Chapter 186: Population Explosion, Valley Planning

First Year of Great Xia, April 20th.

Exactly one month had passed since Xia Hong integrated the six departments.

Seventeen full days had also passed since that exchange fair.

The Great Xia valley settlement had undergone earth-shaking changes.

After nightfall, people swarmed out from the two temporary wooden houses: fully armed hunting squads, adults grouping up to go woodcutting, women carrying wooden buckets to collect snow, groups of teenagers heading to the square outside the wooden houses to practice boxing, and even children under six years old meeting up to play...

Anyone observant would notice that many new faces had appeared in the valley—men, women, old, and young—and the total population active in the valley was significantly higher than before.

After stepping out of the wooden houses, everyone would subconsciously look back at the wooden building under construction, their faces filled with deep longing.

"That wooden building should be finished soon, right? Ordinary laborers aren't needed anymore; for the past few days, it's just been those hundred-plus people from the Craftsman Workshop busy inside."

"Definitely, it's already in the finishing stages. I heard they're decorating the rooms on the third floor. I saw them moving in a lot of nice furniture yesterday—tsk tsk, all wrapped in animal fur. It's probably for the leader's room."

"I saw it last night too. Just one chair, the back and seat were all covered in animal fur, and even the chair legs were carved from animal bone. There was a frostwolf head carved on each of the armrests—tsk tsk, it couldn't look any better."

"I saw it too. That chair is truly beautiful. I asked a friend in the Craftsman Department—guess how many contribution points that chair costs to exchange for?"

"How many?"

"How many?"

"70 points!"

"Tsk tsk, 70 points—enough to go train at the Martial Arts Hall for a day."

"And you'd have 20 points left over."

"A whole set of clothes is only 155 points; this chair is worth half a set of clothes."

"Only the leader can afford to use it, right?"

"That's not necessarily true. I heard members of the hunting squads have ordered some too. The Craftsman Department has quite a backlog of orders."

"That's just a regular chair. The wooden bed, lamp stand, fire basin... everything used in the leader's room is of the highest specification. I even saw a throne yesterday carved with over a dozen types of cold beast patterns, glittering with gold. I heard it was painted with gold powder ground from the tips of Gold-Lin trees. It must be for the leader."

"Needless to say, in our Great Xia, besides the leader, who else is worthy of sitting on it!"

"The wooden building has been locked these past few days; they aren't letting anyone in."

"It must be waiting for completion. I wonder if those of us who came later will be able to get a room."

"I asked some Great Xia people. Everyone will get one, but it depends on your marital status. Those who are married get a single-family dwelling, and the unmarried live in ten-person rooms separated by gender."

"Ah, that's great. I need to hurry up and find a wife."

"Hahaha, is a wife something you can just find whenever you want?"

………………

Currently, the hottest topic of discussion in the camp is the wooden building.

The reason is simple: ever since the night of April 3rd, when the three camps of Xiaohe, Tongling, and Sanhu—totaling over five thousand people—merged at once, it has been non-stop. Every two or three days, another camp merges. Great Xia's population has thus ushered in an extremely exaggerated wave of growth.

With such a large population, the two wooden houses are completely insufficient.

If it weren't for the high temperature in the valley and the fact that the south-side mine cave could accommodate a large number of people, many would likely have nowhere to sleep.

Thus, new housing has become the issue everyone cares about most.

This is true for both the original Great Xia people and those who merged later.

…………

While everyone was filing out of the wooden houses, a large group of people sat around the main hall of the left wooden house. Except for the empty main seat, there were over twenty people sitting on the left and right sides below.

Xia Chuan stood beside the main seat, listening to the report from Yue Feng below.

Yue Feng held an animal-skin booklet filled with tiny characters written in charcoal, reading out the camp's population growth with an excited expression:

"First Year of Great Xia, April 3rd: Xiaohe, Sanhu, and Tongling camps merged, totaling 5,219 people."

"First Year of Great Xia, April 6th: Xifeng and Anping camps merged, totaling 1,821 people."

"First Year of Great Xia, April 8th: Jiuhe and Gukou camps merged, totaling 2,521 people."

"First Year of Great Xia, April 11th: Qujiang, Pingdong, and Yingkou camps merged, totaling 2,712 people."

………………

As each piece of data was reported, the expressions of the others present became increasingly excited, just like Yue Feng's.

