Richard traveled to the villages near the Im River and found that most of the freedmen, with the exception of a few families, were confined to their nests.

These freemen had few belongings, no cotton bedding, and slept in improvised haystacks, dressed in tatters, with little patches on their clothes, and their cloth was so badly damaged that they could barely cover themselves. The tools at home are particularly scarce, only some pottery and a small amount of iron farming tools, and the food is also wheat bran, sweet potatoes, and occasionally mixed with some wild vegetables, and the food is not much better than that of pigs.

Richard had read the statistics made by the tax department that the freedmen who had just been pardoned in the first year were often very poor, especially before the summer grain was harvested, and the standard of living was not as good as when he was a serf.

After all, the food and clothing of serfs were provided by the lord, and the labor tools did not need to be worried about themselves.

But after becoming a free citizen, the territory only provided relief grain after the division of the land, and most of the relief grain was coarse grain, which was very difficult to swallow, and the loan was three silver coins per person, and only a part of the farm tools and grain could be owed on credit, and he had to find his own way to eat, drink, and Lazar.

Especially in remote areas, all kinds of materials cannot be transported, prices are high, and life is even worse.

Although Fort Im is also a remote area, it is a county town after all, and supplies can be replenished from Salt Lake Fort by water.

Salt Lake Fort has been developed for many years, although it is limited by natural conditions and cannot be self-sufficient, but because of the mining of salt lake minerals, it is a rich county. Although the materials transported are a little more expensive, they can be somewhat replenished.

This year, more than 20 settlements have been established on both sides of the Im River, and each settlement has to place a dozen veterans and disabled veterans, who are the basic core of the Haaland Lord's rule over the region.

The resettlement conditions for these veterans were very good, all of them were built from the territory of brick and stone houses, each household was divided into 200 acres of land, Richard also specially approved the strips, issued them with iron armor, bows and crossbows, and formed a militia brigade of 300 people to assume the responsibility of suppressing the rebellion.

These people are already considered to be Haaland's knights.

In fact, not only was the people in the region unconvinced, but Richard was also uneasy about them, and soldiers were rarely recruited from these indentured slaves.

Even if there is a gap between the people, Richard is confident that he will integrate them into Haaland's territory. After all, compared with the lords of the surrounding countries, the policies and laws of the Harland Lords are more civilized. The people also have better living conditions and a smoother upward path.

Even if the first generation is not stable, in the second and third generations, their descendants will eventually be proud to be Haaland.

After entering the village, Richard specially inquired about the information, selected a family with noble blood, entered the nest, and easily adapted to the cramped and dirty environment. Seeing that the lord was not dirty and was willing to be a guest at his home, the man's heart suddenly went up and down, and a complicated expression suddenly flashed on his face.

Seeing that the man's figure was very burly, he vaguely exuded a special momentum, as if there was a fighting power rotating in his body.

"Are you a professional?"

"Back to the Duke and Master, I am a second-order warrior."

"What's your name?"

"Dear sir, my name is Gulov Farias."

Hearing the name, Richard immediately thought of a familiar person.

"Baron Farias, near Nero's Castle, who are you?"

Seeing Richard's question, Gulov was shocked, he never expected Richard to react so quickly, so he could only say in a panic: "I am a member of the family of Baron Farias, I have passed the political review, and I have not committed any crimes. ”

At that time, Richard captured many nobles in the Grand Duchy of Starnik, and suppressed part of the people's anger and blood debts.

The remaining noble members Richard did not choose Zhulian, after all, Richard's three views were different from the nobles of the Dawn plane, and they were more civilized and tolerant than the native lords.

Seeing Gulov trembling and bowing his head, Richard said calmly: "Please rest assured at this point, as long as there is no crime, the territory will treat you equally."

You have all the knowledge and the family breathing techniques to practice, and you can easily stand out from the common people. As long as you serve the territory wholeheartedly, you have a great chance of restoring the glory of your ancestors and promoting to the top of the territory.

Moreover, when Pharias was alive, he was not a brave and warlike man, and he insulted the honor of the nobility by running away on the battlefield, and even an upright nobleman despised him as a human being.

