The Recruitment Hall was located in his educational and cultural district, next to the private school.
Name: Recruitment hall
Type: Hidden Class Building
Function: Randomly recruit a special talent every month, randomly recruit a historical talent every year.
Features: Special talent attraction rate increased by 20%; Reputation of the territory is increased by 5%.
Description: This is a specially designed hiring location. Recruiting a special talent costs 10 gold coins. Recruiting a historical talent costs 100 gold coins. Recruitment chances cannot be accumulated, and can expire.
It was worthy of it being known as the hidden class building that was comparable to a God-level equipment. Its properties’ descriptions were simple yet strong. It acted like a gravity stone, attracting and providing steady streams of talents to the territory.
Special talent attraction rate increased by 20%: This is comparable to the gold level attraction ability of Shanhai Village. After the two abilities are summed, the ability to attract special talents increases by 40%.
Territory reputation increased by 5%: This was a rarer feature, so far found only in the similar secret class building, the Mazu Temple. Even a gold level village did not have such a feature built into it.
The most intuitive power was the recruiting function. This was a loved or hated power. Loved, because it made it easy to recruit special talents and historical talents. Hated, because of the high recruitment costs.
Gold on hand was precious stuff, and bringing it up brought forth bitter tears. Even with Ouyang Shuo being so lucky, and the Handan Six Tyrants being so powerful, they never had too much loose gold on hand.
If he hadn’t had the world’s award of 600 gold coins, Ouyang Shuo wouldn’t have considered using the Hall at all. He would’ve rather wasted the opportunity to recruit than spend precious gold on recruiting talents.
From the outside, the Recruitment Hall was only an ordinary wooden building. There were no carvings on the walls, nor did it use fine woods. The main difference was that the workmanship was unusually fine compared to the other buildings in the village.
He opened the doors of the main hall. Hanging on the walls around him were twelve portraits of the ancient sages. That is, Confucian-style saints, and also hermits like Zhulin Qixian.
There was a binding location next to a wooden sign, with a handprint on it for him. Ouyang Shuo put his hand in the there, then came the spurring of a system prompt.
“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for opening the Recruitment Hall. The first time you open the Recruitment Hall, you automatically get a chance to recruit a special talent and an opportunity for a historic talent. Do you wish to recruit anyone?”
“Recruit special talent!”
“System Tip: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully recruiting a special talent - an advanced winemaker! 10 gold coins are automatically being deducted.”
A white light flashed, and a middle-aged man came out of nowhere before Ouyang Shuo. He bowed in salute, respectfully saying, “Civilian Du greets sire!”
“Master Du, please!” Ouyang Shuo guided Master Du to the side, before once again placing his hand.
“System Tip: You still have a remaining opportunity to recruit historical talent. Do you wish to recruit?”
“Recruit please!”
“System Tip: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wiyu for successfully recruiting the king-level historical figure Fan Zhongyan! 100 gold coins are automatically deducted.”
As the white light flashed, a middle-aged scholar arrived from nowhere. “Mr. Xi Wen greets the lord!” he said immediately.
Ouyang Shuo quickly stepped forwards, his hands virtually supporting the other man, sincerely saying, “It is good you came so quickly, there is much to do!”
He took them out of the recruitment hall, assessing Fan Zhongyan as he did so.
Name: Fan Zhongyan (aka Xi Wen) (King Rank)
Title: Great Scholar
Dynasty: The Northern Song Dynasty
Identity: Shanhai Villager
Occupation: Civil Servant
Loyalty: 45 points
Command: 45
Force: 30
Intelligence: 75
Political: 80
Features: Awe-inspiring righteousness (enhances territorial integrity by 40%); Worries about the land (enhances territorial efficiency by 20%); Gracious (enhances the humanist level of the territory by 15%)
Evaluation: The Northern Song Dynasty was famous for thinkers, politicians, military strategists, writers, fine culture, and geniuses. Xian, placed people's happiness before his and took care of their worries first.
Coming back to the Lord’s manor, Ouyang Shuo called in Er Wazi, told him to go find the secretaries and invite them to the chamber, as there were matters to discuss. He personally led Fan Zhongyan into the chamber to chat.
Although Fan Zhongyan was a civilian, his literary attainments were high. Even at the level of a chat, Ouyang Shuo felt more than a little overwhelmed: his knowledge of the classics was not high enough. He could only keep up with the principle of staying silent and saying nothing wrong, while being a good listener.
In less than twenty minutes the division chiefs had arrived. Mu Qing Si also followed Cui Yingyu in to join the fun. Ouyang Shuo cheerfully opened the meeting, saying, “The war to defend the village has just ended, and I know that you are very busy. In order not to delay everyone, I will cut a long story short.”
He took a look at Fan Zhongyan. “Sitting next to me is Mr. Fan Zhongyan(Xi Wen), man of wide-knowledge. Let us welcome him and get to know each other.”
