Chapter 60: Zhen Jiang's Thoughts

Lu County possessed a massive scale and a vast population. When Lu Chuan fully unleashed the potential of Lu County, this behemoth would erupt with an energy capable of shocking everyone.

Relying on the pre-sale auction and the refined salt product launch event, Lu Chuan firmly bound the merchants within Lu County to the county itself. An endless stream of materials, grain and fodder, iron ore, crude salt, and various goods were shipped into Lu County, transforming in a short period into supplies for its construction, adding bricks and tiles to the development of the county.

According to Lu Chuan's projections, the construction of the northern outer city would require two years. Yet now, with autumn just beginning, half of the northern outer city's construction was already complete, and the remaining half was expected to be finished by the coming summer.

In other words, in less than a year and a half, Lu Chuan would be able to complete the construction of the northern outer city, and the money invested initially would soon yield unimaginably generous returns.

All the investors, watching the northern outer city transform day by day, felt a deep sense of joy in their hearts.

When they made their investments, Lu Chuan had promised that once the northern outer city was completed, everyone would receive dividends, and the dividend rate would not be lower than the interest on savings in the Lu Family Bank!

Therefore, they, too, looked forward to the early completion of the northern outer city so that they could sit back and collect their money.

Aside from the construction of the northern outer city, the designated industrial zone selected by Lu Chuan had also finished its construction phase.

It mainly consisted of various workshops, including brick-firing workshops, refined salt purification workshops, smelting workshops, and so forth. In short, any industry Lu Chuan could think of—even if conditions were not yet ripe to operate them—would have its site cleared beforehand to facilitate future construction.

However, Lu Chuan was still not entirely satisfied with this progress, because he had only established the workshops without building city walls. Consequently, these workshops lacked substantial protection; once attacked by a large army, they could easily be destroyed.

Lu Chuan had wanted to take the opportunity of building the workshops to construct the satellite city directly, but practical conditions simply did not allow it.

The current focus of work was the construction of the northern outer city. If too many hands and resources were diverted to build the satellite city, it would delay the schedule of the northern outer city.

There was no such thing as having the best of both worlds in this universe, and Lu Chuan had no choice but to wait.

Once the northern outer city was completed next year, they could then begin the construction of the satellite city.

Under the current circumstances, wanting to protect those workshops meant Lu Chuan could only dispatch Lu Huo to station soldiers nearby, strictly forbidding anyone from approaching casually.

Unlike residential areas, the workshops contained too many resources and too many secrets. Without a pass issued by the county magistrate's office, no one was allowed to approach.

The only people authorized to issue such passes were Lu Chuan, Lu Shui, Lu Huo, Lu Jin, and Lu Tu.

Lu Shui was in charge of commerce, Lu Jin of intelligence, Lu Huo of military affairs, and Lu Tu of construction. The establishment and security of the workshops were inseparable from them, which was why Lu Chuan granted them the privilege to issue passes.

Yet, a legitimate reason was required to obtain a pass from them.

For instance, if merchants wished to enter the workshops, they had to seek out Lu Shui for a pass. Moreover, their entry time and headcount would be strictly limited, with soldiers accompanying them throughout, and their goods would be inspected upon departure.

One truly could not blame Lu Chuan for being overly cautious; rather, he knew all too well the greed inherent in human hearts. If he were the least bit careless and leaked key technologies, the wonderful situation he had painstakingly built could collapse overnight.

After all, the world was on the verge of chaos, and Lu Chuan's current strength was still far from sufficient. Lacking a sufficiently powerful background, if Lu Chuan wanted to rise, he could only rely on formidable economic strength.

He would pound his way forward with money and grain, hammering out a powerful Lu County, hammering out an army that would make everyone tremble with fear!

Fortunately, Lu Huo did not let Lu Chuan down. After a few months, he had trained thirteen thousand elite soldiers, truly achieving an army where orders were obeyed and prohibitions enforced.

However, Lu Chuan believed that no matter how elite soldiers were trained, until they actually stepped onto the battlefield and tasted blood, they remained mere recruits. Therefore, he desperately wanted to find an opportunity for them to take action, allowing these recruits to see blood so that when a real war arrived, they would not be nervous.

The problem, however, was that there was no opportunity.

The surrounding county towns were all very well-behaved, showing no intention of causing trouble, and it was not fitting for Lu Chuan to make the first move against them without cause.

Thinking it over and over, the only remaining path was to suppress bandits.

Yet, Lu County was developing so well that the nearby refugees had long since been incorporated by Lu Chuan. Consequently, the soil for breeding bandits simply did not exist near Lu County, leaving Lu Chuan with no targets even if he wanted to fight.

Surely he could not dispatch troops on a punitive expedition against bandits in other regions?

Setting aside the long distances and logistical supply issues, just passing through other county towns or even other commanderies—those people would not consent.

Who knew if Lu Chuan was playing the strategy of "borrowing a road to conquer Guo"?

This gave Lu Chuan a terrible headache.

This matter could not be rushed; Lu Chuan could only wait, waiting for a suitable opportunity.

"Why is Magistrate Lu so absent-minded today?"

Zhen Jiang brought a cup of tea she had brewed herself and placed it before Lu Chuan, asking casually.

During this period, Lu Chuan had been very busy, occupied with constructing the northern outer city and various workshops, whereas Zhen Jiang was quite leisurely. Whenever she had free time, she would come to visit Lu Chuan under all sorts of bizarre pretexts.

Take today, for instance: Zhen Jiang claimed that the Zhen family had sent her some supreme-quality tea leaves, which she had specially brought over for Lu Chuan to taste.

At first glance, this action seemed ordinary, but one had to remember that Zhen Jiang was a woman, not a man.

It would be completely fine for men to visit each other and taste tea, but for an unmarried woman to come looking for Lu Chuan every few days was clearly suspicious.

Lu Chuan could see that there was something amiss, but he chose not to probe deeply.

There was no helping it; Zhen Jiang was beautiful and knew how to handle things. Being in her company—even if it was just simple tea-drinking—could help Lu Chuan relax his mind.

However, on some occasions, Zhen Jiang would also bring Zhen Mi along. That little girl Zhen Mi was a veritable bundle of questions. The moment she saw Lu Chuan, she would pepper him with inquiries: one second she was asking why roujiamo tasted so delicious, the next she jumped to why building the northern outer city required prioritizing pipeline and drainage systems, and the second after that she might ask how Lu Chuan ever conceived of a marketing strategy like the pre-sale auction.

Fairly speaking, Zhen Mi was truly gorgeous, blessed with the added charm of a little loli, and her voice was exceedingly pleasant to the ear. When she rested her chin on her hands with both palms and looked up to ask Lu Chuan questions, she was genuinely someone impossible to refuse offhand.

Yet, Lu Chuan knew very well in his heart that Zhen Mi was a future empress of Cao Wei and could not be flirted with casually. If he were to alter the course of history because of it, Lu Chuan would be reduced to tears.

Besides, Zhen Mi was still just a little girl; no matter how beastly Lu Chuan might hypothetically be, it was impossible for him to harbor any inappropriate thoughts toward someone of her age.

If it were Zhen Jiang instead, that might actually be worth considering.