Imperial Crown

Chapter 177 New Factory, New Castle

Gul'dan left in anger, leaving behind the gold coins; Hyde also stayed for only one night, leaving a deposit and then decided to return to the city.

Hyde's territory was in ruins, and there were many things that needed him to deal with.

It is worth mentioning that Raven tried to sell granite to Earl Tyrone through Hyde, but failed.

According to Hyde, the Slater family had been seriously injured before, and granite was so expensive. Earl Tyrone felt that instead of spending the gold coins on repairing the castle of Mon'en City, it would be better to use them in more practical places.

For example, to increase the scale of the Hippogryph Knights, promote some private soldiers with outstanding performance to become extraordinary, and replenish the damaged equipment.

Of course, Hyde's situation is different. His territory was newly built, and the castle's facade could not be fooled. After all, it would be passed down in the future.

Knowing this, Raven admired Earl Tyrone even more, and felt that he was a confidant.

It is an extremely rare quality to be able to not be trapped by the false reputation of the nobility and to start from a practical perspective.

No wonder the Slater family was passive in the war with the Death Hand Cult, but still firmly suppressed the Fox family.

Outside the Eagle Castle, the sun was shining brightly, and the ground had just been sprinkled with water. The horses' hooves trampled on it, making a crisp sound.

Hyde smiled and said, "Baron Raven, don't persuade me about the granite."

"Of course, you are not Gul'dan, you are not so easy to fool." Raven continued to promote his products: "Granite is not urgently needed, but equipment and weapons are always needed, right?"

Hyde said, "You are talking about the Gray Mountain Mine, right? It is indeed a good move to take it down."

"But you don't have as many craftsmen as Iron Furnace Territory, how much can you produce?"

"That's hard to say." Raven smiled mysteriously: "But at most half a year, you will be able to see the results, and it will never be worse than the previous Iron Furnace Territory."

If someone else said it, Hyde would definitely not believe it, but when this sentence came out of Raven's mouth, Hyde couldn't help but take it seriously.

This time when he came to the Eagle Territory, what shocked him the most was not the fact that Raven became a second-level magician, but the Eagle Town.

Raven's ability is beyond doubt as he was able to build the dilapidated Eagle Town into a prosperous town that is not inferior to the inner city of Mon'en City in more than a year.

"Well, I will mention it to my father." Hyde nodded: "If you can do it, even if my father doesn't buy it, I will purchase it from you."

"When the time comes, I will definitely give you a discount." Raven changed the subject: "Slater family, are you interested in selling some horned eagles?"

Hyde looked at Raven with a little vigilance: "Don't think about male horned eagles. The air force has been destroyed. It will take more than 20 years to restore to its previous scale. If I dare to mention it, I will definitely be scolded by my father."

"Don't worry, I'm not so ungrateful." Raven spread his hands and said: "I want to buy a batch of female horned eagles-the kind that can lay eggs."

In the entire Nord Province, the only family that has the ability to take out a large number of female horned eagles in one go is the Slater family.

Hyde heaved a sigh of relief: "That's easy. How many do you want? If the quantity is not large, I can decide it myself."

"... Let's start with 200."

"How many!?" Hyde was shocked: "Why do you want so many?"

The cost of magic beasts is not only the purchase price. They have a huge appetite, and they need to add specific magic plants to their feed regularly and quantitatively, otherwise they will gradually lose the characteristics of magic beasts.

The purchase price of a female horned eagle is about 200 gold coins, but the annual feeding cost is more than 20 gold coins. 200 eagles, the annual consumption is 4,000 gold coins, which is enough to eat up the finances of most barons.

Admittedly, the eggs of horned eagles are valuable, but the sales are a big problem. Even the Slater family itself consumes most of its annual output internally.

Seeing that Raven didn't seem to be joking, Hyde thought for a moment and said, "I'll have to discuss this amount with my family."

Raven said, "The price is not a problem, it can be deducted from the final payment."

