As he headed south, passing through the Lucese Province, Art met many refugees from the North who were heading south to escape the war.
The war in the north has been raging for more than half a year. Except for the troops who have been recruited to fight, it is difficult for ordinary civilians to survive in the war. Their only way out is to flee. The fertile land in the hinterland of Yona Province in the east is of course the first choice for refugees. However, as the war continues, Yona Province has become increasingly unable to support these refugees, so they have no choice but to change their itinerary and move to the south, which is slightly worse.
Matt found that there were occasionally families of young men and strong women among the refugees. He originally planned to leave his bodyguard Matthew and a few personal guards to recruit refugees and take them to the south. However, two pieces of news he heard dispelled his idea. One was that people from the south had gone to the north to recruit young refugees after the wheat harvest in early autumn, and the other was that a large number of refugees had gathered near Tyniec County in the south. It was said that the number was almost over 5,000.
有了这两个消息，亚特立马取消了留下马修招募的打算，看来在自己外出征战的时候山谷民政也没忘记经营领地......
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南方，蒂涅茨郡，温切斯顿庄园，领主府邸大厅，议事会，山谷民政各级官吏和军队副官奥多。
"...The master has told us again and again - the key to running a territory is manpower. Who will reclaim the wasteland without anyone? Who will grow food for us without anyone? Who will build houses and castles and fortresses without anyone?" Mo, Cooper's gray beard was covered with foam. He raised his hand to wipe his beard and continued to speak loudly: "The lady who is in charge of the valley has sent a message. She agreed to allocate 10,000 pounds of grain reserves in the valley for us to recruit refugees. Now is the time when the refugees going south are most short of food. As long as they can eat a meal of clear soup and wheat paste every day, they will definitely be willing to work for whom."
Obviously, Cooper, the civil administrator of the valley, personally led the officials north out of the valley and stationed at Wincheston Manor in order to expand the territory and manage the territory.
As the war situation in the Northland became increasingly clear and Art's outstanding military exploits in the War of Succession became clearer, Cooper knew that Art's title would be promoted again and his territory would continue to expand. After following Art for so many years, Cooper already knew Art's way of thinking. He was sure that Art would continue to fight while continuing to expand his power in the next period of time. Conquest is a matter for the military and it is not the civil affairs system's turn to worry about, but expanding power is the main business of the civil affairs system.
According to what Art has repeatedly taught everyone, there are many civil affairs matters, but the most important are the three levels of farming, workshops and commerce.
The workshop is on the right track, but at the moment it is not making any money, but also needs to invest a lot of people, money and materials to maintain basic operations. The Continental Trading Company's trade was originally the biggest dividend, but it was greatly affected by the war in the Northland just after its expansion. Now the Continental Trading Company can only try to protect itself, and the development of the Continental Trading Company needs to wait for the situation in the Northland to be peaceful, which is beyond Cooper's control.
· Among the three levels of development, farming can still make some achievements.
Thanks to Viscount Pierre's efforts to maintain neutrality in the early stage, the poor Tynets County, which is located in the southern mountains of the county, did not suffer much persecution from the war, and the Valley Barony (and its affiliated territories) located on the southern border of the Tynets County Wasteland was not affected by the war. Therefore, this year, several villages in the valleys, Lane Manor, Southwest Both the farm and Wincheston Manor had a bountiful harvest, and even the thin soil at the border outpost harvested more than 10,000 pounds of grains. The root cause of the agricultural harvest was the secret promotion of "retting", but what was claimed to the outside world was that God's holy light shone on Lord Art's territory. After all, people were more willing to believe that it was a miracle created by God than "retting".
As early as when the battle for succession in the North was in full swing, Civil Affairs Officer Cooper began to recruit refugees from the North. In just three months from July to October, the recruitment officials sent by the Civil Affairs to the north brought back more than 500 young farmers and women, of which two hundred were the strongest and most reliable (drag their families and take them with them). The refugees who were both physically and mentally strong were brought back to the valley and assigned to the intervalley areas to continue to reclaim wasteland southward and participate in the grain harvesting of several built villages. The remaining 300 or so less qualified refugees were dispersed and placed in Southwest Farm, Wincheston Manor and Lane Manor to supplement farmers.
· The most important thing for recruiting refugees is food and land. The land is very abundant, but the food is not available at will. Because the war in the Northland was not yet clear at that time, the civil administration did not dare to use a large amount of food to expand the recruitment of people, so it temporarily stopped recruiting 500 people.
Half a month ago, news of Yate's great achievements in the east came back to the south, and with the defeat of the city of Besançon, Cooper and the civil officials decisively seized this opportunity. After obtaining the consent and authorization of Baroness Lottie, Cooper personally led a group of civil officials to go north to recruit the people.
