The weather had turned cold recently, and everyone could feel the chill.
This was especially true for the lone wanderers living in the wilderness, who felt it even more keenly. Many were already worrying about the approaching harsh winter.
The last winter had claimed tens of thousands of lives!
At this critical juncture, Jiang Ye’s announcement was more enticing than a furnace in the winter. Within moments of being posted on the public channel, private messages flooded in like raindrops.
"Please! Let me immigrate! I've applied twice already!"
"Father Jiang Ye! Take me in!"
"Please give me a chance to immigrate, I'll do anything!"
"I can pay, please take me to the settlement, please!"
Jiang Ye didn't bother screening this time, pulling everyone who sent a private message into the immigration group. He then threw an online form into the group, asking everyone to fill in their names and locations.
For convenience, Jiang Ye also pulled Isabella into the group, letting her deal directly with the immigrants.
At the same time, he was also monitoring the online form submissions. The numbers were soaring!
One hundred, three hundred, five hundred…
One thousand, five thousand, ten thousand…
By 1 AM, fifteen thousand people had already filled in their names and locations in the online form.
Jiang Ye’s backend received almost no new private messages, with only one coming in after a long interval.
The next morning, another peak in private messages arrived, with notification sounds ringing continuously for about two hours.
Jiang Ye pulled everyone who sent private messages into the group chat.
There were about twenty thousand colonial officials scattered outside, and the immigration group had already reached seventeen thousand people.
Three thousand people had yet to send private messages.
Isabella had already designated several assembly points and posted them in the group chat, announcing that people would be picked up starting in the afternoon.
Jiang Ye was not one to procrastinate. He first paid Isabella a deposit of 170 million. As per the established rule, the cost of transporting each person was 10,000 yuan.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the money was transferred, her private message arrived:
"I'll give you a discount, 5,000 per person."
Jiang Ye was taken aback and typed a reply, "Are there any additional conditions?"
Isabella: "A small condition. The harsh winter is coming, and I need someone to warm my bed."
Jiang Ye: "No, I don't need a discount. Let's stick to the original price."
Isabella sent a selfie, rolling her eyes at the camera and giving him the middle finger.
For three consecutive days, courier ships were constantly dispatched, picking up hundreds and thousands of colonial officials from afar and bringing them to the settlement.
Jiang Ye, along with the police officers, busied themselves with the resettlement of the immigrants, working over ten hours a day. He ate boxed meals outdoors for all three meals.
By the end, a total of 18,706 immigrants were confirmed.
However, not everyone could live in the most prosperous Binhai City.
Each new immigrant had to draw lots to determine their place of residence.
5,000 lots were for Shale Town. After all immigrants were settled, Shale Town's total population would approach 10,000, upgrading it to Shale City.
3,706 lots were for Binhai City.
The remaining 10,000 lots were allocated to Chalk Land to establish the brand new Chalk City!
Jiang Ye had long-term considerations for having most of the new immigrants go to Chalk City.
These new immigrants were generally living in dire straits, living alone in the wilderness, eating raw food, dwelling in caves like savages. They were lucky if they could eat their fill, merely maintaining a state of survival, with "life" being irrelevant to them.
Their economic situations were also dire, with everyone being penniless.
If this group of people went to Node Star, beggars and pickpockets on Node Star would cry seeing them.
Coincidentally, there were still large areas of unexploited chalk near Chalk Land, which the new immigrants could mine to quickly increase their income and solve their food and clothing problems.
Originally, Jiang Ye had intended for the army to start mining the chalk, but now that there was a gold mine, the spiders were all concentrated on mining the expensive gold. Who had the manpower to mine the cheap chalkstone?
Letting the impoverished new immigrants mine it was fine. After all, they would spend the money they earned, and most of it would eventually flow back into Jiang Ye's pockets. Crucially, the development index would also rise.
In addition to handling the immigrants, Jiang Ye also took time to do many other tasks.
