Early the next morning, Josk, Sudkamp and Pat set off to the mine with fifty bodyguards and twenty four-wheeled carriages. One was to rescue the Norton family who were thrown into the mine for mining. The second is to eliminate the thirty or so mercenaries responsible for guarding the copper mine.
The bearded Ovekis and Reddy organized more than a hundred coachmen into a garrison squad, responsible for guarding the two city walls. The remaining 70 guards were in charge of guarding nearly a thousand slave laborers and more than 40 surrendered mercenaries.
These were discussed last night. Originally, Lorist wanted to go to the mine in person, but he was unanimously opposed. Josk let Lorist, the master of the house, take the lead in everything Josk said, which made him feel ashamed and useless as a family knight. Well, after saying this, Lorist had no choice but to agree to let Josk take Sodkamp and Pat on a trip, and take charge of the castle site by himself.
After seeing off Josk and his party, Lorist looked around and returned to the room on the city wall, staring at the big sand table, feeling more and more lost in thought. It was less than two years after the Kenmes family acquired the territory, and they were able to formulate such a huge territory development plan. The Norton family has been rooted in the Northland for more than two hundred years. After seven generations of patriarchs, not only failed to develop the family territory, but was trapped in the Northland. Shrinking the turtle.
Lorist couldn't figure out what had happened to the family, and he turned a blind eye to Viscount Kenmes' construction in the Norton family's territory. Six months ago, the Viscount Kenmes sent troops to attack the Norton family's manor castle. The Norton family was able to defend the castle and confront the Viscount Kenmes for more than half a month, forcing the Viscount to retreat. The mercenary leader who surrendered said that the Viscount had died dozens of times. People, this shows that the Norton family is not at a disadvantage. According to common sense, the Norton family should send scouts to monitor the retreat of Viscount Kenmes. But the family didn't even send out a single spy. What's going on
Maybe the family has already sent spies, but they are not paying attention to Viscount Kenmes. Lorist remembered what the mercenary leader said. The Norton family was found at the copper mine. After a glimpse, he retreated when he found the mine was occupied. up. well. No matter what time it is, I am still thinking about the income of the copper mine. Also, now that the mine is found to be occupied, at least you have to care about the whereabouts of those family children who work in the copper mine. It has been half a year and there is no move to send an envoy to negotiate with Viscount Kenmes. Strange.
Although Lorist is only one day away from the Norton family's manor castle, he can arrive there in a day's time. But now Lorist couldn't leave things here and run back on his own. How to settle down the nearly thousand slave laborers, how to deal with the more than 40 surrendered mercenaries, and what to do after the castle site is occupied by him, is like a mess. Lorist missed Fatty Shi very much, and if Fatty Shi was here, he wouldn't have to worry about these things.
When I think of Fatty Shi, I think of friends and family knights like Bodfinger, Ross, El, Terman, and Yuri. I don’t know if they have led the family caravan back on the road, and I don’t know how long it will take for the family caravan to arrive. Northland. When they arrived in the north with their family motorcade, they didn't know whether they could make preparations for the reception and settlement of the motorcade.
Thinking of the huge team of people in the convoy, Lorist felt a headache. With Fatty Shi's temperament, he wondered how many people there would be when the convoy arrived at the family territory, 20,000? Or thirty thousand? At that time, how to arrange the personnel who arrived with the convoy is really a troublesome matter.
Looking at the big sand table, Lorist's eyes suddenly lit up. Isn't this a ready-made arrangement? Just take the Kenmes family's plan and implement it. If the castle here continues to be built, then nearly a thousand slave laborers will also have jobs, and there is no need to worry about how to resettle them. When the castle is built, you can continue to build the mountain city, and when the mountain city is built, you will give them freedom and resettle them on the spot to become your own subjects.
As for the cost of building the castle, Lorist is not short of money. The only thing he has to worry about is two issues. One is that the person who will preside over the construction of the castle must find someone who understands architecture. Even if there are blueprints, someone must understand them. ah. The second is the materials that need to be purchased from outside. The Kenmes family is the largest chamber of commerce in the former empire's construction industry. It can be said that it is extremely convenient for them to develop their territory and build castles. Whether it is laborers or construction materials, they can be easily allocated and fully equipped. Lorist doesn't have this ability, maybe the Max family finds out that Lorist is continuing their development plan and will make trouble for Lorist.
