Duke was excited, but Watt was a little dazed, he didn't think Duke was so keen on the steam engine. Because at the current level of the steam engine, it may not be as efficient as Duke's hydraulic machinery.

"Lord Duke, do you really want to develop a steam engine, it doesn't seem to be very practical. ”

Watt tactfully persuaded that he didn't want Duke to do useless work.

But he didn't expect that Duke put his hands on his shoulders and said in an unusually sincere tone: "I know, but I believe that after your transformation, the steam engine will surpass any tool on the advanced continent!"

Faced with Duke's great hopes, Watt didn't say much, he nodded and replied, "I'll try, Lord Duke." ”

With the addition of Copperbeard and Watt, the hydraulic factory also ushered in a major reform, and the previous "miscellaneous army" blacksmiths, except for a few who made agricultural equipment, all the rest joined the newly established arsenal and began the development and production of weapons in Storm Castle.

In particular, Watt's steam laboratory has become the first priority laboratory of Stormcastle, and Duke has ordered to fully support Watt's research at all costs, regardless of any cost issues, because only Duke knows in this world, and the steam engine improved by Watt represents the future.

The importance of the expansion of the hydro factory is self-evident, and the problem of defense is becoming more and more prominent, that is, the hydro factory is not like the Storm Castle, which has high walls and bastions as fortifications, although Duke has been reinforced, but it still looks very rudimentary.

Of the 2,500 Storm Legion, 1,500 of whom have been sent to the hydroelectric factory, even surpassing the defenses of the main city of Stormcastle, are to ensure the safety of these contemporary "scientists".

However, this is not a long-term solution, and if you want to solve the problem fundamentally, you need to build a tall fence around the hydroelectric plant. There was no shortage of materials for the construction of the city walls, and the stones of Mont Saint-Michel were everywhere. There is no shortage of money, and after the Alpine Agreement, money is no longer a problem for Storm Castle, so there is still only one problem left, and that is the lack of people!

Duke sat down in front of his desk and began to wail, already worried about repairing the city, the agricultural officer of the town hall had just come over, and as the winter was about to pass, the farmers of Storm Castle were about to leave the city and return to their territory.

The system of this world is still the mining system, and although Duke is the big lord of Stormcastle, his knights are also small lords. They also had their own estates and territories, and many of the peasants who entered the city in the winter were their subjects.

In the winter, Duke was able to recruit these peasants and let them work on various infrastructures, such as building city walls, digging canals, etc. But once spring plowing begins, these peasants will have to leave the city and return to their own territory and start cultivating their fields, so at least half of the entire Stormfort will be vacated.

Once these people leave, many of Duke's projects will be stalled, even if the Storm Riders are extremely supportive of Duke, but Duke knows what the common good is, and only by letting his subordinates have soup to drink, they will follow him more desperately.

This is an area that Duke's military reform has not been able to change, and it is also the foundation of this world, that is, class interests. Even if the knights become professional soldiers, they are still nobles and have their own separate domains. If you want to make the power of Stormcastle twist into a fist and concentrate on doing great things, then you must change this backward class system and mode of production.

There is no way to change the system of fiefdoms, because it touches the very essence of the interests of the class in this world, unless he has enough military strength to carry out an agrarian reform. However, Duke still came up with another solution, which was to set up the Stormcastle Agricultural Company, buy or lease all the territories of the knights, cultivate them together, and then harvest them fifty-fifty, and Duke set a minimum protection price.

In other words, they don't have to do anything, they only need to get their own territory income from Stormcastle every year, and this income is not less than their previous territory income.

In addition to not only the Knights, Duke also announced that new land developed or occupied by Stormcastle in the future would also be rewarded or sold to Stormwarriors with military merits, but only if this agricultural company was used.

When Duke announced this, the Storm Legion could be described as boiling, the soldiers of this world actually had the same idea as those low-level people in ancient China, that is, to make money to buy land and property, etc., with land and fiefdom, they have the basis to become knights, and it is very likely to jump to the aristocratic class.

Because of this policy, Duke has firmly tied the Storm Legion to himself, with both prosperity and loss, and the two sides have common interests and goals. Once Duke falls, all of them will be reduced to ashes, and instead of the previous case, the knights will be able to defect to other lords and obey their calls, thus guaranteeing the loyalty of the Storm Legion once and for all.

However, there are also many storm soldiers who don't understand, the lord does this, the number of labor has not changed, the scale of the land has not changed, and the income has increased a lot compared to before, isn't he a loss?

Even the town hall agricultural officer couldn't help but ask Duke this question, but Duke only smiled and said nothing, because he knew that the efficiency and output of centralized farming on large farms would far exceed the productivity of such small farmers.

If all the knight territories are integrated, with the help of new agricultural equipment, and the integration of specialized agricultural experts, Duke is confident that in the case of halving the labor force, the increase in production of all territories can reach more than 30%, and the efficiency will be at least doubled, so Duke still earns, which is the foresight of farm-based production in later generations.

Duke's agricultural reform was enacted, which temporarily relieved the manpower pressure on Storm Castle for future spring ploughing, but there was no way to fundamentally solve the problem. To really solve this problem, the storm needs a large alien population.

But with Stormcastle's current dangerous reputation, who would take the initiative to come? Then there is very little choice for answers, and Duke's first thought is the outcasts, but the kind of people who have left their homes and are threatened to survive, they don't care about Stormcastle's situation.

At present, natural disasters have not occurred on a large scale in the French Empire, but man-made disasters have become more and more intense, that is, between the French Empire and the Milan Empire, taking advantage of the ice of the Rhine, a war has begun, and some territories in the north of the empire have been in flames of war, which has burned to the vicinity of the Kingdom of Andorra, causing large-scale displacement.