Chapter 116 : That Time I Built a First-Generation New Town in South America (3)

TL: Skye

After the Cabinet meeting ended, Isabella and I went straight into an emergency response meeting.

“Building a New Town is all well and good, but the problem is time.”

I said as I sat down on the sofa.

“Even if we move as fast as possible, it’ll take at least a year... and Libertad is bound to descend into even more chaos in the meantime.”

Isabella, seated across from me, nodded.

“We need a way to ease the housing problem immediately. There’s a limit to how many more temporary accommodations we can build.”

I folded my arms and sank into thought.

We couldn’t throw up houses overnight, and we couldn’t make use of existing buildings either...

“Using existing buildings would be the easiest option...”

Just as I felt like something was on the tip of my tongue, Isabella spoke first.

“What if we use the barracks at the military bases near Libertad as worker dormitories?”

“The military barracks?”

“Yes. Haven’t our troop numbers fallen dramatically recently? That was why the Armored Division and Infantry Division were merged into the Capital Defense Command.”

“Hmm...”

She had a point.

In the past, plenty of people became soldiers simply to make a living.

There were no jobs to begin with, and joining the army at least guaranteed food on the table.

More importantly, a certain period of military service was required before anyone could become a civil servant.

But now, working at a factory, a shop, or a construction site paid far more than a soldier’s salary.

Naturally, the number of applicants had fallen, and the military units had shrunk accordingly.

Isabella continued.

“The former Armored Division headquarters is still sitting empty. We originally planned to turn it into a training institute, but I think we could use it temporarily instead.”

“The Armored Division headquarters... That must be pretty large, right?”

“It has barracks, dining halls, shower facilities, and even training grounds. With a few minor renovations, it could be put to use immediately.”

“How many people can it hold?”

“We’d have to confirm with Field Marshal Pedro for an exact figure, but the Armored Division used to have thirty thousand personnel. If we use the facilities purely for accommodations, I believe they could house roughly fifty thousand people.”

Fifty thousand.

Considering the number of people flooding into the city, it was still a drop in the bucket, but there was no reason not to do it.

“Check with Field Marshal Pedro. If it’s possible, let’s put them to use immediately.”

A short while later.

Isabella, who had called Pedro, nodded.

“The Field Marshal has approved it. Four facilities, including the former Armored Division headquarters, can accommodate approximately fifty-two thousand people in total.”

“That much can be handled in a week. Let’s get started immediately.”

Isabella nodded as she finished taking notes.

That took care of the stopgap measure.

I took a sip of coffee and said,

“Now that we’ve put a temporary lid on the housing problem, let’s get started on the New Town in earnest.”

“I’ll prepare everything so we can submit the groundbreaking plan within the week.”

“Good.”

Up until that point, I thought everything would proceed smoothly.

At least until we discovered a massive flaw in the New Town plan three days later.

---

Three days later.

The Senior Secretary for Construction finished selecting the site, submitted the groundbreaking plan, and immediately awarded the construction contract to Tortilla Construction.

Everything had gone smoothly up to that point.

No, smoothly didn’t even begin to describe it. Things were moving absurdly fast.

The site selection had been completed just three days after the order was given. There probably wasn’t another country on Earth capable of administrative work at that speed.

Just five years ago, San Marcos’s bureaucrats had been getting scammed while importing tractors and spouting nonsense about how the nationwide response to a drought should be to encourage everyone. Seeing how competent they had become now, the dead Marcos father and son would surely have been frothing at the mouth in their graves.

And yet.

That very afternoon.

The Senior Secretary for Construction arrived at the Presidential Palace with a troubled expression.

The moment Yu-jin saw his face, he knew instinctively.

‘That is not the face of a man bringing good news.’

It was like seeing an NPC with an exclamation mark hanging over his head.

Sure enough.

“Your Excellency, we have a problem.”

The Senior Secretary for Construction broke the news while sweating profusely.

“...What is it?”

“We don’t have anyone to work at the construction site.”

“......”

For a moment, Yu-jin doubted his own ears.

What did he just say?