"Come on, go and bring that bearded old man, oh, that housekeeper named Boris." Lorist said to the guards standing outside the door.
Butler Boris was quickly brought over. Lorist flipped through the blueprints of the castle and asked him some details about the construction, and also asked about the Kenmes family's movements.
Steward Boris said that the Viscount Kenmes is not in the Red River Valley Manor Castle in the territory, but lives in Gildusk, the most prosperous city in the Grand Duke Lukins' territory, where he bought a big house as the Viscount's mansion. . Ever since a cousin of the Viscount Kenmes became the mistress of the Grand Duke Lukins, the Kenmes family has been very close to the Grand Duke Lukins. During the process of Grand Duke Lukins preparing to establish the Northland Army, Kenmes The family has also made great efforts.
Viscount Kenmes lived in Gildusk City for several reasons. Firstly, he likes to be lively. He likes to hold luxurious aristocratic receptions and dances and hang out with ladies and ladies. He hates staying in remote castles. Secondly, it is also to maintain a good relationship with Grand Duke Lukins. Thirdly, in order to meet the supplies transported by the family, they passed through the checkpoints of Fresde Castle. After all, the Viscount personally picked them up, and the Grand Duke Lukins would not openly forcibly confiscate the supplies convoy of the Kenmes family. enough.
Now the Red River Valley Manor Castle in the territory of the Kenmes family has become a material transfer station. According to the scheduled plan, a large number of materials will be delivered to the castle site here on the 10th of next month, which is estimated to be 3,000 barrels of gum vine juice. A batch of construction tools, 500,000 catties of grain and some clothing and cloth. A thousand slave laborers may also be escorted over, accompanied by more than two hundred female slaves.
"Are those female slaves the family members of these slave workers?" Lorist asked casually.
"Uh, no, my lord, those slave laborers are all young and strong, so they need to be rewarded to prevent them from making trouble. These female slaves are used as rewards. A slave laborer who performs well can spend the night with a female slave. It is a very effective method of appeasing slave labor that the Kenmes family has implemented for a long time." Boris Butler said.
To put it bluntly, these female slaves came to work as camp prostitutes. Lorist shook his head, noncommittal: "Is the Kenmes family rich? I heard you donated 200,000 gold to the second prince in order to get the territory. It took two years to build the Red River Valley Manor Castle and the immigrant town. Quite a few, and they are planning to invest 300,000 Jinfords in five years to develop the Morgan Hills, without the working capital of millions of Jinfords, they don’t have the confidence.”
Lorist pointed to the large sand table on the table.
Butler Boris said: "My lord, based on my more than 40 years of experience in the Kenmes family, the Kenmes family has actually gone downhill. I have always suspected that the master insisted on developing the Morgan Hills and building this castle. And that mountain city is to leave a way for the Kenmes family. In the civil war of the empire a few years ago, the Kenmes family didn’t earn much money at all. Since the second prince established the Iberia Kingdom, the Kenmes family is still a kingdom. The upper-class family has been gnawing at their laurels. For example, the development of the Morgan Hills is said to be an investment of 300,000 goldfords. In fact, the budget for building this castle and that mountain city is only 100,000, and the remaining 200,000 is after the construction is completed. Funding for immigration and stockpiling."
"One hundred thousand? Impossible. I estimate that the construction of this castle will cost seventy to eighty thousand. It is impossible to complete the construction of this castle and mountain city with one hundred thousand Jinford." Lorist said.
"My lord, in fact, the budget of this castle is only 30,000. The big head is glue vine juice, which is estimated to need 12,000 barrels. The rest is the consumption of food and some materials. The manpower is the construction slave labor of the Chamber of Commerce, and it does not cost money. There are other building materials nearby, as long as you spend some time collecting them. For example, this completed city wall consumes 2,000 barrels of gum vine juice, and the materials for making green clay are collected locally."
Well, according to what Boris steward said, the building materials of this castle and that mountain city can be collected locally except for glue cane juice, which is good news.
"Butler Boris, you should know how many materials are stored here right now?" Lorist asked.
The castle site was occupied yesterday, and Sedkamp set off with Josk to the copper mine early in the morning. The supplies here have not had time to count.
