Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1781 Desert Border
The person in charge on the Russian border had a miserable day, starting with dealing with all sorts of headaches...

For them, the most important source of labor at this stage is those pigs.

Following Zhao Geng's earlier suggestion, they mixed a lot of grass seeds into the pig feed, and then let the pigs roam freely after eating them.

While the pigs are eating, drinking, and defecating, they semi-automatically plant these grass seeds.

At first, the results were quite good, and some grassland was gradually created, but the grassland could not stop desertification!

Zhao Geng's method of mixing grass seeds was first proposed for use in grassland areas.

In grassland areas, as cattle and sheep herds grow larger and larger, they overgraze the grasslands during grazing, resulting in large areas of grass being stripped bare, leading to desertification.

Zhao Geng then proposed the idea of ​​letting pigs that had eaten grass seeds go to the grasslands to plant grass, thereby creating a new ecological cycle on the grasslands.

However, in the desert, the extreme desert environment creates a unique climate that frequently brings sandstorms that erode neighboring areas over a large scale. This is the main reason why neighboring areas suffer from environmental erosion and rapid desertification.

Under these circumstances, this method cannot effectively prevent sandstorms; they need specialized sand-prevention plants.

With the successful example of Saint Laurent's borders, they certainly have these sand-resistant plants.

The problem now is that the goods are being transported from the Rakshasa region. Although steam trains have helped improve transportation efficiency, there are still insurmountable barriers blocking the way!
This short stretch of road alone can drastically increase their transportation costs and significantly reduce their efficiency.

Compared to the Russian border, which is plagued by various transportation costs and efficiency issues every day, the Saint Laurent border has shown a trend of increasingly smooth development in the past two years, as if it has entered a virtuous cycle.

"I'm coming!"

Inside Oasis Outpost No. 2, Tata rode a camel with an excited expression, herding more than a dozen wild camels in one direction.

While rushing, they also shouted reminders.

Meanwhile, the others had already made preparations on the perimeter. As soon as they saw the wild camel running over, they immediately pulled up the ropes that had been laid out on the ground in advance, just as the camel's forelegs were about to step over it.

In that instant, the rope was looped directly around the camel's hind leg.

Sensing the pulling on its hind legs, the camel instinctively struggled. As the camel struggled, the tugs pulled, causing its hind legs to lose support, and the camel was forced to lie down.

Perhaps because the snake people are gone, desert animals occasionally come to drink water near the three oasis strongholds of their Great Zhou.

Among them, wild camels are undoubtedly the resource they need most.

Under this premise, camels, as social animals, often appear in herds.

They were lucky this time; they actually had more than a dozen camels!

This greatly excited Tata, who was at Oasis No. 2 at the time.

They quickly arranged for manpower and brought ropes and tools to catch the camels.

This was clearly not their first time doing this; they were quite skilled at the whole process, and in no time, more than a dozen wild camels were caught.

On the desert border, camel breeding has always been a key project, but due to the small initial camel population, it's unrealistic to expect to achieve a large-scale breeding program within the next few years. To rapidly expand the camel population, the key is still to catch them.

In the past two years, they have made great progress in capturing wild camels. In addition, with the young camels they have bred themselves, the total number of camels has long exceeded fifty. The next goal is to break the one hundred mark!

On the first day of the new year, Shi Lei, as the commander-in-chief of the Saint Laurent border, received a message from the other side of the Russian border.

The person in charge of sand control and desertification prevention on the other side hopes to establish a transportation route with their Saint Laurent border area to directly transport the sand control plants and related resources needed later from the desert to their side.

They also explained their situation on their side in a sincere manner.

Simply put, it's too inefficient, too costly, and even risky for the transport team to cross the treacherous terrain. If they fall off the mountain road, they could be crippled or killed. Considering all factors, it might be more convenient to go directly through the desert. We hope to get their help.

Faced with this suggestion, Shi Lei did not give an immediate reply, but instead pondered it.

The key issue is that it wasn't his area of ​​responsibility.

Each region's head has their own responsibilities. It's fine for neighboring regions to help each other, but they must prioritize ensuring that their own daily work is not affected.

Not to mention that this whole thing is basically them unilaterally helping the Russian border.

Under these circumstances, the cost of transportation in the desert is not low, not to mention that the distance from the Saint Laurent border to the Russian border is not short. If they take on this task, the pressure on their side will inevitably increase.

In this situation, Shi Lei naturally had to first check with his various departments to see if they had the capacity before making a decision.

The relevant personnel quickly gathered together. After understanding the situation, none of them spoke, but Shi Lei could tell that none of them were particularly enthusiastic.

In situations like this, besides the inherent pressure, there's also the issue of responsibility; if something goes wrong, they will have to bear the consequences.

Ultimately, this wasn't their job in the first place. By simply refusing, they could completely avoid the risks they didn't have to bear in the first place, so it's no wonder everyone reacted this way.

At this point, some people might wonder, if the Russian border has this need, why not just write a report and apply?
There are actually many reasons for this.

Putting aside the fact that this approach is extremely inefficient, from the perspective of the person in charge, the reason you were assigned to this position is because they value your ability to handle problems and complete projects independently.

Instead of reporting every problem you encounter and passing it on to your superiors for handling, it's not about reporting every problem you encounter.

Even a fool knows that if all the problems of the entire Great Zhou were written into reports and sent to the Hall of Diligent Governance, the entire palace would be overflowing with documents, let alone the Hall of Diligent Governance.

If the local person in charge can handle something themselves, they should do so. Otherwise, what is their value as a person in charge?
Putting that aside, whether you report this matter or not, the end result will definitely be trouble for the neighboring Saint Laurent border.

If you're going to cause trouble for someone, it's the most basic principle to give them a heads-up beforehand, right?

You should even cultivate good relationships with them in ordinary times.

Otherwise, even if you report it to the Hall of Diligent Governance, even if Zhou Xu has seen it, he can't just close his eyes and make arrangements directly. He would definitely have to send someone to confirm whether the Saint Laurent border has the capacity to do this.

At that point, they can easily find any excuse like "not enough manpower," "high workload," or "difficulty in desert transportation" to cancel your project. What can you do then?
(End of this chapter)