"Isn't the scope too small?" Rong Desheng was perplexed upon hearing this.

  Wang Zhenyu saw that everyone's appetite had been whetted, and then he seriously pointed to the map and said: "You're doing business, can't you just consider yourself? You also have to think about society. Look, opposite the textile mill is a steel mill. If I'm not mistaken, the steel mill is all male workers, and the textile mill is all female workers. If both factories have their own dormitories, these men and women won't have any chance of meeting each other, they can't even see each other's faces, how can they communicate? Without communication, how can they get married and have children? Ah!"

  The last "ah" was the result of Ye Ziyuan's ruthless pinch, and everyone burst out laughing.

  "So, we should move their dormitories to the living area, and the textile factory should finish work a few minutes earlier than the steel factory, so that workers can meet each other after work. Ah, Mr. Rong, you need to have the awareness of being a matchmaker."

  Haha, everyone laughed even louder.

  When he came out, Wang Zhenyu looked at the factory building that had already started construction and instructed Rong Desheng: "The factory area should be beautiful and clean, this is a company's face. In addition, it doesn't hurt to learn from foreigners to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and our products will have competitiveness."

  After that, there were power companies, soap factories, match factories, machine tool factories, garment factories and cotton cloth factories. Every family had the same problem: lack of professional technical personnel and core technology.

  Wang Zhenyu thought for a moment, then called Chen Shao and Liu Guojun over: "These companies and factories, you guys just set up an industrial group to take charge of them, and then go to Shanghai to think of ways. Introduce some excellent technical personnel, offer higher salaries, promise one month's paid vacation per year, and when Anjiang is doing well, they will naturally move their families over. Also, I want you to establish an industrial school, the land can be allocated from the administrative district, don't worry about spending money, what I want is results."

  The two of them hastily agreed, but couldn't help sighing inwardly. There were already many things to attend to, and now they had to add more manpower.

  The tour of the residential and administrative areas was quite exciting, as the Germans had brought in a large batch of technical personnel and building materials from Hankou. Many houses had already completed their foundation work and were under construction. After taking a look at the design drawings, Wang Zhenyu felt that the style was very good and he patted Hans and German designer Schrock on the shoulder: "You've worked hard."

  "General, with so many design schemes, I'm really exhausted."

  Looking at Wang Zhenyu's embarrassed face, Ye Ziyuan couldn't help but laugh out loud.

  Wang Zhenyu also paid special attention to the construction of drainage systems, so that in later generations, when it rained, sailing a boat in the city was much more convenient than driving a car. Therefore, another approach to building Anjiang Model City is to make breakthroughs in this area, especially since Anjiang is adjacent to Yuanjiang River and prone to flooding during rainy seasons.

  The person in charge of the sewer design was a German named Becker, who seriously explained their work to Wang Zhenyu and others. They basically referred to the experience of Germans in Qingdao, separating rainwater and sewage, and the sewers were very spacious, with a height that could guarantee Yao Ming's walking inside, and the width was really wide enough for a car to drive in. More importantly, according to Becker's introduction, in order to avoid sludge accumulation, at the outlet of the sewer, Germans measured the water level of Yuanjiang River and accurately designed the drainage outlet. Once the river rises, the water will flow back and flush the sewage pipe. Schr?ck said that when designing the riverside road, a flood control dike was also designed, which is higher than the city area, so once the flood comes, it can ensure the safety of the city area. And once the sewer is built, the problem of pipe bursts will be solved.

  Wang Zhenyu was stunned and didn't quite understand, but he felt that the Germans were indeed meticulous in their work.

  The last stop was a basically formed administrative district, where Wang Zhenyu's focus of inspection was different from other places, and it turned out to be his own home, which was simply done to please his wife.

  Ye Zhiwen saw the roughly formed Town Guardian Mansion, which was constructed according to the design of German designer Racharuwitch. This time, Lihe and Yanghang put in a lot of effort to establish a long-term business relationship with Wang Zhenyu, which also allowed Chen Shao and Chen Quzhen to broaden their horizons while saving a lot of trouble.

  The yamen was divided into two parts: the office area and private residence.

  First is the office section, a three-story European-style villa with a red exterior, covering an area of 800 square meters, with a steel-reinforced concrete structure. The standard length and width are 40x20. The total building area is 2100 square meters, divided into 49 rooms. The first and second floors have a total area of 1600 square meters, with 40 offices, each measuring 25 square meters. The third floor has an area of 500 square meters, with 9 rooms, including one mayor's office, one reception room, three conference rooms; there is also a communication room, a confidential document room, a secretary's room, and a waiting room. Both the first and second floors have three staircases, while the third floor has only one staircase but is designed with a secret escape slide. Additional features include green spaces, bamboo forests, fountains, sentry posts, with a total construction cost of 110,000 silver dollars.

  Secondly, the residential part, behind the town guard mansion is a 12-acre villa area. According to Wang Zhenyu's intention, only generals and above can live here. The Germans designed 24 villas with different styles. However, Wang Zhenyu did not plan to move in here. In the town guard mansion, two European-style white tower residences were also designed, one on each side, perfectly complementing the office building, and the overall effect is expected to be very good.

  Ye Zhiwen became lively as soon as she arrived, looking left and right, then holding the blueprint to say to the German: "The living room ceiling should be high, the residence is on the second floor, in short, it must be the same as my home in Hankou, do you understand?"

