When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 935: Eighteen Witches Join in the Celebration
1449 9 Month 2 Day.

Holy Mechanical Court, Mechanical Palace.

"Have all the witches from Black Snake Bay arrived at the Mechanical Palace?" Wearing a thin embroidered linen and spider silk blend dress, Shilov finally put down the small scissors for cutting tail hair and asked Horn in front of her.

Horn, who was lying on a rattan chair eating melon, sat up and said, "They are all here. Fifteen witches have gathered in one city. If it were somewhere else, the archbishop would probably flee in panic."

"Like that Pope of Pugliano."

"Hahaha, yes, just like that Priano."

This time, fifteen witches gathered in the Holy Court to discuss the future identity of witches and the future direction of the Holy Alliance.

The great victory in the Grey Robe Valley not only made the entire empire truly take the Holy Alliance seriously, but also had a new result: it attracted the attention of many witches.

In particular, Horn spread the word that he wanted to develop an alchemical potion to suppress the witches' illness and ensure that the witches could live in the city.

Not only the witches who hid themselves in the Black Snake Bay and ignored the worldly affairs, but also the witches who hid themselves in Norn and the Frontier came to the Holy Court under the introduction of Otatira.

Currently, there are only fifteen witches in the Holy Court. According to Otatira, three more witches have contacted her.

They are expected to arrive at the Holy See within a week, which means a total of eighteen witches (including Jeanne and others).

The concentration of witches in the Holy See is extremely high today, especially in the area north of the Para River.

Because most of the witches who come to the Holy Mechanical Court live around the Mechanical Palace.

Speaking of the escaped pope, we have to mention the post-war resettlement issue. Shilov spoke again: "Have the pensions for the soldiers who died in the battle and the resettlement of the soldiers who returned home been arranged?"

"Everything has been arranged. Town soldiers who died in battle will receive a pension of five times their annual salary, as well as free elementary school and other benefits."

This is only the treatment for soldiers. Officers who die in battle will receive even more preferential treatment.

For example, additional bonds, lifetime tax exemptions, etc., and even the direct allocation of large ranches in Gravel Plain.

“However, these benefits are generally only available in urban areas, and rural soldiers cannot enjoy much, which is unfair to them.

Therefore, in addition to the pensions and preferential treatment that rural soldiers who died in battle would receive, they would also be allocated farmland.”

Two Thousand River Valley wars and two floods forced the original conflicts over the land annexation in the Thousand River Valley back to their original state.

There are fewer people, but the land is still the same, so wouldn’t the contradiction between people and land be alleviated?
The original registered population of the 450-household district was about million, but the actual population is much larger than this number because many areas have not been counted.

However, after this war, the household registration has not been updated, but Horn estimates that the actual population is only about 450 million.

Hotam County in particular had seen its population drop by more than a third due to repeated disasters.

According to previous population estimates, nearly 400,000 people were lost.

Some died, some fled, and some flowed to Longsand County and Lower River County, and even to Black Snake Bay.

"Let me guess, no less than a thousand square kilometers of arable land has been freed up?"

"More than that." Speaking of this issue, Horn had a headache. "At present, Xialu City has opened the city to surrender, but there are still small groups of enemies and deserters and bandits in the countryside. It is impossible to make an accurate estimate for the time being.

However, we speculate that about 3000 square kilometers, or million mu of arable land, may be vacated.

Give each soldier a hundred acres, and some will have more than enough."

"Oh my god." Shilov tucked her tail between her legs and said expressionlessly, "What should I do?"

"Let's hold a meeting to discuss it. With so much vacant farmland and a three-year policy of not paying taxes, I guess all the people in the city will flee to the countryside..." Horn picked up another melon from the ice bucket next to him, "Let's attract some refugees from outside, and send the prisoners of war to farm as well."

"Didn't you say that we should give them some money for the journey so that they can go home together?"

Horn chewed a melon and rocked in a rattan chair: "Those who have families and cannot stay will be sent back. Those who want to bring their families here or those who have no family will be sent to farm."

