Early the next morning, Joske, Sadkamp, and Padt brought fifty guards and twenty four-wheeled carriages to the mines. They were there to rescue the Norton Family members who had been abandoned in the mines, and to eliminate the thirty or so mercenaries guarding the copper mine.
Big Bearded Auvecis and Redi organized the hundred or so coachmen into a small team of guards. They were in charge of guarding the two walls. The remaining seventy guards were responsible for guarding the one thousand slave laborers and forty or so mercenaries who had surrendered.
These were all discussed last night. Originally, Loriste wanted to go to the mines himself, but he was unanimously opposed. Joske said that letting Loriste, the head of the family, take the lead in everything made him feel ashamed and useless as a family knight. With that said, Laurist could only agree to let Josk bring Sudekamp and Padt along, while he stayed at the construction site to watch over the castle.
After sending off Joske and the rest, Loriste patrolled the area and returned to the house on the walls. He stared at the large sand table, and the more he looked, the more thoughts he had. The Kenzis Family had only obtained their territory for less than two years, and they were already able to come up with such a large development plan. The Norton Family had been rooted in the north for more than two hundred years, and had gone through seven generations of family heads. Not only did they not develop their territory well, but they were also trapped in the north. The family's power was shrinking, and now they could only hide in the family's manor like a turtle.
Loriste could not understand what had happened to the family that made them ignore Viscount Kenzis's plans in the Norton Family's territory. Half a year ago, Viscount Kenzis had attacked the Norton Family's manor and castle. The Norton Family was able to defend the castle against Viscount Kenzis for more than half a month, forcing the viscount to retreat. The mercenary leader who surrendered even said that the viscount's men had died, which meant that the Norton Family was not at a disadvantage. Logically speaking, the Norton Family should have sent out scouts to monitor the retreat of Viscount Kenzis's troops. But the family did not even send out scouts. What was going on?
Perhaps the family had already sent out spies, but they weren't paying attention to Viscount Gammus. Lebrist recalled what the mercenary leader had said. They had seen the Norton family at the copper mine, but they had retreated when they realized that the mine had been occupied. Sigh. He was still thinking about the copper mine's profits at a time like this. Also, since they discovered that the mine had been occupied, they should at least be concerned about the whereabouts of the family members who were working in the copper mine. It had been half a year, and they hadn't even sent a messenger to negotiate with Viscount Gaimus. This was too strange.
Even though Lollister was only a day's journey from the Norton Family's manor and castle, it would only take a day for them to arrive. But now, Laurist couldn't just abandon everything here and run back on his own. How should he settle the nearly one thousand slave laborers? How should he deal with the forty or so mercenaries who surrendered? What should he do after he occupied the castle construction site? It was a complete mess. Laurist missed Fatty Shi very much. If Fatty Shi was here, he wouldn't have to worry about these things.
When he thought of Fatty Shi, he thought of Bofinger, Ross, Ell, Terman, and Yuri, his good friends and family knights. He wondered if they had led the family caravan back on the road, and how long it would take for the family caravan to reach the north. When they reached the north with the family caravan, he didn't know if he would be able to make the necessary preparations to welcome and settle the caravan.
When he thought of the large number of people in the caravan, Laurist felt a headache coming on. With Fatty Shi's temperament, he didn't know how many people the caravan would have when it reached the family's territory. Twenty thousand? Or thirty thousand? How to settle the people who would arrive with the caravan would be a troublesome matter.
Laurist looked at the large sand table, and his eyes suddenly lit up. Wasn't this a ready-made settlement plan? He could just take the Gaimus Family's plan and implement it. If he continued to build the castle here, the nearly one thousand slave laborers would have jobs, and he wouldn't have to worry about how to settle them anymore. When the castle was finished, he could continue to build the mountain city, and when the mountain city was finished, he would give them freedom and settle them down as his own citizens.
As for the cost of building the castle, Laurist didn't lack money. The only thing he had to worry about were two problems. First, he had to find someone who understood architecture to be in charge of the construction of the castle. Even if there were blueprints, there had to be someone who could read them. Second, he had to buy resources from the outside. The Gaimus Family was the largest merchant group in the former empire's construction industry. It was extremely convenient for them to develop their territory and build a castle. Whether it was the laborers or the construction materials, they could easily arrange everything. Laurist didn't have the ability to do this. Who knew, the Gaimus Family might find out that Laurist was continuing with their development plans and cause trouble for Laurist.
