On February 22, the day after Viscount Pierre left Tynets, the new lord of Tynets, Viscount Frontier, Art Wood Wells, finally moved out of the hotel called the Free Buffalo and entered the Lord's Hall of Tynets.
The military affairs and general affairs were busy, and Art did not have time to light three fires at the moment, so he just sat symbolically on the upper chair of the Lord's Hall of Tyniec to receive the bishop and clergy of the Tyniec diocese and several major officials in the city.
Att asked a squadron of county soldiers named Wall to be the captain. This squadron leader was the tax soldier who collected gifts from Att at the south gate of Tyniec County. Later, he also went south to deliver letters to Att. Att had also hired him privately to collect the residence newspaper information for him. He was a familiar acquaintance, and Moreover, this guy was a native of Tyniec, and he was relatively well-off among the county soldiers. After Pierre left with his trusted officers, the county soldiers had no commander, so Art temporarily asked Wall to take charge of two hundred county soldiers, and Art personally gave more than 180 county soldiers a month's salary as a sign of appeasement.
This Wall is also quite knowledgeable. After receiving the order, he immediately went back to deliver the county soldier list and the key to the arsenal to the Welsh Army's central military command camp outside the city.
The biggest problem after settling the county soldiers has been solved. As for the other officials in the city, they will remain as they are for the time being. Art just asked them to act in accordance with the regulations established by Viscount Pierre when he was in office.
After arranging the affairs of the county, Art returned to the garrison camp in the open space south of the city.
As of this moment, Art's heartstrings are still tense, because the battle at the Sapu Liao Stone Fortress is still going on. Angus has led troops to the Sapu Territory more than ten days ago. Six days ago, he sent back good news that the ninth offensive of the Kodor army was defeated, but the war has not yet calmed down.
As the army chief and the newly appointed southern military officer and southern garrison commander of the palace, Yate had to go to Tiaoshi Fort to see it in person, so he could only suppress his thoughts about the valley and prepare to take a small number of people to rush to Tiaoshi Fort from the mountain road.
The temporary garrison camp outside Tyniec City, the Chinese army commanded the camp.
Territory, we can't act as before, so I emphasize again - violators of the Legion's laws will be punished! Unless there is an emergency military situation or military order, no one can leave the camp without the permission of the commander and the Chinese military sentry. The security of the county and nearby areas is temporarily handled by county soldiers and security teams. "
"Yes!"
"Yes~"
All the officers responded to the order one after another.
"Ron, let the guards prepare, we will set off to Sapp Castle early tomorrow morning."
After Art simply arranged the military affairs, he dismissed the officers and asked the kitchen to bring a plate of food to deal with the two mouths. He was about to get up and put on his belt to see the recruitment situation of labor outside the city, when a fast horse came from Juechen on the Southern Avenue.
Fifteen miles west of the Sapu Stone Fortress, on the road where the hills to the east of Kodor merge into the mountains, a long team lined up.
The first four people in the team are Angus, the adjutant of the Welsh Army, Bass, the commander of the Valley Guard Army, Baron Antayas, the lord of Andermatt Castle, and Knight Felix, the commander of the Sarp Castle army.
There were only two hundred soldiers behind the four people. The soldiers were escorting more than thirty carriages forward slowly. The carriages were loaded with grain, cloth, salt and spices, farm tools and weapons, and some furniture and goods. Behind the team were some miscellaneous laborers who drove mules and donkeys to farm cattle, pigs and sheep, and about fifty guys who looked like prisoners of war.
Just four days ago, not long after the ninth battle of Tiaoshi Castle ended, Angus and several others planned an active attack on the southeastern county of Cordor Province.
Thirty light and heavy cavalry, one hundred and thirty infantry, thirty crossbowmen, and more than thirty miscellaneous soldiers, two hundred people appeared in Kodorbian County overnight.
The Kodor army, which had just returned from Tiaoshi Fort, was in the south to deal with the mountaineer army rushing down from Longxia. Who could have imagined that the army from Sap Castle would follow up and stab them in the butt.
The stabbing was not deep, but it hurt a lot.
This small county on the southeastern border of Kodor has relied on the southern goods trade imported from Fort Sap in recent years. In addition, the terrain is relatively flat, the land is relatively fertile, the castles, estates and village settlements are relatively prosperous. In the county soldiers Looking south, when the local troops were weak, the two hundred armored and fierce troops seemed to be in an uninhabited country. There was almost no favorable resistance wherever the soldiers went. It took less than two days for the more than two hundred "Sap Allied Forces" to reach the county seat.
However, everyone in Angus did not take any risks. More importantly, Felix knew that this place was the only route for Sap's southern goods trade. He did not need to do everything. So Felix, who was familiar with the situation, selected some wealthy merchants and lords and squire's manors and farms who had business grievances in the past to plunder the manors and farms. After obtaining a lot of money and supplies, they decisively withdrew their troops and hid in the mountains before the Kodor army recovered...
"...we captured 680,000 pfennigs of gold and silver, more than 70 sets of weapons and armor, 20,000 pounds of grain, ten carts of salt, spices, cloth and other goods, as well as 50 sets of farm tools, thirty cattle, mules and donkeys, and countless pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks..."
Matt smiled and waved his hand to stop everyone's heated discussion, "Everyone, you have to be like a sergeant major in fighting. It is not easy for us to raise troops. But whenever we go out to fight, we have to think about how to carve out a piece of fat from the enemy. Otherwise, how can we make up for the huge consumption of training the army and purchasing armaments?"