Xia Chuan, at the head, remained calm, only nodding continuously.

After all, for the past half-month, he had been responsible for coordinating personnel to help these camp people migrate. He had already heard these numbers before.

After that exchange fair ended, except for the Xiaohe and Tongling camps, the remaining nine medium-sized camps of the Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan sent people to visit Great Xia the very next day.

The effect of the visit was similar to the situation at the Xiaohe camp.

The conditions at the Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan camps were indeed far inferior to Great Xia's.

As long as they weren't stupid, basically no one would refuse to merge.

Subsequent developments confirmed this.

These camps not only agreed to merge but even took the initiative to help Great Xia find several other small camps, bringing them along to merge one after another.

Of course, the process wasn't that simple. During this time, Director Yu Wen Tao himself, including the entire Hunting Department, had not been idle. Almost every night, they had to take people to survey routes, and after confirming the timing, they would escort the camp populations to the Great Xia valley.

With the precedent, Xia Chuan was naturally not careless about large-scale population migration. In fact, if it weren't for his caution, the speed of this annexation of the Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan camps could have been much faster.

*Clap... *

As Xia Chuan pondered, Yue Feng reached the end of his report.

Yue Feng closed the animal-skin booklet in his hand. On its cover were the five large characters: "Great Xia Chronicle."

"Reporting to the Deputy Administrator, Director Director Yu Wen already departed at nightfall. If nothing goes wrong, the 1,821 people from the Zhu He camp will also arrive tonight. Calculating this, our camp's current total population is..."

Yue Feng had clearly calculated it long ago. He paused deliberately, looked around at everyone present, and finally said loudly to Xia Chuan: "23,231 people!"

*Hiss... *

The twenty-plus people present all gasped in unison.

Even Xia Chuan, who had been mentally prepared, couldn't help but feel his heart stir, a flash of excitement crossing his pupils.

Over twenty-three thousand people.

This was the result after annexing the entire Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan camp area!

Not to mention Great Xia's current territory, just this population scale alone was already double that of the previous Jingxian camp, and then some.

Who could have imagined that just over a year ago, Great Xia was still a small camp with a population of less than two hundred, teetering on the edge of annihilation at any moment.

"Over twenty-three thousand people. The population standard for a village-level camp is only twenty thousand. Has our Great Xia reached that point?"

After a long silence, Yuan Cheng, sitting below, couldn't help but speak up.

Hearing this, everyone present couldn't help but be moved.

A camp with a population scale over 500 is medium-sized, 2,500 is large, over 5,000 is giant, and over 20,000 is a solid village-level camp.

Great Xia had unknowingly reached the population scale of a village-level camp!

"The population has reached it, but the number of strong individuals is still insufficient. I once heard Director Director Yu Wen say that to become a true village-level camp, one must have three types of intermediate spiritual items to suppress the settlement, so as to achieve the deterrence of ghosts and monsters..."

Meng Yi recalled what Director Yu Wen Husheng had said before his death and stood up to speak, but before he could finish, he saw the Blazing Sun Cauldron in the center of the main hall and immediately stopped.

The others, including Xia Chuan, also reacted, looking at the Blazing Sun Cauldron in the middle of the main hall, their expressions extremely excited.

They didn't understand what spiritual items were.

But if it was just about deterring ghosts and monsters, with this Blazing Sun Cauldron, they didn't need any spiritual items at all.

"That is to say, starting today, can we call ourselves Great Xia Village to the outside world?"

Hearing Yuan Cheng's words, everyone became excited.

Meng Yi frowned, but thinking that his understanding of village-level camps all came from Director Yu Wen Hu and was only half-understood, he didn't say anything more.

From the perspective of deterring ghosts and monsters, Great Xia had indeed arrived.

It was just unclear whether there were other standards for a true village-level camp besides this.

"Let's not mention this for now. As long as our strength steadily improves, even if we haven't reached it, we will in the future. Qiu Peng, tell us about the registration situation in the Camp Needs Department!"

Xia Chuan glanced at Meng Yi, took note, but didn't ask in detail, turning instead to ask Qiu Peng beside him.

Qiu Peng was clearly prepared as well. He also took out an animal-skin scroll, walked to the center of the main hall, and began reporting the situation to Xia Chuan.

