Sword and Sorcery and Martial Arts

Chapter 466 Development (4000 words)
"What happened? Why did you put a layer of cement on the outside of my castle and then leave it alone? The cement on it is dry now." Rhodes said to Baron who came to greet him.

"We want to strengthen your castle. This castle has been built for so long. If you don't try to strengthen it, it will collapse sooner or later. Although it looks a little ugly, it is indeed much stronger." Baron said with some embarrassment smiled.

He pointed at Michel next to Rhodes, and asked with a smile, "Is this the captive you brought back? You have a good eye, and it's quite appropriate to bring it back to you as Mrs. Yazhai."

"What Mrs. Yazhai, we are not bandits, and don't you know who she is?" Rhodes asked.

"Of course I remember who she is, I was just joking with you, why are you so serious?" Baron waved his hand: "But then again, why did she come with you?"

"I'll explain it to you slowly when I go back and sit down." Rhodes turned his head and saw that Missel's face was very red next to him.

Baron nodded, rode his horse and rode towards the castle with Rhodes and the others.

"Hasn't anything happened in this period of time?" Rhodes asked.

"It's nothing important, just a few days ago a group of robbers attacked one of our merchant ships that had just left the dock, but they were all arrested soon, and today they have almost started mining in the Rocky Mountains." Ba Long replied.

"How is the training of the soldiers?" Rhodes asked again.

"It feels almost the same. It should be no worse than the soldiers under other noble lords, but they haven't seen blood yet, and there is no chance for them to see blood." Baron replied.

"I've heard about what happened in the south, although I don't know why you suddenly chose to stop fighting when the fight was so fierce, but it's also a good thing.

Are we retiring some of the soldiers we're training now, or what?After five years, many of them must be too old to fight. ' he said again.

"Let all those over 35 retire from the army, and then recruit some young soldiers after the spring planting is over next year. We will use them in the future." Rhodes replied immediately, he had already thought about these on the way.

"Talk about this to others. I'm going to take advantage of this time to visit the holy mountain of Nord. You should remember that I mentioned this to you last year." Baron said.

"What about the cat in the castle?" Rhodes asked.

"I can take it with me," Balon replied.

……

Not long after, Rhodes and his party returned to the castle.

"I didn't expect it to look so ugly on the outside, but the decoration on the inside is pretty good." Michelle commented after entering the castle.

"Because I designed the inside, and they painted a layer of cement on the outside wall while I was away, and didn't install tiles or marble." Rhodes said angrily.

"It just so happens that you can rebuild a castle. Our current warehouse is almost out of money." Baron scratched his head in embarrassment.

Rhodes shook his head: "Forget it, just find someone to rebuild the outer wall of the castle tomorrow. The development of the territory still needs the money. I'm still planning to build the railway. I don't know if we have enough money now."

"Railway? Are you too extravagant? I think the current concrete floor is strong enough, at least hundreds of years ahead of ours. You still want to use iron to pave the road?" Michelle said with a face full of surprise .

"The railway is not a road paved with iron." Rhode felt a little wanting to laugh when he heard it, but he still explained patiently: "The railway is a road paved with rails. Vehicles will travel much faster on such rails."

Before Rhodes left, there was a bachelor who was studying the core of magic power with the chief bachelor, and he ran over from the Rocky Mountains to find him.

The bachelor said that he was very interested in the trains written in the physics book written by Rhodes and was going to study in this area, so he came to Rhodes to learn about trains.

Rhodes remembered that when he seemed to be explaining centripetal force, he used the unevenness of the train's rails when turning as an example, and wrote a high school physics problem about train rails as a thinking question at the back.

After so long, this bachelor should at least have researched the rails.

Even if there is no locomotive, building some rails first will speed up land transportation.

Rhodes remembered that before the locomotive was invented, some countries had already built a lot of railway tracks. At that time, heavy horses were used to pull goods, and the speed and efficiency were much faster than on ordinary roads.

With the railway, the trade between the Rhodes and Nord Kingdom and the Roman Empire can save a lot of costs.