“What? What do you mean, there’s no one to work? How does that even...”

“Yes. We currently have only eight hundred construction workers available for the foundation work on Phase One of the New Town.”

“Eight hundred? Why is that all we have? It hasn’t even been that long since the highway project ended...”

“Well...”

The Senior Secretary for Construction answered awkwardly.

“They’re either working at the tourist city construction site or have been hired by private companies.”

“......”

“To be frank, working for a private company may pay a little less, but it’s easier and safer than construction work. I believe most workers see no reason to risk themselves working under the blazing sun when they have those alternatives.”

“Hmm...”

Yu-jin was at a loss for words.

“What about Tortilla Construction’s own workforce?”

“They’ve all been assigned to the tourist city project and the industrial complex expansion. If we pull them out, we’ll have to halt construction on the industrial complex.”

“We can’t do that.”

In short, the situation was this.

Yu-jin had given a speech, prompting more than six hundred thousand workers from across the country to come pouring in.

Those workers had been hired by private companies.

Thanks to that, the private economy had begun rapidly coming to life.

But as a consequence, the construction labor pool had been practically wiped out.

Without construction workers, they couldn’t build the New Town.

Without the New Town, they couldn’t handle the population flooding into the capital.

In other words, his own plan had come back to bite him.

‘Nothing ever goes smoothly...!’

There was only one answer in situations like this.

“Chief of Staff, please convene a Cabinet meeting.”

Namely, put their collective brains together and find a solution.

An hour later.

The senior secretaries Yu-jin had summoned came rushing into the Cabinet meeting room.

Once everyone had taken their seats, Yu-jin explained the situation.

“Private companies are absorbing labor so quickly that we no longer have enough construction workers to build the New Town.”

“......”

“We can’t pull workers away from private companies either. We can’t cripple the private economy just when it’s finally begun functioning.”

If they pulled workers out of the 181 companies currently employing them, those companies would collapse.

If the companies collapsed, the private economy they had worked so hard to revive would collapse with them.

At that point, there would be no reason to build the New Town in the first place.

In other words, they would be putting the cart before the horse.

“I gathered all of you here because I was hoping someone might have a good solution.”

The Senior Secretary for Construction raised his hand first.

“What if we raise wages? If we offer higher wages than private companies, workers will return to the construction sites.”

Ricardo immediately shook his head.

“We can’t. If we raise construction wages, private companies will have no choice but to raise theirs as well. Once a bidding war over wages begins, inflation will follow. Raising wages has to be our last resort.”

When the Senior Secretary for Construction fell silent, Aman, the Senior Secretary for Commerce, raised his hand.

“What if we mobilize the military? The Engineer Corps handled the training during the highway project as well, so perhaps this time...”

Field Marshal Pedro waved him off.

“Impossible. Do you know how much our troop strength has fallen? The reason we disbanded the Armored Division and consolidated it into the Capital Defense Command was because we were short on manpower in the first place.”

Aman lowered his head.

Sophia, the Senior Secretary for Foreign Affairs, spoke cautiously.

“What about commissioning a Korean construction company? Hyunhwa Construction has experience...”

Ricardo shook his head again.

“The cost would be too high. Korean construction workers cost ten times as much as ours. If we fill the one hundred fifty thousand positions needed to build the New Town with Korean labor, half the budget will disappear into wages alone.”

“That’s not happening.”

Yu-jin shook his head.

“Then perhaps we could ask China for assistance...”

“Tsk! That suggestion isn’t even worth considering.”

Who exactly were they trying to get Murduro’d here...

Then Isabella came up with a brilliant idea.

“What if we bring in workers from abroad?”

“From abroad?”

“Yes. We import foreign workers with construction experience. Just as we brought people in from Venezuela during the education reforms, we can bring workers from Venezuela this time as well.”

Yu-jin thought for a moment.

“Venezuela...”

The senior secretaries’ expressions changed subtly.

Venezuela had already been on the verge of collapse, and after Murduro was taken away, the country had fallen into even greater chaos.

