Riding and Slashing

Chapter 204 The Common Hobbies of Two Generations of Lords

After dealing with the matter of Eagle Claw Castle, Li Ang went back to White Hart Castle.

Neuer bid farewell to Leon with his troops. His mission had been completed and he was going back to report the situation to Islandil.

Most of the rangers summoned by the horn also scattered back home on the road. Now that there are no foreign enemies, the rangers will not go out to fight.

Li Ang even asked Vendatyr to take the girl rangers to the forest east of White Hart Castle, where Leslie was preparing to build a trade zone with the Noldor, and Vendatyr, the 'tribune', had to cooperate. a bit.

Of course, Li Ang's main purpose is to let the Noldor go back to promote it, so that more Noldor elves will come to White Hart Castle.

Now there are only 200 people left in Li Ang's hands.

100 of them were Pendor soldiers, still the most loyal non-commissioned officers from the beginning.

The other hundred were the male Noldor Rangers led by Lisa Dilan, the other half of Vendatil's students.

These Noldor rangers are now Leon's personal guard, and Lisa Dilan is now the captain of the guard.

This is actually what Wenda Tier meant—she values ​​Li Ang's safety more than anyone else now.

Those girl rangers are not suitable for running around with Li Ang. Their beauty and social status are likely to attract covetousness. If unnecessary troubles are caused, it will make Li Ang even more dangerous.

But the male Noldor rangers have no such scruples, they only need to put on the hood like Risadilan.

One hundred Noldor rangers, this must be the most luxurious guard lineup in the entire continent.

The Noldor would protect Leon so much, of course, because of the 'magic' they saw with their own eyes...

Although Li Ang has already told Wen Datil, gunpowder is also available in Barkley Continent, and it is something that everyone can use.

But Vendatil still thinks it belongs to magic—most of the Noldor elves also insist that the explosion of gunpowder is a product of magic, and the explosive bag is a magic item made by Leon.

Of course, it is understandable for the Noldor to have this concept. After all, people in the Middle Ages did regard all kinds of chemical reactions as spells, witchcraft, or alchemy. Anyway, they are almost the same type as magic.

Older people are basically stubborn, and Noldo, who is hundreds of years old, is no exception.

They thought it was not surprising that there were people in Barclay who could make and use magic items, since the Noldor originally came from another continent.

And Leon is a Buckley...

As for Li Ang's insistence that this is science and not magic - the Noldors artificially, this is probably because the two continents have different names for things like 'magic'.

After all, the Noldor had seen it, and it was Li Ang who guided Wendy to send out the 'Thunderstorm Arrow', which shattered the city gate...

They feel that it is what they saw with their own eyes, and there is nothing wrong with it.

Li Ang simply didn't explain it - it's really hard to explain to this group of guys who don't understand science and are full of tradition...

And Vendatil didn't ask Leon much about 'magic' or 'magister', because she didn't know anything about it, and she didn't know how to ask.

Among the Noldor elves, Vendatil was only considered a young man. If her age was placed on humans, she would be in her twenties. She really didn't know anything about ancient magic and the like.

In addition, for Noldo, possessing magic or not actually means the status of master and servant...

If Li Ang was an elf, then under this misunderstanding, Vendatil and these Noldor rangers would probably directly treat Li Ang as their master. After all, this is their long-standing tradition, even engraved in their genes.

But the problem is that Leon is a human being.

This made Vendatil very entangled. Whether it is Leon's help to the Noldor or Leon's status as a magister, she deserves the highest level of respect and protection for Leon, but a human cannot be the master of the Noldor, right? ?
Human life is too short...

So Vendatil simply stopped asking. The proud pride of the Noldor could not tolerate them turning a blind eye to everything they saw, but it also could not tolerate a human being becoming the master of the Noldor.

Only Wentierfu understood that this was indeed not magic, because she knew very well that she just shot an arrow normally.

But at the same time, Wendy didn't know what to say, and she didn't understand the principle, so she couldn't explain it...

