"Your Highness, do you know who sent these people?" After Vader left, Carter approached and asked.
"The only one who has the pills, besides the church, is Timothy. Garcia is now far away from Graycastle, so it's unlikely that she still cares about me." Roland sighed. "Compared to the former, Timothy is more likely. He doesn't dare to easily send an army out of King's City, but it doesn't mean that he won't retaliate against me."
Fortunately, these attackers who had blended into the crowd only carried pills, not gunpowder. Otherwise, if they exploded in the crowd, the efforts of the past two months would have been in vain.
Roland wasn't worried that the "suicide squad" he had sent out would threaten him. During the days when Nightingale wasn't here, he brought more than ten guards with him wherever he went, and he also wore a God's Stone of Retaliation. Even an Extraordinary would find it difficult to approach him under the suppression of ten revolvers, let alone a madman who had taken drugs.
He found that his mentality had changed a lot in less than a year since he became the Lord. If he had just arrived here and seen such a situation, he would inevitably feel weak in the knees and be at a loss. But just now, although he felt a little nervous, he still pretended to be calm on the surface. He knew that the guards would definitely stand in front of him and stop the enemy at all costs. As the focus of the crowd, he could not afford to lose his composure in the slightest. Even he was surprised by this thought.
"Call the people of the emissary delegation here and ask them about the details of the recruitment process." Roland turned to Barov and said, "I need to know where these people boarded the sailboat."
"Yes, Your Highness." The face of the City hall supervisor was a little gloomy. He probably didn't expect that the subordinate he was proud of would make such a big mistake, and he felt quite embarrassed.
"Don't be too harsh on them, ask them about the situation first."
After all the refugees had passed through the checkpoint, Roland returned to his office in the castle. This time, the news brought back by the emissary delegation made him very surprised. In the Southern Region, there were a large number of homeless people. Eagle City and Port of Clearwater were destroyed by the flames of war, and many fields outside the city were abandoned. Coupled with this year's strange weather, the temperature in Graycastle had plummeted. The price of food was rising day by day, and even the price of slaves had fallen by half.
As long as he could establish a reliable transportation channel, he could bring a steady stream of people into the Western Region. In fact, according to the report of the emissary mission, after hearing the recruitment order for Border Town, there were already many refugees who had begun to move towards the Western Region on their own initiative.
However, the difficulty lay in the "transportation channel."
During the Months of the Demons, the heavy snow blocked the entire land transportation. If they wanted to bring people in, they could only transport them through the Redwater River. But Border Town only had one ship, the Little Town, which couldn't move without the help of a witch. It was far from enough to meet the demand. If they wanted to have ships sailing on the channel all the time, they would need to invest at least 20 or so river sailboats.
For example, the emissaries sent out this time were in such a predicament: only a small part of the Golden Dragon they brought with them was used to rope in the refugees, and the rest was spent on hiring ships and settling people. At present, only 400 people had arrived in Border Town, and there were still more than 3,000 people stranded in Willow Town, Silver City, and Fallen Dragon Ridge, waiting for ships to transport them.
In addition, the ship owners were aware of the current situation in the Western Region, so they raised the price very high. Just these 3,000 people alone were estimated to cost the same as the previous rescue in King's City. This was simply not a long-term solution. Roland thought for a while and decided to send a letter to Margaery's Chamber of Commerce for help, hoping that the other party would consider Lightning and not quote a price several times higher.
But if he wanted to completely cut off this part of the expenditure, he still had to build his own ships. Now that the quality of steel and cement had been greatly improved, it was completely possible to build stronger and larger river boats, using steam engines as power to build the Redwater River transportation line.
…
After lunch, Barov knocked on the door and came in. "Your Highness, the situation has been roughly understood."
"Speak."
"A disciple named Salem was responsible for going to the Northern Region to rope in refugees. On the way back, due to the lack of ships, he contacted a friend he met in King's City, hoping that they could help him inquire about or hire some merchant ships willing to go to the Western Region." Barov sighed. "The news must have leaked from here … He settled the refugees in Silver City, which is only half a day's journey from King's City. It wouldn't be difficult for Timothy to do something to them if he wanted."
"How many people are currently stranded in Silver City?"
"About 800," Barov whispered. "It takes half a month for a merchant ship to go back and forth. When the next batch of refugees arrives, we still don't know what will happen. How about … we immediately recall the First Army and give up on these people. "
"No, no, no. We'll just get rid of them one by one, no matter how many people Timothy inserted. When the time comes, we just have to check the checkpoints and let them pass separately." Roland shook his head. "If we leave the refugees in Silver City and ignore them, what if someone returns to the Northern Region and spreads the news of what happened to them? We won't be able to recruit anyone from there anymore. "
With Sylvie's x-ray vision and Nightingale's incantation, no spy or assassin could hide, so he wasn't worried about this. It would be fine as long as they didn't hurt the other refugees.
"Yes, Your Highness." Barov coughed twice before asking, "Then … how about Salem's punishment, what do you think …"
"What do you think?"
He hesitated for a moment. "This happened because he was too careless. I suggest that he be removed from his position in City hall and fined two months' salary. Salem's mistake wasn't intentional and didn't cause too much damage, so it's not appropriate to send him to the North Slope Mine. "
Roland couldn't help but laugh. Barov's pained expression was written all over his face. "Don't worry, I've already made up my mind. Considering that his mistake was due to his lack of experience and not a subjective dereliction of duty, I can give him a lighter punishment. After all, this is the first time he's held such a position … I remember he's only in his twenties, right? In that case, I'm sure he'll grow up quickly after this lesson. Just fine him two months' salary. "
"Yes, Your Highness." Barov immediately bowed and said, "We'll do as you say."
The prince smiled and shook his head. Although he spoke extremely harshly in the beginning, when it came time to punish Salem, he showed an indiscernible sense of selflessness. After all, Salem had always been by his side when he was in King's City. He was also one of the first batch of disciples to arrive in Border Town. In Barov's eyes, Salem was almost like a child that he had raised himself.
"You can leave now."
After dealing with this matter, Roland stretched his body. He took out a few blank pieces of paper from the drawer and was about to draw a sketch of the steam-cement ship when Leaf suddenly ran in.
"Your Highness," she said excitedly, "The Farsight is back!"
"Really?" Roland stood up abruptly and followed her to the back garden with quick steps. He saw the huge hot air balloon slowly descending, and the shadow of the air sac caused the light in the courtyard to dim.
As soon as the basket landed, Anna jumped down. Roland opened his arms and went forward to welcome her. The latter smiled and gently hugged him.
"I'm back."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
