tao's management in the north was so successful that Tan Xiaopei was able to plan for Beiliao, Xiling, and even Chunnan, which was still an ally, with ease.

There were not many idle people in Yunzhou now. The Command was also finding it difficult to organize basic military training during the agricultural off-season. Those veterans' farms and pastures took the opportunity to continuously improve the training level of these retired soldiers.

The most unexpected thing was that the Command was now also in charge of an organization called the "Boy Scouts," which allowed children to enter the collective, gain a preliminary understanding of organization, discipline, and some basic common sense of outdoor life and travel knowledge. Although the "Boy Scouts" was just a fledgling organization, it was well-organized and had a very suitable incentive mechanism for children. The third autumn Boy Scout training camp to be organized this year had already made many children eager to win the golden triangular stars that could be pinned on their beautiful uniforms. The Command had also changed its previous practice of isolating the army from the public. The garrisons in various places were naturally integrated with the local people, and the camps and training of the main battle battalions were also regularly open to local gentry and ordinary people. Naturally, the training subjects on the opening day would be specially arranged, which could probably be regarded as a rest for the soldiers who were being visited. These measures made the people's support for the army even higher. As for the surrounding enemies' attempts to spy on the armies of Yunzhou, to be honest, the armies of Yunzhou really didn't care now. To learn from the armies of Yunzhou, equipment, training, and tactical thinking, none of them could be missing.

However, these good situations now made Ye Tao, Tan Weixin, Dai Yun, and others more and more cautious, as if walking on thin ice. This time, Ye Tao naturally had to come and see the opportunity that had emerged to solve the grassland problem in one fell swoop. Not only that, but he also hoped that the integrated grassland could bring Yunzhou a new development opportunity, or at least, be able to alleviate the problem and buy them enough time to solve the problem. Ye Tao didn't want to protect Dongping for many, many years. This was too long-term a problem and was not within his scope of consideration. However, in the near future, trouble was already in front of him.