Lin En, the adjutant of the Civil Affairs and Tunnel Affairs, is a steady character and works relatively steadily. He hesitated for a moment, and then said softly to Cooper: "Old steward, according to your plan, we will recruit more than a thousand people this time. Isn't it too much money and food materials to be consumed for such a large-scale recruitment? It is early February, and it is about 30 days before the winter wheat season. The harvest is still more than four months away. Even if these people immediately open up wasteland and sow spring wheat before April, they will not be able to harvest until September. These people will need to be supported by the civil service for more than half a year! Moreover, reclaiming wasteland requires farm tools, livestock, and seeds. These things are a huge waste. Should we wait until the Lord comes back from the north to make a decision?"
Cooper shook his head, "The situation in the Northland has become clear. Many refugees will soon be on their way back home, especially the young ones. The city of Tynets has stopped providing food relief to the refugees. These hungry people will definitely leave Tynets and return north. We can't wait any longer..."
Valley Construction Assistant Geer thought for a long time, raised his head and suggested: "Old Manager Family, do you think this will work? We will send people to Tyniec to recruit workers, and recruit those who are strong and capable to work at Winchester Manor. We will strengthen the walls of the manor, repair roads, reclaim wasteland, dredge rivers, cut wood, and let them do whatever they can. Then we will provide those who come to work with a meal of wheat paste every day to hang them, and we will make a decision after the Lord comes back. "
"This way we can retain young refugees without consuming too much food, and we can also run the territory. Even if you don't plan to recruit people when you return, we can use the food we send out to buy you a good reputation for kindness. How about it?"
Cooper looked around the hall and everyone nodded in agreement.
"Okay, let Lynn and Geer do this. First allocate three thousand pounds of grain from Wincheston Manor, and you two will go to Tyniec to recruit in person."
"Ger, you are the construction adjutant, think about what things these refugees can do?" Cooper asked Geer, who was in charge of construction.
"Then let's repair the road? Your Excellency has long wanted to repair the North-South Commercial Road. This task requires a lot of manpower, so let these people do it..."
While thousands of northern refugees in Tyniec County were struggling to support themselves, in the southern border of Yona Province in the northeast, a team of nearly a thousand people also dragged its long tail towards the south. The head of the team had already sunk into the mountains, but its tail was still on the plains.
The leaders of this team are Bob Wolfgang, the new secretary under Art, and Dennis, the ideological and political officer.
After the war in the Eastern Territory, Art ordered the two of them to recruit refugees on the road to the Eastern Territory. Along with the order, 10,000 pfennigs, five carriages of food, and fifteen guard soldiers were handed over to the two of them.
The two of them immediately started working after receiving the order. With money and food at hand, it was not too difficult to recruit subjects, and Dennis was even more clever with his eloquent tongue. He told the refugees who had returned from the east to oppress him that he would probably cross the border again soon, and the border would no longer be suitable for survival. Then he boasted about Art's achievements and the good life in the southern territory of Art, making the sallow-looking refugees who had suffered so much that they wanted to fly south immediately and become the subjects of the hero of the East.
In less than three days, the two men recruited while traveling south, and the number of the team soon exceeded 1,500.
Most of these 1,500 refugees are young and strong refugee families, but there are also many old, weak, women, children and sick people who follow them. The two leaders do not deliberately drive them away. Their method of eliminating the old and weak and selecting the young and strong is very simple - every day they will run to the front of the team with food and baggage. Using fire to cook, the wheat porridge cooked each time was only enough for two-thirds of the people to eat and drink. Those physically strong refugees could naturally rush to the front of the line in time to eat a life-saving meal of clear soup and wheat porridge. Those frail refugees trailing behind would naturally have no choice but to starve to death on the road or leave on their own.
Bob's own hundreds of people are among them. Of course, Bob has to take care of these people who have been following behind him to beg for a living. These people always eat a few more grains of wheat in their mouths every day than ordinary refugees. However, with Denis around, he can't be too obvious, as it will cause some unnecessary misunderstandings, so some of his own hundreds of people are falling behind one after another.
“Lord Dennis, just now I took people on horseback to see the rear team. Five more people died behind. I’m afraid those on the tail won’t be able to follow tonight. I estimate that the number of people in the team now is only over a thousand at most, and young and strong families make up the majority.” Bob, sweating profusely, came to a valley mouth sheltered from the wind in the mountains. Three huge deep-bucket copper cauldrons were bubbling. The ideological and political officer Dennis and two officials-looking guys were holding grain bags, counting the grains of wheat and pouring grain into the boiling water. Four or five soldiers armed with short swords and spears stood guard around the cauldron. In fact, no one dared to snatch food after killing the two blind refugees.
"Sir Bob, from today on we will not deliberately reduce the number of employees. We will wait for everyone to arrive and start cooking every day." Dennis put down the ladle in his hand and clapped his hands.