"My lord, in the past four months or so, three batches of supplies have been transported here from the Red River Valley Manor Castle. Each batch of supplies is mainly glue vine juice and grain. The glue vine juice shipped each time is 3,000 barrels. 2,000 barrels have been used to build this city wall, and there are still more than 7,000 barrels in stock in the warehouse. If another 3,000 barrels are shipped on the tenth of next month, then the estimated 12,000 barrels of gum vine juice used to build this castle It's all ready, and the materials to be transported in the future will mainly be food reserves. These are pre-established plans and arrangements, and they will not change if there are no accidents. Now there is not much food in the warehouse, and there are about 40,000 catties left. The original plan was to pick up the supplies when they arrived on the 10th of next month, but now that your lord has occupied this place, the supplies may not come. So your lord needs to prepare more food to deal with those slave laborers.”
Steward Boris looked at Lorist, and continued, "My lord, the food for those slave laborers is rationed. Because they do heavy work, their daily ration is three catties, one catty in the morning and one and a half catties at noon. At night, it is half a catty. The monthly food consumption of nearly a thousand slave laborers is about 100,000 catties. If you want to use these slave laborers, you must prepare for the food in advance, and you can’t be negligent.”
Lorist stood up, walked to Butler Boris, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Butler Boris, you are very good, very good. As long as you do your best, our Norton family will not treat you badly." Yes. You go down first."
"Yes, my lord." Butler Boris bowed, and was about to leave when Lorist remembered another thing.
"Hey, wait a minute. Butler Boris, where did the Kenmes family get so many siege crossbows?"
Steward Bao Lili replied: "My lord, these crossbows are all freshly made, not shipped over. Three years ago, when the Kenmes family went to buy slaves for construction labor, they bought a pair of father and son. They are special The well-known crossbow maker in the Limber Kingdom was sold into slavery because he offended the powerful. Although the Kenmes family became a territorial noble, they lacked heritage, no good family knights, and no regular territorial guards, so they had to find mercenaries. In order to strengthen the defense here, the father and son were sent here to make crossbows for defending the city."
"You mean the father and son are here?"
"Yes, my lord, they stay with the slave laborers," said Boris the butler.
"How about this, Boris Steward, please go and bring the father and son out and resettle them. They are very useful to me. You, accompany Boris Steward and help him complete the task." Lorist stood at the door said the bodyguard who guarded.
"Yes, my lord."
…
Lorist walked slowly around the sand table in the room, thinking about it. Butler Boris said that the food was not a problem. The convoy he brought this time carried more than 100,000 catties of food, and it was guaranteed to last for more than a month. After returning to the family, he can also transfer a batch of food from the family. Maybe I can still make an idea about the batch of food and supplies delivered by the Kenmes family next month, but it's still too early, so don't be so anxious.
Today is already February 32nd, Jost and the others will come back tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow is February 34th, no matter what, Lorist will set off to return to the family's manor castle. It's just that once Lorist left, who should be in charge of building the castle here? Josk is out of the question, he's a loner who hates trivia. In the past, he was going to ask him to bring out a cavalry archer, but he found it boring after a few days of doing it, so he threw the selected cavalry archers into Yuri's light cavalry scout team and ignored them.
Sedkamp and Pat had to go back with him, they had to go back to work, and Lorist had just arrived at the family's manor and castle, so he had to rely on their care and guidance for many things. With Josk, Reddy and Ovekis sitting here, plus a guard squad and garrison squad, the defense force is enough. It's just that I don't know how long Lorist will stay in the family's manor castle. Someone must be responsible for the construction of the city here.
"Bring that master builder here," Lorist ordered.
The unlucky guy who received fifty lashes yesterday was brought before Lorist. The proud master builder had disheveled hair, torn clothes, bloodstains from the whips on his body, and staggered steps.
"Master Siroba? You disrespected me yesterday. I am the local lord Norton Lorist. I want to continue building this castle. Would you like to work for me and take charge of the construction of this castle? I will give you A generous reward." Lorist said sincerely.
This Master Siloba gave Lorist a resentful look, probably because he had learned the lesson of being whipped last night, he stopped talking, just spit on the ground, then looked up at the roof, expressing his disdain for Lorist glance.
Lorist laughed dumbfounded, and said to the guard who escorted Master Siroba over, "He dirty my house, should I tell him to kneel down and clean up his own phlegm for me?"
"My lord, this is a good idea." The guard replied solemnly.
Master Siropa was trembling all over...
"Forget it, it's not difficult for him. He's so immature at such a young age, spitting everywhere. Take him down," Lorist said.
…