There was a burst of laughter in the tent.
"But you have to think carefully before taking advantage. This time, the sergeant major expected that the enemy would not expect us to poke their butts, so he sent out troops unexpectedly and quickly, then bit off the fat and ran away, so that the enemy could not even smell their farts, and obtained the maximum benefit at the minimum cost. Yes, this is a long-term solution."
Everyone smiled in agreement again.
"Alright, command the camp to give orders to the Welsh Army that is reinforcing Sapp, and ask them to withdraw to the North Pass Army Fort in the valley as soon as possible after stabilizing the defense of the stone castle to rest the army. The soldiers are too tired and it's time to let them rest. In addition, tell the sergeant major to give half of the share of the spoils captured from Cordor to Philly X, especially weapons, armor and food and baggage, these things are what I allocated to the Sap Kingdom to strengthen the defense force. I told Felix to repair the stone castle as soon as possible and fill up the gaps in the defensive army. As for the part of the spoils that should be allocated to Baron Antayas, we will not say anything, they can do whatever they want. "
Robert, the priest who accompanied the army, temporarily took charge of the command of the Chinese army and sent letters to the camp, so after hearing the order, he stood up to receive the order.
At glanced at the officers in the tent, "Okay, I just want you to be happy. Now that the military meeting is over, everyone can go back and do their work."
After the war at Sarp Castle was settled, Art no longer had to go to the town in person, so he stayed in Tyniec County for the next two days to inspect the granaries, arsenals, treasury and other warehouses in the city one by one. He also personally inspected several manor farms directly under the county town.
Five or six years later, Tyniec is still as poor as ever. After a round of inspection, Art came to the conclusion that the money, food, materials, weapons and armor in Tyniec County can only barely maintain the operation of this small city for half a year, and there is absolutely no extra strength to deal with any major events.
It is also the first time for Art to take over a county. He does not yet have a mature and systematic governance strategy. He can only write down the situation of the county and think about it later.
Stayed in the county for another two days, Art personally directed the civil affairs recruitment of subjects. In view of the risk that Northland refugees might become homesick and flee in the future, he proposed that the subjects recruited this time sign a five-year contract. Within five years, these recruited subjects must work diligently and down-to-earth for the lord. If they escape during the contract period, they will be regarded as defecting. Not only will they be deprived of their free status and automatically reduced to slaves, but they will also be pursued and punished.
According to Art's plan, this time 2,500 people will be recruited from the refugee area outside Tyniec City. Among them, 500 of the strongest and most reliable people will be brought back to the valley for resettlement. The remaining 2,000 people will be temporarily resettled in the three territories under actual control of Lane Manor, Wincheston Manor and Southwest Farm to reclaim wasteland and rent farmland.
As for the refugees that Bob and Dennis brought back from the eastern province of Yona, most of them would be brought back to the valley for resettlement, and a few with poorer conditions would also be resettled in several territories outside the valley.
At ordered the left-behind civil affairs adjutant Lin En to continue to take charge of the recruitment of labor and civilians, and asked Odo to lead two hundred Welsh Legion soldiers to station outside the city. He also ordered two hundred county soldiers to be divided into five teams to patrol various parts of the county, and then he took the remaining troops back south to the valley.
Matt misses his wife and children so much that he rushes to lead the team of guards to ride ahead of the team returning south. When passing through Wincheston Manor, he happens to meet Scott and Geer who are organizing work to repair the road. Art still asks Geer to take charge of the repairs, and then orders Scott to wait for the group behind to return to the valley.
It is worth mentioning that the construction adjutant Geer was very concerned about repairing the road. He knew that Art would rely on this north-south trade road to control the southern goods trade in the entire Northland in the future, so he was very strict when repairing the road - in order to solve the problem of muddy weather in rainy days. To solve the problem of slippery roads, he asked the laborers to dig drainage ditches on both sides of the road. In order to solve the problem of collapse of the road surface due to long-term load, he asked the laborers to dig out the collapsed roadbed and refill it with stones, then cover it with soil and pave it with gravel. The bridges along the way were also reinforced.
According to Geer's plan, the road from Tyniec County City to the border outpost will be repaired. However, he also knew that this project was time-consuming and labor-intensive, so he just proposed the idea of recruiting labor from the villages and estates along the way for repairs every year during the off-farm season...
Of course, Yate would not refuse his subordinates' good suggestions, and praised Geer all the time.
Yate didn't have any further delays along the way. He and the guards rode fast war horses. It only took them a day and a half to pass by Lane Manor, pass by Boulder Town, and return to Beiguan Army Fort.
When we arrived at Beiguan Army Fort, we were basically home. The troops returning from Sap Fort had just arrived at Beiguan Army Fort.
Yat stopped for a lunch at Beiguan Army Fort, ordered all the peasant soldiers who were subject to conscription to be lifted from the conscription, and asked Bas, the commander of the Valley Guard Corps, to take the lead in calculating the military merits and rewards for the peasant soldiers who were conscripted, and paid the salaries of the peasant soldiers who were conscripted in full first, and then dismissed all the peasant soldiers who were subject to conscription, and asked them to go home and rest, and then put them into spring plowing and planting as soon as possible...
Before nightfall that day, Art, who had been on an expedition for more than half a year, returned to the wooden castle in the valley where he had been looking forward to day and night, with the glory of a victor and the exhaustion of the journey, and climbed into the second floor of his not-so-luxurious but extremely warm mansion...