I Become a Landlady in the Game World

Among them, places like Ningshan Village and other Blue Star Territories had recently exported the most from Hope Village.

Relying on Hope Village, Ningshan Village and several other territories sold their surplus raw materials and, after converting them into Gold Coins, purchased various magic goods and weaponry to take back to their own territories.

And it was not only Ningshan Village, but other native territories who had rented booths in Hope Village had done the same.

When they set up their booths in Hope Village, they had already completed the exchange of resources.

This coincided perfectly with Zhou Bai's original vision for Hope Village's role as a distribution center.

With the territories wealthy and the residents wealthy, others could also earn money from Hope Village, creating an active and positively cyclic economy.

As long as development continued in this direction, more territories would join Hope Village and the range of products offered by Hope Village would become increasingly abundant.

In time, besides the sales of its own goods, Hope Village would gain substantial funds solely from taxes.

Therefore, it was essential for Hope Village to ensure the interests of these territories and merchant teams during transactions in Hope Village, a matter which had been resolved in advance during a previous meeting.

The Commercial Management Office of Hope Village guaranteed the dealings, and with contracts signed and deposits submitted before cooperation, the frequency of transactional issues had significantly decreased.

Now, there was a tendency for further expansion of such contracts, and the variety of contract options available was also increasing.

On this matter, Hope Village had assimilated enough experience and could adjust its approach based on practical situations as necessary.

Thus, even if more territories flooded into Hope Village in the future, it would be manageable.

The third area: cultural development of the territory.

The most representative aspects of culture were schools and libraries.

The school had just launched, with young cubs from various races engaging in orderly learning, patiently waiting for them to mature; noteworthy was the newly established literacy class, serving as a precursor to an adult school, and judging by the daily increase in adult numbers, future student recruitment for the adult school was assured.

Even this was currently Hope Village's biggest attracting factor for residents to settle down.

In the library, aside from a collection of foundational books of this world, there were also numerous volumes penned by the residents of Hope Village. The former comprised most of the loans, while the latter were slowly increasing, especially after the recent satisfaction of survival needs led residents of Blue Star to increasingly seek intellectual pursuits.

Forget about the internet.

Yet, novels began to emerge.

Meng Chengzhou had once mentioned this to her.

After all, owning a half-share in a paper mill under the Wood Workshop, Meng Chengzhou planned to upgrade to a printing plant based on the paper mill, paving the way for future novels and newspapers.

Upon hearing this proposal, she had approved it without hesitation.

Believing, soon Blue Star novels were likely to sweep through Hope Village.

Thus, in terms of cultural development, there were no issues in Hope Village.

If Hope Village were to launch a newspaper, it needed to be an official one with content under her control. This area required hiring some people who would be integrated directly into the Education Management Office, setting up a new department.

Although there are currently seven management offices, as Hope Village expands in the future, each office will undoubtedly require a more detailed division of labor, which would be adjusted as per the actual circumstances.

The fourth area: the military of the territory.

This was of utmost importance for Hope Village as it related to when Hope Village would advance to Hope Town.

Since the establishment of military ranks, there had been a significant increase in soldiers joining, with several lesser-populated military units directly replenished.

The number of people in the military camp had grown from over 1500 to 1800.

Moreover, during the recent exploit near Bengela Town for easy gains, the number of Intermediate Professionals had reached over 800 and continued to rise.

This level of strength placed her, according to her current comparison of other level 3 territories, relatively at the forefront.

Hope Village's uniqueness lay in the fact that many residents within the territory were professionals, who also contributed to military strength during wartime.

Zhou Bai had specifically paid attention to the recent ranking changes of Hope Village, which had been steadily improving.

The surge in the number of intermediate professionals within the territory was definitely one of the contributing factors.

Thus, in terms of military strength, Zhou Bai was quite confident in her own territory.

In addition, she now had enough gold coins, as well as sufficient stone and cement, which made her defensive power exceptionally strong.

In a normal town-level territory war, Hope Village should be able to hold its ground.

But what if the circumstances at Hope Village were not normal?

If a village-level territory war did not see Fasal Village attacking next time, it would indicate that an aggressive town-level territory was waiting, because Marquis Boyer would not likely give up such a lucrative target as Hope Village.

With Marquis Boyer's support, no one knew what the opponent held in their hands.

Take, for example, the last encounter with Fasal Village, who could have foreseen that they possessed platinum weapons, and not just one. If she hadn't been lucky last time in using cement to enhance the territory's defensive power and had enough resources saved, along with employing a few clever tactics, she might have suffered a serious loss at the enemy's hands.

And after becoming promoted to a town, facing an aggressive town-level territory could only mean that the opponent's equipment resources would improve further, and she was unsure if she could handle that.

So, it was better to wait until the military strength of the territory was stronger.

The forces were currently sufficient, so it was time to focus more on weaponry.

The latest tungsten ore was being researched for firearms; if successful, Hope Village would have firearms.

Additionally, limestone was available, and once saltpeter mines were found, gunpowder would be available.

Although the Magic World abounded in weapons far more powerful than gunpowder, all those required magic to activate or were conjured through magic power. Producing them in large numbers was costly, not something everyone could afford, generally seen only in city-level territory battles.

However, gunpowder was different; as long as raw materials were abundant, explosions could continue indefinitely.

Just think about suppressing firepower, isn't it scary?

For now, she was waiting for good news from Harrison and his newly acquired apprentice, Yu Xiaoxiao, while concurrently searching for saltpeter mines, for which goblins were still necessary.

After going through these four points in her mind, Zhou Bai felt reassured.

The next territory war was in slightly over twenty days.

The subsequent territory war was in just over fifty days.

Whether Hope Village would be promoted in slightly over twenty days or just over fifty days would depend on the upcoming development of the territory.

And just as Zhou Bai finished all this and was ready to take a good rest, Bayer knocked on the door again.

Once the door opened, Viscount Lancelot from Glasgow Village followed behind Bayer and smiled wryly at Zhou Bai.

"Lord Village Chief, I have come again."

Zhou Bai paused.

Previously, he had sent someone to negotiate a deal, which hadn't yet been finalized, and now, not much later, he had come in person.

Had some incident occurred in Barnes Village?

Or was it that... the time to deal with Barnes Village had arrived?