The World Online

Chapter 1151 – Heavy Losses

The aggressive beast wave brought the wilderness back to the scenes of the 1st year of Gaia.

The wilderness at that time was one where wild beasts roamed freely. At that time, bandits and raiders were common, refugees travelled all over the place, and it was like hell on earth. The appearance of numerous Lords brought the civilians out of their troubles, building a home for the people and giving the wilderness peace.

Five years had passed since then, and the painful memories had slowly left.

The newborn kids and babies even forgot all about war and were immersed in the peaceful time.

Gaia sounded out the alarms.

After the beasts sieged the territories, numerous villages were crushed into ruins, cities fell, and civilians lost their homes. Tragedies were common throughout the wilderness; it was like the apocalypse had arrived.

Be it the cold or the heat, neither could stop the advance of the beast waves.

In Liaojin Province, a bunch of beasts braved the cold and charged toward a pack of sheep, heading for where the animal herders were gathered. In Morocco Province, the beasts showed no fear toward the heat, attacking fearlessly.

In Yizhou Prefecture, there were beasts that came from the ocean…

In Shu Lands, some beasts crossed over the mountains and ridges.

In pretty much every type of geographical area and weather, the beasts could easily adapt, making one feel despair.

Within a night, the wilderness had totally changed.

“However, this is not the 1st year of Gaia!”

After five years of hardship, the wilderness had changed greatly. Dirt became cities, and the territories now had well-trained troops and many strong combat occupation players.

They stood at the forefront of the slaughter.

…

Xia Palace, Grand Council.

After Ouyang Shuo heard the report, he said, “Spread my message. Before spring comes, postpone all military plans and focus on the beast wave. Build stable caps around each cave.”

“Yes!” Du Ruhui nodded.

Along with the beast wave sieging, the dynasty was going to face a tough test.

The following week had its up and downs.

Apart from the first wave of beasts, the beast caves would irregularly send out beasts that were either in groups or just a small number that would charge at the defensive lines.

The army struck out from all directions. They followed the traces of the beasts and took them down one by one.

Many damage reports from counties and prefectures were gathered back in the Imperial Court, giving the Cabinet a headache.

In just a week, 30 thousand Great Xia troops and over 200 thousand civilians were lost. This led to a direct economic loss of no less than 10 million gold, and the indirect losses were even more than that.

Such huge losses could be compared to a large-scale war.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo heave a sigh of relief was that after a week, the legions were all in place. They set up camps right next to each cave, preventing the matter from escalating.

In the following period of time, the army would clear out the remnant beasts in the wilderness while arranging large amounts of troops in the camps to prepare to stop the beast wave at any time.

While the Cabinet was trying to solve the crisis and help those in need, it coordinated with the Combat Logistics Department to up the logistical supplies of the camps and ensure grain provision.

Throughout the process, the combat occupation players did not have much of a stellar effect.

This was a result of the revival restriction as well as the real time update of the achievement value causing players to cherish their lives more. Each time they died, their achievement value would decrease.

Toward this, there was not much that Ouyang Shuo could say.

From his intuition, it was not a solution for combat occupation players to shy away from the frontlines. Without the devilish training from the game, they would pay a bloody price on Planet Hope.

Balancing the pros and cons was up to the players themselves.

Even to say that Ouyang Shuo could roughly grasp the true intentions of Gaia.

Not everyone was suitable to be a warrior.

When players first chose the combat occupation, it was just due to their understanding of the game world. No one expected that combat would one day be closely connected to reality.

When the virtual veil was removed, and the bloody battlefield was exposed to everyone, some people would obviously squirm.

Similarly, through this process, Gaia could select the true warriors. The players who could fight till the very end would be the main force used to explore and take over Planet Hope.

“The weak are eliminated, and the strong wins!”

The beast siege not only changed the model of territory wars but also changed adventure gamemode players.

…

Gaia 6th year, 1st month, 10th day, Xia Palace.

Within the Wenhua Hall, Ouyang Shuo was holding a Cabinet meeting.

As the Chinese New Year was about to arrive, apart from evaluating the various provincial governor offices as well as the reports from the Governor-General houses, there were a few major topics.

First, settling on the official evaluation.

The yearly official evaluation was a hugely important matter for the Imperial Court.

Due to officials coming from different dynasties and ruling differently, Ouyang Shuo requested for the Official Ruling Department to set up evaluation indexes that included politics, economic, culture, and the like, eliminating the weak ones.

The work cycle of an official would be three years with a small test every year and a big one every three.

Great Xia had hundreds of thousands of officials, so the Official Ruling Department obviously could not handle it. It mainly aimed at the officials in the Capital City as well as the provincial and prefecture governor level. As for the other officials, the provincial governor would simply hand over a report.

In contrast to previous years, the Censorate participated fully in it this time.

Secondly, they needed to discuss the worshipping plan.

With Ouyang Shuo reaching the Son of God Rank, the coming worshipping ceremony was not a marquis or a prince ceremony but the highest Son of God ceremony.

The related coronation dresses, etiquette, and rites all needed to be adjusted.

The Construction Department was already rebuilding the ancestral temple. On the base of the Yellow and Fire Emperor statues, they made statues of the three emperors and the five kings.

The Cabinet was still discussing whether they were going to invite the other emperors over for the ceremony or not.

Thirdly, discuss about the law system.

The first draft of the civil system, business system, and punishment system had been written up by the Internal Affairs Court and vetted by the Cabinet. It was currently being perfected.

After the Chinese New Year, it could be pushed out.

Fourthly, discussing the Yanhuang Ideology.

To unify the thinking system of the dynasty, with the help of Jiang Shang, Kong Zi, and the like the work on the Yanhuang Ideology was proceeding well, and the first model had been created.

During this period of time, the various philosophers had many quarrels and fights. If it were not for Jiang Shang balancing the scales, they would not have been able to produce the draft. Even so, the contents inside were still hotly contested.

Ouyang Shuo had thought too simply at the start.

To unify thoughts and knowledge was something as hard as conquering the earth, and it would not be done in just half a year.

While they debated, philosopher ideologies clashed once more, and many eye-catching sparks were created during the process, attracting more philosophers to join in.

Without a doubt, this was another amazing time for China’s ideological field.

Fifth, forming rites.

The changes during this period of time made Ouyang Shuo connect the game world and Planet Hope closely together.

Opening up the barrier between these two worlds was his ambition.

The place to break through was the part where China had the greatest foundation, but it was also the place that it was losing the quickest- rites and customs. The need to make a suitable system that fit Chinese civilization and was suitable for Planet Hope seemed really apparent now.