Chapter 200

On the eve of the water season, the reservoir is more than 200 mu in size, in a funnel shape, with a maximum depth of 22 meters. When the river is introduced, it will become a rippling lake.

Although the 200 mu lake can not irrigate much farmland, the extended irrigation canal can change the land into farmland, turning this barren land into a rich field. Of course, the main diversion canal connecting Jinshui River must be built first. Before that, the reservoir was only a huge reservoir.

Victor believes that now is not the time to build the main ditch, not because of lack of manpower.

Civilians in different world seem to have their own architectural aura, and they are all Masons. As long as someone organized, Victor was amazed at their ability to build projects.

The strength of these young hired workers is 1.3 times that of the people on earth, and their physical strength is 1.5 times. They go out early and return late. Besides eating, they work. They can be called diligent and down-to-earth. With only simple tools and human trailers, 9000 employees repaired the reservoir in two months. They dug out the soil and piled up a low hill. According to this speed calculation, hired workers can build the main canal in four months as long as they work, eat and get paid. However, as an organizer and decision-maker, Victor has other problems to consider.

Randall's collar is 110 kilometers from south to north. If we want to build a water diversion canal through the whole territory, 9000 young and strong employees have to work for at least three years, while the York family can only bear the cost of two years. Two years later, victor will have to pay for the project himself. This is not a small number!

The daily wage of 9000 employees is 4 copper sols per person, plus two meals, a total of 8 copper sols. Therefore, only the wages and meals of employees will cost 2000 kinsol per month, which does not include logistics costs and management costs.

Most importantly, money may not be able to hire enough people. The reason why these young men worked hard was to obtain the leadership status of the York family. They were not willing to be engaged in digging and repairing canals all the time.

This means that Victor must not only bear the full cost of the project, but also recruit free civil servants himself.

It costs money and lacks people. Even the York family can't believe that the artificial canal can run through the whole territory of the human horse hills. As long as there is a stream reservoir, they will be satisfied. Although the water source of the stream reservoir is unstable and the irrigation capacity is quite limited.

Victor designed the strategy of raising canals with bricks, which gave the Lords hope. Victor found that things were not so simple. The problem lay with the chebman family.

The construction of the reservoir produced a lot of soil. The soil is transported to Nicole's huge brick kiln, processed into clay and used to make ordinary green bricks.

So far, Victor has more than 2.6 million green bricks. Victor used 800000 bricks for his own use, and the chebman family only bought 200000 bricks! Such sales are not enough to support the green brick industry!

The chebman family did not buy green bricks on a large scale, not just because they were stingy. The lack of congenital conditions is the objective factor.

Chebman collar is just like Randall collar. It's too remote! They are located in the southernmost part of the Kingdom, adjacent to the Jinshui River and surrounded by only three neighbors, Randall collar, Buryat collar and SoLIM collar.

Less neighbors means less ports. Less ports means poor trading ability.

At present, Victor can only sell the green bricks to the chebman family. The relationship between the chebmans and the buryates became very poor because they drove away their neighbors. Therefore, the chebman family only had the Marquis of SoLIM, and the SoLIM family had a trade monopoly. They could handle it as they wanted, and the count of chebman had nothing to do about it.

In fact, asymmetric trade has caused Victor great losses.

Take grain trade as an example. Wheat will deteriorate after three years of storage. The Lords are very happy to sell the aged grain in the warehouse. No matter how low the price is, a copper sol can often buy 2 pounds of aged wheat. The old grain was shipped to Randall's collar, but it was sold for three copper sols per pound. The price has doubled six times!

There are three main aspects of the cost. The chebmans' profits are the smallest part because they can hardly make money. The second is transportation cost. Finally, the Lords exploit it layer by layer. The grain purchased by the chebman family will be subject to transit tax every time it passes through a territory, which is the biggest cost!

The chebman family also faces the same problem in selling green bricks, which makes the cost advantage of the giant brick kiln disappear.

The green brick industry card made Victor very angry in the sales link. Without the support of the green brick industry, Randall will bear the cost of building the canal alone. In that case, it's better to build a stream reservoir first, and then raise the canal with bricks after the green brick market is cultivated.

On how to open the green brick market, Victor has an ideal trading partner in his mind, that is the Buryat family.

Buryat has a narrow East-West collar and borders eight families. It is an excellent trade corridor. However, the political situation of the Buryat family was not stable. Their uncles and nephews robbed their legitimate rights and drove away the leading people. They had a very unpleasant quarrel with their neighbors.