Hearing this, Hyde looked much more relaxed, and he also had the motivation to help Raven.

He could save himself tens of thousands of gold coins by lowering the price in front of his father and raising the price in front of Raven.

As for the loss of the Slater family-who doesn't want to plunder it?

It's not painful for the son to sell his father's land.

After discussing some details, Hyde left. Before leaving, he took a deep look at the monument outside Eagle Castle.

After seeing Hyde off, Raven held a meeting.

Old Gordon, Eric, Fiona, Kuman, Fili, Poirot, almost all of Raven's core members were present.

With the income just now, the cash on the books exceeded the 200,000 mark, so of course he had to spend it well.

But it was not a discussion. Raven had already made a plan and was waiting for the funds to arrive to make specific arrangements.

First, Xue Feng received the final payment for the two factories, and the remaining 40,000 gold coins were allocated to Kuman to speed up the construction.

The second is the construction of the brewery. Raven is not going to look for another place, but will directly expand it with the Riverside Workshop as the center.

The construction cost of the brewery itself is not high. Even if it is divided into three brewing areas for red wine, beer and ale, the total budget is only 7,600 gold coins.

After it is completed, Raven plans to hand it over to Poirot for concurrent management. First, Poirot has achieved remarkable results in the management of the Riverside Workshop during this period, showing a very good ability in overall coordination.

Secondly, on the Middles Continent, a good chef is often also a senior wine taster who can guarantee the quality of the wine.

In response, Poirot was flattered and couldn't stop smiling. Fili cast an envious look at him, and at the same time, his eyes looked at Raven with much more eagerness.

As an important transit station in Xuefeng County, Raven did not forget the construction of Shanjin Town. He decided to invest 5,000 gold coins to build a farmer's market on the street leading to Xiongying Town in the east of Shanjin Town, mainly engaged in the trading of agricultural products and livestock.

After all, Raven's collection standards for grain are quite loose, only 40% of the harvest is collected, and the people can enjoy full control of the remaining land output.

On this basis, the food, vegetables and fruits of the people can be circulated to a certain extent.

The construction of the territory is on the right track. The next thing to do is to recruit soldiers. Raven decided to start the first batch in Xuefeng Territory, planning to recruit 3,500 people, and train with the new recruits previously recruited in Mon'en City to form a legion.

According to the rules of the empire, a baron should not have more than two battalions of private soldiers, which is about a thousand people.

But rules are dead, people are alive.

Raven can declare that he only has 500 combat soldiers, and the rest are civilians. As long as Raven does not raise the flag of rebellion, no one will care.

The expansion of the army made Eric show great enthusiasm, and also expressed his concerns.

The cost of conscription itself is not large. Even if the military pay is advanced for one year, the total amount is less than 4,000 gold coins.

The problem lies in the equipment of 5,000 people.

Even the 2,000 new recruits in Monen City before were barely equipped with leather armor, and most of the weapons were still wooden equipment.

At this time, expanding the army, not to mention the armor rate, the weapon equipment is a huge problem.

You know, now on the market, even a spear with only a cast iron spearhead is priced at 63.7 silver coins. If it is made of steel, it is normal to increase the price by three or five times.

At this equipment price, whoever buys it will be a sucker.

In response, Raven said there was no need to rush, and the team should be assembled first. Wooden equipment could be used instead during the training process. As long as the forging workshop was built, everything would be fine.

"What I am going to say next is the focus of today's meeting, which can also be said to be the core of the future territory construction."

Raven looked around the venue, his voice steady, attracting everyone's attention.

"With the expansion of the territory, Eagle Castle is no longer suitable as the center of the territory, and the location of Snow Maple Castle is too remote. I decided to open up another piece of land and build a new castle."

Raven's voice was calm, but the content caused a great stir in the hearts of everyone present.

A new castle is not only Raven's residence, but also means the changes in the overall economic, political, and military structure of the entire Eagle Territory and Snow Maple Territory. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a "relocation of the capital" within the territory.

