"Here're the 100 hundred taels of gold you wanted. Some of them are silver taels, though."
Two local soldiers from Xiaozhu Village brought over a wooden box and opened it. Inside were gold and silver taels, a hundred in total.
In "Feudal Lords," in order to save the lords from having to tediously convert currency from ancient times, one tael was equal to 50 grams.
That meant one hundred taels of gold was 5 kilograms. When converted into one thousand taels of silver, it was 50 kilograms, and equivalent to the weight of a bag of rice.
"How did you get 100 taels of gold in just a few hours?"
"It's easy. We have a bank in Xiaozhu Village, so I used the villagers' deposits. I'm charging you interest because the bank will have to pay interest to the villagers after one year. If the principal and interest cannot be repaid after one year, there may be riots in Xiaozhu Village."
"Ah, I see..."
Chu Tian was relieved to hear her answer. No wonder Xiaozhu Village could hand over one hundred taels of gold at once!
If one villager had one tael of silver, then 1000 villagers would have one thousand taels of silver. This was the power of financing.
"Of course, ten taels of gold is my personal investment, and it's quite a bargain to get 10% interest after a year."
This player was treating the cooperation between the villages like a business.
Borrowing money was secondary, however. The main purpose was to turn Xiaozhu Village into a vassal village immediately after upgrading Xia village into a town.
The prosperity level of a vassal village counted toward that of the town as well.
"With these one hundred taels of gold, Xia Village can be upgraded to a Level 1 town at any time. There are four vassal villages allowed for a Level 1 town. Once Xiaozhu Village is merged with Xia Town, then your lord status will disappear. As compensation, you can put forward any conditions. I will agree if they are deemed appropriate," Chu Tian said directly.
The other person was business savvy, proving she wasn't an airhead. Moving forward, there was no need to be vague.
"It's very simple. After losing my lordship, I will be in need of a job. My salary cannot be less than ten taels of silver per month."
"That's all?"
"Yes."
Xia Tianliang used retreat to advance, making Chu Tian owe her a favor.
In order to obtain a large village with a population of more than a thousand people and buildings that Xia Village did not have, he only needed to spend a dozen taels of silver per month. It was a bargain to him.
"Before the town's jurisdiction includes Xiaozhu Village, how about you still serve as the village chief of Xiaozhu Village and manage the town market?"
Chu Tian had Li Kui as a peasant official, but he still needed an official to manage the market and all the trade occurring.
"The village chief and the market chief are two different jobs, so there should be two salaries," Xia Tianliang said with seriousness.
"No problem," Chu Tian agreed.
Someone would help him manage the market. Chu Tian could be a hands-off boss from now on.
As long as the lord knew a little bit about everything, the subordinate officials would do their best to do everything for their lord. After all, their salary was directly linked to their political achievements.
Chu Tian was interested in what Xia Tianliang had learned, asking her, "What do you do in real life?"
"I'm a student."
"At which school?"
"The Business School of Capital University."
When "Feudal Lords" was born, the country where the Eastern Han region was located was already the world's largest country, and Capital University was the world's top university. It was not surprising that students from the Business School of Capital University had great business acumen.
"Let's upgrade to a town quickly. In the last few days, dozens of lords in the Eastern Han region have upgraded their villages. Once you upgrade to a town, you can see Xiaozhu Village's specific situation," Xia Tianliang urged Chu Tian.
"Yes."
With 100 taels of gold in funding, Chu Tian was confident.
He brought Xia Tianliang to the center of Xia Village.
Xia Village would be upgraded from a Level 3 village to a town very soon.
The difference between a town and a village was that a town owned vassal villages. The higher the level, the more villages the town could control.
If a player reached the city level, they could control towns and villages within a certain range. There would be no limit to the number of villages then, with an even greater influence available.
"Upgrade Xia Village to Xia Town."
Chu Tian closely followed the first echelon.
The ground of Xia Village shook violently, its territory expanding outward aggressively!
The lord's mansion had also undergone earth-shaking changes, turning into a courtyard with red bricks and green tiles, which looked like a large compound.
Xia Tianliang and officials of Xia Village in the lord's mansion were surprised to see this miracle occur.
The lord's mansion at the town level had become magnificent, vastly different from the ordinary houses.
The lord's stone tablet had also become stronger, meaning it would take a lot more time to destroy it.
"Ding! Congratulations to the player for becoming the 52nd lord with a Level 1 town in the Eastern Han region. You will be rewarded with a Gold Recruitment Order."
"Ding! After evaluation, the development direction for your town is a major military town, and you have obtained a Level 2 arsenal of special buildings and a Level 3 bow and arrow battalion."
"Ding! The achievement system -- 'Chaotic Times' series has launched --"
"The B-level achievement 'The Chief of a County' is launched. Control a county within two years and receive special rewards."
"The A-level achievement 'The Prefect of a City' is launched. Control a city (country) within five years and receive special rewards."
"The S-level achievement 'The Prince of a State' is launched. Control a state within ten years and receive special rewards."
"The SS-level achievement 'Divide the World' is launched. Control four states within 20 years and receive special rewards."
"The SSS-level achievement 'Unite 13 States' is launched. Unite the Eastern Han region with no time limit. You will receive special rewards."
When Xia Village was upgraded to a Level 1 town, Chu Tian didn't have the time to carefully check the attributes of the town before a series of achievement tasks launched.
All of these tasks were incredibly difficult. The easiest achievement of them all was "The Chief of a County." However, a county in Eastern Han wasn't a small area at all.
There were five cities under the jurisdiction of the Xu Prefecture government: Donghai, Guangling, Xiapi, Langya, and Pengcheng.
Langya itself had 13 counties.
What did this mean? The area of a county in "Feudal Lords" ranged anywhere from thousands of square kilometers to tens of thousands of square kilometers. There were even counties as big as 100,000 square kilometers.
The Eastern Han region was enormous, to put it simply. The territory of Eastern Han was 25 times that of Dongying, 33 times that of Annan, and 44 times that of Goryeo.
Just a prefecture was enough to compete with a cultural region.
No matter what, this achievement series was too difficult.
Not to mention that occupying Xu Prefecture meant offending Tao Qian, the leader of Xu Prefecture, and in particular, Zang Ba, who controlled Langya City.
These achievement tasks were so much more challenging than the other tasks.
It was said that after one year, in addition to opening up the borders of the civilized zone, the princes of the three countries would officially become active too.
At the moment, each prince considered the player lords within his sphere of influence as his own by default, but that may not be the case after a year.
Fortunately, Xu Prefecture, where Chu Tian resided, wasn't too bad. The lords within the sphere of influence of Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Jian, however, would have a hellishly difficult task.
Chu Tian ignored the extremely difficult achievement task for the time being. Instead, he checked the attributes of Xia Town and turned Xiaozhu Village into a vassal village.