As Vlavich walked out of Duke's office with a few pages in his hand, Lenia still couldn't understand why the old gentleman was suddenly so energetic and seemed to have some secret conversation with the lord.

But she didn't explore too much, anyway, everyone was for the consul, and internal affairs were not her area of expertise.

"Lord, according to your orders, yesterday I have conducted a preliminary screening of the soldiers, and there are two hundred soldiers left. ”

Huh? So fast?

Duke was a little surprised, the efficiency of this girl in front of him was really not ordinary.

"Do you have any arrangements for the part of the soldiers that have been cut?"

Lenia froze slightly when she heard Duke's question, because according to convention, lords and commanders did not need to care about the arrangements of the eliminated soldiers, and at most it was merciful enough to give an approximate direction.

"Probably, let's go back to farming. In the end, she could only give an ambiguous answer.

"I'm guessing you don't know, after all, no one has ever cared about it. Duke pulled out a piece of paper filled with dense text from his desk and handed it to Lenya.

Lenia took the paper suspiciously, remembering that Vlavich had received several similar things.

"Pilot Public Security Regulations?Public Security Office?Police?" Looking at these unfamiliar words, Lenia felt that she couldn't keep up with Duke's train of thought at all.

"Yes, I have instructed Vlavich to reorganize the town hall and turn it into a purely administrative department, and at the same time separate the powers of policing. Duke began to explain to Lenia one by one.

"I initially planned to set up a police station to be responsible for maintaining law and order, and at the same time, I would select some soldiers of good character from the reduced soldiers as police officers to deal with law and order incidents. ”

"But patrolling and dealing with law and order incidents is the task of the military. Lenia gradually understood what Duke meant, but there were still many questions.

"It used to be like this, but now we're separating the army and other messes. The army only needs to be responsible for fighting the war and that's it. ”

Duke felt that the armies of this era were not enough to be called armies, they were more like lords' households.

Not only is he responsible for fighting the war but also maintaining law and order, catching a small thief from time to time, and even acting as a coolie when the master is short of manpower.

Such an army had little combat effectiveness, so Duke decided to refine its functions and give the army more time to train.

"Joseph has now begun to buy slaves and bring in displaced people from other places, and it won't be long before the population of our territory will grow again, so we need to set up a security post as soon as possible. Duke spoke to Lenia about his request, "Also, we can also consider expanding the number of troops accordingly, let's say five hundred, do you think it's okay?"

"Although we are starting to expand the scope of cultivation now, there is still some pressure on food in the early stage, and it may take a while to buy food from other places to maintain the consumption of the whole territory. Lenia reminded Duke worriedly.

"It is true that in the short term we have to bear a relatively large pressure on food, but in order to prepare for the next possible animal tide, we must make certain sacrifices. Duke paused, smiling rather than smiling, "And it's not just the Dark Mountains of the North that threaten us, sometimes our neighbors are no less of a threat than the Beast Tide. ”

"Our neighbors?" Lenia was puzzled at first, then resentful, "those jackals have already usurped most of our territory, should they even plunder the last piece of land of the Duke of the North?"

"We can't rule out this possibility, and we use the greatest malice to speculate that these ill-intentioned people will always be wrong. Duke spread his hands and said helplessly.

Although his move was to complete the task of the system, the immeasurable second beast tide and the greed from other nobles were also important factors for him to consider, and it was always good to hold steady now.

Lenia was silent for a moment, then finally nodded in agreement.

"Don't be bitter, these are my guesses, and they may not become reality, and we don't have to complete the expansion of the army right away, and development cannot be blind. ”

Duke said as he stood up and put on his coat on the hanger.

"Now, let's go to the blacksmith shop together. After getting dressed for the outing, Duke extended an invitation to Lenya.

"Blacksmith shop, why are you interested in patrolling there?" Lenia was a little puzzled, because the lord had never inspected the blacksmith shop, fields, etc., since he took office, and spent most of his time in the castle.

"I have some ideas that I need the blacksmiths to help me realize, and if we expand our army, we will need them to make more armor and swords, after all, we only have two hundred magical equipment. ”

Duke explained to Lenia as he walked out.

Since there was no carriage for the duke, and the blacksmith shop was not too far away, he and Lenia eventually reached their destination on foot.

Moreover, the workers of the blacksmith shop did not receive the notice of the leader of the inspection in advance, and when the group arrived, they only saw the hot work scene, but they could not find the person in charge here.

"Nobles, do we have anything to serve you?"

Finally, after an awkward wait, a short old man with a rosacea nose came over and asked with trembling knowledge as he looked at Duke's sumptuous clothes and Lenia's dangling sword.

"I'm Duke, the lord of the Northern Fortress, I want to talk to the principal here, I don't know where he is?" Duke asked softly as he looked at the little old man in front of him and whispered.

"Lord?" the other party was visibly stunned, then looked surprised, and some of the workers and apprentices around him also stopped what they were doing.

"Ah, please forgive us for our rudeness, my lord, the people are the bosses here, and you can call me Neil. Old Neil became genuinely frightened after being taken aback, and a pair of large, rough hands seemed to have nowhere to place, unconsciously rubbing against the hem of his apron.

Looking at his embarrassment, Duke felt a little helpless, the concept of nobles and lords as human beings had long been deeply rooted in the bone marrow of these low-level people in this era, and it was not something that could be immediately destroyed by giving them knowledge.

Thinking of this, he motioned for the guards who followed him to leave the blacksmith shop and go outside to guard it, leaving Lenia alone with him.

"You don't have to be nervous, it's just a routine round. Duke said to Old Neil in a warm voice, "By the way, I would like to see your process of smelting and making utensils. ”

Old Neil was stunned again, apparently unable to understand what Duke meant.

"What? are these your secrets?" asked Duke, frowning.

"No, no, no, welcome, as long as you don't mind, we'll be happy to show you these dirty and dirty things. Old Neil said busily.