The redrawn map was opened, covering the entire Eagle Territory and Snow Maple Territory.

At Raven's instruction, everyone began to discuss the location of the new castle.

Eric's suggestion continued the idea of ​​building the Eagle Castle, and was more radical, choosing the location in the northwest of the Snow Maple Territory.

There are mountains on three sides and a river on one side, with abundant water resources and easy to defend and difficult to attack. As long as a stone bridge across the river is built, the new castle will become an indestructible fortress.

But this proposal was fiercely opposed by others, especially old Gordon.

In his opinion, the construction of the new castle should never be considered only for military purposes - if the castle is surrounded, then why did the Baron recruit so many soldiers? Guarding the security of the territory is the responsibility that Eric should take!

The new castle will be a symbol of the Griffith family, so its development potential in terms of economy and population must be fully considered.

So old Gordon chose to build the new castle on a plain in the central and western part of the Snow Maple Territory. It is just a piece of wasteland, and there is no need to spend extra gold coins to buy land, which has the least negative impact on the people's livelihood in the territory.

Moreover, there is a mountain road in the southeast of this land. It only needs to spend a certain amount of gold coins to widen it. Then both land and water transportation are very convenient, which is a great benefit for the construction of the castle and future development.

This proposal was supported by Fiona, but Kuman tactfully expressed his opposition.

The establishment of a new castle requires a large number of manpower for a long time, which can be as short as half a year or as long as several years, and the location chosen by Old Gordon is originally a piece of vacant land.

Under such a premise, in order to facilitate construction, a large number of people need to be relocated from other places, which will undoubtedly cause the already developed and mature gathering places of the territory to become barren and dilapidated.

The effect is equivalent to sucking the blood of the entire territory, tearing down the east wall to repair the west wall. In addition to being able to obtain a new castle, it will be a huge blow to the economy of the entire territory, and it may not be able to recover for several years or more than ten years.

In fact, Kuman also has his own selfishness. The reason why Xuefeng Town can have its current scale is mostly because it is adjacent to Xuefeng Castle and can be regarded as the center of Xuefeng Territory.

With the establishment of the new castle, the center of gravity of Xuefeng Territory will inevitably move, and the decline of Xuefeng Town is inevitable.

So Kuman proposed that the new castle could be built outside Xuefeng Town, and the original Xuefeng Castle could be demolished and used as building materials for the new castle, which would greatly save construction costs.

What the three parties said made sense, and of course, Raven would make the final decision.

Raven had already made up his mind about this. He walked to the edge of the map and used a charcoal pen to draw two straight lines across the territory, in a standard east-west and north-south direction. His hand fell on At the intersection of these two lines!

The intersection of the central axis of the entire territory was the place he chose to build the castle!

Everyone looked shocked.

Eric blinked, Kuman frowned in thought, and Old Gordon pushed the monocle: "But Lord Baron, this is... the River of Liquid Crystals!"

The location chosen by Raven's finger is exactly between the Eagle Territory and the Snow Maple Territory, where the Jinsha River and the Flowing Crystal River meet!

"It's right here." Raven said in an orderly manner: "The river channel of the Flowing Crystal River is wide. Fill in the middle and create land, and the castle can be built here. At the same time, the river channel will be widened without affecting the waterway traffic."

Eric looked astonished: "And with the river as a moat, the defense capability will be very good, and there is no need to worry about someone cutting off the water source of the moat. It is extremely safe."

Raven nodded and continued: "Yes, and the transportation here is convenient, which facilitates the collection and distribution of goods, which means it is conducive to the circulation of the population."

At this point, Raven's eyes fell on Kuman: "What you said before made sense, but there is one thing you didn't think clearly."

Kuman frowned slightly: "I wonder if I didn't think carefully enough?"

"You have considered that the new castle will affect the population distribution in the territory, which is very good." Raven praised, and then changed his tone: "But there is one thing you did not consider, and that is the purpose of building the new castle."