Everyone greeted him naturally. There was naturally a great respect for scholars of his caliber from the secretaries. Except for Gu Xiuwen and Cui Yingyu, the others were basically born as peasants. Zhao Dexian, who was more knowledgeable, could only recognize a few words, let alone the others.
“I have decided to set up an Administration Department to take charge of all of the day to day governmental affairs in the territory. The Material Reserves Division will still operate independently. The Construction Division, the Reclamation Division, the Salt Pan Division, and the Household Registration Office will all be moved under the jurisdiction of the Administration Department.”
“I am appointing Mr. Zhongyan as the Director of Administration, managing the daily affairs of the active territory as Chief of the Civil Service. At the same time, I will also be moving the post of the Secretary of the Salt Fields Division to him.”
Fan Zhongyan had the experience of managing salt pans in the past, therefore, Ouyang Shuo was rest assured with him managing the salt fields. After all, he himself couldn’t leave the territory, while the salt pans would be slowly expanding outside the territory. He really had no way to manage the salt pans himself.
Fan Zhongyan flew to his feet. “Xi Wen thanks the lord for his trust, I will not disappoint you!”
“Gu Xiuwen, I hereby appoint you as the director assistant, your main duty is to assist the Director of Administration in handling the day to day government affairs, and will still be in charge of household registration,” Ouyang Shuo went on.
His arrangements were naturally made in the hope that Gu Xiuwen would be learning from Scholar Zhongyan of his ability and experience in government affairs.
“Zhao Dewang, Deputy Secretary of the Construction Department, in this battle for our village, you have had an outstanding performance, and fought well. You are officially promoted to Secretary of Construction.”
Zhao Dewang excitedly voiced his thanks and gratitude. His office finally matched his duties. Wearing the title of Deputy Secretary while doing the job of a Secretary did not sit well with him. Now, the load was off his shoulders.
“For the rest of our personnel in dealing with this adjustment, I hope you will help the new director out diligently. I am well aware of your performances. For those who have done well, I will never be stingy in rewarding you.”
Mu Qingsi, seated behind Cui Yingyu while watching Ouyang Shuo issue orders, leaned forwards and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “Big brother looks so handsome when dealing with governmental affairs.”
Cui Yingyui inadvertently blushed as she swept Ouyang Shuo a glance, her heart suddenly beats harder and a trace of color flashing up her cheek. In order to cover her panic, she turned and hit Mu Qingsi on the head, with a strong smile saying, “Little girl, your big sister brought you over here to make you familiar with government, not to talk about big brother’s appearance. You are so naughty.”
Yingyu knew Mu Qingsi was young, but she was intelligent and serious while working. She wanted to cultivate Mu Qingsi more to enter the civil service such that she could help her in the Material Reserves Division in the future. She did not expect her little sister’s mind to be totally elsewhere.
“Governmental stuff is so boring. Oh, I don’t like it, I just want to be a small tailor, hee hee!” This was a heart of purity. No wonder she had progressed so quickly in the tailoring field.
Cui Yingyu went silent upon hearing this, knowing that her civil servant training plan was dead before it had gotten off the floor.
Ouyang Shuo noted the little tricks of this prankster, and sent a cool look her way. Mu Qingsi instantly straightened up and transformed into a proper young lady, obediently sitting in the back and was motionless, also exaggerating a bit with a small hand over her mouth. Her large eyes met his with an innocent expression in them.
He reluctantly smiled slightly, no longer caring about her, and turned back to the crowd. “The proceedings have ended; you may disperse. As soon as possible, finish the after-war cleaning up work.”
“Tomorrow morning, Shanhai Village will reach the full population. That means, as of tomorrow, Shanhai Village can be be upgraded to a grade 3 village. After the promotion to a grade 3 village, there will be more things to do. Therefore, you need to handle your tasks promptly, don’t leave extra works behind!”
Everyone there rose, bowed, and quickly departed.
Ouyang Shuo called over Gu Xiuwen, explaining to him that he should take Mr. Xi Wen around the territory to get a good grasp of the basic situation here, and help acclimate Mr. Xi Wen to Shanhai as part of his new family. In addition, he should arrange Mr. Xi Wen’s accommodations temporarily in the West Wing.
Shuo would also be handing over the winemaker, Du Chun, to Gu Xiuwen, and ordered Gu Xiuwen to make arrangements for the winemaker.
After all this, Ouyang Shuo headed back to his office. Now that the territory had Fan Zhongyan and General Shi, two major talents for the government and military, he now had more energy to devote to the development strategy of the territory.
After experiencing the Siege of Beasts defensive quest, Shanhai Village had surged in front of the world. His future operations, ensuring that the desired benefits were attained, would have to be carefully planned out.
*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes
*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap