Chapter 12： 12: Six months later

Once this set of measures came out, in the small town of Merlot, as long as they were not too lazy to be hopeless, they would never be starved to death.

Although Aslan lowered the land tax to a minimum, it spurred people's enthusiasm for farming.

The registered land in the entire Meruo town is more than 15 acres. After a rough calculation, when the next grain is harvested, you can receive at least 690,000 catties of grain in a year, plus the head tax. The small town of Merlot can receive 840,000 catties of grain in one year.

In the past, the annual tax revenue of the small town of Merlot has never exceeded 80,000 jin.

Aslan took over the small town of Merlot in just half a month, that was a tenfold increase.

Will Xin and Essien's gazes at Aslan also became respectful.

After all, those lords are serious nobles, and their five fingers do not touch the sun. They only know that farmers are allowed to collect taxes on land, but they don’t know how to adapt measures to local conditions and grow food in accordance with the kingdom’s traditional traditions. Naturally, the yield will not increase.

The next day, Aslan also asked people to post a notice.

Living in the Merlot area, if you really can’t live, you can come to Merlot and work in the lord’s private farm. You can get three thousand catties of grain every year. As long as you stay in Merlot for a full year, there will be Merlot. The residents of the small town can become a glorious member of the small town of Merlot.

As soon as this notice came out, many families hiding in the mountains and old forests tentatively sent representatives into the lord's farm in Aslan.

Many civilians hiding in the deep mountains and old forests cannot survive in the cities, and cannot afford the poll tax. They can only hide themselves as black households. If possible, who wants to be black households and live the lives of savages in the mountains.

The entire town of Merlot has entered a stage of rapid development.

Time flies, half a year has passed.

The small town of Melo has grown to a population of more than two thousand, and has become a veritable big town in the Melo area, including the village of Wood Village. The original site of Wood Village was used as a resettlement site for refugees.

The reason for Aslan’s arrangement is that soon next year’s summer, the nine great lords of the kingdom united in a rebellion and dragged the entire kingdom into the flames of war. The Merlot region, a remote mountainous area in a peaceful area, became a refuge during the war. The last piece of paradise in the flames of war.

In the previous life, Aslan used this war to develop the small town of Merlot, but this time, Aslan not only wants to develop, but also integrates the entire Merlot area in one go.

At the former site of Wood Village, Aslan led a small team of swordsmen into it and began to point.

"Here and there, all have to be equipped with arrow towers..." Aslan plans to convert the entire Wood Village into a military fortress, with the town of Merlot connecting into horns.

Gut, as the future leader of the Wood Fortress, accepted Aslan's orders very respectfully and humbly.

Half a year was enough time for Aslan to determine absolute authority in the small town of Merlot.

In the small town of Meruo with a population of more than 2,000, the town guard has more than three hundred and twenty people, and it is the veritable number one force in the small town of Meruo within a radius of tens of miles.

According to his memory, the army training in this world is still very old. It is just a few simple weapon battles. Once a war breaks out, the two sides will rely on the number of formations to rush and slash each other.

There are no tactics at all. During the war, except for the kingdom's regular army, which looked a little bit like, the other lords mostly recruited some farmers casually and sent them to the battlefield after training.

What Aslan wants to train is a powerful army. He knows very well that a disciplined army, an army with orders and prohibitions, is what he really wants, so he plans to use his previous military training methods. Use it.

"One more thing, you will issue a recruitment order tomorrow. All young men between the ages of 18 and 40 can sign up for our newly formed Merlot Army. They can get five silver coins in January. Provide three meals a day! The number of troops is temporarily set at around 100!" Aslan said.

Will Xin exclaimed: "Lord Lord, is it too much for five silver coins a month? Generally, it is enough to recruit soldiers at most two or three silver coins, and they also provide three meals a day!"

Aslan said: "The fighters I want to train are real fighters, not militias like the town guard. They are not required to be able to fight one enemy ten each, but they must obey military orders and have absolute loyalty. And these We must at least provide them with a remuneration that is safe enough for them to fight for us."

Wilshin said, "Then everything is up to you."

Gut next to him was full of enthusiasm.

Now the entire army of Merlot is divided into three echelons. The direct line of troops is Aslan’s lord guard. There are not many people, only twenty people, but the worst of these twenty people are also junior knights, three intermediate knights, one A senior knight.

After stabilizing, Aslan imparted a set of top-level vindictive training methods in his previous life to everyone in the lord guard. Arthur also used this to break through the senior knights, Lancelot also reached the intermediate knights, and the other two intermediate knights were also at the beginning. The knight who came with Aslan. The remaining junior knights were promoted by Arthur personally and were absolutely loyal to Aslan.

The second tier of the army is the Merlot army to be established. Professional soldiers will have no other tasks except for training and warfare. They will be the main force in the future War of Merlot.

The third echelon is the town guard. Most of them have poor talents or are too old. Most of them are engineers equivalent to the army, with a little less training, but they have to work.

The only thing that made Aslan feel a headache was the serious shortage of iron ore in the city. Now he just barely changed the entire Knight Guard. As for the town guard, the weapons in his hand were uneven and messy and very ugly, not to mention the armor.

The environment and land in the Merlot area are poor. The main reason is that there are rich mineral deposits under the ground. However, Aslan now dares not to mine. The reason is very simple. The wealth is not revealed, and the Kingdom of Cleveland controls the entire country's salt and iron trade. Nationalization of business, no matter how old aristocratic lords are, if they are discovered to mine salt and iron privately, it is a capital crime.

In his previous life, Aslan didn't dare to secretly mine iron ore, as for salt, until he had enough strength to monitor the entire Merlot area.

"It seems that I have to wait for the annual tax next month, and go to Billy City to see if I can buy a batch of salt iron back." Aslan looked at the hot wood fortress, subconsciously muttered.

As if hearing Aslan’s words, Wilshin hurriedly said in a low voice: "Lord, if you want to go there in person this time, please bring your subordinates. Subordinates and relatives are doing business in Billy City. , Maybe it can solve a lot of problems for Lord Lord."