Coupled with her purple pupils—exactly the appearance of a Sindarin elf endowed with high magical powers—the Noldor now almost regard her as the Elven King.

If it wasn't for Wendy's need to 'learn magic' by Li Ang's side, maybe the Noldor would have brought her back and made her enthroned forcibly...

Li Ang didn't expect that this joke would be taken seriously, it was indescribably sloppy—he now somewhat understands why the elves were so powerful back then, but fell to this point...

But this kind of misunderstanding is also a good thing, at least it will make the Noldor elves more willing to cooperate with him, and Li Ang even plans to really train Wendy Erfu to become an elf king.

……

White Hart Castle.

White Hart Castle is so different today that Lord Godric hardly recognizes his own estate.

The people are still the same people, the place is still the same place, but it seems that many things are not what they used to be.

It’s only been more than half a year since he came to Changhe Town as the Chief of Eastern Military Affairs, but Godric almost doesn’t even know the road now...

Between Mai Xiang and Changhe Town, the originally bumpy dirt road has become so spacious and smooth?

There is even a 'bus'...

When Godric came back from Sarleon City, he originally rode a horse, but after meeting the team leader John in McShenzhen Square, he also tried to ride back to White Hart Castle.

Originally it was just an ordinary box carriage, but Godric had a novel experience riding it.

The horse-drawn carriage stops at the beck and call, throw money into the self-service coin box or show the monthly pass and get on the car directly, find a seat and sit down, and then either look at the almost endless wheat fields outside the window, or chat with the neighbors ——Everyone is like this, and they look very familiar.

Moreover, the people in the car basically didn't bring much luggage, and they were obviously used to frequent commuting between the two places.

The one-hundred-mile journey was covered in two and a half hours by carriage—basically the same speed as galloping on horseback.

The speed on the smooth and spacious road is very fast, and the horse will also stop at the roadside station after a while, and the horse also got a rest on the way.

On this road, the average speed of the carriage can reach forty miles per hour, which is completely a miracle in this era. In the past, only the Jatu cavalry could move with such efficiency on the grassland.

After arriving at White Hart Castle, the surrounding wheat fields looked more - that's what Amy learned from Leon and asked the commoners in Godric's direct territory to plant them.

The surrounding areas of White Hart Castle belong to Godric's territory directly under his jurisdiction, which means that the wheat fields are all Godric's property.

This made Godric feel extremely comfortable...

He really didn't expect that during the six months of handing over White Deer Castle to Li Ang, he could get tens of thousands of acres of land!

"My lord! Ah, Lord Godric is back!"

The guards at the gate of White Hart Castle were still those archers, and they were very happy to see Godric come back.

"Are Leon and Amy in town?"

Godric looked around, these old subordinates looked very energetic, he was very relieved.

"Lord Leon and Miss Amy led troops to support Baron Leofric of Fort Valorshield a few days ago... This is amazing! My lord, you don't know that Lord Leon can actually command the Noldor elves! It seems It is still an established Noldor regular army..."

The archers talked to their old lord about what happened recently, and planned to send Godric to the main building.

But Godric didn't let them leave their posts. Since Li Ang didn't come back, he planned to take a look around first.

In White Hart Castle, a huge new barracks was built next to the city wall. Godric could see that this place was supposed to be used to hold prisoners—these barracks still hold a small number of soldiers of the Bacchus Empire.

He knew that Li Ang had defeated Levius before and captured many people, but it seemed that most of the prisoners had been redeemed.

Now this barracks is being remodeled, a foreman said that Master Li Ang will turn this place into a barracks, and there will be Noldor elves living in it...

Godric didn't have any ill feeling towards the Noldor elves. After all, he knew that Li Ang had Lisa Dilan under his command. He just thought it was a bit unbelievable that this place was going to be converted into a Noldor barracks?

This means that the Noldo regular army mentioned by the archers just now will serve Li Ang for a long time?
And it seems that White Hart Castle has been expanded again, but not because of this barracks, but because more people do business.

