Infrastructure Throne

After the food festival, the number of diners on the food street in Red Wall Lane has exploded. At the busiest time of the day, crowded shoulders are no longer an exaggerated adjective, but a fact.

The sound of yelling and hawking is endless, and the restaurants in some stores are full. The diners are moving through the food street at a turtle speed. If they are a little shorter than others, they can only see the back of the head in the front row.

Luo Xin was counting the newly added commercial and tax reports in the office of the city lord's mansion, smiling so hard that his teeth couldn't see his eyes.

Since then, merchants from various cities in the Northland have come in an endless stream. The cement road and rail transit built by Shen Qingze between the three cities played a huge role in attracting the flow of merchants.

In the past, the traffic was blocked, and the yellow mud roads in the countryside were narrow and rugged. It took at least three or four days for merchants to carry their goods to and from the three cities.

Now the three main roads are connected as one, the roads are smooth and safe, and it only takes less than two days to get back and forth in a horse-drawn carriage. More and more ordinary people are willing to come to Yuanliu City to see the world. , increasing stepwise.

It even spawned a new industrial chain - small handmade vendors, tea shops, hotels along the way, and short-distance cattle and horse "taxis" between the three cities.

These self-employed businesses are set up by farmers on both sides of the road. They work in the field when the farming is busy, and earn extra money when the farming is not. They live a stable and nourishing life.

When planning the roads at the beginning, it inevitably occupied some farmers’ land, which caused complaints and complaints from time to time. Now that they have made a fortune by relying on these three roads, the attitudes of the farmers along the way suddenly turned 180 degrees, and they all praised the foresight of the priest.

Nanji City and Beiji City, which were half dead under the toss of the old nobles, slowly regained their vitality with the help of Yuanliu City.

Except for important strategic resources such as grain, salt and iron, Yuanliu City is monopolized by Yuanliu Ginza, and other merchants are not prohibited from doing business. As long as you go to the City Lord's Mansion to apply for a certificate with a real name, any honest businessman is welcome to settle in.

Due to the gradual increase in the price of Yuanliu City, the competition in the hotel, catering, daily necessities, and textile industries has become increasingly fierce. Some people stand out and others are squeezed out of the market.

These businessmen had no choice but to settle for the next best thing, and went to Nanji City and Beiji City to do business. The purchasing power of the residents was a bit weaker, but fortunately, the competition was small, and the business became more and more prosperous.

After Shen Qingze confiscated the manors of the old nobles in South and North Jicheng, he released the serfs, set a [-]% tax, and rented the planned land to farmers for cultivation.

Probably because the peasants were oppressed too hard by the former nobles. After seeing the notice issued by the City Lord's Mansion, the peasants were ecstatic and lined up in front of the office for three days and three nights!

No matter how much the officials persuaded them, they refused to go home. They would rather stay at the door for a day with dry food and small benches, for fear that if they walked away, the policy would change.

Except for the basic agricultural tax and commercial tax, all other exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes were cancelled, and the common people rejoiced. Those tax collectors who used to exploit miscellaneous taxes, as well as local hooligans who lent usury, suddenly lost most of their sources of income.

To resist is not to dare to resist, so one can only greet Shen Qingze's eighteenth generation ancestors in secret, incompetent and furious.

After the assassination incident at the Autumn Harvest Festival, Shen Qingze and Yan Zui dealt with a large number of old aristocrats who were colluding in private.

After the news came out, the remaining small group of opponents immediately became more honest, and even those gangsters who bullied the country and the market on weekdays began to behave with their tails between their legs.

There are fewer taxes to be paid, more fertile land that can be cultivated, and the price of daily necessities such as grain, farm tools, and charcoal fires has dropped.

However, within a quarter, the two cities completely came out of the chaotic and disorderly days, even more stable and peaceful than before the beast tide.

※※※

After the autumn harvest festival, Shelley paid a formal visit to Shen Qingze and Yan Zui as the third prince of the elves of the Blue Sky Business Alliance.

In the meeting hall, the two sides sat upright.

Shelley sat at the bottom with the elf girl beside him, while Shen Qingze and Yan Zui sat in the main seat respectively.

Regarding the two people's blatant pairs, from Xiao Meng below, a lot of officials watched their eyes and noses, and they did not see it as they did, but the elf girl wanted to speak many times. Under the warning of Shirley's eyes, they had to close tightly. mouth.

Shelley's proposal to open a branch of the Blue Sky Business Alliance in Yuanliu City was expected by Shen Qingze, but Shen Qingze was a little surprised when the other party offered to welcome Yuanliu Ginza to the Blue Sky King City.