“Lord Denis, you can just call me Bob. I, the “Sir”, have probably been removed from the palace long ago. I am now an ordinary civilian. ” Bob seemed very humble.
"No, no, no, even if you are not a noble baron, you are also the secretary of the Central Army. I should call you Lord Bob." Dennis was born as a commoner, and he had natural respect for people with aristocratic blood, even if the fat man in front of him was a crappy aristocrat.
The two of them were respectful to each other for a while, and decided to address each other by their first names to avoid getting into trouble.
"Dennis, the 10,000 pfennigs allocated by your Excellency have been used to buy food and supplies along the way, and there are still 3,000 pfennigs left. However, there is no place to buy food after entering the mountainous area. I looked at it. According to what you said, it will be at least six or seven days before we can return to your territory. I am afraid that the remaining food will not be enough to eat." Bob returned to the topic.
Dennis turned around and asked the clerk who was adding wheat grains to the cauldron to add two handfuls of wheat grains to each cauldron. Then he said to Bob: "You don't have to worry too much. This is already the southern border of Yona Province. Two days further along the mountain road is a place called Andema. This special barony, Lord Baron Antayas is a close friend of our lords. We can get help there, and maybe we can also get a dinner in the wind..."
Frontier Baron Antayas sneezed hard, "Who is talking about me?" Antayas rubbed his nose and asked softly, and then continued to lead two soldiers to patrol the city.
A soldier who looked like a messenger ran up the wall and bowed to Baron Antayas, "Baron Antayas, Chief Angus invites you to come to the central camp to discuss matters."
"Little brother, what can I do for Sir Angus?"
"Reporting to the Baron, Chief Angus intends to bring a small number of elites to poke the people of Kodor in the butt. It seems that he has invited you to discuss it."
"Taking the initiative to attack Kodor? Lord Art's men are all a group of lunatics! I like it~" Antayas smiled and followed the messenger down the wall.
This is Tiaoshi Castle, a place that has just experienced the ninth offensive and defensive battle.
The War of Succession continues to rage in this small-scale, low-intensity form in a border area in the south.
Eight days ago, Baron Antayas received a request for help from the Wells Valley. At that time, the eighth offensive and defensive battle of Stone Castle was underway. A thirty-man army from Cordor actually made a huge circle from the south and appeared in the hinterland of the Baron of Sapp. They thought that the hinterland of Sapp was being defended. Empty, thirty men were enough to break through the internal defenses of Sap, but the baron of Sapp, which was undefended in the past, had already established a complete defense system. After the initial panic, the people of Sap, led by some squires, quickly withstood the ravages of a small group of enemy troops, and were then annihilated on the road back to the mountainous area by the troops returning from Tiaoshibao.
Although this battle was successful, Sapp also faced a crisis. The army stationed at Tiaoshibao had to deploy one-third of its elite troops to patrol and defend the hinterland.
Sapp asked for help again after the eighth battle. At that time, Art's Northern Expedition team had not yet arrived at Lane Manor, so Cooper, the civil administrator who stayed in the valley, immediately asked for help from Andermatt Castle.
Baron Antayas, who was leading eighty elites to clear out hostile forces in the western border of Tyniec County, immediately rushed with more than eighty soldiers day and night after receiving the request for reinforcements. It took less than five days to reinforce Baron Sapp before the start of the ninth offensive and defensive battle.
Andermatt's army cannot be said to have much combat power, but they are still young and strong soldiers and can play a significant role in the battle to defend the city.
With the participation of more than eighty soldiers from Baron Antayas, the ninth offensive and defensive battle of Tiaoshi Castle achieved an unquestionable victory.
On the fourth day after the end of the ninth battle, Angus led the soldiers of the Welsh Legion to arrive at Sapp Castle.
After learning about the arrival of the Welsh Army of the Northern Expedition, the Codor army finally gave up. They gave up the siege of the stone fort where hundreds of people were killed and wounded for dozens of days, and returned to the Codor province with their tail between their legs, holding their breath.
On the second day after the Codor army turned back, an army of mountaineers who came north from the Earl of Longchal broke into a border castle in the Codor province, killing the castle owner and more than a hundred soldiers under his command...
The small border actually started nine battles, which also allowed the eastern and western armies, which had been weak in the north, to start planning a southern campaign...
The palace acted quickly enough. On the day Art arrived in Tyniec County, he received a letter from the palace by flying pigeons - the palace ordered the southern border military officer Art to formally form the Southern Border Guard Corps, with an approved number of five hundred. It was intended to guard the south, resist Kodor and wait for the opportunity to attack the Western Army from Kodor.
Him The palace was unable to support the newly formed army and allowed Yat to use all the taxes from Tynets County to support the army until the palace announced the dismantling of the Southern Xinjiang garrison...