This expansion did not cost any money, nor was it to increase defense. It just formed a comprehensive market under the main castle hill of White Hart Castle—it was formed automatically by small traders.

The area directly facing the city gate at the foot of the mountain is one of the few spacious flat areas in White Hart Castle. In the past, there were only some shops and hotels, but there were not many people.

But now this place is extremely lively, at first glance, there may be nearly a thousand people, and there are hundreds of vendors alone.

Although the vendors are small in scale and most of them are setting up street stalls, this kind of place where the goods gather attracts many people from the surrounding villages.

Godric knew the population of the entire county—there were only ten thousand people in total, but one tenth of them went to the market of White Hart Castle to shop?

This ratio subverted his previous cognition.

In fact, Mai Xiangling's wholesale market has already subverted his cognition - Mai Xiangling's wholesale market now has dozens of shops resident. In this small place with a bad geographical location, the overall shipment volume can exceed Lots of big towns!
This is because many merchants in Changhe Town will send the goods to Maixiangling first, and then the company under Maixiang International will resell them.

As long as you become a supplier or agent of Maixiang International, you will not have to pay commercial tax in Maixiangling, and these merchants will naturally ship in Maixiangling.

Anyway, there is Changhe Express, and Changhe Town can also be transported by water, so the transportation cost is already very low.

Of course, to become a partner of Maixiang International, you need to pay a deposit first—as for whether the deposit will be returned when you quit, it is not yet known.

Because no businessmen have quit so far, after all, they can be exempted from tax, and Maixiang International will bring them orders from other places.

Of course, rent is required to occupy Mai Xiangling's warehouse, and the rent is not cheap. After all, there are more businessmen who need warehouses.

These days, basically no one can understand this kind of platform operation, and the only one who can figure it out is Amy, a good student who follows Li Ang all the way.

Every day, nearly one in ten people in Ayrshire go to White Hart Castle to sell local products or go shopping. This is actually because people in the county have more channels for commodity distribution.

There are almost no markets in the countryside. Of course, if you want to sell local products, you can only go to White Hart Castle. If you sell local products, you will have money in your hand, so you will naturally buy something to go back.

Digging out a valuable and rare medicinal material from the mountain, hunting a good game, or getting a piece of good leather... These are enough for people from the surrounding villages to go to White Hart Castle, and then spend half a day in the market.

The circulation of goods has sped up, and the means of cashing in have increased. Naturally, more people will go to White Hart Castle every day.

And the small traders in White Deer Castle are not pure sellers, they will buy local specialties, and then go to the wholesale market in Maixiangling to sell to those resident merchants, and at the same time, they will also buy goods in the wholesale market in Maixiangling to return to White Deer Castle sell.

So they will frequently travel back and forth between the two places.

The merchants of Maixiangling rely on Maixiang International, they have more shipping channels, and they can also carry out some processing and production, so they can naturally sell the purchased local products.

This allowed White Hart Castle and Maixiangling to form a greater ability to export goods, and the continuous circulation of money also gradually changed the lives of people in the territory.

In fact, the money in people's hands is still the same money, and the money itself has not increased, but as long as the currency flows faster and circulates frequently in people's hands, it can make these people's lives better-wealth increases in the process of operation up.

Money is not wealth, material goods and ideas are.

This is actually the effect of the tax-free zone. It seems that not collecting taxes is a loss for the lord, but in fact it can get more.The business logic is like this, often the ones that are free are the ones that earn the most.

Godric looked at all this with joy. He felt that it was a good thing for him to work in Changhe Town. Although he encountered a lot of troubles in Changhe Town, seeing the prosperity of White Hart Castle, the troubles of Changhe Town were nothing. up.

Only the main building of White Hart Castle remains the same, it still looks plain, there are still no maids inside, and the guards are still old acquaintances.

"Lord Godric, are you back?"

The guard knight of the main building stepped forward to greet his old lord.

