Chapter 85 Candidates for the Founding of the City

Early the next morning, Joske, Sedercamp, and Pat set out for the mine with fifty guards and twenty four-wheeled wagons, to rescue the Norton family members who had been dumped in the mines, and to eliminate the thirty or so mercenaries who were responsible for guarding the mines.

The bearded Ovikis and Reddy formed a garrison of more than 100 coachmen to guard the two walls. The remaining seventy guards were responsible for guarding nearly a thousand slave laborers and more than forty surrendered mercenaries.

These were all agreed upon last night, and Lorist wanted to go to the mine in person, but was unanimously opposed. Joske said everything to let Lorlist, the man in charge, rush ahead, which made him feel ashamed and useless as a knight of the family. Well, as soon as this was said Lorist, he had to agree to let Joske take Sedcamp and Pat on a trip to take him on the castle site.

After sending off Josk and his party, Lorist made a round trip and returned to the house on the city wall, staring at the big sand table, and the more he looked, the more he felt a lot of thoughts. Less than two years after the Kenmax family acquired the territory, they were able to develop such a large territory. The Norton family has been rooted in the Northland for more than 200 years, and after seven generations of family heads, not only did they not develop the family territory, but they were trapped in the Northlands, and the family's situation has shrunk more and more, and now they can only stay in the family's manor castle and pretend to be turtles.

Lorist couldn't figure out what had happened to the family, and turned a blind eye to Viscount Kenmax's construction in the Norton family's territory. Half a year ago, Viscount Kenmax sent troops to attack the Norton family's manor castle, and the Norton family was able to hold the castle and confront Viscount Kenmax for more than half a month to force the Viscount to retreat, and the mercenary leader who surrendered also said that dozens of people died on the Viscount's side, which shows that the Norton family is not lagging behind. According to common sense, Viscount Kenmax retreated, and the Norton family should send scouts to monitor the movement of his retreat. But the family didn't even send a spy, what's going on?

Maybe the family has sent spies, but they are not concerned about Viscount Kenmeth, Lorist remembered what the mercenary leader said, the copper mine has found people from the Norton family, and at a glance, they found that the mine was occupied and retreated. Alas. When is it still thinking about the income from the copper mine. Also, since it was discovered that the mine was occupied, then at least we have to care about the whereabouts of the children of the families who worked in the copper mines, and it has been half a year that there has been no initiative to send an envoy to negotiate with Viscount Kenmeth, which is also too strange.

Although Lorist was only a day's walk away from the Norton family's manor castle, it was a quick ride to arrive in the day's time. But now, Lorist can't leave what is going on here and run back on his own. How to settle the nearly 1,000 slave laborers, what to do with the more than 40 mercenaries who surrendered, and what to do next when the castle construction site is occupied by themselves, it is like a mess. Lorist misses Fat Shi very much, if Fat Shi is here, he doesn't have to worry about these things.

When I think of Fat Shi, I think of Bodfinger, Rose, El, Telman, Yuri, these friends and family knights, I don't know if they led the family convoy back on the road, and I don't know how long it will take the family convoy to reach the Northland. When they arrived in the Northland with their family convoy, they didn't know if they would be able to prepare for the arrival of the convoy and settle down.

Thinking of the huge number of personnel in the convoy, Lorist felt a headache, with the temperament of the fat man, I don't know how many people there will be when the convoy arrives at the family territory, 20,000 or 30,000?

Lorist looked at the big sand table, and suddenly his eyes lit up, isn't this a ready-made resettlement plan? If the castle continues to be built, then nearly a thousand slave laborers will have to work, and there will be no need to worry about how to settle it. When the castle is built, they can continue to build the mountain city, and when the mountain city is built, they will be given freedom and settled on the spot as their own people.

As for the cost of building the castle, Lorist is not short of money, the only thing to worry about is two problems, one is that the person who presides over the construction of this castle must find someone who understands architecture, even if there are drawings, someone must understand it. The second is the materials that need to be purchased externally. The Kenmax family was the largest chamber of commerce in charge of the construction industry in the former empire, and it was extremely convenient for them to develop territory and build castles, whether it was labor or building materials, they could easily allocate and prepare them. Lorist doesn't have the ability to do this, and maybe the Kenmas family will find out that Lorist is continuing their development plan and make some trouble for Lorlist.

"Somebody, go and bring the bearded old man, oh, the butler named Boris. Lorist said to the guards standing outside the door.

