Chapter 1352: Rapid Development

Xuanxiao said nothing, only smiling; everyone was like this, on the surface and under normal circumstances, they were allies, they were brothers, exchanging what they had and helping one another.

But in reality, everyone feared that their brother or neighbor would become more powerful than themselves; once they became powerful, one would feel threatened, and no matter how well things were said, it still had to be expressed through actual actions.

The Xuanyuan Tribe itself was also secretly doing many things to guard against Huaxia; that Huaxia was now openly doing such things was not very surprising, and instead, it made people feel a bit more at ease, for after all, putting actions out in the open was much more reassuring than acting in the shadows.

Everything this year was developing according to expectations; everything in Xiao Town was already stable, and the first year's grain had already produced a yield, though the most important things for Xiao Town were, of course, its saltpeter and copper mines.

The saltpeter was refined on-site, then stored after drying and sent to Huaxia City; in fact, looking at it as a whole, Huaxia's usage of saltpeter was not very large, but Xiao Town was different from Liuhuangdi, as Xiao Town itself belonged within the territory of Huaxia and could be managed.

Now, by utilizing such a relatively important but low-consumption material to build a city locally, the consideration was also quite long-term; after all, as long as it was Huaxia territory, it was best to have people there and to have it developed.

If more villages could be developed in the direction of Xiao Town in the future, that would naturally be best; now, the main locations of the copper mines in Xiao Town had basically been explored, and some could be mined out to some extent.

In the strata of the entire Xiao Town, there was a layer of stone with a very high copper content, and although the yield would not be too high, that amount of yield was enough to bring great help to Huaxia.

Now Xiao Town had another business, which was catching poisonous insects; the still very numerous scorpions and centipedes, as well as various snakes, were things with a value higher than grain, and there was no worry about them not having a market—as long as there were some, Huaxia City would take them.

Now, after being soaked into medicinal Wine, the Huaxia people used it themselves; now that production was gradually expanding, once it could basically guarantee supply for Huaxia, they began to export it and trade with the Xuanyuan Tribe.

As long as they were human, in this era, they would certainly have more or less fallen into some physical ailments; bruises, sprains, rheumatism, and bone pain were not fatal, but they were very painful and uncomfortable, and no one could endure them. If one's life was short, it was fine, as one would die after not being in pain for many years, but if one lived long enough, the root causes of illnesses from one's youth would all emerge.

Therefore, something like medicinal Wine, which was effective and convenient, was naturally welcomed; the Xuanyuan Tribe also had many Nobles, and although they did not have Nobility titles conferred like Huaxia, their surnames and clans represented that they were Nobles, at least living better than other tribesmen.

Xuanyuan could not ignore their demands; of course, this business was negotiated by Xuanxiao, who was the ambassador stationed in Huaxia. This was a good thing from Huaxia that he had discovered, and he had to get some for his own tribe, so he exercised his power as an ambassador to discuss this matter, and finally, the transaction items were determined.

For Xiao Town, this was naturally a very good thing, and the purchase price was also a bit higher.

Now in Xiao Town, it was a purchase! It was not directly giving them grain; the grain had already been given to them, a winter's worth of grain, and now they needed to obtain grain through their own labor.

The Workers at the saltpeter factory that produced saltpeter received wages, and there was a certain production requirement each year; the rest of the people needed to find their own way to make a living. If you worked more and had more ideas, you could naturally obtain more grain. In any case, the policy was already in place: if you wanted to reclaim wasteland, reclaim it; if you wanted to catch insects, catch them; whatever you could do, you could do. In any case, if you could not consume your own results, Huaxia would purchase them with grain.

The Western Development Group was the same principle; now, for them, grain support was basically about to disappear because their farmland could produce yields, the number of livestock was constantly growing, and various wild vegetables and various products could be traded with Huaxia City and Lema City.

The opening of roads reduced the cost of traveling back and forth, and one or two rounds of material trading per year was completely fine.

The positioning of the Western Development Group had been completely determined: it was a livestock city. When the sheep were fattest in autumn, they had to be driven over to exchange for grain. Every year in the future, it would be such a process. The help Huaxia could provide them was various industrial products—things they could not produce themselves—and these were also the means of production necessary for their development.

Lema City ushered in a stage of rapid development; the push from Yu's capable hands plus Baifeng's backing allowed him to already be displaying his talents, without the slightest worry.

The village primary schools in each Village had all been built, and as the first semester of autumn began, all the teachers were already in place.

Because the scale required for the Intermediate Schools in each town needed to be relatively large, they were still under construction, striving for every town in Huaxia to have an Intermediate School by next autumn.

The factories in Lema City had also been built, and various advanced ideas began to be gradually realized in Lema City.

Starting this year, Baifeng also frequently traveled to Lema City to inspect and guide the work; now Baifeng felt that the future of Lema City might be better than Huaxia City, and Huaxia City's only advantage was industry.

Although military power could be mobilized, industry was difficult to transfer; sure enough, once urbanization began, it was industrialization. Without industrialization as a foundation, it was difficult to build a city. A place with the location of Mountain City could become the world's most populous city because of its advanced industrialization, and such prosperity was inseparable from its super-era industrialization.

Of course, later, as a rear area, it also served as the capital, so it remained prosperous; later, the city's transformation was also very successful. In the wave of urban transformation, cities that did not successfully transform immediately declined within just over a dozen years.

As the King of Huaxia, rather than the City Lord of Huaxia City, Baifeng naturally did not need to worry about the status of Huaxia City; he only wanted every city to be able to develop rapidly, each better than the last.

Huaxia City might be surpassed in the future, and it might also face resource depletion, but as long as it could make the entire Huaxia develop rapidly, then his original intention of building it with all his might was not wrong, and Huaxia City had also fulfilled its mission.

It would be better to have more and more cities like Lema City.