"I didn't expect that you were still guarding here. Didn't Li Ang and Amy go out..."

Godric was a little surprised to see that the knight was still doing his duty. After all, the lord in the castle was not there, so the guards didn't slack off?

"Miss Amy told me that no one is allowed to enter the main building. Lord Li Ang has put a lot of valuables in the building and in the cellar. If I lose it, I won't be able to pay for it. Oh, the cellar is the former prison. The one downstairs..."

The knight pointed to the prison entrance on the bottom side of the main building, which was guarded by several soldiers.

"Oh? It seems that he has made a lot of money... what is it?"

Godric obviously wanted to see it.

"There should be some food seeds in the cellar, and they can't see the light until they are planted. It is well protected, and Master Li Ang has arranged for soldiers to patrol outside."

The knight pointed to the highest point of the building again: "There are also some things on the top floor, but Miss Amy doesn't allow anyone to go up to the top floor, and I don't know what's inside."

"Since the food seeds can't see the light, forget it... I want to see the things on the top floor..."

Godric also knew that some grain seeds could not be exposed to light when they were stored, and they would germinate easily when exposed to light, and the germs would die in the cellar, and they would not be able to be planted in the next year.

But the things on the top floor sounded so mysterious, and he was also a little curious.

"Then I can't see you up, my lord, I can't go up to the garret."

Of course, the guarding knights will not block their real lord, but they also obey Amy's request and appear to be very disciplined.

He was originally a member of Godric's personal guard, and he couldn't enter the personal guard without rules.

Godric patted the knight's shoulder approvingly, and went upstairs by himself.

Several rooms on the top floor were locked, but Godric found the key in the room where he used to work. These days, the keys are big and long, and a child like Amy who is afraid of trouble will not take them with him. On the body……

One of the rooms on the top floor contained a lot of foul-smelling black pellets in many large jars.

Godric didn't know what it was, but with the intuition of an old soldier, he thought it might have something to do with the weapon.

Another room contained some iron cases and small clay pots, and some of the iron cases had wooden handles, which looked like drum hammers or short sticks.

If this thing is used to knock people, isn't it too short?

It's a little too light...

Godric didn't understand, but those iron shells and wooden handles are hollow, and they should be unfinished things.

It seems that there is nothing mysterious about these things, right?
Amy actually didn't even want the room on the top floor to practice swordsmanship, and turned it into a warehouse?

Godric thought he was hiding a lot of treasure...

In fact, Li Ang and Amy couldn't find a suitable place.

Black powder needs to be protected from moisture, and it cannot be hidden in the wild, or it will all be over in a few days.

It is also because black powder is extremely susceptible to moisture, and the source of saltpeter is not guaranteed for the time being, so it cannot be wasted, so it is best not to package it directly into explosives or grenades.

Because there is really no way to save it if it gets wet after packaging, this thing can't be dried...

In order not to waste material, it is best to reassemble enough to use just before it is needed.

In fact, the things in these rooms have not yet been put into production, because this is not a warehouse, but a laboratory.

The raw materials are not placed here.

The reason why it is placed on the top floor is to avoid moisture on the one hand, and on the other hand - if there is an accident in the basement, it will be troublesome, and the top floor should be safer after all...

When the lord returned to White Hart Castle, Godric had been waiting for two days.

When Li Ang came back, since Amy didn't come back, and the ban on entering the main building was never lifted, no one could notify Godric.

As a result, Li Ang saw this uncle lying on the bed reading a novel in his room—it was the "Centurion's Combat Career" under his pillow.

Godric watched with relish, and didn't even realize that Leon was back...

"Aha, Lord Godric, long time no see!"

Li Ang watched awkwardly at the door for half a minute, but Godric was completely immersed in the ocean of knowledge, and he didn't notice him at all—the lord could only say hello.

"Huh? Ah! Oh! You're back!"

Godric got up in a hurry, with a half-embarrassed and seven-part stiff smile on his face—basically the same as the expression on Li Ang's face now.

(End of this chapter)