Lord Harland.

Chapter 257 Army Expansion
The first stop of Li Cha's inspection tour, Li Cha chose Brick Kiln Village.

Brick Kiln Village was the first gathering point established in the Harland Territory. The history here was two months earlier than Fort William.

During the development of the territory more than ten years ago, Li Cha basically lived in the brick kiln village. At that time, his second uncle Powell was in charge of building Fort William, and Li Cha was in charge of building the brick kiln and led the contracted slaves to reclaim the farmland.In the tent set up in Zhuanyao Village, Li Cha lived for several months.

Back then, he worked hard and led the first batch of contract slaves from the barrenness to build a foundation.

After more than ten years of development, the village with a population of only 1000 people has now naturally multiplied to [-].

As the population increases, of course the fields must be divided.

Now there is not much wasteland around Zhuanyao Village that can be reclaimed, and children born in the last three years have no land to allocate.

The decree of the Harland territory stipulates that the eldest son inherits the land and real estate of his parents.

The second son and second daughter who can't get the farmland, if they don't want to bear the eyes of their brothers and sisters-in-law when they grow up, they can't find a job in the city.

In recent years, the development of brick kilns has been neither fast nor slow.

Today, there are three brick kilns in the territory of Harland. In addition to Bobby Brick Kiln, there are Brigade Brick Kiln and Graveson Brick Kiln.

The territory near the Bobby brick kiln factory has been developed and the infrastructure is basically completed.

The main business of Bobby Brick Kiln Factory has been transferred to civilian use.

It has been eight years since the first batch of indentured slaves in the Harland Territory became free citizens, and they have accumulated a lot of money.Their children have grown up one after another, and when they reach the age of marriage, the demand for private housing is relatively strong.

In the early years, Bobby Brick Kiln Factory was the focus of Li Cha's attention. He even had to personally mediate the internal disputes of the Brick Kiln Factory. Now the report of this Brick Kiln Factory doesn't even appear on Li Cha's desk, and it has become a small enterprise with not particularly important territory.

Li Cha walked around the village and found that the scale of the brick kiln village has expanded a lot, and the new houses have been built better.

He picked a few houses at random, went in and looked around, and finally came to Robinson's house.

Counting this time, Richard has been to Robinson's house three times.

Robinson's yard is still the same, looking a little older than it did a few years ago.

Robinson's eldest son, Sola, is married and has built a new house and moved out of the yard. The second son enlisted in the army this year and has not yet completed recruit training.The young children have also grown up a lot, and they are already half-workers, able to help at home.

"How many people are there in your family now, and how many acres of land?"

"Seria's father-in-law passed away last year. Sola and Linna got married and lived in separate households. In the past few years, Seria and I have had two more children. Now our family is still nine people, with 35 acres of land."

"I remember you used to have 45 mu of land."

"You're right, Mr. Richard. When Sola separated the family, he took away his five acres of land. His grandfather passed away last year, and the five acres of land left behind were allocated to Sola. Now our family only has 35 acres of land."

Richard knew in his heart that half-way couples like Robinson and Celia were more common in the territory.In such a family, property inheritance is often more complicated.

According to the law of the Harland territory, Sola would inherit his grandparents and mother's property.

Robinson's land and property will be left to his eldest son to inherit.The remaining children can only inherit some of the money left by their parents.

The allocation of fields to contract slaves in the Harland Territory has lasted for eight years. Over the past eight years, some old people who were assigned to them passed away one after another, and the fields they were assigned were often inherited by their direct descendants.With the continuous birth of newborns, the area of ​​cultivated land per capita has gradually decreased, and now the Zhuanyao Village has more people and less land.

"How has your life been in recent years?"

"Thanks to the blessing of the Goddess of Dawn, there have been no famines in the past few years. Except for the one or two years when I built a house for Sola's marriage and built a house, my life was a little bit harder, but I can live on."

Hearing that Robinson is doing well, Li Cha smiled and said, "Can you tell me how much money you have in savings now?"

In general territories, the citizens dare not tell the noble lord how much money he has.

Because the aristocratic lords will extort money, they can't wait to collect all the gold and silver coins in the territory into their own treasury.

Ordinary people have a few gold coins in their hands, and they will hide them tightly, fearing that others will know that they have pink eyes and report them to the tax collectors in the lord's mansion, which will attract tax increases or robbery from the noble lords.

However, Harland's territory was different. Not only did the serfs be allocated houses and fields, but the tax was also set relatively low.Apart from an increase in the property tax in the past eight years, the agricultural tax has hardly changed.

