Chapter 318

In April of the earth season, the weather is getting hot. In this season of lush vegetation and blooming flowers, the human horse hills become lush and full of vitality. The rolling hills are covered with clumps of shrubs, and the colorful wild flowers are quietly in full bloom. At a glance, they look like beautiful tapestries draped over the hills.

The valleys of the hills are covered with dense alfalfa. The green alfalfa is growing vigorously, dotted with small blue and purple flowers. Flocks of cattle and sheep are looking for food. Some brave wild deer can't help the temptation of grass. They quietly pace out of the woods and mix with the sheep to enjoy the fresh alfalfa. The dutiful shepherd dog bared his teeth and growled at the uninvited guests, trying to defend the territory of the sheep, but the horns of the male deer greeted them.

The shepherds sat on the grass and leisurely watched the shepherds chasing and fighting with wild deer. They didn't mean to give a hand at all.

It's not the hunting season yet. If the deer want alfalfa, give it to them. The fatter they eat, the better

Of course, the scenery of the hills is not invariable. With the intensification of human activities, especially the rise of brick making industry, many hills have become bare mountains, and the bushes on the mountains have been cut down, dried into firewood, sent to giant brick kilns, and finally turned into thick smoke and disappeared under the sky.

Five hills near Maureen village led by Randall have become barren mounds. The brown soil is directly exposed in the air, which is in sharp contrast to the dense woods and green valleys. Every rainy season, these mounds are even in danger of collapse.

But now it's different.

Circle after circle of upward terraces are coiled from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain. They are stacked and scattered. The thorn Yun trees arranged neatly in the terraces dress up the mountain as a green tower with a full sense of hierarchy. The peasant women wore headscarves and baskets made of wild vines. Keep picking full pods from the thorn kidney tree, and soon you can fill the whole basket.

"It would be nice if so many prickly kidney beans were used to feed pigs..." village head Molin said with emotion, with a sorry expression on his face.

"If old Miller hears this, do you believe he will jump up and slap you in the face?" Victor joked with a smile.

Victor had long planned to open up terraces. He planned to plant some cash crops such as fruit trees, oilwood and sisal on the mound, but finally chose the high-yield thorn kidney bean. According to the agreement between victor and the Duke of Wellington, Randall will transplant 1.3 million thorn kidney trees from the south central part of the kingdom within two years, a total of 50000 mu of thorn kidney bean field. In the windy season last year, Randall led to plant more than 18000 mu of prickly kidney beans. In March of the land season, these prickly kidney beans were harvested for the first time, with a monthly output of more than 15 million pounds.

Although the taste of prickly kidney beans is general and the water content is high, it is no problem to fill your stomach. However, the output of prickly kidney beans is high, and Randall leads a large population.

Randall's collar currently attracts more than 18000 refugees. The York family has continuously mobilized 13000 migrant employees to enter the Baron Fenix's collar to build the southern wall and fortress. With more than 12000 employees, Victor manages a population of more than 43000. Randall led the planting of thorn kidney beans just to reduce the logistics pressure brought by the huge population. Although the York family should be responsible for the clothing, food, housing and transportation of migrant workers, the giant fortress blocking the entrance of the Everglades is related to the safety of Randall's collar. The two sides are grasshoppers on the same line, so there is no need to care so much.

Baskets of kidney beans were sent to the construction site and distributed free to employees in the name of the church. Father Miller was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth, but the villagers in each village couldn't be happy.

The harvest is certainly pleasant, but if you give the hard-earned prickly kidney beans to others for free, it's another matter. In the view of the villagers, the endless thorn kidney beans should be used to feed pigs!

Thinking of father Miller's rage and spitting on his face, village head Molin immediately counseled him. He said, "Sir, the five hills under the jurisdiction of Molin village have been planted with thorn kidney beans. Shouldn't it be our turn to plant the thorn kidney beans behind?"

Victor smiled but didn't speak. The response of village head Maureen was exactly what he needed.

The property in the territory is nominally owned by the Lord, but how much can the Lord take? A village has a maximum of 2000 villagers and governs a territory of 300 to 400 square kilometers. Even if the villagers do not cultivate land, they can solve the problem of food and clothing only by collecting wild resources. If the Lord received less offerings, they could live a rich life. Therefore, the villagers pay special attention to the village commons, and the properties of each hill are closely related to their pockets. Who is willing to plant some worthless prickly kidney beans?

In fact, the biggest resistance of the church to promote prickly kidney beans comes from the people, not the Lord. It's the same no matter where the thorn kidney beans are planted.

