According to Li Wei's original plan, they were to first open up a trade route with the nearby Silvermoon Federation, lay railway tracks to the riverbank, then use the Surbrin River's well-developed water transport to gradually spread Zelandia's products throughout the Federation. The resources thus acquired would then be used to steadily expand the construction of the new city, Minas Tirith.
There was one enormous advantage to doing things this way: stability!
But Li Wei's luck clearly wasn't all that good. No sooner had he formed this idea than the Silvermoon Federation fell into a difficult state of disaster relief and stability maintenance after its northern farms came under attack.
In such circumstances, expanding the market was obviously difficult.
So they planned to make a comeback the following year.
It wasn't as if no one had considered Water-Drawing City in their earlier meetings, but they were outsiders, after all. If they started raking in wealth on a grand scale before their footing was secure, it would be easy for troublesome factions to set their sights on them.
The port cities around the Sword Coast—Neverwinter City, Water-Drawing City, and Baldur's Gate—had gradually amassed vast wealth over nearly a thousand years by leveraging their notable geographical advantages and the resources flowing between north and south. As such, the factions within them were equally numerous, their roots and branches tangled deep.
Charging in headfirst would easily leave them covered in filth.
There was another crucial point: Li Wei had underestimated the purchasing power of port cities like Water-Drawing City.
That impression had become fixed after his visit to Silvermoon City. For such an enormous city, its permanent population was actually under forty thousand.
And from the data they had gathered through their dealings, even the entire Silvermoon Federation likely had only a little