Chapter 356: There is no end to money
Today, Changhe Town has completely become a huge construction site.
Tens of thousands of people are busy on the construction site.
The person in charge of expanding the 'Changhe City' was Godric - he was very good at expanding the city on the original basis.
However, the expansion standards set by Leon made Godric a little nervous.
He felt that Li Ang was a complete loser...
Because Li Ang designated all the land within five miles of the southeast and west sides of Changhe Town as the expansion area of "Changhe City".
In other words, the outer city wall alone had to be built for more than 20 miles.
There is a lake to the north of Changhe Town, so the new city wall only needs to be built in three directions. However, the reason for the twenty miles is not that Godric miscalculated due to his poor math skills, but because the outer city wall will be built into a bastion structure, and there will be a military station extending out every hundred meters or so.
There are more than a dozen military stations planned for the entire city, and the outer city wall will look like a huge semicircular sawtooth from a bird's-eye view...
Moreover, Li Ang also planned to build the outer city wall like the one in Sarleon City, that is, 15 meters high, with the top of the wall two or three meters wide, so that horses can run on the wall...
As for the north, a tall inner castle will be built based on the original inner castle.
They also planned to dig a canal around the city and use the lake water as a moat.
The inner castle will use the soil dug from the moat to raise the terrain - Leon plans to directly raise the location close to the lake shore by 20 meters, so there is really no need to build a city wall on the north side - the difference in height between the "ground" on the north side and the river channel is more than 20 meters.
In other words, after the entire city is built, it will form an overall shape of high in the north and low in the south, and the inner castle will also become an independent "mountain city", overlooking everything around it in the north of Changhe Town.
The defensive capabilities of such a city are naturally needless to say, and the residents within the city will certainly feel extremely safe.
But, a project of this scale, how much would it cost?
"Le Ang, of course we should expand the city defenses... But, isn't the extent of this expansion too outrageous? Did you get a lot of money again?"
After Godric got the design, he ran all the way to find Leon. He once suspected that Leon had marked the length, width and height units incorrectly...
"No... I'm extremely poor now, and I live entirely on loans..."
Li Ang searched his pockets - he was penniless now.
"Then how can you sustain a project of this scale? And you're planning to demolish the houses... There are thousands of households here, and the compensation for the demolition alone will cost hundreds of thousands of dinars!"
Godric snapped his fingers in pain.
"But now... I have already paid for the demolition and relocation, and the brothers of the Silver Hand have already started breaking down walls and demolishing houses... And now Amy and Eric have already recruited tens of thousands of laborers!"
Li Ang spread his hands: "I can't stop."
Godric Khan came down and said: "We will go bankrupt... I know you are using the loan from Pender Bank, but even if you exhaust the potential of Pender Bank, you can't build a city like this..."
"Ah ha? I didn't plan to build it quickly... A city of this size would take years to build."
Li Ang shrugged his shoulders, not caring at all about bankruptcy.
"How many years will it take to repair? But the enemy won't give us so much time... and..."
Godric was anxious.
"It would be better if the enemy couldn't sit still. If the enemy took the initiative to attack Changhe Town, then there would be nothing to be afraid of... The problem now is that the enemy is hiding in Fierce Lion City and won't come out. You also know that it is difficult for us to capture Fierce Lion City from the front."
Li Ang said this and glanced at the ring on his hand.
"But the enemy will continue to grow stronger, right? Shouldn't we prepare for war now?"
Godric was almost confused.
"I'm preparing for war, Uncle Godric... I will have those civilians continue to build Changhe City until the day when we have the strength to conquer everything. Moreover, not only will we not go bankrupt, we will also become millionaires..."
Li Ang smiled and turned around to look at the table behind him.
That was the conference table in the lord's hall, where a dozen Noldor artists were working together to draw some huge renderings.
These Noldor artists are from the Finarfin family and are the "graphic designers" that Leon just invited out of the forest.
They will refer to Li Ang's design drawings to fully present the future Changhe City from all angles.
A few days later, almost everyone in the entire eastern region began to talk about 'Changhe City' - the central square of Changhe Town, the place with the largest flow of people, had several large-scale art works that were ten meters wide and five meters high.
The picture above is the "finished rendering" of Changhe City.
This is standard in the modern real estate industry—it can be seen in every sales office and even on the exterior walls of construction sites.
