Imperial Crown.

Chapter 111 Genius? Genius is just the threshold to meet me!

In the dream, there was a lush forest with towering ancient trees that completely blocked out the sky.

But wherever he looked, Raven saw not green, but red—

The ground was littered with corpses and severed limbs, some of elves and some of humans, broken and twisted, with anger and fear on every face.

The forest is burning.

Raven breathed in the blood and ash in the air and felt himself almost suffocating.

Raven dodged a javelin by leaning sideways, then raised his hand and swung his sword. A streak of blood cut through the sky, splitting an ancient tree next to him in half like a crescent moon. Amidst the loud bang, the remains of the elf and blood were splattered together.

Running with big strides, Raven kicked open a heavy door, and then saw three old female elves praying loudly around a spring.

Raven couldn't hear what they were chanting, but he felt his heart filled with panic and anger. He strode forward and put his sword to their necks to threaten them, but no one moved.

The sword pierced the neck of an old elf, but no blood flowed out. The elf suddenly collapsed to the ground, as if only a layer of skin was left.

In a trance, he saw the other two elves revealing cruel smiles, their bodies collapsed at the same time, black and red liquid flowed out of their mouths and noses, and then... gradually gathered towards his feet!

"what--!"

Raven suddenly opened his eyes, struggled to sit up from the bed, gasping for breath, feeling cold all over, and his clothes were soaked with cold sweat.

There was a hint of doubt in his eyes: "Could this be the process of how our ancestors were cursed?"

This dream was too real.

However, when he wanted to investigate the details, the traces of the dream began to fade away, and he found that he could no longer remember the appearance of the three elven women, let alone the content of their chanting.

"Baron." Petty's voice sounded outside the house: "It's time for breakfast."

After a while of silence, and making sure that he couldn't find out more details about the dream, Raven spoke: "Come in."

After changing his clothes and having breakfast with the help of Patty, Raven held a long-awaited morning meeting.

Denise's long black hair was tied up behind her head, revealing her smooth and full forehead, and her eyes were filled with a joyful smile.

Old Gordon sat upright with his eyes lowered, and in front of him was a notebook that he never seemed to leave.

Eric was still wearing the plate armor, sitting behind the table, with a sense of relaxation in his eyes that had not been seen for a long time. It was obvious that he had recharged himself after returning home.

As for Nancy, who usually attended the meetings occasionally, she did not show up. The trip to Bloody Heights made her very tired, and she spent most of the day catching up on sleep.

When they saw Raven coming, the three of them stood up and saluted.

Walking to the main seat and sitting down, Raven smiled and motioned everyone to sit down, and began today's agenda.

First of all, there is the old issue of refugees. They can be temporarily appeased now, but their subsequent resettlement is a problem. Eagle Town does not have enough land for them to cultivate.

Eric suggested that they could recruit another group of soldiers from them; Denise said that they could build a brewery in Eagle Town, which would attract more manpower.

In addition, the construction of Xiongying Town also requires a large number of full-time workers.

However, these are just intentions. We will have to wait until the riots are over and then make a specific decision based on the situation.

After the general strategy was decided, the focus of the meeting shifted from the resettlement and diversion of refugees to the economic level.

You know, before Raven left, there were only more than 200 gold coins left in the warehouse.

And future income is not optimistic.

The biggest objective factor is still the current situation.

The Hand of Death has plunged most of the Nordic province into turmoil. Even if the unrest can be quelled within the year, the destructive power it brings is incalculable.

Shanjin Town is an export-oriented economy that is extremely dependent on the consumption of foreign population. Under the current circumstances, it is foreseeable that tax revenue will be greatly reduced.

The sales of Eagle Leader's products such as Angel's Tears and Angel's Kiss will probably be greatly affected. It is hard to say how much income will be left after the orders on hand are completed.

The construction of Eagle Town has been planned, including taverns, restaurants, hotels, opera houses, even breweries, dueling arenas, and so on.

Before Raven came back, these plans had been put on hold by Old Gordon for later, because this would almost require a complete renovation of Eagle Town from top to bottom, which would require an investment of at least tens of thousands of gold coins.

But now it's different.

The number of gold coins was finally counted by Old Gordon, a total of 68723.

Due to the current situation, this money cannot be spent for the time being, but it does not prevent it from stabilizing everyone's hearts like a ballast.

This gold coin not only saved the Eagle Territory's finances which were on the verge of collapse, but also acted like a magic medicine, making old Gordon's face glow with joy.

With this money, no matter how chaotic the outside world is, the development of Eagle Territory will not be hindered as long as the enemy is not at the gates.

Even someone as mature and prudent as Old Gordon had some thoughts of asking Baron Raven to walk around the Bloody Highlands a few more times.

Of course, it was just a thought, and old Gordon would never say out loud such an unreliable idea.

Denise was also very happy. Now that Mon'en City was under siege, it was conceivable that when the turmoil was over, the business landscape would undergo profound changes. With the support of Eagle Territory's strong financial resources, she was confident that she could expand her business territory in a wasteland. Eric was even less worried. After the Battle of Bloody Highlands, he believed that Raven would pay more attention to the construction of the army than he did.

