Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 264 Self-Imposed Restriction: A Major Shift in Development!

As dusk approached, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon when we finished visiting the eight satellite cities to the east.

To visit all 23 satellite cities, it would take at least two or three days, and even then, it would only be a cursory glance.

"Let's go, change direction, and head straight to Li Matai's Dongping Town!" Cheng Ye made a decisive decision.

"Aren't we going to see the remaining towns?"

“Hmm, no need to look anymore.” Cheng Ye shook his head. “The rest are basically copy-paste constructions, the only difference is the speed of progress. There’s nothing new to see.”

Throughout this journey, only the town of Beachhead, overseen by Inspector Forbes Jahn, had shown some economic considerations and sought to develop a unique aquaculture economy by leveraging the local shallow water terrain, planning to introduce "firefly algae."

This is a special plant that can only survive in shallow, slow-flowing environments. At night, the algae secrete a sticky, fluorescent liquid, which can be purified to make "fluorescent paste." When placed in a sealed copper tube and exposed to air, it emits a soft white light.

Fluorescent paste requires no additional energy and can emit light continuously for a week. Its brightness is soft and not dazzling, making it one of the safest lighting materials in the wasteland.

More importantly, this light source not only does not attract infected sources and infected individuals in the wild, but also has a slight repellent effect, and the demand is extremely high even across the entire wasteland.

Unfortunately, Forbes Jain is a veteran fourth-term prosecutor who has traveled extensively and has seen a great deal. Although he is not arrogant, he has developed a set of fixed, closed-loop perceptions.

Even though the checkpoint issued a reception notice, he simply followed the rules and treated everyone kindly, taking them on a brief tour of Tantou Town, stopping short of making any further contact.

As for the details of the town's economic development and the core aspects of its architectural planning, there was no intention to discuss them in detail.

Even though Cheng Ye deliberately brought up many valuable topics, Forbes only tentatively mentioned two products with high external demand. When Cheng Ye pressed for details, Forbes couldn't give a clear answer, so it stopped discussing the relevant content.

He simply smiled and changed the subject, and no matter how Cheng Ye tried to guide him, he wouldn't respond.

Clearly, even though he had openly contained a devastating source of infection, this trainee prosecutor was still not good enough for a fourth-stage prosecutor.

After all, who among those who have climbed to the fourth stage hasn't contained an infected source of that level?
As for the matter of the magical artifact, it is currently under strict secrecy. Even if it is announced later, the full details will generally not be revealed to ordinary prosecutors.

"Indeed, one still needs tangible achievements and insight."

Cheng Ye leaned back in his seat, watching the tree shadows rushing past the window, and sighed to himself, "In the current version of prosecutors, professional competence alone is far from enough. The barriers brought about by identity and rank must be broken down with stronger measures."

As a trainee prosecutor who had barely even left Happiness City, he immediately tried to talk to the veteran fourth-generation prosecutor about economic development and give unsolicited advice. Only Ding Yishan was willing to listen.

After all, the two were considering things from a strategic perspective and were not getting bogged down in the specific implementation details.

Forbes is a true pragmatist, recognizing only results and focusing on details, ignoring empty concepts.

It's easy to talk about economic development; anyone can say something like "we need to adapt to local conditions and find distinctive industries." But how exactly do we develop it?

How can we find a breakthrough by combining local terrain and resources? How can we solve the problems of technology, channels, and sales?

These things need to be broken down and studied carefully; they cannot be explained in just a few words.

What he lacks now is precisely this kind of practical experience and tangible results to back him up.

In addition, there was an even more important discovery that made Cheng Ye feel somewhat uneasy.

Beliefs, or rather, ideologies!

By the time he reached the level of a fourth-term prosecutor, even if Forbes' talent wasn't outstanding, he had already touched the edge of the state of harmony between man and nature. More importantly, he had already vaguely formed a complete set of ideas that he could put into practice.

