At the end of the Earth Season, the weather began to get hotter and hotter. Especially on a sunny day like today, it's even hotter and makes people just want to hide in the shade.

The brick kiln village of Victor Collar does not have any shade. More than 200 sturdy farmers, scorching in the sun, were busy on the open field. They were shirtless, with sweat towels, and their bare backs were covered with beads of sweat, but they didn't have time to wipe them off. Countless bricks were carried from the dry room to the two-wheeled carts, and the drivers pulled the heavy carts straight to the loading dock, where a dozen sturdy ox carts were waiting to be loaded.

On a hill on the south side of the village, a number of houses have been built on the shady side, which is the residential area of the villagers of the village. Every house here is made of bricks, and now the main use of wood is as fuel, and the huge brick kiln below devours countless dry wood every day.

Victor stood under a pergola on a hill and looked out at the brick kiln village below. Every time an ox cart loaded with green bricks leaves the loading dock, Victor feels a sense of satisfaction.

"My lord, since the giant brick kiln was put into use, there are 60,000 bricks out of the kiln at a time, and now we produce an average of 12,000 bricks per day. Dean proudly introduced Victor to the head of the Brick Kiln Village.

Dean volunteered to be the head of the Brick Kiln Village, and although he still wanted to cultivate the land, he was still impressed by the majestic structure when the chimney was built, which was more than 30 meters high. In fact, the other village leaders were also very entangled, and everything here seemed like a miracle in their eyes. It only takes 20 days in the brick kiln village to complete the whole process from embryo making to brick production. This efficiency is beyond the imagination of the village leaders, who have experienced the process of drying the soil alone for up to four months. So, when the first batch of green bricks produced by the giant brick kiln came out of the kiln, hundreds of villagers cheered, and this exciting scene infected everyone, Dean immediately recommended himself to Victor to be the head of the brick kiln village, and then the other village leaders began to compete for this position. In the end, Victor chose Dean to encourage this culture of volunteerism.

Victor picked up a finished green brick and pinched it hard, but the brick didn't move. This aroused Victor's interest, and he began to secretly exert force in the way of barberry's secret form, and a crack finally appeared in the sturdy green brick, and finally broke in two.

Dean was stunned as he watched from the side, he knew the quality of these bricks, they were much stronger than the bricks fired by the soil method, how could they become so brittle in Victor's hands? Dean hurriedly picked up the broken bricks on the ground, and pinched and pinched them with all his strength, but the bricks still did not show any cracks.

There is no problem with the quality at all, that is, the strength of the lord is far beyond ordinary people. Thinking of this, Dean looked at the lord with admiration.

Victor's expression was as plain as water, but he secretly complained in his heart, now his physique has reached 10 points, and the barberry secret form is also perfect, just now he mobilized the strength of his entire arm to pinch the green brick. Of course, the green bricks fired by the alchemy auxiliaries are very strong, and pinching them off with his fingers is still too much of a burden for Victor. Now his entire arm hidden behind him was twitching, and with Victor's current muscle mass, it was difficult to continue to withstand the barberry secret form's force.

Victor shook his arm quietly and said to Dean, "I'm still satisfied with the quality of these bricks. Do you have any difficulties in presiding over the Brick Kiln Village now?"

Dean's eyes rolled, and he glanced at Arlo to the side, but the chief craftsman of the brick kiln village was as unresponsive as wood, much to Dean's dismay.

Originally, Dean hoped that Arlo could help him make conditions to the lord, but now he can only speak by himself.

Dean stubbornly said to Victor, "My lord, we need more manpower. Now the daily workload in the brick kiln village is very large, and the big guys are tired enough. So, I hope you will send more people over. ”

Victor remained silent, and it had been six months since he had taken control of the territory, and in addition to the hill camp, two farmsteads had been built, a brick kiln village, and a carpenter's village. And the flax village has been built, and the blacksmith village is being surveyed. The biggest problem now is the shortage of manpower.

Victor currently controls a population of more than 1,200 people, with nearly 700 men in the prime of life, more than 200 young women, and the rest are mainly children and the elderly. There are 900 people who can actually work. Of the remaining 800 people, 250 were in the brick kiln village, 80 in the carpenter village, 200 in charge of the construction of the flax village, and 200 under the leadership of Morin to cultivate the land, collect crops, raise cattle and horses, harvest purple cane, and make wine and sugar. The rest of the dozens of people are in charge of transportation.

