Chapter 686 — Defensive Tactics

Holy Sunir was splendid on the surface, but its infrastructure lagged behind, the old powers held deep influence, and more importantly, its communication systems were weak, making command of the Cecil Legion sluggish. It was truly not a good place from which to run an empire. Yet moving a capital was, after all, a major undertaking—it did not end with packing up the relevant people and supplies and hauling them to a new place. Even starting now, fully transferring and rebuilding the machinery of rule would likely take a full year.

And in the process, Gao Yang also had to account for the temporary chaos caused by shifting the machinery of rule, to prevent that chaos from setting off chain reactions and giving Typhon an opening.

In the velvet study of the Silver Keep, Gao Yang was setting a report he had finished reading onto the desk. Besides him, three of his grand chancellors sat in the room.

"Aiden Alfred has refused the post at the Bureau of State Affairs, has he?" Gao Yang looked up at Victoria Wilde, seated across from him.

"Yes, and he resigned his court position and his honorary sinecure titles along with it," Victoria replied. "He said he is grateful for your summons, but that he is advanced in years and wishes to return home to rest."

Aiden Alfred—once first minister before Francis II, a loyal old retainer of the Ansu Kingdom. His family had served the Moen royal house since the days of the First Dynasty, laboring faithfully in the service of this nation for several hundred years.

The former first minister's ability made Gao Yang want to recruit him, bending the rules if need be, but his refusal came as no surprise.

"Respect his choice," Gao Yang said with a slight nod. "Also, ask whether he would be willing to serve as director of the Holy Sunir Library—it is not a post under the Bureau of State Affairs, and he would still be able to keep watch over the old royal book collection. If he still refuses... then let the old gentleman go home. The Bureau will pay him a pension each month."

Victoria nodded. "You have thought it through most carefully. I doubt he will refuse such a post."

"Now, back to the matter of moving the capital," Gao Yang said, shifting his posture. "After I return to Xuanyao City, affairs here in Holy Sunir will be temporarily managed by Victoria and Bai Yu. You will be responsible for completing the follow-up work—above all, laying the magic net from Holy Sunir to the Northern and Western Frontiers, and ensuring communications are established. In addition, all nobles of the royal capital, according to the size of their houses, must send a certain proportion of family members to settle in the Southern Frontier. That should be no problem now, yes?"

"Yes. They steeled themselves the moment the order to move the capital was issued," Bai Yu Franklin nodded, then gave a light laugh. "Trading hostages for survival—that is one of the survival rules of the traditional nobility, after all."

"They are not simply 'hostages.' This is a necessary step in dismantling and remaking the old noble factions... Of course, they don't understand that yet. That's only natural," Gao Yang shook his head. "It doesn't matter. One step at a time. Hedy, how are the preparations for the renovation project on the King's Path?"

"Gordon has already arrived at Pompeii with his men. The preliminary materials and personnel are all in place. They will break ground as soon as the soil survey is complete."

"Very good—this part of the work is important. Make sure funding is secured as a priority." "Yes."

Gao Yun let out a soft breath, feeling that yet another piece of work had been set on the right track.

A feudal kingdom could tolerate lords carving out their own domains, but an empire could not allow its regions to hang isolated. For a centralized empire, ensuring transportation was the precondition for ensuring the order of rule—all the more so for the Cecil Empire, which now faced a hundred tasks awaiting revival and desperately needed to rebuild order. The reason Gao Yang dared to relocate the state's governing organs from the central region to the south was precisely that modern transportation technology could render such physical distance negligible; and building modern roads was an essential link in letting the new modes of transport fully exert their effectiveness.

From Saint Sunil to the Southern Region, there was the Gorgon River serving as the artery of transport, and the Wangshao Road serving as the overland trunk line. Since last year, Victoria and the then-royal house of Ansu had been devoting effort to repairing the Wangshao Road, restoring a road abandoned for nearly a century to at least a basic level of function. But a Wangshao Road repaired to the old standards was not enough to bear the traffic pressure of the new era; at the same time, the earlier Crystal Cluster War had also wrought considerable damage on the Wangshao Road lying along the east bank of the Gorgon River. Therefore, proceeding from practical realities, Gao Yang decided to dispatch engineering teams from the Southern Region to rebuild, on the foundation of the old Wangshao Road, a road linking the empire's north and south.

Typhon had an "Imperial Highway"; Cecil would have one too.

And alongside the construction of this "Imperial Highway," Gao Yang also planned to build a railway line along the west bank of the Gorgon River running clear through north and south, and, with Saint Sunil as the center, to branch the railway further east and west, forming a new "Cross Artery."

Of course, this would be a vast undertaking, consuming enormous time and effort, requiring a very long period to complete; but no matter how great the cost, the Cross Artery had to be established—it would be the starting point of the empire's century-long foundation.

Setting aside for the moment how long the new Cross Artery would take to finish, the railway connecting the two regions of north and south, being shorter in distance, ought to be completed quite soon. By then, from the Southern Region to the "old capital" there would be three great transport lines at once—river, road, and rail; and from Saint Sunil to the Northern Region there would also be road and rail connections. Transportation between the empire's north and south would become extraordinarily convenient: on one hand, national security and stability would be ensured; on the other, the rich mineral veins of the northern mountains could be swiftly transported out to satisfy the growth needs of the Cecil Empire's hungry industrial behemoth.

As for the present, although there was still neither railway nor highway between the Southern Region and Saint Sunil, the convenience of the Gorgon River and the efficiency of the new mechanical ships meant there was little need to worry about transportation—the flourishing river transport of the Gorgon was also one of the reasons Gao Yang dared to initiate the relocation of the capital at this time.

"There is one more matter," Heddy spoke again after reporting on the progress of the road-building project. "Progenitor, the Iron Throne has been fully repaired."