This philosophy enabled him to persevere through the hardships and dangers of the wasteland, but conversely, it also made it difficult for him to easily accept other philosophies, let alone change his established direction.

This is very troublesome.

The second and third-term inspectors below lack a well-defined philosophy and are relatively easy to guide and change. However, they have limitations in their understanding, are conservative in their thinking, lack flexibility, and find it difficult to keep up with new development ideas.

The four prosecutors mentioned above have broad knowledge and their own ideas and beliefs, but their respective ideologies are deeply ingrained, making it extremely difficult to persuade them and integrate them.

Cheng Ye found the situation increasingly troublesome. The deviation in the development concept of satellite cities was only the surface issue; the deeper problem lay in the ideological and cognitive barriers between these inspectors at different levels.

Getting all the satellite cities to work together, rather than fighting their own battles, is probably even more difficult than solving the economic problems of individual satellite cities.

Ding Yishan entrusted such a difficult task to an intern, truly treating him as if he were already Yueye's stationmaster.

I pondered all the way.

The convoy sped along the national highway until a road sign indicated that they were only three kilometers from the industrial zone and would have to stop slowly after passing a checkpoint. Only then did Cheng Ye realize that the road they had come from was almost completely undamaged and the car had been running exceptionally smoothly.

Looking up in the direction indicated by the road sign, it was still light out. Under the clear light, the shadowy outline of the industrial area stretched out at the horizon, far larger than imagined.

Unlike the orderly arrangement of urban buildings, it resembles a continuous gray behemoth stretching into the distance, almost merging with the skyline.

Countless factory buildings stand side by side, their varying heights stacked together. Without any superfluous decorations, they rely solely on the solidity of the steel and concrete to create an imposing, sky-covering presence.

In the distance, the tallest steel-framed structures pierce the sky, and the massive factory domes stretch as far as the eye can see.

Upon closer inspection, one can vaguely see one area connected to another, with countless ant-sized vehicles moving in between, busy transporting materials and finished products; the entire industrial zone is operating at high speed.

"This is the industrial zone of Happiness City?"

Cheng Ye opened the car door, stood by the overpass and gazed into the distance, his heart filled with tremor.

This was the first time he had ever seen an industrial park in person, and it was completely different from the planning map and pictures shown by the Industrial Development Agency.

The entire industrial zone stretches for a full fifteen kilometers. What is currently visible is only the E area at the very front. Further ahead are four more areas: A, B, C, and D, as well as the core hydroelectric power station area.

"Perhaps Happiness City doesn't need its satellite cities to have their own industries at all; as long as people can live safely, that's enough?"

Cheng Ye suddenly had this thought, but then quickly shook his head to dispel it.

No matter how large the industrial park is, it can only accommodate 100,000 jobs, which is less than half the size of a single Foxconn factory in the old days.

Moreover, industrial production will only become more precise and automated, requiring even fewer workers in the future.

With so many refugees, they can't all just stay in the sheltered city doing nothing and living off their savings, can they?

Of course not. In addition to large-scale industrial production, we must develop more pillar industries to support the long-term development of Xingfu City and its satellite city cluster.

Moreover, the manufactured industrial products must be sold in order to be converted into the resources needed for survival.

Exchange resources
Cheng Ye pondered, and some scattered thoughts emerged from the bottom of his heart, gradually forming a coherent pattern.

"Inspector Cheng, would you like to visit the industrial park?" Mu Shuang walked over with an application form in hand. "Currently, except for the hydroelectric power station and Zones A and B, which are closed for production and only allow exit, you can freely enter and exit the other areas."

"No, it's getting dark. After we finish looking at Dongping Town, we'll head back to the buffer zone."

Cheng Ye shook his head and refused. The situation of the industrial zone was already described in great detail on the tablet that Lao Sun had given him, so there was little point in conducting an on-site inspection. Moreover, the core area was in zones A and B, and if they couldn't get in, it would be a waste of time to look at it.

The car passed the checkpoint and turned at a Y-junction towards Xiasha County.