"It's still too extravagant. If the steel output in your territory is high, you can sell it to other nobles. I think many nobles in your Nord Kingdom don't even have enough steel to equip their soldiers." Michelle heard Rhodes' words. After explaining, he said.

"Then what? I earned a lot of gold coins? But now I have too many gold coins, and I can't even pile them up in the warehouse. Should I build a few more warehouses to pile up gold coins?" Rhodes shook his head:
"It's better to let me use this money to make some more money. My territory is still constantly building new factories, and the speed of producing goods must be faster than I can ship these goods out.

And if the railway is built, it won't take long for me to earn back the money for the construction of the railway. You should know that it takes less than one day for the caravan to reach the destination, which can save a lot of money, from hired mercenaries to feed for horses .

It may only take a year, and the money I save has paid off for the railroad, and I have one more railroad on my estate. "

After hearing this, Michel froze in place, and after a while she said, "Can I write down what you just said? I think I can go back and study it for my father."

"Actually, a book can be published." Rhodes smiled. What he said might be thought of by any high school student who has played some business simulation games.

He played Roller Coaster Star for a long time during his university summer vacation. This is a game for building amusement parks. There is also a loan function in the game. If players choose to borrow money to build popular projects such as roller coasters.

As long as the ticket price is reasonable, the loan and interest can be paid off in a short time, and there is an extra roller coaster in the park, and the park's score will be much higher because of the roller coaster, which can attract more tourists. Indirectly drove other projects and restaurants, which is another big income.

This is much faster than doing nothing and waiting for some less exciting cheap projects to slowly make money.

If you just wait for the money earned from the merry-go-round to build a roller coaster, the players who may choose to borrow money to build a roller coaster not only paid off all the loans and interest, but also built several roller coasters, canyon rafting and other projects, tourists who come to the park Also doubled.

Rhodes' construction of railways in his own territory has the same effect. In addition to saving a lot of transportation costs for his own caravans and ICBC, he can also attract more caravans to do business by opening the railways to other merchants. His territory gradually became the commercial center of the entire continent.

Moreover, other businessmen must pay for using the railway, which also speeds up the process of his cost recovery.

Rhodes can imagine the merchants in the surrounding cities in the future, such as the merchants of Winterfell Fortress, who will pull the goods to his territory by railway and sell them to the merchants of Fish Kingdom who come by water by boat, and then the merchants of Winterfell Fortress will buy goods from other merchants. Buy some goods in your hand and return to Winterfell Stronghold.

Even if Rhodes didn't do anything, he could still make a lot of money. The merchants from the Fish Kingdom who came by boat needed to spend money to dock the boat at the pier in his territory, and also hired the residents in his territory to unload the goods.

It will take a few days to discuss business, and food, drink, housing and transportation will still be in his territory. The tavern and hotel will make a fortune, and the food in the territory will not have to be dragged to other places for sale, which will help him save on transportation. The cost of the goods.

Rhodes planned to start planning the railway route in the territory in the study tonight.

……

"Aren't you going back to sleep? It's getting late now." Rhodes said while sitting on a chair in the study, looking at Michel sitting beside him.

"I'm not sleepy yet." Michelle shook his head.

In fact, it's only eight or nine o'clock now. In this world without electricity, most people usually fall asleep at this time.

"Okay then." Rhodes took a ruler and a pencil to write and draw on a map in front of him, and he was planning.

The original small town by the river has developed into a city, because there is no other city on the Riverview Plain, so everyone unanimously called this city Riverview City, which is the economic center of Rhodes' territory. Center, he intends to primarily develop the city.

"What kind of pen do you use? It feels very convenient, and you can erase it if you make a mistake." Misel said.

"Pencil." Rhodes replied: "Although it is called a pencil, it has nothing to do with lead. The refill is made of graphite."

The production of pencils is very simple. The one in his hand was made by using a mage ball when he was bored. Just stuff graphite into a hollow wooden stick.

Although pencils have nothing to do with lead, but Rhodes remembered that when he was a child, he seemed to see a lot of news about someone biting a pencil and causing lead poisoning...

