The prosperity of the city made Northtown more and more famous in the northern provinces, attracting many merchants to do business there. Now, some people were calling North Town City a bright pearl in the northern Wasteland.
The white sugar, rum, vodka, furs, and so on produced here were all popular goods. The white sugar was also monopolized by a few powerful caravans. Others couldn't even get a foot in the business. However, although only a few caravans monopolized the white sugar trade, they would sell the white sugar to other caravans. If they didn't share some of the benefits, these caravans would have been swallowed up by others long ago.
The arrival of the caravans also attracted many people to settle down in Northtown. Although there were fewer people than Suhlen who took the initiative to migrate, it was still a good sign. With people taking the initiative to settle down in Northtown, it meant that the city's attractiveness had increased.
The rapid development of Northtown had attracted the attention of the northern provinces. If it weren't for the distance, the nobles would have long come here to get a share of the profits.
Suhlen had received a few official letters from the Noble Parliament, asking him to return to Calt to accept the title of nobility. According to the style of nobles, they wouldn't do things that didn't benefit them. If Suhlen went back to accept the title of nobility, he would have to give them enough benefits.
And once he accepted the title, Suhlen would officially become a noble of the Kingdom of Florence. Northtown would also be included in the territory of the Kingdom of Florence, and he would have to pay taxes to the king. One had to know that Northtown was now built by Suhlen and his men. He also spent money to buy the expansion order and all kinds of resources. Suhlen didn't want to find himself a king.
The territory he now occupied in Northtown was comparable to a viscount's territory. Although the population was far from enough, he would surpass it in a few years with enough time. In addition to Mirror Lake City and Galloping City, which were currently under construction, Suhlen's territory was no smaller than a count's territory.
His strength had also reached the Legendary-level, and it wouldn't be a problem for him to make himself an earl. However, he didn't intend to do that yet. If he were to make himself an earl, it wouldn't be as convenient for him to recruit refugees from the Kingdom of Florence and do business.
The construction of the Arc de Triomphe was still in full swing. Every day, marble from the Sierra de Lotas would be delivered to the north gate of the city. For the convenience of transportation, Suhlen had already asked his men to build a pontoon bridge over the Red Sand River and the White Water River. He was still considering whether to build a permanent bridge over the two rivers.
As for technical problems, in this world full of extraordinary powers, many problems could be solved with magic. For example, the strength of a building. As long as an object was hardened, even if it was originally a piece of wood, it would be as hard as steel. Of course, hardening an entire bridge would be a huge project.
After giving the gray dwarves the cold shoulder for a day, Suhlen went to the prisoner camp again. Today, a few more gray dwarves expressed their willingness to work for Suhlen. When he came to the prisoner camp again, the gray dwarves still cursed the traitors, but this time, their voices were much softer.
Suhlen naturally wouldn't mistreat the gray dwarves who were willing to work for him. As usual, he gave each of them a bottle of vodka and arranged for them to live and work.
After sending away the gray dwarves who were willing to work for him, Suhlen once again looked at the gray dwarves who were still persisting. This time, Suhlen came up with a new idea.
"In order to celebrate the huge wealth I've gained in Orlando, I've decided to give all of you gray dwarves a reward," Suhlen said as he stood outside the fence.
"You invader, robber, that's the wealth of us gray dwarves!" Hearing Suhlen's words, the gray dwarves who were still somewhat quiet at first became agitated again. If the anger in their eyes could burn someone to death, Suhlen would have been burned to ashes by now.
"Face reality. I think you should be more concerned about your current situation," Suhlen said with a shrug.
"Considering that you haven't had any alcohol for a long time, I've specially prepared some alcohol for you today. If you don't want it, I'll take it away," Suhlen said with a smile as he looked at the angry gray dwarves.
"Yes, we want it."
"Give us the alcohol!"
“...”
"Silence!" Suhlen's face suddenly became cold and frosty, and an aura that belonged to a Legendary powerhouse suddenly erupted from his body. The gray dwarves who were still yelling were like ducks whose necks were stuck. Their mouths were wide open, but no sound came out.
Seeing this situation, Suhlen waved his hand, and a group of soldiers came forward. Then, they gave each of the gray dwarves a glass about the size of a thumb, and let them come up one by one according to the order of the meal.
The glass was so small that it couldn't even be considered a sip. The gray dwarves drank it all in one gulp. The rich wine aroma and the mellow taste made the gray dwarves unable to stop themselves. However, this small amount of wine didn't satisfy the alcohol in their stomachs at all. Instead, it made them feel even more uncomfortable.