"During this period, the number of people joining the camp has been too high, and with people breaking through every day, I can only report the latest data. Additionally, the roster for the Zhu He camp has been sent over in advance, so it is also included in the statistics.

As of now, the total number of people registered for contribution points is 4,113, including 431 in the Earth-Digging Realm and 3,712 in the Woodcutting Realm.

The remaining number of reservists over six years old who have not broken through to the Woodcutting Realm is 15,231; children under six years old number 3,887.

These are the overall population figures for the camp!"

After finishing, Qiu Peng thought of something and immediately added:

"My lord, during this period, the number of reservists breaking through to the Woodcutting Realm has basically been over a hundred per day; those breaking through from the Woodcutting Realm to the Earth-Digging Realm average about ten or so per day, sometimes as many as twenty or thirty. Therefore, the data changes significantly every day."

Xia Chuan nodded; he was, of course, aware of all this.

If he remembered correctly, the eleven medium-sized camps at Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan only had 231 Earth-Digging Realm cultivators combined. Great Xia previously had 110, and counting the deceased Liu Zhuang and Tian Yu, only 108 remained. If it weren't for the daily breakthroughs, the Earth-Digging Realm count wouldn't have reached 431. The Woodcutting Realm went without saying; as the environment gradually stabilized, they emerged like bamboo shoots after rain.

However, it must be said that the vast majority of those currently concentrating on breakthroughs are basically the original thousand-plus people from Great Xia.

This is also normal. The Jingxian camp only merged a month ago, and the Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan people merged within the last half-month. The breakthrough wave for these people definitely still needs time to brew.

Although the Martial Arts Hall is powerful, it can only accommodate 200 people a day. Given that the newcomers don't have enough contribution points, the original Great Xia people are definitely prioritized. Recently, as the Jingxian people's contribution points have started to increase, some of them have been able to enter as well.

As for the ten thousand-plus people who came in later from Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan, they have to spend some time accumulating contribution points before they can enter to train.

"Additionally, according to your instructions, everyone's household registration has been registered in separate volumes. Marital status, unmarried status, family members, including orphans, have all been meticulously distinguished and formed into rosters, which are all here."

As Qiu Peng spoke, he handed over the rosters.

Xia Chuan took the rosters, flipped through them roughly, his face showing satisfaction. He returned the rosters to Qiu Peng, then turned his head to look at Luo Yuan below, smiling and saying: "Director Yu Wen Tao is not here tonight, he should have briefed you, right?"

Luo Yuan stood up and nodded, also taking out an animal-skin booklet from the side.

"My lord, during this period, the Hunting Department has newly established eleven squads. Adding the original thirteen squads and subtracting the disbanded Xuanwu squad, there are currently twenty-three hunting squads..."

Watching Luo Yuan speak eloquently and adapt so quickly to the position of Deputy Administrator of the Hunting Department, a flash of satisfaction appeared in Xia Chuan's eyes. He secretly thought that Director Yu Wen Tao was quite sensible.

*Looking one by one... *

With the merger of major camps, the number of Earth-Digging Realm cultivators is increasing, and the affairs the Hunting Department has to manage are growing day by day. When Director Yu Wen Tao came to him a few days ago proposing to add a Deputy Administrator, Xia Chuan wasn't actually surprised.

What surprised him was that Director Yu Wen Tao didn't suggest his own people but instead proposed Luo Yuan for this Deputy Administrator position.

Hong Guang's Xuanwu squad was disbanded by his elder brother, and at the same time, he could no longer compete for the position of Administrator of the Land Reclamation Department. Xia Chuan had thought at the time that Director Yu Wen Tao had opinions and was deliberately suggesting another Deputy Administrator to get his own people in. He hadn't expected that he had been the small-minded one this time.

"Hong Guang's matter was entirely self-inflicted. He caused the deaths of Tian Yu and Liu Zhuang, and I am also very angry. The leader's handling was fair, and I have no objections. To be honest with you, my lord, I didn't really agree with him competing for the position of Administrator of the Land Reclamation Department, but I couldn't stop him. Now that such a big thing has happened, I also have responsibility."

Recalling Director Yu Wen Tao's words from the day before yesterday, Xia Chuan nodded slightly, put aside his thoughts, and continued to listen to Luo Yuan's report.

"My lord, can we appropriately relax the qualifications for forming hunting squads? There are nearly two hundred people now who cannot join a hunting squad!"

