Although the road from the Lothar Basin to Fort William has been paved with stone paving, when snow falls in winter, the snow still accumulates in the valley, blocking the road and preventing the passage of large armies. Richard could only take a few professional officers over the mountains.

On October 28, Richard came to the Nelson area again.

This is the second year that the Nelson area has been incorporated into the Harland territory, and the 20,000 indentured slaves who settled in the area last year have resumed production this year, and thousands of families from the second son and second daughter of Fort William have migrated to the vicinity of the Nelson area this year.

Haaland has always implemented the primogeniture system, and the second son and second daughter have no right to inherit property. When the second son and second daughter grow up, in addition to going to nearby towns, factories and mines to work as citizens and workers, they can only choose to go to desolate areas to open up wasteland in order to be able to get the fields, or they can only stay at home and suffer the white eyes of the eldest brother and sister-in-law.

Blindness undoubtedly hurts self-esteem, and many of Haaland's young people have no choice but to leave their hometowns and work hard for themselves under the government's organization.

In particular, the Nelson area, located on both sides of the Black River, has very fertile land, is located in the south of Haaland's territory, far away from the orcs, and is a popular area for land reclamation, with many people signing up every year.

This territory is not a wasteland, the Nelson family has been operating here for decades, reclaiming more than 400,000 acres of land, building three castles and dozens of villages.

The freedmen who migrated to this area had ready-made houses to live in, and there was no need to live in simple shacks.

Compared with going to the northern front line to open up wasteland, going to the Nelson area is undoubtedly a beautiful difference. Most of the people who can get to the Nelson area are people from the vicinity of the capital city of Fort William.

Last year there were about 600 freedmen in the Nelson area, and this year about 2,500 people have been divided.

Although these newly divided freedmen are second sons and second daughters, and do not have the right to inherit houses and land, their parents will give them some financial support, and each of them can get a share of cash.

Despite just settling down, life has stabilized.

Richard drove lightly and took more than ten people to Hewan Village again.

Hewan Village is located at the bend of the Heihe River, more than ten kilometers away from Feilin Castle, and even closer to Tongshan Town, only four or five kilometers away.

Hewan Village is under the management of Filin Castle and belongs to Salt Lake County, while Copper Mountain Town is a town under the jurisdiction of Graveson County.

This place is considered to be the junction of two counties, but the population is not sparse, there are more than a dozen villages on both sides of the Heihe River, and the population within a radius of dozens of miles adds up to more than 10,000 people

As the resident population increases and production resumes, Richard is ready to adjust the administrative plan for the new Nelson County. The county's economy has recovered for the most part, and its population has exceeded 30,000.

Salt Lake County is a priority area for Harland's development, and Richard has invested a lot of resources in this county, and in recent years has built several forts such as Fort Nit, Fort Im, Fort Reindeer, and Fort North Boundary.

At the end of this year, Richard was preparing to build a new Nielsen County in Salt Lake County, Im County, Nelson County under the jurisdiction of the Viscount of Nelson, Imu County under the jurisdiction of Fort Im and Fort Nitt, including the garrison in Fort Nit, the population of this county also exceeded 20,000.

Now Salt Lake County already has four counties: Grayfordson, Salt Lake, Nelson, and Iam.

Among them, Greyson County has the best development, is a well-known large county and rich county in Harland, with a total population of more than 80,000, not only good agricultural conditions in the territory, but also very good industrial development, especially Tongshan Town, which is the center of Harland's copper smelting and copper making.

Salt Lake County is also developing very fast, it is the source of salt industry and natural fertilizers in Harland, and Richard is also preparing to focus on the development of salt chemical industry in this county, with continuous investment in resource development, the population of Salt Lake County has exceeded 40,000.

The population of the entire Salt Lake County has exceeded 170,000, and there are 14,000 garrisons of the main force and auxiliary troops in the county.

When Richard visited Hewan Village last year, he found that most of the people in Zhuang Village were lined up at the mill to grind flour with grain on their backs.

Being able to eat flour is enough to show that the freedmen of Haaland have greatly improved their living standards.

The serfs in other aristocratic territories in northern Xinjiang can eat a wheat meal, which is already the favor of the goddess of the morning light. Most of their food is dried sweet potatoes, wheat porridge, and in summer and autumn, they will dig wild vegetables and eat bark and grass roots.