After this issue was resolved, Raven began to arrange the operation of the Riverside Workshop.

Except for Angel's Kiss, which is difficult to maintain due to the lack of flowers, Angel's Tears and Angel's Embrace can still be produced for quite a long time and there is no need to stop.

After all, whether it is wine or perfume, they are not afraid of long-term storage.

In addition, he also ordered Poirot to stop other work and prepare as much "base" of perfume as possible for him, which is a high concentration of alcohol.

Mosingan's death was a wake-up call for Raven.

Healing potions are not a panacea, and wound treatment afterwards cannot rely solely on boiling bandages.

Every soldier who has seen blood is a valuable asset. It is such a pity that they do not die on the battlefield but die from bacterial or viral infections.

The female workers, led by Qiao Ya, who are sewing product labels, do not have to stop working. In addition to labels, they can also sew clothes, bedding, etc.

Raven also had no intention of letting go of the leatherworkers headed by Green. With the surface iron plating technology, the protective ability of ordinary leather armor could be greatly improved, and there would be no worries about sales.

Finally, it was the gray dwarves. Raven planned to have them forge a long sword with star iron, and then start making farm tools - this would definitely cause dissatisfaction among the gray dwarves, but who made Raven their master? And after the spring, they would have to open up the wasteland, right?
After all the details were discussed and it was already noon, Raven asked Eric to stay to have lunch together and discuss the future development of the army.

"It won't be long before we have to lead the troops to support the Slater family." Raven tore off a piece of bread and threw it into his mouth, chewing it. "There are not many soldiers left in the First Battalion now, and it's too late to recruit more. I plan to recruit all the soldiers as my personal soldiers. What do you think?"

"A wise decision, sir." Eric swallowed a mouthful of roasted garlic. "After a great war, our soldiers can be considered elite even in the Iron Legion. If we pull them out individually, no private army can compare to us."

Raven smiled. "How does it compare to Viscount John's 'Snow Maple Legion' and Baron Angel's 'Iron Furnace Legion'?"

Eric's expression became serious. "Above them, my lord."

"Oh? Really?" Raven raised his eyebrows, a little surprised.

"Indeed." Eric analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the two armies: "From the perspective of individual strength and organizational dispatch, Viscount John's 'Snow Maple Legion' is better; but because it guards the iron mine and has a well-developed forging industry, Baron Angel's 'Iron Armored Guard' is more sophisticated in equipment."

"But both armies have the same problem - they have never experienced real war."

Raven frowned slightly. "Didn't the bandits from Bloody Highlands come down to plunder in previous years? Didn't they fight each other?"

"Indeed, there are." Eric did not deny this: "But the bandits came here to rob supplies and women."

"Generally speaking, if the bandits encounter a small group of private soldiers, they will choose to rush forward to kill them all and drive them away; if they encounter a large group of private soldiers, they will use their mobility advantage to escape, so there are very few direct battles."

"A unit that has only experienced minor battles cannot withstand pressure."

Raven grinned:
"According to what you said, are the private soldiers of the nobles in the Nord Province all useless?"

Eric was stunned for a moment, and thought carefully: "Now that you put it that way, it's almost the same."

"Although our Nord Province is on the border of the Empire, to the north is the Principality of Eivor among the Feydon city-states, and to the west is the Bloody Highlands. There are no particularly threatening enemies."

"The private soldiers of each family lack the actual combat training like our Eagle Army."

Eric sighed heavily as he spoke: "It is said that there are many brave warriors in the border areas, but the combat effectiveness of our private soldiers is not as good as that of the nobles of Eastwood in the south adjacent to the Miracle Mountains."

"If we really talk about quality, most of the nobles' private soldiers are not as good as the horse thieves on Bloody Highlands!"

Raven smiled.

I didn’t expect that Eric, a veteran, actually has some “angry young man” in his heart.

But looking back, those horse thieves were indeed crazy enough. Although they were just a group of rabble in organization, once they started fighting, they could be said to be fearless and daring.

"Let's not talk about Heleti, let's just talk about the two helpers he found, Firebeard and Steelfang."

Eric was afraid that Raven would not believe him, so he continued his analysis:
"These two men are both second-level transcendents, but they didn't even touch a hair of yours, sir. They were beaten and fled by your personal soldiers. This shows how elite our Eagle Army is!"

Raven's lips curled up into a smile: "I have killed the third-level Heleti, what are two second-level ones?"

"And these two people have been scared out of their wits. Have you forgotten that when we came out of the Bilgewater Oasis, they sent people over to show their loyalty."

Eric sighed, "Yeah, that little word is used so well that you can almost see their butts sticking up, and they're just about to wag their tails."

"But this is also a sign of flexibility, especially that Steel Teeth, who is only in his early twenties but already has the strength of a second-level player, possesses the rare Lightning Dou Qi, has seventy or eighty bandits under his command, and can judge the situation. I have to say he is a genius."

"Heh." Raven smiled.

"genius?"

"Genius is just the threshold to meet me!"

At this point, Raven was startled and looked at Eric with interest:

"Did old Gordon say anything to you?"

……

(End of this chapter)