If the church wants to expand the planting area of prickly kidney beans in Randall, it must first ask the villagers whether they agree or not.

The will of the Lord is actually the concentrated embodiment of the will of the people. For example, Maureen is pleading with Victor for the interests of the villagers. He was Victor's first followers and made great contributions to the Randall family. Victor always showed some kindness to a veteran like Maureen. This is bottom-up influence.

People are close and distant. Even the Lord of glory only gives divinity to the most devout clergy, not to mention a mortal Lord? If you don't protect your own people and pursue equal treatment, you will only end up betraying your relatives.

The higher you stand, the farther you see. Of course, the vision of the village head cannot be compared with that of the Lord. Faced with Maureen's request, Victor felt it necessary to mention him.

"You can't just think about your own village. I hope you village chiefs will be able to shoulder the responsibility of mayor in the future."

Victor said to Maureen: "By the end of this year, the main canal will run through five stream reservoirs. In the next five years, we will build a circular canal on the east side of the Jinshui River and more small artificial lakes on the upstream of the stream reservoir. Randall's cultivated land area will increase to 3 million mu and pasture area will exceed 4 million mu. I plan to implement a three-year rotation system, planting wheat, potato and fallow for one year. Even so, the farming of 2 million mu of cultivated land each year also needs 100000 young and strong employees. Their families can grow vegetables, raise pigs, herd cattle and sheep. Coupled with brick kiln workers, iron ore miners, craftsmen and craftsmen, as well as residents of Pinghu Town, Randall's total population will not be less than 400000. "

Maureen was stunned and said, "so many people? It seems that the total population of the kingdom is only 900000!"

"That's the registered population, referring to the people of the kingdom." Vic said as he walked, Maureen and the fast bird followed their master, "There are more than 900000 refugees in the middle and north of the Kingdom, and there are more than 1 million refugees in other territories. I estimate that the total population of Gambis is at least 3 million. Of course, the Randall collar can't recruit refugees alone. We also need to encourage fertility... Well, the Randall collar can absorb 120000 refugees."

"It is a difficult challenge for us to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people in a territory of 10000 square kilometers. Randall will build two cities, seven towns and twenty-one administrative villages in the future. Pinghu Town, as the main city of Randall family, will be renamed Lake City. Your Molin village will be changed into a village, a town and a castle will be built. It governs three administrative villages, with farms and pastures under each administrative village. You must manage at least 1000 square meters for me Kilometers of territory and 20000 people. "

"Zun... Noble master, i... you let me be mayor?" Maureen stammered.

"Why? Don't you want to be mayor?" Victor asked deliberately.

"Yes, yes, oh, no, no, No." Village head Maureen was very surprised and said incoherently, "I mean, I will never live up to the trust of adults!"

"It's not so easy to be mayor. You have to spend more time studying and try to improve your ability." Victor stopped and said, "prickly kidney beans can help us through the most difficult period. Do you want to plant them?"

"Plant... But not too much." Maureen hesitated and said truthfully: "My Lord, prickly kidney beans grow fast and rot fast. It's hard to cut them if they grow well. The church attendants in Pinghu Town come once a month. They carefully check the prickly Kidney Bean Trees in the terraces for fear that we will deliberately kill them. If we go on like this, the hills will be full of prickly kidney bean trees, the villagers will have no wild vegetables and herbs to pick, and I'm afraid the wild deer and yellow sheep will be invisible."

Victor smiled and said, "the church will not give up improving prickly kidney beans. They are checking the mutant plants."

"Mutant plants?"

"Yes." Victor nodded: "The church is very experienced in the cultivation of crops. The pruning and grafting technology of fruit trees was invented by the monks of the monastery. Speert wheat was originally just a Dogtail grass in the south. After more than 400 years of improvement by the monastery, it became the current crop. The Church believes that thorn kidney beans can also become a crop easy to store, but it needs to expand the planting scale and select mutant plants for cultivation. However, The time for improving prickly kidney beans is too long. It will take at least 400 or 500 years. We will not serve as a test field for the church. Randall will plant 100000 mu of prickly kidney beans at most. "

"It depends on your ability whether kidney beans will be used to raise pigs or give relief to refugees in the church."

Speaking of this, Molina didn't understand his master's meaning. He said with a bitter face: "it's my duty to encourage the villagers to resist pricked kidney beans. This... Offend the father... Sir, for my loyalty's sake, you should protect me."

"Ha ha." Victor patted Maureen on the shoulder and comforted: "you can do it safely and boldly! In fact, with the new agriculture, animal husbandry and water conservancy projects, the church doesn't care much about thorn kidney beans."

