CH 235

A few more days passed, and now we are in the royal castle. It’s not like I’m the only one talking in the inner palace today with incredible casualness, as usual. Today, at a formal meeting place, Caan Barony officials, the royal family, the feudal lords, and other civil officials are gathered together.

As soon as I requested a meeting, arrangements were made immediately, and this place was probably prepared in the shortest possible time. After thanking Wilhelm and Dietrich for their consideration, we start the discussion.

“Well then…” Dietrich said, “in order to have everyone’s understanding aligned, let’s start with the day’s agenda.”

For some reason, Dietrich is acting as the moderator even though he is the prime minister. For this meeting, Dietrich’s, no, House Caan’s prepared materials were distributed to everyone.

“We will begin discussions about the river bank protection and canal construction of the Havel River.”

Yes. The story we bring to the kingdom today is about the canal construction on the Havel River. The Havel River flows close to the royal capital of Berne, joins the Dierbe River, and flows into the Hulk Sea. At the moment, the Havel River has a low flow rate, a shallow bottom, and a narrow river width.

The Havel River is a meandering river with many lakes along the way. The low flow can be managed if we construct a canal. If you make a branch in the canal, sweep the riverbed, widen the river, and build riverbank protections, you can probably carry a galleon to the Dierbe River.

There is a big difference between “could” and “feasibly can.” At this stage, there is no reason to bring galleons to Charlottenburg or Berne. If you wanted to build a canal that large, it would be a 100-year plan for the nation.

I’ll secure the river width and water depth, but if I want to let the galleon through, various problems will arise, so I’ll postpone that for later. For the time being, it would be good if trade ships up to the necessary and sufficient medium-sized ships could come and go. It would be enough if people and goods could come and go to the Caan Knighthood.

It’s difficult to cross bridges not only with galleons but also with sailing ships, which are the current main force. You can develop an oar boat, but the oars would necessitate larger width than before.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m thinking of power other than oars and sails in the future, but I don’t think these plans will be implemented. Before the canal is complete enough for galleons, there may be ships with different power sources.

However, even a medium-sized ship cannot go under the bridge with a sailing ship as we can build now. Therefore, it is necessary to make all the bridges become movable bridges at the same time as the canalization.

That I came to the royal castle today and held an official meeting with the bureaucrats and civil officers of the kingdom to discuss the conversion of the Havel River into a canal and the replacement of the bridges that were in our way with movable bridges, instead.

“Now then… since everyone has a unified vision of the plan…” Dietrich said.

“Please wait a minute!” someone said.

A civil official, no, a noble with the rank of minister, smacked the table and stood up.

“Why does the kingdom have to spend such a huge budget on such absurd projects?!” he yelled.

Ah…. well, yeah……. I don’t think it makes sense to anyone with the sensibility of the times, or that the return on investment is worth it.

“Lord Sormus, do you have anything to say about these documents?” Dietrich asked, holding up one of the copies that had been distributed to everyone.

It’s true that we put in the trial calculations of the economic effects. If the river can be turned into a canal and medium-sized ships come and go, the flow of people and goods will improve, and the economic effect will be immeasurable. In particular, if we can connect with the Caan Barony that is already focusing on water transport, the synergistic effect will be…

“What even is the worth of what is written here?” Sormus said. “For water transport, we can continue to use the Odel River on the east side as before! There is no point in building such ridiculously expensive infrastructure!”

The Odel River is a large river that flows to the east of the royal capital of Berne, and of course, it flows to the Hulk Sea. I haven’t traced it directly, but it seems that a fairly large river you can also bring galleons up to.

As I heard from a fishmonger in the royal capital before, fish are transported from the port town downstream of the Odel River to the royal capital. That’s why sea fish are sold even in this royal capital far from the sea.

The document contains a provisional estimate, or rather, the budget that is considered necessary for the canal conversation where the simple surveys have been completed, for now. The downstream area is still under investigation, and what is written here is only a trial calculation of the area gradually investigated from the vicinity of Charlottenburg. This amount would have to be recalculated many times to practically complete the canal conversion of the Havel River.

Certainly, as Lord Sormus said, I can’t help but understand why they would doubt investing such a ridiculous amount of money would yield that much in return eventually. However, if the country refuses this level of investment now, the country will have no future.

For example, just because a road is built does not necessarily mean that the economic benefit will exceed the cost incurred. Rather, it is more likely that the result will be a deficit. In this case, the deficit is not a comparison of the total economic effect and the installation cost, but rather the amount of tax revenue that comes in as a result.

If you compare the cost of building the roads as tax revenue with the increased tax revenue, it may take decades before the costs can be recovered. In the meantime, roads will deteriorate and repairs will incur additional costs before cost recovery is complete.

Even so, even if a country has to spend a large amount of money to do so, if it does not promote economic development for the sake of national prosperity, the country will stagnate, fall behind its neighbors, and eventually be swallowed up.

National activities are not just about simple profit and loss and tax revenue, there are a lot of projects that have to be done for the public benefit even if the country can’t recover the cost. As Lord Sormus said, if we were only thinking about things in terms of our budget and recoverable tax revenue, the country would perish.

“We probably won’t be able to recoup the cost through tax revenues while we are still alive,” Dietrich said. “But you know what, Lord Sormus? Your point is about the immediate costs. When this plan is completed, however, the Kingdom of Ploiss will be able to make even greater strides than we have before. I believe it is important to look far forward in the future.”