Butler Boris was soon brought over, and Lorist looked through the drawings of the castle and asked him about the details of the construction, and inquired about the movements of the Kenmax family.

The butler of Boris said that Viscount Kenmeth did not live in the castle of the Red River Valley Manor in the territory, but lived in the most prosperous city of Gildusk, the most prosperous part of the Grand Duke of Lukins's domain, where he bought a large house as the Viscount's Palace. Since a cousin of Viscount Kenmas became the mistress of Archduke Lukins, the Kenmax family has been very close to Archduke Lukins, and the Kenmax family has also made a great contribution to the process of preparing for the establishment of the Northland Army by Archduke Lukins.

Viscount Kenmez also has several motives for living in Gildusk City, one is to like to be lively, like to hold lavish aristocratic drinking parties and balls and other things to hang out with ladies and ladies, and hates to stay in a remote territorial castle. The second is also to maintain a good relationship with Grand Duke Lukins. Thirdly, in order to receive the materials transported by the family through the checkpoint of Fresde Castle, after all, Lord Viscount personally picked it up, and Grand Duke Lukins did not openly forcibly expropriate the material convoy of the Kenmas family, which meant that it was enough to levy one or two vehicles.

According to the predetermined plan, a large number of materials will be delivered to the castle site on the 10th of next month, estimated to be 3,000 barrels of rubber rattan juice, a batch of construction tools, 500,000 catties of grain and some clothing and cloth. A thousand slave laborers were probably escorted over, along with more than 200 female slaves.

"Are the slave women the families of these slave laborers?" asked Lorist casually.

"Well, no, my lord, those slave laborers are young and strong, and they need to be rewarded to prevent them from making trouble. These female slaves were used as rewards. A well-behaved slave laborer could spend the night with a female slave, which was a very effective method of pacifying slave laborers that the Kenmasses had long practiced. Boris butler said.

To put it bluntly, these female slaves came to work as prostitutes. Lorist shook his head and was noncommittal: "Is the Kenmax family very rich, I heard you say that in order to get the territory, you donated 200,000 gold fords to the second prince, and in the past two years, it has cost a lot to build the Red River Valley Manor Castle and build an immigrant town, and I am ready to invest 300,000 gold fords in five years to develop the Morgen Hills, and there is no one million gold fords of working capital without this confidence." ”

Lorist pointed to the large sand table on the table.

Butler Boris said: "My lord, judging from my experience in the Kenmath family for more than 40 years, in fact, the Kenmath family has been going downhill. I've always suspected that the lord insisted on developing the Morgen Hills, and that the castle and the hill town were built to leave a way back for the Kenmath family. A few years ago, the civil war in the empire, the Kenmis family did not earn much money at all, since the second prince established the Iberian Kingdom, although the Kenmas family is still the upper family of the kingdom, it has been gnawing at the old capital. For example, the development of the Morgen Hills is said to be an investment of 300,000 Kingford, but in fact, the budget for the construction of this castle and that mountain town is only 100,000, and the remaining 200,000 is the funds for immigration and material reserves after the construction is completed. ”

"100,000? It can't be, I estimate that it will cost 70,000 or 80,000 to build this castle, and 100,000 Kingford should not be able to complete the construction of this castle and the mountain city. Lorist said.

"My lord, in fact, the budget for this castle is only 30,000. The bulk is gum rattan juice, which is estimated to require 12,000 barrels. The rest is the consumption of food and some supplies. Manpower is the construction slave labor of the Chamber of Commerce, it does not cost money, and other building materials are nearby, as long as you take a little time to collect. For example, this completed city wall, which consumes 2,000 barrels of glue vine juice, the materials used to make the green cement are collected on the spot. ”

Well, according to Steward Boris, it is good news that all building materials for the construction of this castle and that mountain castle can be collected on the spot, except for the glue vine juice.

"Then Steward Boris, you should know what the supplies are in store here now, right?" asked Lorlist.

Yesterday the castle site was occupied, and early in the morning he set out with Joske to the copper mines, where the supplies had not yet had time to be counted.