Now all the village leaders are asking Victor for someone, and the last time we had a meeting, everyone was arguing over manpower issues. Dean said he needed more labor, and he was immediately scolded for his blood. Morin said that the main economic income of the territory now depends on raw sugar and purple cane wine, so he needs to draw people from other places. However, the head of the carpenter's village, Ferro, sneered and said that the wheels they produced were selling very well in the town of Blackcastle, and if he was given more manpower, the income of the carpenter's village would definitely exceed that of Morin's farm. The Kent chief, who was preparing to build the flax village, showed everyone a piece of fine linen, and he triumphantly said that this fine linen was made by two of his men, and that it was of perfect quality, and that the noble lord must be willing to spend a lot of money on it. Even Nelson was excited by the emotions in the room, but before he could speak, he was glared back by Victor.

In fact, the biggest manpower gap is in the transport fleet. Bricks need to be transported, timber needs to be transported, purple cane needs to be transported, and even clay needs to be transported in the future. To this end, Victor purchased more than 40 healthy cattle in the town of Blackcastle, and the ox carts were made by the carpenter's village. The bullock cart was available, but the problem was that there were not so many coachmen, and Victor had to hand over the transport to Nelson's guards. That's why Nelson wants to expand the Guard.

According to Victor's plan, the brick kiln village must be expanded with two giant brick kilns, which is related to his castle plan and cannot be missed. In addition, once the blacksmith village is built, he will need hundreds of miners. As these workers increase, the territory will also need more people to work in logistics, including transportation, farming, garment, as well as guarding and policing. Victor calculated that he still needed at least 500 strong laborers, plus their families, it should be around 800.

Dean looked at Victor worriedly, he knew that this request would offend the other village leaders, but as the village chief, he had to fight for the interests of his subordinates.

Victor pondered for a moment and said, "There is a shortage of manpower everywhere in the territory right now. You are already the most manpower village. Therefore, we will not send any more people to you for the time being. ”

Dean was a little disappointed, but he still said to Victor: "My lord, the villagers are indeed very happy, and now everyone's enthusiasm for work is not as good as before, if we can't take measures, I am afraid that there will be a phenomenon of sabotage." ”

Victor knew that Dean wasn't threatening him, but the truth. These people do not have a salary to pay at the moment, and relying on meat tickets alone is not enough to boost morale.

"In this case, I allow you to promote 30 lords every month, recommend two job quotas, and every time you recruit women, your brick kiln village will give priority to 20. These women can also work in embryo making. We'll be recruiting more people soon, and before that, you'll need to raise more backbones in the Brick Kiln Village. ”

When Victor sacrificed the Great Killing Weapon, Dean smiled and nodded repeatedly.

Victor encouraged Dean again, and left the brick kiln village surrounded by guards.

In the spacious carriage, Lilia wore a white thin linen dress and her hair was scattered, and she poured a candied fruit pickled in cane sugar into Victor's mouth.

"Victor, why don't we continue to recruit the lords, now that we earn more than 150 gold soles a month, we can support more people. Lilia said sweetly to Victor.

Victor smiled slightly, now the sales of jaggery in the territory are booming, and they have been sold for 2 silver soles a pound, and those inconspicuous wheels have been sold for 10 silver soles a pound. But this money is still too little for Victor, and he needs more money. Victor knew that the best way to make money was to form a caravan, like the thin linen dress on Lilia's body, if it was transported to the Sassanian Empire, the value would immediately increase tenfold, and then the cheap sheepskin of Sasan would be transported to the Sasan Empire, and the profit would be five times greater.

But the formation of the caravan is not in a hurry, it depends on the lord's connections, and what Victor urgently needs now is manpower. But before recruiting the lords, Victor first had to solve a problem, the problem of spies.

According to old John, the House of York conducted a census of the freedmen outside the city, and took many skilled freedmen with them. The skills of these people were not valued by the Yorks, who had better craftsmen, but the Yorks recruited them anyway. Apparently, they believe that many of Victor's new technologies were created by artisans among the freedmen. This also shows that the brick kiln village, carpenter village, and flax village of Victor Collar have all fallen into the eyes of the York family.

