Chapter 008: Nationwide Construction

The migration would not end for another month, and there was still time to travel, so Du Fan was not in a hurry to start construction. Instead, he handed all the iron bars brought from Desha City to Viscount Evan. If they could make weapons, they could surely make tools. Half of these iron bars were to be used for weapons, while the other half was to be turned into tools. Du Fan didn’t care whether Viscount Evan could do it or not; he just wanted to see tools and weapons that could serve a hundred thousand people within a month.

Although Viscount Evan grumbled inwardly, he had no choice but to obey Du Fan’s orders. Since it was impossible to complete the new workshops here, he had to place orders with his workshops in other places and transport the products to Siluo Province. After all, Du Fan only wanted the finished products, not caring how Evan achieved them.

The iron bars given to Evan were not mined by him, so it could be considered a loan. But seeing those iron bars, it was clear he couldn’t repay them in such a short time, so he had no choice but to buy them from Du Fan.

Before even starting to earn money from Siluo Province, he had already spent nearly ten million gold coins! And he had also worked for free for Du Fan… Although Evan suffered a huge loss, he had nothing to say.

Du Fan wasn’t idle either. They took out maps of several cities and, together with Elsik, planned each city.

Doha City would serve as a transportation hub connecting the Lanxi Empire, the entire Siluo Province, and the Gavin Empire. There would be transportation hubs in Doha, along with two satellite cities—one as the entrance to the underground city and the other as a city for educational institutions. Du Fan intended to turn one of the satellite cities into an educational hub so they could cultivate countless talents without relying on others.

As for the other cities, their plans were already set—deciding what kind of structures should be built in each area. The city lords here were all chosen from among the common people, just like the other officials. Every city must have schools, while hospitals would be established later.

Apart from the essential buildings, commercial streets were planned, designed by Marti, to be arranged reasonably to boost the economy of the entire city. Other areas were marked as residential zones.

And with their plans in place and those tools completed on schedule, over a million people flowed into the Siluo Province and were distributed to various cities. Du Fan issued another order: by applying to the relevant departments, each family could determine how much land they needed for construction, then obtain tools from the city hall and draw lots to decide where they would live. They could then start building their own houses.
No one would interfere with what kind of house you wanted to build in the lot you drew.
For building materials, there were trees and stones outside the city; they had to mine whatever they needed. If they didn’t want to do it themselves, they could hire others—of course, if they had enough money, they could also have others build it for them. These places would become their future homes.
Of course, some wouldn’t build houses, but most commoners would at least build simple ones; they could always wait to hire someone later.
Since those people came with their families, while building houses, they also started planting crops right away—Du Fan provided the seeds.
Plants in the south could be grown for two seasons, and it wasn’t too late to plant now.
In just half a month, the originally empty cities already had a certain scale. Once they settled down, they could start improving their homes.
A month after they moved in, conscription began in every street and alley of the cities in the Siluo Province. Commoners who joined the army would be given land; if they killed three enemies, they’d get more land. If they killed ten, they’d be promoted to captain! There was a list outlining the rewards.
The mined stone had turned into flat land, and the forests could now be used for planting crops, creating more open space. What were once useless areas were now fully utilized by Du Fan.
With such favorable conditions available, and knowing that the soldiers were led by Du Fan—who certainly wouldn’t let his troops suffer—this became another good option. Moreover, once they joined the army, they would become part of the Southern Legion. The subsidies alone were enough to enable them to live a prosperous life, and Du Fan kept every promise he made. They trusted his promises even more.
As a result, the number of volunteers to join the army exceeded that of forced conscription in other places! In just ten days, the quota was reached at one hundred thousand, and no more recruits were accepted!

But Du Fan naturally wouldn’t miss such a great opportunity to expand his forces. The troops available for attacking the Lani Empire were already full, but they still needed many more for defending their cities. Although those bandits had been wiped out, which city didn’t need defenders? It was impossible to ask the empire for troops, so they had to rely on themselves. With a wave of his hand, Du Fan continued recruiting!

Of course, Du Fan couldn’t support so many soldiers on his own, so he had to ask the empire for money. He could make his city self-sufficient, and he only needed to purchase some grain from others; there weren’t many other necessities. And with the gold coins distributed, people would naturally spend them. Thus, commerce developed rapidly in a short time. Such a chain reaction was something no one had expected—except, of course, Du Fan.

