Chapter 902: Western Development Group Settlement

The Western Development Group traveled for nearly thirty days at a pace that was not particularly fast; if they had not stopped along the way to observe the terrain and topography or attend to other matters, and had simply focused on the journey, they could have arrived a few days sooner.

Their destination was a vast, almost perfectly flat wilderness with lush grass and water; at first glance, everyone's immediate impression was that this was a great place for a Pasture, and in the far distance, one could look up and see a continuous range of high mountains, white and glistening as if covered in Snow.

However, it was still too far from where they were; the weather was clear enough and the mountains high enough to make them appear exceptionally distinct, and these young people, who had never traveled far from home, stared blankly at the distance.

Wuzhong asked Ce with some amazement: "Big Brother, you are well-traveled; would you say those mountains are higher or lower than our Huaxia's Qinling?"

Ce also shook his head: "I haven't been there, so I don't know either, but I feel that the mountains here might be higher; the teacher taught us that the higher the mountain, the colder it is at the top, and I haven't seen so much Snow on the mountains of our Qinling during this season, but look here, such a long stretch of mountains, the peaks are all covered in Snow."

Wuzhong said with some longing: "Then can we climb to the top in the Summer to dig for Snow? It must be very cool; I am very afraid of the heat."

Ce did not think Wuzhong's words were silly; Wuzhong's intelligence was normal, not very clever but just ordinary, so Ce answered very seriously: "I'm afraid not; those mountains look like they are right there, but I suspect we wouldn't be able to reach them in seven or eight days."

"That far? They look very close to me, but never mind; just looking at them makes me feel cool."

Without further idle chatter, Ce began leading everyone to explore the most suitable place to settle; because they were unsure of the annual precipitation, areas that were too flat or low-lying were definitely out of the question, as a single heavy rain could cause their construction to fall short of success and even pose a risk to their lives.

Thus, even after arriving at the destination, Ce still led everyone to search more cautiously, and only after finding the most suitable spot did he allow everyone to put down their packs.

The place he chose had enough trees on the distant mountains; although it was a long way from the chosen site and it would be more strenuous to cut and transport the trees later, there were no other drawbacks.

The terrain was flat with an open view, and the location was not low-lying; there was a large lake in the distance, though one could still see the boundaries from a high vantage point, and it would have no problem supplying water for a future large city.

It was just that there was no way to build a tap water system, because the lake was at a lower elevation than their site.

But the lush Pasture, combined with the lake in the distance, meant that the groundwater here was absolutely abundant; digging just a few meters down would certainly yield water, and a well would be no worse than tap water.

The construction and maintenance costs would even be much lower, and there would be no fear of pipes freezing in Winter; a single well would be enough to sustain a family's water usage throughout the four seasons.

Upstream of the lake, one could see a winding but extremely small stream flowing down from afar; by visual estimation, even a person with a bit of skill could jump over it, though it was unknown if there were fish or shrimp inside, but under normal circumstances, there should be.

After admiring everything, Ce and Ma issued a joint order to occupy this place; from now on, they would have to rely on their own efforts to build a New City here from scratch.

The cattle and sheep, already unable to resist the attraction of the lush Pasture, finally ushered in a carnival; they released the lead animals and let them roam freely, and of course, they were not afraid that the sheep would escape—after so many years and so many generations of domestication, they had at least that much confidence.

The lead sheep had a hobble tied to their legs; as long as they dared to run, their legs would be constantly struck by the stick, which they could not endure no matter what, and as soon as the shepherd called, they would return immediately, whether to eat feed or lick salt water.

Along this journey, the herdsmen selected by the Western Development Group had already learned enough experience from the old herdsmen of Huaxia, and combined with spending every day with the lead sheep, he now had a certain amount of confidence.

There was even less need to worry about the cattle; their roaming was only temporary, as cattle were more intuitive than sheep, so they let them enjoy themselves nearby for now, while the herdsmen followed and watched nearby at all times.

At the same time, this was also to attract potential prey in the vicinity to see if they would rush out now; if they did, it would be perfect, as there were so many Soldiers present, and it would provide an extra meal for everyone.

However, for nights spent in a Tent, there still needed to be enough people on night watch, otherwise, the countless threats could cause huge destruction to the Development Group, whose foundation was not yet stable.

Everyone first camped on the spot, and the Soldiers and tenant farmers would not leave just yet; they needed to help the Development Group get through the most troublesome and difficult period before departing.

At the very least, they had to help build the cattle pens and sheep pens first; however, there were no conditions to build houses for them on this grassland, so they only needed to use wood to enclose a sufficiently high fence, and the rest would have to wait for later—there was still plenty of time in the future.

In a Tent, Ce and the leadership planned the surrounding land; they certainly could not be like Lema City, where the city was built completely before people moved in; for now, they could only build the houses for their own people to live in, and they could even do without city walls, because they truly lacked the conditions and necessity to build a city at present.

At most, they would build a decent wall to enclose the place where they lived, and then build a few high wooden towers for observation and defense; to build large-scale city walls, the development here would have to reach a certain level, and Huaxia City would have to send more people or relocate the population for there to be a further opportunity.

Ce's original words were: "Right now we have so few people occupying such a large territory, we cannot be too impulsive and think about building a city as big as Huaxia City all at once; let's just consider ourselves as building a large town for now.

We will build it just like the towns in Huaxia are built; put up houses, set up the Pasture and farmland, and then see if we can mine for minerals or build a Brick and Tile Factory, and things will slowly get better."