Chapter 1423 Mountain Development
On the way back home, the weather was getting colder day by day, and it was basically early winter.
Feeling the change of seasons, Zhou Xu was not in a hurry at this moment. Just like when he came here, with the mentality of not wasting opportunities, he began to look for a place to absorb natural energy.
The land near the Smith Republic was absorbed by him almost a week ago, and it is still far from recovered.
However, the area near the border of the female warrior tribe has recovered after more than half a month.
With the mentality that even a mosquito leg is still meat, Zhou Xu absorbed another round and then went home satisfied.
Once we reach the northeastern fortress and take the steam train back to Black Moon City, it will only take three days.
On the day he returned to Black Moon City, it was snowing lightly. Zhou Xu returned to the palace in a low-key manner, and the first thing he did was to go to the Qinzheng Palace first.
This time he was away for just over a month. With Huo Qubing and Li Bowen around, there wasn't much work piled up on his desk and it was quickly cleared up by Zhou Xu.
The main reason is that nothing major happened during this period. The only major project was the laying of the second railway in the southern region, which officially started a week ago.
He had already arranged this project long before he left for the United Nations meeting, so there was basically nothing to worry about.
Then it was about a month later when Peter's latest batch of immigrants arrived.
Just like before, there are still 20,000 immigrants. Taking into account the winter migration and possible losses on the road, the actual number of immigrants arriving at Da Zhou is just over 20,000.
Under this premise, because they were previously pointed out by Zhou Xu, the number of underage children in this group of immigrants was significantly reduced.
After a preliminary count, there were a little less than three thousand, more than two thousand nine hundred, which was considered a reduction compared to before.
After all, these children are pure burdens in Peter's hands at this stage. Now that Peter has a legitimate opportunity, you really can't expect him to not take any of them.
But as mentioned before, children also have their advantages.
For a country, too many foreign adult populations will inevitably pose a shock to the indigenous population, and there is even a certain probability that it will cause social unrest.
Children are basically not affected by this.
Even some younger people will not remember that they were immigrants when they grow up.
Of course, the population that has immigrated here at this stage is still under Zhou Xu’s control.
After all, with internal stability in recent years, the population within their Great Zhou has also been gradually increasing, and the growth rate is higher every year.
As each batch of immigrants has a half-year transition period, as long as they are completely dispersed, the 40,000 to 50,000 foreign population can be easily absorbed.
At the same time, don’t forget that in addition to the areas on the mainland, their Great Zhou also has a volcanic island overseas.
Compared with the mainland, the volcanic island has been in a state of Buddhist development.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that it is an island far away from the mainland, with inconvenient transportation, and it is difficult to make progress in development work.
However, although the development efficiency is low, the population growth rate is quite fast.
According to the demographic report sent in this spring, the number of residents on the volcanic island has officially exceeded 30,000.
This of course also includes the staff and garrison troops who were subsequently transferred to the volcanic island to carry out work.
According to the current scale of the volcanic island, it would be easy to absorb three to four thousand immigrants.
In addition, Zhou Xu has recently also been considering the development of their Great Zhou mountainous area.
That area is also a large one. In terms of land area, it is not small at all. However, this mountainous area is full of peaks and the transportation is inconvenient. It is extremely difficult to develop it.
If he needs to invest 10,000 workers to develop an ordinary area, then if he wants to develop the mountainous area, the manpower and material resources invested will probably have to be ten times higher! This is also the main reason why the development of the mountainous area has lagged behind for so many years.
As it stands now, there is really no cost-effectiveness in developing that area.
However, this does not mean that he will completely let the mountainous areas run wild and ignore them completely.
You know, there are several discovered mineral veins here.
However, due to the transportation costs, the cost-effectiveness of mining in the mountains and then transporting them out by manpower is too low, so the focus of mining in the Great Zhou has always been on mineral veins in other areas.
As for those in the mountains, they are basically used for basic development of several mountain villages.
Anyway, there is a blacksmith shop in the mountain village now. If copper or iron ore is needed, they can mine some and then process it internally for use, with the main goal of self-sufficiency.
And now, with the influx of a large number of immigrants, Zhou Xu is undoubtedly planning to add some labor to the mountainous areas of their Great Zhou.
After all, it is obviously not good to lag behind in development too much. Even if the progress is slow, some things have to be done slowly.
Take the paving of mountain roads for example.
Send the labor over there, let them do a little today and a little tomorrow, there are no restrictions on you. If you work slowly for a few years, you will always be able to pave a few mountain roads, right?
At that time, as long as the mountain road can allow carriages to enter the mountain, even if it is only paved to the new village in the barren mountain, the entire development efficiency will increase rapidly! Regarding this matter, Zhou Xu immediately called all the relevant departments to discuss it.
During this wave, Song Jinyu, the Minister of Finance, was still relatively calm.
After all, their Majesty's intention is very clear. He has no plans to develop it vigorously. It's just like the development of firearms in the early years. There are only a few people in a project team. No matter what they can research, they will study it slowly first.
What the Great Zhou had the most in the past two years was cheap labor.
With free food and lodging, the cost of using these cheap laborers is not high. He doesn't mind even if His Majesty wants to send several thousand laborers into the mountains to pave the road.
In fact, Zhou Xu really had this plan this time.
If we want to carry out construction, we cannot do without the support of building materials.
But as mentioned earlier, whether transporting resources out of the mountainous areas or sending resources into the mountainous areas, the transportation costs are too high.
So the best way is to let them be self-sufficient.
Regarding the supply of a development project, if wood is needed, the logging team must follow, right? If ore is needed, the mining team must follow, right? At the same time, some people are also needed to be responsible for processing.
This time, surrounding the mountainous area, even if he mainly develops it in a Buddhist way, he has to send at least one or two thousand workers there, otherwise he really won’t be able to move forward.
Zhou Xu was also very straightforward about this. He planned to send 2,000 laborers into the mountains one after another to get the internal circulation of the mountainous area going! (End of this chapter)
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