The camp’s picket fence stretched for dozens of miles, built when the settlement was first established. However, wild beast attacks were so frequent that almost every day, Jin people died under their onslaught, forcing Henry Clark to gather everyone to cut timber. A considerable amount of early development time was wasted just to build the fence.

In the course of development, Henry Clark discovered a peculiar phenomenon: although the system-produced peasants weren’t very intelligent, aside from their lack of intelligence and inability to participate in combat, they seemed almost omnipotent when it came to all kinds of labor and construction.

In fact, the system-generated peasants were truly remarkable. Not only were they tireless and uncomplaining, but they could also do any kind of work, prompting Henry Clark to jokingly call them super peasants.

There were many wooden houses in the settlement, arranged in neat rows, each able to accommodate twenty people. The houses were oriented in specific directions, and if viewed from above, one would see that they formed a defensive pattern resembling a bagua.

The many rows of houses encircled the central area, which was a spacious public space. Besides a large open area, there was also a seemingly huge canteen that provided daily meals for the people.

From the outside, the canteen was indeed quite large—not just in terms of area, but also in height. The sole purpose of such a big building was to allow everyone to eat together from a communal pot, so it had to be built big. In fact, there were also outdoor dining areas; the indoor space was reserved for system characters and some administrative staff and military officers, while the outdoor area was for ordinary Jin people. This was a form of differentiated management, which, when managing a collective, proved to be more effective than one might imagine.

Establishing a power base was actually quite difficult; it wasn’t something an individual could accomplish alone. Henry Clark knew all too well how hard it would be to restore the might of the Han dynasty, and could only do his utmost. Fortunately, at least he had a golden finger.

The system Henry Clark obtained was truly magical—not only could it “transform the living,” but it also involved a kind of spatial teleportation. He currently possessed a town center, which from the outside looked like a building covering just over 200 square meters, appearing to be an unremarkable thatched hut. But inside, it was a different story!

Although the town center looked small from the outside, once inside, it was a vast, boundless space—one could not see the end at a glance. Henry Clark had been quite startled by this discovery at first, but later realized it made sense. After all, the game Age of Empires had always had inexplicable features, such as the town center’s ability to store unlimited resources.

Upon seeing the vast space, Henry Clark immediately understood that this was why the town center could store infinite resources.

In fact, the internal space of the town center had its limits, which Henry Clark discovered by sending a scout cavalry to ride continuously within it. After reconnaissance, he found that the square space was about fifty kilometers across. The most amazing thing was that anything stored in the town center would never spoil or rot—it had unparalleled preservation capabilities!

Later, Henry Clark discovered something even more magical: the town center was inexplicably linked to the built lumber warehouse, mineral warehouse, and mill. When resources were stored in the warehouse or mill, they would be automatically teleported to the town center.

Of course, there were restrictions on teleportation. For example, only wood placed in the lumber warehouse could be teleported; other items wouldn’t work. Unfortunately, the spatial link seemed to be one-way—items stored in the town center couldn’t be retrieved from the warehouse. Another awkward point was that only Henry Clark himself and system characters could enter the town center; anyone else who entered would be instantly shredded—literally shredded, with not even a bone fragment left.

After instructing some people to properly settle the new refugees, Henry Clark, feeling a sense of urgency, mounted his horse, made a detour to avoid being followed, and then headed for the valley.

When going out for a stroll, although Henry Clark could control development, all he could see were some markers on the map. Humans always need to see things with their own eyes to feel at ease, and he was just that kind of person.

To get from the settlement to the valley, one had to cross a flat open area and then skirt along the seaside. Henry Clark originally wanted to check out the dock by the sea, but decided to postpone it. He took a short detour before entering a forest, which required at least two hours of walking to reach the valley.

There were several visible sentry posts in the open area—watchtowers (which also served as arrow towers) built by Henry Clark, each manned by two archers at all times to provide Henry Clark with visibility and necessary security.

Within the forest, Henry Clark had irregularly arranged several hidden sentry posts to prevent anyone from bypassing the open area’s watchtowers and entering the forest, thus ensuring a second line of defense and further safeguarding the valley.