Hearing Luo Yuan's final proposal, Xia Chuan was stunned for a moment, but quickly realized that there weren't enough hunting squads.

Currently, all 23 hunting squads are low-level, and according to regulations, they can only have a maximum of ten people. This means only 230 Earth-Digging Realm cultivators have joined squads, but there are now 431 Earth-Digging Realm cultivators in the camp, with 199 without a squad.

The problem is that Director Yu Wen Tao originally stipulated conditions for individuals to create hunting squads: first, the creator must have a basic strength of over 20,000 jin; second, there must be four members; and finally, they must hunt five different types of low-level cold beasts.

Director Yu Wen Tao's regulation is quite reasonable. A basic strength of over 20,000 jin, combined with four Earth-Digging Realm cultivators, is enough to face low-level cold beasts. Even if they can't win due to lack of experience, at the very least, saving their lives is not a problem.

The regulation is reasonable, but the current quality of personnel cannot keep up.

There are too few Earth-Digging Realm cultivators in the camp with a basic strength of over 20,000 jin.

Xia Chuan also knew that among these eleven newly appeared squads, seven were successfully created because the previous Great Xia Earth-Digging Realm cultivators met the standards. Among the ten thousand-plus people merged from Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan, only four met the standards and successfully created a squad.

Therefore, Luo Yuan's proposal to relax the conditions—otherwise, nearly two hundred people wouldn't be able to participate in hunting work—is indeed a bit of a loss.

Xia Chuan pondered for a while, finally shook his head, and said:

"The regulation has only been out for a month; it won't do to change it now. The 20,000-jin threshold is also very reasonable and doesn't need to be changed. Relaxing the conditions would lead to uneven quality in the hunting squads, and casualties would be even worse.

How about this! Keep the existing twenty-three squads, but you discuss with Director Yu Wen Tao and change the current squad size limit. Low-level squads can be expanded to 20 people. However, the corresponding limits for intermediate and high-level squads must also change, and the monthly minimum hunting quota must also change."

Luo Yuan's eyes lit up upon hearing this, and he nodded immediately.

If 23 squads are expanded to 20 people each, they can accommodate a total of 460 people.

Not only does this utilize the remaining Earth-Digging Realm cultivators, but more importantly, the second issue he originally wanted to raise—the problem of increased meat demand due to the camp's population growth—is also solved at once.

Xia Chuan solved the Hunting Department's problem and finally turned his gaze to Mu Dong.

Mu Dong understood and immediately stood up, cupping his hands: "Reporting to the Deputy Administrator, the wooden building is basically finished, and everyone will move in tomorrow night."

Hearing that the wooden building was finished and they could move in tomorrow night, everyone, including Xia Chuan, couldn't help but smile.

During this period, they were truly too crowded.

However, before they could be happy for long, Mu Dong continued:

"But my lord, the camp's current population seems a bit too large. Over twenty-three thousand people—the newly built wooden building can accommodate them, but it's unlikely we can distribute rooms to every household like we did before!"

Everyone was stunned. Including Xia Chuan, after thinking for a while, they all reacted immediately.

The wooden building rebuilt this time is only different in materials from the previous one, with much higher defensive performance, but the internal planning is the same: 360 rooms on the first floor; 280 rooms on the second floor; 100 rooms on the third floor.

When Great Xia only had over a thousand people before, as long as they were married, they could basically get a single room. The unmarried lived in ten-person rooms separated by gender.

Now with over twenty thousand people in the whole camp, wanting to distribute them like before is definitely impossible.

Qiu Peng also stood up at this time and said: "My lord, excluding special orphans and single men and women, there are 5,821 family households registered in the camp. Distributing rooms like before is completely insufficient."

5,821 households. Xia Chuan's brows tightened. The wooden building only has 740 rooms in total. Even if distributed by household, it would take an average of eight households to live in one room, and this doesn't even count those orphans and single individuals without household registration.

Housing had become a problem again!

This wasn't too big of a problem, though.

After Xia Chuan pondered for a while, his eyes lit up, and he said:

"When the leader led our discussion last month, I said that rebuilding the wooden building was only to deal with emergencies, like the cold beast tide before. We need a place that can quickly concentrate everyone and has a certain defensive capability. Therefore, this wooden building itself is not for everyone to live in."