Although the techniques taken out by the alchemy auxiliaries are all ordinary goods, if you don't clean up these eyeliners, Victor will have no advantage at all. What's even more terrifying is that the House of York is now very interested in Victor, and if Victor starts recruiting his lords, they will inevitably send more spies, and once these people join forces with the already lurking spies, they will form an all-pervasive intelligence network. Therefore, it is necessary to dig out the spies in the territory first.

Of course, when Victor recruited the lords, the York family would still send secret agents, but those people could only crawl at the bottom, and there were not many opportunities to contact the core, and they were particularly easy to expose without anyone to cover them, so it was not a problem.

"Of course we have to recruit, but until then, it's up to the old fox in Balor to really help us dig out that nest of rats. ”

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Robbie, the steward of the Baron de Villepin's house, made him a little nervous as he walked cautiously through the castle, imminent of meeting his master.

Ever since the family steward was killed in Castle Black, Baron Verpan has become particularly irritable, whipping people for trivial matters. Now the chamberlains in the castle are all cautious, not daring to make a mistake, lest they become the baron's punching bag again.

In a stone room, a man in a red cloak is looking out the window.

"Good day, sir. I heard that you summoned me. Robbie said respectfully.

The man turned around, he was about thirty years old, with blonde hair, a handsome face, and a strong and burly body. He wore a pale blue hunting suit, a ruby clasp and a flaming red cape to his chest. It looks heroic and mature. He was Baron Verpin, the cousin of Queen Catherine.

Baron Verpan turned around and smiled at Robbie, "Robbie, I have something for you to do. ”

The baron's warm and graceful smile relaxed Robbie's nervousness, and he bent down and said, "Listen to your lordship." ”

"I want you to go to Blackcastle and spread the word among the freedmen. About Baron Victor. ”

When Robbie heard that he was dealing with Baron Victor, he immediately became excited, he knew that it was this Baron Victor who made Baron Verpin extremely hateful, and they also suffered a lot. Now that there is a chance to help the adults vent, Robbie is excited.

"My lord, what do you want me to spread?"

Verpin laughed, "I want you to go to the freedmen to spread the word about the riches of Victor's lordship, Lord Victor's kindness, and his system of work that directly promoted freedmen to vassals." ”

Robbie was stunned for a long time, and he wondered if he had heard it wrong. He is very good at spreading rumors, but this is the first time he has spread rumors praising his opponents.

"My lord, are you asking me to praise Baron Victor among the free people?" asked Robbie carefully.

Verpan nodded, and said affirmatively, "You heard him right, it's for you to praise him." You don't need to ask about other things, you can go now. ”

"Yes, my lord, I'll go. Robbie didn't dare to ask more, and bowed back.

Watching Robbie ride out of the castle, Verpin smiled with satisfaction.

Baron Verpin was not the eldest son of the family and did not have the right to inherit the land, but he had a powerful cousin. His cousin, Catherine, was originally the daughter of a small aristocratic family, and since she became the queen of Gambis, the family of Verpin immediately became attached to her. But Catherine never took care of these relatives, but restrained them harshly. But after Lane's death, Queen Catherine's attitude towards the family changed 180°. She quickly appointed many relatives to important positions in the court, and even he, the second son of the family, was arranged by Catherine to become the pioneer lord of the Centaur Hills.

Verpan was so grateful to Cousin Catherine that he swore allegiance to her. Originally, Velpin's territory and Victor's territory were connected and each other's horns, but Victor patted his ass and exchanged the territory to the York family. Verpin's fiefdom was immediately surrounded by the fiefdom of the House of York. Now, Velpin's convoy entering and leaving the Centaur Hills is heavily taxed by the Yorks.

Verpin hated Victor for this, and when the steward was killed by Victor's guards, Verpin was furious, but he was helpless.

Verpin wrote a letter to Catherine detailing Victor's affairs, and he hoped that Her Majesty would punish Victor as a traitor. After a month of waiting, Velpan finally received a reply from Catherine. Verpin was so impressed by the contents of the letter that he immediately began to arrange, the first step was to arrange for Robbie, the steward, to praise Victor among the freedmen.

"Victor, you're done, even if you're Lady Rose's lover, it's useless. Her Majesty's layout is incomprehensible!"