Unemployment was over sixty percent, and hyperinflation had reduced its currency to little more than scraps of paper.

The country had plenty of workers but no jobs, so the idea was certainly feasible.

Ricardo nodded.

“Wages in Venezuela have hit rock bottom, so by our standards, the financial burden wouldn’t be significant. We can easily afford it.”

Of course, there was no such thing as a perfect plan.

It was undoubtedly a solid proposal, but it had a weakness.

“It could create a public security problem.”

Exactly.

As Lucio had pointed out, bringing in workers from overseas could potentially pose a threat to public safety.

All the more so when the country they were coming from was chaotic, impoverished, and dangerous.

“Venezuelan society has effectively collapsed. If we accept tens of thousands of workers, there’s a high chance criminals will slip in among them.”

He had a point.

San Marcos had been the same way five years ago.

They had finally gotten public security under control after sweeping up the gangs and dumping them into the Farm. What if large numbers of foreign criminals suddenly poured into the country?

‘The gangs could start running wild again.’

Of course, they couldn’t let fear of potential trouble stop them from doing what had to be done.

“We still have to do it. We don’t have another option.”

Domestic manpower was exhausted, they couldn’t pull soldiers out of the military, workers from developed countries were too expensive, and asking China for help would make America... no, Drump unhappy.

Venezuela was realistically their only choice.

Once that direction had been decided.

“There is a way.”

Lucio, who had been listening quietly until now, finally spoke.

Everyone’s eyes turned toward him.

“We bring in foreign workers and swap them with the workers at Tortilla Farm.”

“The Farm workers?”

Lucio rose from his seat and continued explaining.

“Tortilla Farm has steadily expanded its recruitment over the years and currently has approximately fifty thousand workers.”

That was the result of five years under the Yu-jin administration spent crushing gangs, purging corrupt officials, and sending criminals off for rehabilitation, over and over and over again.

“A considerable number of them have been there for more than five years and are now nearly finished with the rehabilitation process.”

Lucio looked around at the senior secretaries.

“We screen the workers brought in from Venezuela, send the dangerous ones to Tortilla Farm, and transfer the Farm workers to the construction sites.”

“......”

Everyone fell silent at the sheer brilliance of the idea.

“That would significantly reduce our public security concerns. As all of you know, Tortilla Farm is located far from Libertad and remains under military surveillance twenty-four hours a day.”

Lucio raised a finger.

Lucio added,

“Meanwhile, the Farm workers who have completed rehabilitation are already proven personnel. They’ve worked diligently for at least three years. Sending them to the construction sites would be far safer than using newly arrived Venezuelan workers.”

To sum it up.

Rehabilitated Farm workers would go to the New Town construction sites.

Venezuelan workers would fill the vacancies at the Farm.

The vetted workers would be sent into the city, while the unvetted workers would work at the isolated Farm.

Public security problem solved.

Construction workforce secured.

Farm workforce maintained.

It was a solution that killed three birds with one stone, and Yu-jin rose from his seat and began applauding.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Everyone else promptly joined in, applauding Lucio.

Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap...

Moved beyond words, Yu-jin said,

“Director Lucio.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

“Today, I have once again been reminded of just how capable you are. How do you come up with ideas this brilliant?”

Lucio modestly bowed his head, though the corners of his mouth had already curled upward.

Yu-jin looked around at the senior secretaries and said,

“There’s nothing more to discuss. We’ll go with this plan. Senior Secretary Sophia, please begin negotiations with the Venezuelan government for a worker dispatch agreement. Director Lucio, please select the personnel who will be transferred from the Farm to the construction sites.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

“Yes.”

“Ah, and tell the workers leaving the Farm this. If they work diligently, we’ll return them to society.”

Lucio bowed deeply.

“...Understood.”

Yu-jin left the Cabinet meeting room with a satisfied expression.

*****

Read more chapters on my Patreon - https://patreon.com/tlskye

If you enjoy this novel, please review and rate it at Novelupdates. Thanks! 😊

To receive the latest update notifications or report mistakes, join our Discord server linked below.'

.gg/woopread-708613326262894654