"My Lord, I will never let you down." Maureen patted his chest and promised.

Just then, several farmers drove a group of strange pack animals down from the terrace. These pack animals were the same size as the short tailed deer, with black and bright fur, white stripes on the ventral side, strong limbs and developed muscles. The muscles on the shoulders and back were as high as a hump, the head was like an antelope, with long ears and no horns, and a pair of big eyes. Each pack animal carried four baskets It was full of newly picked prickly kidney beans. They lined up behind the farmer and looked obedient.

"My Lord, the short legged camel antelope is really easy to use. It's no trouble to go up and down the mountain. With these guys to help transport kidney beans, we can save a lot of money." Maureen said happily.

Camel antelope is a unique herbivore in Jushi mountains. They have strong muscles and bones, abundant physical strength, water bags in their stomach, and can not drink water for a few days. Their separated toes are suitable for walking in the mountains and have strong load-bearing and cross-country ability. Camel antelope has rough meat and is difficult to swallow, but its temperament is docile and smart. It usually feeds on thorns in the mountains. The neville people domesticate it in captivity and use it as a carrying tool in the mountains and forests.

The domesticated camel antelope can carry 600 pounds of weight, travel nearly 30 kilometers of mountain roads in four hours, and is resistant to rough feeding. Even if it only eats straw, it will not lose fat like cattle and sheep. It is very suitable for mountain transportation.

The camel antelopes were brought back by the Warhammer mercenaries from the town of Gasi in Neville.

During the fire season last year, Victor divided the Warhammer mercenary regiment into three, led by hammer, Fermi and Kidd. Fermi led the kestrel mercenary regiment all the way north into the Dodo Kingdom and opened up smuggling routes. Kidd led the bobcat mercenary regiment to attack the mountain people's villages in Gambis. Hammer took merchant weiqi and Warhammer mercenary regiment to garci town in Neville kingdom to discuss snow candy and preserves with Baron garrot, and purchase fire element crystal and mountain camel.

A month ago, the Warhammer mercenary regiment returned with a full load. When they went, there were only 45 people and 106 came back. The mountain people strongholds along the way are very enthusiastic about the Warhammer mercenary regiment. Many young mountain people take the initiative to join the mercenary regiment. In addition, the hammer also brought back 120 fire element crystals and 400 camel antelopes, as well as the profit of 2000 kinsol.

Things went well, but hammer was uneasy. He handed Victor a handwritten letter from the Lord of garci town.

It turned out that Baron garrot of Neville kingdom had seen through the details of the Warhammer mercenary regiment. He hoped that Victor could continue to maintain this secret business road and sell crude sugar and some living materials to Jiaxi town. Therefore, he was willing to sell iron, gemstones, medicinal materials and elemental crystals. The 400 camel antelopes are a gift from Baron garrot to victor, or baron garrot's investment in secret trade routes. With these pack animals, we can naturally increase the volume of trade between the two sides.

There will never be a shortage of smart people in the world, let alone treat others as fools.

Baron garrot saw through the heels of the Warhammer mercenary regiment only by two contacts and knew that they were walking on mountain roads and running private goods. Baron garrot's attitude also shows that Victor's smuggling strategy is no problem. Pulling the small Lord in is originally a part of the smuggling network. After all, Victor invested a lot of manpower and took the biggest risk. Small lords in remote areas can make money as long as they wait for private businessmen to come. Why don't they do it? Of course, the strategic value of crude sugar also plays a key role.

Victor was not dazzled by Baron garrot's enthusiasm, and the bottom-up penetration strategy could not be changed before the private business network surfaced. If the great lords are aware of the existence of the free civil and commercial corps, and they hold the attitude that everyone wants to intervene and nobody can get it, the whole plan will be destroyed by the strife of the great forces. The people at the bottom seem humble, but they can transport goods to the market for sale. When their will affects the church, the village head and the small lords, the big nobles can no longer shake Victor's dominant position.

Although Baron garrot is shrewd, he can only see one line in the case of asymmetric information, and he can never think of the whole layout of victor. Victor has nothing to worry about this early partner.

Anyway, things are moving in a good direction.

Among the mountain people, there are many young people eager to get out of the mountain. They will expand the scale of the mercenary corps and become a potential military force of the Randall family.

With the fire element crystal, Victor can build a large furnace near the ore vein to improve smelting efficiency and significantly improve the production efficiency of giant brick kilns. With the camel antelope, the transportation capacity in the mountainous area will be greatly enhanced, and at least 400 alchemy militia can be liberated.

After solving the manpower problem, Victor's Mercury and smuggler group will enter a period of rapid development. It can be said that the fire element crystal and camel antelope revitalized the development situation of the smuggler group.