The Transportation Bureau was officially established, with Jiang Ye as its director.
The Transportation Bureau's current mission was simple: to manage roads and subways.
They had already recruited 200 traffic police officers and 300 subway employees, a total of six hundred people.
The traffic police officers had a very leisurely job. With the current low population, there were no traffic jams or accidents in most cities. They would stroll around the streets, drink tea in their offices, and occasionally attend meetings, and the day would pass.
The subway employees were undergoing intensive training, studying the work manuals, and gradually taking over the entire subway line.
Subway Line 1 had already passed inspection. Jiang Ye had visited it. It featured transparent vacuum tubes, with electromagnetic accelerators every ten meters. Bright white lights illuminated the entire subway line, making it quite futuristic.
Subway Line 2 had just been completed and was undergoing final checks and acceptance.
The nuclear power plant supplying electricity to the subway lines was completed almost simultaneously. It was a blocky, iron-blue building. The building's volume was smaller than Jiang Ye had imagined, only about the size of a McDonald's. He had expected a grand structure like the Pantheon in Rome.
The reactor was underground, and the cooling pool was about the size of a small bathhouse, filled with a purple gelatinous liquid.
The entire power generation facility was operated by robots, requiring no human employees to control it. It was truly fully automated and theoretically capable of operating for as long as the Ming and Qing dynasties combined.
However, White Ant Real Estate also sent a nuclear power expert, a plump, elderly black man who lived in the dormitory on top of the nuclear power plant. His monthly salary was 400,000 yuan, paid by Jiang Ye.
This expert brought a set of gaming equipment with him. He spent his days and nights holed up in his dormitory playing games. When he was hungry, he would call for takeout. The trash he generated was simply thrown out the window, making him quite slovenly. His job was to handle the reactor promptly in case of any accidents at the nuclear power plant, preventing radiation leakage.
If the nuclear power plant operated normally for decades, his slovenly life could continue for decades, allowing him to complete hundreds of games and become a gaming overlord.
The power output of this small nuclear power plant was approximately 17 billion kilowatt-hours per year. However, more than half of the electricity was supplied to the subway lines, demonstrating how power-hungry the vacuum tube subway was.
On the weekend, Jiang Ye woke up early, washed up, ate breakfast, changed into his sleek black formal attire, and meticulously shaved.
Today was the first official run of the subway line, and he was going to be the first official passenger. It was a significant event, so he had to pay attention to his appearance.
Of course, as the Director of Transportation and the Commander, Jiang Ye was not going to be a guinea pig. The subway trains had undergone hundreds of test runs in the previous days without any issues.
After tidying himself up, he went out and got into the骠骑 (Piaoqi - likely a personal vehicle).
"Please set your destination," the car's voice said softly.
"Binhai City Subway Station," Jiang Ye replied. "Let's go!"
The Piaoqi immediately took off, accelerating across the wilderness.
The subway station was not large and did not look particularly remarkable, but it was exceptionally clean. As soon as Jiang Ye’s Piaoqi landed in the parking lot, a large group of long-awaiting Transportation Bureau employees swarmed forward, applauding his arrival.
Jiang Ye opened the car door and stepped out. Surrounded by the employees, he entered the subway station hall.
There were a total of ten ticket gates, all equipped with facial recognition automatic ticket machines.
Jiang Ye stepped up and scanned his face. The ticket machine's holographic projection popped up a message:
[Ticket fare paid: 0 yuan. Welcome aboard!]
"Why is it 0 yuan?" Jiang Ye looked at the employees behind him.
"The exact ticket fare hasn't been finalized yet," an employee explained.
"A train has a total of one hundred seats. What is the cost of one trip divided by one hundred?" Jiang Ye immediately asked.
"Approximately 30 yuan," an employee quickly replied.
"Then the ticket fare will be set at 60," Jiang Ye instructed. "Modify it now, and I'll re-scan my ticket."