No matter if this place was a mud ditch or a mass grave in the past, the renderings will definitely be elegant, magnificent and beautiful, and it will look like heaven...
But the people of Pendor have never seen this thing, and this rendering was created by a Noldor artist...
"These few paintings alone are worth a fortune. I can't imagine this will become true..."
"Will we really live in a place like this in the future? This is simply unimaginably majestic... well, I don't know how to describe it."
"If I could live in a city like this, I would pay any price!"
"Lord Li Ang... Oh, didn't His Majesty Li Ang promise that he would build some villas in the city for everyone to live in, and would return one to each of our families and build houses... Look, it's drawn on the map..."
"What does it say? The villas outside the castle in Changhe City are already on sale? You can buy it with a 30% down payment, and you can get a bank loan for the rest..."
"Outside the inner fortress... that seems to be the former location of Changhe Express? I know where it is, but they have just started demolishing the old houses... They haven't even dug the foundation yet, and they're already selling new houses?"
"Stop talking, go and pay the deposit first. The Lord's Hall is packed! Let's use the demolition money as a down payment and buy it directly... Think about it, although there will be a lot more space in the city after the expansion, how many villas can be built in total? Only 500 units will be sold in the first phase of the project - but look at how many people are there in the city now?"
"Indeed... we have to grab one first! It's not expensive anyway... The villa is much more beautiful than our old house! And such a magnificent city will definitely become the safest place in the entire continent in the future..."
Some townspeople stopped in front of the renderings and talked for a while, then went home to get the money and ran to the lord's hall in groups.
Currently, the population in Changhe Town has exploded, with at least 50,000 people having nowhere to live. Moreover, Changhe Town is the only town with almost unlimited jobs - there are many vacancies in every industry. In order to register more types of trademarks, those businessmen have added many factories according to Li Ang's requirements and are recruiting a large number of workers.
In other words, it is foreseeable that more people will move to Changhe Town in the future - if you don’t grab the pre-sold houses while you still have money, you’d be a complete fool!
In the Lord's Hall, Eric and Leslie were almost going crazy with work.
Rather than saying that this is the Lord's Hall of Changhe Town, it would be more accurate to say that this is a house sales department that is in the midst of a rush to buy .
The so-called sea of people and flags flying is exactly what the Lord's Hall is like now...
"Look, the relocation compensation has been returned, and there will probably be a lot more... People are not completely broke. The reason for the economic depression is that no one has a stable source of income and dares not spend money on things other than daily life - people will consider how they will live in the future. But as long as they have a source of income, housing will become a need for everyone, and the safety of the living environment is the guarantee of their future life..."
Leon was at the garrison camp opposite, looking at the crowded crowd in the "House Sales Department" and explained to Godric: "The money we get back is not only enough to repair the houses, but also to start the construction of the moat, so that more people will have money. Then, we will open the pre-sale of 600 second-phase villas, and increase the price by 20%, so that the money we spent can be recovered again..."
Godric was stunned: "Isn't this a scam?!"
"Don't talk nonsense... This is to promote the circulation of dinars, improve people's lives, and let people live better... I have established several construction materials companies, so please don't mess with my dinars..."
Amy held Li Ang's arm and used her connections to get Li Ang to sign and stamp the supplier contract.
"As long as the money doesn't flow out of the country, it will never run out. But Li Ang, what if someone makes a lot of money but plans to leave here?"
Holding the signed contract, Amy began to worry about the outflow of assets.
"I have already arranged this... Didn't Andonga bring back a lot of Misty Mountaineers? In addition to the Knights of Dusk and the Noldor..."
Li Ang clenched his fists, his knuckles crackling. "If anyone plans to leave our territory, they deserve to be robbed by bandits after leaving the country. I guarantee that there are no bandits in the country, but I certainly can't guarantee public security outside the country..."
An Dongjia is currently temporarily stationed in Fletcher with some Misty Mountain people;
The Knights of Dusk are stationed in the village of Kwen;
Bao Daisy got a sum of money and went to the Eagle Claw area to recruit female soldiers - that was where Amy recruited female explorers, and it was also the place where women were most accepted as knights.
The Bacchus whom Anson had brought back from Carrondeerburg were settled in Serenmeath;
The area around White Hart Keep is the territory of the Noldor elves.
Roland's troops were deployed in Guihu Town.
These places are the only ways to leave Li Ang's territory and go abroad from all directions. They surround the border of the entire eastern region.
