The civilians who had come to "make trouble" were taken away by the soldiers, and they were placed on construction sites in the western part of North Port, where there were a lot of unskilled jobs waiting for them, and they were sentenced to several hours of labor for their actions—and for the obvious, most basic need for survival, they would also be given a hot meal, a hot bath, and a "paltry allowance for hard work."

This kind of operation Victoria has never seen before.

"The rules are sometimes too rigid, and we need to play on the spot, especially in this kind of place that is far away from the imperial capital and has a special folk style," Byron said with a shrug as he glanced at Victoria, who had emerged from the Quguang force field and was looking at him with a stunned expression, "These commoners were 'instigated' by the local minor nobles and manor owners, and that was the case at first.

"The construction of the North Harbor by the Construction Corps has obviously provoked some people—and the influence of the Wilders has kept them from acting openly, and these people will find other ways to test our truth—and they have encouraged or bought off some of the untruthful civilians, who were really angry when they first came here, but they soon found that we were more 'gracious and generous' than those who incited them. The construction corps has plenty of supplies, and the civilians need very little, so they can do some simple work here in exchange for food that can only be enjoyed on special days.

"But it's the hot water that makes a bigger difference, and our communal bathhouse is the most popular place, more popular than I thought. The camp now has two waste heat recovery centres and a central heat exchange station, and the residents of this cold beach apparently don't have much opportunity to take hot showers. My medic thought that bathing these outsiders would be an effective way to prevent them from spreading diseases in the camp, and now the latter have come to appreciate the abundant supply of hot water......"

Victoria's expression changed almost more times in a day today than in the past half a month, she frowned, and looked at the "Imperial General" in front of her with a strange expression: "So...... How often do these people come? Protest to you, get 'caught' by your soldiers and go to work, and finally mix a good meal and take a hot bath......"

"And a small subsidy, you know, imperial law stipulates that those who perform labor reforms can also receive a small amount of remuneration for their labor, which is to stimulate their enthusiasm for earning a living by labor."

Speaking of this, Byron paused, and then continued: "At first it was only men who came, they were seduced or bought, and after several forced labor and paid, some of them tried to smuggle food back to their families, I found out, but did not stop it, it was nothing, but those who were standing behind the scenes obviously did not want to see the result, they should have banned this behavior, and then you can imagine what happened - these people began to bring the women and children of the family with them. In fact, they even planned to take the elderly and young children with them, but that would be too dangerous for me to promise......"

Victoria listened to what Byron said in a relaxed and pleasant tone, but her expression gradually became serious, and when the other party's voice fell, she exhaled and said in a deep voice: "So, now these people who have been agitated ...... It's completely on your side...... And those who agitated them, have not yet realized the gravity of the situation. ”

"Maybe they realized, what does it matter?" Byron said indifferently, "A trend has been formed, and to reverse it is to pay a greater price than to help it, and the situation clearly does not allow them to do so - the Wilders will not help them, the Empire will not help them, no one will help them, and even their actions themselves have one foot on the red line, will they continue to take another leg towards this line?" Most likely, not. Of course, I personally would like them to go further – the beach is not very scenic, and the flagpole of the Construction Corps needs some embellishment. ”

Victoria finally put away the absurd and speechless feeling in her heart before, she looked at Byron as if she was re-examining, and after a few seconds she said slowly: "I used to think that I knew enough about everything in this land, but now it seems ...... I'm not as capable as you, a newcomer. ”

Byron glanced at the duchess in front of him, and suddenly grinned: "Archon, this is normal—you know the North, but I know the commoners. ”

Looking at the gray-haired middle-aged knight's nonchalant appearance, Victoria suddenly remembered the other party's origin again, and for the first time carefully combed the things behind this rough-haired imperial general that had been ignored by others-

He used to be a mercenary leader, a man who had to deal with all kinds of people, even "business" with bandits, lords, merchants, and civilians at the same time, and it was impossible for a really big man to survive in this line of work. This man became a knight from a humble background, and quickly integrated into the new order created by Gawain Cecil, and it is said that he was left and right in the south, and in that vast and complex system of government offices, this "mercenary knight" in power was not even rumored to be at odds with anyone.

On the contrary, Byron was friends with the main heads of each department, and had good relationships with almost all the mid-level and junior officers, even the traditional knightly officers, who usually ridiculed him for his lack of "true chivalry", actually had a good relationship with him.

And such a man, firmly guarding his duty as a soldier - loyal to the empire, loyal to the emperor, and never exceeding his authority, he was stationed on this coast for a month, and his soldiers never even stepped out of the camp except for the necessary tasks.

"I finally fully understand why His Majesty sent you here......" Victoria said slowly, taking a light breath.

"I'm not thinking about that, I just want to build the North Harbor as soon as possible," Byron said casually, "Typhon is already ahead of us - we have now received accurate information, the Typhonians have restarted their Port of Möbius, and there are a whole bunch of mages building new high-sea warships, and Your Majesty has said that with the support of the 'Money Ability', Typhon's man-made things are no slower than ours."

"And let the North Harbor take shape as soon as possible, and we can also start the next step as soon as possible, and turn this place into a bustling and lively port city - what a wonderful place it is, the largest ice-free port in the north, the calm and safe coastline, the inlet peninsula of the Holy Dragon Principality and the islands of the Violet Kingdom help us block the wind and waves on the east and west, but the people here can only rely on that little barren land and hunting seals to survive, they shouldn't be so poor.

"My next step is to open the markets and merchant passages in the Southern District, and I may need your influence to help me when the time comes—to get as many merchants as possible, which will help the city to take shape, as His Majesty did in the Dark Mountains.

