Chapter 2305 - 2045: A Different Approach

"That’s not entirely it. Very soon, there will be a type of profession called professional agricultural workers. They will greatly improve the productivity of the fields, considered as expert agricultural workers. Just watch, after the village merging, even if you do nothing, people will naturally conduct intensive production." Chen Xi smiled and said, "What we are doing now is all for the future."

After all, people are driven by benefits. When something has clear advantages and has been validated by countless people, even if no one forces them, they will naturally make that choice.

Li Youu and Liu Ye looked at Chen Xi with some headache. In their view, this method was completely a waste of time, but Chen Xi’s plan for internal affairs was something already decided, and they didn’t have the authority to change it. From the beginning, this aspect was essentially Chen Xi’s one-man leadership.

However, later on, Chen Xi’s plans and speculations continually became reality, making this one-man leadership become increasingly reliable.

Chen Xi also knew he had absolute authority in this area. However, even so, many things did not perfectly fit this era. When it was necessary to make improvements, he inevitably needed to gather everyone’s wisdom to transform it to suit the era.

Only the forced migration was determined strongly, but there was no good alternative. To achieve results quickly, it was impossible not to choose some forceful methods. He just hoped the officials below would maintain the basics, otherwise, bad situations could indeed occur.

After Li Youu and Liu Ye left, Chen Xi thought for a moment and then said to Zhao Yun, "Zilong, you might be needed. There could be some forceful methods employed, and your White Horse Soldiers, being faster, should be used by you for oversight."

Zhao Yun had high favor among the people under Liu Bei’s governance. Many aspects concerning the livelihood of the people were promoted with Zhao Yun’s help. Over time, the people on Liu Bei’s side recognized him for it.

"No problem, leave it to me." Zhao Yun replied calmly. However, Zhao Yun had already heard most of what Li Youu planned to do even before Chen Xi mentioned it. Even if Chen Xi hadn’t spoken, he would automatically oversee these matters.

"Ah, after Wen He left for the North, many things became troublesome." Chen Xi looked at a large pile of documents and sighed.

Although the migration of the aristocratic families was their own matter, Liu Bei’s side had to send someone with a high enough rank to help manage certain issues. After making such a significant move, it was necessary to pacify them and, more importantly, channel their strength in one direction.

After all, developing the Northeastern Plain wasn’t something that could be done easily. In this era, when the Heaven and Earth Essence had not thoroughly altered the attributes of the earth, the cost for humans to exploit nature was low. Individuals’ qualities and their natural development abilities were not inferior to the speed of industrialization in exploiting nature.

Of course, according to the speculations of Chen Xi, Jia Xu, and others, this astonishing speed of development would gradually slow down and eventually stabilize at a level, dropping from being far superior to the normal historical level to just above it.

This is the effect of the Heaven and Earth Essence. As Jia Xu puts it: "As the Heaven and Earth Essence gradually recovers, the strength of land, mountains, and rocks, although they do not have the capability to nurture themselves, will increase as the Heaven and Earth Essence continues to grow."

However, at the current rate of increase of Heaven and Earth Essence, it’s estimated that in twenty years, the stones and land will reach their limits. Even though the tools that have been nurtured will not have an advantage over them, the physical exertion of manpower will increase significantly.

As Chen Xi says, the future twenty years will be the best era for the empire’s construction and expansion. During this period, the improvement degree of intelligent beings far exceeds the natural growth rate, and their ability to transform nature, relying on the enhancement speed of intelligent beings’ qualities, matches the speed of the industrial era in transforming nature.

This is a terrifying speed. It’s because of this situation that Chen Xi conceived of a thousand-year plan to be completed in twenty years. There’s no comparing the transformation of nature; after entering the industrial era, each year of transformation might exceed a millennium of the pre-industrial era.

In the current era, every individual’s power can match the mechanical power of the industrial era in transforming nature.

After these twenty years, once the Heaven and Earth Essence has rendered nature in all aspects, even common soil and sand will undergo certain optimizations in their molecular structure, making the whole world more reasonable in all respects.

As a result, many tasks that were originally very easy and simple will become more challenging due to changes in various aspects by that time.

Consequently, if one wants to transform nature, the next twenty years will be nearly the last chance. The cost of building certain roads can be kept very low now, but after twenty years, the difficulty will increase significantly.

Even if by then, legion attacks can still break mountains and redirect rivers, the consumption will be much greater, resulting in impacts significant enough to cause many construction projects to face indefinite delays.

