Road to the Crown

Chapter 309: Rebuilding Ostrog

14th October 1574

"Yeah, move the powder to the second area, and bring some more steel beams to the fifth one."

The change that happened to Ostrog city surroundings in just four short days, was astounding. 

In one moment, all the military camps were disbanded, moving on to start the construction of the basic structures. Most of my soldiers hailed from the masses of workers, so this wasn't their first time in this job. 

With those four short days, the train line that was just behind my lines before, now properly reached all the way to the side of the city. Given how local trade route, one that connected hinterlands of the country with the rich colonies and fortunes of the east, went in nearly a direct line from east to the west, instead of blocking its path, the very first train station of a real kind in this province, was set directly beside the road. 

Turning this entire golden route into not only an asphalt road but also connecting the edges of the country with the train line would instantly escalate the economic growth of those areas. But for now, this train station, this main project that was completed over the last for days, would serve as the main warehousing and logistic point. From this place, all the points of interest that I marked would be settled, finally picking up the rate at which the building materials were produced. 

Even before the investment would start properly, I already knew that it would only take a moment before the local production would catch up to what New Tarnow could provide. That's why, in this very moment, this single train station would service all the masses of workers that I would move to this areas, along with all the import and export of those two cities!

If one would take a stroll outside of the eastern gate of the Ostrog City, then he would see a wide path laid directly beside the city. This kind of planning already belonged to the new way of thinking.

Back in the times, when location of the cities was rather common, people would often block all the ways of the trade flow, forcing it to pass through a road incorporated in a city. If someone wanted to pass, they would have to put their wares on the sale, forcibly increasing the ongoing trade. 

On the other hand, I opted against this kind of treatment in my lands. By leaving the road open and free for anyone to use, even going as far as investing separate fund for turning it into the best kind of road that I could currently make, I gave the people of the province a message.

I'm not going to bully you.

It was as simple as that. It was a common occurrence for the lord taking over someone's land, to enforce serfs' obedience. Due to the chaos of the land and people changing hands, this was the only commonly known way of quickly bringing up the profits from the land to their usual levels. After all, that was the general point of warfare, to achieve a greater advantage over the enemies. 

But with just this simple bit of planning, I openly declared that I won't force the tools on the trade. Yet, the reality was far better for me than it looked like. Given how even the most distant parts of the country would be connected to the rest of the lands by train, the general price of wares would fall down. Soon, people would be unable to trade in any way other than by using my train!

Not only that, once the skeletal fundaments would be laid for my settlements, the fluttering price of the products they will be producing, would force most of them to look a better way of earning. Once my lands would gather enough people, the increased production rate of the expensive materials along with the lower amount of food accessible while the farmers would get way more lands to tilt, the entire economy of this province would kickstart all at once. 

That's why, when I planned for the reconstruction of the single city that I requested as my price of conquest, I decided to go with quite an unorthodox approach. 

Instead of investing in the ruined parts of the city in order to rebuild it, I gave the order that all, every slightly damaged area were to be burned. Destroyed to the ground, to the point where not even a single piece of rubble would remain. 

There were several reasons for my decision there.

Firstly, by allowing the old layout of the city to dictate the way in which I could develop it, I would ultimately fall into the pit of arguing with the older citizens whenever innovation would force me to rebuild certain places.

By scrapping so much of the city right away, I could open the space for the actually important and practical stuff.

Right now, only a small part of the ruined areas got cleared up, but with the first batch of both the building supplies and workers arriving a few hours ago, the progress was already visible.

Looking over the city from a vantage point on the top of a nearby hill, I could see how some of the old districts were already busying with workers laying down the concrete foundations. 

But that wasn't the end of the effort. While the old city was rebuilt nearly from scratch, right outside of its gate, after passing by the trading route and train station, one could enter an area, marked away from the rest of the place. 

So far, the work there has yet to start, but I could already imagine how a simple drawing I made when thinking about this, would turn into the biggest human structure ever built by the humans!

Sadly, I wasn't speaking about some kind of wonder here. Rather than that, I observed the marking, white stones that outlined where each warehouse would be built. The entire area to the side of the train station would be actually a single, big mass of storage buildings!

This was something that absolutely had to appear in this place. Just by looking at the plans, I realised that as soon as New Tarnow finishes its upgrade, another one will have to be built near the Tarnowian trading post!

Only with this kind of a centre of the distribution, would my people be able to manage the flow of all the wares between the vast distances separating my lands apart. 

As silly as it sounded with the reports from the north claiming that the construction of the train line connecting the hinterlands of the country with the centre of war effort was greatly hindered, I could still dare to say that in a near future, there would be at least one more train line connecting the two future centres of distribution, as to allow a perfectly smooth and constant flow of the trains. 

"Sir, the general construction of the first centre of operation is finished. It would be advised to move there."

Hearing the report from one of the workers, I couldn't help but smile. 

This was nothing but a standard procedure that I worked out before and taught to my people even before going for the war. Once the enemy land would be secured and transformed for the sake of development, there were several steps that everyone had to follow. 

And I wasn't an exception from the rule!

With how I was responsible for only the major oversight and general orders, creating a place where all the commanding chain could settle was of the greatest importance. Even with that, it took them four entire days to finish it, given all the work that had to start all at once!

"Good, lead the way."

Following closely after this worker of mine, I passed through the streets of the new Ostrog. Compared to the cramped, outdated and sometimes even ugly and unpractical building scheme of the past, even the skeletal constructions that would turn into proper building with time already looked way cleaner and simply better!

But once I saw the commanding centre, I realised that my military and the workers that arrived a bit earlier, truly outdone themselves.

Most of the time, I would gladly direct the entirety of my forces to the practical tasks, giving up on such silly things like comfort or quality of the places I would end up staying. 

But looking at the magnificent building in front of me, I was only able to just remain silent in shock and awe.

Critically looking, one could say that there was no beauty in it. Crafted with nearly nothing but the raw materials, it lacked any form of decoration or useful features. Even the problem of plumbing would take at least a week to be solved, with how much work it required to be implemented in a completely new city. 

But it was still beautiful. 

Simple, multistorey building, something that would be considered at most as a small condo. Yet, in this world, this was the most practical and well-thought-out office that I could ever hope for!

Fortified first floor to prevent any assaults, proper perimeter and inner garden to help people relax, all the way to a damned lift that could spare someone walking just four flight of stairs? 

Noticing a single, bunk building beside the main house, I could tell that everything else was already provided. As long as there was a single well in the proximity, hot water and automation would be easy to implement!

"Okay then."

Feeling reinvigorated by the sight of my new workplace, I wiped away a tear from my eye, before taking the first step towards developing the shit out of this place.

"Let's rock&roll!"