Late Ming Dynasty: Summoning players from Liaodong to support the Ming Dynasty

Wang Erniu, standing beside him, heard the sigh and nodded in deep agreement. His mind, usually filled with decades of war experience, was now completely empty.

monster.

This word couldn't be more fitting.

However, when they stepped down from the cold war fortress and returned to the city, they discovered that the real "monsters" were only just beginning to reveal their terrifying other side.

The central warehouse of Guangning City has now become a huge, chaotic vortex.

Dozens of players were arguing loudly around a pile of charcoal and a bunch of newly made arrows.

"The merits for these arrows haven't been calculated yet! Why should the charred remains be taken away first?"

"Bullshit! Without coke, the blast furnace will have to shut down! Then we'll all be starving!"

"Stop arguing! Move this cement out first; Sister Zhou is waiting to build the hidden bunker!"

Wang Erniu felt his temples throbbing. He kicked open a wooden crate blocking the doorway and roared at the crowd inside.

"Shut the hell up, all of you!"

No one cares about him.

Li Xunyi, leaning on his cane, shakily squeezed into the crowd, trying to reason with them.

"Gentlemen, celestial soldiers, heed my words. Everything must have rules and order to proceed..."

A player carrying half a pig squeezed past him, almost knocking him off balance.

"Make way, make way! The cafeteria's out of food, so I'm bringing some treats for the brothers!" Shi Dali shouted loudly.

Looking at this scene that was even more chaotic than a tangled mess, Li Xunyi couldn't catch his breath and was so angry that he trembled all over.

"Disorder! Chaos! This is a sign of defeat! A sign of defeat!"

Massive production and bumper harvests brought about great chaos.

The production speed of various materials far exceeded the backward management capabilities of this era. Manpower allocation, material distribution, inventory counting... each item became an unmanageable mess.

Wang Erniu finally gave up on maintaining order. With a dark expression, he strode towards the garrison commander's mansion.

"General!"

Wang Erniu stepped into the study, startling Chu Ze, who was working on a sand table exercise.

"It's out of control! Everything's a fucking mess!" Wang Erniu spat everywhere. "Those heavenly soldiers are like a swarm of locusts! No! They're even more chaotic than locusts! Nobody knows what to do first! If this continues, we'll exhaust ourselves before the Tartars even attack!"

Chu Ze listened to his roar without reacting.

All of this was already clearly displayed on his GM backend data panel.

He had expected this.

"Master Su." Chu Ze ignored the furious Wang Erniu and simply called out softly towards the door.

Su Qingying walked in quickly, carrying a scroll of bamboo slips.

"General."

Chu Ze pointed to the bustling city outside the window, and then to the miniature models on the sand table that represented resources and population.

"Guangning City is a living body. Now, its blood vessels are blocked."

He turned around and looked into Su Qingying's clear and calm eyes.

"Master Su, from today onwards, the lifeblood of Guangning City is in your hands to manage."

Su Qingying's body trembled almost imperceptibly. The bamboo scroll in her arms nearly slipped from her grasp.

How to unclog the lifeline of a wartime city of 100,000 people?

This burden is too heavy.

"General... Qingying... I'm afraid she's not up to the task." Her voice was soft, carrying a hint of inferiority that she herself was unaware of.

"I trust you."

Chu Ze only said these four words.

After observing her for some time, Chu Ze was completely convinced of the young girl's management talent; no one was more suitable than her.

Su Qingying raised her head and met those unfathomable eyes. There was no doubt, no scrutiny, only a calm trust.

She took a deep breath, and the fear and unease in her chest were replaced by a strange courage.

She bowed deeply to Chu Ze.

"Qingying, as you command."

The next day, a brand new agency appeared in Guangning City—the Statistics Department.

The organization's "office" was in a temporarily vacated room next to the central warehouse. Su Qingying didn't rush to solve the mess; she simply sat there quietly, observing and taking notes.

She noticed that the players were arguing and kept uttering words she couldn't understand.

"I haven't met my KPIs for today yet!"

"This task gives too few points; it's not worth it!"

KPIs? Points?

She summoned a female player who was being scolded by Zhou Keke for miscalculating the accounts. In real life, that player was an accountant.

Su Qingying only asked a few questions, and a door to a new world suddenly opened before her.

That afternoon, the Statistics Department officially began operations.

