Chapter 125 Current Situation

Wu Feitu left, and the days passed day by day, and in the blink of an eye it was more than twenty days later.

These days, Simon is living a very peaceful life. In addition to doing routine exercises every day, he spends time with Winnieth and Kailin.

Sometimes I would play with the Yingwei slave girls, and occasionally visit Bara.

Since he has no relationship with this nominal mother, it is inevitable that he will be ignored a lot of the time.

There are no external threats, and the territory is developing extremely quickly.

After Yaman took over hundreds of kobold slaves, the construction progress accelerated.

At this time, the rammed earth wall has almost been built, and people are arranging to transport stones to the site of Fort Yongyi.

The small market outside Spark Castle is also becoming more and more prosperous. Although it is not comparable to that in the mainland, it is somewhat popular.

Many freedmen who moved from the mainland arrived in Yongyi Territory in a steady stream, and Ma De was responsible for gathering them and selecting sites to build villages.

Now the total population of free people has exceeded 2,000 and is divided into more than a dozen villages. In two years, they will be able to provide a meager tax revenue.

Simon's financial resources in a short period of time mainly rely on the natural resources in the territory and the output of the fifteen slave estates.

In recent days, he finally saw some money, and sold a lot of high-quality wood to passing caravans, making a small profit.

Although the overall expenditure is still far greater than the income, there is always hope.

In addition, Simon has been purchasing grain, salt and iron ingots, and sometimes also buys finished weapons and armor.

Nowadays, iron ore has not been found in his territory, so iron ingots have become a scarce resource and must be obtained through outsourcing.

Salt has gained some visibility, and slaves who know how to prospect for minerals have discovered salt brine ponds in the hilly areas of the northwest.

Although the pond is not big, it can be regarded as a way to obtain salt without having to rely entirely on foreign caravans.

Simon attaches great importance to this salt brine pond. He once visited it in person. The surface of the pond is only seven or eight square meters, but it extends downward very deep.

If a salt well can be built based on this, it will also be a money tree.

However, none of the slaves Simon bought knew how to mine well salt, and now he feels a little helpless.

Although he has some ideas in his mind, there is still a long way to go from theory to practice.

There is no need to rush to build salt wells now, because the salt provided by the light brine pool is enough, but it is not enough to sell it.

The first thing Simon has to deal with now is to go to Changxiang collar to meet with His Highness Feddy Bavarik and attend the first meeting of the nobles of the West Cedi royal territory.

The three-month deadline is almost up.

On this day, Simon got up early and felt that the temperature in the air had dropped a lot. He couldn't help but go to the window and look outside.

Just listen to the howling of the cold wind, and I don't know when it started, and sparse snowflakes floated between the sky and the earth.

"It's winter."

Simon sighed, then found a thick coat made of wool and put it on.

West Cedi has four distinct seasons, so he had prepared supplies to survive the winter.

There are tens of thousands of kilograms of carbon burned from wood alone in the warehouse.

In addition, a large number of thick cloth linings made of wool and linen worn by soldiers and multi-layered linen clothes worn by slaves were also prepared.

As long as you don't encounter extreme weather for a long time, you shouldn't be able to freeze to death.

Because even the wooden houses in the slave manor have a small closet where you can light firewood for heating.

At present, firewood is almost inexhaustible.

Simon went to exercise for a while, then went to the Lord's Hall and sat down at the main seat to wait for breakfast.

It didn't take long for sumptuous food to be served.

There was roast venison and fish, plus a two-pound loaf of white bread and a glass of milk.

Simon finished eating with gusto, and after the maids cleared the table, he whispered: "Go and call Mad and Sarit."

"Yes!" Mai Lan, who was standing by, responded.

After a while, the two men followed him to the Lord's Hall.

"Good day, Lord Baron!"

The two of them saluted respectfully almost simultaneously.

"It's almost time. It's time to rush to Changxiang Ling to meet His Highness Feddy Bavarik. We will set off in two days, accompanied by a patrol.

Get ready. Simon ordered.

"Yes!" The two responded solemnly.

"Made stay here for a moment," he said immediately.

"My subordinates, please retire." Upon hearing this, Sarit bowed respectfully and exited the lord's hall.

"Have any freedmen arrived lately?" Simon asked.

“There are still some, but the weather is getting colder and there are obviously fewer people coming.

In the past twenty days, only more than a hundred people have settled in Yongyi Territory, all of whom came from Xi Gedi in a group. "

Mader replied with a smile.

Simon nodded and did not dwell on the matter. Attracting immigrants cannot be achieved overnight. It is a long and slow process.

"How much food reserves are there now?" he asked again.

"Sir, there are plenty of them. There are rye... barley...

It is enough to feed everyone in the territory for more than three years. The granary designed by Yaman is also very clever and is extremely suitable for storage.

And the ten cats also made great contributions. There are very few mice in the castle, and they haven't been seen for many days. "

"What about meat? How many livestock do you raise?" Simon nodded with satisfaction and continued to ask.

"There are currently seven sheep pens built outside Spark Castle, with 307 sheep and 123 goats...

Five pig pens, 35 big pigs, 159 small pigs... and the chicken coop..."

Mad is really a qualified government steward. He knows everything about the territory, probably better than Simon, the lord.

"How about this, you find someone to study how to castrate wild boars. Uncastrated pigs are too unpalatable and grow slowly.

If you do this well, I will make you an honorary knight." Simon thought for a moment and said casually.

Pigs reproduce quickly and are relatively easy to feed. They can grow fat by eating grass and produce a lot of meat.

So if you master the castration technology and improve the taste of wild boars, it will be of great help to increase the per capita meat consumption in the territory.

"Yes! My lord! I will complete this task!" Mad was shocked and immediately promised.

"Well, by the way, have the catapults and siege crossbows made by Wall been verified? How powerful are they? "

Simon suddenly remembered something and asked.

"Reporting to the Baron, we have tested them all and they are quite powerful. Knight Aman said they all meet the standards." Mad responded immediately.

"Oh, that's not bad."

Simon nodded. Knight Wall led people to make six small catapults and three siege crossbows, which were actually scorpion crossbows. It took a long time.

Especially, the bowstring of the siege crossbow took a lot of effort. It was made of tanned beef tendons and the cost was not low.

After that, Simon asked some interesting questions, such as how much stone can the quarry produce in a day?

How much wood is cut down in the forest in the west every day? And other things in this regard.

"Okay, go and prepare for the trip in two days.

Food and warmth must be prepared. The guards and patrols will follow me, and the other troops will stay in Spark Castle. "Simon nodded and waved.

"Yes, sir, don't worry." Mad bowed respectfully and left to do business.