Nero and Solawan with more than 10,000 troops can't defeat the Harland Lord, you only have noble blood, if you dare to openly oppose the lord's rule, it is tantamount to hitting eggs with stones. ”

Hearing Richard's clear promise, Gulov finally breathed a sigh of relief and sighed, "Your Excellency is really a kind man! ”

In fact, Gulov's bloodline is far away from the main lineage of Baron Farias, but in Barony Farias, his family still has a very good standard of living. In the barony, Gulov had 260 acres of arable land, and his eldest son and younger brother were professional officers and had relatively good salaries.

There is also a bakery he opened in the castle of Farias, which earns more than a hundred gold coins a year, and because of his noble blood and Gulov's skill in business, he is already an upper class in the territory.

But the war destroyed everything for Gulov, his younger brother was lost on the battlefield, and his eldest son died in the defense of Nero's castle. Even Gulov's patron, Baron Farias, was not spared.

Overnight, Gulov was reduced to a serf, and after four and a half years of hard labor, he became a freeman because of the special policies of Harland.

The vast majority of the freedmen in the Grand Duchy of Starnik had complete families.

The same is true of Gulov, who, when he was first captured, had not only a wife, but also a slave girl and a lover. It's just that after the catastrophe came, they flew separately, and after becoming Haaland's indentured slave, Gulov's slave girls and lovers left him one after another, and now only his wife and three children remain with him.

Gulov did not have a deep understanding of strength in the first half of his life, although he had a good talent, his personality was a little lazy, he was afraid of the heavy, coupled with limited development space and a high standard of living, Gulov was not willing to work hard on the breathing method, and at the age of forty, he was only a high-level warrior student, on the contrary, his younger brother was already a fourth-order warrior, and his eldest son was also promoted to a professional successfully.

After the great change, Gulov had to find time to practice the breathing method every day, and although he couldn't afford to buy potions and lacked nutrition, he broke through two realms in five years and became a second-order warrior.

According to common sense, professionals have a good income level, even if they don't serve Haaland, they can get a salary if they join the mercenary group and the demon hunting team.

The main reason why Gulov is particularly poor is that he is inseparable from his family, his young son has just been born this year, his three children are waiting to be fed, and his wife is not able to cultivate the farmland he has been allocated to cultivate.

In areas such as the Im Valley, the situation is also unstable, and if Gulov leaves behind orphans and widows, even if he can send back money, his wife and children may not be able to survive.

"How's your family's harvest this year?"

Hearing Richard ask about the harvest, Gulov finally showed a smile on his face: "Thank you to the goddess of the morning sun for the blessing of the Imu River valley for a good harvest." I cultivated 36 acres of spring wheat this year, because it was the first year of land reclamation, and the average annual output was only 126 catties. Half of the grain was sold for two gold coins, one silver coin, and six copper coins. After paying taxes, there were ten silver coins, six copper coins, and two thousand two hundred catties of grain left. ”

After listening to Gulov's account, Richard nodded and said, "The food is barely enough, but this money is not very good for winter." The five of you in your family will cost eight silver coins to change into cotton clothes, and the rest of the money cannot buy winter fuel, and this kind of nest is not suitable for long-term living, so you need to improve the living environment as soon as possible.

The Territory has a special loan for freedmen that charges twenty percent interest per year. If you really can't get by, you can apply for a loan. ”

Richard knew in his heart that the area cleared this year was the poorest area in the territory. Unlike Nelson and Grayfordson, there are no ready-made houses, and there are reclaimed land. In the first year of land reclamation, the output was relatively low, and it was necessary to bear relatively heavy taxes, and the accumulation of wealth was very slow.

At a normal rate of development, it would take about ten years to build a brick house. After living in a humble environment for a long time, the first freedmen were probably sick.

It is impossible to let Haaland give up the tax, and now the expenditure on the territory is very large, although there was a surplus last year, this year the hunting of monsters has made a lot of money. However, the pressure on the territorial defense is still very high, and the army will be expanded by 6,000 people this year, and it will face an orc invasion next year. Therefore, the territory can only take out a part of the money to issue loans, and cannot reduce taxes.

