When Chu Tian returned to the village with the hunting team, he found out that popular sentiment had increased by 1 point, reaching a total of 76. It was probably because the hunting team had provided meat for the village, and the satisfaction level of villagers had been raised.
During the half-day when Chu Tian went hunting, a dozen more refugees turned up nearby the village. The total population of the village had hit 163 villagers now. Among them were 61 local soldiers.
The income source of the village was the collection of taxes. The current tax rate was 20%, and it was paid by handing in food or copper coins.
The original food production of the Xia Village was 200 units/year, which could provide for 200 people per year. The 20% taxation meant turning over 40 units of food to the Feudal Lord.
As the Feudal Lord, the 40 units of food could be allocated by Chu Tian. That little amount could at most feed 40 soldiers.
Fortunately, local soldiers did not need to be paid by the Feudal Lord with food and wages. Otherwise, Chu Tian wouldn't even be able to feed the troop of local soldiers that he currently owned.
With the participation of refugees, the unused farmlands could be put into good use now, and food production could be enhanced.
There were many more attributes that influenced agriculture, there was even a panel exclusive for agriculture.
[Territory]: Xia Village
[Used Farmlands]: 60
[Unused Farmlands]: 40
[Basic units of production]: 10 (influenced by geographical location, quality of seeds, and type of crops)
[Production Efficiency]: 10/100
[Water Control]: 70/100 (influenced by weather, rivers, and hydraulic engineering)
[Soil Fertility]: 70/100 (each round of harvest lowers the fertility, can be enhanced by fertilizing and fallowing)
[Disasters]: None
[Great Harvests]: None
[Annual Production]: 70 x 10 x (1+0.1) x 0.6 x 0.70 = 323.4
[Annual Tax Revenue]: 64.68
Chu Tian was rather surprised to find out that there were unused farmlands in the village. When the once unused farmlands were all occupied, the Xia Village had to figure out ways to cultivate new farmlands.
There were prairies in the vicinity of the Yi River, and due to the presence of rivers passing by, the water and soil conditions were excellent. It shouldn't be a challenge to cultivate new farmlands.
"All I collect is 65 units of food all year round, which means it can only feed 65 professional soldiers. No... I have to feed myself and Hua Mulan as well..."
Only then did Chu Tian realize Hua Mulan and himself were incapable of producing food. Hua Mulan was a professional commander, not a Rural Fighter who was half-villager and half-soldier. Chu Tian was the Feudal Lord. No Feudal Lords ever went to farm in person… If it happened, they were only putting up a show to win the people's favor.
In other words, the current tax revenue could only provide for 63 professional soldiers.
To recruit professional soldiers, there had to be a military camp.
Level 1 villages had no military camps.
Apart from food, the annual tax revenue of the Xia Village included copper coins from economical premises like the grocery stores and iron mining profit from Level 1 mine lands. These incomes weren't as high as income from food. They only made up a small proportion.
Unlike cities and towns with prosperous commerce, farmlands were the most important as far as villages were concerned. The collected food had to be converted into copper coins, which would be used to purchase weapons, armor, horses, and for other purposes.
Apparently, the food collected by the Xia Village wasn't even adequate to provide for 63 professional soldiers, because the monthly wages of the soldiers hadn't been included.
The development of the Xia Village would be very slow solely relying upon its own capacity. Thus, other tactics would need to be employed.
Chu Tian sold the meat he gained from hunting to the villagers and received several hundred copper coins in return. It could be considered as extra income. On the other hand, the skin of wild boars could be used to produce leather armor.
"It's not easy to become a qualified Feudal Lord. The problem with money and food itself is frustrating enough."
Besides worrying about capital and food, Chu Tian even had to consider upgrading the Xia Village to a Level 2 village. Several requirements had to be fulfilled in order to upgrade a Level 1 village to Level 2.
First requirement: hit 80% of the upper limit of population, which meant 240 villagers.
Second requirement: hit 50 points in the level of prosperity of the village.
Third requirement: popular sentiment must exceed 50.
Fourth requirement: public security must exceed 50.