In this battle, Horn defeated Leia's army of 100,000, but there were still nearly 200,000 civilians behind them.

The war is not over yet, and Horn has nearly 100,000 prisoners of war.

For Qianhe Valley, which suffered severe population loss during the war, these people were like timely rain.

At present, it is not just the vacant Hotam County that needs people. The Gravel Plain in the north needs people to build a ranch, and the Black Snake Bay in the south needs people to build a new plantation.

If half of these people can stay, it will greatly alleviate the current shortage of people in the Holy Alliance. "However, distributing land in the rear will definitely boost the morale of the soldiers." Shilov pulled off the loose hair on the tail and cut it into a satisfactory shape with scissors, then shook her tail and raised her head, "When are you going to stop?"

So far, more than a month has passed since the Battle of Gray Valley, and most of Leia's army has been driven out of the Thousand River Valley.

Those dukes, earls, barons and knights, big and small, even set up an entire courtyard in the Holy Trinity Monastery outside the Holy See.

But Horn did not stop advancing.

In fact, when Charles VIII went to the Windmill Country, Horn followed up with an attack on the neighboring Fairstone Country.

On the other side, after reaching an agreement with the Norns, the Iron Fist and Black Crown continued to head towards Thorn Gardens to support the mountain cavalry regiment led by Carrie.

After retaking the entire Hotam County and taking over the entire Gravel Plain, Horn still felt it was not enough.

It's not that he is greedy, it's just a simple geopolitical issue.

The current geographical situation of Qianhe Valley is not defensible. Anyone can attack it along the Nauan River. There is not enough depth.

Otherwise why would he build a fortress on the border?

If the Holy Alliance continues to advance, they will enter Leia's Fairy Stone Farm from Hotam County.

Take over Shangsheng County, Xiasheng County, Chisha County in Xianshidian, as well as Yaqi County and Langqiao County in Thorn Garden.

The Holy Alliance would then have access to a natural geographical defense line formed by the Falcon Mountain Range and the Nauan River in the north running east-west, and the Seine River running north-south.

As long as we set up shore defense artillery along the river, whether the Franks want to attack or the Leians are determined to attack, they can be kept out.

This distance barely reaches the limit of the Holy Alliance’s current administrative capacity.

As for the reason, the Holy Way sect has the doctrine of the Great Judgment and Holy War.

Besides, are the Leia people the only ones allowed to attack the Holy Alliance, but not allowed to attack the Kingdom of Leia?
"When do you think the war will end?"

"Within a year, after all, we have wiped out the core forces of the Leia people, and they were the first to attack us, so it is not too much to seize five of their counties."

Shilov nodded. She couldn't say she hated war, but she certainly didn't like it either.

For a scholar, a relatively stable environment is what she expects.

Fortunately, the war on the front line has not yet affected the development of the rear, especially the education cause that she cares most about.

The year 1449 was supposed to be the beginning of the second four-year plan.

As the college students of the Holy See returned from the front line one after another, the new writing improvement campaign that Horn and she had studied for a long time could finally begin.

On this point, Catherine agrees with the wolf girl.

She was already prepared to start working on the supply and marketing logistics system, as well as the paper money built on this system.

Villages across the country are frantically building roads to lay the foundation for their three-level supply and marketing markets.

Seeing the corners of Shilov's mouth slightly curved, Horn could feel that she was finally showing some anthropomorphic tendencies.

But Horn thought for a long time and decided to tell her some news.

"Shilov..."

"Ok?"

"Do you remember that we captured King Gigi?"

"Yeah, you're going to execute him?"

"No, I plan to auction him off, and the highest bidder will win... but I'm not here to discuss this today." Horn said in a low voice, "Do you still remember the Blood Knight and the Red Monk?"

Shilov sat up straight in her wheelchair: "You mean..."

"We also captured the alchemist who helped King Jiji refine the Blood Knight..."

(End of this chapter)