"Someone, bring that bearded old man. Oh, that butler named Boris over," Laurist said to the guards standing outside the door.
Boris was quickly brought over. Laurist flipped through the blueprints of the castle and asked him about the details of the construction. He also asked about the Gaimus Family's movements.
Boris said that Viscount Gaimus wasn't in the Red River Valley Manor castle in his territory. Instead, he lived in the most prosperous city in Duke Lujens' territory, Gildusk City. He had bought a large house there to be used as a viscount's mansion. Ever since Viscount Gaimus's cousin became Duke Lujens' mistress, the Gaimus Family had been very close to Duke Lujens. In the process of Duke Lujens' establishment of the Northland Army, the Gaimus Family had put in a lot of effort.
Viscount Gammus had several reasons for living in Gildusk City. Firstly, he liked the liveliness of the city. He liked to hold lavish banquets and balls for nobles and socialize with the ladies. He hated staying in a remote castle. Second, he wanted to maintain a good relationship with Duke Lujens. Third, he wanted to receive the family's supplies through Fraser Castle's checkpoint. After all, Viscount Gaimus was personally escorting them, so Duke Lujens couldn't openly seize the Gaimus Family's supply caravan. It was enough to just take one or two.
Now, the Gaimus Family's Red River Valley Manor castle had become a supply transfer station. According to the plan, a large batch of supplies would be sent to the castle on the tenth of next month. It was estimated to be three thousand barrels of Gummy Vine juice, a batch of construction tools, five hundred thousand kilograms of food, and some clothes. There might also be a thousand slave laborers, accompanied by more than two hundred female slaves.
"Are those female slaves the families of the slave laborers?" Loriste asked casually.
"Uh, no, sir. Those slave laborers are all young and strong. We need to give them some rewards to prevent them from causing trouble. These female slaves were to be used as rewards. The slave laborers who perform well can spend the night with a female slave. This has been a very effective method of appeasing slave laborers for a long time. "Butler Boris said.
To put it bluntly, these female slaves were here to be camp prostitutes. Loriste shook his head. "Is the Gaimus Family that rich? I heard you donated two hundred thousand gold coins to the second prince in order to get the territory. They spent a lot on the Red River Valley Manor castle and the construction of the immigrant town. They are going to spend three hundred thousand gold coins to develop the Morgen Hills in five years. Without a million gold coins, they wouldn't be able to do this."
Loriste pointed to the large sand table on the table.
Butler Boris said, "Sir, based on my forty years of experience with the Gaimus Family, the Gaimus Family is actually going downhill. I always suspected that the master insisted on developing the Morgen Hills and building this castle and that mountain city to leave a way out for the Gaimus Family. A few years ago, the Gaimus Family didn't earn much money at all. Since the second prince established the Iberian Kingdom, the Gaimus Family was still one of the upper-class families in the kingdom, but they had been living off their savings. Like the development of the Morgen Hills, it was said to be an investment of three hundred thousand gold coins. In reality, the budget for building this castle and that mountain city was only one hundred thousand. The remaining two hundred thousand was for the immigrant and material reserves after the construction was completed. "
"One hundred thousand? Impossible. I estimate that building this castle would cost seventy to eighty thousand gold coins. One hundred thousand gold coins shouldn't be enough to complete the construction of this castle and mountain city. "Loriste said.
"Sir, in reality, the budget for this castle is only thirty thousand. Most of it is the rubber vine juice, which is estimated to require twelve thousand barrels. The rest is the consumption of food and other materials. The manpower is the construction slave laborers of the Chamber of Commerce. They don't need to spend money. Other construction materials can be found nearby. You just need to spend some time gathering them. Just like this completed city wall, two thousand barrels of rubber vine juice were used. The materials used to make the green clay were all gathered on the spot. "
En, according to Butler Boris, other than the rubber vine juice, the other construction materials could be gathered on the spot to build this castle and mountain city. This was good news.
"Butler Boris, you should know what kind of materials are stored here, right?" Loriste asked.
After occupying the construction site of the castle yesterday, Sederkamp followed Josk to the copper mine early in the morning. They didn't have time to take inventory of the materials here.