Victor decided to wait until the dust of the brayat family settled and try to get in touch with them again. As for the previous grievances, what are they in front of the overall interests? If the new Viscount of the Buryat family doesn't appreciate it, it's not too late to settle the old accounts!

Having made up his mind, Victor said to Nicole, "honey, the reservoir has been dug. I'm going to let the hired workers rest for three days and organize them to Randall to lead the construction of the Creek Reservoir."

"In principle, you should build your own stream reservoir first. But we can't help but consider that once there is arable land here, the free people will focus on farming, and it's not easy to call them again. Only by letting the hired workers rely entirely on their work, can they concentrate on building the canal."

"Randall has a mature farming and animal husbandry system. If he builds several stream reservoirs, he can produce more food. In this way, I can reduce the material transportation cost of York family." Explained Victor apologetically.

"Well, I listen to you." Nicole said with a smile.

Victor put his hand around Nicole's small waist, and Nicole leaned into his arms.

The construction of the stream reservoir involves the core interests of the territory. It is impossible for any lord to give in, but Nicole agreed without hesitation. In fact, Nicole prefers to be Victor's woman rather than the Lord. She obeys Victor's orders, and the size of the territory is completely under Victor's management. Although Victor was busy, he did have a lot less constraints and more convenience.

Nicole's unreserved trust and attachment made Victor a little ashamed. Nicole gives victor the greatest support with her background and Lord identity. Because of this, Victor can't completely trust Nicole. Some ironic, but more helpless.

They embrace each other quietly and enjoy a moment of warmth. Nicole looked up at Victor and stopped talking.

"What do you want to say?" Asked Victor curiously.

"I heard that Mrs. Sylvia is going to choose two personal maids for you? Are you going to choose the Elena sisters? They must be the most beautiful female trainee knights in the family."

Nicole tried to look casual, but the red lips revealed her true thoughts. Victor's head was so big that he had to try to change the topic: "this is not my original intention... By the way, how is the talk between the York family and the Eriksson family?"

Nicole beamed and said, "Duke Eriksson has been locked into a prison car under the hall of dunklu and is going to bring it back to King dodo for punishment. As the guardian of Eriksson family, dunklu agrees to compensate us 200000 kinsol and build a castle for you as compensation. Now, madam is negotiating with him about the sphere of influence in the north of Ma Hill..."

While he was talking, a guard hurried over and reported to Victor: "my Lord, the Royal tax official has arrived at Hekou village."

——————————————————————————

Hekou village has been expanded several times and is no longer what it used to be.

The standard green brick house replaces the wooden shed. The straight and wide main road can allow three carriages to run parallel. Flower beds are built on both sides of the road. There are rows of landscape trees in the flower beds. These trees separate a path for passers-by to walk between the house and the main road. This design of roads, landscape trees and sidewalks is unique to Hekou village.

The only drawback is the simple wooden fence. There are no defense facilities such as arrow towers and trenches inside and outside the fence, which just shows Victor's determination to build a city here.

Viscount teness walked along the streets of Hekou village with his colleagues and attendants. It gave him the feeling that it was very tidy.

The houses in Hekou village are all green brick houses, the distance between houses is exactly the same, and all buildings look neat and uniform. Despite the light rain, there was no mud on the cobblestone road. The air is natural and fresh without any peculiar smell. Tenet found that cleanliness and neatness are beauty.

"It's incredible! This is the cleanest town I've ever seen. The air here is better than the noble area of the king's capital!"

"Of course, cheap and dirty free people can't enter the aristocratic District, but their taste is unlimited."

"The problem is that most of the villagers here are also free people, but their houses are actually built of green bricks! It's a waste..."

"But there is no artistic atmosphere here, no sculpture, no fountain, no garden, all the same buildings, showing a taste of explosive households. Unlike the aristocratic area of our king's capital..."

"I know Viscount victor. He is not a nouveau riche. The Viscount has excellent artistic talent, and the spirit blood can't stand any impurity, as reflected in his town."

Colleagues are whispering, but they don't have to be so careful. The villagers went out to reclaim land. At this time, Hekou village was very empty. There were almost no people in the streets except them and the guard of Randall family. These aristocratic children did not realize that they had unconsciously regarded it as an aristocratic area and tried to maintain their appearance.

Tanis can see the surprise, envy and jealousy of his colleagues. They are eager to have such a small town. Tnis was also envious, but what he envied was not the town, but Victor's will to travel unimpeded on this land.

Yesterday evening, Tanis and his party entered Randall's collar. They had planned to spend the night in the wild and go to Hekou village the next day. While camping, Randall's patrol found them and escorted them to the village for the night.

