Chapter 1281 - 1201: Three Major Projects Launched!
Horn’s high-profile visit to the signal tower itself was a massive political signal.
Although the Sharp Signal Tower Company hasn’t been established yet, it has already attracted the attention of many investors.
Even though the company is under Holy Ownership, wholly controlled by the Holy Alliance, there is still significant profit potential behind it.
For example, the procurement and manufacturing of signal tower components, construction teams, route designs, and so forth.
It didn’t take long for newspapers to report the establishment of the company and announce the reconstruction of signal towers along the Hot Spring Castle-Ry Court Barracks-Joan of Arc Castle-Rapids City line.
Since this was reconstruction along an existing line, the speed was rapid, taking only one month to complete.
After a month of coverage by the newspapers, many ordinary citizens became curious about this signal tower.
Especially in Rapids City, the lottery players and speculators arrived early to wait at the receiving station.
The citizens of Rapids City differ from those in Ry Court Barracks; in Ry Court Barracks’ industrial economic zone (Hot Spring Castle, Ry Court Barracks, Joan of Arc Castle), the attire is mostly uniform.
The Falan Fashion Journal generally refers to them as "Workwear Style" and "Monk Style."
Blue hard-cloth shirts, brown straight-leg suspenders, and when cold, a work jacket (similar to a bomber jacket) are workers’ attire.
Black trousers, wool vests, knee-length monk robes are government officials’ attire.
As the bureaucratic and industrial center of the Holy Alliance, while styles may vary, the forms remain largely similar.
After all, this is the clothing worn by the mainstays of Ry Court Barracks’ economic circle—workers and bureaucrats.
Of course, this is still a stereotypical impression of the Holy Alliance by Falan.
If one were to look across to the research zone and see those university students, then their clothing truly would be a wild and eclectic mix.
The reasons for this are also apparent.
In the Holy Alliance, Hot Spring Castle is the center for mining refinement and basic metal processing.
Ry Court Barracks is for component processing and assembly, heavy metal refinement; it’s equivalent to heavy industry.
In Joan of Arc Castle, it’s mostly garment processing, papermaking, and other light industries.
This economic circle is predominantly focused on the secondary industry.
Rapids City, as the hub for land and water transportation, is the gathering and settlement area for Falan and Leia immigrants.
First, they have not been assimilated into the Holy Alliance’s clothing culture, and second, Rapids City has an atmosphere that is relatively more free and unrestrained.
Thus, around the signal tower, one can see crowds dressed in various styles.
You can see those wearing Black Snake Bay shirts, traditional Sharpren civic attire, and even Holy Alliance workwear.
There are even those wearing traditional noble silk robes with gold tassels, not afraid of being assaulted.
The "Art Forest" once praised, saying that walking on the streets of Rapids City is like seeing people from the thirties, forties, and fifties together.
This demonstrates Rapids City’s freedom and diversity.
However, the facts are clear; Rapids City has consistently ranked second-last in Holy Alliance’s public security levels.
Considering the last place is Black Snake Bay’s Celestial Maiden City, this second-last is effectively the worst.
This is mainly because Rapids City relies on the transportation and financial industries, making the tertiary industry exceptionally developed.
This has led to many speculators and idle gamblers, attracting a large number of immigrants.
Everyone hopes to get rich overnight in Rapids City, and combined with the relatively relaxed local atmosphere, people have come to view Rapids City’s residents as shrewd, cunning, and boastful.
At this moment, eager onlookers surrounded the signal tower, murmuring and whispering.
For promoting the use of signal towers among citizens and ensuring major exchanges pay up.
Horn deliberately created a spectacle, producing what was called the letter from Hot Spring Castle to Xia Lvcheng.
These signal towers are just single-channel signal towers.
Thus, they can currently only transmit short civilian messages lasting no more than 10 minutes.
Over the past month, the signal tower company has adopted an abbreviation mode for common words to increase information density.
Based on the current decoding table, one transmission can convey 30 words’ worth of characters.
And today’s education lottery draw selects 10 letters, each successive match adds 100 gold pounds to the prize.
However, these citizens don’t understand the operational principles of the signal towers; they can only see the glow atop the tower flickering and remain silent.
Among the whispering lottery players and speculators, there are two well-dressed gentlemen.
They are not natives of the Holy Alliance, but merchants from afar, mingling with the crowd, waiting while chatting.
"I heard there’s a manpower shortage over in Shattered Stone Plain?" This Leia merchant is in the business of selling "piglets."
The so-called selling "piglets" is actually packing refugees and vagrants, transporting them to a lord’s palace construction site.
After Leia Kingdom suffered an epic defeat, the originally extravagant nobles promoting luxury were bled dry by the Holy Alliance and Falan.
Currently, they naturally have no means to continue extravagant construction of lavish palaces.
Furthermore, the war and resulting plague have led to deaths, which have left many areas of Leia silent with no living creatures.
Now, Falan itself has large manpower resources, and Norn utterly lacks the capacity and funds for grand construction.
The only entity with projects, intentions, and funds is the Holy Alliance.
Not only do they have them, but they are substantial.
As long as laborers complete three to five years of labor contracts, they can receive a Holy Alliance labor certificate.
With this certificate, even though one doesn’t have Holy Alliance citizenship yet, as long as there is no criminal record within a year, citizenship can be applied for.
Or relying on this certificate, one can obtain a piece of land in Shattered Stone Plain, directly attaining Holy Alliance citizenship.
"Yes, the Shattered Stone Plain North Continental Railway Project." The man wearing a silk top hat couldn’t help but sigh, "This Saint’s Grandson, I don’t know whether to call him whimsical or a strategic genius!"
According to the Holy Alliance’s publicly available bidding documents and plans, plans are to construct one horizontal and two vertical large railways.
At the county level, there will also be small railway projects connecting mining areas, rivers, and workshop zones.
But judging by the calculations of these veteran merchants, just building railways in key areas and combining them with water and shipping transport would absolutely suffice.
Building these railways is beneficial, indeed, but it significantly mismatches the current needs of the Holy Alliance.
Newspaper representatives have publicly queried it, even giving it the nickname "far-sightedness."
The signal tower project, railway project, along with the just-begun military reforms and troop re-equipping, have instantly drained the barely surplus Holy Alliance’s finances.
As for how Soleyni knows about this, just looking at recent issues of the Advisory Council Ducal Gazette will make it clear.
Those representatives from the Saint’s Grandson faction are currently promoting increased government bond issuance daily!
Some even radical representatives are suggesting completely replacing metal currency with paper currency, declaring that private ownership of more than 100 kilograms of gold is illegal.
The most frightening episode is when the Saint’s Grandson neither nodded nor shook his head, keeping it in limbo.
"Who cares, if he wants to spend money that’s best, we can also make money."
The man in the top hat was just about to speak when he was overwhelmed by the surging noise.
"Here it comes, here it comes!"
"The decoding is out, what’s the report?"
"Is it the great Saint’s Grandson Wanpiao?"
Seeing this, the two stopped talking, quietly awaiting the lottery characters.
Standing on the steps beside the high tower, the decoder loudly announced, "The letter content is—"
"Hello, World."