Everyone was stunned, recalling that Xia Chuan had indeed said this during the discussion last month. But the problem was, if it wasn't for everyone to live in, where would they live?

"You all probably have an idea of the Blazing Sun Cauldron's effect, right?"

Xia Chuan suddenly pointed to the Blazing Sun Cauldron and asked.

Everyone looked at the Blazing Sun Cauldron and nodded.

During this period, the radiation range of the Blazing Sun Cauldron had been tested: a radius of one thousand meters.

The valley where Great Xia is located is only three to four hundred meters wide from north to south and over fifteen hundred meters long from east to west. The Blazing Sun Cauldron almost radiates the entire territory, and even some areas on the periphery are covered.

"After the new building is completed, it will no longer be divided as before. 739 rooms, plus two temporary wooden houses, will be distributed equally to everyone. That is to say, except for the leader, everyone else will have to squeeze."

Even counting the two temporary wooden houses, the new building would have at least five or six households per room, maybe even more. Five or six households would be nearly twenty people. Hearing that so many people would squeeze into one room, everyone immediately exploded.

"So crowded?"

"How can we live like this?"

"Twenty people in one room—that's ridiculous."

…………

Especially Yuan Cheng, who had been getting close to Shi Lu recently and was looking forward to living together soon. How could they live without a room?

He immediately stood up and asked: "My lord, this won't do. It's too crowded, and it won't be convenient for everyone, right?"

Seeing his impatient look, everyone knew what was going on and immediately lowered their heads and laughed.

Xia Chuan also laughed twice, but quickly waved his hand and said: "Don't worry. I already said the wooden building is for emergencies, not for you to live in. If you want to live comfortably, build it yourselves!"

Build it yourselves?

Everyone was stunned, but quickly reacted, their eyes lighting up.

That's right, with the Blazing Sun Cauldron, the temperature in the entire valley is not a problem. They can completely build other buildings in the valley.

Build a building for their own family?

Everyone's expression instantly became excited.

Seeing that everyone wanted to ask, Xia Chuan immediately waved his hand, signaling them to calm down, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, I haven't finished yet.

The space in the valley is limited, and it's definitely not possible for everyone to build. Therefore, not everyone has the qualification to build a house. Also, how to build, what materials to use, and how big a house each person can build must be specially planned and designed; otherwise, problems will arise every few days.

Also, you are all in the Earth-Digging Realm and have your own things to do every day. It's impossible to put all your energy into building houses. Construction materials, labor, and the supplies needed—how many contribution points are needed to exchange for them—also need to be discussed by the Camp Needs Department and the Craftsman Department together..."

Xia Chuan said a lot in one breath. Although everyone was confused, their expressions remained excited.

It was simple: the twenty-plus people present were all high-level members of the Great Xia camp. Since Xia Chuan intended to promote the house-building policy, this group of people would definitely be qualified.

Only Mu Dong and Qiu Peng listened most carefully. After all, the Craftsman Department and the Camp Needs Department were named, and the more they listened, the more they realized that Xia Chuan was clearly assigning them tasks.

"That's all for now. Mu Dong, Qiu Peng, you discuss according to my ideas first. Once you have a plan, show it to me. As long as it passes, it can be announced."

"Yes, my lord!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Squeezing will definitely be necessary for a while. If you don't want to squeeze, spend contribution points to build your own house. Recalling the first batch of hunting squad members who were always shouting that they had more contribution points than they could spend, Xia Chuan secretly laughed.

With the house-building matter, there is another channel to consume contribution points.

And since it will consume so much manpower and material resources, the consumption is estimated to be quite large!

Having solved the housing issue, Xia Chuan breathed a sigh of relief. Thinking of what Mu Dong and Cheng Feng had said to him before he came, he immediately asked the two of them.

"By the way, Mu Dong, Cheng Feng, didn't you say there were a few new things you wanted to show the leader? Did you bring them?"

Mu Dong nodded first, a flash of excitement on his face, and clapped his hands.

Outside the main hall, five people walked in, each carrying a tray.

Cheng Feng also looked shocked and took out four bottles from his body.

Seeing that both of them intended to speak, Xia Chuan hurriedly raised his hand: "No need, I will take you to see the leader. Also..."

He turned his gaze to Shi Ping behind him and said: "You come too!"

Shi Ping was shocked and immediately followed excitedly.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 187 =====