Chapter 51: Level-Two Village Center

To say that the township government courtyard had good feng shui was absolute nonsense.

Because the provincial highway bypassed East Lake, entered Shiliying from south to north, and then veered west.

Forming an "┐" shaped road, the Corner Building Restaurant was situated on the inner curve, while the township courtyard was encircled on the outer curve.

No matter which direction the main gate of the township courtyard faced, it pointed straight at the main road.

In feng shui terminology, this was known as an "attacking malevolent force."

It would lead to financial ruin, bloodshed, career obstacles, a pessimistic mindset, and so on.

The township had previously considered relocating its headquarters, but they were too poor to scrape together the funds and could only continue using this old former commune site.

Now that Yu Yang wanted it, and the township happened to have a one-million-yuan investment, how could they possibly refuse?

Mayor Huang had even drafted the report to his superiors in his mind: Make way for the local pillar enterprise, everything is for development!

And so, that very night, the entire township government courtyard relocated to the grain depot.

"It's certainly lively here!"

How could it not be lively?

The dependents of the glass factory, the dependents of the plastic factory, and sixty-seven robust men all lived here.

Usually, there were even old men and women who specifically came here to sell vegetables, naturally forming a small living circle.

The next day.

Yu Yang arrived at the township government courtyard.

Walking through the main gate, before him stood three rows of fifteen units, totaling forty-five grey-brick tiled houses.

The front row was for offices, the middle for living quarters, and the back row, which used to be a night school, was currently vacant.

Further back was an open space the size of a football field, a dense patch of small trees, and a dilapidated courtyard wall.

Kicking down the courtyard wall, the view suddenly opened up, revealing the boundless East Lake right before his eyes.

Due to the heavy flooding earlier this year, the lake water had overflowed, completely obscuring the paddy fields where people used to fight tooth and nail in the past.

Yu Yang strolled around and returned to the township secretary's office.

The cabinets, desks, and chairs inside had already been moved to the grain depot, including the living supplies of the dependents in the back.

A moment later.

[You have occupied this place, the Town Center has been upgraded to Level 2.]

Accompanied by the prompt, a 3D bird's-eye view of Shiliying floated into his field of vision.

Wheat fields, dirt roads, wasteland, and every single household were sliced by hexagonal lines, the whole thing looking as if it were covered by a fishing net.

Among them, the blue color representing his own faction already occupied 83 percent of the total area of Shiliying.

[Town Center, Level 2.]

[You have unlocked the Barracks, Dock, and Blacksmith.]

[Primary Barracks: Consumes 1 tael of gold, can recruit 1 spearmen.]

[Primary Dock: Can construct fishing boats, construction materials must be provided independently.]

[Primary Blacksmith: Can manufacture farm tools, raw materials must be provided independently.]

After reading the introduction, Yu Yang dispatched thirty farmers, had Sixth Uncle send over the corresponding building materials, and began constructing three brand-new building units directly behind the small grove in the township courtyard, in the area close to East Lake.

During the wait, he headed into the street, found an old man who sold antiques, and bought a gold ring.

Putting it on a scale to weigh, it was a full 3 taels heavy.

1 tael equals 50 grams, so 3 taels equals 150 grams.

The current gold price was 65 yuan per gram, costing him nearly ten thousand yuan.

Upon returning.

The three buildings had been successively completed.

Possibly influenced by the construction materials, the barracks adopted a steel-concrete structure with specifications comparable to a plastic greenhouse.

Following the prompt, he threw the gold ring into the designated location.

The next second.

The cheat didn't even bother to put up a front, directly thrusting out three bearded, dark-skinned, stout men carrying spears from the deepest part of the house.

Chang Fu, Chang Shou, Chang Lu.

"Greetings, Big Boss!" x3

Spearman: Combat unit, mastering techniques such as thrusting, sweeping, charging, and throwing.

Yu Yang asked the three brothers to put on a demonstration.

The three dark, stout men immediately brandished their spears and halberds, charging back and forth, looking very much like three black whirlwinds in the spacious room.

When they occasionally sprinted, their running speed put the 100-meter champions to shame, and their stamina was boundless.

"Consider it adding three bodyguards, then."

After understanding this, Yu Yang checked the dock and the blacksmith.

The former could build fishing boats—the boat's specifications, characteristics, and lifespan were affected by the construction materials. By stationing one farmer, a certain amount of food could be obtained from the water daily.

The latter, the blacksmith shop, could repair and forge metal products, but required ten farmers stationed to maintain operation.

Yu Yang thought about the bean sprouts contained in his crispers, which still lacked large-scale packaging, and decided to try having the blacksmith forge a rectangular metal basket—not too heavy, not sharp-edged, and light and easy to lift.

To his surprise, it actually worked.

"This is equivalent to having an extra bodyguard agency, a fishing workshop, and a DIY blacksmith shop of my own."

"Fully harvested!"

"But that is all."

Because the gameplay limited his own development.

