Struggle in the Steam Age

Lawrence just planned to have a small party, but now there are so many people here. One of the very important reasons is that the close cooperation and connection between Lawrence and various churches has attracted some important nobles nearby. In this way, the surrounding nobles will naturally follow.

So now at this banquet, Lawrence almost saw 60 to 70% of the nobles in the southeast of the Sea of ​​Stars. Obviously, these nobles regarded the banquet held by Lawrence as a rare communication opportunity for the surrounding nobles. Even Lawrence saw many nobles taking their unmarried young children to take advantage of this opportunity to go on blind dates.

Naturally, Lawrence knew these things. He was not the kind of person who was conceited, let alone felt that so many people came here because of his face. So after a brief exchange with these priests and church staff, he ended the discussion on these issues, and then let everyone start their own communication.

It's very good to host a banquet so well for the first time. After the other church personnel left, Mr. Lambert, Lawrence's adoptive father, praised him with a glass of champagne. At least in my opinion, this was a very successful large-scale official banquet. Most of the banquets carefully prepared by my father back then were not as good as today's.

Business banquet? Lawrence was taken aback for a moment when he heard this combination of words, and then asked curiously. What is the official banquet you are talking about? I remember that my banquet this time was clearly held in the traditional aristocratic gathering mode. If I had to say it, it should be a standard aristocratic banquet.

Hahaha—— Hearing what Lawrence said, Mr. Lambert laughed directly. Then he took a sip of the wine in his glass and said, Actually, most of the nobles' banquets are official banquets. If you just entertain guests based on the relationship between the nobles, I don't want to say that you It’s a big banquet tent, and even a guest from the duke’s banquet can’t fill the small dressing room outside your banquet tent.”

After all, in those official meetings, everyone always wastes a lot of time talking about some relatively big topics in a dignified manner, such as regional economic integration or peace between multiple territories, which sound completely fine but are actually It is basically impossible to reach any effective agreement on the topic.

So everyone is more willing to use informal occasions like this kind of banquet to discuss some real issues that need to be resolved in private, such as some business cooperation, cross-selling between various territories, and secret and semi-secret alliances. ’” concluded Mr Lambert. Especially in an occasion like today where you gathered most of the lords and nobles in this sea area in one breath, I guess that a three-digit agreement may be reached within a few hours here.

It really sounds like— Although Lawrence knew that there were few true and pure friendships between nobles, he didn't think that it sounded worse than imagined. But I think Mr. Lambert should be right. Compared with a half-baked nobleman like Lawrence, his adoptive father was born in a noble family at least when he was young. So the understanding of this kind of thing must be much stronger than him.

Don't be depressed, my child. Seeing the gloomy look in Lawrence's eyes, Mr. Lambert patted Lawrence on the shoulder with a smile and encouraged him, As a nobleman, you always have to sacrifice something. For example, waste A lot of time to deal with these banquets that I don’t think is very useful. Of course, you can also have banquet time that really belongs to yourself and your friends, but at that time you will definitely not use this extremely boring banquet format.”

No matter what Lawrence thought of the banquet, the banquet ended in a peaceful atmosphere. Looking at the happy eyes of most people, even Lawrence, who was a little upset after knowing the truth about this type of banquet, felt an inexplicable sense of accomplishment.

However, after the banquet, follow-up work took a whole week. Because some people used this place in Lawrence to hold a series of small meetings. Of course, they definitely wouldn't say it was a meeting, but stayed on the pretext of hunting, traveling to sea or even visiting the tropical rainforest. You know, from the fact that these lords' own islands are all tropical islands, we can see how lame their reasons are.

After sending this group of people away, the staff of the Church of the Passion and the branch of the Elysian Agricultural Church also rushed over in a boat, and then quickly devoted themselves to their respective tasks. In addition to receiving these church personnel, another important thing for Lawrence and the others is the start of the second season of rice planting.

As a small island in the tropics, rice can be grown three times a year. In fact, last season's rice output was not very large due to the limited time for land development. Apart from leaving enough for the rice to eat, the amount exported to those cooperative islands was about tens to 100 tons per island. Simply not enough to provide enough food to those islands. The symbolic significance of their purchase from Lawrence this time is far greater than the actual effect.

But when the next season of rice matures, the food that Lawrence and his side can export is not just symbolic. Because during this period of time, they opened up twice the original area of ​​rice fields and introduced a series of agricultural machinery and various tools, and also attracted more than 3,000 immigrants. Therefore, more food can be produced.

Considering the recent increase in the population of the island, especially after the completion of a series of infrastructure construction and the decision of the four churches to settle permanently, many new immigrants who immigrated to this area began to use Nova Sauer as their first choice. point. Therefore, Lawrence believes that in addition to developing Niujiao Bay, some new settlements should also be opened up.

Under such circumstances, Lawrence began to select the next batch of territories for development with his retainers after presiding over the transplanting work of various plantations. After a brief discussion, they chose five or six small plains by the sea as the main attack direction to open up living space for the possible increase in the population in the future. In addition, they found two small-scale forest clearings near the hills where the tauren lived as bridgeheads to march deeper into the island.

Of course, considering that a long guerrilla war with goblins in the tropical jungle will definitely be a very difficult thing. Therefore, the two open spaces that Lawrence chose were all adjacent to the river, so that these territories could have a stable rear and as stable a line of communication as possible, making it easier to defend the territories.

Some people at the meeting did not understand why everyone had to pay such a high price for such a development plan after they had just successfully established a foothold on the island. Lawrence said that according to the current development momentum on the island, the area of ​​the developed territory must be expanding. The interior of the tropical rainforest is an unfamiliar place.

Instead of paying a lot of money in a hurry, it is better to send a small number of elite personnel into the tropical rainforest to collect various data. In this way, when the people behind need more living space, losses can be minimized.

Lawrence knew that the expansion of every inch of the other islands and the ancient colonies in the north of New Shaw Island was almost piled up with human lives. For him, every intelligent creature on the island is very precious now, and it must not be so Wasted. Since there is a way to avoid this kind of loss, it is natural to avoid it.

According to the plan, both territories will be paramilitarized. All reclaimed people must be trained by the militia. In addition, each territory will build a fortress with doctors and priests of the church of suffering. In order to sort out as much as possible a set of plans for developing territory in the tropical rainforest with the least loss.