A dozen kilometers further on, you turn onto a dilapidated county road, which leads to Dongping Town.

Compared to the previous route, the road conditions here are significantly worse. The shell craters on the ground have not yet been repaired, which is far behind the development speed of Wenlu County.

Even more bizarrely, as the car was moving forward, several ant-wolves suddenly rushed out from the roadside.

After following for half a day, the guard team finally had something to do. Before Cheng Ye could even raise his hand to fire, Wu Rui led his team members out of the car and chopped the ant-wolf into mincemeat with a few swings of his machete.

"Having left the core area of ​​Happiness City, it finally feels like the wilderness again."

Cheng Ye narrowed his eyes. After leaving the county road, the wild grass outside had grown to waist height. No one knew what was hidden inside; there might be some strange and unusual source of infection.

To fully develop these areas, it will take until next spring, or even summer, to complete.

If you continue driving, you'll pass through a stretch of rural road.

What's even more frustrating is that the state of this road is comparable to the one leading to Dabo Town.

The road was full of potholes and loose gravel, and the car was so bumpy that it felt like it was about to fall apart. It took about five kilometers of difficult progress before the car finally came into view of Dongping Town.

At first glance, Cheng Ye almost thought it was an industrial zone that had moved here.

The rows of factory buildings at the end of the field of vision look exactly like the industrial area seen from the elevated road, with even the gray of the exterior walls remaining largely unchanged.

To his surprise, rows of utility poles had sprung up in the wilderness on the way from Dongping Town toward the industrial zone.

To avoid the wear and tear caused by winding routes, these utility poles are erected almost straight into the industrial area, completely deviating from the old-fashioned road layout.

"Good heavens, how long has it been since Dongping Town started stealing electricity from the industrial zone?"

Cheng Ye was immediately startled!
Further ahead, a wire fence, resembling a "happiness defense line," completely encloses the entire town, standing about two and a half meters high.

Every two hundred meters or so, there is a watchtower used for keeping watch, scattered around the perimeter of the wall.

"Could it be that Li Matai really listened to my advice and is single-mindedly trying to take over the industrial zone's industries, making it the pillar of Dongping Town, and then selling it to other satellite cities?"

As Cheng Ye was pondering this, the sentry on the watchtower spotted the convoy and immediately issued a warning.

A flurry of figures moved through the town, and soon a familiar, slightly chubby figure could be seen walking at the front of the crowd.

It was none other than Li Matai!

Finally, he met a familiar person with whom he could have a proper conversation. Cheng Ye suddenly felt a pang of emotion and quickly pushed open the car door and got in.

"Cheng Ye, you've finally arrived!" Li Matai was unusually excited and quickly came to greet him. The two couldn't help but shake hands and even hug. "It's almost dark. I thought you weren't coming to see me today!"

After they separated, Li Ma looked him up and down, muttering with a puzzled expression, "You're tall and strong now, but you don't look like someone who can contain a Destruction-level Infected Source at all."

"Don't believe me?" Cheng Ye shook his head with a smile. "If I had put you in charge of Dabo Town with me back then, you would probably be scared to death by now."

"That's good, thank goodness I didn't go with you." Li Ma patted his chest, then sighed, and changed the subject, "But I haven't had a peaceful time either, getting attacked by infected sources every few days. Damn it, my luck is just too bad!"

After complaining, he immediately changed his tone: "After driving all day, the car should be out of power, right? We've connected the industrial area's power supply and installed charging stations, all of them are 120kW high-voltage stations. Hurry up and drive the car in to charge."

The words fell.

Cheng Ye was stunned. In the previous satellite cities he visited, the hosts always invited him to drink water and rest first.

Unexpectedly, upon arriving in Dongping Town, Li Matai immediately invited him to recharge his batteries; it was truly remarkable.

But then he thought about it again and joked with a smile, "Wait a minute, this charging station of yours, it wouldn't happen to be specially prepared for our caravan, would it?"

