Chapter 196: Secret Manual Sales
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
August 3rd, 10 AM.
Ouyang Shuo appeared in the manor’s office and started to handle the government affairs that had piled up for a week.
During the second half of July, Langshan mining field and Northern Saltworks contributed a total of 8,100 gold. These funds had yet to be allocated by Ouyang Shuo. Because of this, many workers had yet to receive their pay wages for July.
In fact, the allocation was simple. There wasn’t much to allocate. With the commencement of the projects, the Department of Finance was tight financially again. Hence it was given 5,100 gold, and it was already the lowest amount Ouyang Shuo could offer.
Of the remaining 3,000 gold, 1,000 gold was added to the Four Seas Bank Mulan Town Branch, while the last 2,000 gold would be used to start a new branch of the Four Seas Bank in the Black Lion Town.
Ouyang Shuo did not reserve a single gold coin for himself, not that he didn’t need any gold, but he already held a huge fortune, which was the 120 secret manuals.
Over the past month, the prices of secret manuals continued rising. It had been close to the 700 gold mark set by Ouyang Shuo. Soon, Ouyang Shuo was ready to sell off the manuals and obtain funds from the sale.
He had decided to take advantage of the low prices of food, using the funds obtained from the sales of manuals and acquire a batch of foods when the time comes in the future. He would sell the food when the prices were high and would profit from the differences in cost.
If his memory was correct, then the highest point of time, the food prices rose up to 30 coppers per unit, triple the usual price. Lessing the 10% taxation fees, cost of food storage and the waste grains during transportation, he could still enjoy a profit of 250%, much higher than selling manuals.
Ouyang Shuo has ordered the Construction Division to build a large granary on the outskirts west of the city, dedicated to the storage of food stocks.
After a month of construction, Xinan University has taken shape, the three colleges have also been set up entirely, and they were starting taking in students. The rest to construct was the auxiliary facilities that do not affect the teaching and learning activities.
Following the instructions of Ouyang Shuo, every government servant, including those of affiliated territories, except for jinshi and juren, would have to continue and advance their studies at Xinan University.
To this end, the Administration Department has enacted a mechanism scheduling the officials’ rotations. Its purpose was to ensure the normal operations of the government bodies while at the same time ensuring each official would receive at least a month of education at Xinan University.
Finance Director Cui Yingyu took the initiative to take the first lead to attend classes in the School of Economics Business studies.
One could tell that in the foreseeable future, Shanhai City officials would celebrate another round of upgrade and ability enhancement.
Also, Natural Science Institution was now starting admission for talents, completely breaking the ancient craftsmen’s underprivileged status, and it denoted the advancement of the status of craftsmen in the territory.
A large number of carpenters, farmers, fruit farmers and other talents, were recruited into the Natural Science Institution to learn modern, scientific and logical knowledge.
It had caused a big stir in the territory. Fortunately, within the territory, there weren’t any big and powerful family clans, most of them were ordinary people, and hence it was easier to make this policy to be implemented.
Other than that, Medical Department had also started operating.
In the afternoon, when Ouyang Shuo was dealing with government affairs, beside his ears suddenly came a burst of system announcements.
“System Notice: Congratulations to the player Sha Pojun for becoming the ninth lord to upgrade to grade 1 city; special reward of 600 merit points!”
“System Notice: Congratulations to the player Sha Pojun for becoming the ninth lord…”
“System Notice: Congratulations to the player Sha Pojun…”
The fact that Asura Town’s success in upgrading itself to a city had shocked Xunlong Dianxue the most. His Xunlong Town has met the basic conditions to apply for the promotion. The walls had also been built. The only worry was the lack of troops.
According to Xunlong Dianxue, his Xunlong Town plus the affiliated territories together only have 2,500 troops, how could he have the courage to apply for the promotion recklessly?
But Asura Town’s successful promotion had boiled the competition for the last place on the top ten of China. Hesitate more, and the chance might be seized by the others.
This time, the only one who could help Xunlong Dianxue was Ouyang Shuo.
Ouyang Shuo need not offer his help, Xunlong Dianxue came looking for it. As long as the Ouyang Shuo was willing to help Xunlong Town in its promotion, it would allow Four Seas Bank to open a branch in Xunlong Town.
He was in such hurry because he was desperate to claim his place in the top ten list of China. Do not underestimate honor. If it was used properly, it could bring many benefits to the holder.
Not to mention the others, just claiming the honor alone of being included in the top ten list could significantly increase the reputation of the territory. It would be easier to recruit elite players and increase the attractiveness to historical figures.
Ouyang Shuo pondered and took some time to think. In order to help Xunlong Town for its promotion, he could help with two matters, that is, funds and equipment. With sufficient funds, Xunlong Town could then expand its military force; with enough equipment, Xunlong Town could arm its military forces.
In the end, after the negotiations, Ouyang Shuo and Xunlong Dianxue came to an agreement.
