in the back garden.

Duke looked at the miscellaneous stones in front of him with some helplessness, the distance was already full of discarded ash and mud, and the ground was also scattered with steel bars.

His cement plan encountered unprecedented difficulties.

Originally, he thought that according to the method he had learned from the novel in his previous life, he would just bake the stone into ashes and mix it with sand and water to wait for it to solidify into hard concrete.

In order to strengthen the structure and hardness of the concrete, he specially asked Lenia to build a dozen steel bars from the blacksmith shop as supports.

As a result, there is simply no chance that the rebar will come in handy.

These limes either can't be condensed into lumps at all, or they are not solid, and he, a weak level 3 mage, can be crushed with one punch, without any hardness to speak of.

Duke gradually realized that the development of cement was not so easy, and that the new slaves might have to live in tents or build their own thatched or plank houses.

Thinking of this, he was a little discouraged, and he originally wanted to use this to buy people's hearts, but now it seems that this plan has gone bankrupt.

He tried to ask the system for help, but after searching for several days in the system mall, he couldn't find anything related to the knowledge of his previous life, let alone how to make cement.

This made him realize that the system is not a panacea, and that the system may be native to the local area, and it is not something high-tech implanted in his body.

He thought for a moment, and then regrouped and prepared to continue the experiment, hoping to make a breakthrough before Joseph returned.

"My lord, Mr. Joseph's butler asks for a meeting. A guard suddenly walked up to Duke and reported.

"Joseph's butler, are they coming back so soon?" Duke was overjoyed, and was instantly excited at the thought that the golden coins and countless ores were about to become his own.

"Uh...... My lord, I don't think it's good news. The guard's face was a little embarrassed, "The gentleman outside is a little embarrassed, maybe something bad has happened." ”

Hearing this, Duke's face sank, and a bad premonition lingered in his heart.

"Let him meet me in the hall, and by the way inform the Home Secretary and the Chief Knight to come. ”

Duke gently slapped the lime off his hand, straightened his clothes, and walked down the hall without saying a word.

When he entered the castle hall, he saw Joseph's butler in disarray.

I saw that his original decent tuxedo had been torn to tatters, revealing his white shirt and flesh color from time to time, his head was covered with dead grass and rhizomes, and it was difficult to distinguish the original skin color on his face.

"My lord, my lord, save my master!" As soon as he saw Duke, he hurried forward without regard for etiquette, and excitedly pleaded with Duke, until he was stopped by the guards, and did not realize his faux pas until he was stopped by the guards.

"Don't worry, tell me what's going on. Duke patted the butler on the shoulder and comforted him gently, "Joseph is my subordinate, and I will definitely save him." ”

Hearing Duke's promise, the butler's mood calmed down a little, and he calmed down after taking a few deep breaths.

When Duke sat down in the main seat, he spoke: "We completed our procurement in Istanbul two days ago and prepared to return to the territory, and everything went well on the road at first, but when we approached the Barony of Connaughton, we found that soldiers had set up a checkpoint to intercept our convoy. ”

"Barony Connaughton?" said Doucle, a little confused.

"It is a good neighbour to the south and the domain of our 'old man' Baron Rhine. ”

Duke's question was answered by the Secretary of State for the Home Minister, who had just arrived, and Lenia followed closely behind, her face frighteningly gloomy.

"It is indeed our old friend, that shameful traitor. Lenia gritted her teeth and said, "If he hadn't betrayed the Duke of the North eight years ago, our territory wouldn't have weakened so quickly!"

Duke just thought the name was a little familiar, but now after Vravitch and Lenia's explanation, he had roughly remembered what it was.

Baron Rhine, the lord of the Barony of Connaughton, was originally supposed to be one of the three guardian families belonging to the Duke of the North.

And the predecessors of the three guardian families are the descendants of the three knights who followed the original Duke of the North at the beginning.

However, with the decline of the Duke of the North, the three guardian families also declined, one of which died due to an accident more than a hundred years ago, and the Duke of the North at that time was no longer able to contribute any strength to its survival.

The two remaining guardian families are the Hart family of Baron Rhine and the Gard family of Lenia, but the situation is also not optimistic.

So eight years ago, in order to continue the family and develop better, Rhein Hart, who was in the prime of life, led his soldiers to ransack the Duke's treasury.

Then he took the territory of the Connaughton region and the looted treasures to surrender to the emerging Northland nobles, mixed up with the title of baron and became the lord of the Connaughton region, and his usual task was to monitor and contain the surviving Dukes of the North.

"He must have been jealous of our harvest this time to stop our caravan. Lenia couldn't help but speak again, "This discontented hyena is always staring at our territory, hoping to tear flesh from us again. ”

Vlavich was much calmer than Lenya, and when Lenia was quiet, he slowly spoke: "At present, it seems that this situation is very likely, whether it is to save Joseph or to regain this property, we must make a statement. ”

"Lord, I beg you to send a messenger to negotiate with the other party, for the sake of aristocratic etiquette, we still have a good chance of retreating. ”

Vlavich paused, then added with less confidence: "It may be necessary to give away some of the benefits, but it is worth it in the big picture"

After listening to Vlavic's suggestion, Duke felt that it was not appropriate, and Lenia had already begun to speak out against it.

Because the other party is so aggressive, it can't be just to collect a part of the money or to humiliate himself.

A faint sense of unease tells me that the other party may have a bigger conspiracy.

"Vlavich, experience has taught us not to have illusions about the enemy, especially against such a vile villain as the Rhine. ”

After a moment's silence, Duke spoke.

"I've decided to send a messenger to find out first, but from now on we're going to be ready for war, and I've always felt that things won't be that simple. ”

"That's a sound approach. Vlavich opened his mouth, but finally agreed with Duke's idea.

"Then I'll go to the barracks now to straighten out the army. ”

Lenia, on the other hand, seemed a little excited, and after a knightly salute, she turned and left the castle to gather the army.

This Nizi......

Duke was a little dumbfounded, and casually summoned a guard as a messenger to the Barony of Connaughton to deliver his letter of representation.