Besides the thriving high-yield crops from the otherworld, the high-yield potatoes planted by the Agricultural and Industrial Department three months ago have now been successfully harvested in large quantities.
The number of potatoes produced was extremely high, far exceeding their original expectations. Each potato was large and tasty, and just the yield from a few of the experimental fertile lands was almost enough to feed Plumera Kingdom for half a month.
No wonder it's called the king of ultra high-yield crops.
At this rate, it's believed that soon Plumera Kingdom won't only be self-sufficient in food but will also produce large amounts of other grains. These could then be sold abroad as goods through Lianyi Pavilion or Zhaiyun Pavilion, becoming another major source of income for the kingdom.
After the Agricultural and Industrial Department finished their report, it was time for the Construction Department to give theirs.
In the past three months, the Construction Department had also been extremely busy. Aside from building New Plumera Capital and a few satellite cities around it, they also had to assist the Commerce and Industrial Department by sending people with them across the kingdom.
Their job was to build new roads that could connect to major regional cities and also to construct roadside relay stations and trade inns.
The Commerce and Industrial Department is a combination of the Commerce and Industry sectors. Over the past three months, they managed to organize three road construction teams.
These teams were sent across the nation to inspect and build roads.
Due to the massive scale of the project and the need for precision, Damon directly assigned one thousand elite troops from the military to accompany them. These troops helped escort prisoners used for the labor and ensured order and security of the building materials.
Until Elara returned to the capital yesterday, the three construction teams from the Commerce and Industrial Department were still working hard on the roads across Plumera Kingdom.
It was tough work, but their speed was undeniably impressive.
In three months, each team had already built seventy to eighty kilometers of new roads.
Altogether, that's over two hundred kilometers of new roads in Plumera Kingdom.
The road-building mission that Elara received earlier was already halfway done by the time she got it. At this pace, the task will be completed in just a few more months.
Once the new roads reach all the major regional cities in Plumera Kingdom, not only will business grow rapidly, but agriculture, industry, the military, and nearly every other department will benefit.
After the three construction divisions gave their reports, the Military Industrial Department presented their updates to Elara.
They reported the new smelting and casting factories they had built over the past three months.
They also gave an overview of the steady production of all kinds of refined weapons, iron shields, armor, and other military gear.
Overall, for the past three months, the officials of the Military Industrial Department had practically been living in the smelting and casting factories to meet the demands of the war in the Northern Frontier.
The factories were running day and night, producing large quantities of weapons so fast that smoke constantly poured out. The officials from the military department stayed in the factory every day, and their faces were all several shades darker from the smoke, looking rather severe and solemn.
Elara looked at their darkened faces, which were clearly different from those of the other departments, paused for two seconds, and then instructed the military department to prepare a shift schedule after court.
After the recent major exam, she would also assign more people to the military department. It would not be good for the same group to stay in that smoky factory all the time.
Right now, the Plumera Kingdom had dedicated and strict officials with ambition, and each one was a treasure. Elara did not want anything to happen to any of them.
After the Ministry of Works gave their report, the other departments quickly presented their developments from the past three months.
The Medical Department, with the help of Oswyn and the two special assistants Elara had matched to him three months ago, Assistant Kian and Assistant Di, had successfully negotiated the import and export of medicinal ingredients with the Commerce Department. After the completion of the Grand Medical Hospital in Marigold City, medical officials were dispatched to major cities across the kingdom with officials from the Works Department to build branches of the Medical Department and handle local infectious disease problems.
The Household Department, led by Mr. Zhiron, also sent people to follow the Works Department in establishing branch offices in various major cities.
Within Marigold City, the Household Department had nearly completed gathering personal records for all court officials. They would next collect and archive the records of noble families, wealthy merchants, scholars, and citizens throughout the kingdom.
The Commerce Department had seen rapid development over the past few months. In addition to producing a large volume of Plumera's specialty goods, they also continued to develop and sell the various foods, crafts, and paper products Elara had left before departing.
The department continued recruiting skilled craftsmen and artists to expand the variety of commercial products available in the kingdom.
All major national-level trades in Plumera, including food transactions with Zhaiyun Pavilion and sales of iron weaponry produced by the military department, as well as the income and expenses of various industries and the national treasury, were handled by the Commerce Department.
Currently, the department had no official head. The highest-ranking officer was Damon, who also oversaw the military department. But as a general, Damon mainly focused on military affairs. Three months ago, Elara had handed over most commercial matters to Mr. Gong.
However, since Mr. Gong accompanied her on an overseas mission, matters of the Commerce Department over the past three months were handled by other officials.
During the trip, Mr. Gong not only saw the prosperous commercial model of the Zhaiyun Pavilion headquarters, located in the royal capital of Sargassum, but later also traveled to the country of Geranium, where he witnessed the grandeur of the Feast of a Hundred Nations.
He filled dozens of notebooks with his observations and returned with many valuable foreign commercial products.
Elara was now waiting to see how he would use what he saw and learned to improve the Commerce Department.
As she listened to the reports from all departments, Elara also announced the expansion of the Plumera Kingdom's territory in the main hall.
"Through our army's sweeping campaign, from this day forward, the lands of the former various nations, including the northern territories once belonging to the Salvia Kingdom, now all belong to Plumera. The total area of our land has now reached the level of a mid-sized second-tier country. Now it is up to all of you to develop the economy, population, military, and more so we can truly enter the ranks of the second-tier nations."
After she finished speaking, all the officials in the hall who did not yet know or were uncertain were stunned and overjoyed.
A few seconds later, all the courtiers dropped to their knees, faces flushed with excitement, and bowed to Elara.
"Congratulations, Your Majesty. Long live the wise ruler."
"Congratulations, Your Majesty. Long live the wise ruler."
"Congratulations, Your Majesty. And blessings to our Plumera Kingdom for gaining vast and beautiful new lands."