Chapter 530

Coal has a higher heat value than charcoal and wood, roughly twice that of charcoal.

It is the necessary fuel for making steel.

1 unit of coal, plus 1 unit of iron ingot, can smelt 1 unit of steel ingot.

This also counts as a strategic resource; stockpile it first.

The default stone mine is 10,000 units; Zhao Chi's territory has 18,000 units.

Stone is an important building material.

It can greatly increase the durability of buildings.

Moreover, stone buildings are fireproof and cannot be ignited by fire-element spiritual techniques.

Normally, these 10,000 units of stone can complete a village-level stone wall.

In Zhao Chi's case, he can also make the defensive towers out of stone.

However, stone buildings are very time-consuming, and mining and transporting them are not easy.

They also require stonemasons to polish and shape them.

So stone buildings are not something an early-stage lord needs to worry about.

After killing Zhao Ji earlier, Zhao Chi actually really wanted to directly occupy his territory.

After all, Zhao Ji's territory was entirely stone buildings, with a complete stone wall.

Truly worthy of nobility.

As for the fish and shrimp resources in the lake, there is no uniform standard; the randomness is considerable.

But in the early stages, relying on the lake to guarantee a certain food source is indeed no problem.

It's just that unlike animals, they cannot provide furs.

Zhao Chi allocated 57 points to trees, which is 5,700 trees.

There is no extra bonus here; allocate 5,700 trees, and there will be 5,700 trees.

Once all the trees in both territories are cut down, then they can only be bought.

Planting trees also works, but it's too slow.

Or invading other territories, going there to chop trees and haul them back.

However, wood isn't that expensive.

Later on, if Zhao Chi isn't short on money, buying them is no big deal.

Now that he has a secondary territory, the biggest benefit is not the increased territory range.

It's the subjects.

After all, the two territories are independent of each other.

So the subjects that refresh each day are also calculated independently.

In other words, every day there will be 20 naked women appearing.

An ordinary lord gets 5.

As long as Zhao Chi is alive, even if he does nothing, every day he will have 3 times more people than other commoner lords.

And the quality is also higher by more than a little.

Having a new territory, and an unregistered free territory at that, this is a secret.

It cannot be told to anyone.

Moreover, going directly from this new territory to the greater world is strictly forbidden.

Because the rebels' territories are exactly this kind of unregistered territory.

Or territories that were registered and then modified.

What the nobles check every day is exactly this kind of territory.

If Zhao Chi goes out from the new territory once or twice, that's no big deal.

After all, confirming coordinates is not that easy.

But if the number of times increases, the clues left behind will also increase.

The possibility of being discovered grows.

Although going out from this new territory allows carrying large quantities of goods without paying tax.

But putting oneself in danger for money is not worth it.

Zhao Chi decided to behave honestly: pay taxes when they're due.

Treat this new territory as his trump card.

Or a fallback.

When the day truly comes that it's dangerous, he can abandon Taoyuan Village and retreat with everyone to this new Penglai Village.

Although he will be directly branded as a rebel, that's still better than dying.

Besides that.

Because the secondary territory is also a separate territory, independent of the main territory.

So even for the same lord, transporting goods between the two territories counts as "import/export" and also requires paying tax.

And there's no escaping tax either; after all, as long as it's been registered, not paying can be detected.

But Zhao Chi doesn't need to.

Penglai Village was not registered.

So from Taoyuan Village to Penglai Village, or from Penglai Village to Taoyuan Village, there is no obstacle at all.

Now that's what you call freedom.

And there's one more thing.

Penglai Village isn't registered, so the authorities can't find it.

This way, Zhao Chi can transfer most of his personnel or supplies to Penglai Village.

This can lower his apparent strength on paper.

After the previous start-of-term test, Zhao Quan's subordinate soldiers already found that Zhao Chi's strength had grown abnormally.

This morning, Master Mu Chang's soldiers were also tracking his abnormal strength, so he was picked out.

Being too eye-catching is absolutely dangerous.

If most of his strength is transferred to Penglai Village, then when the nobles investigate him again, his strength won't stand out so much.

Just like an ordinary commoner, with nothing worth noting.

So, the plan can be finalized.

Taoyuan Village, developed into an ordinary, unremarkable territory.

The crops planted are also just ordinary crops.

The number of women kept here shouldn't be too many either.

And Penglai Village is Zhao Chi's true territory.

Those high-yield fast-ripening wheat and high-yield fast-ripening experience fruits are all planted in Penglai Village.

Most of the women also enter Penglai Village for production and life.

When expanding the territory in the future, Penglai Village is also chosen for expansion.

Such safety will greatly increase.

Besides these, the Aphrodisiac Atmosphere also needs to be moved.

After all, if it's installed in Taoyuan Village, a deliberate investigation can find it.

Transferred to Penglai Village, it vanishes without a trace.

It just requires specific props; the town's exchange doesn't have them, but one can try their luck at the county's exchange.

Moreover, Penglai Village's lake has large numbers of fish and shrimp.

The Aphrodisiac Atmosphere can also increase their breeding probability.

Although Taoyuan Village has quite a few animals configured, but... they can be transferred.

It just so happens that Yang Lu's hunting team is idle now, so they can take on this new job.

Gu Qing also goes to cooperate with Yang Lu and the others, capturing animals together.

There are only about 600 animals left now; it shouldn't take long to transfer them all.

Occasionally afterward, animals will also charge out from the Mist Wall, like refugees, but the probability isn't high.

The Carefree Spring also needs to be moved.

After all, most of the villagers will live in Penglai Village later on; moving it here is more convenient.