"I just want the population to concentrate here!"

Old Gordon had always felt that something was floating in his mind, but he had been unable to grasp the main point. Now he suddenly understood after hearing Raven's words. He pointed at the map and said: "The construction location of this new castle is completely It can radiate all of Gold Flash Town, Eagle Town, and half of Xuefeng Territory!"

"Although you, Lord Baron, have granted me the land, a mature laborer can cultivate thirty acres of land, and now a family's land is only about a dozen acres."

"The baron has always paid wages when recruiting people. As long as the income from working exceeds the income from farming, then someone will be tempted to rent the land to others for farming. This is what the baron said. Explanation..."

Seeing that Old Gordon couldn't think of it for a while, Raven smiled and said: "Liberate the labor force."

"Yes, liberate the labor force!" Old Gordon nodded heavily: "And when these workers have money, they will definitely consume. This will not only re-stimulate the economic vitality of Goldsmith Town, but also cause more people to spontaneously gather around New Castle. trading."

Cuman also understood that the key point lies in the word "spontaneous". In this way, building a castle is no longer a purely political act, but an economic stimulus for the entire territory. Not only will the territory not lose blood, but it will also It will greatly increase the economic vitality of the territory!

I originally thought that Baron Raven had only made great achievements in military and political matters, but I didn't expect that he also had such a far-sighted vision in the economy.

New castles were built and the population gathered spontaneously on a large scale. This...

An idea appeared in Kuman's mind, and he couldn't help but blurt out: "You want to build a new city!?"

This sentence immediately awakened everyone present, especially Fiona. She took a look at the map and recalled the city outline map she had seen: "Whether it is Monen City, Hovey City, or even the Royal Capital, they are all built on By the river.”

"In the province, there is Hovey City in the southeast and Meng City in the middle. Only the northwest lacks a real big city. Lord Baron, is this your ultimate goal!?"

Everyone present looked at Raven with eager eyes.

There is a word difference between city and castle, but their meanings are completely different. The establishment of a real city is a major event that can be recorded in history, enough for anyone involved to leave their name in the long history!

Raven showed a pleased smile: "Yes, I do have such a plan, but the food has to be eaten one bite at a time, and the things have to be done bit by bit. The current focus is still on the construction of the castle!"

"Do you have any questions about location selection?"

Everyone shook their heads, they had all been convinced by Raven.

Now that the location has been determined, the next step is the specific architectural details.

In Raven's plan, the main body of the castle will have seven floors, covering an area of ​​12,000 square meters, and a height of about 36 meters. It will be built with granite and marble. The castle will have all kinds of internal structures, including dungeons. , warehouse, armory, conference room, laboratory, study room, and even a small library.

Overall, a total of 120,000 gold coins will be invested in the first batch of construction funds, and all building materials used will be local materials as much as possible.

Everyone was excited to think that such a magnificent building was about to appear on the territory, and they all put forward their own ideas. Only Fiona expressed a little concern: "Lord Baron, this castle is very good, but it is not too high. At one point, just walking up from the first floor to the seventh floor probably takes two minutes..."

This worry is not unreasonable. Although it is only thirty-six meters, before Raven traveled through it, it would have been a twelve or three-story residential building. This also depends on the conscience of the developer.

If the floor height was lower, it would be possible to create fifteen or sixteen floors from thirty-six meters.

In particular, Raven's bedroom must be located on the seventh floor, the highest.

Having people climb up and down dozens of floors every day is indeed not a pleasure.

And Raven certainly didn't build the castle to make himself suffer: "I have already considered this, and I have contacted the Mage Guild in advance."

"Look here."

Raven's finger fell on a hole in the center of the castle on the design drawing.

Old Gordon frowned: "Isn't this the preset patio?"

Raven shook his head and smiled: "No, I plan to install the Mage Guild's latest invention here - the magic elevator."

"Magic...what?" Eric didn't understand.