"Sir, in the past four months, three batches of materials have been delivered from the Red River Valley Manor castle. Each batch of materials is mainly rubber vine juice and food. Three thousand barrels of rubber vine juice were delivered each time. Two thousand barrels were used to build this city wall, and there are still seven thousand barrels left in the warehouse. If another three thousand barrels are delivered on the tenth of next month, then the estimated twelve thousand barrels of rubber vine juice for the construction of this castle will be gathered. In the future, the materials delivered will mainly be stored food. These were all pre-planned arrangements. If there were no accidents, they wouldn't change. Right now, there isn't much food left in the warehouse, about forty thousand pounds. The original plan was for the supplies to be delivered on the tenth of next month, but now that you have occupied this place, the supplies might not come. So you need to prepare more food to deal with the slave labor. "
Butler Boris looked at Loriste and continued, "Sir, the food for the slave labor is rationed. Because of the heavy work, each of them gets three pounds a day. One pound in the morning, one and a half pounds at noon, and half a pound at night. These thousand or so slave labor consumes about fifty thousand pounds of food every month. If you want to use these slave labor, you must prepare the food in advance and not neglect it. "
Loriste stood up and walked to Butler Boris' side. He patted his shoulder and said, "Butler Boris, you are very good. Very good. As long as you do your best, the Norton Family will not mistreat you. You can leave now. "
"Yes, my lord." Butler Boris bowed and was about to leave when Lollister remembered something else.
"Hey, wait. Butler Boris, where did the Cummings Family get so many ballistae? "
Butler Pauly replied, "Milord, these ballistae were made on the spot, not shipped over. Three years ago, when the Cummings Family went to purchase slaves for construction, they bought a father and son pair. They were famous ballistae masters in the Telimbo Kingdom, but because they offended the nobles, they were sold as slaves. Although the Cummings Family became a noble family, they lacked resources. They didn't have good family knights, nor did they have a proper garrison, so they could only hire mercenaries. In order to strengthen the defenses here, they sent this father and son pair here to make ballistae. "
"You're saying that the father and son pair are here?"
"Yes, sir. They are with the slave labor," Butler Boris said.
"How about this, Butler Boris. Please bring the father and son pair out and settle them down. They will be very useful to me. You, accompany Butler Boris and help him complete his mission, "Lollister said to the guards standing guard at the door.
"Yes, sir."
… …
Lollister walked slowly around the table with the sand table in the room, deep in thought. The rations that Butler Boris mentioned were not a problem. The caravan he brought this time had more than 100,000 kilograms of rations, which was guaranteed to last them for more than a month. When he returned to the family, he could even get a batch of rations from the family. Perhaps he could even think about the rations and supplies that the Cummings Family would send over next month, but it was still early, so there was no need to rush.
It was already the 32nd of February. Jost and the others would return tomorrow, and the day after that would be the 34th. No matter what, Loriste had to return to the family's manor. But once Loriste left, who would be in charge of the construction of the castle? Josk was out of the question. He was a loner and hated troublesome things. Loriste had even asked him to bring a group of cavalry archers, but he found it boring after a few days. He had chosen a few cavalry archers and left them to Yuri's light cavalry scouts.
Sadkamp and Padt had to return with him. They had to report on their mission, and Loriste had just arrived at the manor, so there were many things he would need their help and guidance. With Jock, Redi, and Ovis in charge of this place, along with a small team of guards and a small team of guards, the defense should be sufficient. However, he did not know how long Loriste would be staying in the manor. Someone had to be in charge of the construction of the castle.
"Bring the master architect here," Loriste ordered.
The unlucky fellow who had suffered fifty whips yesterday was brought to Loriste. The arrogant master architect's hair was disheveled, and his clothes were tattered. There were whip marks and blood stains on his body, and he staggered as he walked.
"Master Siroba? I was rude yesterday. I am the local lord, Norton Loriste. I want to continue building this castle. Are you willing to work for me and be in charge of the construction of this castle? I will pay you handsomely, "Lollister said sincerely.
Master Siroba glared at Loriste viciously. Perhaps he had learned his lesson from being whipped last night, he did not say anything else. He only spat on the ground and looked up at the ceiling, showing his disdain for Loriste.
Loriste could not help but laugh. He said to the guard who brought Master Siroba over, "He dirtied my room. Should I ask him to kneel down and clean up his own spit?"
"My lord, that is a good idea," the guard replied seriously.
Master Siroba's body trembled …
"Forget it, let's not make things difficult for him. He is already so old, yet he is still so uncultured, spitting everywhere. Bring him away, "Loriste said.
… …
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.