Su Qingying recruited all the literate scholars and accountants in the city, and selected a dozen or so meticulous female players to form a team of twenty people.

She abolished all the chaotic verbal orders and handwritten notes. In their place came a completely new "tripartite form" marked with three colors.

Red represents military supplies, which have the highest priority.

Yellow represents production materials, which are secondary.

Blue represents daily necessities and routine items.

Any allocation of materials must be recorded on a three-part form, signed and sealed by the applicant, the warehouse manager, and the statistics department, with each party keeping one copy. The process is completed daily.

She also designed a completely new accounting method, under which each account has two directions: "in" and "out". Every account must have a source and a destination.

"Master Su, this...this is the 'double-entry bookkeeping' you mentioned?" Li Xunyi held a newly registered ledger, completely mesmerized.

Every number on the account was so clear that even this old scholar was amazed.

Even more terrifying was the huge blackboard that Su Qingying erected in the city center square.

The words "[Guangning City Production Merit Ranking]" were clearly written on it in lime water.

"Wang Dachui, forged thirty iron spears yesterday, accumulating thirty merit points."

"Agriculture Group 1, reclaimed three acres of wasteland, each member of the group will receive fifty merit points."

"Sister-in-law Li, for mending ten military uniforms, you are awarded five merit points."

Everyone knows exactly what they did each day and what they received. Merit points are directly linked to the amount of food, and even meat and cloth, they can receive daily.

The entire city of Guangning came alive.

"Wow, finally there's an NPC to turn in the quest!"

Everyone has found their place, and everyone knows what they are supposed to do.

Waste and shirking of work miraculously disappeared.

Anji's wounded soldiers' camp always received the cleanest gauze at the first opportunity. Tian Qianhe's experimental fields always received a sufficient amount of wood ash when needed. Gongshu Ban's blast furnace never stopped operating again due to a lack of coke supply.

This ancient city seemed to have become a sophisticated machine made up of countless gears, and Su Qingying was the central processing unit that drove this machine.

The fifteenth day, at dusk.

Wang Erniu stormed into the Statistics Department once again.

"Master Su!" He slammed a broken ring-pommel sword on the table, his large, bell-like eyes glaring at Su Qingying. "I've lost a batch of weapons and urgently need to replenish them! Your men insist that my requisition form wasn't filled out correctly and won't issue them!"

Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and watched this scene with bated breath.

Su Qingying didn't look up; she only slowly stood up after finishing the last document in her hand.

She pulled out two ledgers from the mountain of books and placed them in front of Wang Erniu.

"Deputy General Wang." Her voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable force. "First, according to yesterday's records, your unit received 30% more spare weapons than required. This loss should be taken from your reserve inventory."

She then opened another book.

"Secondly, according to the workshop's schedule today, all newly produced weapons will be prioritized for the soon-to-be-established 'Chosen Vanguard Battalion.' This is a general dispatch order personally signed by the general."

Su Qingying gently pushed an account book and a dispatch order stamped with the garrison commander's seal in front of Wang Erniu.

Cold numbers, clear clauses.

Wang Erniu stared at the account book, opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

When he looked up again, he saw a woman in a blue dress, still slender, but whose aura was enough to make him feel breathless. For the first time, he felt a sense of unfamiliarity.

This is no longer the frail girl who would hide behind the general and need someone to protect her.

Without saying a word, Wang Erniu grabbed the broken knife from the table, turned around, and left.

As he reached the door, he lowered his voice and muttered something to the guards who had followed him out.

"This woman...is more accurate than a Tartar arrow."

The garrison commander's residence, study.

Su Qingying placed a thick report on Chu Ze's desk.

Her movements were calm and confident.

"General, please take a look at the production summary for the 15th."

Chu Ze picked up the report and flipped through it page by page. Cement production, molten iron production, estimated potato production... every number represented the vibrant heartbeat of Guangning City.

His fingertips tapped rhythmically on the table.

Suddenly, he stopped moving.

The last page of the report features a line of delicate yet powerful small print.

"General, according to statistics, the city's iron production has exceeded the needs of weapon manufacturing. The surplus iron, according to information provided by the Heavenly Soldiers, can be used to manufacture another 'weapon'—the iron plow. If this can be promoted, next year's harvest will be ten times that of today."

Chu Ze picked up the report and looked at the last line over and over again.

The finger that had been tapping the table stopped in mid-air.