Chapter 1123: The Future of Lema City

Changle and Ayuduo could not stay in Huaxia for too long; once the team for the Golden Autumn Gathering was assembled, the two of them headed west with the team.

There was no need to hide these matters from Ayuduo, because even if her heart were still with the Jiuli, she would be unable to leak news of Huaxia to them; after all, at such a great distance, there was no way to transmit messages, and it would likely be many years before she could meet with people from the Jiuli, by which time Ayuduo's heart might already belong entirely to Huaxia.

Their first stop was Lema City, where they replenished supplies, and Changle also took the time to look over the construction progress of Lema City with Ayuduo.

Under the leadership of Yu, Lema City was developing extremely rapidly, much faster than when it was led by Sanxin, because Sanxin lacked the drive of a young person, whereas Yu was currently full of energy.

Furthermore, since Lema City's initial design was relatively rational, it was currently only smaller than Huaxia City in terms of area and population, but no matter how one looked at it, the future development of Lema City seemed even greater than that of Huaxia City.

Moreover, Lema City did not have the chaotic conditions found in the peripheral Urban Areas of Huaxia; each zone was reasonably partitioned, and expansion followed the direction it was supposed to take.

The industrial zones, such as factories for Weaving Department and handicrafts, were all in the same direction, though to reduce commuting time, they were still adjacent to the residential areas, as there was not much environmental or noise pollution.

Given that Changle had almost never been to Lema City, the team specifically stayed in Lema City today to let Changle take a careful look before departing tomorrow; otherwise, according to the plan, they would have prepared supplies and departed the same day, moving far away from Lema City before dark to find a suitable place to camp.

Changle was more like an inspector for Baifeng, and the busy Yu personally led the tour; according to Yu, Lema City intended to establish its own industrial system in the future.

Currently, there were only some simple Weaving Department and handicraft industries, while things like Cement, Ironware, and Glass—which were essential for construction—still had to be transported from Huaxia; such transport consumed a massive amount of shipping capacity and was very cost-ineffective.

The Brick and Tile Factory had already been built, and since the demand for paper mills was not too high—the paper mill in Huaxia alone could already meet the demand—there was no need to continue building more.

However, a cement plant was already in preparation; the ore had been found, and the Gunpowder for mining would be transported from Huaxia, while some skilled Workers would also be transferred from Huaxia.

All of these had been applied for to Baifeng, and Baifeng had approved them all, including the glass factory, which was already in the planning stages.

Only the iron smelting plant did not succeed, because transporting ore to Lema City was too much of a waste of time and energy, so smelting could only be done in Huaxia; however, a forging plant could be built in Lema City, where Huaxia City would send the smelted Iron Ingot to Lema City for forging and processing.

This progress also satisfied Yu; at least the development of Lema City would improve, as Lema City could not continue to rely entirely on agriculture and the Weaving Department, or else it would never become wealthy or strong, because it would fall behind in infrastructure construction.

To build a road, one had to get approval from Huaxia City, then coordinate Cement and coordinate Workers; to build something, one had to join the forging plan in Huaxia City and then wait in line, which Lema City could not afford to do.

If these things succeeded, the construction speed of Lema City would develop rapidly; currently, Lema City had a very strong desire for construction, and vigorous land reclamation and agricultural development had resulted in the people here possessing a massive amount of grain, plus tax reduction policies, so over these years, the per capita grain storage was even higher than that of Huaxia City, because if Huaxia City wanted to reclaim more wasteland, it had to go far away from the city center to more distant towns.

In Huaxia City and its surroundings, there was no more arable land left to develop, and land that could not be used for farming was all Pasture; agricultural land was in short supply, and there was a trend of building land gradually swallowing up agricultural land, which Baifeng understood was a trend that could not be delayed and could not be changed.

Perhaps in another ten years or so, there would be no more farmland within the entire Huaxia City, inside the Huaxia City Wall; it would all become building land because the population was still growing rapidly, and people would have nowhere to live; if the level of urbanization was high enough, there really should not be agricultural land in the city, which should be placed in the suburbs, and even factories might have to be moved out.

However, in this era, factories could not be moved because they were too important; all factories had to be under the protection of the city wall, while farmland should expand without restriction in all directions.

Pastures also had to be gradually moved away; now, most of the pastures had already left the protection of the Huaxia City Wall, except for those that were penned; free-range animals needed more space, and what Huaxia City lacked right now was precisely space.

Lema City had plenty of grain and a rapidly growing population, but it could not get its hands on industrial building materials, so the living conditions of the Residents of Lema City were not good and were very crowded, which was the first thing Yu wanted to solve.

As soon as the cement plant and glass factory were built and produced qualified products, large-scale construction would begin immediately; currently, Lema City already had enough capable construction engineers, and there were many skilled Workers.

Huaxia City rarely involved Lema City's Artisans in internal or external projects, only calling upon a portion of them when they were short-handed, because Lema City needed to build its own things, and at the time their skill level was not sufficient, so Huaxia City always forgot.

On the ox cart, Yu pointed out the direction to Changle and said, "Changle, look over here, this is the planned future residential area; I intend to build them all as courtyards covering four hundred square meters, at least two stories high, with each courtyard capable of accommodating a large family of about fifty people, while ensuring their living environment."

"Moreover, there can be sizes from one hundred square meters up to five hundred square meters, built uniformly by Lema City, with uniform styles, arranged neatly; when the time comes, those who want houses here can trade in their old houses; they can exchange for the same size they lived in before, and if they want a larger one, they can supplement with grain until they reach the area they need."

"If it's like you, a newly formed small family that wants to move out but doesn't have much grain, you can exchange for a small one-hundred-square-meter courtyard to live in, and later, when the family grows, you can continue to exchange for a larger one."