"Hehe." Li Matai chuckled somewhat cryptically, "It's our own territory, so development must prioritize serving our own growth; otherwise, it's a waste of resources."

"Song Hai actually agreed to that?" Cheng Ye gave a thumbs up.

“There’s nothing we can do if he doesn’t agree.” Li Matai smiled sideways. “I’ll split the funds in half with him. The north side of Dongping Town will be mine, and the south side will be his. We’ll each do our own thing, and neither of us will interfere with the other.”

"North and south?" Cheng Ye looked through the simple town gate and realized that Dongping Town was indeed clearly divided into north and south.

Li Matai's area is designed like the large warehouses in the industrial zone, neat and spacious, while the area in Songhai to the south is like the satellite cities he had seen before, with concrete buildings under construction, the tallest of which has reached three stories, and construction sites everywhere. The two sides have completely different styles, which is really eye-opening.

As Cheng Ye walked into the town through the gate, he paused again.

The ground beneath my feet was paved entirely with cement, and a drainage slope had been carefully created, unlike other satellite cities that still use gravel and mud, or some remnants of old-fashioned road infrastructure.

"The first thing I did when I came here was to repair the underground pipe network and pave the road surface."

As Li Matai walked, he explained, his tone full of emotion, “I was really disgusted by the stench of sewage in the buffer zone. In the past month or so, I mainly did three things: first, I built the circuit to the industrial zone; second, I prioritized laying the infrastructure; and third, I talked to the people in the industrial zone, hoping they would divert some of their industries to my area.”

As you walk into the town, a sense of familiarity washes over you once again.

On an open space at one end of the town, rows of prefabricated houses are neatly arranged, one after another, looking exceptionally orderly.

Li Matai's smugness grew even stronger: "The prefabricated houses are cheap and practical. The more than two thousand people who came with me were all assigned accommodations after just over ten days. They don't have to suffer in tents anymore. Even after the recent rains, no one got sick from the rain."

"So what are your plans for winter?"

“Of course you’ll have to figure that out yourself.” Li Matai raised an eyebrow, looking completely matter-of-fact. “Doesn’t your Dabo Town also use prefabricated houses? If you can solve the problem of keeping them warm, I can just follow suit here.”

"Awesome!" Cheng Ye was genuinely impressed. Compared to the other conservative third-term prosecutors, Li Matai was definitely an anomaly.

To be frank, the things he's doing don't resemble honestly building a satellite city at all.

He was flexible in his construction of factories and use of prefabricated houses without considering the consequences at all.

But it must be said that Li Matai's actions did give him a feeling of surprise and delight, especially after visiting the towns before him. Standing here now, he felt particularly relaxed and happy.

After leaving the residential area, the two arrived at a factory area.

The twelve charging stations are lined up in a row, all of which have been installed and tested, and can be used to charge the devices simply by plugging them in.

“Now that I’m receiving support from the industrial park, I get extra discounts on charging before winter arrives. It’s only about 5 cents per kilobyte. You can charge as much as you want! If your fleet runs out of power, just come here to recharge. It’ll save you money!” Li Matai greeted them warmly.

Since they'd already gone this far, Cheng Ye naturally wouldn't waste his good intentions, and immediately told Wu Rui and the others to drive the SUV and pickup truck to the charging station.

He then took out his pendant and found a connector to plug it in.

The energy value, which had already reached zero, began to flash again, and the numbers started to slowly jump forward.

With a charging efficiency of 120kW, it would take at least six and a half hours to replenish the current 800 kWh.

Cheng Ye thought for a moment, glanced at the setting sun, and simply suggested, "I won't go back to the buffer zone tonight; I'll stay here for the night."

Li Ma readily agreed: "That's great! It's perfect timing for us to have a good chat tonight. I'd also like to ask you about the development strategy for Dabo Town!"

Although it wasn't quite to the point where old friends would meet and their eyes would well up with tears, after more than a month apart, they both had a lot to talk about.

