"Thank you for your help, Governor Drag!"
After a brief and meticulous inquiry, two Federation Government officials got up to say goodbye. Drag, somewhat impatiently, watched them leave and then instructed the butler to lock the door.
Earlier, he felt there was no danger here, and even if there were, the Federation people would handle the trouble first. That's why he didn't instruct the butler to lock the door.
It turned out that if there was trouble, the Federation people would be the trouble itself.
Once the door was locked, he breathed a bit of relief; it was a strange feeling.
Sometimes people know that doing or not doing something won't affect the result, yet they still choose to do it and gain a sense of security from it, which is quite contradictory.
He returned to the bedroom and decided to give Lynch a call.
"The meeting is over, and I've done everything you asked me to do..." At this moment, Governor Drag, for some reason, suddenly thought of the old King's performance at the meeting. Honestly, he felt a bit envious and somewhat shaken.
At his level, he's rarely shaken by anything. He thought the old King would be a selfish person, but surprisingly, the old King was more patriotic than any of them.
It sounds a bit unbelievable, as the concept of "country" doesn't really exist here. Each province is like a small country, yet the old King created a true "country" concept, which left people at a loss and made them feel ugly and insignificant.
While they were resisting the Federation people, he chose to surrender...
Lynch's voice quickly shattered these thoughts, "Did you talk about the bank issue?"
Drag was stunned for a moment before coming to his senses. His mind went blank for a moment, then he shook his head and said, "No, I was only thinking about persuading the old King and overlooked this matter, and I feel everyone..."
He slightly changed to a tone as if deliberating with some doubt, "seems not to oppose directly gobbling up Federation Sol."
"Of course they wouldn't oppose!" Lynch's voice was decisive, as if he already knew the answer, "Compared to establishing a bank, they'd rather put their money in their own pockets than in someone else's."
"However, it doesn't matter that you didn't bring this up. Those matters don't concern me much, they're created by those bank people. Generally speaking, Mr. Drag, you've proven your value, you are the friend we need. When you return, we can sit down and talk about investment matters."
"Well, I won't disturb you..."
After Lynch hung up the phone, he turned and slightly frowned as he looked out at the busy street. The progress was beyond expectations.
In Nagariel, doing infrastructure construction is much more comfortable compared to developed countries, like the Federation, because there's no need to negotiate with anyone.
In the Federation, if a power company wants to erect a power pole by the roadside, using the pole's point as the center and 1.5 times the pole's length as the radius, if any residents, shops, or property owners express concerns within this area.
For example, they might worry that if the pole accidentally falls, it might hit them or debris might cause them loss, they can refuse the power company from erecting a pole here.
Even between two power poles, the property owners located beneath the wires have the right to argue with the power company, wondering what if the wire breaks and falls right on them?
Every year, countless negotiation events like this drive all construction companies crazy. Even a minor, seemingly unnoticed issue can delay a project for ten days, half a month, or even longer.
But in Nagariel, these possibilities aren't considered at all.
Before road work starts, the ground is leveled, and no one opposes.
Some houses that affect future construction are demolished by the homeowner after receiving a trivial amount of money, even helping the construction team with demolition.
No haggling, no opportunist demands, no delusions of suddenly dying in the street from anxiety or neurosis. This made the planned construction speed much faster than expected, even the Federation people couldn't believe it was so easy.
After all, everyone is always arguing under the pretense of freedom and rights, facing this kind of smooth progress felt somewhat uncomfortable.
After watching the construction scenes outside for a while, Lynch suddenly remembered what he initially intended to think about. The ambitions of the six major banks were huge, and their executives seemed to have reached some unknown agreement with the Federation government's top officials, but these didn't have much relevance to Lynch.
As long as his interests aren't affected, he doesn't care if others share the pie.
He briefly tidied up, then let the Senior Soldier drive him to the cement factory.
The cement factory had started full-scale operations. There wasn't much technical content; frankly speaking, the main process was just crushing.
Lynch had already ordered two standard production lines in the Federation, but it will take some time before they can be put into place here. On one hand, there is a lack of vehicles with sufficient load capacity here, and road transportation is also a daunting challenge.
