By the time Richard returned from the Lothar Basin, it was late October.

October is the late autumn season, and by the end of the year it is already very cold.

Although the temperature had dropped below freezing, the ground was frozen in the morning and evening, and a large number of indentured servants and freedmen were busy in the fields, seizing the last window to collect forage and fuel for the winter.

Richard rode his war horse, followed by a dozen personal soldiers, and came to the Nelson area to inspect.

This territory was only incorporated into the Haaland territory this year, because of the war, when the Haaland territory was received, there were almost no living people. Richard exchanged 20,000 indentured slaves with Duke Guise for grain, and after being arranged in this area, whether it was living habits, national culture, or even the accent of speaking, it was very different from the original.

Because of the purchase of indentured slaves in large quantities, there were about three languages in Harran's domain, the first being the native Northern Xinjiang language, the second being Starnik, and the third being the Chinese language of the Delong king. In fact, the language of the Duchy of Guise is basically the same as that of the northern part of the Delong Kingdom.

In order to better rule the people, Richard has learned the Stanic language and the Chinese language of King Delong in the last ten years, and can communicate directly with the populations of these two regions. However, the official language of Haaland's territory is still Northern Xinjiang, from schools to factories, from the army to the government, and those who do not speak Northern Xinjiang cannot enter the door at all.

In order to avoid the awakening of national consciousness in the future, as in the case of Austria-Hungary, Richard formulated a strict policy of national integration early on, and all the populations of the territory were collectively referred to as the Haalanders. In order to prevent the population of each region from uniting together, the purchased indentured slaves were generally dispersed and incorporated into different villages.

In fact, the 20,000 indentured slaves in the Nelson area are not the owners of this territory, and the free people who have come to divide the land in this area this year are mainly from the second son and second daughter of Fort William.

These second sons and daughters have no right to inherit property, and if they want to divide the land, they can only go to the desolate area to reclaim the land and operate.

Straddling the Black River Valley, the Nelson region is very fertile, and although it has been conquered twice by orcs, it is geographically part of the rear area of the Duchy of Haraland. As long as the Tani Gorge is held, the Nelson region will not allow orcs to invade.

The Nelson family has been operating in the area for many years, cultivating a lot of farmland, building many houses, and having three ready-made castles to use in the territory.

Compared to going to the barren mountains to cut down trees, dig tree roots, pick up stones to clear the wasteland, and guard against orc invasions, living in the Nelson area is undoubtedly a good thing.

After Haaland took this territory, many smart people pushed the government to divide their second son and second daughter into this territory.

The freedmen in the Fort William area were close to the water, relying on their geographical advantages to grab the first batch of places, and about 600 young people were assigned to the Nelson area, and this year the land and houses have been divided, becoming the first batch of freedmen in this territory.

As for the 20,000 indentured slaves who built water conservancy and resumed production, it was not their turn to divide the land in Nelson.

In fact, in October, this part of the indentured slaves had already begun to be split up by Rogge, and several thousand people were drawn out.

A small village near Filin Castle in the Nelson area.

Clayton carried a bag of grain on his back and struggled towards his home. This kind of grain bag made of thick woolen cloth can hold 120 catties of grain at a time.

Because of the better economic development, Haaland's territory has accumulated a large number of craftsmen, who can produce almost all kinds of daily necessities. For example, there are two kinds of sacks and cloth bags for daily use of grain, generally speaking, the sack is rough for coarse grain, and the cloth bag is used for fine grain.

In fact, the bag of grain that Brighton was carrying was flour that went to the mill.

After more than ten years of development, the living standards of the freedmen in the territory of Haaland have greatly improved, and many people's food has changed from wheat rice to bread.

Eighteen years old, Clayton was born in the kingdom of Delon, and after many hardships and hardships, he was sold to Harland with his family. Clayton's family was one of the first Haalanders. Although he is a native of the Delong Kingdom, King Delong does not speak Chinese well, but he is very proficient and proficient in Northern Xinjiang dialect.

Clayton was the third son in the family, and his parents actually had seven children, but one older sister was sold to an Illinois nobleman and an older brother died on the move.

