Valley Wooden Castle, on the second floor of the Lord's Mansion, Lottie was cleaning the wounds of Art lying on the bed, and when she saw that Art's chest and back were full of old and new scars, Lottie couldn't hold back her soft crying anymore.

Hearing the crying behind him, Art turned around to look at it, got up and comforted him, "Honey, what are you crying about." I had these abrasions, which were cut by stone branches when I was climbing over the mountains. ”

The more Lottie cried, the more sad she became, and Art hurriedly stepped forward and hugged Lottie, "Don't you see that I'm okay and nothing?" ”

"I've seen it all, so many of your soldiers have died in battle this time. Felix came back that day and told Uncle Cooper that I was scared to death when you were attacked by bandits and killed......" Lottie sobbed as she spoke.

"My dear, how can there be no immortal in war, if you are afraid of death, just be a farmer. Aren't you the most adoring warrior? Warriors are a group of people who play with death. ”

Lottie stopped crying, and Rika looked at Art with rain, "But I don't want you to be a warrior now, I don't want you to risk again......"

Art was gagged all of a sudden, a woman's heart can change whatever she says, one moment I want you to be a fearless hero, and the next moment I want you to be a farmer who lives and begs~

"Master, the officers and stewards are all here, are you ready to start the discussion?" Ron's voice rang out outside the door.

"I'll be right there."

Art looked up at the door, leaned over and kissed Lottie on the forehead, and said, "Don't worry, my dear, your warriors are not so easily taken away by death." Then he put on his armor and went out, and followed Ron, who was still a little disadvantaged in his legs, and walked downstairs.

Descending to the lord's hall on the first floor, all the officers of the army and the stewards of the civil administration have arrived.

Art came directly to the main seat and sat down, looked at the crowd who bowed their heads and were silent, and said, "Are you planning to bow your heads and admit defeat?" All head up! ”

Only then did everyone raise their heads.

"It is undeniable that we suffered heavy losses in Boulder Town, and many of our brothers died on the battlefield, but we still won the battle, and we were the ones who survived to the end."

"Nowadays it is such a world, and if you are a little weaker, you will be oppressed. The bandits dared to attack our garrison because they didn't think we were strong, but now we've shown them with our heads for tens of miles how strong our shields are and how sharp our spears are. ”

"However, it is undeniable that our strength is not enough after all, and this time our defenders desperately blocked the attack of the bandits, and the reinforcements also happened to find a shortcut to the rescue. But will we be so lucky next time? If you are still facing such a crisis next time, will you still be able to sit here like this? ”

Art looked at the crowd, and they were silent.

"Summoning you here today is to discuss how to quickly increase the strength of the Valley Knight Leader in the next step."

"Cooper, you are the chief civil officer, you first talk about how to strengthen the civil affairs of the territory."

Cooper looked at the crowd and said, "Not much else, the main measure on the current civil side is to constantly recruit displaced farmers to expand their territory, and then cultivate more land and sow more grain, and now food is the foundation of everything." ”

"The winter wheat sown last year has already begun to be harvested, and according to the previous agreement, the first batch of farmers in the grain area will pay the "May Day tax" to Mubao in early July, plus the army collected from the county some time ago and the existing grain materials and farm tools and livestock reserves in Mubao, we can also recruit 50 displaced families into the valley to reclaim and cultivate the land, so I suggest that we start recruiting displaced people into the valley again. ”

"However, now that the villages in the valleys are too crowded to accommodate the new entrants, if we continue to recruit displaced people, we must build a second village along the river, and we have already chosen the location, which is three miles south of the valleys, on a riverbank plateau, which is slightly higher and has easy access to water, and there is also a large area of flat wasteland around it that can be cultivated."

After Cooper finished talking about continuing to recruit displaced people to reclaim wasteland, he paused for a moment, and then continued: "I just said that land and grain are the foundation of everything, and after land and grain are guaranteed, it is a matter of money."

"There are now hundreds of thousands of phennies in the wooden fort, which seems to be a lot, but it is not enough to use it, not to mention the huge monthly salary, just the daily labor of the army soldiers and the new lords, craftsmen, and captives who need to be supported by the wooden fort, and their daily food consumption is an astonishing consumption."

"So the second point I'm going to say is to make money, make more money."

"At present, we don't have many ways to make money, except for the border posts, which can collect five or six hundred pfennigs of entry tax every month, and the caravan can bring a little more income. But since the caravan was attacked and suspended from the southern goods trade, it can earn less than 4,000 fennig a month, and this income is far from supporting the huge consumption of the army and civil affairs, so I think we still have to find a way to open the way to the southern goods trade~"

Salter, the caravan steward beside Cooper, nodded repeatedly, "Yes, my lord, if we can't take advantage of the current war to gain a foothold in the southern goods trade as soon as possible, once the war is a little calmer, those dormant southern goods giants will stand up, and we will have no chance to intervene again!" ”

Art nodded heavily, and ordered several civil affairs stewards: "From now on, the Valley Knight Leader will start recruiting homeless young people again, and I will leave this matter to the border outpost and the station of Boulder Town, once the bandits on the north-south trade route are cleared, there will be more homeless people, I will let them recruit." This side of the valley must be prepared to receive displaced people, whether it is food supply or house construction, in addition, there are more and more people in the valley, and there are more and more prisoners of war under management, you must do a good job in public order issues, I don't want chaos in the territory, so the valley guards must focus on maintaining order in the valley. ”

"All the stewards of the civil affairs will fully cooperate and do their part well."

