In the Boulder camp, the Lombard spies who had been imprisoned here were spared by God's mercy this time.

Yesterday, Art received a secret letter from Flender, and when another group of spies who had been escorted south arrived in Boulder, he ordered him to expel all of them from the Kingdom of Burgundy, but not to kill them in secret. If these people died, it would inevitably provoke the hatred of the Duke of Lombardy.

The main reason for releasing these people safely now is to take this opportunity to show the Lombard Duke his attitude - once the Lombards invade the country, they will not be so lucky to return alive next time.

In addition, Flender also informed Art in the letter that he should increase the army of 1,000 men based on the Wells Legion and the Southern Garrison Corps, and intensify training. He had sent an envoy to the Kingdom of France to ask him to intervene and intimidate Swabia and Lombardy.

Art, of course, understood that Flender was intending to keep the southern borders of the Princedom of Burgundy. Once the Lombards were deployed, the Welsh legions would be the main force against the Lombard army. This is not only Flender's trust in himself, but at the same time, it also creates a problem for himself.

The Wells Legion is already a gold-swallowing behemoth, and on top of this, it has expanded by a thousand people, and the difficulty can be imagined. Although Wales recruited more than 30,000 people last winter, nearly 3,000 of them were young and strong. There is a source of soldiers, but where does the cost of raising soldiers come from, this is the biggest problem that plagues Arte.

According to the average soldier's weekly salary of seven pfennigs, a soldier is close to 30 pfennigs per month, and almost 360 pfennigs a year. The salary of just 1,000 people needs more than 360,000 pfennig every year. Coupled with the salaries of senior and junior officers, it costs 400,000 pfennigh a year just to ensure that these people eat and drink.

And that's not even counting the weapons and armor that were given to the soldiers. Although the valley is currently able to produce some of its own equipment, and has captured a lot of it through the war, it is still not enough to meet the needs of an army of 1,000 men. The purchase of weapons and armor cost more than half a million fennigs. Plus the expansion of the barracks for the soldiers, the replenishment of other supplies, etc. As a result, it would cost more than one million fennigs to raise troops every year.

With the current financial income and expenditure of the province of Wales, the support of the Welsh regiment is still barely satisfied. This was due on the one hand to the wartime seizures of the army, and on the other hand to the profits of the caravans. But almost all of the rest had to be invested in the construction of the territory, and there was really no extra money to expand an army of 1,000 men.

In this way, Art thought about this for three or four days. Without the support of the army, once the Lombardy does send troops, the province of Wales is in danger. The people and the foundation they had worked so hard to build would be destroyed by war again, which was not what Art wanted to see. However, they are at a loss because they have no military spending.

Half a month later, with the group of Lombard spies who were escorted south, there was another good news~

…………

“…… Lord Earl, this secret letter was written by Lord Marquis himself, and he asked me to be sure to put it in your hands~"

In the lord's hall on the first floor of the valley wooden fort, after handing over the southbound spies to the defenders of Boulder Town, Flender's personal guards in charge of escorting them went to the valley to meet Yat under the leadership of the soldiers of Boulder Town.

Immediately, the guard slowly took out the secret letter from his waist and handed it to Art with both hands.

"Sir Law~" Art said sincerely, turning his head and nodding to Ron. Ron then took a bag of coins from a nearby drawer and handed it to the guard.

"Thank you, Lord Earl~"

"Ron, send this knight for me."

"Yes, sir."

After the two went out, Art slowly opened the note. Looking at the yellowed Wills paper, Art was very happy. Now, not only the clergy used Welsh paper extensively, but also the nobility and wealthy merchants everywhere loved this light and convenient writing material. The palace is a big customer of the valley paper mill.

Although the order volume is not very large, it also allows Yate to make a huge profit. The main reason why Welsh paper has not been fully promoted is that it is limited by the size of the paper mill. At present, only enough Welsh paper is produced for use in the Princedom of Burgundy, and no surplus paper is sold to the other major principalities.

For this reason, Yate has instructed the government to expand the scale of the paper mill, and strive to increase the production capacity of the paper mill by two or three times in half a year. In this way, Welsh paper will be spread all over the country~

In the secret letter, Flender mentioned to Art that, in view of the current predicament of the province of Wales, he had sent someone to communicate with the Templars, and was willing to borrow five million fennigh in Art's name to build the territory as a guarantee of the taxes of the Princedom of Burgundy. But the premise is that Yate must first repay the arrears of the previous loan. Once settled, the second phase of borrowing can begin.

