The entire Grington villagers were mobilized, digging a trench on the outskirts of the village, and in order to make the progress faster, Bruce consciously divided the villagers into three groups and let them compete with each other, and the first group to complete the progress of the task will be rewarded with money.

"Lord Bruce, it is their duty to serve the lord, and you must also give them a monetary reward, I am afraid that in the future the serfs will think that they are working for money." Little Lorianne is a little worried, Bruce's approach is very inconsistent with the way of the aristocracy, as a feudal obligation, the lord provides protection for the people in the territory, and the relative lords also have to serve the lord for free, but Bruce rewards them like hired workers, which is not a provision of the territory law.

"Is there anything wrong with working for money?" Bruce doesn't care, he knows that there is no competition without incentives, and the whole society will lack a competitive advantage, and he wants to build a positive territory, not a dead feudal territory.

Sure enough, the effect of money was very effective, and the progress of the serfs was tripled in order to get the reward for their hard work, but the serfs still didn't believe that Bruce would actually pay them a reward.

"Will the lord give us money?" A serf, covered in dirt, asked his companion beside him.

"Who knows, but our lord is amazing, and many people already say that he is a saint in private." The serf's earless Jim rubbed his hands as he walked, his hands were covered with mud, and the land had just rained the day before, and the soil was a little wet.

"Saint, ah, if it could make my life better, I would call my lord a saint, and I have three children and a nagging wife to support." Jim's friend complained.

"Come to think of it, our group was the first to complete the task, and even if there is no reward, a full meal is not bad." Earless Jim patted his friend on the back and said comfortingly.

The serfs who had completed their mission walked to the lord's house, and they passed through the wooden gate of the inner city, where Bruce was already waiting, and he looked at the serfs who passed through the gate of his inner city.

"My lord, we've done our job." Earless Jim looked around, he walked up to Bruce, bowed to Bruce and said.

"Well done, you're the first to finish, Annie." With his hands in front of him, Bruce crossed his legs to look at his serfs, turned his face to Anne in the lord's house.

Anne walked out with a money bag on her face, she didn't understand Bruce's thoughts, but she had to obey the lord's orders.

"Oh woo~." The serfs looked at each other with some uneasiness when they saw the money bag that Anne was carrying, and heard the crisp sound coming from inside.

"Come here, and receive your reward." Bruce took the money bag in Annie's hand, took out a copper coin from it and said to the serfs, the copper coin he picked up was shining in the sun, looking at the copper coin in Bruce's hand, the serfs' eyes showed a look of longing.

When Bruce was in front of the lord's house and handed out copper coins to the serfs, Edward not far away looked at him in surprise, he didn't expect Bruce to really give money to the serfs.

"What a waste, the lord is still too young." Stukov walked out with a wine glass, he now also lived in the soldiers' longhouse, but unlike Edward, Stukov was popular among the soldiers.

"Why?" Edward just looked at Bruce blankly, and he casually asked Stukov beside him.

"Money is used to hire artisans, mercenaries, and merchants, and it is wasted on serfs, I really don't know what Bruce thinks." Stukov took a sip of wine, weak beer didn't taste as good as ale, it was a poor man's drink, but it was better than nothing.

"But he's done a lot of great things at this age, hasn't he?" Edward looked at the high-spirited Bruce, his eyes full of envy.

"Ah, that's right." Stukov shrugged his shoulders, but when he looked at Edward, he opened his mouth to ask, but he didn't.

"What do you want to ask?" Edward seemed to sense that Stukov wanted to ask him something, so he said without looking back.

"I know knights don't like dirty work, but this is the first time I've heard of bloodsickness, what happened to you?" Stukov looked curiously at the pale Edward and asked him.

"If you will tell me why you left the sea, I will tell you about me." Edward turned and passed Stukov, leaving behind a sentence before returning to the longhouse alone.

"Hey." Stukov licked his lips, he raised his head and looked at the sky with one eye, his face full of helplessness and loneliness.

"Stukov." Suddenly, Bruce looked in Stukov's direction and shouted loudly.

"Yes, Lord Lord." Stukov stamped his foot and staggered towards Bruce with his glass in hand.

"When are you leaving?" Bruce asked, asking about getting Stukov to travel to Dead Island once again to bring back the ash.

"I'll leave tomorrow." Stukov thought for a moment and said to Bruce.

"No, today, right now, the trench is being dug well, and I need enough volcanic ash to make cement." Bruce shook his head, he was now competing with James for time, and he had to build the walls before James knew it.

"If that's the case, then I'll go right away." Stukov nodded, and he said after bowing slightly to Bruce.

Bruce handed Stukov the rest of the bag of money and asked him to use the money to hire ships and sailors, Stukov nodded with satisfaction, and just as the two were preparing for another voyage, laughter came from the direction of the longhouse.

"What's going on?" Bruce frowned slightly, because after returning from Randall, most of the soldiers in the barracks had lost, and the rest was for the wounded soldiers to recuperate, so he was a little relaxed about military discipline, but Bruce would definitely not let the soldiers of the Greenton Legion become stragglers, thinking of this, Bruce strode towards the longhouse.

"Your Lord." Stukov blocked Bruce's path and motioned for him not to pass.

"Huh?" Bruce was a little surprised, and he looked at Stukov.

"My lord, you can't help in the past." Stukov said to Bruce, who was even more curious about what was going on in the barracks.

Stukov hesitated for a moment before telling Bruce what had happened, it turned out that since returning from Randall, the soldiers had treated Edward extremely badly, and as a family knight, he should have led the soldiers to fight bravely, but during the battle of Randall, Edward hid under the carriage with the woman.

The soldiers who knew about it afterwards were extremely angry, they shed blood and died on the front line, but Edward as a knight hid under the carriage, even as a man they could not forgive, not to mention that when Bruce established the Greenton Regiment, he took bravery and honor as the soldier's creed, and Edward was completely excluded in the barracks, and sometimes when he returned to the barracks, he would find that his bed was watered, and sleeping on a damp bed at night was very uncomfortable and dangerous.

"Why didn't Edward come and tell me?" Bruce was taken aback and asked Stukov.

"If I tell you, will you punish those brethren?" Stukov's one-eyed eyes looked at Bruce and said to him.

"I~~." Bruce listened and thought to himself, yes, could he punish those soldiers? In Randall's time, the spearmen held their ground in the face of the charge of elite knights, they were braver than anyone else in the face of the terrible enemy, defending with their lives and blood the faith that Bruce had taught them, should they use whips against those brave and loyal soldiers for the sake of a cowardly knight?

"It's a matter between men, and if you, as a lord, intervene, it's not a good thing for Sir Edward." Stukov patted Bruce on the shoulder, although he shouldn't have done this as a retainer, but he was old enough to be Bruce's father.

"Edward is a nobleman after all, and he can't let them go too far." Bruce smacked his mouth, feeling that this matter could really only be handled by Edward himself, although he was only using Edward's original puppet, but after all, the knight was the leader, and if he couldn't even submit his own brothers, I'm afraid there was really no way.

"Don't worry, Lord Lord, someone will take care of him." Stukov promised Bruce.