Before the in-depth discussion, Cheng Ye first accompanied Li Matai on a tour of the southern district, which was under Song Hai's jurisdiction.

Even with Li Matai following behind, Song Hai still managed a forced smile when he saw him, but he couldn't hide his frustration and unfulfilled spirit.

While strolling around the southern part of Dongping Town, Song Hai seemed somewhat distracted when the construction progress was discussed, let alone taking the initiative to talk about future developments.

"Prosecutor Song's place has been attacked by the source of infection several times in a row, with nearly three hundred casualties."

Walking back to the North District, Li Matai lowered his voice and said, "Although I haven't expanded into the surrounding areas on a large scale, we've still lost over a hundred people."

"Aren't there any plans to continue developing the area around Xiasha County?" Cheng Ye asked.

“We can’t expand.” Li Matai shook his head and pointed eastward from Dongping Town, where there was only an endless wilderness. “This area is already one that Happiness City hasn’t swept through. If we expand any further, we simply don’t have the energy to take care of it. Now, almost every day, new sources of infection and infected individuals are emerging and attacking the town.”

Continuing down from Dongping Town, the route doesn't lead to Yueye Shelter City, but rather towards Guang Province.

Although Thuc Province and Quang Province seem to be adjacent, exchanges between the two places have been basically cut off for several years.

Firstly, there is competition between the two regions, and secondly, Guangdong Province has a low demand for ore.

Guanghong Shelter City has already occupied the resource points on the border, and can both farm and mine, living a comfortable life. The minerals from Shi Province are transported to Guang Province, but the price is not as good as selling them in the more distant Sha Province.

"Now that we've stopped land reclamation, are the casualties under control?" Cheng Ye pressed.

"We've stabilized things for now, and that's all we can do for now," Li Matai said helplessly. "We simply can't manage to expand any further. We can only keep everyone in the town for now and focus on development, and then gradually expand outwards later."

The construction of satellite cities is not something that can be accomplished overnight. Even Xingfu City was built piecemeal over nearly fifteen years before it stabilized to its current scale.

Having learned from his previous experience dealing with other prosecutors, Cheng Ye did not rush to express his opinion.

While Li Matai was willing to listen to him, his ideas might not be entirely suitable for the actual situation in Dongping Town.

"Don't worry too much. Once my Dabo Town develops, our two places will be able to connect and support each other," Cheng Ye said reassuringly before changing the subject to get to the point, "How are your talks with the industrial park going? Have you secured any sustainable industries?"

"It's a deal! The pipeline has already been laid, so they'll definitely have to share some of their business with me."

The mention of industry made Li Matai's eyes light up, and he quickly waved for Cheng Ye to follow, saying, "I'll take you to see it!"

As one of the first satellite towns, Dongping Town has grown to a core area that is roughly the size of three Dabo Towns.

Even if Li Matai and Song Hai split the territory equally, the northern district under his control would still be much larger than the core area of ​​Dabo Town.

"Because there are no skilled workers here, the industrial park is only willing to relocate the metal processing and small machinery manufacturing industries here," Li Matai explained as he walked, pushing open the door to the metal processing warehouse first.

The moment the door opened, Cheng Ye froze.

The room was bustling with people, the buzzing of machines and the clanging of metal mingling together, with at least a thousand people working busily.

So many people are involved in production at the same time?
Cheng Ye was initially surprised, but upon closer inspection, he realized that less than a third of the thousands of people were actually operating the equipment; the rest were watching and learning from the sidelines.

"This is currently the industry with the greatest demand, which is to reprocess recycled scrap metal into various common tools." Li Matai excitedly counted on his fingers, "such as hoes, shovels, saws, chisels, files and other farm tools and hand tools, as well as nuts, bolts, nails and other fasteners."

He paused, then continued, "Besides that, we also make household items like iron pots, pans, and kettles, as well as metal stands, door locks, and connectors. To do this, I bought a shearing machine, a furnace, iron molds, an air hammer, a bench drill, and a bending machine all at once from the industrial park."

