When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 676 - 634: Daze Village Hydraulic Project and Spice Bubble
Beside the blazing furnace, Horn finished the last annotation on a document and tossed it into the pending document box.
Seeing that there were only two or three documents in the inbox, Horn let out a sigh of relief. He was just about to stand up and stretch when he heard a knock on the door.
"Come in."
The door opened, and seeing Petier carrying a stack of documents, Horn's face fell again.
"Are there really this many things lately?" Watching Petier classify and toss the documents into the boxes, Horn flipped through them with a bitter expression.
Petier, even more helpless, said, "The progress has been piling up lately, it should be better after the New Year Festival."
Horn had no choice but to sit back down. His basic daily routine, from morning till night, consisted of reviewing documents, meeting with advisors, writing commentaries, and holding regular meetings... Even his rare free time was mostly taken up by breathing practice.
But if Horn truly let go, he wouldn't dare. After all, the Thousand River Valley regime was nascent, with many things not yet established as routines. If he let go, who knows what might go wrong.
After organizing the documents, Petier picked up some from the processed box, and as if remembering something, reminded, "Your Grace, the scholars from River Island Royal University arrived yesterday. Do you want to meet them?"
"I should have gone to see them," Horn paused his work with the documents, looking at the messy papers on his desk, "Ah, better let that Lakin family's eldest daughter welcome them together. She happens to be a fellow at River Island Royal University."
It wasn't that Horn intended to neglect Leonardo and others, but he truly had important matters to attend to.
Judging from this summary alone, he had to oversee the pace of the Truth Debate, manage the restructuring of the Hundred Households Districts in the two counties of Thousand River Valley, approve the appointments and promotions of the Priests-in-Charge, review the military reforms of the new army, and allocate the budget for the research projects on the Demon-Loving Fungus and Lightning Furnace...
These were the most important tasks. Ordinary trivial matters, such as the appointment of lower-level monks, Horn delegated directly.
Compared to other governments of the same era, Horn's ry Court Barracks government was relatively efficient.
Because the Imperial Cardinals and the Grand Scholars of the Ming Cabinet were different. Besides serving as advisors and providing opinions, the Cardinals were also the heads of various central departments.
So when they submitted documents, they could also provide opinions, saving a lot of time.
As per regulations, each department submitted documents needing review to the Pope's Office, where the Secret Monk Council led by Petier sorted them by priority and listed directories based on summaries to submit to Horn.
If Horn's review wasn't necessary, it was sent back for the departments to decide.
On Horn's desk were three document boxes labeled "Unprocessed," "Pending," and "Processed."
The monks were to place newly received documents in the Unprocessed box, indicating they were untreated. The Pending box contained initially reviewed but unfinished affairs.
The Processed box held reviewed and completed affairs, collected daily by the Secret Monks and archived or distributed to other departments as needed.
Of course, to prevent the Secret Monks from isolating themselves, Horn held weekly meetings with heads of departments, and all documents had to be signed and archived, not discarded casually.
Major decisions had to be made at the Imperial Cardinal Conference, where the Secret Monks had only executive authority, not decision-making power.
Sitting back at his desk, Horn assessed the workload before him and said to Petier, "Have someone bring meals. I fear I won't be able to rest at noon."
Petier's face fell immediately in response, reluctantly nodding in agreement, soon leading to a chorus of sighs from the monks outside.
Picking up the first document from the stack on the file box, Horn's eyes first caught "Daze Village River Plan (Fifth Edition)."
The so-called Daze Village dredging plan involved three river channels at the river's entrance and exit: the first from South Mangde County to Daze Village, and the second and third channels for draining Nanze Lake towards Deer Horn Town and Red Leaf Village.
These three channels were named Tai Bo River, Ni Ao River, and Erno River, respectively. All were rivers from the Ancient Aier Empire Capital, but vampires had since renamed them.
The elders have now reverted them back.
According to discussions at the Imperial Cardinal Conference and Horn's guidance, they would individually dredge these three silted channels and selectively build dredging dams.
For example, at the Tai Bo River flowing from South Mangde County to Daze Village, three river channels were to be delineated. One would pass through higher terrain, with a dam constructed to regulate water levels.
The other two branch canals would pass through relatively flat terrain, used for commercial ship navigation.
Where the Ni Ao River channel flowed into the Marsh of Venomous Sorcerers at Deer Horn Town, they planned to build a permanent dam over 200 meters long, resembling the previous method used for the Arno River, for drainage and flood discharge purposes. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
It wasn't that Horn didn't want a direct route from Daze Village to Deer Horn Town, but the surrounding mountains were higher in the north and lower in the south, allowing the southern Erno River to be navigable to Joan of Arc Castle.
