Unknown Knight

It really fits the famous saying "Just do good and don't worry about the future". Aix never expected that the people who came to apply for the job in advance were not those bandits, but groups of ragged refugees. The reason they came was not because of the preferential policy of 10% tax proposed by Aix, nor the free tools and oxen, nor the small piece of white bread in the hands of the preacher, but because of the title of "Good People of Suno City". Yes, these people were the victims who had queued up for porridge in Suno City before.

Originally, these disaster victims received a small bag of food from Aix, and with the young shoots and wild animals collected on the road, they were basically able to return to their original homes. However, some of them were sensible and knew that they would be penniless even if they returned to their homes. They would have to rebuild the burned houses, and the lords would not be able to reduce the taxes they should pay, especially those individual households who had no backing in their original homes and were excluded by the big families. These people would either starve to death when they returned to their homes, or be held as collateral by the village head to the lords because they could not pay the taxes, and finally be sold as slaves. Instead of being in such a bad situation, it would be better to stay in the wild and eat in the vast Black Forest. Although the living environment was harsh and they often had to eat one meal a day, at least they would not starve to death, and they were free and unrestrained. So these people changed from disaster victims to refugees, and were distributed in the vast Black Forest in the middle of the kingdom. In particular, some of them had hunting skills and lived a very comfortable life. This was actually the main source of the green forest bandits in the Kingdom of Swadia.

Some of these people recognized the speaker as a member of the caravan that provided free porridge from Sunuo City, and followed him back to the village that day. Others wandered outside the village alone or in pairs a few days later, and when they saw clearly that it was the kind-hearted man from Sunuo City who provided free porridge and was leading everyone to build their homes, they came the next day with a large group of people, including the elderly and children.

In fact, these people have very simple ideas. They don't care about the 10% tax or any preferential policies. In their eyes, at least a kind-hearted person will not let them starve to death. With this bottom line, they feel at ease and nothing else matters.

Later, real bandits also came after hearing the news. These people were obviously stronger and more sturdy than the refugees. They came in groups of three or five or as many as ten or twenty. Aix was afraid that they would form groups and cause trouble, so he had to send Desevi, Bandak, and Fatis with fully armed men to gather them together for individual lectures, explain the rules and policies, and then confirm with them again and again before letting them join the village.

In less than half a month, more than 300 people had gathered in the village. The largest village at that time had no more than 100 people. As the number of people increased, it exceeded the existing capacity. Aix had no choice but to withdraw the preachers and hurriedly sent people to take back the notices posted at various intersections. Even so, there were still three to five or ten people rushing in every day. With the increase in population, three more urgent problems arose that needed him to solve.

The first is the hygiene problem. These people who came to seek refuge had previously lived in various corners of the forest, in grass nests, under tree holes, in caves, which was very chaotic. The environment in these places was very poor, which also made them very dirty. When they stamped their feet, lice fell down. Some of them had skin diseases. Although they basically didn't care, Aix, who had seen the epidemic, knew the power, especially in this era of lack of medical care and medicine.

So Aix asked Amanti to build a public bath with stones first. Every day, new arrivals gathered in a yard and asked them to wash their clothes in a pool of lime and ash, put them in the sun and wear them again. At the same time, they had to shave their hair and wash in the public bath before coming out. In order to reduce the resistance, Aix organized people to publicize the purpose of doing so, telling them that it was to prevent the epidemic that could kill people, and personally took the lead in shaving his hair. Even women like Yamila and Kress who had no lice took the lead in shaving their hair, and other members followed suit, so that this decision was implemented smoothly. This also produced a spectacle. The whole village became bald, and the women who loved beauty had to wrap their heads with headscarves. If a Chinese came here, they would definitely think that this was not a village, but a temple.

The second is the management problem. There were few people in the valley before, so there were no problems. But now there are more than 300 people, and the situation is different. These people are divided into many small groups, especially the bandits who came later. The bandits in the same group are very cohesive, and there are also conflicts among these bandits. They had serious conflicts over hunting grounds before. Now the valley is often chaotic and noisy, and there is a risk of conflict at any time. For this reason, Aix had to organize a meeting of several core members and formulate a series of policies based on his own plan.

First, Aix decided to implement a centralized management system, whereby core members would discuss major decisions and then he would make the final decision. Second, he made specific divisions of labor for various matters to avoid duplication, confusion, and ineffectiveness.