Cheng Ye counted more than a dozen types of processing equipment, matching them in his mind as he listened.

All of them are small processing equipment that are not difficult to operate. It is indeed an industry that cannot make a lot of money, but can solve a large number of jobs.

Placing skilled workers in industrial areas is a waste; relocating them to satellite cities would be the most suitable option.

After wandering around for a while, Cheng Ye was taken aback when he saw the triangular symbol printed on the end of the tool after walking to the finished product area.

"Do these markings indicate that the products are from Dongping Town?"

“That’s right!” Li Matai nodded immediately, his tone tinged with pride. “Didn’t you say before that you wanted to build a brand reputation? I’ll follow that idea and put the logo on first so that everyone can get familiar with it.”

"Do you know what this mark means in other satellite cities?" Cheng Ye picked up a wrench, his tone somewhat subtle.

"Huh?" Lee Ma-tae was taken aback, then shook his head, his face full of confusion.

“Defective product,” Cheng Ye said bluntly.

The wrench in my hand had a crooked handle, and the width adjustment pulley was unusually stiff, requiring some effort to turn, and it made an unpleasant "creaking" sound.

Picking up a few more metal connectors at random, almost all of them had visible manufacturing deviations and were not regular in size.

He saw many of these tools with triangular markings when he visited other satellite cities that morning.

I originally thought it was produced in an industrial area and that the marking meant it was a defective product, but I never expected it to be produced in Dongping Town, Li Matai.

Good guy!
If people really found out that this brand was produced in Dongping Town, they'd probably be cursed to death by the authorities.

"Forehead"

Li Matai's eyes flickered a few times, and his tone was somewhat uncertain, "Is it really that bad?"

"What do you say?"

Cheng Ye shook his head helplessly and simply poured out a box of 500 connectors that had just been packaged in the finished product area.

After sorting by the degree of deviation, less than fifteen were relatively neat; the rest were either crooked or uneven in thickness, and all had some odd shapes.

Logically, these were all cast from iron molds, so how could there be such a big deviation?
He traced the problem back to its source with questions in mind. Although he only inherited some mechanical knowledge from Master Sang and was not involved in specific production, his honed eyesight allowed him to quickly discover the problem with the production line.

A noticeable oxide scale adhered to the inner wall of the mold cavity, which was formed by the high-temperature sintering of iron filings that had not been cleaned for a long time, directly causing the surface of the casting to be uneven.

The guide channel at the pouring port is deformed, resulting in uneven flow velocity of molten iron during injection and the generation of local eddies, causing internal stress imbalance.

The most critical component is the cooling system. Poor circulation in the cooling pipes leads to uneven cooling rates for the high-temperature castings, resulting in deformed and cracked parts during shrinkage.

"Didn't the industrial park send any experts to provide on-site guidance? With so many defective products being produced, didn't they investigate the problem?"

"Yes, yes! I'll call them over right away." Li Matai was a little stunned, never expecting that Cheng Ye could spot so many flaws at a glance.

Soon, 15 skilled workers sent by the industrial zone were summoned over.

After careful questioning, Cheng Ye's heart sank as he arrived at an unexpected conclusion.

"You mean, the industrial park has long since fully automated the production of these small tools and simple parts? And now you're forcibly diverting them out and bringing back manual production?"

"Yes, yes!" The foreman was sweating profusely and quickly explained, "Inspector Cheng, you don't know this, but we haven't worked with this manual equipment line for a long time. We're learning as we go and following the manual. And the quality you see is much better than it was ten days ago. We've been constantly improving and finding the problems."

Isn't this nonsense?

Cheng Ye wanted to complain: abandoning stable and efficient automated production, diverting resources for the sake of diversion, forcibly reverting to manual mode, will ultimately lead to a return to automation.

I don't know who made this decision, it's like cutting off their own limbs.

Thinking this, Cheng Ye breathed a sigh of relief as he moved to the adjacent "Small Machinery Equipment Manufacturing" warehouse.

