110: Chapter 110 Land Distribution

"City Lord! Just tell us what kind you want to build! As long as there are enough Materials, I'll handle the construction! I guarantee that the city walls of every new city will be harder than iron!"

Watching the bustling crowd before her, Wan'er stood quietly to the side.

She did not join the discussion but looked down at the record book she held against her chest, suddenly gasping.

As the director-general in charge of internal affairs, she knew the hidden dangers of Flower City better than anyone else.

After the new city was completed, although the 200,000 mouths in the city would have food to eat, what would follow was the terrifying prospect of having "no work to do."

Once these 200,000 energetic citizens, many of whom were Professionals, became idle, issues with public order, conflicts, and all sorts of uncontrollable chaos would grow like weeds.

She had been worrying about this problem for the past two days, even unable to sleep for nights on end.

But now, Zhou Yun had casually thrown out a grand plan for "eighteen self-built satellite cities."

Wan'er looked up at Zhou Yun, who was sitting in the main seat, lifting his teacup to moisten his throat.

The man's expression remained gentle as jade, a faint smile on his lips, his gaze passing through the window frame toward the torches that had not yet been extinguished outside the city.

She suddenly understood that this seemingly whimsical plan of the City Lord not only perfectly avoided the casualties of war but also completely drained and transformed the excess energy that these 200,000 citizens would soon have nowhere to put, turning it into the most solid strength for Flower City.

As long as this massive infrastructure gear started turning, there would be no possibility of internal strife in Flower City, and everyone would give their all for that grand goal of "promoting to a lower-level city."

This wasn't just building a city; this was forging an unbreakable Foundation for an Empire!

Wan'er took a deep breath and pressed the record book tightly against her chest.

In her eyes as she looked at Zhou Yun, besides deep gratitude, there was a light of extreme awe.

Unknowingly, the atmosphere in the Council Hall became increasingly intense due to the grand blueprint of those eighteen satellite cities.

Strategist Zhu Ge was deducing formations, Lei Lie was delineating defense lines, and Tie Shan had even started using his fingers to measure the thickness of the city walls on the tabletop.

Watching this core team full of drive, Zhou Yun leaned back in his chair and smiled silently.

He extended a finger and tapped lightly on the solid wood long table.

The sound was not loud, but it immediately made the entire Council Hall quiet down.

Everyone stopped what they were doing, their gazes converging on him in unison.

"Satellite cities must be built, and the sooner the better." Zhou Yun's tone was gentle, his gaze sweeping over the people on both sides of the long table, "But before that, there is an even more important matter that must be decided first."

Everyone was stunned.

Lei Lie and Strategist Zhu Ge exchanged a look, both seeing the confusion in the other's eyes.

Even the Heavenly Dao promotion rules had been exploited; what could be more important than expanding outward and establishing eighteen subsidiary cities?

Zhou Yun did not beat around the bush; he retracted his smile and sat up straight.

"These past few days, the new city has been built, and everyone has been working very hard. The citizens now have work to do every day, have Silver Rank spirit rice to eat, and have Gold Rank meat stew. In your opinion, are they living very well?"

No one spoke, because in the wasteland-like City Lord World, this was a luxurious life that even citizens of S-Rank small cities wouldn't dare to imagine.

"But this is not enough." Zhou Yun shook his head, his voice echoing calmly in the spacious Council Hall, "They have food to eat now because the City Lord's Mansion is distributing grain. But if they are to live on as true citizens of Flower City with roots, they are still missing one most important thing."

He paused, looked into everyone's eyes, and uttered two words: "Farmland."

As soon as these two words were spoken, the air in the entire Council Hall seemed to freeze instantly.

Wan'er's pen tip hovered in mid-air, a drop of thick ink slowly gathering along the wolf-hair brush, and finally "plop," it dripped onto the expensive paper, staining a black halo.

She didn't even notice, just staring blankly at the tabletop, her eyes churning with extremely complex emotions.

Tie Shan, who had originally been clenching his fists in preparation for a big job, stiffened abruptly upon hearing these two words.

He lowered his head, staring fixedly at his own calloused, rough palms full of old cracks, his thick shoulders beginning to tremble uncontrollably.

In the corner, Xia Nuannuan bit her lower lip hard, struggling to keep from making a sound, but her eyes turned red instantly.

Zhou Yun took in everyone's reactions.

His voice remained gentle but carried a power that struck the Soul: "Why did so many people in Flower City fall into the execution line before? Why are there so many displaced refugees outside? Ultimately, it is because they have no land of their own under their feet."

He stood up, walked to the window, and pushed it open.

The night breeze, carrying the scent of the new city's soil, blew into the Council Hall.

"Farmland is not a panacea. But without land, it is absolutely impossible. The new city is our fortress to resist foreign enemies together; it is everyone's. But besides that, I want to give every citizen of my Flower City a small home of their own. With land, the heart is at ease, and only then do they have roots."

Zhou Yun turned around and looked at the still-stunned Chief Administrator: "Wan'er, pick up your pen, record this."

Wan'er woke up as if from a dream, hurriedly turning over the page stained by ink, her fingers gripping the pen holder so hard her knuckles turned white.

"Starting today, a new policy will be promulgated." Zhou Yun said word by word, his voice clearly striking everyone's heart, "All citizens of my Flower City, regardless of gender, age, or seniority, shall each receive ten mu of land!"

"Hiss—"

Minister Wang Fugui gasped, the fat on his face trembling violently.

He stood up abruptly, and because he rose too quickly, his knees hit the table leg hard, but he didn't even care about the pain.

"City Lord... did you, did you say each person?" Minister Wang Fugui swallowed hard, his voice drifting, "Not distributed by household, but by head count?"

Zhou Yun looked at him and nodded affirmatively: "Yes, by head count. Even a newborn baby, as long as they are registered in my Flower City, will have ten mu."

Minister Wang Fugui felt his scalp tingle.

As the Minister of the Trade Department, his sensitivity to numbers was unmatched.

He quickly calculated in his mind: "City Lord, some refugees have their whole families with them, five or six people in a household, that would be fifty or sixty mu of land! We currently have 210,000 people in the city. If distributed by head count, that's over two million mu of land! This... how far out would we have to push the wasteland?"

"If it's pushed further out, isn't that better?" Zhou Yun said with a smile.

Minister Wang Fugui was stunned for a moment, then seemed to realize something, a sharp light appearing in his eyes.

That's right!

The plan was already to build satellite cities.

But there must be connections between the satellite cities.

Now that the citizens have been allocated land, they must go to cultivate the wasteland in order to farm.

If it's pushed further out, doesn't that just solve the problem of connectivity between the satellite cities?

And the establishment of satellite cities allows the citizens to use them as a base to continue cultivating the wasteland outward.

Cultivating the land... building new cities; these two things are completely complementary!