………… Dietrich is truly impressive. Maybe this old man is more dangerous than I thought. I don’t know if he was originally like this or if he learned through me, but Dietrich clearly transcends human perception in this era. He usually pretends to be a slightly pitiful and disappointing old man, but this guy is quite smart.

It’s good he is my ally. It’s convenient for me as long as I have sensible and dependable partners in the upper echelon of this country. But what if I, Dietrich, and the kingdom come into conflict? Every time I teach Dietrich something, he gets closer to my understanding of modern knowledge. Compared to that, I haven’t moved beyond the modern knowledge of my previous life.

If Dietrich learns like this and catches up with me…

No… let’s stop… it’s foolish to just innocently trust the other person, but doubting more than necessary is also the height of folly. I need to take countermeasures to protect myself, but if I don’t cooperate where I can, it’s not like I can move this country by my own power.

“… Hmph!” Sormus huffed. “I’m listening! For whether you’ll admit the folly of this or not!”

He then glared at me. But this old man seems to have softened his attitude for the time being. Dietrich is popular and has the charisma to persuade people. He could be a very troublesome old man. You’d never want to turn him against you.

“Eh~… then let’s continue the explanation. First…” Dietrich said, regaining his composure.

The people in charge of House Caan surveyed and worked out the concept and construction method for practically building a canal.

In places where the river is narrow, it is widened, the depth of the water is secured, and in some cases, it is branched and a new canal is dug to make a detour. Although it is still only in the vicinity, it is quite concrete material. Rather, it can even be said that the workers were just waiting until all the necessary resources were available.

It’s fine to come to the royal castle and have a meeting, but it’s no use if almost nothing has been decided on the plan. What if you came up with a plan and the other person didn’t have any specifics in mind and just said “Let’s build a canal”? Who’d want to hitch their cart on that plan?

No one is that stupid. That’s why I’ve been working on it over time until I have everything I can present to the other party.

The kingdom’s authorities ask questions about things that are unclear and the people in charge of House Caan answer. Since we have a concrete plan, we can talk quickly. I get the impression that the canal concept itself is being received relatively favorably by the kingdom. It’s just that…….

“Hmph! This really is just fantasies in writing! There are at least three major points of unreasonableness in this plan,” Lord Sormus said again after the discussion had progressed.

I can guess what three he’s talking about.

“One, how do we come up with this huge budget? Two, how do we secure the technicians and manpower to carry out such a large construction? Three, this is fatal: there is no way the Lords would agree with such a project.”

After all, this Lord Sormus is also dangerous. He’s not just a stubborn old man. It would be pretty good proof that he immediately notices the problems just by listening to this discussion. Well, His Majesty Wilhelm is not an incompetent idiot either. His court is properly lined up with excellent people.

From my point of view, there are times when I think I have gone so far, but that’s because I have modern knowledge. If we had the great men of this era like Dietrich and Sormus learn modern knowledge and perceptions, they’d be far sharper than me.

“The budget will be covered by contributions from the kingdom and the Lords of the basin,” Dietrich said. “Regarding the technicians and craftsmen, first of all, some of the people involved in the canals of the Caan Knighthood are here, since they are also currently performing construction for House Caan. In the beginning, there will be a shortage of engineers and craftsmen. However, if you take a long-term view and gradually teach them the skills, the number of specialized workers will eventually increase, and the construction will accelerate, and the project will continue.”

As for the budget, the canal bill stipulates that, so we should follow that. Well, anyway, the kingdom and House Caan will occupy a considerable portion of the burden. I don’t think that the Lords of the basin will understand the value of this canal and pay a fair share for what they’ll benefit.

As for the technicians and craftsmen, Sormus is right. At present, the number of workers is overwhelmingly inadequate. However, the number of craftsmen who have been taught the techniques while being involved in live construction work will also grow. If that happens, construction will proceed at an accelerated pace.

“Even if those two are resolved, what about replacing the bridges?” Sormus asked.

Indeed. Lord Sormus must have known that the first 2 issues could be resolved if you took your time. In the worst case, even if the lords don’t pay their share, if the kingdom progresses little by little over a lengthy period, it will be completed someday. It’s the same with manpower. But that doesn’t solve permission to replace the bridges.

“I will persuade the Lords,” I said. “We will add more and more to our side as we convince them.”

“Houh… you certainly have a lot of confidence,” Sormus said.

Yeah. It’s a bluff. I have no proof or confidence. But even so, if you don’t say it, the conversation won’t progress. To tell you the truth, I’m thinking that I should use the power of the royal family to give orders, but I can’t say that from my side. It would be too poor to put forward the canal concept by using royal authority.

If they thought I’m taking advantage of the royal family’s power from the start, there will be various troubles. Even with the canal concept, the initiative may be seized and we will have to solve it here.

Well, I don’t have any basis for it, but I’ll do something about it. If you can’t do it, you’re bankrupt. It doesn’t matter if you can do it or not, you just have to do it.

That’s why the discussion continued after this, and moreover, of course, it wasn’t possible to finish everything in one go, so we went to the royal castle many times after and had repeated meetings. In addition, reports about the now-surveyed downstream areas are added one after another, and the end of the canal conception meeting is not in sight.

After such days, finally…

“Ah~! Geeze~~~!!! I really want to play with everyone! If I can’t interact with everyone anymore, I’ll die!”

""

Work, work, work, work, every day, every single day. Work even if you go to school. Every day after school is civil engineering work or meetings at the royal castle. I’ve already reached the limit of my patience, so I decided to skip work in order to have fun with the wives.