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An Agricultural Community

The preceding period of disunity, the era known as the Three Kingdoms, was a horrible blight upon our land. The marches of the huge armies were especially hard on the farmers -- their fields were trampled and their livestock was scattered and lost. As a result, the food chain was broken and has yet to be fully repaired. In many cities of this great empire, citizens still go to sleep with empty bellies. More foodstuffs are desperately needed. As usual, our beneficient emperor has the perfect solution, for he has decreed that agricultural colonies should be established along the western border. The food produced by these settlements will go far to feed hungry masses.
Your recent revitalization of the Empire's capital has put you first in line for an important new assignment. Establish an agricultural community along the far reaches of the Yellow River, at a place called Lanzhou. The Emperor will ensure that workers for the fields arrive soon. The terrain is rough but the soil will welcome the sharp blade of the plow.
Keep a vigilant eye on the Kunlan Shan -- the mountain range to the southwest. There have been persistent rumors of a fierce new tribe of barbarians from a land called Tibet. The spirit of the great Daoist hero-general, Guan Di, can now be summoned. His services might be very useful to the defences of your city.

City - Lanzhou
Starts Feb 594 CE
18000 starting cash on Normal

Requirements:
  • Produce 35 baskets of cabbage in one year
  • Produce 45 bushels of wheat in one year
  • Produce 38 bundles of millet in one year
  • Population of 2000

This appears to be a straightforward mission. You need to produce a lot of food and have 2000 people living in your city. But, look at that map. Where do you build your city? Immigrants and traders enter the map from the southwest corner and traders exit the map on the road near the southeast corner. There is no room to build in the southwest corner, and the little plateau where the road first turns to the southeast isn't large enough for 2000 residents. I considered the location where the road crosses the flatland, but decided to reserve this prime farmland for growing food. Instead, I chose the area south of the big bend in the river.

I built two small housing blocks in an "L" shape. The northern block contained and Administrative City and 20 Houses. The southern block had 14 Houses. I evolved these to Ornate Apartments, which gave me a population of 2142. I chose Ornate Apartments because tea for Luxury Apartments would have to be imported.

There is a small industrial block southeast of the northern housing block. In the industrial block I placed the Mill, Clay Pits, Kilns, Lacquerware Makers, a Paper Maker (for the Tax Collectors), Warehouses and two Trading Stations. Three Lacquer Refineries and Lacquer Trees were built on the highland northeast and southwest of the industrial block.

I placed a Mint near the copper ore deposits on the north side of the river. To provide labor access to the Mint you will need a bridge or ferry to cross the river and you must build roads up the slopes.

There are salt flats in the northwest corner of the map, but I chose not to build salt mines. The remote location would be difficult to operate efficiently. I didn't need salt to evolve the housing, and chose lacquerware over salt as an export item. I opened up trade routes to Kashgar and Guangzhou to sell lacquerware. Profits from exports were over 7000 a year. Taxes produced an additional 2000 income and the Mint 1200. That was more than enough cash to keep the city running.

I wanted to finish this mission quickly and overbuilt the farms. I had the labor and the funds to do so. There were five food farms and a hemp farm south of the housing blocks and four more food farms north of the river. This gave me a total of 183 millet fields, 300 wheat fields and 111 cabbage fields. All the fields were irrigated and produced 63 bundles of millet, 71 bushels of wheat and 38 baskets of cabbage per year. This was much more millet and wheat, and a little more cabbage, than what was required by the mission.

"Events" were minimal. Chang-an becomes an ally a month after the mission begins and Lhasa "greets the world" in November CE 595. Chang-an requested 6 bushels of wheat in July CE 596. I had plenty, so I sent it. Lhasa demanded tea in Jan CE 596, but I ignored them. They didn't like it, but the mission was over before they could do anything about it.

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