No matter which direction they go, as long as they cross the border, Li Ang can basically guarantee that they will encounter "robbers" as soon as they leave the country.
However, business travelers entering from other places will definitely not encounter these "robbers".
These 'robbers' are all 'unruly' 'pagans' who are not easy to deal with - anyway, for ordinary people, if they encounter these groups, they are lucky to be robbed.
The only place where Roland wouldn't encounter the "robbers" was in the direction of Guihu Town - but the west of Guihu Town was the territory of the heretics and fallen people, which could be fatal...
Moreover, these "robbers" have to pay taxes to Leon, and have to pay up to 75% of the "unexpected income tax" - this tax is indeed a bit high, but it is legal...
In fact, this highest tax rate in history has been collected for two years. This tax has existed since Fothert pledged allegiance to Leon.
Fothert no longer needs to pay this tax. He is already the legal lord of Lion Lake City, a big shot in the area, and the one with the largest territory.
Initially, the Lion Lake City area was badly damaged by Aigram, but Fothert did a good job in the past year or so. Although he himself had a bad reputation, the Lion Lake City was very stable, and he also rebuilt the Lion Lake City Flag Guard.
Fothert had such strength thanks to the 'legal unexpected income' he got from being a 'butcher'.
And now, Alistair is about to follow Fothert's path to success.
Alistair thought that Leon would regard him as an enemy - Alistair originally thought that Leon was dead, and he was going to surrender to Amy, and he also became the pioneer of "saving Amy" and fought against three prophets in Kwen.
I didn't expect that Leon would come back after being missing for such a long time, and as soon as he came back, he raised the flag of the Kingdom of Pendor, and no one even expressed any objection to this.
Alistair understood. After all, most of them were originally Leon's subordinates. Moreover, since Amy was engaged to Leon, it was only natural for Leon to be the regent. Whether it was the Kingdom of Sarleon or the Kingdom of Pendor, they were both their kingdoms.
But what should I do?
Having abandoned the Deshar people and fought the Three Prophets, there is no turning back!
Be loyal to Leon?
I feel sick...
Leave here?
So where can I go...
When Alistair was in trouble, Leon took the initiative to come to him.
Leon was willing to give Alistair everything he originally wanted. He could give him a base, make him an official lord, and also let Alistair become the grand master of the Knights of Dusk - Leon came with Malbert.
He stabbed Malbert to death with a sword in front of Alistair.
Of course Leon was happy to accept the Knights of Dusk. Even though Alistair had a grudge against him, Leon would unite every force at this time.
In fact, Alistair did not have much hatred towards Leon - he was chopped in the crotch by Leon because he planned to capture Leon and he planned to ambush Leon.
If we really want to talk about the cause, it was the order from his immediate superior, Malbert, that caused his work-related injury...
Moreover, it is normal to get injured during a war. As nobles, they should not hate each other just because they are in the enemy camps. Although the injured part is a little bit, it was caused by accident and it was definitely not intentional by Li Ang.
Besides, people’s mentality is very strange - if you see others are worse off than you, you will feel more balanced...
Especially since the one who suffered the most was his superior, it was even more balanced - Leon showed Alistair that the Grand Master of the Knights of Dusk, Malbert, also had that thing cut off.
Now that the knot in his heart had been relieved, Alistair could make a rational choice.
Then, Leon asked a question in front of Malbert and Alistair.
"Who among you is willing to lead the Knights of Dusk back to the new Knights of Dawn formed by Sir Roland?"
Malbert hesitated for two seconds, but Alistair nodded without hesitation.
Leon then stabbed Malbert to death with a sword, and then said to Alistair: "The evil spirit from another world killed the Grand Master of the Dusk Knights! Bring the Dusk Knights to avenge the Grand Master, return to the Dawn Knights, become my ally, and fight against the heretics of Sarleon City and Cliff Bay together - what do you think?"
To be honest, what Leon said was all true - of course, this was also the reason why Leon provided Alistair with the opportunity and returned to the Knights of the New Dawn...
Seeing Leon waving the bloody sword in front of him, Alistair knew that if he dared to say no, it would not only be the Grand Master who would be killed by the "evil spirits from another world", but Jocelyn would be the one to lead the Twilight Knights for revenge...
So Alistair wisely became Leon's subordinate, went to Kwen Village to reorganize the Knights of Dusk, and waited for the arrival of Sir Roland.
