To get rich, build roads first.
For a good harvest next year, the road must be built today.
The wooden signs filled with slogans were planted all over Dawn City on the second day after Li De returned.
There were even people specifically assigned to explain these slogans at the notice board in the square.
Building roads was the first time Li De had personally participated in specific work in a long while. In the past, he preferred to control the overall direction.
As soon as the announcement of road construction came out, within half a day, Lord Kachar noticed that the residents were too far from their land and decided to build a road. This news spread throughout Dawn City instantly.
The residents rejoiced. At first, when they received the land, everyone was excited. Spending four or five sun-hours traveling daily didn’t feel burdensome.
But once or twice was fine; over time, many felt exhausted.
Hearing this good news now, people were thrilled.
This meant it would be more convenient for them in the future. Praises for Li De were endless.
Li De also let the members of the security squad and logistics team promote the benefits of road construction. The residents, who already experienced the difficulty of travel, were deeply moved by this decision and had no thoughts of defiance.
Li De certainly didn’t dawdle. To speed up the progress, he directly mobilized all vampires to participate, even pulling those guarding the city walls.
It’s undeniable that concentrating forces can achieve great things. 3,000 humans participated and 200 vampires assisted.
Vampires with spellcasting abilities were not only powerful in combat but also astonishing in production processes.
Vampires who learned the improved Mage Hand were like humanoid bulldozers. People just needed to dig out soil and pile it on the road at designated spots, then vampires would flatten it with Mage Hand, just like a road roller.
The entire process was simple and brutal, without any technical content.
The plain behind the Southern District was 15 kilometers long, but under the efforts of thousands, a road 15 kilometers long and wide enough for eight carriages to run side by side was completed in just seven days.
This speed was shocking in the world of Glory.
Interestingly, the 3,000 humans in this process only played an auxiliary role.
More than a hundred vampire mages and dozens of other professional vampires miraculously took the main roles in this process.
Li De witnessed the birth of this road and sincerely admired the terrifying productivity of magic in the production process.
However, this kind of thing could only happen in Dawn City. In the outside world, this scene would never appear.
Using mages to build roads? Only Li De could think of that.
What status do mages have? They are noble lords, the absolute ruling class, their positions extremely prestigious.
Working with a bunch of lowly commoners, and doing something like building roads? Even the most imaginative person wouldn't think such a thing possible.
Moreover, who could mobilize more than a hundred intermediate mages, all levels 6, 7, or 8, to build roads?
Even Spark, a level 19 mage who touched the Transcendent tier, couldn’t gather so many intermediate mages under his command.
So what Li De did could only be described as extravagant.
However, among the vampires, he was the sole master. No matter how proud these vampires were, they had to obey.
Resistance? Nonexistent, not even the thought of resistance could arise.
The dignity ingrained in their souls and bloodlines was unshakable.
Li De was very satisfied with this efficiency. It was his first time realizing how powerful it was to use all available forces for one task.
Although it was just a dirt road, such a road would take at least two to three months to complete elsewhere.
Most of the initially distributed lands were in the central part of the plains behind the Southern District, slightly closer to the Southern District, so the distance was about seven to eight kilometers.
The humans in this world were physically strong. Walking seven to eight kilometers on grass within two sun-hours was not a problem.
Now, with the road completed, the travel time was nearly halved. Those closer could reach in less than one sun-hour, and those farther within about one sun-hour.
This greatly saved wasted commuting time.
Li De had already deeply experienced the benefits of infrastructure on Earth. After all, the title "infrastructure maniac" had been held by China for half a century. The exaggerated infrastructure contributed significantly to the sustained high-speed development of China's economy.
During this road construction process, what impressed him the most was the role played by vampires, or rather, mages.
Powerful mages were like humanoid machines in road construction. Encountering boulders, they blew them up with magic. Encountering streams, they simply built bridges over them.
These construction issues that required serious consideration on Earth were easily handled by vampire mages.
This discovery opened Li De's mind.
If not for the small number of vampires, he really wanted to form a construction team of spellcasters.
That production efficiency would be simply overwhelming.
However, priorities varied. For now, there wasn't a need for much infrastructure in the short term.
After the road was built, Li De instructed Odys and several other second-generation bloodline descendants who had broken through level 10 to become advanced mages to continue raiding the borders for population, accompanied by Whispering Bats and a hundred vampires.
Humans were the future foundation of Dawn City.
Once the population increased, the vampires could expand, and various projects could proceed. Then, they wouldn't have to mobilize all vampires just to build a road.
Upon receiving the order, Odys left Dawn City with all the Whispering Bats in the evening.
By now, it was November 15th. The temperature had dropped significantly, and the arrival of the Month of Deep Winter was only half a month away.
Once the Month of Deep Winter arrived, the bone-chilling snow and ice would halt many activities. He had to accelerate the progress of various tasks before time ran out.
First was the establishment of blacksmith shops and tailor shops.
Undoubtedly, these were crucial tasks. Blacksmith shops were related to spring planting next year, while tailor shops were relevant to surviving this winter.
Currently, though the blacksmith shops were completed in a few days, they remained idle due to a lack of ore, leaving the blacksmiths helpless.
On the other hand, the tailor shop was officially operational.
Forty-three tailors were busily sewing cotton clothes. These middle-aged women were quite skilled. Although the production efficiency wasn’t very high, they could still produce over a hundred pieces of cotton clothing daily.
Worth mentioning was that the newly made cotton clothes weren’t given away for free anymore. Instead, they were sold at a price slightly lower than the market rate.
Each piece of cotton clothing cost 30 copper pucks.
This price wasn’t high, but many still couldn’t afford it. Many had lost their savings while fleeing.
Li De naturally wouldn’t let this situation persist. Having planned ahead, he began hiring a large number of temporary workers to renovate Dawn City.
They were paid daily wages.
Thus, the residents received compensation and wouldn’t freeze during the winter.
At the same time, some worn parts of Dawn City were also renovated.
It was killing two birds with one stone.
During these days of road construction, Li De had another new idea. He opened a bakery near City Hall.
The bread sold at the bakery was fragrant, sweet, and soft, far tastier than the previously free white bread.
At the same time, he issued policies encouraging everyone to open shops. However, due to the severe shortage of materials, those with skills wanting to open stores couldn’t find suitable items to sell.
Therefore, for the short term, Dawn City only had one bakery and one tailor shop in operation.
Unexpectedly, both shops were extraordinarily popular.
The tailor shop didn’t need much explanation. The Month of Deep Winter was approaching, and preparing a piece of cotton clothing was undoubtedly essential.
The appearance of the bakery finally gave those with money a place to spend.
Honey bread coated with honey, fluffy meat floss bread, and various mouth-watering bread became a topic of conversation for everyone in Dawn City.
At this moment, Dawn City finally had a hint of a different atmosphere.
Compared to a month ago, it was much more like a city.