Abyssal City and Blue Sky King City, one is at the northern end of the mainland, the other is at the southern end, they are far apart, the water system is not connected, the land route is too long, and the water route has to detour.

Caravans travel back and forth between the two cities, and it takes several months to go back and forth. As a result, transportation costs account for a large part.

Shelley was full of praise for the track traffic laid on the highway, but the land between the Northland and the Blue Sky Merchant Alliance was too close to the territory of the Mansi Allies and the Great Xia Empire, and there were many bandits in the unconcerned area.

Not to mention the current Yuanliu City, there is no way this huge investment can be used to lay the railway tracks, even if Shen Qingze is an upstart, he cannot guarantee safety.

If you take the water route, you need to detour along the water system network for a long time, and even enter the territory of the Mansi allies. You don't know how much you have to pay just for the checkpoint tax.

Shen Qingze studied the big map carefully for a whole day, and the only way to greatly reduce transportation costs is to dig several canals in the complex water system network between Beidi and Bikong Business Alliance to completely connect the broken waterways in the middle .

Using manpower to transform nature, a grand canal has been created that runs through the north and south!

Once the north-south waterway is connected, the round-trip distance will be shortened by more than double. In the future, with the steam engine and the invention of steam ships, this speed will also increase by leaps and bounds.

The most wonderful thing is that this canal can completely avoid the other two empires and is not restrained by others.

Shelley was dumbfounded by Shen Qingze's crazy proposal, and was speechless for a long time, whimsical is not enough to describe, artificial transformation of nature?This is simply a fool's dream!

Not only Shelley couldn't understand it, but all the officials in Abyss City couldn't accept it either.

Looking at the waterway network on the map, there are at least three long-distance canals that require manpower to dig one by one. The total length is nearly [-] kilometers. With the current level of technology, at least tens of thousands of people will be conscripted and it will take three to five years to dig.

With Yuanliu City's current human and financial resources, it is simply unbearable.

Shen Qingze made some calculations in his heart, and regretfully rejected the proposal. Seeing that he had dismissed his thoughts, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

The two sides finally finalized a trade agreement. In addition to opening up their respective semicolons, the two sides each drew up a white list. All goods on the list will be tax-free or tax-free.

Kerosene lamps, matches, and silk in Yuanliu City are the most popular commodities in short supply, and they are easy to transport over long distances. The tropical crops produced in the south, such as rubber and sisal, are what Yuanliu City needs.

Since the population of the Royal City of the Blue Sky Merchant Alliance is much larger than that of Yuanliu City, most of what Yuanliu City imports is raw materials, and what it exports is light industrial products. Generally speaking, Yuanliu City is more advantageous.

Compared with profits, Shelley paid more attention to making friends with this new force that had sprung up in the Northland, and the whole negotiation process was extremely smooth.

Shelley originally thought that it would take a lot of effort to persuade Shen Qingze to reduce the tax together, but he didn't expect that the other party agreed without hesitation at all, which made him think even more highly.

※※※

On that side, Tia completely stopped thinking about digging the wall, and chose to leave as soon as the autumn harvest festival was over.

Regarding Shen Qingze's "detaining" the wizard Tag in Pearl City, Tia also sensibly did not say a word.

He met with Tag in private, trying to persuade him to bring him back to Pearl City, but what Tia didn't expect was that the stubborn Master Tag in his impression, who didn't buy into anyone, was now in Yuanliu City. Bank work, but also doing well.

Tag has no other hobbies in his life, only obsessed with witchcraft.

In addition to anti-counterfeiting banknotes, he spends most of his time in Sierra's alchemy laboratory. One of them studies alchemy and the other studies witchcraft, and they are surprisingly harmonious.

Seeing Tia leave with disappointment, Sera smiled and asked, "Master Tag, why didn't he go back to Pearl City with the city lord Tia? Just now, he also promised the title of grand master, a manor with tens of hectares of fertile land, and the family There are hundreds of servants, Yuanliu City can't give you."

Tag put down his staff, took a sip of the mulberry wine that is a specialty of Yuanliu City, and said slowly: "It's nothing, it's just that there are more novel delicacies here, and more weird classics, that's all I don't care about."

Sera said: "It is said that there is a hot pot restaurant in Red Wall Lane, master, do you want to try it?"

Tag put down the magnifying glass in his hand, carefully closed the transcribed witchcraft classics, stroked his beard and shook his head: "You young people always waste time on appetite."

Sera laughed secretly: "Master isn't going?"

Tag grabbed his beard, remembered the taste he had tasted at the food festival, and smacked his lips: "Go!"

※※※

One month after the food festival, Yuanliu City's first hotpot chain store, together with two branches in Beijicheng and Nanjicheng, officially opened for business.