The westward Ni Ao River passed through the most treacherous parts of the mountains, even traversing several waterfalls, making navigation unrealistic.
However, the area could still take advantage of the water power to construct water-powered flour mills and textile factories.
Through the control of these three main rivers, according to the calculations of the hydraulic engineers in this plan document, the Shattered Stone Plain to Joan of Arc Castle to Rapids City route can basically be opened without the need for transfers.
And after draining the swamps of Mire Village, an additional 6,000 hectares of farmland and 2,000 hectares of flat land will be available.
After the reform of the Hundred Households District in South Mangde County is completed, the Tai Bo River, as the only inflowing river, will be scheduled for initiation.
Based on the judgment of Hylviss and the local Priest-in-Charge, the entire South Mangde County is expected to mobilize 3,000 to 4,000 able-bodied young men to conduct dredging operations in the swamp areas.
However, they also have requirements:
Firstly, Horn needs to provide at least 3 Dinars per person per week as subsidies, with a monthly expenditure estimated at 400 to 500 gold pounds.
Secondly, military forces need to be dispatched along with the Beastmen from Daze Village to clear out and recruit the bandits and Beastman Tribe living in the swamp.
Given the current situation, the dredging of the Erno River can be completed by June next year for formal navigation, while the Tai Bo River can begin initial navigation by September.
Additionally, the plan document also proposed a new project concerning the dike issues in the Beize District.
In simple terms, the formation of the Beize swamp is due to the Tai Bo River flowing into a mountain depression, where the river is too narrow and shallow, causing water to spread and silt to accumulate.
Fortunately, beneath the swamp, a complex underground river system has formed over long years of erosion.
If these underground river systems are intercepted and guided using canals, sluices, and dikes, complementing the existing dredging efforts, Beize, especially Lower Beize, could be exposed, yielding around 411 square kilometers of land.
This project was proposed initially, but due to the overly complex water systems and lack of data and experience, the redesign took too long and was abandoned.
However, following the fall of Xia Lvcheng and the recapture of Blago Monastery, Horn acquired a wealth of documents on the previous Kush people's swamp transformations.
It's important to know that when the Kush people first arrived in the Thousand River Valley, the entire area was a vast Daze Village swamp.
With these documents, almost all the issues can be resolved, naturally making implementation viable.
However, this would require nearly an additional thousand gold pounds per month, and after pondering for a while, Horn decided to agree to the plan but opted to delay the recruitment process.
Once the army clears the Beastmen and bandit gangs from the upstream swamp of the Tai Bo River, a batch of free laborers will be available, saving a significant amount.
As for the expenditure on construction materials...Horn rubbed his quill, lost in thought, as the Pope's Palace was always short on funds and in need of money everywhere.
It's not that Horn truly lacked a budget, as the budgets of the Pope's Palace and the Holy Treasury were well-managed; what he lacked were gold pounds, the shiny, round cash.
This led Horn to consider the plan Catherine had previously proposed to him.
Simply put, it involved setting up a shell guild to speculate on the spice bubble in Leia's Windmill Land to quickly make money and supplement the cash flow.
It essentially utilized the Falan's monopoly on spices, the risk of sea transportation, the spices brought in via the Ibe River channel, and Catherine's network among the El people to profit from the price information disparity in Windmill Land.
They could even agree with the Falans and Norns to first release news of spice shipwrecks, and after Leia's spice prices plunge, swoop in for a ruthless reaping.
Catherine targeted this knowing that the Leia Royal Family was embroiled in a civil war and could not spare any attention to these matters.
Given Horn's relations with the Falan, Moliat's with the Norns, Catherine's with the El people, the division within the North and South Church, and the stalemate in Leia's Kingdom's civil war.
Not just the Thousand River Valley, but everyone would likely be eager to grab a share.
When it becomes too big to cover up, they can disband the shell guild and flee with the funds.
Even if they get exposed, they were going to go to war anyway, so what if they offend one more party?
There was no denying that as a major banker, Catherine understood the Empire's financial system better than anyone. Her methods of financial fraud were shockingly ruthless.
With a mind filled with thoughts, Horn signed a few words on the document, then pressed the bell to summon Petier: "Catherine hasn't left yet, has she? Arrange a meeting for me this weekend, and also arrange a conversation with Qianqian about the dredging operations..."
"Boom—"
Before Horn finished speaking, a flash of lightning suddenly streaked across the house outside the window, followed by a loud explosion.
As screams from afar reached them, Horn's smile quickly faded: "Go, inform the Cheka to see what's going on!"
"Yes, Your Eminence!"