Specifically, Amanti was responsible for the planning and construction of the entire village, as well as proposals for territory construction, and was appointed as the archon; old John, Jamila and his daughter, and Catherine were responsible for logistics and warehouse management; Bandak and Fatis were in charge of the standing guard, which was composed of the original caravan members. Aix planned to expand the standing guard to 30 people, with Bandak and Fatis responsible for training and management. At the same time, 10 people would be arranged to be on duty every day to protect the safety near the village and maintain public order in the village; Desevi was in charge of the hunting team and the scout team, with a number to be determined, who were responsible for patrolling and guarding the periphery of the territory and hunting wild animals; Catherine and Jamila were in charge of the health team, mainly responsible for the health management of all members, including not urinating or defecating anywhere, whether personal hygiene was taken care of on time, etc., as well as simple disease treatment; Manide and Jamila were responsible for financial and commercial operations, mainly managing the financial revenue and expenditure of the entire territory, planning the production and sales of goods produced in the territory, and other commercial issues.

As for Aix, he was responsible for planning, coordinating, and making decisions. After all the tasks were assigned, Aix was relieved from the dizzy state of being busy every day. As a lord, he should act like a lord and cannot do everything himself.

On the night when the work was divided, Aix was blocked in bed by someone. Cress, who was not assigned any work, asked him:

"Even Sister Yamila has an errand, why don't I have one?"

"As for you, your job is to be responsible for me." After saying that, Axel started to act dishonestly and made the girl so angry that she bit several teeth marks on his shoulder. However, the girl listened to him. From then on, this inconspicuous girl would sometimes appear at the training ground of the standing guard, sometimes in the hunting team, and sometimes at the construction site...

In addition, he divided everyone into six groups, with more than 50 people in each group, based on the family unit (originally he planned to have eight groups, don't ask me why, it was just that there were not enough people). Each group elected its own leader, who was directly responsible to Aix. Currently, there are limited houses, so each group member lives together. Aix also deliberately split several large bandits who defected to the village later into six groups. In this way, the order of the entire village improved a lot. Everyone did things in an orderly manner every day, and there were basically no disputes or conflicts.

The third issue was food. Aix had not expected this problem to arise, but the recruitment of people went too smoothly, far exceeding his expectations. Food suddenly became the most pressing issue. Didn't people come to you just to have a full meal? And since you want people to build your territory, you have to ensure they have enough food.

Fortunately, these people originally lived in the nearby Black Forest, so they could find food even without relying on the village, and they would not starve to death. After thinking and holding meetings and consultations, Aix made personnel adjustments to the food problem. He first selected archers with good skills and hunting to join the hunting team, and the rest joined the standing guard. There were more than 10 people in the hunting team, basically all hunters. Under the leadership of Desevi, 5 people formed a team to hunt, and the efficiency was many times higher than the original single hunting. On the first day, wild boars were killed. In addition, the elderly and children could not be idle. Under the leadership of experienced elderly people, they collected wild vegetables and fruits nearby and dug edible tubers. Those with good legs and feet followed the hunting team into the forest to collect mushrooms, nuts and other mountain products. The remaining young and strong could only follow Yamanti to build the village.

With the contribution of the hunting and gathering teams, and the food, dried meat, salt and other items provided by the village, all members were able to have enough to eat. However, the young men who were members of the caravan had become picky and kept following him around all day, asking him:

"Sir, when are we going to go on business again? My brothers are so bored."

After more than a month of construction, the main buildings have been completed. Amanti also cleared a flat area on a high ground next to the village, saying that he was going to build a castle for the lord to live in. The location of the city wall and trenches was also reserved outside the village. However, the project was relatively large. He said that it could be planned first and then built slowly later. There was no rush. Aix thought that the archon was addicted to construction and was playing real-time strategy games here. Although the territory of a village is larger than that of many forts, you don’t have to build it according to the scale of a fort!

By this time, the spring planting was over, and the territory as a whole was basically back on track. Aix was ready to embark on a business trip again. There was no other way. Now he had to pay nearly 3000 silver coins to the two kingdoms every year, Alexander.

At the same time, King Harlaus of Uxhall City allocated him a warehouse. As early as a month ago, he sent two caravan guys to slowly purchase olive oil. Now there is some olive oil stored there, and there is also some stored in Suno City, so he took it along. At the same time, the coarse salt in the valley has almost been processed into snow salt, so it is time to set off.

At the entrance of the village, 12 trucks of varying ages were lined up in a long line. After listening to Old John's instructions, Aix chatted with Amanti for a few more words, and then shouted to the 36 people on this business trip:

"Business is booming, everything goes well!"

The villagers who came to see him off and the 36 people also shouted three times in unison, and then Aix waved his hand and shouted:

"set off!"