The mill was built by indentured slaves last year, using water power, in order to repair this mill, the local government built a stone canal at the entrance of the village, and built a large water-powered mill, which is undoubtedly a big project in terms of productivity at this time.

Now it is about to enter November, according to the climate of previous years, the Heihe River will freeze in early November and freeze in late November, seeing that the water-powered mill in the village is about to be unusable, the people in the village have lined up, wanting to take advantage of the fact that the Heihe River water is not frozen, and grab the time to grind the wheat at home into flour.

Richard had a very good memory and found Clayton in the crowd again.

After a year, Clayton's living conditions are undoubtedly a little better, this person is the head of this village, and he can still queue up when he becomes the village chief, Richard undoubtedly has a little more confidence in the village that Clayton governs.

Clayton's eldest brother has served in the army, and his second brother is also a member of the public family, which is considered to be a well-established family in Haaland, and the channels for promotion are far higher than those of new immigrants.

Seeing Richard and the others, Clayton thought for a moment, suddenly his face changed, he said a few words to the villagers around him, handed over the food on the wheelbarrow to his companion to take care of, and trotted all the way over.

As soon as Richard and his entourage dismounted, they saw Clayton bowing and saluting, panting and saying, "Lord Duke, the climate is cold, go to my house and have a cup of hot tea!" ”

Richard waved his hand and said very politely, "Clayton, we meet again." How many people are there in your village this year? ”

Clayton replied skillfully, "Dear Lord Duke, this year there are sixty-five freemen in the village, counting the twenty last year, and now there are eighty-five freemen in the village, a total of three hundred and eighty-four. ”

"I remember that last year there were more than 500 indentured slaves living in your village, why can't you see them this year?"

"Back to the duke, the village has a sufficient population this year, production has resumed, and most of the indentured slaves have been transferred to other places."

Richard thought for a moment and continued to ask: "I remember that your village has a total of 3,000 acres of cultivated land and more than 100 working people. ”

Clayton replied, "Because part of the land needs to be fallow, our village actually needs to cultivate 2,000 acres of land. On average, each laborer needs to cultivate more than ten acres, and agricultural production is inseparable from large animals. This spring, the government transferred a large number of draft animals to rent to the villagers, and we barely completed the spring ploughing, and this year's harvest was very good, many families sold grain and bought large animals from the government, and my family also bought a pack horse and a ploughing ox. ”

Seeing that the economic development of Hewan Village was good, Richard showed some smiles on his face. "Looks like you've had a good harvest this year!"

Clayton replied: "Thanks to the Goddess of Dawn and the Duke, this year the average yield of paddy fields in our village is 320 catties per mu, and the dry fields are also 180 catties. Most of the land in the village can be irrigated by the Heihe River, there is very little dry land, and everyone has a very high income level when the grain is harvested. I have made a simple statistics, the average income of each freeman is more than six gold coins, I am the head of this village, and the government will also issue a subsidy of four gold coins a year, and the income level has exceeded that of the soldiers of the main army. ”

Clayton is a new generation of grassroots cadres led by Haaland, and he has already spoken at a certain level, and these young cadres have all read books, and their quality is far beyond that of the elderly.

Haaland led the first generation of grassroots cadres, many of whom were born as serfs, and the demobilized cadres were trained in war, and their literacy training was slightly better.

Over the years, Richard has patrolled everywhere and personally dealt with many people. The Inspectorate was also established, and Hayden was appointed Chief of Inspectorate to supervise the conduct of officials. Despite their best efforts, the rule of the bureaucracy was still a bit bad, and it was simply unable to deal with the ills of the bureaucracy.

When Richard came here last year, the villagers still needed to eat on handouts. After only a year, the villagers had already eaten flour, and Richard looked around and saw that most of the villagers had already bought coal in their yards for the winter. A small number of poor families also have enough firewood in the yard, even if there are no big animals, they can ensure that they have enough food and do not freeze to death.

Seeing that the territory was developing very well, Richard was very happy.

Leaving Riverbend Village, Richard inspected several villages along the Black River, found no major problems, and then rushed to Ferrin Castle before dark.

The mayor of Ferrin Castle is named Parson, who comes from a family of professionals in Blackriver Castle, his father is William's comrade-in-arms in the Northern Legion, and Parson is one of the first people to defect after the Harland family's career.

