Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1913 Goblin Mist City (Bonus chapter for 1000 monthly votes)
Zhou Xu was not surprised by the fact that his faith power had not increased much despite absorbing nearly a million goblins; in fact, he had expected it.

He is now considering another issue.

It should be noted that the state religion also requires funding to spread its faith, build churches, and hold activities in various places, and the funding can be quite substantial.

The results in the new district are clearly not good, which is related to the nature of the goblin race and cannot be easily changed.

After all, there's an old saying that goes, "It's easier to change mountains and rivers than to change one's nature."

Despite the fact that the state religion also has its propaganda department promoting the various benefits of believing in the emperor.

But the goblins didn't believe it; they thought it was a lie.

If you want them to believe in loyalty and faith in the emperor, and to keep them healthy and live longer, then only time will tell.

Even if they realized it and pretended to attend church activities while shouting 'Praise the Emperor,' it wouldn't make a difference.

Zhou Xu's 'Evolutionary Leader' effect strikes at the heart; feigned loyalty is utterly useless.

Under these circumstances, this is still a passive effect, and Zhou Xu can't give it even if he wants to.

For various reasons, Zhou Xu is now considering whether to simply reduce the missionary funding here. In any case, the results are not good, and reducing the missionary funding can at least save some government expenditure, which can be used elsewhere.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the state education system will be abandoned in the new district.

Just scale it down, reduce some expenses, and do some Buddhist-style proselytizing, and that's it.

After a few more years, when the two sides have fully integrated and the original races of the Great Zhou and the goblins have basically achieved a state of 'you in me, and me in you,' then we can slowly exert our strength depending on the situation.

After all, the subtle influence of coworkers, colleagues, and neighbors in daily life cannot be ignored.

Zhou Xu, a workaholic, still couldn't change his work ethic, no matter where he went. On the way to the new district on the goblin airship, he finished the follow-up plan for the national education propaganda in the new district.

The goblin airship that Zhou Xu was on could have flown directly to the ruling city of the new district, but Zhou Xu had no such intention.

Since we're already here, we might as well take the opportunity to do some inspections.

He had indeed read quite a few reports from the new district, but there were some things that you wouldn't understand unless you saw them with your own eyes and conducted on-site investigations.

To put it bluntly, how can you be sure that your subordinates aren't hiding anything from you?

The person who wrote the report and the person in charge of the on-site investigation were not the same person. If anyone in the chain of command lied, the credibility of the report would be reduced.

Normally, this area is overseen by Ye Jinghong's Inspection Department, but now that he himself has come, there's no reason not to conduct an on-site inspection.

Standing on the goblin airship and looking down, Zhou Xu felt that the entire city was shrouded in fog, with an exaggeratedly high concentration of smog, reminding him of 18th-century London, the foggy city.

This is the consequence of pursuing an industrial revolution while ignoring environmental governance.

Environmental governance is also an important project because it affects the livability of a city.

If you live in a city with a high livability, everyone will be in a good mood and mental state every day, and naturally, they will have more energy to work.

Conversely, this smog-filled city, shrouded in gray every day, would certainly cause people to feel depressed if they stayed there for too long.

Meanwhile, a large portion of the air is mixed with industrial waste gas, resulting in extremely poor air quality. Just breathing in a few more breaths here feels like it would shorten your lifespan by several years. There are reasons why the goblin kingdom collapsed. One reason is the scarcity of internal resources, and another is their eagerness for quick success, which led them to act somewhat recklessly.

It's important to understand that what Zhou Xu is seeing now is the situation after their Great Zhou took over for more than half a year. Before that, the situation would only have been worse.

In contrast, the most typical example of their Great Zhou Dynasty is the steam city located in the Northeast region.

That entire city was a complex of various industrial factories, and the industrial pollution it generated was definitely no less than that of any goblin city.

However, Zhou Xu had made a plan for environmental governance from the beginning and made significant investments in it.

The air quality and environment in Steam City are definitely worse than in other cities of their Great Zhou Dynasty, there's nothing to say about that, but Zhou Xu still managed to keep it firmly within acceptable limits.

Zhou Xu would never let this problem get out of his control; that's the difference.

During this process, as the goblin airship landed, Zhou Xu, who had left the airship, entered the city.

Before that, the staff member who was acting as a guide promptly handed Zhou Xu a mask.

Here, face masks are considered a necessity.

In the new district, although the main population is still goblins, the presence of humans is no longer unusual.

After Zhou Xu changed into casual clothes, wore a mask, and did not reveal his identity, the goblins passing by would at most glance at him before hurrying away.

Walking on the street, the streets here are actually quite similar to those in other cities of their Great Zhou.

Although goblins are small, their vehicles are roughly the same size as human vehicles, so the width of their roads is also roughly the same.

In comparison, the differences in buildings are more obvious.

The buildings in the goblin city are very tall, mostly more than ten stories, which would be considered high-rise buildings in this era. However, their actual height is not as tall as Zhou Xu remembered.

The fundamental reason is that, considering the actual living experience, each floor of a human building must be at least 2.5 meters high.

But goblins are so small, they don't need to be that tall. Goblins are only about 60 or 70 centimeters tall, so 1.2 meters or more per floor is enough for them.

So those tall buildings on both sides of the street, which are only a dozen or twenty meters high, are actually only a dozen or twenty meters high. Their doors are even shorter, only seventy or eighty centimeters high, so humans can't even get into their buildings.

In comparison, the goblins have already completed the nationwide railway network. The size is sufficient, as they frequently need to transport goods by train, so the carriages must be spacious enough. It's just that the doors and seats are a bit small.

It's worth mentioning here that the goblins are still using steam trains and haven't upgraded to diesel engines.

Their diesel engines were prioritized for use in manufacturing armor and military trucks for the armed forces.

Later, resources became scarce and funding was insufficient. In addition, steam trains were still usable, so they were never upgraded.

On the other hand, after mastering the technology of diesel engines, Zhou Xu's existing steam trains, while not immediately obsolete, are estimated to remain in service for many more years.

However, the manufacturing of steam engines and related equipment has been gradually stopped, and subsequent manufacturing and research will definitely focus on diesel engines.

This was also a great benefit to them after annexing the Goblin Kingdom, directly enabling their Great Zhou's industrial development to take a new step forward!
(End of this chapter)