Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 412: Expansion to the East
In the evening, Barron was in his dormitory, carefully reading a literacy manual, when there was a knock on the door.

"Please come in... uh, Mr. Ross." The orc looked confused. "Why are you here? Have you had dinner yet?"

Ross sidled into the house, stamped his feet awkwardly, and complained quietly, "I didn't expect the Eastern Basin to be colder than the Frontier Territory. It's spring, and the snow hasn't melted yet..."

Barron quickly moved the brazier next to the desk over and said with a smile, "The Dongtuo base is nothing like the territory. We don't have heating. If the blankets we were given weren't thick enough, we'd probably be too cold to sleep at night."

"The heating... is provided by the copper pipe half-buried in the wall, right?" Ross took off his half-wet boots carelessly and placed his frozen feet next to the brazier to warm them.

Barron was stunned for a moment, then said helplessly, "How long have you been in the North? You don't even understand heating."

Ross waved his hand and said casually, "About a week... There are new things everywhere. No one seems to understand them, but they are also very used to the existence of these weird things."

He glanced up at the literacy book on Barron's desk and chuckled, "The Lord actually requires all his subjects to learn to read and write. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes... I would have thought it was a fairy tale."

Barron blushed and quickly changed the subject. "You've never explained why you chose to leave your good life in the territory and instead come east to explore new lands... With your abilities, you'd probably be qualified to teach in the territory's public schools."

When the city hall was recruiting workers, Barron saw at a glance that Ross was not a local wilderness person from a poor background like him. Whether in temperament, conversation or behavior, he was much better than the refugees from the southern border he had met. However, such a person took the initiative to make friends with him and applied for pioneering work in the eastern basin together.

"Teaching? I'm a knight. I only know how to wield a sword... How can I teach?" Ross had followed the lord's advice and wanted to find a true native of the wasteland so that he could go deep into the so-called "grassroots people" and see with his own eyes how this huge and prosperous wasteland city has developed step by step to where it is today.

He didn't expect that this honest orc would actually treat him like a close friend, which made him unable to bear to keep deceiving him.

"I'm from Fengyuan City... you've probably heard of it, right?" Ross said in a low voice. "It's funny, actually. Back in the South, I only saw orcs like you in the slave traders' markets... But in the wasteland, locals like you are free men with great prospects, while I... am just a poor man captured and defeated in battle."

Barron's eyes widened, "Are you really a knight?"

He stood up and circled around Ross twice. "A noble knight? Captured by the lord and then pardoned?"

Ross rolled his eyes and said speechlessly, "How could I possibly lie to you? Of course, I don't have any knighthood or peerage at the moment. Just like you... I'm just a construction worker at the Dongtuo base."

These words did not elicit the expected ridicule from the orcs. Instead, Barron straightened his expression and gave him a thumbs-up. "Mr. Ross, I think you are nothing like those greedy and foolish nobles rumored. You are very upright."

He narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment, as if racking his brains to come up with more words of praise, but unfortunately his vocabulary did not allow it.

"Well, Minister Kenny of the Ministry of Agriculture was once a knight. He even fought in our army himself. Now he serves the lord and has been quickly promoted." The orc smacked his lips and commented, "Just like the lord said...wealth and a future are earned through hard work, not by plundering or exploiting others."

Ross hummed and pressed on, "So... you truly believe that the Lord will lead you to an unprecedentedly comfortable and prosperous life?"

Barron was surprised and said, "Of course! Everyone can have enough food and clothing, have a decent job with a good salary, and have a warm and comfortable home... Your previous lord probably couldn't do that?" Duke Ralph... Although he was not a tyrannical lord, he just never took the people under his rule seriously. To him, the people were just cheap labor, people to collect taxes, and a source of soldiers to recruit in the future.

Lord Harvey, even in the general outline of the laws he promulgated, every law and every line of text repeatedly mentioned and paid attention to the people under his rule.

"Lord Harvey... is indeed a very different lord."

……

Early the next morning, the Dongtuo base built next to the train station became bustling again.

Another group of new pioneer workers got off the train with their luggage and curious looks on their faces. Under the guidance of officials from the pioneering department, they moved into the temporary dormitory building built at the base in an orderly manner. This base living area, which can accommodate more than 2,000 people, was built as early as the beginning of winter last year by workers from the Territory Construction Department who braved the wind, snow and severe cold.

According to the Lord, the people who are willing to contribute to the development of the territory come to the East Expansion Base and work diligently. The City Hall should provide them with all kinds of guarantees in terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation, and must not let them suffer in vain far away from their homes.

Barron and Ross applied for construction jobs, which is one of the few jobs in the territory that does not require a high level of education and can be completed without training. Barron used to work in this position, so he is naturally familiar with it now and can even take Ross, who is a little unfamiliar with it, along.

"The seeds have just been sown on these newly reclaimed farmlands... and we're already building such a large warehouse. It's a bit too hasty." Ross followed Barron's instructions and repeated the work of applying cement and laying bricks with clumsy movements.

Barron's movements were much more skillful than his. While applying the cement mortar skillfully, he explained with a smile, "Don't worry. After we plant the spring wheat, we can harvest it in the summer... Then we'll plant the winter wheat and harvest it before the snow falls..."

Ross was stunned for a moment, seemingly unresponsive. "What? Harvesting two crops of wheat a year? What nonsense are you talking about?"

Although Ross's family was also a branch of the Ralph family, they were not upper-class nobles who were completely unproductive. They had some understanding of farming. At least they knew that the bitter cold climate north of the Divine Ridge Mountains made it impossible to harvest wheat twice a year.

"If we continue farming the way we used to, we won't be able to harvest twice... Haha, let alone twice, even once is difficult." Baron rubbed his hands together, pulled out a rough cigarette from his pocket, and held it between his lips. "Before coming to the Frontier Territory, my tribe of orcs lived together with human refugees. Most of the time, we worked hard all year round. When it came time to harvest wheat, a sudden, heavy snowfall wiped out the harvest. In the end, everyone could only survive the winter by digging up cassava tubers, gnawing on tree bark, and drinking snow water."

Ross's eyes darkened, and he changed the subject, asking, "Then how did the Lord manage to grow wheat in the wasteland and still achieve a good harvest?"

"It's the magic of the spellcasters!" Barron smiled, puffing out a puff of smoke. "Don't forget that the lord himself is a powerful spellcaster. The other spellcasters under his command each have their own strengths. Dean Egno founded the medical clinic, which can even cure cold plague and bloodworm disease for us. Mr. Chris built the alchemy laboratory. Those alchemical beasts you see everywhere in the territory and here, doing the heavy physical work for us, were created by him."

He paused, then smiled at the stunned Ross. "They also imbued wheat seeds with magical powers, making them no longer afraid of cold and dry weather. They're even immune to common crop pests in the wasteland. Once wheat is planted in the soil, it grows faster than the hair on your head."

Ross opened his mouth and found that he didn't know what to say.

A spellcaster who is more arrogant and superior than the nobles... would actually condescend to cast his gaze on ordinary people and help them with their food and livelihood?

(End of this chapter)