"Great!" Yate said silently in his heart after reading it.

In recent days, Yate has been suffering from the issue of military spending, and after thinking about it for a long time, he finally failed to do so. Now, a secret letter from Flender has solved all of these problems. As long as there is military spending, the next thing will be much easier.

That night, Art wrote a secret letter to Bob and asked him to send it to Besançon. Agree with Flender's suggestion to pay off the arrears and then re-borrow five million fennies from the Templars.

After dealing with this matter, Art finally breathed a sigh of relief in his heart~

The next day, Ron traveled to Boulder with Art's orders to send all the spies to the border outpost. After giving them enough dry food for seven or eight days, they all blasted out of the outpost gates.

The only thing left was the "southern goods" of those carriages. Later, after counting, the goods were worth 100,000 pfennigs, as well as gold coins worth 100,000 pfennigs. These were all put into his pocket by Yat, and they were regarded as a meeting gift from the Duke of Lombardy~

…………

At the end of April, more than half a month after the end of spring ploughing. Wales is a busy scene everywhere. The construction site to the south of the workshop area is even more lively.

“…… Next~"

"Hey, it's my turn, it's my turn."

"What's your name~"

“……”

Recently, the military affairs government and the government affairs government jointly issued an announcement that all men of school age can sign up to join the army. After being screened by the legion, he will become a member of the reserve regiment of the Southern Frontier Garrison of the Wells Legion. The main duty is to guard the southern border against foreign enemies.

The day after the announcement was issued, the officials of the military affairs office took people to the construction site in the south of the workshop area and began the recruitment work.

Although these outcasts had not been in the valley for long, they had some knowledge of the fame of the Wells Legion. Not only because of its fighting strength, but also because the Welsh legionnaires were paid more than the average army. As long as you work in the Legion for a year and a half, you can earn enough to build a nice wooden house.

Seeing that the officials of the military affairs government came to the construction site to recruit soldiers, many young and strong leaders rushed to sign up to join the army. On the first day alone, more than 500 people registered. Even though it was dark, there were still many people waiting in long lines. After the officials announced that they would continue to recruit tomorrow, they reluctantly returned to their camps......

Three days later, after layers of screening, the soldiers of the reserve regiment of the Southern Xinjiang Garrison Corps were finally determined - more than the original standard of 200 people. In order to avoid more incidents, Yate ordered the extra 200 people to be added to the garrison corps in Southern Xinjiang. But still trained with the reserve regiment.

Soldiers have been largely recruited, and the five million Fennigh borrowed from the Templars has arrived in Tignats. The most urgent task at the moment was to arrange for the recruits of this reserve regiment to be stationed in the temporary camp at Beiguan Military Fort, and then reorganize them according to the existing establishment of the Wells regiment. As soon as the integration is complete, the training begins.

…………

When the recruitment of new recruits was over, Art summoned all the officers above the flag captain of the Wells Legion and the Southern Garrison Legion to the lord hall of the Beiguan Military Fort. Including Lunicion and Jafar, who were training in the cavalry company camp. With the exception of a few officers such as Odo, who were far away in the city of Beaune and Fort Marcy in the province of Saône, all of them rushed to the fort of Beiguan after receiving orders from Arte.

Looking at the high-ranking officers above the flag captain who were crowded into a pile at the table, Yate sighed a lot and said: "Everyone, many years ago, I was a border patrol officer, and the number of soldiers who followed me around to suppress bandits can be counted on both hands~" Yate stretched out his hands and laughed at himself with interest, causing the officers at the table to laugh.

"But now, look at you one by one, such a big long table, it is surrounded to death. I think it's time for the craftsman to rebuild a bigger one, otherwise the next military meeting, I'm afraid some people will have to sit on the ground and listen to me~"

There was another burst of laughter in the hall, and the officers were in high spirits.

After a while, Yate said with a straight face: "I have gathered you here today mainly for the preparation of the 1,000 people of the reserve regiment of the Southern Xinjiang Garrison Corps. Next, let the sergeant major tell you about the specific situation~" With that, Art took two sips of wine, and then leaned on his back and listened to Angus's speech quietly.