"My lord, in the past four months, a total of three batches of supplies have been transported here from the Red River Valley Manor Castle, and each batch of supplies is mainly gum vine juice and grain. Each time the rattan juice is brought in, it is 3,000 barrels, 2,000 barrels have been used to build this wall, and there are still more than 7,000 barrels in the warehouse. If another 3,000 barrels are brought in on the 10th of next month, the 12,000 barrels of rubber vine juice expected to be built for the construction of this castle will be complete, and the materials to be transported in the future will mainly be to reserve grain. These are pre-made plans that will not change unless there are any accidents. Now there is not much food in the warehouse, about 40,000 catties. The original plan was to pick up the supplies when they arrived on the 10th of next month, but now that the adults have occupied this place, the supplies may not come. Therefore, the adults should prepare more food to deal with the slave laborers. ”

Steward Boris looked at Lorist, and then said: "My lord, the grain of those slave laborers is rationed, because they do heavy work, and their daily ration is three catties per person, one catty in the morning, one and a half catties at noon, and half a catty in the evening. These nearly 1,000 slave laborers consume about 100,000 catties of grain every month, and if adults want to use these slave laborers, they must prepare for food in advance and cannot be negligent. ”

Lorist stood up, walked up to Butler Boris, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Butler Boris, you are good, very good." As long as you can do your best, our Norton family will not treat you badly. You go down first. ”

"Yes, sir. Butler Boris bowed, and was about to leave, when Lorist remembered something else.

"Hey, wait. Steward Boris, where did the Kenmath family get so many crossbows for defending the city?"

The steward replied, "My lord, these crossbows are freshly made, not transported. Three years ago, when the Kenmax family went to buy slaves to work as construction laborers, they bought a father and son, they were famous crossbow masters in the Kingdom of Trimber, and they were sold as slaves because they offended the powerful. Although the Kenmath family became a territorial noble, they lacked background, did not have good family knights, and did not have a regular territorial garrison, so they had to find mercenaries. In order to strengthen the defenses here, the father and son were sent over to make crossbows for the city guards. ”

"You mean the father and son are here?"

"Yes, my lord, they stayed with the slave laborers. Boris butler said.

"Well, butler Boris, please go and get the father and son out and settle them down again, they will be of great use to me. You, accompany Butler Boris on a trip and assist him in completing his mission. Lorist said to the guards standing guard at the door.

"Yes, sir. ”

......

Lorist thought as he slowly circled around the table in the room. The food that Boris butler said was not a problem, and the convoy he brought this time carried more than 100,000 catties of grain, and it was guaranteed for more than a month. When he returns to the family, he can also transfer a batch of grain from the family. Maybe he can still make up the idea of the batch of food and supplies that the Kenmath family sent next month, but it's still early, so don't be in such a hurry.

Today is the 32nd of February, and tomorrow Jost and the others will be back, and the day after tomorrow is the 34th of February, and in any case Lorist will have to leave for the family manor castle. It's just that as soon as Lorist leaves, who should be in charge of building the castle here? Joske is impossible, he is a lone ranger, and what he hates most is trivialities. In the past, he was going to ask him to bring out a group of archers, but after a few days of doing this, he felt bored, and threw the selected few archers into Yuri's light cavalry scout squad and ignored them.

Sedcamp and Pat were going back with them, they were going back to make friends, and when Lorist first arrived at the family's manor castle, he relied on them to take care of and guide him a lot. With Joske, Reddy, and Ovikis in charge, plus a squad of guards and garrisons, the defense is sufficient. I just don't know how long Lorist will stay in the family's manor castle, and someone must be responsible for the construction of the city here.

"Bring that master builder here. Lorist commanded.

The unfortunate bastard, who had received fifty lashes yesterday, was brought to Lorlist, the proud builder with his hair disheveled, his clothes tattered, and his whip marks still bloody, and his steps faltered.

"Master Siroba, I was disrespectful yesterday. I'm Norton Lorlist, the local lord. I want to continue building this castle, and I wonder if you would like to serve me and take care of the construction of this castle? I will pay you well. Lorist said sincerely.

The Master of Siroba gave Lorist a resentful look, probably having learned the lesson of the whipping last night, and stopped talking, just spat on the ground, and then looked up at the roof, expressing his disdain for Lorlist.

Lorist smiled dumbly, and said to the guard who had escorted Master Siroba over, "He has soiled my house, should I tell him to kneel down and clean me up from his own spit?"

"That's a good idea, my lord. The guard replied solemnly.

Master Sirobah shuddered......

"Forget it, it's not difficult for him, he is still so unqualified at such an old age, spitting everywhere. Take him down. Lorist said.

......