"In addition, the construction of the Beiguan Military Fort has been accelerated, and if the Boulder Town can be protected by a stronger fortress wall this time, we will not have so many soldiers killed and wounded. From now on, except for agricultural affairs, everything else in the territory will give way to the construction of Beiguan, and all the previous prisoners of war and the recently captured bandit captives will be sent to Beiguan to build a city, and all the forces of civil affairs will be given priority to the construction of the Beiguan military fort. After the winter wheat was harvested, Scott and his guards went to the edge of the northern jungle to survey the edge of the jungle, and except for the horse-drawn carriageway we had built, all the other forest paths and wild beasts that might sneak into the valley were closed or trapped, and spikes were laid to ensure that there was only one way in and out of the valley. ”

Lawrence, the construction steward, and Scott, the steward and captain of the guard, stood up to answer.

Yate motioned for the two to sit down, and continued: "On the caravan side, the suppression of bandits is nearing the end, and I will let the army continue to clear the remaining bandits, and now that there are basically no bandits on the north-south trade route, I plan to start the southern goods trade."

Art finally decided to do it.

"I'll discuss the caravan with Sarter and you later."

Art turned to Angus and said, "Sergeant Major, Otto is stationed in Boulder Town with troops, and you can tell everyone about the affairs of the army."

Angus nodded and said to everyone: "The army has three important things recently, one is to continue to recruit and train soldiers to replenish battle losses and expand the army, including the station of Boulder Town and the border outpost to send more permanent soldiers, this matter is in charge of Odo; The second is to continue to purge the remnants of the bandits in the county, and ensure that there are no more bandits in the county, and I am responsible for this matter; The third is to expand the valley guard, this time the attack on Boulder Town has hit us hard, the adults are worried that the valley will also encounter such a situation in the future, in order to ensure the defense of the valley during the army out of battle, the adults decided to expand the valley guard, the standing peasant soldiers of the guard team with the levy expanded to twenty people, of course, the guard peasant soldiers are only relatively standing, in addition to sending five peasant soldiers on duty every week to help create stewards to take care of prisoners of war, that is, assembly training should be slightly more frequent, but the guards peasant soldiers are mainly based on ploughing the fields and farming, and they are on duty, training, and food and lodging for the peasants during their assignments were provided by the wooden fort and paid one fennig per person per day. ”

"In addition to the twenty peasants and soldiers of the Standing Guard, all the selected young men over the age of sixteen and under the age of forty in the Valley Knights are registered and compiled into the Valley Guards. I will discuss the details of the expansion of the Valley Guard with the Stewards of the Civil Administration when Odo returns. Angus was succinct and to the point, Art's decision to expand the Valley Guard had already been made, and he was just announcing Art's decision.

Art also discussed with everyone about the rescue and resettlement of wounded soldiers, the reward of the surviving soldiers, the reclamation of the territory and wasteland, and the harvesting of grain.

Amid the discussion of the crowd, a morning passed.

"Okay, that's all for today, and everyone will do their part when they go down. Cooper stayed, and you all scattered. ”

Seeing that everyone got up and left, and Cooper was the only one left in the hall, Art took Cooper to the side of the office and closed the door.

"Cooper, are you ready for everything you collect?" Art asked Cooper in a low voice.

Cooper looked at the mysterious Art, and replied with an embarrassed expression: "Master, the charcoal powder you want is easy to obtain, even if it is sulfur, you can continue to let the caravan go to those alchemists to buy it, but the saltpeter you said is really no one has heard of, and there is no way to get it." ”

Yate didn't know if the people of this era had come into contact with that kind of big killing weapon, but he could only recall the three raw materials of carbon, sulfur and nitrate, as for how to mix and how to determine the share ratio of various raw materials, he really couldn't remember.

"You really haven't heard of saltpeter?" Art asked.

"Master, I used to be just a builder, and I really haven't heard of these alchemists, and Sarter has asked a few alchemists, and they haven't heard of this kind of thing. Sir, what are you going to do with these things? Cooper really didn't understand why the busy Art had cared about these alchemists' stuff lately, and it seemed so mysterious.

"Cooper, I can't tell you what I'm going to do yet, but you have to believe that everything I do is for the future of this territory."

Cooper nodded heavily, asking no more.

"You separate the charcoal and sulfur in clay pots and send them to my secret room, since you can't buy saltpeter outside, you can only try to make your own." Art said.

"Make it yourself?"

"Well, I don't know if it's going to work, so let's try it first. You go and take a few buckets of loose sand mixed with animal urine and diluted manure, put them in a cool place and let them sit for a while, and then ......"

Cooper frowned and nodded, reluctantly. 166 net

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Chapter 141: Developing a "Weapon of Mass Destruction"?