[Note: When the Zheer Elves first appeared alongside the Zheer Continent, their population was only around three million. If you read the elf background I posted earlier, you'll know that even after nearly three hundred years, their population has only just passed ten million. The market is small, so you can't apply examples from other countries.]
The final day of Levant Year 299 passed. As the hands of the clock made their last turn to 00:00, the sound of fireworks and firecrackers rang out across the Elf Kingdom.
Under the rule of Rus Wang, the elves had taken only three hundred years to go from the late Neolithic age of large tribal societies, when copper tools were just beginning to appear, to an era when steam locomotives roared across the country and Soul Tools made daily life more convenient.
Although double-track railways had only been laid across the Central Plateau south of the Nanshan Rainforest in the northern part of the Zheer Continent, and the network was still far from complete, the elves had spent two years adjusting to the planned economy. None of them doubted that the country would enjoy a brighter future beneath the roar of steam locomotives.
That same year, the elders of the tribal era officially passed into history. Only a handful remained, having chosen to break through to the Titled Douluo level; they stayed hidden within the Grey Feather Division. The elven population had officially entered an era in which everyone had been born under the rule of King Rus Wang.
That same year, Rus Wang approved a new term of office for the prime minister: fifteen years, with a maximum of two consecutive terms. In recognition of his outstanding reform achievements, Prime Minister Ulysses Taylor received the king's special approval to stand in the upcoming election and, under the revised term limits, to run for a second term.
At the same time, the cabinet set the direction for the new century-long plan, resolving to extend the railway network across the entire northern part of the Zheer Continent.
"Hey, Henderson, your family's fireworks quota for this year has arrived. At last, I've delivered the whole lot. I should be heading back now."
"Thanks for all your hard work, Hank. Put the cart back in the storage area."
"Of course. This is the precious cargo of the whole camp. If a spark from the fireworks so much as grazed it, we'd have to count ourselves lucky."
This was a Construction Corps camp. After the corps personnel eventually withdrew, it would become housing for a state-run farm. Every Construction Corps outpost in the Elf Kingdom was organized as a Combined Arms Battalion. Apart from battalion headquarters, each included three construction companies, a logistics company, a technical platoon, a medical platoon staffed by priests, and an additional combat platoon sent by the military.
A Construction Corps base was enclosed by a wall four meters long, surrounding a rectangular area of about 360 mu. The reinforced concrete walls were a full meter thick, designed to keep out top- and mid-level predators like Allosauruses and Smilodons.
The construction companies were responsible for reclaiming unused land outside the camp and putting it to agricultural use.
The logistics company maintained and repaired the camp's facilities and machinery. Its personnel were technical and junior college graduates transferred from the cities. After serving here for ten years, these educated workers became eligible to retake their entrance exams. The top fifteen percent of those retaking the exams would be admitted to high schools or universities without having to pay the steep tuition fees. Those who failed would not be allowed a third attempt. They could try to enter a junior college, return to the construction frontier, apply to leave the Construction Corps and enter civilian life, or seek some other path.
The combat platoon was made up of elven Soul Master soldiers whose cultivation had reached the Soul King or Soul Ancestor level. They carried heavy weapons such as sabers, broadswords, and battle axes, and rode Heron Eagle Dragons or military Soul Tool jeeps. In the morning, they patrolled the fields and drove off Allosauruses that threatened elven civilians. Once everyone had returned to camp for the night, they sent out patrols to inspect the walls, making sure that powerful leaping mid-level predators like Smilodons couldn't jump inside and sneak into the small chicken run beside the cafeteria to steal a meal.
Inside the walls, the Construction Corps camp was divided into several areas: the corps' main factory building, a storage area for construction equipment, housing for married corps members, a corps elementary school that also served as a preschool, and the corps cafeteria, which had a small chicken farm that supplied the camp with eggs and meat.
The factory buildings were assembled from metal sheets and metal columns, like building blocks. Inside, they had washrooms, a study area, an entertainment area, and four private bedrooms. Men and women lived separately, and the soundproofing was poor. Some buildings had no metal walls inside at all; only the outer shell remained, serving as a grain warehouse.
Married elves, meanwhile, lived in specially designed concrete houses. To reduce construction costs and shorten building times, these differed from the city houses, which were made by combining two hollow rectangular concrete blocks to build a two-story detached home. Each camp house used just one hollow rectangular concrete block, but it was much wider and longer than a city house. In return, it had all the necessary facilities. If they wished, couples in the Construction Corps could use their monthly food ration coupons to exchange for ingredients at the cafeteria and cook their own meals.
After the Construction Corps left, these houses would be occupied by the state-run farm workers who moved into the camp to take up their posts.
When the elves in a construction company had served their full thirty years and applied to leave the Construction Corps, the corps' personnel department would assign them housing in a town that had grown up around a railway junction. They would receive a standard home provided free to the public by the government (see the comments section of Chapter 37 for details) and be assigned jobs in a factory.
Construction Corps camps were established near broad stretches of reclaimable flatland or large open-pit mines. Their locations were not isolated; double-track railways ran past them. There were also always several other Construction Corps camps nearby. Cement roads often connected these camps to railway loading stations, where train cars were loaded with the year's grain harvest or the month's mineral output.
"On the first day of the new year, I'll skip the formalities. Here's to the brilliant young graduates in our Construction Corps camp's logistics company—may you make the cut in this year's entrance exams!"
The intoxicated elven man, head chef of a Construction Corps camp cafeteria, spoke to the elves seated inside, who had gathered to celebrate the new century.
The elves all cheered.
Then they began to sing the Construction Corps' most popular song, "Drifting Rootless Grass."
We are rootless grass, drifting across the land.
Where there is water, we take root; where there is none, we move on.
We leave our seeds upon the land; when water comes, new shoots will grow.
"Everyone's making quite a racket on the first day of the new year, aren't they?"
Rus Wang sat with his nine wives and Barus's family in the banquet hall of the royal palace on Temple Mountain. His second daughter, Iyuda, was there too. They watched the fireworks zone in Ravenna, where firecrackers boomed and lit up the night sky.
"Of course. There are clear standards for the recent pay increases, so everyone can see how to get ahead. And now they have a lot of spare money, so naturally they can afford things they wouldn't have dared spend on before."
Thalassa smiled as she spoke to Rus Wang.
"Are you not going to deliver a speech on the radio, Your Majesty?"
"Since you say so, Thalassa."
Rus Wang smiled.
Radios in homes throughout the Elf Kingdom, in the Nanshan Rainforest settlements, in state-run farm cafeterias, and at military bases in Dragon Valley Forest broadcast the king's New Year's address.
"The bells heralding the arrival of Levant's fourth century are about to ring out beneath the vast skies of our planet. Civilization on the Zheer Continent is about to enter a new century and begin a new hundred years. Tonight, in the north and south, the east and west of this continent, let us rejoice at the arrival of this historic moment, regardless of race or faith."
Before you continue