Free Web NovelChapter 199: City Expansion
The felt map covered the administrative table entirely and extended past both edges. Khulgen had weighted the corners with carved stones to keep the felt flat against the summer heat coming through the open window.
The stones already placed on the map represented the city’s current state.
A cluster of three at the administrative quarter, two along the river bank, a single one at the eastern workshop, a row of smaller ones along the flood-mark. The felt between them was open.
Saran was standing when Batu arrived, not seated, which was how she worked when she had been at a problem long enough to need her whole body in it.
There was a tiredness at her eyes that the lamp’s glow made obvious.
Her attention was on the map.
"The city’s outgrowing its layout."
She said when Batu reached the table, the conclusion first, the evidence behind it. "Three things at once. The ger clusters are set up in awkward locations, the workshop district has no eastern border, so the expansion’s spreading without direction, and the market district is attracting a commercial traffic it doesn’t have the physical depth to support."
Khulgen stood at the table’s far end with his document case closed and both hands flat on the surface.
"The census count this season is four thousand eight hundred registered."
He started to report, "The estimate population, including ger dwellers who haven’t enrolled, is closer to five thousand six hundred. Forty-seven new ger clusters appeared outside any designated area since the spring thaw."
Batu looked at the map.
"The workshop district first," he said.
Saran moved a finger east across the felt without touching it. The workshop district was east of the city center, expanding over unrestrictedly.
She gesture to a position north of the workshop cluster, "There’s a dry channel here, roughly three hundred meters away from the the current buildings. It’s a useful boundary. The refinement facility needs separation from the main workshops anyway, and the channel gives it natural separation as well."
She picked up one of the carved stones from the table’s edge and set it along the position. On practice. that meant the district was to expand in this direction until it reached the boundary.
Khulgen added. "The flooding from the river can reach the channel in a strong spring. The refinement facility’s storage buildings need to sit east of the channel, not built into the bank margin."
Saran adjusted the stone by two finger-widths.
"Then the open-air section goes west of the channel and the storage buildings sit east of it."
Batu’s eyes moved across what she had placed and what remained unmarked. He said nothing, which was his agreement.
"The Bulgar craftsmen need their own workshops in the expansion area."
She continued, putting down a second stone closer to the existing workshop cluster, slightly south of it. "Separated from the Rus metalworkers. Those two groups are capable of different things and they’ll produce them better apart than together." fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
She looked down at the stone’s position for a moment, then at Batu.
"I have told you about their bronzework."
"The market will need to absorb it," Khulgen commented.
"The market will need to expand east to meet it."
Saran continued to set the outline. "The commercial flow right now is from the workshop district out through the Tükel network and the Ayas station before any of it circulates within Sarai. If the market district extends, a specialty row can be set up toward workshop road, goods move directly between the two and Sarai builds its local economy rather than exporting it."
Batu studied the map a moment longer.
"How far east?" he said.
"Here to here, enough for a clear route northeast."
She set another marked stone on the eastern edge of the existing market cluster and traced the road with her finger between it and the workshop stones.
Khulgen nodded once. "The new registrations for the specialty row go through Mahmud’s office under a commercial category separate from the standard stall allocations."
"Approved." Batu only bothered to confirm it.
Saran moved around the table to the residential section of the felt, the area between the administrative quarter and the market district spreading west and south.
The open felt there was unmarked except for the individual stones representing settlers buildings, scattered without obvious pattern.
"The forty-seven new ger clusters..."
She said, looking at Khulgen, and he nodded once. "They’re going wherever there’s open ground, which means they’re taking the open grounds between the administrative quarter and the market district, which is exactly the space that’ll be impossible to reorganize once it’s covered."
She moved to the map’s upper section, the open felt above the administrative quarter, and set two stones at what she judged to be the northern border and two along the sides, framing a zone that sat clear of the city’s development region.
"Instead of in the middle of everything else, we have them set up the gers here."
Khulgen said, his hands still flat on the table. "The enrollment document needs a clause directing new ger arrivals to the northern zone. Mahmud’s office can handle it."
Saran looked at Batu.
"Agreed." Same as before.
"The permanent buildings are the second part of the same problem."
She moved back to the scattered settler stones in the residential area. "The land allocation goes wherever the enrollee chooses to build, so they appear at random. After the next enrollment cycle, new allocations should direct enrollees to designated zones rather than leaving the choice open. This way, the city grows outward with some predictability instead of filling every gap available simultaneously."
"We will add it together with the gers clause," Khulgen said. "A simple zone designation field."
Saran set a cluster of small stones in the area between the western side of the market district and the southern boundary of the administrative quarter. "Upper residential here. Better plots, larger, with mandatory stone or brick base course as the construction standard. For merchants, senior craftsmen, officials who need to be near both the market and the administrative quarter, so on and so forth."
She looked at Khulgen.
"The enrollment document needs a separate tier for this category."
"Separate tier, separate allocation terms, alongside the zone designation field," he nodded.
Batu looked at the map.
The decisions made had changed the future considerably. Now, the city had its workshop district restricted into a zone, the market district expanding towards the workshops, the northern ger zone with its boundaries, the upper residential cluster between the market and the administrative quarter.
The open felt that remained was the northern ground above the ger zone, up to the map upper edge where the carved stones had not yet reached.
The Khar Kheshig sat out there, the tumen camp areas, Penk’s relay riders’ relay position, the engineer corps, all of it organized by practice and habit rather than by anything the map reflected. free𝑤ebnovel.com
"We’ll discuss the military district next." he said.
He picked up one of the spare carved stones from the table’s edge and set it at the center of the open northern ground.