[One] Shanhai City would set up a branch of Four Seas Bank in Xunlong Town with reserve funds of no less than 5,000 gold. Xunlong Town would construct the necessary infrastructure while Shanhai City would ensure the funds be in place within 3 days.
[Two] Shanhai City as previously agreed price, which is 5 gold per Tang sword and 10 gold per bow, Shanhai would sell 1,000 Tang sword and 1,000 composite bows, a total price of 15,000 gold. The money would automatically be converted to Four Seas Bank commercial loans, with the loan period of one year.
Calculated in accordance with Four Seas Bank commercial loans monthly interest rate of 3%, on a monthly basis equal principal and interest repayment, monthly repayment of 1490 gold coins, adding up to a total repayment of 17880 gold, and the total amount of interest paid would be 2880 gold.
Because the progress of the game was much faster than the real world. Hence, the monthly payment would basically be equivalent to annual payments; a year of loans equivalent of a loan of 12 years in reality.
When the loan amount reached 10,000 gold, the profitability of loans by Four Seas Bank could be seen clearly.
Ouyang Shuo was not worried that Xunlong Dianxue could not afford to repay. After all, after promotion to a city, taking out a thousand gold coins a month could still be done.
Of course, it is conceivable that the coming year, Xunlong City would live in tight financial condition.
The second day after the agreement was signed, Ouyang Shuo arrived at the market. He began to sell the secret manuals he had. In the market, gold-level secret manuals were still in short supply at the moment.
A secret manual would require a considerable amount of time to practice. For example, Ouyang Shuo’s took him 2 and a half months. He could only reach level 3 at the end of July.
Secret manuals like and also took him 2 to 3 months before he reached the level of ‘Novice.’ That was with the help and guidance of a master in the respective arts. Otherwise, he would progress even slower.
Therefore, it would be wise to choose a highly graded secret manual from the start.
Those aspiring players, including some high-end players, especially the players in either the ten guilds or significant forces, would only practice secret manuals of gold-level or higher.
To practice those below the gold level was merely a waste of time.
Hence, this was precisely the best period to sell the gold-level secret manuals. Otherwise, from the second year onwards, the players would set their eyes on the higher grade secret manuals of king-level.
Ouyang Shuo started selling them one by one, each one priced at 700 gold. As expected, the moment it was placed on the market, it got bought instantly.
As he started selling them on the market, the news spread, more players were attracted by the sudden appearance of gold-level secret manuals in the market.
“Holy crap, do you know about it, the sudden appearance a batch of gold-level secret manuals on the market.”
“You are outdated, look, I’ve bought mine.”
“Damn, you are so rich, what a tycoon!”
“Ah, the money was borrowed from my friends, for the next few months, I’ll have to eat simply.”
In the major forces and top merchant guilds, they had special members that keep an eye on the market.
Hence, they were the first to react. Immediately, messages were sent to their higher-ups, as they weren’t allowed to make deals if the amount involved were too significant.
As the chairman of the merchant guilds received the news, without second thoughts, they gathered the funds immediately. The cash flow of the merchant guilds was immensely incredible.
If they wanted to, having each guild member to contribute 1 gold would cause them to gather tens of thousands of gold immediately.
Of course, measures like this could only be done only once. Otherwise, the coherence within the guild members would be diminished. Plus, those members who could contribute gold were mainly core members, the rookies were still struggling they way through to survive in the game, how could they contribute any gold?
Seeing the sales going well, after selling 20 secret manuals, Ouyang Shuo quietly changed the price to 705 gold, and again the next 20 manuals sold instantly.
At this time, those remained was the major forces, individual players have already given up.
For the rest 80 manuals, Ouyang Shuo decided to sell them in packs of 5, with the selling price of 3,550 gold each pack, while a single secret manual selling at 710 gold.
Ouyang Shuo had his own tactics selling the manual packs, he did not place them all at once on the market, but instead, around every 30 minutes he would place in one pack. Plus, the intervals were different and varied. The buyers were then blinded, they would not know how many manuals were left, would this pack be the last deal or no.
All the way until 12 in the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo had only 40 manuals left.
At this time, Ouyang Shuo did not place any manuals on the market anymore. Instead, he turned and left the market back to his manor for lunch.
The great sale of secret manuals seems to have ended here. Those forces that did not seize the chance to purchase the manuals went into deep regret. They had lost as their gold gathering speed was too slow.
After the short break, Ouyang Shuo slowly walked back into the market. This time, he directly packed the manuals into groups of 10, with a pack selling at the price of 7,200 gold, equivalent to a single manual selling price of 720 gold.
Just when the merchants who were still close fully observing the market almost drove themselves into despair, they saw the manuals Ouyang Shuo placed on the market. They were so overjoyed, and that no words could possibly describe their joy, without even informing their higher-ups, they immediately bought the manuals.
As such, the last 40 secret manuals were sold out within half an hour.