As a freedman at an early age, Clayton's family had a high standard of living. His eldest brother joined the army ten years ago and received a pension every year after retiring from the army due to injury. In addition, the eldest brother also inherited the inheritance of his parents, not only land, houses, but also dozens of gold coins in cash.

Clayton's second brother also caught up with the good times, was one of the first elementary school graduates, and is now a small bureaucrat in a bustling castle, so to speak, and has jumped up the ranks.

It was Clayton's turn, as if he had become an outcast of the times. He also graduated from primary school, but unfortunately encountered the depreciation of his academic qualifications, did not become a government civil servant, and is still a jobless vagrant, and his parents' inheritance is not his turn at all.

With the help of his eldest brother, Clayton is married, at the age of eighteen, and is already the father of three children. Their small family only has five acres of land in Clayton's name, and five acres of land can't support five people at all, and they can barely survive by relying on the help of their two brothers.

In order to develop remote areas and control the population of the capital, the area around Fort William formulated a strict policy of dividing the commons, dividing at least a few hundred acres of land every year, which was not enough for the population of the capital.

So people like Clayton, if they want to live a good life and get land, can only choose to emigrate.

This year, Haaland's territory took the Nelson area, Clayton keenly seized the opportunity, found his second brother, and took the lead in winning the immigration quota, and the family was allocated 30 acres of land, and the land wealth in his hands skyrocketed.

Clayton's eldest brother had many years of military experience, and he didn't take money too seriously, and before leaving, he gave him five gold coins, which greatly improved Clayton's living standards.

Good luck seemed to befall Clayton, because he could speak some Delong Chinese and could communicate with indentured slaves in the Nelson area, Clayton finally became a civil servant, became the village of this small village, and entered the government.

Now Clayton is in charge of directing the more than 500 indentured slaves in the village to build the ditch, and the mill in the village was also built this year.

When Richard arrived in the small village, he happened to see Clayton walking heavily.

"What's your name, a new freedman this year?"

Generally speaking, indentured slaves were collective activities, food was also centrally supplied, and clothes were uniformly distributed, although there was a bit of freedom, but not a lot. So at a glance, Richard knew that Clayton was a newly separated freedman.

"Lord Duke, my name is Clayton, and I am a freeman from Fort William, and I am appointed as the chief of this village."

Seeing Richard riding a Warcraft warhorse, Clayton hurriedly bowed and saluted, showing great respect.

"You look very young, how old are you this year?"

"Lord Duke, I am eighteen years old this year, and I am already a father of three children."

"How many people does your village have now, and how is production recovering?"

Seeing Richard, Clayton was a little flustered, and he cautiously organized his words and said: "Our village has twenty families of freemen this year, adding up to one hundred and twelve people. In addition, there were 526 indentured slaves in the vicinity of the village. This year we have built ditches, we have also built a water-powered mill, a water-powered sawmill, the village has more than 3,000 acres of farmland, and next spring there should be some people, if we can rent enough cattle, there is no need for indentured slaves to help with spring ploughing. ”

The time when Haaland took over the Viscount of Nelson was already June, and the spring ploughing had already been delayed.

This year, the region's food is also completely dependent on Grayford County. Fortunately, Greyford County has a thriving agriculture and a large population, and there is enough food in the granary to support the resumption of production in the Nelson region.

Otherwise, it would be very troublesome to transport food for more than 20,000 people over long distances.

Seeing that Clayton spoke very methodically, Richard was secretly a little happy, feeling that the quality of the new generation of young people in the territory had improved a lot. In the first generation of serfs he came into contact with, many of them were three sticks and couldn't beat a fart, had no knowledge and culture, and looked stupid.

"You don't have any income this year, can you live your life?"

Clayton hesitated for a moment, and finally chose to tell the truth: "Our village is all free people from Fort William, and we have some savings in our hands, plus the food subsidy issued by the city hall, we can still survive this year." The only trouble is to collect fuel for the winter, the territory does not allow us to cut down large trees, and there is no coal in the market, and now the fuel collected in the village is somewhat insufficient. ”

Hearing the difficulties at the grassroots level, Richard secretly thought in his heart: "The situation below is complicated, and the implementation of the legal provisions is inevitably too rigid, which is also a common problem of bureaucracy, and it is almost impossible to solve." ”

"I write you a warrant that allows your village to cut down a hundred trees. You should also hurry up and cut down the trees to prevent heavy snow from falling and making the mountain roads difficult to pass. ”

Although he spent most of this year in the Lossa Basin, by looking at the documents sent by various departments, Richard knew in his heart that the steam engine was used in the territory, and the output of the coal mines had increased significantly.