This place hasn't officially started production yet. Li Matai has only bought the equipment and is having the refugees learn from experienced workers.

Lathes, milling machines, and welding equipment are all available. With this level of development, it is sufficient to produce some simple machinery, although the durability will vary.

"How should I put it, you seemed quite disappointed after watching it?"

After the two left the warehouse, Li Matai noticed the worry on Cheng Ye's face and took the initiative to speak.

"It's not disappointment, it's that we haven't changed our mindset and have gone astray."

Cheng Ye frowned, his tone serious. "The ultimate goal of industrial production is high-precision automation. Only by relying on quality and speed can we gain a foothold and be competitive. Now we are forcibly diverting the established industries in the industrial zone and replacing automation with manual labor. Isn't this a step backward? It's completely unnecessary."

"How will the employment of those million displaced people be resolved?"

Li Matai subconsciously pressed for an answer, his tone tinged with helplessness, "After the prefabricated houses were built, the industries in the industrial zone haven't fully moved over yet, and there's no way to reclaim land outside, so I could only give them two days off. We've only just started getting busy now, and we can't let everyone be idle again, can we?"

"No, how could we be idle? The solution to the employment problem is right in front of us."

Cheng Ye exhaled and, following the afterglow of the setting sun, cast his gaze upon the wilderness outside Dongping Town.

In the boundless grassland, weeds grow lush and green, like a carpet covering the earth.

Ding Yishan did indeed pose a good question to him, and he found the answer within a day.

What exactly is the purpose of satellite cities?
It's not enough to just fight each other and relocate the population; we need to expand the reach of Happiness City further and control more land and resources.

But now?

Each satellite city acquires a piece of land and then begins a shrinking development strategy, formulating plans for several years or even more than a decade.

The idea itself is not wrong, and it can control casualties to the greatest extent, but times have changed!
Satellite City is no longer the happy city that fought alone back then. It has a huge industrial zone as its backing, as well as nearly 100,000 troops from the Blood Dragon and Cross Legions to support its reclamation and sweeping operations.

This slow and leisurely approach isn't wrong, but it's a waste of time.

We could have connected all the satellite cities as quickly as possible and created a unified defensive perimeter.

If we can take Xingfu City as the center and bring the surrounding 100 kilometers under control, will planting still be difficult?
Will there still be obstacles to the movement of residents? Even in undeveloped cities like Sichuan, people can be sent in to explore.

“Before Tan Ming opened up planting permits, it was not very meaningful to develop the wilderness outside, but now that we can farm, it would be a waste to leave this large area of ​​wilderness empty.”

"There's nothing wrong with doing work-for-relief programs and industrial relocation, but instead of throwing money at things like automation to replace manual labor, which is self-destructive, it would be better to burn through all our resources at once and invest them in environmental improvement and land reclamation. That would be truly worthwhile."

"If we can clear and tidy up the surrounding wilderness before winter arrives, this land alone will be able to provide employment for hundreds of thousands of people by next spring!"

At that time, some people will reclaim wasteland, some will build irrigation canals, some will cultivate crops, and they can also provide supporting services for agriculture, forming a complete industrial chain, whether it is processing agricultural products or the entire upstream and downstream.

In this way, we can avoid taking jobs from the industrial zone, allow the satellite city to have its own industrial closed loop, and enable Xingfu City to take root in this land and never have to worry about food and resources again.

Thinking of this, Cheng Ye's eyes suddenly hardened. Ding Yishan probably sent him out for this very purpose.

As the strategist in a game of chess, when making a turn, one must consider three steps in advance and initiate a new round of transitions as soon as possible before the development has become completely solidified!
Happiness City and all its satellite cities can no longer fight their own battles and develop in isolation. They must take advantage of the opening up of agriculture, use the land as their foundation and cooperation as their link, truly form a synergy, and open up a new world for themselves.

Only in this way can we gain a real advantage before the next era fully begins!

(End of this chapter)