Mid-December.
Due to the inconvenience of travel due to the heavy snowfall, almost all production activities have been temporarily suspended. The province of Wales, which has been busy for a whole year, finally got a temporary rest.
· The new settlers at the lowest level suspended their heavy work of land reclamation and construction, and crowded into the simple shacks or thatched huts in the newly built settlements that could still protect themselves from the wind and snow, waiting quietly for the next meal of clear soup and wheat paste in the big hall.
Slightly further north, most of the people who came to the Wells Valley earlier than them had already been allocated land. They harvested the first round of grain this autumn. Since the Province of Wales did not levy any taxes in the first year, these people had a little bit of surplus grain in their hands. When they are full, sometimes some people can use the surplus grain stored at home to go to the village grocery store to exchange for some beer, dried meat or other improved food. Some families with long-term plans also use the surplus grain on hand to hire young men in the village to help strengthen their houses.
The world is different when you enter the Wellsburg Workshop District. More than two hundred craftsman families live in the Workshop Family District.
This is basically the wealthiest group of people in Wales, excluding the families of officials at all levels of the military and government governments. They are not only the early residents of the Wells Valley, but more importantly, people in their families work in various workshops. The salary and benefits are not comparable to ordinary people. For these families, food and clothing are no longer a problem to worry about. How to make themselves live more comfortably is the most important thing at hand.
With the workshop area as the center, more and more houses have been built on the surrounding large valley flats. Some of them are in the shape of a checkerboard, some are in strips along the river, and there are also many scattered small settlements.
No matter which one it is, it has already been established in scale. Farmland and villages are intertwined, and roads and rivers run parallel. Most of the villages are wooden buildings. Although most of them are single-room houses, they are neat and uniform, which is particularly pleasing to the eye. Most of the farmers who occasionally go out in the house are well-dressed and have rosy complexions.
Looking further north, the five most primitive villages appeared, headed by Kutim and Valley Land.
These are the real original residents of the entire Wells Valley. They already own enough fertile land and harvest crops after crops. Many of them serve in the army and government, becoming the real backbone of the entire province of Wales.
A river and a three-car parallel road connect all the settlements in the entire valley into a chain, and the core of this chain is still the wooden castle in the valley.
Due to terrain restrictions and many economic and military factors, the valley wooden fort was discontinued after three rounds of expansion.
The infrastructure part of Wellsburg next to the workshop area has been completed, and now only the final interior decoration is being done. Sooner or later, the core of the entire Province of Wales will be transferred to Wellsburg, and the core status of the Valley Wood Castle will also decline, so the government is not continuing to plan for expansion.
However, as the historical starting point of this valley, the prosperity here will continue.
Things aside, this place is definitely the most prosperous place in the Wells Valley at present, with hundreds of mansions, thousands of residents, lord's mansions, government residences, high-ranking military and government officials' residences, the largest hotel, the largest shops, and constant traffic of caravans and citizens.
The heavy snow in the sky did not seal the place, and the prosperity and bustle were still there...
On the second floor of the Lord's Mansion of Wood Castle, Art, who had been working all night, slept for a whole morning. It was not until ten o'clock at noon that the servants reheated the prepared lunch, and he was pulled out of bed by Lottie.
Yawning and stretching, he pushed open the wooden doors of the bedroom and the balcony. With his eyes half-squinted to adapt to the snowy world, Art climbed on the wooden railing and looked around at the wooden castle in the valley that had now become a small city. He watched the children playing and playing in the snow and the residents hurriedly walked into the taverns and shops wrapped in thick clothes.
Outside the wooden castle, in the camp of the Wells Garrison Corps, although the standing peasant soldiers suspended their high-intensity training, gatherings and running were still carried out as usual. A group of peasant soldiers wearing thick animal hair coats and holding short spears and hunting bows could still be vaguely seen walking towards the forest.
All this in his eyes brought a smile to his lips.
While the servant was making the bed, Lottie had already come to the balcony with a toothbrush and a glass of hot water.
No need to be surprised, this thing made of treated pig hair and wooden handle is indeed the intellectual property of Art.
Matt took the toothbrush and water glass and asked, "Why did you do it yourself? Where's Ollie?"
Lottie glanced at Art and said angrily: "What about a gentleman like you? You took someone's husband away for a month or two without saying a word, why don't you let them get together together?"
"I gave Ollie a few days to rest and asked her to go back and take care of Ron."
< br/> Art put the toothbrush sprinkled with a pinch of salt into his mouth and said vaguely: "Ron has married Ollie, and it's time to go home and give birth to a son for Ron. There is no shortage of servants in the mansion. Besides, Ollie is now a baroness, so she is really not suitable to continue to be a servant."
"I mentioned it to Ollie several times, but she just refused to go back, saying she was worried that I would have no one to accompany me."
"To be honest, Ollie has been with me for more than ten years, and I really can't leave her."
Att picked up the cup and took a sip of hot water, gargled a few mouthfuls, spit the water into the open space under the mansion. "The internal affairs are all under your control. You can make the decision on this matter. You will not treat her badly anyway." Art remembered something and said: "I plan to build a new audit office in the Government Affairs Office, similar to the inspector of the Welsh Legion, which will be responsible for auditing and supervising various functions of the Government Affairs Office. Yes, especially the financial matters at all levels. How about I want you to do this in person? "
"Now I am in charge of the internal affairs of the Province of Wales, such as weddings and funerals, relief for the people, and the exchanges of nobles. You want me to be responsible for auditing the entire government office. You will think about it."
Matt hugged Lottie and said, "You have helped me with internal auditing before, and now I am just officially appointing you as the head of the Audit Office. Who makes you so beautiful, smart and capable..."
"Master."
Their lips were almost touching, and there was a knock on Ron's door outside the bedroom.
"This guy, if you're not at home with Ollie, why are you here with us?" Lottie complained.
Matt reluctantly released his hold on Lottie, returned to the bedroom and opened the door.
Ron glanced at the bedroom and saw that there was no one else except Mrs. Lottie; he took out two pieces of paper, "Master, a secret message came from the north, I just translated it."
Matt took two small slips of paper, one was a cipher text written in Roman numerals, and the other was a universal text that Ron had just transferred.
After reading the words on the note, Art's brows became more and more intense...