Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 514: The Splendor of Late Autumn
Although the southern border was still in the golden autumn season with a suitable climate in October, an icy wind had already quietly blown across the wasteland.

This year's winter seems to come earlier than in previous years, and the first heavy snow will probably arrive by the end of the month.

"Sir, the people from the Southern Territory Chamber of Commerce signed the cooperation agreement yesterday and left early this morning." Reiner handed the document to Harvey for review, muttering softly, "Half of the shipping company's ironclad ships have been allocated to them to transport goods. This will put us in a difficult position when transporting migrants next year."

Harvey waved his hand. "The shipyard has already added two new teams and is working at full capacity. There won't be many immigrants heading north in the winter, so we have plenty of time to wait for the new ship to be launched."

He flipped through the work report handed to him and casually asked, "By the way, has the final statistics on the population growth in the North this year been completed?"

"The Municipal Office and the Population Management Department have already counted the numbers. Excluding the fixed population of 54,000 in previous years, this year's influx of immigrants from various parts of the southern border has exceeded 38,000. Add to that the return of several refugee tribes from the northern wasteland... Spark City's total population has already reached 100,000!"

The number was not much different from what Harvey had expected. Most of these immigrants came from the central and southern regions of the principality. They were also the civilians who were mainly affected by the outbreak of the domestic war. In addition, after Harvey took control of the situation in Saint Valen, he used both soft and hard tactics to force the nobles to hand over their fiefdoms. Many tenant farmers who originally had no land lost their livelihoods. Under the instigation and propaganda of local municipal departments, they spontaneously boarded the ship to the north.

These fertile lands that have been concentrated and occupied will be used for large-scale mechanized planting in the coming year, and the output of grain crops will increase several times compared to the previous rough manual farming.

"Yes, the food shortage has been largely alleviated. Next, we must focus on solving the housing and living problems of these new immigrants, especially preparing for the coming winter. The wilderness is not like the southern border. If any of these newly arrived people die of cold and hunger this winter, the reputation of the city hall will be ruined."

"Don't worry, sir. City Hall was already prepared by the end of summer," Reiner replied confidently. "The Ministry of Construction set up four temporary shelters outside the city. They demolished all the existing shacks and replaced them with two-story houses made of cement and stone bricks. There are over 3,000 rooms in total, enough to accommodate over 20,000 people."

After all, apart from the food shortage caused by the rapid population growth in Xinghuo City, the rest of the daily necessities that can be produced independently are still abundant. Almost every new immigrant can receive a set of thick clothes that are enough to protect against the cold for free, and the relief canteen in the shelter area will also provide free oatmeal every day - this is different from the charity shows of the church and the nobles. The oatmeal porridge cooked by the municipal relief canteen is thick enough, and the quantity is large and filling... Every weekend and holiday, bacon is added to the porridge and cooked, which is an effective relief in the true sense.

In addition, the territory's forest farms have stored a large amount of charcoal, so that the shelter areas without heating and ventilation facilities can at least be allocated enough charcoal to start fires for heating in winter.

In addition, several large workers' communities built by the city hall next to the industrial park in the city have also been officially completed. As long as new immigrants have temporary resident status, they have the opportunity to apply to the city government to rent a low-rent welfare apartment after obtaining a formal work contract at the end of their internship.

The winter in the north is long and cold. Those who migrated here from warm areas all had a feeling of anxiety and hope. As long as they were helped to successfully survive the first winter after settling down, these people would naturally have full trust in Spark City and City Hall under Harvey's rule.

The premise is that no one dies of freezing, starvation or illness this winter.

...After discussing with Reiner the important tasks that needed to be assigned, Pierce rushed into the office almost on time after Reiner left - now there are too many officials who come to Harvey, the city lord, to report their work and listen to his orders every day. Sometimes if they are a little late, they have to be forced to queue at the end and wait for the whole day.

To this end, Harvey specially ordered people to set up a separate lounge for officials next to the hall on the first floor of the castle.

"Sir, this is the process and plan for the Winter Celebration Parade, completed in collaboration between the General Staff and the City Hall... Also, logistical preparations for the attack on Isengard are now complete. The combat battalion assigned to this mission is now awaiting your official order!"

"What's the rush? Do they really not want to attend my coronation?" Harvey smiled and flipped through his work report. "I won't interfere too much with the military parade. You can discuss and organize it among yourselves... After all, it's just to bolster the military's morale, for the outsiders to see."

"However, the recruitment of new soldiers and daily training cannot be completely suspended. Without affecting combat missions, the size of the army must be expanded step by step!"

Pierce nodded repeatedly in agreement. "Don't worry, sir. The military will start recruiting for next year's spring after the Winter Festival. You know, among the new immigrants who moved in this year, there are many talented candidates for enlistment. The military's generous pay and benefits are attracting young people. As long as the recruitment office posts a notice, the door will be crowded with people."

He paused, his tone filled with barely suppressed excitement. "By next spring, the total strength of the Northern Army will reach at least 12,000. This will be an unrivaled armed force in the entire Southern Territory..."

"That being said, our ultimate enemy isn't just the knight nobles; it's not even the demons or the evil beastmen... Facing those demon lizardmen who haven't yet fully bared their fangs, relying solely on numbers won't cut it. I want them to be the elite of the elite!"

Pierce was stunned for a moment, then realized that Harvey was hinting at him not to expand the army blindly, but to pay attention to the quality of recruits and army construction, and he quickly bowed in response.

Common sense says that the army's recruitment and combat readiness logistics should be completed independently by its multiple logistics departments. However, both Pierce, the commander-in-chief, and the senior officers of several main combat battalions under him are practical talents with low backgrounds and questionable cultural levels. It is certainly no problem for them to lead the troops to fight on the front line... However, once it comes to logistics and administrative management, it becomes very difficult. Money, food and supplies require the cooperation of the city hall under Reiner's control, and strategic deployment requires guidance from the General Staff.

The military organizational framework that Harvey had arbitrarily established had gradually shown its drawbacks with the current army size of nearly 10,000 people. In addition, with the increasing frequency of foreign wars, most of the earliest veterans who joined the army gradually entered the officer class, and the original simple rank system became no longer applicable.

Harvey felt that it might be time to make a new round of reforms to the military system, and it would be very appropriate to directly copy the existing mature institutional framework that he knew in his previous life.

(End of this chapter)