No one will refuse to spend the night in the village. Although these nobles can sleep safely in the carriage, it's also very good to let their guards sleep well. Moreover, the high village wall means safety.

It's not the first time that Tanis's colleagues go out to collect taxes. They know what the Lord's village looks like. It's dirty, stinky, sewage flows, and cow dung and sheep smell everywhere. So they went to the village for the night, but they planned to leave the carriage so as not to stain their boots.

These aristocratic children are not really delicate. As tax officials of the Kingdom, it is common to eat and sleep in the open air. There is nothing to pay attention to in the wild. But when you arrive at the Lord's village, you have to carry it. Otherwise, how can you show the elegance and nobility of the king's capital and nobility.

However, Randall's village impressed the tax officials.

Trenches, suspension bridges, iron oak fences, arrow towers and wooden huts are no different from the villages of other lords. But the whole village is surprisingly clean and tidy.

The roads in the village are paved with crushed stones, which are compacted very firmly, and drainage channels are built on both sides, so that there is no ponding and sludge on the ground of the village. The wooden huts in the village are obviously well planned, with the same size and equal spacing.

The village wall is also very strange. The ten meter high iron oak fence is enough to resist the invasion of ordinary wild animals and monsters, but there is a three meter thick and more than eight meter high wall behind the fence. The city wall is made of green bricks and rammed earth. It not only greatly improves the defense of the village wall, but also provides a shooting platform for the militia.

In the king capital of Gambis, green bricks are used to build beautiful manors and villas. It is the first time that tax officials have seen the village wall built of green bricks. They were stunned by this.

Later, the tax official found many unusual places. There are only more than 500 villagers in this village, but the cottage can accommodate 1500 people. There are no cattle and sheep in the village, but every family raises wild boars and ground lizards.

Is a village without cattle and sheep still a village?

With this question, Tanis asked the village head George who accompanied him. George told them that under Randall's leadership, cattle and sheep are stocked, wild boars are kept in captivity, the village wall is built of green bricks, and the village must be clean and tidy, because this is Lord Randall's will. The proud look of village head George made the tax officials silent.

Looking at the neat and clean Hekou village, tnis was both envious and awed.

A year ago, teness came to Randall with family knights. At that time, it was still a barren land. Victor worked hard with dozens of guards. He lived in a shed, ate wild vegetables and lived like a savage.

A year later, Randall had tens of thousands of mu of cultivated land, thousands of livestock, seven villages, more than 8000 villagers and hundreds of guards. Every village, every person, even cattle, sheep and wild boars are carrying out the Lord's will, which is what any Lord wants.

Viscount Randall is now a true Lord!

"Lord tenet, my master has come."

The guard of Randall family pointed to the other end of the road. A team of cavalry was coming from there. They were surrounded by Viscount Randall.

"Welcome, my friend." Victor jumped off his horse, greeted tnis and greeted him warmly.

Tnis also smiled and saluted, saying, "nice to see you again, Lord Randall."

Victor had a good impression of viscount teness. He had helped victor.

At first, Victor was not a vassal Lord of the York family and could not enjoy the treatment of exemption from annuity. The royal family obviously wanted to embarrass the York family from victor. They levied 20% of the purple cane wine trade on victor. If Victor couldn't pay, he had to pay a large fine.

How could Victor hand over the purple cane wine? It was because the York family monopolized the purple cane wine trade that Sophia brought in green wheat and iron. Victor was also unwilling to pay a fine of 20000 golden sol. He proposed an installment solution, and Viscount teness agreed at once and expressed his willingness to pay the fine for victor. Until now, Victor still owes tnis 5000 kinsol and a favor.

This time, Victor not only had to pay back the money, but also had many things to cooperate with Viscount teness, such as snow sugar and coffee trade.

"Viscount teness, gentlemen, let's go to the village hall to talk about annuity."

Victor and tenes walked side by side. Before they had taken a few steps, a cavalry came at a gallop. When he saw Victor, he rolled off his horse and shouted breathlessly, "Sir, one of our patrol teams was annihilated by the enemy!"

Victor was surprised and said in a deep voice, "don't worry! Speak slowly."

The cavalry took a deep breath, looked at the tax official and said, "Sir, the guard team responsible for patrolling the eastern border did not arrive at the post on time. Lord Nelson personally took people to check and found a group of people burying their bodies. Lord Nelson sent me back to ask you for help. Lord Nelson said that the other five people were all Knights!"

Victor was silent for a moment, turned his head and smiled at tnis: "Viscount tnis, it seems that I have to deal with something first."

"I'll go with you. I also want to know which family dares to violate the covenant of Lord Gambis and openly invade your territory."