"Zijia, what do you feel after coming here?" Jia Xu, with a calm expression, looked at the bustling construction scenes, while everywhere around was filled with people continuously opening up the Northeastern wilderness.

"Although many people seem very tired and there was obvious hesitation when they first left their homeland, their changes have been significant since arriving here and beginning to develop the wilderness." Lu Yu said, looking at the people who were visibly sweating under the gentle breeze.

"Indeed, they look very tired, and initially, they were reluctant to leave. But upon truly arriving here, they put in the most effort because they are well aware of whom they are working for. The soil here is excellent, requiring just five units of grain annually without harming the earth power. Such five mu of land is enough to support a person and also allows for some savings." Jia Xu’s tone was unwavering.

Lu Yu nodded silently. Those willing to come here were given fifty mu of land per person, besides the fifty mu awarded for opening up new land. So, beyond the fifty mu allocated to a single person, acquiring more land could only be achieved by developing new land.

This was indeed a rather awful regulation, but once people arrived here, they readily embraced developing new land. Fortunately, this region was purely humus soil, making the cost of development very low.

"Are we just going to sit back and watch?" Lu Yu, inexplicably, wanted to join in when everyone was filled with hope and preparing their own futures.

"You’re going there would be like causing trouble." Jia Xu glanced at Lu Yu before withdrawing his gaze, knowing that although Lu Yu had faced hardships once, in truth, he probably had never truly farmed the land.

Lu Yu felt somewhat awkward and could only continue watching the group of people diligently working to open up the wilderness. This place would inevitably become a major granary in the future.

"Wen Ru had secretly sent people further north for exploration; although it’s colder there and the winter temperatures are lower, with water freezing instantly, they can still plant one crop. There are also some peculiar areas." Jia Xu stated blandly.

The Central Plains currently have around one billion mu of farmland; according to Li Youu’s exploration results, the Northeast and even more northern areas, and areas closer to the coast, have approximately fifteen million hectares of land that can be developed, with Chen Xi’s depicted Northeast accounting for about five to six million hectares.

As for further north, according to the experience of Jia Xu and others, it should be even colder there. However, when Li Youu sent people for field investigations, they surprisingly found the area warmer, although not understood why, it being warmer signified better suitability for human habitation.

In reality, speaking strictly, although most areas north of the Northeast are colder than the Northeast, not every place is cold. Vladivostok is further north than the Northeast, but it can still be an ice-free port because, after all, near Russia’s East Coast close to China there are three phenomena affecting the temperature.

One is the Siberian current; another, the Tsushima current; and the third, the Kuril current.

Vladivostok’s capability as an ice-free port is due to these phenomena, and the areas south of Vladivostok are more influenced by the Tsushima current, making them somewhat more suitable for habitation.

"Let’s go. They’re coming." Jia Xu turned his head to see a few people walking towards them, tapped Lu Yu, and then led his escort to walk towards those approaching.

"Ye Wang of Bingzhou has met Minister Jia." As Jia Xu approached, everyone paid their respects, as previously agreed with these aristocratic families.

"No need for such formality." Jia Xu said calmly. These people were representatives pushed forth by the aristocratic families, suitable for horse administration and animal husbandry. These families mainly came from the North.

Since it had all been planned out beforehand, there wasn’t much to say. Jia Xu was there simply to proceed step by step to avoid any oversights.

"I intended to discuss things in detail with you, Minister, but as our homes here are not yet established, we cannot stay long. I hope you will understand, Minister." After examining many things on-site, Ye Wang cupped his hands towards Jia Xu in apology, to which Jia Xu nodded, not heedful of Ye Wang’s expression, and turned to leave after the handover.

"Master, why do you seem unconcerned about how the Ye Family handles matters towards you?" Lu Yu quickly caught up with Jia Xu, asking with a face full of curiosity.

"No, they are our own people." Jia Xu said calmly. "However, there are capable people within the aristocratic families. Although they hadn’t speculated what Wen Ru accomplished, they did replace some people. This round can’t say too much; the family head is named Ye Shixian, and we have had interactions before."

Lu Yu was taken aback, somewhat unclear about what Jia Xu meant.

[From techniques like this, it seems that the aristocratic families no longer wish to play any confrontational games. The tasks you’ve laid out will be accomplished, but will there be manipulations with the selected personnel? No, they should be even more outstanding, as they claim. They have this assurance.]Jia Xu curved the corners of his lips; is this surrender? No, it can only be viewed as dormancy.