At present, the administrative system of Randall family is becoming more and more perfect. Lilia has more than 100 managers, 300 deacons and 171 little attendants around victor. After another two years, they will become the backbone of Randall family.

In terms of military affairs, Randall has 300 family guards, 600 mercenaries, and the fast bird light cavalry has been expanded to 80. Each elite cavalry is equipped with new armor. As for the mercenary regiment outside the territory and the bear regiment established by Barrett, it is impossible to count at present, but the total scale will not be less than 1200.

In terms of finance, the annual income of crude sugar trade alone will not be less than 60000 gold sols, and the sales of carriage, oil canvas and hemostatic pork are becoming increasingly popular. It is estimated that Randall's total income this year will exceed 80000 gold sols. With the growth of smugglers, the trade of snow sugar, coffee and preserves can also be prospected.

In addition, the total value of Victor's mountain resources, including leather, oil wood, medicinal materials and iron materials, refined iron, silver ingots, refined gold, silver and Mithril, exceeds one million gold sols.

The development of the Everglades is progressing steadily. Imosen currently controls more than 300 goblins. These green dwarfs have strong reproductive ability and can exceed 1000 in less than two years. The larger the goblin clan, the more swamp resources will be collected.

However, the Randall led education and scientific research system is still at a standstill, mainly because the Randall family has too little background, and family scholars can not be trained overnight. Victor plans to recruit some poor noble children to help Elena train family attendants during the Legion competition held by the York family. On the other hand, he plans to attract some talented people to complete the papermaking task by offering a reward. Before that, Randall's people had to wipe their hips with leaves and wood chips.

Hundreds of thousands of people wipe their hips with leaves... Papermaking is really urgent!

Everything is on the right track. Now we have to consider the problem of winning people's hearts. Randall family festivals and military parades should be put on the agenda. Victor thought to himself.

At this time, a little attendant came riding a fast bird. When he saw Victor, he jumped off the saddle and saluted: "Sir, Mrs. Elena, please go back to the silver moon manor immediately... Mrs. Sylvia is coming."

"Well, where's Mrs. Sylvia's car?" Asked Victor, frowning.

"Mrs. Sylvia didn't take a bus. She rode over with some squires and has been waiting for you at the silver moon manor."

Victor's heart sank. The York family has only recently dealt with the flesh and blood of the alienated beast. Sylvia has left Randall for less than a month, that is to say, she hurried back to Jinshui within a few days. This shows that there must be major changes in the Renma hills, and it is related to the Randall family!

"Let's go!"

Ignoring the greeting with Maureen, Victor jumped on the fast bird and rushed to the silver moon manor under the escort of a team of fast bird light cavalry.

Two hours later, as soon as victor returned to the silver moon manor, he saw Elena in a long dress standing at the door.

"Where's madam?" Victor jumped off the fast bird. A servant took the reins and led the fast bird to the corral.

Elena took off Victor's cloak and said softly, "madam is waiting for you in the bedroom."

"Bedroom... Waiting for me in the bedroom must be bad!" Victor murmured up the stairs and walked to the bedroom.

After a few knocks on the door, Victor pushed the door in. Sylvia was standing in front of the bedroom window, smiling at him. Her pure blond hair was tied into a ponytail, hanging behind her casually, stepping on calf leather high heels, wearing a lake green dress, the skirt fluttered, revealing a section of Yingrun and beautiful lower legs. Only this touch of snow-white showed her tantalizing charm.

"Does it look good?" Sylvia made a light turn, lifted her train, bent her knees and saluted, and her blue eyes were full of smiles.

Dress with high heels has only recently become popular among celebrities. Victor saw Sylvia's dress for the first time. At the moment, she is different from the mature and beautiful in the past, but more beautiful.

I don't know since when, Sylvia's temperament has gradually changed from elegant and noble to charming and moving. Standing with Victor is not abrupt, just like a pair of beautiful people. Victor had to admit that such Sylvia made him feel more cordial and fascinated him.

"It's beautiful." Victor praised sincerely and asked, "honey, is something wrong?"

"Miss you... Do you miss me?" Sylvia put her hands around Victor's neck and asked in a flattering voice.

Do you want to? Dare not?

"No! Because I meet you every day in my dream."

Victor held his slender waist and said the worst love words. His embarrassed appearance made Sylvia laugh, but she would not let her lover go.

"I'm here now. Don't you kiss me?"

The crystal red lips are close at hand, and the sweet smell lingers on the tip of the nose. At this time, the big trouble is not as important as the beauty in your arms.