Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1555: Chapter 488: Red Flame Vermilion Bird, Grand Event and Outing

Just as Han Shuang and Xia Yuyao were conversing in the boudoir.

The Lord’s Hall doorway saw Han Shuang and Xia Yusheng seated in a sedan, protected by three hundred Dragon Forbidden Captains, as they exited Xia Palace, traveling along the main thoroughfare of the Inner City, heading west toward the city gate.

Human-powered sedans are not considered new in the Southern Slope Territory, as most Lords of large or even giant camps are equipped with them.

For weak camps without any infrastructure like Ice Abyss, it doesn’t save time or effort, serving purely as a luxury item for enjoyment and symbolizing identity and status.

However, for Town-level Camps, the situation changes slightly, considering their not-so-small territories, roads are typically built for security and logistics.

With the support of roads, sedans become far more useful.

First, for those with low cultivation levels, saving time is achievable;

Secondly, most people not yet at the Cold Resistance Level can’t endure exposure to the cold light during the day, and an enclosed sedan can solve their travel issues;

Finally, in the extremely cold environment of the Ice Abyss, it’s hard for the elderly, frail, women, and children to bear long journeys; sitting comfortably in a sedan is a much better alternative;

The Southern Slope had human-powered sedans long ago, whereas it only became popular in Great Xia last year, which is considered a late start. Interestingly, despite this late start, Great Xia’s sedans have become the most popular across the Southern Slope Territory, outpacing other towns by a wide margin.

Great Xia sedans have three distinctive features.

First is their perfect fit with the roads, ensuring swift operational efficiency:

Roads throughout the Great Xia territory can be roughly divided into two types, the first being the Xia City Road, as its name implies, internal roads within all the cities of Great Xia. The second is the Xia Straight Road, proposed initially by Yue Feng, connecting all settlements and cities of Great Xia from outside the city limits.

During the early construction of the Xia Straight Road, the Craftsmen Department used cast iron to carve grooves into all the road surfaces to improve logistics efficiency, standardizing the track width and iron wheel dimensions for all transport carts. This way, no matter how heavy, the cart could be driven swiftly in these dedicated groove tracks with minimal human force, with the speed increasing with the number of people pulling or pushing the cart.

With such experience, when human-powered sedans became prevalent last year, they naturally followed suit. Conveyance carts carried enormous weights, and sedans were mainly for carrying people, so their specifications varied. Consequently, the Craftsmen Department established standard track width and tire dimensions specifically for sedans, and extensive labor was invested to carve new dedicated sedan grooves in all City Roads and Straight Roads again.

This way, any standardized sedan manufactured to Great Xia’s specifications would run extremely fast within the territory with minimal human power, vastly outperforming the efficiency of other towns;

The second point is the manufacture of the sedan itself:

The Xia-style sedans produced by the Daxia Technique Workshop boast not only a unique appearance, high enclosure, and excellent shock absorption but also offer unparalleled comfort, making them a scarce commodity in the Southern Slope Territory. Yet, their prices are astonishingly high; even the most basic sedan body, without Great Xia standard iron wheels, costs as much as 30,000 silver taels;

The third point is Great Xia’s strict regulations on complementary sedan usage:

At its core, a sedan is about personal enjoyment, so it’s a luxury and not a necessity. With its significant status symbol properties and consumption of human resources, Great Xia imposed strict regulations when the sedan was launched last year.

Firstly, since the Xia-style sedan can save time and effort, everyone should enjoy it, thus turning it into a profession. Great Xia mandates that anyone wishing to enter this field must first pay the Camp Supply Department for a corresponding work license before officially operating carriage services in the cities.

Secondly, regarding the sedan’s specifications, Xia Li outlines in the rituals that sedans operating in carriage services may only be painted in red and yellow, with two driving forces assigned, and a service mark must be displayed above the sedan’s head; only Nobles can possess private sedans, with the sedan’s color, size, style, and number of driving forces all clearly defined by noble rank.

With these three points, the Xia-style sedan not only ensures high operational efficiency but also accommodates comfort and prestige, naturally triggering enthusiastic pursuit by all in the Southern Slope Territory upon its release.

Within Great Xia, it’s needless to mention, as many high-ranking figures from the Northern Five Towns take pride in owning a Xia-style sedan, providing bragging rights for those who acquire a top-specification sedan through special channels.

Of course, when it comes to the top-tier Xia-style sedans, it’s obvious they would only be found in the Xia Palace, undoubtedly as Lord Xia Hong’s exclusive vehicle.

However, Xia Hong hasn’t shown up in Xia City for over four years, so no one currently knows what his sedan looks like. Meanwhile, Madame Li Xuanling’s “Nine-headed Profound Simurgh” sedan is acknowledged as the finest in Xia City.

Below this, there are the two highnesses.

The Exclusive Sedan of Grand Princess Xia Yuyao is named “Blue Jade Phoenix”, which has only appeared within the Xia Palace; since the Three Pavilions is inside the palace, many people have already seen it;