Valley Castle, on the second floor of the Lord's Mansion, Lottie was cleaning the wounds of Art who was lying on the bed. When she saw that Art's chest and back were covered with old and new scars, Lottie could no longer hold back and cried softly.
At heard the crying behind him, he turned around and took a look, climbed up and repeatedly comforted: "My dear, why are you crying. These are just scratches on mine, which were scratched by stones and branches when I was climbing over mountains and ridges."
The more Lottie cried, the sadder she became, and Art hurriedly stepped forward to hug Lottie. , "Don't you see that I am fine and nothing has happened?"
"I have seen it all, so many soldiers under your command were killed this time. When Felix rushed back that day to tell Uncle Cooper that you were attacked by bandits and suffered heavy casualties, I was almost scared to death..." Lottie said while sobbing.
"My dear, there is no one who can't die in a war. If you are afraid of death, just be a farmer. Don't you admire warriors the most? Warriors are a group of people who compete with death."
Lotti stopped crying and looked at Art with pear blossoms and rain, "But I don't want you to be a warrior now, I don't want you to take risks again..."< br/>
Matt was gagged all of a sudden. A woman's heart can change no matter how hard she says it. One moment she wants you to be a fearless hero, and the next moment she wants you to be a peaceful beggar farmer~
"Sir, the officers and stewards are all here, are you ready to start the discussion?" Ron's voice sounded outside the door.
"I'll be right away."
Matt looked up at the door, leaned over and kissed Lottie on the forehead, and said, "Don't worry, my dear, your warrior will not be taken away by death so easily." Then he put on his armor and went out, following Ron, whose legs and feet were still a little weak, and walked downstairs.
Going down to the Lord's Hall on the first floor, all the military officers and civil affairs officials were already here.
Matt came directly to the main seat and sat down. After looking around at the people who were bowing their heads in silence and feeling depressed, he said, "Are you going to bow your head and admit defeat? Everyone, raise your heads!"
Everyone then raised their heads.
"It cannot be denied that we suffered heavy losses in Boulder Town, and many brothers died on the battlefield, but we still won the battle in the end, and we were the ones who survived to the end."
"Today is such a world, and those who are weak will be oppressed. This time the bandits dared to attack our garrison camp because they thought we were not strong, but now we have used dozens of miles of heads to show the bandits how strong our shields are and how useful our spears are."
"However, it is undeniable. Our strength is not enough after all. This time our defenders fought hard to block the bandits' attack, and the reinforcements happened to find a shortcut to the rescue. But can we be so lucky next time? If we face such a crisis next time, can you still sit here like this? "
Matt looked at everyone, and everyone was silent.
"I have summoned you all here today to discuss how to quickly strengthen the strength of the Valley Knight Leader in the next step."
"Cooper, you are the chief civil affairs official, please first talk about how to strengthen the civil affairs in the territory."
Cooper looked at everyone and said: "Not much else to say. The main measure of the civil affairs at present is to continuously recruit refugees to expand the farmers in the territory, and then open up more land to sow more food. Now food is the foundation of everything."
"The winter wheat sown last year has begun to be harvested. According to the previous agreement, the first batch of land-divided farmers in the valley will pay the "May 1st Tax" to the wooden castle in early July. In addition to the grain supplies and farm tools and livestock reserves collected by the army from the county some time ago and existing in the wooden castle, we can also recruit fifty households of refugees to enter the valley to reclaim and cultivate the land, so I suggest that we start recruiting refugees to enter the valley again. "
"However, the village in the Valley is now too crowded to accommodate the new residents. If we continue to recruit refugees, we must build a second village along the river. We have already chosen the location. It is on a riverbank highland three miles south of the Valley. The terrain is slightly higher and easy to draw water. There are also large flat wastelands around it for reclamation."
After Cooper finished talking about continuing to recruit refugees to reclaim the wasteland, he paused and then continued. Said: "I just said that land and food are the foundation of everything. Once land and food are guaranteed, it is a matter of money."
"So the second point I want to say is to make money, make more money."
"At present, we don't have many ways to make money. Except for the border outpost, which can collect an entry tax of five or six hundred pfennigs every month, the remaining caravans can bring a slight bumper harvest. A higher income. But since the caravan was attacked by opponents and suspended the trade of southern goods, it can only earn less than 4,000 pfennigs a month. This income is far from being able to support the huge consumption of the army and civil affairs, so next I think we still need to find a way to open up the trade of southern goods~"
Sart, the caravan steward next to Cooper, nodded repeatedly, "Yes, sir, if we can't establish a foothold in the southern goods trade as soon as possible while the war is still over, and once the war subsides a little and those dormant southern goods giants stand up, we will have no chance to get involved again!"
Matt nodded heavily and ordered to the civil affairs officials: "From now on, the Valley Knights will start recruiting young refugees again. I will leave this matter to the border outpost and the Boulder Town garrison. Once the bandits on the north-south trade road are cleared, there will be more refugees, and I will let them recruit them. The valley side must be prepared to receive refugees, no matter what. Food supply or house construction. In addition, there are more and more people in the valley, and there are more and more prisoners of war to manage. You must do a good job in public security issues. I don’t want chaos in the territory, so the Valley Guard must focus on maintaining order in the valley.”
