The development and law and order of Quibek City, as well as the people's morale, have stabilized.

The Somali chief and the Gurkha chief, the two men are still very satisfied in Quebec.

Therefore, there is no need for Zhao Hongyu to worry too much about things over there.

Lake Ontario on the west side, because of the presence of Song Hu, coupled with the integration of a large number of Iroquois people, and the rich local mineral resources, this makes Lake Ontario the only heavy industrial city in the empire.

Workshops of all kinds of iron products, as well as factories for the construction of warships, and even agricultural tools and other products, were the most prolific.

In addition, Song Hu built a small hydropower station, and it was electrified in the city.

Like later generations, Lake City, a city built on the foundation of the later American heavy industry city of Detroit, has some basic conditions.

If nothing else, Ontario will become the Empire's largest heavy industrial city.

Moreover, unlike Manhattan and Quebec, Ontario City is positioned as a port trading city, the main source of income is commercial trade, and it is also the only city in the empire that is open to the outside world.

Quebec is positioned as an agricultural region.

The most important thing in its development is agriculture.

However, Ontario City is not the case, because it has a large number of minerals, so Song Hu's construction plan is to build Ontario City into a super industrial city.

So it's no surprise that something modern is in Ontario City.

Zhao Hongyu did not object to Song Hu's development plan.

He completely gave Song Hu the freedom to make plans to build Ontario City.

At least, it seems that the development of Ontario is still very good.

At the same time, Song Hu had begun to extend the city's tentacles to the rest of the Great Lakes region, and began to build fortresses in strategic locations. And the city of the United States in the Great Lakes region to establish a city, began to plan the construction of villages and towns.

Manhattan, Quebec, and Lake Ontario are now the three largest cities under Zhao Hongyu.

Compared with these three cities, the other five developing 'village chiefs' are still in the hard construction stage.

But judging from the news they came back, next year the empire will have another five more cities.

In this way, more than half of the land in North America will be directly or indirectly controlled by Zhao Hongyu.

And the city of the middle of the Mississippi River. The West Coast of the Americas will be overlooked.

As long as time permits, and policy stability and no turmoil, the empire's tentacles will extend to the west coast within a few years.

After turning on the function of 'Township Chief', Zhao Hongyu is indeed a lot easier.

It's like this, you just have to stay in Manhattan and leave it to your subordinates.

In short, don't have to go through the hassle of having to do everything.

And Zhao Hongyu is also happy to be so relaxed, since he can let himself sit back and enjoy his success, then why should he go to trouble.

In the city of Manhattan. Some of the more intelligent and ingenious Huaxia gene people handmade a lot of red lanterns and started to sell them, and Zhao Hongyu also bought a lot of them and hung them around the castle.

Although now all the people of Huaxia Gene are living very well. And most of them are technically rich.

However, these Chinese people are not satisfied with pleasure, they will still find something to do for themselves.

Or open a shop. Or open a small workshop.

For such a thing, Zhao Hongyu is very encouraged.

So, the city of Manhattan. There are many wind-powered mills and shops that make snacks and delicatessen.

The owners or owners of these shops are basically Chinese people.

Of course, some Europeans who became citizens of the empire also opened bakeries and blacksmith shops.

In short, anyone with a bit of craftsmanship can make a lot of money by opening a small business in the Imperial City.

The citizens of the empire have money, so they are willing to spend it.

At the same time, it also promoted the taxation of the empire.

As for the empire's tax policy, it has now completely gotten rid of Zhao Hongyu's funding, and has embarked on a virtuous circle that can block self-sufficiency and still have a surplus.

As more shops grow, the Empire's finances will get better and better.

Zhao Hongyu is full of confidence in this.

But Zhao Hongyu is also a little worried.

That is, the population of the empire is too small.

Yes, with the British colonies being incorporated into the empire, and the Caribbean Raiders began.

Zhao Hongyu and now only a few hundred thousand people, to control such a large piece of land, it is really a headache.

It seems that developing too fast is not a good thing.

But fortunately, the empire has gold mines, as well as iron ore, and coal to support it.

Therefore, the population of Huaxia Gene people continues to rise steadily.

After this year, the proportion of Huaxia Gene people among all gene people has finally climbed to the level of 50%.

The crisis alert of the space-time trader has finally disappeared.

And the coercion of Indian Ah San has also reached 800%, so that they can no longer have the idea of resisting.

Zhao Hongyu's private account, after this year's savings, after his inspection at the end of the year, he was pleasantly surprised.

