"No, it's just that the environment in Falling Sunset Village is a bit too poor. I'm afraid it would be unfair to you. You're a fairy from heaven, how could you live in such an environment?"
"That's why I wanted to renovate Falling Sunset Village, to make it suit your taste."
Leo and Alice's heads touched. He did all these things entirely for Alice, and it had nothing to do with the villagers. If the villagers did end up living a good life, it was because of Alice.
In this world, or on the Earth of the past, his only remaining relative was Alice.
"Should I say I'm so happy, to match your heartfelt confession?" Alice said to Leo with a smile, her happiness surpassing even the most beautiful flower.
"No need, just give me a child."
Leo jumped up from the recliner, picked up Alice, and headed towards the room. Knowing what was about to happen, Alice lowered her head shyly, but her hands clung tightly to Leo's neck. As the door closed, no one knew what happened inside.
In the days that followed, Leo's plan began to advance rapidly. He annexed two villages in the same way, directly increasing the population of Falling Sunset Village to 3,000.
At the same time, all the chicks hatched at the chicken and duck farms were born, increasing the number of livestock such as chickens and ducks by a staggering 300,000.
While expanding its operations, Leo intensified its exploration and trade with surrounding towns.
As Falling Sunset Village has developed, the small towns 30 kilometers away can no longer absorb Falling Sunset Village output.
Previously, it was only a few hundred or a thousand kilograms of salted fish, but now tens of thousands of kilograms of fresh fish can be transported at once.
That town has a population of just over 10,000; how could it possibly absorb so many supplies?
Moreover, Falling Sunset Village's output is not limited to these; it also produces a large amount of livestock. One ship can saturate the market of a small town of ten thousand people, and it will take them half a month to digest a ship full of supplies.
While they were consuming one ship's worth of supplies, Falling Sunset Village had already produced five ship's worth of supplies, resulting in a severe overproduction!
There is an urgent need for a large market to consume it.
Finally, after Leo paid the price of two cows, he obtained the topographical map of the surrounding towns.
Looking at the megacity in the center of the map with a population of over 500,000, Leo pointed his finger; his next target was the trade route leading directly to Bihan City.
Leo casually drew a line on the map.
"I've checked. If we follow this route, we can reach Bihan City in just one month. Our current output isn't enough to transport goods to such a large city, but the small towns we pass through along the way will become our targets."
"They live far from the ocean and lack the fish we catch. Our seafood will definitely fetch a good price there. At the same time, goods from inland areas can also travel along our trade routes and sell their products to us."
"We don't need to complete this final trade route in the short term. What we need to do is open up the route section by section. The thirteen towns in between are all our targets. As our trade increases, our production capacity will greatly improve, and our output will also increase. I believe that when we open up the trade route to Bihan City, that will be the opportunity for us to become a major city."
"Comrades, a bright future is just around the corner! What are we waiting for? Let's get to work!!!"
Leo unknowingly brought his thoughts from Earth into the world, but thankfully no one could understand the meaning behind his use of the word "comrade."
After Leo finished speaking, everyone, whether they were from Falling Sunset Village before or from other villages that had merged with it later, had their eyes reddened with anger.
Looking at the lines Leo had casually drawn, they seemed to see a path to happiness—a path they had previously thought of and imagined.
"Population, large ships, horse-drawn carriages, and the discovered stable and safe routes are all our priorities going forward."
"I have formulated three five-year plans. The first five-year plan is to continue expanding the population and basic industries, while completing the surrounding trade framework. The second five-year plan is to begin exploring the direction of Bihan City. The third five-year plan is to complete the trade route to Bihan City."
"If all three five-year plans can be completed on schedule, our next task is to build a city here, fulfilling our original dream of transforming a small village with only a thousand people into a large city."
The power of a collective is boundless, especially when everyone in the group works towards a common goal; almost no difficulty can defeat the collective.
Moreover, they have two cheat devices, so in certain difficult situations, they always have mysterious means to help them overcome obstacles.
The first five-year plan was completed in the fourth year. Falling Sunset Village completely absorbed ten surrounding small villages, and its population increased from three thousand four years ago to twenty thousand.
The increase in population brings with it a large labor force.
The large boat that was originally planned to be purchased by the whole village has now been replaced by ten boats, and each voyage can yield a catch of tens of thousands of kilograms of fish.
