Chapter 455 City Building Step 2

In order to appease the uneasy mood of the nobles, Roland specially arranged a sumptuous banquet.

There was a long table covered with white cloth in the center of the hall. The nobles who came sat facing each other, and in the middle were various dishes, wine and flowers.

After two glasses of red wine, the atmosphere relaxed a lot. In addition, all the big nobles have fallen. Honeysuckle and Elk are on Roland's side again. The remaining small nobles will not jump out to sing the opposite at this time, but they will show it in their conversations. Show the intention to actively seek refuge. In this situation, Roland knew it was time to put his new order on the table.

After he was full of wine and food, he distributed the small notebooks he had prepared in advance to the nobles.

It was a "promotional album" he carefully prepared.

"Your Highness... what is this?" Sure enough, a noble soon asked in surprise, "Why are the paintings above so realistic?"

"Yes, it's just like the real thing."

"It doesn't look like it was painted... No paint can express such a delicate color."

Fortunately, they are nobles in big cities. It can be seen that these people have a certain appreciation of paintings. Roland put his hands on his hands and smiled and said, "They were indeed painted by painters, but if there is any difference, it is this." The famous painter is a witch, and the paint she paints with is omnipresent magic."

These words made everyone stiffen. It was neither possible to put down the notebook in their hands nor not to put it down.

"The local church power has disappeared. What are you worried about?" The prince raised his eyebrows. "Witches are no different from us. I have verified this many times."

"Cough...cough," Peiro almost choked, "Your Highness is right."

"It's no wonder he's the fourth prince, haha...ha," other nobles also laughed awkwardly.

Well, it seemed that he had said something rather ambiguous. Roland pretended to be nonchalant and changed the topic - after being the prince for more than a year, he found that his level of calmness... or that the thickness of his face had increased by leaps and bounds, "The picture is just To make the content more vivid, the story described above is the focus.”

Everyone continued to flip through a few pages, and Aurelion, the little girl from the Elk family, quickly raised her head, "Is this the family history of a noble?"

"Aurelion!" Ren reminded in a low voice, "Call His Highness!"

"Yes, he was once a Western nobleman," Roland made a harmless gesture, "Some of you should still remember him."

"Your Highness... I know him," a knight said, "Tigur Payne, he is my neighbor, and our two territories were once adjacent to each other."

"I have also seen him," another person recalled. "It seems that he is still a baron, and his father is a vassal of Joey Cole. Since Lord Joey left the Western Region, his territory has declined."

"Viscount Tigu is currently in Border Town," Roland said with a smile, "and this picture album records how I met him... and what happened later. As you can see, he is a person who lives under the new system. The nobleman is currently busy practicing musketry. It is estimated that after the evil month is over, he will take his daughter and attendants to the Hidden Forest to enjoy the hunting pleasure. As far as I know, since he sold the east of the fortress After An Xin settled in Border Town, his title was promoted to one level, and his family property has increased several times."

Fear stems from the unknown, as does resistance to institutional change because they don’t know what impact the change will have on them. Roland asked Soraya to depict Tigu Pine's small town life in the form of comics as an example for his own propaganda, precisely to reduce the resistance and fear of the nobles. Compared with those boring written biographies, comics are obviously more vivid and expressive.

"You should all know the news that I am about to build a city in the Western Territory. In fact, I have been brewing this plan for a long time. By then, Border Town, Changge Fortress and the narrow strip of land between the two places will be integrated into one." Roland continued, " Some people may ask how it is possible for two towns to be connected as one if they are far apart. First of all, the meaning of the whole refers to the administrative aspect, that is to say, the new city will implement the same laws and policies. This is what I want to take back. The reason for the enfeoffment and legal power of the nobility."

"Your Highness, what about our territory..." someone asked.

"It still belongs to you," he interrupted, "I said that taking back these powers does not mean that you will lose anything - the essence of enfeoffment is to hand over your territory to others to form your own lower-level nobles. In this way, Ways to strengthen your own strength, defend against enemies together, or work together to gain benefits. Under the new system, the task of resisting foreign enemies will be completed by a professional army. As long as you act according to the rules, the benefits you will earn will be far greater than before. After all, it’s better to make the cake bigger than to divide it a little bit.”

Seeing everyone's silence, Roland smiled and said, "You have never been to Border Town, so it's normal for you not to know how big the cake can be. In fact, the town's fiscal revenue in the second half of the year reached as much as 30,000 gold dragons. If not The Demonic Moon has arrived early, and this number is likely to increase by about 10,000 more."

The nobles all took a deep breath, "Thirty...thirty thousand?"

Roland had already learned about the financial situation of the fortress over the years from Pero. The annual income of the city hall was only this amount, let alone these small nobles. One hundred golden dragons was a huge sum of money for them.

"And as managers of all walks of life here in the future, you will naturally get rich rewards from it." He raised his lips, "Back to the matter of city construction, in addition to administrative unification, geographically, the two towns will also gradually Get closer. For example, it only took me one day to arrive at Changge Fortress from Border Town. When the Kingdom Avenue is completed, the land walking time will be shortened to one day. If you ride a horse or ride a bicycle, it only takes half a day to arrive, and even more Forget about faster transport.”

"What is a bicycle?" Aurelion asked curiously.

"A human-powered riding tool that can run very fast on flat ground," the prince said with a smile, "I dare say that within five years... no, within three years, we will be able to have breakfast in the fortress and then go to work in the border town. "Because the Kingdom Avenue adopts a straight line, the distance between the two places has been shortened to 60 kilometers. If replaced by a railcar or car, it only takes half an hour.

However, most of the nobles did not put their minds on this. The knight who claimed to be a neighbor to Tigu Payne asked cautiously, "Your Highness, what you just said, do you mean to hand over the fortress to us?" Management?”

"Yes and no," Roland smiled slightly, "As I said before, after the city is built, the two places will be a whole in an administrative sense, and the fortress will be transformed into an area of ​​the city, under the jurisdiction of the central city hall. But for now Said, a day's journey is still too far, so I will set up a lower-level city hall in Changge District, which will be divided into many lower-level departments according to the current model of Border Town, and you will work in these departments and be responsible for handling the affairs here. Specific issues."

"Lower...department?" The nobles had confused looks on their faces.

"Managing an area is a very complicated job. Although it can bring you generous returns, it is not that easy to do your job well," Roland nodded, "So when order here is restored, , you all have to follow me to Border Town to experience first-hand how a fully functional city hall operates. You also need to learn one more course about management." (To be continued.)