71. Reporting on the Village Situation

The awards ceremony came to an end, and the players dispersed one after another.

After reminding the Young Hero of Spring and Autumn to visit the bandit stronghold and the abandoned village from time to time, Zhan Little White found the Old Hunter and Firehouse Little Treasure. The two of them were just about to head back to the mountain ridge. Zhan bade the Old Hunter farewell, then said goodbye to Firehouse Little Treasure with a smile. "Brother Little Treasure, once you have learned the skill for making arrows, be sure to come to Little White Village as soon as you can. Also, in the future I will send some brothers from the village with high loyalty to learn skills from the Old Hunter. Please look after them."

Firehouse Little Treasure grinned foolishly and nodded. "All right, boss Little White, farewell!" With his hardwood bow on his back, he left Little White Village with the Old Hunter.

After seeing them off, Zhan Little White returned to the village. He was thinking about which loyal players he should arrange to go learn the skills. First, they had to have killed mounted bandits before. Second, their loyalty had to be high enough, and they had to be able to keep the secret of the quest process as tightly as possible and never leak it to outsiders. Otherwise, once the quest was exposed, it would only benefit players from other villages for nothing.

Li A-san hurried over and said respectfully, "My lord, while you have been away these past few days, I would like to report the latest affairs of our village."

Zhan Little White said, "Very well. Let’s go back to the administrative courtyard and talk there."

The two of them entered the main hall of the administration compound and sat down separately. Li A-san reported everything truthfully, one point at a time. "My lord, it is already February 22nd, and in a few days the grain harvest will begin. Please make preparations for defense as soon as possible."

Zhan Little White nodded. "Mm, I’ll have the two elders, Autumn Water and Young Hero, take care of that. What else?"

Li A-san said, "Aside from that, the most important matter is village construction. The villager who raises chickens, Old He, whom the village chief recruited personally, has already been assigned his work. I had a basic poultry and livestock pen built behind the courtyard for him, specially for raising all kinds of meat animals. However, livestock consumes a certain amount of grain, so production must be controlled. So far, all fifteen buildings required for the village to upgrade to a medium-sized settlement have been completed."

"Mm, excellent."

"Now I shall report on the village’s grain supply and fiscal income and expenditures. Our reserves are nearly gone. Most of the shortage has been made up by purchasing fat fish from players, and the amount of copper spent every day is enormous, reaching as much as one thousand coins. It nearly consumes all the village’s liquid funds. I have tried to cut expenses in every other way just to keep things going. Recently, the villagers’ satisfaction has been fairly high, and morale has continued to rise steadily, by about one percent per day. Some villagers have already reached sixty percent morale. Most villagers’ loyalty remains stable. Yesterday you brought back twenty dan of grain, which temporarily eased the food crisis. All the villagers can now eat rice, and their moods have settled down. At present the village has almost no reserve funds left. I suggest that we temporarily stop buying fish and recover our cash flow."

Zhan Little White nodded and asked, "This morale and loyalty you mention, how are they calculated?"

Li A-san immediately explained in detail the relationship between morale and loyalty. Loyalty and morale were core concepts in Rise of Cities in the Three Kingdoms, directly affecting whether villagers and soldiers remained stable.

Loyalty: fluctuates between 0 and 100. Morale, rewards, official positions, accepted suggestions, and many other factors all directly affect loyalty.

0 to 10: villagers and soldiers will flee in large numbers.
10 to 30: villagers and soldiers will criticize the village chief and have a high chance of rebelling.
30 to 60: public sentiment is relatively stable; the chance of rebellion is low.
60 to 80: public sentiment is stable and difficult to shake.
80 to 99: extremely steadfast.
The most special level is 100 loyalty, also known as absolute devotion. Under any circumstances, there is no possibility of rebellion.

Morale: fluctuates between 0 percent and 100 percent. Food, safety, pay, military rations, marching, battle, and many other factors directly affect morale.

0 percent to 10 percent: causes a sharp drop in villagers' and soldiers' loyalty.
10 percent to 30 percent: causes criticism among villagers and soldiers, with loyalty slowly declining.
30 percent to 60 percent: loyalty remains stable.
60 percent to 80 percent: loyalty rises slowly.
80 percent and above: loyalty rises rapidly.

However, players cannot view these two important fluctuating values. Only certain NPCs who possess special observation skills can see them.

After Zhan Little White understood loyalty and morale, he thought for a moment. Since the villagers' morale had already reached sixty percent, that was already quite good. He instructed, "We can reduce the amount of fat fish we buy by a bit to recover funds. But we cannot stop buying altogether. If players have no money in hand, they cannot carry out trade, and that would be bad for their development. I still have a string of copper coins here; take it first for emergencies. Also, although we now have some grain, we should still use it as sparingly as possible."

"Yes, I will remember that. Also, during this period the biggest transaction our village has made was trading medicine from Tiger and Leopard Village for iron ore. Every day we trade about one hundred to one hundred and fifty potions that restore five health points, and what we receive in return is mostly low-grade and mid-grade iron ore. It is all stored in the small warehouse in the administrative courtyard, and it is almost piled to the brim. After some time, we may need to build a dedicated iron-ore warehouse."

"You handle that arrangement yourself. Anything else important?"

"Everything else is just minor matters that have occurred within the village. I await your judgment, my lord."

Zhan Little White had nothing urgent to do anyway, so he might as well handle all of it now. Besides, he could inspect the village while listening to Li the old fellow ramble on about these matters.

"Then let’s discuss these minor matters while we inspect the village."

Li A-san quickly agreed and followed Zhan Little White as he walked around the village.

"First matter: during these past few days, more than ten villages within a hundred miles of Longyou have established inns and post stations. They are requesting to establish contact with our village and open post routes between our villages. This includes the nearby Great Qi Village, Tiger and Leopard Village, and several villages farther than a hundred miles away."

Zhan Little White said happily, "That helps promote trade. It doesn’t matter which village it is. As long as the other side has a post station, open trade routes with them all. However, there may not be enough post horses. We should build a few more basic stables and have the Rich Man send over more horses."

"Understood."

Li A-san said, "The second matter is that wandering NPCs have occasionally appeared in the village tavern. They post quests there, such as finding lost items, and request help from players while offering rewards. The tavern has now become one of the liveliest places in our village."

Zhan Little White was somewhat surprised. "What kind of rewards do these wandering NPCs give?"

"That depends on the quest’s level and difficulty. The higher the level, the better the reward, of course. However, the current basic tavern can only attract some ordinary NPCs. Most of the rewards are copper coins and a few small items."

Zhan Little White became very interested. "Let’s go take a look!"