Although these gray dwarves couldn't bear the problem of not having any alcohol to drink, at least they could still hold on. However, after taking a sip of the wine, the taste of which was far better than any wine they had ever drunk before caused an avalanche of consequences.
After drinking that glass of wine, not only did they not feel satisfied, but they also craved more wine. However, by the time they wanted more wine, Suhlen had already left the prison camp with his men.
On the third day, when Suhlen appeared in the prison camp again, more than 200 gray dwarves asked to work for Suhlen. The gray dwarves who had been cursing at the betrayers all fell silent. Seeing Suhlen give out large amounts of vodka, the gray dwarves couldn't take it anymore, and kept expressing their willingness to work for Suhlen.
There were originally more than 700 gray dwarves, but less than 300 of them were still holding on. However, they wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer. Suhlen had enough patience to slowly wear them down.
After obtaining another 400 gray dwarves, Suhlen chose some of the skilled blacksmiths to join the smithy. With the addition of the gray dwarves, the blacksmiths in Northtown City improved again.
The original smithy was no longer enough, so Suhlen ordered the workers to start upgrading the smithy. With more than 200 gray dwarves and humans, Suhlen planned to build a large steel workshop.
With the rapid development of Northtown City, even with the hydraulic forging machine, the production capacity of the smithy was still insufficient. Now that there were so many gray dwarven blacksmiths, Suhlen wanted to change the equipment of the entire army on the agenda.
The first thing these duergar did as blacksmiths was to modify the duergar armor that Su Lun had obtained from Orlando. Although the duergar armor had good defense and was sturdy and durable, it couldn't even be regarded as half-body armor when worn by the barbarians who were more than two meters tall.
These armors needed to be modified and forged into full-body armor. Once the barbarians reached the peak level, they could equip themselves with the dwarven full-body armor and pick up a giant axe. They would be like a meat grinder on the battlefield.
Of course, apart from the barbarians' armor, Suhlen also planned to equip the centaurs with full-body armor to form a centaur heavy cavalry. Due to the size of the centaurs, the armor they used was comparable to three sets of human armor. The armor Suhlen sold them before was only for the front, and the back was for chainmail and inlaid scale armor.
Now that they were his subordinates, he naturally wouldn't fool them like this. He planned to fully equip the centaurs with full-body armor, and thicken the front of the armor at the same time.
After arranging the gray dwarves' blacksmiths, Suhlen planned to let the rest of the gray dwarves continue mining.
"Sir, I have a map of the underground world's mineral distribution for you," a gray dwarf said.
Suhlen's eyes lit up. After all, the gray dwarves had lived in the underground world for hundreds of years. They must have explored all the nearby minerals. This map was extremely valuable. "Mineral distribution map? If it's true, I'll give you the reward you deserve. "
"Enough vodka, and I appoint you as the new city lord of Orlando!"
When he heard Suhlen say enough vodka, the gray dwarf's eyes instantly turned red. When he heard that he could become the city lord of Orlando, his breathing became heavier.
"Sir, the map is here." With that, the dwarf sat directly on the ground and took off his leather boots. A strong smell, like pickles that had been fermented for decades, filled the air in an instant. Su Lun hurriedly summoned some wind elements to blow away the smell of pickles.
The gray dwarf fumbled around in the boots for a while before finally pulling out a gray parchment that emitted a strange smell.
Suhlen frowned and put on gloves. He resisted the urge to throw away the parchment that emitted a strange smell and took it. A guard behind him sensibly handed over a bottle of water. Suhlen rinsed it briefly before flipping through the map.
The map was not large. It marked the mineral veins that the gray dwarves had discovered. There were three iron mines, one copper mine, one gold mine (which was close to exhaustion), and one silver mine and gemstone mine that were being mined.
So much gold in the city of the gray dwarves had been mined from that gold mine. Suhlen did not pay much attention to the gold mine. After all, it was close to exhaustion. He was more interested in the silver mine because the gray dwarves had discovered some Mithril in it.
Mithril was a very precious magical metal in this world. It was described in many adventure stories as light as a feather and indestructible. In fact, Mithril was not as exaggerated as it was described. It was more precious because of its powerful magical properties. Many powerful magic items would use this rare metal.
Now that there was Mithril in this underground silver mine, its value was simply immeasurable.
PS: Insufficient holiday balance, sob sob sob ~
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