Currently, there are actually some heavy-duty machines waiting for transport at the port, but it is clear they still need to wait for some time, at least until the roads are repaired.
Additionally, in order to adapt to the local production conditions, the production lines also need some slight modifications.
Right now Lynch is using a few old machines. These machines are low-cost and cheap, and easy to transport. The only downside may be that they are somewhat "picky" about their input.
But this is not within Lynch's consideration at all; he came to Nagariel to solve these problems!
Not even near the cement factory yet, Lynch already saw dust swirling in the sky. A thick layer of dust covered the road and the leaves on both sides, and the air was filled with an irritating smell. Lynch had to wear a breathing filter to avoid inhaling a large amount of suspended dust into his lungs.
As he got a bit closer to the workshop, he could hear the ding-dang sound of stones being hammered. When the car moved forward a little, what came into view was a large group of workers wielding sledgehammers weighing at least twenty pounds, manually crushing some raw materials.
The old machines from the Federation, because they are too old, have quite strict standards for material input. It will be a long time before the large crushers arrive, so manpower is being used instead.
Every day, a wage of one hundred and five galalies plus a lunch makes all the workers very satisfied, and they work very hard.
People always say that human power is no match for machine power, but those who say this have clearly never been to Nagariel!
As soon as he got out of the car, Nell and the deputy manager came up to greet him, both wearing goggles and respirators. This place didn't seem like a cement factory at all, more like a laboratory for biochemical research.
"You should have called earlier, then I could have let them stop for a while..." Nell hugged Lynch and casually complained, "The dust here is too much, and it's too noisy."
"What did you say?" Lynch shouted loudly in his ear, the ding-dang sound made it impossible for him to hear what Nell was mumbling.
Nell was momentarily stunned, "Try it? You want me to try what?"
Lynch shook his head and pointed to the office, and the group headed inside.
Entering the office, Lynch looked at the layer of dust on the table and frowned, while Nell removed his respirator and goggles, shaking his head for the deputy manager to clean the place up.
"Even with the doors closed, it only takes a short while for dust to settle. The dust here is too much. Didn't you say last time that there are dust suppression devices?"
Lynch also removed his gear, glanced outside through the blurred window.
Besides having a handkerchief or something tied around their noses and mouths, people had no other protection.
He only glanced and then withdrew his gaze, "Has anyone complained?"
"Complaint?" Nell shifted slightly to let the deputy manager continue cleaning, and stood aside shaking his head, "No, of course not, no one has complained. It's just that I can't stand it anymore. Lately, I've been coughing a lot. I suspect it's related to this dust."
Lynch nodded noncommittally, "The stuff will arrive soon, but without suitable roads, we can't bring those things over, do you understand what I mean?"
A lot of industrial equipment weighs more than people can imagine. It's not something you can just move by getting a few more people. Sometimes a single motor can weigh several tons or even more.
The special transport vehicles that can carry such industrial equipment are not light themselves. With the current road conditions in Nagariel, transportation trucks may have to stop as soon as they leave the port.
The muddy roads may support the lives of people in Nagariel, but a transport truck weighing several tons or more will simply sink into it with the slightest pressure. Only by repairing the roads first can those things be transported in.
Nell sighed, "Looks like I'll have to endure for a while longer!"
Lynch didn't answer the question but asked another question instead, "Are these workers honest enough? Any troublemakers?"
Perhaps Lynch's question hit a nerve for Nell, as his words suddenly increased.
"I thought the people here wouldn't be too...," his body language followed promptly, "...difficult to deal with. But on the very first day we officially started, we lost close to fifty twenty-pound sledgehammers!"
"You wouldn't believe how I felt when I learned about this. Losing one or two I could understand, but this many!"
As he spoke, he seemed to amuse himself and laughed heartily, "Alright, alright, poverty is the original sin. Besides that, there were some troublemakers, but we kicked them out, and the ones that remain have become much more honest. Except when you're not watching, they might slack off a bit, but they don't have more issues than that."
"But you only have one pair of eyes, you can't monitor everyone at the same time. In places you don't notice, there will definitely be someone slacking off!"
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