Angus slowly got up, glanced at Art, nodded, and then glanced at everyone present. He said: "According to the opinion of the corps staff, the newly formed reserve regiment of the Southern Xinjiang Garrison Corps has no sub-regimental establishment for the time being, and all of them are based on companies. The reserve regiment is organized into six companies, and the company leaders are the deputy commanders of the six companies of the Wells Regiment and the Southern Xinjiang Garrison Corps. As soon as Angus finished speaking, the deputy commander of the company present began to look left and right and whispered.

“…… In addition, the flag captain in the new company is also selected from the original deputy commander of the flag team according to military merit, and the officers below the flag captain are also selected according to the same criteria~"

“…… In addition, some of the junior officers in the Reserve Corps can be selected from among the best soldiers. This is the issue of the establishment of reserve corps in this military discussion. If you have any comments, you can put them forward now. ”

After a while, seeing that no one answered, Art spoke: "Since everyone here has no opinion on the arrangements of the military affairs government, then make preparations in advance after you go down." In the near future, the military affairs office will be issued to those officers who have been transferred. The stakes are very high for this legion, and all of you here are the backbone of my Wells legion, and the future safety of Wales Province is up to you. Once the reorganization and recruit training are complete, your positions will be adjusted again according to the results of the training. At that time, there will be two sub-heads and deputy sub-heads. Outstanding performers will be given priority! ”

"I want to serve the Earl!"

The people stood up and replied.

A few days after the end of the military conference, the formation of the reserve regiment of the Southern Xinjiang Garrison Corps was carried out under the guidance of the Military Affairs Office......

At this time, the Duke of Lombardy, on the south side of the valley, was completely ignorant of the matter. In addition, a piece of news that shocked him reached his ears the next night.

…………

"Rubbish! You bunch of shit, rice buckets! What do I feed you for? You still have the face to come back to me! So many people have been served in a pot by others, you have made me lose face! Come on, pull these bastards out and cut them down! ”

At the Lombard court, the Duke of Lombardy was furious when he learned that the men he had sent to inquire about the Princedom of Burgundy had been captured, and roared loudly in the court.

"Lord Duke is angry~Lord Duke is angry~" The Prime Minister of the Lombard court, who was standing on the side, hurriedly stepped forward to dissuade him, and waved his hand to let the baron in charge of this mission step down.

"Lord Duke, they can't be blamed for that. Flender is a powerful character in his own right, and he must be difficult to deal with. In my opinion, this is not necessarily a bad thing~"

The prime minister stroked his chin and beard, thoughtful.

The Duke of Lombardy took the wine on the table and drank it down, his face was pale, and his hand trembling a little. After a while, he opened his mouth and said to the court prime minister: "Then according to you, Flender is not dissatisfied with us because we sent someone to find out his details?"

On the contrary, he did not show it on the surface, but in his heart he must have hated Lombardy. In addition, he released our people, and it seems that he has no intention of making us enemies. ”

"Isn't he afraid of us?" The Duke of Lombardy was somewhat confused by Flender's behavior.

"Judging from the current strength of the Marquis of Burgundy, he is indeed inferior to us. But we can't ignore the Kingdom of France behind him~"

The Duke of Lombardy paced back and forth in the hall, sighing from time to time. A few days ago, the Duke of Swabia sent a letter asking how the Duke of Lombardy was thinking about the joint attack of the two countries against the Princedom of Burgundy. The Duke of Lombardy had to delay again and again because he did not find out the details of the princely state of Burgundy. Now, the person he sent out to inquire about the news was actually released by Flender, which made the duke even more confused about Flender's intentions.

If you start a war rashly without knowing the situation, once you underestimate Flender's strength, you will not only not get benefits, but you may also lose a lot of troops and spend a lot of money.

It wasn't until a few days later that Wade, who learned about it. After Burley informed the Duke of Lombardy of the secret passage to the valley discovered by his own people before, this made the hesitant Duke of Lombard think about it: since he could not annex the land of the Princedom of Burgundy in an open and honest manner, why not encroach on the territory of the Princedom of Burgundy step by step from the ownerless ground that had been forgotten for many years.

In Wade. At Bray's suggestion, the Duke of Lombardy began to secretly organize his men again, intending to go north of Lombardy to find out. Once it was as he had claimed, the valley would be the first step in his annexation of the territory of the Princedom of Burgundy.

But what he didn't know was that Art had already planted his own men in the south of the valley. Once the Lombard people appear there, I'm afraid it won't be so easy to go back alive~