Inside the study.

"In other words, the fortress's reserves of grain and jerky can last for a year without any supplies?"

"This is the minimum required by Lord Duke, and if it falls below this level, reserves must be procured from outside."

Two people sat at Colin's desk: Jennifer, and Lady Madeleine, the Stronghold's former chief magical advisor.

Even if this lady in her fifties has been promoted to the highest rank, it is difficult to hide her old countenance, especially after the death of the Duke, she is even more haggard to the naked eye.

Colin originally wanted to ask her some questions a few days ago, after all, Madeleine was in charge of the procurement of materials before the fortress.

However, when they met, they found that the other party's expression was extremely depressed, and they were often distracted when sorting out the duke's relics. Colin was almost certain that Madeleine and Duke Oliver had some special relationship, and it seemed understandable that the Duke had been married for so many years after being close in age, and that the Duke had not married again since his widowhood.

So he didn't bother any more until today, when Madeleine came to him.

Half a year's grain storage is already remarkable for such a place where there is no time, no location, and almost poverty.

However, in Colin's view, this is still not enough.

As a guy who crossed over from a country with hamster disease per capita, his ideal food reserves should be far from just that.

When he got the map of Twilight Fortress, his first thought was, why is there so much land around it?

Even when he later learned that these places were not suitable for cultivation, his first reaction was not to give up, but to spend a long time studying his relatively weak magical biology.

To this end, he even suspended the further improvement of the wind core collider at that time, and instead used existing space technology to solve the problem of germ modification.

In his mind, the land is barren like something, and it must be planted.

"Lady Madeleine, I see you've not been in good spirits lately, if you don't mind, maybe you can let Miss Jennifer be your assistant and help manage the fortress's belongings together." Colin made a very vague request.

Madeleine certainly understood what that meant.

Money and food power, no lord will let go, the duke trusts her, but the new lord will obviously have his own henchmen, and did not directly let her hand over the management rights, on the one hand, respect her, on the other hand, her experience is still useful to the lord.

"I understand, I'll get Miss Jennifer familiar with the operation of the fortress as soon as possible."

Madeleine nodded, and continued: "But my lord, after you know, you may be a little disappointed, except for the people of Winterfell, the only source of income for the entire fortress is to go up the mountain to collect red winter grass and sell it to the surrounding countries and nobles, but the annual income is also very limited, after all, we don't have enough manpower. ”

Red winter grass is a specialty of Twilight City, the role is to heal injuries and stop bleeding, can also be made into magic potions to enhance the effect, generally grown in the low altitude areas of the Dragon's Back Mountains, and near the fortress, because of the small amount of warm air brought by the Dragon's Breath Canyon, the quality of red winter grass will be better, and it can also be sold at a better price.

"I know a little bit, but rest assured, the days of the fortress will get better and better." Colin Road.

"I'm pretty sure of that."

Madeleine exchanged a few polite words and said a few more about the affairs of the fortress, and then rose to take her leave, and Jennifer immediately followed.

……

……

After living in the castle for a few days, Matthew finally got his first job.

It can only be counted that since entering the manor, they have not done anything for the master, and it is completely unilateral, and now that the lord has a life, he naturally wants to make the first job beautiful.

Because of his prowess in mathematics, he was chosen by Anne as the leader in tending the population of Winterfell.

Counting the population of a city sounds scary.

However, after actually getting started, Matthew quickly calmed down.

A small city of 50,000 people, the population was concentrated, and he had under his command 200 well-known and authoritative garrisons of the fortress. It doesn't seem that hard.

When he got his sketch of Winterfell, he thought about dividing the district.

After asking about the characteristics of the flow of people, he divided the entire city into several districts, each of which was divided into several districts, and then asked the defenders of the fortress who were familiar with the streets to conduct separate inquiries and statistics.

When it came time to assign tasks, Matthew was nervous for a while.

He is an orphan who was still living on the streets a year ago, but now he has to command a group of elite soldiers to work, and I don't know if people will listen to him.

Fortunately, these soldiers are very polite and do whatever they want.

In fact, the magic apprentices in the castle are now the most popular crowd among the fortress defenders.

Because every time these young men in uniform gray robes ascend the walls, it means that the soldiers have fresh and interesting arrows at their disposal.

For the defenders of the fortress whose life is boring and stressful, this is undoubtedly the best spice and entertainment in life.

And obviously, for Matthew, it belongs to the love house and Wu.

When he learned that this young man, who had just turned sixteen, was still a young and promising blacksmith, several soldiers who were very familiar with the city also strongly invited him to visit several blacksmith shops in the city.

After reading it, Matthew couldn't believe that there were still people using such a primitive ironmaking process.

In fact, even Matthew himself may not know that the craftsman education he received was not the same as that of a blacksmith in the traditional sense, in addition to making iron tools by hand, more often than not, they were receiving theoretical knowledge of various metal smelting.

Those precise and elegant formulas, those strange and interesting devices, finally formed a special science. If he had received a basic education in magic like his sister, he would have known that this discipline was called alchemy.

Alchemy belongs to a branch of magical engineering.

Of course, as an ordinary person who has not studied the elements and magic, Matthew and others have learned, to be precise, alchemical engineering, they do not need to research and develop new materials, but after knowing the properties of materials, they learn how to use them better.

And striking iron is one of them.

……

……

Colin took the Winterfell census sent by Anne, looked at it for a moment, and nodded slightly in satisfaction.

Winterfell has 50,000 people, mostly children and young people, and less than 1,000 people over the age of 60.

Sure enough, the world doesn't have to worry about aging, because most people don't live to old age at all.

In addition, because of the frighteningly high infant mortality rate, the common solution for civilians is to have more children.

It is common for a couple to have more than a dozen children in their lifetime, but they may not even have half of them to live to adulthood.

"It's a very good data." Colin did not hesitate to praise and express the message clearly in the limited space, this man is not only good at mathematics, but also very clear about the lord's intentions.

"It was done by a student named Matthew, and I barely mentored him in this matter." Anne said.

"It's a talent." Colin clapped.

"What's next?" Anne asked.

Colin thought for a moment and said, "It looks like our school should be expanded as soon as possible. ”

"You mean, recruiting the kids from the city into school?"

"Hmm." Colin nodded. Basic education cannot be achieved overnight, so the sooner you start, the better.

"But ......," said Anne, "I must warn that even children as young as seven or eight years old have to work at home, and I am afraid that their parents will not be willing, and of course, if the lord orders it, they can only do it, but it will certainly have an impact on the livelihood of the family." ”

"So, we will provide food rations for the day to all the students who come to school, so that they can basically offset the loss of labor at home."

"But is there enough food for the castle?" Anne worried.

"I have already calculated that the grain stock of the fortress, plus the land that is still being cultivated, as long as no more than 2,000 people are enrolled, there will be no problem within nine months." Colin Road.

"And nine months from now?" Anne asked.

"Nine months later." Colin laughed, "We don't need to worry about food anymore. ”