Now, most of the fish catch is consumed within the village, with only a small portion being transported out. Of course, this "small portion" is only relative to the total; a catch exceeding 30,000 jin would still require five small towns with populations of 10,000 each to consume.
The land has been reclaimed to 50 square kilometers, and the grain produced is enough to feed 20,000 people for two years.
As for the livestock industry, there are even more; just hearing about the million-level figures made Leo wryly scratch his head.
There was too much; they couldn't possibly consume it all. And the trade routes weren't being established quickly enough, so most of the livestock had to be supplied to the villagers for free.
It is worth mentioning that Leo has been using a collective system so far. Based on Earth's experience, he uses work points instead of money, all industries belong to the collective, and then distribution is based on labor.
This ensures both the normal development of the industry and the ability to leverage collective power to accomplish a single task.
" Big Brother Bai, a wizard has come looking for suitable students. Would you like to go and take a look?"
This was the fifth year of the first five-year plan, and also the eighth year that Leo had been in Falling Sunset Village. His complexion was more mature, and his whole body was full of strength. This period was the time when a person's energy was at its peak.
The way he was addressed changed from "Xiao Bai" to "Big Brother Bai." Leo predicted that in a few years, he could become "Uncle White" and "Elder Bai." If he lived a long time, becoming "Ancestor White" wouldn't be out of the question.
Alice became even more beautiful over the past eight years. Because of Leo's position, Alice only needed to do some simple management work and didn't have to do anything else. Even the cooking she used to do was replaced by the large canteen by Leo. Alice completely became someone who never lifted a finger to cook.
Alice could do nothing at all if she wanted!
"Want to go see what's going on?"
Upon hearing that a wizard had appeared, Leo immediately asked Alice about it, a display of affection for his wife that made everyone else incredibly envious.
Everyone else could see that although the two hadn't had children all these years, it hadn't affected their relationship at all.
"Let's go, I've never seen a wizard before in my entire life,"
Alice, just like a little girl back then, reached out her hand to Leo, and Leo took Alice and walked towards the village.
As the population increased, the small village was expanded again and again. Originally, Leo and Alice's house was on the edge of the village, but now it has become the center of the village.
In the village square, everyone in the village came to see the mysterious wizard. Despite how well the village has developed now, the wizard's position in their hearts remains unshakable, mysterious and powerful.
Families with children brought their kids out, and they took their children to check if they were qualified to become wizards.
If one of them occurs, it will definitely be a major event that shakes the entire village.
However, if the test shows that the candidate is not qualified to become a wizard, these families will not experience much emotional change; at most, they will be sad for a while.
As life gets better and better, children who stay in the village have great potential for development. Whether they go out to sea to fish with the fleet or raise livestock, it's all good. They no longer have to become wizards like before.
Moreover, according to their legends, many children who went out never returned; who knows what they experienced on the outside?
A good life lessened their obsession with becoming wizards!
Leo and Alice stood in the crowd looking at the wizard, but lost interest after just one glance.
" Intermediate Wizard Apprentice is just qualified to travel outside. It seems the population here is small, and the wizarding academy doesn't value them much," Alice transmitted to Leo.
"On the map of the Wizarding Academy, Falling Sunset Village should still be a small village. It would be quite good if even one Intermediate Wizard Apprentice came. The ones coming in the next ten years won't be Wizard Apprentice," Leo said confidently.
The size of a village determines the strength of its visitors.
I believe you.
Finding nothing of interest, Leo took Alice home. He particularly enjoyed spending time alone with her, and whenever he wasn't busy, he would stay with Alice.
That evening, Leo received news that although Falling Sunset Village had a population of 20,000 and more than 3,000 children, none of them were qualified to become a wizard.
Leo comforted the messenger, assuring him that there would definitely be more in the future.
With the successful completion of the first Five-Year Plan, the next Five-Year Plan was immediately put on the agenda, namely, to open up trade routes.
On the line drawn by Leo, half of it can be traveled by land and sea, but the other half can only be traveled by land.
This presents a huge problem: sea freight has a large cargo capacity, while land freight has a small cargo capacity.
It takes more than twenty trucks to transport a single ship's worth of cargo.
Land transport severely limits the volume of trade!