"In addition, the construction of Beiguan Army Fort has accelerated. If Jushi Town can be protected by a stronger fort wall this time, we will not have so many casualties. From now on, except for the farming work, all other things in the territory will give way to the construction of Beiguan. All the previous prisoners of war and the recently captured bandit prisoners will be sent to me to build Beiguan City. All the forces of the civil affairs will be given priority to the construction of Beiguan Army Fort. Waiting for winter After the wheat harvest, Scott led the guardsmen to the northern edge of the dense forest to survey. Except for the carriage path we built, I blocked all the forest paths and roads used by wild animals that could sneak into the valley, or laid traps and planted spikes to ensure that there was only one way in and out of the valley. "
Construction Steward Lawrence and Tunnel Steward and Guard Captain Scott stood up to answer the order.
Yate gestured for the two of them to sit down and continued: "The bandit suppression here at the caravan is almost over. I will let the army continue to clear out the remaining bandits. Now that there are basically no bandits on the north-south trade route, I plan to start trading goods from the south."
Yate finally decided to take action.
"I will discuss the matter with Salter and you guys separately later."
Att turned to Angus and said: "Sergeant Major, Odo leads the troops to station in Boulder Town. You can tell everyone about the affairs of the army."
Angus nodded and said to everyone: "The army has three important things recently. One is to continue to recruit and train soldiers to replenish battle losses and expand the army, including the addition of permanent soldiers to the Boulder Town garrison and border outposts. Odo is responsible for this matter ; The second is to continue to eliminate the remaining bandits in the county and ensure that there are no longer large groups of bandits raging in the county. This matter is my responsibility; the third is to expand the Valley Guard. This attack on Boulder Town has hit us hard. Your Excellency is worried that the valley will also suffer from this in the future. In order to ensure the defensive strength of the valley when the army is out fighting, your Excellency decided to expand the Valley Guard. The number of standing farmers and soldiers in the guard team was expanded to twenty people. Of course, the farmers and soldiers in the guard team are only relatively permanent. In addition to sending five farmers and soldiers on rotation every week to assist the battalion. In addition to building stewards to look after prisoners of war, which meant that the gathering and training were slightly more frequent, the peasants and soldiers of the guard were mainly engaged in farming. During their shifts, training and assignments, the food and accommodation of the peasants and soldiers were provided by the wooden castle and they were paid one pfenni per person per day. "
“In addition to the twenty peasants and soldiers of the standing guard team, all selected young men in the Valley Knights who are over 16 years old and under 40 years old are registered and included in the Valley Guard Team. They farm and work when they are busy, and gather for training in their free time. They serve the people on weekdays and serve during war. Soldier. I will discuss the specific matters of expanding the Valley Guard with the civil affairs officials after Odo returns." Angus said briefly and concisely. Art had already made a decision about expanding the Valley Guard. He was just announcing Art's decision.
Yate also discussed with others matters such as the rescue and placement of wounded soldiers, war rewards for surviving soldiers, reclamation of wasteland in the territory, and grain harvesting.
A whole morning passed in the midst of everyone's discussion.
"Okay, that's all for today. After everyone goes down, you should do your part. Cooper stays, and you all disperse."
Seeing that everyone got up and left, and only Cooper was left in the hall, Art took Cooper to the office next to him and closed the door.
"Cub, are you ready with all the things I asked you to collect?" Art asked Cooper in a low voice.
Cooper looked at the mysterious Art and replied with an embarrassment: "Master, the charcoal powder you want is easy to get. Even if it is sulfur, the caravan can continue to buy it from the alchemists, but no one has heard of the saltpeter you are talking about. There's no way to get it. "
Matt doesn't know if people in this era have ever come into contact with such a large-scale murder weapon, but he can only recall the three raw materials of charcoal, sulfur and salt, and he really can't remember how to mix them and how to determine the proportion of each raw material.
“Have you really never heard of saltpeter?” Art asked.
"Sir, I was just a builder, and I really have never heard of these alchemist things. Moreover, Salt has asked several alchemists, and they have never heard of this kind of thing. Master, what are you going to do with these things?" Cooper really doesn't understand why Art, who is burdened with mundane tasks, cares about these alchemist's things recently, and still seems so mysterious.
"Cooper, I can't tell you what I'm going to do yet, but you have to believe that everything I do is for the future of this territory."
Cub nodded heavily and asked no more questions.
"Pack the charcoal and sulfur separately in clay pots and send them to my secret room. Since you can't buy saltpeter outside, you can only try to make it yourself." Art said.
"Make it yourself?"
· "Well, I don't know if it's possible, let's give it a try first. Get a few buckets of loose sand, mix it with animal urine and diluted dung, leave it in a cool place for a while, and then..."
· Cooper frowned and nodded, reluctantly agreeing.