On the first day of opening, there was a long queue at the entrance of the main store, and the diners who came here after smelling the fragrance kept rushing here, which almost caused traffic jams.

Three delicacies soup, spicy soup, mushroom soup, sauerkraut soup... There are all kinds of tastes.

All the meat is freshly killed from the farm on the same day. The poultry cubs produced by the system are extraordinarily tender and delicious. A long distance away, the tempting aroma wafts from the store, seductive Catching the gluttons in people's stomachs.

As the temperature in autumn drops day by day, it is really wonderful to gather friends and friends around the stove and have a meal of sweaty and spicy hot pot.

After the reputation of the food festival was spread by businessmen from all over the world, diners from other places came here every day.

The business of the main store in Yuanliu City is booming, and the branch stores in Nanji City and Beiji City are not far behind. The hot pot restaurant is making a lot of money every day, and others will see it, which will inevitably arouse the envy and hatred of those who care about it.

Yuanliu City has been rectified many times by Shen Qingze, and the security situation is good, while the other two cities, due to the lack of manpower, the security situation is much more chaotic.

After the assassination incident, the two cities were indeed stable for a while, but as time passed, some restless forces showed a tendency to revive again.

※※※

Cyclops is a small leader of the underworld in Beiji City. He used to be backed by a great nobleman. Half of the gambling houses, brothels, loan sharks, and pawnshops in Beiji City were owned by this nobleman.

Relying on his backing, Duoyan allocated several streets in the Southern District to his own territory, started a number of businesses including non-staff tax collectors, debt collection, and collecting protection fees, determined to become famous in the underworld, and finally became the most famous in the entire Southern District. Pretty one-eyed pup.

It's a pity that the good times didn't last long. First, the sudden swarm of beasts made people in the city panic and suffered heavy casualties.

One-eyed survived with great difficulty, but on the land under his jurisdiction, the civilians were all empty, and the rest were impoverished paupers, and they couldn't squeeze out any oil or water.

Relying on a little cleverness and stealing, he barely survived to Beiji City to resume production and get on the right track, but the days when he couldn't collect protection fees, is this a human life?

After a long period of time, one-eyed shrunk his clothes and went on a diet to the point of breaking a steamed bun into two pieces to eat. He finally couldn't help it anymore, and wanted to pick up his old job again.

Coincidentally, the branch of the Beijicheng hotpot restaurant happened to open on the street that he regarded as his territory.

One-eyed squats in the corner every day, observing secretly, seeing how hot the hot pot restaurant is, he is very itchy, such a big fat sheep, who will kill you?

As for who is the owner behind this shop, who cares? Anyway, which nobleman is it? Now, all the famous noblemen in Beiji City have been wiped out by Shen Qingze, and the remaining kittens are three or two. One-eyed is not afraid!

After making up his mind and doing what he said, Duo Yan led a group of hungry brothers to the door aggressively. After ordering a large table to eat a big meal, Duo Yan secretly took out a cockroach and threw it into the pot.

"Boss! Where's the boss! Get out! How do you do business? There are bugs in the pot! It's disgusting!"

One-eyed loud voice, so loud that all the customers in the store could hear it clearly. The diners panicked, fearing that they would also eat bugs. Some customers who had just entered the store heard about it and turned their heads to leave.

The store manager who rushed over after hearing the news looked at the hooligan expressionlessly: "What do you want?"

One-eyed smiled and said: "Outsider? Listen carefully, this street is my territory. If you want to open a business here, you must let me protect you. Otherwise, there will always be some beggars who come to disturb you. Do you think your business can continue?"

He stretched out one hand and spread out five fingers, and the store manager laughed angrily: "You dare to bully me, you are not afraid that I will sue in front of the priest, and let you know how powerful it is!"

One-eyed smiled viciously, not caring: "If that lord comes, of course I will run away, but he will always go back to Abyssal City, and when he leaves, I will come back, and then there will be more than one little bug gone."

Coincidentally, the experience of the hot pot restaurant has been staged in both Nanji City and Beiji City recently. These hooligans are used to oppressing ordinary civilians and businessmen, and take it for granted.

So what if he was caught by a patrol guard?Which smart leader wouldn't first establish a good relationship with the patrol captain?

When more and more shadows were growing in the dark places of the two cities, an investigation report on the evil forces was placed on Shen Qingze's desk.

Yuanliu City, the City Lord's Mansion.

Yan Zui casually stuffed his usual clothes into the closet of Shen Qingze's bedroom, with long black hair hanging loose and bare feet, he sat lazily on the armrest of Shen Qingze's chair.

He took out a newly written proposal from the desk, opened the first page, and raised his eyebrows: "Sweep... the black and the evil?"