early morning.
Friedman Bucher woke up from sleep on time. The maid climbed onto the velvet bed, fetched the ironed coat, and dressed and freshened him.
The coat was ironed on the stove, the boots were stuffed with a hot water bottle all night, and the gloves were kept close by the maid all night to ensure that the temperature was right when given to the patriarch.
Every accessory on the clothes will be carefully taken care of, including the family crest, cuffs, and walking sticks. The maids are like workers on the assembly line, and every movement is meticulous.
After completing the ritualized process of getting up, the tall and strong patriarch can stand in the bedroom window and overlook the city from the fifth floor of the city lord mansion, which gives him a full sense of control.
But this winter is extremely cold and gloomy.
The panorama of Banshee Fort is gray and black, and there are some ice particles on the roofs of every household. Occasionally, fireworks appeared on some chimneys, which were quickly dissipated by the cold wind. Pedestrians on the street hurriedly walked with their necks curled up.
Friedman's bedroom was warm as spring, but the cold wind shook the windows outside the bedroom. He could see a few dead bodies lying down on the street when he was standing on a high place. The corpse collector pushed the cart to pry the frozen beggar out of the ground.
It's really prying.
It was too cold, and the corpse was frozen hard and solid with the ground. The corpse collector can't grasp it with his hands, so he must use a brazing iron to pry it. Only by prying can the corpse be carried on the pallet.
The corpse collector moves very slowly, and his hands and feet are not very flexible. Every time he pryed, he would take a break, take a breath, and stop before he could make the next move.
Every winter, Friedman can see the same scene in the bedroom window, every day. He even knew the corpse collector—a sad man in his forties, stooped, humble and humble, who did this job ten years ago.
Friedman occasionally asked his subordinates to give the corpse collector something to eat without telling him why. He likes to see the corpse-receiver looking in fear but at a loss.
The most noble person has such an interesting connection with the lowest level.
"Go and bring the poor guy some bread and bring him a cup of hot water. I think he is almost frozen." Friedman called the maid and pointed to the corpse collector a few blocks away.
The maid glanced, nodded in response.
Outside the bedroom, the family butler had already waited. When the patriarch walked out of the bedroom, he immediately notified some important news. For example...
"Your Excellency, there are currently thirteen big families in the Northland who have responded to your call to join forces to block trade in Coldwind City. They also realized that Victor Hugo could no longer allow Victor Hugo to easily obtain supplies, including food.
In addition, you hope that the proposal to form a coalition army after the beginning of spring will also be widely agreed. At present, five cities have sent envoys to discuss the coordination of unified actions.
According to your request, everyone no longer recruits useless serf soldiers, and instead sends at least half of the regular army to fight. According to rough statistics, the coalition will have more than 300 wizards and 2,000 high-ranking knights. "
Hearing these numbers, Friedman nodded and expressed satisfaction. Judging from the battle six months ago, the miscellaneous soldiers with poor command can't deal with Victor Hugo at all. If you want to restrain him, you must use high-end combat power.
In the past six months, Coldwind City has collected a lot of food, and it has a good harvest in the spring and summer. Hugo is not short of food now. Therefore, in winter, they must cut off the channels for outsourcing food, and the consuming opponent will run out of food next spring, forcing them to fight decisively.
According to Friedman's good calculations, he is purely defensive this winter. Even if Hugo took the initiative to provoke him, he would shrink in the city only to be out of sight.
After the beginning of the spring, Friedman gathered enough strength in the Northland to assemble in Banshee Fort, and entrained the guys from the Oss Principality. He will personally supervise the army and supervise the battle, without stopping along the way, going straight to Coldwind City.
Do not play with any extra thoughts, just use force to break the skill. If necessary, the Butcher family will also press the hole card to pull out the treasure of the town family-Victor Hugo is too threatening. If he is not eradicated, there will be no peace in the North.
"Is there any good news?" Friedman walked to his study in the City Lord's Mansion, where he will stay for half a day to deal with some accumulated affairs.
The steward followed closely, "Our own heavy-duty carriage exceeded 100 output yesterday. The craftsmen all praise your brilliance and are grateful for giving them work again. I believe that by next spring, we will get another 100 new ones. carriage."
Friedman did not speak at the news, but was a little annoyed. The heavy-duty carriage of Banshee Fort is an imitation of Coldwind City, and some of the parts are directly made from Coldwind City Forge.
This project was originally carried out by a group of nobles in private. Friedman forcibly seized it after discovering it, increasing investment and expanding production capacity. Although the imitation is far less portable than the original, it can be regarded as a technological advancement and solves the problem.
But this output...
It sounds like a lot to produce one hundred cars in half a year. According to various information, the number of original heavy-duty carriages in Coldwind City has exceeded 1,000. The total number is still increasing rapidly.
The nobles of the Northland are great if they have a hundred carriages. They can't figure out why they need thousands of carriages. It also costs a lot to raise thousands of coachmen and thousands of horses.
But Coldwind City alone had 500 heavy loads carrying coal in the Voodoo Marsh, and the rest were still running around in the territory. Cheap and convenient transportation brings intensive movement of people and materials.
In the eyes of the nobles, the leaders are all property and must be tied to a fixed area. Isn't it a mess to let them run around? But Coldwind City is a free citizen, Hugo doesn't care about it, he can go wherever he wants.
Friedman understood the convenience of a heavy-duty carriage. But he can learn to imitate a carriage, but he can't learn the population management system of Coldwind City. If he really learns it, his ruling foundation will collapse.
The Bouche family only needs about five hundred heavy-duty carriages, and more of them are completely useless and useless.
Coldwind City made another breakthrough in horse-drawn carriage technology, creating a super-heavy six-wheeled carriage with elongated body to pull large construction timbers over ten meters long, or two or three four-wheeled carriages in series to pull five or six tons of coal.
Transportation capacity is still rising.
Whenever he hears similar news, Friedman always feels weird—there are more and more new things coming out of Coldwind City, and no one can say that something will happen again tomorrow.
Not only have I never seen it, but it also gives people a sense of rush to catch up, which is very uncomfortable.
"Any other news?" Friedman sat in the study, knowing that there must be something bad behind the good news.
The butler stood by the large desk and bowed and whispered: "Some members of the family still complain about the tax rate. In addition, the tax police seized many caravans attempting to smuggle goods. The wizards in the city said that the tax rate of magic materials would be increased. It's absolutely wrong."
Friedman was angry when he heard it, and he slapped the table and cursed: "If the tax rate is not raised, how can the family have money to pay? The caravan who smuggled the goods must be supported by those stupid people.
As for the magic materials, wouldn't it be enough for wizards to buy goods from the Bouche family? What we sell is cheaper. Why use enemy products? Every time they spend a gold coin, they turn back into a magic missile and hit us on our heads. "
Listening to the patriarch's anger, the butler can only bow his head and not speak. Internal interest issues are more complicated than external conflicts. If they are not handled well, they are internal friction, which is more difficult than fighting.
This personal maid knocked on the door and walked into the study, whispering: "Your Excellency, follow your orders, and the guards in the house will deliver food to the corpses on the street.
However, the guard came back and said that the corpse collector had just been frozen to death, and he collapsed next to the truck with the corpse. The corpse was hard. "
Friedman was taken aback for a moment, and he whispered: "I'm a step late, is it too late?"