On the afternoon of January 2, the town was completely covered with snow, and most of the population rested in the caves of the mine, except for a few knights and dwarves who lived in the castle and surrounding houses near the mine.

When Rand arrived at the mine on fire, he was dissatisfied with the living conditions, but when a meeting of the mine's supervisors was actually called, they began to complain.

"Your Majesty, there is now an overpopulation in the iron mine, when Lannia left here, there were only a few thousand people in the entire iron mine, but now there are almost 20,000 people, so it has not been settled, and there are still tens of thousands of people waiting near the West 7 Castle."

As soon as the meeting began, the dwarf Alozag, who had been staying in the iron mines, began to complain.

"Now the 5 or 6 post stations near the entire West 7 are very difficult, the Benma River is completely frozen in winter, the boat is not working, and the caravans have all returned to the city for the New Year, and the supply work of these post stations can only rely on people riding black-scaled horses with space rings to send food around, but even so, the grain storage can only last for a few days."

Rand sat at the conference table, listening to the dwarf with a solemn face, when the truce with the orcs two months ago, in order not to affect the function of Iowa and Yeqicheng, he placed most of the Terrans sent back from Hindukr in the iron mine, and relocated the original Terrans and barbarians in the iron mine.

The first Hindukr immigrants were all scorched wolf miners, who were very comfortable with life in the mines, and their arrival could be said to be a reasonable arrangement for everyone.

However, the second group of immigrants, the Terran slaves of the orc tribes that Rand exchanged for slaves from the south, were not only miners, but mostly servants, farmers, and people with no skills at all.

It is now a cold winter, the ore mining in the mine has completely stopped, and only a few smelting furnaces are still running, providing the most basic heat, so a large number of people are piled up in the iron mine and the West 7 Castle, which has brought great trouble to the food reserves and security of both of them.

The dwarf finished babbling, and it was Doryaf, the assistant of the demonsless who followed Lannia and the administrator of the iron mines, to speak.

"Your Majesty, a month ago, Iron Mine and West 7 requested the transportation of grain from Yeqi City and Iowa at the same time, and originally 20 ships of grain were also transported, and it was not a problem to turn around until January, but recently there have been more than a dozen children in a row to stimulate the bloodline, and they have to wait until March to start school before they can go to the Galloping Horse Academy, and the canal is completely frozen again, and the food is not enough at once."

Rand nodded, it was actually the first time for his subordinates to spend the winter on the entire plain, even last year near Roth Castle, there was a problem of river freezing, but not the entire river was completely frozen, whether it was Lanya or the little cardinal, they could not predict this.

Not to mention that now the administrators are all living near Yeqi City, and the surface temperature of the big city is much higher than the surrounding plains, if you are only in the city, you don't even know that the plains are already snowy.

"Your Majesty, please rest assured!" Seeing that everyone was emphasizing the difficulties, the lord representative in the iron mine, Willyls Galloping Horse, immediately said in a loud voice, "There is no heavy physical activity in the iron mine now, the miners will only cause trouble if they eat too much, and those children don't have to eat too much!" ”

Willyls Galloping Horse was the first time Rand went deep into the Hindukr and wiped out a tribe of orcs who had entered the forest, piggybacking on the Terrans who were being captured by his hands, and his people were miners who served the various mines of the scorched wolf.

Later, more and more miners were rescued by Rand, and these Terrans all had their own demon bearer lords, and the most noble of the lords was the high-ranking knight Heinelton Galloping Horse, followed by Willys, so in the iron mine, Williers can be said to be the voice of all miners.

"Your Majesty, I can say here that starting tonight, the rations of all miners will be halved, and the rations of the demonsless will be halved again, so that it can survive until late January no matter what!"

Willys spoke for tens of thousands of demon-supporters and non-demons as if no one was around, not noticing that Rand was looking at him like a brute.

Although he was a little angry, Rand calmed down and said: "Knight Williers, when you are with your subordinates, you can just express your position, how can you fight for the treatment of your subordinates at the territorial meeting, right?" ”

"When I come back tomorrow, I will bring an extra batch of supplies, starting from the 5th, the caravan will resume operation, Night Qicheng has already made a sleigh, and the beasts of burden pulling the sleigh are no slower than sailing ships."

Rand gave his own solution, "After the 5th, White Tree City will prepare a camp, which can receive 5,000 people who do not have mining skills, and there is more food there.

In addition, I will order the Galloping Horse Academy to prepare for the time when all children under the age of 14 can be sent to Night Qicheng City, so that the food problem will be solved.

As for the problem of overpopulation here, Lannia has already given me a plan to build a number of projects in the iron ore mine and West 7, which will just use these tens of thousands of people. ”

"Yes! Your Majesty! The meeting ended with a final word, and no one dared to question his decision, except that after the meeting, the dwarf Alozag and the demonless Dolyaf remained.

When there was no one else around, Dolyaf whispered: "Your Majesty, Alozag has tested the veins of magic black iron in the past two days, and he said that the reserves of black iron can support mining for up to 20 years, and the further it goes, the more dwarven miners are needed. ”

"Twenty years is not too short," Rand said with some disapproval, "Needless to say, 20 years, even in five years, I should have at least four new mines." ”

"But you've planned this place as an earl's city, not to mention that there is a magic furnace here, so you should make better use of it," Dolyaf said, "It's difficult for other mines to have the advantage of water here, such as the salt mine, the water source is relatively tight, and even if you want to expand it, it is unlikely to be possible." ”

Although Dolyaf has not been in the iron mine for a long time, his thinking about this place is very profound, in his eyes, the iron mine and the West 7 Castle can form a coordinated urban agglomeration, and the plain water network between the two places is intertwined, which can grow food.

The Demon Bearer said his thoughts, and Rand listened with relish, although his ideas still had a lot to improve, he was indeed a rare talent.

For his subordinates who want to do things like this, Rand admires them very much: "I can give you a list of industries in the current territory, you can choose some suitable industries for iron ore and West 7, the area around iron ore is not suitable for heavy industry, and the lake here is indeed a very scarce resource, in the future, I may place some sea beasts here, you can come up with a plan for me." ”

(End of chapter)