Almost all the free people thought that Li Cha was a benevolent and benevolent lord.

Li Cha's question made Luo Bingxun feel a little suspicious. He didn't want people to know how many gold coins he had saved, but he was unwilling to deceive Li Cha.He looked at the village cadres around Li Cha, with a bit of trouble on his face.

"Why, can't you tell me? Don't be afraid. If someone increases taxes and apportions more, you can go to Fort William to complain to me, and I will come to Brick Kiln Village to see you."

While speaking, Richard wrote a letter and handed it to Robinson.He urged: "Take this letter from me, and you can come to Fort William to find me at any time. No matter whether it is the city defense army or others, you dare not stop me."

"I dare not say it, Mr. Richard! My family has already saved 26 gold coins and [-] silver coins. This is a huge fortune."

Hearing this, Li Cha laughed heartily and said: "It seems that you have been living a good life in the past few years. You have already saved a sum of money. What are your plans for this sum of money?"

"My child Danon is 13 years old. I plan to use the money to build a house for him and marry a wife to inherit the family business. The rest will be distributed to a few younger children so that they can go to other places and live a decent life."

"Robinson, don't you let your children go to school? Now the tuition fee has been reduced to three silver coins a year. According to your income, you should be able to afford it."

"Master Richard, although the tuition fee has been reduced, it is very expensive for the children to live in Fort William. I know a little bit of carpentry, and the children follow me to learn carpentry, farming, laying bricks, and firing kilns without spending money."

Seeing Robinson's thoughts like this, Richard sighed. Ordinary free people are indeed very short-sighted.

Li Cha took the initiative to shake hands with Robinson, left his yard, and went to visit other people's houses.After eight years of accumulation, the general development of Zhuanyao Village is very good, and most of the hardworking free folk families have saved a sum of money.

Coming out of Brick Kiln Village, Li Cha led his entourage into Bobby Brick Kiln Factory. He went directly to the factory manager's office and said to Bobby, Layton and the others that he would show me the accounts of the Brick Kiln Factory last year.

Layton hurriedly moved out the ledger, and a few young attendants stood up behind Li Cha, and began to examine the ledger carefully.

These young attendants are students who graduated from He'an Primary School and are also the first batch of auditors in the territory.

These people have a lot of authority, and some corrupt personnel have been checked out in recent days.

After reading all the books, Li Cha frowned, and said seriously: "The management has spent too much on benefits, and compared with last year, the profit margin has dropped a bit. If these things still cannot be changed next year, you can go home and have your children.

I am here to tell you solemnly, I hope you will not have greed.Your salaries are already very good, and your status is a world of difference compared to ten years ago.You should cherish the good days now, I don't want your names to be written on the list of executions in the future. "

The laws of the Harland Territory are strict, and Richard does not need to compromise with the bureaucrats. As long as he embezzles more than ten gold coins, he will be sentenced to death immediately, and his immediate family members cannot join the army, go to school, or be an official within three generations.

But people always have greed in their hearts. Although bureaucrats are treated well and there are strict laws and regulations, they still cannot stop bureaucrats from being greedy.

In the early Ming Dynasty, even peeling real grass could not stop officials from corrupting, and Li Cha could not do the same.No system can stop human greed, unless artificial intelligence is realized, human beings voluntarily give up power, and let robots without desires govern everything.

Now the territory has a small population and a small area. Li Cha's inspections are more diligent and he can suppress corruption.

In a few years, the territory will expand, and the population will exceed one million. It is estimated that the Harland Territory, like the rest of the Grant Kingdom, will be full of corrupt officials.

This year, Li Cha plans to set up a discipline inspection department, train personnel in advance, appoint Hayden as the Chief Inspector of the Territory, and take up a job similar to Inspector Censor, so as to relieve part of Li Cha's work pressure.

The Intelligence Department is preparing to appoint William's adjutant Noel to manage.

Hayden has been in charge of the territory's intelligence department for more than ten years. This kind of work is not suitable for long-term management by one person.If the management of intelligence work takes too long, a closed hill is formed, which is not too big or too small to be a trouble for the lord.

Hayden is the elder brother of Li Cha's mother and compatriot. If Li Cha wants to attack and purge the intelligence department in the future, it will be more troublesome to deal with it with Hayden standing in front of him.

The intelligence department has a lot of authority and has mastered many secrets of the territory. Richard is not at ease to hand it over to outsiders. The only ones who can replace Hayden are members of the Harland family.