Today he conquered the township courtyard, tomorrow he might have a chance to conquer the county courtyard, and what after that?

He didn't even dare to imagine.

Fortunately, he had chosen the farming route; even without upgrading, relying solely on existing things, he could still aspire to become a super agricultural company.

After comforting himself, Yu Yang looked at the upgrade conditions for the Level 3 Town Center.

Just as he had thought earlier, the 3D bird's-eye view transformed into Pingdong County, and a crossed-swords symbol was pasted onto the county courtyard.

[Level 3 Town Center Unlocks: Stable, Intermediate Farmland.]

Stable: Consumes 10 taels of gold to breed an excellent warhorse.

Intermediate Farmland: Upgraded from primary farmland. For non-improved farmland, you can selectively retain current-season crop seeds, thereby ensuring that after planting, the yield of the next season will not be lower than the current quarter, with a probability of increasing the yield by 10 to 30 percent.

"In other words, with intermediate farmland, I can breed seeds myself."

"Round after round of selection, yield increased time after time. After 10 rounds, the yield doubles to triples?"

"Hiss... This is the true heirloom of an agricultural company!"

"The problem is, I have to go and conquer the county courtyard."

Yu Yang suddenly remembered what he had previously agreed upon with the county director—to help the other party attract investment.

He wondered if, given a good performance, the county would be willing to give up the county courtyard...

Moreover, if he wanted to trigger the decisive battle for Pingdong County, he also needed to occupy more than half of the houses and land in Pingdong County.

Compared to conquering the county courtyard, this seemed even harder.

Wait!

Yu Yang walked quickly to the courtyard wall on the east side of the township courtyard and gazed into the sparkling East Lake.

The area of East Lake was far larger than the arable land of Pingdong County.

If he contracted East Lake and then deployed a batch of fishing boats to directly occupy it, wouldn't he solve more than half of the land issue?

"I wonder if Pingdong Lake counts as land."

Yu Yang summoned the semi-transparent page and checked the 3D bird's-eye view.

The Level 2 Town Center, which had been migrated to the township courtyard, was adjacent to Pingdong Lake, and at this moment, an arrow attacking Pingdong Lake had already branched out.

This indicated that Pingdong Lake counted as land.

Of course, as a flood-relief reservoir of the Yellow River, the importance of Pingdong Lake was self-evident.

Wanting to contract it was by no means an easy task.

And since his company was an agricultural company, contracting Pingdong Lake would require finding a suitable excuse.

"I've just upgraded the Level 2 Town Center, let's digest it first. At the very least, I have to wait for the county director to return from the Northeast."

Yu Yang thought for a moment and called Lao Han, who had gone to the Northeast together.

"You there yet?"

"We got there yesterday. The brothers in the Northeast are too enthusiastic. Before we even started selling after delivering the gift boxes we were supposed to send, while eating hot pot and singing songs with the locals, tens of thousands of gift boxes were bought out by various government agencies. Later, some of the brothers shouted to pay extra, but unfortunately, our production here is halted."

"What about the bean sprouts?"

"They're sold out too. I've already contacted Yue Donglai and asked him to replenish 200,000 units of stock... Oh right, Big Boss, the leaders here said that we can have as many steel rails as we want. As long as we offer a friendly price and cover the shipping costs, they'll ship them out."

"What friendly price?"

"The 38kg per meter standard, 25 meters long, weighing about a ton, for only 380 yuan."

"That's selling it as scrap metal."

"Of course, do we want them?"

"Let me calculate the money in my pocket first."

The budget for the rails in his own industrial park had already been set at 2 million yuan.

The reason for making additional purchases now was entirely because they were cheap, and he could buy them back and throw them into the blacksmith shop to DIY various metal products.

Yu Yang hung up the phone and tallied his recent income and expenses.

Due to being in the construction phase, even with a daily income of one million, he couldn't withstand spending money everywhere.

For instance, utility poles and steel cables.

For instance, daily-settled wages and communal meals for thousands of people.

Therefore, his accounts were devoid of cash, leaving only the 200,000 yuan county branch loan remaining after the plastic factory customized the plastic wrap equipment.

Yu Yang pondered for a moment and contacted the business manager of the county branch.

"Let me ask you something."

"Please go ahead, Big Boss."

"Does the shareholders of my company have any quota limits if they take out a loan?"

"The shareholders of Sanyuan Agriculture?"

"Yes!"

"That belongs to premium customers."

"Calculated at a 0.5 percent shareholding ratio, how much can they borrow?"

"Do they happen to have a monthly salary?"

"Yes, quite high, and they have credit cooperative statements: a fixed salary of 650, various subsidies of 300, averaging out to 1,500 yuan per month in technical support fees for more than 150 households, adding up haphazardly to a monthly salary of nearly 2,500."

"In the capacity of a shareholder, filling out a quota of 50,000 is not a problem."

"Good, I have 156 shareholders here, help me process all of them."

"???"