434: Chapter 434 The Establishment of Wuwei and Zhangye Prefectures

"Alright, I understand."

Zhao Fusu nodded and said, "Then we shall first consolidate our current achievements from the westward expansion."

He pointed to the eastern and central parts of the Hexi Corridor on the wall and said, "For better administration, I have decided to establish two commanderies: Wuwei Commandery and Zhangye Commandery!"

"The Governor of Wuwei Commandery will be Shi Le, the chieftain of the Shiyang Tribe, and the Governor of Zhangye Commandery will be Hei Di, the chieftain of the Heihe Tribe."

"Their salaries will be paid annually by the Great Qin National Assembly."

"Then I'll go tell Shi Le the good news."

Xiao Zhuang said with an excited expression.

He had spent so much time with Shi Le that they had hit it off; while they hadn't sworn brotherhood, their relationship was very close.

"Wait."

Zhao Fusu called out to Xiao Zhuang.

"What are your orders, Your Majesty the Paramount Leader?"

Xiao Zhuang asked.

"To get rich, one must first build roads,"

Zhao Fusu said. "Since Wuwei Commandery and Zhangye Commandery have become part of Great Qin territory..."

"...the people living in Wuwei and Zhangye Commanderies are naturally citizens of Great Qin."

"We must improve their living conditions."

"I plan to build a railway to connect Longxi Commandery with Wuwei Commandery and Zhangye Commandery."

With the frantic pace of railway construction, almost every commandery in Great Qin now had a railway.

If a rebellion were to break out in any commandery, Great Qin's soldiers could use the railway to reach it quickly.

To ensure the stability of Wuwei Commandery and Zhangye Commandery, a railway must be built as soon as possible.

"Inform Shi Le that we are building a railway, and that we will need a large number of workers. If the herdsmen participate in the railway construction, they will receive appropriate compensation."

Large-scale infrastructure projects can drive the local economy due to the need for a massive workforce.

This is why, in many cases, a nation will promote large-scale infrastructure construction during an economic downturn to stimulate a recovery.

The capital required to build a railway as long as one thousand kilometers is immense.

However, Zhao Fusu did not intend to build the entire railway all at once.

He was carrying out the construction in stages—building when there was money and halting when there wasn't.

The railways in other commanderies were all built bit by bit under these conditions.

Currently, Great Qin's total railway mileage was nearly ten thousand kilometers.

Once the railways for Wuwei Commandery and Zhangye Commandery are built, Great Qin's total railway mileage will surpass ten thousand kilometers.

This can be considered a milestone achievement.

Of course, he knew in his heart that this current railway mileage was only equivalent to the era before the founding of the nation.

railway development was still in a very primitive stage.

Even so, it was already the most advanced existence in this parallel world.

Nowadays, most people in Japan have heard of railways, but they have no idea what a railway actually looks like.

Other nations with a scale comparable to Great Qin, such as the Mauryan Empire, the Seleucid Empire, the Kingdom of Macedonia, and the Roman Republic, have never even heard of what a railway is.

After the Great Qin Empire develops at high speed, these nations will inevitably face a crushing defeat at its hands.

Zhao Fusu stood before the world map, looking at these countries; he truly wanted to immediately incorporate these vast lands into the territory of Great Qin.

However, he also understood that with Great Qin's current technological capabilities, it was not yet possible to reach that step.

One must eat one bite at a time; a person cannot become fat from a single mouthful!