Chapter 338: A major change in Xia City, the wealthiest person in all of Great Xia

Third year of Great Xia, the fifth day of the ninth month.

"Hiss... this must be the work of the Lord, right?"

Lu Yang, who had just returned from Hanqiong, travel-worn and dusty, brushed the snowflakes from the brim of his hat. He looked up at the magnificent city gate, over thirty meters high, and then turned his head to look at the black iron city wall that stretched endlessly to the north and south, disappearing from sight. He couldn't help but gasp, and immediately realized that such a transformation could only have come from the Lord's own hands.

In early July, he had returned to Xia City once, and it hadn't been like this then.

As for this city wall, he had tested it in advance on the north side; his base strength of over eight *zong* could only leave slight dents on it. In just two short months, it would be impossible for Xia City's current manpower to achieve this. There was only one explanation: Xia Hong had once again displayed the same miraculous means as before.

Beyond this, Lu Yang could not think of any other possibility.

The facts were just as he had expected. Hong Yu, the City Gate Commander on duty tonight, nodded upon hearing this and said, "It can only be the Lord's handiwork. On the tenth of last month, the Chief Administrator announced the Xia City expansion plan. The very next day, the eleventh, when we came out at night, we saw the change in the city wall. It was fine for us old-timers, but the two batches of newcomers—those from Longyou last year and those who just arrived from Songyang Ridge—all thought the gods had manifested and knelt down to worship right then and there!"

Mentioning the night of the eleventh, Hong Yu also hid an undisguisable shock deep in his eyes. Clearly, his own psychological turmoil at the time was no less than that of the two batches of newcomers from Longyou and Songyang Ridge.

"The western city wall spans twenty kilometers from north to south, and the northern and southern walls are fifteen kilometers each. It has already penetrated ten kilometers into the Red Wood Ridge. The southern wall is only three kilometers away from the Ying River, while the northern wall directly encompasses part of the Arrow Bamboo Forest. The expanded Xia City is extremely majestic. I estimate that even the legendary Mo'ao Jiuzhen cannot compare to it!"

When Lu Yang had just returned from the Hanqiong outpost in the north, he had seen the city wall before even leaving the Arrow Bamboo Forest. He already had a concept of the scale of the wall, so he was not surprised to hear Hong Yu's explanation now.

However, upon hearing Hong Yu's last sentence, he raised his eyebrows slightly, a hint of excitement appearing on his face as he said, "No need to estimate. The scale of the Mo'ao Mountain Jiuzhen' cities is definitely not as large as our Xia City!"

Hearing Lu Yang be so certain, a look of confusion appeared on Hong Yu's face.

But Lu Yang clearly did not wish to say more. He looked up at the newly added watchtowers above the city wall, then looked at the hundred-odd golden-armored soldiers under the city gate, and smiled at Hong Yu, "You, as a City Gate Commander, are now even more imposing than the captains of the high-level hunting teams. I heard that next year, the position of City Gate Commander will be included in the official ranking system. I think it will be at least a sixth-rank, perhaps even higher!"

"Is what you say true, my lord?"

Hong Yu clearly did not know about this news, and his expression froze.

Lu Yang smiled and nodded, "It's not a big secret; just ask your father when you go back and you'll know. During the martial arts competition in the sixth month, the Chief Administrator mentioned that another batch of positions would be included in the ranking system. Xia City now has over 500,000 people, and the responsibilities of the City Gate Commander are becoming increasingly important, so there's certainly no problem with including it in the rankings..."

Speaking of this, he paused and continued, "Strictly speaking, you who guard the city are also considered part of the military ranks. The position of City Gate Commander should be placed under the newly established Military Affairs Department."

The Lord had said back then that the Military Affairs Department would only be officially established when Great Xia had five thousand-man armies. Currently, there are the Cloud Flood, Dragon Martial, and Dragon Slayer armies; only two more are needed. According to Great Xia's current development speed, the establishment of the Military Affairs Department next year is a certainty.

Therefore, it should be no problem for the City Gate Commander to be affiliated with the Military Affairs Department and included in the Great Xia official ranking system.

"That's great!"

Having received Lu Yang's personal confirmation, Hong Yu's expression was suddenly filled with excitement.

Seeing Hong Yu so excited, Lu Yang smiled, his face full of understanding.

For everyone in Great Xia today, the three most important things are cultivation, obtaining an official rank, and being enfeoffed with a title.

Cultivation goes without saying; in the Frozen Abyss, strength is the foundation.

Obtaining an official rank means becoming part of Great Xia's true management layer.

