Chapter 257: New City Construction Plan

The residential area within Baifeng's city is already basically saturated, and the living facilities cannot keep up either, because when this city was first built, its scale was set very small; they never thought it would one day be this large, mainly because with the few people they had initially, they could not have built a very large city anyway.

When it came time for later expansions, the entire rational layout of the city would be destroyed; the current Baifeng has already felt the pressure, and to allow the city to develop smoothly, building a New City is imperative.

Baifeng summoned the leaders of all departments to discuss it with them; such a major matter cannot be decided by him alone, and furthermore, after their decision is made, it must also be shown to all the tribespeople to discuss and see if there are any unreasonable aspects, as these people cannot be expected to cover every detail, and the trades and classes they represent are all different.

Baifeng proposed building a New City, small in scale and with a small population, tentatively set at around one thousand people, though all basic industries must be fully prepared, such as Cement, Brick, Tile, and Weaving, but industries that require absolute secrecy, like Iron smelting, cannot be split off.

All the leaders felt there was no problem, but a few people suggested that it might be unnecessary to build these industries in a small city; if they are needed, couldn't they just be brought over from the main city? Otherwise, building factories and bringing workers over would be troublesome.

Baifeng stated his own thoughts: "If a city wants to develop and grow strong, its own industries must be complete; it is fine to be a bit troublesome at the beginning, but there will be no need to be troubled later, and you have only considered the problems of initial construction, but have not considered the transportation costs."

Once put this way, those few people who had different opinions now agreed with Baifeng's point of view, feeling that the Tribal Chief is indeed far-sighted.

Then came the site selection; the location certainly cannot be too far away, after all, they are just a small city of one thousand people, which in Baifeng's view is only the scale of a small town.

Baifeng took a fancy to a river valley two hours' travel upstream along the Dahe; it is quite far from the river, so there is no fear of flooding, but fetching water is still considered convenient, and if digging canals is too troublesome, they can dig water wells; if it is far from the salt lake, the well water will not be salty.

Moreover, the soil is all alluvial river mud, which is fertile enough, and the valley is relatively warm in Winter; it is also very close to their Old Camp, and although the Old Camp has long been abandoned, it also means that a Coal Mine is right nearby.

This is a place Baifeng selected only after a long period of investigation; he felt there was no place more suitable than this one. After he circled the location on the map and asked for their opinions, everyone knew that place, and after hearing the advantages the Tribal Chief mentioned, they felt they had no grounds to refute it, and not a single person objected.

Now the most troublesome thing is arranging who will go and which people will be separated; after all, to move away from the safe and convenient main city to open up a New City in the wilderness, from nothing to something, isn't that just going to suffer?

Baifeng did not state his own thoughts first, but instead asked everyone present who was willing to go; as a result, everyone lowered their heads and remained silent, only Geng said that he could, and that it didn't matter where he went as long as there was enough land for him to use.

The other Soldiers have already settled down here and are certainly unwilling to do this kind of work of starting from scratch to reclaim land; of course, it is not to say that they lack a spirit of sacrifice or do not know how to struggle, it is just that they feel there is no need for it, as they have already struggled enough, and they only need to guard the current city well.

Seeing them all like this, Baifeng stopped making things difficult for them, so he tapped the table with his fingers: "Alright, why are you all lowering your heads one by one? I didn't say I was forcing you to go."

Subsequently, the group of people obediently raised their heads again, waiting for Baifeng's next words.

Baifeng continued to speak: "I am not thinking of putting people there to start from zero like we did at the beginning; now it is not about splitting these people away from the Baifeng tribe, but about developing another city for the Baifeng tribe."

He took a sip of water, then spat the Tea Leaves into the cup: "What I am thinking is that we use the strength of the tribe to build all the basic infrastructure there first, and then move the people over; build the city first, then put the people in. As for whether that New City can become even larger in the future, that will depend on whether the people there have the ability."

"Furthermore, those who want to struggle for themselves can also go to build their own merits and careers; when they want to return to the main city later, they can also do so, coming and going freely. Of course, you people must absolutely not leave the main city; if you leave, the operation of our place here will have problems. Do you understand what I mean?"

The people below understood Baifeng's idea and also received Baifeng's promise, which was that as for who would be sent to reclaim the land, they themselves would not be the ones to go, so one by one they became active again.

In a good atmosphere of discussion, the plan for building the New City was quickly worked out; first is to open up the road between the two cities, ox carts must be able to pass through without obstruction, a half-hour ox cart journey must be able to reach it one-way, and a person must be able to reach it in one hour.

The "hour" here refers to the Twelve Earthly Branches from Zi to Hai, where one hour is two hours; for the convenience of life, after constant testing and adjustment, Baifeng made a Sundial and placed it in the square, so everyone can tell what hour it is based on the shadow, though it doesn't work on cloudy or rainy days.

Therefore, the tribespeople also have a relatively clear concept of the hours; regarding the distance standard mentioned by the Tribal Chief, the Construction Department stated they could complete the task, and the Industrial Department also said they would fully support the Construction Department.

After the road is opened up, it will be time to build houses; only after the houses are built will they start to move the population, and once people move in, they will then gradually build city walls, reclaim farmland, and constantly perfect everything; a town will be built just like that.

According to the current construction speed of the Baifeng tribe, a city of one thousand people can be moved into by next Spring, though everything else will take longer to fully supplement.

The regulations were made here by them, and then people from the Government Affairs Department went to convey them to all the tribespeople, holding a final discussion in the assembly square.

Of course, this policy is not only aimed at the tribespeople; in fact, it is more attractive to Free Persons, because Baifeng said that as long as they go to the New City, Free Persons will become tribespeople without any other conditions, but the proportion of Free Persons is at most thirty percent, meaning only about three hundred people will have the opportunity, while the total number of Free Persons in the entire Baifeng tribe is at least three thousand, including those Free Person children born not long ago.

This news spread like wildfire in the circle of Free Persons; everyone was considering the pros and cons, some were conservative, feeling that if they just endured for a few more years they would certainly obtain status, while more people felt they should take a gamble, at least to ensure a future for their children, and the Tribal Chief said that after the city is built, one can come and go freely between the two cities.