The war had ended, and the realm was pacified.
Other places might not yet have seen much movement due to a lack of manpower, but Jingcheng—and indeed all of Zhili—had already been swept up in a world-shaking frenzy.
Spring had warmed the land, flowers were blooming, rivers had thawed, and all things were coming back to life. The frozen earth had softened enough for work, and the refugees had all been organized to begin a massive construction drive.
Roads were being built, waterworks repaired, cities developed, factories constructed and put into production, along with every kind of agricultural, forestry, livestock, and fishing enterprise. Everyone was busy; there simply were no idle hands.
Wang Yan was not afraid of having too many people. This place was waiting to be rebuilt from the ground up and was transitioning into the industrial age, making manpower an immensely valuable resource. There was no such thing as someone having no work to do. Even if Zhili could no longer accommodate them all, they could simply keep expanding outward.
After all, he printed the money himself and mobilized the supplies himself. As long as distribution was reasonable, everyone might still go hungry, but the work could continue. So long as they could keep working, development would snowball, and they would naturally grow stronger and stronger.
All of this was seen by many people.
These "people" included those from the borderlands, those from the plateau, those living in the southern mountains, officials with all manner of ulterior motives, remnants of the former Qing Dynasty hiding in secret, as well as Japan, Russia, the United States, Germany, France, England, Portugal, Spain, Austria...
There were so many foreign devils feeding off China that even counting with both hands and feet would not be enough.
Historically, after the Second Opium