The so-called magic elevator is actually an automatic up and down device powered by magic crystals, similar to an elevator, but the working principle is completely different.

This invention is actually a "compromise" choice. Within the Mage Guild, mages use short-distance portals to move between floors in the Mage Tower.

But this way of moving is difficult to promote on the mainland.

The frequency of use of portals in the Mage Tower is actually not high, and many miscellaneous tasks can be completed by magic creations; and when the Mage Tower is built, a magic well is usually built to provide energy for the Mage Tower at all times.

If it were placed in a noble family, servants coming and going would be indispensable, and the cost of the portal would be high; and the magic well is impossible to control for most ordinary people, and it is too dangerous, which is equivalent to burying a time bomb under the castle.

So in order to make money, er, to "increase revenue", the Mage Guild developed this magic elevator that is easier to use and promote.

Of course, this elevator is not cheap. The whole set, not counting maintenance costs, even with a discount, costs 17,300 gold coins.

Even after Raven's explanation, not everyone present could understand its principles, but at least they understood the functions and began to imagine what it would be like to work and live in the castle in the future.

The vast and magnificent castle, without moving your feet, can shuttle up and down, this kind of life is enough to make everyone yearn for.

After the budget was arranged, everyone dispersed and began to perform their respective tasks.

This is the benefit of a collective being in a rising period, everyone is full of energy and vigor.

After solving the financial problem, Raven's life returned to leisure. Anyway, his subordinates helped him deal with the chores, and he only needed to make the final decision, so he had a lot of free time.

In addition to practicing magic, Raven also did not forget to find Buggy to learn about alchemy.

As a branch of magic, alchemy itself is also very profound, involving a variety of professional knowledge and professional vocabulary, such as "magic halogen blending", "raw material blackening", "product fixation", "element rheology", "magic element neutralization" and so on.

This involves many concepts that Raven has never understood, and he is used to understanding the concepts first and then remembering the nouns, so he wasted a lot of brain cells and spent a lot of time reading books.

This step made Buggy find some balance - it seems that Raven is not a genius in everything!

However, when entering the actual operation stage, Buggy's balance was completely unbalanced.

When a normal alchemist enters the industry, even if there is a teacher to teach him hand in hand, the success rate of alchemy is usually less than 30%, and it is normal to fail seven or eight times out of ten.

But Raven only failed a few times when he first prepared the "burn potion", and his success rate remained high afterwards.

Even the "Fire Glue" that was known as the "newcomer killer" and required six kinds of raw materials to prepare, which was stuck for two months by Buggy, Raven only failed twice, and his success rate remained above 60% afterwards, and gradually increased over time.

Ordinary alchemists can only rely on the external performance during the refining process and empirically grasp the changes in the elemental magic in the bottle, but Raven has the Eye of Truth.

The reason for the failure is mostly because the impurity content of different batches of raw materials is different, and some subtle changes are difficult to predict. If the quality of the raw materials can be guaranteed to be stable, Raven's success rate can be increased.

Buggy gradually found with some despair that in addition to being able to give Raven some experience and knowledge guidance, in terms of practical operation, Raven can even serve as his teacher!

But soon, Bucky adjusted his mentality - he couldn't compare to a monster like Raven. If Raven made some achievements in alchemy, he would say that he was Raven's alchemy teacher. Wouldn't that be very prestigious?

Time passed little by little, and Raven's life was plain and fulfilling. The construction of the new castle also broke ground, and the construction of the Shining Gold Town, the Riverside Workshop and the Snow Maple Territory Factory also made the whole territory bustling.

And Raven could often hear complaints. In addition to Eric, Old Gordon, Fili, and Kuman took turns to complain to Raven, expressing one point - not enough people!

You know, in addition to the construction of the construction site, there are still large tracts of land that need to be reclaimed. This involves the foundation of the territory and cannot be stopped.

In response, Raven comforted them one by one and told them that this problem would be solved soon.

In early August, the 20,000 serfs promised by Viscount John finally arrived.

...

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