"Now that the summer harvest is complete, I'm going to sow a little grass seeds in the farmland, and I can cut a batch of grass before winter, which should be exchanged for a little money. The problem of fuel is not a big deal, and I am going to go to the mountains on both sides of the valley to cut wood, not only to collect fuel, but also to sell some of it at a low price.

This year's days are tight, and next year will be loose. If you borrow a debt, you will have to repay the interest next year, which is not cost-effective in the long run. ”

Gulov was a professional man, far more powerful than ordinary people, he alone was equivalent to two or three strong laborers, although his wife had just given birth, and the children could not help, and his life was a few points better than that of ordinary freeman families.

Richard came out of Gulov's house, walked around the village again, went to a few ordinary families, and saw that the cadres of the village office had received the news, and Richard went directly to the village office with two guards.

"You are all veterans, many of you have medals, and you are people who have made meritorious contributions. When you get to the place, I hope that you will not let your honor be dishonored, and that you will be a person with a sense of justice and compassion. Don't be corrupt and derelict in your duties, and don't oppress the people.

I'll come here again after the winter this year to see who has grievances?

The words have been notified, everyone is good, when something happens, even if your old chief asks me to intercede, my punishment will be more severe. It is not easy for everyone to have a good life, and I hope you can cherish all this. Be a noble person, a person with a sense of honor. ”

After Richard finished his lecture at the village office, he went to the families of these veterans.

Compared with the newly promoted free people, the family conditions of veterans and village cadres are much better.

Since last year, the territory has planned to develop this area, mobilized indentured slaves to do a lot of preparatory work, transported a lot of materials, and a small number of brick houses have been built.

This year, a new brick kiln was built near Imburg, and the production of bricks increased significantly, although due to the large amount of work, it was not self-sufficient, and a large part of the transportation task was reduced.

If the volume of construction materials is reduced, the volume of other materials can be increased. The supply of materials has increased, and prices have also been reduced by a few points.

In addition, limestone has been found near Fort North, and a cement plant is under construction.

With the use of a large number of steam engines in Harland's territory, the steam crusher has already been successfully manufactured, because of the large-scale planting of red gum grass, Haaland territory has suitable rubber products, with the steam engine as the power, the conveying technology represented by the conveyor belt of red gum grass products is widely used in the factory.

The steam ball mill was also manufactured and used for the first time in a cement kiln.

Although the large chimney of the kiln is very polluting, there is no dust collection equipment, exhaust gas recovery and treatment equipment, and it is an extremely backward obsolete production capacity in the previous life, but in the Dawn plane, in Harland, steam machinery is used in cement production for the first time.

Once put into operation, this cement plant can produce 8,000 tons of cement per year, which is more than the total output of 11 cement kilns in the Harland territory, which greatly alleviates the dilemma of insufficient cement production in the territory.

The new cement plant has improved the performance of the cement because of the innovation of the process and the improvement of the ingredients.

Had it not been for the discovery of a large open-pit limestone mine near Fort North, this new cement plant, which is a very large investment, would not have been built in a desolate border town.

Once the cement plant is put into operation, the industrial output value of the North Boundary Fort will increase significantly, and the financial revenue will also increase a lot. Driven by the North Boundary Fort Cement Plant, the economic growth of Imu County can also maintain a high level.

After the summer harvest was completed, Richard inspected the Im River valley for more than 20 days, and did not return to Fort William until the collection of taxes and grain was completed.

In the past 20 days or so, Richard has gone to the grassroots level many times, dealt with many contradictions, openly punished seven or eight bureaucrats who were corrupt and cruel to the people, and won a wave of people's hearts in this area.

In fact, some of the people brought back from Starnik have been integrated into the territory, and this group of people is the captured soldiers.

When recruiting captives, in order to eliminate the influence of the Stanic nobles, Richard eliminated a large number of officers and soldiers with noble blood from the barracks. The remaining captives were basically burghers and serfs.

It has been five years since these soldiers entered the Haaland territory, and some of them have been killed and wounded and discharged over the years. Many people have made meritorious achievements and successfully integrated into the territory, and the best developed ones have been promoted to deputy captain, and will soon become the upper echelon of Haaland's leading team.

This part of the population is not small, and the total number is more than 50,000. Unlike their countrymen, they have already come to heart for Haaland.

(End of chapter)