After ten years of development, Parson has been promoted from an ordinary civil servant to the head of Feilin Township, and his status has far surpassed that of his father.

Now that Nielsen is about to establish a county, Richard consulted with Rogge and decided to promote local officials and maintain stability in the Nelson region.

Now Parson's position will also usher in a key step, and becoming a county magistrate in Haaland is considered to be promoted to the top of the civil service system, and his status and treatment are very different from those of grassroots officials.

After entering the castle, Richard went directly to Parson and praised several village chiefs for their good behavior, with a focus on Tilcleton.

"Nielsen is about to establish a county, how much tax will you pay this year?"

Richard's question caught Parson off guard, and he hurriedly flipped through the account book, carefully looking for the data before answering: "There are only more than 3,000 free people in our county, and the land tax received this year is 1,086 gold coins, and the house installment payment is 120 gold coins. The other taxes add up to less than three hundred gold coins.

But the more than 20,000 indentured slaves under our management have brought very large profits to the territory. In addition to the remaining rations and growing grain, more than 40,000 tons of grain were sent to the grain depot in our county.

Although the consumption power of the Nelson area is still insufficient, the potential for agricultural production has been demonstrated, and silver deposits have been discovered in exploration, and a base has been prepared for silver smelting, fifteen kilometers northwest of Ferin Castle. Personally, I think the conditions for the establishment of a new county are already in place. ”

Seeing Parson's hot mood and waiting for the appointment of a promotion, Richard smiled and understood this mood very well.

The officials within Haaland's territory cannot be saints, everyone has their own interests, and Richard is already very happy to be able to maintain the overall situation of the development of the territory.

Richard inspected the Nelson area and found that Parson was quite conscientious, and although he couldn't see how strong he was for the time being, he didn't have too many bureaucratic ills, and he wasn't greedy or stupid.

"Please rest assured, the establishment of a county this year has been decided, and I have consulted with Archon Rogge that in principle, no officials will be recruited from outside, and you will soon receive a new appointment. But I also ask you to make persistent efforts and do a good job in managing the Nelson region, not only to develop the economy, but also to maintain the stability of Nelson, and more importantly, to manage the government well, and not to allow the bureaucracy to oppress the free people in the territory. ”

Richard reassured Parson, rested at Castle Fellin for the night, and came to Copperhill the next day.

During the day, Richard inspected the villages near Tongshan Town, accepted complaints and lawsuits from freemen, dealt with two grassroots bureaucrats in the morning, and met with Rohm, the mayor of Tongshan Town, in the evening.

Rohm is a demobilized cadre, a former third-order professional, and an acquaintance of Richard. During the battle with the orcs, Rom lost four fingers of his left hand and became disabled and unable to hold a sword. After the war, Rohm retired from the army and moved to the government system.

Although it is a mountainous town, it is the center of Haaland's copper industry, and as long as copper can be mined, the town will continue to prosper.

In recent years, there have been tens of thousands of people in the vicinity of Tongshan Town. Since a few years ago, a mint has been set up in Tongshan Town, and the income from the annual minting is also a large amount of money.

"How's your health lately?"

Seeing that Richard was approachable, Rohm was very excited. "Thanks to the Duke's concern, my body has recovered well after retiring, and it is far easier locally than in the army."

"How's it going in Copperhill this year?"

Röhm replied: "Very good, we have mined more than 200 tons of copper this year, the mint is open all year round, day and night, and in recent years there has been a large-scale minting of copper coins, and the territory has been free of the disadvantage of the lack of copper coins."

Relying on the mining of copper ore, the manufacture of copper products, and the opening of a coin foundry, the economic development of Tongshan Town has developed by leaps and bounds. Combined, there are more than 3,000 workers in the various copper industries. These people's income is generally around six gold coins, and they are also considered high-income people in the territory. ”

Tongshan Town has been developed for many years, and most of the locals are free people, because of their higher incomes, they have formed a large consumer market, and there are various businesses in the castle, which seems to be very prosperous.

Through observation, Richard discovered that Haaland's specialty consumer goods such as liquor, brown sugar, and soap entered the homes of ordinary people. Many people are dressed in colorful dyed fabrics, and the accumulation of wealth has surpassed that of the Nelson area.

(End of chapter)