And being enfeoffed with a title means ascending to the top tier of Great Xia. The clothing, accessories, travel, residence, and even the household configuration of those with titles... are completely different from ordinary people. Even during the annual Cold Origin Festival, they can be invited by the Lord to bring their entire families to the Political Affairs Hall for a banquet. This honor alone is enough to make everyone flock to it.

It is a pity that the difficulty of these three things is higher one after another.

Take the most difficult one, being enfeoffed with a title: in the absence of war, the possibility of making enough contributions to be enfeoffed is extremely small. As of now this year, only three people have been newly enfeoffed, which is enough to prove this point.

Finding silver mines, finding Cold Apple trees, annexing other camps—the three things sound easy, but only when you actually do them do you realize how difficult they are.

At the beginning of the year, Yu Bin's Ridge Origin team sacrificed one Cold-Resisting Realm expert and four Earth-Digging Realm limits, and in the end, they still couldn't confirm the location of the silver mine. It was only when Hou Jing led the people of the North Zhao team that they risked finding it. This is the proof.

And obtaining an official rank is also not easy.

The number of people with official ranks in Great Xia can be counted.

Chief Administrator Xia Chuan, the seven department heads and deputy heads; the seven heads and deputy heads of the seven major outposts—the four outer city districts, Long Mountain, Hanqiong, and Wuyuan; the garrison commanders of the ten small outposts such as Mirror Valley and Beehive; and then the military positions of the three major armies—the Cloud Flood, Dragon Martial, and Dragon Slayer—which are the fourth-rank Commandants and fifth-rank Commanders.

Excluding those with overlapping positions, the total number is 153.

You must know that the number of Cold-Resisting Realm experts in Great Xia has long exceeded 300, which means that half of the Cold-Resisting Realm experts have not yet been included in the official rankings.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Hong Yu, who is currently only at the Earth-Digging Realm limit, would be so excited to hear that his position as City Gate Commander is to be included in the official rankings.

"By the way, aren't there two City Gate Commanders? Why don't I see Zhu Kang?"

Great Xia currently has ten City Gate Commanders, in groups of two. Lu Yang is more familiar with the group of Hong Yu and Zhu Kang. He looked around the city gate and didn't find Zhu Kang, so he asked curiously.

Hearing Lu Yang ask about Zhu Kang, Hong Yu's expression darkened slightly, "He has been asking for leave for seven consecutive days, locking himself in the Martial Arts Pavilion to cultivate. I guess he is anxious to break through; even his second uncle can't call him out."

Hearing this, Lu Yang's expression also darkened slightly, and he shook his head gently.

Zhu Kang's father, Zhu Ling, was one of the three Cold-Resisting Realm experts who died in the Beehive defense battle last year. Although he was posthumously enfeoffed as a ninth-rank Profound Feather Viscount, it is not so simple for Zhu Kang to successfully inherit his father's title.

One-third of the battlefield military contributions requires killing 166 enemies. These are not 166 ordinary people, but true soldiers with Earth-Digging Realm limit cultivation.

Not to mention that Great Xia currently has no war, even if there were, with Zhu Kang's current Earth-Digging Realm limit cultivation, it is basically impossible to accumulate so many military contributions in a short time.

Of course, if the path of military contributions doesn't work, he can still find silver mines, find Cold Apple trees, or go to annex other camps. Unfortunately, it is as difficult as ascending to heaven for Zhu Kang to achieve these three things with his current cultivation.

Zhu Kang is clearly also anxious to improve his strength and inherit his father's ninth-rank Profound Feather title as soon as possible, otherwise he wouldn't have locked himself for seven consecutive days...

Lu Yang suddenly realized the loophole in Hong Yu's words and immediately asked, "Wait, how can Zhu Kang cultivate in the Martial Arts Academy for seven consecutive days? Does he have so many quotas available? Others will have opinions, right?"

The Martial Arts Academy has quotas, and can only accommodate 200 people at most per day. That is considered one of the most precious cultivation resources in Great Xia today. Although the Camp Needs Department has raised the usage price several times, everyone is still breaking their heads to get in. Except for some special periods, Lu Yang had never heard of anyone being able to cultivate inside for seven consecutive days.

"My lord, it's not the Martial Arts Academy, it's the Martial Arts Pavilion..."

Hong Yu first corrected the mistake in Lu Yang's words, then smiled and said, "It's no wonder, my lord hasn't been back for more than two months, so it's normal not to know. The recent changes in Xia City are not just this city wall."

He seemed to be looking forward to Lu Yang's reaction after entering the city, and cupped his hands, "It just so happens that I am going back to the inner city. Let me show you the changes in the city, my lord!"