According to Chavison's report, as of September, the output of coal mines in Haaland's territory has exceeded 130,000 tons, and the annual output is expected to exceed 160,000 tons, doubling from last year without much increase in miners.

But now there are more than 900,000 people in Haaland's territory, and the use of industrial coal is also increasing rapidly, coupled with the consumption of steam engines, the coal produced this year is simply not enough.

What is even more troublesome is that it is difficult to increase the production of coal mines near Fort William, and according to the calculations of coal mine personnel, it can be increased to more than 200,000 tons at most.

With the increasing amount of coal used in the territory, more than 200,000 tons of coal a year is simply not enough.

The top priority was to find new coal mines, but now the prospecting technology is relatively simple, geology has not developed a certain level, and it is entirely up to luck to find new coal mines.

The prospecting team searched for more than ten years, but still could not find a second coal mine.

Richard sighed, walked around Clayton's village, and went to the wooden hut where the indentured slaves were.

There were very few houses in the village, and priority was given to the freedmen who had been assigned to them. There were very few houses reserved for indentured servants, and they were inhabited by the old, weak, sick, and disable, and not very good people.

A large number of indentured slaves lived in simple wooden shacks.

Richard looked at the thick straw on the roof of the shed, because there were no glass windows, and the interior was very narrow and gloomy, and suddenly felt a sense of oppression. He frowned and said to the flattering overseer beside him, "How are you going to solve the problem of winter heating?" ”

"We built ondols and fireplaces, and although we didn't have much fuel in reserve, as long as the weather wasn't too cold, we wouldn't freeze to death."

"This year's conditions are shabby, that's all, next year the territory will improve your living environment. What I promised you will be done, and you will be given your freedom in five years, and each of you will be given five acres of land, and those who have made meritorious contributions will become free citizens in advance. But you also need to learn the Northern Xinjiang language and integrate into the territory as soon as possible.

If someone is sick, gather them as soon as possible and send them to Greyson Hospital for treatment. If there are more people who die, I will hold you accountable. ”

Today, Haaland has built five hospitals in Fort William, Fort Wick, Fort Greyson, Fort Salt Lake, and Fort King, all of which have qualified surgeons.

Especially in Fort William Hospital, there are already more than 20 doctors in the Department of Surgery, as well as three magician doctors, six senior apprentices, who can perform ten surgeries at a time, plus some new drugs developed, the strength of the hospital has increased greatly.

Because of the medical activities in the countryside formulated by the territory, the hospital must send doctors to the countryside to see patients.

The indentured slaves here had seen the doctors cut open the stomachs of patients to heal the sick, and they believed in the level of the hospitals in the Harland Territory.

"Some time ago, we sent a group of people who were not in good health to the hospital for treatment, and those who stayed behind were healthy people. We have warm clothes, we don't need to work outside in winter, and there is a lot of fuel stored in the back of the house, so please rest assured that the duke will not freeze to death. ”

In order to better manage, Richard learned the Chinese language of King Delong, and since becoming a magician, Richard's memory ability and thinking speed have increased a lot, making learning easier. Learning the Chinese language of King Delong, Richard was able to communicate with the indentured slaves in person, avoiding being deceived by the bureaucrats below and being kept in the dark.

Recently, Richard inspected several indentured slave camps and found that the situation was not bad.

After his continuous blows, the rulers of Haaland's territory seemed to have changed a little better.

It was late afternoon when I left the village, and a biting northwest wind was blowing in the wild.

Richard looked up and saw that several of the children were still playing in the field, looking happy despite their blue noses and swollen faces. Several rural women came out of the house as if to call for the children to eat, but the bear children almost ignored their mothers.

The mothers didn't seem to have much patience and beat the children a few times, pulling the uneasy naughty children back home.

Richard rode on the iron horned horse and watched the scene in the village until there were no people in the streets, and then urged the horse back to Ferrin Castle.

(End of chapter)