The Xia Village had fulfilled the second, the third, and the fourth requirements. There was a shortage of 77 villagers to resolve to fulfill the first requirement. As for the second requirement, the prosperity level of the Xia Village had attained 55/50 by far, which was rather astounding.
Intently, Chu Tian investigated the sources of the territory's prosperity. The prosperity level of a territory was closely related to agriculture, commerce, culture, military affairs, population, and construction.
Based on the changes undergone by the Xia Village, the prosperity level couldn't have increased to such a great extent- from 10 points to 55 points.
That wasn't right. Due to Hua Mulan's enrollment, the military score of the Xia Village skyrocketed, hence the prosperity level was indirectly enhanced as well.
"In other words, once I figure out ways to recruit 77 more refugees, the Xia Village can be upgraded from Level 1 to Level 2!"
Chu Tian's eyes lit up. He never thought Royal Commanders could help reinforce the level of prosperity. It saved Chu Tian lots of trouble in the beginning.
New refugees would show up near the village from time to time. Based on Chu Tian's calculations, it would only take a couple of days for the Xia Village to fulfill the population requirement and get an upgrade to Level 2.
Chu Tian checked the player ranking again. All the systems of the game were working normally, including the ranking system.
The Feudal Lord in the first was still 'God Bless You' from the Vatican, with a total prosperity level of 142.
The second in lead was the top-ranking Feudal Lord from the Eastern Han 'Jiujiu Old Qin'. He had been pulled apart from the number-one player, with a total prosperity level of 70.
The third Feudal Lord in the ranking was one named 'Nobunaga's Ambition' from the region of war, with a total prosperity level of 67.
The fourth was a Feudal Lord named 'Undead Commander' from the Persian region, with a total prosperity level of 65.
The fifth was one named 'One-eyed Pirate' from the Viking region, with a total prosperity level of 65.
...
A Feudal Lord from the Eastern Han named 'I Just Want to Farm' was ranked 786th, with a total prosperity level of 55.
This player with an ID named 'I Just Want to Farm' was Chu Tian.
Due to the presence of a Royal Commander, Chu Tian succeeded in making his way into the ranking and was ranked 786th.
"There's even a ranking of heroes?"
Apart from the ranking of prosperity levels, Chu Tian noticed a ranking of heroes. It was ranked according to the overall attributes of heroes.
The first in the ranking was an Imperial Special Hero, Edward the 'Black Prince', from the Vatican region.
The second was Royal Special Hero, Hua Mulan, from the Eastern Han.
And the third was a Diamond Special Hero, Amakusa Shiro, from the Dongying State of Wars.
...
There were many Feudal Lords around the world, thus some lucky Feudal Lords had attained Special Heroes using recruitment orders as well.
The top-ranking hero, Edward the Black Prince, had thoroughly defeated around 40,000 French soldiers with an army of only 10,000 British soldiers in the Battle of Crecy during the Hundred Years' War. Having killed tens of thousands of enemies, he only suffered a few hundred casualties. The formidable reputation of the English Longbowmen spread wide and far.
The third-ranking hero, Amakusa Shiro, was the leader of the insurrectionary army during the Tokugawa Bakufu period, who had started off the Shimabara Rebellion. The shogunate moved more than 100,000 soldiers to besiege the insurrectionary army for several months, and only assaulted the city firmly guarded by Amakusa Shiro when the number of casualties hit 10,000.
Chu Tian highly suspected that the Imperial Special Hero, the Black Prince, had been recruited by the top-ranking player from the Vatican 'God Bless You'. Otherwise, the prosperity level of his territory wouldn't have been pulled apart from the second-ranking player to such a great extent.
"There's no need to be envious of him. The hero of the Xia Village is second in the ranking, which has surpassed countless Feudal Lords."
Chu Tian closed the charts and looked at the achievement system he received. One of the achievements was 'The Four Great Heroines', and it was 25% accomplished.
Apart from the Four Great Heroines, there were other achievements. However, most of them were very hard to be accomplished, such as seven special constructions including the Seven Great Wonders, which required players to collect the Pyramid of Khufu, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
It meant that he would have to conquer these places.