Lu Yang nodded and followed Hong Yu into the city gate, his eyes full of anticipation.

Walking into the city gate, what came into view was a main road twenty meters wide. On both sides of the main road were snow forest areas. Lu Yang saw at a glance that this was the scenery within the original Red Wood Ridge. Thinking that the northern and southern city walls had both extended fifteen kilometers to the west, he immediately understood.

"This main road was temporarily cleared for the convenience of entering the city. The city wall expansion was hasty, and large areas within the outer city have not been cleared yet. My lord, look, there are many people logging in the snow forests on both sides. A few scattered cold beasts even appeared a few days ago. Of course, they couldn't cause any big trouble. Based on the progress I've seen in the past few days, I estimate that the entire outer city area will be completely cleared by the end of this month at the latest."

Hearing the movement from the snow forests on both sides, Lu Yang nodded and continued to follow Hong Yu eastward. After walking for about ten kilometers, he saw a large area of buildings from afar. That was the familiar outer city scene in his impression.

The two walked east for a while and soon arrived at the high-rise building of the original Outer City West District Administration. But unlike before, the four characters "West District Administration" on the plaque of the high-rise building had been changed to the five large characters "East Fourth District Administration."

"The expanded Xia City, like before, is still divided into four city districts: East, South, West, and North. The previous four outer city districts have all been uniformly divided into the East District, but the four administrations within the original districts have not changed, only numbered. I heard from my father that the Chief Administrator plans to divide the Dongcheng into eighteen districts, each of which can accommodate about 100,000 people. In this way, the Dongcheng alone can accommodate nearly two million people, and the population carrying limit of the entire Xia City is even more incredible."

Hearing this, although there was shock on Lu Yang's face, he calculated for a moment and immediately understood.

The population carrying limit of the original four outer city districts during planning was 400,000, which was just divided into the four jurisdictions of East, South, West, and North. Now the area of the expanded Xia City is twenty-five times the original, and the population carrying limit should theoretically reach the ten-million level. Xia Chuan currently plans for more than seven million, which is considered reasonable.

Lu Yang noticed that Hong Yu's expression was even more excited than his own. He was a little confused at first, but soon realized: "Eighteen districts, that is equivalent to adding fourteen sets of administrations. No wonder this kid is so excited!"

When Xia Chuan reformed the system last year, he said that as long as the population of a district reaches 100,000, it has the conditions to establish the seven departments' administration. Therefore, in the future, as long as the population conditions are met, all the many districts in Xia City will have the seven departments' administration.

This means that with the increase in Xia City's population in the future, there will be a steady stream of vacancies for official positions with ranks. For young people like Hong Yu who currently have no ranked positions, this is indeed the best news.

"Why are there so many people crowded in the administration?"

Lu Yang continued to walk east along the main road. Passing the entrance of the East Fourth District Administration high-rise, he found thousands of people crowded inside, so he asked curiously.

"They are all scrambling to buy land to build houses!"

Hearing this answer, Lu Yang nodded with a smile.

He knew about this. After the outer city became overcrowded, land was insufficient. The Camp Needs Department of the four districts raised the price of land to reduce land use. Now that Xia City has expanded, the price of land will naturally come down, and there will naturally be more people who can afford it.

Soon, the two passed through the East Fourth District and saw the Great Xia military camp originally located in the middle of the outer city.

"No one in the military camp?"

"My lord doesn't know yet. Chen Ying discovered a silver mine last month. There was only a group of more than 2,000 Gnawing Rat tribes entrenched in that silver mine. The Cloud Flood, Dragon Martial, and Dragon Slayer armies went directly to clear out that group of Gnawing Rats, and now they are all staying there to mine silver!"

Lu Yang really didn't know about this. A look of shock appeared on his face, but then he recalled the time when Xia Hong made them frantically mine resources, and he immediately understood that the recent changes in Xia City were very likely related to this silver mine.

"Chen Ying, is that Chen Ying from the Chen Ye camp in Red Wood Ridge before? I remember he made quite a few military contributions in Longyou last year. I'm afraid he can be enfeoffed with a title in one fell swoop this time, right?"

Lu Yang immediately remembered who Chen Ying was. Finding a silver mine, and the mining difficulty was so low—this luck was a bit too good.

Hearing this, Hong Yu was full of envy, "He was enfeoffed with a title in the middle of last month. I heard that the Lord personally came forward to give the enfeoffment document. He is much more glorious than Li Lao, Hou Lao, and Zhou Yuan!" ===== CHAPTER 339 =====