  The poor German looked at Ye Xiaojie with a confused expression, what was your home in Hankou like? Wang Zhenyu and Ye Zuwen looked at the innocent and lovely Ye Ziwen, but didn't reveal anything, and just smiled.

  Having inspected this, it can basically be concluded that Wang Zhenyu shook hands with Chen Shao and Chen Quzhen respectively: "It's hard work, but the progress of the project must still be grasped well, quality is important. I hope the administrative district can be completed in November. The establishment of the town guard office will also start soon, I hope you can achieve results."

  It goes without saying that Chen Shao and Chen Quzhen immediately understood Wang Zhenyu's meaning, and they all expressed their willingness to reassure the general.

  Ming Jincai is an old farmer from Gan Tang, Jingzhou. Like many others in the Ming family, he has been renting land from the Huang family for generations to make a living. His wife is also surnamed Huang, and they have had a bunch of children, but due to poor hygiene conditions, only two sons and one daughter survived to adulthood. The eldest son, Dahu, is 17 years old this year, and the second son, Xiaohu, is 14 years old. They are all half-grown kids who eat away their parents' livelihood, but Ming Jincai is skilled at growing vegetables, and the landlord, Old Master Huang, is also very polite to him, often giving him some extra things, barely enough to get by without having to go up into the mountains to become a bandit.

  At the beginning of the year, when the bandits were rampant, Ming Jincai's younger brother Ming Jinbao and his wife were killed by the bandits, leaving behind four young children with no one to care for them. The eldest was only 13 years old, and the youngest was only 6 years old. Ming Jincai had no choice but to raise these four children himself. Suddenly, there were four more mouths to feed, and the family's rice became scarce. His wife, Ming Huangshi, couldn't help but complain a few times, but Ming Jincai had no solution, so he could only suppress her roughly, and the family continued to live in hardship.

  Originally, I was planning to go to Huang Lao Ye after the autumn harvest and ask him if he could give me an extra 10 mu of land. But unexpectedly, before summer planting, Huang Lao Ye came to find me himself and told me not to plant anything.

  "Huang Lao Ye, since my great-grandfather's time, our family has been making a living by renting your land. For over a hundred years, we've been living off the land like this. If you take back the land today, won't my whole family starve to death?"

  "Brother, I'm also helpless. Our Gan Tang Town has been designated as a commercial town, and my land has all been requisitioned. The Chamber of Commerce compensated me with money, and even allocated three storefronts for me to collect rent. What can I do?" Old Master Huang said with a hint of pleading in his tone.

  Ming reluctantly accepted the arrangement of fate, looking at his wife and children, it seemed that he could only find another landlord elsewhere to see if he could rent some land. However, the pace of urbanization was very fast, with the support of policies and sufficient funds, a large number of peasants lost their arable land. This process is similar to the "sheep eating people" before the British Industrial Revolution, where a large number of peasants lost their land, which became urban land, workshops, and economic crop farms.

  Fortunately, this change was promoted by Wang Zhenyu in a planned and step-by-step manner. Before Ming Jincai took his family to eat fugu and commit suicide, the working group of the town government and the working group of the county government had been dispatched.

  "Anjiang is recruiting workers, with a monthly salary of three yuan, and also providing food and accommodation. This condition is not bad." Ming Jincai heard the oral propaganda from the person in charge of recruiting laborers in the town and immediately accepted this new path. Jokingly, three silver dollars are equivalent to forty kilograms of rice. If he and his eldest son work together, that would be eighty kilograms of rice. Not counting himself and his eldest son, the remaining amount can barely feed his wife and six other children with some sweet potatoes and other miscellaneous grains."

  With a resolute spirit, Ming Jincai showed the courage of a Xiangxi native and set off on the road to Anjiang with his family of ten.

  The living environment was very poor in the early days, and to prevent the outbreak of epidemics, everyone was required to undergo physical examinations and disinfection. The dormitories were regularly disinfected with mosquito and rat repellents, and farmers who had recently been bandits were now required to use fixed toilets for their sanitary needs, with separate facilities for men and women as families grew in size. Wastewater was also designated to be poured into drainage ditches, but if you didn't comply, the soldiers in charge would lash out with a rattan stick, not intending to kill but just to intimidate. It's said that this was General Wang's personal instruction, a new life movement starting from emphasizing hygiene.

  After doing it for several months, 80 kilograms of rice turned into 160 kilograms of sweet potatoes. However, the children still couldn't eat their fill, and during the stage of growth, how could they be full by eating sweet potatoes every meal?

  Ming Jincai planned to ask the manager for some wages, but was ruthlessly rejected. Every single cent was calculated by the financial department of the General Headquarters, and even an additional 100 yuan required the signature of Deputy Commander-in-Chief Chen Quzhen or Commander-in-Chief Chen Shao, otherwise it was not worth discussing.

  At that time, compulsory education was still in the design stage. In many counties, even schools had not been built yet. So children didn't even have a place to read books, let alone get meal allowances.

  This is really a half-grown kid, worrying his parents to death. When he came home with the money, he saw a big group of kids fighting over sweet potatoes, and in anger, he kicked over the chairs. The older children dared not speak out when they saw their father (uncle), while the younger ones cried directly.

  Wan's father, Ming Datou, stepped two steps into the door and firmly remembered this scene in his heart.