Chapter 320: New City Miscellany

The more than five thousand Residents of New City were walking, carrying or pulling their own belongings and luggage, heading toward their new homes. Along the way, there were troops guarding both sides, just to ensure that everyone could arrive safely. Of course, if those wild beasts had any sense, he believed they would not attack such a massive group of humans.

Originally, both sides of the road were dense forests, but for safety considerations, Baifeng had them cut down the trees within a hundred meters of the surroundings when the road was being built, leaving only a small row to stabilize the soil and provide shade in the summer.

In this way, those wild beasts would have no place to hide, and in the open area, everyone could discover danger at the first moment to dodge or resist.

The felled trees were transported to New City as building materials. A portion was treated with carbonization and then planted by the roadside as fences, or houses were built at intervals along the road for everyone to rest, take shelter from the rain, or even hide from wild beasts during the journey.

The entire road could not be hardened with Cement, so it was paved with soil and sand, then roasted with a large fire using wood as fuel. Such a ground surface had no way for Grass to grow, and it was mixed with Lime; after being leveled by human labor, it became their Imperial Road.

Building such a road was also very labor-intensive, but for Huaxia, it was a good thing because their food was already abundant enough and had to be consumed, otherwise, it would only rot.

Food is like money; it must be spent and circulated to reflect its value. Otherwise, apart from filling one's stomach, it has no other use.

If food is not consumed, people will become lazy, stop working, and wait to eat stored grain. Therefore, Baifeng was not afraid of consumption at all; instead, he used food as the cost to launch large-scale construction, just to make their food useful.

Baifeng once gave lectures to the Ministry of Revenue and Yulong for several days in a row regarding this matter, only then making them understand that only when food is used can its value be reflected. Otherwise, their thinking was always to pile the food in the Grain Storehouse, as only then would they feel at ease.

All the houses in New City were built by the state, and everyone only needed to pay a very small price to own the ownership rights, and it was seventy-year ownership. After seventy years, the property rights would expire, and it would be necessary to pay the fee again according to the size of the area, though these fees were extremely low and almost negligible.

Baifeng did not intend to let them own the ownership of the land, only the right to use the land, just like in later generations. The land belongs to the collective; when land is fully privatized, it is a very terrifying thing, unless high taxes are used to solve the property rights problem.

One reason that could attract people to New City was the ownership of the houses. All house ownership in the Old City, except for Baifeng's, belonged to Baifeng; it did not even belong to the government or the collective.

Baifeng did not have any plans to open up house and homestead ownership in the Old City for the time being, because the wealth of ordinary people was not yet very high. Baifeng wanted to maximize the benefits and turn the surplus grain that ordinary people could not finish eating into more useful infrastructure, which required carrying out the transformation of house and homestead ownership at the right time.

So many houses, after Baifeng "sold" them, would certainly bring in a very huge amount of wealth. For Baifeng to eat, it would probably be enough for his whole family to eat for a lifetime. However, Baifeng could use his status as part of the Royal Family to invest and build, which could promote the healthy development of the national economy, provide convenience for ordinary people, and leave a huge fortune for his children.

Of course, the premise was that Baifeng changed the Production Team system that was still in use.

The Production Team system had not changed since the establishment of the Baifeng tribe until today. For one thing, it was easy to use and suited the situation at the time; for another, it was difficult to change. The residential location of the houses, work, and so on—to change the system, everything would have to be overhauled.

However, New City did not have this trouble; everything was arranged, starting anew. Therefore, Baifeng directly abandoned the Production Team system in New City and switched to a Village Neighborhood Committee system.

No matter what kind of work you do, as long as you live in that area, you are managed by the Neighborhood Committee of that area. The team of the Neighborhood Committee is elected by their own votes. Currently, it is one election per year, and they can be re-elected. In the future, it will be changed every three years. If there is a major mistake, a civil meeting can be convened to vote for removal and re-election.

Of course, the elected members need to be reported to the Ministry of Revenue of New City for confirmation and appointment before they can take office. The Ministry of Revenue cannot designate candidates; it can only conduct inspections and make the final appointment.

The improvement of the Old City is also coming soon, because with the development of the privatization of cultivated land, everyone's own Grain Storehouse is also constantly being filled. No one will go hungry; at most, they just eat poorly. Now, even a Slave can see some oil and white flour every month.

The Slaves of Huaxia actually live better than the tribesmen of other tribes. Slaves only have low status, but they are given the most basic human rights. They can be punished, but only moderately. They have defined living areas and residential areas. Usually, unless necessary or required by work, they are not allowed to enter the residential areas and living areas of the Citizens.

All the Citizens went from not understanding at the beginning to being accustomed to it now, because they really could not figure out why their King would give Slaves such good treatment. It was completely unnecessary. They are Slaves, after all; as long as they don't starve to death, that's enough. Why should they live such a good life?

Baifeng did not explain too much. Slaves could basically only engage in work that was dirty and tiring, such as cleaning toilets, hauling feces, and so on. Currently, the highest profession that a Slave could enter was the military. Baifeng also opened the military to Slaves, as long as their basic physical fitness passed.

The annual Sports Meet still existed; this was one of the few opportunities for Slaves to achieve class mobility. As for working hard to achieve class mobility, to be honest, it was getting harder year by year. Their main work was farming, but with the existence of the Ministry of Agriculture, it was already difficult for them to make much contribution.

However, in order to avoid dampening the labor enthusiasm of the Slaves, some quotas were still given every year, at least to give them some hope.

The military offered the greatest opportunity. Among the soldiers selected at the beginning, there were dozens of Slaves. Because Slaves had drive and were eager to change their fate, they were very desperate in training. Therefore, the proportion of those with Slave status in the military was very high.

It was just that because they were rewarded or made contributions for carrying out missions, they all received promotions. Now only a few people remained as Slaves. He believed that before long, there would not be a single Slave in the military.