Richard is going to train Mrs. Ola's eldest son, George. George has served as Hayden's adjutant for a year, but it is difficult for him to take charge of the territory's intelligence work with his current ability and experience.

Now the intelligence department of the Harland Territory is already very large, with more than [-] personnel in operations, intelligence, logistics, and administration.

Intelligence work has its complexity and particularity, and it is best to transfer officials from within the system.

Noel is a member of the distant branch of the Harland family and William's adjutant, responsible for managing part of the military intelligence work.

The most important thing is that part of the intelligence forces controlled by Mrs. Ola and Butler Gibson have been handed over to Noel. In the past one or two years, he has managed it very well without any mistakes.

The intelligence power of the Harland family has always been divided into two aspects. The first is the territorial intelligence system, which has always been under Hayden's management.

Another system was developed from the commercial system in the hands of Mrs. Ola.After more than ten years of operation by Mrs. William and Mrs. Ola, the strength of this intelligence system is also very impressive.

Through commercial infiltration, this system has penetrated into every aspect of Heihe Fort.

Some noble families in Gerda Province have intelligence personnel of this system.They were chefs, brewers, gardeners, goldsmiths, maids, servants, accountants, etc., and they were placed in the noble mansion through various channels.

The two intelligence systems do not interfere with each other, and there is little cooperation.

The reason why Richard wrote to William to transfer Noel as the Chief Intelligence Officer of the Territory was obviously his intention to merge the two systems.

William agreed to Li Cha's request, and obviously agreed with Li Cha's idea.

The intelligence work in Harland Territory is divided into three aspects: military intelligence, internal intelligence, and external intelligence.Ruiz was in charge of military intelligence, Luciano was in charge of internal intelligence, and Vitas was appointed director of external intelligence.

Now Noel has been transferred to be the Chief Intelligence Officer of the Harland Territory, and George is still serving as Noor's adjutant.

Now beside Li Cha, there are many assistants at work, and the front-line work is basically handed over to the assistants now.Li Cha is only responsible for an overview of the overall situation, patrolling the territory, and severely punishing corrupt officials.

Of course, after this year's battle, Li Cha's most important job is actually the training of recruits.

After May, the territory of Harland began to recruit [-] recruits and started training for recruits.

The recruit training cycle in Harland's territory is one year.

The first three months are pre-training such as disciplinary obedience, internal affairs regulations, and literacy of recruits.

Three months later, the recruits adapted to life in the barracks, began to learn breathing methods, trained in the use of equipment, and started training in subjects such as archery, spear, sword, horseback riding, bomb throwing, and fighting.

Of course, the training of the formation is the most important. From the day when you first entered the barracks to the day when you retired from active service, you almost have to practice fighting in formation.

The most important task of a soldier is to remember his position in the formation.

Whether it is normal training or when fighting, we must not forget this at all times.

If you lose your position on the battlefield, according to military law, you can enforce battlefield discipline and be executed directly.

Only by being familiar with one's own position and accumulating training over time can form a general conditioned memory, and when encountering a war, you can form a tight formation without panic.

In the face of all kinds of sudden situations, it is possible to change the formation, draw and join teams at will, and deal with battles in different directions.

In the training of the army, formation is the most important subject, and the second only to formation is archery.

The training of recruits, formation and archery are practiced almost every day.

A year later, soldiers who have completed recruit training must at least be able to form an array and be able to shoot arrows. Only by mastering these two most important skills can they integrate into the army and cooperate with veterans in combat.

The army in Harland Territory has good food, and each soldier's logistics supply standard is three gold coins per year.

Weapons and armor are provided by the territory, which will be calculated as an additional appropriation.

Two unlined clothes and one cotton coat cost six silver coins a year, and the remaining two gold coins and six silver coins are used to feed the soldiers.

Each soldier received three catties of rations per day, half a catty of meat, and two catties of brown sugar a month.Only with good material support can high-intensity training be carried out.

If they don't have enough food and clothing, and don't have sufficient material support, soldiers will urinate blood after a few days of intensive training.

Now recruits have been training for several months.

After several months of training, the recruits have gradually acquired the temperament of some veterans, and they look much stronger, but soldiers who have never seen blood will always be recruits, and they are not useful.Only by incorporating new recruits into veterans, allowing veterans to see blood a few times and fight a few battles, can the transformation of identity be completed.

Li Cha pays close attention to the training of recruits, and often comes down to inspect and talk with recruits to complete the training together.

Therefore, the logistics officials did not dare to play tricks in this area. The material guarantee has always been sufficient and there has never been a shortage.

(End of this chapter)