It took Du Fan only about three months to build up the Siluo Province. He didn’t just improve one small city within the province but the entire province! This included establishing a hundred-thousand-strong army! Even if the whole country were conscripted, it would take more than three months to gather a hundred thousand soldiers—yet Du Fan actually had less than a month!

This became a myth in human history!

Some might ask, what could those newly conscripted hundred thousand people do? Du Fan had thought of this as well. He then mixed these people with the hundred thousand soldiers given to him by Fischer to form two new armies. Not only were those hundred thousand people a ragtag bunch, but Fischer’s army wasn’t much better!

Du Fan took the three million in military pay from Fischer and allocated one million as an advance payment, giving each soldier about five gold coins. With this sudden influx of money into the hands of ordinary people, they naturally started spending. Although Du Fan didn’t impose taxes on the commoners, he did charge taxes on merchants—though not very high, just 10% to 20% more than in other places.

Whereas other regions relied on the economy to drive population movement, Du Fan used a large workforce to drive the economy. Including his own income from taxes and rent from merchants, he earned over a million per month—plus various tolls.

In front of the Siluo Province was a war zone, which was basically blocked off. Those who wanted to trade with the Lani Empire or the Gavin Empire had to go through their territory. Moreover, smuggling profits were extremely high, so Du Fan charged significantly higher tolls.

Du Fan wasn’t afraid that someone would take advantage of the situation here. The people from Divine Might Prison weren’t idiots. He kept those 300 people around to ensure there were no spies from the Lani Empire in the entire Siluo Province. It was precisely because Du Fan paid their military salaries for three months at once that it motivated more people to enlist. When they joined the army, it was stipulated that they couldn’t be discharged before three years of service! Even with this rule, the total number of recruits eventually reached 250,000! Adding the previous 100,000, that made 350,000 in total. Du Fan would only take 200,000 of them to battle. They all knew Du Fan hadn’t said which ones would go; he only said that after three months of brutal training, the best 200,000 would be selected, while the rest would serve as a reserve force for city defense. Only 250,000 people participated in each training session, and within ten days, 100,000 of the least competent ones would be selected to defend the city. Since they had enlisted, they hoped to gain merits on the battlefield to receive more benefits. In his speeches to them, Du Fan said that soldiers who didn’t want to be generals were not good soldiers! So, the idea of achieving something and becoming a general was the first concept he instilled in them. Of course, this was also related to the greater benefits that came with becoming a general. Anyway, Du Fan wasn’t worried—he had enough money to support these troops. After all, this was the prosperous South, not the impoverished North! As for the three-month agreement made with those people earlier, Du Fan was too busy, and they knew what was important, so they didn’t rush him to venture into the swamps. They also realized that Du Fan didn’t really need them—the group from Divine Might Prison who kept hanging around him had already seen their capabilities. By the time Du Fan prepared to start the training marches, he had even less time. Since those 100,000 people hadn’t undergone training, he naturally couldn’t use conventional training methods. He told them that all they had to do was obey—absolute obedience. No matter what Du Fan ordered them to do, even if it meant dying, they had to do it without hesitation! As for meal times, the lowest-ranking people had to eat first, followed by those above them. Du Fan himself didn’t treat himself any differently; he was the last to eat. Sometimes, he even ate while on the move. Basically, each meal consisted only of cold food, and it had to be eaten within three minutes. Since a duke like Du Fan was enduring hardships with them, what could they complain about?

What Du Fan made them do was keep running, constantly changing formations while running. Du Fan had already arranged for food to be prepared at the next rest stop. They only had about fifteen minutes to rest; the rest of the time was spent running and practicing formations. Although it was monotonous, no one complained when some were eliminated. Shifts changed every ten days, and those who didn’t want to leave had to work harder. Those who were eliminated wanted to join again not only had to work hard themselves but also needed to strengthen their training regularly. In just one month, this army, which had originally been nothing more than a ragtag group, had transformed completely, taking on a more militaristic air. Du Fan’s methods were then adopted in future training as well. After another month of marching, they set off toward the swamp!