Chapter 55 A Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity
Roland pushed open the office door, and Barov had been waiting in the room for a long time.
He threw the paperwork to the ministerial assistant, and lay down on the armchair, with his feet on the desk.
If there were no outsiders present, he really wanted to hum a ditty.
"Your Highness, please be sorry." Barov quickly finished reading the document and said with a frown. "The king passed away unfortunately, and the murderer was the eldest prince. This is really a tragedy. I don't know what your Highness is going to do next."
"Gron's death is too strange, I want to see the decision of the third sister and the fifth sister before making a plan," Roland said, "but in any case, there are some things we should take precautions against."
Barov looked at the prince, waiting for his next words.
"The king's capital may become turbulent because of this change of kingship. The first thing to do is to take your relatives and family members away." Of course, the more important thing is to prevent the second prince from using these people to threaten his own family. Minister, as far as the current situation is concerned, if you want to maintain the normal operation of Border Town's administration and finances, the minister's assistant is indispensable. Roland took a sip of tea and continued, "You and Carter, as well as your subordinates, have written a letter from home. I will entrust my personal guards to take them to the capital and arrange them to take refuge in other towns."
"Don't come to Border Town?" Barov was no fool, his twenty years of experience in the political arena made him immediately understand the deep meaning of the prince.
"No need." Roland didn't want the other party to threaten his subordinates with family members, nor did he want his subordinates to think that he was threatening them with family members, so he chose a compromise method, first relocating to other safer towns, and then waiting in Border Town. Stand firm, and then migrate over.
"I see, thank you for your concern, Your Highness," the assistant minister nodded in agreement, which made Roland heave a sigh of relief. In the final analysis, there are too few talents available for his subordinates.
"The other thing is about the ore trade. Recently, the export of iron ore has been suspended, and only rough gemstones are sold to Liuye Town," he ordered. "I need to keep these iron ores for my own use."
"This will reduce revenue, Your Highness."
“But it’s not going down much, and miners have found a new gemstone deposit that can make up some of the shortfall,” Rowland said. Moreover, there was not much business in winter, and no one was willing to go out for business in the days when evil beasts could appear at any time. There might only be two or three rounds of transactions in the long four months. For light dhows, transporting rough gemstones is obviously a more cost-effective option.
"I understand," Barov recorded these.
After the minister's assistant left, Roland called Carter Lannis again, "I need to expand the size of the militia team. After the recruitment is issued, you can arrange it, and transfer a few quick-response and capable players to the new team as captains. The training will follow the method implemented last time."
"Your Highness, if you still follow the training method last time, it may take a long time for the new team to come in handy."
"That's better than a mob," Roland waved him to do as he said. Although the team trained in this way is far from being called an army, I am afraid that it is the level of college students who have completed military training, but sometimes the combat effectiveness must be compared with the opponent. Apart from the evil beasts with no brains, the most likely opponent he will encounter is a group of "mixed troops" improvised by private soldiers, mercenaries, and serfs. As long as they are equipped with cross-epoch weapons, college students can almost handle it .
After Carter left, Roland couldn't help laughing.
He didn't expect such a coincidence to happen! It's like sending charcoal in the middle of the snow, and handing a pillow when you doze off.
Is this bad news for me? Is it a dilemma? Big mistake! He didn't know much about Garcia Wimbledon, but she was by no means the kind of person who would be bullied. The eldest prince was sentenced to death in such a short period of time, even if there was no inside story, she probably would not return to the capital easily.
He just has to follow suit. As long as they stay in Border Town, someone will inevitably jump out—and the Duke of Fortress is likely to be the first person who can't sit still. Otherwise, he wouldn't have sent the recall document to himself in such a hurry in this damn weather.
His Excellency the Duke hoped that he would see it one day earlier, and that he would have trouble sleeping and eating one day earlier.
If he chose to stay in Border Town, it would be equivalent to disobeying the new king's will. When the month of demons passes, His Excellency the Duke will fly the banner of Timothy Wimbledon in all likelihood, and teach himself a profound lesson. And this is exactly what Roland needs.
If you ask what is most lacking in industrialization, the answer is undoubtedly people.
It requires a large number of people to invest in this large-scale production, turning people into individual parts to drive this huge machine. It is no exaggeration to say that it was the enclosure movement of "sheep cannibalism" in Britain, which drove a large number of farmers off the land and made them free laborers, which laid a solid foundation for the subsequent industrial revolution.
The industrial age is so brutal, as long as you keep putting educated workers into this melting pot, you can get rich returns. The finer the industrial classification, the more the required population will be multiplied.
What Roland has been troubled with is the population problem.
There are a total of more than 2,000 residents in Bianbian Town. Even if there are new-age machines, they are just workshop-style production. Without a large population available, many projects cannot be launched. But where did he come from to deceive so many people?
Buy slaves? Not to mention where you can buy thousands of slaves at one time, adult slaves are expensive, and there is no sense of training them. The training cycle for young slaves under the age of ten is too long, even if they hire child labor out of conscience, it will take several years.
Recruitment? How many people can be attracted to such a frontier place? And the cost will only be greater than buying slaves.
Encourage more births? Forced marriage? forget it……
It wasn't that he didn't set his sights on Longsong Fortress, but the kingdom was in a stable state, and he was simply joking about his future by attacking the surrounding lords. And the Duke of Lane also didn't dare to target himself openly, so he could only stumble secretly.
But it was different now. After Timothy took the throne, he desperately hoped that all his competitors would disappear. From this recall order, we can see his eagerness. The Duke of Lane can obviously see this too. Once he loses the restraint of the old king, as the ruler of the Western Territory, it would be strange for him not to do anything.
This is the opportunity Roland has been waiting for for a long time.
As the border of the Kingdom, Longsong Fortress has been operating for a hundred years and has nearly ten thousand permanent residents. After the fortress, there are large tracts of land and defenseless towns. As long as he defeats the Duke of Fortress and takes the city, he can get a large number of free people and complete the primitive accumulation of wealth at the same time.
And what is easier to gain population than annexation? What else can accumulate wealth faster than plunder?
This news was like a beacon that dispelled the fog, illuminating Roland's direction.
He will never let go of such a golden opportunity.
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