"When the camp is fully established and the influence of the North Harbor expands a bit, I will use the normal methods to recruit locals, and the people you see today will be able to come and work here in a dignified manner.

"The only thing I'm worried about right now is the power of the local family...... Not the kind of big nobles, but the kind of small nobles who would incite the commoners to make trouble, and directly controlled the scattered land around North Harbor, and the 'lords of the manor' who did not even have the title of nobility. Now that they have shown enough caution and cunning, and most of them have figured out the bottom line of the Construction Corps, it will be difficult for me to really do anything to them, and you, as the archon and guardian of the North, are obviously not able to directly suppress them......

"These 'local snakes' may become a long-term and difficult trouble for Beigang to remove."

Byron babbled a lot, and when he finally finished speaking, Victoria broke the silence with a cold voice and an unhurried pace: "You don't have to worry too much. The Wild family has ruled the land for seven hundred years, and has some experience dealing with some 'sporadic problems'.

"And you also overestimate the trouble that those local families may cause - they are indeed stubborn, but they are also very good at observing the situation, and now the old aristocratic order in the north has been almost disintegrated by me, although those local families have not encountered the great liquidation, but they have watched the order of this land change, and their current actions seem short-sighted and blind, it is because they are only afraid but do not really understand the new rules of the game of the empire, or are they using old experience to avoid 'trouble' - wait until they understand the real rules of the game, and after discovering that the 'new neighbors' of Northport are strong and impossible to drive away, they may immediately become hospitable. ”

Listening to Victoria's flat words, Byron glanced deeply at the Duke of Ice, and after a moment laughed happily:

"If that's what you say, then I'm not worried."

As the words fell, he withdrew his gaze and looked at the sea in the distance again.

Under the clear sky, the sea illuminated by the bright sun was gently undulating, and in this position, the manic storm and the unpredictable magic tide were still far away from the human world, but a trestle had extended from the shore, and the trestle fixed to the magic ice was like a knight's spear, which had pointed the determination and courage of mankind to the sea.

……

A bright arc of electricity hung down from the sky, as if licking and sweeping across the raging sea, the end of the arc with a terrifying, tree-like branches, in a deafening roar, the waves were vaporized by the energy turbulence, and the pungent breath permeated the sky and the sea.

A ship covered in demonic metal, with countless runes shining on its surface, and a large number of magical devices installed, undulated in the terrifying waves, the surrounding sea water rolled up and down like a will, and with the arc of the sky, waves continued to attack the ship that looked crumbling, but it was constantly resisted and dispelled by one magic array after another and layers of magical shields that emerged on the surface of the ship.

The entire ship seemed to be protected by more than a dozen magical walls, and in that powerful energy field, the ship was still breaking the waves.

Typhon's Empire One Ocean Exploration Ship - Spirit.

Inside this advanced ship protected by layers of magical power, Earl Owen Dyson, who was the self-appointed captain, stood in the command room with a solemn face, and the illusion spell maintained by the magician was clearly projecting the scene outside the ship to the earl's eyes.

"Is this the 'chaotic turbulence' of the oceans...... "what an eye-opener......

Then he straightened his expression and looked at the control mage beside him, "How's the ship?" ”

The high-level mage who was in charge of monitoring the status of the whole ship was surrounded by layers of runes, floating above the magic circle in the center of the cabin, he opened his eyes, and his eyes were filled with arcane brilliance and were calm to almost mechanical wood: "The first to third layers of shields have been penetrated, the shield controller has temporarily lost the ability to cast spells, the amplification circle needs at least six hours to repair, and the rest of the shields are intact; The outermost anti-magic shell is broken, and the bilge shows signs of elemental erosion, which has been urgently repaired with the Mithril cladding - the anti-magic shell in the inner area is still intact and will not be a problem for the time being.

"All sails have been stowed and insulated from the outside winds, and the prototype engine has all shut down - a serious mechanical failure to start. Currently, ship power is maintained by the second echelon of sailors. ”

Earl Owen Dyson frowned: "How long will it be before we can break out of this storm?" ”

"The boundaries of the unstable energy field have been sensed - it will be reached in fifteen minutes. The ship could hold up until that time. ”

Earl Owen Dyson nodded and said in a deep voice, "I hope we don't encounter 'disorderly turbulence' again when we return......"

"Lord Earl, you shouldn't have carried out this voyage yourself," the first mate, who was standing next to Owen Dyson, couldn't help but whisper, "You are the ruler of Port Morbius, or even the ...... of the entire ocean exploration program"

"Call me Captain here - I think I'm at least worthy of the position in terms of sailing," Owen Dyson interrupted the first mate, "we're just going to explore the island of Tassos, the closest colony to the mainland during the Age of Sail - if I had to hide in a safe harbor even for such a close voyage, the Empire's ocean exploration program would probably never be on track." ”

The nobleman Typhon, with his gray-blue eyes and resolute eyes, said in a solemn tone, then shook his head, "But we do underestimate the power of the sea...... Seven-hundred-year-old books are in a mess and fragmented, while more recent sources are riddled with errors and omissions. The Dyson family is to blame for this, and we have finally tasted the bitter fruit of the bitter fruit after generations of us have been busy maintaining the last commercial lines of Port Möbius, and although we have kept observations and records of the seas, we have not invested enough to have really reliable information......"

"A year ago, no one would have thought that Aldenan would suddenly decide to reopen Port Morbius and the Ocean Exploration Program," the first mate shook his head, "It's not your fault, my lord." ”

Owen Dyson looked solemn: "If the ship sinks, it's my fault." ”

At this moment, the mage in charge of monitoring the situation in the sea suddenly shouted, interrupting the conversation between the captain and the first mate-

"The wind and waves are weakening!"

"We're in safety!"