Chapter 362: Approaching the Imperial City
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The newly married couples could not bear for the husbands to go to the southern frontier alone, so the wives secretly asked the recruiting soldier, “Brother, can I go with you?”
Women were not stronger than men, but some were used to doing rough work. The southern frontier was currently short of people. Even if they could not work, it was very easy for them to be in charge of the logistics of the workers, light a fire, cook, tidy up the base, plant some vegetables around, and open a restaurant and clothes shop.
In particular, the denim fabric was produced locally in Syria. Yu Suisheng still had to build a large workshop and needed a lot of women.
Apart from the southern frontier, Bai Wutong’s workshop was still short of a large amount of labor.
The soldier said, “It’s fine for the women to follow. There are also some women who have to be recruited for some work in the camp, but there are limited spots. After the vacancies are filled up, we won’t recruit anymore. However, the southern frontier will also build a fabric workshop, an instant noodles workshop, a candy workshop… If you follow along and wait for a while, as long as you work hard, you can still get a stable job in the Imperial Court.”
When the women heard that there were actually so many jobs, they immediately had the intention to follow their husbands.
Another woman asked, “Then can we be in the same camp as our husband?”
The soldier said in detail, ‘The place of work is different. Husband and wife naturally can’t share the same tent. ‘
“But both of you have days to rest. If you want to get together, it’s impossible not to see each other in the southern frontier.”
“But there’s one thing you have to pay attention to. The tent size is for four people. If you want to live alone, you have to pay extra money to rent a tent. ‘
Upon hearing that they needed silver, the women’s expressions darkened. When they heard from the soldiers that they could stay in a separate tent for 100 coins a month, everyone felt at ease again.
If the couple both worked, they would earn at least four taels of silver a month. A hundred coins was not a big deal.
Male and female workers were competing for the positions fiercely locally. The cities closest to the border of the southern frontier had recruited tens of thousands of workers at once, and there was a trend of more and more people applying for it.
It had to be known that the total number of refugees that Emperor Ling Hui had chased away with a taels of silver and the families of the officials who had been exiled from the previous dynasty did not exceed 100,000.
In just a few days, they had recruited so many laborers. This made the local magistrate anxious.
Yu Suisheng had taken all the labor away. If no one farmed their local labor, what would they do if no one could produce food?
The local authorities stopped the people from signing up.
At that time, Emperor Ling Hui had issued a decree. As long as they took the initiative to settle down in the southern frontier, not only would the local government have to let them free, but they would also have to give them silver.
After Yu Suisheng argued with the local authorities, finally, the local authorities were afraid that Emperor Ling Hui would settle the score. They were also afraid that this was the new method that Emperor Ling Hui had thought of to move the people, so they could only agree with tears in their eyes.
They still had to settle down in the southern frontier and work there. Many people hesitated again, but when they thought about how they had two acres of land at home and had to starve for half a year after paying the grain tax, many single people who had already split up from their families did not hesitate to pack their bags and prepare to leave with the soldiers.
In any case, there were people paying respects at their ancestral graves. When they earned money, they would be able to bring honor to their ancestors and return to their hometown in embroidered clothes.
Some of the rules that were too harsh on the commoners were too much. When Yu Suisheng went to recruit workers, he almost emptied more than half of the city.
The local authorities were furious. They wanted to report it to the Imperial Court, but they were afraid that the emperor would send someone down to investigate why the commoners were fighting to leave, so they shrank back.
Some government officials had reported it, but it was a long way from the Imperial City. Before the news could reach them, the people had already run away with Yu Suisheng.
In a month, Yu Suisheng had gathered a total of 300,000 citizens, which was equivalent to the population of Beiyun City.
With so many commoners, he began to worry about whether he could make proper arrangements for them. It was only when Sheng Huaixuan sent a message that the more people, the better that Yu Suisheng became bold and continued to recruit people.
In any case, they did not lack money!
As Yu Suisheng arranged for the people to travel, he mobilized food to buy all the supplies needed in the southern frontier. At the same time, he also had to investigate the local market and estimate the price of seafood, denim, and so on. He was so busy that he almost flew.
However, this feeling of not having to cower still left a deep impression on him for the rest of his life.
Bai Wutong asked Sheng Huaixuan about the manpower situation. Sheng Huaixuan immediately smiled and said, “The commoners have already arrived at the Syrian’s grazing land.”
“Moreover, there are a lot of people. The mining of jade and oil is too saturated and the people rushing towards us in large numbers.”
“If these people come, not only will the labor force in Carefree City be completely sufficient, but it will also form a consumer market.”
“The empty positions can also be quickly replaced. The commoners who have learned the various technical operations of the workshop can bring them along to work hard.’
Bai Wutong’s eyes lit up. “How many people are there?”
Sheng Huaixuan paused and smiled mysteriously. ‘There are 350,000 people now.”
There were 350,000 people and 200,000 of them, which was 550,000 people. In addition to the local residents of the southern frontier, which was another 200,000 people, they had about 800,000 people in population.
Bai Wutong was shocked. There were only 800,000 people in the Ling Kingdom ‘s Imperial City. They were approaching the population of the
Imperial City in one go.
Moreover, this was only the current situation, which meant that there was still an endless stream of commoners rushing over.
Bai Wutong knew that the monthly salary she gave was high, but she never expected it to be so attractive.
If Emperor Ling Hui found out, he would be furious.
The entire family had moved to the southern frontier, but Linghui had only given them one tael of silver. With the comparison, the commoners would only curse him in their hearts for being so stingy.
Bai Wutong thought of the scene when Emperor Ling Hui found out and couldn’t help but want to laugh.
However, there were too many people. For a moment, Carefree City could not withstand the influx of more than a million people.
They still had to take it slow.
Bai Wutong asked Sheng Huaixuan to stop recruiting citizens. Now that there were enough people, she ordered to transfer another 1,000 people to learn the technology to build roads.
The road had been implemented in previous dynasties. It would use glutinous rice and clay to make it stronger.
In the city, a large number of green bricks would be used to pave the way, making the road even cleaner and brighter.
However, they had already mastered how to make cement. When Sheng Huaixuan heard that Bai Wutong wanted to build a road, he planned to give the order.
However, Bai Wutong stopped him and wanted to explain to them the correct way to open the road.
An ordinary cement road did indeed only need cement and soil stones.
However, the advanced version of the cement road had to be at least made of reinforced concrete to maintain its firmness for more than a few years.
This was because there had yet to be a large truck invented in this world. The cement road made of reinforced concrete might have a longer lifespan, so it should not be a problem for more than ten years without repair.
Apart from the two types of roads mentioned, there was also the ultimate version of the road. Not only was it sturdy, but it was also even more beautiful than Ge You’s head.
Most importantly, it had good tolerance and was very elastic. It could relieve the friction of the car and felt softer when walking.
More than 96% of the modern highways were asphalt roads in order to avoid people driving too fast and causing accidents. The advantage of the asphalt roads was that it could greatly increase the safety of cars.
Although they did not have cars yet and the carriage would not be too fast, rather than polluting the surrounding environment when petroleum was being mined, it was better to use the excess materials to refine it into asphalt roads..
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