"The line you drew on the map is the location where you plan to build the railway?" Michel asked again.

"Yes." Rhodes replied. Fortunately, his territory is basically a plain area, without alpine basins or the like, otherwise he would have to go to the field to investigate the environment.

At this moment, there was a knock on the study door.

"Come in!" Rhodes said loudly.

Lorraine pushed open the door of the study and walked in, holding a dinner plate in her hand.

"Supper is ready, my lord." Lorraine said with a smile.

"Did I ask you to make supper for me?" Rhodes asked with some doubts.

"My lord, you are not in the castle these days, you are hungry and thin, you should eat more." Lorraine put the dinner plate on the empty seat on the desk in front of Rhodes and smiled.

"Thank you." Rhode looked at the food on the dinner plate. It was almost as rich as dinner, and there were actually his third favorite barbecue, fourth favorite fried chicken, and Messai My favorite cake.

"Sit down and eat together, you've done so much, I feel like calling Baron and the others up to eat together is enough." He raised his head and said to Lorraine.

"Then I won't be polite." Lorraine smiled, took a chair from the side, and sat down.

At first, no matter how much Rhodes persuaded her to sit down and eat together, she would refuse, saying that her status was too low.

But before Rhodes entered that world, she was willing to sit at the same table with Rhodes to eat.

Rhodes felt that his hands were a little dirty, full of black marks left by pencils. He stood up and went to the bathroom in the study to wash his hands, and then sat back down.

"Did you use some kind of magic device just now? Why does water come out of that iron piece when you lift it?" Michelle asked.

"This is called a faucet, and it has nothing to do with magic. Don't you wash your hands before eating dinner?" Lorraine explained for Rhodes.

Michelle smiled awkwardly, "I can use divine magic to clean it."

"Go and wash your hands. The water used in the castle has been purified many times and can be drunk directly. It's just that I can teach you how to use these things." Rhodes said.

"Okay." Michelle smiled and walked into the bathroom.

Lorraine curled her lips in displeasure when she saw it. The purpose of her supper for Rhodes tonight was because of Michelle.

She felt that if she was still the same as before, it might not be long before she would be forgotten by Rhodes.

"Pull this up and water will come out. The faucets outside the castle are different from this one, they are twisted." Rhode walked to the toilet again, pointed to the button on the water tank and said, "After using the toilet, press the button." Press the button and water will come out and flush the toilet clean."

As he spoke, he pressed the button with his hand, only to hear a "goo", and then it flowed out from the small hole on the edge of the toilet.

"It's amazing, did you get these things from the ruins?" Michelle sighed.

"No, I slowly researched it myself." Rhodes replied.

The structure and principle of these things are very simple, and he has seen it with his own eyes, the only thing is that it is a little difficult for Rhodes to draw their blueprints.

"It's amazing." Michelle sighed and turned on the faucet to wash his hands clean.

"Go and eat after washing your hands." Rhodes walked back to the desk, picked up a kebab and ate it.

Although wild pork is used, there is no fishy smell.

Rhodes is a martial arts practitioner, and his consumption is higher than that of ordinary people. Even though it is less than three hours before dinner, Rhodes still has a good appetite.

Although he has internal energy, he can use internal energy to maintain part of his body consumption, and he doesn't need to eat much food every day, but he still eats more than ordinary people, probably comparable to half a Baron.

"It tastes good." Rhodes commented that Lorraine must have worked so hard for so much. He felt that he should be praised no matter whether it tastes good or not, let alone the taste is so good.

"After that, I will make supper for you every night?" Lorraine looked at Rhodes and asked with a smile after hearing this.

"No, it's too much trouble for you. It's not good to eat too much at night." Rhodes shook his head. Although he wasn't worried that he would gain weight or get sick, it felt bad to make Lorraine so tired.

He picked up a piece of fried chicken and took a bite. It should be baked in the oven, not deep-fried, and it tastes good, not greasy at all.

Rhode noticed that Lorraine next to him seemed to be observing Michel all the time, as if looking up and down, and then comparing with herself.

He shook his head and continued to eat the food in front of him.

……

(End of this chapter)