It actually reached an amount of 50 billion.

You must know that there are seven 'township chiefs' in eight cities, and the amount at their disposal is only one billion yuan.

In other words, the excess amount will be deposited into Zhao Hongyu's private account, and they will no longer be able to dispose of it.

Since Zhao Hongyu became the 'hands-off shopkeeper' and handed over everything to the subordinates of the gene people, he rarely opened the space-time trader.

Now when he was a year ago, he wanted to sort out the results of the year, and he didn't expect such a big surprise at all.

What can 50 billion do?

There are many things that can be done.

Invest in a copycat study, 50 billion is enough.

If the technology content is not high, you can even invest in many items.

If it is used to breed genetic people, 50 billion can breed a lot of genetic people.

In this way, it is completely possible to alleviate the population shortage of the empire.

It is important to know that in addition to the genetic people, a large part of the citizens of the empire were Indians or French people in Quebeque, as well as the descendants who joined in.

In the face of population shortage, Zhao Hongyu had to carry out this policy of accepting immigrants.

Know the way. The land controlled by the empire now is really too big.

If there is no population, what control will the empire talk about?

And what Zhao Hongyu is asking for is not just control, but also the actual transformation into territory.

In this way, the garrison and the city need a large population.

Now that he has such a large amount of money, Zhao Hongyu is not only surprised, that is, he feels that his confidence has soared.

Therefore, he found a day of free time and began to plan how to use the money.

First of all. He checked his copycat investment institutions and checked the progress of various investments.

He found that the investment in copycat research institutions is very scattered, and the fields invested by each genetic township chief are different.

Some people invest in agriculture, some invest in heavy industry machinery manufacturing, some invest in light industry chemical products, and Song Hu invests in the development of military muskets, which has a lot to do with his character.

Zhang Tie's investment is to research and produce better products. As well as the armor of the battleship and the artillery.

Because this is one of the keys to ensuring smooth trade.

It's just that because each of them has a small amount of money at their disposal, the progress of these studies is only a small amount for the time being, and some of them are only 10% of the progress.

Researching investment is no small task. In many cases, investing billions of dollars will not be successful.

Otherwise, Huaxia would not have so much money in the future, and it would have been wasted in the field of investment research, wouldn't it?

Even the United States, which is as powerful as later generations, invests in research and expenditure on various heavy industries and machinery every year. That's not a minority.

And it's a little higher than military spending.

It's just that none of this has come to light.

This is not counting the amount of money spent by private institutions that invest in R&D on their own.

After Zhao Hongyu looked around, he had a number in his heart.

Song Hu invested in rifle research. The current progress is 28%, and there is still a long way to go before the research is successful.

And Zhao Hongyu knows too well the performance of copycat research institutions, even if 100% of the progress is invested, it is unknown whether it can succeed in the end.

When the time comes, I'll give you a hint (failure), and I guess there will be no tears if I want to cry at that time.

When Zhao Hongyu invested in the past, he was researching some small foods, and he failed many times, so he couldn't understand this anymore.

But for Song Hu's investment direction, Zhao Hongyu still agrees.

The strength of an empire is ultimately built on armies and weapons.

With world-leading weapons and a reliable army, who else can stop the rise of the Empire.

And although the flintlock pistol looks powerful, its ammunition loading is still very troublesome.

It's just a cut better than an arquebus.

If it weren't for the Empire's tactics, it is estimated that it would not have been possible to win so many wars in a row.

But after all, the Europeans are not fools, and now they have begun to learn this tactic, so the Song Empire's lead will be slowly shortened.

Therefore, Zhao Hongyu must find a way in weapons.

"Please invest, a one-time investment of at least 100 million in rifle research is not limited."

When Zhao Hongyu clicked on the research investment of the rifle, the prompt of the system followed.

Because Zhao Hongyu is now an official at the level of 'town mayor', the system has turned on the voice function, and it is no longer like before to just communicate with Zhao Hongyu through the prompt bar, which is much easier.

Is an investment of 100 million a minimum?

After listening to the prompt, Zhao Hongyu frowned.

Although it costs a lot to invest in arms, the minimum amount still makes his eyelids twitch.

After the last, Zhao Hongyu gritted his teeth and invested one billion yuan in one go.

But looking at the progress bar, it made Zhao Hongyu gasp.

The investment of one billion yuan has only advanced the progress bar by 8%.

The current progress of rifle research has gone from 28% to 36% (to be continued.) )